Welcome to the Majors!

I recently attended a Frisco Rough Riders baseball game with my wife, my brother, and his girlfriend. If you aren't familiar with them, the Rough Riders are the AA affiliate of Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers.

Most of the players on the AA team are in their lower to mid-twenties. They were drafted anywhere from 2 to 5 years ago and have made their way past low-A and high-A ball. Their next goal is to be promoted to AAA, and eventually be called up to the majors. This is the way Major League Baseball farm systems work.

Attending that game got me thinking about this concept of different levels within an organization. It seems that this is how the business world works as well; you usually start out as the low man/woman on the totem pole and eventually work your way up to where you want to be.

Since this is the way most of the world works, I wonder if this is the way people view the church...

Just like there are roles to fill in a business or positions to play on a baseball team, there are many jobs to be done in any local church. Of course there are those who preach and teach and lead music, but it takes more than that.

There are tons of people behind the scenes:

·      Those who unlock the doors and turn on the lights before you show up

·      Those who sit in the back and operate the sound system

·      Those who pass out bulletins and take up the offering

·      Those who bake meals and take them to the home-bound

·      Those who hold babies in the nursery

·      And the list could go on and on

But don't misunderstand...The goal in church ministry is not to start at the bottom and work your way up. Manning the back door and shaking hands is not the minors, and preaching is not the pros. Some are called to preach, some to teach, some to visit hospitals, some to give, and some to pray, but the bottom line is that any type of ministry is major, so if you are in ministry, "Welcome to the majors!"

Every role in the church is important. Every role is vital to the goal of spreading the gospel and sharing the love of God. So don't worry about what your job is. That really isn't up to you anyway; that's left up to the Holy Spirit and the gifts He gives you.

Instead, just make sure that you're doing your job! Because guess what? If you aren't doing it, one of two things is true: It's either not getting done or someone else is having to do their job AND YOURS.

Consider what Peter wrote in 1 Ptr. 4:10, "Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God." The only reason we possess spiritual gifts is because of God’s grace. And these gifts are not a privilege, they are a responsibility. We have to be faithful with what the Lord has given us.

So again, don't worry about your role being important or unimportant. If you are using your gift(s) to serve others (and therefore God) through your local church, then what you are doing IS important!

And hey, you never know. Someday God may call you to do something different; He may gift you and equip you in other ways. But don't consider that change a step up or down, just think of it as changing positions. Even professional baseball players sometimes do that at different stages of their career.

Who Can I Root For?

I love sports, and I always have. I enjoy playing them, and I also enjoy watching them. My wife often makes fun of me, saying that I skipped my childhood because I woke up on Saturday mornings to watch SportsCenter and not cartoons.

Whether it’s college or the pros (or even your local high school), we sports fans have our favorite teams. As a native of north Texas, I grew up rooting for the Dallas Mavericks and the Texas Rangers. As the grandson of an Okie, I am a huge Oklahoma Sooners fan (Boomer!).

But besides having “my” teams, I admit to having several favorite players over the years as well.

Kobe and Shaq

Tiger Woods

McGwire and Sosa

Blake Griffin

Adrian Peterson

Stephen Curry

Jordan Spieth

My best friend and I would pretend to be Kobe and Shaq when we played basketball on the goal that hung on my bedroom door. Inside that room I had framed posters of McGwire, Sosa, and Woods on the wall. I used to wear a shirt with Blake Griffin on it. Currently I find myself rooting for Steph and the Warriors to repeat as NBA champs. To be honest, I was a little torn up when Spieth made a 7 on #12 at Augusta during the final round of the Masters.

Have I made it clear that I have always been a fan of sports?

I don’t know that I would ever stop watching sports or stop rooting for my favorite teams/athletes, but for a long while I have been pondering a question in the back of my mind: As a believer, and especially as someone in ministry, should I root an athlete who doesn’t believe and behave as I do?

