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Let’s Talk About Football!
Posted by Josh Ellis in News & Culture
I’m from Colorado, where they don’t give you a choice of whom to root for. You either root for the Denver Broncos, or accept the taunting, humiliation, and persecution that come with your chosen path. However, being a football fan, a student of leadership, and a minister, it occurs to me there are several illustrations that can be gleaned about our faith and our God from football.
Everyone needs a coach! Jesus coached his disciples, Paul coached Timothy, and the Great Commission encourages us to pass on our coaching to others. Every pastor and minister should have at least two mentors/coaches. These coaches should have a proven track record, and the authority to speak truth into your life. I once coached a football player who believed he was above and beyond all coaching. He had natural talent, but his attitude and lack of leadership eventually doomed the entire team. Supreme talent without direction is wasted talent. So don’t just have a few guys that check in with you once in a while, listen to the wisdom around you and adjust your behavior. The best athletes in the world still hire coaches. We need to be coachable too.
Fundamentals are essential! Vince Lombardi said that football was just two things: “blocking and tackling.” He meant that if your team can’t do those, it doesn’t matter what you can do. When Jesus summarized the commandments in Mark 12:30-31, he was saying “If you don’t love God with everything and love people, it doesn’t matter what religious tasks you accomplish.” John 13:34-35 carries a guarantee: the world will know we are Christians by our love for one another. It’s a matter of fundamentals.
Teamwork is everything! Coaching from the sideline, one of the best things to see in your opponent is disorganization. If your opponent is quarreling amongst themselves, or not prepared for the game at hand, beating them is much easier. Churches that specialize in quarreling have dry baptisteries. Christians—especially blogging Christians—who live to point out the faults in others segregate themselves from Kingdom blessings and expansion. 1 Corinthians 12 has a lot to say on this matter, but pay special attention to verses 25-27. The body of Christ needs to act more like a team.
Can you imagine the chaos of a team that has wide receivers catching with only one hand, a defense that tried to tackle by merely pushing people, and a quarterback who relied only on himself to perform so he never threw or handed off the football? (Dedicated football fans, insert joke here about your rivals or the Oakland Raiders, your choice). It would be a disaster. Our team has been entrusted with the life-altering task of representing Christ in a fallen world. We can’t afford disasters.
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I can relate to this as one of the most Godly men I ever knew was the head coach of my high school football team. One example is that he taught us priorities during the season and always told us that it should work in this order.
1. God
2. Family
3. School
4. Football
If you ever made any of the lower things more important than the ones above it then you were missing the mark he’d say. Notice girlfriends, cars and alcohol weren’t above football, haha. He also made our team attend Sunday service at a different church every week voted on by the team. Pretty awesome team building experience when you’re all walking in faith and football. Not to say all the guys were Christians but he was planting the seed for sure.
I know many get tired of the sports analogies but this game and more importantly this coach changed my life for the better.
Thanks for sharing this part of your testimony. I think effective coaches leave behind these kind of stories all the time, it’s just a shame we don’t hear more of them.
Raiders 23
Broncos 20
Should’ve played Tebow!
Joe, you’re on my list. (And I would’ve played anyone with a penchant for holding on to the ball, but that’s just me).
Couple thoughts, maybe more later.
Jerry Vines was Tim Tebow’s pastor when Tebow was in High school.
Scott Howell of fromLAw2grace blog has taken up Tebow’s cause recently and the comments are interesting.
I didn’t play football, played trombone and played it well, but I am very proud of the Gaffney Indians, ranked number 5 in the nation right now by Rivals.com and home of Sidney Rice of the Seahawks.
Google Friday Night Lights at nybooks.com . Great review of the tv series. The MOvie with Billy bob Thornton; Lucas Blake was QB in that movie. He’s from Speake Alabama and I got his autograph when he was 11, two days after I saw him in the Movie Slingblade where he played the boy.
No up to date discussion of this matter is sound with strong reading of the cover story of theAtlantic magazine article by Taylor Branch.
It quotes Bill Friday who once had some strong words for Cecil Sherman in regard the Conservative Resurgence takeover of SEBTS in 1987.
Now if you want to talk baseball, first go see Brad Pitt in Moneyball. Great movie