Three reasons your church should cancel its fall festival & encourage your members to stay home this Halloween

What if I told you once a year lost people will flock to the homes of Christians everywhere? Wouldn't we want those Christians to be at home for this? Sure we would. We would all wait with anticipation as our neighbors come one by one to our homes.

But what if I also told you that most of us have this happen every year but we aren't at home for it? That's right. I'm talking about Halloween. The one day a year that our lost neighbors knock on OUR door for a change. 

More often than not though, we aren't at home because we are at our church doing a fall festival or trunk or treat. Especially if Halloween falls on a Wednesday, Sunday, or Saturday. It happens to fall on a Saturday this year so it's especially true for most of us.

But here are three reasons why your church should cancel its fall festival this year & encourage your people to stay home.

1. By and large, lost people are no longer coming to us.

Now, there are some exceptions to this. But, the majority of lost people in our community aren't coming to our event. Some will. But most won't. And even the ones that do come we know they are walking away with candy but it's likely none will walk away with Christ.

We need a change in mindset when it comes to reaching people that don't know Jesus. We have to stop doing events in our church that invite lost people to come to us. Why? Two reasons. One is practical & the other is theological. 

First the practical: Because they simply aren't coming to us anymore. They aren't coming. They aren't interested in what we have to offer. They don't want to come to our turf. And so it's just not working to forward the long term mission of our church. 

Second, the theological: The great commission tells us to GO & make disciples not invite them to come to us. In other words, when we are asking lost people to come to us, we are expecting them to obey the command of Jesus instead of us. We are expecting them to do the great commission. We are expecting the lost to be the missionary instead of us.

If we are going to see lost people come to Jesus, we can't expect them to come to our churches, we the church must go to them. Or in this case rather, we the church should stay home! 

2. Bait and switch isn't the best method for introducing people to Jesus.

We Christians are pros at the bait & switch technique. We offer a product or a service & then introduce people to Jesus. We promise free candy, food, & a good time & throw Jesus at them at the end. This bait & switch mentality isn't the best way for people to have their first introduction to Jesus.

Wouldn't it be better if people got introduced to Jesus through a real relationship with a person like.....I don't know.....a person that lives on the same street as them? I believe it would. So why not stay home & use Halloween as a chance to connect with your neighbors. Set up the grill in the front yard & cook burgers & hot dogs. Give them away for free with lots of good candy. Good candy, not the gross stuff that comes in those orange & black wrappers.

Who knows what connections & conversions we might have with a lost neighbor who comes to our house? Who knows what future conversations that connection might lead to? Maybe this is the first step for you to move back into your neighborhood. 

It just might be the best way to get the gospel to your neighbor is not to invite them to your church event but to be the church to your neighbor in your own neighborhood. All of this is possible without even having to change out of your house shoes.

3. The lost are literally coming door to door to US!

Ok, I've already mentioned this but it needs repeating. They are coming to us. We don't have to do anything. They want to come! They are asking to come. No one feels weird or awkward or doesn't know what to say or do. Everyone goes to everyone's door & asks for candy. It's natural.

And we need more natural connections with people that don't know Jesus. We need ways to engage the lost with the gospel that doesn't feel forced. Halloween is one of those times.

You might not like the holiday. That's ok. This isn't about us. It's about the families that you drive past everyday who need to hear the gospel & you may be the only person in their life that can tell them about it.

So, cancel your fall festival & just stay home. We might be surprised at the effect we could have if we did. I'm convinced we will have more impact for the kingdom of God if Christians moved back into their neighborhood rather than doing events in the church parking lot.

FOR THE CITY

"And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare." (Jeremiah 29:7 NLT)

Often when we think about the church & the city, we see the two at odds. Church members are often at odds with outsiders in the community & many non-church goers are at odds with the church. The city's interests normally don't reflect the church & vice versa. Rather than the church being a city on a hill in the city, it's more like a dark building outside of the city. Rather than the church working with the city it's in, the church is often working against its city.

But this verse paints a very different picture. This verse links the people of God WITH the city they are living in. The welfare of God's people & their context are undeniably linked. When the city does well, so do the people of God.

God gives his people a blueprint for impacting their context. God tells his exiled people to work for the good of their city, because it will effect them for good as well. So, there is a way for the church of God to work for the welfare of its city.

Here are a couple of ways to do it.

First, we have to work. That's what this verse says. Work. Go do something. Get your hands dirty. Be active. Invest. Plug in. Engage. Be a part. Volunteer. Serve your city! The church too are exiles. We don't belong here. But just because we are citizens of another country doesn't mean we should be poor visitors while we are here. We have to get to work. Investing our lives where we live for the good of our city. It takes work. Don't think it's easy.

Don't reinvent the wheel either. Don't start a food pantry, volunteer at the food pantry in your community. Don't start a crisis pregnancy center, get involved at the one in your city. Maybe you should start a ministry or non-profit but if there are groups already doing great work in your community, why not serve with them?

