I recently had a discussion with a congregational leader who was bemoaning the prevalence of sports in the lives of our church youth.  The leader believed our youth should spend more time in church than on the field.  It’s almost as if we must choose to be a Christian in the confines of an assembly building or not at all.  My response is a close look at the scriptures.  The truth is, Christ intended for his follower to be disciples and spread the gospel everywhere at all times.  A practical Christian will:

1.  Go into the world. To spread the gospel we must go.

2.  Serve as Christ’s ambassador.  Ambassadors serve in foreign lands

3.  Go where our gift influences the most.  Don’t compartmentalize your faith into church and world.

4.  Use every gift from God. What ‘s your gift?  Use it to spread the gospel.

Daughter Chelsea with Hope, Carly, and Brooke

My daughter is the captain of the varsity cheerleading squad at her public high school.  She ends each of her squad meetings with a scripture and practical application for her squad.  She recently received the Captains award and All-American Cheerleader award at a cheerleading camp, becoming an example for hundreds of girls.  She has a talent for leadership and uses it to glorify God, not just within her youth group but in every situation, especially those that reach non-believers.  Some would discourage her from participating in such a “worldly” activity. My belief is that through her talents she is lifting up Christ to non-believers through example, words, and council. Why would she not?

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Romans 12:4-8 (NIV)

Paul gives a non-exhaustive list of example gifts (talents): preaching, serving, teaching, encouraging, money, leading, or counseling. It’s tempting to imagine these gifts being used only within the confines of a church building. Just imagine if Christians used their talents to do these things in the context of their employment, the golf course, the ball park, gardening club, cheer squad, physics class…you get the idea.

A word of warning, we need to be IN the world, just not OF the world, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom 12:2)” and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21).

The Practical Christian by Greg Chaney is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.