Giving back to the game

The name John Henry Moss may not ring familiar — like Ted Williams, Tommy Lasorda or Orlando Cepeda — to baseball fans at large. But his contributions to America's pastime are of no less significance.

For 50 years, he was president of the South Atlantic League ("Sally League") — one of baseball's most popular and successful ventures. Moss, a native and former longtime mayor of Kings Mountain, N.C., took the old eight-team, semi-pro Western Carolina League and expanded it into the S.A.L. with teams throughout the Southeast and well beyond.

In 2007, he gave up the long-held title of president (though named president emeritus) of the Class A professional baseball league after a half-century of providing great, affordable family entertainment.

On Thursday, Gardner-Webb University — a fine Baptist-related institution in Boiling Springs, N.C. — announced that Moss had made a gift that will enable the university to build a new home for collegiate baseball players.

With hopes of starting construction soon and having it completed sometime in 2010, Gardner-Webb players, students and the greater community will have a good place to enjoy peanuts, Cracker Jack and the greatest sport ever created.

My good friend John Bridges, director of church relations at GWU, better save me a seat for opening day at John Henry Moss Stadium. I want to be there.

Somebody's watching

It has long been said that crime doesn't pay. Yet some suburban Atlanta officials have discovered that good behavior does not pay well either.

According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, five towns in Gwinnett County, Ga., are cutting out or back on photo-enforced traffic lights.

Accidents at those intersections in Suwanee, Duluth, Lilburn, Snellville and Norcross have been greatly reduced. However, the stricter obedience of drivers has resulted in less income from traffic violations.

Therefore, officials say, they are not receiving the expected income needed to fund the omnipresent eyes-in-the-sky.

The bottom-line lesson is that we all behave better when we know someone is watching.

That's why parents and Sunday school teachers love to quote Proverbs 15:3 (English Standard Version): "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."

Special needs families need church's attention

Most families with special needs children do not receive the nurture, support and care of a local congregation. That's what my friend Bill Neal, president of Developmental Disabilities Ministries, told me recently.

The reason, he explained, is that most churches simply do not provide places for their children to worship, learn and feel accepted.

So the organization he leads is hosting an excellent opportunity for church leaders, parents and others to learn more about this important area of ministry. The "Opening New Worlds" conference will be held April 17-18 at Smoke Rise Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, Ga., just east of Atlanta.

A Friday morning session (10AM-12PM) titled "Autism 101" will help church educators and others to better understand and relate to autistic persons. Workshops throughout the afternoon will address a variety of other important topics.

Here are some examples: "Starting a special needs ministry in you church," "Accessibility is more than a ramp,"Home adaptations for people with disabilities," "Special diets for people with special needs," and "Transforming challenging behaviors."

Parents and other caregivers, church ministers and volunteers, and any other persons looking for good answers to questions about ministering to and with families with special needs will want to participate.

Practical information is not the only offering. Two inspirational events are also on the schedule.

Paralympic champion Al Mead will speak at the Friday luncheon. And Patrick Henry Hughes — featured in ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition — will perform in a closing concert beginning at 12:30PM on Saturday afternoon.

For detailed information and registration, visit the DDM website, email openingnewworlds@ddmga.org or call 1-888-340-5820. Special rates are available for those coming from the same church.

Church leaders often talk about reaching out widely. Here is a chance to broaden that embrace.

Hear Kyle

If you are in the area — or want to come gaze at some of Macon, Georgia's gazillion cherry blossoms on display this time of year — there is a good place to spend your Sunday evening.

Singer-songwriter Kyle Matthews will give a concert at Mount Zion Baptist Church this Sunday evening (March 22) at 6 PM. Admission is free.

More than 60 of Kyle's creative compositions have been recorded and the depth of his music is both inspiring and insightful. And the Mount Zion congregation — that tolerated me as interim pastor twice — is a most gracious crowd.

I've long appreciated Kyle's talent and maturity in a world filled with shallow music. And we used to hang out some when we both lived in the Atlanta area many years ago.

Several years ago I was walking near DuPont Circle in Washington, D.C., and saw an African-American woman with a T-shirt that read: "We fall down, we get up."

I asked: "Can you tell me about your shirt?" She smiled and replied: "My choir made up these shirts. It's from that song."

"That song" was popular singer Donnie McClurkin's recording of "We Fall Down" — which won Kyle the Dove Award for Traditional Gospel Song of the Year. She let me take her picture and send it to Kyle.

Kyle and his family have recently moved to Greenville, S.C., from Nashville. He and his wife, Susan, both serve as part-time ministers at Greenville's First Baptist Church. But Kyle still takes his talents on the road for concerts such as the one coming up this Sunday in Macon.

It will be a good evening. And enjoy the cherry trees en route.

Improving one's image

Dried fruits and assorted nuts have become my favorite snack in recent weeks. Nestled in the grocery display among the cranberries, raisins and mango was a bag touting "Premium Pitted Dried Plums."

