Thanks Colin Kapernick!

“You don’t watch NFL so if you don’t like the kneeling just ignore it, like you do racism and police brutality.” Colin Kapernick

This is one time when I probably should attach a caution label: “Proceed at your own risk.” You may disagree with me. I only ask that you not discount my words because it violates your personal values. At least take the time to think it through and evaluate if there’s some (or perhaps a lot of validity) in this blog. Let’s put it right out there: I’m thankful for the NFL controversy of players kneeling. Here are some reasons I feel this way.

  Obsession with sports has supplanted other more worthy endeavors. The protests have caused many to consider whether they want professional sports to have such a big part of their lives. My main concern though is for Christians and the Church. Sports for many believers are an idol. Something becomes an idol when it gives us greater joy than Christ, when it becomes more of a focus in our lives than He is, when it’s what I think and talk about the most, when it’s what I most love spending time and money on…or, if the outcome of the game greatly alters my attitude.  

  To me, it’s a poor way to address racism. Racism is a problem and a sin. Personally, I think this is a foolish way to address it. It has little hope of making real change with more symbolism than substance. 75% of NFL fans are Caucasian. 25% make over $100K annually, so it tends to polarize rather than provoke change. Add to that, 40% are over 55 years of age, and tend to be the most patriotic Americans. That demographic is more concerned about the American flag being disrespected than any other.

  It also seems disingenuous when the average player’s salary is $1.9 million annually. It’s hard to believe someone at that economic level can empathize with the average black person experiencing racism. Then, there’s blatant hypocrisy on the part of the media who mocked Tim Tebow for kneeling because of his faith, yet kneeling during the National Anthem is defended and celebrated by these same elitists.

  The timing is poor for the sport of football. Football continues to lose popularity because of the fear of head injuries. The day may come when it is about as popular as dog fighting. It’s my hope that some of this shake-up will be a wake-up call for believers, causing them to re-evaluate their over the top loyalty. With that being said, there is another side of the biblical worldview as related to athletics and sports.

  The Bible isn’t, nor should the Church be anti-sports. Scripture repeatedly uses athletic terminology. While the Old Testament contains allusions to running, throwing, shooting and other physical activities, it doesn’t appear that organized sports were part of the culture. In the New Testament era, it’s very apparent that competitive sports were a major part of life. Both the Olympic Games and Isthmian Games took place in that era. The Apostle Paul frequently uses athletic examples to illustrate spiritual truth. Scripture never condemns sports. If Paul believed they were sinful, he wouldn’t have used them to illustrate the Christian life.

  Sports can teach us much about the Christian life. They can instill respect for those in authority. An athlete must have confidence that the coach’s decisions are right and trust, as well as obey the coach. In the same way, church leaders often can see the bigger picture. Their goal should be to develop each member’s gifts, so they serve to the best of their ability.

  As an athlete perseveres to win, Christians are to persevere in the faith. When we’re knocked down, we must get back up, set goals, and keep a positive attitude.

  Sports teach teamwork. Winning teams learn to play together to win. They realize each player, though at a different position, is vital for a positive outcome. The same is true in the church. There are no insignificant “players.” Athletics can teach us how to love and respect others, to win and lose with grace, and to encourage others in their “game,” too.  

  How do I know if sports have become an idol in my life? An idol is when “the thing or person is loved more than God, wanted more than God, desired more than God, treasured more than God, enjoyed more than God. It could be someone we’re dating or even approval from others. It could be success, or a hobby, musical group or a sport or team we follow. The first two of the Ten Commandments challenge us. God knows we’re easily distracted and fail to remember Who truly deserves our worship. We have a long history of misdirecting worship away from God and turning it toward the things of man, from the Creator to the created (Romans 1:21, 25).

  Sports can become a family idol. It’s easy to be swept along by sports fan parents. We run at an ever increasing speed, with little evangelism or discipleship taking place with our own children. Sports become the greater focus than that which makes an eternal difference. Often the results don’t reveal themselves until adulthood when there’s a disinterest in spiritual things because it wasn’t cultivated during those formative years.

  Sports have become an idol when ministry and worship is preempted. It can be a normal part of common grace to unwind watching sports. But if you’re dead tired for Sunday worship, something is out of sync. If there’s always time for the game, yet little time for serving, it’s become idolatry.

  Sports have become an idol when my emotions are contaminated. How do you feel if your team loses? Being a bit bummed is normal. Some though need a bigger perspective. It’s only a game! Caring about your kid’s scrimmage is no excuse for berating other grown men, let alone a child.

  Sports have become an idol when it’s difficult for a conversation to go deeper than sports. Sports are a great entry point for conversations. It’s more interesting than the weather and safer than politics. Believers though must learn to move past sports. Don’t be that “guy” with only one question: “Did you catch the game?” Press on to more important matters. A man or woman who cares only about sports doesn’t care about nearly enough. 

  So enjoy sports as one of God’s many good gifts! Keep their temporal importance in balance in light of eternity. Make sure your worship is on the only One who is truly worthy of our worship!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

When the church fails like the NFL

“Starve your distractions. Feed your focus.”

