Look Both Ways

Dear Jake,

I struggle with sports.  On one hand I really enjoy them.  The primary station I listen to on the radio in the car is ESPN.  The first thing I look for when I have access to television is ESPN.  Sports Illustrated comes weekly and I devour it while letting hot water run down my back in the shower for far too long.  The Olympics seem to draw humanity peacefully toward each other for a few short weeks every 2 years.  I think I may one day actually enjoy the World Cup as well.

On the other hand sports really upset me.  Not sports in general, but more what we as a society have done with them.  In less than one week the Superbowl will take center stage.  Last year over 111.5 million people watched the game.  In fact, during the NFL regular season, each game averaged 17.6 million viewers.  Assuming there were five games broadcasted in any given area in any given week 88 million people tuned into at least one NFL game.

According to Gallup figures, 118 million people say they go to church each week.  Two sociologists named Kirk Hadaway and Penny Marler thought that was a fishy number.  They thought that people probably exaggerate how often they go to church.  They did their own study in 2010 and found that only about 63 million people in the U.S. are actually in church on Sunday.  If you think that there's surely been an increase in attendance since 2010 you would be right...if you're Mormon, Jehova's Witness, Muslim, Buddhist, or Wiccan (which is the fastest growing group).  If you prefer Jesus to magic hats, Allah, Buddha, or the earth however, you're soon going to find yourself in the minority.

That's really mean to the NFL who, let's face it, is just doing what it's supposed to do.  Let me be clear, I have absolutely no problem with a business being really good at what they do.  We need that.  We really do.  I point out those numbers only to point out what I think my real, true beef with sports is; we idolize them.  You, me, and well, the majority of people in America.  I don't need the NFL, NBA, or MLB to show me that.  Each week I watch as families are torn apart by athletics.  When I write family I'm referring to the ecumenical church family.

Each week I watch as families, who without a doubt love Jesus very much, choose out of corporate worship for months at a time because their athletic schedules conflict.  I listened as one student pleaded with her mom saying, "Please let me skip my game and go tonight [to youth group]." Her mom replied, "You have to think about your team."  She doesn't see her church family as a team that's every bit as important.  She doesn't see the church's mission as being as important as the sport's team's mission.  At some point we have to call it what it is.  At some point we have to admit that sports has become a corporate idol.

I could write about how the church has largely fought against this by trying to compete with sports and outdo them with entertainment, but that's a different post.  Instead I want to tell you why I still justify my love of sports.

When I watch the video of the 2008 Olympics men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay I can't help but get a sense of deep pride.  I remember watching it live and feeling ecstatic.  Why?  It's the answer to that question that brings redemption to sports in my mind.

At first glance the pride you feel is for what?  Our four guys were faster than your four guys?  Our four guys had more spirit?  America is clearly better than France?  By the way, we didn't need a swim meet to tell us that.  To be honest, I think most of us were shocked that the French team didn't hoist a white flag after the first leg of the race.

I believe the pride you feel points to something greater.  I think it's the fact that you can be connected to something so amazing.  I'm part of a country that can produce such amazing athletes!  I'm part of the country that could come from behind in a race for the ages.  Somehow you have a stake in the outcome of that race.  Somehow by them winning, YOU have won.

Living in eastern Iowa, I still see scores from Wilton games.  I love it when they win.  Why?  For the same reason.  I have a legacy there.  Those athletes are my people.  They are my tribe.  If they are great, I am great.

Go Dutch! AmIright?

I think it's this type of community that points toward something bigger.  Community is good.  In fact, God loves community.  I think it's a real small glimpse of what's to come.  It's joy experienced because someone you are connected to is experiencing joy.

My memories of these moments in sports are many, but the ones that stick out don't have videos.  At least not videos that I have access to.

I remember throwing a touchdown pass to Will Norton in jr. high off a sweep pass.  I remember steeling an inbound pass against Tipton with 6 seconds left and scoring a layup to win the game just before time ran out.  I remember hitting my first home run in your wife's hometown.  I remember hitting my first home run in high school which also happened to be with bases loaded. 

I remember Solon having bases loaded and I was playing short-stop (don't ask).  We were up one run and there was one out.  They hit a line drive, I jumped and sno-coned it, then pegged the runner at first for a double-play.  We were in jr. high and playing at Westview.  It was the same season Wade Hagen told us we played like whale shit...the lowest thing on the planet.

