Category: Church (Page 57 of 61)

The Poll, The Ball, and A Quote

October 28, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Texas is not the unanimous #1 team in this week’s poll. After holding off Oklahoma State on Saturday, the Longhorns receive 13 of 14 1st place votes. The lone dissenter is Larry T. He gives his top spot to Alabama stating, “You know where my allegiance lies. Go SEC!” Penn State and Alabama are tied 24 points behind Texas. Texas Tech moved up eight spots to the #4 position. And OU remains at #5. TCU continues to inch up the polls to #12. With Kansas falling out of our Top 20, Charlie J gives us what he promises is his last Mangino crack. I hope not. Then again, it appears Charlie truly is running out of material. Jennifer G gives us a most honest poll, placing Penn State below OU and USC in her rankings. Janie R lets her Tulsa past catch up with her by ranking the Golden Hurricane #7, while Paul D was so impressed by OSU’s performance in Austin, he put the Cowboys at #3. South Florida, Pittsburgh, and Kansas dropped out. Ball State, Minnesota, and Florida State jumped in. To view this week’s poll in its entirety, with all the comments, complete with pictures and bios of all the pollsters, click here or click on the green “KK&C Top 20” tab in the upper right corner of this front page.

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Jerry Wayne has been involved in many, many cheesy stunts over his 18 years as the owner of your Cowboys, none hokier than awarding the game ball from Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay to coach Wade Phillips. Unless it’s the guy’s 200th career win or something, you don’t give a game ball to a coach. Maybe they do that kind of thing down in Hewitt or over in Gilmer, but not in the NFL. If they felt they had to award a game ball, they should have given it to Roy Williams. No, not the Roy Williams who caught his first ever touchdown pass as a Dallas Cowboy, the only TD of the game. I’m talking about the injured reserve safety Roy Williams who was on the sidelines in street clothes. If it weren’t for that Williams forcing the NFL to adopt a horse-collar tackle rule three years ago, Ronde Barber wouldn’t have been flagged for a 15-yard penalty on a Marion Barber one-yard gain on what was a 3rd and 12 at the Tampa 48 with 40-seconds to play. Instead of punting, Dallas is awarded a first down and a stopped clock at the Bucs’ 33. And they go on to score the TD to the other Williams. Thank you, Roy Williams. *

*original thought by Aaron W at our men’s Bible study this morning.

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“A society or a community that is religiously alert will invariably react to whatever may be perceived as a religious innovation because whatever is new is perceived as an implied threat or contradiction to what has already been settled by history and confirmed by tradition. The ‘innovators’ seldom see their new doctrine or practice as innovation but are quite likely to find its justification, or indeed its roots or requirements, in precisely the ‘Old-time Religion’ to which all parties appeal as jus canonicum.”

—C. Eric Lincoln, 1974

Quitting Church

October 27, 2008 / Allan / 5 Comments

Julia Duin, a religious reporter for the Washington Times, has written a book entitled Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do About It. I haven’t read it. But a friend of mine recently sent me a review by the Wall Street Journal’s Terry Eastland.

According to Eastland, church-quitting in the United States is characterized by Duin in her book as “epidemic.” The problem though, in her view, is not in the souls of the church quitters but in the character of the churches they choose to leave. Relying on her own reporting and surveys, Duin lists several things that are wrong with a lot of America’s Christian Churches.

~a lack of a feeling of community among church members, inducing loneliness and boredom
~church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics of the faith
~church teaching that fails to reach members who are grappling with suffering or unanswered prayer
~pastors who are out of touch with their parishioners or themselves unhappy
~pastors who fail to shepherd their flocks or try to control the members in high-handed ways

Duin’s conclusion seems obvious, that our churches need to become places where people feel eager to be. This goes straight to the “community” aspect of what we do and why we do it. In this regard, she calls for better teaching, better preaching, and better pastors who are in touch with the lives of their worshippers. I agree. For two-thousand years we’ve called the Church a Christian community. We need to be much more intentional about cultivating that community. And while a large part of that falls to our elders and preachers and teachers, let’s not forget we are called by our God to be a Kingdom of priests. We serve each other. We sacrifice for each other. We put the needs of others ahead of our own. It’s on all of us to treat each other in ways that form and sustain community.

