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The Slogan

March 1, 2012 / / 1 Comment

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love.”

Barton Stone didn’t come up with that old Restoration slogan. Neither did Alexander Campbell. Nor Thomas. It’s certainly a Restoration Movement marker. It identifies us. We’ve used it out front and center, rallied around it, preached it in our pulpits and published it in our papers for more than 20 decades. But it’s not exclusively ours.

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love.”

I’ve always believed it was Stone or Campbell who came up with this inspirational motto. I think I’ve always been told we’re the ones who started it. As a unity movement, a restoration revolution that sought to destroy all denominational barriers and bind all believers together in our common Lord, it makes sense that we’re the ones who made this up. But we didn’t.

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love.”

I’ve always loved this slogan. I adopted this slogan from almost the moment I first heard it as a teenager reading a paperback history of our Stone-Campbell heritage. It’s a powerful little statement, full of energy and potential and life. Just look at what it says: 1) We in the Churches of Christ believe that there are only a very few things that are absolutely essential to the faith and those are things we must all hold to and protect; 2) we in the Churches of Christ believe there are countless numbers of things about discipleship to Jesus that don’t really matter that much, there are myriad opinions that go with each of those issues, and we should all be confident to express those thoughts and views with great freedom; and 3) we in the Churches of Christ believe that in all these things with which we certainly agree and might possibly disagree, we love one another with an unconditional acceptance and grace.

That’s what the slogan says. And I’ve always cherished it. I think the slogan has meant so much to me because in most of my Church of Christ upbringing and life, my experiences have been just the opposite of what our slogan stands for. The slogan always represented a Scriptural ideal that my Restoration forefathers aspired to and one that should still compel our religious endeavors. Despite our obvious and intentional obliteration of the slogan’s mandates, I always saw the slogan as something to which we ought to turn back, toward which we ought to strive.

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love.”

This was our slogan and I’ve always been proud of it. I’ve always thought this was something we could point to as a great contribution to the wider Church conversation. We came up with that. We’re not very good at following it. But at one time, we thought these things were really important and, someday, we might again think they are really important. And, if by God’s grace that day ever comes, we might really make a difference in this broken world for Christ!

But it’s not ours.

I was somewhat disappointed to learn at the Arminius conference last week that the slogan has been used by church reformers and restorers, by religious rebels and remonstrants, for more than 400 years. It was first coined by Lutheran theologian Peter Meiderlin in the early 17th century, in a different place, but at the same time as the Arminius-Calvin controversies in the Dutch Church.

It’s Lutheran.

Hans Rollmann has published his own extensive research into the origins and evolutions of the slogan, including its use in the dedication of a Roman Catholic Church in Neuweid, among Bohemian Brethren, Quakers, Puritans, and in our own Restoration history. The most disturbing part of Rollmann’s study is his conclusion that Barton Stone never once personally endorsed the slogan. He didn’t believe in it. He thought it was too reductionist. In fact, Rollmann contends that the slogan was only first used in our Restoration churches during the post-Civil War disputes regarding slavery, instrumental music in worship, and premillinialism. (You can access Rollmann’s report in its entirety by clicking here.)

“In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, love.”

I still like the slogan. I still like the ideals it affirms of one common salvation because of our one common faith in our one common Lord and of an unconditional and godly love for one another that transcends all other things. I still like the slogan and still believe it’s something we can and should strive toward.

It’s just not exclusively ours. It’s much older and it’s much more universally held. And I think today that makes the slogan even better.

Peace,

Allan

Church Politics

January 31, 2012 / / 0 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go, Sandies!

Allan

Community of Saints

January 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Tony “The Thrill” Hill…

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I was prepared for all that wind yesterday. I had been told about the wind here in Amarillo. I was ready for it. I’ve already experienced it many times over the past four months, so it didn’t surprise me when it hit yesterday just as church was letting out. But not one person had ever told me about raining mud! What was that, the 11th plague?!?

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Speaking of things I’m still learning about Amarillo: I knew it was flat up here. But I didn’t realize you can actually see New Mexico ski slopes from Soncy. I was having lunch with a Rotary Club a couple of weeks ago at the top of the Chase Tower downtown and I swear I looked toward the southeast and saw Cowboys Stadium. It is flat out here. And, yes, there are tumbleweeds. Real tumbleweeds. Blowing across the highway. I’ve never experienced anything like that. Tumbleweeds!

