Recently Barna did a study on small churches vs big churches in regards to how orthodox each side really is. His results revealed mega-church members had more orthodox professions of the faith. However, here’s an interesting blog post responding to the Barna study (from the pastor of a healthy small town church which has had huge affects on its community). In my opinion, Barna clearly has biases (house church), and I’ve heard him say he’s really not a huge fan of the church in general. I think they really come out to play here, and this small town Baptist church pastor Chuck Warnock definitely agrees. Of course he posted first about this study, so I guess I’m the one agreeing with him.

We just finished up a video debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox in our community group. I asked everyone to think of at least one positive thing about both the atheist and the Christian. Fortunately we were able to generate a lot of positive things about Dawkins instead of just blowing him off because ultimately we weren’t “pulling” for him (though he did have better arguments). It was a helpful exercise for our group to affirm what we could, before critiquing what we couldn’t. We all concluded that Lennox probably would have been more affective if he adopted this approach.

Anyhow, click here to see a short video interview of another atheist who seriously critiques Dawkins and the new atheists.

Last week Amy and Connar spent a week in Virginia with her family. Here’s a little snippet of what I missed while staying in Bradenton. Watching this makes me feel, just a little bit, like I was there. Connar dares to take on his cousin Ryan in an age appropriate U.F.C., 2 minute match for the ages. Check it out.

Due to the fact that the Buc’s offensive line did not protect my preferred QB Luke McCown at all on Thursday night, we’ll be seeing Byron “the Statue” Leftwich as the starter on week 1. If we’re going to lose all but 4 games-which is generous-I’d rather see this guy behind the line of scrimmage. Check out this snippet from his interview on dealing with the disappointment of losing out on the starting job:

“It is not easy, but again you guys know me. My faith and my opportunity lie in a sovereign God. That he has a plan for me specifically, and I’ll lean on that. That makes it easy for me to go out and have fun, and have a great practice, a good practice, and be at peace with the decision. Because I feel like it is God’s decision for my life. It is not really, not necessarily, me not winning the starting job it is just what God has for me right now. That makes it is easy for me to go out with peace.”

My prediction (not something I’d prefer happen) is that “the Statue” will be hurt by game 4, and McCown will get a chance. No Buccaneer QB has started all 16 games in the last 7 years, so I believe he’ll get his shot to start soon. I’m not a fan of his poise on “the pocket,” but I sure am a fan of his faith.

I was reading in Acts this morning and came across yet another passage in scripture which included the paradox of God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility. Even though this dynamic doesn’t fit neatly into our little logical grid-neither do the Trinity and love for that matter-we see these two truths affirmed throughout the bible.

When Paul sailed to Rome they hit some rough patches on the sea, and many thought they would die. So Paul affirmed them of God’s Sovereign plan to save them:

“… For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told…..(Acts 27:24-26)

So while they were affirmed of God’s Sovereign plan to save them, Paul still gave them instructions which needed to be followed.

“Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.’ Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go. As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food. It will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you (vs. 31-34).

While God affirmed them of their ultimate safety, they still had to play by His rules. Since they hadn’t eaten in 14 days, and would be soon swimming to shore after a shipwreck, they would likely not have had the strength to get to shore. I can’t imagine doing any exercise after not eating for 14 hours, much less 14 days.

Yet another mix of Sovereignty and Responsibility that moves us to gratitude and rest as opposed to arrogance and fear, to action and inclusion as opposed to laziness and fatalism.

I’ve already blogged on the seeming unfairness of Plaxico Burress’s punishment of 2 years in prison for carrying a loaded unlicensed weapon. Most people who feel this punishment doesn’t fit the crime tend to view this crime as only hurting himself, especially since Donte Stallworth got 24 days for actually killing a pedestrian while under the influence. However, Burress’ crime was not shooting himself but carrying the weapon without permit, and one could argue that he truly did put others in danger-especially because the gun just “went off” (why the safety wasn’t on, I don’t know). Others could just as easily been shot.

Regardless where you end up on this issue-if you even care about the issue-it does remind me of the way many view sin. If sin does hurt someone, it just hurts yourself. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But sin always has communal effects, even those which never “leave” your mouth or body. When I harbor anger, I demonize my enemy and ignore a litany of his/her strengths. I also can’t love my wife well and listen to her because of my anger.

When we lie to each other, we deceive and push our family and friends away. When we lust or engage in pornography, we are one step further in the direction of alienation to our spouse and brothers/sisters in Christ. We value our spouse’s and community’s bodies and intimacy less because of our sin.

Isolation from community and the church, (the sin of “my religion is private” and I don’t need to be a part of a church) sins against others by depriving them of your spiritual gifts, encouragement, and challenge. And you are depriving others of their opportunity to serve you with their gifts.

Ultimately, sin is far more than shooting ourselves in the foot, it’s shooting others as well. It’s more like Stallworth than Burress.

I’m fascinated with bumper stickers. I wonder how much they really do say about someone. I don’t know if I’d go with a bumper sticker again (I did have a cool Christian one in college) and a big redfish sticker-though the Christian bumper sticker included fish as well-that supported F.C.A. (formerly Florida Conservation Association). Fellowship of Christian Athletes people didn’t really like that one.

