Last night my basketball team lost in a single elimination playoff game.  If you know me, you know I like this as much as I like watching my sister in laws dog for 5 weeks.  We didn’t play well, and it was quite frustrating, but there was a bright side, a proverbial lesson to be learned.

One thing I’ve learned in my 10 +years of doing what I do is that you can’t win all the time and sometimes you lose, but how you lose can be just as important to your natural growth as a person than actually winning all the time.  The person who wins all the time isn’t mature, for they can’t understand what it is to feel loss, and to know loss is to grow up in ways that winning can’t provide.  So here is just one of a few  thought I had on losing well fresh off our playoff loss last night:

If you’re going to lose, lose with a great team. I can’t tell you I enjoyed losing last night, but I can tell you it will be that much easier to play again because of the group of guys I play ball with.  There are teams in our league that have killed us in the past, and they’ve bickered back and forth about everything – and the next year they were on a different team.  There were a few years at Fellowship when my predecessor made some hard decisions and things were really lean for a while people wise, which of course led to hard financial struggle.  After feeling the joys of winning before, this felt like losing.  But we were able to walk through those difficulties because we enjoyed working together through those valleys.  Last night’s playoff loss produced a bitter tasting puddle in my mouth, but thankfully I love to play with the group of guys I play with each week, so on to next season.  Interestingly enough, this is also one of the reasons I love being at Fellowship now as the lead pastor.  The last two years haven’t always been peaches, but I’ve walked with some truly wonderful compadres, and this makes all the difference in the world.

Now, if I could just find a bright side to dog sitting, we’d be all set.

Billy, Al, and Steve hanging with a cow?

So I love sports, and I love competition.

As I grow older, one of the aspects of sports I’m coming to appreciate more and more is the teamwork that’s involved in team sports.  I’m also coming to appreciate the idea of team in every aspect of my life.  So for the next several afternoons I’ll be sharing some of the favorite “teams” in my own life.  Some of these are actual teams, and some of them are, shall we say, metaphysical teams (if there is such a thing) that exist to better an aspect of my life that is lacking.

Today’s favorite team is my fellow leaders at Fellowship Church.  They consistently impress with me with their desire to improve and to see people connecting and growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ.  They work together and we’ve seen great results here in central Massachusetts because of their hard work and innovative style.  I love the stuff God is accomplishing through this team, so please allow me to introduce them to you:

Steve Blumer:  The administrative genius on our team, and getting better every day.  This dude has his stuff together and you just know he loves the church and what we’re about.  He’s totally different from me and yet, somehow the same.  (hmmm, that was deep)  He’s done an amazing job at the role of Family Ministries director, and over the next 6 months will be transitioning into being the executive pastor of the FC.  I believe our church will be 100x’s better when that transition takes place.

Billy McGuiness:  Billy has just recently transitioned from our First Impressions director to the new Fellowship Web Campus director.  If you’ve checked out FC TV in the last 3 months, you’ve seen a lot of the amazing work he’s done to transition our church into the 21st century through the web.  I love what Billy brings to the table in sacrifice, excellence in web development, and just being a team player.

Al Dancy:  Al has been a close friend of mine for years now, and as soon as I took the lead pastor role at Fellowship, he came on board to revolutionize our Sunday morning programming.  He’s doing that now with his relevant style, his creative imagination, and his desire to see God move wherever he’s serving.  When Billy and Al get together though, watch out – there are going to be some laughs all around.

Jeff Campbell:  Jeff is our resident progressive thinker, or as he would put it “deep thinker”.  He has grown more in his faith than I have seen anyone ever grow in the time I’ve known him.  He’s the introvert of the bunch, but his leadership over our life group ministry speaks for itself.  This guy also communicates on Sunday mornings when I’m out and about, and sometimes when I’m still in the building.

Pam Watson:  She has no blog or web site, but in some ways, this newest member of our team is more experienced and prepared for her new role as the First Impressions director than anyone else I’ve mentioned, myself included.  She loves Fellowship Church, having been here since 1998 (about 7 months longer than me), and has a desire to see people feel like this place is their church home when they come in.  Her experience as a project coordinator of the UMass medical school Standardized patient program will help in her endeavor to unify her own guest services team to accomplish the mission God has given them, so that maybe one day they will be her favorite team!

So that, my friends,  is one of my favorite teams!