One Year Later: Three Mini-Reviews

Last spring, I had the privilege of attending Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends for the first time in 10 years. (Yes, that’s a long interval – the first Gathering I got to attend was in 2002 and the newfangled Puerto Rico was just off the boat & all the rage.) I got to play a lot of games (71 different games, some multiple times) and had a wonderful week.

Well, I’m getting ready to head out for the Gathering again this year – a thankfully much shorter interval – and that got me thinking about some games that I’d played for the first time a year ago… and wondering how much my opinion on them had changed. So, what follows are three mini-reviews of games that I left the Gathering feeling quite positive about…

Abaddon

review copy provided by the publisher

Extremely Short Summary:

What we have here is your standard “giant robot armies skirmishing on the surface of a valuable but forbidding planet” scenario – filtered through a fog-of-war command system designed by Richard Borg that is a cousin to the Command & Colors system.

Thumbs Up:

• very nice minis
• options for play with 2, 3 or 4 players – all of which work well
• variety of scenarios (with different objectives)

Thumbs Down:

• the rules could use a polish (though I appreciate the willingness of Toy Vault to include an errata page when the game was published)
• as in almost all multi-scenario battle games, the introductory/teaching scenarios do a lousy job of showing off how the good the system can be when it’s firing on all cylinders

The Verdict (2012):

When I played Abaddon on a pre-production copy last year (4 times in a week!), I was delighted by the awesome miniatures and the fast & furious game play. I understood why some gamers didn’t like it – it is more chaotic due to the use of both dice & cards for command than any of Richard Borg’s C&C games. At the same time, I could see it really appealing to my elementary age boys.

Two other observations from a year ago:

• Mike Gray (from Hasbro) passed by the table while we were playing & remarked that Richard had shown him this game as a prototype a number of years ago.
• I was given the opportunity to play one of the first “web” scenarios – and both the reorientation of the board & the interesting choices that both players are forced to make from the beginning gave me great hope for Abaddon.

The Verdict (2013):

With 15 plays under my belt now, I continue to enjoy Abaddon. My gut feeling that it would be enjoyed by my 11 year old & 7 year old was spot on.

We’ve reached a point in playing where we feel (particularly with two players) that the game tends to run a bit short… and we’re toying with adding 5-10 points to the victory point total required to win those scenarios. (There are two extra official scenarios, btw – available at http://toyvault.com/abaddon/index.html.)

I’ve come to believe that some of the lackluster reviews of the game were due to gamers wanting Richard Borg to create “C&C: Robots” rather than enjoying the game that was in the box. In fact, combined with Mike Gray’s comment, I see some commonalities with another classic “old school” Borg game – the excellent (if dated) Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel.

Escape: The Curse of the Temple

Extremely Short Summary:

A cooperative real-time dice-rolling expedition into a cursed temple… with a soundtrack!

Thumbs Up:

• extremely involving game (it’s the real-time adrenaline rush)
• seems to scale well with varying numbers of players
• the first expansion (Curses) is already in the box
• beautiful components

Thumbs Down:

• the game must be played somewhere with a decent sound system (due to the cues you need to hear from the CD)
• as with all real-time dice rolling games, there is great potential for inadvertent cheating

The Verdict (2012):

My two plays of Escape at the Gathering (also on a pre-production copy) were a lot of fun… and I watched a couple of other games. I spent half of one of my games with my hand glued to my head and my mouth shut (due to a pair of curses) – which actually made the game all the more exciting!

Interestingly, though, I walked away from the experience with some really big question marks about replay value. It was a frenetic & fun 10 minute experience – but how many times would I find myself willing to play?

The Verdict (2013):

Well, the answer is pretty straightforward – I’ve only played Escape one more time in the year since.

That doesn’t make it a bad game – everything certainly “works” in game terms & it gives a consistent adrenaline-fueled & noisy experience. The components are quite nice and the iconography is clear & useful.

But I do think that Escape will quickly become a “once a year” staple… or a game that’s simply brought out with a new group of friends. (Though there may be some limits on that – the speed dice rolling/recognition thing is not for everyone.) That makes it a game I’m perfectly willing to play but not willing to plop down my limited game-buying cash to own

Africana

Extremely Short Summary:

Michael Schacht re-purposes the “book” mechanic from his game Valdora for use in a clever pick-up-and-deliver game about exploring Africa.

Thumbs Up:

• the “book” mechanic both looks cool and adds a slight but important memory element to the game
• like many Michael Schacht designs, there are opportunities to cascade actions into each other that give you a feeling of accomplishment – even if you don’t win the game
• the production & components are lovely

Thumbs Down:

• there’s a sameness that develops from game to game – similar tactical & strategic choices

The Verdict (2012):

I played Africana (with a freshly released copy) three times at the Gathering. My first play was your classic “enjoying the discovery of the first time” experience – which led to the equally enjoyable “now that I know what I am doing” second play.

But the third play began to feel an awfully lot like the first two plays… and I walked away questioning if it would hold my interest.

The Verdict (2013):

Subsequently, Michael Schacht put a PBEM version of it online – and I played exactly one more time. Sadly, my Gathering impression was correct – while I like the game and enjoy the chances to make crafty moves & combinations of actions, it doesn’t feel like there is a great variety of storylines from play to play.

Like Escape, this doesn’t make Africana a bad game. It just makes it one that I enjoy but don’t have to own.

This article originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers blog.

Yom HaShoah

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

one version of a quote form Martin Niemoller

Meet the Unappreciated Pastor!

