Battle in Vandyland

Last week's game for the Arkansas Razorbacks was a win, but it didn't happen anything like I thought it would. The final line of my blog post was that the Hogs "should win going away," but the actual result was a hard-fought 29-24 win over an Ole Miss team that gave Arkansas all it could handle and more in the first half.

This week's game pits the Hogs against a tough Vanderbilt Commodores team that tends to be particularly good against the pass. I won't make any bold statements this time around for fear of having to eat the crow that I narrowly avoided last weekend. Instead I think I'll do better moving right to a very understated prediction...

Last week: Arkansas 29, Ole Miss 24 (Me: Hogs 42, Rebels 13)

Arkansas' record: 6-1 (Me: 6-1)

This week: Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

Location: Vanderbilt Stadium - Nashville, TN

Prediction: Hogs 34, Vandy 14

Reason: I think the Hogs are going to be more focused coming out of the gate this Saturday, owing to the troubles they had in the first half against Ole Miss last week. Look for Arkansas to play with gritty determination in trying to use their superior athleticism to overcome Vandy's tough pass defense.

Professing our faith

Since 1995, there has been a 31.3% decrease in professions of faith in the American branch of the United Methodist Church.

That is a dramatic decline.

I recently heard a presentation on various types of decline in the church by Don House, the chairman of the South Central Jurisdiction episcopal committee. Mr. House believes that the decline in professions of faith is the most significant marker of all the various negative statistics that have been charted in recent years in the UMC, and I am inclined to agree with him.

My most recent column in the United Methodist Reporter offers some thoughts on the contributing cultural factors in the decline in professions of faith. You can check it out here.

Inquirer's Day

Coming up in early November there will be an "Inquirer's Day" here at Memphis Theological Seminary. This is a great opportunity to tour the campus and visit with people here at MTS for anyone who is considering a call into ministry.

The graphic above tells you what you need to know in order to reserve a slot at Inquirer's Day. [Click on the image to get a larger view of it.] We've got a wonderful community here at MTS. It might be just the place for you to pursue your own seminary education!

Gonna get ugly

The Hogs are fixin' to take on Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., come Saturday.

Don't expect it to end well for Ole Miss.

I could go into a great deal of analysis on this game: how badly the Rebels got beat by Alabama last week, how the Hogs are going to have 3 healthy running backs to go up against the SEC's worst run defense, and how the Houston Nutt angle still generates a lot of sound & fury amongst Hog fans.

But I am going to refrain from all that out of respect for the remarkably bad season Ole Miss is having. It's possible they could give Arkansas a real scare, but I doubt it.

BONUS: Here are a couple of great articles for your reading pleasure:

-- Hogs' Tyler Wilson is tough enough (by ESPN's Chris Low)

-- Petrino builds resilient Razorback squad (by Terry Wood)

Now let's get on to the prediction...

Two weeks ago: Arkansas 38, Auburn 14 (Me: Arkansas 31, Auburn 17)

Arkansas' record: 5-1 (Me: 5-1)

This week: Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Ole Miss Rebels

Location: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium - Oxford, MS

Prediction: Hogs 42, Rebels 13

Reason: Last time I checked, the Ole Miss defense was ranked dead last against the rush in the SEC. While Arkansas is not setting any records in the rushing game this year, they will have three healthy running backs for Saturday's game (Dennis Johnson, Broderick Green, and Ronnie Wingo). Then again, the Hogs don't need to gain 200 yards on the ground. They only need enough to balance out the SEC's top passing attack. I think Houston Nutt's squad will hang tough for a quarter or so, but I don't think Ole Miss is going to be able to keep up for the entire game. The Hogs should win going away.

BC/AD or BCE/CE?

If the title to this post is a little confusing, my apologies. It refers to two competing ways to tell the date: "Before Christ" and "Anno Domini" vs. "Before the Common Era" and "Common Era." I write about these in a recent online column.

If you haven't heard much about the latter of these two pairs, you will. There has been great cultural pressure of late to adopt the "BCE/CE" system as a 'less offensive' way to utilize the dating system for non-Christians.

I find the very notion of changing "BC/AD" to "BCE/CE" to be absurd. I described this first in a post back in 2008 that you can find at this link.

A recent spate of articles about the British Broadcasting System's decision to start advocating for the use of BCE/CE (in articles you can find here and here) caused me to think further about the cultural movement.

So I devoted my most recent United Methodist Reporter column to examining some of the issues around the BC/AD vs. BCE/CE debate. I've received a number of e-mails in the few days since my column appeared from people wanting to offer their own takes on the debate. Feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Doctor of Ministry at M.T.S.

The graphic above tells you everything I wanted to communicate in this post. (Click on it to get a larger view.) The theological school where I teach - Memphis Theological Seminary - has a Doctor of Ministry program that emphasizes a number of difference "tracks." Applications are open currently (and until the end of this month) for a D.Min track in Christian Leadership.

If you'd like to apply for the D.Min program, contact our admissions staff here and one of the great folks in that office will be happy to assist you.

Tiger fight! Tiger fight!

The Littlest Hog in cheerleader gear

The Arkansas Razorbacks' difficult schedule continues this weekend, with the Auburn Tigers coming to town in Fayetteville.

Both teams have had their struggles this season, but both teams have fought hard and sport identical 4-1 records. Arkansas was really dominated by the Alabama defense two weeks ago in a 38-14 loss. Last week the Hogs' defense looked particularly shoddy in the first half of a game against Texas A&M that Arkansas would eventually win, 42-38, in spectacular fashion.

