Most people where I work just keep to themselves and don’t seem to have that cooperative spirit. Everyone does his or her own thing. People work together only if it’s absolutely necessary. What would you say to such a team of individuals?

Since I live in Northern Virginia, I spend a lot of time on Highway 66. This is not the 66 of “get your kicks on Route 66” fame. This is a situation where you drive west until you find a home you can afford, and then crawl to work in massive traffic jams into the Beltway surrounding D.C. and back every day.

With so much quality time in my car I spend a solid hour talking with my 14-year-old son, Sam, on the way to school every morning. We often listen to sports radio. Lately there’s been a lot of chatter about Terrell Owens (aka “T.O.”), the Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver who was suspended without pay for the rest of the season after he publicly criticized his teammates and his organization.

Owens is athletically gifted. He’s played in five Pro Bowls. Many consider him the best wide receiver in the game. Why would an organization that exists to win suspend one of its most important players? The Eagles are acting as if something is more valuable than winning. What might that value be? I think it’s cooperation.

Cooperation is an unremarkable characteristic, and it doesn’t have much pizzazz. But as the T.O. case shows, it is gaining in value and esteem. It’s also starting to make an impression as a trait of winners. Recent championship teams like the Detroit Pistons, Chicago White Sox and New England Patriots all have their share of individual talents — but they are best known for their unselfish team ethic. They all have a cooperative esprit de corps.

Fostering cooperation was essential to Christ, too. He requests and implores our cooperation. Even though we are fraught with original sin, he wants us to cooperate with him apostolically to save others — and ourselves. Over and over again he enlisted the efforts of the apostles and disciples instead of just doing things himself. While he transformed the loaves and fishes, he had the apostles do the feeding.

Cooperation isn’t the same as instrumentality, which is often used as a synonym for cooperation, as in “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” I agree with Ronald Knox, who said that instrumentality doesn’t quite capture it because we are not objects. Should we decide to cooperate with Christ, we do it freely.

Cooperation isn’t just getting by and playing well with others. It implies self-sacrifice to improve the situation for all. It is more contributing than accommodating. It entails restricting our own will and giving it up for the team, the organization, the family, the friend, the Savior. It involves appreciation and respect for others. I don’t just endure the people I live and work among; they know I appreciate them.

True cooperation means doing and saying things for the benefit of others, even when that means placing the welfare of the team over your own individual interests. Sometimes cooperating is undervalued because, unlike talent, anyone can do it. Like listening, too few actually do it.

Want to play for a winning team? Then seek out ways to actively cooperate with your teammates. That’s what I’d tell your team.

Art Bennett is director of

Alpha Omega Clinic (aoccs.org).