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Category: Christ & Culture (Page 2 of 43)

Re-Thinking What You Believe

April 15, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Happy April 15. The day of the year we realize that taxation with representation ain’t that great, either.     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We believe that Jesus is raised from the dead and is reigning right now at the right hand of God. We believe that salvation comes by no other name than Jesus. We’re very clear on the things we believe. But a lot of us have stopped talking. We haven’t stopped believing, we’ve just stopped talking. But in the Bible, believing IS talking. Why don’t we talk about Jesus with the people around us?

What’s happened? We sincerely believe all the right things. But I wonder if we also believe some wrong things. I wonder if there are some things we need to stop believing. Are there things in our heads and our hearts that we believe to be true, that really aren’t? And do these false things we believe contribute to a church culture in which we don’t talk about Jesus with others the way we used to? I think some of the false things we believe have the potential to shut us down as Gospel proclaiming followers of the risen Christ.

Allow me to present a short list of some things we need to stop believing so we can be more effective witnesses to the Good News.

We need to stop believing that the Church is in decline, that it’s getting smaller and weaker. That’s not true. We hear it, we read it, and we repeat it. But it’s just not true. Yes, the Church in America and in Texas is declining in membership and attendance. The Churches of Christ in this country are losing numbers at an alarming rate–that’s undeniable. But I wouldn’t call it smaller and weaker. I believe the Church is getting smarter and stronger.

Fewer people are going to church. But the ones who are going, generally speaking, seem to be deeply committed to our Lord and his cause. As the numbers go down, the dedicated disciples of Jesus are gearing up. They’re giving more, they’re volunteering and serving more. The Church is not getting smaller and weaker, the Church is getting leaner and meaner for the mission. We’re becoming better equipped and prepared and motivated to do what we are ordained by God to do.

Remember, this has always been our God’s preferred method. Gideon brought 32,000 men to God and said, “We’re ready to fight!” But God wouldn’t give Gideon the battle plans until he had trimmed his numbers down to 300. It was David, not Saul, who defeated Goliath. God told his kings not to count the numbers of people, not to measure the size of the armies. When the kings counted, everybody got in trouble. God’s preferred method is to use five little rolls and two fish to feed the multitudes. God likes to use a tiny mustard seed to shade all the birds.

The Church is not in decline. God is weeding us, sifting us, pruning us–he’s getting us ready for something truly spectacular in his Kingdom.

We also need to stop believing that the Church is irrelevant. We hear that the Church doesn’t know what’s going on in the world, the Church is out of touch, the Church doesn’t have a genuine impact on real people’s lives. That’s just not true. Don’t ever believe it.

The churches right now today are rebuilding Asheville, North Carolina and all those towns in the Carolinas that were devastated by Hurricane Helene. Not the government, not the Red Cross, not the insurance companies–they all left a long time ago. The churches are rebuilding those homes and restoring hope to those families. Same thing with the wildfires in California and the wildfires in the Texas panhandle. God’s Church is always first on the scene and God’s Church is always the last to leave.

Disciples of Jesus are the ones who provide free health care to the poor. God’s Church provides shelter for the homeless. Followers of Christ feed the hungry kids and furnish the transitional housing, and train the unwed mothers. God’s Church advocates for the immigrants and refugees and defends the wrongfully imprisoned. Christians build the schools in Kenya and run the clinics in Honduras.

Christians understand the physical, incarnational aspects of salvation–we always have. In the early days of the Church, the apostles healed the blind and crippled and fed the poor. In the first 150 years of American history, God’s Church established 90% of the colleges and universities and built 100% of the hospitals. Don’t let anybody ever tell you the Church is irrelevant or out of touch. It’s not true.

I’ll add three more things to this list tomorrow.

The point is that if we believe these false ideas about the Church then, yes, we can start believing that we’re hanging on to a dying idea, that our message has no power, that the world has passed us by, and that God’s not as interested in saving people as he used to be. We’ll stop talking. It’s time to re-think what we believe.

Peace,

Allan

Better Christians!

