What's your role?

Over the last few years of leading the Mississippi trips, I've become increasingly aware of how a team interacts with each other. When you're spending 7 days together, you get to know some people well...especially if you are rooming with them! Toss in lack of sleep, hard work and lack of personal space at times and, well, things get interesting.

Yesterday, at our team meeting I posed a question to the group that was there. What role are you going to play on our trip? I had been reading from Romans 12:3-5 (NLT): "As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others."

Ah, the truth of that text is astounding. We all have a role, a part to play, a special function and purpose, the question is, do we realize what role that is?

Here are some possibilities:

• The Go-Getter: Someone who will try anything at any time and be the first in line.
• The Sideliner: One who hangs back until everyone has a turn before they find their spot.
• The Cheerleader or Encourager: pretty self-explanatory (though one is a little bit more enthusiastic than the other)
• The Complainer: One who will find something wrong no matter what.
• The Group Activist: the person interested in seeing the group achieve their best, usually seeks to include everyone.
• The Disappearing Artist: Will start a project, then get distracted, start another project, let someone else take over and pretty soon wander away.
• The Battering Ram: One who wants to the see the job done, who takes over jobs that others are doing...usually without knowing that they are taking over.
• The Doers or Flex artists: They do what they are told to do and are flexible. Just tell 'em what you need, they will do it.
• The Observer: Watches the group interact, listens to the discussions, has great words of wisdom but usually needs a little prompting to share that wisdom. Will jump in when they are comfortable, and jump out when they are not.
• The Comedian: Will do whatever they can to help the team laugh...a lot.

There are more roles out there, but the point is this. In order to work as a team, it's important to realize that who we are, how we operate and the roles that we take on impacts the team. There is a balance that can be achieved when we realize who we are, what makes us tick and where we are naturally going to fall into a role...even a role that we don't like.

God's given us a purpose and a goal. God has also given us special roles within the team. As we prepare for Pearlington, I am praying that we, as a team, will take some time to examine who God has made us to be and how we will impact the team.