Remember the Seahawks!

After last week's post a friend of mine, whose name I won't mention, who happens to be a Seattle fan took issue with the fact that I'd written about the losing Superbowl team. I acknowledged the validity of his point and promised him this post. :-) So here are some winning thoughts served with a slice of Manning pie.

Just as the Superbowl was about to kick off, my sister, who lives in Seattle, posted this facebook status,

"Still trying to understand the rules of this American football game. Why are there 12 players for the Seahawks and only one player for the Broncos (Peyton Manning)?"

I thought it was a brilliant comment on the way the two teams had been portrayed. I'm a big Manning fan, so if he had run out onto the field in the Superbowl in a Seahawks jersey I'd have been cheering for the Seahawks. I suspect that many others around the country allocated their Superbowl loyalties based upon their like or dislike of Peyton Manning. He became a larger than life character in this sporting drama.

In contrast, when I reflect on the persona projected by Seattle I keep coming back to the ideas of team and community.

1. Seattle has successfully embraced fan enthusiasm by honoring the crowd as The 12th Man. (11 players are on the field at any given time.) This relationship with fans has made Seattle one of the loudest stadiums in which to play and helped Seattle to only one loss over the past two season. Seattle actually holds the world record for the most crowd noise at a sporting event. That roar even created a small earthquake!! 

2. Although Russell Wilson has provided some great quarterback play and team leadership, the heart and soul of the team is it's defense. Richard Sherman has attracted a lot of media attention in the role of a bad boy with a big mouth. But the strength of the Seahawks defense has been a group of players labelled "The Legion of Boom". When compared to the singular focus Peyton Manning has received, the fact that Seattle's engine room consists of a group of players makes a significant point. Individuals can't win championships in a team sport.

3. As this story describes, even Pete Carroll, the Seattle coach, was willing to take a tackle for the benefit of the team. This style of leadership and commitment are contagious and help establish a team first mentality among the players.

There are so many ways to take these points and apply them to churches. I think I'll let you do most of the heavy lifting on this one. But here's a couple of summary thoughts.

1. The concept of the 12th Man is all about giving fans a slice of ownership in the team. As this article describes this ownership creates community that (at least for a little while) energizes a city. Churches need to have this same goal. Members want to be part of something bigger than themselves. People long for community and contributing to a greater good. How does your church communicate inclusion and value to each member?

2. Church isn't just about the individual. Yes, it's a community that God uses to speak into the lives of individuals, but it doesn't stop there. Being part of the body of Christ means that sometimes we'll put our bodies on the line for the benefit of others. That's teamwork. That's church. That's Jesus. As a church leader I have to regularly ask myself how I'm modelling this value.

New Beginnings: NFL

The NFL season kicked off last night with those Dallas Cowboys rocking the defending champs, the Giants of New York. College football began last week. Chi has returned to the world.

One great part of living with a foot in each hemisphere is following different sports. Last week MY Carlton Blues who at the start of the season guaranteed a top 4 finish bombed out without making the finals at all!!  So this Sunday MY Indianapolis Colts start their season. HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL!!

At the start of a new season anything is possible. Every team, or at least the fans, believes they can end the season holding the championship trophy.  This year in the NFL there are 5 teams starting rookie quarterbacks: Indy; Washington; Miami; Seattle; and Cleveland. In addition another 5 teams are starting quarterbacks just in their second season in the league: Arizona; Carolina; Cincinnati; Minnesota; and Jacksonville.

Each of these teams hopes that their guy will turn out to be a legend. They hope that their guy will lead them to the Promised Land, if not this year, then at least in the next two or three. But regardless of the age of the quarterback everyone gets a new start, a fresh beginning. Success or failure: what happened last year is in the past. This year provides a fresh slate an opportunity to confirm or disprove the impressions fans formed based on previous performances.

Last night we saw that. I kept seeing stats for Eli Manning 4th quarter comebacks in 2011 (7) compared to Tony Romo giving up 2nd half leads in 2011. First game of 2012, none of those stats mattered. Eli couldn't mount a comeback, Romo didn't crumble. New year. New opportunities. This year, a legacy can be made.

It amazes me how many people fail to understand that Christianity is all about this same fresh start. Because of Jesus we can leave our past performances behind us and move on with a clean slate. Our opportunity is even better than professional sports. Two or three bad seasons will see you off the team and maybe even out of the league for good. But God keeps giving us new opportunities each time we mess up.

Many people want to present Christianity as a worldview fueled by hate, or the Bible as a legal code that's impossible to keep. In reality God gives us a vision of hope. He gives us excitement that our new season will be a Championship season. We'll encounter some losses along the way. We may even go stretches when people give up on us (2011 Giants??), but God will never give up on us and will present us with the eternal crown He's saving for all his champions.

In sports, only one team can win. The hopes of 31 NFL teams will prove futile this year. But with God, once we join his team we don't just hope, we know, we're going to win.