February 9, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“We don’t need more Christians; we need better Christians.” ~Francis Chan

Most of our culture in America right now, especially with the majority of people younger than us, are turned off by Christians. The world is sick of Christians. People don’t listen to Christians anymore. So, as Christians, it’s tempting to think, in order to win the world, we need to be less Christian. Christians don’t have credibility in our society anymore. People seem to be angry at Christians. So, maybe we shouldn’t act too Christian all the time. Maybe we should relax our Christianity every now and then.

No. The whole premise is wrong.

Yes, we do hear the world complain about Christian fanatics. These fanatics get born again and they start screaming against things. They holler and yell and make speeches and forward posts against politicians and parties and same-sex couples and evolution and abortion and the homeless and immigration. Pick a topic, pick any issue, and Christians can appear to be very judgmental and intolerant and loud.

That’s what turns people off.

And when that kind of behavior is done in the name of our Lord, it turns me off, too.

Most people say those folks are too Christian. They need to lighten up on their Christianity. They’re too radically Christian. They take their Christianity too seriously.

No. Those kinds of folks are not Christian enough. They’re not taking their Christianity seriously enough.

The people who are considered extreme Christians are overbearing, self-righteous, harsh, and opinionated. But they’re not radical Christians; they’re not Christian enough. They may be radically zealous and extremely bold. But they’re not radically humble. They’re not extremely compassionate. They’re not over-the-top loving or extravagantly forgiving or fanatically empathetic. They’re not sacrificial servants. They’re not like Jesus very much at all.

Some Christians can be arrogant and selfish and actually be a hindrance to the Gospel. We can be working against our God as he redeems and restores the world. We say we carry a message of grace, but how are people going to experience it as truth when we act that way? Sometimes, in the name of Jesus, we just run over people. We can be so narrow-minded and stubborn sometimes that nobody’s right about anything but us. Jesus totally embodied a powerful message of truth that called people to repentance and accountability and a choice. But he never ran over anybody.

If we are really fanatics and radical Christians–too Christian–the world would fall in love with our God. If the world saw all of us walking to the cross, walking with a cross, serving and sacrificing, dying to ourselves and dying for one another, loving unconditionally, forgiving lavishly, showing mercy and grace to all, speaking only kind words–radically Christian!–the whole world would fall down and worship our God.

Peace,

Allan

The Will of Jesus to Practice

November 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

More and more research is being released about the effects of cell phones and digital technology, telling us what we already know, what we’ve known for 20 years. But somehow it keeps being presented and received as groundbreaking. What? Cell phone bans result in academic improvement? No way!! Who could have ever guessed that? The latest is coming out of the Dallas School District where Robert T. Hill Middle School banned all phones on campus five years ago. According to school officials there, the campus culture has shifted. There has been a 75% decrease in bullying (I’m not sure how they measure that), and a 13-point gain in the number of students meeting the standards of the STAAR tests. According to the story from Channel 5 in Fort Worth, the biggest pushback generally comes from the parents. Not the students. Parents complain they need to be in constant contact with their children. Of course, because we want to raise our kids to need to live with us into their 30s.

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Our first “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving service is this Sunday. I’m preaching at First Baptist this Sunday morning and Steve Brooks, our brother from First Methodist, is preaching here at GCR. Darin Wood, the pastor at First Baptist is preaching at First Presbyterian while their pastor, Steve Schorr, is preaching at First Methodist. And then all four of our churches are coming together Sunday evening for a combined Thanksgiving service. In advance of these glorious events, I’m posting this week about Christian unity as a gift of God to receive, our Church of Christ heritage to embrace, and, today, the will of Jesus to practice.

My prayer, Jesus says, is that all of them may be one. May they be brought to complete unity. It’s this unity, this uncompromising love and acceptance we have for all baptized disciples of Christ, that will prove to the world Jesus really is who we say he is. Our unflinching commitment to love and accept and unite with all Christian brothers and sisters will astonish the world!

Well, Allan, not ALL people who’ve been baptized. A lot of people are not baptized like we are. A lot of churches don’t do the Lord’s Supper like we do. We can’t worship with and have fellowship with ALL Christians.

