F3 Knoxville

Big Ball Summer Olympics 2021

THE SCENE: partly cloudy, warm, mid 70’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

Everyone was numbered off into 2 teams, each representing fictional nations competing for gold. Teams were Narnia and Rivendell.
THA-THANG:
5 events were held at this year’s Summer Olympics. With Olympic theme blasting in the background, Narnia and Rivendell gave their blood, sweat and tears to bring home gold and represent their fictional homelands. Here are the events:

  • Spikeball: Teams lined up in order, sending 2 representatives at a time to square off in a round of Spikeball against their opponents. After each point, whoever was in longest went to the back of the line and the next man subbed in. While 4 battled it out on the court, everyone else was doing typical warm up exercises (SSH, Hillbillies, Arm Circles, Tempo Squats, etc.) while waiting for their shot at glory. Narnia took gold in this event after a display of absolute dominance
  • Box Ultimate: Ultimate frisbee with an Olympic sized twist, instead of two end zones there is one box in the middle that serves as a universal end zone. Teams had to complete 3 passes before being able to toss to someone in the box for a point. Every time the frisbee hit the ground everyone had to do 5 merkins. First to 3 points took gold. Rivendell won a close game of 3-2
  • 100ish Meter Sandbag Relay: Sandbags were placed at one end of the field near the fountains, one for each nation. Teams got into order again. Whoever was in the front of the line ran to the bag, tossed it as far as possible, ran back and did 5x Jumping Knee Tucks, Carolina Dry Docks, and Big Boy Sit Ups each, and then returned to line. The next person ran as soon as the first person completed their toss. First team down and back again won. Narnia took gold in a hard fought battle
  • CMU Capture the Flag: Exactly what it sounds like, CTF with CMUs. The field was divided in half. You could be tagged on the other half but were safe on your own half. Anyone with the flag could be tagged at any time. Once tagged you had to run back to your own field’s far side and do 5x American Hammers on a 4ct. No one won, but Rivendell took gold due to being the only team to move the flag, a whopping 5 ft
  • Bear Crawl Ball: Soccer in a bear crawl where you can hit with your hands. Everyone had to stay in bear crawl in order to move of touch the ball. First to 3 would have won, but with a buzzer beating clutch shot from PDA we ended right at 8am with a tie at 2-2

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Shared the story of Robert McCherye, who was a 19th century minister who was just as well known for his faith as he was for being a workaholic. He died of cardiac arrest at 29 and on his death bed wrote “God gave me a message to deliver and a horse to ride on. Alas, I have killed the horse and now I cannot deliver the message.” I think we tend to acknowledge that rest is worthwhile but are still reluctant to take the time needed for it. Sometimes it makes us feel weak or like we’re wasting our time. When Jesus was confronted about working on the Sabbath He said that man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for man. It’s easy to walk away from that saying “OK, Jesus said its fine for me not to rest”, but rather we should hear that and acknowledge that if the Sabbath was made specifically for us then it must be worthwhile. So let’s seek out rest wherever we need it, whether that be physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually

The Un”bear”able Lap

THE SCENE: 70 degrees, humid and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Imperial Walkers, Hillbillies, This and That, Arm Circles
THA-THANG:
We did two laps around the lawn, with a set of exercises at each corner and another set at each cone which was in between each corner, so 4 corners and 4 cones. Lap 1 we bearcrawled the entire lap, lap 2 we walking lunged

  • Corners: SSH x 10, Flutterkicks x 10, Merkins x 10, Flutterkicks x 10, SSH x 10
  • Cones during Bearcrawl lap: Imperial Walkers x 10, Box Cutters x 10, Carolina Dry Docks x 10, Box Cutters x 10, Imperial Walkers x 10
  • Cones during Walking Lunges: Shoulder Taps x 10, LBC x 10, Cobra Merkins x 10, LBC x 10, Shoulder Taps x 10

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Yesterday Drive Thru spent his Word talking encouraging us to sign up to lead a work out soon, especially if we haven’t led before. So I decided to give my Word to talking about why it’s worth meeting the need of leading workouts. When I think of why leading is worthwhile I think in terms of 3 “ships”. The first one being obvious: leadership. Raising up male community leaders is one of the foci of F3 and leading a workout is an opportunity to grow in that. The second is ownership. I went from feeling like someone who occasionally attended F3 to someone who is a part of F3 after leading workouts. The third ship is fellowship. I feel like I know those who lead often more than those that don’t, and that others know me better through me leading. So I added this onto Drive Thru’s encouragement to sign up to lead

Mucho Mucho’s

THE SCENE: Low 70’s, humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Little of this and that, Arm Circles, Cherry Pickers, Tempo Squats, Michael Phelps

THA-THANG:
Moseyed over to the parking lot between the park and the river. 4 cones were laid out in the parking lot at distances that increased as they went. We did 3 rounds of work with a mode of transportation between cones, exercises at each cone, followed by Blockees (CMU burpees) and a run up the hill leading back to the park, then a cool down walk down the stairs.

