Soccer, Theology, & Salvation
There's nothing better in this world than playing soccer, trying to get your mind ready before the game to put your body through serious pain (long after your college playing days), and then one of your fellow players breaks out the question, "What brought you here to Baton Rouge?" You didn't ask for it; there's no getting past it, and you know a theology discussion is about to break out right before the whistle blows. Great timing!!!!! "God, what are you up to right now?"
So, I tell him and the discussion is on. "I came down after Hurricane Katrina to start a new church. I'm a pastor." [There's no lying or 'being wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove,' because that's really what I do. I can't tell him like foreign missionaries in hostile areas that I'm an undercover English teacher or something else. Literally, I'm boxed into a corner, and the Lord wants me to be bold.] Immediately, the jokes are on and your teammates begin confessing their sins to you as if you're God or something, because they really don't get the Gospel. I don't mind the sarcasm or jokes, and I really love these guys; so you tend to expect it after a while of being in the ministry. It just wasn't the best timing, of course.
Nevertheless, the theology discussion begins and even one of the wives gets involved confessing her sins to me and making jokes about priests and pastors. It was all fun and games until one of the gang explained their "church situation" and how they might be different than our church. I knew what dreaded end was coming, and this is how it went down. The discussion turned toward church and how boring it was and how "communion" was placed at the end of their service so no one would "leave." I thought to myself, "How disappointing!" Not only do they think church is boring and unimportant according to their sarcasm, they viewed the Lord's Supper as essential to salvation given the fact that they "had to stay in the service so as to take Communion." Jokingly serious, they told me they preferred it to be up front in the order of things so they could "get it over," leave, and carry on about their day.
Do you see what's going on here? My friends have been sold a false bill of goods. This kind of understanding of salvation is not abnormal in our culture, though. Here we are in the deep South with hundreds of churches of all denominations around us. I'm playing the game of soccer in which I receive great pleasure; my friends break out in a theology discussion about salvation, and they end up being dead wrong. Hey, it's normal down here. Bad tradition trumps good theology, and according to Scripture, the results are catastrophic for them. What shall we say to these things as pastors, Christians, friends, colleagues, fellow teammates, etc?
The apostle Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Even in a world where Christians and non-Christians can enjoy the pleasures of life such as soccer, friendship, and great discussion, there is a great darkness in which the world lives, the darkness of personal sin that clouds out the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. If there is going to be a new dawn for our friends where they enjoy the pleasure of knowing God and real satisfaction and salvation in Him, then it must come from "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." [italics added]
What this means for us who are out of shape, overweight, and timid is that WE MUST determine to live our lives in such a way and declare with our lips that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that once we have understood this truth rightly according to God's grace, our friends and families will experience the greatest pleasure of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ. Please pray for boldness in this declaration, continue to be friends, play soccer with them or whatever, and see to it that your conversation is "salted" with the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So, I tell him and the discussion is on. "I came down after Hurricane Katrina to start a new church. I'm a pastor." [There's no lying or 'being wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove,' because that's really what I do. I can't tell him like foreign missionaries in hostile areas that I'm an undercover English teacher or something else. Literally, I'm boxed into a corner, and the Lord wants me to be bold.] Immediately, the jokes are on and your teammates begin confessing their sins to you as if you're God or something, because they really don't get the Gospel. I don't mind the sarcasm or jokes, and I really love these guys; so you tend to expect it after a while of being in the ministry. It just wasn't the best timing, of course.
Nevertheless, the theology discussion begins and even one of the wives gets involved confessing her sins to me and making jokes about priests and pastors. It was all fun and games until one of the gang explained their "church situation" and how they might be different than our church. I knew what dreaded end was coming, and this is how it went down. The discussion turned toward church and how boring it was and how "communion" was placed at the end of their service so no one would "leave." I thought to myself, "How disappointing!" Not only do they think church is boring and unimportant according to their sarcasm, they viewed the Lord's Supper as essential to salvation given the fact that they "had to stay in the service so as to take Communion." Jokingly serious, they told me they preferred it to be up front in the order of things so they could "get it over," leave, and carry on about their day.
Do you see what's going on here? My friends have been sold a false bill of goods. This kind of understanding of salvation is not abnormal in our culture, though. Here we are in the deep South with hundreds of churches of all denominations around us. I'm playing the game of soccer in which I receive great pleasure; my friends break out in a theology discussion about salvation, and they end up being dead wrong. Hey, it's normal down here. Bad tradition trumps good theology, and according to Scripture, the results are catastrophic for them. What shall we say to these things as pastors, Christians, friends, colleagues, fellow teammates, etc?
The apostle Paul declared in 2nd Corinthians 4:6, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Even in a world where Christians and non-Christians can enjoy the pleasures of life such as soccer, friendship, and great discussion, there is a great darkness in which the world lives, the darkness of personal sin that clouds out the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. If there is going to be a new dawn for our friends where they enjoy the pleasure of knowing God and real satisfaction and salvation in Him, then it must come from "the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." [italics added]
What this means for us who are out of shape, overweight, and timid is that WE MUST determine to live our lives in such a way and declare with our lips that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that once we have understood this truth rightly according to God's grace, our friends and families will experience the greatest pleasure of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ. Please pray for boldness in this declaration, continue to be friends, play soccer with them or whatever, and see to it that your conversation is "salted" with the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
posted by Barry Lagg at
7:06 AM
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