Second, we have to pray. This may be better as step one. But the passage has it second. Prayer cannot be overemphasized. If we are going to love our city & see its welfare, we must pray for it. We must ask God to change us & use us to change it. We must realize that there are some things that work cannot do. Only prayer can break down some walls. This reminds us that while our city has physical needs that we should be meeting, it also has spiritual needs that we must be actively engaging. For example, it's not enough to serve at Habitat for Humanity & not share the gospel when we have the chance. Because housing for people is good, but houses are temporary. Eternity is forever. We have to work & pray. It's a both/and. Without work, we pray & neglect the obvious things we can be doing for our city now! Without prayer, our work is only physical & lasting change eludes us.

Work AND pray. This is the blueprint for impacting our city for Jesus. 

Are we a church for the city? If not, how can we change? What work can we do? How should we pray!?

Rediscovering Our Sentness

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you’.” (John 20:21ESV)

God is a missionary God. He has been sending his people since the very beginning. In Genesis 12 God sent out Abraham to go to a country he didn’t know. He didn’t even tell him where he was sending him. Similarly, in Isaiah 6, we see God asking, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

 

The pinnacle of this sending language is found in the gospel of John in the New Testament. The word is sent used over 40 times. Jesus uses this word of himself to show that he was sent from God. One of the more prominent uses is when Jesus heals a blind man by rubbing dirt on his eyes and telling him to go wash at a pool called Siloam. I’ll give you one guess what the word Siloam means in Aramaic.

 

Sent.

 

So, Jesus heals a blind man by rubbing dirt on his face and telling him to wash at the pool called sent. Jesus was trying to communicate something. He was sent from God to accomplish the mission that God had given him. But he wasn’t just sent from God but John 20:21 tells us that he was now sending his disciples. Just as the father was sending him, he was now sending those that follow him.

 

If being sent was the primary activity of Jesus while he was on the earth, that activity has now passed to those of us that follow him. In fact, we are following him today because those 11 men were sent out by Jesus. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them taking that sending nature seriously.

 

But a quick analysis of the church today will show that we have forgotten this sent out identity. Most churches are based on a “come and see” approach to church rather than a “go and tell” approach. We have bought into a “Field of Dreams” methodology for doing church. The classic line from that 1989 film is, “If you build it, they will come.” The main character Ray, played by Kevin Costner, keeps hearing a voice telling him to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn crop in rural Iowa. He thinks he’s crazy, but as soon as he actually builds it, players from old appear to play on it. Eventually, people come from everywhere to see the field and the baseball that is played there.

 

This Field of Dreams, attractional way of doing church has permeated North America. And the results of this have been devastating. We have lost the sentness (if I can use that word) of the early church. Brad Brisco, a church planting catalyst in Kansas City, says it this way, “If we fail to go to people who don't know Jesus, then we are requiring them to come to us. We are expecting the lost to cross the cultural barriers to come to Jesus. We are expecting them to be the missionary.”

 

Did you catch that last phrase?

 

“We are expecting those that don’t know Jesus to be the missionary.”

 

Let that sink in. The church now postures itself to our culture in a way that the culture has to do all the work to come to Christ. What we need is a radical return to the sentness of the church. We need to recapture this missionary nature of God and the church. Where the church doesn’t just send missionaries but where the church IS the missionary. We must recapture the words of Jesus, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

 

This is life or death stuff we are talking about here. Why? If Jesus hadn’t decided to be sent by God, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Who out there is therefore dependent on our sentness?

 

 

Processing Success & Failure in Church Planting (during the same week)

On October 11, 2009, I preached the last sermon ever delivered at Lifeway Church in Arlington, TN. On October 18, 2009, the next Sunday, I delivered the first sermon ever preached at Compass Church in Batesville, AR. Within a week's time, I had experienced the death of one church & the birth of another. The range of emotion was overwhelming. From sadness & grief one week at the loss of a church & the death of a vision to the excitement & anticipation the next week at the birth of a church & the possibilities of realizing that same vision. The two experiences could not have been more different. Even the messages that I preached were miles apart. At Lifeway (the closing church), I preached the whole life of Joseph from the book of Genesis with the main theme of, "What the enemy meant for evil, God means for good." I reassured the church that God works all things out together for our good & his glory. At Compass (the new church) I was preaching about the vision God had given us to reach that community for Jesus through planting a new church. Not many people have experienced these two polar opposites, much less in the same week! But I have. And it wasn’t easy.

 

I came to Lifeway in 2004 & we struggled for 5 years to see the vision of a healthy, viable, gospel-centered, & mission-focused church birthed there. The church was already 5 years old when I joined the staff team. I was only working part-time doing music at the time while I went to seminary. In 2006 my pastor went to Brazil to serve on the mission field & I was asked to be the pastor there, just two months from graduating with my Masters of Divinity. The next 3 years we had many ups & downs but eventually we felt led to close the doors of the church. It was 10 years old & God had been faithful but it was time to say goodbye. And what hurts even more about this was our church was situated in one of the fastest growing communities in the Memphis area. Since then, several churches have planted new campuses there and are doing well. I often look back at Lifeway & wonder why it never became what we hoped it would.

