Teamwork and the church

We preachers don’t like to admit it, especially at this time of year, but football is what it’s all about. And if we would permit it, football can teach us church folks some lessons we need to learn. To start off, just read some of the following quotes about teamwork:

It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.

There is no “I” in “Teamwork.”

Teamwork: Simply stated, it is less me and more we.

A job worth doing is worth doing together.

Ken Blanchard said, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

Vince Lombardi, football coach for the NFL (1913-1970), said, “People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”

Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jordan in his freshman year at University of North Carolina: “Michael, if you can’t pass, you can’t play.”

Lewis B. Ergen said, “The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.”

Casey Stengel, legendary baseball coach said, “Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ‘em to play together is the hard part.”

Paul Bear Bryant: “In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first — ahead of personal glory.”

Dr. Allan Fromme: “People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.”

And now, one more quote from Mr. Professional Football Himself, Vince Lombardi: “Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”

Football and its familiar sidekick called teamwork would transform thousands of churches IF we would just apply certain of its principles and game plans.

It all goes back to recruiting days, says UGA Coach Mark Richt. “If you think he is a total prima Dona ...he just won’t make it at Georgia if all he cares about is him(self)” (quoted from AJC article dated Sept. 27, 2006, written by Carter Strickland).

Church life is not too far down the street. Prima Donas kill the spirit life of a church, a choir, a deacon body, or whatever. Church members getting their feelings hurt have done more strategic damage to the clarion call from Christ to conquer the world through love and peace than even the devil and his pitiful suck-ups.

Richt was also quoted in the same article as saying, “We coach it. We preach it. We don’t play favorites. We don’t put some guys on a pedestal. We always put team first.”

In light of the big football lights, get a hold of the following verbal Polaroid moment of the early church: “The whole congregation of believers was united as one — one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their possessions. No one said, ‘That’s mine; you can’t have it.’ They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them” (Acts 4: 32-33).

From a little insightful reading of the 2,000 year old text, I discern that there was such a mighty, powerful, generous, megalyptic spirit of givingness on and in and through every member of the church that nothing was impossible. Teamwork is the A-Bomb for taking down a mountain of Everest size, reversing the flow of the Nile River length, or taking a loser team, church, home, business and making success come forth!