  Just when you thought that the Super Bowl couldn’t get worse or the NFL more foolish, even if you aren’t into football, there were always the commercials. Sometimes, particularly in a lopsided game, the commercials were the only redeeming feature. Yet, now one traditional commercial has been canned. Budweiser’s Clydesdales have been put out to pasture.

  The NFL has successfully alienated the military and veterans as players kneeled during The Star-Spangled Banner. Flag waving Americans have been disgusted much of the season. More recently, the NFL turned down a pro-national anthem commercial by a veterans group for the Super Bowl.

  The interest in the game is way down since it’s an east coast Super Bowl with one generally despised team, the Patriots (though Eagle fans do little to endear themselves). And now the non-offensive Clydesdales have been given a pink slip, irritating animal lovers. Sunday’s winner may be The Puppy Bowl XIII, that’s been dubbed the “alternative Super Bowl.”

  Remember when football was about football? It wasn’t about commercials, halftime shows or political statements. It was about 22 men pouring their guts out to move a piece of pigskin down the field. Those days are gone. With increased anxiety of brain injuries, football may be headed to the dustbin of sport’s history. Yet, much of the demise is because professional football lost its focus. Football is no longer about football.

  A church can do the same thing. They become distracted on nearly anything and everything beside their God-given purpose, being the church.

  Some churches are little more than political action committees. Though evangelicals have recently been accused of this, it’s long been true of African-American churches. God never called us to be a voting bloc, to be consumed with political issues or endorse candidates. While the church must make a stand on biblical issues, like life ones, that is not political.

  Some churches are consumed with social issues. While hunger, homelessness and poverty are serious, they’re not to be our primary focus. If all those issues were resolved, (which would be wonderful), the greatest hunger of our world wouldn’t be. Our great need is “soul hunger” and only the gospel can satisfy our world’s greatest need.

  Some churches are consumed with non-biblical rules. God is holy and the Scripture commands believers to be holy. Yet, some churches teach that holiness is externalism and become obsessed with mundane non-biblical rules about dress, music, even whether someone attends a movie. Scripture’s emphasis is heart holiness. While the principles never change, culture does. It’s why God is more concerned with attitudes than actions. When a Christ-follower has a righteous attitude, right actions are the fruit of that attitude.

  Some churches are focused on increasing numbers not disciples. Many churches buy into the American success myth: bodies, bucks & buildings. It’s not a biblical model of success. Ultimately, Jesus ended with eleven disciples, a failure from our world’s perspective. One of the fastest growing “churches” is the Mormon Church, yet it denies the Deity of Christ.

  Some churches are self-absorbed. Jesus did not command us to come in, but to “go out.” A church must focus on those still outside of it. While Body Life is important, our passion must be on seeing the lost come to Christ. It can’t be just about our own children and families. Many churches focus the greater percentage of their resources internally. Fear of a corrupt culture can result in isolation, but we’re not to be isolated from the world. God’s power is greater! We’re to be an assault team on the gates of Hell.

  Some churches are seeker driven. They’re focused only on evangelism. Our purpose is not to make converts, but disciples. The Christian life is not just having your ticket punched for Heaven. It’s wholistic. It must revolutionize your whole life. We’ve not fulfilled the Great Commission until every believer has come to the place of maturity where they too are sharing the gospel and discipling others. Our purpose is to reproduce ourselves. We’re to equip believers so they’re able to reach their world.   

  Some churches are just a big show. God did not call us to entertain or make people feel good. Scripture is compared to a sword for heart surgery (Hebrews 4:12). Sin lies deep, usually undetected in each of our hearts. God has called the church to be like a team preparing for the Super Bowl. We will not fulfill our purpose unless we do exhausting spiritual work and sweat “holy sweat.” We don’t gather to have our ears tickled, but to be challenged, have our souls dissected, go through pain until we rip down every idol in our hearts so that we become more and more like Jesus. God’s goal is our sanctification. That means pruning, the refiner’s fire. It’s not comfortable, yet it’s the only way to have God’s best.   

  Should the NFL players care about the needs of African-Americans? Absolutely! But that’s not its purpose. The purpose of the NFL is to play football. Most of the things that distract a church from its primary focus are good things. They’re not bad or sinful. It’s why they’re so attractive.
  Satan doesn’t usually do a frontal assault. Instead he loves to just distract us. I’ve never heard of a church being tempted to become a strip club. Our Enemy knows that if he gets us to focus on good things, we’ll forget the best things. King Jesus gave us our marching orders. The mission has not changed: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” 

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

What football teaches us about the church

“Some people think football is a matter of life an death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that." Bill Shankly

  They’re such a part of speech and conversation that we don’t even realize it. We use them all the time and are so common. Yet, I doubt that most of us think, “That was a metaphor.” Since it’s been a while since most of us were in high school English, let me refresh your memory with a definition of a metaphor. A metaphor is simply a figure of speech used to describe, illustrate or apply something to a lesson that it does not usually denote.