 

The results at Compass again reveal the difference in the two churches. Our first preview service in October of 2009 had 3 times the people at it that the last service at Lifeway had. When Compass officially launched in February of the next year we have over 150 people in attendance. Now, we regularly average over 400 people in weekend worship services. We have done 3 services to accommodate the growth & are working on building a new facility. Again, the results could not be more different.

 

With this in mind, I want to share the things that I have gleaned from being a part of a church that has done well & a church that has struggled. Maybe you can find encouragement for where you are in your life as a church planter.

 

First, your successes or failures in church planting is not dependent solely on you. If this were true, Compass would have failed or Lifeway would have succeeded. But one closed & the other has thrived. And it cannot all be because of me. I have been a part of a church that closed & one that has done well. But I'm still the same person with the same vision for what I believe God wants for his church. Not much has changed from what we tried to do at Lifeway from what we are trying to do at Compass. It's not about me & it's not completely about you either. The success (and we constantly need to look at how we are defining that term) or failure (that one too!) of your church plant has to do mostly with God. I don't understand it but I do believe that God in his providence works these things out. We are called to be faithful to plant & water but ultimately it is God who controls the growth (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). There are many factors that lead to a healthy church & many factors that lead to an unhealthy church. Ultimately, the church does not rise or fall on us!

 

Secondly, your past does not define your future. Trust me, people who close the doors of churches are not in high demand. No one wants to put that on his resume. And that was a concern for me & the leadership of Compass when we planted. How would I be able to be a strong part of the leadership of this church having just closed another? But God is faithful! And just because you have had a hard time in ministry in the past, doesn't mean that you will continue to struggle in the future. You don't have to be defined by your failures. We are now defined by who we are in Jesus, not how we lead churches. The last thing I wanted to do was be a part of another church plant. The thought made me literally physically ill. But when Mickey Jones called to tell me that they were planting a new church & wanted to know if I would be interested in being a part of it, God restored my excitement for church planting again. I mean, even Michael Jordan was cut from his Junior High basketball team.

 

Lastly, God never wastes any experiences. From our perspective we often wonder what God is up to. Some of the things he allows into our lives don't always make sense to us. But God never wastes any experiences in our lives. I'm reminded of what Tim Keller has said about Romans 8:28. "Because of Jesus," he says, "Even our bad things turn out for good, our good things can never be lost, & the best is yet to come." I honestly don't believe I could have been a part of Compass the way I needed to be if I had not first been the pastor at Lifeway. For one thing, it would have been tempting to believe that everything that was happening at Compass was because of me. But I know better than that. Why? Because I also know I have the ability to close churches as well as be a part of seeing them grow. So, no matter what your experience has been in church planting, keep in mind that God is not wasting any of this. He is working all of these things out together for your good & his glory.

Bible Reading Plans in 2015

As the new year approaches I would encourage each of you to use a Bible plan to read through the Bible in 2015. We have one on our compass website that you can access here:

http://thecompasschurch.net/media/2014-bible-reading-plan/

I put this plan together a few years back because I wanted a plan that went through the whole Bible, allowed for catch-up days, & spread the gospels through the whole year & not just at the beginning. 

Here is another list of reading plans & where to look for the one you want:

http://www.challies.com/resources/what-is-your-bible-reading-plan-for-2015

Lastly, here is a great article on how to approach the Bible as a self-feeder:

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/bible-reading-is-an-art

This new year, be a self-feeder. Read the Bible for yourself. It’s really the only way to know, love, & obey Jesus. May you know him more intimately this year than ever!

Happy New Year!!

Compass Church Communication

Our church recently published a survey on how we communicate with our church family. If you haven't filled it out & you want to, here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16i7la7Bgp8G8cLcq-ybcuM4VdQJI-H0eOp9cHWjYGpQ/viewform?usp=send_form

Based on feedback we have received so far (47 responses), I wanted to try to give some clarification on communication processes at Compass.

The Navigator
The Navigator is Compass' weekly newsletter. We communicate church-wide level upcoming events & activities through the Navigator. We keep a running list of upcoming events & try to highlight the 4 to 5 most important events in the main sections. These are limited to church wide happenings to avoid clutter & an overwhelming amount of information.

You can access the Navigator in several ways. Every week the Navigator is posted on the City, the Compass website, & on the bulletin board in the welcome center. If you want to receive an email about the Navigator, you need to turn on your notifications for the City to send any new information to your email. Here is a link on how to do that:

http://wiki.acstechnologies.com/display/TheCity/Change+Your+Email+Settings

An email will be sent to you when the Navigator is posted & you can click the link to have access to the Navigator.

