In the summer of 1936, nine working class young men from the University of Washington took the rowing world and the nation by a storm when they captured the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Berlin. These sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers overcame tremendous hardships—psychological, physical, and economic—to beat not only the Ivy League teams of the East Coast but also Adolf Hitler's elite German rowers.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, is a dramatic, true life story of a group of men from different backgrounds, in different situations, who worked together to become team. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this story is the realization that the individual members of this team, on their own, were neither successful nor refined in rowing.  But when these young men were in the boat together on mission, they rowed in unison.  And that made all the difference.   Brown reflects on this in his book:

The sport offers so many opportunities for suffering and so few opportunities for glory that only the most tenaciously self-reliant and self-motivated are likely to succeed at it. And yet, at the same time – and this is key – no other sport demands and rewards the complete abandonment of the self the way that rowing does. Great crews may have men or women of exceptional talent or strength; they may have outstanding coxswains or stroke oars or bowmen; but they have no stars. The team effect – the perfectly synchronized flow of muscle, oars, boat, and water; the single, whole, unified, and beautiful symphony that a crew in motion becomes – is all that matters. Not the individual, not the self.

Even though Brown’s observations are about rowing, he could just as easily have been talking about the church.  The members of the church also labor together, not for their own glory or for the glory of the nation, but for the glory of Christ.  Like a rowing team, when the church is on mission, working together, it makes all the difference.

In our series on TheTransformational Church this week, we’re going to be turning out attention to Acts 9:19-31.  It’s about the aftermath of the conversion of Saul.  When word gets out that Saul, the great persecutor of Christians, is now claiming to be a Christian, they are amazed, but they’re not quite sure Saul’s conversion is genuine.   That’s when other members of the ministry team step in. 

First, it was Ananias.  The Lord gave Ananias advance notice that Saul was coming to him for prayer that he might have his sight restored.  Ananias is reluctant.  And who can blame him?  Saul had earned quite the reputation for his war on Christians.  But he trusts in Christ, and prays for Saul.  Saul is baptized and spends some time with the Christians in Damascus.  Then he goes to the synagogues there and proclaims to the Jews that Jesus is the Son of God. 

At this point Luke tells us that after many days, the Jews plotted to kill Saul (v. 23).  Luke doesn’t say just how many days had passed, but in Galatians 1, Paul (aka Saul) tells us in Galatians 1 that it was at this time that he went to Arabia for about three years before returning to Damascus.  Luke picks up the action at the point where Saul’s disciples help him escape Damascus in a basket.  After he escapes from Damascus, Saul goes to Jerusalem and attempts to connect with the Christians there.  But they are all afraid of him.  They don’t believe Saul is really a Christian.  It seems that Saul is going to have a hard time being accepted by the church.

But then, a second member of the ministry team steps in. Barnabas vouches for Saul.  He affirms Saul as a genuine believer, evidenced by the fact that when the Jews heard Paul preaching Jesus as the Son of God, they tried to kill him.  

So, what do Olympic rowers from 1936 and the conversion of Saul have to do with us?  Many opportunities for suffering abound, but opportunities for glory are few.  But that’s not all.  When we realize we’re all in the same boat, striving together in the same mission, it makes all the difference.  We’re stronger together.