Chasing the Ball

Chasing the Ball

We are entering the season of life where our children are beginning to play sports. It is a wonderful and laughable time for me. Watching Avery run around a field while watching her own hair with no clue what’s in front of her. Most of the time with small children, a soccer game consists of eight kids in a circle around a ball and this circle gradually moves around the field and occasionally the ball will break out and a shot is attempted, but then the circle resumes.

If you watch a professional soccer game, you will notice, they rarely get all the players in a single circle in the middle of the pitch unless there’s a fight! Why is that? It’s because they know that the objective of the game is to score goals, while preventing your opponents from scoring goals. The objective of soccer is not the ball, but the goal, and the ball is a means to achieve that goal. You cannot score goals without the ball, but huddling around it like children is not an effective strategy for winning the game.

I believe that the majority of issues within a church arise from a misunderstanding of the objective focus of Christianity. This is the goal of Christianity:

To glorify God by making people more like Jesus, and to make more people like Jesus.

The goal is not:

· Have a flawlessly produced worship service

· Produce biblical scholars

· Collect the greatest offerings

· Provide hospitality services for every visitor

· Prove every Biblical claim

· Create an environment where target audiences want to be

Each of the objectives above are goals that might be beneficial to making people more like Jesus and bringing greater numbers of people to be like Jesus, but they are not of themselves the ultimate goal. Like the soccer ball, they are a means to a larger and more important end. It is possible to accomplish everything on that list and never glorify God and never bring anyone closer to him.

I want to challenge you to examine everything you are doing (or not doing) in the name of Christianity. Is it the most effective way to strengthen yourself and others to the glory of God. Is there a different or better way you have never tried? Keep your eye on the goal!

I Love You!