October 24, 2022 - This Team Called The Church

Have you ever messed up in the game? Maybe you missed a shot or made a bad pass… maybe you struck out… maybe you fumbled… you get the picture… It is such a bummer when trying to make a play and you hear the referee blow the whistle… or maybe you complete a play only to turn, see a flag, and have it called back. Or maybe it is simply that you got knocked down or were exhausted… 

And when you messed up, how did your teammates treat you?

I often write about how Jesus treated life’s mess ups… while we were yet sinners, He died for us! (Romans 5:8) But what about our teammates on this team called the church?

Growing up I used to hear that the church was the only army that shoots its wounded… and I must say that once saved, I saw/experienced a lot of ungrace. I would hear the chatter telling us to “be accountable” to one another, but…

Back to the sports picture… I love seeing teammates rush over to help a fallen teammate… I love hearing teammates tell another to “get ‘em next time!”… as I am typing this my mind rushed back to the 3^rd base line dugout at South Little League Park in Evansville, IN… I was somewhere in the 9-12 year old range of when I played there… but I have a vivid memory of heading back to the dugout after striking out and telling the guy on deck to “pick me up.” I LOVE BEING A PART OF A TEAM!

Last week I ended by stating that I would share a “beautiful reminder I heard at a conference” of what this TEAM orientation should look like. The speaker, Ed Underwood, made a comment that perked up my ears… I heard him share this at a previous conference as well… but this time my mind was really fixated from my recent studies on the idea of TEAM. Ed stated, “I don’t believe in accountability!” (or something along those lines…) Well of course that catches people’s attention, as it goes against what all of us have probably heard throughout our lives. But his explanation showed why this has often led to the church appearing to “shoot its wounded.” Ed stated that accountability is more like everyone having a referee’s whistle to blow when others mess up. He stated he wanted guys to block for him to help keep him out of trouble… guys to extend a helping hand when he did fall… guys to fill in and give him a break when he was in need… HE WANTED TEAMMATES NOT REFEREES! He chooses to not call that accountability, but instead “protective love.”

As I was studying the past few days for a message I preached yesterday, I found myself in Ephesians 4, and the first descriptors I found that to describe what it looks like to “walk worthy” were “lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3) To walk worthy begins with what kind of teammates we are!

And I know that some of you wannabe referees are thinking, “yeah but we still have to stand for truth and call out error and…” Can I be very blunt in this huddle, (I asked permission but I’m gonna do it even if you said no)? Everyone needs to be quiet in the huddle for a minute and let the Word speak! I just shared how it is described in  Ephesians 4… but then I turned to 1 Corinthians 11 as I knew I was leading into a time to celebrate the Lord’s Supper at the end of my message… and instead it became a HUGE part of my message.

All of my Christian life I have been encouraged, and encouraged others, to make sure and examine oneself in order to partake in a worthy manner (1 Corinthians 11:27-32); even the added headers in the Bible state “Examine Yourself.” So of course, I always viewed that as a command to try to acknowledge where I had messed up in my “play.” BUT IN CONTEXT the examination is to examine how I have messed up in treating my teammates! Before the discussion of the Lord’s Supper the discussion is about divisions and factions among the team… and after the discussion of the Lord’s Supper it gives directions to “wait for one another.” (1 Corinthians 11:33b) I looked up the word “wait,” and it means to receive or accept one another! It is not a chronological command but a showing grace command! And for those that still cant get over the lack of dealing with the bad stuff, Paul told the Corinthians that he, as the coach (leader) would address that stuff when he got there…

Bottom line is that the team called Church tends to have way too many coaches and not enough players when it comes to dealing with issues… just play the game and show some protective love to your teammates!

“Grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection!” Ed Underwood