The Knockout Punch

This photo of Muhammed Ali's knockout of Sonny Liston in their May, 1965 rematch bout in Lewiston, Maine is one of the most iconic images in all of boxing.

Liston prone. Ali flexing and snarling. I saw the photo as a kid -- and Ali fan -- and have never forgotten it.

And a debate that rages even today: was the knockout punch real or phantom? Was Ali's speed and strength such that Liston had no chance? Or was the fix in and Lison took the fall to pay back debts he owed to the Mafia?

Such is the power and allure of knockout punches -- the ultimate winner-take-all moment in sports.

As we wind up The Fight Of Your Life, we'll look closely at the knockout punches that our family relationships face, and those that we can give in order to win the battle. To get ready, take a look at Ruth 1:1-21.

And remember to turn your clock back on Saturday night.

Sunday. 8:30. 10. 11:30.

Something We Don't Do Well . . . And Something We Do

The longer I serve in church leadership, the more I realize that churches need to ask themselves this question: "what do we do well?"

By the same token, they need to ask this one: "what do we not do well?"

It's interesting: in deciding what you do well, you are often making a decision to be "not so good" at some other things.

For example, we're not very good at helping people start new ministries that are borne out of a personal passion and are pefectly God-honoring. A new ministry to write letters of encouragement to elected officials, for example. (No one has approached us with this one, by the way.) It may be a fine idea, one that pleases God and will help people, but we're not so good at getting something like that off the ground.

On the other hand, there is something in a related area that we do well: providing ample space for people to find their niche in ministry.

While we can't always help launch brand new ministry initiatives, we can direct people towards something like First Serve -- our monthly outreach to the greater Charlotte area. On the first Saturday of each month, we have as many as ten different ministry sites at which people can serve. The sites range from the Charlotte Rescue Mission to a local Nursing Home to a middle school gang prevention ministry.

So we are good at moving people to First Serve -- October saw over 300 people participate.

Our hope and prayer is that the ministry opportunities are wide enough on the first Saturday of each month to appeal to a large number of Good Shepherd servants.

It's a decision to focus all of our energy and creativity into something we know we can do and do well.

To sign up for the November First Serve, click here.

World Series Memories

With the World Series starting tonight, it seems like an appropriate time to share some Fall Classic memories.

Baseball has never been my top spectator sport -- it falls somewhere behind tennis and somewhere ahead of sumo wrestling -- so the memories are not abundant. But these moments were powerful.

My first is from the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and Reds. I was in eighth grade. Game 6 of that series was the first time I realized baseball could involve almost unbearable drama. Carlton Fisk's homer to win that game for the Red Sox is the moment everyone remembers. Fewer seem to remember that the Reds came back and won Game 7.

1986 was the one year I was totally into baseball. Julie and lived in New Jersey and for some reason latched on to the Mets that year. We watched every regular season game on WOR Television -- with commentary from Tim McCarver who works the nationally broadcast games on Fox these days.

I haven't watched regular season baseball since 1986.

But the Mets were worth it that year. They won 108 games, beat the Astros in the NLCS, and then faced the Red Sox in the World Series.

I'm not including the picture of Bill Buckner's error in Game 6. That's because people forget that the game was already tied, thanks to Bob Stanley's wild pitch, and there's no guarantee that he could have thrown Mookie Wilson out at first anyway. Plus, the Mets still had to come back and win Game 7. Which they did. See above.


By 1991 we had moved to the Carolinas where all right thinking Southerners root for the Braves.

And after years of mediocrity, the Braves rooted back that year.

Their series with the Twins was one in which there really were no losers. Each game was close, and Game 7 was a masterpiece.

Unfortunately, the Braves had to wait for more years for their first title in Atlanta.

And we Southerners have been waiting 14 years for the second.


The 2001 World Series was played in the shadow of 9/11. It would have been so good for the Yankees to win. The victory would have helped bring healing to the city where so many were in unspeakable grief.

Just playing the games seemed cathartic for city and county.

And in spite of that, I still couldn't root for the Yankees.


When Luis Gonzalez' bloop single in Game 7 brought up the winning run, I jumped up and down as if I was born in Phoenix.

Which I wasn't.

Born in Dallas.

And the Texas Rangers have never won a playoff series, much less sniffed a World Series.

So what about this year?

Yankees and Phillies?

