Soccer and the church

Terri and I have been attending a lot of soccer games over the past year. Nate, our adopted college student is on the W&M men's soccer team and has been playing for the Virginia Legacy this summer. I did not grow up as part of the soccer culture. When I was a kid we had football, baseball and basketball leagues. My main soccer memories of childhood are of seeing Pele on TV.

Tony has been preaching a sermon series using the metaphor of games/sports to illustrate life lessons and I thought I would offer up some examples from soccer. I hope I am not "borrowing" his ideas for a future sermon. Who knows he might borrow from me.

1) Get up, shake the dust off and keep running
Soccer is listed as a non-contact sport, but when I watch soccer played at the college level I am amazed by the resiliency of soccer players. I have seen numerous collisions and fouls where a player is left lying on the ground, writhing in pain. Yet, it seems that after a few minutes the player is up and running again at full speed. Life is a contact sport and bad things will happen, but as people of faith we need to get up, shake the dust off, and get back in the game.

2) Etiquette matters
One thing I have admired in soccer is the way a team handles an injury on the other team. Team A has the ball and one of their players is injured by a member of Team B, but Team B has the ball. After the referee has stopped and restarted play, Team B's first move is to kick the ball to Team A's goalie. In most cases, no penalty had been called, the injury was incidental during the play so Team B is voluntarily giving the ball back to Team A. Even in the midst of a competitive match where players are working very hard to win, they recognize that their is something more important than winning. The key ideas here are sensitivity to others and a strategy of doing the right thing.

3) It may take a long time to make some progress
A typical soccer game consists of two 45-minutes halves and the teams can end up with a combined score that is countable on one hand. At the international level the sports media tracks the number of meters that a player as run during the course of a match. This stat is similar to tracking the number of pitches thrown in baseball or the number of sacks a quarterback has received in football. In short, a tremendous amount of energy can be expended in a game that might end with a 1-0 final score. A goal can happen anywhere in the game. Step away from the stands for a minute and you might miss the only goal. The key to watching soccer is to be there the whole time. If we become disengaged we might miss a key moment. The same is true in church life. Things may seem to move at a glacial pace, but we need to stay engaged. We might miss those game-changing moments in the life of our church.

4) Soccer is a team sport, so is church
Soccer involves between 7 and 11 players per side, a referee and two assistant referees. So in a normal match 25 people are involved. You can practice soccer skills as an individual but you cannot play a game by yourself. You need teammates to help you, you need opponents to challenge your skills, you need officials to keep you honest to the game. Now I am not going to speculate about who in the church serves as a referee or an opponent. The key point I want to make is that church is not a solitary activity. We need to consider ways to get more people into positions of service and leadership. It makes our job as church leaders easier, but it also gets more people where they need to be, in the game.

5) Good coaching shows
Soccer seems to be a simple game. Kick the ball into the opponents goal. Like most team sports each player has a different role. The goalie protects the goal and can touch the ball with his hands. Some players have a defensive role, some players have an offensive role. A well-coached team will have each player doing the right thing at the right time. Good coaching can overcome limited ability. Poor coaching can minimize outstanding physical ability. Good coaching is evident in the proper positioning of players and a strategic approach to the game. The same is true in church. Our staff and church leadership seek to put us in positions where we can use our individual abilities and talents to God's glory. Are you willing to learn?

6) Fans are important
The William and Mary soccer team has an important ritual as part of their post-game "cool down". They walk to the middle of the field, shoulder to shoulder, facing the stands and visibly applaud their fans. It is a way of demonstrating their appreciate for fans who have followed the game and cheered on the team. In the church we need to celebrate the folks that we encounter along the way. Simple appreciation and friendliness to our visitors will help encourage them to come again. We can never forget our fans.

7) Celebration is paramount
Because of the rarity of goals in soccer a goal is vigorously celebrated. Some players might only score one goal in their entire career. Whenever something good happens, especially if it might only happen once for that person. We must celebrate. This is why we publish birthdays in our newsletter, why we sing Happy Birthday/Anniversary on Sunday night. It is our chance to join in on something really cool that God has done in and through the life of a fellow believer.

8) A tie is OK
In some leagues, soccer can end in a tie. Each team gets a half-point for the win in the overall league standings. So, even a tie is movement toward the goal of a league championship. We have all sorts of ways of measuring our church: attendance, giving, the size of our facilities and metrics such as these can be helpful. But the key idea is the following, no matter where we are, are we moving towards the goal that God has laid out for us as Walnut Hills Baptist Church.