Prayers For Blowouts will be featuring posts from PFB Members this summer. This submission is from Member #038, Michael Terry.

Well, I know I’m new around here (as a contributor) so I want to say “hi” and give a brief introduction. As you will see, if I make any other contributions here, I am not your typical American sports fan. I love racing, but hate NASCAR. I like NCAA Football, but am bored by the NFL. My top 5 sports, in no particular order, are F1, Pro Cycling, NCAA Football, Soccer, and ALMS (do any of you even know that last one?). So even though my “fanhood” may not jive with yours, I hope my contribution(s) will be readable, enjoyable, and beneficial to all the PFB readers.

There has been a massive upheaval in the sport of Formula 1 racing. Even as I type this, news of an imminent change of command at the head of the FIA (the governing body for F1) has just been announced. A lot of the upheaval has centered around a desire to cut costs. The FIA wants to appear like they are cutting costs while The Formula One Teams Association (or FOTA) thinks that the ways the FIA are choosing to cut costs are… hmm… well… “bloody stupid.” In an effort to find a Christian life lesson in the world of sports, I began to think about how a situation like this plays out in the Church.

The FIA didn’t like its image so it decided that it was time to cut costs. But in a sport where an average of $10m is spent to take off 0.10 sec. of a lap time, the cost cutting methods that were chosen are lame. They banned all in-season testing, for one thing, as well as changing the aerodynamic regulations. But the straw that broke the proverbial camels back was when they placed a budget cap on next years racing. They told teams “if you spend under $___ you will have more lax rules while if you spend over $___ you will have a more strict set of rules in place that will, in effect, attempt to hamper your team and its performance“.

Why do these things chap the hides of F1 fans? We are coming off of an F1 Championship that was decided by 1 point on the final corner of the final lap of the final race of the season! Does it get much more exciting than that? But the FIA, again, wants to save face and not look bad, so they went for the new rules changes. But like most who want to save face, they really don’t want to change anything other than outward appearance. I’ll give you an example: F1 rules state that you can only bring one car per driver to each race. This sounds like an effective cost cutting solution since teams used to bring as many as 4 cars per driver to each race, but the fine print of the regulation states that you can bring all the parts necessary to build a second car, it just can’t be put together. It is this kind of hypocritical, “face-saving” that has me chomping at the bit for a new head of the FIA. But how does this apply to the Church?

As those of us who have the audacity to call ourselves followers of Christ know, it is our job “to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.” One of our directives is to love and serve the poor. In the last 20 years or so a new attitude has infiltrated the Church. It’s the idea that a big fancy church building full of people equals a good church. We must ask how this attitude jives with out directive to love others by giving of ourselves. Many of these “Mega-Churches” have shared their desire to serve the poor and they can tell you how much they give…etc. This spoken desire, however, is conflicted by other actions. How does a 37 million dollar gaudy monstrosity of a building help you serve the poor? Many of these churches like to say they are serving the poor but their bank records say another thing.

So what am I espousing here? Am I telling us all to live in monasteries and have no monetary income? No. All I want to encourage us with is that if we say we are followers of Christ who want to love and serve the poor, we should have concrete evidence of it in our lives. We should volunteer to serve dinner at a homeless shelter. We should sign up to give less fortunate children a better christmas by providing some gifts to those who might not receive any. There are endless numbers of charities like Blood:Water Mission and the International Justice Mission that are doing great work around the world and would gladly and humbly accept anything you can offer. My extended family and I are saving money so that we can purchase a well at Christmas time for a village in Africa through Blood:Water Mission as a way of giving back.

I hate to be the “guy” that most of you may think I’m being right now, but as we sit back in our comfy chairs to watch our NFL or MLB, let’s remember to not only say we love and serve the poor but to find ways to actually love and serve them. Let’s not concern ourselves with the outward appearance of our actions like the FIA, but rather let’s be the real deal.

As believers, we know what has taken us from being “poor in spirit” to the infinite riches of Christ Jesus. In loving those around us, we can show our brothers and sisters that difference as well.

Grace and Peace in Christ Jesus,

Michael Terry