Last week I taught three classes at the Pepperdine Lectures about what churches can learn from CrossFit. The material was reverse engineered from my book, Train For Something Greater: An Athlete’s Guide to Spiritual Fitness, available at Amazon.com. Here are nine observations I shared about the life changing environment at a typical CrossFit gym. Let the reader […]
Rest Makes You Stronger
Take a Break A couple of years ago, we had an athlete in our gym who was drinking the CrossFit Kool-Aid with both hands. You could see it in his eyes. He was obsessed, maybe even addicted. CrossFit was rewarding his obsession with fantastic results. He was lean, fast, and strong. He was improving in […]
March 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The View From The Floor
The following is an excerpt from Train For Something Greater: An Athlete’s Guide to Spiritual Fitness available at Amazon.com. The View From The Floor CrossFitters have much in common: language (WOD, AMRAP, Pukie), diet (Paleo-Zone-Primal), apparel (Lulu, Vibram, Inov-8), and philosophy (pain is weakness leaving the body). Before we started talking, eating, dressing, and thinking alike, we shared […]
August 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Become Who You Were Born To Be
There’s a great scene in Return of the King when when Elrond presents Aragorn with a big ole sword that can only be wielded by the true king. He tells Aragorn that its time to “set aside the Ranger, and become who you you were born to be.” The time had come for his behavior […]
October 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Why Everyone in our Gym is an Athlete
Words matter, especially the words we use to describe ourselves. What we call ourselves, and what others call us, shapes our self-perception. That’s why we call everyone who trains in our gym an “athlete.” I recently had a friend challenge the notion that everyone who does CrossFit should be described as an athlete. He believed […]
October 3, 2011 by 2 Comments
Another Clue for Scaling the Gospel: Seeker Churches
There is a difference between accepting people where they are and leaving them there. The CrossFit Community is built on acceptance, but acceptance is also accompanied by encouragement to seek out better ways to move, eat, sleep, and live. Part of accepting people where they are means that we’re willing to give them plenty of […]
September 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
How Scalable is the Gospel?
An attitude of acceptance and the willingness to scale each workout for newcomers so that everyone can participate is one of the reasons CrossFit is exploding with growth. How can churches overcome the similar fears “out of shape” sinners have about showing up on a Sunday morning to explore what it means to follow Jesus? […]
September 14, 2011 by 4 Comments
I Need to Get in Shape First
Sometimes when I invite a friend to give CrossFit a try, they say something like, “I’d love to try it. Sounds fun, but I’ve got to get in shape first.” When someone says this, it tells me two things. First, they’ve misunderstood the purpose of the program. We CrossFit to get in shape and stay […]
September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We Suffer Together
I’ve seen CrossFit create a beautiful kind of community that spans the gaps created by age, race, and body type. Because CrossFit is scaleable, people with radically different levels of fitness work out side by side. We may all lift different weights, jump on boxes of different heights, and run at our own pace, but […]
September 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment
CrossFit is Too Hard to Do Alone
Just in case I haven’t made this point clearly enough. CrossFit is hard. Really hard. Not hard as in “impossible” or “perpetually discouraging,” but hard enough that you have to brace yourself every time you walk into the gym. CrossFit hurts. We sometimes spend the first five minutes after a workout flat on our backs […]
September 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons