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Category: Central Church Family (Page 48 of 54)

A Wholistic Approach to Sexuality

April 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We officially and publicly ordained Tanner Albright yesterday as our new full-time youth minister here at Central. It was a great day for Tanner and his family. I am so privileged to be serving with Tanner as co-workers in our Lord, so blessed to be his partner, so it was a great day for me, too. And because of what God has done through Tanner and what he is continuing to do with and through Tanner, it was a great day for the Central church family.

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Adam and Tanner just concluded a teaching series for our Middle School and High School students and their parents that took a truly wholistic approach to sexuality. It was called “Good Sex,” a provocative title to be sure. But the classes were about so much more than just sex.

Our youth ministers and volunteers presented the ideas of purity and sex in the larger context of discipleship to Jesus. Yes, seeking to live a life in pursuit of Christ means being holy in matters of sex. But it’s not just sex; it’s everything. Holy living, following Jesus, means being righteous and pure in all we do. It was a very Sermon on the Mount approach to living in Christ. It’s not just about the sex act itself; it’s just as much about other things we might do or say that are not submissive to Jesus as our King.

And you might get that in a lot of youth programs on sexuality. The thing that made this series really different, though, is the white-hot spotlight it put on the parents. The adults were challenged every week to be pure in their own sexuality, to take captive every thought, to submit everything to the Lordship of Jesus. Even as married adults, most of us struggle to maintain this purity in the things we think about, the things we look at and watch, the relationships we maintain, or the language we use. I told the kids and their parents at the closing ceremony last week, it doesn’t get any easier when you’re married. It’s just as difficult to be pure, it’s just as tough to be righteous.

Ah, the ceremony. This past Wednesday night. Another fabulous job by Adam and Tanner. All the teens and their parents down in the community room to celebrate the past couple of months and to make solemn vows to one another, to themselves, and to our God to seek purity, not only in their (our) sexuality, but in all facets of their (our) lives of discipleship to Christ.

We promised to be a real family to one another. We promised to protect and defend one another, to support and encourage, to correct and discipline one another as we follow Jesus together. As church leaders, we promised these teens and their families that Central will always be a place (and a people) where we can talk and pray openly about anything and everything. We promised that Central will always be where one can find forgiveness, acceptance, and accountability.

Adam wrote a beautiful set of vows that we recited together. You can access those vows by clicking here.

We worshiped together, we exchanged gifts and prayers with our children, and we expressed our love and commitment to one another and to our Lord.

It was just perfect. We need more of this, not less. Excellent job Adam and Tanner. Thank you so much. I’m so blessed by our Father to work alongside you.

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Whitney, Valerie, and Carley,

You are our precious daughters whom we love and in whom we are well pleased. You are no longer little girls. You are beautiful young ladies. And we can’t wait to see what our Lord has planned for you. Your mother and I want you to know how important you are to us and to God. You are beautiful, beloved, and worthy. We want to bless you with the promises of God. You belong to God and have been set apart from the world for his holy purposes. We want to bless you with God’s everlasting love, wisdom, peace, and joy. We also want to bless you with sexual purity and marital faithfulness.

We pray every day for our God’s hand to be present in your lives. May you faithfully serve our Lord Jesus Christ. And may he bless you richly with his mercy and strength.

We love you dearly and are so proud of you.

Dad

NOW!

February 7, 2012 / / 1 Comment

“It’s much less demanding to think about God’s will for your future than it is to ask him what he wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It’s safer to commit to following him someday instead of this day.” ~Francis Chan, Crazy Love, p. 192

I was encouraged yesterday to learn that several of our small groups here at Central did shut down Madonna and the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday evening to consider together their NEXT! challenge cards and commit to accepting one of the tasks. The cards and the challenges were handed out during our assembly Sunday morning in an effort to get us moving right now, immediately, to what our God is calling us to NEXT. No waiting. The time for action is now.

Deliver a casserole to your next-door-neighbor in the name of our Christ. Take the time this week to memorize 1 Corinthians 13. Rewrite six of your favorite Psalms in your own words and give them to our Father in prayer. Invite the new member to dinner. Volunteer at the elementary school. Whatever you do, do it now, with all of your might, to the glory of God.

The challenges are designed to move us closer to our God through his Holy Word and prayer so we can better hear him and understand his leading. They are also crafted in a way that will  get us engaged with our God’s mission among his creation. Now, brothers and sisters of the Central Church of Christ, let me ask you two questions:

1) Which challenge did you choose and have you started yet?

(I’ll answer the question here: you answer in the “comments” section of this post) Of the three challenges on my card, I chose “For the rest of this month, write three emails every day that have absolutely no purpose other than to encourage someone.”

