If the Chicago Cubs Can Do It…

Sam Hamstra | Aug 12, 2008

Moraine Valley Community College Baseball TeamAnd I am not referring to winning the World Series; that's but a dream. I am not referring to the fact that the Cubs sent eight players to Major League Baseball's annual All-Star Game: Geovany Soto, Kosuke Fukudome, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Kerry Wood, Ryan Dempster, Carolos Marmol, and Aramis Ramirez. I am referring to the fact that those eight players hail from six different countries. There was one Cub each from Puerto Rico, Japan, Venezuala, United States, and Canada. Three Cubs were born in the Domincan Republic. Those eight players, with their diverse backgrounds and cultures, came together for not only one All-Star Game, but for over 162 games spread out over eight months.

How do players transcend their diverse cultural backgrounds to form a team of players who live nearly every day with one another while vying for a world championship? Seems pretty clear, doesn't it? The players experience a shared identity as professional baseball players on a Major League baseball team with aspirations of a championship. While each player is surely proud of his ethnic heritage, the hope for a championship won't allow diversity to threaten the unity of the team.

Seems to me there's a lot to learn from Wrigley Field for a group of Christ-followers attempting, with His help, to form a Chicago-suburban, multi-ethnic Christian congregation. If a local congregation hopes and prayers to offer a living portrait of heaven by including individuals from many tribes and nations, then it must find a way for those same individuals to celebrate their ethnic heritages and unique cultures while embracing their shared identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

But there is more. The motivation for such behavior is a mission that requires unity. For the local church, it seems that this mission must include a goal to partner with God as He brings together through Jesus Christ a congregation with individuals from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Revelation 7:9).

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