When I was hired as the new offensive coordinator of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans in 1997, I knew that we had big challenges ahead. The Oilers had never made that exciting trip to the Super Bowl, so when the owners moved the team to Tennessee, it signaled a serious intention to reach new heights.

Pursuing a road to the Super Bowl was only possible through the grace of God, which motivated a group of players and coaches to work unselfishly together as a team. While at training camp that season, we discovered several effective principles for building a championship team, and these same principles may be applied to our spiritual lives as well, if we’re willing to think beyond ourselves and dedicate our lives to the bigger purposes of God. One of these principles is communication.

Most NFL summer training involves coping with extreme heat. We decided to use this climate condition to guide our communication, which had to be "hot" as well: Honest, Open and Transparent. In keeping with our approach to communication, one of our main challenges that year was uniting a group of diverse people in a common cause, something that required a great deal of self-denial.

The same is true, of course, in our walk with God. Christ invites us to lose ourselves for the purpose of living for Him because He did the same for us. When we try to hide things from Him or from our brothers and sisters in Christ, we establish broken relationships and mistrust.

In order to produce unity, we must promote truth. That means honestly pursuing Christ, denying ourselves for others, and transparently taking up His cross for all to see.