IF I was asked to put together a team to save the world, my first question would be: “Are you sure you’ve come to the right person?”

Assuming that I’d not managed to wriggle out of it, my second question would be: “Who are the best people for the job?”

Who are the brightest, the bravest, the stand-out leaders in their field? Who has the proven track-record of success, the ability to overcome the odds again and again?

Those are the people I want on my team.

Which is why I find it endlessly fascinating that Jesus seems to have done almost the exact opposite.

At the start of his three-year ministry, Jesus gathers around him a team of 12 young men.

He might, perhaps, have chosen some of the sharpest religious scholars of the day, wealthy financial backers, and super-connected socialites (or whatever the first-century equivalent of an influencer was).

Instead, he chose a bunch of nobodies – people we only know about because they’re mentioned in the Bible; some whom we know almost nothing about beyond a name.

We do know that four of them were fishermen; one was a tax-collector (and so despised as a Roman collaborator); one was a terrorist (or freedom-fighter, depending on your point of view); one was a thief (and possibly an ex-assassin); at least one was married.

One of them was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God less than a minute after meeting him; another found it hard to believe even after Jesus rose from the dead. They were, to put it mildly, a bit of a mixed bag.

And yet, it worked. Three years after meeting Jesus, this small group of followers had become the foundation of the early church, a movement that now includes almost a third of the global population.

Ten of them were so convinced of the value of this faith that they were martyred for it; another spent the last years of his life living in exile on a small island.

I suspect that Jesus never wanted a dozen clones; people who thought alike, who would simply agree with everything he said and did.

I think he saw value in diversity, in different backgrounds and world-views; people who would strengthen and refine each other, learning from each other, seeing the world in new and exciting ways.

“Two are better than one”, the Bible remarks, “because if one falls, the other can help him up.”

As I write, it feels as if the world is becoming smaller, more insular.

It seems like there are more and more voices saying, “You don’t belong here; go back where you came from” or “Your politics are different to mine; you must be an idiot”.

To be “other” often invites hostility and aggression. But that small group of Jesus-followers sets a different example; a group who had every reason to fall into in-fighting and finger-pointing, but instead found common cause and helped to change the world.

Dave Poulson

Youth Pastor

Crediton Congregational Church