Here is a link to the Navigator on the website (it is updated weekly):
http://thecompasschurch.net/#/media/navigator

The Compass Minute
The Compass Minute is an announcement video that plays during our weekly gatherings. The minute is approximately one minute long. It contains the 4 to 5 most important announcements or events happening that involve Compass Church as a whole. These correspond to the Navigator's top 4-5 announcements as well. If you have seen the Compass Minute, you have seen the most urgent & quickly approaching events at Compass.

The CITY
The City is Compass' one stop for several things at our church. We needed a church management system at the church & the City offers this to us. It has a backend that operates as a way for us to keep church member contact & family information. It also has a children's check in module that helps us keep things all in one location. It also offers a way for the church to communicate with one another in multiple ways. We can post events, prayer requests, our newsletter, needs, & even personal messages all in one location! You have the option to post items via your missional community group or church wide. It combines so many features in one service.

Instead of sending emails, social media posts, text messages, phone calls, or any other type of media, the City allows us to send information to one location that can be accessible to everyone. Every Missional Community at Compass has their own group on the City for ease of communication, for example. All MC group sponsored events will be posted via the city. Those events can be posted on The Compass Church main group page if you would like to include other groups and individuals or can be posted to your group exclusively. This works two fold to keep the minute/navigator focused solely on Compass sponsored events while still allowing a forum to keep people informed about group sponsored activities.

We are trying to get everyone associated with Compass on the City because of how multifaceted it is. Instead of sending the same information 5 times to 5 different places, we can just send it one place. Instead of your MC using texting, your ministry team using Facebook, & the church using email, all of those groups can post & exchange information in one place. This greatly reduces the need for admin help, which we have little of at Compass. We don't have administrative assistants. Every minister is responsible for their own administration & the City helps us maximize ministry & minimize maintenance. We want to save money on admin costs so that we can use those resources for missions & ministry. The City greatly aids us in this.

In order to help everyone stay connected, we have opted to use the City exclusively. If you can't get all the info you need via email, why do you need the City? If you can get it via text, why do you need the City? If you can get it via Facebook, why do you need the City? So it may be convenient to receive information how & when you want it, but it doesn't streamline the process on the church's side of things. So in order to establish one place we can all go for the information we need, we turned to the City.

If you want to receive information from Compass like a text, you can set your City app to receive notifications just like a text. Just go to the settings on your City app & make sure your notifications are on. If you want to receive Compass info from email, go to the City & make sure that your notifications for email are set to receive everything. This will send you an email every time something new is posted. The City can deliver the information to you however you prefer without even having to log in!

If you haven't signed up for the City, join today! We already have 300 and counting on The City. Simply copy & paste this link into your browser to get connected!

thecompasschurch.onthecity.org/kiosk

Other Matters
If you are a covenant member & you want info on church budget matters, you can access them anytime through the website at this link:

thecompasschurch.net/#/membership/financial-statements

It is password protected so you will need to email a staff member for the password at ask@thecompasschurch.net. They are regularly updated & accessible for you.

If you want any other church information, the Elders & Staff are always available to you if you are a covenant member. If you have questions about the building project, we are available. Because we don't have business meetings, we don't have an open forum for discussing church matters but we do have an open door policy. We will meet with you to discuss anything you want related to Compass Church.

I hope this has been helpful to you in understanding our heart to communicate as best as we can. Thanks so much for your feedback in helping us discern how best to do that. Let us know of anything else you need.

Blood moons, Ebola, & ISIS Oh My!

The panic in the media right now over current events is everywhere. And there are a lot of things to be concerned about. Ebola is wreaking havoc in Liberia, ISIS is raining terror in the Middle East, & blood moons are bringing much interest & concern over the end of the world.

In the midst of all of this suffering & unrest we need to keep a few things in mind.

First of all, we need to realize that we aren't the ones suffering. So many people are suffering from Ebola & it's not Americans. There is a whole country suffering from this disease & it's not America. Yes, there have been a couple of cases here and that's terrible but it doesn't compare to the suffering in Liberia. According to NBC news over 2400 people have died there from Ebola. We would do well to stop panaking here & start praying for there.

We should also pray for those suffering from the oppression of ISIS. A lot of those are believers & they are suffering for their faith.

Secondly, the United States is not the center of the universe. Many people talk about current events & Bible prophecy like the United States is God chosen people. We are not. The United States & Israel are not synonymous. Christians are God's people. And God is the center of the universe, not Americans.

So we need to be careful how we talk about what is going on with the world & the USA with the Bible. Just because there is prophecy in the Bible doesn't mean it's about the USA. In fact, it's probably not about America.

Lastly, the panic of some Christians in response to these events is unsettling. Have we forgotten that our God is sovereign? Have we forgotten the nature of our hope? God is on his throne no matter the circumstances & our hope is rooted in something much deeper than our current surroundings. We have a living hope in a resurrected Savior. All of us will die one day & the great hope of our lives is that if we know him death is just a doorway, not a destination.

