When I worked as a narcotics agent in a regional task force, one thing we learned was how to tail a suspect vehicle without being detected. It took a team of officers to execute a successful tail.

To tail a suspect, we would employ several unmarked cars, each one moving and rotating its position along parallel streets as we followed the suspect. This required us to stay in constant communication with our fellow officers. Our combined efforts created an orbit of officers moving in and out of position, always keeping the suspect in sight. This orbit never allowed the suspect to see any of our vehicles for too long and become suspicious.

I learned something spiritual from those times while tailing a suspect. It was not a single-officer job. It required a team of officers to keep the suspect in sight.

Our faith requires that we keep an eye on what is not true and not let it out of sight. This is not demon chasing. It is an exposure of evil that happens when we are following the truth of God. The epistles, written by the first generation of the Church, contained warnings. As the young Church was learning how to follow the Lord, they needed to be able to discern error and avoid its influence. That required they keep evil in sight so that the truth could be protected. 

Like a narcotics agent who is tailing a suspect, we need other believers to work with us. This team of believers might not always agree on everything as we learn how to follow the Lord together. This isn’t an easy assignment because it can affect us emotionally knowing other believers with whom we work may not see the whole picture of what is happening, just as from their perspective, we do not see everything we need to see.

Just as a team of narcotics officers had to work together to be effective, so it is with the Church. We have been created to work together despite our differences. No single believer has a complete understanding of everything that is happening in our world. 

Paul wrote about how the Body of Christ works together, “But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you’” (I Corinthians 12: 18-21).

We need each other to accomplish the Great Commission doing our unique part in the process and trusting the Lord to lead others in the same direction. That is what a spiritual team looks like.