When people play board games with friends they often reach for the rule book.
“Wait,” they might say, “that’s not how I learned to play.” Often they’re right; the house rules we sometimes adopt aren’t always in the official instructions.
Everyone accepts that in Monopoly you get cash for landing on Free Parking. Almost everyone also knows that this isn’t in the rule book. It’s a tradition that players have accepted so readily over the decades that it might as well be ironclad. I’ve never met anyone demanding to play otherwise.
Similarly, the Church has adopted scores of little traditions with no grounding in scripture.
For example, here’s one that may incite some pearl clutching: Anyone who comes to Jesus can be a priest — no certification, no seminary degree, no robes, and no approval of a council of starchy dudes necessary. Look it up in your Bible.
“As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
— 2 Peter 4-5 NIV
In fact, let’s take it a step further. Everyone who calls themselves a follower of Jesus Christ ought to consider themselves a priest. And yes, that includes women, too.
Wait, what?
The Old Rules
Long ago we discovered that if you strip away superfluous rules from certain board games, everything flows better. A few tweaks1 to games like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Monopoly, or Mexican Train, and suddenly everything is faster and everyone’s having more fun.
The reason for this is because most board games have at least one rule designed to make the game harder to win and to draw out the length of play. In other words: The rules are intended to create roadblocks to victory.
In Settlers of Catan you have the Robber, who steals your resources, blocks your progression, and eventually makes life miserable for everyone at some point. In Mexican Train, you have the dreaded 50-point deduction for doubles you can’t use. There are a hundred other examples in all sorts of games.
These are effective in making the game last longer, but they breed pointless strife and also end up creating limited hangouts for certain skilled players. The more rules, the harder the game. The harder the game, the fewer people willing to play it. The fewer the people willing to play it, the less competition for those who do. Eventually, only the hardcore enthusiasts are left. I’m looking at you, Axis and Allies.
In more serious matters, this layering of unnecessary rules breeds elitist enclaves across society and the Church is no exception. Only doctors get to dispense healthcare advice, under threat of criminal liability. Only certified builders with the requisite permits get to construct something, no matter how small the structure or how skilled the builder. Again, there are countless examples and when it comes to the Christian church, centuries of denominational (and non-denominational) traditions ensure that only the select few attain the requisite training, and get to play.
The rules make it so that no ordinary person off the street can perform the task. The world says you need to earn the right to act, often through exhaustive study, and only after some authority figure ordains you to do so. That might square with certain certifications—lifeguards and teenage drivers come to mind—but that’s not how God’s kingdom was designed to operate. Jesus calls all of us to get in the game, no prerequisite required.
If all of Jesus’ followers knew that, the world would be a very different place. But those who profit from rules and certifications had other plans, and Jesus called them out out on it:
“You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions…Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
Mankind created hurdles then, and even more now since Christ’s resurrection so that complacency to erroneous rules is common practice for Christians in practically every congregation.
So, what do we do when our game plan is overly complicated? We go back to basics.
Basic Christianity, for those who’ve never heard it
Here’s the simple truth that the Spirit of Religion tries to obscure:
1) Jesus died to take away our sins, and He was resurrected, defeating death.
2) He removed the curtain separating us from the presence of the Lord.
3) Instead of a physical temple, the Holy Spirit took up residence within us.
4) He expects to minister to others through us as we abide in Him. (Ministering simply means to “attend to the needs of.”)
Now go and tell everyone about it. Simple. Easy. Fun.
True story, but that’s not all. Jesus also set the stage so that anyone who knows Him—from a sage pastors we revere to that discerning kid on the playground—can also be an apostle, a pastor, an evangelist, a prophet, or a teacher. Maybe a combination.
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
If this is a new concept for you, don’t feel bad; modern churches don’t commonly teach this stuff even though it’s basic Christianity and always has been. If you bristle at the concept of layman priests, prophets etc., I suggest taking it to the Holy Spirit in prayer. And if we don’t believe we can take it to the Holy Spirit ourselves—or if we deny the existence of the Holy Spirit at work in us—then we may want to back up and just spend the next few months reading the Bible.
These are not debatable assertions; they’re right there in scripture. It’s the traditions of man that have intentionally obscured them with centuries of nonsense to keep you and others from victory. In other words, you may be playing the game by rules someone made up because it makes the game harder, longer, and decreases the number of those who can win it.
