The end
of summer always brings the anticipation of the weekends of watching football
in the south. Southerners have always
taken football to the extreme. They
start reading every article that comes out about their team. College football is king to some only to be
followed up by the NFL. College stadiums
are built like great cathedrals. They
try to seat one hundred plus thousand people around the field. The fans treat 17-22 year olds as Roman Gods
as they enter the field of battle.
People invest so much of their energy into a game that they cannot
control the outcome of. When the team
wins, they act as though their life has been fulfilled. But if they lose, then their world comes
crashing down around them.
So why
do so many people invest their entire weekend around a game? One of the biggest reasons I’ve seen is the
brotherhood that comes with sports. From
the teams on the field to the fans in the stands, they are all looking for like
minded people to be around. They are
looking for a brotherhood that they think they can’t find anywhere else. And for the most part, they are correct. There are not very many places that people
can go and be as big a fanatic as they want to and still be accepted by
others. Sometimes they are not just
accepted but they are celebrated for their dedication to their team. People are looking to be accepted by others
in a way that they have never had.
Why
can’t the church be as popular as football in the south? Why does the church not have people lined up
waiting to get in the doors? The reason
is that the church has lost the sense of brotherhood. Most churches have become focused on
retaining the people they have left and have lost the reason people started
going to church to begin with. People
are looking for a place that they feel accepted and can be a fanatic without
others judging them. Unfortunately a lot
of churches have lost the desire for the “fans” to be a part of their
congregations. They are looking for
people to show up and conform to what is a predetermined order. Most churches are not looking for people that
beat to a different drum. They don’t
develop a brotherhood that encourages people to be fanatics about God.
Now is
the time for the church to look back at the disciples and see what a brotherhood
looked like. As Jesus was gathering His
disciples, He didn’t look for the people that fit His mold. He looked for the people that would become
the fanatics for Him. Jesus took all
walks of life into His inner circle. He
didn’t care what they looked like or if they had money. Jesus wanted the people that were willing to
stand up and cheer when things looked dim.
His brotherhood consisted of people that only wanted the same
thing. Jesus created an atmosphere that
made His disciples want to leave everything they had and follow Him.
When
the church remembers that people want to be included just as they are, then
they will see the brotherhood redevelop.
In no way does this mean that the church should allow sinners to
continue to sin without any influence from the church. The sense of brotherhood will actually make
the sinner want to change their ways.
They will want to be more like Christ because they will have others to hold
them accountable for their actions. The
bond between members will grow stronger and the numbers will increase.
Without
the brotherhood, the church will continue to see college football stadiums grow
and their memberships drop. The feeling
of being accepted because everyone is pulling for the same team is an
overwhelming desire that needs to be brought back to the sanctuaries. We as the church need to start encouraging
the fanatics for God to get back off the bench and start being the cheerleader
that God made them to be. We need the
God fanatics back in the churches. It is
time for the brotherhood of the church to come alive and make others want to be
in service rather than sitting the stands of a football stadium.
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