Is the seat getting a little hot?

Kalen, Nick and Paul

Full disclaimer: I am a former college football fan, but not any more. NIL the transfer portal and a few other things ended my interest in college football. I have not watched a full ball game in maybe three years. However, anytime I can get a scriptural illustration from popular culture I will seize it. 

The Alabama Crimson Tide community is nearing a state of total despair, and with good cause. Two years ago Alabama was a play or two away from playing for a national title.  Some pundits are predicting that Alabama will lose 7 or 8 games this year. The only thing that has really changed at Alabama is the coaching. Kalen Deboer, in his second year, has surpassed Nick Saban, the former coach, but not in positive ways. Most people both in and out of the Alabama fan base believe that Alabama’s poor performance reflects poor coaching at every level.

So what does this have to do with the Christian faith? In Ephesians 4:11-12 Paul wrote, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (ESV). The word equip in verse 12 is a rare word. This is the only time it is used in the New Testament. It means to make proper or exact adjustment which describes how to or enable the individual parts to work together in correct order. Perhaps the best contemporary translation of that word would be “Coach”. So let’s paraphrase these two verses. “Jesus has given to the church gifted men; Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers to coach the disciples, making adjustments as they learn, on how to work together to accomplish the goal of growing into what Christ wants them to be.”

Notice Paul says that the leadership of the church was given to coach disciples on how to serve. Stop for a moment and consider how much time does your church spend on specifically training the disciples on “how to serve”. We have made the ministry of the church into a low grade entertainment source. We attend a weekly event, have a sing-a-long, hear a talk on how to live a better life, and spend a short amount of time hanging out with friends and maybe having a cup of coffee. 

We may be distressed by the decline of the Chrsitian faith in America. But do we ask the question, “Are we coaching disciples on how to serve the Lord?” If the Alabama faithful want to find blame for what is happening they will not single out the stadium, the ticket sales, the tradition or even the talent level. They will lay the blame at the feet of the coaching staff. If we want to lament what is happening in the church in America we need to do the same thing. The coaches we have in the church are coaching, for the most part, for the wrong outcome. 

So what can we do? First we need to apologize to God that we have made the church something other than a training facility for Christian service. Second, we need to ask our leaders to refocus the ministry toward coaching. We need not worry about numbers, cool programs, great music or fantastic coffee, those things will find their place if we need them. Third, when we are given the opportunity to be coached we need to be there. 

Try this experiment; announce a church picnic and cookout complete with fun games, music and home made ice cream and see what the turnout is like. With the same level of emphasis announce a seminar on developing a life of prayer with specific training for fasting, see what the turnout for that will be. Are we interested in being coached. Preachers must bear much of the blame for the demise of the church. But we in the pews have bought into a marketed Christianity that will entertain us, and our leadership has given us what we demanded. 

With a buyout of about $70,000,000 coach Deboer will be around long enough to set things right, if he is able. But I am sure he is feeling the heat from the coaching hot seat. We need to hold ourselves and our leader accountable or the stagnation of the church and feel a little of the heat ourselves.