Sports and Idolatry – hopefully you are connecting these two ideas. In Part 1, I said there are three important ideas we need to embrace in order to diagnose the idolatry of sports. They are: 1) Assume sports are an idol 2) Examine our deep emotions around sports – especially our anger 3) Own the passions of…
A fellow sports minister had a recent conversation with a coach where the sports minister asked, “Do you think you have a problem with sports being an idol?” The coach quickly and emphatically replied, “No!” What is interesting about his response is that this coach had recently had several emotional and difficult confrontations surrounding his…
Good stuff here from Trevin Wax. Below is an excerpt: 2. Beware of the Ping In The Accidental Creative, Todd Henry warns against the Ping: “The Ping is that little sensation that occasionally prompts me to check my e-mail or my social media accounts. It’s the impulse to mindlessly surf news sites instead of…
Via Michael Hyatt: The temptation of priorities. Weak leaders put themselves last. They mistakenly think this is more spiritual. As I wrote in another post, it is a dangerous temptation that has left many leaders cynical and burned out.But successful leaders face the opposite temptation. They put themselves first. In fact, some are outright narcissists,…
By Jason Miller Having a plan is good. Organization is good. Being prepared is good. But…is it possible to “plan God out”? There are some who will read this and answer no, that there is no way to have anything that God is not a part of. Okay…before we get into being so heavenly…
“If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain you would go to heaven?” While this question may be helpful in the course of a spiritual dialogue, it is a rather awkward way to begin such a dialogue. Tim Chester & Steve Timmis talk about this reality in their book Everyday Church: Gospel Communities…
Batman. Superman. William Wallace. Indiana Jones. All great heroes brought to life in the movies! (When you think of a hero, who comes to your mind?) I longed to be one of those heroes as a child. In fourth grade, one of my recurrent daydreams was that I would rescue my class from a dangerous…
As Christians, we tend to compartmentalize aspects of our lives. Going to church, reading the Bible, and praying are all “spiritual” things while the day-to-day activities we engage in like work, sports, meals, etc. are “secular.” No matter how long you’ve been a Christian, I suspect you struggle with compartmentalization. God wants us to have…