{"id":11,"date":"2006-08-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-09T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-08-16T01:10:07","modified_gmt":"2009-08-16T05:10:07","slug":"teamwork-vital-in-soccer-and-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/2006\/08\/09\/teamwork-vital-in-soccer-and-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"Teamwork vital in soccer and missions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brynna<\/a>Did you ever have something right in front of you for so long that it was embarrassing to admit you had it backwards?<\/p>\n

That’s how I felt after Brynna’s first scrimmage with her new premier soccer team Saturday.<\/p>\n

Julie and I have promised Brynna a milkshake if she scores a goal. And while she played great on Saturday, she didn’t earn a milkshake. In all the time she’s been playing, and playing well, she’s earned only one. <\/p>\n

You see, she plays defense. (Yes, she scored a goal while on defense, a phenomenal shot from about 40 yards out … oh, sorry, back to the topic at hand …)<\/p>\n

Both her team’s goals Saturday were scored by forwards, and all of us parents cheered. And we should have. But there’s a whole team out there, and all of them are working hard to score and to keep the other team from scoring. They’re all vital.<\/p>\n

Planting a church among people who have had no access to the Gospel also requires a team.<\/p>\n

In New Tribes Mission, we have the forwards who are out in the tribe. We all cheer their successes, as we should. But we can’t forget there are midfielders – the folks out there in those foreign countries making their successes possible. And no less important are the “fullbacks” serving here in the USA or in other sending countries.<\/p>\n

Just as on a soccer pitch, all of them are needed, and all of them must work together to get the job done.<\/p>\n

But there’s another player on the field: the goalkeeper. There are times – no matter how hard the rest of the team works – when they must rely on their “keeper.” All eyes are on the keeper for those moments in which games are won and lost.<\/p>\n

Is that you?<\/p>\n

A lot of Christians are spectators when it comes to missions, and only a few are looking for opportunities to jump into the game themselves. It’s more comfortable to watch, but it’s more rewarding to be someone whose participation by prayer, giving and encouragement keeps the team in the game.<\/p>\n

Did I say game? Shame on me. We’re talking about whether people have the opportunity to believe on Jesus.<\/p>\n

So would you rather be a keeper or a spectator? It’s your choice, you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing our youngest daughter play recently helped me realize a couple of things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/ian-fallis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}