The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Church (Page 1 of 60)

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

Church on a Snow Day

January 26, 2026 / / 0 Comments

We made the decision to open the doors Sunday morning and hold a worship service at GCR Church. It was snowing, the roads were icy, and the temperatures were in the teens; it was a winter weather situation we don’t get into that much in Midland, maybe only once every four or five years. Several Midland churches cancelled their services on Friday. As Friday turned into Saturday, even more churches posted their announcements that they were canceling their worship gatherings.

The restaurants were open. The grocery stores and retail outlets were open. The movie theaters and Costco and Bass Pro Shop were open. The club teams were all going forward with their basketball practices.

It seems to me that if two-thirds of the town is open, the church should not be closed.

We are ordained by God and charged by our community of faith to administer the sacraments of Word and Table every Lord’s Day. If 500 people show up to worship, it’s great. And if only five people show up, it’s still really great. God still meets us. God still transforms us. We are still in his presence, gathered together in the name of Jesus and by the power of his Spirit. Why would we cancel?

I know the rub. In situations like this, all the people younger than me who have no problem navigating the weather conditions will stay home, and all the people older than me who shouldn’t be out in this stuff will go to church. So, the thinking goes, we have to cancel so the older people don’t hurt themselves.

I’ve never known what to do with that. I’m open to suggestions.

I was at the building early Sunday morning, but not before Tim and Justin. They were here at 6:00am, shoveling the snow and ice and blowing dry the south and east sidewalks, preparing the way to church.

I called Carrie-Anne from the building at 9:00am. “Do you want me to come pick y’all up?” She replied, “Who am I? Your grandmother?! I know how to drive on this stuff!” I think I offended her. I love her for that.

The later it got in the week and the more buildup we heard from our local Midland media and saw on everybody’s Facebook posts about how terrible it was going to be, I was convinced that everyone had already made up their minds about whether or not they were going to attend church. I began getting the texts on Wednesday. “What are the chances we cancel church Sunday?” I responded, “Almost zero.” It felt like people had already decided. I started telling people by Thursday that even if it’s sunny and 40-degrees on Sunday, we’ll still have fewer than 100 people here.

Does that mean we should cancel?

Doesn’t cancelling church when most of the town is open and most of our congregation is eating out and going to practice and buying groceries send a message that church isn’t as important as we say it is? No, we are going to open the doors and greet one another warmly and hear the Word and eat and drink the communion meal; we’re going to sing praise to the Lord and hug each other and pray together and be reminded that we are redeemed children of God, that we belong to him and to one another, and that this is our primary identity and purpose.

More than 70 people showed up. Younger and older and lots of in-between. I even met a couple of visitors. We all huddled together down front, closer together, not spread out. Cory made a couple of jokes about the “Frozen Chosen” and we launched into the singing. We heard the Word of God from Philippians 2. I told some stories about God’s mission and how giving yourself to God’s mission changes us. I was able to make eye contact with every person in the room. We ate and drank the meal together. Richard gave us some news about the budget (Can you believe we come to church on a day like today and it’s Budget Sunday?!?). And we sang some more. And, afterwards, everybody hung out in the Worship Center talking and visiting, laughing and catching up with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

It was sweet. It was intimate. It was special.

We had our monthly 4 Midland lunch today. Me and my great friends, these pastor partners who knew we had church on Sunday when they didn’t. As soon as I sat down, Steve asked me, “Well, how many showed up?”

“The Lord showed up,” I replied. “And he was awesome.”

Peace,
Allan

The Transforming Church

January 14, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“The closer we draw to the Church, the closer Christ draws to us.” ~ Kenneth B

I’m still posting some excerpts from this past Sunday’s sermon on how we are transformed more into the image of Jesus in and through the local church. I am also sharing some lines from the excellent article I found Monday–a few days too late!–written by Kenneth B on Substack about the same topic. You can read his outstanding piece here.

The main point of Sunday’s sermon is that the differences we have with one another in our churches are precisely the areas where our Father shapes us into his image. It’s in those differences and disappointments that the Spirit changes us to more consistently think like God and more regularly and predictably act like Jesus. We have different ideas, different preferences, different buttons and triggers–there’s never going to be anything we all agree on together within our churches.