  Did you know that Jesus was the master when it came to using metaphors? As we read the Gospels, we find that He continually used metaphors to communicate truth in powerful and creative ways so that His listeners would understand, and more importantly, remember His teaching.

  Over the next few weeks, we’ll be using “football” as a metaphor to communicate God’s Truth. Though it’s taken some bad hits in recent years, professional football is still the most popular sport in America. The NFL continues to have the highest ratings draws for live sports programming. In fact, no sporting event in all of North America comes even close to rivaling the Super Bowl when it comes to coverage, ratings and overall spectacle. Fantasy football only adds to why so many in the U.S. love professional football more than any other sport.

  So that there’s no confusion, let’s be clear, football is NOT in the Bible. Sorry, but the “G” stands for God, not “Green Bay.” Yet, there are many lessons we can learn from football that have powerful parallels in Scripture. Add to that, for many, football is a religion, with the amateurs playing on Friday and Saturday and the professionals on Sunday. (Sadly, for too many, it devolves into idolatry…even for believers).  

  You’ll often find that even those who detest the Bible and Christianity, unknowingly are successful because they’re applying biblical truth and principles to their lives. And that’s true of football. There are many applications from football which can apply to the local church.

  Hopefully, because football is more familiar turf for many of us, our new sermon series, Game Plan: What football teaches us about the church, will help each of us have a firmer grip on biblical truths that apply to the church. Too often in the church we’re just fumbling and dropping the ball because we don’t know what the Bible teaches about the church.

  Please be assured, though this study is topical, during this series, as always at Grace, we’ll continue to be supremely biblical. We are committed without apology to Sola Scriptura. The Reformers popularized that term. It’s simply Latin for “by Scripture alone.” It’s the foundational doctrine that the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters of doctrine and practice. So what can you expect during this series?

  Hopefully, you’ll discover that people often learn best when they’re able to move from what’s known or familiar, to what’s unknown and unfamiliar. By using the analogy of football, we want to have a better understanding of the church. We want to simplify something that was born two thousand years ago, that sometimes can be complex, and make it easier to comprehend for today.

  Hopefully, this will help all of us not only understand but retain what we know. The local church is Jesus’ plan for reaching this world. Then, because of that, we’ll be better able to “coach” others as we disciple them. The Lord gave us truth that could be transmitted throughout the network of our relationships because He wanted everyone to know the truth since it sets us free (John 8:31, 32).

  Hopefully, as we compare something that is so common, and that for many of us is very important and continually on our minds (at least during football season), it will help us understand, contemplate, take some time to meditate on something other than our fantasy football picks J. Hopefully, it will help us gain greater insight into the real world, God’s eternal world by utilizing terms that we deal with on a consistent basis. So as we gather each week, please come prayerfully, asking the Lord to help you gain wisdom and insights that perhaps you’d not considered before.

  Football is about power and skill. Our American tendency though is to think of the church as being weak, unskilled, if not incompetent. Hopefully, by understanding who the Head (Jesus) of the church is, where our game plan comes from (the Bible), Who energizes us (the Spirit) – then we’ll realize that we can be part of something that has an impact long after the game is over and those last seconds of the fourth quarter have passed.

  Football is about unity both on and off the field. Even terrible teams have a strong fan base. There’s a thrill of participating together in something exciting. The tailgate party and anticipation of the game are as much a part of the experience as the game itself. Yet, too often church is seen as a duty or obligation like school or work. Everyone posts when they’re at the big game. Have you ever noticed that only rarely does anyone post that they’re at church? Why is that? Does it say something about our values and what energizes us?  

  At a game, there’s a connection even with strangers, just because you’re all cheering for the same team. Yet, in the American church, our tendency is to make worship a solo experience. That’s unbiblical. God’s plan is that we connect more and more with our brothers and sisters. Worship should also be something we anticipate and enjoy, not endure. The power of the Spirit so surpasses the power of spirits to bring fulfillment and enjoyment, that they’re not even comparable. Yet, too many have only truly experienced the limited power of the temporary and rarely if ever experienced the true power of the eternal.

  If there’s anything that every football team unfortunately knows from experience – it’s defeat. But there’s always next week or even next year. Losing one game doesn’t have to destroy a season. Falling behind in one quarter doesn’t mean you’ll lose the game. In the same way, a setback in your spiritual walk doesn’t mean the whole future is bleak. Keeping a long term perspective helps us individually and even as a church family deal with short term setbacks. Let’s face it, drama queens (those who constantly go from “today is the best day of my life!” to “today is the most awful day ever”) never seem to do well at football. 

  Hopefully, this series will indelibly remind us that while the game is important, what’s most important is the final score in life and eternity. As believers, we already know who wins in the end, yet frequently in the midst of the “game,” we forget. Hopefully, this series will help us to stop forgetting. So plan to join us for all five weeks. Don’t give away your tickets or let your seat go empty. Every player is important, so join us each Sunday for Game Plan: What football teaches us about the church! 

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