That’s why the Church is not astonishing the world.

Our Lord’s prayer is for unity. Christ’s will is for complete unity among all his followers. We need to get there. So, let’s lay it out.

If God accepts someone, I have to also. I can’t be a sterner judge than the perfect judge. I don’t know anybody who would say, “Well, God certainly accepts this woman as a full child of his, but she doesn’t meet all of MY standards. I’M not going to accept her.” Nobody would say that. The truth is, I must fellowship everybody who has fellowship with God. All the saved. Everybody who’s saved.

So, who is saved?

Well, all those who hear, believe, repent, confess, and are baptized (by the way, that’s another Church of Christ creed).

All those who hear what? The Gospel! And believe what? The Gospel! Who repent and confess what? The Gospel!

Okay, what’s the Gospel? That Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, that he alone is Lord, and that we’re saved by faith in him.

The Bible sums it up in several places, but that’s pretty good. Believe in Jesus as the eternal Son of God, declare him Lord, and, by faith, submit to his lordship in baptism. We’ve never required anything else. The Church through the centuries has never demanded anything more. We’ve never asked anybody their position on atonement theory or women’s roles before they’re baptized. We don’t put a person in the water and then catalogue all their beliefs on the plurality of elders and the age of the earth before they’re saved. Now, some of us try to do that after they’re saved! We can act like a health club sometimes: “The first month is free but then, after that, you’re going to pay through the nose! For the rest of your life!” No, that stuff is not the Gospel. The apostle Paul says nothing but Christ and him crucified.

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” ~Romans 15:7

We are called to accept others by the same standard as when Jesus Christ accepted us, to continually accept others based on the way they were accepted at their baptisms–the way you were accepted at your baptism. Your acceptance by God is a gift. The fact that Christ Jesus accepts you is nothing but pure grace. Now, show that same grace, share that same gift, to everyone who calls Jesus Lord.

Peace,

Allan

Our CofC Heritage to Embrace

November 19, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The Cowboys ushered in the experimental phase of the 2024 season last night by getting blown out at home. Again. Among the miscues and missed opportunities against the Texans, the mass of penalties and the highly questionable play calls, double-fumbles, a boinked field goal, and a botched fake punt, Mike McCarthy’s biggest post-game regret was that he didn’t give Trey Lance a couple of series at the end. The roof fell down on the Cowboys last night, both figuratively and literally. Forget the Lombardi Trophy, this team can’t even compete for the Governor’s Cup. I’m reminded of the immortal words of Bum Phillips after his Houston Oilers dismantled the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day in 1978, “I’d rather be Texas’ Team than America’s Team any day.”

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My gifted and talented brother, Keith Stanglin, the executive director of Center for Christian Studies in Austin, has written a brilliant article on the new Apple Intelligence commercials that are airing multiple times during almost all college and NFL football games. You’ve seen the spots: the mom making an AI generated video for her husband after she forgets his birthday, the guy in the boardroom who uses AI to generate a report after being called on the carpet for not doing his work, the employee sending an AI email to his boss that hides the fact he’s a disengaged slob at work. Keith points out the obvious. These commercials don’t try to hide what AI is all about; the ads emphasize it as the selling point. Laziness and deception. Cheating. Hiding. The old vices are the new virtues. AI calls evil good and good evil. And most of our world embraces it giddily. Thank you, Keith, for your words of wisdom and warning. This is a great read.

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In advance of our first annual “4 Midland” Thanksgiving service this Sunday at First Baptist, I’m writing this week about Christian unity. Yesterday I posted about Christian unity among all disciples of Jesus across all denominations as a gift from God to receive. Today, I’d like to present Christian unity as our Church of Christ heritage to embrace.

