Football and Church

Football is a team sport. It takes eleven men working together to make plays happen, to move the football down the field, or prevent their opponent from doing the same.

One of my pet peeves about football (seen mostly on the professional level, but I'm sure it's there at all levels) is when one player thinks they are the most important person on the team. Yes, it's fine to celebrate after you've made a good play, but grand-standing and show-boating and even pouting when you don't get the ball are not acceptable behaviors. They are not acceptable in civilized society, why would they be acceptable behaviors on the football field?

You know what I'm talking about. That wide receiver would waves his arms trying to tell his quarterback that he's open when he really isn't. Then he stares daggers at the QB because he wasn't given the ball. Then he pouts on the sideline or shares a few choice words to express his displeasure. He thinks the game is all about him. (Yes, this happened in a game yesterday.)

Football is not about the individual player. Yes, there are stars. But the fan favorites are almost always the players who work WITH their teammates to make great things happen.

Church is like that too. From 1 Corinthians 12:18-21 -

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. ¹⁹ How strange a body would be if it had only one part! ²⁰ Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. ²¹ The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

The church (either the local church where you worship or the universal Church as a whole) is not made up of individuals who can get things done on their own. The church isn't about the priest or the pastor or the pope. The church is about people coming together to work together.

Do you have a beautiful church building that you appreciate every Sunday morning? Guess what? Someone else works to keep it that way. Are the restrooms clean every time you use them? Are the bulletins nicely printed and folded? Does the choir or the praise team sound good? It takes people working together to make those things happen.

Speaking from the music perspective, we would not sound good if we didn't have a good sound system, a good sound system operator, good musicians and good singers. We need all of those. Sure, one person could stand up and lead singing a Capella (yes, that's really how you spell it), but that's not the style of music that we want to present. (Not saying that style isn't fine, because it is.)

And in Bible studies, fellowship dinners, and service projects, the team can always, always accomplish more than one individual alone. We not only get more done, but we benefit in immeasurable ways when we work together. Group Bible studies bring to light thoughts and ideas that you might not encounter on your own. Fellowship dinners, well, you can't fellowship by yourself. And it's a bit difficult to rebuild someone's house in a day when you are working all by yourself.

We need each other. As the saying goes, no man is an island unto himself. We can't do this thing called "life" alone. We can't do church alone. And we can't play football alone.