Two, Duin says churches hurt themselves when they view their organization or allow their own members to view the organization as primarily functioning to meet the members’ needs. (So, there is at least a little theology in the book. That’s good.) The Lord adds us to his Body of Believers in order to serve, not to be served. I had lunch last week with a couple who are considering placing their membership here with us at Legacy. And they asked me three or four times, “Allan, what can we do to serve here? Where’s a place, what’s a function, what’s a service we could really perform here that would help this church and the people?” Wow! How wonderfully refreshing!

It’s not, “What can this church do for me?” It’s always, “How can I serve in this church?”

According to Duin, churches dedicated to this kind of discipleship mindset, this sort of serving and sacrificing in the manner of Christ, will “do well in this era of dumbed-down, purpose-driven, seeker-friendly Christianity.” That means teaching and preaching beyond the five (or six. or seven. how many are there now?) steps of salvation and first principles and deeper than the Christianity-Lite we find in a lot of places.

She says churches will prosper if they concentrate on making disciples. And that’s where Eastland makes his point. Churches like this aren’t always going to prosper—if we judge prosperity by church membership alone. He says, “A church might conscientiously carry out its biblical tasks and yet, by measures of popularity, do poorly in this world. Such a church would not be doing right if it adjusted its mission for the sake of higher attendance records.”

Amen.

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Trunk or Treat last night here at Legacy and there’s absolutely no way in the world to know how many people came through our parking lot and building. All four of the front sections of the worship center were full as we rehearsed together the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17 as a wild west shootout movie. Wade P saved the day when he provided the whistle soundtrack from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from his cellphone. Larry T blew it—or didn’t blow it—when I needed him most. And John W ad-libbed several lines during his evil Goliath laugh. Everybody, it seemed, had a great time with Sheriff Saul and “Ohhhh, David!” But hopefully we all left with a greater appreciation for the God of Israel, our God, who always delivers. He always wins. And those who belong to him always win. And we don’t win by sword or spear. We win by putting our faith and trust in the One who made us and promises to sustain us. David never doubted God’s deliverance. Because God always delivers. We should all feel so deeply and act so boldly.

After that, it was off to the parking lot where hundreds and hundreds of folks were already milling around the decorated cars, bounce houses, face-painters, balloon-sculptors, and food and drink booths. What a night! Cake walks and games and costume contests. Tons of people. I know we served over 1,100 hot dogs. And not everybody got one. I’ll bet 20% of the people here were not members of Legacy. It was fantastic. Truly a community event. Probably, including Give Away Day which brings in people from Fort Worth and points even further south and west, Trunk or Treat is our biggest annual event that draws the most people from our corner of Tarrant County. It’s probably time to do what we’ve done with Give Away Day the past couple of years and start concentrating on some outreach and follow up and evangelism with Trunk or Treat. Thanks to Kipi and Todd and all the dozens and dozens of volunteers!

I dressed up as Tony Romo for the Trunk or Treat, complete with the over-sized pinkie splint fashioned out of a toilet paper roll and lots of athletic tape. Instead of simply donning Valerie’s blond Hannah Montana wig, Carrie-Anne spent two-hours straightening her own hair to play Jessica Simpson. We were quite the pair.

Peace,

Allan

The Final Amen…for now

October 23, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

Thank you for your kind comments and provocative insights regarding our discussion on the “amen” in our Christian assemblies. I’ll address here a couple of the things raised by your comments and then we can be done with this discussion for now. Unless you have something to add.