To be honest I remember every home run I've ever hit.  Mark McGuire was once asked how does it feel to hit a home run and he responded, "It's better than sex."  In my experience that's not even close to true.

I remember watching you throw a rope to home plate from right field.  I think you were playing Williamsburg.  I remember the fence in center-field was painted white which was totally annoying your team.  We were sitting down the right field line and I remember thinking, "Wow.  I had no idea."  In fact, I think that was the same game you hit the ball off the top of the wall.  It was about 1 inch from being a home run.  If I remember correctly, no one on your team could hit the ball that day.

I remember Josh Petersen's first home run at Iowa City Regina.  Random?  Yes, but crystal clear in my mind.

I remember Aaron Call hitting a home run in West Liberty that no one ever saw come down.  It left the park above the lights.  This isn't a big fish story.  Honestly, the headline in the newspaper even pointed that out.  I've never seen anything like it...except for...

I remember Jeremy Weigh (can't remember how he spelled it) hit a monster out of Principal Park.  Of course this takes me to about a million memories of Jaron's undefeated season.  I could name all of them or I could just talk about the amazing play at the plate in Regina.  There was the magic pop-up dropped at PV, and Jaron's slide into first base at, among many, the state baseball tournament.

Then there's the peripheral memories.  They are there because of sports, but don't have a lot to do with the sport itself.  I remember my first MLB game at Candlestick Park.  I remember taking Gabriel to his first game at, you guessed it, AT&T Park in San Francisco.  I remember playing pickle at Cherry Dale on one of the nights someone else in my family was playing baseball.  I remember eating Cheeze-Its and drinking Gatorade from a cooler at tournaments.  I remember bus rides with the team.  I remember pealing off sweaty clothes and caked dirt that wasn't quite yet mud coming off with it.  I remember the smell of grass in the fall as we did up-downs at football practice.  I remember watching football film and laughing at the guy on the other team who was looking for the ball and forgot about the goal post.  He ran into it so hard that you could hear the loud "BONG" sound on the video being taken in the press box.  We rewound it several times.

In the future I'm going to tell you about my basketball team that I coached this year.  I'm now on a different side of sports.  I pray all the time that I can keep them in their proper place within our list of priorities as my children get older.

I love sports, and I hate them.

I think that individual athletes can be either great for a sport or horrific for it.  I would like to know who your all-time favorites are and why.  Who are your top one or two athletes in the three major sports in America; baseball, football, basketball?  Why are they your favorite?

Read More

Cathedrals

Dear Joel,

It's interesting the way culture evolves. One of the things that strikes me is how much we as a culture have lost a sense of the Sacred. Take our church buildings, for example. It's not at all uncommon in our country for churches to operate out of strip malls, community centers, high schools, and even within the homes of its members. We do this because we have what I believe to be a mostly healthy emphasis on the fact that a "church" is a people - not a place. When we say we "go to church," even though we do mean a certain location, we really mean that we're joining with other believers for the reading of the Word and the worship of our Lord, and that can happen whether in a coffee shop or at the former Econo-Foods.

Sometimes the flip side of that gets a little lost, though. I've heard over and over again about the unnecessary extravagances of (especially) the European church in centuries past; about the wasted resources spent on building huge elaborate cathedrals that could have been spent alleviating the suffering of the poor. Even today large churches who construct buildings to support their congregations are often considered wasteful. When I was new to Colorado I was asking directions to a very large church in the area and a seminary classmate described the route I needed to take, and then told me that I would go around the corner and see a "monument to bad Christian stewardship."

I have no problem with churches meeting in strip malls. I agree that Christians are not always the best stewards. Christians are sinners too, and I have no doubt that there have been Christian churches built by people who, unfortunately, care too deeply about having a luxurious worship space. However, I also don't think we should automatically assume that big church buildings are too indulgent or extravagant. We far too rarely consider that the cathedrals of old were built to demonstrate the greatness not of the priest, but of the God he served. Even today when worshipers walk through the doors of a great, old cathedral, they can't help but wonder at the magnificence of the one it was built to exalt. What things cause you to step back and marvel at the holiness of God?

(I really wanted to title this post, "Sit in Datposition" because I thought it'd be funny. Didn't work out, though.)

