I’ve been thinking about sports a lot lately.  My Ohio State Buckeyes are doing well, my Reds are finally out of their misery, and my Bengals aren’t looking too bad (for now).

Most sports share something in common – they are made up of teams, they have a coach, and they keep score.  It’s the team concept that I’ve been thinking about.

I like teams – I want to build a strong Children’s Ministry Team – but what sport should I use as a model?  Baseball has strengths – there are a lot of positions.  Football has strengths – a couple of superstars can make a big difference. Basketball has strengths – they shares roles.  All of them want to see the whole team succeed – but they all go about it in different ways.

When I started in Children’s Ministry as a volunteer I wanted to be on a baseball team – I wanted to have a clearly defined role.  I wanted to know what was expected of me; what I needed to do in order to be considered successful.  When I moved into my first paid ministry position I wanted to have a football team and I wanted to be the quarterback – I wanted to be the star – I wanted to drive the team by talent and skill.  Now that I’ve been doing this for a while I’ve decided I want a Basketball team and I don’t want Lebron – I’d rather be Phil Jackson.

Basketball teams have a lot of advantages:

• There are positions with specific role – But when it’s time for offense everyone is one offense & when it’s time for defense everyone is on defense…
• You can have star players – But the team must work together to be successful – Jordan was great but without Pippin and the rest of the team…
• You develop a plan for your plays – But those plans must be flexible to go with the flow of the game…
• You have a coach – But the bulk of the coach’s job is training the team through the week for the game…

Now no analogy is entirely perfect – I think in my ministry I’m going to strive to build a strong basketball team.

• We will define roles – But focus on the overall needs of the team…
• We will  have those who are stronger than others – But focus on building team work for overall success…
• We will plan – But we will be flexible so we can meet the reality of the day we are faced with…
• I will play the role of coach – I will spend more time training and prepping my team than playing the game.

My goal and job as a Pastor is to train and release volunteers so they can effectively minister to the kids of my church.  So, how about you?  What kind of team are you building?