The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Christ & Culture (Page 1 of 44)

Family of God

March 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I’m a big fan of Russell Moore and his writings for Christianity Today. I highly recommend you read his article about how war forms us. All war is hell, in every case. And even though Midland, Texas is over 7,400 miles away from Tehran, Iran, this war between the U.S. and Israel and Iran is going to shape us. Moore cautions us to check our attitudes when it comes to the current conflict in the Middle East.

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When John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan River, there were some standing on the shores who were not jumping in. It appears that they were just observing from the side. They were just watching. And John says, “That’s fine; that’s your call. What God is doing is not going to be slowed down one bit by whether you decided to jump in or not. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children! (Luke 3:8)

Our God’s greatest desire is to create a family to live in perfect relationship with him and one another forever. God is so committed to this goal that, if nobody wants to jump in to this eternal family, he will raise up sons and daughters from the rocks along the banks of the Jordan River! That’s how determined for this he is!

Our God is so determined to create this family that he gave up his only biological Son to make it happen. That’s how committed to this he is. He sacrificed his only Son to build a forever family that’s not based on genetics or DNA or last names, but on the gift of love and grace from God and the blood of the Son that completely washes clean all of God’s dearly loved children. Romans 9 says it’s not the natural children who are God’s children, it’s the children of the promise. The promise is that God will create this eternal family, where everybody belongs together, everybody’s related, no barriers, no restrictions, no distinctions; where everybody is equally loved and nurtured and cared for. That’s the promise. That’s the goal. And that’s what our Lord Jesus did on the cross.

From the cross, Jesus is literally creating this family of God. He looks down from the cross and sees his mom and one of his dearest followers and he says, “Dear woman, here is your son. Son, this is your mom.”

Jesus isn’t saying, “Hey, do me a solid and take care of my mom while I’m away.” He’s saying, “Mother, I’m giving you a new family. Friend, I am giving you a new family.” Jesus is creating God’s family on the cross. The One who never married and never had kids is now giving birth to a new family that stretches the earth from end to end and has turned the whole world upside down. The Church. You and me. Us. The family of God. The children of God’s promise.

When you become a Christian, when you give your whole life over to God through Jesus, you are joined into that family. An eternal people born of water and Spirit, a family bigger and better than your biological family, a world-wide barrier-breaking family of God where we eat and drink and share and accept and carry each other’s burdens together. Where we rejoice and mourn together. Where we support and encourage and grow and work and bless and love together. If you’ll say ‘Yes’ to being adopted, if you’ll give yourself to it and really embrace the Church as the family of God, it’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

Peace,
Allan

To the God of Peace

March 3, 2026 / / 0 Comments

To the God of Peace, in the name of the Prince of Peace,
We ask you to bring your peace to this world.
We pray for your peace in Iran, in Israel, and for us in the United States.

We pray in the name of the Prince of Peace,
who came to this earth to obliterate everything that separates us from you
and from one another,
to bring your peace to this world.

We pray for protection for the soldiers
and their families
in Iran, in Israel, and in the United States.
We pray for safety,
for comfort,
and for calm.

We pray for those who are disproportionately affected by war:
the innocent children,
the abandoned women,
the defenseless elderly,
the immigrants without a home,
and the poor.
These dwell in the center of your heart, Father;
these are the ones you command we protect and love.
We pray for them, O God of Peace.
Protect them.
Provide for them.

We pray that those in charge in Iran, in Israel, and in the United States
would cease their wars.
We pray for armies to put down their weapons.
We pray for the killing to stop.
We pray for an end to greed, anger, and the lust for power and control.
And we pray that your Holy Spirit would bring all things and all people
in heaven and on earth
together,
as is the stated mission and will of you, our God, and your everlasting Kingdom.

To the God of Peace, in the name of the Prince of Peace.
To his eternal glory and praise.

Peace.

 

Leaning into Liturgy

February 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The 4Midland churches are gathering at First Baptist this evening for our annual Ash Wednesday service. This marks the fifth Ash Wednesday service we at GCR have shared with a local congregation of another denomination, and the fourth we’ve co-led as 4Midland. For some of us, this 1,400-year-old Christian tradition is still new. According to Lifeway research, only 25% of Americans observe the season of Lent–that number has stayed the same for over a decade. The Barna Group reports that Churches of Christ are among the “least aware” of traditional Christian liturgical practices.

For me, personally, by God’s grace, tonight’s will be my 13th Ash Wednesday service. Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent have become a vital part of my walk with Christ, an indispensable move in the rhythms that guide my Christian discipleship. If you live in the Permian Basin, I invite you to join us at 6:30pm at First Baptist in Midland. If you live outside the Basin, I urge you to find an Ash Wednesday service today and lean into it.

