Notes from and reflections on Doug Wilson’s sermon series “Athletics and the Christian Community” — No. 1 (July 19, 2026)
Doug Wilson’s much misunderstood ‘Moscow Mood’ is probably best summarized by the phrase championed in his church, school(s), publishing company and Canon + app: “All of Christ for all of Life.”
Being a ‘Bible people,’ Wilson argues, means applying Biblical principles and categories to all the details and situations of life. That includes sports. Christians ought to think like Christians, everywhere — on the field and off. When they do, they’ll inevitably realize that what takes place on the field was never about the objective outcome.
“It’s not about the ball,” Wilson said this summer during his first sermon in a series titled “Athletics and the Christian Community.”
“It’s about something else.”
I’ll skip ahead to the answer key, since Wilson and I arrive at the same place, which is one reason I’m excited to walk through this series in our Skieologians column over the next month or so:
Sports, like everything for the Christian, is about Christ.
What I’ve championed here and on my podcast, and hopefully in my own example, is that sports is about experiencing God and the heavenly realities he’s embedded into our earthly patterns so that we might become more like His son. In other words, sports is about sanctification.
Thus, sports is relevant for everyone. Pastors and singers. Old and young. Parents and kids. Coaches and athletes. Broadcasters and podcasters. Fast and slow. Good and bad.
“When it comes to how to think about athletics,” Wilson stated. “Absolutely no one is on the bench.”
The Bible talks about sports
The apostle Paul liked sports.
“The way Paul used sports metaphors, it seems plain that he must have had a subscription to ESPN,” Wilson stated. “And most of his interest is devoted to track and field.”
The images he uses are easy for lifelong Christians, use to the cliche motivational (and possibly misinterpreted) verse Sharpied onto their skin before the conference meet, to gloss over. We shouldn’t.
“The way he uses them shows how he believes sports lessons are transferable concepts,” Wilson argued.
Simply reading one of the dozen or so athletic metaphors in the New Testament easily elicits a mental image. But if we’ve ever felt fear during crunch time, puked after a crusher, navigated a 9-month rehab, suffered across the final 10 miles of an ultra or received a heated, honest rebuke from a coach, we feel it.
“There’s more to it when you’ve actually gone through it,” Wilson aptly remarked.
This is a good argument for continuing to exercise the body, to train the body, to workout your body, to put your body through a 12-week marathon build-up, by the book, intervals, long runs, threshold sessions and all — for a lifetime. Because even though Wilson points out in the sermon text (1 Timoth 4:8) that physical fitness only has a small value compared to spiritual fitness, the two go hand in hand.
Sports has the potential to be very profitable, Wilson argued, IF you can transfer the transcendent takeaways (my way of saying ‘lifelong lessons’) over to the spiritual realm. This is what I’ve felt for a long time. Holding fast to this reality has sharpened my attention to the big and small things that happen before, during and after each workout or race. I pay attention to little insights and look closer for ways in which Christ is trying to use sports and my specific sports story to draw me to Him. To be blunt, it’s made this entire enterprise worthwhile, even a decade-plus after boxing up my final real jersey, the kind with a school’s name on the front.
You might share a similar sentiment, even if you’re not a Bible guy or gal. Most people recognize sports is of little value if it’s only about winning or losing. In fact, most people have no problem publicly rejecting that idea. Why else would we stop our Instagram reel scrolling to pile on the overzealous t-ball coach arguing with an umpire like it’s game 7 of the World Series?
Additionally, most people I know promote participation in sports because of the long-term benefits. Sports are good for your resume, they help you learn how to set goals, work with others and navigate disappointment. They provide structure and cultivate mental toughness. But the Christian goes a step further. The Christian says, “Can we make this — the games — about experiencing Christ and becoming more like Him? If we can, then this running thing actually has real tremendous value. Eternal value.
I don’t really need this….
If you’re not convinced to at least rethink dusting off that Smith machine in the basement, locating your running shoes, greasing up the bike chain or (if you’re really brave) trying to apply some grip wax to cross-country skis for the first time in years (just know, you’re hip flexors will scream at you for a week after your initial diagonal stride session), might I bring up something Wilson said that stuck with me.
I’m summarizing here, but he essentially said that certain lessons of great spiritual value can’t be learned in a book or in a classroom. Certain lessons are only learned by, and this is a direct quote, “praying to the Lord while throwing up by the side of the field.”
“Oh Lord, teach me extraordinary patience,” Wilson continued later, cleverly pretending to be a non-athlete throwing up a prayer.
“. ….and may I learn it all from books.”
Wouldn’t that be nice? Not going to happen. Some times, you have to work up a little sweat.
Verses, quotes and takeaways
I like how Wilson points out that sports is first and foremost a training ground. As such, coaches and athletes and parents shouldn’t protect themselves or their kids from the gritty components in favor of the gentle new age approach of ‘just having fun.’
“You’re not trying to escape the hardship, but to apply it,” Wilson said. “Learning how to persevere through an artificial difficulty prepares you to know how to persevere through the actual difficulties.”
