Running away from church on Sundays

My running endeavours and my running club has come under fire from certain groups of people. I have been “rumoured”, or “accused” or just plainly said to be a bad example for skipping church on Sundays. Some just “make statements” into the air, not wanting to deal with the issue head on. Here’s in my defense, head on.

Theologically, it all boils down to our understanding of the nature of the church. What is our understanding of “the church”? The church consists of its people. It is not merely the gathering of people. It is the people itself.

Does the church cease to exist after its gathering on a Sunday morning? Nope. The church leaves the building, and the church goes out into the world, and lives out its function. Christians don’t cease to be Christians when they are outside the gathering of the church. The church doesn’t cease to exist after its meetings are over.

If we think otherwise, then there is a major flaw in our ecclesiology (doctrine of the church, in boombastic language). It is a great flaw to think that “church the gathering” is absolutely superior to “church the individual”, or vice-versa. If we think that missing “church the gathering” is gravely wrong beyond justification, then we really need to relook our theology.

I can go on, but I’ll stop here for the doctrine part. Coming to the “bad example” part.

Let’s start with the role model argument.

For every Eric Liddell you quote me (who refuses to run on Sundays), I can quote you a Ryan Hall, a Josh Cox, a Bob Price, an Alicia Shay, and a Penny Heyns (four of them top American distance runners, one of them an Olympic swimmer and gold medallist, all of them still alive). All their athletic achievements were done on Sundays. Is Eric Liddell the only valid example of a Christian athlete, and everyone else a bad example?

Secondly, the hypocrisy argument.

Any Christian leader who skips a Sunday is commonly accused to hypocrisy. Any other Christians who miss Sundays are seen as non-committal. Worse, some accusers call them “false disciples”.

Let me show you a greater hypocrisy.

We preach a spirit of excellence. We preach Caleb, who had a different spirit. We preach Joshua, who was strong and of good courage. We preach Paul, who ran the race to win. We preach giving our best in whatever we do, as though we are doing it unto the Lord.

Then, we turn to the sportsman and say, “that’s why you cannot go to competitions on Sundays”. You are literally asking him to hang up his boots for good.

Any serious athlete can identify with this: We train hard all our lives. We do things that people don’t normally do. We make ourselves go through what normal people won’t subject themselves to. We work hard, in season and out of season. We do what we have to do, even when nobody is looking.

And you piously tell the athlete, “you cannot compete on Sundays.”

Understand this: Every competition, minor or major, are held on Sundays. From age-group level to school level, they are held on Sundays. From state level to national level, no different. Olympic level and world championship level, of course they  are on Sundays.

So, if you tell people that “you cannot, must not, and must never skip church on Sundays” and teach it as a blanket rule… in essence, what are you telling them? You are basically saying, “Sports in only a past time. You can do it for fun. But don’t dream about going far.”

After that, we  preach to them a “spirit of excellence.” What is that? It’s either inconsistency, or hypocrisy. You teach people to resign themselves into mediocrity, and then you challenge them to do otherwise later on… while at the same time, forbidding them to prove themselves. That is one confusing style of leadership.

So when all Christian athletes resign themselves into mediocrity, who do we have as role models? You will see Christiano Ronaldo becoming wild with women and posh living, attaining his fame and wealth at such a young age. We see Michael Phelps smoking weed in a college party. We see Usain Bolt crashing his car, obviously breaking the speed limit. We see chest-thumping, thrash-talking NBA stars on ESPN. Then we turn to our kids and say, “See those sports celebrities? We must be careful not to become like them.”

“So, who should we look up to, momma?” The kid asks.

That guy is probably not saying "Will you kindly pass the ball to me please? Thank you."

The lack of good role models in the real world are our own undoing. We prevent Christians from making any real impact in the public arena, we build a hedge around ourselves… and we point fingers at those who are not doing a good job as public personalities. We exhort our young people for emulating bad examples, when we offer no good  examples for them to learn from.

Where, may I ask, are the good examples? They are all hiding behind the walls of the church.

Same applies for the media world. Same applies in the entertainment world. Same applies in the career world.

Kris Allen won American Idol. Putting the debate on who-deserved-better-to-win aside, I say that is a good thing. America has a good role model to look up to. That is because Kris Allen’s talent has shone beyond the four walls of the church building. And it goes to prove that Christians can make a good impact in the music industry, reclaiming it for the glory of God.

So, shy away more, on the sole basis of not skipping church on Sundays. We have ourselves to blame when bad messages permeate our airwaves, and messages of sex, horror and violence are the theme of award-winning sitcoms. Remember all those artistes and TV shows that you tell young people not to watch? If we possess the spirit of excellence, prevention is not the only cure. It’s time to ask ourselves, when are we gonna start winning?

Christ Himself says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). We are not merely playing defense for the kingdom of God. We are supposed to be putting the devil’s influences under siege! Why are we commonly found to be hiding behind our walls, while Satan’s forces get their way?

Let us not be confused. Paul says we are running the race to win.

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