Right on bro, so if you feel your current church ain't of da debil, step forward and hold yourself out there for what you believe God would have you to do.
Another quick sports story. A co-worker/friend who had kids well before me and ALAYWIFE, and also a sports enthusiast/coach, told me when ALAYBOY started getting to sports playing age that I would need to coach him. I explained that Drew was a late-in-life kid (there's a "miracle" story there, for another day) and that fire in the belly for me had passed. I reasoned with him that I'd be one of those mellow dads sitting on the bleachers rootin' for my kid, and I'd be fine with that. It was after the first baseball practice of watching a couple of guys, who were decent fellas but misguided, throw batting practice to fourteen 7-year olds.
I'm sure you know at that age most kids ain't hitting the ball and it's hard enough to keep a 7-year old's attention regardless, but having 13 other kids stand around in the field watching junior miss pitch after pitch is an absolute recipe for making baseball (not a fast-paced game anyway) BORING! It wasn't long after that I tried subtly (because I generally am a very low-key guy about everything in life) to let them know I'd help if they needed it. They didn't need it
, so I sat there in agony for a season, cringing at their lack of systematic coaching and lack of making the game fun. The next year came and I signed up to coach. I knew enough about baseball (and a few other sports) to know how to coach, but the head spots were already taken, so I assisted for that season.
Next year we had 18 kids come out for Little League (in a small community it was a good turnout). The problem in that scenario was painfully obvious from the get-go. With 18 kids on the roster and mandatory 2-inning minimum playing time for every player on the roster there were gonna be a lot of angry parents because junior wasn't getting enough playing time. I kept my mouth shut at first and served as the faithful assistant again, but eventually told those other coaches who knew me and I had a decent relationship/respect with that if they would agree to split the kids into 2 teams of nine that I'd make a go of it as one of the managers. A roster of 9 poses another different kind of hardship but I told them a plan to make it work and painfully, we split the kids fairly evenly and now instead of being a gopher (which I was fine with, so long as the conditions and circumstances warranted it as best for the kids) I was THE MAN. As soon as we split and I put that head coach hat on I knew that the organizational expectations, responsibility, and leadership aspect of the sport was different altogether, not to mention I'd be the guy that was supposed to get all phases of the game incorporated via the assistant coaches. I hadn't ever thought about that before, so I went to one of my other co-worker buddies and asked for some advice who had been there and done that (at all levels, and been pretty successful) on how to kick this thing off right. His first piece of advice was golden (and the simple point for this long, rambling sports story, lol). He said "get the parents involved". I looked at him, knowing that some parents couldn't tell the kids which hand the glove was supposed to go on, and said "you kidding"? He said "nope, they're gonna be the ones responsible for getting junior to the game, and they're the ones that with some basic instruction from you to them will make it possible to take your coaching home after practice and make junior a little bit better before the next practice. And besides that, you'll need somebody to bring drinks and snacks, run the concession stand, and offer rides to other kids on the team whose parents ain't ever gonna get involved". The dude was wise beyond years. Get them to invest, and they feel like the wins are partly theirs. That's a crude illustration, but at a spiritually deeper level, those principles can be applied to church-life.
