A recent Lifeway survey found that 40 percent of evangelical pastors believe it’s never okay to miss church for sports. Only 25 percent of churchgoers agreed. Meanwhile, a study in Review of Religious Research found that among churches experiencing declining attendance, the most commonly cited reason was children’s sports on Sundays. Sport is a wonderful joy. As Jeremy Treat puts it, “Sport is more than a game, less than a god, and when transformed by the gospel, can be received as a gift to be enjoyed forever.” So, what do we do about sports on Sunday mornings? Each of us has a knee-jerk response to that question. It might be informed by your upbringing, your tradition, your community, or your past or present decisions. But all of life is to be arranged under Christ — including our sports. How can those of us who love sports — whether we’re pastors, parents, or athletes — consider carefully how to make faithful, godly, and wise

This is a plea for aging Christians not to follow millions of your peers in making a tragic mistake: leaving the place, and especially the local church, where you have built up years, if not decades, of relational capital. We’re now about halfway through the great retirement transition of that massive generation born from 1946 to 1964. The first Boomers hit age seventy in 2016; the last of the Boomers will hit seventy in 2034. So, here we stand at about the midpoint of the vocational sunset of more than seventy million Americans — about 20 percent of the U.S. population. I’ll resist commenting on the sociology and economics. I want to raise one particular flag, and wave it back and forth, for the eyes of Boomers who profess to love Jesus. Florida Man Earlier this year, an article called “The Retreat of the Successful” caught my attention. The author, Justin Powell, focuses on the disappearance of local businesses and the (retiring) men