No, this is NOT a comment on my current "between churches" ministry status - this is an introduction for all my faithful blog readers to my favorite Twitter feed. Anonymously, a Southern Baptist pastor (you don't make WMU jokes w/out a little SBC in your blood) has been Tweeting some truly funny (and truly pointed) stuff.

What follows are some personal favorites...

on worship services

• Excited about my sermon this morning "Christ is alive! So why is our Church So Dead?" Working on my resume too.
• Why do we have an invitation? Mainly to keep the worship leader from leaving the service when the preaching starts.
• I don't know what the big deal about changing the music style is. What does it matter which type of music you don't sing?
• Special thanks to the Seminary student for his topical sermon on why we should preach expositionally.
• "It's important to be yourself in your preaching. Now, sign up here to learn how to preach like Andy Stanley."

on being a pastor's wife

• Well, I met this beautiful girl & she said "The Lord told me I was going to marry a pastor" & that's how I found my calling.
• I have no idea why so few people have signed up [for the Valentine Banquet]. My wife is super excited about spending Valentine's Day at the church.

on church life

• Some people are so politically minded they're no heavenly good.
• Nothing says “discernment” like saying “There’s a sign up sheet in the foyer if anyone wants to teach children’s church.”
• Most people came to Jesus wanting one of three things: Food, a miracle or to argue. I'm so glad things have changed in the church.

on Baptists

• Pretty sure the groundhog is a Baptist. He makes his once a year appearance and expects everybody to listen to him.
• The Buffalo Bills are looking for their 5th coach in 11 years. I'm betting a Baptist owns those guys.

on being a pastor

• I think I'd do well on American Idol. I'm used to criticism and getting voted out.
• I became a pastor because I desperately need the disapproval of others.
• How did I become a pastor? I was abandoned at birth, dropped off in the Bible belt and raised by a pack of wild deacons.
• The Pastorate is the only job I know of in which people that don't like you get mad because you don't visit them.

Want to follow the Unappreciated Pastor? His Twitter handle is @Rev_Norespect... and he also has started an Unappreciated Pastor blog.

Thinking With Your Heart (Classic)

This meditation on pizza & universalism was originally a supplement to a sermon series I taught on Heaven & Hell back in 2011...

They're just sitting there in the fridge, calling your name.. the last couple of pieces of pan pizza. It tasted so good a couple of hours ago.
 
If you're really honest with yourself, you're not that hungry. Actually, you're stuffed. But with all that tasty goodness waiting for you just a few feet away, it's easy to ignore the "No Vacancy" sign in your stomach.

And if you allow yourself a rare moment of gut-level honesty, you realize that someone else in the house (roommate, spouse, kids, rodents of unusual size, whatever) will eat it later if you don't eat it now - and you won't get any. You'll be cheated of the greasy cheesy pepperoni-covered yumminess.

So you make a decision to eat that ends up with your best friend being a couple of extra-strength Tums.

We've all done it at one time or another - made a decision based solely on our emotions rather than any kind of rational thought. Whether it was a couple of slices or choosing the wrong girl to date or blowing off studying for a test, we all can look back at moments in our lives and acknowledge that IF we were thinking, we were simply thinking with our hearts.
We live in a culture that enshrines our desires as the ultimate judge of morality & ethics - where our wants act as the rudder for our decisions. And it doesn't take much effort for us to fall in line, regardless of what we believe that the Bible teaches.

Now, you're probably expecting me to make some kind of personal application about turning to Christ or using our God-given wisdom rather than allowing our feelings to drag us around by our hair. That would be a really great article, by the way - but it's not where I'm headed today.

When this was originally written, I had just taught about a biblical response to universalism - the belief that every person will be saved, regardless of their relationship to Jesus Christ here on this earth. I have to admit that universalism is an attractive idea - it feels right. While it's almost impossible to argue convincingly from Scripture, it's not difficult to build a case based on the nature of God.

But those arguments break down in the light of the Bible & a full-bodied picture of Jesus - and yet it still feels like universalism is a good idea. I mean, who wants to see people separated from God? Who wants to try & talk about an eternity in hell?

Yet if those two pieces of pizza (or the ex-girlfriend) has taught us anything, it's that just because something feels right doesn't make it good or true. The winsomeness of a belief system - in other words, how much I like the sound of it - has nothing to do with the objective truth of that system.

So, as you think about & struggle with what happens after we die, I'm asking you to prayerfully engage the Bible and these ideas based not on your feelings but on a deep desire to know truth... even if it makes you shudder & cringe.

Kickstarter: Dungeon Roll

Up till now, I've avoided Kickstarter like the plague... while there's been some good games come out of the crowdfunding model (Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Eminent Domain), there's been some real stinkers as well (Carnival & Dragon Valley, to name two that I've played). 

But Dungeon Roll grabbed me, both with the basic mechanic (a push-your-luck dice game) and the theme (stripped-down dungeon crawl). It didn't hurt, of course, that the price was a mere $15. So, I backed it.

Now, one of the perks of backing was getting access to print & play files for the game... so Braeden & I mocked up a copy and have played it multiple times. Without getting into detail, let's just say that the game delivers exactly what the designer & publisher promise - a light & very enjoyable dice game with some interesting decisions. Couldn't be happier I'm on board.

If you'd like to jump in at a $5 discount (the actual MSRP will be $20) and get the Kickstarter stretch goal goodies, you've got about 38 hours. What are you waiting for?!