And that’s okay.

If we had to agree with everybody in our churches on everything, Carrie-Anne and I would be at two different churches.

If unity means uniformity, a bunch of us are going to have stop thinking. Nobody wants that.

God’s people are messy in community. But I think that’s the point.

“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people, and members of God’s household… In him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” ~ Ephesians 2:19-22

“In fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” ~ 1 Corinthians 12:18

I believe that every man, woman, and child in your church is there because God placed them there. You are a part of your congregation for a reason: God’s reason. We need each other if God’s going to work in us and through us the way he intends. Our mindset must be: We are together in this church because of what God is doing in Christ. If that’s the mindset, then we commit to one another. We vow to make it work.

We were watching a TV show a couple of weeks ago in which two of the characters work together, and they’re dating. They’re in a relationship. He did something at work she didn’t like, something that messed up what she was trying to accomplish, and it made her angry. So she broke up with him. It’s over. And he said, “So, that’s how it is? You don’t get your way and you sever the relationship? You’re going to be a sad and lonely woman.”

Some people leave their church when they don’t get their way. They just leave because something’s not going the way they want.

No! That misses the whole point of Christian community! It’s a family, it’s like a marriage. You work it out. You don’t leave. You work through it. And it’s hard and it’s painful and sometimes it’s disappointing and sometimes it hurts. But this is precisely what leads to spiritual growth. This is what facilitates increased Christ-likeness. You don’t treat your church like you treat your car or your shampoo. Your mindset is: I am all in with these people in this place because God has put me here and he’s doing something.

“In Christ, we, who are many, form one body. And each member belongs to all the others.” ~ Romans 12:5

We belong together in our church communities. And it’s in your church community where God’s grace transforms you. Being together all the time with people you don’t necessarily agree with, worshiping and serving together, living and dying together with people you didn’t choose, forces us to grow in Christ-likeness.

Love one another. Build one another up. Encourage one another. Honor one another. Be in harmony with one another. Pray for one another. Be devoted to one another. Instruct one another. Greet one another. Accept one another. Serve one another. Be patient with one another. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Submit to one another. Forgive one another. These biblical commands can only be obeyed in community. We can only follow our Lord’s instructions if we’re together, if we really belong to each other. And when we do these things, by God’s grace, when we commit to this way of being together in Christian community, we’ll find that we are more consistently thinking like God and more regularly and predictably acting like Jesus.

This is how God works. And where.

I’ll end today with this paragraph from the Kenneth B article. Again, I urge you to read the whole thing here.

“A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is real, but it is not solitary. It is lived through the Church. You do not discover Christ by escaping the community, but by joining it. You do not grow closer to God by seeking exceptional moments, but by entering the ordinary pattern of worship, repentance, fasting, and love that has formed saints for two thousand years… We meet him as members of his Body. We are saved together, healed together, shaped together, and restored together. Even our most personal experiences of grace arise from the shared life of the Church, it’s sacraments, its Scriptures, its prayers, its elders, its martyrs, and its saints… In the ancient world, to speak of knowing Christ personally was to speak of being united to his Body, standing shoulder to shoulder with the community he founded, and learning from the people who had already learned to pray, to repent, to love, and to die with hope.”

Peace,
Allan

Church is God’s Work

January 13, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I paid off a Cowboys debt today. I bet Myles back in August that the Cowboys would not get seven wins this year. Myles is a squirrely 13-year-old kid in our youth group and the son of the wonderful Brandon and Ashlee. He and I share a love for Whataburger, the Texas Longhorns, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and our Lord Jesus. But that’s about the extent of what we have in common. He loves the Cowboys. Poor kid.

Our wagers are always for lunch at Whataburger. Loser buys. Including the vanilla and strawberry shakes. So, I picked up Myles from school today. And his friend, Nolan. I’m not sure how I got roped into buying his lunch, too. I don’t know this kid. Why am I buying his lunch?

When’s the last time you shared a meal with a teenager from your church? I’d suggest doing it soon. It’s awesome.