Please keep in mind, I’m not speaking exclusively about our sermon time together. I’m talking about verbally affirming the songs we sing, the prayers we lift, the Scriptures we read and recite, and what’s said around the table. Lance writes,

I’ve always viewed the “Amen” or “Preach on” or “That’s right” as an affirmation of truth. It’s like when you talk to a friend about politics, or sports, and you share an observation with that friend and their response is, “Yes! Absolutely! I feel the same way!” Saying amen throughout the assembly is our way of saying, “Yes! Absolutely! I feel the same way!” When I hear truth in preaching, in prayer, in scripture, or in song…I try to affirm that truth with an “amen” or “that’s right.”

Caleb says,

I appreciate and say Amen to your thoughts and longings for a more involved people; not just in worship, but in every facet of our daily walk. I pray this conversation will be fruitful. I don’t thing were bound by the amen, but with so much precedence, both scriptural and historical, why not?

Besides publicly affirming the truth of the message in our Scriptures and songs, encouraging one another, and being actively engaged in what’s happening during an assembly, our verbal participation also strengthens our bonds of unity. I find that when someone next to me says “amen” or “yes” it causes me to pay more attention to the prayer being said or the song being sung. (Why did he say “amen” to that?) But it also gives me great insights into that person who said it. (Why did HE say “amen” to that?) I’ll never forget one of the 24 Hours of Prayer three weeks ago I shared with Quincy and Manuel. The three of us were literally and verbally participating in each other’s prayers. When one of us was praying, so were the other two with continuous affirmations of “Yes, Lord” and “Amen” and “Yes, Father” and “That’s right” and “Please, God.” It was an hour of that homothumadon — in one accord, with one voice, as one man — we see throughout the book of Acts. We’ve all experienced something like that in these small groups. The unity. The focus. The single-minded fidelity to the worship at hand and our brothers and sisters in the room with us. When that kind of thing begins to happen in larger settings, it can change a church.

Some of your comments addresed the culture in a lot of our churches that hinders the kind of open expressions we find throughout our Holy Scriptures. Broadly speaking, Churches of Christ have cultivated a mindset and worldview that favors sitting still and being quiet and staring straight ahead. Here’s Caleb,

I think we don’t say amen because we are church of Christ. While we are experiencing a form of “global warming” in the way in which we worship it is a slow thaw. Until recently, standing for the invitation song was as participatory as our worship has been.
Here’s Jesse,

It’s a matter of practice, or lack of. We’re not in the habit of engaging in worship, so it’s a little weird to fully engage…at least at first.

Chris writes,

It is hard to engage at first. In worship or in class, I’ve got something to say but I still get shake voice so it sounds funny. Not a problem in business but a problem in church. Great description with the slow thaw. It reminds me of the pictures that show glaciers shrinking – it’s hard to tell except over a long period of time.

And Lance,

There’s a fear of “outward” expression in our public assemblies. Raising hands, standing, sitting, kneeling, closed eyes, clapping, and amens are all outward expressions of worship. We, as a brotherhood (speaking in generalities), have very much discouraged any kind of visual or audible expressions of worship that might have been interpreted as “showy.” My mom used to tell me not to be showy, and that people who raised their hands or said amen were showing off…or trying to get attention

Unfortunately, this culture in our faith tradition has much more to do with the Enlightenment way of thinking than it does with Scripture’s way of thinking. We come at our faith and, as a result, our assembly times together in a very rational way. We want an equation. We need a formula. We want some rules and regulations. We want everything explained to us until it makes sense. And the mystery gets edged out. There’s no room for gray areas. No place for ambiguity. Everything’s black and white. Everything’s either right or wrong. It all has to be controlled. And that means controlling what we do and how we do it together on Sunday mornings.

