The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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The First Thing First

March 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments

My two grandsons are in there! The boys!

Valerie is 22 weeks in, due in mid-July, and she looks straight-up amazing!

Let the record show that my NCAA tournament bracket is weak this year. So weak. For the first time in my life, I am going with all four number one seeds in the Final Four–Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida–with Cougar High beating Auburn for the championship, because I don’t know what else to do. I have no hopes of being competitive in our church bracket. I have picked Texas A&M and Texas Tech to make it to the Sweet Sixteen and I have picked Texas to lose their opener. I’m picking against the ‘Horns on principle for the integrity of a non-gimmicked 64-team bracket. And because they stink.

More importantly, we are eight days away from Opening Day.

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We Christians who talk about love all the time and claim to belong to a God of love and to follow a Messiah of love don’t always love so well. So, people have a hard time believing in our God and Messiah.

But love is the main thing. It’s the number one thing. Love is the most important thing. Our Lord Jesus tells us in unambiguous terms, over and over again, that loving others is the primary commandment. It comes first. For disciples of Christ, nothing else ever comes before love. All other Christian commands and obligations come somewhere after the first priority to love.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” ~1 John 4:7-12

Since our salvation is delivered by love, since the Church is born out of love, since we exist as a people of God only by the love of God, then our very reason for living is to embody that same love among ourselves and in God’s world.

Here’s the hard truth: If you’re not a loving person, you don’t know God. If you’re not showing love to others, you haven’t truly understood God’s love for yourself.

Nobody in the world will listen to you talk about God if they experience you as an unloving person. You’ve got no credibility. It’s obvious you don’t know who you’re talking about.

If you’re a salesperson at Rogers Ford, it’s probably best that you don’t drive a Chevy around town. They don’t get the president of PETA to run the membership drive for the NRA. And you’re never going to influence anybody for Christ if you’re not a loving person. You’ll drive people away.

The Church is fractured and our witness to the world is compromised because we keep getting this one thing out of order. Instead of loving first, we judge first. Instead of loving first, we condemn first. We yell first. We complain first. We insult first. We forward the email and repost the post first. And then love might or might not come somewhere after that. It’s out of order.

We discern socio-economic boundaries first, we put racial differences first, and then we decide when and how to show love.

We prioritize politicians and parties and partisan platforms first, and then we figure out who and how and if we’re going to love. It’s backwards!

We want to investigate someone’s criminal history first, we want to question someone’s immigration status first, or categorize someone according to their outward appearance first, and then we think about where and how and if we’ll show love. That’s the wrong order!

Yes, there are difficult passages in the Bible that have to be figured out and there are some verses that need careful discernment and there are parts of Scripture with which followers of Jesus can legitimately disagree. But the command to love as the most important command and the primary command that outweighs all other commands is not one of them!

This is a critical time in our Lord’s Church. Theologians and historians and sociologists have been telling us for more than 40 years that we are going through the greatest transition in the last 500 years of Church history. And what you do matters. It matters to you and to your family, it matters to your friends and your city and the country in which you live, and to the whole world.

Anger is acceptable in our culture, but that’s not who you are. Discord and division are society’s tools, but not yours. The culture encourages you to take care of yourself first, but that’s a non-starter for Christians. Asserting myself and my rights and my personality is not my priority as a follower of Jesus. We do not go along with the world on that. We don’t say, “Well, that’s just the way the world is” or “That’s just how things work and how things get done.” To somehow justify not loving people–no matter the reason–is to squash our creativity and insult God’s grace and ignore the command of Christ.

Our Christian faith and our Christian beliefs and our Christian experience with the love of God compels us to move toward all people and embrace all people, whether they step toward you or not. That’s not the point. The point is moving toward people in love the way God in Christ moved toward you. In love.

Peace,

Allan

Net Fishing

March 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Carrie-Anne and I were blessed by God over Spring Break to travel with Travis and Donna McGraw and Bryan and Becky Gibbs to visit some of our GCR missions partners in Brazil. We took off and landed eight different times over the nine days, from DFW to Rio and Sao Paulo and from there to Foz do Iguacu and back, mixing in some incredible sight-seeing while meeting and getting to know some of God’s greatest servants.