Can I root for both to lose?

Confusing Traditional For Ancient

So we sang How Great Thou Art on Sunday. It was terrific. Even in a modern church, if you want to get everyone singing, just pull out one of the classics and it happens.

But the software system we use to project the words onto the screen now lists the songwriter(s)and copyright date of each piece we do.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this at the bottom of the screen: Stuart K. Hine, 1953.

1953?! For How Great Thou Art?! Surely that must be a mistake. I thought it must have been written just after the completion of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

So I double-checked. 1953 is right. After the Great Depression. After World War II. After Dwight Eisenhower was elected president. After even the invention of television.

In other words, How Great Thou Art is a relatively recent piece of hymnody. The church existed for 1900+ years without it.

Which goes to show that all worship is fundamentally contemporary. It's just that How Great Thou Art is contemporary to the 1950s, while Marvelous Light is contemporary to the 2000s.

There is nothing in How Great Thou Art that makes it inherently more biblical or more reverent than Marvelous Light.

There are things in it that make it more comfortable -- chief among them the sense of nostalgia it brings to many who sing it.

In the modern worship wars, we have often confused the traditional with the ancient. Many assume that because a song or a style has been around for as long as they can remember ("I grew up singing that hymn!") then it has always been around. Not so.

In fact, I believe that if we were exposed to worship settings that were truly ancient -- say, first century Christian celebrations taking place in house churches -- we would find them incomprehensible.

Almost like taking a high church Episcopalian and putting him in the middle of an emergent Christian mosh pit (they exist).

Our task, then, is to take truths that are ancient and communicate them in ways that are comprehensible. In a song like Marvelous Light, for example.

Or How Great Thou Art.

The Best Part Of Yesterday

So what was the best part of yesterday?

Was it getting to preach from the middle of a boxing ring again? That was good, but not the best.

Was it being led in praise and worship by the band, choir, and brass sections of the Good Shepherd music ministry? That was good, but not the best.

Was it going to the Y right after the 3rd service for my traditional-bordering-on-obsessive after church workout? That was good, but not the best.

I think the best was part was leading a small group of 4th & 5th graders in our Sunday evening ministry called The Bridge. That particular program bridges the gap between children's ministry and our BigHouse youth ministry.

I had five kids in my group. They were full of energy, mischief, laughter, and . . . insight. We contrasted what the world sees as a "winner" with the ways in which Jesus was and is history's ultimate winner. His victory didn't come through bling, fame, or fortune. It came through sacrificial love.

And I think the Bridge kids got it. I might have gotten it, too.

In any event, it was a good reminder of what -- and who -- is truly important in the course of a pastor's Sunday.

Standing Eight Count

Here's what Wikidepia says about a Standing Eight Count:

A standing eight count, also known as a protection count, is a boxing judgment call made by a referee during a bout. When invoked, the referee stops the action and counts to eight. A boxer can take 3 standing eight counts in a round. During that time the referee will determine if the boxer can continue.

It was designed to protect boxers by allowing the referee to step in and give an overwhelmed fighter an eight-second respite. Standing eight counts by the referee are scored the same as a knockdown, whether the boxer was knocked down or not.

So it happens when a boxer is "overwhelmed" -- dazed, paralyzed, but not out of the fight altogether.

In other words, the way a lot of us adults get when we are around our parents.

The ways that parent-child relationships evolve when the child becomes an adult are fascinating indeed.

Especially when the "child" has to care for the parent in life's last days.

We'll explore some of those challenges and blessings this Sunday as The Fight Of Your Life continues.

Ringside seats available.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

Is What Got You Here Gonna Take You Where You're Going?

Here's a great leadership question:

"Is what got us here going to take us where we are going?"

I've got to ask myself that all the time.

Is the ministry style that brought Good Shepherd to 1500 people per Sunday what it will take to move us to 2000 per Sunday and beyond?

Is the kind of leadership I offer to staff and congregation -- the kind, again, that has helped us arrive at this current destination -- the right kind of leadership to take us to a new destination?

The answer to both those questions is probably "Yes." And "No."

"Yes" to those things that are core: faithfulness to Scripture, openness to the Spirit, passion for new people.

"No" to some of the things that are more ancillary. Any leader who is not constantly learning, growing, and then adapting leadership style is not much of a leader to begin with. So I hope to be a different kind of leader in October of 2010 than I am today.