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A lot of people have this idea that the church is a volunteer organization; that every person in the church makes his or her own decision to belong or not; like we each experience a personal relationship with Christ, and then we join a church that promotes my individual spiritual health. This way, people join the church or leave the church based on whether they feel like their needs are being met or not.

No. Our knowledge of God–understanding who God is and what he is doing–re-shapes the way we think about Christian community, the way we view church. Church is God’s work, not ours. Not yours and not mine.

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light… Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” ~ 1 Peter 2:9-10

Earlier in 1 Peter 2, the apostle writes that you–this is the plural form of the word, you all, or, as I like to say, y’all–are chosen by God and precious. You (y’all) are being built into a spiritual house. You are not building it; you are being built by God. Belonging to a community of faith is not your choice, it is God’s decision. It’s God’s work.

“God has called you (y’all) into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~1 Corinthians 1:9
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you (y’all) were when you were called.” ~1 Corinthians 1:26
“It is because of God that you (y’all) are in Christ Jesus.” ~1 Corinthians 1:30

In the Bible, whenever the Gospel is preached, wherever the power of what God has done and is doing in Christ Jesus is proclaimed, these communities of faith just pop up. The churches in the Bible are defined ONLY by their acceptance of the Good News and their commitment to Christ and to one another. Jews and Gentiles together. Rich and poor together. Free people and slaves together. Men and women, tax collectors and Zealots, national citizens and foreigners together. Young and old, fugitives and business leaders together.

You and I don’t CHOOSE to belong to group like that. We would NEVER choose that. Putting a church together is what God does.

Peace,
Allan

A Very Late Cultural Invention

January 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The great Drew Pearson is 75 today. The OG 88. Walk around today with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder in his honor. Try to use the phrase “Hail Mary” at least a couple of times. And just point to the crowd knowingly. Don’t spike it.

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I’m not a hundred-percent sure what to do with Substack. It feels like social media, to which I am fundamentally opposed. But some of the best writers I know personally are writing there regularly. So, I’m reading Jim Martin and Daniel Harris and Carrie McKean. Then Steve Schorr, my brother and partner in the Gospel at First Presbyterian, turned me on to the Disarming Leviathan guys. And now I have come across Kenneth B.

I do not know who Kenneth B. is. He is an orthodox Christian. That’s it. Maybe that’s all I need to know. He has written an excellent piece on the Church and our understandings of Church as the Body of Christ. Or, better said, our gross misunderstandings. And it is the best article on Church as the transforming community of faith I have read in a long time.

He writes about people a little younger than me, people in their 40s and 50s maybe, and how they were raised to view Christianity as a personal relationship with Jesus, faith as an emotional experience, and the Church as functioning to produce that experience.

“The idea that church existed to form a people rather than to stimulate an individual was unimaginable to us. Church was treated like a spiritual energy drink. You consumed it for a jolt of religious feeling, and if you stopped feeling the jolt, you changed flavors… Looking back, I realize that what I was handed was not the faith of the apostles, but a very late cultural invention.”

I just preached yesterday about how God’s Holy Spirit transforms us in Christian community, how our commitments to Christ and to his people–people we would never choose, people we don’t agree with, people we may not even like–form us more and more into his holy image. I only wish I had read Kenneth B’s article before I had preached. I think I might have just read the whole thing to everybody and called it good. This is excellent stuff.

“Because the entire structure was built around individual experience, religious feeling became the engine and the evidence of faith. A good church was one that gave you an experience. A bad church was one that did not. Piety was defined by how deeply a song moved you, how intensely a sermon pierced your conscience, how often you felt the Spirit goosebump the back of your neck. If you prayed and felt nothing, the prayer was thought to have failed. If you worshiped and felt nothing, the worship was considered dead.” 

Please read this whole article. It’s right here. Click right here. Read it twice. I think I’m going to write about it in sections this week, along with excerpts from yesterday’s sermon.

“Consider how the early Christians spoke. They did not describe salvation as me and Jesus but as us in Christ. Baptism did not place you in a private booth with God. It plunged you into a people. The Eucharist did not symbolize an internal feeling. It joined your life with every believer at the table.” 

Okay. It’s really good. Check it out. Then come back tomorrow.