Our first stop was in Niteroi, where we were privileged to worship and I was honored to preach with our brothers and sisters at Nathan and Sarah Zinck’s church. Carrie-Anne and I have known the Zincks since our days at Legacy when they were in the beginning stages of raising support for the mission in Niteroi. Nathan translated–paraphrased (?)–while I preached the groaning and glory from the middle of Romans 8. And we sang in Portuguese some of our favorite songs like Love Lifted Me, Because He Lives, Oceans, and You Are Holy. GCR provides financial support for the seasonal interns who work with the Zincks, and it was good to meet them and see where they live.

 

 

 

 

While we were in Niteroi / Rio, we took a train to the top of Mount Corcovado to see the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city.  Nathan gave Carrie-Anne and me a personal tour of Sugarloaf Mountain, the 1,300-foot peak that rises straight out of Guanabara Bay and is accessed only by a series of cable cars. I also accidentally ate a grilled chicken heart. And we enjoyed a lot of really good Brazilian pizza.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there it was off to Campo Grande and the Ser Cris Bible School that GCR has supported financially and spiritually since its establishment in 2001. I had met Zanatta, the school’s director, last fall when he visited us in Midland. But what a joy to hang out with his wonderful wife, Leila! And what a thrill to meet the talented professors and staff at this important school. I so enjoyed talking American football with Breno and Gabriela and listening to his deep thoughts on the damage digital media is doing to the Church’s witness and our Christian discipleship–kindred spirits! David was so generous and kind. Jose Luiz was so hospitable in hosting us. It was obvious to see the love these teachers have for one another and the great team they are together. And they merged us right into the jokes and the prayers, the planning and the ministry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ser Cris is an ecumenical training school for preachers, missionaries, and church planters and anyone wanting a good, solid theological education. A dozen different churches have been started by graduates of Ser Cris in eight different Brazilian states. And the numbers of students is finally on an upswing again after some COVID and post-COVID dips.

And I was diagnosed with pneumonia on Tuesday. I spent six-hours in a Campo Grande emergency room with Carrie-Anne, Becky, and Leila. Blood tests, a CT scan, two breathing treatments, and three prescriptions. Total cost for all of it: $330. Socialized medicine? Why not!

We added two days of sight-seeing to the end of our trip so we could visit Parque Nacional do Iguacu where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay all come together at the incredible Iguassu Falls. It took all of both days to see the glorious canyons and hundreds of falls, from the tops of the cliffs on the Argentina side to the roaring and foaming pools on the Brazilian side. I have no words to adequately describe the beauty and the power of these waterfalls. And the hundreds of pictures and video I took don’t come near doing any of it justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got home Saturday afternoon, thankfully, the day after one of the worst wind and dust storms Midland has seen in decades. And, yes, of course, I have already been to Whataburger and Abuelo’s.

There are tons of things to write regarding this extraordinary trip. There is so much I am still processing; our time in Brazil was significant on several levels. But let me attempt to share with you today a main takeaway. This is important.

When our Lord Jesus says we are fishers of people, I typically picture one guy–me–holding a rod and reel. Back when I used to fish around the Highland Lakes in Central Texas, I used a rod and reel from a friend’s boat or from the top of Wirtz or Starcke Dams. Fishing, to me, has always been experienced as a solo venture, just me and my line and hook.

But that is not how God sends us out. We’re not sent into the mission with a rod and reel, but with one giant net. Followers of Jesus are net-fishers. God is redeeming the world and restoring all of creation with one huge net and every single one of us has our hands on it. It takes all of us, in our own time and context, with our own gifts and abilities, to drag this soul-winning net all over the globe.

