Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

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Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 30 November 2010

Wide receiver Andre Johnson and cornerback Cortland Finnegan were fined $25,000 each today for fighting in Sunday’s NFL game between the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans. Both players were ejected from the game but neither faces further suspensions.

In a modest apology, Johnson said, “What happened out there today was not me…” Huh? Who was it then? Last year, Johnson was fined $7,500 for fighting with Finnegan, pulling him to the ground by his facemask. Two similar infractions, particularly involving the same opponent, suggest Johnson is less than truthful with us and maybe himself. If he doesn’t have an anger management problem than he certainly has a problem with this one player. It “was not me” doesn’t hold water.

Of the two, Johnson got in the most blows including fists to Finnegan’s head. Johnson, the bigger man, even threw Finnegan to the ground and as Finnegan was on all fours attempting to get up, Johnson stood over him pounding fists to Finnegan’s head area.

But Finnegan is no angel. Both Finnegan and Johnson tore the other’s helmet off. This was no push-and-shove testosterone contest. Both were clearly trying to hurt the other. And this is Finnegan’s fourth fine this year for fighting and taunting other players bringing his total to $45,000. Finnegan had been taunting Johnson throughout the game and taunted Houston fans as he left the game nearly causing a fan riot in the process.

Fines have not caused either player to own or change his behavior. Both players are repeat offenders. Both are guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct undermining the integrity of their sport. Fines will never result in changed behavior. Players simply treat fines as a cost of doing business, for some a budgeted expense.

Near the beginning of my years as a university president, several student-athletes committed some serious rules violations. The athletic director, coach, and a couple of other university administrators deliberated the matter with me and we eventually suspended the players for four games.

Some critics accused the university of being over the top, way too severe in its punishment. Other critics thought this discipline was too light, that we were “coddling athletes.” I don’t think either criticism was valid.

Those who thought the university was unfair failed to take into account that we did not kick the students out of school and they were permitted to continue their studies, thus losing no time, course credit, or money.

Those who thought the university was giving special favor to athletes failed to account for the fact that the worst discipline an athlete can experience is loss of playing time. In other words, these student-athletes would rather have done anything, including lose academic time and money, if they’d just been allowed to continue on the team.

This is why I say the NFL, or any other professional sport, will not be successful in changing players’ behavior on the field or the court simply by fining them. Many of these athletes are millionaires, or at least earn a lot of money. Losing cash might hurt a little but not much.

Another thing: a fine is individual. You fine the guilty player, he pays the fine, and he continues to play, so his team feels nothing. If you suspend a player, i.e. take away his ability to play, you get his attention and you get the attention of the entire team. Now, this player’s unsportsmanlike conduct has put at risk the entire team’s ability to win games and championships. You’ve created a collective interest and incentive in playing according to the rules. This results in positive peer pressure.

So you can fine athletes all you want, even large fines, and you’ll only be minimally successful, if at all, in altering their actions. For athletes, playing matters most. Suspend players from a game(s) and I guarantee you their unsportsmanlike behavior will be reigned in when they come off the bench.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should ditch the fines and set up a system of game suspensions appropriate to the infraction.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Dr. Rogers or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow Dr. Rogers at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 29 November 2010

Dr. Tony Evans once observed people are always saying they’re “Dying to do this or dying to do that. Pretty soon, they’re just dying.”

Evans further noted that no one really knows who the old people are, i.e., if you’re 25 years old and you’re going to live until you’re 40, you’re fairly old. If you’re 40 yrs old and going to live to be 100, than you are fairly young. So no one really knows who the old people are. (International Forum on Christian higher education sponsored by the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, Dallas, April 2006.)

So what’s the moral of the story? We’re all in the same process—if we’re breathing, we’re aging. We’re getting older and there’s nothing we can do about it. Though there’s something we can do about how we go about it.

In commercials we’re sometimes treated to pop culture maxims like “You’re only as old as you feel.” That’s encouraging, because sometimes I get up or go to bed with aches. So I guess I feel old?

Or “Age is only a state of mind.” OK, try that one when your mind says “Go” and your bod says “No.”

Or “50 is the new 30.” All right, I can get into that. Except there are things I could do when I was 30 that I can’t do in my 50s. More importantly, there are things I could do, maybe did, in my 30s that I don’t want to do in my 50s. So does this make me older or wiser? An aging Boomer or an emerging Brainiac?