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The boys are six months old. They are both rolling over consistently and sleeping on their bellies. Elliott is starting to hold his own bottle, here and there. Sam is watching Elliott intensely and hollering at him when he feels ignored. They are the two coolest little kids on the planet and they will be center stage at the annual Baby Dedication Service at the Jenks Church this Sunday. We will be on the front row. Cheering and laughing and praising God for his grace in the gift of these guys who fill us with so much joy.

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I had an incredible weekend in Dallas with some of the people I absolutely love the most. Three of the four Horsemen had lunch together at Dan’s house Friday. I snuck in a box of Swiss Cake Rolls and Zebra Cakes–don’t tell Debbie–and we laughed together and talked about all that God is doing in our lives. The Parkinson’s keeps Dan-O mostly confined to his bedroom now, but his Spirit has never known any bounds. He is as full of joy and encouragement as I’ve ever seen him. I thank God for Dan and for his continuous encouragement to me. He sees things in me I never did. Still does. He speaks them into existence, to our Lord and to me, sometimes at the same time.

Friday night, my sister Rhonda and I drove to Oak Cliff to take our Aunt Louann to dinner at the historic Norma’s Cafe. I knew we were going to make for a very loud party, so I made sure we sat in a booth in the very back corner of the restaurant. I think we still scared away some of the patrons. Oh, my word, we shared memories and Stanglin stories, we puzzled over unanswered questions and deep family mysteries, we sang songs (hard to explain), and laughed at everything. And we did it all way too loud.

At one point, the couple in the booth behind Louann got up to leave and looked at us with huge grins on their faces. They laughed and said, “Y’all have some really interesting stories!” I apologized and they assured us it was fine, they were entertained. They could tell we were having fun and that made it fun for them. As they walked away, Louann yelled at me, “WHAT DID THEY SAY?” So I told her. And Louann responded, “DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!” And I yelled back, “I DON’T KNOW! DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!”

Then Saturday morning, Rhonda and I met at the Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland for Coach Richmond’s funeral. Coach Larry Richmond was my high school football coach at Dallas Christian. He was a history and health teacher and, for a couple of years in an emergency situation, our tennis coach. And we all loved him deeply. There were about 20 of us at the service who played for Coach Richmond, and we took pictures together and swapped a lot of football stories in the foyer, at the reception, and for about three hours at the On the Border at Saturn Road and Northwest Highway.

That crazy last drive and the Savage Fake that beat Metro Christian. The 4th quarter meltdown in that playoff game at Bishop Lynch. Cowboy drills. Sideline tackle drills. Uphill forties. Dean Stewart’s grades that were questionable for the Trinity game and kept him out of the First Baptist game. The Greenhill bell. Crack-backing on Greg Lybrand in practice and fearing for my life every day after until he graduated. A certain peanut butter incident after a week of two-a-days at football camp. The Bomb Squad. Ground Control. Coach T’s “Major Tom” towel. All the nicknames. Pearhead’s intense running. Godoy’s speed and the physical way he went after a football. Dumb Adkins’ toughness and leadership. Coach Lisle.

As I drove to Midland after that long lunch, my head aching from laughing too hard for too long, and Rhonda drove home to Edmond, we talked on the phone with each other for almost an hour and a half. Psycho-analyzing all of it. Reviewing feelings and reactions. Remembering people who weren’t there. Reminding of something funny or unexpected that was done or said.

I came away from the weekend overflowing with gratitude to God for all the amazingly wonderful people he has placed in my life. My whole life. Coach Richmond was MY coach! So was Coach Lisle! I had both of them! And Coach A and Coach T and Coach Savage and Coach Smith and Coach Shack. How was I so blessed? Jason Reeves is MY friend. So is Dan and Kevin and Robby John! Todd Adkins was MY teammate and running buddy in high school and MY roommate in college. I also went to high school and was friends with Mark Cawyer and Randy Hill and Michelle Peoples and Jeff Majors and Stephen Fitzhugh and Kyle Douthit! How? Rhonda Kingsley is MY sister! Completely undeserved! Totally lucky! Deeply and richly blessed by God!

Don’t wait until next week. Tell the people you love that you love them.