It took me a moment to realize these were prunes. Clearly there was an effort here to improve an image. Prunes conjure up visions of the elderly and regularity — not exactly the full market share that producers of dried plums want to reach.

In the March 10, 2009 issue of The Christian Century, writer Rodney Clapp points out the need for evangelicals to work on their image as well.

He notes that evangelicalism has thrived while mainline Protestantism has declined over recent decades. Therefore, there is a false sense of security.

"Evangelicalism is a tradition that does not know it is in trouble," he writes. "But I think it is, in fact, profoundly in trouble."

Clapp points to the forced resignation of Richard Cizik from the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) for showing too much interest in global warming and too much tolerance of homosexuals.

This, Clapp said, is just one example of current evangelical leadership's "deeply reactionary tendencies."

As its basic definition, evangelical means a bearer of "good news." The problem, as noted Clapp, is that much of what comes from the most vocal conservative evangelicals today does not sound like good news.

An image built on condemnation, intolerance and judgment is not very attractive. And, as Clapp has observed, "...Evangelicalism is in deep trouble because the gospel really is good news, and reactionaries are animated by bad news, by that which they stand against."

His point is well made and one worthy of our consideration — while enjoying some cashews, almonds, cranberries and prun...dried plums.

Work well done

Earlier this month, media outlets were reporting widely about a popular job opening in Ohio. More than 650 applications had already been received for a spot as a $15.37 per hour custodian.

Some of the applicants were highly skilled in the construction industry but interested in a position with steady income and benefits. It was a sign of times.

Perhaps one of the silver linings in the current dark economic cloud is a renewed appreciation for work. In recent days, I've heard people expressing gratitude for jobs they once took for granted.

Hopefully, such gratitude will be expressed in the quality of worked performed. If not for a more noble reason, at least the fear of job loss could lead to better service.

For most of us, our employment is a mixture of things that bring us fulfillment and things that simply must be done. But the realization that many others would be delighted to have most any kind of work right now should bring a measure of gratitude for our daily toil.

A visit with Doug Maag

How's this for commitment? Doug Maag taught a college Sunday school class at Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Atlanta from 1964 until 1998. And it was more than a Sunday morning duty.

"Those were blessed days," the 90-year-old Texan told me one afternoon this week when I stopped by his current residence in Macon, Ga., where he's known as the "Mayor of Morningside" (Assisted Living).

During the 13 years that I did campus ministry in metro Atlanta, Doug was someone to know and emulate. He simply loved helping young adults grow into maturity.

"Do you ever see ol' Cow Lot?" he asked, quickly reminding me that his nickname for former student Don Lott — my first Baptist Student Union (BSU) president at Southern Tech and an active Wieucan — came from a Western wear store back in Texas.

It seems that everyone in Doug's sphere has a nickname. The Wichita Falls native himself has long been known as 'Horns.

Digging back in his mind through the decades, Doug went on to name dozens of other students — some I knew and many I did not.

Year-after-year, Doug and his late wife, Norma — lovingly known as "Maagie" — participated in the once popular adopt-a-student program in which students going off to college were taken under the wings of a local church family.

Sandra Meeks, ironically from Macon, Ga., where Doug now lives to be close to his daughters and their families, was the first he and Maagie "adopted," he told me. But there were dozens of others including Mark Pike who played football for the Buffalo Bills after finishing at Georgia Tech.

And I loved it when this 90-year old would fill in my mental blanks.

"Doug, remember the time in the early '80s when I took a group of Wieuca students to New York City?" I asked. "It was initiated by a Georgia State student ... Todd..."

"Todd DuBose," he snapped back. "He ended up moving to New York..." (Indeed. Todd is now a psychology professor in Chicago my Internet search revealed.)

In a sense, every student the Maags encountered felt somewhat adopted. A school administrator once asked Doug if someone from Wieuca might visit the students at Bauder Fashion College near the church in trendy Buckhead once a month.

"Once a month is not enough," Doug told her. So he and Maagie would pay the young women a visit every Monday. Many became active in his college Sunday school class.

Countless students who bumped into Doug along the way are forever grateful — including Dave Stewart, a Georgia Tech alum who now serves as Baptist campus minister for Southern Polytechnic State University and Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Ga., (a position I once held).

"I am a Christian today because of Doug Maag's teaching and witness," Dave told me when learning of my recent visit. "I don't have a lot of heroes, but Doug Maag is way up on my short list."

It's been a long time since Sears & Roebuck transferred Doug to Atlanta. But hundreds of students are grateful they did.

After Maagie died in 2005, Doug said he came down to Macon for an anticipated 12-day visit. "That was three years and four months ago," he added.

But his loving family is nearby now — and "Tex" the terrier keeps him company as well.

My afternoon with Doug inspired me. There are lessons to be learned from such a faithful example.

Among them: Find a place of ministry that fits your interest and gifts — and dig in for the long haul.

Thanks for being such a good example, Doug.