So we should pray, be hopeful, trust our sovereign God, & look beyond ourselves to a world in need of hope. We have that hope. Believe it & share it. 

A Gospel-Centered Marriage

Our church is beginning a new series this week called "A Gospel-Centered Marriage." The series has been largely born out of a crisis of marriage that our own church is facing right now. Don't get me wrong, marriage is in crisis in our culture & has been for some time but we have felt the weight of this crisis more recently in our own church family. For the last few weeks, about once a week, I've talked to someone in a struggling or ending marriage. It's heartbreaking.

In response to this we are launching a muti-week series on marriage that will culminate in a marriage emphasis day on Sunday, November 23rd. We are going to spend several weeks looking at Epheisans 5:22-33, the most famous, lengthy, & meaty passage on marriage in the Bible. In this series we hope to get at the Biblical understanding of marriage, the purpose of marriage, the power & motivation of marriage, as well as the origin of marriage.

If you know someone who needs this series, please invite them. This series is for struggling marriages. We hope that the Lord will strengthen their marriage through his word. This series is for broken marriages. We are praying for God to heal & mend marriages. This series is for healthy marriages. We are praying that this series will encourage those who are doing well to continue to seek God in their marriage. And last of all, this series is for singles. What?! A marriage series for singles? Yes! Why? Because we hope to paint such a clear picture of what Christian marriage is according to the Bible that it saves marriages before they begin. We hope it will shape dating habits & how singles choose their spouse. We hope it will change the way that singles view marriage so that everything they do before marriage will be done in the context of a future spouse they are living in covenant with.

So please, invite anyone you know to come to this series no matter who they are. We are asking God to meet us & change us & save our marriages both present & future.

Make your attendance a priority during this series. Postpone weekend trips & time away. Come every week if at all possible. Give your marriage the attention it needs. God help us. 

Not Condemned, Sin No More

She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John8:11 ESV)

This amazing verse is a bookend to a story about a women caught in the very act of adultery. The religious leaders bring her before Jesus & tell him she has been caught red handed. They did this with no regard for the life of the woman but, in fact, the very opposite. The law says that they should execute her for her sin & they expect Jesus to decide her fate. They are doing this to catch him at the expense of the woman. And this is what religion always does, it uses people for it's own purposes even to the extent of abusing people, even killing them. History documents this well.

But what is Jesus' approach? They hope to catch him. They know him to be merciful, a friend of even the worst sinners. So will he honor his mercy here? But Jesus is also just. He obeys God's laws perfectly. Will he honor God's law then?

The religious leaders are convinced they have found a scenario that Jesus can't reason his way out of. He will have to either condemn the women & uphold the law or give mercy to the woman & condemn the law. Either way he cannot be a man of mercy & a man of righteousness.

So what is Jesus' response? He writes in the dirt with his finger. The Bible doesn't tell us what he writes in the dirt. We don't even know why he writes in the dirt. But after he does, he asks this question to the crowd who has already picked up rocks to execute the woman.

"Let the person without sin be the first person to throw a rock."

Silence.

No rocks are thrown.

No one sticks around. They all leave one by one, leaving their rocks at the feet of Jesus. 

And at the end of the story there is only one person left with the woman: Jesus. The one person that could throw a rock. The one person that is without sin. The one person that could condemn her doesn't.

He chooses mercy but what of the law? Has he not condemned the law with his choice? How can Jesus allow this woman to go free after she has clearly violated the law?

Her sin is not overlooked. It is not excused flippantly. Her sin will be paid for. Jesus is going to the cross to pay for her sin. His life for her life. His perfect life for her imperfect life. His righteousness for her unrighteousness. In this way, Jesus is able to pardon sinners while also keeping the law. He is both righteous & merciful.

Herein lies our only hope. We need both the righteousness of Jesus & the mercy of Jesus. We need to here both the words, "You are not condemned" & "Go & sin no more."

Most people in our culture believe that we can either have the mercy of God or the law of God but we can't have both. We either hear God say to us, "Neither do I condemn you" or "Go & sin no more."
But this passage teaches us that we need both. We need God's mercy, & we need to be told to leave our sin. We cannot accept the mercy of God without repentance that leads to a changed life, & we cannot have a changed life without first receiving the mercy of God. We need to here Jesus say to each of us, "I do not condemn you. Now, go & sin no more."

We cannot expect the mercy of God without repentance of our sin, & we cannot have real repentance apart from God's mercy. We need both. With only God's mercy we are left with cheap grace that doesn't require us to leave our sin. And without mercy all we have is obedience to the law & an attempt at a righteousness of our own (which is no righteousness at all).

But Jesus gives us both. He forgives us & leads us out of our sin. We need to preach this good news to ourselves & to our world everyday: "Jesus doesn't condemn us! Now, let's go & sin no more."

