The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Church (Page 28 of 61)

Life Together

January 7, 2013 / / 1 Comment

For most of us, if not every single one of us, we live in a “Christian-friendly” place. In most of our towns and cities, there is some kind of a Christian gathering or activity happening somewhere every day and night of the week. There is some kind of Christian work or service being done in the name of Jesus somewhere in our cities every day. There are Christian churches on every corner. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a dozen Christians. The people you work with, your neighbors, your waiter, the lady in front of you at the post office — they’re all Christians. Or, at least, most of them would claim to be Christian. Now, without getting into the specifics of their connections to Christ or their discipleship to Jesus, the truth is that most of us can go for days at a time and never see anybody or talk to anybody who wouldn’t say they’re a Christian.

And I wonder if we take that for granted.

Because, I promise you, the apostle Paul and John and Peter and Luke and the other early disciples of Jesus could never have imagined in their wildest dreams a world in which most people claim to be Christian. That concept of open and public worship and devotion to Jesus and open fellowship with a huge community of believers would have been unthinkable. Our group of 750 that meets together at Central on Sunday mornings and all the things we do together and all the ways we come together would have blown those first century Christians out of the water! Our meetings together and our fellowship with one another is so… matter-of-fact. So ordinary. So expected.

The very first Christians could never relate to what we enjoy on a regular basis. To those great men and women of the faith, the physical presence of other Christians — being in the same room with a bunch of other disciples! — was not normal. It was, instead, an uncommon source of great joy and strength.

Paul’s in prison and he calls Timothy to come to him in the last days of his life. He remembers Timothy’s tears when they departed and he longs to see his beloved son in the faith “that I may be filled with joy” (2 Timothy 1:4). He writes to his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica: “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again” (1 Thessalonians 3:10). The great apostle John, in his second letter writes to his brothers and sisters in Asia: “I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12).

There were times in their lives when these great men of God did not have the physical, visible fellowship with other believers that we enjoy on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. And they longed for it. They treasured it. They cherished it. They looked forward to it and savored it with great delight.

Good or bad, I don’t think we can relate.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about Christian fellowship in his wonderful little book, Life Together. When he wrote this in 1938, he was running an illegal underground seminary in Nazi Germany. This was five years before he was arrested by Hitler’s Gestapo police, seven years before he was executed by special order of Heinrich Himmler:

“What is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift every day. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us. Therefore, let him who has the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

Our Christian friendships should be treasured, never assumed. Our time together should be cherished, never avoided. Opportunities to be together should be seized, never scorned.

May we rededicate ourselves from this day forward to living more closely together in Christian community. May we place the proper perspective and value on the time we get to spend together in the holy presence of our loving and saving Father. And may we better understand how our life together not only serves to transform all of us more into the image of Christ, but serves to redeem this broken world in the name and manner of Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

Win Them By Our Life

December 17, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“Let us astound them by our way of life. For this is the main battle, the unanswerable argument, the argument from actions. For though we give ten thousand precepts of philosophy in words, if we do not exhibit a better life than theirs, the gain is nothing. For it is not what is said that draws their attention, but their inquiry is always what we do. Let us win them therefore by our life.”

~John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians, 4th century AD

Why do we still mostly understand Church not as an every day, every hour Kingdom of Priests to the world, but in terms of what we do together inside our church buildings on Sunday mornings? We judge the faithfulness or worth of a congregation in terms of its structures. What’s the organization of the church? What’s the name of the church? How do they worship? The structures are almost always our starting point. So when we attempt to reform or revive or rejuvenate a church, what we normally do is go to the Bible to try to get the structures right.

I don’t know if getting the structures right is what God has in mind for his treasured possession. Is that God’s mission in the world?

I mean, what happens when all the structures are perfectly right but there’s no serious engagement with one another or with the world? If doing worship correctly or organizing the leadership chain properly takes the place of living justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, are we honoring our Father who calls us his priests to the world?

When the church becomes more a set of structures and less a way of life in the world, our focus can become obsessively inward. We think of church life as an end in itself rather than something to be lived and given for the sake of others. We like our church, we’re comfortable in our church, we don’t want anybody to mess up our church or change it in any way. We can be very easily distracted by our own church life.

