soccer tragedy

Today is Tuesday and I have yet another invite to go play soccer with a few college guys at our local indoor soccer complex. I love playing soccer but let’s be honest it has been years since I have ran up and down the field and I am sure that I will kill over after one pass down and back. Regardless if I can slip away for a few moments I will end up playing leaving everything on the field including my breakfast, lunch and dinner. It should be an amusing time for all the spectators.

To be truthful I planned on playing last week but upon arriving at the game I had a young man that needed to talk. He thought I was doing him a favor but honestly a large part of me was glad he was there. So we sat back and watched the game. It quickly became painful obvious the caliber of my friend’s team as in the matter of a few minutes the score was already 4 – 1. My heart went out to them. It’s tough playing a college team who wanted to get some practice on the off season.

As the game drummed on with goal after goal the opposing team started to get bored with the whole endeavor. Many of them quickly became disengaged, no longer hustling after the ball or making clean passes. In fact eventually they started turning and shooting at their own goalie just for the amusement of it all. Finally the buzzed rang and it was halftime. It was easy to see the morale of the teams as my friends were on the benches resting and drinking water with heads hung low while the opposing team never took a break and stayed on the field passing and shooting the ball

Then something interesting happened.

As the second half began one of the best players for the opposing team (aka bad guys) came over and joined my friend’s team (aka good guys). The “bad guys” perked up and the game was on. Most of the second half was like watching a tennis match with the ball on one end and then the next. There were only a few goals scored in the second half which you could attribute to the player who switched sides but honestly it was the defense and rest of the players that stepped up their game.

interesting…

Well the game ended; it was finally over. I asked my friends how they felt about the guy changing teams and most of them responded negatively saying that they wish he wouldn’t had do that. But the painful game was over so we chatted for a while about life before heading home.

So this even has been swirling in my head over the past few days. Here are some thoughts and observations that I have been wrestling with.

I had always heard that great leaders raise the bar of whole team but I found it very intriguing to see it happen even when a team didn’t want his leadership or help. On the other hand I was fascinating to see what little impact personally this guy who changed teams seemed to have. Individually he was shutdown every time he got the ball reminding me that you can have talent – maybe even be the best, most talented person out on the field but most of the time it all comes down to the TEAM working together that makes the difference and it seems that will always trump individualism.

I also thought about something that Reggie Joiner said (via my last post by Carey N.) If you don’t give people something of significance to do they won’t feel significant. I really saw this come to life as the “bad guys” team lost their significance as the game became insignificant to them. They quickly became apathetic and lazy even to the point of fire goals on their own goalie. It seems like that is something I see all too often in the church as well.

I’m still chewing on this one.

We'll see if I end up on the field this week so until next time have a great week. Thanks!

Great Ideas about the church

I wanted to pass this along. Check out Carey’s blog about some interesting ideas from Reggie Joiner about church. My comments are below.

Carey Nieuwhof: Great Ideas

Just a couple thoughts to add to the discussion.

About the small vs. large church. I love what Carey said last in the comments about needing movement in a church regardless of your size. That is spot on!

A thought or two about not resolving the tension:

This is something that I have struggled with for a while. Here is a glimpse from my perspective. In working with teens I have noticed students have been completely unimpressed by scripture. Many of them tell me they have heard it all before – honestly because they have. Don't you just love when teens say that. However many times it seems as if they truly can break down the story word for word, give me all the application points, and even match it to illustration they heard. OK maybe not all that but it often seems that way to them. So they get bored going to church and hearing the same things, the same scripture over and over again because they believe they have already been told all it means (application.) So what more can you learn unless you change the whole interpretation which I have always thought was a valid observation.

To be fair I would say that it's not just students who struggle, but I see it so prevalent among adults as well - an overall lack of interest and captivation. It all seems to be lacking.

Of course I am sure there are several people who can attribute it to this or that but here is at least one observation that I am wading through.

I think not resolving the tension allows some mystery back into the church. And hopefully in time it opens the church to allow God to Capture the Imagination of the people - which is part of what I believe is missing in many of our church environments.

It's like reading a book vs. going to a movie. I hate reading a book after I watch a movie - because now I have a fixed picture of Harry Potter and the whole scene. Hollywood has some great effects but nothing compares to the imagination. I find it so much more fulfilling to engage in a story reading between the lines of the pages and being caught up in lives of the characters...letting my imagination sweep me away to another place and time!

All this, and though I do read, I wouldn't consider myself a reader. I just love it when my mind and heart – my Imagination is Captured!

I think the fear I've heard most often is that we leave the individual or family to now wrestle with this tension. "What if" they come out with a different conclusion or idea from what we were trying to communicate in the first place. Or what if their conclusion is total off base and wrong! So in order to make sure that doesn’t happen we HAVE to tell them , right?

I've had many conversations and debates with some of my closest friends about this. My thoughts have come to this - if I believe the Holy Spirit resides in us to bring us to overflowing with Christ and if I truly believe that He has our best intentions and knows us better than we know ourselves -

Then I personally conclude that I have to trust that as people wrestle and struggle through the difficult that God will be their guide and will do His work in them. Now this causes me to re-examine my role as a leader. I'm still working on it but here is a quick overview - to equip people with tools and relationships that will encourage questions and healthy discussions about life and faith. That’s pretty close.

I'm still in process with much of this but I thought I would share.

As for the significant aspect - I still need to chew on it but it is right in line with some other discussions we have been having over a book called "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris. Some great things to chew on.

Thanks so much!