Kickstart Dungeon Roll

Five & Dime 2012: This Time, It's Personal

Here's my own personal Five & Dime list (the games I've played 5+ and 10+ times in 2012). (Yes, it's very late. It's been a crazy start to 2013.)

 Games with an asterisk [*] were on my Five & Dime list last year, games with two asterisks [**] have been on my list for the past two years... and games with three asterisks [***] have been there for three years!

For the last couple of years, I've sorted games into "with kids" and "not with kids" - but now that the boys are playing "big people" games with me (that's Braeden & I playing Battlelore in the picture), that seems kind of redundant.

DIMES

• Summoner Wars 80 *
• The City 32
• Quarriors! 28
• Ticket to Ride 18 *
• Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 16 ***
• Friday 15
• Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game 14
• The Rivals for Catan 13 *
• 7 Wonders 12 *
• Fast Food Franchise 12
• Innovation 12
• Risk Legacy 12 *
• 1st & Goal 11
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue 11
• Abaddon 10
• Memoir '44 10 **

NICKELS

• Nefarious 9 
• Animal Upon Anima 8
• Web of Power/China 8 *
• Sentinels of the Multiverse 8
• The Settlers of Catan 8
• BITS 7
• Bounce It-In Game 7
• Archaeology: The Card Game 6
• Chaos in der Geisterbahn 6
• Eminent Domain 6
• Galaxy Trucker 6
• Monopoly 6
• Monster-Falle 6
• Race for the Galaxy 6 **
• Suburbia 6
• Zooloretto Würfelspiel 6
• The Ares Project 5
• Ascension: Return of the Fallen 5
• Battle Beyond Space 5
• Express Monopoly Card Game 5
• Forbidden Island 5
• Heroscape 5 **
• Monopoly: The Mega Edition 5
• Small World 5 ***
• Smash Up 5
• Tumblin-Dice 5
• Turbo-Team 5
• Würfel Bohnanza 5 
• Zauberschwert & Drachenei 5  

How Many Lumps Do You Want?

First things first - if you haven't seen the entire classic Bugs Bunny cartoon ("Rabbit's Kin"), you need to remedy that as soon as possible. (And while you're at it, make sure you see two other great Looney Tunes masterpieces: "Hair-Raising Hare" and "Rabbit Seasoning".)

More to the point, I feel an awful lot like Pete Puma right now, thanks to the reading & studying I'm getting the chance to do. (Being "between churches" means I have the luxury of studying without struggling to craft a message for next Sunday...)

It's as if God had a big hammer and was pounding a significant piece of capital T truth into my brain.

From Steve Brown's book, three free sins:

Prison, public humiliation, shame & failure are a big price to pay for freedom. But then again, maybe not. In fact, it may have been worth it all. Jim Bakker is dangerous now, because he doesn't have anything to protect.

From Paul David Tripps's book, Dangerous Calling:

In pastoral ministry, it is very tempting to look horizontally for what you have already been given in Christ. It is possible to be a pastor and a functional identity amnesiac. When I am, I begin to need my worth, inner sense of well-being, meaning, and purpose affirmed by the people & programs of the church. Rather than the hope & courage that come from resting my identity in Christ, my ministry becomes captured & shaped by the treasure of a series of temporary horizontal affirmations of my value & worth. This robs me of ministry boldness and makes me all too focused on how those in the circle of my ministry are responding to me.

From The Message (a Bible paraphrase), 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17:

So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.

The question of the day is whether I'm going to take these knocks on my spiritual noggin seriously, or if I'm going to blow them off and default into a life & ministry defined by the opinion of everyone besides my Audience of One.

While doing studious (and important!) research for writing this piece, I stumbled upon What's Up, Doc: Top 10 Classic Looney Tunes Cartoons. Kiss productivity goodbye... and, of course, you're welcome.

Game Expansion Review - The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness & Age of Enlightenment

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Enlightenment

• Designer: Klaus Teuber
• Publisher: Mayfair Games, Kosmos
• Players: 2
• Ages: 11+
• Time: 25-90 minutes
• Times Played: 23x (Rivals for Catan), 10x (Age of Darkness), 3x (Age of Enlightenment)
• MSRP: $20 U.S.

Reviewer: Mark Jackson (review copy of Age of Enlightenment was provided by the publisher)

Nearly two years ago, I reviewed the reboot of the Settlers of Catan Card Game for the Opinionated Gamers blog – and I gave The Rivals for Catan a glowing review. I praised the quicker game play, the cleaner card interactions, the new structure of the game (particularly separating out the city cards into the theme decks), and then yammered on a bit about how much fun I was having getting a better version of a well-loved Euro classic to the table.

Well, two years have passed… and in that time span, Herr Teuber & the good folks at Mayfair have managed to put out two expansion boxes: the Age of Darkness (which was released in the fall of 2011) and the Age of Enlightenment (which just hit your local game store in the last week or so). I’m going to take this opportunity to review both of the expansions, giving an overview of the changes incorporated into the game as well as a brief stroll through Catanian history.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The underlying game system is not changed by either of the expansion sets – in fact, what each box offers is 90+ cards divided up into three Theme decks. If you have the entire set, you have 9 different Theme decks to choose from… and when you use the Duel of the Princes ruleset (included in the base game), you have another 84 different possible decks to play!

With the release of Age of Darkness, the revised rules for the Tournament version of The Rivals for Catan were published online. This requires each player to have their own set of cards & “build” their deck. As this particular style of play has never interested me, I can’t comment on how well the revision has worked.

