Competition, the Fuel for Greatness

Why are we so afraid to compete? When I was young I lived in a few different places because my dad was a basketball coach. One of my favorite places I got to live was Knoxville, Tennessee. My dad was a basketball coach at the University of Tennessee. While I lived in Knoxville, I grew up being one of the better players in the area. Life was good. One day, we left Knoxville and moved to Akron, Ohio where my dad began coaching at a different university. How quickly reality smacked me upside my head. I participated in tournaments where I was accustomed to being one of the star players, but after the move I was painfully aware of how much I needed to improve. The competition was fierce and my dreams became more real as the fight for them got exponentially more intense. Playing around guys who were more dedicated and simply better, made me realize that if I wanted to attain my dream I would have to dig deeper, I would have to work harder and I did.

Healthy competition is a great thing. I believe it stretches us and grows us like nothing else really can. Why then, in the church context have we shied away from it? Before you stop reading, hear me…I am not talking about competing against the body, not competing against other churches. In fact, I am in full support of building up other churches around you and being the best holistic representation of the bride that we can be. I am talking competition in the Christian context of believers. We don’t foster healthy competition and in fact, sometimes we shut it down if we see it happening. Competition makes our organizations better, it makes our churches better, and at the ground level, it makes us better.

In the church I lead we hit a ceiling in regards to our execution and excellence, and something needed to be stirred up to break through it. We had to raise the bar of the level of excellence and bring in dynamic leaders. I added leaders who have come into our Knoxville basketball court with their Akron standards and the bar has been raised. You might be thinking that my original staff was so discouraged and felt not cared for, because this is the lie we believe about competition. While today’s mindset would tell us that they all began to feel inadequate, the exact opposite is what unfolded… they began challenging themselves and growing more and more. The entire staff has raised that bar up another notch and now everyone is in healthy competition as a team with one another.

No matter what level you find yourself in, competition necessitates the growth of the individual. Early in my faith journey, I had the privilege of being around guys who were really living out their faith. The sole fact that I got to experience their genuine desire to grow, I was challenged to do the same. I wasn’t trying to beat them, but watching them made me want to walk in greater sanctification and live like they were living. To this day, I still have men in my life who fuel this desire. In churches and business alike, we need more competition to bring new talent to the table. Talent and high standards attract more talent and urges people to reach new levels. For us, this results in greater impact and more healthy, growing churches and businesses.

High functioning leaders bring greater competition to the table. For your organization, you might have to actively seek this out. A few words of warning while breeding competitive fire in your organization, first, please do not forget to celebrate the wins… even the small ones. The wins that come from competing will inspire greater confidence and will contribute to more wins down the road. Also, striving to learn and grow to get better in multiple areas is always good practice, but in this, do not lose who you are. I have friends who are really good teachers, that challenges me; but not to become a teacher, but to attain knowledge in order to communicate it through my strengths. I am not a teacher and I should never put my energy into trying to become something I am not. However, my teacher-friends inspire me to learn more and not to be satisfied with just a limited amount of information and experience. Seeing someone excel at what they are good at should inspire us to master our respective crafts to the highest level we can attain. Ultimately in this awesome circle of inspiration and constant growth and development, the people around us will benefit. Striving together as a whole, we will do more than we ever could as opposed to being content where we are with no competition.