The Holy Huddle

The people of Mudville love their high school football team. Grunt! Oompf! Ugh! Their beloved Mudville Hawks have always been the pride of the town…until one game, everything changed. Gasp! Oh no! What? At the most critical point, in the biggest game of the season, the ref blew his whistle once more. Tweee! Delay of game! What?!!? That’s the fourth delay of game call! Cletus! Get in there. Tell them to run the split back veer right. And hurry! Get that play off! Tweee! Delay of game! Again? What’s going on? They never left the huddle! Tweee!!! Delay of game! Okay, that’s enough. Time out, ref! What’s the big idea? Don’t you realize this is the most critical play in the most critical game of the season? Sure, coach. Well then, why can’t you get off a play? You see, coach, it’s like this. We were all set to break huddle, and Bubba said he had some personal things he needed to share with the group. What? Don’t you see? Bubba has never opened up like this before! I couldn’t just cut him off. But what about the game? And then Billy Bob had a prayer request he wanted us to lift up. I don’t believe this! Jojo Taylor then had to announce the upcoming benefit picnic for the adult children of dysfunctional gym teachers. But what about the game? I tell you, everyone had something significant to share. But what about the game? I have never gotten to know some of the guys this well before. But what about the game? It was a deeply moving experience! This is ridiculous! …sort of brings a tear to my eye, you know what I mean? Moral: Ridiculous? You bet it is! Everyone knows the purpose of the huddle is to get ready for the next play of the game. Yet many of us in the body of Christ are so stuck in the huddle of all our “good” church activities, that we’ve forgotten about the “better” activity of getting into the game to win the lost for Christ. Jesus said… The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Matthew 9:37 Yet in most churches over 90% of membership growth today comes from church transfers rather than new converts. It’s time for us to get out of the huddle and back into the game. What activity in your schedule will you give up so you can have more time to reach the lost? Put me in coach. I’m itching to play. Scratch, scratch.