This is exactly what I and others have been saying. When I asked Seth DeMoor about how he balances sports and parenting, he replied, “It’s hard.”
And, like I said in the Stewardship in All Seasons post where I inserted this quote already once before, that’s kind of the point.
“I’m always teaching the kids about doing things that make you uncomfortable. Because life is uncomfortable. It’s not easy,” he continued. “You’re never going to have an easy road all the time. So being able to persevere through the challenges of life – whether it’s work, schedules, school, anything – the loss of a loved one – that’s what running really teaches me. And I know it’s teaching them as well.”
Many people do use sports as a stress relief; a place to process their day; a space to solve problems; they’re drawn to the activity because it really is fun at its core. I would argue those things aren’t bad in and of themselves, but they aren’t the end all be all either. God did give us sports to enjoy, so we should find pleasure in the movement patterns, the thrilling comeback, the neck-and-neck, Latin-based idea of competere — striving alongside one another. Certainly I believe there’s a conversation (or maybe entire book) we need to have linking Joe Rigney’s exploration of Christian hedonism in “Strangely Bright — Can you Love God and Enjoy this World?” and sports.
But, for the sake of this article, I’ll fast forward to what Wilson also points out:
“If you are thinking about athletics rightly, you are preparing to extend the principles of discipline into your more ordinary life.”
He listed a few verses where the Bible presents athletic metaphors that extend into the Christian walk and/or ministry:
- Rigorous training
- 1 Corinthians 9:25 – Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
- 1 Timothy 4:7-8 – Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
- Singleness of purpose
- 1 Corinthians 9:26 – So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
- Delayed gratification (1 Cor. 9:25)
- Streamlining for maximum performance
- Hebrews 12:1 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
- Self control
- 1Corinthians 9:27 – But I discipline my body and keep it under control,[b] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
- Perseverance
- Hebrews 12:2 – …looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
- Endurance (1 Timothy 4:8)
- Intense competition with lofty objectives
- 1 Corinthians 9:24 – Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
- High stakes
- Ephesians 6:12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
- Faithful adherence to a set of rules to not be disqualified
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
2 Timothy 2:3-7
Paul provides three illustrations here: warrior, farmer and athlete. Each calling requires hard work and physical discipline, Wilson noted before adding that the apostle thinks striving is a good thing. Christians shouldn’t strive selfishly, but in all things, work as if working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23).
Christians should savor the wins more than anyone. Compared to unbelievers, Christians should work harder, want to win more, enjoy the locker room laughs louder, smash workouts faster, relish the suffering deeper and understand the low points as much as they savor the high ones. We don’t, as Wilson said, settle for athletic mediocrity, because the standard in our life is not mediocrity. It is excellence. We define success as stewardship, in the Matthew 25 sense. Getting a compliment from a coach means a lot. Hearing God say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ means a lot more.
“Notice how it transfers,” the pastor, speaker and author said near the end of his half-hour sermon. “The man who striveth for mastery in one area knows how to transfer it to others.”
This is one reason why I think there is value to — no matter your age or ability or accessibility — train for a 5K, a half ironman, a trail ultra, a century bike ride, etc. To have a vision and demonstrate intentionality and follow through. To sign up for a challenge, make a plan, set goals and put yourself on the line. Not so you can win a cool trophy, snag a picture for social media to make other people think you’re awesome, or rake in a salary — though all of those things have their place.
No. I think showing ambition in sports matters because you’re proving to yourself that you still got it. And by ‘it,’ I don’t mean your pliability (unless you’re Tom Brady) or your explosion (unless you’re Lebron). I mean the ability to be disciplined AND the ability to care about something. I’ve said, somewhat unsure in the past but now with increased certainty, that a good litmus test for a person’s capacity to care about anything can be at least lightly ascertained by their physical fitness. Of course, this can be taken way, way too far, and it probably doesn’t apply straight across for every single human, but the main idea holds: if you can’t care about this, you can’t care.
Period.
If you are disciplined physically, you can apply those skills to be disciplined spiritually.
A little Application
I think we should be reminding ourselves and the athletes in our home (again, no matter the age or ability level) that this is not about the trophy, the body, the varsity, or the scholarship. It’s not even about the relationships and the memories. (WHAT?!) This is, and will always be, at its core — if it’s worth doing at all — about experiencing Christ and becoming more like Him. Keep Him in view.
The hard work, investment and dedication aren’t about achieving success in the way the world defines it. It’s not about acquiring transitory fame. For the Christian, the crown to be won is an imperishable one.
If we don’t grasp the deeper narrative in our ski story, we end up being like the late senator Eugene McCarthy, whom Wilson quoted as saying that being a senator was a lot like being a football coach: “You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.”
It’s not about the ball. It’s about Christ.
I know I missed some stuff, so, if you’d like to listen to the entire sermon, check out Christ Church’s YouTube page. To read Wilson’s expository notes/summary head over to Blog and Mablog.
Leave a Reply