What do Lebron James and Young Clergy have in common?

If you have been in a cave for the past four weeks, then you have not heard but Lebron James is a basketball player. In fact, he is the most sought after player in a long time. He played for his home team, the Cleveland Cavs, for seven years and his contract expired. As a free agent, he had several offers from all around the league. It was quite the hoopla. While the World Cup was going on (the most watched sporting event in the world) I could not get highlights on ESPN because everyone was speculating "where will Lebron go?"

This 'drama' reached it's apex last Thursday when on an hour long special James declared that he would be leaving his beloved Cavs and head to the Miami Heat.

People reacted as they do.

I was thinking about all this and how it hit me was how much the decision feels like what I am in conversation with my young clergy peers about.

Let me explain.

"King James", as he is called by media and fans, turned down more money and even better teams to play with the Heat. Let me rephrase that, Lebron turned down money to play with friends.

The NBA is a league built around individuals. Jordan. Shaq. Dirk. Kobe. It is known as the "superstar" model. That is, get a "superstar" and your team will go far. Because lets face it one superstar on a team of 5 makes a HUGE difference. So teams go after these superstars. The NBA markets the stars. Show me a time which you saw a team picture of an NBA team other than when they just won the championship and I will show you a picture of the year 1951 and all the players are Anglo.

Lebron moved directly counter to the entire leagues push get a "superstar" to lead a team to the championship and joined up with a team of stars. Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade and Lebron James are all friends. They all wanted to play basketball together. They all were willing to forgo the whole 'superstar' thing and take a pay cut in order to work on a team.

Many of my young clergy peers are tired to churches pushing the superstar model. Olsteen. Moore. Jakes. Graham. Warren. I would be interested to know if most people know what the name of the church (team) these people are connected to. They are superstars and people like superstars.

However, many of my friends in ministry are tired of super-stardom. We, like Lebron, desire to work on a team. We want not only other clergy to let their egos die but also for laity to be willing to take the lead at times. We desire a team of stars not superstars.

It is my hope that the Heat have success and fun as they work together to accomplish tier goal.

I have the same Hope for the Church.

EPIC Communion and Baptism

This Sunday we are going to have an "EPIC" worship at 6pm. This is a term we took from Leonard Sweet who says we live in "EPIC" times - Experiential, Participatory, Image Rich and Connected.

This Sunday at 6pm, all are invited to consider participating in a version of EPIC worship at AHUMC built around Communion and Baptism.

There will be conversation, renewal of baptism, communion, prayer, video and images.

Here is the facebook event page for it if you want to check it out.

Standing in rainbows

On Kauai there are rainbows all the time. I am not kidding on this. It seems like every hour you can see one. I see double rainbows each time I am there at least two or three times. It is quite remarkable how much color is in Hawaii, then you add the rainbows and it really it a Divine color wheel.

My wife, brother-in-law and I were standing on a dock on night and we looked out and we could see a point on the beach in which a rainbow 'touched' the earth. It was the closest I have been to a massive rainbow like that. We decided to see if we could walk through the end of the rainbow. So we hurried down there and walked through it. And you know the color was just - lame. In fact when we got in the end of the rainbow, and walked into the color, we could not see any more of the color. We kept walking thinking that we needed to walk a little more and then we would turn around to see we already walked through it.

We walked through a rainbow and we did not even notice it.

I wonder how many times in our lives we walk though beauty and do not even see it for whatever reason...