AP Photo
I did stay up and watched not only the championship game, but I watched the post-game interviews and comments. There were the black strips for the eyes with John 3:16, the “I want to thank Jesus, my Lord and Savior” comments, but the thing that captured my attention was the team mentality that the Florida Gators displayed.
The infamous acronymic adage was in play: TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More.
I was pretty impressed with the attitude of the players. Whenever they were asked a question about their play, each player who was interviewed would constantly give credit to someone else, whether it was the offensive line, the defense or another key player.
They thought like a team, they played like a team, and they won as a team. This is what championship teams are made of, especially at the top level.
In a world full of egos, pride and self-interest, it was refreshing to see a team that focused on being a “team.”
What would it be like if the church operated in that way?
We have too many Terrell Owens in the Church (sorry, all you T.O. fans). They think they are superstars and when things don’t go well, they end up blaming other people rather than taking responsibility and doing something about it.
This is a complete contrast to what Tim Tebow said after their one-point lost to Mississippi State back in September 27th. It was pretty powerful. Tebow said, “I just wanted to say one thing. To the fans and everybody, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida’s never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this. You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season and you’ll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season and you’ll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God bless.”
Just in that statement, Tebow displayed some good leadership principles. I would follow someone like that any day.
Whether it is on the football field or in a church, we need more people who know how to take responsibility and back up their talk with action. We need more people who are team players rather than trying to be superstars. We need more people who do not care who receives the credit, as long as they are on the winning team.
Now, that would be a church that can transform the world! Jesus-Nation!