It’s not the size of a volleyball net, it spans the continents and centuries of human time and space. It takes disciples of all ages to hang onto it. And we all play a part in the net’s sweeps and dips. A song written by Charles Wesley here. A plane assembled by Boeing there. A pie baked by a widow in 1843. A sermon preached in the 6th century. An invitation to church. An encouraging word. A check sent. A GCR mission trip to Brazil in the 1980s. A baby adopted. A door knocked. A burden shared. A hospital visit. A Gospel meeting. A Vacation Bible School. A thank you note. An article in that biblical journal. The weaving together of all our individual and meager threads becomes God’s great net.

Do you see it?

The net sweeps across the whole world and back. It turns and dips to snag one more soul, to start one more chain reaction you and I never could have planned or seen coming. While you and I were sleeping last night, the net was moving by the power of God’s salvation Spirit. Maybe there is a soldier in Ukraine or a single mom in Vermont or a taxi driver in Tokyo or a school teacher in Kenya who’s been swept up into the net by the love of Christ since you went to bed last night.

I’m holding the same net that’s being held by Zanatta and Breno, which is the same net still being held by the apostles Peter and Paul. You are working the same holy net that’s being held by Nathan and Sarah Zinck and Eugene Goudeau and Jack McGraw. You think you cover an insignificant amount of square footage in God’s Kingdom. But you really cover the whole earth with our God’s glorious net.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Forever!

March 6, 2025 / / 1 Comment

If you were there, you know. Sure, every single time the “4Midland” churches come together in worship to our God, it is a special occasion. But there was something, um, different about last night’s combined Ash Wednesday service at First Presbyterian. Something, dare I say, transformational.

For starters, there were right at 800 followers of Jesus packed into the First Pres worship center, overflowing all the available seating in the balcony and spilling into both transepts. I joked with Steve Schorr afterwards that he needed a capital campaign to expand their sanctuary just for Ash Wednesday. They were still streaming in when I stood up to give the Welcome and the Call to Worship. So, there’s a certain energy that just comes from having lots of people in the same room. But there was also a holy expectation. Hard to describe, but you probably know what I’m talking about.

Almost all of us are stretched beyond our normal levels of church comfort in these “4Midland” services. Especially with something like Ash Wednesday, which is not practiced by most Baptists or Church of Christers. And for the high church Methodists and Presbyterians, they’re singing different songs, they’re listening to different ways of praying and reading Scripture. As we’ve been discussing at GCR now for the past five weeks, I believe our Lord Jesus wants to push us out of our comfort zones so we can experience his Spirit’s transformation in our lives. And that’s been happening with “4Midland.” But there was something different about last night. I felt like there were not as many GCR people as in the past events like this. But it may be that there were SO MANY other people, that maybe our normal turnout was diluted a bit. It did feel different. Powerful. So special. Tim Neale told me maybe it’s that the fourth time’s the charm. We all feel more comfortable now with the discomfort, we know what to expect, it’s not as disorienting, and we’re able to really lean in more and be open to what God is doing.

My soul is so blessed by God to see and hear Kristin Rampton reading the Gospel with her gifts of communication and passion for Scripture. To see out of the corner of my eye Ashlee Hill imposing ashes right next to me with her tender heart for God’s people and  relational ministry. Both of these ladies are ordained ministers at GCR, but they are not yet afforded those same privileges at their own church. God’s Spirit was working mightily through them last night in a different building. And it was a joy.

My heart soars straight to heaven when that combined “4Midland” choir leads us in song. I love picking out the GCR members and seeing their joy as they lift their souls to the Lord in song, side by side with people they barely know or have never met. Presbyterians and Baptists, Methodists and Church of Christers united in song and in their devotion to God, leading 800 of us who are doing the same thing.  That partnership between our four worship pastors is turning into a force, man.

Darin Wood led us in the traditional confession litany:

Holy and merciful God, we confess to you and to one another, and to the communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone… Have mercy on us, O God.

And the assurance of forgiveness:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Believe this Good News! In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven!

Steve Brooks then invited us to the Observance of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent. He cleverly worked U2 and Psalm 40 into an inspirational message about personal reflection and the transformational power of God to change us more into the image of Jesus during these six-and-a-half weeks. He gave us those words. Discontent. Self-concern. Patience. Gratitude. Thank you, Steve. Thank God.

