travel

Christianity

The myth of the elite young athlete

I recently received an email from my brother-in-law that contained several video links.

“Tell me what you think.” My brother-in-law wrote.

I clicked and opened each link and watched my 8-year-old nephew goaltending a lacrosse goal. The video contained the coach’s commentary, superimposed video drawings, and slow motion point-by-point breakdown of his form.

“Wow! When I played that type of analysis and video work was only on ESPN,” I wrote back. I was shocked at the level of sophistication of the coaching analysis.

In the last 10-15 years, there has been an explosion in youth sports training, travel teams, artificial turf fields, video production, websites, private coaches, and “elite” sports teams. According to the news channel CNBC, youth sport travel is a $7 billion dollar industry. With the recent interest in forming “elite” youth athletes, parents are left paying for additional training and sacrificing family time to “elite” sports.

Growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s, we kids played football, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, street hockey, and basketball. Some of us were on recreation teams and others were not. We tried all sorts of sports and leagues. We played because it was fun.

Now, as a father of three children, I cannot believe how much youth sports culture has changed. What was once a time of fun, team building, and exercise is now a billion dollar industry. Families spend the whole weekend carting around their kids to sport games or leagues. They spend 2-4 nights a week at practices. Their kid’s sports are their life.

It is not supposed to be this way.

blog, Christianity, peace

Be a peace-wager like Nelson Mandela

As the world reacts to the death of Nelson Mandela, we cannot help but read and understand his amazing history of peace. Fighting against injustice and apartheid in South Africa were his notable achievements, but Mandela did so much more.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison for fighting for his beliefs and for justice. Emerging for oppressive imprisonment, Mandela spoke about peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. How can someone emerge from such hate, injustice, and pain to take about reconciliation? He became a symbol of truth, reconciliation, grace and peace.

Many talk about peace, but few understand what it takes. It’s easy to speak about peace but if one truly wants to achieve peace, one must “wage peace”. Nelson Mandela died in the midst of Advent, the precursor to Christmas. The story of Christmas is the story of God waging peace with the world. Making peace is not an easy business. Mandela was a peace-wager.

Peace amid tragedy is challenging. Mandela was one who could find peace in tragedy.

The message of Christmas is this: Christ was born to all the world for the redemption of the world. However, as Christians, we often believe that peace is to be something to pray for yet it is never accomplished. It is common for Christians to think that peace is to be prayed for and never acting on.

Jesus said,

Church Leadership

The stress of the movable Sabbath

Someone at church once asked me, “When is your day off?” I replied, “Friday.”

“Wow.” He said. “I wish I could have Fridays off. Must be nice.”

“Well, I don’t many Sundays off. That must be nice to have a Sunday or a full weekend off.”

The reality for most ministers is that Sundays are a true “workday” – we labor. Leading worship, preaching, greeting, teaching Sunday School, marriage counseling, Bible studies, and church meetings occupy most of my Sundays (as well as my weekdays). And why not? That is what pastors do, right? Sure. It’s what we are supposed to do.

But, it is not always easy.

As the only full-time ordained pastor on staff, it’s hard to get away for a weekend. Most families enjoy graduations weekends, beach or lake weekends, reunions, weekend family celebrations, camping weekends, friends weekends, or even that ultra cheap last-minute fight to Miami for the weekend. I hardly ever do those things. For me, I have to plan weeks and months in advance to take a Sunday off.

Sunday is the Sabbath Day for most Christians but for ministers, we need more true Sabbaths. A weekend with a Sunday of rest from our labor, which is ministry. A weekend where we are not counseling, preaching on Sunday, visiting people in the hospital on Friday, attending a meeting Saturday morning, officiating a wedding or funeral on Saturday afternoon. Sometimes, that Sabbath Day for me is Saturday. Other times it is Monday.

As a pastor, I have a movable Sabbath.

A movable Sabbath is convenient but it is stressful. Having a day ensures a type of rest but not knowing when that day will be makes my family life unpredictable. Sometimes, I don’t get a Sabbath let alone a weekend. Daily staffing needs, counseling, trouble shooting urgent demands, congregant frustrations and mediating conflict every day of the week are typical requirements. It’s a constant crescendo of events. It’s exhausting. My labor comes home with me everyday. It never turns off. My wife, children, and even some friends, have a connection to my labor at church.

I covet and miss the freedom to block a weekend for my family and my friends on short notice. Sure, there is the vacation week, but I miss a lot of important family and friend events on weekends because Sunday is a fixed ministry labor day. The stress and demands and fulfilling so many expectations leaves me drained. When I come home for my day off, I have nothing left to give my immediate family.

In posting about this stress on Facebook, a few friends had some responses to Sabbath and stress. My friend and mentor, Charlie Updike posted:

One of the things I’m aware of at the end of the journey is that I wish I had taken a Sabbath approach to the Sunday work and take a Sunday off every seven weeks…that is still preparing and preaching 45 Sundays a year.

