Big Oil and High School Football
4 days ago, on Twitter, Mike Rice (accidentally?) said something so profound that it has haunted me for days.
He said,
Deer Park… [is] a town built on big oil and high school football.
There it is. In black and white, as it were.
I led a church plant that failed in Deer Park, which is, indeed, a town built on big oil and high school football. I did not plant a church that was in any way for a town built on big oil and high school football.
I planted a church for a city built on Rock ‘n’ Roll.
I confess that my attitude was this: I hate big oil, and I absolutely detest football and the jocks that play it, but come to my church anyway.
I confess that the people I led (small group that it was) ended up looking like me. I didn’t make them hate those things, but we reached 100% of the people in Deer Park, who were willing to be “churched”, who also hated big oil and high school football.
I confess that, in my arrogance, since I was from the area (since birth), I didn’t do the hard work of learning about my community, or identifying with them, until it was way too late.
I confess that I looked down my nose at the refinery workers, and I loathed the traffic the games brought. I was annoyed by the very things that unified my community, and allowed it to exist.
I confess that I claimed to love the city, and it’s people, but it’s obvious now that I hated them.
Mike’s tweet was a final nail in Basilica’s coffin. Finally, I identified the main reason the church failed, and it’s my sin. It’s an odd sort of painful relief. The question I have been asking for about a year - WHY? - finally came.
May God, in his grace, grant me genuine repentance.
Deer Park, I ask for your forgiveness.
