No one in our group had ever made a “disciplined” study of Scripture. Immediately, we were like a team: more or less equally committed, our disciplines included a united purpose, the same structured time each morning, clearly articulated goals, an agreed discipline for studying Scripture, and accountability. We soon discovered that we had a team mentality and camaraderie.
Like a football team practices together so they are prepared to get into the game—with the goal of winning—and helps each other to do their part to the best of their ability, our Tuesday night group meeting was our practice time! (In a month only two members of our team missed practice: one was in the hospital and the other (a salesman) drove furiously—perhaps recklessly—to get back for the meeting. He arrived just as the meeting was ending.)
“The game” would be played through our daily lives during the coming week.
Having played on football teams, I was impressed to feel the same “team spirit” in our group as we met each week for practice so we could enter the game again!
