A certain young lad was keen to become a footballer (Aussie-rules of course...!).  He had watched lots of games on Television and had occasionally kicked the ball.  The sport appeared rather attractive – there was a lot to be said for it, even from a mere exercise point of view.  And who knows – maybe there was the chance of immortality – if only he could do well enough to become a star and get his name in the record books.  Over the years he thought about it a great deal.  Yes, he really ought to become a football player!

The young man began to make enquiries but discovered some rather daunting aspects to being a football player.  Footballers were required to live rather disciplined lives.  There were the mid-week training sessions from which no one was excused.  There was the discipline of doing exactly what the coach required and turning up for every game with no ifs and buts.  There were, of course, also some costs involved.  First, there were the financial costs: team membership fees and getting dressed in club colours, football boots and shin pads to begin with.  But more important were the non-financial costs: the things he would have to give up in order to practice and play every week of the season – come rain hail or sunshine.

One day he came to, what he considered, was a very sound and logical conclusion.  You don’t need to join a football team to be a footballer.  So, when he felt in the mood he got his football out of the shed and kicked it around the backyard or sometimes he would kick it around the local park.  It gave him great delight to kick the ball and he scored many a goal between the two trees in the park that served as his goal posts.  In his mind he could just imagine the crowd cheering him on.

Of course there were some things that he did miss.  The tackling and the passing to others were things he had to forego.  But then... this tackling stuff was part of the rough-and-tumble that he didn’t really like about the game anyway – one could get hurt doing that sort of thing.  So today you’ll still see him kicking the ball around in the park... because after all, you don’t need to join a team to be a footballer.

If that little scenario that I just painted for you seems ridiculous, ask yourself whether it is any more ridiculous than the person who claims that you can be a Christian without joining a church.  The man who argues that way wants the benefits of Christianity... and especially the immortality bit... but he doesn’t want the costs.  There’s too much that he feels he would need to give up.  And of course, the church is always after your money.  So he does some of his religious exercises by himself when he feels like it – all on his own.  He says a prayer occasionally when he feels like it and reads a Bible verse now and then.  For the rest he makes the goal posts to be what he wants them to be.

Of course, this man sometimes misses the sense of community and the idea of fellowship that Christians talk about.  There are times when he feels depressed and that God seems such a very long way away.  In those moments he wishes there was someone to cheer him up.  At other times he struggles with life’s little problems and he does miss having folk around him to challenge him to excel.  However, he also knows that people in community often get hurt in the daily hassles of life and he knows that relationships need hard work.  So today he claims he’s a Christian but he’ll tell you loud and clear – and often – that you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.

Well, thankfully football isn’t mentioned in the Bible.  So if you want to play football but don’t want to join a team, go for it.  I’m sure God doesn’t mind.  But the Bible does have a lot to say about the Christian church.  It teaches us that when we put our trust in Jesus then the Lord joins us to a community that the Bible speaks of as the Body of Christ.  The fact is that you can’t join Jesus and not be part of His Body.  Yes... that does bring some challenges but it also brings some wonderful blessings.

John Westendorp