Success Breeds Success

by Joey Davis

There is an old saying, "success breeds success." If it were only true! The old saying should say. "teamwork and dedication bring success."

As I sat last night and watched the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, I saw two teams who had waded through a field of sixty-two others to stand atop the mountain and challenge one another to be their best. Yet. what I noticed most was the lack of superstar marquee players.

According to the experts, the Utah Utes weren't even supposed to be there. They were a team of overachievers who were considered deliberate. slow. and non-athletic. Only one player on their team was a sought after high school player. The rest of the team is comprised of young men who have earned their "Rick Pitino PhD's." meaning that they are Poor, Hungry. and Determined. They had cut teams like Arizona and North Carolina down to size in spite of the superstars fielded by each team.

The National Champion Kentucky Wildcats fielded. a line up that lacked even one first team All-American. They didn't have a single player in the running for the Naismith Award - the award that goes to College Basketball's best player. Of the fifteen players on their roster. only Jeff Shepherd is a possible candidate to play in the NBA next year. Yet they used a unique brand of heart and teamwork to achieve College Basketball's greatest prize . . . a National Championship, their second in three years.

It seems that anytime you bring a group of folks together in order to accomplish a goal or realize a dream. it always seems to be the group that works together selflessly that achieves that greatest amount of success, rather than the group that has the most natural talent.

Evangelizing a community in the name of the Lord follows the same pattern. Very seldom do you see the church grow due to great preaching or ingenious leadership. Most churches grow in spite of inadequacies in these areas because only the Lord can add to the church ( Acts 2:47).

You see. God has always used average people to accomplish extraordinary things in the Kingdom. He requires teamwork from a group of average people who possess only a desire to bring others to Christ and the determination to avoid being discouraged. Success in evangelizing Mt. Juliet depends on our selflessness and willingness to let God use us to His glory fire you on God's team?

• Conscience -Mar 16, 1997
• Leaders -Feb 02, 1997
• The Basketball Game for Keeps -Dec 22, 1996
• The Call -Oct 20, 1996
• Jessie -Sep 22, 1996