The real changes in the game are because of new types of cards introduced in the various Theme decks:

• Region Expansions – which are placed adjacent to resource-generating regions
• Extraordinary Sites – which are expansions that are neither units or buildings
• Road Complements – which lay on top of a previously built much as a city is placed on top of a settlement
• Metropolis – which further develop a city
• Marker cards – which track various points & resources but are not physically a part of the geography of Catan
• Foreign cards – which are placed in your opponents’ kingdom to undermine his development
• Sea cards – which are used in the Era of Explorers deck

This variety allows for a great deal of freedom in building kingdoms – players are not constrained to follow one particular development path in order to accomplish their goals.

The Age of Enlightenment Theme decks add a variety of new symbols as well:

• General – “any resource of your choice” (Era of Explorers)
• Cannons – required to fight pirates (Era of Explorers)
• Sails – required to move & explore with ships (Era of Explorers)
• Wisdom – the currency of the “sages” (Era of the Sages)
• Contentment – public mood (Era of Prosperity)

The History of Catan

One of the interesting thematic ideas for the base game & the expansions is that each Theme deck reflects a period in the history of the isle of Catan. Each deck also has it’s own “character” – some are more concerned with speedy development while others encourage a player to hobble the other player by the judicious use of action cards and building powers.

The next bit of this review is a quick overview of each of the nine decks – three each in the base game, Age of Darkness & Age of Enlightenment – in “historical” order.

Era of Gold (base game) – a fast-playing deck where accumulating gold and creating a trade fleet are keys to victory. You can employ pirate ships to sabotage your opponents’ progress, but the deck is balanced toward growing & building rather than attacking the other player.

Era of Turmoil (base game) – the nastiest of the base game decks, the focus here is on developing heroes and buildings to support them to mitigate the effect of the action cards.

Era of Intrigue (Age of Darkness) – a religious clash looms on Catan between the worship of Odin & the followers of Christianity. Probably the deck with the least flexibility in strategy – you need to get at least one if not both of the Church and Odin’s Temple built in order to succeed.

Era of Merchant Princes (Age of Darkness) – once again, commerce points and trade ships play a major role. The Parish Hall (from the base deck) is important as well, as it allows you to search for key cards in the Theme deck.

Era of Progress (base game) – playing with this particular deck feels the most like the original Settlers of Catan Card Game… the need to create Bath Houses & Aqueducts in order to fight off the Plague leads you in one of two directions – quickly building cities & health advancements or choosing to expand your kingdom with a multitude of settlements.

Era of the Sages (Age of Enlightenment) – this deck will remind some of the old Dragons & Wizards expansion to the Catan Card Game… but it has been substantially reimagined & balanced. Sages are region expansions whose wisdom (owl points) feed a variety of effects on the Grove cards. We’ve discovered that you need to use these new powers, but that the “care & feeding” of them can waste precious time and resources and distract you from winning the game.

Era of Explorers (Age of Enlightenment) – exploration is the key here… in fact, one side of your kingdom now leads to a 3×3 grid of sea cards with islands, shipwrecks & pirates. This reminded my son of Klaus Teuber’s Anno 1701: Das Brettspiel – which we both think is a very good thing. Warning: exploration speeds up development and so you should work to stay “on par” with the other player.

Era of Barbarians (Age of Darkness) – a slightly longer game ensues as the victory point total is extended to 13 and the recurring Barbarian event means that both players are fighting an uphill battle against the system as well as each other. Building up heroes with strength points is very important.

Era of Prosperity (Age of Enlightenment) – rather than barbarian hordes (who you defeated earlier), you are now attempting to bring prosperity to your kingdom… and keep the people content. The Insurrection event has a similar effect on game play to the Barbarians… it slows down development until about the mid-point in the game, then the increased production & building powers send the game rocketing toward the finish.

So, which deck(s) do I like best? I’m particularly fond of Merchant Princes and Sages… both are tricky to play well and offer lots of interesting trade-offs in strategy. My son loves Explorers (for the exploring part) and Barbarians (because he usually makes it a point to get the strength advantage anyway).

A Few Final Questions

Q: If you could only choose one expansion, which one would you buy?
A: I like both of them. The Age of Enlightenment has slightly more difficult decks to set up & learn, so I’d probably buy that one second… but I’m very glad I own the entire set.

Q: This sounds like yet another glowing review… do you have any complaints?
A: The only complaint I have is that the counters used for ships in the Era of Explorers deck (Age of Enlightenment) are not very attractive. I’m working to replace them with small Settlers of Catan ships.

Q: Seriously, that’s it?
A: Well, I’m still frustrated a scoreboard for the various points (victory, strength, commerce, skill, progress) wasn’t included in the original game, but that’s a rather small nit to pick.

Q: Will the expansions make me like Rivals if I don’t already like it?
A: No. But if you do enjoy Rivals, they will increase your enjoyment exponentially.

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

The Last Juror (Classic)

This classic post from 2005 is about legal thrillers & Isaiah 6 & what that might mean for each of us...

I'm about 3/4 way through John Grisham's The Last Juror, which is probably the 10th or 11th Grisham book I've read. (OK, I just went up to Amazon.com and counted - this is actually my 15th Grisham novel. I didn't actually make it all the way through Skipping Christmas, but I'm counting it anyway.) 

I'm really enjoying the book so far - he captures the feel of northern Mississippi almost perfectly, as well as the disorientation someone from the "North" can experience moving into the small town South. (Since I served a church in northern Mississippi as a summer youth minister, I'm stunned at Grisham's ability to peg those feelings accurately.) 