It’s mostly an over reaction or over correction to the anxious bench of 150 years ago and the waiting and wailing for the Spirit. Emotion became a bad thing. Knowledge and intellect became the good thing. We taught that emotions had very little, if any, place in our religion and in our churches. Emotion is shallow. It’s false. Emotion deceives us. It’s not real. Some of your comments reflected this history of ours. Caleb,

We don’t want to look like we are trying to look like we are religious. We as a brotherhood have eschewed outward signs of our faith, especially in the assembly. Its the reason we are so hesitant to raise our hands in song or during a prayer, despite biblical example. Its why we balk at clapping.

And Jesse,

I think we hold back in worship b/c we’re afraid to embrace emotion in worship, and also afraid of what others will think / say / do / react, etc. At least, that has by MY struggle. After getting over a lot of that (more to go still), my question is: how can we NOT be emotional, at least a little, about salvation, grace, heaven, God, eternity, etc.? When it clicked in my heart, when it pierced my soul a few years ago that my salvation is totally, TOTALLY, because of Jesus, it hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks…and I cried like a baby…for hours. How else should we react to God’s grace?

One quick thing about emotion and then I’m done for the day. I think for decades and decades we’ve believed and taught that if we can get their head, we’ll get their heart. If we can just explain it to people and write it down in five little steps and show the gospel to them with logic and rational, if we can get people to understand it with their heads, then their hearts will follow. Praise God, sometimes that works. But that’s certainly not the way it’s presented in Scripture.

The truth is, if I can get your heart, I know your head will follow. God always goes first after our hearts. If a person’s heart has been captured by God, his head will also be right there. And so will the rest of his body and his billfold and his time and his energy and his focus.

And you and I know tons of people who have God in their heads, but their hearts are cold as stone.

Peace,

Allan

Take Two

October 22, 2008 / Allan / 5 Comments

Let’s try again. Maybe yesterday’s post was buried in all the sports stuff there at the beginning.

I’m sincerely seeking some comments and a conversation here on why we don’t say “Amen” more in our Christian assemblies. Is this a Church of Christ thing? Or is this a white suburban thing? Is it something we used to do all the time and don’t anymore? Or have we never been a people to verbally participate as a congregation in the things that are said from the front?

What’s the deal?

If you participate verbally in the assemblies, why? If you don’t, why not? Do you feel like that’s an individual thing or a congregational thing? If you want to say “Amen” but don’t, why? How do you feel when others around you say “Amen” during a prayer or sermon or after a song or Scripture reading?

I’m really interested in our assemblies being participation events instead of spectator events. So we’re doing much more as a congregation together. That’s why we invite the whole church to jump up on the stage and surround a person being baptized and read the Colossians 3 blessing together. That’s why we’re trying to involve the congregation more in our baby blessings, affirming to the parents and the new child that we take the role of helping pass the faith on to this new child seriously. I’d like to see us, together as a congregation, affirm to new members our love and support to them when they place membership. We’re working in that direction right now. I certainly see our communion time together becoming more and more interactive and participatory. That will probably take a lot more time and teaching.

But let’s start the conversation with this simple little curiosity. Why don’t we say “Amen?”

Click the red “comments” line in the upper right hand corner of this post and let’s go.

Peace,

Allan

Where's the "Amen"?

October 21, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

Allow me two or three quick shots here before we get into the meat of today’s post. I need to catch up from yesterday. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to post on Mondays and Fridays. I’m not giving up. But it’s getting tougher. Hang with me.

The Dallas Cowboys are spiraling around the bowl and they’re going down. And nobody should be surprised. This thing was headed in the tank long before Romo and Felix and McBriar got hurt. This season was doomed before it began. You can’t keep signing players like Terrell Owens and Tank Johnson and PacMan Jones and expect everything to go well. There’s a reason the Titans are undefeated right now. They canned PacMan. Kicked him off the team. Took a stand for right and reason. But not Jerry Wayne. The Cowboys are getting everything they deserve.

Watching Sunday’s game reminded me of the Dave Campo days. Senseless penalties. Turnovers. Sacks. Drops. Finger-pointing. No heart. No guts. It’s not Wade Phillips’ fault. It’s Jerry’s.

