Every football team in the NFL has at least one chaplain to whom the players and coaches can turn for religious guidance. And though some may question the appropriateness of bringing one popular American Sunday pastime — God — into a considerably more commercial and violent Sunday pastime, the chaplains believe it is precisely their mission to help reconcile the two. Forget the mysteries of the sacraments — what about the answers to these theological questions: Does God want us to lose? Does he favor the Steelers? What makes Lambeau Field sacred? Is it right to pray for first downs when people are suffering? And who caused that fumble, Jesus or Julius Peppers?
Owners and coaches try to take care of their players physically, financially and psychologically, but they understand that players have spiritual needs too. And the more the players are spiritually at peace, the more they can focus on the game. Some teams favor a group approach — the Indianapolis Colts, for example, have three go-to spiritual receivers, covering Protestant and Catholic denominations. (The NFL is overwhelmingly Christian; when the occasional Jewish or Muslim player requires counsel, the teams generally outsource.)
First Baptist Church of Dallas today announced a $130 million capital campaign to build a 3,000-seat worship center, a religious education building and parking lot, a glass concourse, and a sky bridge.
“The finest facility in this area should be one that glorifies almighty God,” said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas.
Five older buildings on the church campus will come down, but the 1890 sanctuary – where the congregation has long worshipped – will remain for weddings, funerals and other special events.
Jeffress said an independent church fundraising consultant, Doug Turner, had determined that this is the largest church building program in modern history.
Many people in the area have told me it was only a matter of time before FBC Dallas became insignificant because of dwindling numbers and the trouble of getting people to actually go to downtown Dallas since everyone now lives in the subards, where all the local mega-churches are located. All that to say, this news came to me as a surprise. I’m not saying I’m wishing for a demise or anything, it’s just what I heard.
But I will say I don’t know how I feel about it being the largest church building plan in modern history. Job creation is a good thing, but I don’t know anything about their financial planning or their current or projected attendance numbers. I will admit I felt that after I watched the last video on the projects website (titled “Overview”) it seemed a bit self gratifying and seemed to stretch scripture a little bit.
No matter the case, I hope they keep their focus and that everything is filled with substance.
That video reminds me of a time when I ate with one of my Aggie friends who never knew the proper way to eat a Freebirds burrito. After I told him he looked around the restaurant in amazement how many people ate their Freebird like I did.
The U.S. Postal Service has started selling Hallmark greeting cards at some post offices, a one-year experiment that may lead the nation’s 34,000 postal outlets to eventually sell other goods and services, including banking, insurance and cellphones.
Unlike the mail, greeting cards remain a popular and profitable line of business, with 7 billion sold annually for more than $7.5 billion in sales, according to the Greeting Card Association. People receive more than 20 greeting cards each year, one-third of them for birthdays.
Of those 7 billion cards, roughly 4 billion are sent through the mail, accounting for about 2 percent of total mail volume, said Robert F. Bernstock, president of mailing and shipping services for the Postal Service.
News agency RIA-Novosti reports on the latest Russian super-villain scheme: A nuclear-powered spacecraft.
According to the report, Roscosmos, Russia’s Federal Space Agency has a new design for a manned spacecraft powered by a nuclear engine. Anatoly Perminov, the head of the agency, told reporters yesterday the goal of the Megawatt-class spaceship was “implementing large-scale space exploration programs.”
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WifeGeeding and I were married on June 21, 2003. One week before that date, my best man, Micah, died from drowning while saving his girlfriend during a kayak accident. The greatest honor of my life was when his mother asked that I speak at his funeral. I had to bury my best friend on a Wednesday, and marry my best friend on a Saturday. There was no replacing him, so on the alter I just saved a spot for him.
Driving to the funeral was a surreal experience, and was one heck of a long drive. During that drive, my soon to be wife broke the silence and stated that she thought our first born should be named Micah.
Last Friday instead of partaking of the legendary Halloween festivities at work, I woke up early to make the three hour drive to Abilene to ask Micah’s mother her permission to name our son or daughter after her son. It was something I felt that I just had to do in person. We knew we could name our child anything without anyone’s permission, but for some reason I just felt I owed that to her. Thankfully she said yes.
I find road-trips very therapeutic. It’s a great chance to clear one’s mind and embrace the beauty of solitude. I’m not going to get much solitude pretty soon, so I’m enjoying it while I can.
A lot of the trip was spent listening to the audio book version of Outliners (Wiki). Absolutely fascinating.
After I met with Micah’s mother I met an old friend for lunch at the world’s best BBQ joint (trust me, there’s not debate on this whatsoever). He was kind enough to congratulate me and buy my lunch. Going into lunch I expected for it to be brief and just a bunch of small talk, but it turned out to be one of the best times I ever spent with him. As we started to talk, I realized I wasn’t on any sort of schedule and tossed time aside to embrace the moment. We talked about a lot of substantive stuff, everything from fatherhood (he’s already a father of three girls), family, in-laws, how our past shaped our future, what kind of man we want to be. As iron sharpens iron . . .
After lunch I mustered up enough courage to finally visit Micah’s grave. Thank goodness for GPS on my Pre because the cemetery is out in the middle of nowhere. I have to admit I was a little spooked when I finally found the cemetery after driving through the country side. When I got out of my vehicle there wasn’t a hint of a person or building in sight, and it took me a few moments of walking around the cemetery to find my friend’s grave, but after six years when I helped lay him to rest I found the beautiful marker his mother picked out for him. I tell ya, it was one emotional and surreal moment.
When I got back into my vehicle and collected my emotions I found that I could no longer get a signal for my GPS, but luckily I found my way back to I20. As I approached the highway I saw a massive windfarm that was quite interesting to look at. Earlier that morning as I drove into Abilene I saw a lot of windfarm tower materials, and always heard of the massive windfarm, but this was the first time actually seeing them. You’ll be surprised at just how huge they are.
There was an abnormal amount of dead coyotes on the road that day.
My weekend ended by going to my old church to listen to one of my buddies give his testimony to his Sunday school class. I really appreciate his courage to do such a thing, and it turns out there was a lot I really didn’t know about him.
I think this Christian has a great perspective about Halloween.
On Halloween night I turned on the Mavs game and saw Gina Miller dressed as Wonder Woman. Here’s a pic.
