About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman

Home Page

The Team On The Field  

Toronto Blue Jays baseball fans were devastated, even angry, over how the 2023 baseball season ended.  As a result they anticipated some major offensive upgrades over winter by the front office.  Now that spring training is upon us, their frustration lingers.  They see no real upgrades.  There was, however, some recent Blue Jay news.  Seats in the one hundred level of the stadium, the expensive level, will now have cup holders to hold our beer.  Wow, it's now more convenient to wash our sorrows away as we watch the team on the field lose again.   O yes, there are new uniforms too.  I'm sure they'll help elevate the home run count to rise over the fence.    

The Rogers Company owns the Jays and the Rogers Centre where the Jays play.   Rogers is in the midst of a multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation of their stadium.  The hope is that these stadium upgrades will add more fans in the seats and enhance their baseball experience.  That sounds great, but the best experience occurs when the team on the field wins the game.  

No, I am not writing this article for the sports section of the Toronto Star newspaper.  I am writing to Christians who form a team we call church.  In 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 Paul equates the church with a human body.  He could have easily compared the church to a team.  Paul told us that there is one body, one team consisting of Christians who Jesus has placed alongside each other in personal, supportive and functional relationships so they can effectively accomplish God's winning will.  Read these few verses from 1 Corinthians 12. 

"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.   There are different kinds of working [talents], but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (verses 4 - 7)  Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. (verse 12)  Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (verse 24)" 

As in baseball, Paul wrote that a successful church team requires the individual involvement of each and every Christian.  Everyone, none excluded, either has a gift from the Holy Spirit, a calling from Jesus, or a talent from God that is meant to accomplish God's winning will.  Team church, then, is participatory in nature, not spectatorial in nature.  We can spend tons of money, time, and energy making all of the organizational and structural church upgrades that we think we need, but in the end, it's the team on the church field that will accomplish God's winning will. 

Home Page