The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Church (Page 34 of 61)

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

Muttering

October 26, 2011 / / 1 Comment

The religious leaders we see in Scripture are always forcing Jesus to defend himself and his mission. Jesus is welcoming the outcasts and eating with sinners. He’s associating with and accepting these people who just don’t measure up. Jesus is continually embracing these misfits, giving to them, serving them, teaching them, fellowshipping with them. And the established religion of the community couldn’t handle it. One of the main political and religious charges against Jesus that led to his execution was the fact that he “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15 is just one of many places in the Gospels where we find that when Jesus associated with the marginalized, “the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law muttered.”

They muttered.

They mutter and grumble and complain among themselves. They do it behind Jesus’ back. They gripe under their breath. Because a religious person would never say these kinds of things out loud:

“Those people don’t speak English.”
“Those kind of people won’t give.”
“Their kids are not well-behaved.”
“Have you seen what they wear?”
“They’ll mess things up.”
“They’re on welfare.”
“He just got out of prison.”
“She has AIDS.”
“He cusses.”
“She smokes.”
“We have to protect our kids.”
“We have to be careful.”
“They should probably go somewhere else.”

Church people don’t talk like that out loud, right? A religious person would never say stuff like that in public. Not from the pulpit, not in a Bible class, not in an elders meeting.

No. Religious people mutter these kinds of things under their breath. Among themselves. In private.

If we’re following our Savior — and we are! — we have to recognize that Jesus came with everything he had to seek and to save the lost. And the lost responded to Jesus, not because he catered to them or compromised his message, but because he cared for them. He loved them. He understood their needs and helped them while the religious leaders criticized them and kept their distance.

Jesus strongly rebukes that attitude. His every word, his every deed rebukes that self-centered mindset. Jesus invested his time and energy in sinners. He associated freely with them. He ate with them. He became personally and intimately involved in their messy lives and desperate struggles. Jesus pursued sinners with such enthusiasm and commitment that the religious community questioned his character and his motives. But he kept seeking and saving the lost. With everything he had. And then he died for them.

We don’t ever dare make fun of, poke fun at, or look down on any person made in the image of our God.

Ever.

We don’t mutter.

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I’ve been to a couple of Rangers playoff games at the Ballpark in Arlington, one in ’96 and another in ’99. I was there when they clinched the division title in ’99. I’ve been to important division games in September. I’ve been in the stands for weekend games against the Yankees when the Rangers were rallying to take a lead in the 8th inning and winning it in the 9th. And I’ve thought many times that there’s no way the Ballpark could ever be louder or as exciting as this.

Until Napoli’s two-run double with the bases loaded in the 8th inning against the Cardinals Monday night in Game Five of the World Series. I’ve never been a part of anything quite so loud and exciting at the Ballpark. It was improbable. It was emotional. Magical.

From Roger Staubach’s ceremonial first pitch to Feliz’s last, it was a nail-biter. Nerve-wracking. Gut-wrenching. It seemed that St. Louis had runners at second and third in every inning. Every pitch was do or die. Every Cardinal at-bat went full count. And Texas couldn’t do anything right. Murphy and Moreland were booting balls, C. J. couldn’t find the plate, and nobody could get on base. That 2-1 deficit seemed like 10-1. Or 100-1. It was awful.

Which made it so much better once Napoli finally came through with his double and then chased Berkman to first base an inning later to end it.

We hugged and high fived everybody in the home run porch. We took pictures. We cringed when Darren Oliver came in and exhaled in relief when he left. We chanted Napoli’s name and laughed at the Ron Washington videos. We ran into Russ Garrison and his family. And we ate for the cycle. It was an awesome night! Thank you to Brian Gray for scoring the ticket. And for being the most superstitious baseball fan I’ve ever known.

 

Game Six tonight. In the cold and the rain in St. Louis. Colby Lewis has the stuff on the road to give the Rangers their first ever World Series title in their 51-year history. Start the DVRs.

Go Rangers.

Allan

It’s A Problem, Right?

October 13, 2011 / / 1 Comment

“Cruz Control!”

Nellie is dealing, man! His perfect strike from right field in the 8th and his three-run jimmy jack to put it away in the 11th have given the Rangers complete command of this ALCS. Young finally drove in a run and appears to be slowly returning to form. Kinsler’s running the bases like a seasoned veteran. Mike Napoli’s still red-hot; his throw to nail Jackson, coupled with his catch and block at the plate on Cabrera, were things of sheer beauty and grace. And watching Wash running in place in the dugout as Hamilton rounded third made everything seem just as fun as last year.

And: Is it a cobra or a sitting duck? What is that thing? Whatever it is, it’s not as cool as the claw and antlers.

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Jesus and the Church today don’t attract the same people. That’s a problem, right? While he was ministering on this earth in our flesh, Jesus seemed to attract a certain kind of people. But his Church today seems to repel those kinds of people and attract others.

In just about every Gospel account, anytime Jesus met up with a religious leader or a well-respected pillar of the community, they were offended by the Son of God. They were repulsed by Jesus. Threatened, even. But those who were on the margins of society, those who had no power or status or wealth, were intrigued by Jesus. They were attracted to him. The outcast is always the one who connects with Jesus. Those are the ones coming to Christ. The city rulers and “church” leaders were the ones trying to put Jesus down, trying to kill him.

Our experience today seems to be just the opposite.

Timothy Keller, in his little book The Prodigal God, speaks to this as he compares and contrasts the two lost sons in the Luke 15 account of Jesus’ most well-known parable. (What? You’ve never read Timothy Keller? Oh, my. Look, as soon as you’re finished reading and commenting on this blog post, the very moment you’re done, click here and buy Keller’s The Reason For God. And when it arrives, read it!) The younger son types were always attracted to Jesus while the older brother types were cynical and suspicious. But that’s not the way things are in our American churches today:

“Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to our contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren’t appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we’d like to think.”

What kind of  a message are we sending when we relegate the poor of our community to a back room downstairs? What are we saying when the Hispanic church can meet in our building, but only after we’re finished with it? What do we communicate when the outcast feels more warmly welcomed at Wal-Mart and McDonald’s than he does at church? What’s the “gospel” we proclaim when we’re quick to hand a guy a five dollar bill for lunch but avoid like the plague the thought of ever actually inviting that guy to our homes for dinner?

That’s a problem, right?

If we ever came to the conclusion that acting like our Lord — doing Christ-like things in Christ-like ways — was the way to go and acting the opposite of our Lord was wrong, then things might change. But none of this will ever change a long as we think it’s OK the way it is. That’s a problem, right?

Peace,

Allan

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