Volleyball and the Body of Christ

My family spends a lot of time on the sidelines of youth and high school sporting events. So much time, in fact, that my youngest daughter started tracking the number of minutes she spent cheering for her sisters verses how much time they spent cheering for her. Needless to say, it was not balanced, and she let us know her displeasure. 

Though it’s a close tie with basketball, my family spends most of our extracurricular time by the volleyball court. Our oldest daughter spent her first season on the high school varsity team this fall, and our family collectively learned the “high stakes” ropes associated with this level of play. One sister tracks stats, another takes pictures, and the slightly disgruntled youngest buddies up with the concession stand attendant. 

Volleyball stands out to our family as a sport that requires such a deep level of teamwork, that if this element is missing, it will almost take your breath away. Six players, moving in tandem, require such strong communication and trust, or the whole enterprise falls apart. 

The coach’s message at the beginning of the season was clear: You may not want to work together. The player to your right or left might not be your best friend. But there are only 12 of you, charged with one mission. Learning to work together is the only way to complete this. 

Without teamwork, not only could the team lose, but one misstep, and someone could get injured. You would think this would be less likely in a non-contact sport, but rolled ankles and concussions are all too common. This cohesive unit is in communication with each other throughout and after each point, watching their teammates and opponents with absolute precision.

As our coach tried different rotations throughout the season, it dawned on me that volleyball is one of the few team sports that doesn’t allow a superstar to form. In basketball, you could post up and get someone to pass it long, and one player can score all the points. In swimming a relay, if your anchor is fast, it almost doesn’t matter if a second or two is lost in the other three legs. In softball, one crack of the bat can make or break the game. 

But not in volleyball. Thanks to no double hits, it’s a sport that, by its very nature, means that you can’t have one person who shines. The statistics after each of our games proved that was true; there were at least four or five “top scorers”, with each teammate making a valuable contribution. And if communication and teamwork were missing the mark, it was glaringly obvious.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 25-27, New International Reader’s Version

¹² There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. ¹³ We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so, we are formed into one body. 

All of them will take care of one another. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy.

²⁷ You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.

Watching this team over the past three months (and some of these players for the past four years), I was struck by the correlation with this verse from 1 Corinthians. This description of the body of Christ drives home the importance of teamwork and collaboration as we traverse through the life of faith. I was explaining this to my children, as we discussed spiritual gifts and how individuals offer them to our church community and the greater world around us.

At the volleyball awards banquet, my daughter’s coach presented statistics on how each individual player contributed to the team. What stood out to these young women was that they each made a contribution that was important. But what really took my breath away was how the coach illustrated that each of their strengths, coupled with their vulnerabilities, made the team work. Each player had their standout numbers, but their bragging rights ended where their teammate’s celebration began.

Watching out for our teammates and protecting the court in the weaker areas are the most critical take away points from my daughter’s season. If a group of young women, bound together by nothing more than the love of a sport and their school, can show this teamwork, how much greater could the Church do?

The Body has no space for a superstar here on Earth. It only works if we all work together.