Some people don’t care for soccer because, in their view, there is not enough scoring. They may watch a few game highlights, but an entire game? No way.
I identify. There are sports I don’t understand and therefore don’t watch. Like cricket.
But I undstand soccer and therefore know that where the uninitiated sees scoreless activity, I see skill, coordination, teamwork, fluidity, build-up, and maybe even a GOOOAAALLL!!! I also see struggle, frustration, play-acting, and momentum change — all of which add to the exhilaration of a score.
Highlights do not tell the real story.
To state the obvious, the insistence on highlights has infected the church. I’ll spare the details, and merely say that we are not getting the real story of what God wants to do in His churches.
The real story of the church includes patience, confession, discussion, training, forgiveness, and decline. And yes, the occasional SCOOOORES of teamwork, good preaching, reconciliation, amazing worship, and new disciples!
Ancient believers in the monastic tradition practiced the “vow of stability.” After an initial period of time, during which the individual and the community assessed their mutual “fit,” the individual would take a vow to stay with that community through good and bad. Why?
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