Peace,

Allan

Where “All” Becomes “One”

July 31, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ~Galatians 3:26-28

I believe we are blessed to live in the country we live in, but the systems and structures and mottos and politics of this world will never unite anybody. The only place where the “all” becomes “one” is in Christ alone. In Christ is the only place where all people become one people. Our Lord Jesus is creating one global eternal community, not a bunch of them. So, in Christ, all the barriers are gone. There’s no more separation, no more distinctions or differences–everybody’s totally equal in Christ. The walls are down, the doors are open, the bridges are built! Now that Christ Jesus has come, all people have become one people!

To treat anyone differently, to deny anyone equal standing or equal freedom in God’s Church based on their nationality or their social standing or their gender is to, as Paul writes, proclaim “a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all” (Galatians 1:6-7). That kind of discrimination or distinction contradicts not just how we’re saved, but also why we’re saved. When we discriminate or make those distinctions in the Church, our actions contradict our message.

For illustration and application purposes, Paul gives us three pairings. All in the same context. All in the same breath.

In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. This is about ethnicity. He’s talking about nationality and culture, this is about color and race and language, anything ethnically that the world divides over. No one has to become a Jew to be a Christian. When we give equal honor and equal freedom and equal standing to Christians of all colors and from all nations and who speak all languages, then we’re proclaiming the Word of the Lord.

The worshipers in Revelation are singing to Christ Jesus in heaven. Listen to their song:
“You were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!” ~Revelation 5:9

The saints of God come from all over and they’re singing the same song. If we treat Christians differently or show them less honor or give them less freedom because they’re a different color or come from a different country or speak a different language, we are proclaiming something different than God’s Word.

In Christ, there is neither slave nor free. This is about social standing and economic status. How a person is educated, what kind of job she has, or how much money he makes has nothing to do with how a person is accepted as righteous by God or how that person serves and worships in God’s Church. It’s totally irrelevant. If anybody’s getting preferential treatment at church, it should be the poor and the marginalized and the people on the outside. Listen to our Lord:

“Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed… Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame… Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in so that my house will be full!” ~Luke 14:13, 21, 23

Our Lord’s brother says it straight up in James 2, that if you show favoritism for a rich man over a poor man, you are sinning against God who has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and to inherit his Kingdom. If you only talk to Christians who have jobs, if you only eat with Christians who live in your zip code, if you only show honor to Christians who can pay you back, you’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

In Christ, there is neither male nor female. This is about gender and all the different dynamics that surround gender. This is about bestowing or not bestowing status or freedom in the Church based on a Christian’s sex.

It’s interesting to me that in a lot of our churches, in our Bible classes and small groups and in almost all our church settings, our Christian sisters are encouraged to express their full freedom in Christ and asked to exercise their spiritual gifts. But it’s different in the Worship Center. Generally speaking, women lead prayers and read Scripture and exhort the church at 9:30 all over the campus, but they’re not allowed to do those exact same things in front of the exact same people and the same God in the Worship Center at 10:30.

It seems like we should interpret and apply this third pairing just like we do the other two.

In 1 Corinthians 11, where the apostle Paul instructs women on how to pray and how to teach in the Sunday assembly, it’s in the context of we are all one together in Christ and how we need each other and each other’s spiritual gifts.

“In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” ~1 Corinthians 11:11-12

In Christ, men and women are the same. No gender is better than the other, no gender is more honored or more gifted or more free to exercise those gifts than the other. Males and females are equal in Christ. Again, it seems to me we should interpret and practice this third couplet like we do the other two. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead a prayer in the assembly because they’re Black. We wouldn’t tell some Christians they can’t lead the communion time because they don’t have a job. So why do we tell some Christians they can’t do those things because they are women? Paul sees these categories as the same.

Now, there are two verses in the Bible that are used to restrict Christian women in exercising their spiritual gifts, two lines addressing two particular concerns in two very specific settings. But we have this central passage in Galatians 3 and many others that call for and demonstrate this equal standing between men and women in Christ. It seems that if we restrict our Christian sisters where the Bible doesn’t, we’re proclaiming a different Gospel, which is really no Gospel at all.

Peace,

Allan

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