A few days ago I passed a high school and I thought back to my own experience growing up in Australia. I played soccer for Centenary Heights High School in Toowoomba, Queensland. Just in case you are wondering about my athletic prowess I should explain that in Australia at that time the best athletes went out for rugby; the second tier played hockey; and then there was soccer. Our team did actually have a few first rate athletes… but, they also had me.
The position I played was “inside left.” I can see the puzzled looks on the faces of you soccer aficionados, “What on earth is an ‘inside left?’ There is no such position as an ‘inside left.’” You are right. There isn’t. … Ah, but there was such a position back then. Today the whole strategy has changed. The names of the positions have changed. And not just the names… the positions themselves have changed. The game has evolved.
The fundamentals however, have hardly changed at all. They still have eleven players per side. It’s still about kicking a ball into a net. And you can’t use your hands (unless you are a goal keeper… They still have keepers). There are still limits to how you can tackle an opponent. And the skills required are pretty much the same. The changing strategies have revolved around that basic unchanging reality. And the changes were driven by the basics of what was happening on the field… the game itself, experience. They were not arbitrary external changes. As a result today teams play much better than we did back then.
Thinking about all this gets me thinking about the church and change. What remains basic and what should change? The first question to ask is, “What’s the goal of our game?” Well according to Matthew 28 the goal is, and will always be, to be and to make disciples of Jesus. This involves skills that are personal and relational. It’s a contact sport. It happens out on the field. This has been and will always be the case.
So, what needs to change? I think back to soccer. In all the time that I played I can’t ever remember meeting in a classroom to train. I’m not saying that would have been a bad thing. It’s just that if you are serious about playing, your focus is always on the field… and the great stories of what is happening on the field… and the challenges that we are rising to face out there. It’s not in some class room. I remember listening to my coach at half time on the sidelines, and feeling impatient, itching to have the ball at my feet and to be out in the game.
It’s the same for the church. The “game” we are in is the game of changing lives: walking every day with Jesus, loving God and loving others as Jesus loved, living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Class rooms are fine, but there we are learning about something that can only be experienced. If you don’t watch out, you can learn a lot about things that you don’t know at all.
Our place is on the field. Let’s all get in the game!
