Learning from the Spurs way: TRUST AND OBEY

The San Antonio Spurs did it again, shocking the basketball world and doing what few thought possible, winning a playoff series against Houston without their two best players.  Not just winning, but blowing away the Rockets on the Rockets home court by a record amount. No one saw this coming.

I love the Spurs not just because they win a lot, but how they win and how they so often provide such great life lessons in the process. 

As I often do, I try to analyze what the Spurs do and find the parallel principles that I can apply to life.  The lesson from the win last night was pretty profound, simply trust and obey. It's like that old gospel hymn, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 

I can imagine coach Pop telling his players before the game that if you trust our system and your teammates and do what we've told you to do, follow the game plan, we can win even without Kawhi and Tony.  You all have certain abilities, great skills or you wouldn’t be playing for the Spurs.  And the coaches have put you in position to win. If you play hard and smart and follow the game plan, you will win! Just trust, obey and play! And what a great motto for life in Christ also!

Jesus said I've come to give you, not just an ordinary life but extraordinary, abundant life.  This is a life of joy, fullfillment, significance and contentment.  I've given you all you need to succeed.  You are a masterpiece, created to do good works that I've already prepared for you to do and given you the skill and ability to do them (Ephesians 2:10).   Now if you would just trust me, follow me, obey the instructions I give you, you will experience that victorious, abundant life.  Proverbs 16:20 – Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

I know that the playoffs are not over.  Am I saying that the Spurs are guaranteed a championship? There is no guarantee. They certainly won’t be the favorites against the Golden State Warriors. And chances are they won’t win. Even when we trust and obey, victory over every battle is no certainty. The Spurs won’t win every championship and just like in life, this fallen world has a way of knocking us down at times. However, if we trust and obey, especially in the difficult times when we've been knocked down, received a set back like losing our best player, we can turn a sure loss into an incredible victory.  Trust, obey and go play! 

An Incredibly Powerful and Important Message For Our Time

If there was ever a message that is needed for every person in our nation, this is it.  It doesn't come from a politician running for president or a pastor or Pope.  It comes ironically from a basketball coach!  Monty Williams speaks from the heart at the funeral of his wife who was killed when a driver  crossed over the medium and collided head on of the car his wife, Ingrid Williams was driving. Williams' eulogy has been called "inspirational".  But it goes way beyond inspiration. With all the political and racial unrest in this country, Monty Williams' eulogy is the Gospel and one message that could somehow heal every person and bring this nation together, if only people would watch it and take it to heart.  Please watch the message, (7 minutes) and believe it!  Act on it!  Live it!

Coach Pop's Legacy And How It Relates To The Church Today

Tony Parker, Gregg Popovich (Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports)

There has been a lot of fanfare around Greg Popovich's 1,000 wins as coach of the San Antonio Spurs, as there should be. Certainly this has been an incredible achievement.  Only a handful of coaches have accomplished this and only one other, Jerry Sloan, has won over 1,000 games with just one team.  

 

But Pop's legacy will go beyond his number of wins or the number of NBA championships as a coach and won't be finished when he decides to retire. His most significant achievement will be his impact on the league and that will be felt for many years to come because of the incredible amount of his disciples that will carry on his legacy for years to come. Pop certainly would not take credit for the abundance of former Spurs players, coaches and employees scattered around the NBA, but the number is staggering. 

In the high-profile coaching positions alone you'll find former Spurs like Alvin Gentry, Avery Johnson, Vinny Del Negro, Jacque Vaughn, Mike Brown, P.J. Carlesimo, Monte Williams and Brett Brown.  I haven't even mentioned the coaches of the two teams with this year's best records in the NBA, Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, a Spur guard on the 2003 championship team, and Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer who spent 19 years in the Spurs organization.  And it doesn't end with the coaching fraternity. There are NBA general managers, Danny Ferry, Dell Demps and Sam Presti who are disciples of Pop.

What is amazing is that coach Pop seems to relish the opportunities for his disciples to move on to other teams. Losing Brett Brown and Mike Budenholzer at the same time, two long-time assistants must have been incredibly difficult.  But I never heard one negative comment from Coach Pop, just proud accolades for both of them.  Pop just celebrates their new head coaching roles and reloads with a new batch of eager young coaches. 

Steve Kerr on Pop's legacy said, "His impact on coaching is dramatic. Pop has pretty much taken over the league.  All of his protégés are out there, spread all across the league, GMs and coaches. It's amazing to see guys are having a lot of success so the impact goes well beyond the game itself."

I couldn't tell you whether Coach Pop has always mentored coaches with the intent to send them out or whether it is just the by-product of the Spurs program that most every team wants to replicate. But you do know that Pop is very willing to let go of his coaches and he puts the welfare of his players, coaches and employees ahead of his own interests. This is very uncommon in the competitive professional sports world.  Yet, the team still stays on or near the top every year.    

What would it be like if pastors across the nation had the same attitude about their members and staff as Coach Pop?  Imagine, the impact around the world, if instead of being afraid of losing staff, volunteers, or members, pastors intentionally trained and discipled young men and women and actually encouraged them to leave their congregation and spread the Gospel, as missionaries or plant churches.  What if the goal was to send instead of trying to hold on to everyone?  

I spent 20 years on staff at a large church in Austin, many of those years ministering to several hundred single adults.  Now returning to Austin, I've had the privilege of reconnecting with some of those who still live in Austin.  Very few are attending my old church anymore. I've gotten invitations to attend churches all over Austin where they are now attending. This is not a slam against my old church.  It is just the way it is in most all churches.  

