The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Central Church Family (Page 17 of 54)

Ignite for Gratitude House

April 4, 2017 / / 0 Comments

It was our tremendous honor as a ministry staff this morning to represent Central and present a $25,000 check to Gratitude House. As part of our two-year Ignite Initiative, we’re going into deeper partnership with five local organizations who are already doing great Gospel work in our immediate downtown Amarillo neighborhood. Gratitude House is a transitional-housing program for women coming out of addiction and/or abusive situations, providing apartments, counseling, social work assistance, education, and child-care.

These funds from Central will pay for the counseling so desperately needed by the thirty women at Gratitude House, including general counseling and chemical dependency counseling, for the rest of this calendar year. Where it’s appropriate, the money will also fund education and transportation for these ladies. As we’ve been telling our church, we’re not in this thing for a one-time handout — we really want to partner with our Lord and Gratitude House to change lives. We want to join in the work of positively shifting the trajectory for whole generations of men and women. Gratitude House walks side by side with the ladies and their kids as they make the move from substance abuse and addiction recovery programs to living on their own. And we are so privileged to be a part of it!

In addition to the money, Central is sending six mentors who will provide friendship and support for these women, a group of men to paint the newly-rebuilt porches on six or seven of the apartments, and another group to change out a dozen exterior light fixtures.

Diann Gilmore and Donna and the others at Gratitude House received us so gratefully this morning. Our time of prayer and mutual blessing together was beautiful. And she’s asked me to pass her thanksgiving on to everybody at Central. So, Central, consider yourselves thanked and appreciated and official co-laborers in the Kingdom with Gratitude House.

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Never mind that the Rangers were blowing a 5-1 lead, giving up seven unanswered runs last night to lose their season opener during the first half of the NCAA Championship Game. North Carolina’s win over Gonzaga gave Mary the points she needed to leap past me into first place in our Central Staff office pool. Congratulations to Mary. Sort of. She gets the free lunch and a dessert at our next staff outing later this month. Tanner and Vickie tied for third. Mark finished dead last. Again. We stopped buying lunch for the last place finisher once Mark finished last three years in a row.

Peace,

Allan

Hula Hooping on the Wall at Applebee’s

April 3, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Becky McCasland ran up to me before church a couple of months ago. “We saw Carrie-Anne’s picture up at Applebee’s in Lubbock! Why is Carrie-Anne’s picture up at Applebee’s in Lubbock?!”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. What??

It seems that Becky was eating with some friends at the Applebee’s on the loop in Lubbock when she strolled to the restroom and noticed a giant picture of a familiar gal hanging on the wall. Yes, that’s Carrie-Anne Stanglin, doing the hula hoop!

Again, what??

Becky showed me the picture on her phone. Sure enough, yes, that was Carrie-Anne. And I remember the picture well. Our youngest daughter, Carley, had a pool party at our house in North Richland Hills for her tenth birthday and, as part of the festivities, we held a hula hoop contest. Carrie-Anne won the hula hoop contest — she wins every hula hoop contest — and, yeah, I had taken a few pictures. This was back in September of 2009! This was in Fort Worth! I posted the picture on my blog along with a couple of other shots from the party. And that was it. Almost eight years ago.

How did that picture get blown up and framed and hung on the wall at the Applebee’s in Lubbock?

We finally got a chance to see the picture first-hand Thursday night, but we still don’t have any idea how it got there.

Bruce and Celia Tidmore took us to the Garth Brooks concert at the United Supermarkets Arena on the Texas Tech campus Thursday. (Don’t talk trash to me about seeing Garth Brooks; I was going for my wife!) We left Amarillo early so Bruce could buy something he needed at Cabella’s. And before we made it over to Chuy’s for dinner, we swung by the Applebee’s to see Carrie-Anne’s portrait. And, yes, there it was! Big as Dallas! Right there on the wall next to the restroom doors! My wife, in our backyard in North Richland Hills, doing the hula hoop, eight years ago!