I started it yesterday. And, honestly, I am finding this to be more difficult than I thought.

Email is a business tool for me. I use email to accomplish things, to get things done. I email people to ask questions and to request answers. I email to schedule and confirm my calendar. I remind people about certain tasks, I seek input from committee members, I inform elders and ministers, I keep up with family and friends through email. I do generally try to be positive and encouraging in my emails. I like to think I’m intentional about lifting people up with my emails. But edifying folks is never the sole reason for my electronic communications. Never.

So now I’m writing three of these encouraging emails a day. And it’s tough.

2) So what is God going to show you while you’re completing your challenge? What do you expect to experience or learn through this exercise?

(Again, I’ll answer here; you answer by clicking the “comments” line up there) I believe I’m going to learn how to give without expecting anything in return. I’m going to practice giving life to people, building people up, with no strings attached. No agenda. Nothing to accomplish. I’m not looking for anything in return. This is what Jesus does. Christ gives and gives and gives. Christ considers the needs of others greater than his own. The Son of God initiates to serve and save with no regard for what he can gain for himself. And while, yes, there is an underlying motivation behind my encouraging emails this month — I have a challenge in front of me that I intend to tackle and conquer so I can stand before my congregation and say I did it — I’m doing it prayerfully, begging God to show me and teach me how to be more like him in the ways I interact with his children.

What challenge did you accept? What do you think God is going to show you? What’s NEXT? And are you moving toward that NEXT right NOW?

Peace,

Allan

NEXT!

February 6, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Angels never appear to people in Scripture and say, “God is calling you to do nothing! Thank you!” and then disappear into the sky. It never happens.

“Gideon!”
“Yes?”
“I am an angel of the Lord. Stay put. God bless.”

That conversation never happened. God calls us to constant movement. Children of God are always on the go. Moving. Growing. Changing. Transitioning. Transforming. Advancing. Pressing. Attaining. Maturity. Development.

Always.

If you’re a member of the Central Church of Christ, you received a 4″ x 5-1/2″ card yesterday that contained three challenges to knock you out of your comfort zone and into what’s NEXT. The challenges were all different. They called our brothers and sisters to get more into the Word, to meditate on Scripture, to interact with their neighbors, to practice a spiritual discipline, to sacrificially serve, to give of themselves to others. They were all different; some of the challenges are more difficult than others. But they were all designed to get us out of our comfort zones into a place where we can listen to God’s leading and/or get engaged with other people in the name of Jesus. We asked each person in our church to choose one of the challenges. And then to do it.

Now, I don’t know what God is going to do with these little challenges. I have no idea. I don’t know what kind of an impact this is going to have on our individual members or on our congregation as a whole. I’m not sure if the impact will be immediate or longer range. I don’t know if it’ll result in subtle attitude tweaks that are barely noticeable or in really dramatic changes in our overall church mindset that will blow our community’s doors off. I don’t know.

But I do know this: completing these challenges will definitely have some kind of a positive, transformational, gospel impact on us as individual disciples and as a church family that will impact all of Amarillo. How do I know? Because God promises us that if we give ourselves wholly to him, if we keep adding to our faith more and more each day, if we keep striving, keep attaining, keep pushing and pressing, he will use us to his glory.

“Make every effort to add to your faith… For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.” ~2 Peter 1:5-8

You might look at these challenges and say, “There’s no way I can do any of these. I just can’t.” You might also say, “This isn’t going to make a difference. If I do one of these challenges, it won’t change anything.”

Not true. Our merciful Father promises: if you’ll give yourself fully to him, he will use you. Sometimes in very surprising ways. However, if you stop moving, stop growing, stop pressing and pushing and attaining and striving, you’ll forget who you are and what you’re supposed to be doing.

Peace,

Allan

On Charles, A Great Man

February 1, 2012 / / 3 Comments

I’ve only heard Charles Siburt speak a couple of times. I’ve shaken his hand once. Just once. But I’m profoundly and eternally impacted by this great man. Chances are, so are you.

Charles Siburt is the “go-to guy” when it comes to healing churches, fixing church leaders, maturing disciples along the Way. He has worked with countless Church of Christ congregations, scores of elders and shepherds, and more preachers than any of us could count. He’s written books and articles, preached and taught sermons and lessons, and in some way counseled and advised almost every church leader I know.

