I am writing this blog while sitting in the Vegas airport . . . waiting for a delayed flight. This trip was on Southwest Airlines and this is the first and likely last time I fly it, for the same reasons I do not ride the public bus. It's always late, there is no assigned seating, and it smells like a Honey Bucket at a county fair.
The trip started with a cancelled flight due to what the pilot called "excessive leakage," which I assumed was from the plane and not the pilot. As we got off the aircraft we had just got on, I overheard the pilots talking about how it was leaking fuel from the same place as the plane that recently exploded.
Upon arriving in Vegas, my buddy, Mars Hill Worship Pastor Tim Smith, and I were picked up by Scott Knight. He is an elder at a church in the Portland area who was kind enough to get us tickets for the UFC heavyweight bout at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. He is a good guy who knows a ton of the fighters in what is the fastest-growing and most exciting sport in the world today--mixed martial arts, which also goes by other names such as cage fighting and ultimate fighting.
We started by heading to heavyweight champ Randy Couture's training center in Vegas to get a tour. It was about 12,000 square feet, complete with a ring and a caged octagon for the training of hundreds of fighters.
We hung out that night and watched comedian George Carlin. I find comedy fascinating because it is essentially the only occasion other than preaching where a person stands on a stage and speaks for about an hour to a crowd. Carlin is now seventy years of age and the bitter former-Catholic-turned-atheist ranted on and on about God and hell being myths. Sadly, he came off more like a worried old man who is nearing death trying to convince himself that God and hell will not be awaiting him on the other side of the grave. He was more heartbreaking than humorous and apparently some of the material he was working out will find its way onto his next HBO special in early 2008.
The next day, after getting up around the crack of lunch, we hung out for a few hours with fighter Matt "The Law" Lindland. Matt is a former silver medalist in Olympic wrestling. Today he continues fighting while also training other young fighters and coaching the Portland Wolfpack in the International Fight League. Matt is a good guy and Christian brother who was cool to hang with. Among those in the know, it is said that there is a growing number of Christian fighters and coaches, which is encouraging.
Scott then took us to pick up our tickets for UFC 74 Respect. While waiting for our tickets, a few Mars Hill Church guys in attendance said hello. The fights were sold out and all fifteen thousand seats were filled. The sport has exploded and is selling out arenas all around the country. With the UFC also recently buying out the Pride Fighting Championships league, the sport is certain to only skyrocket. Curiously, it is most popular with men ages eighteen to thirty-four--the exact group that most churches are abysmal at reaching and retaining, in part because most churches and pastors have no idea what to do with men who are not motivated by a weepy worship dude(ish) singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.
The fights were amazing. The bloodiest fight was Renato Sobral's dismantling of David Heath. Apparently Heath talked too much trash in the pre-fight weigh-ins and the seasoned veteran Sobral took it personally and proceeded to open up some major head wounds, which turned Heath's head into a bloody mess. Despite the fact that Heath tapped out due to a choke hold, Sobral refused to release Heath until he forced him to pass out unconscious to teach him a lesson in respect. In short, Sobral does not seem like the kid who ever got his lunch money taken. There were a number of good fights on the card, including a few good fights that did not make the pay-per-view event.
The headliner was Randy "The Natural" Couture's dominating victory over Gabriel Gonzaga, who earned his shot at the heavyweight title after a surprising knockout via leg kick to the cranium of former Pride fighter and K-1 striker Mirko "Cro Cop." Despite Couture being much older and lighter, he absolutely dominated Gonzaga, breaking both his nose and will in overwhelming fashion from dirty boxing in the clinch.
After the fight, Scott was given tickets to Randy's small after-fight party for a few dozen people and was kind enough to take us with him. There we got to meet Randy and some members of his family. Eventually, Randy headed out for his big public after-fight party and we hung out some more with Matt Lindland before crashing late. Our cab ride was particularly curious. Our Kenyan Muslim/Voodoo driver and I argued over whether Jesus or voodoo was more powerful. He admitted that voodoo was "kind of satanic," which I told him was like "kind of having herpes" but he was not dissuaded. He said he prayed as a Muslim but also used voodoo to seek revenge on people who sinned against him. When I asked him why he would not simply pray to Jesus for justice, he said, "Yeah, you can do that too, but Jesus takes too long." When I told him I was a Christian preacher he said I should not be in Vegas because it was a place filled with bad people who do bad things . . . such as Muslim cab drivers who do voodoo, I presumed.
The next day we got up and headed to Central Christian Church and then had lunch with Pastor Jud Wilhite. Under Jud's leadership, God has grown the church from around six thousand to around twelve thousand people in the past four years. Mars Hill Church is currently doubling to six campuses and at least fifteen services in the next year and is thus in that same growth spectrum, so I was hoping to see what I could learn. It was good to get some time with Jud who is a really great guy. What struck me most is the fact that he is a pure evangelist. He was saved from a rocker dude lifestyle and has a great passion to see lost people meet Jesus. Being in the fast-growing Sin City where breaking the Commandments is the primary source of employment, God has put him in just the right spot to reach a city that could help to reach the world.
We closed off the night with a steak dinner and a tour of some of the clubs on the Vegas Strip. I had not spent much time there because when I come to Vegas I prefer to bring my wife and spend time at the Motelago Village on Lake Las Vegas. It is not seedy or dark like the strip. About a twenty-minute drive outside of the strip, it is a quaint little village on a lake surrounded by golf courses; it's a nice spot to enjoy the quiet and the sun without being handed stripper coupons. Tim and I wandered through various clubs at the major hotels to see how they set up their sound, light, and video out of curiosity since we are in the middle of a major renovation of our Ballard campus and are beefing up such things as the video and lighting in time for our eleventh anniversary this fall.
We got up way too early to hustle to the airport. As I write this, we are waiting for our flight, which has been delayed because, if you can believe it, Vegas is having rain and lightning showers while it is sunny in Seattle for the first time since the Nixon era. Overall it was a good trip. I would strongly encourage all pastors and Christian leaders to spend some time familiarizing themselves with the fast-growing sport that is capturing millions of young men and ask yourself why. Lastly, if you get an opportunity to see a fight live, have fun, and if you do so in Vegas, go like Jesus sent out his disciples, two by two, as it's an amazing city but makes Corinth look like a homeschool co-op.