I’m not sure when this thought first crossed my mind. Maybe it was when the scandalous lifestyle of my childhood hero Tiger Woods was exposed. Can I honestly root for someone who tore his family apart and cheated on his wife multiple times?

Let me give you some other examples…

McGwire and Sosa had a magical season back in 1998. I followed their chase to break the home run record very closely. But then Sammy Sosa had a corked bat and McGwire was accused of using steroids. They were cheaters. Should I be proud that I rooted for them?

A more recent example that bothered me is that of Peyton Manning. Going into Super Bowl 50 there was some talk about the legendary quarterback’s faith and spirituality. He wound up playing an okay game and leading the Broncos to victory, which provided him with a huge platform to speak. So what does he do? He thanks God and then talks about how he’s going to go drink a bunch of Budweiser, all in the same sixty seconds! I can’t tell you how much that bothered me.

Is it absolutely wrong to have a few beers? No. Is it wrong to get drunk and lose self-control? Yes. Now, which Peyton did, I have no clue. But either way, how can you mention God and drinking alcohol in the same minute?

And then there is the curious case of one Josh Hamilton. After recovering from a serious drug addiction and making his way back to the MLB, he had multiple All-Star and MVP caliber seasons with the Texas Rangers. He used this platform to share his testimony and make his faith well known. He wrote an autobiography and spoke at FBC Dallas, among other places.

But then he had a few relapses and eventually wound up divorced from his wife. After a short stint with the Angels, he is now back on the Rangers, but you never hear anything about his faith anymore.

Other athletes currently in the spotlight, such as two-time major winner Jordan Spieth, try to keep as low a profile as possible, making it hard to know much about their personal lives. I know that Spieth attended a Catholic high school in Dallas, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is a devout Catholic. So when it comes to athletes like this, it’s hard to know.

Then there are the Tim Tebows of the sports world who make their faith as obvious as possible. When it comes to athletes like this, fans have no choice but to know they profess faith in Christ and attempt to live a life that pleases him.

So who can I root for? Who do I root for? To be honest, I root for pretty much all of the athletes mentioned above. I still hope to see Tiger win another PGA Tour Event. I rooted for Peyton and the Broncos in Super Bowl 50. Even though his on-field impact has been slim to nothing lately (mainly due to health reason), I still pull for Josh Hamilton.

Does this mean that I condone the off-field/court/course behavior of these individuals? Absolutely not. In fact, I disapprove of much of it. But there are always a couple things I keep in mind:

First of all, I am a sinner just like them. Their sin might be more open and blatant and even unrepentant, but before God we are all sinners.

Secondly, whoever they are and however they behave, the feats these men accomplish in their respective games are incredible. Even if I can’t root for them as individuals, I can root for their God-given abilities to succeed.

In the end, who I root for really makes no difference. Me rooting for them is not going to have an impact on their success. I don’t pray for Spieth to win the Masters or Curry to repeat as an NBA champ. I just root for them and love to see them do well. And if they don’t, oh well. There will always be someone else to root for, and who knows, maybe he or she will be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Baseball and Scripture

Rawlings Bull Series

From T-ball fields to major league stadiums across the United States, America’s pastime is back. In other words, baseball season has begun!

Even though I didn’t play it in high school, baseball was always my favorite sport as a child. In fact, I enjoyed baseball so much that I joined a tournament team and played year-round.

Today I want to take a second to tell you about my baseball glove. My uncle is a salesman for Rawlings Sporting Goods, and when I was in fifth grade he gave me a very nice glove for Christmas. It was a Rawlings Bull Series glove, brown leather with black lacing, 10 3/4 inches long. I absolutely loved that glove, and there is no telling how many games I played with it, most of them either pitching or at third base.

Fast-forward to my high school days. I wasn’t playing baseball anymore, but I still had that glove. I just kept it in a plastic bin in our garage with some other sports equipment and used it from time to time, but not often at all. One day when my parents were having a garage sale, I pulled up to our house and saw a customer walking around with my glove! I hopped out of my car, rushed to find my dad, and asked him what was going on. Why did that person have my glove in their hand like they were going to buy it? Why was my glove for sale???

