The new god...



1 - I’m not trying to say that it is necessarily wrong for children to play organized sports . . . . [but] being a member of an organized traveling baseball squad at age ten doesn’t add a single day to one’s life. In fact, many of these activities get in the way of much loftier pursuits. People turned boys into men and girls into women for most of recorded history without dragging them around town with their tongues hanging out in an effort to keep up with their overachieving, undereducated, theologically illiterate peers as they try to win trophies that will eventually gather dust in a basement somewhere. If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a father.
- Voddie Baucham



2- Women who break the unwritten two-child-per-family rule are often greeted with questions like, “Haven’t you guys figured out what causes that?” Fathers who choose to emphasize their sons’ spiritual growth at the expense of their participation in the all-consuming pursuit of sports sometimes find themselves being alienated by other dads. Children who don’t attend the local public high school are often looked down upon because they don’t know the latest catch phrases or wear the latest designs. The pursuit of family driven faith can be costly.

- Voddie Baucham


Some online responses to Voddie:

1- H______

OH, OH, OH, Bro Voddie has hit a nerve now... I’ve seen the sports thing played (excuse the pun) out over and over as a former youth Sunday school teacher and lay worker jack of all trades in the youth department. What would be laughable, if it weren’t so SAD, are the LAME excuses the parent shares for pulling their youngster out of worship, Wednesday night or Sunday school. My favorite was one parent, no less a leader in the congregation that would come in and pull their child out of the class during teaching time to make the next game. Specifically, why would a parent ever enroll their child in AAU baseball or soccer when they know UP front EVERY game is on a Sunday? One parent pulled her youth out of church for hockey week after week — hockey in Florida – go figure. I have watched the spiritual growth (more specifically the lack thereof) of the students that made school or league sports, especially those with games or travel on Sundays a priority. The parents played lip service to nurturing their child’s spiritual growth, but it was pretty obvious to the student and all others that the main emphasis was prepping them for a scholarship or future fame. Enough mischief and carrying on occurred when we went on church road trips. I heard the stories of under-chaperoned free-for-all road trips for athletic tournaments. What a farce. Yes, brother Voddie hit a hot button. There were so many parents that I just wanted to take by the collar and ask “what in the world are you thinking?”

and..

2- Pastor's wife

Several years back we put our two oldest boys on a baseball team and specifically asked if they did any practice or games on a Sunday. They told us "no" so we enrolled them. We told them beforehand that if any games or practice was on Sunday the boys wouldn’t be there. They also said that all games would be finished before 7 on Wednesday night. The games got later and later on Wednesday night so we were pulling the boys out in the middle of the games towards the end. The coach told our oldest son about three quarters of the way through that he was an excellent pitcher and wanted to teach him so he could get better at it. We thought that was great but then found out the practice would be Sunday morning at 10 am. We told the coach that it wouldn’t happen because we were at church at that time. He tried to argue with The Desert Pastor over it but my husband told him that we were not going to do anything different.

By the next game our son was no longer the pitcher but put in outfield and treated as an outcast. He was their best pitcher as well as one of their best hitters. We never took them back to baseball although they called us and told us how good our oldest son was and that they would LOVE to have him back in baseball.

Yes, Voddie Bauchum is right in that sports are not the final all-in-all like many parents like to think. He is also right in that parents, who are true believers and not teaching their children to keep their eyes on the Lord have failed as parents. How sad when parents have the wrong focus for their children!


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So, you see, we can talk all we want about prioritizing. "My children will know that God is first in our family, but there is nothing wrong with sports." Lip service is just that.
Examine how much time parents spend taking children to and from sports (games/practices etc), time talking about those sports over dinner, even at church! Then compare
how much time parents spend in the Word with their own children. How much time praying together as a family (You can even count the 20 second meal prayer).
What do the FACTS say are our priorities? We can rationalize all we want, we prioritize the god of sport. We worship at that altar FAR MORE than at the altar of Jehovah.
What does this reality teach our children? The same thing it taught you and me. Give God some - He is important, but give SPORT even more.

Practice football, practice baseball, practice basketball, practice gymnastics, practice... fill in your sport. When do we practice our spiritual lives? When do we intentionally model a quiet time to our children? When do we sit with our children and go through God's word as we are commanded to do? When do we require, and help, and model Scripture memorization?
Sound weird? Unusual? Yes, it does. But how often do dad's teach kids to throw? To catch? Shoot the ball? Hit the ball? Put on shin guards?

Which priority is SCREAMING "I AM number one!!"?

These are things no one ever taught or modeled to us, so we do not do it either. Why??? Our parents gave the lip service, but silently taught us... "sports, sports, sports!"
Even pastors talk more about sports while walking/sitting around the church than anything else. We wonder why our congregations and society place God so far down on the list of real life priorities while placing sports so high on the list.


I heard the following this week. "The family is God's primary kingdom training ground. When our children focus on any event outside the family more than on anything inside the family, there is a serious misunderstanding of kingdom principles. When the family's schedule is centered around things outside growing and building the family for kingdom work - like mom driving kids all over for different schedules - we are far away from understanding and accomplishing the task for which God placed children under the care and nurture of their parents." Our lives are to be taken with kingdom work, yet we live as if our purpose as parents is to fill our children with as many activities away from and not a part of the family as we can.
Why is the family decaying????

We can rationalize and explain away so much, but the fact is we are lying to ourselves and ultimately to our children.
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