Read More

Sit in Disposition

Dear Jake,

     I am not your normal worship leader.  I don't wear plaid (often), I can't grow a beard for the life of me, Starbucks is way too expensive, and I wear torn jean UNironically.  Do you remember Smokey Row?  Now THAT was a coffee house.  Talk about atmosphere.
     I have a secret.  On the rare chance that I get to go somewhere and just worship without actually leading, I almost never raise my hands.  It's not like I never do, but it's not a natural thing for me.  I wouldn't dream of telling people that raising their hands in worship is in any way more glorifying to God.  Nor would I ever say that you need to do exactly what you're singing.  I do encourage people to raise their hands, clap, move, dance, etc... though.  I'm not good at doing it.  Most people aren't.  I do think that it has some importance though.
     I think our culture has devalued the importance of posture.  Remember when we were kids and we would bow our heads, fold our hands, and close our eyes when we prayed?   I don't know about you, but when I learned that God still heard my prayers even if my eyes were open I felt scandalized.  The first time I prayed with my eyes open I felt like I had just gotten away with stealing candy from Jake's Supermarket.

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

  It's important to be able to pray with your head up and eyes open and hand free.  I would have crashed my car a million times over and run into quite a few trees while walking if I bowed my head all the time.  Yet, I still think that it is good to stop what you are doing, fold your hands, bow your head, close your eyes, and pray every once in awhile.  That posture puts you in a position of humility and the act of taking that posture reminds you that God is one who deserves our attention, our praise, we are inferior to Him, we submit to Him, and He is Lord, not us.
     Posture during worship is important as well.  Think of raising your hands as reminding yourself that you surrender to Him.  Maybe it reminds you that you are a child that just needs to be picked up by your Father in heaven.  Maybe your hands are in front of you and open upwards in a position of receiving as if you are receiving a blessing from Him.
     You can worship with your arms crossed, in your pockets, while eating a burrito from Taco Bell, or pretty much anywhere/way.  Sometimes it's good to stop, lift your arms, and remind yourself who is deserving of the praise.
     I think our culture has devalued a lot of things.  Language being one of them.  C.S. Lewis talks about how some words really lose their meaning because we start to use them too freely.  What are some other things that you see our culture really moving away from or "devaluing" that maybe we should be careful of or at least aware of?

Read More

Worship correctly... or else!

Dear Joel,

I used to do volunteer-type work for a church we attended a few years ago, except it was part of my job so I got paid for it. I didn't like it.

I liked getting paid, of course, I just didn't think it was the kind of work that the church needed to be paying someone to do. Expecting members to contribute to the service of the church body is not just a way to save money. It's an important way to teach servant leadership like that which Jesus himself exhibited. The work I spent around 10 hours per week doing myself could have been done in less than one hour (total) by asking members of the groups who used the facility to set up and tear down their own equipment. Those members would be more invested in setting things up correctly, since they would be the ones using them. They would also immediately see the benefit and contribution of their work, and would be more likely to feel valued.

When I saw the title of your post on Monday I thought you were going for something more along the lines of the Tim Hawkins video.

I don't often raise my hands in church, because it's way outside my comfort zone. I was once worshiping in a congregation and the worship leader told us all that if we sang this particular song (it had lyrics about "we lift up our hands" or something similar) without raising our hands, we were being dishonest with God. Either out of obedience to the worship leader, to God, or out of guilt, everyone raised their hands as we continued singing that song. I puzzled about that, though. I'm a rule follower, so if the worship leader was correct, I was going to obey. But I'm not sure it's that absolute.
If the song says, "I lift my hands to you," for example, I don't know where exactly I need to lift my hands in order to be compliant. I don't think God is any more present 18 inches above my head than he is in my pockets. But maybe I should at least "lift" my hands from their current position. So hands on my hips might keep me within the rules.

But I continued puzzling because it seems like this logic would need to be applied across the board. I join with Casting Crowns when they sing, "I lift my eyes up to the hills." But I live in Iowa. We do have some hills, but they're not visible from everywhere. Or what if I sing that song in the shower? There are no hills to which I can "lift my eyes up." Is Jesus angry with my singing? If I sing, "I run to you," do I have to physically take off running? And where, exactly, is our non corporeal God to whom I should be running? I fear that I'm breaking a lot of rules when I try to worship through song. Perhaps I should stop.

