Introduction

Our culture today often assumes the positive influence of athletic training and competition on human development. It’s largely understood, on a variety of levels, that to encourage a child to experience competition is to expose them to opportunities that will help prepare them for the rest of their lives.

During World War I, Walter Camp, a man partly responsible for the development of modern football, claimed that the

grand do-or-die spirit that holds the attack on the one yard line was what made Chateau-Thierry.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, p. 113. 

What Camp was claiming was that it was the character galvanized in the flames of formalized competition that made military victory a possibility.

Competitive sport has been credited with being the adhesive that holds society together and as being the essential catalyst that ushers “wet-behind-the-ears boys” into manhood. 

Now, whether one gives credence to claims like these or whether they’re marginalized as being overly hyperbolic, the sentiment is hard to deny. Competition and sport (that is, the chief and formalized conduit for competition) has become ingrained into North American culture and has even seeped into the pews and pulpits of evangelical churches. As one author notes,

Talk about football, Olympics, and little league soccer is more likely to dominate the conversation at a church potluck than any “spiritual” topic.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, pp. 113–114. 

The cultural assumption that competition encourages personal growth often substantiates the marriage of competition and believer sanctification. One author reflects this viewpoint, suggesting that competition does

portray values that are compatible with Christianity. These values may somewhat commend athletic competition to us … self-control, purpose or goal orientation, abiding by the rules and single-mindedness.

R. Scott Reavely, “A Theology of Competition,” pp. 1–2.

Following this line of thinking, not only does competition provide opportunities for a child to become a more prepared adult, but it also prepares a believer to become a more established and Christlike disciple.

A Personal Note

I spent about fifteen years of my life saturated in the culture of elite athletics. Starting out as a distance runner but quickly finding my way to freestyle wrestling, training and winning consumed my thoughts, dreams, and time. 

During the entirety of my time as an athlete, I also believed that God was calling me into vocational ministry. I felt a growing conviction to serve the local church, I was affirmed by believers who knew me well, and was being presented with opportunities to be involved in capacities that helped me grow in Christlikeness and ministry experience.

At first, these two paths seemed to run alongside one another seamlessly (that is, not interfere with one another). I was growing both as an athlete and as a follower of Christ en route to pastoral ministry. However, as my level of competition and success increased as an athlete, likewise did the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual demands of sport.

While these growing demands were expected, what was not anticipated was the internal tension I felt pushing up against my development as a believer. While my pursuit of athletic success and my maturity as a Christian seemed to largely compliment one another, there seemed to be a few points in which I could not reconcile the two. Eventually, with the tension continuing to grow, I was forced to chose between the two paths in an attempt to alleviate pressure. 

What follows in this series of posts are some of my early reflections as I tried to understand the tension I experienced in light of Scripture. I was seeking answer to questions I had assumed were obvious:

• As a Christian, is competition something that should be sought out for the purposes of edification?
• What does the Bible actually say about competition?
• What does it say about sport?
• Is a competitive nature an attribute of the imago dei or is it only a post-fall reality?
• Is it possible to be an elite athlete (or aspiring athlete) as well as a growing, flourishing child of God? 

While the whole of these questions are outside the scope of these reflections, my prayer is that they one day will be addressed. For now, the aim of what follows is to examine the biblical texts that are most commonly positioned as supporting a Christian pursuit of athletic success and seek to clearly understand the level of responsibility with which they are being used.