“Now a church came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’
‘Why do you ask me about what is good?’ Jesus replied. ‘There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
‘Which ones?’ the man inquired.
Jesus replied, ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.’
‘All these I have kept,’ the church said. ‘What do I still lack?’
Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be complete, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor. Then come, follow me.’
When the church heard this, it went away sad, because it had great wealth.”

Is it possible for a church to do all the right things and still lack the one thing it needs? Is it possible for the church to be so consumed with its own life that it fails to care for the world around it? Is it possible for a church to retreat so deeply into its own righteousness that it can’t hear the cries of a lost world?

The call to follow our King requires a giving up of our own lives. Jesus did not die for his Church so we could preserve our lives and cater to our own needs. Never! God forbid! In the name and manner of Jesus we are to spend our lives for the sake of the world. The Church, just exactly like its Lord, is being sent into the world not to be served, but to serve and to give its life for the sake of others.

Peace,

Allan

It’s a Wonderful Church!

December 12, 2012 / / 5 Comments

I’m a sucker for Frank Capra’s 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life!” Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, Bert and Ernie — what’s not to love? My family and I find ourselves quoting from the movie often. “You call this a happy family? Why’d we have to have all these kids?” “Another red letter day for the Baileys!” “Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?” When one of the girls feels sick, I put my palm all the way across her face to check for fever the way Stewart does with Zu Zu. When the issue of money comes up in family discussions, one of us will inevitably borrow George Bailey’s response when his guardian angel, Clarence, says they don’t need money where he comes from: “Yeah, well it sure comes in handy down here, bub!”

The question in that movie is: What if George Bailey had never lived?

Stewart’s character is about to go to prison because of something his incompetent uncle messed up. And he’s standing there on the bridge, in the snow, in the dark, contemplating suicide. Most of you know the story. He winds up face to face with Clarence (“you look like the kind of angel I’d get!”) and eventually admits that things would not be better if he were dead. Instead, he declares, “I suppose everybody would be better off if I’d never lived!” And the angel grants his wish. George Bailey gets to see Bedford Falls as if he’d never been born. And it’s awful.

There’s death and violence, depression and drunkenness, disputes and greed and lust — all kinds of evil has taken over the whole town. George Bailey had never been born to make the beautiful difference in that town, to have the fabulous impact on the people that had resulted in so much harmony and peace and good will.

Allow me to put a little twist on this excellent story. Instead of asking “What if George Bailey had never lived,” what if we asked “What if George Bailey had lived but had just made different choices?”

What if George had hesitated and thought of the great risk to himself as his brother slipped through the ice that morning? What if George had decided Mr. Gower’s problems were none of his business? What if George had taken off for Tahiti to chase his own lifelong dreams of fortune and glory instead of sacrificing those dreams to stay in that “crummy little town” to help others realize their own dreams? The answer is, the results would have been the same as if George had never been born.

Now, if God’s Church makes decisions and acts in ways that are only concerned with us, it’s as if the church were never born. It’s as if the Church doesn’t even exist. The results for the world are the same.

God has established his Church to be a Kingdom of priests, a holy priesthood, to live like Christ in a way that completely contrasts with the way the world lives. We are to show the world an alternative way to think and to act, an entirely different way to live. In the movie, the world deems war heroes and business tycoons as wonderful successes. But in God’s eyes, living life for the sake of others is what’s truly wonderful. Staying behind and giving up one’s own pleasures for the sake of others — a way of life ridiculed by the world — is what’s really wonderful. And it’s the same way for the Church. The world judges churches on attendance and money and buildings and membership demographics. God judges a church based on his heavenly directive to live holy and sacrificially important lives in a world that desperately needs his salvation.

You see, it really is a wonderful church. When we remember that it’s about serving, about being last, about sacrifice; when we remember that it’s not about us, it’s about everybody else; when we remember the way of our Lord and then live like him more every day, it really is a wonderful church.

Peace,

Allan

Behind the Pine Curtain

October 15, 2012 / / 2 Comments

I’m writing this morning from the library at the Chandler Street Church of Christ in Kilgore, Texas where I’m in the middle of preaching seven times in four days at the church’s annual Gospel Meeting. I was so happy to accept the invitation almost five years ago and I’m thrilled to finally be here this week. I won’t post another article here until Friday. That 1,000th post will contain the names of the winners in our drawing for all the books. In the meantime, I’ll be checking all the comments and engaging in those on-going conversations and you’ll have these three or four days to become eligible for the prizes.