WORLD CUP FEVER

If you have known me for any time at all you know that I'm a big soccer fan. As Sammy Rhodes once tweeted, "I've never met a soccer fan that didn't let everyone know they were a soccer fan."

Guilty as charged.

But it wasn't always this way. I grew up watching & playing a lot of traditional American sports; football, baseball, & basketball. I even played basketball competitively for my high school until 11th grade. It wasn't until 2010 that I even watched a full 90 minutes of soccer (or what the rest of the world calls football).

That year on family vacation we all gathered around our television to watch the World Cup in South Africa. We watched the USA draw against England & who can forget the late drama of Landon Donovan putting in that goal against Algeria late into stoppage time. I remember running around my living room celebrating the win that put us top of the group instead of a draw that would have knocked us out at the group stage.

Needless to say, I was hooked. I was bitten by World Cup fever. But that's not where it ended. I wasn't just bitten by World Cup fever but by soccer fever. I began looking for ways to stay connected to the game. The MLS season was in mid-swing that summer & I caught a few games on television that year but didn't have a team I really rooted for. I have since come to support Sporting Kansas City since they are the closest club to us in Arkansas.

As the European league seasons started that fall I found out that the American goalkeeper, Tim Howard played for an English Premier League team called Everton (based in Liverpool). I began following Everton & Howard weekly. The excitement of the World Cup was the same in the Premier League for me.

As I began to learn the ins & outs of the league & the game, the appreciation for it only grew. One aspect that really fascinated me was the idea of promotion & relegation. Every year the worst teams in the league go down a division (think Major League Baseball & Triple-A, Double-A, etc.) & the best teams get promoted to the next highest division. So, instead of the worst teams getting the best draft picks like sports in the US, they would instead go down a division & lose millions in revenue. What? That's crazy right!? No wonder this sport is not popular in the US!

But these type of details & many others captured my attention. This led to more & more interest until it easily became my favorite sport to watch, read about, & follow. Other sports have lost their luster (with the exception of college football).

And so, if you are like me back in 2010 & you have caught the bug for more of the beautiful game, here are some next steps for you to stay connected to the game. 

(1) Pick a league

You don't just have to pick one. MLS is in full swing & it's likely that you live within driving distance of a team. Also, you can watch it weekly on ESPN. It's not the best league in the world but it's growing & attracting better & better players (remember David Beckham?). It's still fun to watch & follow. 

But there are several other great leagues, most of them in Europe. My favorite by far is the top flight in England called the Barclays Premier League. It's the best league top to bottom. There are several teams that fight for the league title every year.

There is also a top league in Germany (Bundesliga), Italy (Serie A), France (Ligue 1), & Spain (La Liga) as well as countless others. Pick one & follow!

I follow the Premier league because of Everton & it's accessibility. I can watch every league game on NBC Sports Network or on their live streaming app. I watched every Everton game last season because of this (38) & it was amazing.

One of the best things about European soccer is they have a league of the top teams from each league called the Champions League. They play each other regularly as well which is the best soccer in the world in my opinion. It's second only to the World Cup & the good news is, you don't have to wait 4 years to watch it because it happens every year.
Oh and another reason to love soccer is that the season runs from August to May with a major international competition every summer. Soccer is year-round!

(2) Pick a team

Once you have a league you like, pick a team to follow. Follow that team throughout the season. By a jersey or a scarf & root for them hard! It will keep you connected to the game. I got to go to San Francisco last summer & watch Everton play Juventus (Italian Serie A champions) in a friendly & it was amazing. All the big players were there & played.

JUVENTUS vs EVERTON, San Francisco

Jessica & I with Everton & US Goalkeeper Tim Howard

NBC sports network has some great stuff on how to pick a English Premiere league team here: 

(3) Get to a game

Go watch a live game. We went to a World Cup qualifier in Kansas City last October & you can't beat the atmosphere. If you think you are hooked now, just wait. You probably have a club within driving distance. I also saw Chelsea & Manchster City, both from England, play in May of last year in St. Louis. It was a great time as well!

CHELSEA vs MAN CITY, St. Louis

Me with US soccer legend Alexi Lalas

(4) Get to know other soccer people

I have a couple of people I talk to regularly about the game & it's a lot of fun. There aren't a lot out there but there are always a few of us running around. And, we always make ourselves known (see above).

Well, that's about it. If you do those things you will be able to stay connected to the beautiful game & your affection for it will only continue to grow. And what's even more amazing is next summer we have the women's World Cup, the Gold Cup, & several other major international competitions to look forward to each summer until 2018 in Russia.

Here are some other articles about what to do next that I found helpful as well. Enjoy!

http://beta.sportingnews.com/article/4594196-world-cup-2014-us-soccer-usa-usmnt-follow/slide/244815

http://m.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2014/07/02/bitten-soccer-bug-during-world-cup-here-are-13-ways-take-your-soccer-fandom-

The Curse of God's Blessing

"Go up to the land flowing with milk & honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff necked people & I might destroy you on the way."