I was blessed to spend three hours with Charles in two separate phone conversations in June last year. I wanted to find out what he knew about this Central Church of Christ in Amarillo. Turns out, he knew everything. And everybody. He gave me some things to consider. He cautioned me about a couple of potential problems. He probed into my own issues and problems like we had known each other for years. He dug deep to find out where I was spiritually, emotionally, mentally. But mostly he just went on and on about how great this church was. How healthy the leadership is here. How unified and focused and committed the elders and ministers are here to lead the church family in living and growing in Christ-likeness.

I remember a preacher friend of mine telling me after my first conversation with Charles, “If Charles says that’s a healthy church, you can know without a doubt it’s a healthy church. Charles knows a healthy church.”

At the end of my second and last phone conversation with Charles — I was sitting in my truck in my driveway in North Richland Hills, Charles was in some airport somewhere — he told me, “I think you and Central would be a perfect fit; you’re made for each other.”

That night I told another preaching colleague what Charles had said. He replied, “If Charles says it’s a good fit, then you know it’s a good fit. Charles knows how to match preachers and churches.”

They were all correct. Charles was correct. I couldn’t be happier. The match couldn’t be better. The fit here couldn’t be more perfect. And I know I went into this next phase of my Christian ministry in Amarillo in a better frame of mind more appropriately equipped because of Charles’ counsel. I read the books he recommended. I answered the questions he told me to ask myself. And I spoke to the people he said I should.

And I’m grateful. Eternally grateful.

We’re all expecting Charles to pass from this life to the next in just a few days. Our brother Charles is close, very close, to being in the intense face-to-face glory and presence of our God. How great for him. People who know Charles much better than I do are setting aside this Friday, February 3, day after tomorrow, as a day of prayer and fasting. I plan to join them. I plan to spend a great part of that day thanking our gracious God for blessing so many of us and our congregations with Charles’ expertise and passion; asking God to bless Charles’ wife, Judy, as she experiences the loss of her dearest companion; begging God to raise up others to pick up the encouraging and mentoring and healing where Charles is leaving off.

To read much more about Charles and this day of prayer and fasting please click on these links to people who really, really, really know him. My great friend Jim Martin’s thoughts can be found here. Dan Bouchelle has penned his own thoughts here. And Jordan Hubbard’s reflections are here.

During my two conversations with Charles seven months ago, he never told me that he was a big part of the reason Central is such a healthy church. Charles has been working very closely with this family of believers in downtown Amarillo for many, many years. He has encouraged our shepherds, he’s helped heal some very painful hurts, and he’s counseled our ministers here for a long, long time. It shows. The Kingdom of God is greater for it. The city of Amarillo is blessed because of it. And the new preacher here is grateful. Eternally grateful.

God bless Charles Siburt with his merciful comfort and peace.

Allan

Church Politics

January 31, 2012 / / 0 Comments

During Eddie Wynn’s funeral yesterday, I must have heard at least a dozen phones go off at 3:18. “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!” I was informed later by three or four others that there were dozens of phones beeping and buzzing all over the worship center at Comanche Trail. In the middle of a funeral. Hey, what better time or place?

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“The Church exists to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to the world’s own manner and which contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.” ~Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.3.2

Oh, my word, we get so caught up in the politics of this world. The time we spend listening to talk radio and watching our own cable network’s spin on the news of the day, the energy we use extolling the virtues of our party or candidate and bashing the policies and platforms of the opposition, the ways we engage so passionately in debate betray a troubling preoccupation with the methods and means of an Empire to which we are not citizens. Yes, as children of God, we are rightly concerned with social injustice, disease, violence, war, crime, death, poverty, abuse, and all the effects of sin on his creation. But, as citizens of heaven who declare Jesus as Lord, not Caesar, we are called to join him in redeeming his creation in his name and by his manner.

Someone — I can’t remember who — once either told me or wrote in something I read that we are not to conform to the world, we are to convert the world.

Yeah. We don’t use the world’s ways; we use God’s way. And God’s way is by his Church.

“The most interesting, creative, political solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs. The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the Church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.

The Christian faith recognizes that we are violent, fearful, frightened creatures who cannot reason or will our way out of our mortality. So the Gospel begins, not with the assertion that we are violent, fearful, frightened creatures, but with the pledge that, if we offer ourselves to a truthful story and the community formed by listening to and enacting that story in the Church, we will be transformed into people more significant than we could ever have been on our own.” ~ Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, Resident Aliens, p. 82-83

Last month, when the movers were re-locating our furniture from the apartment to our new house, the driver of the huge truck asked me, “Do you think it’s OK for preachers to preach about politics in the pulpit?”

I answered, “I preach politics every single Sunday!”

