I have found myself on both sides of this issue. Growing up one of the greatest benefits of having an Adventist Education, (it still is a great benefit) is that I didn't have to choose between playing sports and the Sabbath. This choice was made less difficult because I never made a sports team :). My Senior year of high school I went to my first High School football game because a good friend of mine, Kyle, was playing. I remember how rebellious, cool, and guilty I felt as I went to the game and then went to a local pool hall afterwards to hang out with people we'd met at the game. I stayed up so late that it was difficult to make it to church the following day.
As I began youth ministry, the first church I pastored at had no kids in Adventist Education. All the kids attended public school. Dances, and sporting events were all on Friday night and so I had the difficult decision to make about whether I should attend games when invited by students. Part of me wanted to show up and support the kids and part of me wanted to show them my respect for the Sabbath. I remember reading about athletes and teams who had taken a stand and refused to play on Sabbath, and articles were written in the youth magazines lifting them up as heroes of the church for making difficult decisions.
Being a big fan myself, I also read about athletes like Deion Sanders and James Worthy who took a stand for their faith as Christians and were able to spread the gospel in their respective sports. As I thought about it, I was sad that there would never be an Adventist who could share our unique and valuable perspective on Jesus with the sports world. If we were to share the gospel to the entire world didn't that mean athletes? And if people did accept the Sabbath would that mean that they would no longer be able to use their greatest gift to minister to other athletes and use the stage of sport to spread the gospel and the blessings of Sabbath? I didn't have good answers for these questions, and perhaps I still don't. So I left the issue alone.
Recently my mind has returned to these issues. More and more, kids at our church, beginning as young as 5th grade are choosing sports over church and worship. Kids are joining a traveling team or they have tournaments that all take place over a whole weekend. Kids and parents are more and more often choosing sports over community worship. And I, as a pastor, am starting to get worried. Are we going to lose a generation of kids to because of sports. I am seeing that sports is the catalyst that begins the slippery slope of prioritizing things higher than corporate worship. I would love to see some posts by my non-Adventist friends on whether this is an issue in their youth groups as well.
So I want to start a conversation. I am more and more convinced that God is concerned about community and unity. Worship services are one of the church's greatest tools of creating these two things, and more and more families are missing out. Does this concern you or am I over reacting. I'm hoping that people will post on both sides of the issue.
p.s.
After seeing some of the posts I wanted to put up this chart that I have used to evaluate Sabbath in my life. I try to find the balance between Rest (stopping, taking a break) Blessed (what brings joy, happiness) and Holy (set apart for God) which is what God intended the Sabbath to be. I try each week to eat the whole pie, but sometimes more often than not, I fail. I think that for me the most difficult part of the pie is to find the holy aspect of the Sabbath. It is easy to stop our everyday activites and take a break from them, it is easy to be happy (Isa 58) but to find the holiness of God through the Sabbath can be the critical evaluator when we determine how to be fully enriched by the blessing of keeping the Sabbath.
7 comments:
Comment by Andrea Torres via Facebook: "I have no profound comment - but I wanted to agree with you. Sports is just another temptation that is set before us, forcing us to choose between God and ourselves."
Comment by Val Torres via Facebook "ery well written, Benji. I enjoyed reading this post. I looked up some stuff on the internet after reading it and here's a good quote I found.
"Is it okay to play sports on Sabbath? The answer to that and any other specific question you have about Sabbath keeping is to ask whether it fits within the broad Sabbath principles. For instance: Does the activity help you build a stronger relationship with God, or with others? Is it an act of service or does it prove to be self-serving? Is it worship or fellowship? Ask yourself these questions, pray about it, and listen to what God, through the principles given in His word, is telling you." (http://letstalk.adventist.org/q_a/adventist_life/sabbath.html)
I'm not sure of what my exact view is because I haven't really ever thought about it. But, as I research more, I have a feeling that my opinion will probably come pretty close to the one above.
Give Holly a big hug from her Uncle Val :)
p.s. And check out this article. I wonder what ever happened to this kid.
http://www.spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive21-25/24-4updates.pdf"
Comment by Brad Sutherland via Facebook "ok being a kid that plays alot of sports I have been faced with the this problem and not only once. I do find that sports is a "temptation" but a way to show how someone expresses that faith. For exaple when most people watch a football game all they really see is a bunch of men hitting each other and trying to score points, but there is a unspoken language.
I was playing football againist Northwestern on a thurdays night (not really on topic but it will get there) and I got this monster hit on there WR. I knocked him into the sideline and he landed really hard. I went over and helped him up and back onto the field. After the game he came over and asked why I had helped him up and I said "Do to other as they would do to you." Well he was shocked and asked if I went to church. I say yes and that I was SDA.
This would not have been possible if my mom and dad had not tought us that church and sports can both be imporant if you can follow the right path.and that God is happy to hear from us if it is from church or a last second "help me God" before a game"
Val about the spectrum Article, there was another guy that played for PAA a few years back that got similar attention. I'm torn between the struggle of cheering for these kids commitment to the Sabbath and being disappointed by the lack of kingdom impact that we could have in a "unevangelized" section of our culture.
Brad, you bring up a good point about the unique role of character building that sports has. I guess my problem is that too often when we're in the middle of making great hits and being a star we start to lose sight of our unique role as Christian Aliens in this world and that we become more like the world and less like Jesus. I am not at all saying that this is an issue for you, in fact your story sounds like it isn't, but perhaps as I am struggling with now, the outward signs of kids, and for that matter parents, losing that focus is when they stop coming to church.
I think personally that sports brings a side out in you of, "lets get to the top by bringing someone else lower". Name a game that does not uplift self and lower others. As christians our goal is to do the opposite. We have 6 days to play games, but come on, God gave us this one HOLY day. He gives us 6 days to do our thing, can't we give Him one. Lets put our energy into building a relationship with Him and those around us. If you want to show your kids that you love them, drive to a game on another night. That would touch me! Then you would be really showing them that you care, and that you care about both them and the Sabbath!
to the last poster. I agree if sports is denegrading at all then why do sport any day of the week? let alone Sabbath. That is the beauty of bringing a christian perspective to sports. I am not only active in team and individual sports, I also coach high school athletes. While each game we play has a "winner" and a "loser" that does not mean that we have to put other people lower. As Christians we can raise sports to a higher level of evangelism and fellowship and the beauty of good team work.
Secondly I disagree that God gave us 6 days to do our own thing. All of our time belongs to God all 7 days. 365 days a year. Mark 2:27 says that the Sabbath was made for our benefit. God doesn't get anything from our Sabbath worship/observance, we do and God knows that we need to rest, slow down, and recharge our spiritual batteries.
I'd love to hear more of your thoughts.
Benji
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