The World of Challenging the Call...

My other observation from my trip to the Big House this weekend, had to do with the number of plays that were challenged. In the pros, and now in college football, teams can challenge the referee’s calls. The plays are reviewed in the press box and referees plays either stand or are overturned, to the boos or cheers of the fans. Our seats where right by the “red phone.” Note that Lynn Swan is in the tan suit, too.

People have opinions on challenging the play. I could hear it in the stands around me. Some think it’s a great idea, while others think it wrecks the spirit of the game. Nobody likes it when the call goes against them.

I wonder if there is not something to notice about this phenomenon in Christian circles. I wonder if many people are threatened by questions and the challenge that some call for to re-think theological ‘calls.’ Maybe some think that it wrecks the spirit, or slows down the ‘mission’ of the church. Maybe some like it when calls are just made and everyone just lives with it.

But if we, as people, are called to seek the truest reality we can, are not challenges part of the mission, the journey, the calling? Challenges of behavior, tradition, practices, and theology, have been, and must be part of our faith dna, or else we rest on a tradition that feels more like sentimentality than a passionate pursuit.

I hope Jesus followers live as questioners who are willing to not only ask questions that challenge the world in which we live, but who are also willing to challenge their own faith community of which they are connected. The trick is, that challenges go both ways. If we are willing to challenge, I hope we have a gracious spirit to be challenged, and all this is for the purpose of, together, attempting to see things a little more clearly.