I was complaining to Matt Richardson yesterday about the five-and-a-half-hour drive between here and Fort Worth. He and Sara have family there; they know about that awful drive. But then Matt surprised me by declaring that the two hour drive between Amarillo and Lubbock is even worse. We both acknowledged that there’s nothing to look at, nothing to see on I-27, but he says it’s the moonscape! “You pass the Sea of Tranquility like four times!”

And, yeah, Matt writes his own material.

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I love Aerosmith. You know I do. But Steven Tyler should not sing America’s National Anthem.

Ever.

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I was very sad to see the Dr Pepper corporation in Plano put an end to the production of Dublin Dr Pepper out of that little bottling plant southeast of Stephenville. 

I understand that Dublin Dr Pepper was stretching way past their six-county distribution agreement. I knew something wasn’t right when we began seeing six packs of the glass bottles in our North Richland Hills Wal-Mart. You know, that actually took away from some of the mystique. It was much more cool when you could only get Dublin Dr Pepper — the only soft drink in America made with Pure Cane Sugar instead of corn syrup — in Dublin. Carrie-Anne and I always took the girls to Dublin every couple of years to check out their Dr Pepper museum (which contains much more memorabilia and artifacts than the official Dr Pepper Museum in Waco), to get a real hard-core Dr Pepper float from the old soda fountain there, and to stock up on a case or two of the special stuff and bring it home. Come on, I’ve got an “Official Dublin Dr Pepper Bootlegger” T-shirt! That doesn’t mean anything when anybody can buy it just about anywhere.

I also get that Dublin DP was infringing on some copyrights. There are Dublin Dr Pepper shirts and Dublin Dr Pepper caps and Dublin Dr Pepper quilts and bumper stickers and poodle sweaters and dominoes. It had become its own brand. They were in complete violation.

But, still, it saddens me. Dublin Dr Pepper was another one of those quirkie little peculiarities that made Dr Pepper unique. It made it a little weird and special. Now it’s gone. Dr Pepper will still bottle the sugared soda in special classic cans and bottles with the nostalgic logos and designs from the 1920s and ’30s. But it won’t say Dublin anywhere on them. And that’s a shame.

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Speaking of Dr Pepper: the people who run the world’s oldest soft drink have never been terrific marketers. Changing your logo every ten or twelve years and your advertising slogans every two or three years isn’t good. It doesn’t work. Dr Pepper’s TV commercials over the past decade or so have been embarrassing. Either really boring or really corny or over the top strange. They nailed it in the ’70s with the “I’m a Pepper” campaign. And I’m excited to see that they’re bringing it back. Have you seen the newest commercial? I saw it for the first time during the BCS Championship Game and I saw it a few times yesterday during the NFL Conference title games. I like it.

My shirt would say “I’m a preacher.”

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Life Together has become, over the years, my favorite Dietrich Bonhoeffer book. Being a part of a brand new church family has given me many reasons to re-read some of my favorite passages. One of those passages calls us to celebrate every moment within our faith community. Every person, every event, every interaction, every sub-group, every meeting, every worship assembly: it’s all a gift from God. Good or bad, life-giving or joy-stealing, fair or unfair, the spiritual giants of the faith and the immature babes in Christ: it’s all given to us by our Father in order to sanctify us.

“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty… then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. …the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, to more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.”

Peace,

Allan

Madison’s Lesson

January 19, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Someone named Donny Hunt was at Madison’s funeral here at Central Monday. He had never met Madison or anyone in the Knebusch family. But one of his children goes to school with Londen, so Donny’s been getting regular facebook and email and dinner time updates on Madison’s condition for almost two years. So he was compelled by a mix, I think, of compassion and curiosity to attend Monday’s memorial service.

And it moved him. It taught him. And he wrote about it in a little article that’s making swift rounds throughout our church family.