Here's what I'm afraid of, though. I'm afraid this is going to be the typical John Grisham novel. 

"What do you mean by that, Mark?", you ask. And I, as the writer of this piece, am obliged to let you in on a little secret. Mr. Grisham has a disturbing tendency to write 7/8's of a brilliant novel followed by a slapdash ending that is vaguely unsatisfactory. 

Witness The Firm, which is an amazing thriller novel with legal implications that devolves in the last 20 pages as the bad guys turn stupid and the good guy becomes darn near omnipotent. Or The Partner, which comes to its depressing logical moral conclusion way too quickly. (We won't even talk about The Brethren, which is filled with unlikable characters doing unlikable things coming to justly deserved ends... or The Client, which is just a profoundly silly book.) 

I must pause a moment to give Mr. Grisham credit where credit is due: The Pelican Brief is a good movie and a great book, one of my favorite legal thrillers. The Runaway Jury made me laugh. And The Testament is one of the best "Christian" novels I've read. 

BTW, I have the same fears about my own life. I don't want to spend 7/8's of my earthly existence making a difference in the lives of people, then spend the last eighth coasting to the finish line. 

Look, this isn't just about retirement. In fact, that's the least of my worries right now. It's about my moral character - the way I stick to what I believe. 

The weird cross-pollination of John Grisham & Joe Broussard's sermon this last Sunday (way to go, Joe!) is what sparked all this. Joe spoke about Isaiah 6, which starts out telling us that "in the year that King Uzziah died..." A seemingly inconsequential detail from Isaiah, intended to set the story in time - like if I'd said "in the year the Beatles broke up". 

Ah, but there's more to the story than that. Uzziah was a pretty decent king (and, let me tell you, decent kings weren't exactly falling out of the sky in ancient Israel). According to 2nd Chronicles 26, he "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." (This, as well, was a pretty rare commodity.) He rebuilt Jerusalem, opened more land for farming, and helped increase the strength and technology of the army. (This guy could run for president!) He reigned for 52 years. But... (you knew it was coming, right?)  

But then the strength & success went to his head. Arrogant & proud, he fell. One day, contemptuous of GOD he walked into The Temple of GOD like he owned it and took over, burning incense on the Incense Altar. The priest Azariah, backed up by eighty brave priests of GOD tried to prevent him. They confronted Uzziah: "You must not, you cannot do this, Uzziah - only the Aaronite priests, especially consecrated for the work, are permitted to burn incense. Get out of God's Temple; you are unfaithful and a disgrace!" 

But Uzziah, censer in hand, was already in the middle of doing it and angrily rebuffed the priests. He lost his temper; angry words were exchanged--and then, even as they quarreled, a skin disease appeared on his forehead. As soon as they saw it, the chief priest Azariah and the other priests got him out of there as fast as they could. He hurried out--he knew that GOD then and there had given him the disease. Uzziah had his skin disease for the rest of his life and had to live in quarantine; he was not permitted to set foot in The Temple of GOD. His son Jotham, who managed the royal palace, took over the government of the country.
2nd Chronicles 26:16-21 (The Message)  

Ouch.Uzziah ended his days alone when "strength & success went to his head." It doesn't invalidate the good he did, but it drastically decreased his opportunities to enjoy it. 

So the questions start ping-ponging off the walls of my mind:

1. where do I trust in my own "strength & success"?
2. am I pacing myself to live a "right in the eyes of the Lord" life, or am I burning myself out emotionally, physically & spiritually?
3. who is speaking truth into my life about where my actions are taking me... and am I listening?

What about you? Are the choices you're making going to lead you into quarantine... or deeper & closer to Jesus Christ?

Making Special Teams Special Again...

...while I really enjoy designer Stephen Glenn's football board game 1st & Goal and thought that the individual dice sets for each team was a great idea, I haven't enjoyed the "duct tape & bailing wire" d20 fix that was originally published to deal with how these wildly varying expansion team dice sets messed with the base game's special teams rules.

Well, my griping days are over - somehow I missed that Stephen and R&R Games have web-published individual cards for each expansion team that allows you to play by the original rules without having 70 yard field goals. (You can download them as a PDF from the R&R Games website.)

If you have NO IDEA what I'm talking about, you can read Erik Arneson's excellent review of 1st & Goal on the Opinionated Gamers website. (Erik was the winner of the 1st & Goal tournament at The Gathering of Friends last year... and knocked me out in the 3rd round on his way to victory. Sigh.)

Jumbled Thoughts About Newtown

On Friday, many people watched in horror as the news came in fits & spurts from a small town in Connecticut... and we once again witnessed a tragedy inside a school - but this time the majority of the victims were 6 or 7 years old.

I've worked & prayed for a couple of days, trying to figure out how to write something that is both pastoral and profound; something that gives hope without denying the reality of the pain & grief & anger. So far, my attempts have been an abject failure.

It's not that I don't have things to say... it's that they are all jumbled in my head and end up spilling out in fragments & disconnected thoughts. I guess that's the way they'll have to come out today. Bear with me.

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Our current information-soaked culture can fool us into thinking we know more than we do about situations like this. The ease with which I can pull up video reports and read newspaper stories combines with the relentless 24 hour news cycle and the need of TV networks and websites to create new content... and what all too often happens is that conjecture and opinion become conflated with facts in an attempt to explain, assess blame & assign meaning to a massacre like this.