Another minister, Liz Lemery Joy posted,

I began taking a hard look at that beginning last February. I creatively had to cut back a little. It’s hard to do in ministry… I schedule set times for rest in my calendar now. I believe we need to incorporate the Sabbath rest- in order for God to be able to minister to us, get refreshed and energized

A member at my last church had the best advice (Thanks Scott!):

Tickets to the Washington Nationals…….road trip, hot dogs, cold beer…..come back refreshed and ready to save some souls!

This year I decided to do something different. I took advantage of some family gatherings clustered together. I’ve told my church leadership that I need this time. It is stress-relieving and very fulfilling. We leaders and ministers need to plan for the sustaining practice of intention-fixed Sabbath weekend rest.

Israel Trip

Israel Trip Day 7: Mass, Sderot & Kibbutz Visit

St. George’s

Sunday morning, we walked to nearby St. George’s Church (Anglican) in Jerusalem for a mass in a side chapel. It was a delight to experience worship in Jerusalem with liturgy. The priest gave an excellent reflection on John the Baptist in the midst of Advent. As we were exiting the church I noticed a large baptistry for immersion baptisms. I have heard of some Anglo-Catholic congregations returning to the ancient practice of immersion and even seen baptistries in Catholic churches.

Sderot & Sderot Media Center

We started our morning in one of the most dangerous locations in Israeli. Near Gaza, on the Israeli side of the boarder, is a small city named Sderot. The location of the town puts it right in the line of rocket fire over head. These rocked attacks started in 2001. Homemade rockets are fired from Gaza over into Israeli controlled land. The city lives in constant fear. If there is a rocket attack there is a 15 second siren warning the public to get to a bomb shelter immediately. Public bomb shelters are above ground at all bus stops.

Our group watching the video that shows how extremists in Gaza build rockets.

Our first stop was the Sderot Media Center. At the media center, we were shown a video describing the struggle in the community. It included a video that featured rebels making shoulder fire rockets. The part of the video showed many children during a community gathering and a rocket attack interrupted the gathering. Children and adults ran in panic to shelters. The footage that followed was disturbing. During the video, the power went out in the media center. This results from damage that the power grid sustains during attacks. The damage is lasting beyond rocket attacks in the form of instability in the power grid. The media center helps share the story and struggle of the people in the city because these stories do not reach many mainstream news outs locally and internationally.

A bomb shelter. Notice the vents. This most likely means there is an underground section in this shelter.

We took a short walk to the police station in the city. As we walked, the local leaders told us that every house in the city has a safe room that can sustain a directed rocket. These rooms costs over $26,000 to construct. In addition, every bus stop (there were many) has an above ground bomb shelter. As we walked. we saw random bomb shelters/safe rooms that dotted the street. It wasn’t clear if these were private or public. Some houses that are two and three stories have safe rooms/bomb shelters on each floor. You can tell what part of the house is a safe room because of shape and yellowish color.

Spent rockets. Notice the different sizes and shapes. The rockets are just made from plumbing pipe.

We walked around to the back of the station to a parking lot of police cars. Against the back wall of the police station, there was a small display of rockets. These rockets were sent from Gaza over the boarder into the city. The rockets were in different states of damage. Some small and some larger. I picked up an early version of these homemade rockets which was small and thin. The display showed that as time went on, the rockets became larger. I couldn’t believe that the rockets were made out of plumbing pipes. Regular pipe. The tail fins of the rockets are welded on and the entire construction is very basic.

Spent rocket.

We took a short trip to the boarder of the city that overlooks Gaza. It became very clear why this city is hit hardest by rocket attacks. The city is the closest population to Gaza.

Looking across the valley into the Gaza Strip.

Later, we rode over the only protected playground in the world, or so we were told. The playground is similar to what you would see in the States. However, there is a large concrete tube shaped and painted to look like a giant worm. This giant worm is a protected bomb shelter. This way, if the alarm goes off children can quickly be protected from rocket attacks. In 2004, during a rocket attack, a rocket killed children walking to school. Since then, play grounds are bright and decorated order to make the spirit of children more hopeful. Because of rocket attacks, there are no windows for early elementary school buildings. This is a protection measure for younger children.

That giant worm is really a bomb shelter.

Kibbutz Nir Am

Later in the day, we traveled to a kibbtuz in Nir Am and met with Avi Kadosh, the Director. The community was found in 1943, by his wife’s family. The complex was destroyed in the war of independence. He joined the kibbutz during his army service. He was born from Hollywood, CA and was called into the draft but left to live and serve in Israel with the army. He met Nina, who he later married.

The kibbutz was on the leading edge of independence because it is so close to Egypt. After the British Mandate, Egypt invaded from the west. Recently, rockets fell on the community during different Gaza conflicts causing damage to buildings and structures. In 2009, the community built safe rooms that can withstand bombardment. The kibbutz is seeing more frequent cycles of engagement between Gaza and the Israeli military.

