Practice and Teamwork

Using a championship football team to remind us of what is necessary

At this moment we are at an exciting time as a community as we are in the week between the State semi-finals game, which our team won, and the Championship game, which we hope they will win. I am sure that even people who do not care one bit about football are aware of this moment and are excited for the community, the school, and the players if nothing else.

As a pastor, there are a few things worth noting about this moment, because it can help us understand and think about our faith and life as well. First of all, this moment did not simply happen. It was not inevitable and it did not happen by chance. There are always forces beyond the control of a team and their coaches, but there is definitely a difference between a team that makes it to the State championship game and one that never got anywhere near it. We might say that talent plays a role, and it surely does, but that isn’t it. Practice is crucial.

To be clear, it isn’t even just taking the time set aside for practice over the course of the season. This team’s ability is largely due to the work that was put in long before this season even began. We have many seniors on the team, and they have been working and developing for years, not just as players but as team leaders. Success in this moment is not just due to them working hard this Fall, but because they worked hard for a long time before this payoff.

The other thing I want to highlight is that a team that is playing at the championship level is not an individual achievement. Even star players cannot do what they do without the rest of the team supporting them. You can have the greatest quarterback in history but it wouldn’t matter if the receivers can’t catch or if the linemen can’t block.

Sometimes, we treat our faith as if it followed different rules than everything else in our lives. In That temptation makes some sense because we are talking about God who makes the impossible possible. On the other hand, we sometimes imagine that faith and living as disciples is exempt from the work that goes into literally every other aspect of our lives. We have to practice our faith, to commit ourselves to discipleship if we want to grow in it. Not only that, it needs to be a sustained commitment. It is true that, when you start out, you won’t be as far along as a championship team, but it is also true that the difference between those who live more and more fully alive in Christ and those who don’t is essentially the same, in its own way, with the difference between a championship team and one that can barely play. Practice, not just once but consistently over time, is indispensable.

Similarly, we are often tempted to believe that faith is a totally individual thing. On the one hand, that is true because nobody can believe for someone else. On the other hand, none of us is an isolated individual. We are all part of the community of faith. John Wesley, the father of the Methodist movement, famously wrote that “Christianity is essentially a social religion; and to turn it into a solitary one is to destroy it.” It isn’t just that living our faith together is helpful, it is necessary. We literally be disciples all on our own.

This moment in our community’s life in football is important in its own way. It is fun. It is something to get excited about and bond together over. It is certainly something that those involved will remember for the rest of their lives, and all of that is great. Let us use this as an opportunity to be inspired by them. Maybe none of us adults will play football at that level, but all of us, no matter our age, can begin to follow Jesus at that level and beyond. However, we can’t just hope we will grow, we need to invest in it, to practice it, and to encourage one another.

If this is something worth getting excited over, of canceling usual routines, of traveling distances and going to some expense, how much more so is something that will ripple out for eternity?