a brief word to get you to think…
The men who play … enjoy it.
The men who don’t … end up regretting it.
Take that thought to the Father. He delights in you.
Uncategorized
no zoom call this week
we will look to resume our “virtual” manschool sessions next Wednesday the 13th. I will let you know once confirmed.
Manschool wraps up this Wednesday
Please join us this Wednesday morning May 22nd as we wrap up the Spring session of Manschool and we break for the summer.
You’ll hear from Beau Hughes and his thoughts about the Become Good Soil intensive. We’ll go through some reminders of the ground we’ve covered this Spring. It is amazing at how much territory we’ve covered. We will also give you three things for your summer.
I think you will find this final session will be very encouraging.
are you in a battle right now?
Are you in a battle of any kind?
Is there a mountain in front of you that you have no idea how you’re going to get past?
Is your marriage in trouble?
Do you lay awake in bed at night worried?
What are you fearful of?
Respond below. Write it down – not the issue itself – but rather, what it is you’re feeling. Are you feeling God or is He nowhere to be found? What are you doubting? Is there hopelessness, despair, lostness? Describe it.
Your answers will remain anonymous and won’t be posted on this site. I’m gathering these answers for future reference in our discussion of DIRT.
Great music, great entertainment …
Friday September 21, 2018 6:30pm
GOLDEN MIC CHRISTIAN TALENT NIGHT
A night of wholesome entertainment and talent sharing within the body of Christ.
Get to know, listen and sing along to the songs of the gifted and talented brothers and sisters from our local and surrounding churches.
Located at 1342 17th Street, Columbus, Ga. at The Fort Church
Doors open at 6:30pm. $5.00 per person admission will be received.
For more information email Vic Feliciano at goldenmic2018@gmail.com for details.
(All proceeds to benefit Brown Bag of Columbus ministry)
manschool tomorrow!
Manschool resumes tomorrow morning! We cannot wait to resume gathering as Tribe to fight for LIFE. We’re going to go after it hard this fall. We will push. It’ll be a little uncomfortable at times but it will be real and if you will commit to invest in the process, I believe you will be blessed.
If you have never tried it, come!
6am – 7:30 am in the Milgen Room.
Summary of last fall
The link above contains the slides from this morning. I will put up another post about the “Hope in the coming Kingdom” in a few days.
It was SO GOOD to be back in Tribe this am! Glory to God in the Highest!
Funeral Service for RJ Cummings
The service for Carver’s RJ Cummings will be held this Saturday at 11am at Christ Community. RJ graduated last year and played linebacker for Carver as well as basketball. He was heading to Iowa to play football this fall but tragically, he was struck down by a bullet last Friday night.
The Carver family is in mourning. We’ve been with the team this week, speaking to the team as a group and talking a good bit with Coach Arnold.
If you would like to support the Carver team and RJ’s family, please try to attend the service on Saturday.
Our work at Carver is never done. We’ve only scratched the surface. There is so much more we can be doing to impact these kids for Christ. RJ’s death, while tragic, is also an opening for God to move upon the lives of this team. In the human sense, his loss is a waste of a life but no tragedy is ever wasted with God. He always moves. He is sovereign. He IS good.
Let’s support them on Saturday.
Remembering Lonny Arrington
Our brother, Lonny Arrington – the man I affectionately called “Coach” – passed away yesterday after fighting a brave fight against cancer. Lonny taught religion and coached multiple sports in his 39-year career at Pacelli. When I was a kid at cross-town rival Brookstone, “Coach” was the leader of our archrival. He led some impressive teams and was a great competitor. We had Joe Sparks at Brookstone. Coach Sparks had a massive, generational impact on me and all the kids that played sports at Brookstone. I still tangibly feel the impact of Joe Sparks in my life and I know that Lonny Arrington had the same profound impact on generations of kids at Pacelli. Lonny was “every bit” of a Joe Sparks and Joe was “every bit” of a Lonny. Those men sacrificially poured their lives into kids to make them better men and women. At a small private school, he had to coach nearly every sport. He had some great basketball teams and coached baseball. His greatest success was as a girl’s softball coach. His teams won 8 region championships and made 12 state playoff appearances.
