Youth Baseball

I've always known, deep down that baseball is one of the most divinely inspired team sports. The poetic rhythms of the game:

• the emphasis on the presence of the Trinity
• the reality that the best in the game strike-out most of the time
• the desire to get home, either by transcendence (out of the park), or by immanence (around the bases)
• and many more....

I may have the opportunity to become a part of the board of directors for our town's youth baseball league. It would be a great opportunity to help the game and our kids. That is easy for me to see as a missional endeavor. However, if I'm mediocre at the job, it would be an embarrassment to the church.

The patron saint of non-ball player baseball administrators, Bart Gaimatti, needs to inspire me. He got Pete rose out of baseball, on agreeable terms, he rekindled the passion for the poetry of the game, honored it's traditions, and cared about the fans. But on the downside, he died in office of heart failure, one week before his one-year anniversary as the commissioner. Sacrifice bunt?

Missional baseball leadership? Hmmm.

A Missional Birthday

Two Sundays ago we had a party at church. As the plans for the party required a various last minute accommodation (tow-trucks, picking up balloons, providing driving directions, etc) our regular time of gathered worship was anything but regular.

The guest of honor, a one-year old little girl, Mikala, was there. She came with her caretakers as she awaited her mother. Her mother, recently out of jail is getting her life back on track. Members of our church are helping with her care for her daughter, Mikala. After the Mikala's mom and her friend had arrived, we awaited the rest of her mother's friends. Slowly, they began to filter in. Our small house church more than doubled in size and strangers began playing party games with each other. Many of these guests also had had the experience of jail. We a wonderfully diverse group. Traditional Mennonites, both young and old, playing pin the tail on the donkey with folks of widely differing life experiences.

We'll see how the relationships that began then might be fostered in the days and weeks coming. As it happened, perhaps the finest missionary among us that day is now only entering her second year of life.

"And a child shall lead them..."