5K on Sunday

Normally I would not run a 5k on Sunday, or any other day. At 55 years old my running days are few and my walking days many. On Sunday I do not care to have other distractions in preparing to worship with God's people. That takes precedence over everything.

It is true that the world has crammed countless activities into Sunday. This is one indication that Christianity and churches are more and more on the margins of society. This is one way of understanding the idea of "missional" which has been applied, misused, and misunderstood in countless ways. The church, that is God's people, is God's mission in the world. As God sent His Son into the world, as Father and Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world, so Father, Son, and Holy Spirit send the Church into the world. The church is on mission daily and not only when gathered on Sunday. God's people are in the world, in their communities, in the lives of unbelievers – for the gospel's sake, to make Christ known, to be a visible expression of God's power and proclamation.

So I did a 5k run this morning at 8 a.m. The last 5k I did was one and a half years ago. I won't tell you my time. It's nothing to brag about but it was respectable and I came in 37th with about 150 runners/walkers. I did it to run with the husband of a wonderful inter-racial couple who attends Grace Church. I did it to support a community that suffers from blight, drugs, and crime. However after the first lap through the streets of West Philly, past some boarded up houses, potholes, and nighttime crack corners, my friend Gary left me in the dust (he came in 23rd). So I ran with a young Indian student at the University of Penn. We ran and talked for two laps until my final spurt (or sputter) at the end toward the finish line. After the race we chatted and I met his friend who came in second. I gave him a card with our church website and my contact information. It was not a full-blown gospel witness but it was a beginning.

Will I miss church today? No way. We meet at 4 p.m. and I will be rested by then. Of course the Eagles with Michael Vick at quarterback play today at 4:15. Donovan McNabb is back in Philly playing for the Washington Redskins. Should be a great game. There are things I will do on Sunday that might be unconventional. But I won't miss worship, not for a 5k run, not for the Eagles. Why? Because I am convinced that God is more interested in what 60 people gather to do in His name than 60 thousand who worship something else in a stadium.