Somebody said yesterday Roy Williams (the safety) broke his forearm while deflecting blame. Great line. Roy Williams (the receiver) was shut out—no catches—for the first time in his five year career. Detroit has to be looking pretty good right now. The Lions never won a game. But they were never humiliated like this, either.

Jerry’s putting the finishing touches on a trade right now with the North Carolina basketball team to bring in their Roy Williams as a motivational speaker/special teams coach.

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Three observations on Sunday night’s great Game Seven in the ALCS: 1) I don’t know how Rays pitcher Matt Garza doesn’t dehydrate by the 3rd inning. I’ve never seen a human spit that much, that often; 2) MLB could cut their games from three hours long down to an hour and a half if they would pass a rule allowing a maximum of three batting gloves adjustments per at-bat. Did A-Rod start this mess? They all adjust their gloves three times in between pitches! and 3) does the Rays’ success mean that now Arizona State will simply call their teams the Sun?

I’m a Phillies Phan for the next ten days. My good friend Scott Franzke, who hosted our Rangers pre-game and post-game shows when we were together at KRLD, is now the play-by-play voice of the Phils. He’s a great guy who deserves all the fun he’s having right now. We spent many a long, long evening together disecting 11-4 Rangers’ losses. Go Phranzke!

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What a blessing to have as our guests at Legacy Sunday morning my great friends Dan & Debbie Miller! Dan’s one of the Four Horsemen, a great personal encourager of mine, and the most positive, optimistic, upbeat, man I know. He blesses my life in more ways than he could ever imagine. Dan seems to know exactly what our God is doing in almost every situation. And he points it out to me all the time. He and Debbie have shown great faith and endurance through her cancer and surgeries and treatments. They’re both an inspiration to everyone who knows them.

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For the first time in the storied history of the “KK&C Top Twenty” college football poll, we have a unanimous number one! The Texas Longhorns, fresh off their whipping of then #11 Missouri, receive all 14 1st place votes in this week’s poll. Even Jerry K put “ut” at the top “…for now.” Nine of the top ten teams stayed the same with very little shifting. The exception is BYU. The Cougars fell from #9 to #20 after being destroyed by TCU’s Frogs. Utah makes it Top Ten debut, moving up from #13. Michigan State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Vandy all dropped out of the poll, replaced by TCU, South Florida, Pitt, and Tulsa.

Pollster Richard A delivers the most uncomfortable remark of the week by referring to TCU’s win as the “Mormon Massacre.” Paul D gets in some denominational shots in his comments about Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley. Mark H’s comment about Virginia Tech’s “BC” is the most confusing remark of the week. And Charlie J delivers yet another golden Mangino reference. Beautifully placed. The subtlety makes it genius. Billy W, who’s taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the Sagarin Poll gives us this: “The fightin’ Texas Aggies are #110 in the latest Sagarin rankings, behind 12 Division I-AA schools and the other eleven Big 12 teams. The good news is that they are 85 spots in front of North Texas.” And panelist Steve F will actually be at the Alabama-Tennessee game in Knoxville Saturday night. He says he’s “requested the resume of Texas Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp to personally deliver” to the higher-ups at Tennessee.

You can find this week’s poll, released late every Monday night, along with all the comments by the pollsters, and their pictures and bios by clicking here or by clicking the green “KK&C Top 20” tab in the upper right corner of this front page.

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“Through Christ, the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” ~2 Corinthians 1:20

Why don’t we say “Amen” in our Christian assemblies? Where’s the “Amen?” In the middle of, and after, our prayers? In the middle of, and after, our readings from Scripture? In the middle of, and after, our songs of praise? In the middle of, and after, our sermons? In the middle of, and after, our communion time around the table? Where’s the “Amen?”

