Theology, General: The Gospel and Football, Part 2

But seriously folks, the preacher really should preach against Auburn. Every week. That would generate some major enthusiasm!

Okay, that’s not serious at all — except in this sense: in football, we know who the enemy is. It’s Auburn. And there are some other teams that are enemies of Alabama, too. But it’s mainly Auburn.

Football is simple. We know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. We know whose side we’re on. We know what our role in the great game of football is. It’s very, very simple.

Oh, and when football traditions get in the way, we change the traditions. Not quickly, because football is all about tradition. But we know that tradition is only tradition, and so in two or three years, we’ll have a play off — tradition notwithstanding. Football can distinguish its core values from mere tradition.

Fans judge football programs in large part by how serious the program is about winning. Alabama has fans all over the world who never attended UA because Alabama is very serious about the game. It matters to us, and our intense desire to prevail draws in fans.

Indeed, football is a most evangelistic sport. Football recruiting is the most obvious example, but fans routinely teach friends and families about the joys of their favorite team. And those teams that don’t try hard, who don’t take winning seriously, don’t have many fans. Not for long.

So how could church enjoy the same success as football? I have a few suggestions. You can probably think of some more.

* Define the opponent correctly. In a typical Church of Christ, the enemy one week is Satan. The next it’s the Baptists. Then it’s secular humanists. Then it’s the sister Church of Christ congregation down the road. Then it’s members who miss too many services.

Fight Satan and just Satan. Accept that those fans who don’t know the rules as well as you are fans, too. They should be honored as such. Stop cheering against the fans in Section B and instead cheer against Satan.

You know, you can be mistaken about when a fumble is a touchback and still be a football fan. You can even enjoy arguing about the touchback rule with fellow fans. You just have to be among the faithful.

* Get out the stands. Football is vicarious pleasure. We pick a team and watch others train, practice, sacrifice, work, and sweat so we can cheer them on, celebrating our good taste in picking a winning program.

Rather than preaching the program, preach the game. There is no merit at all in joining the right church, just as buying Alabama season tickets won’t get you a championship ring. You’ll get to watch true champions play, but you won’t be a champion.

Church is too much about picking the right church or denomination and cheering our champions on. And that is worthless. You see, as loudly as I cheered Alabama’s victory over LSU, it was nothing compared to the celebration enjoyed by the players. I received vicarious pleasure. They enjoyed actual pleasure.

Stop expecting our members to cheer — and insist that they get on the field and play. And when they win an actual victory, they’ll cheer very loudly indeed. Until then, who cares?

* Define victory. In church, what constitutes victory? A great sermon? A year without a missed worship service? The preacher producing five responses in one Sunday?

You see, we don’t even know for sure what winning is. Some would say “baptisms,” and that’s a good answer. It’s not the only answer. And my congregation claps — and sometimes even cheers — for baptisms. But sermons are so much easier, and so we want our members to get excited over sermons.

Fans don’t cheer halftime talks. They don’t cheer cheerleaders. They cheer victories.  And they cheer for victory. And victories only happen when Satan is defeated.

Sit down and make a list of all the things that might happen or be announced in your congregation that would be a true victory over Satan.

What really would merit cheering?

* Stop being a cheerleader. Football has cheerleaders. It’s tradition. But at the BCS Championship game, they didn’t matter. The fans didn’t need anyone to tell them when to cheer! They were cheering so loudly they couldn’t hear the cheerleaders.

Many of our preachers like to play the role of cheerleader. They master the art of building pyramids and shouting familiar slogans to the congregation. Some can really excite a crowd! But they don’t win rings.

At the end of season, the people who win leadership awards are the players, not the cheerleaders.

Suit up and play.

* Honor players, not fans. Honor victories, not attendance.

