Christian Athletes

I don't believe people should miss church to play games, including golf or fishing. Locally, the Powder Puff Soccer Tournament is held on Sunday and many families will miss church. ALSO, we have a number of families who have their daughters in 'Beauty Contests' and they will travel out of town for weekend pageants.

What if this is a professional player who must travel and play on Sunday? Perhaps they can 'worship' with other Christian players at a different time of the day.

 

Great points, Diane. I think the whole "Christian athlete" thing is just symbolic of our shallowness and hero worship. Sure, most teams have a chapel service where the players can "worship," but that's not the local church.

 

Many Christian athletes will attend chapel services provided by their teams. For example, I think just about every NFL team has a chaplain that hosts services for all who want to come for the team.

If playing a sport is their profession and they have to work on Sunday I do not have a problem with it if they are attempting to worship and serve at other times. Just as I do not have a problem with a man down at the factory that must work on Sunday to support his family.

Now if a person is missing Sunday services just for recreation, then I do have a problem with that.

 

For some athletes sports is not a game to be played, but a job.
Is there anyone in your church whose job occasionally requires they work on Sundays or Wednesdays? Have you ever worked on one of these days?
If your household ever watches sports on tv, or has ever been to a game then you are part of that group of people who are responsable for athletes working on your day of worship.

 

Back when Blackbird was a professional----wait, this forum is not in Blackbird's league!!!

Blackbird

 

So if an athlete who works on Sundays goes to church any day of the week to worship, then he is fine. According to the verse Dr. Bob gave I beleive that to be true.

 

Agree Dr. Bob but if it's golfing instead of any church attendance or fishing instead of church attendance, a beauty pageant, a children's tournament being scheduled for Sunday morning then I think it's wrong.

As I said... Many professional atheletes and coaches are Christians and find time before, after or another day to attend a 'service'.

Doctors, pharmacists, factory workers who are forced to rotate Sundays, etc. aren't given a choice.

 

A job that regularly takes one away from the services of His local church ought not to even be an option for a believer. Shows whacked out priorities.

 

PastorGreg,

So your advice to the factory worker in my town that has a good paying job with benefits is to leave his job because he has to work Sundays at times? There are not that many good paying jobs in our area, and they are supposed to just walk away from that? Desiring to provide for their family is a "whacked out priority"?

 

There's a few in my congregation in that situation...they come on Sunday night and/or Wednesday night, and I tell them "it's okay." They are already keeping their eyes open for the opportunity to have Sunday off entirely, but many times, having Sunday off relates to seniority or longevity of employment. They have to stick it out to get to that point.

 

Not forsaking the assembly means not forsaking . . . ie, if you miss a few it's not the end of the world.

Don't get me wrong--I'm an advocate for being in church every time the door is open, if you can be.

For years my dad had to work Sunday nights (newspaper man). But he was always in church Sunday morning and Wednesday night. After many, many years they finally let him have all of Sunday off.

Read about Eric Liddel, though. Good stuff. He was a Scotsman (later missionary to China) who won several medals in the 1924 Paris olympics. He refused to run on Sunday.

 

Not necessarily. I said regularly.

 

I heard Heath Shuler give a message at a men's meeting a few weeks ago. He told us about how when he told his grandmother he was going to the NFL she had admonished him that she had always taught him not to work on Sundays. He said his reply to her was

I thought it was pretty cute.

By the way, Heath was great. He has a wonderful testimony. We had 300 in attendance and 42 filled out decision cards and said they had accepted Christ that night. If you get a chance to hear him I would go.

 

Not going to church at all would be messed up priorities, working when thats what a man is supose to do is not, as long as they are still aboe to make time for God.

 

I agree. When I started working more than seventeen years ago at my current place of employment, the only day I didn't have off entirely was Sunday. This bothered me, so I visited with my pastor. (ALWAYS a good idea.) He asked me if the Lord had led me to that job, and I truly believed that He had. I was fairly new to town, but my pastor knew that in order to get the better hours and/or shifts, a person had to "pay their dues". I often got off work at 7 a.m. on Sunday and had to be back at work that evening at 11 p.m. Now I am a production manager, and I've worked probably five Sundays in the last ten years. God knew my heart and worked everything out. Amen!

 

I don't believe that "going to church on Sunday" is going to church, whether you are an athlete, a grandmother, a pastor, or all three.

 

Not sure too many slaves in New Testament times had Sundays off

A friend couldn't figure out why in the world nobody would come to Sunday evening services. People were there in the morning - no problem.

He decided to ask all of them (small congregation) and found they all worked swing shift and were at work.

They started a Sat. morning Bible study and packed the place out