Paul assumes in 1 Corinthians 14:16 that those in the assembly who are being edified, those who understand what’s being said or sung, those who are thankful, those who are in tune with what’s happening, are saying “Amen!” The apostle makes it clear in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that the congregation’s “Amen” is a response to the promises of God as they’re fulfilled in Christ. As the promises are revealed and understood and accepted, this congregational “Amen” affirms our salvation and redemption in Christ and brings glory to God.

So, where’s the “Amen?”

I can’t tell you how many times—at least four or five times a week since I’ve been here at Legacy—someone will come up to me following an assembly and say, “Boy, I really wanted to say ‘Amen,’ but I just didn’t.” Or, “I was saying ‘Amen’ in my heart today, just not out loud.” Men and women alike tell me things like this all the time. Although, about half the time our women add, “Of course, if I said ‘Amen” I’d get in trouble.” (sigh……..)

Why aren’t we saying “Amen” or “Right On!” or “Yes” or “That’s Right!” constantly during our time together in our Christian assemblies? Did we ever? Is this a Church of Christ thing? Is it a white suburban thing? Is it something we used to do all the time and don’t anymore? Or have we never been a people to verbally participate as a congregation in the things that are said from the front? What’s the deal?

I have tons to say on this. Admittedly, this thread or this conversation might last all week. There’s a lot to be said for the “homothumadon” throughout the book of Acts. Deuteronomy 27 gives us great insights into the verbal affirmation of a congregation. Saying “Amen” isn’t just to show approval of what’s being said. It’s not just to communicate agreement. Saying “Amen” or “Yes” or “Right On” affirms this is what we believe. This is how we live. This is truth. This is what I’m holding on to.

Our time together should always be spent as participants, not spectators. Always. Full participants in every prayer offered, every song sung, every Bible passage read, and every sermon preached. Never as spectators. It’s not Matt’s prayer, it’s the church’s prayer. It’s not Jim’s Scripture reading, it’s the church’s recitation of the words of our God. It’s not Allan’s sermon, it’s the church’s proclamation of the gospel of Christ Jesus! It all belongs to the church. We own it. And we participate in it when we raise our voices to say “Amen! Yes! That’s what we believe. That’s how we live. That’s where we put our faith.”

Together. Out loud. In the assembly.

Where’s the “Amen?” What’s the deal?

My own frustrations with this problem boiled over in a weird, and not entirely Christian, way in the middle of a sermon here at Legacy two Sundays ago. I apologized to the church this past Sunday, not for being enthusiastic about my God and my rescue from hell through Christ, but for accusing and judging the church in a way that set me up above everybody else. That was wrong. But the problem of our passivity and our spectator-stances in our assemblies remains. Needless to say, I’ve received a few emails and had a few conversations with our people about this over the past ten days. A couple of them have given me permission to post their comments here. Maybe this can foster some increased conversation.

“American culture has made us complacent and lazy — we don’t get out of our cars to get food or leave our houses to rent movies — and we bring this attitude on Sunday mornings. We confuse you (the preacher) with our favorite fast-food drive-thru and expect our religion to be preached quickly, with quality, not too hot or cold. We’re so used to our corporate worship setting, sitting in our assigned seats and being spoon fed from the pulpit that we get a little uncomfortable when we’re reminded that we just can’t sit back and absorb the faith.” ~Aaron G.

“The Creator of all things in existence, everything that was or is, sent his only Son to die for our sins. Every blessing, every dollar we have, every bite of food we eat is a benevolent act from our Father. If that doesn’t excite us and get us involved, I don’t know what will! We need, MUST, act like a people who embrace our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We need to be a people excited about Christ coming again. Not like hourly working punching our Sunday morning time clock.” ~Rusty T.

“If you had been preaching that sermon to a poor, have-nothing, group of people, you would have been drowned out by the ‘amens’!!” ~Doug D.

Where’s the “Amen?”

Ready. Set. Go.

