“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'” — Matthew 4:19 (ESV)
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All 32 teams in the NFL spent the first half of 2024 trying to improve — their roster, their leadership, their strategy, their training, their approach to the schedule. The drive for improvement then rolled right into the season. When the margin of victory is as slim as it is in football, any possible area of improvement is one that must be identified and acted on.
It is improvement “on the margin,” as a player once told me. Think incremental. Also think addition. Slivers add up. Put enough of them together and the whole is greater. Perhaps nothing in sports requires the whole working together at its greatest capacity more than football. But the ability for a whole to work together to achieve greatness is far from unique to sports. It is asked of all of us.
Make disciples of all nations, we are told (Matthew 28:19). Love one another so the full expression of God’s love can live in us (1 John 4:12). The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose; they are co-workers in God’s service (1 Corinthians 3:8-9).
In other words, we as believers are all on one team — a team unified by God, delivered by Jesus, and supported by the Holy Spirit. Here is the beauty of this team: It operates in God’s will. His omniscience, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. Our willingness to be on His team allows an all-knowing, all-powerful and ever-present God to be glorified as we share in His wins. What a victory for each of us! Yet, there is more. He is with us every step of every season when we say to Him, “Please come. Be my teammate.”
Each NFL season offers opportunity and promises adversity. The challenges are to be expected. Each team’s job is simply to be ready to face them head-on when they arrive. Injuries, short weeks, tough travel, road woes, slow starts, complacency, failure to reach expectations, off-the-field circumstances — the list goes on.
Strong leadership helps teams work through all kinds of challenges. The best leaders also weave connectivity through a locker room in a one-on-one, this-is-personal, and I’m-in-this-with-you kind of way. They lead not just by example, but by coming alongside in the moment. It is an everyday, play-by-play, experience-by-experience kind of leadership. It is constant without hovering. It is inspiring without suffocating. It is supreme confidence without arrogance. Humility is required. Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins once said it like this: “Leadership is based on a spiritual quality: the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.”
Jesus did it with ease. He said to put down your nets and become fishers of men (Matthew 4:19, above). We can sub in “leaders” for “fishers” because that is what the disciples came to be, each in their own way. Authentic, Godly leadership looks different for every person, but is always in line with God’s will and unique to one’s own personality and style. When we lead like Jesus, we win in ways only God has imagined.
— Jade McCarthy
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