I played basketball for the last several years at a church league in Houston. (I will leave alone for now my thoughts on churches building their own gyms, lest I digress.) When the league started, the men running the league set firm rules about attitudes and behavior. If anyone crossed the line, they were asked to leave the gym and possibly leave the league.
In the early days, this worked wonderfully. As with any church league, the players were rougher and less skilled than players in other leagues I’d played in; yet they were generally more mouthy. A few players tried the rules and found themselves kicked out of the gym, and I believe one was removed from the league altogether. The total number of infractions, however, was small.
Fast-forward a few years. I suppose the men running the league decided they didn’t like asking people to leave the church. Maybe that sounds funny to many of you, as well. So instead, the games got rougher, more mouthy, and less fun. The last game I played in, the refs called a technical on one of the opposing players then called so completely in that team’s favor because of their whining that one ref came over to me and told me that he didn’t call a foul on another player that had smacked me in the head “because we had gotten the ball back.†Really?
I believe this pattern to be indicative of the American Church in general these days. No one is willing to call fouls or ask people to leave. At some point, we decided turning people away or calling people out was not good for PR, so we stopped. Now we face a church age in America where most claim to know Christ and expect eternal life, as well as their “best life now†without really understanding the other side of Christ’s message: “In this world you will have tribulation†(John 16:33).
We must once again call fouls and, when necessary, even ask those who really don’t belong to leave, lest the entire church body is brought down. Many will think this harsh, but what options have we? To this we are called, are we not, to teach and preach the whole gospel?
One Comment
I read this a few days ago and have been thinking about why we don’t call fouls. First of our, the church is not much different than the culture. The culture is very tolerant. Secondly, to call a foul you have to have your life together. Many Christians have so much perpetual sin in their lives we cannot call someone else to theirs.
And if we did call foul, in this day and age the person would just leave and go to another church. Most people are not closely enough tied to their church for them to really care if others wanted to bring church discipline.
I think the most powerful churches in America will be the remnants that form seeking true community and accountability with each other. I believe the good news about our times is that true believers will gather and get back to basics. When this happens, we will see church discipline again.