Peace,

Allan

The Poll Must Go On

October 14, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

Maybe it was Give Away Day hangover. Maybe it was too many upsets on the same day. But on the craziest weekend of the college football season so far, we only had 11 of our 20 panelists submit their polls. And that’s a shame. I hate that maybe UT’s new #1 ranking may be tainted a bit by the small sample that is this week’s poll. And I wonder if LSU’s huge drop (from #5 to #12) or Penn State’s huge jump (from #6 to #3) would look any different if we had all 20 sets of votes. Auburn and South Florida dropped out this week. Michigan State makes its debut at #17 while North Carolina shows up for the first time at #19. I hate that Larry T didn’t chime in this week. He officially swore off his Mississippi State Bulldogs last week, six days before they upset Vandy. With the Dallas Stars regular season underway now (have they won a game yet?) we may not hear from Ted S again. Ten of our eleven pollsters ranked Texas #1. The lone dissenter is Jerry K. The hard-core Aggie votes “tu” and “Texas-Stinkin’-Tech” lower than they should be every week. Jerry ranks Texas today #2. And big Texas supporter Billy W gives us this nice little nugget: “The fightin’ Texas Aggies (you have to read this in your best Dave South voice) are #104 in the latest Sagarin Rankings, behind eight Division I-AA schools and all eleven other Big 12 teams.” Hang in there, Jerry and Charlie. It’s not all bad being known as a basketball school.

1. Texas (10 1st place votes, 219 total votes) – “Lisa, that was a good win right there.” JimG; “Deserves to be at the top.” BW; “Next in line of #1s that will fall.” CJ; “Colt for Heisman! JennG; “I had no doubts about their toughness. I hope Missouri isn’t mad.” RA; “Colt is fully grown.” PD; “Proved superiority in the Big 12, the best football conference on the planet.” MH; “Texas is #1 to stay. Horns 34, Missouri 26.” SF.

2. Alabama (202) – “Moving up because others fell.” MH; “Really, can they hang up here?” JennG; “Tide rolls through the bye week.” JimG; “Has looked unbeatable, but SEC is too tough.” BW; “In good shape for national championship run.” CJ.

3. Penn State (1, 201) – “Go, Papa Joe!” DM; “Coasting to Big 10 title and national championship game.” SF; “Maybe if Joe Pa gets a national title, he’ll retire.” JennG; “An octogenarian in the national title hunt. Go AARP!” MH; “This bunch is for real.” PD; “Should be able to go undefeated in the Big 2/Little 9.” BW; “Go ahead and knock them down the list. They will lose to Ohio State.” CJ.

4. Florida (175) – “LSU proved to be gator-bait.” RA; “Best one-loss team right now.” MH; “Looked like the old Gators.” BW; “Will be in the top three soon.” CJ.

5. Oklahoma (165) – “They are good, just not as good as the Horns.” MH; “Outcoached.” PD; “Stoops got a case of Tom Osbourne Syndrome.” JimG; “OU stinks!!!!!” RA; “And the Oscar goes to….OU’s punter!” CJ; “Sorry, Sam.” JennG.

6. USC (155) – “Still a powerhouse.” MH; “Did they blow up hot dog Rudy Carpenter, or what?” JimG; “May fall as the year goes on in that I-AA conference.” BW; “Don’t rule them out.” SF; “Almost time for ESPN to re-anoint them the greatest team ever.” CJ.

7. Oklahoma St. (152) – “The right Cowboys won this week.” RA; “WHOA! I would NOT have picked them to beat Missouri!” JennG; “Making me a believer.” JK; “Maybe the best ‘Cowboys’ in Texas and Oklahoma.” MH; “Boone Picket done bought himself a football team.” PD; “I’m 40!! I’m a man!! I can take it!!” JimG.

8. Texas Tech (151) – “Fortunate win over Huskers.” DM; “Leach sucks the life out of opponents. 4th & 5? Are you kidding me?” CJ; “Same old, same old; no D.” PD; “Barely gets by a weak Nebraska team…still no D in Lubbock.” MH; “Shaky” JK; “Still not convinced by their defense.” JimG; “Struggled against who?” BW; “Where’s A&M?” JennG; “Aggies are tough at Kyle Field.” RA.