We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Our King is the risen Christ. Our allegiances are to him and his sovereign rule over every aspect of our lives. Thank goodness I’m not dependent on the sinful ways and means of this world’s governments for my well being. Thank goodness I’m not counting on this world’s leaders for my safety or security or sanity. Hallelujah, our God reigns! And he is redeeming the world in ways that make no sense to those who are driven by power and control, compelled by money and status, motivated by force and threat.

We belong to a polis. And, as our King says, it is not of this world.

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Huge rivalry basketball game tonight: Amarillo High at Tascosa. Whitney and I are going to take in the JV boys at 5:30 (let’s see what Braden’s got), the varsity girls at 6:30, and then the headliner varsity boy’s contest at 7:30. If the Sandies (20-3, 4-0) win it tonight, they’ll clinch a playoff berth in District 2-5A. This AHS team seems to be pretty good. They’ve got nine lettermen back from last year district champs, eight seniors on the team, and lots of big game experience.

I’m also interested to watch my friend Bret McCaslan tonight. The man puts himself in a position to act like Christ every Tuesday and Friday night. He intentionally places himself in harm’s way, he subjects himself to ridicule and humiliation, he makes himself vulnerable to the violence and hatred of the masses. He’s a high school referee. He’ll be in the middle of a crazy scene tonight, and in position to occasionally become the focus.

Go, Sandies!

Allan

3:18

January 30, 2012 / / 3 Comments

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!” ~Habakkuk 3:18

It’s a long drive between Amarillo and Henrietta. A looooong drive. What kept me occupied for the first hour or so of my trip yesterday were the 151 text messages I had received during and after our sermon here at Central. Kasey Love’s was the very first text I received with the inspirational words from Habakkuk, followed in order by Arlene, Stephanie, Andrew, Keegan, and then 145 more. Not everybody signed their names to the texts; those made me wonder. Some of the messages were horribly misspelled as the senders were obviously in a race to get their text to me first; those made me laugh.  All of the messages were from the holy Word of God, sent to me by my brothers and sisters in Christ, in an exercise I hoped would get us all thinking about the same thing.

We all sent the message to different people, none of whom were in the building at the time. I’m assuming there were close to a thousand people who, at about 11:15 yesterday morning, received these encouraging words from Habakkuk on their phones. I’m praying those texts prompted dozens dozens of conversations last night and today among co-workers, classmates, relatives, and neighbors. “Why did you send me that text?” “What did that text mean?” “Why were y’all doing that at church?” I’m hoping our people are telling their friends today that no matter what happens, we can find great joy in knowing our God who saves us.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!”

I’m hoping that at 3:18 this afternoon, more of those texts will be flying around. I’m hoping we’re all going to be reminded every day this week at 3:18 that we serve a God who has always delivered us in the past and, therefore, will always deliver us in the present and in the future. I’m hoping we’ll encourage each other with these texts. I’m hoping we’ll remind our friends that we’re praying for them. I’m hoping people will be reminded to pray for one another. And for me.

I’m looking at these names on my phone yesterday as I’m traveling south on 287: Trey. Olen. Michaela. Michelle. Scott. Amber. Tiffani. Hannah. Jake. Matt. Larry. Adam. Glen. Mike. Erin. Chris. Cameron. John. Bethany. Bradley. Jared. Tanner. Tammy. Kelly. Tim. Kim. Teri. Melissa. Lori. Monica. Lonnie. Spencer. Gary. Ashlynn. Billy. Royse Anne. Karen. Ashley. Joe. Lowery. Judy. Erica. Lisa. Laura. Robin. Greg. Francis. Lachelle. Leslie. Rodney. Michael. Tommy. Connie. Robert. Wayne. I’m praying over every one of these. 151 of them. All of them dealing with something pretty heavy, I’m sure. Each of them carrying a weight, bearing a burden, yet declaring that they will rejoice in the Lord.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!”

Then at 3:18, about ten miles north of Vernon, another round of texts: Marli. Wayne. Becky. Winslow. Jeff. Lanny. Steve. Miles. Scott. Lots of others.

I’ve been told today that at 3:18 yesterday, phones were going off everywhere, flashing and beeping what I believe is the strongest statement of faith in our Scriptures.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!”

I don’t know what our God is doing this week with our little text exercise. I’m not sure how he’s going to use this to his glory and praise. I’m hoping these texts and prayers will strengthen us. I’m hoping we’ll be encouraged and our faith will be renewed. I’m hoping we’ll be united as one family, together in our meditation and application of this rich passage. I’m praying we’ll be comforted in our trials, we’ll be steeled in our resolve, and we’ll be given great hope in our Savior.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!”

Peace,

Allan

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