Disciples or sideline participants?

Upward basketball. About this time of year, halfway through another season, I have a love/hate relationship with the league. For those who don't know, it is a Christian based league with the primary goal of offering a basketball league along with cheerleading as a means through which we can teach children Biblical character traits, truths, and, ultimately, share the Gospel with children and their families. Why I love it? That's obvious...I love children, basketball, cheerleading, and most importantly, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in non traditional ways. Why I hate it? Sometimes even the most Christian coaches, fans, even players, allow their passion for winning a game to divert their focus away from creating an environment condusive to sharing the Gospel and communicating bibilical character traits, etc. Often the focus of those committed to COACHING turns away from the kids they have been chosen to teach (disciple for the purposes of this post), to problems with officiating, scheduling, structure of the league, or even why one team has more skilled players than their own!

What DOES Upward basketball have to do with Christian discipleship? I'm convicted/burdened that so often, the sole purpose of our lives as followers of Christ is replaced by secondary passions, pursuits, even distractions. Just as a volunteer, Christian, Upward coach, who is to primarily be a basketball/cheerleading missionary can become preoccupied with the secondary preoccupation of winning a game or performing a cheer perfectly, so often I (and I suppose other Christians) get preoccupied with the issues within our churches, in our fallen culture, and even in our propensity to become obsessed with the empires we are building for ourselves at the expense of our primary reponsibility of making the Gospel known to all people. Isn't it so tempting and also so easy to slip into the habit of being a sideline participant rather than a disciple with an undistracted focus on the primary reason WE ARE disciples?

So, are we disciples or participants? Our attitudes about our relationship with Christ, our involvement in our church, among other believers, and our participation in advancing the Gospel are the indicators. As the director of a basketball league existing primarily as a missions program, there are so many similarities to our churches. Instead of remaining focused on the advancement of the Gospel, how often do we allow the mistakes made by our ministers, our propensity to measure our church by that "other church across town," and even our temptation to be shocked/angered/discoraged by the sinfunless in the fallen world WE have observed, but not invaded with the Gospel, to be our primary focus? The church is to primarily be a missionary sending/encouraging group of GENUINE disciples, if we are to follow the biblical model in the New Testament. What has it become in 21st Century America...in yours and my personal life? So, just as we love to  make excuses/place blame, become jealous and lose perspective in our passion for sports, do we allow these same issues to be the distractions which keep us from doing what we've signed on to be doing..."making disciples of all nations?"