Better Together

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”

- Henry Ford

Two are better than one,

   because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,

   one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

   and has no one to help them up.

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

   But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered,

   two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

- Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Growing up in Indiana in the 60’s and 70’s meant basketball was everything. Indiana High School basketball’s year-end tournament was not called “Hoosier Hysteria” for nothing. It also means the movie Hoosiers is one of my favorite movies of all time, a “based-on-a-true story” movie about a small-town high school basketball team (Hickory) that went on to beat one of the largest schools in the state (South Bend Central) for the Indiana High School State Championship (Don’t get me started about the good-old days when Indiana was a one-class system, where every school competed against one another regardless of size).

The movie is based on the real-life story of tiny Milan High School (total enrollment of 161 students – the smallest school to ever win the one-class state championship in Indiana) winning the 1954 Indiana High School State Championship against Muncie Central (913 students).

Did Milan win because they had superior athletes? No. They won because they were taught by their coach and they embraced the value of Teamwork – that the sum of their individual parts was greater than the whole.

Like Milan (or the fictional Hickory), we are not meant to operate in isolation.

We are better together. It is what allows a group of 350 volunteers on good Neighbor Day to impact the lives of 4500 people. Collectively, we are far bigger than our individual parts.

Sure, they are superstars out there (Tom Brady, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan – just to name a few), but it is teams that win championships. Regardless of their individual greatness, not one of these guys could win on their own. The same holds true for each one of us, and for ALL of us. Let’s work together and watch what happens, for we are better together.

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

Pastor Ken

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