Playing to Win or Playing not to Lose?

Since I’ve started watching football these last few years, I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon. Sometimes I’ll watch a game unfold in a certain manner. One team has trouble moving the ball down the field and scoring; their offense struggles to complete passes and run for yards. The other team has control of the game and usually enters the final minutes with a lead. 

Then, something amazing happens, and it’s almost predictable. The trailing team will suddenly change. Passes will begin to be completed; runs will go for yards. The offense marches down the field and scores. Maybe their defense stops the opponents and the offense has another shot. They march down and score again. The opponents’ defense, which had been stopping the offense for the majority of the game, starts to crumble and falter. Sometimes they hold on for the win; sometimes the team trailing comes back for a memorable victory. 

I’m not interested in the final outcome. What interests me is the dynamic of the game, the aggressiveness of the teams and their respective offenses and defenses. Momentum, that magical watchword that commentators love to reference, swings from one team to the other, and the reason people talk about it so much is that it actually seems like a viable component of the game. If Team A has had the momentum the entire game and Team B starts making plays, the momentum shifts and the situation is ripe for the comeback. It’s tremendously exciting, especially if your team is the one coming back. It’s almost better than if your team leads the whole game and wins comfortably. 

But it’s bizarre how the tables can turn so completely. The leading team was aggressive on defense the whole game, making tackles or turnovers, disrupting pass patterns and flying to the ball. The trailing team’s offense seemed rattled and stymied, unable to convert third downs to prolong drives; passes would be out of reach, run blocks would not be crisp and timely, and the endzone was miles away. Then momentum swings and the defenders are missing tackles, giving up huge plays, allowing points to be scored and long runs to be gained. The offense that was stalled kicks into overdrive; passes are on target, receivers are running great routes, ball carriers are breaking tackles, blockers are flattening their assignments. 

The passive defense that allows such shifts has been called the prevent defense in common parlance. The leading team softens their defense to prevent the opponents from making big plays to turn the tide of the game. If you’re down two touchdowns, you don’t want to give up a seventy yard touchdown because you’re being too aggressive, the prevailing wisdom holds. Therefore the defense eases up and the offense finds a rhythm. The results can spell disaster for the team leading that goes into prevent defenses. Commentators call this “playing not to lose instead of playing to win.” Rather than continue to play with the same level of aggression and intensity that created the lead, teams ease off the accelerator and play to hold the lead, react to the opponents instead of imposing their game plan on them. If you’ve watched a season of football, you’ll probably be familiar with this concept.

So what? you may be asking. Well, I was just thinking that the Church plays not to lose instead of playing to win.

How is that? It’s a bit hard to put into words, but let me just begin by defining modern Christianity in the Western culture. A simple task, I’ll admit, but bear with me. (By the way, spelling is key with that phrase, “bear with me.” Think about it.) This may be an oversimplification and a gross generalization, and if so then so be it. But modern Christianity seems more concerned with preventing sin and gussying up the image of the Church than going on the offensive. We condemn homosexuality and promiscuity and abortion and lascivious lifestyles, and drill the younger generation with dire predictions and consequences if they stray. As my pastor Lloyd would say, the Church is more known for what it’s against than what it’s for. We’re trying to prevent decadence and sin and the moral decline of America, and doing a lousy job by the way. We’re back on our heel, reacting to the world and cultural zeitgeist, beating the drum for politicians who share our views on social issues and economic ones. 

Meanwhile the offense is moving down the field, racking up points. As the book UnChristian details, more and more of the younger generation of non-believers have worse and worse opinions about Christianity, and the moral compass of younger Christians (at least, those who identify themselves as such) does not preclude things like premarital sex, cursing, gambling, and carousing, to name a few things. The game is rapidly slipping out of our hands; all the momentum seems to be on the other side. The culture celebrates things like homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, irresponsibility, materialism, and sees little distinction between most Christians and themselves, especially on the last issue.

And how do Christians respond? By looking at each other on Sundays, shaking their heads, donating some money to the politician that sounds like they’ll fight for our beliefs, and maybe throwing up a prayer or two. Not good enough.

It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. Perhaps the best way to turn the tide in the battle for the hearts and minds of the current generation isn’t to retreat to churches and huddle around in small groups of like-minded individuals. Perhaps the best way to defend our beliefs is to go on the offensive, to speak out in our workplaces, to refuse to see movies celebrating Godless behaviors, to distinguish ourselves from the world, to counterattack with the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the world throws their values and mentality at us. 

Here’s the thing, though. Offense can be, well, offensive. We need to be willing to be offensive. We don’t have to present the Gospel in an offensive way, but the Gospel itself will be offensive to lots of people who don’t like the idea that they can’t do whatever they want to, that their actions and desires have actual consequences, that a morality higher than themselves will judge them. Are we willing to be that offensive? Speaking the Truth in love, but still speaking it? Maybe it’ll mean you don’t get invited to parties as much, or people mock you for being a religious fanatic, a “fundamentalist.” And (gulp) you’ll probably have to start doing some serious reading into the Word, and other resources about the Word, because once you draw a line in the sand, those who don’t like lines will come after you. They’ll start nitpicking everything you do and say. They’ll look for the tiniest particle of hypocrisy, and pounce on it immediately.

One of the side benefits (note: read with serious sarcasm) is that this will inevitably lead to more conversations with God, more reliance on Him for wisdom, patience, strength, and love. Just like you truly understand something when you have to teach it, you really will behave like a Christian once you put yourself out there as an exemplar. Isn’t it just like God to combine the witnessing and winning of new converts with the deepening and enriching of your own relationship with Him in the same process? I love that kind of multitasking. 

A few notes in closing. This is a general principle. I’m not advocating that you immediately start picking verbal fights with people, nor start badgering people to get saved. Your personal situation is unique and the Lord will dictate how to use you in the lives of those around you. Again: the Lord will dictate, not you or I or your pastor. That’s the key element to the whole dang opera. This is the Lord’s work, not yours, and it’s His responsibility to win people to Him. All we have to do is make ourselves available to do and say and be whatever He tells us. And depending on where you are in life, and who you are, and what you do, that’s going to be different. Your end of the bargain, again, is to be available, to be part of the offense, to say things when He prompts you to, or offer to pray, or volunteer at soup kitchens, or sell your car and buy a cheaper one so you can give away the excess to missions. Whatever He calls you to, you have to be ready to do. 

And second, “you” includes me. I’m not preaching from Mount Pious here, a spiritual giant talking down to all you peons. I’m in the same boat. But I want to make a difference. I want to go on offense. I’m tired of seeing social rot creep over our culture, of ever diminishing values and virtues blared across the airwaves. Are you tired of that too? Do you want to start doing things that have eternal value and endurance? Do you want to fight on the front lines? Saddle up, pilgrim. The world is at war; the battle is joined. Are you in, or out?