What Northern Iowa Men's Basketball Teaches Us About Ministry

I fully admit that I have been giddy all week since the Northern Iowa men's basketball team "upset" #1 Kansas in the NCAA tournament. As a proud alumnus, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable ride to watch them this year. The win over Kansas, however, was no fluke. UNI is a well-coached, disciplined, and conditioned team who had the #2 defense in the country coming into the tournament. In short, they're good.

The elements that have made Northern Iowa successful are, I think, characteristics transferable for college ministry:

1. The UNI men transcend their personal limits by working incredibly well as a team. This is not a team of "stars", but a group of guys who have discovered that they can accomplish a high level of play through not being satisfied with sheer individual efforts. Their bench is deep, and Coach Ben Jacobsen has injected a high degree of cultivated team purpose into practices and game preparations.

2. Northern Iowa is focused on the positive. Rather than dwelling on shortcomings, weaknesses, and negatives, this group of men see each game as a challenge. They have been able to view mistakes as opportunities for learning and self-correction. The least surprised people after the victory over Kansas were the UNI men themselves. Their attitudes are directed at winning, and believe they can beat anybody on any given night.

3. UNI sticks to their game plan. They know what they want to do on the floor, and they set about executing their game. These guys don't try to be somebody they are not.

4. Here is an observation on the basketball team that impresses me the most: Northern Iowa has learned to overcome their fear of success and the unknown. These guys are in completely uncharted territory. No Missouri Valley Conference team since Larry Bird's 1979 Indiana State team has made it to the Sweet Sixteen. UNI themselves have never gotten to this level before. Not bad for a school with an enrollment of just over 13,000 students. Success is highly alluring, and when it comes there is increased pressure to compete. If a team (or a ministry) has not learned to cope with these demands, they may devise unconscious methods to sabotage themselves because it is just too much responsibility. Instead, UNI is a self-motivated team who is not dependent on others' expectations to keep them winning. This basketball team may lose their next game, but it won't be because they choked. They seem to have this liberating knack of enjoying what they're doing fearing neither success, nor failure.

College students are some of the most optimistic, enthusiastic, and enjoyable people to be around. The Northern Iowa men's basketball team exemplifies these traits and more. And when a group of students are gripped by the grace of Jesus, we have the delightful occasion of coaching and spiritually forming them into a group directed at working together in community, focused on their God-given gifts, living according to a Christ-like pattern of life, and unafraid of what is ahead through living by faith.

Go Panthers!!