Part 5 on a series about teaming on the mission field. In a previous post, we talked about the three main types of teams found in our mission organization. When new missionaries think about teaming, they are generally thinking about what we have called a basketball team. Basketball teams work together closely and interact frequently with each other about their various ministries. But many of our mission teams are more like track teams than basketball teams. Track teams have a common purpose and team members support one another, but each person on the team works independently.
But there is yet a third type of team that is commonly found on the mission field. We call this an X-team or an expedition team. X-Teams have at least two members, a guide and an explorer. We think of expedition teams such as Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay who made the first successful ascent to the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953. The team was made up of a New Zealander (Hillary) and a Nepalese (Norgay), and their expedition leader back at base camp was Englishman, John Hunt.
