Are you a football player if you never run a play?

Football is a game of action. You get your marching orders in the huddle, then form up and run the play that was called. Players that aren't playing don't even go to the huddle. They sit on the sidelines or in the locker room.

It should be the same way in the church, but it isn't. Some huddle up every Sunday morning for service, then go right back to the bench and wait for the next huddle. They don't run plays. They don't practice on their own. Just huddle to bench to huddle to bench.

They call themselves players and they have the team logo on everything they own. They can tell you how they came to the team and how long they have been playing for. They know every aspect of running a huddle, but almost nothing of playing the game. As far as they are concerned, that is the coach's job. They are content to huddle up briefly each week, then go back to that comfortable bench.

When we huddle up, we need to be prepared. We should have our pads and helmet on. We should be rested and alert, ready to do what we are called to. When the huddle breaks, we need to form up and run the route that we have been called to run. Only when we are fulfilling our role on the team should we consider ourselves to be players.