We took a bunch of pictures of C-A and the picture and marveled all over again at the complete randomness of the experience. The waiters and waitresses we queried had no idea how the picture got there. The manager told us that the store had gone through a remodeling two years ago and all the staff had been asked to submit pictures of Lubbock scenes and Lubbock people to use as decorations for their walls. Yeah, we could see, the walls were covered with pictures of Texas Tech and Red Raiders sports teams and buildings, oil wells, the Buddy Holly statue, the Lubbock rodeo, and several other Lubbock landmarks. And then this random picture of my wife! It didn’t match up with any other picture in the place! The manager had no idea who submitted the pictures and how they were selected — two years ago he was waiting tables at the Amarillo Applebee’s.

We came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories as we dined on shrimp chili rellenos and chicka-chicka-boom-boom at Chuy’s. But we don’t have any definite answers. It’s a mystery.

Anything like that ever happened to you? How random is this? How would you even search on my blog for that picture? You have to find the post and then click on a link within the text to even get to it!

For at least the next couple of years, Carrie-Anne is hula hooping on the wall at Applebee’s in Lubbock. And nobody can tell us how or why.

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It’s Opening Day! Rangers and Tribe tonight at the Ballpark. Yu Darvish on the hill and — yuck — Joey Gallo at third. Opening Day! It should be a National Holiday. We treat it like one here at Central. Every year we wear our baseball jerseys and caps to work. Greg grills the dogs and brats, we eat Cracker Jack and peanuts, nachos and ice cream sandwiches. We open up and trade baseball cards. And we dream about future glory for our teams and lament the heartbreaking failures of the past. It’s Opening Day!

I’ve checked the standings. The Rangers are in first place.

Peace,

Allan

Ignite for Bivins Elementary

March 21, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Four weeks now into our Ignite Initiative here at Central and I am so proud of and so grateful for our church’s great generosity and faith in what our God is doing in us and through us for his Kingdom. The early response has been almost overwhelming — the Lord has blessed us with a ton of money up front! And that has allowed us to start immediately with our top priority ministry partnerships.

This week we are spending a little more than $20,000 to purchase some much needed equipment and supplies for Bivins Elementary School. We are providing twenty desks for special needs students, replacing worn out or missing equipment for the Music and P.E. departments, upgrading the school’s computer lab, and creating a “Maker Space” for interactive learning.

In addition, we’re looking for a few volunteers to commit to spending one or two hours per week at Bivins from now through the end of the school year in May. If you can help kids cross the street, open up a juice box, or supervise a game of freeze-tag, we need you.

That volunteer component is really the most important part of what we’re doing with Ignite. It’s much easier to write checks than to commit the time and energy necessary to do incarnational ministry — we need both. All five of these local ministry organizations are telling us they need people to be a Gospel presence for the people they’re serving. They need our members to be part of the fabric of their support. The kids at Bivins, those ladies at Martha’s home and Gratitude House, the families at CareNet, and the men and women at The PARC — most of them have never experienced the love and encouragement and support that you and I probably take for granted. That’s what they need the most.

This is exciting! Bivins Elementary is giving us access to their kids and families we’ve never had before. It may be unprecedented for a school to give a church this kind of leeway. It might be illegal! How fun is this?!?

If you want more details on what we’re doing together with Bivins Elementary, click here.

The idea is to change lives in the name and manner of Jesus, to make a deep and significant impact on the families all around us, to change the trajectory of generations of men and women in our city. If they think buying a glockenspiel will positively impact the children at Bivins, then we’re going to buy four! Two large and two small glockenspiels! Done!

Peace,

Allan

Gone to Pot

March 19, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Someone in our community discarded these three items next to our church dumpster. They placed them just like you see them here, organized in this neat little row, in plain view of everybody who parks on the south side of our building. Linda Purdy asked me if I was starting a new sermon series on First, Second, and Third John. Funny.

Peace,

Allan

Giving Central a Break

March 10, 2017 / / 0 Comments

I know when I’m out of town or on a vacation and somebody else preaches for me, it’s good for Central. I figure the church needs a break. The same can be said as it relates to our church staff and probably the elders: when I’m not there, it’s probably good. I think I can be overly intense and loud. I think I’ve mainly only got one speed and only one volume. And a lot of me for too long of a time is probably too much.