The reality is that we don't know very much right now - and not just because the police are being careful about releasing information. It's important to remember the lessons of Columbine:

We have learned that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were not goths. They weren’t loners. They weren’t in the “Trenchcoat Mafia.” They were not disaffected video gamers. They hadn’t been bullied. The supposed “enemies” on their list had already graduated a year earlier. They weren’t on anti-depressant medication. They didn’t target jocks, blacks or Christians.
They just wanted to kill. 

Two seemingly normal, well-scrubbed high school boys went to their school in a prosperous suburban subdivision with the goal to kill thousands. Their bombs didn’t work, so they proceeded to kill 13 classmates, and wound another 24. (from "The Answer is Evil" - referenced below)

So much of what we heard in the days following the 1999 attack on Columbine High School turned out to be speculation... and wrong. It's likely that some (or a great deal) of what we're hearing right now about motivations and upbringing regarding Newtown, CT, will turn out to be rumors & myths as well.
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Our tendency is to want to fix things... to jump in and find a solution so that something like this can never happen again. We're already seeing this with calls for gun control and mental health reform in response to the tragedy.
I'm not particularly interested in debating either of these subjects - primarily because I think that focusing our energies on legal solutions in the immediate aftermath of a horrific event like what happened in Newtown has more to do with making ourselves feel better/safter/like we're doing something and less to do with what is really needed.
These discussions are important discussions... but when they are conducted under the white hot spotlight of the media circus while we are awash in grief, they tend to become polarized battles where individuals and groups lob verbal grenades at each other. And the shrapnel from those battles is most likely to injure the people most directly affected by the tragedy.
What is really needed? Mourning. The time for action will come - and yes, I understand that it can take a horrible situation like this to get legislators to accomplish meaningful reform - but we ignore the Biblical injunction to "mourn with those who mourn" at our own peril. Our rush to fix does not give us the space to grieve in meaningful ways... and we can make laws & policies based on rumors & myths.
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Our tendency is to want to fix things... to jump in and find a solution to all of the pain & hurt & grief.

Wait a minute! That sentence sounds suspiciously like the beginning to the last entry...
Yes, yes it does. That's because we as followers of Jesus Christ suffer from the same tendencies as everyone else - a desire to fix things. Some of us get pulled into the debates about governmental solutions, but it's more likely that we Christians will want to fix the hurt we see in the faces of the family members by attempting to explain why this mass shooting happened... or use our words to nudge the grieving process along.

It's at moments like this that we need to pay attention to Job & his friends:

Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense. (Job 2:11-13, HCSB)

These guys have the right idea... rather than jump into long-winded discussions about theodicy (the theology of evil) or give Job some quick-fix answers ("at least your kids are with God now"), they simply sit with him in silence. They are present.

Of course, the moment they start talking they downshift into saying one dumb thing after another - blame, philosophical discussion, theological musings, etc.

In the midst of the tragedy in Newtown, we need to work more at being present, of allowing people to mourn & grieve. And we need to work hard to keep our arms open to those in tears and our mouths closed unless God gives us words to speak.

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A number of wise people have written about the tragedy... and while they don't all agree with each other, I'd suggest that you take the time to read what they have to say.

Joel J. Miller - The Face of the devil & the mercy of God 

In his book The Doors of the Sea, David Bentley Hart writes that we should see in the death of child, not “the face of God but the face of his enemy.” We believe in Providence, yes, but we should be free to say that evil had its way. In a letter to a couple who had lost their child, Basil the Great is upfront with this fact: “[S]uddenly, through the malice of the devil, all that happiness of home and that gladness of heart has been swept away. . . .”

James Emery White - The Answer is Evil 

It brings to mind Jean Bethke Elshtain’s experience on the first Sunday following the attacks of 9/11. She went to a Methodist church in Nashville. The minister, which she describes as having a kind of frozen smile on his face, said “I know it has been a terrible week.” Then, after a pause, he continued, “But that’s no reason for us to give up our personal dreams.” 

 

She thought, “Good grief! Shouldn’t you say something about what happened and how Christians are to think about it?” But then she realized that if one has lost the term evil from his or her theological vocabulary, then it is not easy to talk about such a thing.

John Eldredge - Why Newtown is More Important Than We Think 

 

I hope you will forgive my honesty, but I do not understand the shock. The grief I understand. The speechlessness, the staggering, the profound sorrow, the overwhelming sense of violation—these I understand. We are reeling from yet another assault of darkness. But our shock reveals something else altogether, something even more dangerous than armed violence.

I am describing a naiveté about the world that Christians, at least, should not be toying with.

The Hypnotic Power of a Bug-Zapper & The Happiest Place on Earth (Classic)

This classic post is from 2007... and I repost it today with some slight edits in honor of our trip to Disneyland last week. (I'll write more about that delightful experience later.)

Mosquito #1: Larry, no! Don't look at the light!
Mosquito #2: [entranced] I-can't-help-it. It's-so-beautiful.
A Bug's Life

I know I've got Disneyland on the brain right now (we just got back from 4 days at DLR), but this post has been fermenting in the dark corners of my brain for nearly six months now. Blame Erwin McManus... it was an off-handed comment he made during the Ethos part of The Origins Experience. He suggested that different cultures have different icons that give us clues to the underlying values that permeate those cultures:

• the English have Big Ben - a giant clock. Is it any wonder that order & consistency are highly valued in that society?
• for Germany, Erwin suggested the iconic value of the automobile (Volkswagon, Mercedes Benz, Porsche)... and that leads easily into a culture that finds precision & attention to detail.
• Brazil's icon is not an object but a celebration: Mardi Gras (Carnivale) - which fits a country where living life to the fullest & enjoying the party are deeply valued.