In 2005, when Carrie-Anne and I finally got up the guts or the faith (both!) to leave sports radio and enter full-time congregational ministry, the Chandler Street church way out here in East Texas said, “Yeah, we want in on that!” Chandler Street jumped in early with a commitment to help in financially supporting my family and me while we moved to Austin for a Master’s Degree in Theology. I hope it wasn’t just that my dad and my uncle are elders at this congregation. I know it helped; but I pray that wasn’t the only thing. Even if it was, our God blessed us tremendously through the people at this place. They put a trust in me, they showed some real faith in me, and they barely knew me at all. I’ve always held that trust sacred. I’ve always been grateful to this church for their belief in me. And I’ve looked forward to this week ever since to tell them “thank you” from the pulpit in their church, to let them know how much they mean to me, and to assure them that I’ll never forget.

It’s been so good.

In yesterday’s opening prayer, Archie asked God to give me a “ready recollection.” Seriously. John Kyles promised he’d do his best to stay awake. My dad led singing. Uncle Gerald gave me an introduction that was way too kind. And we dove into the words of our Lord in John 14-16. We have already laughed together and cried. We’ve sung to our God and lifted our hearts in prayer. We’ve eaten a lot of food already at two different congregational meals with at least two more to come. My uncle told me I’d gain five pounds this week and I’m well on my way. I’ve watched this church family gather around a young woman who’d just received some devastating news and was feeling so.very.alone. I’ll watch them later today bring in dozens of children from the nearby middle school to mentor and to help with homework. I was blessed last night to sing with the young people around a fire and underneath some massive oaks trees. Today, I’ll eat lunch with my good friend, Chris Vidacovich, the preaching minister here. Tonight, I’m driving to Tyler to spend the night with Jason Reeves and his family. I’m having lunch with Uncle Gerald tomorrow. My closest family and some of my dearest friends live out here. And I’m meeting so many good, good, good people. In some ways this feels almost familiar.

But it’s different.

East Texas is not a foreign country. Yes, it’s different; very different. I flew out of the flat, brown plains of Amarillo Saturday morning, above the skyscrapers and highways of Big D, and landed a couple of hours later among the hills and lakes and towering pine trees of Gregg County. Very different. The dialect is different; the accents are more pronounced. The food tastes here lean a little more toward Louisiana and Arkansas than make me comfortable. The culture is different; even the church culture is different. I know it’s not a foreign country, but it can feel like one.

It’s so good to be reminded that people in Kilgore worship God exactly like the people in Amarillo. It’s comforting. Different types of songs, yes. Different orders, different styles, different practices, even a few different beliefs and, perhaps, different theological views. But they worship God in Kilgore just like we do in Amarillo. They praise the name of Jesus in Gregg County just like they do in Dallas and Sao Paulo, Brazil. They honor our Father here just like they do in Fort Worth and Kharkov, Ukraine. You know why?

Because Jesus is Lord.

So, it’s not just good. It’s not just comforting. It’s powerful. It’s empowering. It’s everything!

It means everything to be reminded that the Kingdom of God to which we all belong is so much bigger and better than my particular congregation or my specific city or my own country. We all belong to a Kingdom, to a holy and righteous and eternal movement, that transcends all of our individual styles and traditions, cultures and viewpoints. God’s name is praised in Kilgore and it’s praised in Beijing. Our Father is worshiped all over the world, because he alone is God. It’s big. It’s bigger than we usually think. What a blessing to belong!

Peace,

Allan

A Matter of Life and Death

October 2, 2012 / / 4 Comments

(Commenting on this post automatically enters you into the drawing for all the books we’re giving away in conjunction with this blog’s upcoming 1,000th article. Scroll way down to the posts on September 20 and 21 for details.)

While studying this week for our sermon on obedience to Christ’s commands (John 15:10-14, “Obey My Commands”), I’ve come across the text of a sermon from Ephesians 5:21ff preached by William Willimon on the topic of submission. While discussing how the world has subtly attacked the Christian doctrine of submission and declared war on our lives of obedience, Willimon speaks about the importance of our Sunday morning worship gatherings. He calls our worship assemblies “a matter of life and death.”

