Dare I Boast of a Perfect Team

I've worked with the same people for 10 years now. I write this post to celebrate something so rare and so special that it may be difficult for me express it in words. I am part of a team, the Bible department at Bakersfield Christian High School, that may very well be a perfect team. Lately I've been thinking carefully about what makes this team so unique. But I also sought out their help to record these essential traits of our team.

1. We are brought together by a mission that is bigger than either our relationships or our individual goals or the sale of some educational product.

This may sound strange, but I can look into the eyes of my mates in the Bible department and see the pain there when our students do not receive the truths we communicate to them. When some of our alumni drift from the Christian faith, we are wounded by it. We feel deeply motivated by a sense of unified purpose to passionately convey the Biblical Christian worldview to our students. I know that at the beating heart of each of my friends in the department is a desire to know God and to call attention to Him, and to do it winsomely, artfully, graciously, relentlessly. If you want your child to know Christ and see hearts aflame with His gospel, then expose them to these people!

Of course we must have some agreement on the essential articles of the Christian faith that we hope to convey, but what is even more striking is that we share a desire to do it in a particular way. Each of us has rejected a merely pietistic (emotional and devotional) approach to our subject area. We insist upon the highest standards of academic rigor and accountability. Our students will know this information even if they come to reject it. We will not abide the thought of any student passing through our classes confident in his or her ignorance excuse for unbelief. We want them to believe, of course, but we want them to believe something that is doctrinally rich, even distinct, even antithetical to all other ideas.

Simply stated, the truth binds our hearts and our mission together. Each day we arrive at a finite time and place in Bakersfield, California, with all our limitations, to do the glorious work of heralding God's truth, bound together by what I can only describe as a profound sense of supernatural unity, sacrificing private ego and agenda in order to do something far more significant than the private good of any individual in the group. We have a share in the boundless purposes of the Almighty, and nothing is treated as mundane!

2. We trust each other deeply.

Over the years we have shared much together. Life in this fallen world is difficult, and none of us are guiltless, but it is an enormous comfort to go to work at a place where I know people will love me and pray me through the adversity that comes in life and in the classroom. At various times all of us in the department have struggled in life or in the classroom, and at times in both. During these dark seasons, we have never judged each other, never left each other alone. I've heard soldiers speak of the almost supernatural bond of friendship that is forged in the crucible of battle, and when I hear them speak this way, I think of my friends in the Bible department. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it is an ongoing battle nevertheless, and we have all been wounded and we have all been the strength needed by the other.

When we have needed to share intimate things, nothing is ever shared outside the inner circle of our department. There is absolute and unwavering trust within our ranks. It is my only experience of Christianum Contra Mundum. We are a team of Christians against the world!

3. We have an appreciation of difference that does not compromise unity.

We have talented people, and I can honestly say that each person in our department celebrates the talents of the others without envy. When one does excellent work, everyone has a good word of encouragement. We are each others greatest fans.

My colleagues have genuinely challenged me as a scholar and as a rhetorician. We have fine thinkers and fine communicators in our department, and this provides a kind of friendly competition. It moves me to read and to craft quality lessons to try to keep up with their excellence. And I know that this "iron sharpening iron" environment, and the healthy competition it inspires, is enjoyed by all in the department. Surely all of us are aware of situations in which people find the exquisite competence of others a threat to their egos, and this results in destructive political intrigues in a work environment. I praise God I have never seen anything of the kind in the Bible department at BCHS.

Another area of significant difference that could cause irreparable fractures in our team is in the area of doctrine. We are represented by significant differences in doctrine in our department. We have people from an Assemblies of God background, a current Anglican, a Nazarene, a lapsed Nazarene (me), a Molinist and two Calvinists, though one of the Calvinists is less perfect as a Calvinist than the other (again me). Needless to say we have had a few fine discussions, but our commitment to our larger unifying purpose, and our commitment to the family of God (each other) is greater than our differences, and so we simply discuss them and then leave them to the ministry of God's Spirit in each others lives. None of us have an ego so fragile that we must have the validation of either universal agreement or dominance in debate. And all of us know that the only reason we can so operate is itself due to the grace of God at work in our midst.

4. Our team members have a sense of humor.

Doubtless no one laughs as much as we do, and often we laugh at ourselves. One of our members accidentally assigned an art project on the wrong passage of Scripture one year. The teacher in question meant to have students illustrate some innocuous story about David, but accidentally had them illustrate David's killing and circumcising of the Philistines for the hand of Michal. I assure you, that is the gift that keeps on giving.

Another teacher yells at students whenever a tour of prospective students comes through (it is all set up in advance).

Another teacher sings happy birthday to students in a way that can only be described as utterly manic.

Another yells passages from Leviticus in an obnoxious Scottish accent.

And all have mastered the spiritual gift of sarcasm.

Our department head has told us many times that we must "take our God and our doctrine seriously, but we should never take ourselves too seriously." I've never seen a group of people practice this axiom so perfectly.

5. We are led well.

The last thing the leader of our department wants is uncritical allegiance, and that is precisely why he has earned our allegiance.

He is a man of uncommon intelligence, but also uncommon gentility, humility and empathy. He leads a group of excellent educators, but he knows how to get the most out of them, and how to love them into being a team. He knows when to encourage, when to offer insight, when to coach. He is firm in his opinions and leads by example.

He is a more consistent example of godly leadership than any person I have ever been exposed to in all my years in Christian service. He is everything you want in a leader in Christian education. He possesses an obvious passion for Christ and His larger kingdom purposes. He has a clear vision of the role of Christian education in that larger universe. He communicates these things well. He loves and unites the people God has given him to advance eternal purposes at the Christian high school.

If you want to know the secret to forging a team like this one, it all begins with the leader.

6. These are people of simple brilliance.

Each of these teachers is bright, even very bright. And yet no one in the department thinks of himself or herself as a first tier Christian researcher. We know too much about the renaissance going on right now in Christian theology and philosophy to think that. But each one of us is perfectly situated to provide quality mediation to young people. My colleagues communicate biblical theology, systematic theology, philosophy and ethics with stunning delicacy, accessibility and clarity. To listen to them makes one wonder what is greater; to be able to discover great truths, or to be able to explain great truths to 15 year olds and thus to be used to ensure the next generation of Christian thinkers?

Finally, let me just say that my experience among these extraordinary people, indeed the extent to which we have joined in the mission of the ages together and our effectiveness as a team and the deep bonds of sacred friendship we share, has led me to dread the day of our inevitable dissolution as a team and our bitter parting.

I say to any who would dare join us or dare replace one of us, of what mettle are you made, and do you count yourself worthy to join such a gallant band? Any who would dare boast of qualifications or dare affirm worthiness in answer to this brings to us nothing of the humble gratitude daily exhibited by this imperfect but divinely empowered group of simple people.

Bring with you, if you would join us, fitting excellence upon excellence, but more importantly bring that quality of grace, impossible to quantify, that pulses with unmistakable vibrancy in the hearts of Amy Pitcher, Dustin Adams, Jeff Ward and Randy Martin.

In the final analysis, of course this is not a perfect team, but I defy you to find one better.

* I also want to offer thanks to Dan Cole, the visionary administrator who assembled this team. It was his conviction that leadership in the Bible subject area is essential to the character of a school that made this special team possible.