(November 8, 2009)

Imagine that you are a competitive figure skater. You are on the last round. You're nervous and anxious. Just a minute before you go out on the ice, your trainer tells you that you have already won. You are too far ahead for your closest competitor to catch up. How are you going to skate? Timidly? Skate like a champion?

What would you do for Christ if you knew that you could not fail? What would you attempt if you knew you were already a victor? As a church, we need to realize that we need to step out on faith and act as though it is so because it is!

If God is for us, who can be against us? Even though it's God's desire for us to win, it's never won by accident. Winning, especially in church, is because of dedicated, committed, and spirit-filled people who sacrifice their time, talent and treasure.

Even though God desires that every church succeed, some don't. It's not because of the building. It's because of the people. We all want to be part of a winning church. We need to learn how to win as a church.

• Set your entire focus on winning. You eye should be totally focused on victory, not the what-ifs. Did you know that all the runners run in a marathon, but only one gets the prize? Run for the prize, not the run. Don't focus on the scoreboard. Don't worry about this or that. Just run. Too many don't focus on winning, but instead focus on not losing.
• You've gotto persevere under pressure. THe bigger the vision, the bigger the pressure. If you want to be under a big vision, be prepared to deal with lots of pressure. Even though we're under intense pressure, we know that God is on our side.
• Winning requires sacrifice.
• The team must adopt a motto of whatever it takes. As long as it is scriptural, whatever it takes to get it done should be your motto. You must have competitive people in order to grow your church. It's not about competing with other churches, but it is about having a competitive spirit and drive to bring your team to victory.
• You have to be a team, not a group of superstars. This does nothing to win. Barry Sanders never won a Super Bowl ring even though there were a bunch of All-Pros on his team. One is too small a number to achieve greatness. The church must learn to be creative and innovate. What can we do that hasn't be done before for the Glory of God? God uses many different ways to reach people, but do people? We need to learn this innovation.
• The team must be united. A nation dividing against itself cannot stand. We need to focus on one thing and do it well.
• Prepare, prepare, prepare. Any team that wins focuses on the preparation. It's not the hardest punch that won the fight, it's the one that was never seen coming.
• Do not let defeat deter you. Our psyche is fragile and sometimes we don't know how to handle adversity. But, if we learn how to handle it, it won't hurt as bad when it happens and we'll know how to bounce back.
• The team that works together, celebrates together. We need to learn how to celebrate our victories. We can't rest on our laurels, but we need to celebrates our wins together.

If we have the right vision, right motives, right people, and right resources, we cannot lose!

- Jon Bruney
(Credit to Daniel Owens, John Maxwell, The Wallenda Factor)