When the second incident from a championship football game appeared on my consciousness, I knew it had to make this lineup.

In last Sunday night’s Super Bowl game, the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots, who were being touted as perhaps the greatest team ever to play this game and were undefeated all year, a phenomenal feat. With less than 3 minutes left to play, the Patriots had scored and pulled ahead, 14-10. Now, the Giants would get the ball back. But with the clock winding down, would there be time enough?

On the sidelines, Michael Strahan, leader of the Giants’ defensive squad that had harassed Patriots QB Tom Brady all evening long, kept spouting two numbers: “Seventeen” and “fourteen.” That would be the final score, he was telling his teammates. He was confident his team’s offense could score a touchdown and was doing everything he knew how to convince them of that, too.

When the game ended with the Giants on top by that very score, some who had heard Strahan pumping up his team credited him with a great deal of credit for the victory.

Faith is contagious. Unfortunately, so is doubt.

On Monday, January 7, of this year, the Ohio State Buckeyes played the LSU Tigers in our Superdome for the National Championship of college football. The next evening, after having read all our local sportswriters’ raves about the great victory LSU pulled out, I went on the internet to the Columbus Dispatch, the newspaper for the Buckeyes city. I read a few sports columns and then a host of comments from disgruntled fans. That’s where I learned something that stunned me, and to my mind at least, contributed to the Buckeyes’ loss.

One year earlier, the Buckeyes had played Florida for the BCS championship and lost. Afterwards, sportswriters and columnists jumped on the Ohio State team for being outclassed in every way. “They had no business even going to that game,” some said. Okay. Now, here’s what happened.

This year, just before the Buckeyes’ staff and players went home for their Christmas vacation, Coach Jim Tressel–according to some of the things I read; I have no personal knowledge of this–made a CD of the derogatory comments made against the Ohio State team last year and gave one to each of the players. He wanted them to play those comments over and over throughout their holidays. No doubt the plan was to fire them up, to infuse them with a sort of “we’ll show you” attitude. If anything, it seems to have backfired.

I was stunned by such a self-defeating action by an otherwise great coach. What was he thinking? He is drilling into their brains that they are inferior, second-rate, and unworthy, even if his intention was the opposite.

In the opening chapter of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, he tells the congregation of his desire to come to Rome. His reasons are several, but chiefly, “that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (Rom. 1:12)

I’ve written in the margin of my Bible by that verse, “Faith is contagious. So is fear.”

Political leaders on a national scale find this out soon after taking office. If the President or one of his chief advisors expresses the fear that our economy is slipping, you may rest assured it will. That very day, the Dow Jones Average drops a hundred points just on the fears of the leader. He learns quickly to speak positively and helpfully.

When Jess Moody was pastor of the First Baptist Church at Van Nuys, California, someone showed me his church bulletin. In the pastor’s column he wrote a paragraph I’ve never forgotten, something to the effect that, “The pastor is many things to the congregation, but above all he is the mood setter. He establishes whether the church will be positive and filled with faith or fearful and timid and afraid of its own shadow.”

A pastor sets the mood for the congregation by his private off-duty words to his staff and the church leaders just as surely as by the public pronouncements from the pulpit. Let him choose his words carefully; everyone is listening and taking notes, whether they seem to or not.

The prime example of a leader infusing his people with faith under the most trying of circumstances is Winston Churchill during the Second World War, especially the years 1940-41 when Britain stood virtually alone against Hitler’s onslaught. Read his speeches delivered in Parliament and on the wireles to the British people and even today, your heart swells and you sense that you are feeling something of the confidence and inspiration Churchill’s audience knew.

Notice especially the final paragraphs. Being a wise speaker, Churchill knew that what most people would remember longest would be the last thing they heard, so he made sure they heard something inspiring.

Here’s a sample….

From June 4, 1940, less than a month after he became prime minister: “…we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”

Two weeks later, June 18: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.'”

February 9, 1941, speaking to FDR and the American people: “We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilence and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”

May 7, 1941, to Parliament: “When I look back on the perils which have been overcome, upon the great mountain waves through which the gallant ship has driven, when I remember all that has gone wrong, and remember also all that has gone right, I feel sure we have no need to fear the tempest. Let it roar, and let it rage. We shall come through.”

You can see why historians said of him, “Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it to war.”

Those who knew Winston Churchill and worked closely with him admit that privately he had the occasional doubt that Britain could pull this off. But he kept them to himself and the most intimate of friends. Everyone else heard only faith and confidence from him, and so gained faith themselves.

A great church can make a pastor great. The faith of the congregation–nurtured by outstanding leaders over past decades–blesses the new, young minister who arrives onto the field. The leaders are confident that, “Since God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) And, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) He feeds off their faith and becomes a visionary himself.

Let every lay leader of the church make a note of this one thing: your church has its nay-sayers, people of no faith and great fears, and their negativism can be a dead weight on the faith of its ministers. Rather than trying to deal with their faithlessness–my opinion is that for everyone you kill, a dozen more will pop up–let me urge you to speak faith and confidence to your pastor. Even if you do not see it and even if you feel the church is doing great and he ought to be encouraged, write it down in big letters that the nay-sayers are at work, grinding away on his faith. That’s why you will stand up. You will speak out. You will encourage your shepherds and undergird these who stand on the battle lines doing the Lord’s work.

Become a voice of faith in your church. When the finance committee brings in a recommendation to the church business meeting that the staff be given raises, stand to your feet and speak out in support. Tell the congregation what excellent leadership the church has and how blessed you all are, and how this is the right thing to do. Compliment the committee for its excellent work.

I’ve been a Southern Baptist since 1959 and I can tell you how things go in almost every church’s business meeting I’ve ever attended. The finance committee will recommend a raise or will bring in a new challenging budget for the next year, they’ll present it and speak to it, and then the floor is opened for discussion. And you know what happens next? I do, because it happens in every church on the planet. The congregation sits back in silence and waits to see if anyone is going to rise and speak out against it.

What’s wrong with that picture? Why doesn’t someone of faith get to his feet and say, “Thank you! That’s an excellent recommendation! I’m excited we’re doing this!”

Faith is contagious, friend, but so is fear. Let the first person to his feet speak negatively about the recommendation and pretty soon, a chorus of murmurers can be heard across the auditorium. That’s why it’s important to lead out in faith.

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)

In that “faith chapter,” after the writer detailed example after example of Old Testament heroes who made difficult decisions by faith, he or she writes: “Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God.” (vs.16)

That would be about the best accolade, wouldn’t it, for God to be proud of us.