The church and spurs

  If you paid any attention to basketball over the last fifteen years or so, you would know that the San Antonio Spurs have been a really good team.  Since 1999, they have only had one year of not reaching fifty wins, and that was a strike shortened year.  In that time they have been to six NBA Finals, while winning five of them.  Their head coach Greg Popavich and star player Tim Duncan have been there for all of them, while the two other star players (Manu Ginobli, Tony Parker) have been there for four of the championships.  What this three players and their head coach have accomplished is very impressive and very hard to do.  The Spurs have been known for years to be one of the best run basketball organizations in the NBA and it got me thinking what can the church learn from them.  I posed this question to my social media accounts and this what a friend and I came up with.

  The first idea that we can learn is that in order for any organization to succeed, but especially the church, there needs to be sacrifice.  Tim Duncan is one of the greatest players to ever play his position at any generation of basketball.  He could of demanded the outrageous pay check, or that the scheme of the game would revolve around him.  Instead, he did what the team needed him to do to be successful, both on the court and off of the court.  If the church wants to have an impact on their community and the world, it needs to learn about sacrifice.  It is learning to give God and others the credit when credit is deserved and owning up to mistakes.  It is also learning that we are neither too good nor is anything way above us.  Are we willing to do what it takes to build the church.  Whether it is spending time cleaning, to teaching a kids Sunday school class, to being in a leadership position.  Now we all have particular gifts and we need to use them to all of our ability and help the church become healthy and vibrant.

  The second idea is that size does not matter and this is what I mean.  San Antonio is considered a small market team, so that means they potentially have a less of a income stream coming in through attendance, merchandising and media rights and this means they have to be more financially sound with their money.  How this applies to the church is that we do not have to be a church with five pastors and an average attendance of 500 plus to have an impact on the community.  The question is that are we using the resources and talents that we have wisely.  It is about knowing who you are and Gods purpose for the church.

  The other concept is the idea that we have to have the mindset that we are more concerned about fundamentals over the flash.  The Spurs have been known for playing fundamentally sound basketball.  This is playing good defense, not turning the ball over and taking what the other team gives you.  For some, this is boring basketball, because it isn't up and down with a lot of dunking.  As a church, are we more concerned about the flash and excitement, or do we more concerned with about discipleship, worship, and evangelism.  The fundamentals of the faith is that we bring new people in, create mature disciples of Christ and those mature disciples go out to bring more people in to disciple so they can become mature reproducing Christians.  Why look for the new thing, when we are not doing what we know we should be doing.  Obedience is not only maturity, but it is following through with what we know to be true and learning something new.  We can not run unless we get the walking thing down first. 

  The third thing we can learn from the Spurs is the idea of leadership.  Having fifteen plus years with the same coach in the NBA is unheard of.  I would guess the average shelf life for a coach is under five years.  The leadership of a church and should always be pointing towards Jesus.  The leadership of the church not only needs to practice what it preaches. but there needs to be humility and servanthood.  Are the leaders of the church spending as much time on their knees as they are leading?  This applies to more than just the pastor.  The church leaders are not the ones with the title, but the one who has a sphere of influence.  When the decisions are being made, who are people turning to for guidance and who ultimately can sway the vote.  It is being consistent and it also is being molded by Jesus so they can mold other people. 

  I know that there is more that can be written and the question is the church in it for the long haul and are we willing to put in the work to impact the world