Ash Wednesday meets us in our desperate need for repentance. It reminds us of the Gospel need to mourn sin and grieve its terrible consequences. Ash Wednesday takes our sin and suffering seriously. It’s a sober kickoff to 40-days of fasting and prayer, confession and repentance, reflection and transformation.

Right now, the American church is struggling with unity while we’re wrapped up in our country’s bitterly divided politics. American Christians are fighting for contentment and joy while we live in a culture obsessed with consumption. We’re wanting to point our minds to Christ while the world around us is drowning in social media and other digital distractions.

Our spiritual needs are tied directly to the unstable ways of the world.

Leaning into the ancient church calendar is a helpful way to anchor yourself and your church in Gospel rhythms that counter whatever might be happening in the world or in the news cycle; remembering that the story of God is bigger than the story of your state or your career or your nation or your church; orienting yourself toward the larger story of God and his people, God and his creation, God and his salvation mission through Christ Jesus–we participate in a stable pattern of faith and faithfulness in contrast to all the things right in front of us we can’t control. The natural disasters are real. So are the political problems and the racial injustice and our complicated relationships. The Church calendar reminds us of God’s providence in the chaos, of his calm and faithful presence in the raging storm.

And we do it together. Practicing these ancient liturgies is done in community with the global Church, it connects us to all Christians everywhere for all time. It helps to counter-program the uniquely American individualism that erodes our dependence on God and one another. It trains us to think and behave and relate in common unity with other followers.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we need to repent, both individually and corporately, and it gives us the venue and the tools to do it together with other sinners turned saints by the life-giving blood of Jesus.

If you’ve never been to one, I encourage you to find an Ash Wednesday service today and give yourself to it. Ask God to speak to you, to show you something you need to see, to transform you. Then lean into it. Surrender to the service and the readings and the songs and the prayers. Participate fully, expecting that God will do something in you and through you for his glory.

It’s never too late to try a 1,400-year-old tradition.

Peace,
Allan

In the Face of Christ

February 17, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I was looking last week at the results of a recent poll conducted by the American Psychological Association that says almost all of us are stressed out and anxious about things that are out of our control. Multiple things. According to the research, 30% of Americans say most days they are so stressed out they can’t function. Over things like inflation, violence, crime, the political climate, and the racial climate. Among those polled, 76% say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress, while 68% say we are living in the country’s lowest point of their lifetimes.

Well, of course we’re stressed out and anxious.

We’re doomscrolling our phones and our feeds, we’re being discipled by our digital devices that are designed to raise our blood pressure. So, we’re constantly taking in the bad news of local and global turmoil and chaos and conflict with an increasing lack of civility as the backdrop–people seem to be so mean. It feels like there’s so much hate. And the tyranny of the constant connection to the unprecedented exposure and pressure through the digital platforms that are intentionally designed to divide us and profit off our polarization has us so worked up we feel like we have to have an immediate and dug-in position on a 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show by a performer we hadn’t heard of three weeks ago!

In the face of so much, our salvation can seem like a smaller thing. The dawn of a new day feels a long way away in the suffocating darkness of right now.

And I don’t know a thing about your marriage. Or your relationship with your children. I don’t know about your situation at work. Or your finances. Or that sin in your life you can’t shake. Or that thing you did a long time ago that you can’t forget. I don’t know how chaotic your life feels or if the things happening around you or to you feel totally out of your control. I don’t know the personal pain or betrayal. I don’t know your wounds. I don’t know how dark it feels where you are. How far away from God you feel. How far away from love and joy and peace you feel.

But I do know this.

You can have faith in the middle of your fears. You can be calm and certain in the chaos of your circumstance. You can experience eternal life while walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” ~2 Corinthians 4:6

We see the light in the face of Christ. When we look at Jesus, we are given the perfect knowledge of the glory of our God. We see what God is up to when we look at our Lord. We realize, in Jesus, that our God does his best work in the dark.

Jesus was born at night.

The sun disappeared and the earth was plunged into darkness as he died.

God’s Holy Spirit raised him from the dead “while it was still dark.”

New life always starts in the dark. A seed in the ground. A baby in the womb. Jesus in the tomb. A church in a shift. A Christian in a crisis.

We know the darkness of death has been broken by the light of the power of God’s Holy Spirit. The silence of the night has been pierced by the trumpet blast of the dawning of a brand new day. Our God is the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they are. And we know the very last words our Lord Jesus said to us as he ascended to the seat of all authority and power at the right hand of God: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Which, is closer than you think.