And then the ashes. The reminder. The encouragement. The groaning and the glory.

From dust you were created and to dust you shall return. Repent and believe the Good News!

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t know where I’ve been when I’ve been exposed to “Holy Forever” in my recent past. Carrie-Anne tells me we’ve sung that Chris Tomlin song at Carley’s church in Flower Mound. Maybe. And maybe we’ve done it at GCR. But last night felt like the first time, and I’ll never forget it. The swell of the voices and the orchestra. Our song combining with the eternal song of praise in heaven and on earth, uniting with all of creation in proclaiming the holiness of our God. I’ll be asking that we make that our closing song for all “4Midland” events in the near future.

Not everybody gets to do stuff like this. It was glorious. God be praised, we are an extraordinarily blessed group of people. My heart is full of gratitude today for the partnership in the Gospel we share with these other three churches and for the supreme goodness of our God. And my prayer is that we do this more and more, and that more partnerships like this continue to break out around Midland and all over the world.

Peace,

Allan

Seeing Clearly on Ash Wednesday

March 5, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Ash Wednesday begins the 40 day season of Lent, six-and-a-half weeks of prayer and fasting, self-examination and preparation, as we follow our Lord Jesus to the cross and out of the empty tomb. Christians all over the world are gathering today  to worship and pray, to confess and repent, in a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of our faith.

As has become our custom, the “4Midland” churches are worshiping together tonight and observing the Ash Wednesday traditions. It’s funny that for the past couple of months, the Baptists and the Church of Christers have been asking Darin and me, “When’s the Ash Wednesday service?” The Methodists and the Presbyterians have been asking Steve and Steve, “Can we sing more songs?” We are learning from each other. We are growing together.

All four of our churches have been telling us, “We don’t necessarily need a sermon.” That’s another thing we seem to have in common.

On Ash Wednesday, we are all like Isaiah. We see who we really are in light of God’s great holiness and majesty. We are mortal and frail; we are completely dependent. We examine ourselves. We allow God’s holy light to reveal our sin, which leads us to repent. We are in desperate need of his forgiveness and salvation. We see that today.

But we also see our God. We see very clearly that our God through Christ saves us from sin and death. We see that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we can live right now today and forever in the fullness of his eternal life.

First Presbyterian is hosting our “4Midland” service this evening. If you live anywhere in the Permian Basin, I invite you to join us at 6:30pm for singing with the combined choir, for the prayers and the readings, for confession and repentance, for receiving the ashes, and for clear-eyed assurance of the salvation we share together  in Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

All Hail the Jimster!

March 4, 2025 / / 0 Comments

When I was the News and Sports Director at KHLB Radio in the ’90s, I made the 60-minute drive from Marble Falls to St. Edward’s University in Austin at least twice a week in the summers to cover the Dallas Cowboys training camps. The media parking lot was several hundred yards away from the main practice field, but as soon as I parked and opened the door to my truck, I could hear Jimmy.

Jimmy Johnson coached the Cowboys loudly. In your face. Hollering and yelling. Running back and forth between the offensive huddles and the defensive huddles during scrimmages. Exchanging forearm shivers with linemen and expletive-laced insults with the skill players. Banishing kickers to the “asthma field.” Getting down in the grass with running backs and DBs during quickness drills. Both encouraging and lambasting with equal opportunity and fervor. No nonsense. Active. Seemingly coaching every group all over two fields at the same time. Loudly. Standing on the sidelines at these practices, you always knew where Jimmy was and what he was saying. He was omnipresent.

There was never any doubt who was in charge of the Cowboys back then. And Jimmy Johnson was in charge of all of it. He took the Tom Landry – Tex Schramm Cowboys from a franchise-record six-year NFC Championship Game appearance drought to the first of back-to-back Super Bowl wins in just four seasons. They were Jimmy’s players, Jimmy’s coaches, Jimmy’s trades, Jimmy’s draft picks, and Jimmy’s rules.