Then Erwin asked the question he'd been leading up to: "What are the metaphors of the culture that you are in?" And since the majority of us in the audience were from the U.S., he answered the question for us: "Mickey Mouse. Disneyland."

Of course, I was prepared at that point to hear your standard anti-Disney diatribe: [snob]"Just like Disney, Americans are shallow, interested in being lulled to political & moral sleep by a Pied Piper with promises of a fantasy world & happy endings."[/snob] But that wasn't where Erwin headed...

"Disneyland stands for the promise of imagination - that we can create something bigger & better & more amazing. It suggests that every one of us can live a heroic life." (This quote, btw, is paraphrased - this is what I can construct from my personal notes & my failing memory.)

 With that nugget burrowing into my head, I began reading Erwin's most recent book, Soul Cravings (you can read a chapter that particularly moved me, 'cuz I blogged about it earlier: Pathos [Entry 24]) His premise is that each person has three needs:

• meaning - we want to know what we can know (truth) and what we can control (security)
• intimacy - we want to experience community (acceptance) and love
• destiny - we want to make a difference (success, signifigance)

Mix into a pile of books I received for my birthday on Disney & Disneyland...

• The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust (Mark Pinsky)
• 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland (Kevin Yee)
• Disneyland Detective: An Independent Guide to Discovering Disney's Legend, Lore, & Magic (Kendra Trahan)

...along with my already well-documented obsession with the Disney parks and you've got yourself the makings of a world-class philosophical/theological rant.

I'll try to spare you most of my musings, which are probably only interesting to me & a couple of other Disneyphiles... still, I've started down this road, so join me as I address the key question here.

Why is that so many of us are drawn to Disneyland like a moth to a flame? (Or, to borrow from A Bug's Life, a mosquito to a bug zapper?)

I've come to believe that it's because Disneyland, knowingly or unknowingly, taps into all three of these core desires (or cravings):

• meaning - In the world of Disney (and by extension, Disneyland), there are heroes & villains. Rather than a world that seems to be sometimes painted in shades of grey, the park offers a place where visitors can see good triumph over evil.
• intimacy - From encounters with characters to the special attention to guest relations that each Cast Member is trained in, the folks at Disneyland want you not only to enjoy the attractions but also to connect on a personal level. It's telling that none of their publicity materials (that I know of) advertise this as a great vacation for individuals - instead, they emphasize how experiencing the park together brings families & friends closer with the bond of shared memories.
• destiny - The park is designed to involve you in adventure after adventure - whether it's flying through outer space (Star Tours, Space Mountain) or dealing with pirates (Pirates of the Carribean) or facing ghosts (the Haunted Mansion) or exploring the wilds of Africa & Asia (the Jungle Cruise). Challenging your fears, diving headlong into adventure... these kind of experiences touch base with your need to do something meaningful with our lives - to escape the monotony of our everyday slog.

I'm not suggesting that Walt Disney (or anyone else who's making the "big decisions" for the park) was/is a follower of Christ... or even that they sought to satisfy these cravings in a purposeful way. I'm simply suggesting that the appeal of Disneyland is not as simple as "it's clean & has wormed it's way into a definition of the American experience." (One clue to that being false: there are now 3 "Disneyland" parks outside of the U.S. - in Tokyo, Hong Kong & Paris.)

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For those of you in the reading audience who need to hear me quote some Scripture right now so you won't brand Erwin (or me, by extension) as a Mickey-ears wearing heretic, how about John 14:6?:

• destiny ("I am the way")
• meaning ("the truth")
• intimacy ("and the life")

Or how about 1 Corinthians 13:13, Colossians 1:5, 1 Thessalonians 1:3 & 5:8?

• meaning ("faith" - what is really true?)
• destiny ("hope" - where are really we headed?)
• intimacy ("love" - will we really know & be known?)

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A final thought about movies & amusement parks & well, church (maybe?):

"Don't write stuff & produce stuff about answers - don't do that," Winter said. "Write stuff & produce stuff that will stir up cravings inside of us, because that's the DNA that God's put inside of us. You stir that stuff up, and that's where [people] want to go to church. That's when they want to talk about the good news." Ralph Winter, producer of the X-Men series, quoted in The Hollywood Project by Alex Field

Merry Holidays?! Happy Christmas!? (Classic)

And here's the Christmas classic from 2011... 

We all get "those emails" - you know, the ones where you are instructed to either pass the message on or forward it to five friends or whatever. (I've sounded off on this before here on the blog - go back to yesterday & read my post, Forward Christian Soldiers.)  

And I got another one today.

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas this year ... My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ. So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same. And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on... maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

You may sit now, as I did, for a moment of stunned silence at this bit of ridiculousness. OK, silent time is over. Elton Trueblood once said:

“There are those places in ministry and theology that you must draw the line and fight and die; just don’t draw the lines in stupid places!”