The buildings and structures on the kibbutz were very nice and modern. We sat in a common café space. They provided refreshments for us and there was an espresso maker behind the counter. I so wanted to ask for a mocha, but I didn’t want to push my luck! The coffee in Israel is spicy. I just wanted an in fashion Italian espresso.

After a long day, we travel to Tel Aviv for the night to rest.

Israel Trip Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 part I – Day 5 part II – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8

Israel Trip

Israel Day 6: History, Business, & West Bank

World Council of Churches

We started off the day by meeting with Yusef Daher, a Palestinian Christian working for the World Council of Churches. He works for non-violent ways to wage peace. He is the Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Center of the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem in association with the World Council of Churches and the Middle East Council of Churches. Also, Yusef teaches at Bethlehem University in tourism.

Yusef works within the World Council of Churches drawing together several church centered organizations and theologians striving for causes of residency, peace, current challenges for Christians. In 2009, these groups issued the Palestine Kairos document. (He told a joke: Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a theologian? The difference between a terrorist and theologian is that you can negotiate with a terrorist.) The Kairos document was based on three themes: word of hope (Palestinian Christians will survive this conflict), word of faith (how to read the Bible together), word of love (what is requested of Palestinian Christians)..

Jerusalem is a focus for the World Councils of Churches because this is the main center for much of Israel. What happens here sets the stream for the rest of the region.

Residency of Israelis is another focus of the WCC. Many who are Palestinian born Israelis and travel abroad can lose their residency because of frequent travel or staying in a country to long. Also, if Palestinians live outside Israel for longer than 7 years, you automatically lose your citizenship. Sometimes husbands and wives can only see one another on a one month visa because of this. The WCC focuses these concerns, through the Vatican, to the Israeli government.

NCC was a part of issuing the Kairos Palestinian Document, a document issuing declaring wrongs done to the Palestinians by the Israeli government and outlining how God calls people to reconciliation. Upon issuing a document of the Palestinian Kairos, the Jerusalem Post criticized the writers but not the content of the Kairos document of calling for peace. However, two local Israeli Jewish theologians opened communication by calling the document a valid concern.

Danny Seidemann tour and meeting

Israel Trip

Israel Day Five (part 1): Tent of Nations

IMAG0768 We started our fifth day driving to the Tent of Nations, an organization that brings all people together to live and work on land that is disputed. Daoud Nassar, a Christian, is the owner of the disputed land. It was his grandfather’s land. However, his grandfather did something unusual. He received deeds from all the occupying powers that invaded Palestine. The grandfather obtained deeds from Ottomans and British. However, since last 12 years, the Israeli government is trying to prove it is public land.

As we traveled down a stony dirt road, we had to stop the bus and walk the way by foot. Several years ago, the Israeli government placed huge boulders on road so that it would make it difficult for Daoud to travel on his own road. He has to take another road to leave the farm which takes three times as long by car. Why is it important enough for a government to want to make life difficult for one 100 acre farm? What is so great about this land?

Israel Trip

Israel Day Three: Jerusalem

Travel from Nazareth to Jerusalem

We left Nazareth this morning as the sun was rising in the sky. Perhaps something I didn’t convey in my last post is the culture and nature of Nazareth. Nazareth is in the mountains. Houses are built on the sides of hills. Rain and water are in low supply and the locals have holding tanks above their house and apartments. Most dress in very trendy and modern. There are some funny signs around here such as “Lady Clinic”. I’m guessing that’s a health clinic for women.

It was explained to us that many of the buildings and homes are built illegally. Many are Palestinians and as such, do not have permission to build. So, many buildings are left unfinished. Many of the dwellings would fail Western code standards. Our hotel was generally very modern, but no clothing irons or wash cloths.

We traveled from Nazareth to Jerusalem, we drove through many farms. Olive trees, lime or lemon trees, banana trees, and other agriculture. One the interesting things about Galilee is that many of the people around the area do not fish! Commercial fishing is not allowed in Galilee because the lake supplies much of Israel with water. They don’t want pollution. Most of the people in the time of Jesus, around Galilee were not fishermen but farmers.

American Baptist Churches, Israel Trip

Peace mission to Israel

Just six days from today, I’ll embark on a peace mission on behalf of American Baptists to travel to Israel. This trip will serve as a good-will delegation to Israelis and Palestinians. In light of the recent conflict and violence, it is more important than ever to find a peaceful solution for this area of the Middle East.

This is no Holy Land Tour.

The delegation consists of the American Baptist Churches General Secretary, Roy Medley, the President of ABC-USA, Ruth Clark, and a handful of lay and clergy leaders within the denomination. We will meet with local leaders in business, media, health care, education, human rights, faith, culture, and politics. The delegation will be guided by a panel of experts who will also help balance and interpret these meetings so that, by the end of the trip, the delegation will grasp the basic issues of the conflict and a variety of perspectives and emotions. We will meet with both Israelis and Palestinians.

So, what is the purpose of this trip?

Discipleship

Traveling Light

I did not have my regular video camera with me but I wanted to share a few thoughts about the scriptures for this Sunday. I hope this works.

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20. After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”* 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”

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