181. Championship "Calibre" Team
One news that got me excited was NBA basketball resuming. They created a “Bubble” in Disney World resort, where it is is free of COVID-19 and only allows players and staff who are free of the virus. So far, there have been zero confirmed cases in the bubble. As the teams started playing again, many fans are excitedly debating about who will win the championship.
Winning a championship is a “once-in-a-lifetime” type of achievement. So, many teams sacrifice everything to win “a” championship, even their future, by trading away their future draft picks for superstars at the end of their prime. Many of these teams win one championship and become a non-contender for the next decade. But some teams might not win a championship every year but continue to remain as title-contender.
Those teams have something in common. They usually have a long-tenured coach and critical players who bought into the system. It is because you can’t create a culture with ever-changing leaders and key players who will support the system. Most importantly, though their ultimate goal is to win the championship, they don’t try to hasten the process by sacrificing what they know to be fundamental.
House church is like that. Though our mission is to help people to follow Jesus, we don’t always witness that happening every year. Sometimes, the result seems to come slow. But we can remain diligent in creating the right culture and be ready to lead people to Christ by staying kind, welcoming, and accepting.
During this pandemic, we can feel discouraged from not seeing the result of our gathering as house church. But we are not just trying to win souls. We are trying to remain loving, kind and accepting in all seasons so that when God brings people to us, we are ready to point them to Christ through what we had always been doing. Authenticity comes from repeated actions, not merely trying to be authentic. The early church was authentic because they remain devoted to the fundamentals of following Jesus. (Acts 2:42)
Let’s not lose heart and continue to gather faithfully and love each other consistently, as we always have done. When we strive to remain a championship “calibre” team, God will help us champion his cause at the right time.
