Of Church and Football Season

I love football.  In my opinion, college football is the apex of all sports.  I have not watched a full baseball, basketball, softball, car race or any other sporting event of any league in years.  I have never watched an Olympic event live, ever.

But when it comes to college football, I can get carried away.  One of the reasons I love football is that it can serve as a teaching tool for the church and the church’s ministry.

One example where the church can learn something from football is the pre-game hype as the team comes on to the field.  Have you noticed how that the pre-game entrance has grown in scope and grandeur?  Years ago a team would run on to the field from the locker room to the cheers of their fans.  Then someone added smashing through a paper banner.  Now this might involve pyrotechnics, fog machines, light shows and special theme music.  Even at the high school level the pre-game hype has grown tremendous.  Fans and players chant, dance, and work hard to get their emotions to a fever pitch before the game.

I have watched teams that have had this kind of maniac excitement in the pre-game go out on the field and get their eyes beat out.  Here is a clue; games are never won on the high-pitched emotion of the pregame hype.  Games are won in the preparation, and the practice, and the coaching that occurs weeks, months and sometimes years before the team comes out of the locker room.

One of my concerns is that the church, like a bad football team, has mistaken pre-game pep for quality preparation.  Many churches believe that if we can get our members into a certain emotional state that we have them ready to go out on Monday and live their faith.  Let me offer this aside, I am not calling for dull lifeless worship services.  I believe we must be excited about the good news and our assured victory.  I have sat through too many dead services and have seen the non-impact of dead churches.  But our excitement must come from solid equipping (coaching) for works of service, not mindless hoopla.

Football has three phases: offense, defense and special teams.  A team that is desperately weak in any one of these areas is set up for defeat.  I believe it is the same for the ministry of the church.  We need to equip the church for all three key phases.

First of all, we need to equip the mind of the believer.  Many Christians do not feel prepared for the challenges of the secular world or other faith systems.  When challenged about why evil exists or charged with the alleged evils of Christianity of the centuries, many of our church members haven’t an answer.  There are difficult questions in our fallen world and the Christian faith offers the best answers.  But we haven’t taken the time to do the hard work and preparation so we fail to coach our congregations. 

Allow me to site one rather extreme example from a situation known to me.  Was I not privy to the facts, I would have a hard time believing this happened.  A youth minister refused to use some curriculum provided by his church.  He told the minister, “I’m not going to teach this because if the kids were to repeat this at school they would be made fun of and I don’t want them to be embarrassed.”  The lesson material was concerning one of the core doctrines of Christianity.  This youth minister was reported to be excellent in planning Christian rock concerts, retreats and games; he drew large crowds of kids and was cool in the extreme.  In short, he was great at the pre-game hype.

Second, we need to equip the soul of the believer.  When it comes to spiritual disciplines for most Christians it is limited to what ever they get on Sunday morning.  Personal time with God and His word is often left to the initiative of the individual Christian.  Most churches don’t have a plan in place to help Christians grow in their own soul.  Many in the pew don’t know how to search their own soul and compare and contrast it with what God has for them. 

Let me offer a simple first step.  Begin in the fall by preaching a series on the power and value of daily Bible reading.  Challenge your people to make a commitment to daily Bible reading, prayer, and note taking (journaling).  Provide your congregation with a Bible reading plan that will allow everyone in the church to be on the same page.  During the next year, preach from a text the congregation has read in the preceding week.  The best Bible reading plans have selections from various sections of the Bible.  If you have experience with the liturgical church this idea is nothing new to you, but the emphasis on daily congregational reading may be.

The third phase where we have not coached our people is the area of the leading of the Spirit.  I have a friend who grew up in the Church of God.  He is now a Church of God minister and describes himself as being charis-phobic.  He explains that he saw the excesses of some in the charismatic movement; things being attributed to the Holy Spirit that were clearly not the work of the Spirit and he was afraid to be like that.  He now serves a congregation in which the power of the leading of the Holy Spirit is evident, but the church is God honoring and focused. 

There is some value in determination and will power and hard work, but these will never change an individual or bring revival.  We must learn and understand to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit.   Perhaps the best way to begin is to admit our biases, try to set them aside and read the Scriptures about how the Holy Spirit can minister in, through, and with us.

If we compare the contemporary American church to a football team, we would be the kind of team everyone would schedule for homecoming.  In my opinion, it is, in part, because we have focused too much on the pre-game hype and not enough on the hard work of preparation.

In the Cause of Christ
Charlie

BONUS FEATURE


At this point in the season my opinion is a good as anyone else's.  So here are my predictions for the SEC.  I don't follow other conferences  enough to have a bias.
West
Alabama
Ole Miss
Auburn
LSU
Arkansas
Texas A&M
MSU
Opinion:  If Bama has really good QB play they will contend for a national title, if not they could end of third.  The top four teams the in the west could all be in the hunt for a national title.  If it were its own conference the SEC west would be the toughest in college football.

East
UGA
Missouri
UF
UT
USC
UK
Vandy
Opinion:  UGA better do it this year UT and UF are on the way up.  UF will likely go 6 and 6 but with a couple of breaks could be a top 25 team by year end.  In two or three year the Gator will be in the SEC title game.  McElmain is such a good coach that some BAMA alumni have talked about bringing him back to Tuscaloosa after Saban retires.