June 9, 2008 - The Motion Offense

The offense we ran this past year was a very simple motion offense. It involved a basic pattern of passes, cuts, and screens. Yet any play motion that is set up in basketball is designed as a guideline to getting people open. Players need to be aware of what the defense is doing in order to make the right decisions.

In one particular game the guys had gone through the same exact pattern of play for numerous consecutive plays. Obviously the other team's players had figured out where our guys were going and began cutting over picks and beating our guys to their spots. My point guard came to me and said, "Coach, I can't get open. He knows exactly where I am going." I responded by reminding him that he can go to the other side of the floor, or even bypass the first part of the motion and jump straight to setting the back screens, or even cut backdoor when his guy tried to cheat over top of the screen.

The problem was not the motion offense we were running. The problem was that the pattern became more important than the reason we were doing it - to get people open.

In the church the same thing has happened. We have our programs and ways we function in our local bodies and that often overrides the reason for those programs. My buddy (Dr Roy Mason) was preaching yesterday and said "form" has taken precedence over "function." The church has lost its desire to reach the lost. You may say, "No we haven't, we still care about the lost. Look at all the stuff we are doing at our church." Yet my question is has anyone (including you) bothered to actually witness to anyone lately? In form we offer many things yet in function we are getting open to take very many shots (sharing the Gospel.) We are just going through our "motion offense." The fact is that not many new souls are being added to the kingdom daily.

We need to obey Christ's command to preach the Gospel. We need to go beyond the feel good messages of today's church culture and get back to preaching that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God! He is "the way, the truth, and the life." We have entertained a lot of folks in our churches and at our events, yet the object is to proclaim the Gospel to see souls saved, not just go through the motions!

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.