Teamwork from the Beginning
When my wife and I started a ministry about teamwork a few months ago, we did so in large part because of a philosophy that is at the heart of Every Square Inch: Christ has dominion over every square inch of our lives. One of the core ideas behind our ministry is that the concept of teamwork is a gift from God that we can use to serve Him. It is not simply a word for athletes and employers; it is a fundamental part of God's design of the human experience. Through Diamond Ministry, my wife and I share that message in hopes that people will incorporate teamwork into their lives more deliberately and more often in order to serve God more efficiently and more effectively.
We proclaim eight Core Beliefs at Diamond Ministry, and one of them is that the notion of teamwork was one of God's very first gifts to humanity. Our hope is that sharing the Biblical truth behind this principle will open people's hearts to the importance of teamwork. Since God provided this gift in the very beginning, it must be important.
The story of creation brings to mind different things for different people. It reminds many of that unfortunate incident with the fruit. Others marvel that God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and Eve from Adam's rib. Still others think about marriage. After all, one of the most common Biblical passages read at weddings is Genesis 2:24: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
For me, the story of creation brings to mind something else - one of God's very first gifts. While it is true that God had to create Eve in order for mankind to procreate and therefore realize his full human potential, God also created Eve for another reason. Adam needed help! He could not manage everything himself! So God, in His infinite wisdom, sent Adam a "helper" (Gen. 2:18, 20). And thus the concept of teamwork was born.
From the very beginning, God designed people to work together. And the Fall of Man came only after Adam and Eve began to be ruled by their own self-interests, forgetting that God had created them as a team.
The fact that teamwork was a major element of man's beginning should speak to us today. The concept of teamwork is an important one, for God gave life to it at the dawn of human history.