I sat with Brenda, my wife and Alabama graduate, and watched her team put on the most impressive defensive performance for a championship game in recent college football history. Only one time in the entire game did LSU even move the ball past the 50 yard line – when there was 7:30 left in the game. And even then, BAMA’s defense proceeded to push them back 6 yards on the very next play. And a fumble on the following play gave BAMA the ball back on the 50 yard line.
The Crimson Tide didn't allow the Tigers to convert on a third down until the fourth quarter.
“We knew they were going to come out and try to run the ball against us," Tide’s Cortney Upshaw said. "It's great to get the win. We really didn't call many blitzes. We were just hoping to contain them."
Contain them? Can you say, “Total domination”, from start to finish?
LSU offense managed just 92 yards of total offense. Only 39 of that was on the ground, which had been LSU’s greatest weapon against BAMA when they squared off back in November. After the game, Tide defensive end Jesse Williams said, "Toward the end, I could definitely tell they didn't want to play against us any longer. It was sort of like the light at the end of the tunnel."
Well they could at least be sure that light was not an oncoming train, because that train, the Tide defense, had already been through and flattened them!
But even as I watched and cheered that unbelievable defensive performance, I was reminded, as impressive as it was, unless they had mustered some degree of offense, a win would still have been impossible! If they had played to just “not lose” instead of going out there with an intentional game plan prepared, practiced and in place; or if they had let fear keep them from trusting the skill of their young sophomore quarterback – they still might not have won. Many believe that was what kept them from victory the first time around against LSU.
CHURCH: Offense or Defense?
Is it possible that too many churches expend so much effort defending AGAINST evil, that we do well “holding the fort”, but fail to have a winning, offensive game plan?
Or from the opposite spectrum, are there too many churches that place so much emphasis on the offense that they have poor defense against the game plan of the enemy of our souls?
Interestingly, it’s not only on the defensive side of the ball that a team must defend well! What do you think the offensive linemen do? They are opening and defending the paths for the runners to run thru. And they are defending against the other team’s desire to get to and crush the quarterback – thus hoping to crush the will of the team itself. Even when we are on the offensive, we find ourselves strongly defending against the wile attempts to get us off God’s Biblical game plan.
Could this be why we are losing ground in the evangelical church in America? Are we becoming too much like the NCAA BCS conferences, arrogantly criticizing each other for poor defense and too much offensive emphasis or vice versa? We talk so much about excellence in “doing” church these days. Does that excellence pertain to just one side of the game plan or both? Offense or Defense?
The team that will win consistently and win the right way is the team that has a strong defensive game plan, builds on the Word of God and strives for authentic, Biblical transformation. That team also possesses a strong offensive game plan that includes both risk and solid, spiritual consistency. A plan that both defends the faith and aggressively develops a playbook that includes plays for pushing the church into the world – that’s our goal line!
Let’s not settle for getting to the 50 yard line, CHURCH! And let’s not settle for just keeping tabs on the enemy near the 50 either!
Jesus never told us to just hold on. He said, “Go and make disciples...” We must be intentional about gaining ground against the enemy!
But we dare not adopt only an offensive game plan that calls for just slinging the precious truth of God all over the field with no depth of defense for the truth – truth that translates to behavior and is validated by more than just impressive statistics! We ARE called to stand in unwavering defense against the evil and perils of the enemy of the souls of mankind!
It’s just a tho’t! What do you think?
