I want to play like a beast for my church team! One of my friends was sharing with me about his son’s football playing experience. He noted that for the first two seasons his son wouldn’t even tackle someone from behind. When the third season rolled around, my friend and his wife had decided to not even bring up football to him because of his timidity on the field. However, their son asked them if he could play. For the first two seasons he had played with kids that he didn’t go to school with or who were not his pals. His third season would involve playing with his peers and suddenly, he was interested. Not only was he interested, but his timidity turned into aggression. What was the greatest factor in his changing? Interestingly, by playing with those whom he had become friends, he now was experiencing a level of accountability he had never experienced. He is somewhat bigger and stronger than his buddies and some of his friends have taken notice. For example, one of his teammates told him “You are a beast!” The season before he was a pansy, but now, he is a beast! One reason why the change occurred was because he didn’t want to be a wimp in front of his friends. Also, he had a reputation of being bigger and possibly tougher, so he couldn’t let the perception of his dominance wane amongst his friends. Once he had established who he was on the playground at school, or at least how the kids perceived him, he now had to hold up to the status on the football field. His identity and responsibility as a player was somewhat held in tact by the fraternal pressure of his peer’s perceptions. While not the primary motive for involvement in a local church, the same is true to a point, for those of us involved in local church ministry. Although our primary motive for involvement in local church ministry should be the glory of God, we also need other people to hold us accountable. Certainly, we don’t do what we do because of what people think, but to some level our concern for what they think is healthy. Once someone submits to the ministry of teaching children amongst their church family, for example, they become known for such a ministry. Hopefully they will show up on time, pray, attend church consistently, and other things because they love God and the children they are ministering to, but also, they will consistently do all those things and more because they are expected to. When people who can get involved in a local church don’t get involved, they are living a much easier Christian life in many aspects, but that is not to say they never suffer for their faith. However, when you are involved in a group of Christians who comprise New Testament model of a church, you cannot just do whatever you feel like doing when it comes to the Christian life or ministry. That is a good thing, a blessed thing, and a God thing. I have had times that the only reason I went to preach was because I had to, or because I promised that I would. More often than not, by grace, I do ministry because I want to. Even so, I am thankful that I have people in my life that will come after me if I drift away. I care primarily what God thinks, but I also deeply care about what people think about me as a minster of Christ. If we are not accountable or subject to anyone other than ourselves, we are not living a complete Christian life. I would say one would be living a dangerous spiritual life. We will do our very best if our focus is primarily on God, but often, although people are not God, he uses other people as the means through which we focus on Him. The level of quality in which I minister to other people, I am ministering to God as well. I need others to push me, to hold me to my oaths/commitments, to rebuke me, or encourage me when I am down. Nowhere in the New Testament do we see Christians without a group they wanted to play hard for. Without such a group we will become watchers of sports and spiritual armchair coaches. God wants us to be spiritual beasts in someone’s eyes and therefore have some expectations to live up to. Peace of Christ to you, Kevin Boone 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 “ A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice[b]; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.[c] 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,[d] while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.”
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:55:56 +0000
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