As I ask that leadership question in this place, perhaps you should ask it in yours.

Communicating Hard Truths

Christianity is full of hard truths.

For example:

• Eternal separation from God does in fact exist.
• When we say 'Jesus is Lord' by definition that means Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna and others are not Lord.
• Jesus' followers are to tithe . . . which still means 10%.
• Sexual intimacy is blessed only in marriage.
• Jesus really will return one day to judge the quick and the dead.

In the eyes of modern culture, most of those assertions are delusional at best and evil at worst. In the eyes of many people in church, those claims are often met with skepticism and suspicion.

Especially the one about tithing.

But the question remains: how can a pastor or church communicate those kinds of difficult truths in ways that 21st people can still hear?

Here are some guidelines we try to follow:

• Name the struggle: "I know this sounds almost crazy, but . . . "
• Acknowledge personal difficulty in accepting certain beliefs: "Sometimes I wonder how it is that a loving God would allow people to spend eternity apart from him . . . "
• Avoid cliches. Christian communicators are the least believable when they resort to tired cliches and insider lingo when teaching on complex issues.
• Embrace transparency. People do not like being talked at. The enjoy being taken on a journey as a fellow passenger. We are free with naming and confessing the ways we have fallen short in living out the very truths we try to explain.

Those are just a few of the principles we try to live by as communicators at Good Shepherd.

I suppose when we get it right, we communicate hard truths in soft ways.

Passion8

There's a new restaurant in our area with the rather clever name of Passion8 Bistro.

Passionate.

And I was asked recently, "what are you passionate about in ministry?" Behind that question was the wise observation that the church will tend to follow the lead of its pastor; that the congregation will inevitably be drawn to the ministry passions of its leader.

So I thought about that question. A lot. While driving. While mowing the lawn. While at the Y. While sleeping. (OK, that's a stretch.)

I even tried to narrow it to one, like a one-point sermon. But there are several things, that when they happen at or through Good Shepherd, really get my adrenaline flowing:

• Kinetics. I get great joy in seeing people move in their faith -- from getting invited to getting filled with the Spirit to serving in ministry and then to becoming inviters themselves.
• Culture. I love it when we are able to leverage cultural images to teach counter-cultural truths. The Toddlers & Tiaras clip from this past Sunday is an example.
• Touch. I get energized when we are a "high touch" church. Despite our size, people still get visited in the hospital. We still send notes. We still knock on doors. We still work hard at remembering names.
• Spirit. I live for those times -- both Sunday morning and beyond -- when we design experiences with such creativity and excellence that the Holy Spirit has room to run wild. The privilege of ministy is to watch Him suprise unsuspecting people . . . and then transform their lives.

That's what makes me passion8.

What about you?

Class Matters

On Saturday morning, I went to a seminar that our church hosted called Class Matters.

Led by Paul Hanneman of the Urban Ministry Center and Wanda Anderson of Crisis Assistance Ministry, the seminar gave a framework for understanding the vastly different mindsets of people living in chronic poverty and those who are comfortably middle class. We wanted the people of Good Shepherd -- especially those who will work with Room In The Inn this winter -- to have an awareness of these issues.

I came away with more than awareness. Some of the best new insights:

• When middle class people think of food, they ask, "will it be good?" When people in poverty think of food, they ask, "will there be enough?"
• People in the middle class take hygeine for granted. Yet we pay a great deal for cleanliness: water, a place to have privacy, all the items needed to clean our clothes and our bodies. People in chronic poverty often do not have access to those items we deem essential.
• Morality is abstract. Survival is concrete. Chronic poverty is about survival.
• The role of men in poverty: lover & fighter. Not provider. The role of women in poverty: martry & rescuer.
• People in the middle class look to achievement as a measure of success or happiness. People in chronic poverty look to relationships instead.

Class matters. It really was a class that mattered.

Pound For Pound

I've often heard that Sugar Ray Leonard was pound for pound the best boxer of them all.

Meaning that he wasn't the biggest or the strongest, but if you put his skills and his heart into to body of a heavyweight, no one could beat him.

Maybe that's true.

As we move into Round Two of The Fight Of Your Life, we'll take a look at those who today are "pound for pound" the strongest of them all: children. How can we allow and encourage them to remain, well, children?