The love that was shown during that Monday afternoon service, the faith that was expressed, the gratitude that was voiced, it all moved him. All these Christians — Mr. Hunt estimates a little over 500 people in our worship center; it was more like 1,200 — worshiping together during this very difficult time inspired him. He admits he rarely, if ever, attends any church services anywhere. But being here at Central Monday didn’t intimidate him at all. It moved him. Donny admits that, when facing death, we only really have what we believe. And if “believing in God makes your life more fulfilled, if it inspires you to be a better person, to give of yourself and leave the world a little better than you found it, how can it be bad?”

Donny writes that because of the love he witnessed and experienced here at Central on Monday, he realizes that faith in God is good.

Because of “the love in that church,” he says.  

Donny also writes beautifully about Madison’s sweet spirit, her great courage, and the eternal impact she’s had on everyone who knew her. You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Donny experienced our God with us here at Central Monday. His experience moved him to seek our Lord, to consider his own relationship with this God he doesn’t totally understand.  He’s searching now in a way that he wasn’t before Madison’s funeral. And Donny wasn’t moved closer to God by our particular doctrines or theological positions. He wasn’t inspired by our stance on baptism by immersion or our policies on church organizational structure. Donny’s heart wasn’t touched by our big worship center or the slick audio/video presentations. And he doesn’t care about our Restoration roots or our interpretations of 1 Corinthians 11.

It was “the love in that church” that grabbed him.

While she lived here with us, Madison taught us all many lessons. The day of her funeral reminded me of one of the more important ones.

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples; if you love one another.” ~John 13:35

Peace,

Allan

Each Member Belongs

January 17, 2012 / / 0 Comments

You know, a person can preach and teach over and over again for many years about what church is supposed to be like, how we’re supposed to act, how we’re supposed to think and behave with one another. One of my absolute favorite descriptions of “church” is in Romans 12: “In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

I brought that verse out during our orientation class Sunday morning. I spent a good amount of time telling our brand new members and several visitors how we expect to act as a church family: that we should belong. I belong to other people here, and they belong to me. I don’t live to myself or for myself; I’m part of something much bigger than that here. We live to and for and with one another here.

And I preach that and teach that all the time. We bear one another’s burdens. We rejoice and we mourn with one another. When one member hurts, we all hurt. Nobody in need. Defending one another. Loving each other. Considering the needs of one another more important than our own. Caring for one another as we care for ourselves. We work hard to attain to that ideal. It’s a lofty expectation. It’s difficult. But we try, right?

Now, what do you do when it actually happens?

It happened here yesterday. All day long. From the opening moments of the morning memorial service for 95-year-old Gerald Noyes to the last hugs and expressions of love shared in Sneed Hall following the afternoon service for 16-year-old Madison Knebusch.

I’m so grateful to be a part of this church family.

I’m so blessed to be working in the Kingdom with a shepherd like John Noyes who comes from such a long line of faithful men and who strives so hard to be true to our Lord. An open book of a man who wears his compassion for others on his sleeve and acts on it. Constantly.

I’m so glad to be working with Adam Gray who hit an absolute grand slam at Madison’s service. I’m so happy that my girls are in his youth group; that my daughters are being taught by this deep, reflective, deadly serious disciple of our Christ; that my girls are being shaped by his huge laugh and his even bigger heart.

I don’t have a big stake in her — not yet, there hasn’t been time; but I’m so proud of Morgan Donaway. So proud of her. The way she used her God-given voice, her divinely-ordained abilities, to bless others. The way she gave all of that to our Father yesterday and the way he used it to bless so many people. The great friend that she is. Wow.

I can’t believe the food and the gift cards, the phone calls and texts, the baby sitting and errands run, the flowers and hugs, the money and love that’s been showered by this church family on its own hurting members. I can’t believe the numbers of people who were here in the middle of a week day to sacrifice and serve others. I’ve been to Levi and Shannon’s house at least seven or eight times over the past week; and each time I’ve had to park farther away because of all the other cars. It’s indescribable.

I could have saved myself a lot of breath and the people in our orientation class a lot of time if I hadn’t tried to explain and describe what it means to belong to each other. I should have just encouraged these people to hang out in our building all day yesterday to see it in action. It really happens here. We really do belong to one another.

Yesterday was beautiful in so many ways. Inspirational. Moving. Wonderful. Gospel. It was perfect.

Now, I don’t want to do it again anytime soon. Maybe never. But it was perfect.

I’m so glad to be at Central.

