High School Football

The High School Football season starts this Friday and with it comes one of the greatest ministry opportunities that I have been able to be a part of. Every game day we get the opportunity to have all the football players and cheerleaders at the church to feed them breakfast.

We feed the team a variety of breakfast foods, each week being a different, but equally tasty meal. We usually have pancakes, french toast, breakfast burritos, and of course the now famous Burkette Biscuits and Gravy.

The breakfast is hosted by our church, but it is not just our church that makes the breakfast for the football players. The Pastor of the local Southern Baptist church helps out, the photographer for the local newspaper helps, and even the coaches for the football team get up extra early to come and assist in making breakfast for the football players.

I say this is one of the greatest ministry opportunities that I have been able to be a part of because really it is just that. Through this ministry we get the chance to show many of the High School students that we care about them. We get to take a moment every Friday morning to invest a little into their lives. We get to begin to build relationships with the football players, the cheerleaders and the coaches.

Because the only "church" type of thing we do is pray for the meal, some may say - well you aren't giving them the gospel or you are not telling them about Christ. It may be true that through our mouth we are not preaching to them, but through our lives and through the fact that we love and care for these kids - we are preaching to them.

Along with the breakfast, the football season also allows me the opportunity to pray with the team before they take the field on every home game. I have become the unofficial team chaplain. I greatly enjoy this opportunity as I get to lead the team in the Lord's Prayer and then offer up a prayer for them before they go out and play.

It is my hope that through these somewhat small, but significant ministries seeds will be planted in these kids lives and we will see the fruit of our labor when these kids remember what the church did for them later in life.

Wild Goose Chase - My Review

Just a few short weeks ago Mark Batterson posted to his blog the chance for fellow bloggers to get a copy of his newest book, Wild Goose Chase, to review via their blog. Seeing that I love to get free books, I jumped on the opportunity and was fortunate enough to have the chance to read this wonderful book, Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, and be able to review it. This book has been an inspiring book for me on many levels.

In Wild Good Chase, Mark lays out what it is like to pursue the Spirit's leading. He likens it to Chasing a Wild Goose, and while pursuing the Spirit's leading is not futile (like chasing a wild goose) it is similar in the fact that, just as chasing a wild goose, you never know where the Spirit is going to take you. The subtitle to the book, Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God, accurately describes what Mark is writing about and accomplishes in this book.

There are so many deep insightful points to this book, that to mention them all would take several pages, but one of the strong statement that stuck out to me is when Mark says, "I don't think the date of death is necessarily the date carved on your tombstone. Most people die long before that. And in the same sense, most people don't start living until long after the date stamped on their birth certificate." This premise sets the tone for the book. He says, “Real life and real adventure begin the moment you …begin chasing the Wild Goose.” This spoke volumes to me in the fact that sometimes in life, as long as we are pursuing God’s will, we are just along for the ride. It reminds me of times where our family would pile in the car, and as a kid I would ask, “Where are we going?” and my dad would answer, “Somewhere.” As long as we seek after what God has for us, we may not know where were are going to end up, but we know it is going to be great, and this is the main theme of this book.

Throughout the book Mark adds stories from his own personal life, along with stories directly from the pages of Scripture to illustrate his message. This personal touch, along with the message directly from the Word of God adds a great element to keeping you engaged in the book.

In all I thought this book was a great read. For many other reviewers of Wild Goose Chase, they have read it in one sitting. Personally I have NEVER done that with a book, and this one was no different, but I did find putting it down a little hard at times. My suggestion – buy it, read it and find out what it is like to chase a wild goose.

You can purchase Wild Goose Chase at
Amazon.com
Christian Book Distributors

Also, once you have purchased the book check out www.chasethegoose.com where you can download Mark's 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals.

Simple Church - the book and the thoughts that come with it.

I am currently reading Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger. This book has really gotten me thinking. How many churches out there are truly being intentional about their discipleship program? and How many churches are just expecting Discipleship to happen? It has also gotten me thinking about the process that we have as a church. It is hard to actually come to the realization that for too long we have just been hoping that discipleship happens. We have just been expecting that people will kind of figure it out on their own, instead of having a simple process to lead people into a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ. I have not finished the book yet, but as I have been reading it - the thoughts of what we can do, how we can change, and where we need to go keep running through my mind. I know that this taking this on is going to mean a lot of changes and even a lot of sacrifice, but in order to lead people into that deeper, more meaningful, and more committed relationship that we are all looking for - it just may be worth it.

China wins Women's Gymnastics (but did they cheat)

So as I said in my last post, I am pretty much hooked on the Olympics. Tonight was the Women's Team Gymnastics competition. It was an interesting competition where you couldn't really be sure who was going to win until the final apparatus (floor exercise). Our ladies did extremely well up until the floor exercise and it really seemed like they sort of fell apart. I am proud of the accomplishments they made even through the adversity of having 2 injured teammates. Sean Johnson really seemed rock steady until the very end. I am sure she will be a strong competitor in the All Around competition.

All of this begs the question though - are the Chinese Gymnastics athletes at least 16 years old??? They sure don't look like any 16 year old that I have seen around. I have seen elementary kids that look older than most of those girls. I know that their "passport" claims they are over 16 but documents can be fabricated. I really hope the International Olympic Committee looks into this. It would really be a shame if China was cheating on their home turf.

What do you think???
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Olympics

Well the Olympics are well under way, and I am excited. I love it when the Olympics are going on. It is even greater since they moved the Olympics to where the Summer and Winter Olympics alternate every 2 years instead of having to wait 4 years for Olympics. I can't say it enough, I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. So, yesterday (Saturday) we watched Olympics ALL DAY LONG. It was great. We have a DVR with DirecTV so we can record all the Olympics and watch them. We found ourselves flipping the TV back and forth from NBC to MSNBC. We could rewind and watched what we missed. It was GREAT. This evening - MORE OLYMPICS. I can't wait to see what our athletes can do. Will we win the medal race again this year? Who knows, but it will be cool if we do. Well I hope you enjoy the Olympics, and if you are one of the 2 or 3 people that actually read this Blog, leave me a comment and tell me what is your favorite Olympic Sport.