  • Round 1: Bear Crawl to each cone, 5x Mucho Leg-o’s, 5x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 2: Broad Jumps to each cone, 5x Mucho Arm-o’s’s, 3x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 3: Duck Walk to each cone, 20x BBS at cones 1 and 3, 20x American Hammers on 4ct at cones 2 and 4, 3x Blockees, hill run

Moseyed back to AO

MARY:
Did a round of the protractor to finish out

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

We began the BOM by throwing out adjectives that we thought described men or that we would want to be true of us, whatever came to the top of our heads. True, hardworking, stoic, good, patient, and meek were among words thrown out.

I then shared about some time I spent in Matthew recently reading the parable of the talents with some other guys. In the parable 3 men are giving bags of gold by their master; 5, 2, and 1 each respectively. The men with 5 and 2 each “put their money to work” and return to the master with double what was given to them, to which the Master responds “well done good and faithful servant! Because you were faithful with little I will trust you with much”. The man given 1 however buries his in the ground out of fear of the Master and returns it back to him when he returns, which the Master responds to with a bit more choice words. It’s easy to read this passage and think of performance; we should double the investment that God has given us. But in reality, Jesus is teaching His disciples about the importance of faithfulness. God is pleased by our faithfulness to Him and what He has entrusted us with. Faithful is typically not an adjective we think of to describe a man or what we want to be described as, but as I thought more about it I believe faithful might be the highest praise I could receive. So I encouraged us to remain faithful to what God has called us to do or entrusted to us.

The Quack is Back

THE SCENE: Mid 60’s, humid
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Arm Circles, Tempo Squats, Tempo Merkins, Cherry Pickers
THA-THANG:
4 cones were laid out in the parking lot roughly 10 yards apart. We did 4 rounds of work with a mode of transportation between cones, exercises at each cone, followed by 5 Blockees (CMU burpees) and a run up the hill by the church. Each set was followed by a cool down jog (with a soft J) around the parking lot

  • Round 1: Bear Crawl to each cone, 5x Mucho Leg-o’s, 5x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 2: Broad Jumps to each cone, 5x Mucho Arm-o’s’s, 5x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 3: Crab Walk to each cone, 10x American Hammers on 4ct, 5x Blockees, hill run
  • Round 4: Pick Your Poison (any combination of the above), 5x Blockees, hill run

MARY:
Circled up, held a squat while passing the CMUs, once you had the CMU you owed 10 overhead presses
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Last night when I volunteered to Q Filter commented in Slack that he was “ready to suffer”. As I was thinking about what to share I read his comment and realized that that was a very Biblical view on suffering. Scripture actually paints hardship in a somewhat positive light. James says to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of many kinds, Hebrews encourages us to endure and view suffering the way we would view a son being disciplined by his father, not as punishment but as for the benefit of the son. 1 John says we know when we abide with Christ by if we have joined with Him in His suffering. Culturally we view suffering differently. We avoid it at all costs and often view it as a sign of things gone wrong or heading in the wrong direction. But in reality God uses our suffering to grow and strengthen us while also glorifying Himself. So as men and believers we ought to be, as Filter put it, ready to suffer, knowing that there is fruit to our hardship.

Return to Walnut Hill

THE SCENE: Rather chilly, low 30’s
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:

SSH, Arm Circles, Shoulder Taps, Tempo Squats, Tempo Merkins
THA-THANG:

  • Sunsphere: Went around the sunsphere doing 5 pull ups on each beam and 5 jump squats in between each beam
  • Bridge over Cumberland: Did 50 BBS OYO, using the rails to hold our feet in place
  • Moseyed over to the Walnut Hill
  • Walnut Hill: Laid out 4 cones towards the top of the hill, maybe 10-15 yards apart from one another. At the bottom of the hill we would do 5 Sit Up Ups then run to the first cone and do 10 merkins facing the top, then ran down. We did this 4 times, adding a cone each time, changing the direction of the merkins at each cone. So cone 1 was facing the top, 2 was facing the right, 3 was facing the left and 4 was facing the bottom. Each lap we still hit previous cones, so by the end we had done 40 top merkins, 30 right merkins, 20 left merkins, and 10 bottom merkins, as well as 20 Sit Up Ups
  • Moseyed back to the AO, dodging traffic as we went
  • AO: Did some bear crawl duck duck goose to finish the clock out

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
Welcome Dismount!
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Shared about a conversation I had with a student about evangelism. He shared what his past experience with it was, which is probably very relatable: knowing that its worth doing, but not wanting to offend, or hamper a relationship, or not feeling competent enough, or not having the time, etc. We then spent some time looking at what Scripture has to say about it, specifically Romans 1:16 and 1 Peter 3:15. In Romans Paul says he is unashamed of the Gospel because he knows it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe, and Peter calls us to be ready to give an answer to any who ask us for the reason for the hope we have. So though there are a hundred, very relatable, excuses as to why we may not want to share Jesus with those around us, we are all called to be ready and unashamed to do so. Matthew 4:19 is an invitation to follow Jesus with the byproduct of becoming “fishers of men”, so lets allow Jesus to make us into fishers of men as we seek to follow Him.