Before the days when organs were operated with the aid of electricity, a noted concert organist was performing before an enthusiastic audience. Walter, the lad who labored hard behind a screen, zealously pumped the organ for all he was worth. During the intermission the youngster, flushed with pride, said to the famous musician, “Aren’t we wonderful?” The organist snapped, “Who’s we?” And he stomped off to perform the second half of his concert. As he sat down to the organ console, the musician ostensibly stroked the keys, but not a note came forth! Alarmed, he struck the keyboard savagely, and still no sound! At last a small voice came from behind the organ screen, “Now who’s we?”
For years, both in the church and in the corporate world, it has been disturbing to see head honchos (pastors, moderators, board chairpersons, committee heads, CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, controllers, treasurers, portfolio managers, administrative assistants, department heads, crew leaders, etc.) who flauntingly refer to my church, my converts, my board, my company, my staff, my department, my crew, my committee-never once acknowledging that it’s a team effort that makes things happen, and that often it’s others who make the head-honcho look good!
Paul, the enthusiastic missionary who began the church in Corinth, was at times a free-spirited maverick. His colleague was Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew who had converted to Christianity and later became the silver-tongued orator among the Corinthians. Paul, who had founded the congregation in Corinth, could easily have referred to them as my church. Instead he wrote: “Apollos and I are working as a team, with the same aim, though each of us will be rewarded for his own hard work. We are only God’s coworkers. You are God’s garden, not ours; you are God’s building, not ours. God, in His kindness, has taught me how to be an expert builder. I have laid the foundation and Apollos has built on it” (1 Corinthians 3:8-10/Living Bible).
The lesson to be learned is that very few things in the church and in the corporate world are done singlehandedly. Many people are involved in the “team”! And therefore head honchos need to acknowledge that fact and much more quickly learn to say “We” and “Our” instead of “I” and ” my. ”
January/February 1989