Whatever corrections I made last week to bowl so well, I promptly forgot them this week. I struggled with two sub-100 games to start out. The third game started the same way. About the fourth frame of the third game, I decided to go back to the basics; correct footwork and delivery of the ball. For the next several frames, I bowled spares then had an open frame and then rolled a mark in all the remaining frames to end with a 141. I bowled a 341 for the evening. Several thoughts come from tonight’s experience.

Sometimes, you just need to go back to the basics. This could apply to many areas of our lives. Sometimes it can apply to the church. What should we concentrate on; soul-winning or discipleship? Is it an “either-or” proposition? Just so that all of us can think about this more, Here is a link for Rod Pickett’s blog. He is a Wesleyan pastor in Illinois, who is thinking about such things.

We quickly fell behind in the first two games, so we just had fun. Two men on the other team were having one of those great nights. A 157 average bowler rolled a 617 set. That’s cool. Several others were just bowling their hearts out and having great games. I am competitive. I enjoy winning, but tonight things weren’t working for us, so we just had fun. I think I had more fun encouraging all the other bowlers who were having great nights, than bowling myself. It was great. Thought #2 is if things aren’t going well for you, cheer on the others around you who are clicking on all cylinders and celebrate their victories. What if we operated in the church that way. So many times we get caught up in our little world and forget to celebrate with those who are (at the time) “having the game of their lives.”