The vocabulary of a football team is very different from those who have never played the game. Years ago, I was an Emergency Medical Technician standing on the sidelines of a junior high, seventh grade, football game. During the game, the coach called a time out and the team huddled around him.

The coach started describing what he wanted the defense to do, when they went back out on the football field, after the time out. But the coach was only receiving blank looks on the faces of his players, as he talked. Finally, he said to them, “Does anybody understand what I am talking about?” Some of the kids said no, but most of them just shook their heads no.

Going to church, for a visitor or a new Christian, can be just as intimidating, as a bunch of kids that don’t know what the coach is talking about, during a time out, in a football game.

Don’t just invite new people to church, take them with you. You can also tell them you will wait for them at the front door. Then sit with them. Show them the books in the pews and what they are used for. Help them find the hymns that will be sung that day and the scripture readings.

Some people that have never been to church won’t know where to find John 3:16 or any other scripture. They also won’t know where to take their kids or where the bathrooms are. Help them.

That junior high football coach was way over his football player’s heads that day, when trying to tell them what to do. But to his credit, after the player’s said no, we don’t get it, he simplified real quick and the kids went back in the game and did what he said.

When you see that blank look, from people new to church, jump in and help them and keep it simple.

It is tough to read this sign, from my picture, inside Danforth Chapel on the Kansas State University campus but it is worth reading. Danforth Chapel was built in 1949 with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. William Danforth. It was dedicated to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to honor K-State war casualties, and is a popular venue for weddings.

To honor Veterans Day, November 11th. Let me encourage you to go to the chapel and take a moment to honor our war casualties and honor God. The sign says:

The Danforth Chapel Dedicated to the Worship of God with the Prayer that here, in Communion with the Highest, those who enter may acquire the Spiritual Power to Aspire Nobly, Adventure Daringly, Serve Humbly.

If you click on the picture it will open a new window and is better for reading.

The “Hail Mary” is a pass that is used as a last chance to win a football game. The football team that must use a ‘Hail Mary Pass” at the end of the game in many ways is almost powerless. They most likely have about run out of time on the game clock or have no timeouts left or are in a fourth down situation. They are desperate.

Prayer in our own lives has turned into a ‘Hail Mary Pass” to God the father due to our lack of time, because we are too busy to pray in any other way. Most of us only pray when we are desperate.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

There are some very good points to ponder in the above scripture. “If my people will humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…………….then will I hear from heaven.”

So to get God the Father to hear your prayers, you now know what to do.

A football team goes to practice to improve their skill of the game. The two most important skills of the game are blocking and tackling. There are also many other skills that are very important to football.

The center-quarterback exchange is one of the most important skills of the game, whether it is an under the center or a shotgun snap. The long snapper exchange with the holder for field goals and extra points might decide the outcome of the game. The punters and kickers must practice their skills everyday.

The quarterback and running back exchange during handoffs and pitches. The quarterback passing the ball to the receivers is a skill to learn. The receivers and the routes they run, before the pass is thrown their way is something to learn.

Football practice is a school in session. Now what happens if the football team shows up to practice and just goes through the motions, never really getting any better at the game? The team that doesn’t improve is a team that will lose the game on Friday nights.

As Christians are we going to church on Sunday and just going through the motions, but never improving our skills? Just like a football team that needs to constantly work on their skills of the game. (blocking, tackling, punting, handoffs, passing, catching, etc.) A Christian needs to be improving their skills. (praying, fasting, giving, teaching, learning, reading, etc.)

So as a Christian or a football team are you improving your skills and eating the solid food of knowledge as a warrior or are you still sucking on milk like a baby? Are you satisfied with going through the motions and never becoming the Christian or football player you were meant to be?

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

All the talk of concussions sometimes makes me wonder if football will slowly disappear over the next hundred years. Today, as we think about where we are with the game of football, I think there is no way the game will ever disappear from the sports scene in America. The game just seems so popular at all levels of play.

Recently, my family traveled to Scotland to visit family members living in Edinburgh. Since we had never been to Scotland, they took us to all the historical sites in the Edinburgh area. While we were at the Scotland Historical Museum one of the displays just caught me by surprise.

The display was of a baptismal font with a description of what it was and what it was used for. I turned to one of my family members, who lives in Scotland, and said, “Why would they need a baptismal font and a description of what it is and where it was used, in a museum?”

His answer shocked me! He said, “When the government last surveyed the people of Scotland, only about 50% of the people claimed to be Christians and only 8% say they go to church each week.” He also said, “When the churches of Scotland actually count heads of those in the pews, on Sundays, they find only 4% of the people really go to church each week. So that is why they need a baptismal font in a museum, because most people in Scotland are not being baptized and have no idea what baptism is and for sure what it means.” Let me put that percentage into perspective for you. A small community in Kansas, that has 5,000 people in the county, would only have 200 people at church on a Sunday morning.

The rest of our time in Edinburgh, as we walked around or rode the bus, I paid attention to the churches we saw. The city is filled with large stone structured churches with steeples as tall as or taller than the ‘Cathedral on the Plains’ in Victoria, Kansas. But many of these magnificent structures are no longer churches. The buildings are used for community centers, coffee shops and other retail stores.

As I would see these big beautiful old church buildings being used for other purposes, this question kept popping into my head………….Are the churches of Kansas going to become community centers and retail stores someday? Will we start having baptismal fonts in our museums, because no one is being baptized and nobody knows what they are?

Could the active churches and the great game of football disappear from the Kansas landscape? After seeing what is happening in Scotland, the answer is unfortunately yes, that it could happen.

1. Scots are abandoning their religion
2. Lack of interest is killing the church

Has your hometown young man or woman grown up to be a star athlete in college or the professional sports or some other national exposure? Do you find yourself looking back in time, saying, “I remember him when he was a kid and never imagined this would happen?”

You are amazed at what he or she has done, because you can see them as a young person growing up with all the struggles of youth in your hometown.

The people of Nazareth overlooked Jesus also. “What do you mean the carpenter’s son is doing all these miracles?” The people of Nazareth took him for granted. They thought they knew him.

How about you? Do you take Jesus for granted also? That story about the Nazarene’s taking him for granted in the Bible was meant to be there for us to learn from. All of us, at some point of time, can’t see the greatness in the young people in our midst and can’t see the mystery and greatness in Jesus the Christ.

Mark 6:1-6 Jesus went out from there and came into His hometown; and His disciples followed Him. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief.

Another humble chaplain attached to the Marine Corp and his short story.