I’m 58 at the time of this writing. Even if I live to be considered elderly, I’ve already lived most of my life. This isn’t a morbid thought, just a realistic one. Do I have another 10, 20, 30 years? Another day? Blessedly, I don’t know. I only know that God’s given me a certain number of days and I’m accountable to him not for how many days I have—that’s his call—but for how I use those days.

In the past couple of days two notable men died, one at 84 years who I knew only by his public persona and work, one at 96 years who I knew personally.

The first: Leslie Nielsen, an actor who will be most remembered for comedy films, Airplane! and the Naked Gun series, late in his career. Nielsen had a successful acting career, but he was well into his 50s before he “hit it big” with his hilarious comedic gift.

The second: Peter Cook, a man who lived his life in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a locally respected businessman and philanthropist, one of the kindest, most gracious men I’ve known. He was financially successful in automotives earlier in his life, but he’ll be most remembered for his considerable generosity and the humility with which he gave in the last three decades of his life.

Both men accomplished great things in their “older years.” Not everyone can do what they did, but everyone can do what he or she can do.

There’s no rule written in the sky that says people must put stop aspiring, stop growing, or stop achieving simply because they’re older. Besides, as Tony Evans noted, nobody really knows who the old people are anyway.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 27 November 2010

If you noticed that I had a visible tattoo, would it make any difference in your opinion of me? Apparently for some it would—to the point they either acquire or avoid tattoos pretty much for the same reason—they believe tattoos change what people think about them.

Tattoos are now visible in whatever direction you look. They’ve gone mainstream. Seemingly everyone, at least under 30 years of age, is tattooed and the resurgent popularity of body art doesn’t seem to have reached its peak.

Today, religious people, including Christians, get tattoos as a way of conveying their faith, including all manner of religious symbolism, crosses being the obvious favorite but also doves, angels, biblical references, and more.

This is a different world from my youth when tattoos could only be found on three kinds of individuals: 1) a few armed forces veterans sporting small, arm tattoos, 2) bikers and other assorted bad guys, 3) or tattooed ladies at the carnival. Today you can see tattoos on most of the prison population, the young lady serving you an omelette, innumerable college students, and not a few young pastors.

But when I was a kid, religious leaders, if not adult culture in general, tended to frown upon the practice of getting tattoos. So I wonder why it’s OK now to wear tattoos when it wasn’t OK in my youth? And I wonder, how do we decide to tattoo or not to tattoo?

When Christians ask these questions the first verse cited is in the Old Testament book of Leviticus: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” (19:28). Some people quote this verse as the letter of the law, thus the end of the argument. No tattoos, ever.

But this isn’t a valid interpretation. This verse commanded the Israelites to avoid certain funeral practices wherein bodies were marked in some pagan hope of attaining a good afterlife. This verse doesn’t really address present-day tattooing, and as part of the Israelite’s ceremonial law it does not apply to us today. So we look to the New Testament, only to discover it says nothing about whether or not a person should get a tattoo.

The fact is, God didn’t give us a “black or white” yes-no answer on tattoos. He left it in the so-called “gray area” in between, so we have to figure out what to do and “be fully convinced in (our) own minds” (Romans 14:5). In other words, God gave us enough other commands and principles in Scripture for us to be able to decide this “matter of conscience” for ourselves. This is called Christian liberty.

Since clearly God wants us to maintain a lifestyle that honors him, we should make decisions or discern what is best (Philippians 1:9-10). If we discern properly we’ll live according to God’s command: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

So let’s summarize:

--God doesn’t answer all our lifestyle questions and he grants us Christian liberty to discern what is best.

--He expects us to choose in a manner that glorifies him.

--Tattoos are not proscribed in Scripture.

--So each person must decide whether, why, when, how, where, what to tattoo or not to tattoo.

So, to tattoo or not to tattoo? While we’ve discovered God didn’t give us rules we should remember he did give us principles to help us answer this question, one of which is that not everything we can do we should do: “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive” (I Corinthians 10:23).

So to discern whether to tattoo or not to tattoo we should ask ourselves and perhaps our confidants these questions:

--Do I want this body art for my entire life? (Some say 90% of people who get tattoos later regret it; 5% regret it immediately.)

--What will this tattoo say about me, what I believe? (Like Christian body art sends a message other symbols send different messages.)

--Is the place and procedure I’m considering medically safe?

--Why am I getting a tattoo? (Peer pressure? Rebellion? To look better? To look tough? Other?)

--What will my tattoo look like in 20 or 30 years?

--Will the tattoo really look as cool or beautiful as I think, or will it look silly, cheap, sad, revolting, or worse?

--If I get a tattoo what might it’s existence prevent me from doing or experiencing later? (Job or profession? Relationship?)

