This morning’s front page included an article on a building going up near the Plaza. As is often the case, an old building must be demolished in order to make room for the new structure. But in this instance the current building is brand new – not even completed (image above). A bankruptcy lead to construction halt and the design was found incompatible with any other use. So it will be razed and replaced…

“Big 12 with 10. Big Ten with 12. What kind of funny math is that?” ~ My Friend’s Text

My friend from Augusta, an SEC lover, has been texting me about the imminent break-up of the Big 12. Of course he is interested in who will come and join his league (Texas A&M seems on the cusp – but there have been reports about Missouri leaving and I am sure others). As he texted above, the new leagues lead to some interesting math. After Colorado and Nebraska left, the Big 12 was left with 10. The Big Ten already had eleven and the addition of Nebraska made 12 (CU went to the new PAC-12). The math does not make sense on the old education model, which counted schools. But today’s college sports are not about school. Instead their math is based on the number of dollars…

I wonder how this will add up long term? The whole situation has made me less excited about college sports. Short term I am irritated about other schools, those who have left Missouri (my team of choice). But long-term, as rivalries die – I wonder if I will be as excited about college football (or any college sport)? For that matter, when college sports become more and more about money – what separates them from the NFL (or MLB or NBA)? As long as the math of money rules, why watch college sports? The players are better in the NFL …and in the NFL no one hides behind a veil of education. The professionals readily admit it is about the math of money…

Yet the health of the whole is not on the mind of college teams. So they continue to jump, and the structure of their building continues to rise. Each wants to find the best place for today… but tomorrow will the building have to razed?

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In the church people often seek our own goals. Each pod presses forward under the delusion that their mission is sacrosanct. They work with their own blueprints and the building rises up. But rooms do not connect and hallways find dead ends. The building may become filled with similar rooms, but without essential things. Often the foundation is forgotten altogether…

This is true also of our church. Not that we are crumbling, but I wonder, are we designing and building together? Are you prepared to let your idea be razed, so another can be built? Do you even know our foundation?

On the foundation. People will shout THE Sunday School answer, “Jesus”! And of course they are right. He is the answer… I write sarcastically. Not because our foundation is other than Christ, but because too often people use their own definition for Christ. I want to get specific. And this Sunday we start a new series diving into the details about the future of Chandler. We will press into the waters of Ezekiel 47:1-12. Looking beyond today, beyond ourselves, we will find the foundation to build, the plans to raise our church into the future.