So I haven’t preached at Central in two weeks. We were so blessed to have Rick Atchley preach for us two Sundays ago and then my family and I were gone last Sunday visiting Valerie in Edmond. We missed Central’s annual baby blessing, but, again, I think our church needed a break.

As a church, we’ve also been blowing and going pretty hard since October with our Ignite Initiative. I’ve preached lots of sermons on giving, we’ve talked a lot about vision and mission. It’s been challenging. We’ve all been stretched. God has been faithful and our church has been fabulous. But, in a lot of ways, it’s been tiring. For me, for sure and, I’m assuming, also for Central.

So, my plan has been to start this Sunday on an eight or nine week expository series through 1 Thessalonians. I thought it would be good for all of us to dive into 1 Thessalonians and just relax in it together. I think I feel about Central the way the apostle Paul feels about this church in Thessalonica. When I read this ancient letter to that little church that was meeting in Jason’s house in Thessalonica, I think I could write a similar letter to Central.

1 Thessalonians is different from all the rest of Paul’s letters in the New Testament. In every one of his letters, Paul is responding to a crisis in some church. He’s correcting a false teaching or fixing a bad practice or criticizing some ungodly attitude or behavior. Except in 1 Thessalonians. Instead of rebuking and correcting, Paul writes to these Christians in Thessalonica: Keep doing exactly what you’re doing!

“We instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:1

This is a very encouraging letter. It’s very positive. It’s inspiring. And I figure it’ll be good for our church to just relax for a couple of months with this easy letter.

But after studying it for the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed it’s not going to be that easy.

The opening ten verses are all thanksgiving and praise, but every sentence is loaded. I have found myself writing a sermon that’s as much challenge and stretch as it is attaboys and praise. What’s wrong with me? I can’t read words like “power” and “deep conviction” without wondering if we feel that in us. I wonder about how well we imitate Christ under the threat of suffering. What does it take to be a “model” church? Have we turned from our idols? What’s wrong with me?

I can’t help it.

I’ll say it again: I feel about Central the way Paul feels about this church in Thessalonica. Central, I believe, is a model church. And we’re serious about this church. We’re reading the Scriptures and we’re fasting and praying. We’re paying more attention to formation. We’re focused on the vision the mission. I’m taking it seriously. And so is the whole church. We’re all walking together.

I just don’t want us to ever settle for surviving — let’s get to thriving! Let’s challenge “what is” for the sake of what could be and should be! If we dig deeper and climb higher and live better and serve others in faith, hope, and love, hell can’t put up gates big enough or strong enough to stop us!

I promise you, Central, this sermon series from 1 Thessalonians will be a bit of a break. Just not as much of a break as I had planned and that you probably deserve.

Peace,

Allan

Our Tools Are Weak

February 23, 2017 / / 0 Comments

At Central, we’re doing whatever it takes to join God’s pursuit of the people in Amarillo. “Ignite” is funding the vision and sparking the mission. The pledge cards keep trickling in and the total is up to $7.93-million and growing. Last Sunday’s “Launch” witnessed our Lord provide more than $1.53-million in checks and cash. The momentum is building. The church is focused. This is exciting stuff! We’re committed to it because our understanding is that when we do participate in God’s pursuit, God will increase the harvest.

When Jesus sends his disciples out to proclaim the Good News, he gives them a parting prayer request: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).

This is Jesus’ prayer request: ask God for more workers. We need more workers for the harvest. Not for plowing or sowing, not for preparing soil or weeding or watering or waiting. Workers are needed for the harvest. The time is right now and, apparently, the harvest is huge. Who’s going to get in on it? We are! We’re determined to.

And our tools are weak.

The tools we use are not very impressive by the world’s standards. We’re not using power or politics or threat or force. Our tools for the harvest are love and mercy, compassion and forgiveness. God’s heroes in the Bible used terribly weak weapons: a torch and a jar, a sling and a rock, a morning walk and a trumpet.

We’ve got a church building and some small groups. We’ve got a sack of groceries and a paint brush. A bag of diapers and a prayer.

Remember, Jesus healed ten lepers, not a hundred. He fed five thousand hungry people, not every starving person in the world. Our Lord mostly ministered to the people in the tiny villages around his home town. And that’s what we’re trying to do at Central.

Peace,

Allan

 

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