How To Foster Collaboration By Leading A Team by Pastor Sam Adeyemi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Calling, Gifts and Clarity

A question came through a social media post: why does a pastor spend so much time on what looks like motivational speaking rather than preaching salvation? The response was direct. The mandate received in 1994 was dual — to serve as a pastor and as a strategic leadership expert. These are not competing assignments; they are complementary callings confirmed by gifting.

A gifts assessment revealed a personal ranking: teaching first, leadership second, administration third, pastoring fourth. That order explained a great deal. The discomfort with one-on-one pastoral counselling was not a personal failure — it was simply a mismatch between calling and expectation. The solution was structural: redesign around how the gifts actually flow rather than how they're expected to look.

Gifts are God sharing His divinity with a person. They are the area of life where it becomes very difficult to stop someone, because it is practically God expressing Himself through that individual. No professor of music can put music inside a person — they can only help cultivate what is already there. The reason many people undervalue their gifts is that they are conditioned to value only what they struggle to obtain or pay to receive. When you stand on a mountain and look down, you see a flat surface — the real height is visible only to someone watching from a distance. That is how gifts work.

The issue of calling, gifting and uniqueness is highly sensitive, personal and intuitive. It can only be discerned by revelation — not by public opinion. The prayer needed is not for clarity alone, but for the courage to act on that clarity even when others do not understand it.

God Is the Champion of Collaboration

At creation, God used the language of collaboration: Genesis 1:26. Even before man existed, God modelled partnership. Then in Genesis 2:18, He declared it was not good for man to be alone — establishing once and for all that isolation is not God's design for human flourishing.

Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 puts it plainly: two people are better than one, because they can help each other succeed. The principle at work is not arithmetic — it is geometric. When people cooperate toward a shared goal, the increase is exponential, not incremental. Nothing significant in this world is achieved alone.

Strength is not found in numbers alone. Ten thousand people who are not unified accomplish nothing. Ten people who are unified can achieve what God Himself says cannot be restrained — as demonstrated in Genesis 11, where God acknowledged that a unified people speaking one language could accomplish anything they set their minds to. Unity is the multiplier.

Influence Is the Christian's Calling

Deuteronomy 28:13 speaks of being the head and not the tail. The imagery comes from a cow — the head is where thinking occurs, where decisions are made, where direction is set. The tail goes wherever it is dragged. God was telling His people: you will never be a victim. You are the ones who make decisions that the rest of society follows. Society will not drag you around. Man-made systems will not define you.

In Matthew 28:18–20, the Great Commission reframes discipleship in terms of training. The Message Bible renders verse 19 as: "Go out and train everyone you meet." Jesus was calling His followers to be a cultural force — not passive recipients of existing culture, but people God can use to shift culture and build communities that reflect the values of heaven. There is a titanic struggle between light and darkness, and no follower of Christ can remain neutral in it.

The challenge is to collaborate with others to build — a family, a team, an organisation, a city, a nation — and to let whatever is built reflect the values of God in the world.

How to Foster Collaboration by Leading a Team

As a Christian, influence is the calling. And influence requires leadership. When the subject of leadership arises, it is not addressed to a select few — it belongs to every believer.

Step One: Be a Person of Vision

To build a team, you must be someone who desires to leave the world better than you found it. Vision is what makes it possible to recruit people into something larger than the present.

Step Two: Recruit

When Christ began His assignment, the first thing He did was recruit. He walked up to Peter. He walked up to James and John. He invited them into a vision. Matthew 4:19 records His words: "Follow me. I will make you fishers of men." That is a vision pitch, not a job offer.

Zebedee's sons left their father's fishing business to follow Jesus. That only makes sense if Jesus had communicated something compelling enough to persuade both the sons and their father. He sold His manifesto. He sold His mandate. The sons and their father agreed together that following Him would be a better use of their lives than staying in the fishing business. That is what selling vision looks like.

Before this church started, there was a season of walking along streets with flyers, talking to people one by one — that is how Jesus started too. Build your team. Recruit high-quality people. Learn to lead, and build a team so that together you can build the vision.

A Word to Young Men on Recruiting a Wife

The quality of a team depends on the quality of the people in it. The same principle applies to marriage. Do not be intimidated by women who are purposeful and making progress. They are not expecting everything to be in place before the vision begins — they are looking for someone who knows where they are going.

When recruiting a life partner, the conversation about salary came up early in a relationship that was already underway — because the foundation had been vision, not provision. Vision is the key to provision. You cannot start with provision. You start with vision. Build the team first; build the table together.

The First Quality Required of a Leader: Love

Once a team has been recruited, the first quality required from a leader is love. You must genuinely love the people you are leading.

Father, in this season, everyone God has organised to collaborate with you for the fulfilment of the assignments He has given you — heaven will activate them. Relationships are activated for the fulfilment of your destiny in the mighty name of Jesus. Receive grace for leadership, grace for influence, grace to fulfil your destiny through collaboration, in the name of Jesus Christ.

For anyone whose relationship with God is not as it should be — sin is the biggest barrier between us and God. Jesus Christ came and died for our sins on the cross. All that is needed now is to ask for forgiveness. Dear God, I believe that Jesus has paid for my sins. I ask You to forgive me and to accept me as Your child. Thank You for hearing my prayer, in Jesus' name.

Heavenly Father, thank You for everyone who prayed that prayer. Jesus did not die in vain. Their sins are forgiven. The nature of sin has been removed from them by the Holy Spirit, and You have put Your own nature inside them. Teach them to know You personally, to love You and to love other people, for the rest of their lives. In Jesus' name.