Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” (NIV)
Paul was saying that Christians are all members of Christ’s body and each one is important.
Yet often times church members forget that… they begin to think only about themselves; they just sit back and let the head do it all.
If football teams were run like that, they’d have a worse record than the 2008 Detroit Lions—they didn’t win a single game all season!
I recently came across this anonymous sermon illustration that got me thinking about church and football.
Imagine this scenario at a football game: The team comes running onto the field, bursting through their banner, taunting the opposing team and the crowd goes wild. Suddenly they give a great cheer and the coach trots out onto the field by himself. The players go sit on the bench.
“What’s going on?” a sportscaster asks. “What’s the coach doing out there?”
A 250-pound guard says: “He’s going to play today.”
“All by himself?”
“Sure, why not? He’s got a lot more experience and training than the rest of us. We’ve got a lot of rookies on this team, and we might make mistakes. Anyway, they pay the coach well. We’re all here to cheer and support him. And look at the huge crowd that’s come to watch him play!”
Suddenly, the opposing team kicks off.
The coach catches the ball. He valiantly charges upfield, but is buried under eleven opposing tacklers. He’s carried off the field unconscious!
We all know that’s ridiculous…that’s not how football is played! But that’s the picture many people have of church ministry.
The members expect the Pastor to do all the preaching, teaching, praying, fasting, witnessing, visiting, etc. because he’s paid and he’s better trained.
But listen to God’s Game Plan for the church in Ephesians 4:11-12, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (NKJV)
God gives leaders to the church, not to do all the work, but to equip God’s people to do it.
Pastors, evangelists, etc. help you discover your spiritual gifts and develop them so you can use them to build up the body of Christ.
The head is a part of the body but it’s not the whole body!
God wants your family to be strengthened and made whole—but the Pastor isn’t supposed to do it all for you. If your relationship with God is not what it should be, it will affect your relationship with your family. Apostle Peter said if your relationship with your spouse is off-track it will affect your relationship with God. He wrote in 1 Peter 3:7, “Husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife… as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
In other words, your first ministry priority is your family.
The pastor cannot fix your family for you any more than a coach can win a football game by himself.
The pastor can help tell you what God says to do but then you’ve got to get on the field and do it.
Bring your family to church, worship God together every service, keep your commitments to each other, pray together. Then they will follow your lead and God will help you win in the Game of Life!

Rev. Doug Johnson, senior pastor, Lexington First Assembly of God in Lexington, Kentucky.