As Tim Hawkins says in that video, there are all kinds of churches with different practices regarding raising their hands in worship. What, if anything, do you think hand-raising (or lack thereof) says about a church body's identity?

Read More

If You Raise Your Hand...

Dear Jake,

     As you know our church sets up in a gymnasium every Sunday.  The process starts at about 6am.  There are good things about setting up church every week.  We have a really cool ministry made up of men who talk about football, work, and what's going on in their lives as they line up chairs, stand up curtains, construct a stage, plug in cables, and stretch out giant screens.  There are two teams of men and they rotate setting up by month.  Overall, we have always felt that it is a blessing to be able to do a worship service this way and involve so many people that might not otherwise be involved.
     Every Friday morning I create a map for the setup crew so that on Sunday morning, when they arrive, they can see how the stage should be assembled.  This week while I was etching out directions I suddenly remembered that we would have "Team A" setting up and I let out a joyous "YES!".  When Pastor Doug asked what I was excited about I told him, "We have a new setup crew." He joined me in celebrating.  A short time later Doug retired to his office and I sat back and felt a tinge of guilt that I was so excited that Team B was being replaced by Team A.
     Each team operates a little bit differently and it changes everything.  Team B doesn't really have a leader.  This means that it is Pastor Doug that shows up at 6am and starts unpacking and moving equipment into the gymnasium.  It isn't until 7:00 when team members start to meander in.  They start putting things together, and the stage gets assembled, but it remains empty, free of any sound equipment.  It isn't until everything else is set up, and the worship team has arrived that the monitors, speakers, cables, and instruments, begin to get set up.  Most of that work is being done by the worship team.
     The worship team is supposed to be at church to do sound checks at 8:00 which means they are expected to get there early to get plugged in and tuned up.  When Team B is on setup the worship team has never been doing sound checks by 8am.  Instead they are setting up the stage at that time.
     It's not Team B's fault, they only have one person who knows how to plug everything in and he is only there about 50% of the time. While they are great at taking directions, the rest of the team can't really take the initiative to get it done.
     Let me tell you about Team A.  Doug doesn't arrive for setup at all.  He doesn't need to.  They have a team leader who carpools with a couple other guys.  By the time the rest of the team starts rolling in around 6:45 the work is half done.  The rest of the guys show up and everyone has a job and immediately gets to it.  Everyone working in their place.  By 7:35 they are hanging around their cars chatting and joking with each other before they head out to help their wives get their families ready for church.  When the worship team arrives near 7:45 there isn't a single person from Team A there.
     The effects that trickle down from the two teams change the entire worship service.  When Team B is on, sound checks and rehearsals tend to be rushed and everyone is on edge.  The worship team gets started late.  There is a break of 25 minutes between when the worship team is supposed to be done so that video and other microphones can be tested.  During that time the worship team gathers, prays, goes through the order of worship, and I take prayer requests from the team so that I can pray for them during the week.  When Team B is on we have very little time to do that and usually I quickly pray and run through the order of worship.  We've even noticed that during worship things go differently too.  Little mishaps or sound bugs are much more likely when Team B is on.
    When Team A is on we have noticed that people are more willing to give feedback on things during the service.  We hear more "I really was touched by..." or "God really spoke to me when..." comments.  The staff (all of them, including the church administrator who has nothing to do with setup) have noticed a significant increase in energy after a service that Team A set up.
     So why do I tell you this?  What does it matter?
     The things that you do have way more of an impact than you realize.  Volunteering for anything is a risky thing.  It can take a lot out of you.  It's easy to push it down on your list of priorities.  Sometimes we don't see the many ways our actions trickle down and have a great affect on outcomes.  At a church (and likely anywhere you volunteer) you are incredibly important.
     So whatever you raise your hand to do be it taking out the trash or operating a sound board, I beg you, do it with all your heart.  Make it joyful and do it well.  Make it your ministry.  Learn about it, get better at it, lead in it.  You could be involved in the work of the Holy Spirit moving in people.  You could be a witness to life change.
     Do you volunteer anywhere?  What do you volunteer for?  Have you ever thought about how important your volunteering really is?  I look forward to hearing from you on Thursday.

Sincerely,
Joel

Read More