Audience of one
Is your self worth dependent on what people think of your performance? Are you ‘only as good as your last game’?
In contrast to the world’s view of sport, as followers of Jesus our biggest concern is not winning or impressing our peers but pleasing God (1 Thessalonians 4:1, John 8:29).
Arguably, ‘game theory’ is no longer relevant since we no longer compete for what we can get out of sport but how we can worship God, our Creator, through it.
As Christians we still get caught up in the highs and lows of sport, we still have emotions, we still share these times with our training partners (Romans 12:15-16) but we remember God’s desire for us to have no other images of God. We are already that image (Genesis 1:26). We are also forbidden to put objects/places/people/sporting performance in the place of where God needs to be (Exodus 20:1-5).
So now, in view of what Jesus has done for us in restoring us to a right relationship with God we are to worship, please and live for God wherever we are (Romans 12:1- 2). To play for our AUDIENCE OF ONE.
Performance isn’t what really matters in sport but pleasing God and playing to Him as the AUDIENCE OF ONE does. How does this look in our sports? What will change about the way we compete? What does it look like to make sport worship? Does this mean that we don’t care what other people think about us (Luke 2:52)? Can we still compete?
- Make the most of our talents, realising they’re a gift not to be wasted
- Playing/training with the same attitude whether we have spectators or not. Even if we’re out on a run on our own
- 100%,100% of the time even when the game is lost and the game is nearly up
Born to Play!
This is a highlight of your week. You were born to play. If you identify with that thought or recognise the scenario, this book is for you. Perhaps you struggle to see where your passion for sport fits into your Christian life. You never feel as alive as you do on the netball court, in the midst of the game. The thrill of intercepting the ball and setting up a scoring pass is amazing, often greater than almost any other experience. How can that be?
Many of us feel that we live double lives. At the rugby club we are very conscious of being a Christian and being careful not to cheat, swear or drink too much. But at church people sometimes think we are a more committed to rugby than to Christ! They seem like separate lives. We find it easy to be a Christian on Sunday but much harder on a Saturday afternoon. Should we stop playing?
- The way I respond to people’s questions about my performance
- A good race is no longer if I beat my PB
- The need to work on my skills, sport does matter and I can worship God in it
- Not cheating – play to the ‘spirit of the game’
- Winning is no longer the most important thing nor losing the worse
- Always try to make fair tackles even when frustrated because opposite number is better than me
- Appreciative of others success
- Honour team-mates/opposition/umpires as all we all strive towards excellence together
- Knowing when to rest/stop and say I can’t play. Feeling able to miss the odd game isn’t an issue because sport isn’t central to your existence
As keen sportspeople, how do we keep sport in the right perspective?
But we love playing. Sport has always been a central part of our lives. We attend church regularly, give our money and are committed to our small group, we might even be on the flower rota – well, ok, maybe not! But we love sport and we play for the local hockey team.
Yet you sometimes feel that that people already disapprove of the amount of time you give to sport. “John really ought to get his priorities sorted out and put church ahead of his own pleasure”. Unless you’re a professional, when you have to miss house group for an occasional mid week game, you hardly dare say why you won’t be there. You know you’re no less a follower of Jesus because you play sport. But how do you deal with this tension?
First of all we need to recognize that it is essential to be part of a community of God’s people. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews reminds us of this. Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord's coming is getting closer. Hebrews 10:25
Talk to your church leaders. Tell them that you feel that God has gifted you and called you to play sport. Show them that you see your club as the part of the world in which you are to represent Christ”. Explain that you will miss some church meetings but that does not mean that you are any less committed to Christ or his church. Ask them to pray for you.
This book begins to addresses this tension by helping you work through questions like: Is there a Christian view of sport? Are our sporting talents from God? Does God care who wins or how we play?
We believe that it is possible to be a Christian in the world of sport without being a worse Christian or a worse sportsperson. This book intends simply to show that there is no reason why you cannot play sport as a Christian and in a Christian way.
Does God like Sport?
On a summer’s evening in Gothenburg in 1995 Jonathan Edwards
(Extract of article by Graham Daniels and J Stuart Weir)