And thanks on behalf of hundreds of students who have benefited from your faithfulness, selflessness and kindness. God bless!

Faith in tough times

The Christian community in Dalton, Ga., is not giving up although times are mighty tough there. An ecumenical gathering called "24/7: Faith in the Real World" is one rallying point.

Last Monday night, the quarterly dinner event — sponsored by Baptist, United Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian congregations — focused on the most relevant topic of faith and finances. Jack "Chip" Bishop, a financial investment representative and former Baptist pastor, was the speaker.

Known as "the Carpet Capital of the World," this Northwest Georgia town has been hit particularly hard. The flooring industry is hurting. Reports put Dalton as having the second highest unemployment rate in the nation.

Bishop said that one of the first questions he raises with clients is: "What is enough to you?"

In light of the current economic crisis, he said, the concept of "enough" is changing. And, for people of faith, he added, it is always an appropriate and important question.

"Some of the core of what Jesus taught us" has to do with "enough," said Bishop, former pastor of Signal Mountain Baptist Church in Tennessee and the First Baptist Church of Waynesville, N.C., where he currently lives.

Pastor Bill Wilson, who hosted the 24/7 event at Dalton's First Baptist Church said some people in the area are tired of talking about money. But he said the time is ripe for dealing with deeper issues that might not have surfaced during brighter days.

"What is this crisis doing to us spiritually?" he asked. "This is one of the most important opportunities to express our faith."

Although his congregation, like most others, has drastically cut its budget, attention is being given to those needing the basics of life. A new free meal program grew quickly from 35 to 350 he told the CBS Evening News recently.

Monday night's 24/7 gathering — started last year to help laypersons focus on the "integration of faith and life" — had a serious tone to it. Around round tables, there was talk of lost jobs, health concerns and an uncertain economic future.

But there was also talk of mutual care, compassion, hope and the ongoing re-evaluation of what is enough.

"It is a time to reorder our priorities," said layman Tommy Duke during the closing moments of sharing.

[PHOTO: Chip Bishop (left), a financial investment representative from Waynesville, N.C., and Bill Wilson, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dalton, Ga., led a Monday night discussion of faith during tough economic times.]

Memorial celebration for Millard Fuller

The remarkable life of Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing, will be celebrated this Saturday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Everyone is invited to join in person or by webcast.

The service will begin at 2:00 PM in the church's Horizon Sanctuary on Auburn Avenue, across from the The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Social Change and historic Ebenezer.

President Jimmy Carter will speak prior to the main address by Tony Campolo.Music will be provided by recording artist Jamie O'Neal.

Linda Fuller and others will lead in a dedication of two new homes in the area. For complete details on the service and related activities (in Atlanta and in Southwest Georgia) this weekend, visit the fullercenter.org.

The service will be webcast live on the Fuller Center web site as well.

One generation influences the next

OK, maybe somebody else has noticed this already. But I'm just a casual music listener — yet philosophical enough to put such stuff together.

Cute little singer Taylor Swift has a song called "Tim McGraw." (My younger daughter's musical taste is why I know this.)

And Tim McGraw — whom some consider cute and indeed little — has a song called "Kristofferson."

And Kris Kristofferson has written more good songs than any other three musicians still around. ("For the Good Times," Me & Bobby Mcgee," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "Jesus was a Capricorn" and "Sunday Mornin' Coming Down" — just for starts.)

I remember going, as a teen, on a double-date to hear Kris and then-wife Rita Coolidge at Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga. It is hard to believe he is now a third-generation music hero to younger artists.

But the truth is one generation does influence the next — for good or bad or some mixture of the two.

It is something to be aware of as we grow older. One of life's most stunning moments is when a younger co-worker, intern or friend introduces you as his or her "mentor" for the first time.

Then suddenly the burden of being a person of influence rests heavier on your shoulders. Makes you want to ask, "Why me, Lord?"

The sin of elitism

One of the upsides to the downside economy is less swagger among those who often have acted as if they were better than others. With business off and investments down, they tend to take a little lower profile these days.

Elitism is offensive to observe. It is simply acting in a way that conveys that you, yours and those like you are more important than others.

It is expressed in a variety of ways:

A condescending smirk that suggests, "I don't think I've seen you at the club" or "I don't believe you live in our neighborhood."

Parking in no-parking spots rather than in the spaces used by "regular" people.

Treating wait staff or others in the service industry as if they are your servants.

And many more ways of looking down on others.

In addition to social elitism, there is the perhaps more offensive spiritual elitism. In a sermon at First Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tenn., last Sunday, I confessed that I'd rather be in a room full of honest pagans than have to hang around one person who thought they'd mastered the Christian faith.

Spiritual elitism bugged Jesus too. He had much to say about Pharisaic attitudes and behaviors.

Acting as if we have God figured out, pretending that we somehow live above the struggles of life and judging others as if we are the standard-bearer will fool few other than oneself.

Staying off the pedestal may be difficult. But it is the right thing to do.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." (Philippians 2:3 NIV)