A Seeker Friendly Hockey Game

One of my familiar stops on the web is www.Challies.com. I like it because of it’s fair and balanced book reviews, his helpful information about what is being said at conferences (he blogs live from great conferences), and the info and links about what is being said in the internet realm about issues related to church life and Christian living.

He recently posted an interesting short-story about a “seeker-friendly” hockey game that serves as a great parable of how unreasonable it is to alter the corporate worship of a church in order to make unbelievers feel welcome. You can read the whole story here.

Of course, we want to warmly welcome visitors, and seek to help them understand what being a follower of God is all about. But as the story humorously points out, changing the way we do things for their sake is hardly the right way to help them see how WE really do things.

At the end, the “hockey seeker” recognizes that he didn’t get a proper and truthful presentation of what hockey is really all about. The story goes like this…

“But it wasn’t really hockey was it? I mean…I still don’t know anything about the game.”

Darryl smirked. “Not if you mean hockey the way your grandpa played it. And not if you mean hockey the way the rule book tells you to play it. But you had a good time, right?”

“Yeah, it was great!”

“Then that’s what matters, right? You had a good time.”

“I guess so. Do you have an extra ticket for next Saturday?”

You can plug in “church” and “the Bible” and it exposes the weakness of following the “seeker-friendly” philosophy of ministry. “It wasn’t really church was it?…”Not if you mean church the way your grandpa played it. And not if you mean church the way the Bible tells you to do it. But you had a good time, right?…that’s what matters, right? You had a good time.”

I enjoyed the story, and I think you will too.