Because too many households permit childhood to be rushed out of their children; what should be a leisurely trek toward adulthood gets speeded up as children prematurely develop adolescent sensibilities and adolescents prematurely develop the mindset of grownp-ups.

That battle to lengthen childhood is one many of us lose.

Sunday, Round Two, will start to fight back.

8:30. 10. 11:30.

I Can't Believe They're Doing That In Church . . .

On most Sundays, I like to have one element that will make people do a double take.

The kind of thing that will make them say to themselves, "I can't believe they're doing that in church!"

For example, our Fight Of Your Life series started with the band playing Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger" while clips from Rocky flashed on the screen. Not what you'd expect at a Methodist church.

In fact, I found out that a woman in attendance last Sunday called her husband during "Eye Of The Tiger" (um, I normally discourage cell phone use during the service, but this was cool!), so that he could hear what he was missing over the cell phone.

It's an unorthodox way of inviting someone to church, but I'll take it.

Because when you do the unexpected, you can expect an impact.

We've got a couple of "I can't believe . . . " moments coming this Sunday as well.

Make sure no one has to call you to let you in on the surprise.

Better To Be Wrong . . .

I may be learning something in leadership.

It's better to be wrong than indecisive.

That's a tough idea to swallow, isn't it? But as I chew on it (hopefully, to swallow it), I believe it be more and more accurate.

If I make a wrong decision, the people I lead on the staff and in the church at least have clarity. They know what the decision is, even if they don't agree with it.

And if it proves to be wrong in some kind of spectacular way, then that gives others the opportunity to bear the spiritual fruit of lovingkindess towards me. So I'll be helping their spiritual growth!

Yet if I make no decision out of fear of making the wrong decision, the people I lead on the staff and in the church get stuck in limbo. Permanent neutral. People can't move because they live in the murkiness that comes from lack of clarity and lack of direction.

I'd rather ask their forgiveness than consign them to uncertainty.

It's better to be wrong than indecisive.

Is it?

Eureka Moments

In doing the early study for a Sunday message, I often encounter eureka moments.

It could be something I read in a commentary. It could be something I scrawl on my notepad as I'm brainstorming around the passage or the subject. Or it could even be something that crosses my mind as I'm mowing the lawn with an unfinished sermon sitting on my dining room table.

But then it comes: "That's it! I've got it! That's the one thing I want to say and how I want to say it!"

The sensation is palpable. I can feel the adrenaline flow and the excitement build. From that moment on, the rest of the preparation is (relatively) easy.

Just last week, I was working on a message that I'll deliver in November. And in my research, I realized that a message that started out being about money ended up being about God. And of all people, John Piper -- that notorious but brilliant Calvinist -- inspired the insight.

So what happens if in the course of preparing a message no eureka moment comes?

Just yell louder hoping that an increase in volume will compensate for a lack of clarity? Ask someone else on the staff to preach that day? Give up? None of the above.

Because those are the times I have to trust that God will take my feeble offering of words and create his own eureka moments in the ears of those who hear.

What Can't Be Stolen

So my friend Chris Macedo was sick while trying to lead the music portion of our worship service yesterday. He had the remnants of the flu/bronchitis bug that has been ravaging Charlotte and Fort Mill recently.

But he said the most interesting thing to the congregation as we began: "The bug has stolen my voice. But it can't steal my worship."

Think of all that tries to steal our worship:

• Negativity
• Complacency
• Busy-ness
• Sadness
• Doubt
• Lack of confidence
• Sickness
• Satan himself

Jesus put it this way: "The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

All those forces chip away at your soul in their attempts to steal your worship.

When they do, remember: they may steal my voice, but they can't steal my worship.

11,000 Door Hangers Can't Be Wrong

As you probably know, sermon series are important to us at Good Shepherd.

It's how we think and how we plan and how we pray.

And we've done a lot of thinking and planning and praying over this new one: The Fight Of Your Life.

The series is worthy of such effort because of its subject matter: household relationships with a real focus on interactions between parents and children.

The kind of interactions that can be so fraught with conflict and tension that people on both sides want to give up. To throw in the towel.

But those parent-child relationships are the glue that hold many of our lives together.

They are worth fighting for.

We believe in the subject and series so much that we encouraged the people of Good Shepherd to place invitational door hangers on homes in their neighborhoods.