Exodus 33:3

If we had to choose between God's presence or God's blessing, which would we choose?

Sound simply hypothetical?

It wasn't for God's people in Exodus. God has just brought them out of Egypt. Out of 400 years of slavery. And he did it in amazing fashion: ten plagues that exalted God & revealed his power over the gods of Egypt, parting of the Red Sea & the people walking on dry land as Pharaoh's army is drowned, a pillar of fire by night & a cloud by day to guide the people, & provision of food for them as they travel. And we could go on & on! This is a lifetime of miracles that God has accomplished in a matter of days & weeks. In addition to these things, God has given his people his law & his presence to dwell with them in the form of the tabernacle.

But this wasn't enough for the people. They rebelled against God by making images to worship while Moses was on the mountain with God.

And God tells them that because of their sin he will give them what he promised their forefathers, namely the promised land, but he will not be going with them. He offers them his blessing but he cannot give them himself. He gives them physical inheritance, wealth, provision, status, & protection but he cannot go with them.

I'm afraid that today's church & today's Christians would take this exchange & not only would take it but are actually actively seeking it. Most of us have interest in God simply for what God can give us & not for God himself.

If given the choice between the two, we would take God's blessing of provision, protection, status, wealth, & inheritance over God himself. Just look at our lives. What are we pursuing? What are we seeking? What is the basis of our relationship to God?

Is it him or his stuff? Is it him or what we get from him?

But Moses could not live with God's blessing apart from God. He understood that God's blessing without God is no blessing at all! In fact, if God gave us all his blessings but none of himself it would be a curse.

He tells God, forget your blessings, we want you! If you don't go, we don't go. We would rather dwell in the desert with you than in the promised land without you.

Is this our heart today? What do our lives say? Do we want him or his stuff?

REDEFINING BLESSED

What does it mean to be blessed?

Think about that question for a moment. Don’t rush past it. What does it really mean to be blessed? If you had to list the top three things in a person’s life that would designate them as blessed, what would they be?What words would come to mind?

 

They may look something like this…

 

1. Good relationships

2. Good job

3. Comfortable living

 

If not those three exactly, maybe a variation of them would be prominent in our responses. For many of us, our culture has shaped our definition of blessedness. The American Dream is the ultimate reality to be enjoyed. The more stuff, more success, & more influence you have the more blessed you are.

 

But is this an accurate description of success? Is this the only definition that matters?

 

In Matthew 5, Jesus delivered the most famous sermon ever, the Sermon on the Mount. He opens the sermon with his description of blessedness. Notice what he says:

 

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

 

Poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger & thirsting for righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, & persecution—aren’t these the words that come to mind when you think of what it means to be blessed? Me neither.

 

Jesus has a very different definition of blessing than our culture does & often a different definition than we do. He turns the world’s values on its head. Everything that the world values, he doesn’t. Everything he values the world often doesn’t. So, whose definition is right?

 

The choice is ours. When we give our lives to Jesus, he begins to shape in us this other-worldly character. He leads us into a new way to be human. The kingdom of God redefines everything in our lives. The gospel transforms us into citizens of another country. And the best part is, we never feel more alive then when we have the blessedness of Jesus take root in our lives.

 

What do you think? What does it mean to be truly blessed?

HEROES

According to Wikipedia, since the year 2000 there have been 49 comic book movies made. Thirty-four more super hero movies are in the works. Why such an influx of heroes? One seemingly obvious answer is money. People will pay to see these, so they are being produced rapidly. The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in the Dark Knight trilogy, made over half a billion dollars. Many filmmaking companies are scrambling to produce the same type of results. And who could blame them?

We are a culture obsessed with heroes. Whether comic book stars on the big screen or celebrities or professional athletes, we all idolize someone. We all are looking for a hero, someone who would change everything for us. That one person that would give us what we are really longing for. We are starved for this.

So too were the people of Israel in the Old Testament book of 1^st Samuel. Every day their enemy would parade their 9-foot hero named Goliath out to the battlefield to challenge one of God’s people to fight him. Day after day he came, day after day he went with no one to fight. Israel had no hero to fight for them. Until one day.

One day, a shepherd boy named David arrived to bring supplies to his brothers who were soldiers for Israel. He was not old enough or strong enough to fight so he was on sheep duty at his father’s house. While David was there he overheard the challenge from Goliath, the Philistine hero, & waited in expectation as one of Israel’s best & brightest would go out to fight in the name of the Lord. But no one went. No one went out to fight. No one but David.

David went to the king to volunteer and was met with laughs. How could a shepherd boy defeat a military champion? It’s suicide. Not only for David but also for the whole army of Israel. But David made his case. He pleaded with the king to allow him to make this pagan hero eat his words. He argued with the king by telling of how the Lord had strengthened him to kill bears & lions with his bare hands in order to protect the sheep under his care.