--Why shouldn’t I get a temporary rather than permanent tattoo? (If you asked me, and you really could not be dissuaded from getting a tattoo—my preference—I’d argue for this short-term experimental option.)

For the record, I’m not against all tattoos. I’ve seen a few small ones, like butterflies or flowers that I thought were attractive. But by far, most of what I have seen suggest to me the person is trying to reach for something—barbed wire on men’s biceps, odd designs on women’s lower backs that can’t be seen other than with low-rise jeans. Not attractive. Certainly I feel for people whose bodies are plastered with tattoos. It's their free choice, but I believe they've made an unwise one.

If you already have a tattoo and want to get rid of it removal is now possible-if-painful and expensive. Laser and other methods are available.

To hear a lot of people tell it, tattoos are often acquired impulsively—in the early years this is part of their public braggadocio. But tattoos last a lifetime and impulsiveness isn’t a good decision-making attribute no matter who you are or who you aspire to be.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 November 2010

It’s Black Friday again, the day when Americans (Canadians, and I guess others coming along like the British and Australians) seem to go shopping-silly in a mad frenzy to buy Christmas presents before all-the-good-stuff is gone.

Against my better judgment I ventured out, but only because my number one wife’s car needed a blown tire replaced so she’d once again have a spare. I survived two hours “out among ‘em,” got the tire, and came home asap.

Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, generally considered the busiest shopping day of the year. Last year and this, in the midst and, one hopes, the nadir of a recession, people chased off to the mall as early as they could. Our oldest son in Florida works in management with Target Stores, Inc. He worked all day and evening on Thanksgiving, then went into the store at 3:00 am this morning to be ready for his store’s 4:00 am opening. Several other discount stores did the same. Sure am glad to know I could have shopped at 4:01 am.

Black Friday is now joined by its youthful cousin Cyber Monday. This is next Monday. The term and apparently the practice have been around since 2005. Cyber Monday is ostensibly the day online retailers experience their biggest, busiest shopping day. People surf the Internet, pick and click, PayPal, and Confirm. It gives new meaning to “Shop Till You Drop.”

I have no problem with people shopping. Unlike how a majority of men feel about shopping if folklore and anecdote are guides, I like to shop. At least I like to go malls and walk retail space looking at the sights. I don’t buy much, if anything, but especially at Christmas time I like to experience the Christmas lights and wonder.

When I go shopping with Sarah she usually works maybe 3 stores, thoroughly and purposefully, while I case the entire mall. This has been our pattern since our dating years. Even B.C.P., Before Cell Phones, she knew where to find me. When she’s ready to do something else she looks for the Barnes and Noble or other bookstore, knowing I’ll be in one of the aisles or sitting in the bookstore coffee shop (Starbucks at B&N) enjoying a java and reading whatever I’ve gleaned—great way to wrap a shop-walk workout.

Yet I get weary when media outlets offer running reports on how worried retailers are and how far we’re likely to be behind financial projections in the year’s final quarter. This is not this year’s report. The moaning and groaning sound the same every year no matter what the economy is doing, because we’re always spending less than retailers wish we’d spend in their stores.

This is understandable, but what concerns me more is when media equate our happiness and even our general wellbeing with how much we spend. Spend more and be happier is the underlying mantra of economic news reports.

This spending equals happiness philosophy is more bothersome when it’s attached to Christmas. The spirit of the season, a truly special time of year affecting people of no-faith as much as people of faith, is co-opted, transposed, and reissued. Spending rather than the babe in the manger becomes our savior. If we’d just spend more in the Christmas season it will all be a better season.

I don’t think I overstate this feeling, nor do I think I’m turning into Ebenezer Scrooge. Far from it. I’ve already said I like the time of year and shopping, and I like to spend money on nice things for loved ones as much as anyone.

What I’m saying is that how much we have to spend has nothing to do with our happiness and certainly not our wellbeing. Discerning this truth is one of the great messages of Christmas.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 26 November 2010

I believe in strong leadership—but always with two corollaries, accountable leadership and strong leadership at all levels.

Accountable Leadership - All leaders should be accountable to someone or to some appropriate group. Even the President of the United States is accountable to the American electorate.

Unaccountable leaders too often fall victim to their own humanity. They can be captured by arrogance, which eventually, almost inevitably, leads to upheaval in their professional and perhaps personal lives.

On the other hand, good, effective leaders don’t mind being accountable to people with the right values. Being comfortable with accountability is a sign of competence and maturity in a leader.