Here are three reasons that the above email (and the philosophy behind it) are clearly one of those stupid places:

1. Please, please, please... any time you are tempted to use the phrases "celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ" and "American tradition" in the same sentence, you should use some of that cutesy holiday-themed scotch tape to shut your mouth. The celebration of Christ's birth is NOT an American tradition - it's a Christian tradition... and being an American doesn't make you a Christian, any more than walking into McDonald's makes you a hamburger. (Credit to Keith Green for that analogy.)
2. "Happy Holidays" is not a frontal attack on Christianity... it's an attempt by people (and businesses) to be inoffensive in a season in which there are two major religious holidays (one Christian & one Jewish), one cultural holiday (Kwanzaa), and New Years Day as well.
3. A methodological problem: email forwards and Facebook status updates tend to go to people who already agree with you - meaning you've created feedback loop of people who become belligerent about the way they wish people "Merry Christmas" because they're sure that everyone who doesn't do the same is opposed to all that is good & right in the world.

I'm not telling you to stop saying "Merry Christmas" - in the words of Reggie McNeal, "Don't hear what I'm not saying." Go right ahead & wish people "Merry Christmas"... you are celebrating the birth of Christ in this season. The sincere hope of those who are followers of Jesus is that more people would discover that for themselves.

However, I do want to give you a few tips in how to fulfill the command of Scripture while you're spreading holiday cheer:

1. Stop correcting salespeople who are obligated - in order to keep their job! - to say "Happy Holidays". It's not their fault. And arguing with them or chiding them is not going to bring anyone closer to embracing the true meaning of Christmas.
2. When you say "Merry Christmas", make sure you sound like Bob Crachit rather than Ebenezer Scrooge. Seriously, there are some folks out there who spit the traditional greeting at people like it's a bullet aimed straight at their pitiful heathen hearts. If you can't wish someone "Merry Christmas" with a heart filled with Christlike love, then don't say anything at all.
3. Remember that the (gosh, I hate this cliche) "reason for the season" is Jesus Christ... not the preservation of tradition or winning the "War on Christmas". The Incarnation is about God clearly & completely expressing His love for us - Immanuel means "God with us". When we are just working to accomplish a cultural agenda, we are communicating the exact opposite message... what we're saying is "if you don't accept my particular way of celebration & the theological beliefs that go along with it, I'll simply stuff it down your throat."

And, since I'm a pastor, a Scripture to prove my point:

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossian 4:5-6, NIV)

BTW, Merry Christmas!

Forward Christian Soldiers (Classic)

This post on one of my pet peeves originally appeared back in 2005... I've updated it a bit and posted it again as it goes nicely with tomorrow's Christmas-y blog post on a similar topic.

We all get the stuff - forwarded across e-mail from one friend to another or posted to our Facebook wall. Sometimes it's a touching story or a collection of inspirational pictures & sayings or a pithy sermon illustration. Sometimes it's heartwarming, other times just smarmy & irritating. 


 Unfortunately, way too many of these forwards end with a line or two that sounds something like this:

• "Pass this message to 7 people except you and me. You will receive a miracle tomorrow. Don't ignore and God will bless you."
• "If you're not ashamed of Jesus, forward this on to 10 other people."
• "Ninety-nine percent of the people here will be AFRAID to repost this important message!"

(Those of you who've read a good bit of what I've written know what's about to happen. I'm gonna drag out my soapbox and climb up on top of it and commence to preaching.)

I just have to ask: what in the world do we think we are doing when we send stuff like this out!? Has spiritual encouragement become so impoverished in our world that we are forced to use emotional blackmail to get people to say nice things to each other?

Because what the "not ashamed of Jesus" line implies is that if I refuse to forward the e-mail, I am ashamed of Jesus. It has an element of pride in it - because, of course, the person who sent is obviously not ashamed.

Hogwash. If the test for being a devoted follower of Christ is whether I can hit the "reply to all" button on Outlook Express or click on a tiny animated thumb on Facebook, then faithfulness has been majorly devalued. In the classic illustration of the carrot & the stick (two ways to get a donkey to move), this is the "stick" methodology.

In the same vein, the promise of a miracle and/or blessing is just as big of a theological problem. This is the "carrot" approach to inspiring people to forward the e-mail... in other words, "send this on and you'll get paid off by God for your good behavior."

Now, God clearly promises to bless us and that we will experience miracles (things beyond natural explanation)... but nowhere in Scripture is that tied to chain mail. Nor is it a formula: "if A, then B". Saying it another way, "If I do this for God, He has to do that for me." We cannot obligate God to perform for us!

Yes, the Bible clearly says that if we ask anything in His name, He will do it. But take a close look at that passage:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:12-14 (NIV)

The purpose of giving us what we ask for Jesus to bring glory to the Father... not to make our lives easier or our health better or our bank account fatter. If those things happen, well & good! Give God thanks... but when we ask Jesus for things "in His name", we must not use his name like a magical incantation.

Let me draw that out a bit... when we view God as someone we can 'force' to do our bidding by our behavior, it's as if we turn the prayer, "Jesus, please heal my son" into "Abracadabra, heal my son!" And that's not any different than "God's gotta give me something good if I hit 'reply to all.'"

(OK, I'm climbing down off the soapbox now... sort of.)

Here's what I do. When I receive a forward with one of those lines or something similar on the bottom, I delete it. Nuke it. Zap it. Consign to Deleted Items Folder for all of eternity. And I do that regardless of the quality of the rest of the e-mail.

One last thought: seems kind of nutty that I've gone off like a Roman candle about this, doesn't it? I mean, it's "just e-mail."

Well, here's something for you to chew on: I "went off" not because forwards are irritating but because the underlying theology is bad. This week, try and look carefully for the underlying theology of some things you take for granted in your life: what you watch on TV; a magazine article you're reading, a discussion you have around the water cooler at work. All part of that "taking thoughts captive" thing, right?

Right.