"It matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won"
The most important game (book about sports and the Christian Faith)
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Tomas Hammar [“Editor and main author”], Svenska Missionskyrkan, 2010. ISBN 91-89436-04-0
Before beginning this review, I need to say that I believe that it is an extraordinarily difficult task to write evangelistic material which truly engages with sport. If I conclude that The most important game does not succeed, the context I am setting is important.
The book is in landscape format and spirally bound. I found this negative and a little difficult to get a handle on. The book is well illustrated with high quality sports photos. However as these are often not relevant to the content, they appear as eye-candy. The book is also written in American English not British – soccer not football, the World Championship instead of World Cup etc
The book states its purpose as “to give all those interested in sports…an insight into Christian faith and what it is all about. By using words, concepts and examples from the world of sports we would like to try to convey an overall picture of the message of the Bible”.
The basic approach is to look for parallels between sport and life
Game - game of life (Page 1). The book title means that life is the most important game.
Coach’s instruction book – Bible (Page 2)
Sport has rules – Bible is God’s rules (Page 9)
Sport develops relationships – Bible is about relationships (Page 11)
Player sacrifices himself to team – Jesus sacrifice (63)
Because of his resurrection “Jesus could rightly be called The World Champion” (Page 68)
Liverpool did the impossible in 2005 Champions League final – God does the impossible (Page 68)
Just as we honor sports heroes we should honor Jesus (Page 71)
Christians celebrate Jesus’ victory like fans celebrating team’s victory (Page 73)
Sports teams are united, Jesus’ team is united (Page 77)
In a sports team not everyone plays, but in Jesus team it is different (Page 82)
Jesus the great coach better than Eriksson, Ferguson, Hiddink (Page 91)
The excitement of being a Christian is like that of scoring a goal (Page 107)
In sport it is great when the underdog wins, God makes underdogs win - David and Goliath etc (Page 109ff)
Calling players from abroad to reinforce national team is like the reinforcement Holy Spirit gives us (Page 117)
Death is the final whistle and the game is over (Page 128)
Reading this book and hearing about Jesus is like receiving a pass (Page 134)
Athletes need to rest after training, compare the Sabbath concept
Athletes need to eat and drink, Christians need spiritual nourishment eg Communion (Page 125)
Some parallels are quite naff
Creation as the kick-off of the world with speculation as to whether God had pre-match nerves (Page 13)
Just like a sports field the Bible is divided into two halves (Page 6)
Judgment is God giving us a yellow-card (Page 28).and Jesus taking our Red card (Page 126)
For me many of these analogies tended to trivialize the gospel and in any case the analogy was often questionable. I am also not sure if these simplistic analogies will make the gospel more accessible to sports fans. However, I do not feel that the book addresses the issues of identity and significance, which are at the heart of what a serious sportsperson needs to understand to see the relevance of Jesus