As a child I loved visiting the Farmer’s Cooperative (co-op). I will caution you that there is an acquired smell and just about everything a child loves including live baby chickens. The co-op is a coming together of farmers who pool their resources in certain areas of activity for the good of members and nonmembers. There also are electric power cooperatives, student cooperatives and bank cooperatives just to name a few others. Somewhere along life’s journey people seem to have learned that “we can do more together than we ever could alone” and used cooperation for the greater good and impact of many endeavors. The upside of cooperation is so beneficial and positive that one might think cooperation is a no-brainer. Here’s the thing though — cooperation by its very nature means that in order to gain something you also must be willing to give up something. Perhaps it is the last part that causes some to pause and then selfishly pass on cooperation and opt for competition.
Competition vs. cooperation
Even the disciples of Jesus were not immune to this all too human proclivity. Mark 9:38 states that John saw “someone driving out demons in Your (Jesus’) name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.” Ah, not “one of us.” So let’s confess that there is a power that seemingly, rightly only belongs to you and others have the audacity to innovate — without your approval.
How do you react when other churches in your area are having great success? How about when your peers and colleagues get the promotions and accolades? Perhaps there are times when all of us get more satisfaction in policing the borders of involvement in the Kingdom rather than celebrating the expansion of the Kingdom.
How did Jesus respond? The undisputed Champion simply said, “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” Competition is much easier than cooperation.
But Luke 5:17–26 demonstrates that cooperation is a must for the greater good of the kingdom of God. Early in the public ministry of Jesus the power of God to heal the sick was on display. It has been my experience that the crowd of the curious sometimes gets in the way of those really in need. But when there is a task so urgent, like life or death, cooperation finds a way through the chaos and crowds.
In Luke 5:17–26 some men are carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and the text leads us to believe it is their conviction that if they can only get the paralyzed man to Jesus he will be healed. Undeterred by the crowd, the men get the paralyzed man upon the roof and tear off enough of the roof to lower the man down on his mat right in front of Jesus. Here we surely see one of cooperation’s greatest values: it takes many hearts and minds and hands working together for the greater good and impact. When this disciplined cooperation occurs the text says, “Jesus saw their faith and He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven.’” The discipline of cooperation demonstrates faith in a way that serving alone never can.
Discipline of hard work
Dallas Willard in “The Spirit of the Disciplines” says, “A discipline for the spiritual life is, when the dust of history is blown away, nothing but an activity undertaken to bring us into more effective cooperation with Christ and His Kingdom.” Isn’t that what we all dream of and want? What draws us to cooperation is the mystery of how working with someone allows us to achieve something we cannot achieve on our own. Cooperation, however, requires the discipline of hard work and perhaps there is not a better example than marriage. So it is true that we must choose carefully those we cooperate with because there is give and take. A bonding occurs, we begin to lose our own identity and become something other than what we are alone. Let us celebrate that only God can take two and make them one and also can take many and make them one. When we observe full and mutual cooperation of two or more persons we see a reflection of the nature of God. And as God is reflected through our voluntary cooperation, Christ and His Kingdom are made known.
Exposing self-sufficiency
On April 27, 2011, a tornado ripped a horrific gash across the face of the city of Tuscaloosa and many other places in our state. In Tuscaloosa it removed not only rooftops but also the scales from our eyes. Self-sufficiency was exposed — for individuals and churches — for the blind-eye it has always been. There was so much suffering and so many needs that the option of going at it alone was ludicrous.
Before daylight broke the next morning help began streaming into our city. Our mayor braced us for a “marathon and not a sprint” as organization for the cooperation of many hearts and hands was underway. We learned again what “we can do more together than we ever could alone” means. When the ox is in the ditch every hand is welcomed. The unity within our community and churches was refreshing as we willingly laid down everything that normally separates us. It was not until thousands of hours and many weeks later that God taught many of us another lesson: even if everyone in Tuscaloosa had health, a job and a home with all the furnishings we would still have a problem that no amount of social and/or civic cooperation could cure. Sin only has one cure and that cure is the blood of Jesus Christ. This is the task so urgent that calls us to learn the discipline of cooperation: “to lay him before Jesus.”
Timothy E. Lovett, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, received his education from Boston University School of Theology; Samford University in Birmingham; and Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He and his wife, Penny, have one child and one grandchild.
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