A couple of years ago, I was invited to preach in the congregation where a friend of mine serves. The congregation is located in the heart of one of our great cities. The congregation is entirely black people who live in the tenement houses in that part of the city. I arrived at eleven o’clock, expecting to participate in about an hour of worship. But I did not rise to preach until nearly twelve-thirty. There were hymns and gospel songs, a great deal of speaking, hand-clapping, singing. We did not have the benediction until nearly one-fifteen. I was exhausted.

“Why do black people stay in church so long?” I asked my friend as we went out to lunch. “Our worship never lasts much over an hour.”

He smiled. Then he explained, “Unemployment runs nearly 50 percent here. For our youth, the unemployment rate is much higher. That means that, when our people go about during the week, everything they see, everything they hear tells them, ‘You are a failure. You are nobody. You are nothing because you do not have a good job, you do not have a fine car, you have no money.’

“So I must gather them here, once a week, and get their heads straight. I get them together, here, in the church, and through the hymns, the prayers, the preaching say, ‘That is a lie. You are somebody. You are royalty! God has bought you with a price and he loves you as his Chosen People!’

“It takes me so long to get them straight because the world perverts them so terribly.”

Paganism is the air we breathe in this current world; consumerism is the water we drink; individualism and imperialism are the oxymoronic values that shape us. These things capture us, they convert our kids, they subvert us Christians. We live in a hostile place for discipleship. That’s what makes our congregations, our communities of faith, and our appointed times of corporate worship, a matter of life and death.

We must regularly speak together about God in a world that lives as if there is no God. We must talk to one another as beloved brothers and sisters in a world which encourages us to live as strangers. We must pray to God to give us what we can’t have by our own efforts in a world that teaches us we are self-sufficient and all-powerful. What we do together on Sundays matters a great deal.

Peace,

Allan

Orienting for Glory

September 21, 2012 / / 4 Comments

This coming Sunday marks the first of six straight weeks in which our adult Bible classes here at Central are pairing up with one another in an effort to better live what we preach in intergenerational, multi-cultural relationships. If you’re one of our members at Central, for six straight Sundays you’re going to be in a Bible class with people who are not your age. Their kids won’t be the same age as your kids. Their salaries might not match yours. Some of these people may come from completely different backgrounds, have completely different viewpoints, and sport a completely different skin color than yours. For six weeks a lot of you will listen to teachers you’ve never heard in a classroom you’ve never visited.

It’ll be different.

We’re all going to be pushed out of our comfort zones. We’re all going to experience a little vertigo as we get used to the different people and different styles. We’re all going to have to give a little, to bend a bit, to sacrifice and serve to make this happen.

It’ll be difficult.

But this is not a move to disorient us. It’s actually intended to orient us. This is an effort to orient us to that blessed day when all of God’s children are together around that one table at the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb. Different colors and languages, different ages and styles, different backgrounds and sets of experiences — yet, one people around one table.

That glorious day is coming. God has promised it, Christ Jesus died and was raised for it, and the Holy Spirit is working toward it. And we should live our lives today in great anticipation. We should be leaning into it daily. Looking forward to it, practicing it, getting ready for it.

It’s only an hour on Sunday mornings for just six weeks. But our prayer is that it’ll go a long way in helping us experience and express our Father’s holy will for his Church.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 1,000th posting on this five-year-old blog is going to happen before the end of October. And I’d like to celebrate that weird little milestone by giving you, the readers, brand new copies of some of the great books that have informed and shaped my thinking and writing and preaching. We’ll hold a drawing on the day of that 1,000th post. The only way to enter the drawing is by posting comments between now and then — see the end of yesterday’s post for details on how you can enter your name up to 14 times. You can enter multiple times, but you can only win one prize.

Grand Prize – all three books in John Mark Hicks’ series on the sacraments of the Church of Christ: Come to the Table, the book that launched my continuing quest to better understand Christ’s meal; Down to the River to Pray, a wonderful call to restore Christian baptism to the center of the life of the Church; and A Gathered People, a beautiful look at the ways God works in our corporate assemblies to transform us into the image of his Son.

First Prize – Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon

Second Prize – Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright

Third Prize – The Reason for God, Timothy Keller

Fourth Prize – The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

Fifth Prize – The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson

Peace,

Allan

 

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