Team Jesus
When I was growing up, we knew what season it was by what sport we were playing. Fall was for football and basketball was played all winter. Baseball started in the spring and went into summer as long as we could stay alive in our last tournament. I was always going to practice or a game. I was always looking for my shoes, my glove or hat. For some reason, I could never keep all of my stuff together from one day to the next. I would search high and low to find my uniform and equipment. Whether it was practice or a game, I had to be there. The team always needed me.
For most of my life, I played on some kind of team. Now, I’m 69 and I don’t play on many teams. In fact, I don’t play on any teams at all. I miss playing on a team. There is something about walking out onto the field or court with a bunch of other guys and getting the game started that brought an energy and focus to my life. I miss that.
For one thing, everyone knew the reason we were out there. We were out there to win the game. All of us had one common purpose – do whatever it takes to score one more point than the other team. All of us knew our roles. We knew what was expected of us. If we were going to win, we had to play as one team. If we played as separate individuals, we’d lose. I was counting on my teammates to do their jobs and they were counting on me to do mine.
More than that, we were also counting on each other NOT to do anything that wasn’t your job. For instance, I was never a point guard in basketball. I was never expected to handle the ball. That wasn’t my job. I never dribbled the ball. I played under the goal. If I got a rebound, I threw it out to the guard. Coaches yelled at me if I dribbled too much. Every member of the team has to know their role and stay in them. We won together. We lost together. We were a team.
A lot of churches need to recover the ethic of being part of a team. For instance, if you’re part of a team, you have to show up. The game can’t start until you’re there. I can remember standing in a baseball dugout waiting for our ninth player to show up. We couldn’t play the game until everyone showed up. Church can’t be the church unless everyone shows up.
Second, everyone should know their role. Most church members don’t know they’re valuable members of the team and second, most don’t know their roles. It’s the coach’s job to understand every player, know their strengths and weaknesses, and make a plan to best use that player for the good of the team. Pastors, like coaches, should know their players and how they can best be organized for maximum kingdom effectiveness.
When I played baseball, I played first base. My job was to catch the ball the other players threw to make sure we got the batter out. Now, look at what I just said. It wasn’t my job to catch the hit ball (which was very rare because right handed batters hit to the left side of the infield). The play was usually made by the shortstop or third baseman. They would catch the ball and throw it to me. Once they threw it, it was my job to catch it. It didn’t matter that it might have been a bad throw, it was still my job to catch. So, guess what I did at practice? I practiced catching bad throws.
Most church members don’t know their roles. They have no idea how the church needs them or what the congregation is counting on them to do. For instance, if a person works in pre-school, do they understand how important they are to the growth of the church overall? Think about it, if a young family is bringing their child to church for the first time, the most important person in the church is the pre-school worker who greets their child. Do our pre-school workers understand their value to the church team? Do we provide the training and support so that a pre-school worker becomes the reason that family comes back to our church? If the church is going to win, the preschool worker has to win first.
Everyone in the church is on Team Jesus. We are all committed to the same goal – redeeming a broken world in the name and power of our Lord Jesus. Each of us has a role to play and each of us is needed for the team to be successful. We don’t have to play every position, but we do have to play ours and play it well.
Being on Team Jesus means:
We show up. The team can’t play the game unless everyone shows up.
We know our position. We understand what the team needs and expects of us.
We encourage the other members of the team. Everyone has a bad play or a bad day. Let’s make sure they don’t have two of them.
Play as well as you can. Just as we’re counting on everyone else, everyone else is counting on us.
Enjoy the game and being on this team. There’s nothing else like it in the world.
OK, got it? Then gather up. “Team Jesus” on three.
This essay was first posted in Scot McKnight’s newsletter.
