More from the Tour

A coupla days ago on the Tour (no, not the Rolling Stones tour, THE Tour…) we watched Floyd Landis pull to the front and win the Yellow Jersey (which denotes that he is winning the race overall). But what fascinated me about the day was the role of Axel Merckx. Axel is Floyd’s teammate, and he spent much of the day yesterday right in front of Floyd, doing hard hard work so that Floyd could take advantage of the wind he created. This guy kicked his own butt to make it possible for Floyd to save energy for the important part of the race.
I read, too, about the “watercarriers”, who are the members of the team who aren’t expected to win, or even be major competitors. Their role is (among other things) to ride back to the team car and pick up water bottles for the rest of the team- they stuff them in their shirt and hook them on their bike frame, stick them in their pockets… then book it back up to their team and hand them out. Now, to me, (and N.B. I am strictly an amateur bike racing fan) that sounds like he’s doing more work than the winner. In fact, a lot of the team is working REALLY hard, in their own ways, to get the “winner” across the line.
You know, of course, where I’m going here- this is an interesting model for team leadership. No one in a cycling team is unimportant, and without the supporting members who do seriously hard work, success would not be found. The trick though is, there has to be a strong leader who can take advantage of the work the group is doing and lead the team to the finish line. The gifts of the leader are very specific and the job is not to be the person who does all the work, or even MOST of the work. Their gifts include stamina and physical strength, but also (and maybe most importantly) Tactical strength. They keep the MISSION of the team in check, and the finish line in sight.
It makes me take a look at my position on “the team”, in ministry- I have the mission and finish line down, but how am I at relying on the rest of the team? I’m working on that this year, more than ever. I have not one, but TWO assistants in this parish and learning how to work with them has been a big learning experience for me- not because they’re not helpful, but because they ARE helpful- the challenge has been how to let someone help me. What responsibilities can I share with them? What tasks can I let go of? What happens if they do something differently than I would have done it? Now it’s time to bring more team members on board, form a committee, and get things going in a big way.
I pray for the gifts to be a good TEAM leader and team member.