Apparently my parents didn’t think that glove was wanted or needed anymore, so they included it in the sale. But I begged to differ! I didn’t use that glove much, but whenever I needed a glove, that’s the one I wanted. It was well broken in. It fit my hand perfectly (like a glove, I should say). I still have that glove to this day and still use it whenever I play catch.

For me, that glove is a lot like the many Scripture verses I have memorized over the years. Thanks to church children’s programs like AWANA and TeamKid, I memorized lots of Scripture growing up. I don’t think about or use most of those verses on a daily basis, but whenever I need to recall one, it’s there.

It’s just like my old baseball glove. I don’t use it much, but whenever I need it, it’s there and it fits me perfectly.

Whenever I need to make a decision, I sometimes think about a verse I have memorized. Whenever someone asks for advice, I often quote Scripture to them. Whatever I may need it for, it’s always there.

So in conclusion, let me take a second to encourage you to memorize some Scripture. Whether you’re 8 or 18 or 80, what you memorize today will probably stick with you for the rest of your life.

Here are a few tips for memorizing Scripture:

• Memorize verses from a Bible translation that is easy for you to understand
• Start small, even with just half a verse if necessary (try 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17)
• If it is a longer verse, memorize it in parts
• Take your time (don’t memorize it in one day and then forget about it; commit a verse to memory over the course of 3-4 days, or maybe even a week)
• Build your confidence (after you learn some individual verses, try to memorize a paragraph and eventually an entire chapter)
• Let memorization lead to meditation (think about its meaning when you’re lying in bed or driving down the road)

Most of all, I know that when you commit the time to memorize Scripture, God will use it to challenge you and change you. He will challenge you to become more like Him and change the way you view the world around you.

Don't Stop Believing (Hebrews)

“Don’t stop believin’…Hold on to that feelin’…”

I know that after reading those two lines you can hear Journey’s popular song in your head. Everyone knows those lines. My wife and sister recently sang a karaoke version of this song on a cruise, and the whole crowd joined in. A few weeks ago I heard some junior high girls singing it at the top of their lungs while riding through the Target parking lot. Like I said, everyone knows the words to “Don’t Stop Believing.”

But did you know that the phrase “Don’t stop believing” is also one of the major themes of the book of Hebrews? It might not use those exact words, but the point is clear!

The book of Hebrews alternates between sections of exposition and exhortation. After the author teaches about Jesus, he then takes time to exhort his audience based on that teaching. The main message of the teaching sections is that Jesus is our great high priest (1:3; 2:17; 4:14-15; 5:5-6, 10; 6:20; 7:15-17, 23-28; 8:1-6; 9:11-14; 10:11-14, 21). The main exhortation comes by way of five “warning passages” (2:1-4; 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:20; 10:26-39; 12:14-29), and all five warnings make a very similar plea: DON’T STOP BELIEVING!

This is made clear by phrases such as, “We must therefore pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away” (2:1), “Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God” (3:12), “We want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy, but imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance” (6:11-12), “But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life” (10:39), and, “See that there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for one meal” (12:16).

There are also several pleas to “hold on,” “hold firmly,” and “hold fast” (3:6, 14; 4:14; 6:18; 10:23). The author is begging his audience to not let go of Jesus and the commitment they have made to Him. They need to persevere. They need to keep on keepin’ on.

And today I want to encourage you to do the same thing. I would never tell you that following Christ is easy. Jesus Himself never told anyone that either. In fact, He told His disciples, “You will have suffering in this world” (John 16:33). Anyone want to say amen?

But in the midst of the tests, trials, and temptations that we go through, we can’t give up. We can’t stop believing. Why? Because Jesus is ready and willing to help us. Hebrews 2:18 tells us that, “Since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.” Hebrews 4:15 tells us that, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.”

This journey we call life might challenge us, but God is using those challenges to change us.

Let me leave you with this thought from Hebrews 12:1-2, “Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.”