Auburn on the other hand has been doing everything it can to confound analysts' expectations of how the Tigers would struggle coming off their 2010 national championship campaign. Coach Gene Chizik and his staff have been impressive in jumping out to a 2-0 SEC record (4-1) overall, though his defense has played uneven at times. The Tigers have had to replace key personnel from last year's team, and one gets the sense that the team has still perhaps not found its identity.

Today's game should be affected by two key factors. One is the location itself. The game will be played at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, a factor weighing in the Hogs' favor. The second factor is the power of the Arkansas offense, which I think has more weapons than Auburn is going to be able to handle.

Here's the prediction...

Last week: Arkansas 42, Texas A&M 38 (My pick: 35-27)

Arkansas' record: 4-1 (Me: 4-1)

This week: Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Auburn Tigers

Location: Razorback Stadium - Fayetteville, AR

Prediction: Hogs 31, Tigers 17

Reason: I think the second half against the Aggies last week was a season-turning experience for our Hogs. The defense found its mojo en route to a 25-3 second half domination of Texas A&M. And also look for Dennis Johnson to emerge as the #1 running back in Bobby Petrino's offense. Coach Petrino needs somebody to step up and shoulder the lion's share of the carries; Ronnie Wingo was supposed to be that back, but he just hasn't shown the ability to overcome his reluctance to hit the line of scrimmage at full force. DJ, on the other hand, looked impressive in finally getting the Hogs' running attack on track last weekend in the second half. I think it is all going to 'click' tonight, and I think the Tigers' admittedly impressive improvement over the course of this season is going to be checked in Fayetteville as the Hogs win going away.

Quarterbacking and Discipleship

Source: Wikipedia

How is Christian discipleship like playing quarterback in the National Football League?

There's more overlap than you'd think.

The New England Patriots are led by their QB Tom Brady, who has won three Super Bowl Championships with the team. Most recently, Brady garnered a great deal of attention for the way he led his team to a season-opening victory over the Miami Dolphins. The prolific player threw for over 500 yards and completed 4 touchdown passes in the Patriots' victory. And listening to the postgame analysis, I couldn't help but think about how much Brady's example can offer for everyday Christians as they try to live faithfully.

I draw connections between quarterbacking and faith in my most recent UM Reporter column.

The thing that was most striking about the way that postgame commentators Steve Young and Tedy Bruschi talked about Brady's opening day performance was their sheer giddiness. They were clearly relishing the experience of just having watched one of the all-time great football players demonstrate gridiron excellence at the highest level.

And then one of them made a comment that struck me. He said that Brady had gotten so good that he likely didn't have to think about what he was doing once he was behind center and running the offense. He simply knows football so well - and knows his abilities so well - that he acts on a level where deliberate and self-conscious decision-making is not required.

What the commentators were talking about is a kind of virtue. It is hard work to be excellent, the philosopher Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics. One has to work hard at it, practicing everyday and committing to doing what one does today just a little bit better than yesterday. Over time, the results show both in the actions one performs and in the kind of person one becomes.

The parallels here for our practice of discipleship as Christians are obvious. There are other ways we would want to talk about it: namely, how anything faithful that we do or think or say is enabled by a prior grace. And moreover, how our faith is at its heart a response to a loving God.

The responsive nature of faith does not preclude a lot of hard work, though, and there's a reason so much athletic, agricultural, and martial imagery is used in the New Testament to describe what it means to live faithfully within the body of Christ over the course of a lifetime. As we are molded by what we study and by what we do, we are transformed into a certain kind of person. With the right kind of training, we become the kind of Christian whose life is so conformed to God that we do not always have to consciously think the right thing in order to do the right thing and be the right kind of person -- the kind of person who loves God and neighbor as Jesus Christ calls us to do.

So there are lessons to be learned by comparing quarterbacking and faith. But learning them takes more than bare consideration. It takes, of course, a lot of practice as well.

How is effectiveness measured?

I've returned a number of times to the UMC's Call to Action report in a lot of my writing over the past few months for the United Methodist Reporter.

There's a reason for that. The Call to Action report (or simply "CTA") is likely to dominate the work of the General Conference next spring in Tampa, Florida. In fact, it's likely to dominate a lot of the discussion leading up to the GC and will be on the minds of many in the coming months.

CTA has got the right idea when viewed broadly: our church does great ministry and offers a powerful witness in many ways, but it is also in need of reform. And as I think CTA rightly notes, "reform" is something that involves attitudes and ministry emphases as much as it does institutional restructuring. Ultimately the process of ecclesiastical reform must be holistic in its scope.

But there are some things about CTA that I think need to be critiqued as well. And in a recent column in the Reporter, I try to offer one such critique in the way that CTA uses the language of "effectiveness." Check out the column and let me know what you think.

One clarifying note: I might stress what I'm about to say a bit too much from time to time, but I'd prefer to err on the side of caution. I've got great respect for the UM Connectional Table and the Council of Bishops, the two groups which are largely responsible for the CTA report. I think all ecclesiastical officers who are in the trenches doing the hard work of ministry at the "institutional level" (and in an age that isn't friendly to large institutions) should be treated with a measure of respect appropriate both to their offices and to the important work they do.

Should conversations be had, debate be joined, and critiques made when needed? Absolutely. That's what practical theology in the church looks like oftentimes. But the fact of such theological reflection should never obscure the proper underlying motivation, which is a deeply collegial one where each person joins with the one he wants to engage rather than against him. We are all brothers and sisters within Christ's family, after all, which is a statement that is more than pious platitude. It is reality that should be lived. And I hope my writing reflects it as well.