Lonny was a key member of our Manschool Tribe – always present, always encouraging and deeply touched by the power of our community. You need to know this — he LOVED Manschool and missed us terribly and was inspired to start a similar work at his new church in North Carolina. Sadly, cancer stopped that dream but Lonny is now in the Kingdom rejoicing for a life “well-lived”. We were blessed by his presence, missed his impact when he moved to NC and now hurt for our loss. A memorial for Lonny will be held at Christ Community sometime in July. Please remember Barbara and the family in your prayers.
The story of your life (pt 2)
To start with, there is that picture we saw this morning of the bike down on its side in the driving rain storm and the man trying to lift that 600 pound beast by himself. To no avail. In frustration, he lifts his arms like he’s about to start beating the motorcycle. That feels a lot like our daily lives. We live in a world at war and life just doesn’t go so well for us. Others breeze through life but I find myself in the ditch, unable to lift the bike, hearing the condemnation of “you’re weak” or “a real man could do this”. And then. And then … there is that next frame of the film where two brothers are there helping him quickly lift the bike and get him back on track.
That … is Tribe. That … is how it is supposed to be. Other men knowing your story, seeing your deep worth and helping you stand up against the setbacks and the, “why can’t I seem to get past this” of life to call you UP to all God intends for you to be.
When everything in the world makes no sense, there is beauty. It speaks to a larger story.
Chesterton said, “With every step of our lives, we enter into the middle of some story we will probably misunderstand”. The key to the riddle of our lives is often back in our own story but if you never unpack this stuff, it pins your heart down. A man trying to figure his life out on his own is for one, living a very small story and two, has no chance to understand what is really happening.
My father died when I was 12.
My Dad was an alcoholic, abusive man who always told me I was worthless.
I screwed up and blew my chance at college.
I’m addicted to pornography and it cost me my marriage.
And after these things, there is the, “and ever since then”. Ever since then, my life has been one experience of pain after another. Of course. Of course. There is this moment of great pain, heartache or shame in your life and if you can go back into that pain and unpack it and understand it, it will explain so much of the rest of your story. THAT is what we’re after.
Love is a big part of what makes story worth living. The search for love is at the center of everyone’s story. It might look like a search for success or praise or validation or affirmation – it’s still the search for love. Or, it can look like defensiveness, isolation, “I don’t need anything or anyone” – it’s still love, you’re just pushing against it.
We were meant to be honored and respected and we were meant to be delighted in. Where you experience honor and delight, you will feel loved. But so often, when delight comes, it is often based on what we’ve done and whether we’ve performed well enough. Honor often causes us to hide that which we know is not really lovely inside of us.
So, we’re in a bind. We want love, we’re afraid, we don’t want to risk but we’re meant for delight and honor. So often, we choose the safe road rather than what we’re made for. The biggest risk we ever take is the risk to love and to be loved because it is the deepest desire. It’s at the core of our being – we live in a love story set in a world at war. Love is the core and the war is always against love.
Here is our dilemma – if the world was only filled with love and beauty, we wouldn’t find it so hard to believe a good and kind hand was behind all of it. But then there is suffering, loss and heartache. Pain comes slamming into our lives and this is where we get really confused about what kind of story we’re living in. A significant loss or pain in your life can really mess up your understanding of story if you don’t have something to help you interpret it.
Pain and fear in our lives causes us to stay in small stories, safe stories that give us just a taste of what we were meant for.
Whatever interpretation of your story there is, it must reconcile beauty and suffering, love and loss. The real question isn’t “why is there so much suffering in this world?”, it is “Why is there so much beauty?” If life is an accident and mostly cruel, how do you explain beauty?
All the movies we love are the same story – an epic battle of good and evil that must be fought, small characters that rise up and play a valiant role and then at the end, some epic restoration occurs and the King returns … that is the Gospel. There is a larger story and we have a place in it.
Stories, movies, myths, legends – they are all telling us something true about the universe. There is meaning, you are a part of something great and good. We have a heroic rescue through His life, death and resurrection. We are rescued and now called up into a great story. Yes, there is a battle of good and evil – just watch the news! Yes, you’re needed – small characters in an epic story. We get to live in the grandest story of them all.
We’re all looking for what we’re meant for. That longing for the epic is a big part of why adventure has become so popular but adventure isn’t enough to be a life story. You know you’re in a small story when you’re the main character and that’s the risk of making adventure your story. Adventure can turn on you at any moment.