Peace,
Allan

Time to Wake Up

February 13, 2026 / / 0 Comments

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“Do this [love your neighbor as yourself], understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” ~Romans 13:11-14

In the undeniable darkness of this present age, most people are ordering their lives according to the world’s rules and the world’s attitudes and values and styles. Even though the old world is passing away! The new world is already breaking in! The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has already inaugurated the new age of the eternal Kingdom of God, and his followers live according to the culture of that new age.

Most people are asleep; but the new day is dawning and it’s time for all children of God and disciples of Jesus to wake up!

We know what God has done in Christ Jesus. We know what God is doing and what he has promised to do. So, we live accordingly. That’s what governs our conducts and our attitudes. We understand the times. The Bible says the Day of the Lord may not have come just yet, but it’s so close, it’s so inevitable and unstoppable, we should live as though it is already here. Our human impulses, our flesh, the sinful nature–that’s not what dictates our behavior. We live in the presence and power of our Lord whose rescue is closer than we think. We need to be aware of that.

In the darkness of right now–the political polarities and the economic uncertainties and the racial injustice and the ramped-up rhetoric and the ugly behavior; you know how dark it is. We’re seeing so much division and selfishness and anger and violence and isolation. We’re seeing it all. And if you’re not awake, if you’re sleepwalking through this stuff, you can get caught up in all that mess and get yourself into some real trouble. You can trade the love and grace and peace and sacrifice and forgiveness of Christ for the power and might and tribalism and hate and strife of the world. The hour has come to wake up. We belong to the Day, and it’s just around the corner.

“You are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So, then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled… Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ~1 Thessalonians 5:4-9

We do not compromise our faith or our behaviors just because we’re enduring some darkness. We respond to the darkness by walking in the light. We never allow our current circumstances to compromise our commitment to Christ. His new creation is closer than we think. So we meet the present difficulties with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

Holding On

October 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I thank God for refreshing my soul and rekindling my heart for his holy mission the way he does every single year at ACU’s Summit. My spirit is overflowing with gratitude today for our Lord and for the good people at Abilene Christian University who continue this annual gathering of church leaders despite the many challenges in providing physical space, brilliant content, inspiring worship, and relational opportunities for an increasingly digitized and individualized group of ministers and pastors.

We typically take seven or eight of our nine ministers on the team at GCR, but this year only four of us were able to make the two-hour drive for the event that covers parts of three days. We do our own tracks with our fellow preachers, youth ministers, children’s ministers, and formation ministers from all over Texas, the Southwest, and parts unknown. But we worship, take in the keynotes, and eat our meals together, sharing what we’ve learned, praying for each other, and laughing. On Thursday, we were honored to be joined for lunch at Twisted Root with Jason Minor, one of our amazing GCR teenagers who is enjoying the first weeks of his freshman year at ACU. We want to keep connections with our kids; what a joy to know that our kids want to maintain those connections with us.

I am at once dismayed and greatly encouraged to know that most preachers are dealing with all the same things when it comes to the current climates in our churches. Today, “Christian” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, both inside and outside the Church. Some of those things are decidedly un-Christian, which is killing our witness to a desperate and dying world.

I’ll paraphrase what the brilliant Mark Hamilton said during a session on Isaiah 40-55 and its message to our present time and culture. He said the greatest gift the Church can give to our communities and to our world, is calm, reasoned discourse. We should call the demagogues for what they are–in the government and in our society, who they are and what they are doing–we should be clear about it. We should tell our brothers and sisters who are in the rabbit holes to repent and, if they don’t repent, to leave our congregations. Because people who are searching for God will discern very quickly that the church is not the place to seek. This is not a hypothetical; this is real. It is happening with a majority of younger people right now today.

Jerry Taylor’s powerful homily on our fear of death and the spirit of Cain and of the anti-Christ that is so prevalent in our communities and our churches left me feeling incredibly inadequate and gutless. I know my church needs to hear these things, I know I am called by our God to proclaim the truth that Christ lives and that Jesus alone is Lord and that we are collectively losing our minds and our souls by employing the ways of the world and chasing after political power to remake society in our own images. When I asked Jerry afterwards if he had a word for preachers like me in the situations we’re in–there are hundreds of us–he said, “Allan, there are bigger things at stake than your employment.”

I know courage thrives in community and in collaboration. That’s why I am so thankful for my pastor friends in Midland; for my longtime friendships with preachers I’ve known for 25-plus years; for Jason, with whom I study and pray and argue and laugh; and with guys and gals in our unique fraternity I’m just now meeting and getting to know. We hold on to Scripture. We hold on to justice. We hold on to love. We hold on to our Lord and the promises of our God. And we hold on to each other.

Peace,
Allan

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