About Jay F Guin

My name is Jay Guin, and I’m a retired elder. I wrote The Holy Spirit and Revolutionary Grace about 18 years ago. I’ve spoken at the Pepperdine, Lipscomb, ACU, Harding, and Tulsa lectureships and at ElderLink. My wife’s name is Denise, and I have four sons, Chris, Jonathan, Tyler, and Philip. I have two grandchildren. And I practice law.
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8 Responses to Theology, General: The Gospel and Football, Part 2

  1. Price says:

    Now THAT’S the sermon to preach in Tuscaloosa !! You might have had some people actually stand up and clap !! I think if I were you I’d put this one in a safe place to use the next time you’re called upon… Good stuff…

  2. Laymond says:

    “Oh, and when football traditions get in the way, we change the traditions. Not quickly, because football is all about tradition. But we know that tradition is only tradition, and so in two or three years, we’ll have a play off — tradition notwithstanding. Football can distinguish its core values from mere tradition.”

    “WE CHANGE TRADITIONS” I see you never watched ‘Friday night lights” or attended Texas high school football games. I know most college teams rely on Texas to furnish them with players who bring them “glory” so they can get just a bit of the feeling we here in Texas feel from grade school up. Change tradition NEVER ! rules maybe.
    And the same goes for most churches here in Texas. We are doin it right, and we ain’t a-changin. you fereners may change but we ain’t. Why do you think God made us Texans anyway, and gave us this great land of milk and honey, so others could see how all people are supposed to live. 🙂 some of this was toungue in cheek, you figure it out.

  3. James C. Guy says:

    Well stated Jay.

    I wonder if Saban would let me play running back next season. Which brings up another point….In church, do we only let the players participate who “make the cut”?

  4. Charles McLean says:

    More suggestions:

    Run the option. From one play to another, there may be different approaches.

    Play a deep bench. The idea of a few stars doing everything because they are “the best” is short-sighted.

    Run an offense that suits your players, rather than trying to recruit players that fit your system. No matter how successful your scheme has been, this is about the players, not your posterity.

    The players are the team. Unfortunately, in some places, the organization– adminstrators, boosters, coaches– is the real team, and the players come and go.

    No matter how good your defense is, the object of the game is to score. Defense is a necessity, not a healthy identity. Defense has its identity in the enemy; offense keeps its eye on the goal.

    If you develop a good offensive line, they are the leaders you really want to cherish. They embody all the best qualities: interpersonal relationships, self-sacrifice, dedication to the success of others, willingness to be relatively anonymous for the benefit of the overall effort.

    When I was preaching, I always avoided sports analogies like the plague. But here I am making an exception.

  5. Price says:

    Good thing that we got all of those good Texas players so we could win all these National Championships over here in the SEC…LOL…

  6. Bob Brandon says:

    Well, to run this analogy into the ground, we-as-Christians cannot be both fans and players. We’re players whether or not we want to be. Some of us are really good players, while some are not. And the good players are often hard to spot: this thing about praying in closets and one hand not knowing what the other is doing. The bad players (especially the really bad ones) tend to cost their local teams some needed victories until it seems that the team appears to disband, turning all of them into unsigned free agents. Some get back with another team; too many do not. Other teams know and practice good player development and are willing to share their success with other teams. They also know how to get the best out of players let go by other teams. Our real problem is a proclivity to kick players off the team without realizing how valuable the player might be: our religious moneyball formulas too often let us down, but we’re too invested in them to admit the mistake. Some local teams pay a steep price for the intransigence.

    Anyway…

    Plus, in one sense, the outcome of the season is already known: “our” side has already won. Some games we will “win”; some we will “lose.” But the outcome of the season is never in doubt.

    If this works for you, great. I like C.S. Lewis’ occupied territory metaphor from “Mere Christianity”. One that works for me, from my military background, is a SOFA (“status of forces agreement”) metaphor: we live in a foreign country with our identity defining our relationship and status, although it breaks down under a bit of logical stress.

    A real life experience to analogize: the Coptic Church in Egypt. Being a Copt there these days is truly a challenge; even with 15,000,000 adherents, they’re only a little over 10% of the population.

  7. Adam Legler says:

    I’m glad you understand the order of our enemies. Ha:)

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