What Does The Olympics and The Church Have In Common?
Coaches and Athletes
I am one of the millions of people on the planet who enjoy watching the Olympics. I am sure you are one as well. As one of those millions of people, I am sure that none of you are sitting glued to your television or computer to see Cecile, Laurent Landi, or Lance Brauman.
Who are these, you may ask?
Well, they are the coaches of Simone Biles and Noah Lyles, respectively. We hardly know their names, but their work is expressed in the extraordinary performance of the ones we did come to see, namely Biles and Lyles. (The name choices are for the sake of the analogy, not a plug for any country.) No one comes to see coaches; they are not the stars; we come to see the athletes. This is as it should be.
Now, the athlete is a type of the church. However, in the church, we have reversed this principle. The coaches in the church namely, apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers no longer see themselves as coaches; who exist to build up the body so that She can come to maturity and “break records”. But they now see themselves as “the athletes” and clamour for the limelight, quoting themselves, promoting themselves, gathering among themselves to measure themselves by themselves, and seeing themselves as something separate and distinct from The Body and worthy of attention.
The cloud of witnesses in the eternal stands and, indeed, the Triune God Himself are not in heaven to see coaches but to see a mature, beautiful athlete, the bride of Christ, running her race without spot, wrinkle or blemish. She is the star and focus, not the coach. As coaches, our joy and glory are tied to the church`s growth. When she runs sub 10, we rejoice, when she clears her hurdles, we rejoice, when she shoots her enemy dead center with her hand in her pocket with no gear, we rejoice. When she wins, we win; there is no rejoicing nor glory for us in our gifting – only in her winning the gold, namely, the well done of Jesus Christ.