07/28/23 AN ABSURDITY THAT HAPPENS EVERY WEEK

07/28/23 AN ABSURDITY THAT HAPPENS EVERY WEEK

June 1 (Transcribed and based on a "Walk and Talk Audio" I made while on an exercise walk)
I was thinking about the absurdity of an athletic team, musical team or business team being formed and operated, without the expectation of being a congruent team.

Let me give you an example take a football team, basketball team, soccer team, whatever kind of athletic or other kind of team that you want to imagine, where each team member depends on the other team members for success and they are made up of people who want to succeed in their field of competition. Imagine a team with really talented players and with a decent or exceptional coach, but a team member decide he is going to run his own program. American football is an easy illustration because so much is required for teamwork. Each one has his job and if his job is not done correctly then everybody suffers and it can cost an entire game.

For instance, the snap of the ball goes to the quarterback, who will turn to his right and pitch out to an end around situation, or a halfback going around the right side, therefore the linemen are supposed to block their assignment in a certain direction to give the runner opportunity to make yardage. But when the ball gets snapped, the quarterback drops back a couple of steps and pitches out, expecting the running back to continue to follow the blocking and maybe pick up that extra yard they need for a first down, or possibly break loose and get a touchdown. He's hoping the linemen are pulling and blocking. It looks like an open field around the right end, but instead, when the halfback receives the ball he pulls up and throws a 45 yard pass to nobody. Yeah, to nobody. Well, I take that back, there was somebody there but he's on the other team.

Nice pass dude. Nice play. Great minds in football put together an awesome play, coaches worked on the execution of that play, men made the commitment to give you all the running room you needed, and you decided it does not need to be done as planned. You need to throw a pass that doesn't make any sense.

"Pastor," you say, "that does not make any sense."
I know it doesn't I know it doesn't. But how many pastors see this happening all the time because people want to run their own play. They want to do what will make them look good or what pleases them or meets their standard of success, and therefore they discount what the coaches have designed, they discount all the practices they were in, they discount the commitment of their fellow players, because they want to do it their way. That doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying no ones ever done something like that I'm just saying does that it doesn't make any sense and that person would not be in the lineup very long if he did that. Especially if he did it more than once. Or what if a pass play is designed and everyone executed their assignment perfectly, but when the quarterback gets the ball he chooses to run the ball up the middle, into the face of unblocked defensive players.

This can happen in basketball, this can happen in soccer. Football, in may ways is much more dependent on team work. When a player runs his own play and the ball is either stopped short of the yardage they wanted, or it is jolted from the carrier and a fumble takes place, the team does not benefit from either of these two scenarios.

But that doesn't happen, does it? Seldom, but if it does happen it is very and the person is going to suffer some kind of penalty from the coach or from the ownership of the team or maybe from their fellow teammates but it won't go on long.

So, how in the world can I even imagine such a ridiculous story? Well it happens all the time. It happens in churches. People want to run their own plays. They don't see the validity of the other positions or players, they think they can do it all themselves. Well, even if even if they can do it all on their own that's not what God requires that is not even what God allows. God has made the local church to be a local body, one body of believers with each part congruently contributing to the success of the other parts thank you.

There are sports minded people, team oriented people, who would shake their heads in amazing disapproval if such a thing happened on a favorite ball team, but they don't bat an eye when they or another person pulls such a knucklehead play in the body of Christ.