This past week I got to meet Chris Mortensen, NFL expert on ESPN and a believer. His football stories were only surpassed by his testimony of salvation, which was quite encouraging. It made me think of this article I wrote a while back, adapted a little for now…

Football has had an enduring affect on my life. Maybe it stems from the matching scars I have on both knees from surgical repairs brought about from my gridiron days. Maybe it is the joy I get from watching Josh this fall hit the field for the Knights, his school team. One thing is certain: every fall I experience a strange phenomenon. I find myself looking for someone to tackle, or at least to hit with a forearm! Something about playing high school football, although in my distant past of over twenty years ago, has never left me.

Now I have fought the urge to tackle a colleague or try to convince the secretaries in my office to lead a pep rally. But I have discovered that nothing in my adult experience causes me to reflect on my teenage years more than my annual habit of football nostalgia. And I am convinced that in a day where too many men act like pansies (or metrosexuals I suppose), football is still a place where men can be men.

Football gave me a lot. Oh, I was not the all-star player on my team. Like most guys, in my mind the older I get, the better player I was! But I have observed that being on a football team over four years taught me practical lessons about life that have helped me ever since. And, many of these same lessons have been especially helpful to me in ministry. Ministry is to team sports (like football) as painted lines are to a highway — not the same, but a pretty good parallel. Just look at the times Paul used athletics in the New Testament to teach spiritual truth (I Cor. 9:24-27, Phil. 3:14, I Tim, etc).

I look back all the time on the lessons I learned from football. Some of these may actually apply to blogging as well.

The team is first
The more you focus on helping others the better it is for you. If you are a pastor or staff member, helping the whole staff honor God should supersede any personal goals. When the team wins, everyone gets the credit, but when the team loses, individual achievements really don’t matter.

Sacrifice is a good thing
If all being on a football team involved was showing up and playing a game every week, half the guys in school would want to play. No, to play the game, you have to pay the price. Hours of sweating in the August sun, off-season conditioning, grueling drills, wind sprints, on and on the sacrifice goes. Afternoons in the fall are surrendered to practice. Ministry is not about finding your niche so much as it is pursuing godliness. This involves great sacrifice over time. Just look at the analogies Paul uses for leaders that relate to sacrifice.

Keep your eye on the prize
Our team’s goal, make no mistake, was to WIN. Our coach never began a season saying, “Our goal this year is to be 0 and 10.” We never started a week of practice with the goal of losing. Excuses were never allowed. In ministry we have to be careful about how we define “winning” by overly focusing on some things to the neglect of others. But let’s be clear — the goal of a team is never mediocrity, and neither should being average satisfy a minister. And winning souls should remain our priority.

Evaluation helps
Every Monday we watched film as a team. Our coach loved to say, “the big eye won’t lie.” If an assignment was blown, all could see. If a great play was made, all observed. Effective ministry requires ongoing evaluation. But the evaluation should always be focused on making people better rather than tearing them down.

Be a good sport
Learn what is important and what isn’t. In football hustle, preparation, and teamwork rule – personal feelings do not. The coach has the right to ride a player’s back if he loafs. In ministry, we tend to take ourselves too seriously, but fail to take the gospel seriously enough. We need to reverse those two and lighten up!

Leave nothing on the field
A good football player never quits. Too many ministers spend more time preparing for retirement than reaching the lost. Too many Christians seek security more than glorifying God with our lives. I still apply this mentally when I preach and teach. When I am finished, I am exhausted, but it is a good feeling to know I have given my best to communicate the Word of God.

A good coach sure helps
Great football programs on any level are marked by great coaches. The “coach” of a local church is the pastor. Everything rises or falls on leadership.

Be agile, mobile, and hostile
OK, I am getting carried away a bit — that’s how my coach described a linebacker. At my age I am fragile, docile and senile! In ministry we should never be hostile, but we must be agile and mobile, or flexible.

Football and ministry obviously are not exactly the same. Ministry matters a lot more. Ministry is not a game — it’s life and death. But, just as Paul used a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer to describe a minister, football can teach us a lot.

Now, go out there and give it all for the — no, not the Gipper — for the Savior!

* With apologies to Robert Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things.

Last fall a student named Joy sat way up in the back of my class, no doubt nervous about taking evangelism. As the semester went on, Joy came by the office and shared with me her burden for Desiree, her coworker and friend back home near Asheville, NC. Joy so longed to see Desiree come to Christ, but Desiree’s life was heading the opposite direction. She was what I call a radically unchurched young lady.
Then Christmas break came and class was over. Joy called me at home, very emotional. The reason? Desiree had met the Master!
So this past Sunday I preached at Joy’s home church. And I met Desiree. And I heard some of her story. She is an amazing picture of grace. She told me she had become so angry because of the prayers of Christians–they made her miserable! But now she so rejoices in them. Pray for Desiree. She is still a baby believer, but has such a refreshing, wonderful passion for Jesus.
Oh, Joy is on the right, Desiree on the left.

Okay today is Saturday. But after the day I had yesterday, adding a photo to my blog hardly seemed a priority. This is also a photo from last year, since my Delta (which stands for Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport) flight kept me from saying more than hi to Shane and Shane at the conference where I spoke (I missed the entire Friday night session). I am thus using a photo from a conference in Florida last year where I also served with these guys. Shane and Shane are easily some of the finest, most gifted, yet humble, biblically focused musicians with whom I have had the honor to serve.
I am not such a great youth speaker I think so whenever I get the opportunity to speak to thousands of students it is a blessing. I am probably a better teacher than a preacher anyway, which is good since I do a lot more of the former. You can read about the conference at http://www.sbtexas.com/default.asp?action=publication&pub=1&issue=8/10/2006 (yes I forgot how to do the hyperlink, Nfinn help me).
Have a great Lord’s day all.

