form versus game

“A warrior culture trains for adversity.
Luxury and ease are the goals advertised to the civilian world.”
Steven Pressfield

"I want you to hit me as hard as you can."

Tyler Durden.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

Jesus

Both of my kids have black belts in Taekwondo.

It took them years to earn them, and watching them train was a major part of my journey as a dad.

Some dads coach soccer. I watched my kids punch through plywood boards. New York is its own place :)

I learned so much about discipleship from the sweaty little studio across the street from our apartment where my kids trained.

I learned about the importance of consistency (most kids quit in yellow belt), the importance of practice (bad training repeated calcifies bad habits), and the psychology of progress (peer recognition in advancing in belt colors does more than nagging ever can).

Yet, over the years, one thing has stood out to me more than the others about their training, and I have been reflecting on it deeply the last few weeks.

I’ll call it FORM versus GAME.

Form, and forms, are the core moves and techniques required to pass each belt test and move on to the next belt.

There is an almost endless process of learning how to punch, kick, strike, hold, and throw. Each move is broken down and taught one-on-one. Then you have to combine them together in such a way that you master the forms (It's very similar to learning an entire dance (you can get the idea in this 2-minute video Taekwondo Basic Form).

Each belt test requires you to show mastery of the forms. 

When the kids do their forms, it's beautiful and inspiring. They seem to move as one, a tight-knit group kicking and punching the air with precision.

Some kids have a knack for memorizing forms; others grind it out. My kids worked hard and caught on quickly.

Forms look amazing in tests and powerful when done together, but forms are not fighting. The point of the form is not the form. The point of the form is to train you to fight. 
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In the book, A Fighter's Mind, Sam Sheridan discusses what makes a fighter's thinking and psychology different from those of the typical person.

He calls it game. The idea of this is common in our culture but almost absent in the church.

When we ask if someone is willing to do something, a reply we often give is, “I’m game.”

Game in our culture is a willingness to try, to jump in, to have a go.

Game in fighting is a little different. It’s a willingness to be punched in the face, to embrace the pain and fear, to lean into the fight and not cower in fear.

The church today trains people in forms, but it has lost the concept of game.

We have Bible form, prayer form, fasting form, serving form, volunteer form, community form, but what we don’t have is game. So little of what we talk about on Sundays shows up in real life. 

People have forgotten that the point of practice is not the practice itself but to prepare us to follow Jesus in the real world. 
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I'll never forget the first time my daughter shifted from forms to sparring.  At first, they don't let the white belts fight because they don’t know how to. But soon enough they square you up with someone of the same belt and tell you to fight.

I remember the first time someone hit her hard in the head. It was hard for me to watch. A look of total shock flashed across her face. Somehow, while learning to punch and kick, she never connected that she would have to punch and kick other people. She had taken ballet before, and she was good, but this was different.

The point of the forms was to learn how to actually fight.

The goal was game, not form. She learned this the hard way.

My daughter quickly adjusted and got good fast. My son did, too. But Haley had a kind of instinct that kicked in. At one point, the head instructor (World Champion Blackbelt) stopped the class when Haley was sparring and said to everyone… 

“Watch Haley; she is doing a ballet of violence.”

A Ballet of Violence. Form + game.
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I bring this up because our discipleship today is often nothing more than the form. 
We train and train and train but never do. We read and read and read but never obey.

Resonance is not the same as obedience.
Agreeing is not the same as acting. 
Listening is not the same as doing. 

Jesus seemed to be baffled by the emphasis on a form-only based discipleship in His day. 

‘Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don’t do what I say? Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”

Form-only discipleship is a foundation of sand, and so many in the church today are being swept away because this foundation won’t stand what we are up against in the world today. 

Dallas Willard said, “The missing note in evangelical life today is not in the first instance spirituality but rather obedience. We have generated a variety of religion to which obedience is not regarded as essential.”
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I love how John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Movement, was obsessed with doing the stuff. Form was not enough for him.

As Wimber recounts, when he was a new believer, he and his wife Carol visited a church immediately after he had read through the gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. After the service, John went up to the pastor and asked him:

“So, when do we do the stuff?”

“The ‘stuff’,” said the pastor. “What’s the ‘stuff’?”

“You know,” John replied, “the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick and casting out demons. The stuff!”

“Oh,” replied the pastor. “We don’t do the stuff. We believe they did it back in biblical days, but we don’t do it today.”

With a rather confused look on his face, John could only say: “And I gave up drugs for this?”

Wimber had game.
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I am not trying to set up a false dichotomy here. 

We need to learn the practice and form of how to follow Jesus. Game without form can be messy, frustrating, and ineffective. But we are not trending in that direction right now. 

The major issue of our time is a willingness to actually do the Jesus stuff.

To not just watch YouTube videos on apologetics but talk to our neighbors about our faith and get in the mess of their questions.

Not just talk about discipleship, but actually get with people who don’t know Jesus and share the gospel, help them cross the line of faith, follow up with them, establish them in the faith, and help them do the same for others. 

To not just talk about loving each other but make room in our schedules and wallets to actually care, listen, give, and help.

We need game in our discipleship.

We need a new instinct not to just read, attend, and listen but to step out in faith and actually do.
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I am so encouraged about what I see Jesus doing to move people beyond the forms of faith and into the mess of discipleship right now.

I see so many in our church in New York praying for the sick in the streets, sharing their faith in the workplace, pouring into new believers on rooftops, and giving sacrificially to those in need.

God is giving His church game again.

God wants to shift you from form to game, too!

God has more for you than just attending, listening, and consuming.

He wants you in the actual fight, living what you believe and doing what He commanded.

David Pytches said, 

Every time someone turns to Christ in repentance, finding forgiveness and eternal life, the kingdom of God is extended. Each time Jesus heals, casts out demons, prevents destruction or raises the dead the kingdom of God is advanced. Every healing or deliverance in the name of Jesus is a curbing of the enemies powers and the frontiers of darkness are pushed back Speaking of his approaching death and triumph through the cross, Jesus said, “now the prince of this world will be driven out.” The process of “driving out” still continues today. We are meant to be actively involved in it.

This is the kind of discipleship our hearts long for.

Game, not just form.

Actively involved in driving back darkness.

I’m praying that God gives you the fighter's mind. 

The instinct to do and not just train. 

To jump in and not just watch. 

To obey and not just hear.

Game, not just form.

Let’s go.

Cheers. 

Jon.