However I digress, as usual. I saw a “Would Jesus discriminate” bumper sticker the other day and it did what I think bumper stickers are supposed to do: it made me think. Does Jesus never discriminate? If he does discriminate, on what basis?

Well certainly Jesus wouldn’t discriminate today and show favoritism between rich/poor, Jews/Gentiles, men/woman, sick/healthy, self-righteous/”sinners.” He didn’t do it then. What a great reminder to all of us.

In fact, folks (I put myself in this category) who are often drawn to the fact that Jesus condemned self-righteous thinking and behavior often forget that Jesus still mingled and ate with such folks. He did not in some ways discriminate or separate or consider them not worth his time; instead he went to their houses for dinner (Luke 7). Yet we who disdain self-righteous thinking/behavior can quickly become self-righteous about not acting self-righteously, which results in discriminating against and withdrawing from those we consider as such. That’s self-righteousness.

However on an ultimate level, Jesus does discriminate in some ways. He said that anyone who has the Son has life and anyone who doesn’t have the Son receives God’s wrath (John 3). And near the end of his ministry we see him pointing to the end of the age, where He will separate the sheep on his right and goats on his left. The sheep will inherit life, for they by faith have concerned themselves with those in need, and the goats on the left will receive judgment for they by lack of faith have ignored those in need. That’s definitely discriminating.

Judging by other colorful bumper stickers on this person’s car, I would dare say the latter discrimination may not have been considered. However, it is mandatory to see how
Jesus goes farther in not discriminating than we think, and farther in ultimately discriminating then we often think as well.

If you’re like me at all, you want to see justice and punishment that fits appropriately with the crime. And you want to see lengthier prison time for worse crimes. Lately there have been several instances with NFL players, where punishments seem to me a bit flip-flopped at best.

Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg with an unlicensed handgun at a night club, and goes to jail for 2 years. Donte Stallworth kills a pedestrian while drunk driving and goes to jail for 24 days. Now different states, different lawyers, different judges lead to different conclusions. It just makes you long for a justice system with A fair judge, and A good lawyer, in a A good world with A good conclusion.

My left leg has been twitching every night for the last 4 or 5 days so I’ve been up a good bit later than I like to be. Since there was no cheesy SCI-FI movie on the SCI-FI channel (they’re so bad they draw me in), I flipped through the channels and locked onto Letterman.

He had director Ken Burns, who has a documentary about the National Parks system coming out on PBS Sept 27th. It didn’t sound as interesting as The War, but his comments were definitely thoughtful.

This joker seemed like someone I would definitely want as a friend. Nice guy, at least during the interview. Anyhow, he poetically spoke of the spirituality of the Grand Canyon as you “See the hand of God, as the river has been carving the canyon for a billion years.” It reminded me of Psalm 19, where the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the skies the work of His hand.

Nature truly does point us to the God who created it (not the God who is in and a part of it, called pan-en-theism). Burns really challenged me to think more poetically about creation, and he’s following good biblical precedent.

In addition, Burns mentioned that its not just about individual spiritual connection, but about sharing that park experience with others. Life experiences are meant to be shared, how much more should our spirituality be shared in corporate worship and in community groups? Nice common grace insights from Burns.

One of the fall outs of this whole Micheal Vick deal, at least for me, is that I’m seeing positives in quarterbacks I never really liked. For instance, starting Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb allegedly invited Vick to come to play in Philadelphia. Of course McNabb might actually be grooming his replacement. But that’s really of the essence of leadership. QB’s often do this, and sometimes it costs them their job. Ideally for McNabb, he would mentor Vick, and then see him take over when McNabb is ready to retire. But Vick could easily replace McNabb even before he is ready to step aside.

What we see in McNabb, and other unselfish quarterbacks, is critical to the health of the church: raising up new leadership. Instead of passively just letting someone fall into leadership, we ought to be regularly looking to find our replacements. Often times this means training up someone to either take our place, or giving them opportunities that they could replicate or serve/lead alongside of us.

This doesn’t happen by accident or default but by intentionality, and it often means giving others opportunities that put us on the sidelines. For instance, I like leading discussions, but what good is it if just lead them and never train up anyone else to lead them? It would be quite selfish of me. It may look good from the outside, but leadership that fails to seek to raise up new leadership is ultimately self-serving.

The two options are to groom new leadership now, or simply let leadership happen by people being sucked up into the vacuum created when old leadership leaves, dies, or steps down. The result of the vacuum is either a black hole where no leadership is developed (church, ministry, or comm group folds) or new leadership steps up which has no character qualities, gifting, and training for leadership (leads to unhealthy church, group, or ministry). Rarely is the case where there is a healthy ministry, comm group, or church which is not looking to groom the next generation of leaders.

Community groups need apprentices to take over/serve alongside and/or form new groups, elders need to train and groom elders, musicians need to seek to train new musicians, etc…, because you never know when you’ll “retire” or “get traded.” We’re not promised another day on Earth or at our church and so need to think forwardly.