215 years ago, Thomas Campbell was preaching fiery sermons about Christian unity in western Pennsylvania. His convictions about the unity of all Christians and those sermons got him censured by his presbytery and then fired by his synod. At the same time, another Presbyterian preacher in Kentucky, Barton Stone, dissolved his presbytery to unite with everyone who desired to move away from denominational labels and just be known as Christians. In September of 1809, Campbell wrote what he called the Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington County. It was a call to Christian unity based on Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and on the whole of Scripture that presents complete unity as God’s holy will for his people.

Some of the Declaration and Address is tough sledding; it was written over two centuries ago. But I love reading it. It’s our founding document in Churches of Christ. This document is where we get, “Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent,” although I’m afraid we’ve become a people who speak where the Bible speaks and, where the Bible is silent, we have even more to say. Our foundational Church of Christ creeds come from the Declaration and Address. “Christians only, but not the only Christians.” “No creed but Christ,” which, ironically, is a creed. I can’t find, “guide, guard, and direct” in this document, but I know it must be in there.

The Declaration and Address reminds us in Churches of Christ that we began as a Christian unity movement with a deep conviction that all Christians are one. All Christians are together. Our unity in Christ transcends all denominational differences and it should be demonstrated in visible and public ways for the sake of an unbelieving world.

I’ll share just a couple of passages:

Proposition 1 – That the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the scriptures, and that manifest the same by their tempers and conduct.

Proposition 2 – They ought to receive each other as Christ Jesus hath also received them to the glory of God. And for this purpose, they ought to all walk by the same rule, to mind and speak the same thing; and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Proposition 9 – That all that are enabled, thro’ grace, to make the Christian confession and to manifest the reality of it in their tempers and conduct, should consider each other as the precious saints of God, should love each other as brethren, children of the same family and Father, temples of the same Spirit, members of the same Body, subjects of the same grace, objects of the same divine love, bought with the same price, and joint heirs of the same inheritance. Whom God has thus joined together no man should dare to put asunder.

Introduction, pages 9-10 – Not that we judge ourselves competent to effect such a thing; we utterly disclaim the thought. But we judge it our bounded duty to make the attempt, by using all due means in our power to promote it; and also, that we have sufficient reason to rest assured that our humble and well meant endeavors shall not be in vain in the Lord. The cause that we advocate is not our own peculiar; it is a common cause, the cause of Christ and our brethren of all denominations. All that we presume to do, then, is to do what we conceive to be our duty, in connexion with our brethren; to each of whom it equally belongs, as to us, to exert themselves for this blessed purpose.

It was a radical, mind-blowing vision. Christians only. Unity in Christ. For the sake of the world. Putting aside personal preferences and tearing down denominational walls. Campbell and Stone dreamed and prayed for the one Church we read about in our Bibles, the one Church Jesus prayed for at that last supper, the physical and tangible unity of Christ’s Church that proves to the world he really is Lord.

It was risky. Dangerous. It cost them their jobs. It cost them relationships with family and friends and professional colleagues. But Campbell and Stone valued the sound doctrine of Christian unity more than they valued their own church’s distinctions that divided them.

A couple of times in the Declaration and Address, Campbell writes, “What? Shall we pray for a thing and not strive to obtain it?”

Peace,

Allan

Reality Check

November 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Most Christians I know will be voting in this country’s general elections tomorrow. For a variety of reasons and motivations, with a mixture of hopes and concerns, most Christians are heading to the polls. To those who are deciding to vote, I generally say something like this: I believe it’s okay for followers of Jesus to vote; just don’t pretend it’s an act of righteousness.

Here in the United States, where we live, we’ve got, for all practical purposes, two political parties. Generally speaking, there are some Kingdom of God values in both party platforms and also things in both party platforms that fall woefully short, if not straight up oppose Christ. I don’t think all Christians who vote against abortion hate immigrants and I don’t believe all Christians who vote for civil rights and refugees want to normalize gay marriage and gender fluidity. It’s complicated. There’s room for a carefully discerning Christian to vote for either party with a clear conscience before God and his Christian brothers and sisters.

But both parties get their way through power and threat, wealth and numbers, insults and lies, division and force. The goals and the methods of both parties are not at all in line with what I call Christian politics.