And the people responded. Did they ever. 11,000 door hangers worth -- well done invitational pieces now gracing the doors of homes throughout Steele Creek, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, and Lake Wylie.

Come see what the fight is all about. And how to have victory in it.

It starts with an experience called Know Your Enemy.

Sunday. 8:30. 10. 11:30.

New York State Of Mind

As I posted on Tuesday, I spent a little more than 24 hours in New York City in my unofficial role as "Vice President's Husband."

The 24th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner raised over $6.3 million towards the effort to locate a cure for paralysis. Sponsored by the Buoniconti Fund, you can read about it here.

The event, held at the Waldorf-Astoria, was filled with a) celebrities; b) beautiful people; c) folks who were both a) and b).

Here are some reflections:

• Most Thought-Provoking: Maya Angelou's speech that referenced both "heroes" and "sheroes." I'd never heard that word before.
• Most Eye-Opening: People's unwavering commitment to finding a cure for spinal-cord paralysis. It might just be closer than we think.
• Most Disappointing: Every table at the dinner -- and there were hundreds -- had a celebrity. For example, the table behind us had Dara Torres, the Olympic swimmer. Our celebrity? I was hoping it would be Ivan Lendl. No. Our celebrity never showed up.
• Most Impressive: Buzz Aldrin, part of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
• Most Pathetic: Grown men pushing their way through the crowds to get their pictures taken with Troy Aikman.
• Most Nostalgic: One of my best friends from our college tennis team who now works in Manhattan made time in his day to stop by and visit. We hadn't seen each other in 10 years. Nice.
• Most Jaw-Dropping. A spontaneous $3 million pledge to the cause. Unlike the way we do things at Good Shepherd -- not a fair comparison, really, since this wasn't church -- they brought the donor up on stage for recognition.
• Most Unnerving. Bathroom attendants at the Waldorf Astoria. In the bathroom. Just waiting and, um, attending. For tips. No thanks.

I Stink At Hospitality

Whenever I have taken those spiritual gift inventories, I score high on the gifts of teaching and healing.

And low on the gift of hospitality. As in it is the opposite of a spiritual gift for me. It is a spiritual burden.

So Monday, I led a meeting with five of our staff. At my house. That's a source of joy for some people. It is a source of stomach upset for me.

But that's why we did it -- to stretch me. So I did all these things that don't come naturally at all: bought food, set it out, turned on coffee, put on music, and even got a board game (Cranium, if you must know) to get us going. The only thing I forgot was fragrant candles to make the room smell nice.

That'll be next time.

The meeting went well. I think the atmosphere even had something to do with it.

So think of something at which you stink. And then go do it.

Trip To New York

Today I'm in New York City attending the 24th Annual Sports Legends Dinner.

Why in the world am I there?

In my official role as a Vice-President's husband. My wife Julie is a VP of Sales with Kinetic Concepts, Inc., a leading-edge medical device company based out of San Antonio.

The event is sponsored by the Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis.

My record as a teenage tennis player in Texas didn't quite qualify me as a "sports legend." But Ivan Lendl's eight Grand Slam titles did. I'll let you know if I get to meet him.

Back on Wednesday.

Tongues In Speaking

I have loved researching, preparing, and then delivering the sermons for the Rubber, Meet Road series.

It's given me a new appreciation for that entire process.

More importantly, it's given me a new appreciation for the book of James.

What I previously thought to be a collection of insightful-but-unconnected comments I now see is a tightly structured, Spirit-inspired sermon that can shape our lives.

But as the cliche goes, all good things must come to an end. So it is with the series and our experience of James.

We'll zero in on the words James offers on the words we utter. Tongues In Speaking is the name of the message, and to get ready, take a look at James 3:1-12.

Sunday. 8:30. 10. 11:30.

Earth Has Nothing

On a day I was supposed to read Psalm 76 for the Bible study I am teaching, I inadvertently read Psalm 73 instead.

Now I know why.

Psalm 73:25b stopped me: And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

Man. Earth has nothing.

That'll probably be a sermon series one day.

In the meantime, it helps me realize . . .

• Earth has nothing compared to God's promises.
• Earth has nothing compared to what awaits me in life after life.
• Earth has nothing that will keep me content over the long haul.
• Earth has nothing that can satisfy my deepest longings.
• Earth has nothing that will ultimately make me feel at home.
• Earth has nothing because heaven has everything.