Every sports team has its stars and that’s the reason fans come out to watch the games. The fans may not grasp it, but the players themselves understand one basic truth about team sports: stars wouldn’t be stars without the support of the team.
It’s this way in other areas of life. Whenever movie stars win an Oscar, they give the same basic speech: “I would like to thank all the people who helped make this night possible—my agent, my manager, my director, my producer, the writers, the members of the cast…” and on and on. That’s because it’s the same in Hollywood as it is in business, or sports, or any other area of life—it requires a great deal of effort on the part of many people for one person to succeed.
On July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he was the focus of attention for the entire planet. Today, whenever the Apollo voyage to the moon is discussed, Neil Armstrong’s name is the one everyone remembers. His statement “One small step for man…” will be remembered for generations. What often isn’t remembered, however, is the fact that the Apollo expedition took place because a very large and committed team of individuals sacrificed day and night for years to make it happen. Neil Armstrong was only one of 218,000 people involved in that single project. He may have gotten most of the glory, but he will be the first to tell you that it was a team effort. That’s the way it is with every area of life. Life is a team sport. God means for us to work together to be successful and happy. One person alone cannot do it.
It’s the same way at church. Church is a team sport. In order to do the work that God has called us to do, we must work together as a team. God’s method for the church is that it operate as a team. The old model is that the church hire a “professional” or group of professionals to do the work of the ministry for the people, who are the recipients of ministry. That’s not the biblical model. The Bible tells us God’s method in Ephesians 4:11-12 “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…”
God’s plan for evangelism is teamwork, but it’s not always easy for us. In order to succeed as a church and as individuals, we must develop a team player mentality. In Ephesians 4 Paul shows us how to do this. He says, 4:2-3 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Three key words in this passage are the basis for developing an attitude of a team player. Paul said, “Be humble…be gentle…be patient.”
When Lou Holtz began his coaching career at the University of Minnesota, he gave every player on his team at T-shirt. Printed across the chest in large block letters was the word “TEAM.” Beneath TEAM, in tiny letters, was the word “me.” Holtz told his team, “This T-shirt serves to remind you that the team is more important than you are, and you should always put the team above you.”
A team player projects a “there you are” attitude, because his attitude is that the team is more important than me. I heard a saying once: “It’s true man doesn’t live by bread alone—sometimes he needs buttering up.” We all do.
The fact is that when people work together as a team, there are times when they have to correct one another. It’s inevitable, because we’re all human and we’re all going to make mistakes. It is important, though, when that happens, that we go about it gently. The purpose of correction is to inspire the person to do better. Life is a team sport, and our job is to encourage everyone on the team—when they get a hit and when they strike out with the bases loaded. Paul said, “Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
The third keyword is “patience”. Have you ever realized what an optimistic word “patience” is? It implies that the final result will be good, even if the process takes a long time; the object of your patience is not a lost cause.
Paul tells us to be patient with one another for the simple reason that no person is a lost cause. We are to keep believing in them, keep encouraging them, until they come around. Paul expressed this same attitude in the book of Philippians 1:6 – “I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in your will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Jesus refused to give up on his disciples, in spite of all their mistakes, because he knew that eventually they would become the men they were capable of being. He saw them in terms of their potential, not their past. And as history proves, his patience paid off.
It’s hard to work as a team when you have to listen to a bunch of honking criticism. We need to be patient with the other players on our team.
There’s a story about a county fair that held a horse-pulling contest to see whose horse could pull the most weight. The second-place winner pulled a sled of about 3,500 pounds. The first-place winner pulled a sled of about 4,000 pounds. Then the administrators of the contest tried something different. They attached both horses to a sled to see what they could do. Combined, the horses pulled almost 10,000 pounds of weight.
This is true in all areas of life. Together, we can do far more than we can as individuals. In life, at home, in the church, we must develop an attitude that says, “This is a team sport, and I’m going to be a team player.”