Every year, and now on this blog, I get requests for suggested reading/bibliography on a variety of subjects. I doubt whether my list would be different or more helful than others, but it perhaps will provide a starting point for others to engage in meaningful conversation on the subject at hand.
I teach each summer at Student Leadership University, the ministry of Jay Strack that actually treats young people like young men and women (for my thoughts on that see my book Raising the Bar, or read a condensed version of it at alvinreid.com). Both of my kids have been through 101 and will go farther. One of the quotes emphasized repeatedly is (actually I am paraphrasing): you will become the person you are in the future based on the books you read, the people you meet, and the places you go.
So here are some books that will help to understand our culture so hopefully we can take the unchanging, amazing gospel to a changing culture.
NOTE: I do not imply that books on theology, commentaries on Scripture, or God’s Word in particular are less important than these books. Hardly. But as Paul said to “know the times,” or literally, “be intimately knowledgeable about your season/climate,” these books can help.
NOTE 2: I am of course not endorsing all these books say. Some of them I disagree with more than I agree. But they are vital. I am only giving name of author and book as you can google or amazon the rest.
Andrew Beajon. Body Piercing Saved My Life. This book by an unbeliever who writes for Spin magazine looks at the impact of Christian Rock music. I love to read how people outside our club see us. And, as a music lover I was absorbed by the book. It will shock you, sadden you, and at times inspire you. If we will reach the youth culture, we will need to learn how to sing the gospel to them.
David Brooks. BoBos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. Recommended by my colleague Mark Liederbach. I have yet to read it.
Jim Collins. Good to Great. You have all likely read this one. “Good is the enemy of great.” Many transferable concepts for ministry, as seen in T Rainer’s Breakout Churches.
Thomas Freidman. The World Is Flat. NY Times reporter’s analysis of the flattening effect of the internet and a myriad of techonological breakthroughs. See my summary in an earlier post.
Malcolm Gladwell. Blink, and The Tipping Point. Both interesting books about facets of culture. Better at recognizing than advising in my view, but still both are compelling, and help us understand how to relate to people and culture.
Steven D. Leavitt. Freakonomics. A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. We tend to be a little too gnostic, seperately spirituality from the rest of culture. Economics, technology, etc, all relate to ministry. We should not take marching orders from the business world or futurists, but niether should we be ostriches.
Gordon MacKenzie. Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace. A sobering and entertaining look at the perils of bureacracy from the artist at Hallmark calls given the title Creative Paradox. Essential for leaders, trustees of agencies, etc. This book will make you think.

All I have time for…please note these are only “secular” books. I will do another list from Christian writers. Please submit your comments and suggest others. I need to read more as well.

Back in my seminary days at SWBTS my wife and I were members for a while at Wedgwood Baptist (Jerry Sutton was pastor). I volunteered with the youth on Wednesdays with others students, including George Guthrie, now at Union University (and can he play a piano), and Erwin McManus, now at Mosaic in LA.

Erwin has been a guy out of the system in the SBC, while I have been an old fuddy-dud, living in the denominational structure…okay, I actually have been amazingly blessed to serve the Lord in all the ways He has granted. But Erwin and I thought alike back then, and in some ways still do now. But this book has moved me. It has taken me back to my early years, when I met Jesus and just wanted to pour out my life for Him. It took me to my early years of marriage and seminary, when Michelle and I were dirt poor (praise God for .38 cans of chicken soup)but we just wanted to do everything we could to help others know the Jesus we know.

The following is a series of quotes from Erwin’s book. I am not attempting a formal review, just pulling some quotes that encouraged me, so maybe you will be blessed and challenged as well…

Erwin Raphael McManus, The Barbarian Way. Nelson, 2005.
“But then the worst thing happened that could happen to any fighter, you got civilized.” Mick to Rocky, Rocky III. P. vi.

p. 5: “The invitation of Jesus is a revolutionary call to fight for the heart of humanity. We are called to an unconventional war using only the weapons of faith, hope, and love. Nevertheless, this war is no less dangerous than any war ever fought. And for those of us who embrace the cause of Christ, the cost to participate in the mission of God is nothing less than everything we are and everything we have.”
p. 6: “This is the simplicity of the barbarian way. If you are a follower of Christ, then you are called to fight for the heart of your King. It is a life fueled by a passion—a passion for God and a passion for people.”
“When Christianity becomes just another religion, it focuses on requirements. Just to keep people in line, we build our own Christian civilization and (p. 7) then demand everyone who believes in Jesus become a good citizen.”
“It’s hard to imagine that Jesus would endure the agony of the Cross just to keep us in line.”
p. 12: “Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated—or, if you will, civilized. We have lost the simplicity of our early faith. Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith.”
p. 13: “The barbarian way is about love, intimacy, passion, and sacrifice. Barbarians love to live and live to love. For them God is life, and their mission is to connect humanity to Him. Their passion is that each of us might live in intimate communion with Him who died for us. The barbarian way is a path of both spirit and truth.”
“If I know nothing else about you, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I know this without question: there is within you a raw and untamed faith waiting to be unleashed.”

My thoughts: this last statement is what I see again and again as I speak to youth, to college students, to my students. May God give us a generation who will live with this passion, and spend more time on living for God than swapping our opinions…