Peace,

Allan

White October

October 27, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I had heard the forecast as I was leaving Amarillo for Arlington Monday morning: slight chance for snow flurries late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Of course, I blew it off. Snow in October? Yeah, it’ll get cold. It might rain a bit. But it’s surely not going to snow. By yesterday afternoon, the weather forecasters were pretty sure we could get an inch or more. It started raining once everybody got home from church. And when we woke up this morning, there it was!

Thirty-one degrees. Strong north winds. And over an inch and a half of snow and still falling. Little tiny slushy snow flakes, blowing around in the breeze.

It’s still October! Where in the world have we moved to?!?

Royse Anne texted Carrie-Anne at about 7:30 this morning: “Welcome to Amarillo!” My first text came from Dan Miller: “Pump your brakes, don’t slam them.” Then Bentley texted me: “Forgot to tell you about the early snows. Get used to it.”

I actually love it. It’s beautiful. It’s exciting. It’s unexpected. It puts everybody in a good mood. And it reminds me all over again that our God is really in control. This is his planet. It’s his creation. It’s his weather. He’s in charge. And I should learn to expect his surprises. Whether it’s an October snow, or a move to a new church in a new part of the state, or a new insight from his Holy Word, our God is active and working to keep me aware of his presence in my life and in his world.

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We held our Fall Festival last night here at Central and it was a blast! Lots of booths. Lots of candy. Lots of costumes. Hot dogs, games, and prizes. But, mostly, inter-generational family fun.

What a blessing to see our older people helping our littlest kids. What a joy to watch our white hairs play with our toddlers. What a beautiful portrait of passing on the faith. Acting like family. Looking out for one another. Commenting on all the Ninja Turtles and Disney princesses, congratulating the Buzz Lightyears and ladybugs, laughing with the teenagers.

All of the research about young people leaving the Church or remaining with the Church points to one consistent factor. All of the studies say there is one thing that will determine whether a kid stays in Church. It’s not youth group. It’s not worship style. And it has nothing to do with technology. It’s relationships with adults outside their immediate family. Those young people who have adult friends in their churches— people who care about them, people who spend time with them, people who ask them how they’re doing, people who go out of their way to be with them — are much more likely to stay in God’s Church once they leave for college and then remain in the Church through their adult lives.

That’s why events like last night are so important. That’s why we need to be much more intentional about mixing our generations in our churches. Segregating ourselves according to age in our Bible classes and our worship assemblies isn’t doing us any good. Regularly getting people of all ages around the table together is critical to passing on the faith.

Of course, we know this. It only makes perfect common sense. But it takes sacrifice and service. It demands putting the needs of others ahead of our own. It means being like Jesus. And we’re still not very good at that. We have to think about it. We have to be intentional about it.

I keep thinking events like Fall Festival will help. All of the good things we experience during those two hours we’re all mixed up together will eventually bleed over into the ways we re-think Bible classes and worship assemblies and youth ministry and senior adult ministry, right? At some point we’ll all WANT to be involved in the lives of people who are older or younger than us because we’ve experienced the tremendous benefit, right?

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Nothing can stop Game Six tonight. It’s going to happen. And the Rangers are going to win it. I keep thinking that this extra day off is going to benefit Texas. I keep thinking that it’s bad for the Cardinals players to have to spend an extra day in their town listening to all the second-guessing, being exposed to all the negative energy, being hammered one day by all the questions. They gave the Rangers their best shot in Game Five. Carpenter was on the hill and they had runners in scoring position in at least seven innings. And they still got beat. I think that gives Colby Lewis and the Rangers tons of confidence. And I think having to live with that for three full days is going to weigh adversely on the Cards.

If you want some good stuff to read between now and first pitch at 7:05, here’s a really good article by ESPN’s Jayson Stark on just what the Rangers are trying to accomplish with their first ever World Series win. A Texas victory could start a major cultural shift in the regional sports landscape.

This is a good column by ESPN’s Gene Wojo about Jon Daniels and Ron Washington. The angle is that the movie Moneyball is about the wrong GM. It should be about Daniels.

Here’s a link to the Texas Rangers official website. And, finally, you can’t really watch a Rangers playoff game without first reading the Newburg report. Especially this one.

Go Rangers!

Allan

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