Strong leaders need help. None of us is as smart as all of us. No leader can do it all and will fail if he or she tries. Weak leaders don’t understand this. But it’s always a precursor to trouble when leaders surround themselves with Yes-Men or Women whose loyalty supersedes their conscience, ethics, and compassion, thus their ability to truly help the leader and the organization. Strong leaders need to appoint people around them who are people with character.

Strong leaders who’re confident in their talent and assignment aren’t "threatened." Strong board members or directors, for example, do not bother them. Strong leaders don’t want directors who check their brains and their backbones at the boardroom door. Strong leaders with the right values and perspective want strong leaders around them, including people to whom they report, people who may be hard to please but for the right reasons like excellence, fidelity to the organizational mission, integrity.

Accountability is something God built into the fabric of human life, for he knew that sin would otherwise destroy us. I’ve always admired Charles Colson, whose organization, Prison Fellowship, exists because of him. He was not just appointed as an executive but was the founder of this organization. Yet he wisely created a board and voluntarily submitted himself to this board, allowing the board to establish policy and act as advisor. Such humility (Colson learned his humility the hard way after Watergate) protects both the leader and the organization.

Strong Leadership At All Levels - I also believe organizations are best served when strong leaders exist at all levels of the organization. Why? Because the stronger the links of the chain the stronger the chain. If leaders make things happen it’s logical to conclude that leaders working in a coordinated effort at all levels of the organization can make even more things happen.

Strong leaders at all levels also help balance the organization. Strong leaders at the top and in the leadership team strengthen the organization.

The fact that strong leaders exist on a board and strong leaders exist within the personnel hierarchy of an organization allows the person in the top executive position to be a strong leader. If strong leaders exist on the board, the top executive enjoys the liberty of accountability. If strong leaders exist within the organization, the top executive may exercise strong leadership without overpowering his or her co-workers.

Strong leaders don’t have to be narcissistic autocrats. Such people craft their own downfall.

Strong leaders who know and trust God, who gave them their talent in the first place, can get things done. They’re strong in leadership not for self-aggrandizement but to serve the Lord and others.

Excerpted from “Be One of God’s Unlikely Leaders—Live With Focus, Get Things Done,” my book in development.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 24 November 2010

I work with SAT-7, a Cyprus-based Christian satellite television ministry broadcasting in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish to 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and 50 countries in Europe too. It’s a distinctive ministry methodology, using satellite broadcasts to beam uncensored Christian programming into a few open but many closed or largely closed countries in the region.

In particular, I serve with SAT-7 USA, the Easton, Maryland based American development arm of SAT-7. SAT-7 USA is what we call a support office. Others include SAT-7 Europe, SAT-7 UK, and SAT-7 Canada.

Christian satellite television is not your grandfather’s approach to missions. It’s been around for about 15 years, but it’s still viable. On the bleeding edge satellite television is converging with smart phones, social media, and other similar technologies, so who knows what the future holds? Still, satellite television in the Middle East is predicted to be viable for some years to come in a region of the world where more than 50% of the people are illiterate and the Internet has yet to make the infrastructure inroads it has in Asia.

While SAT-7 represents a creative and effective ministry paradigm, we still need in-country on ground missionaries, and God bless them for their work. But in many places in the Middle East and North Africa people involved in Christian work cannot safely carry out their assignments. In some countries like Saudi Arabia churches are banned. In some countries like Iran, churches exist but typically as secret house churches. Believers meet in small groups, are led by whoever is available, and sing in whispers.

These circumstances represent more reasons why I believe SAT-7’s capacity to edify the region’s Church and evangelize the lost via satellite television is such an incredible technological gift for such a time as this. It’s spiritually effective: we know this from the innumerable audience comments we receive testifying to changed lives. And it’s financially efficient: we’re able to reach viewers for about $1 per viewer per year. Incredible.

Allow me to speak personally for a moment. I recognize that even if God allowed me to live until I’m considered elderly, I’ve already lived most of my life on earth. Only God knows how long I will live. I don’t. But I do know that I want to finish well. I want to use my time for the Lord.

I want to be engaged in a ministry that brings the message of Christ to people in a way that changes their lives. I want to give money to a ministry that has integrity, exercises good stewardship, and aspires to do more for the Lord. I want to support and pray for a ministry that is at the center of global significance.

This is SAT-7. It’s getting the job done despite political, social, ideological, religious, and cultural obstacles. It works.

So with Thanksgiving tomorrow, I am glad and thankful God has placed me where he has. To serve him in support of such a spiritually strategic ministry is a privilege.

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