9. BYU (129) – “Someone please beat them!” SF; “Mormon intervention helps them get by New Mexico.” JimG; “They’ll sleep-walk through their conference.” BW; “A 16-game winning streak. If they make it 20 straight, Cougars could be in the national hunt.” MH; “Still hangin’ strong.” JennG; “Dream will end Thursday night.” CJ.

10. Georgia (126) – “Beat up a weak Vols team. So what?” MH; “Not impressive.” PD; “Too many tough games to go.” BW; “Talent can only get you so far without discipline.” CJ.

11. Missouri (114) – “Chase looked human.” MH; “Shave the mohawk, Chase, and lose the ’stache, too.” DM; “Misery against T. Boone’s Cowpokes.” JimG; “Will not beat Texas in Austin.” JK; “No longer in the ‘chase’ for the Heisman, much less the title.” CJ.

12. LSU (90) – “Didn’t show up against Florida.” MH; “The wood shed is that way->” CJ; “What happened to the vaunted Tiger D?” JimG; “They’ll bounce back.” BW.

13. Utah (89) – “”Do we have to put them on this list?” CJ; Nice team that nobody sees.” BW; Second-best undefeated team in their state.” MH; “Matchup with BYU will determine a BCS berth.” JimG.

14. Ohio State (79) – “Getting close to Top Ten again.” MH; “2009 will be scary for the rest of the country.” CJ; “Blah…” JimG.

15. Boise State (61) – “Played one quarter at Southern Miss, but scored enough to win.” MH; “Idaho—where all conversations about football begin and end.” CJ; “Could there be two flies in the BCS ointment this year?” JimG.

15. (tie) Kansas (61) – “They keep winning but they can’t move up.” BW; “Manhandled Colorado, but falling next week.” MH; “Will be looking ahead to hoops after trip to Norman this week.” CJ; “Insert your own Mangino reference here.” JimG.

17. Michigan St. (37) – “For real.” PD; “Thank ESPN for this ranking.” CJ.

17. (tie) Virginia Tech (37) – “ECU loss looks worse every week.” RA; “Show the Hokies some love.” MH; “Seem to have righted the ship.” BW.

19. North Carolina (31) – “New one in the group.” PD; “On the ‘heels’ of a great season.” CJ (Charlie, we’d rather have a lame Mangino reference than a lame Carolina joke); “Finally beginning to recover from Mack Brown leaving.” BW; “Butch Davis should be calling plays in Fayetteville.” JimG.

20. Vanderbilt (9) – “Ooops.” PD; “Proving there is SOME depth in the SEC.” MH.

Also receiving votes: Tulsa (7) “An offensive machine.” JimG; Minnesota (4); South Florida (4); Wake Forest (4); Ball State (3) “Just because a 7-0 team deserves it.” JimG; “Really? 7-0?” RA; ”Didn’t know we had a state named Ball.” MH; TCU (3) “Better be ready to bring it against the Mormons next week.” RA; Nebraska (1); Pittsburgh (1) “This team is starting to play well. Look out Big East.” BW; Texas A&M (1) “Will continue their dominance in the turnovers category. The Red Raiders are overlooking A&M. Aggies will be in the Big 12 Championshp Game in 2010. Guarantee!” CJ.

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“In a sense, the theologian is like a sparring partner. His job is to keep the church on its toes both intellectually and spiritually. If the church neglects truth, sooner or later it will get flabby and go sick; and what once were soul-stirring insights will degenerate into hollow platitudes. And if the church neglects its call to live out the gospel as the people of God, then whatever truth the church has will go sour on it.”

—Colin Brown, 1967

Category: Church (Page 57 of 61)

The Poll, The Ball, and A Quote

Quitting Church

The Final Amen…for now

Take Two

Where's the "Amen"?

The Poll Must Go On

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