5 things Team GB could teach Church UK part 2

Olympic Park at night

The importance of Discipleship

Okay, Team GB don't use the word discipleship, but that in effect is what they do. I was listening to a radio interview when one of a pair of young gold medal winning rowers had said how inspirational it was to have the more experienced rowers to look up to "I learn from her all the time ,I listen to her ,I watch what she is doing and think if she can do it then so can I ".I heard another medal winning member of the cycling team say we have learned so much from watching Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton,from seeing how they do it and following them."  To me that is a pretty good description of discipleship in action.

I can think of some examples where that sort of learning takes place in church but probably not enough,
Too often young Christians with great potential are not given enough opportunity to use their gifts We are quite good in the UK church at giving people a great theological education and plenty of colleges of all kinds do that very well.it is important that they do.
Do we though mentor people well enough ?Do we coach people well enough? do we simply expect young Christians with embryonic gifts but real potential ,to simply sink or swim?
There is no doubt young Christians have plenty to give ,and should have the opportunity,perhaps in a group setting, to learn from those who have been on the road a long time

The Importance of perseverance

It has been said that sport does not build character ,it reveals it.
Plenty of members of Team GB have big characters. There have been plenty of races where they have had to dig deep .There are times when it would have been easier
to quit rather than finish.

One of the first of the cycling events was the road race ,a tough, arduous ,hilly course .Bradley Wiggins was riding it in order to set up Mark Cavendish for a sprint to the finish .it was days after the Tour de France ,Bradley must have been exhausted. Miles before the end, it became evident he was not going to achieve his goal ;Bradley could have quit but he kept going to the end.
Perseverance is a very underrated Christian quality,it it is one Jesus demonstrates again and again in His ministry.He has a goal in sight,a task to fulfil, he keeps going to the end .He goes all the way to the cross,where he exclaims" it is finished." The task is done!
Many of us human beings have a gift for starting something but not finishing it.Like the apoostle Paul we should seek to finish the race.
I am much closer to the end of life than to the beginning.I am much closer to the end of ministry than to the beginning .God give me grace to finish well.

God give us all grace ,when the times are hard ,when criticism comes ,when people seem uncaring and apathetic to the message of God's love, to keep on going on as the Bible urges us to do.

To be continued