Few people stay for a lifetime at any one church. The average American family moves every five to six years, so unless they leave earlier for some other reason, 5 years is about as long as you'll have most members! To think you will be able to hold on to your members for much longer is fooling yourself.  This is one of the top stressors for pastors (I've counseled many pastors about their pain and frustration over a family or families that has chosen to leave their church) and many spend a lot of their ministry trying to find ways to 'close the back door' and maintain as many of their members for as long as possible. Members will leave for all sorts of reasons and if you take it personally, it can suck your passion for the church right out of you and possibly kill your ministry totally.

Yet every experienced church planter I know will tell a new church planter that the initial team that helps start your church will not be with you long term. They are coached to view your initial core team as the scaffolding to help build a foundation for your church but don't expect them to be there long term. 

So instead of getting all worked up about a family that leaves your church, why not do what Greg Popovich does with the Spurs, train them and send them out.  Heck, it's actually what the Bible tells the leaders of the church to do, help every member to see their potential as a missionary and equip the Saints for ministry.  You've got most people for five years, so why not implement some sort of 5 year discipleship plan that will help grow your members into mature believers who are equipped to serve as ministers and missionaries wherever they may end up. Then celebrate those who move on to take the Gospel and your church DNA to other churches, countries or ministries. 

It may seem counter-intuitive to growing a church, but it is God's formula! Focus on His Kingdom and you'll grow people, the church and the Kingdom!  We made the switch at Grace Point when several great families left our church for various reasons during a critical season. It was painful.  Yet working through the difficult period, we realized that San Antonio, being a military city, was a temporary home for many of our families. So instead of being discouraged about families who leave, we looked forward to seeing where and how they used what they learned from their time at Grace Point.  We set a God-sized goal to help plant 100 churches in 10 years. We discipled to equip and empower our members to go. After we made the switch from holding onto to sending, we began to grow again, doubling in size over the next ten years, sending people all over the world and planting more than 100 churches.

Pastors, you can relieve a lot of your stress, disappointment and frustration by replacing your old mindset of worrying about "closing the back door" with a big Kingdom mindset of discipling and sending. After all, God is a sending God, sending his very Son to earth so that you and I could be redeemed.  So why should we think differently?

Church Planting and the NBA: Lessons learned from the SA Spurs

Would you allow me to share another bit of insight from the San Antonio Spurs that has to do with church planting? Here in San Antonio, as you can imagine, all the talk has been about the Spurs fifth championship and how well they played.  The headline in SA paper proclaimed the Spurs being America's team with a quote from the new NBA commissioner Adam Silver, "You showed the world how beautiful this game is."

Before the championship I posted about the Spurs' beautiful style of team basketball as it relates to the Apostle Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 12.  Every member playing an important role in the body of Christ.  This team basketball is a rare thing in the NBA today.  But with the success of the Spurs, the question a lot of people are asking is, will other teams now emulate this style of play, one where the ball moves and more players are involved in the offense.

The difficulty is that this type of basketball takes a great amount of chemistry between teammates.  It takes much longer to develop, and requires more practice time together. Not many NBA teams can accomplish this because owners are too impatient. Players are not willing to sacrifice individual accolades.  And most players don't stay on any one team long enough to get acclimated to their teammates to run this system.  The Spurs were able to do it so well because they had a nucleus of players and one coach who have been together for a long time. And they had star players that were willing to sacrifice individual stats in order to run the system.
  

Maybe the biggest reason you will not see many teams playing Spurs basketball next year is that it is just too difficult and takes too long to implement. It takes a lot of hard work, and it is so much easier to default to the one on one style. It is much easier to run the simple pick and roll offense, and if that doesn't work go one on one.

What does this have to do with Church Planting?  I thought about the comparison as I was coaching a young pastor who is planting a missional model church as opposed to the attractional model, which has been the standard way to plant and grow a church for years. The missional model focuses on growing many small missional groups and is a much slower process.  In the attractional model, the church basically grows from the typical worship service, advertising and trying to attract as many people to the service as possible. In this model, the focus is on the worship music and preaching.  Once the crowd is gathered, often the smaller discipleship groups are formed. The success of the church depends on the preacher and the band or worship leader on the platform.

Can you see the parallel to NBA basketball?  The prevalent way is to build around "stars" whether in church or basketball.  The Spurs way is similar to the missional model of church planting, as it takes patience, with each individual, member involved in the ministry, pulling their own weight.  The focus is not on the one "star" pastor, but teams of people discipling others.  The missional model may be a purer model of church, more like the early church in which Christians met in houses and caves.  It can be effective but takes much longer to develop.  That is why most church planters opt to go with the attractional model.  If they can find or be the "star" pastor, and have a "star" worship leader, they can attract people quickly and build a church much faster.  The problem for many churches, once they get to a certain size and their "star" moves on to another team, (church), they must continue to find the "star" pastor or worship leader to carry the church.  It is not easy because the "star" players are not easy to find.  But like going one on one, preaching from the pulpit is our default system of discipling people and growing a church.

Is there a better way?  Could the Missional model become the winning way we build churches in the future, or is it just too hard, too slow of a process?  As a church planter do you see yourself as the "star" instead of one of a team of players?  Would the world start to see how beautiful the church is, if we moved to the Missional model?