Play for the Coach, Not the Crowd
Pleasing God and remaining faithful to the gospel when the world demands compromise
With four children, my wife and I have attended countless athletic events. We have enjoyed the quiet, air-conditioned comfort of precision rifle matches, endured the heat and seemingly endless hours of swim meets, track and field meets, and softball tournaments, and shifted uncomfortably on the bleachers at soccer and basketball games. Each sport is different, but they all share one thing: some of the entertainment comes from the competition, and some comes from the spectators.
Attend almost any high school athletic event, and you will recognize a few familiar characters. There is the parent who finds a place away from the crowd to watch and criticize every play and coaching decision. There is the excessively loud parent. And there is the parent who attempts to coach from the stands. These are the standouts, but most of the crowd is simply there to cheer for their team and their favorite player.
How close spectators can get to the athletes varies considerably. When our son competed on the precision rifle team, he told us that having us sit behind him made him nervous. So we watched from an adjacent room, following his shots on television monitors and electronic scoreboards. At other events, spectators stayed in designated areas. But at the cross-country and soccer competitions we attended, we could often get close enough to speak directly to the athletes. Often, the only separation between the athletes on the field and the spectators was the painted boundary line in the grass.
That closeness provided plenty of opportunities to offer encouragement—and unsolicited coaching.
Whether they know the rules of play or not, many spectators make it their personal mission to shout coaching instructions to the players on the field. “Run faster!” “Take the shot!” “Pass the ball!” Instructions come from every direction, often with enough confidence to suggest that the person shouting believes they should be coaching the team.
When we watched our daughter play soccer, we positioned our chairs just a few feet from the sideline. If the ball went out of bounds near us, a player might stop only a few feet away to throw it back in. Those moments gave the other spectators and us an opportunity to offer instructions and coaching suggestions. And we did, sometimes with unreserved confidence.
In these moments, something interesting was revealed. The players carried on as though they had not heard us. Even when the advice came from a player’s own parents, they kept their attention on the game. No matter how passionate or intense the shouting, the players never acknowledged these instructions or heeded their directions.
Their disregard for sideline instructions was not motivated by disrespect or a lack of proper honor for their parents. It was not an assessment of the advice’s validity or wisdom. They ignored the sideline admonitions because they were not playing under the authority or direction of the spectators. They were playing under the authority and direction of the coach.
Play calling from the stands had no merit; spectators’ criticism of a player’s ability mattered nothing, and the crowd’s pleasure was not the goal. The team executed the coach’s plays; their concern was meeting the coach’s expectations, and at the end of the game, win or lose, they hoped the coach would be pleased with their efforts.
Players on the field play for the coach, not the crowd.
When the world coaches from the sidelines
The world is constantly shouting instructions and demands at the church. Those demands often come with intensity, presumed authority, and a mixture of threats and promises.
The threat is that if the church refuses to heed the world’s wisdom, it will lose its influence, its appeal, and the resources needed to continue its ministry. The promise is that if the church acquiesces to the world’s demands, attendance will grow, and greater resources will follow.
This has been true in every generation, but following periods when the church has enjoyed significant cultural prominence, the fear of losing that position can make compromise dangerously seductive.
We are told that holding firmly to the faith once delivered to the saints will leave the church irrelevant and empty (Jude 3). We are urged to soften our language about sin, God’s wrath, and the necessity of Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement. Implied is the promise that making these compromises will cause the crowds to return. Then there is the demand that the sinful rebellion of the present culture be affirmed, accepted, and celebrated, with the threat of labeling any who will not comply as bigots spreading hate speech.
The pressure is real. But its intensity does not give it authority.
The world is not a passive observer of the church; it is a loud and often obnoxious spectator shouting demands, critiques, and instructions. When the church refuses to respond, the shouts and demands only grow louder. But like team players on the field, you must be clear-minded about who you are playing for, whose instructions you listen to, and whose commands you obey.
Pleasing the One who knows our hearts
Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul recalled the suffering he had endured at Philippi and the opposition he faced as he proclaimed the gospel among them. Yet opposition did not determine his message. God had entrusted him with the gospel, and he was accountable to God for how he proclaimed it.
Paul declared:
“As we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”
You cannot please God and please man, just as an athlete cannot play for the coach and the crowd.
Dear Christian, you are not called to win the world’s approval. You are called to please the Lord, who knows your heart, by being faithful with the gospel He has entrusted you with.
For Further Study
For a fuller exposition of 1 Thessalonians 2:1–8, listen to my sermon, “Please God, Not Man.” Sermon notes and outline handouts are also available for further study.
