Team Component #3

The third component that I feel is characteristic of every successful team is that there are no superstars. There may be some people who feel that they can point out superstars on a given team but if you talk to those "superstars" they would likely tell you the key to the success of the team are the people around them. That's the difference between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Kobe points everything back on himself and MJ pointed out his supporting staff. Did MJ get all kinds of publicity and notoriety for his success? Yes . . . but in post-game interview after post-game interview you will see MJ give the credit to his teammates. He was masterful at dishing out the limelight and making his teammates look good. That was bigtime! Check this video out . . .



Perry Noble, lead pastor of Newspring Church preached on that very thing today. (Check this link out to listen to the sermon). He is not the gears and switches behind the operation over in Anderson and, coming later this year, Greenville. If you ask him, he's not even a synapsis in the brain at Newspring. He has surrounded himself with killer people who are passionate about the same vision that he is passionate about and that's why they are successful. Sure . . . Perry Noble is a recognizable figure and the vision-caster for Newspring. He's even been listed with seven others among Willow Creek Association's "Faces to Watch in 2008". But the key is that he knows that the entire thing falls if it were to rest on his shoulders.

We used to joke around with a guy who played for SWU . . . Skinny. He would come into the locker room and tell us that his back hurt from carrying this team. We would all cut up and laugh whenever he would make that statement. Skinny was our captain, and he was good. But he knew that he couldn't carry the team, because that was everyone's responsibility.

Superstars don't win ball games . . . teams win ballgames.