Reluctantly the king gave his blessing. David took with him just 5 rocks & a sling to fight the giant. And as unimpressive as he appeared in comparison to the mighty Goliath, God was with David, & David defeated the giant with one throw of his sling. One rock, one hit, one dead giant. God’s people were saved & God’s enemies were defeated. David was the hero!

Most of the time when this story is shared, we are David & God is with us to destroy the “giants” in our lives. But is this the meaning of the story? Are we the hero here? Or do we need a hero to rescue us?

We are not the hero in the story. We are the trembling Israelite army unable to do anything about the enemy before us. We are not David here. We are not the hero. We are the ones in need of a hero. David did for his people what they couldn’t do for themselves. He defeated the enemy that they couldn’t defeat on their own. He replaced fear with victory, shame with celebration!

But David isn’t the real hero here either. Well, he is & he isn’t. David died & Israel continued to need more & more heroes. Until one day, the Hero to end all heroes appeared. David is a picture of the real hero we all need. Why are we longing for heroes? Why can’t we get enough? Because deep down we all need a Savior. We all know we need a hero, we need to be rescued. We are trembling in the presence of our Enemy. Victory is nowhere in sight. We are helpless to change our situation on our own.  God himself steps in through his son Jesus who takes our place, fights our enemy, & wins the battle that we could never win.

We are all searching for a hero & longing for someone to give us what our hearts really need. Jesus is everything we need. He is the hero. He has won the victory. He has replaced fear with victory, shame with celebration. He is the hero & he is all we need.

The Green Monster

Sorry to disappoint you who came here looking for a post on the great wall in left field at Boston's Fenway Park (although I'd love to right one someday!). Today I'm sharing a thought about the "Going Green" initiatives that we have in our country. I don't like to be overly political but today I felt compelled to write about this.

Last night, as my wife and I were watching one of our favorite TV programs when we saw a "The More You Know" public service announcement that featured a woman from one of my favorite childhood TV shows, "Saved by the Bell." What did she have to tell us? "The next time you have a date with your special someone, have it by candlelight & turn off all the lights. Then, go for a walk instead of a drive." And with that, we saw the flash of "The More You Know" star, appropriately all green in color, & the jingle. I kept thinking, "Did she drive to the taping of this service announcement?" In addition to this, every time the show returned from commercial we were greeted with a small green message on the bottom left part of the screen followed by the network logo all green. Some of the messages include unplugging unused electronics, buying local, & consuming organic foods.

You can see more of what they are up to here: greenisuniversal.com

Have you ever noticed these things before?

The Green movement has the backing of celebrities, political parties (there is literally a Green Party), & even the Disney Channel! What could be wrong with this?

Well, nothing really. Except for the fact that I have a hard time seeing what real good I will do in the world as a whole by taking a walk instead of a drive & eating by candlelight verses regular light (except for saving on gas & the electric bill; on second thought, I may be going green myself!).

I'm not wanting to advocate wastefulness or oppose pursuing all clean energy initiatives that can make our world a better place. I think there are some thoughtful approaches. But sometimes I can't help but be a little bit frustrated that huge TV companies will spend millions because they would rather have me recycle my cardboard & plastic milk jugs than protect the lives of the unborn. And that's just one of many, many issues that I think are of greater importance. That to me is out of balance (understatement of the century!).

The Bible teaches that this world is falling apart. We are not meant to stay here forever. Romans 8 says that the whole creation is groaning with expectation of being redeemed & restored. The fall has broken this place and us for that matter. That's why the Bible talks about Jesus one day creating a new heaven & a new earth. This place is not meant to last forever. Should we do our best to prolong it's life? Sure. I can't see anything wrong with putting a little red container out with plastic and paper inside of it instead of throwing it away in a landfill. But should we spend millions on initiatives to clean up a place that will ultimately fall apart when we could be investing resources in much more urgent work? I can't bring myself to say yes. Would your company approve a multi-million dollar initiative to clean up & restore a building that is condemned & destined to collapse in the coming years? To me, it's like putting a new door on a condemned building. Or, a new roof on a house with extensive water damage.

I know that I'm looking at this from a biblical, Christian worldview & that makes me a bit biased but I've also been out of the country. I've been to some third world countries that place their trash anywhere & everywhere. I've seen EVERY vehicle emit black smoke wondering the whole time, "Do they have catalytic converters here?" Most of the world is undeveloped & would be considered "Third World." Most of the world is concerned about feeding their family and finding clean water. Most of the world is trying to fight off sickness that we could just get a shot for if contracted. Most of the world is not the United States. And I feel we would do well to consider what initiatives we should pour our resources into that could really help PEOPLE and not try to emphasize helping the PLANET as much. The planet is fading, people are eternal. This place is headed toward an overhaul by the Son of God but not every person has that in their future.

How can we invest our passions, resources, time, & creativity toward making this place better for eternity's sake? Instead of going green, let's go eternal.