Following his way-too-short Hall of Fame coaching career, Jimmy spent 31 football seasons on Fox’s NFL Pregame Show. It was obvious to everyone watching that the other Hall of Famers on the program like Bradshaw, Howie, and Strahan, admired and respected Jimmy for his football knowledge and achievements and also loved him for just being a good guy and a great friend. Jimmy has always been great fun to listen to, both from the sidelines at a Cowboys summer practice and from my living room couch on a Sunday afternoon.

The Jimster finally called it quits yesterday. He’s been hinting at retirement for a couple of years now and it became all but certain when Fox Sports rolled out that weird AI-generated video tribute to Johnson during the Super Bowl pre-game show last month. All NFL fans are going to miss him. We’re going to miss him a lot more than he’s going to miss us. Jimmy doesn’t need the spotlight or the schedule; he’s going to be just fine on his fishing boat in Florida. But Sundays  are going to be a little less fun now.

Everything changed for the Cowboys when Jerry Wayne forced Jimmy out after that second straight Super Bowl championship–I don’t need to document it here. Again. But I do recall how different it was on those practice fields at St. Ed’s. It was hard finding Barry Switzer. Where’s the head coach? Which group is he working with? Who is he coaching? Where is he? It would turn into a game sometimes on the sidelines at training camp. Someone would say, “Where’s Barry?” and it would take a good long time for any of us to locate him. Inevitably, someone would spot him, usually sitting in a golf cart signing autographs and taking pictures with young women. During practice.

All hail the Jimster. A wise and humorous, authoritative, and trust-worthy presence for more than 35-years. I wish him the very best.

Peace,

Allan

Groovy Gala 2025

March 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Mike Houston’s wig and headband at GCR’s annual Groovy Gala last night was a shockingly hilarious surprise. But not nearly as funny as the way Mike walked around with that fake (I’m pretty sure) doobie between his fingers. Mike joined Kathy Futrell and Jerry and Lisa Pullen as the top winners in the costume contest in what has become one of my favorite yearly events at our church.

Our amazing youth group puts on a ’70s themed shindig for everyone in the congregation over the age of 60. The teenagers serve the dinner, they refill our drinks, and they sit with us and ask us questions about the music of our youth, first generation video games, and how much a gallon of gasoline cost when we got our drivers licenses. Of course, Carrie-Anne and I are a LONG way from 60, but we get invited every year on some kind of special preacher card. And we’re thrilled to do it. Carrie-Anne always buys the perfect accessory for her outfit like two months in advance and I always throw on the same “peace sign” T-shirt, while some of these cats merely go to the backs of their closets. And, yeah, I know one or two just wear whatever they wore to church that morning.

We were delighted last night to be hosted by Gabby and Finley at their table, along with Peggy Geer and Herman and Patty Kincaide. Peggy openly defied the rules of the trivia game and I’m not sure all of Herman’s stories about Army life from 1969-1971 were accurate, but we had a ton of fun. Singing the songs together with our GCR house band, Faces in the Crowd; learning and practicing disco dance moves to the Bee Gees and the Village People; remembering the great movies from the ’70s; and explaining to the young people what the numbers 33-1/3 and 45 mean in the middle of a vinyl record–it’s a blast! I was reluctant–no, completely opposed–to joining the folks on the floor for one particular dance. But what do you do when the kids are chanting your name?!?!

This youth group, man. They are something else. I love these young men and women and they love us and our church. They’re personally engaged with what God is doing in them and through them, they’re totally locked in with each other, and they are a critically important part of our congregation. They are demonstrating divine joy and sacrificial service, they are leading us in worship and  teaching us about unity, and they are showing us what it looks like to be changed by God to love like Jesus.

I am so thankful to belong to a church where the youth group WANTS to be a part of the larger congregation and where the congregation delights to encourage the youth group. It’s a mutual thing, a heavenly inter-generational thing. It’s much more rare than it should be. And I don’t ever take it for granted.

Peace,

Allan

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