The day of this writing, Pat Summit, the great 38 year coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols, was celebrated by the University of Tennessee. She is the winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball history. She answered this question that was re-aired in a recent Entreleadership podcast (https://www.entreleadership.com/podcasts/154-jocko-willinkhow-to-lead-and-win): What are the non-negotiable and essential characteristics of a championship team? “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships. Understand what our goals are and meet those. You might have an off shooting night. You should never have an off night on defense and rebounding. We should never have an off night on lack of communication. We need to be in this together and realize that it is not about the individual. We are winning for the team. We are winning for the university. We are winning for the greatest fans in college basketball.” Pat Summit (http://www.patsummitt.org)
Do you see any correlation between basketball and ministry? Below is mine, but I’d welcome your initial thoughts as well (email or Facebook me).
Every leader has their strengths, but you need to lead a well balanced team to be healthy in leadership. This applies in sports and ministry. All people like to play in their strengths. Leaders included. It is natural tendency of life. You may be a gifted worship leader. Your passion may be the fellowship of the church and enjoy helping people feel connected. You may be an evangelist by trade. But, like a basketball team, if you only focus on your area of giftedness, you will be flashy and attractive for a moment, but you will not win as many lives to the Lord as you could if you surrounded yourself with people who are good at things you are not. If you are an evangelist, get some students in your ministry to lead out in worship for the service. If you are a worship leader by heart, train some students to share the gospel in their school through the First Priority model of ministry (www.firstpriority.club). Surround yourself with people who are good at the other essential areas of ministry. If you want a quick list, Rick Warren’s (http://rickwarren.org) list of 5 purposes (http://www.purposedriven.com) at Saddleback is a great place to start.
The basketball and church leader comparison is finalized in this: the seats will eventually be empty if you do not put a team of people together who understand the bigger picture and play their role. “I’ve never scored a basket for the University of Tennessee. I’m starting my 36th year at UT. It is all about the people you surround yourself with.” Pat Summit
Peace for today,
Brad