As Christians, we have our own unique politics. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We have a King. His name is Jesus. And he’s not on the ballot tomorrow. The Bible says our King was declared with power when the Holy Spirit raised him from the dead to be the Son of God: Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 1:4)

And he has told us how to live, how to function with others for the greater good, what to prioritize for the sake of society. In other words, politics. What laws are going to govern how we take care of others, how are we going to get along together, how will we help people flourish? That’s politics. And God through Christ has told us what it looks like. We follow very clear and very specific politics. The Ruler of God’s Kingdom has shown us how to change the world, how to make things right, how to fix things for all people.

It looks like Jesus on the cross. It’s sacrifice. Suffering. Forgiveness. Love. Mercy. Grace. Compassion. Empathy. Serving others. Unconditional love, for all. The crucified and risen Jesus is our King. These are our Kingdom of God politics. And you can’t find them in the politics of the world’s kingdoms.

I don’t see one good party and one bad party in the United States. I don’t believe it’s one righteous platform and one evil platform. It seems to me it is one broken, fallen, sinful, political system of a temporary and fading worldly kingdom that’s opposed to the politics of the Kingdom of God.

As Brian Zahnd pointed out in his recent voter’s guide, “The bottom line for political parties is power and the bottom line for Christians is love; therein lies the rub.”

The U.S. political system has very little to do with how God is saving the world. The fate of the Kingdom of God is not hanging in the balance tomorrow. It’s much more important that your soul be filled with love than for your party to win the election. We all need these reminders. It’s okay to vote, but voting is not how we witness to the Way of Jesus.

Hunter S. Thompson is given credit for saying, “There’s a terrible danger in voting for the lesser of two evils because the parties can set it up that way.” The current circumstances make it difficult to argue against his point.

More to my point, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “Of two evils, choose neither. Christians must turn from the endless cycle of voting for the lesser of two evils and expecting an unrighteous act to produce a righteous result. Choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil, and never should we do evil that good may come.”

Each of us has to make our own decisions about what we’re going to do tomorrow–whether or not to vote; if we do vote, for which candidate to cast a ballot; and to what extent we place our hopes and dreams in this country’s politics and candidates. The guiding principle for Christians is that we know our God is chasing different goals and using different methods than those represented on the ballots. The way of our God is always different from the way of the world.

It’s not a cynical position like that of 20th century activist Emma Goldman, who said, “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” It’s more about a proper perspective when weighing just how much, if any, of himself or herself a Christian wants to pour into the process. Pay attention to how much energy and emotion you’re putting into this thing. Be aware of how the ups and downs of this week, and maybe the rest of this month, impact your behaviors. Keep your allegiances in the proper order.

C.S. Lewis once observed, “He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation or a party or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God himself.”

Peace,

Allan

Brian Zahnd’s Voter’s Guide

October 25, 2024 / / 0 Comments

One of our shepherds here at GCR, Brandon Brunson, posted this “Christian Voter’s Guide” yesterday written by Brian Zahnd. Carrie-Anne showed it to me. It does such a good job of concisely and precisely reminding us of our primary commitments and allegiances during an election season. Seems good to me to post it here, as well. Not all of us are on Facebook.

The Christian Voter’s Guide
by Brian Zahnd

1. The political process, while necessary, has little to do with how God is saving the world.

2. The fate of the Kingdom of God does not depend upon political contests.

3. Don’t be naive, political parties are more interested in Christian votes than they are in Christian values.

4. The bottom line for political parties is power. The bottom line for a Christian is love. Therein lies the rub.

5. While in pursuit of the Ring of Power, you are not permitted to abandon the Sermon on the Mount.

6. If your political passion makes it hard for you to love your neighbor as yourself, you need to turn it down a notch.

7. Your task is to bring the salt of Christian civility to an ugly and acrimonious political process.

8. To dismember the Body of Christ over politics is a grievous sin.

9. Exercise your liberty to vote your conscience and conviction, while accepting that other Christians will do the same and vote differently than you.

10. It’s more important that your soul be filled with love than it is for your political team to win the game.

Peace,
Allan

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