Whose purpose does that serve? The enemies of Jesus, and there are a lot of them.
Tactics & Countermoves
The ruler of this world and his demons don’t have a problem with safe churchianity where we sing songs, praise Jesus, and go about our lives. Our enemies know that they can use those church traditions to destroy marriages, wound disciples, and sour the next generation against Jesus, with all variety of ways to hide His true nature. The demons don’t worry about tame parishioners following a schedule centered on the clock. They have a huge problem with us following the Holy Spirit’s direction and dismantling their strongholds, exposing their tactics, and empowering new Christians to do likewise.
The spiritual forces of darkness knew better that anyone, from the beginning, that an exponentially increasing army of laymen preaching the Good News—laying hands on the sick, evangelizing the lost, and teaching everyone how easy it is to be restored to right standing with God—was an absolutely invincible force.
They knew (they know) that you and I were (are) far more powerful than they are, and so they convinced mankind to unilaterally disarm itself. They made the game harder with dumb rules almost nobody likes but nonetheless many continue to play by.
But you don’t need to.
If the rules aren’t supported by scripture, free yourself from them. If you’re not sure if a topic is in the instruction book, read it. If the instructions are confusing, read them with your friends or people you respect, and study them. Explore the context, the Hebrew and Greek meanings for words that sound confusing or contradictory—what does the term “head” actually refer to?—and consider whether common teachings line up with the character of Jesus Christ.
If someone’s theology sounds off, challenge their understandings of the instructions and make sure everything lines up with the consistency of Scripture. The pharisees of His day discovered that Jesus is maddeningly consistent, and adept at frustrating their self-serving goals. The religious rulers then and now were (are) equally disturbed by it, and they’re both equally invested in keeping you from understanding the basics of the game in its beautiful simplicity.
Grand Masters In Training
The supernatural contest isn’t like Axis and Allies, it’s more like chess. Chess is a straightforward game that anyone can learn and enjoy at a young age. An adult can play it with a five-year old and both improve as they practice, regardless of what age they begin playing.
As we mature, we formulate more intense strategies, and level up against stiffer competition; there’s always a next level we can attain. But here’s a fun fact: Grand Masters use the exact same moves as your preschooler. They’ve just learned over time how to use them better.
Walk into any chess tournament or public chess venue and you may be surprised at the diversity of players. There are people of all ages, nationalities, races, and social status playing. Sometimes the younger kids cream the old-timers. You might find a homeless guy sitting across from a professional businessman, or a petite woman thrashing a burly dude; everyone respects one another’s skill level and everyone shakes hands when the game is decided.
By and large, the Church doesn’t do this.
Instead of free access to an open tournament, the Church has created elitist clubs playing weird games that few people understand. They’re determined to keep the simpletons away, ensuring its members never have to confront uncomfortable situations, like a rookie showing them up in front of an audience, or pointing out that the rules they’ve constructed are pointless—or worse, damaging.
Do you know what your spiritual gifting is? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it. Odds are it will be something you actually enjoy doing, and it’s likely something you struggle to get to do, something the enemy also tells you you’re no good at.
That’s also in the enemy’s playbook: pinpointing your greatest gifts and attacking them relentlessly until you give up on them. If you’ve been seeped in a church tradition that partners with the enemy in stifling that gift, I’m truly sorry. I know people in this boat. But you don’t need to stay there. Jesus gave you that passion and ability; ask Him to rekindle it, teach you how to master it, and how you can minister to Him with it.
Though many will try, nobody can take it from you. Though many, even within the church, will label you disqualified, Jesus says otherwise.
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About those board games:
Below you’ll find a few Guerra “house rules” for popular games, which I think make them way more fun. Give ‘em a try and tell me what you think.
Settlers of Catan: Eliminate the Robber. Instead, whenever someone rolls a 7, everyone gets to choose one of any resource they choose. You can also do this when someone rolls a 2 or 12 if you leave those tokens off the board.
Monopoly: Load up Free Parking with a $500 bill. Also, any payments made to the bank, go to Free Parking instead. This includes property purchase, fees, and purchase of houses and hotels. It makes the game so much faster.
Ticket to Ride: If you draw a face down card from the pile and it’s a wild, you still get to draw a second card.
Let us know in the comments if you have other suggestions for more games.
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