Football season is upon us (though honestly, thanks to media, it sometimes feels like it NEVER ends)!
High school football ramps up this weekend, college football gets in full swing next weekend, and then the NFL the week after that.
So begins the annual march of my favorite college team, NC State, into (likely) futility and disappointment. I’ll make no predictions for my NFL team (Atlanta Falcons).
One thing that is true, regardless of the level of football, is something you’ll hear people say over and over:
“Defense wins championships.”
In football, that is very true. It doesn’t matter how much you can score if you literally cannot stop the opposing team from scoring (see NC State throughout the Jacoby Brissett years and the Atlanta Falcons for pretty much their entire existence). On the other hand, if no one can score on you, then you don’t have to have a great or even good offense. It just has to be serviceable.
However, while that line of thinking is awesome for football teams, it does not work well for the church. At all.
Which is a problem, because in so much of the church world, it seems like the goal is to play defense. Instead of going into the world to reach the world, the church is often seen disengaging from the world. We do Christian things with Christian people at Christian places- and we often do it in the name of staying “safe” from the world.
Then, ironically, we mourn the fact that our culture continues to go down the tubes and the church seems to become less and less relevant to everyday people.
This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus commanded.
Jesus never told the church to play defense. He never told us to keep the rest of the world at arms length while we huddle behind the four walls of the church. He never told us to just try to hang on long enough to survive until we get to heaven.
What Jesus actually commanded was this:
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”- Matthew 28:19
There are actually four imperatives (commands) in this verse- and the first one is “Go”.
Not “stay.” Not “hold out.” Certainly not hide out.
But GO. Advance. Move out and move forward.
That is not a defensive strategy- that’s an offensive mindset!
I’ve never seen a football team that wanted to win punt the ball on first down so the other team could get the ball back and they could go back to playing defense. Instead, they run plays designed to advance the ball down the field and get in the end zone- and the job of the defense is to get the offense back on the field as soon as possible.
Just like a football team’s offense, the goal of the church is to move the ball down the field for the Kingdom. And the way we do that is we GO.
So how do we go?
It starts with a simple invitation. We can invite someone to church. We can invite someone to simply hang out with us. We can invite someone into our mission we serve our community. We can invite someone into our circle when our LifeGroup us just hanging out and having a good time.
The key here is this: WE have to be the ones to make the move. WE have to take the initiative to extend the invitation. We can’t sit around hoping that the other person will initiate the conversation- we are called to GO and get the ball rolling.
The good news? Jesus is with us and empowering us through the whole process!
“…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”- Matthew 28:20
We are not alone, and we aren’t going in our own strength. We go trusting in the power of Jesus to work through us to draw people to Himself- and that is what gives us great confidence and boldness to GO- and to play OFFENSE.