An Unexpected Controversy

“Do we HAVE to?”

I recently made a brief post on Substack’s Notes feature, closed the app, and didn’t think much of it.

When I logged back in, much to my surprise, I found quite a bit of pushback. I wasn’t aiming to be controversial, but nevertheless, that’s what happened.

The post in question?

“Skipping church for kids sports is a sin, and I'm tired of pretending it isn't.”

I didn’t think it was controversial to say that it’s wrong to choose youth sports over worship. I just thought it needed to be said that the church in most places is incredibly lax toward the practice.

The responses I got ranged from (paraphrasing) “where is that in the Bible” to “I don’t think it’s a good idea, but it isn’t a sin” to “it’s a relationship, not a religion,” to “Jesus and the disciples violated the Sabbath, so it’s ok if we skip church” to “we can worship God anywhere, we don’t need the church or a building to do it.” Due to ideas like these, you’re starting to see churches that cancel services the Sunday before Christmas, or even Independence Day.

As I wrote previously, I don’t believe there’s a debate to be had on the matter. But the responses show there is much that needs to be said about the modern Christian approach to the Bible.

The book-chapter-verse defense reveals a massive problem in people’s understanding of the Bible.

When I say it’s a sin to skip Sunday worship for youth sports, I admit I do not have a Bible verse to point to that says “Thou shalt not play flag football during worship.” But, by the same token, I don’t have a Bible verse that says “Thou shalt not smoke meth,” or “thou shalt not view pornography.”

Now, you might say, the Bible commands us to be sober, and commands us not to look upon others with lust, and therefore we can say that those deeds are sinful. And I would agree. But to do that, you have to extrapolate from principles. You have to take a Bible verse, see what it’s teaching, and port that teaching to a modern application.

I think the principles are just as obvious for Sunday youth sports. Aside from the obvious references of Hebrews 10:25 and “forsaking the assembling of yourselves together” and Acts 20:7, where the church gathered on the first day to break bread, the principle here is very easy to extrapolate from other Biblical commands and principles.

Consider verses like “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” (Matthew 22:37), “I will not offer the Lord that which costs me nothing” (1 Chronicles 21:24), and “‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy” (Leviticus 10:3b). Malachi 1:7-10 shows how God feels when we offer Him our leftovers, and giving Him only the Sundays on which we don’t have “something better” to do is giving Him leftovers. It’s giving Him that which costs us nothing.

Insisting that the church cannot teach anything that is not explicitly stated in a single, tidy Scripture reference means we aren’t allowed to use our brains.

Hebrews 5:14 says that maturity is having our senses trained to discern good and evil. If the Bible were a legal code, we would not need to cultivate discernment. We see a similar idea in Jesus’ teaching, when He pointed out that His critics had missed the weightier matters of the law like justice, mercy, and faithfulness with their hyper-focus on book-chapter-verse literalism (Matthew 23:25). He also corrected them for failing to perceive that God prioritized compassion over sacrifice (Matthew 9:13).

The point of all of those is that God wants your heart. What kind of heart flips through the Word, says “Nope, doesn’t say I have to!” and gives up what has been the practice of the church from its very beginning? What kind of heart tells God “I’ll give you what I want to give you, when I want to give it, because I know you’ll accept whatever I decide?”

Shouldn’t we want a heart that says “The Bible indicates I need to assemble with the saints (Hebrews 10:25), I need to be there to encourage others (Hebrews 10:23-24), and God is deserving of the very best I have to give, up to and including the premium slots on my calendar?”

This is the kind of debate I just can’t believe we have to have. Granted, some who are younger in the faith need to be taught on these matters. But this “come to God in our own way” idea that insists on doing what we want unless the Bible explicitly says otherwise is, to me, a perfect microcosm for the weakness of modern Christianity.

Cleaning up small-time misdeeds like this is the kind of Broken Window policing I believe the church needs to rebound from the fecklessness we’ve embodied for so long. Until we’re serious about God and the gathering of His saints, we will not be much good in this world.

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Notes

Feels weird to put this at the end of an article, but more prayer never hurts, and knowing “the earnest prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much,” I know I’m asking in the right place…

I’ve been dealing with some health issues that aren’t life-threatening or anything, but they have negatively impacted my day-to-day life in multiple ways, and finding a solution is proving to be a challenge.

If you have a second, could you say a prayer that whatever this issue is would clear up?

Thank you, and thanks for reading!