The Lord blessed us with a really fabulous Sunday at Central. Not only did he provide more than $396,000 through our generous church family for local and foreign missions, he filled us with a true sense of his great faithfulness through the Grand Opening of our grand opening. You’ll find here the two videos we showed to our church on Sunday. The first one is the Revelation 7 reading by our local and foreign missions partners, speaking from different contexts in different languages, all wearing white. The second is the time-lapse of our construction project.
Category: Foreign Missions (Page 2 of 7)
“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen!” ~Philippians 4:19-20
We are still riding the wave of Spirit energy and enthusiasm generated by our God’s actions with his people on Missions Sunday yesterday here at Central:
~ $396,890 was generously given to fund our local and foreign missions budget for 2020, far surpassing our set goal of $360,000
~ Amber, Tamara, and Craeceola publicly confessed Jesus as Lord and put him on in baptism
~ Jared Odhiambo, all the way from the Alara village in Kenya, inspired us with his powerful testimony and godly vision
~ Stephanie Goins and Robyn Terrill, from Downtown Women’s Center, honored us with their gracious words
~ The new west entrance, the play space, the coffee bar, Guest Central, and the Central Commons were unveiled to great acclaim with an open house and reception
All of this Sunday morning at Central — proof that our God is working in and through his people for the sake of his Kingdom; testimony to our Lord’s faithfulness to his salvation plans; evidence that the old has gone and the new has come!
As blessings pile on top of blessings, we are increasingly convinced that our Father is keeping his covenant promises to Central and to all of his creation. May he be glorified and may his Son be exalted for ever and ever. Amen!
Peace,
Allan
Today is our annual Day of Prayer and Fasting at Central in preparation for our Missions Sunday October 27. Our whole congregation abstains from food on this day in order to — all of us together — focus our minds and our bodies on God’s mission for his world and our roles in that mission. Our hope is that we will find a deeper connection to our God today, that we’ll become more aware of and focused on his great mission in the world and our roles in it, and that we’ll be refreshed to enter into that calling with renewed energy and a deeper faith.
Our chapel is set up today with prayer stations and prayer guides to help. I love praying in our chapel on this day. The images of our foreign missionaries and our local missions partners fade on and off the screen — these people we love so much, who have offered their very lives in service to our Lord and his Kingdom. The Scriptures on the screen remind us that our God is reconciling and restoring all of creation and we’re somehow privileged to be in on it with him. The chapel feels extra sacred today as folks quietly come and go.
When our stomachs growl today, we’ll be reminded that we are “Living for the Lamb.” When we say “no” to lunch and snacks throughout the day, we’ll be saying “yes” to bringing our selfish desires in conformity with our Lord who came not to be served, but to serve. And when we break the fast as a church family tonight with a congregational dinner, we’ll be reminded that we’re all in this together.
Peace,
Allan
What a joy to come together with our Christian brothers and sisters from the other three downtown congregations for four days of outreach programs and service projects. This is our fifth annual “4Amarillo Week” in Amarillo, a collaboration between First Baptist, First Presbyterian, Polk Street United Methodist, and Central Church of Christ. This week we’re running a morning Vacation Bible School at Margaret Wills Elementary and an evening VBS at San Jacinto Elementary. We’re feeding all the kids from those two communities lunch and dinner to go with the Bible stories, the games, the arts and crafts projects, and worship times. We’re also working in the San Jacinto Neighborhood Garden.
All four churches are gathering at San Jacinto tonight for the annual 4Amarillo Ice-Cream Social. For the past five years we’ve hosted this at Central and judged all the homemade ice-cream and gave out trophies in a bunch of fun categories. But this year, we’re taking it to the community. We’re going to make hundreds of ice-cream sundaes for all the kids who are attending these neighborhood VBSes, their families, all the volunteers, and everybody from the four churches.
Praise God for the blessed privilege of joining him in breaking down the walls between his people and his churches and taking the Good News of salvation in his Son Jesus to our neighbors in Amarillo.
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Our Central missionaries in Bogota, Columbia — Byron and Sandra Cana and their two sons, Diego and Derek — arrived in Amarillo late this morning and will be here with us for almost two weeks. I was honored to join them and Steve & Debbie Cearley and Tom & Janice Grant, four members of Central’s foreign missions committee, for a good ol’ Texas lunch at Cracker Barrel. It was great hearing Byron and Sandra’s improved English, it was encouraging to hear about the Lord’s work in Bogota, and it was entertaining listening to Tom try to explain to the Canas what exactly is a Sod Poodle.
Peace,
Allan
We know our God by what he does. God shows us who he is by his actions. And those actions always involve power. If we know anything at all about our God, it’s that he is powerful. He doesn’t do anything that doesn’t demonstrate his power.
Not just any power. Holy power. Power from God. Power to produce miracles and marvelous works. It’s the power that parts the vast waters of the Red Sea, crumbles the mighty walls of Jericho, and rolls the stone away from the garden tomb. It’s the power that shines light into darkness, produces hope in disaster, and brings eternal life out of certain death. This power from above destroys demons, defeats armies, breaks the bars of prison doors, and raises the dead! This is the power that saves us. And changes us.
When we personally benefit from God’s mighty and saving power, we are commissioned to join his redemption project for the whole world. That’s the purpose behind his power.
Our God delivers his people from bondage in Egypt so they can bless the whole world. Our Lord Jesus heals the demon-possessed man in the cemetery and gives him a mission to tell others. The Holy Spirit indwells the disciples at Pentecost for understanding and boldness to spread the Good News. The church in Antioch partners with other Christians to preach and minister and save and turn the whole world upside down. And none of that is accomplished without power.
The power of God to save — that’s the Gospel! The power of God to save two million Israelites through the waters of the Red Sea and the power of God to save you and everybody else on earth. That power is his and he uses it to save.
That’s the Gospel truth and we don’t dare water it down. We ramp it up. We turn it loose in all its power.
We say prayer is powerful; no, the God who listens to prayer is powerful. We say preaching can be powerful; no, the God who gives us the words is powerful. We pray for the sick but our God is the one who heals. We preach to the dry bones but our God is the one who gives life. We send money to Ukraine and PARC but our God is the one who gathers the lost into communities of faith. We volunteer at Bivins Elementary and CareNet but our God is the one rescuing those precious children. We build houses in Kenya, we send bicycles to missionaries in India, we mentor women at Martha’s Home, and we do Let’s Start Talking in Columbia, but our God is the one who saves. He alone has the power to save!
The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power!
His divine power has given us everything we need!
This all-surpassing power is from God and not from us!
Your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power!
Peace,
Allan
Vickie has counted and re-counted, checked and re-checked all the numbers from Sunday’s missions offering here at Central (we could tell because of all the smoke coming out of her calculators downstairs). The official Missions Sunday total stands at $477,094, far surpassing the rather ambitious goal of $300,000.
Wow.
What to make of that? I promised yesterday I would stop analyzing it and just praise God for this lavish outpouring of his power and grace. But, I can’t help myself.
One, I believe God is telling us we’re not thinking big enough. We’re not planning on a large enough scale. We’re not dreaming or imagining as widely and extravagantly as our God desires. We think we’re doing a lot, but our Father keeps providing resources for doing even more. We can’t out-think, out-plan, or out-give our God; I think he’s making that clear.
Two, I believe our church family is telling us they have a heart for God’s mission. Like our Lord, our congregation is all about evangelism and ministry, seeking and saving the lost and serving instead of being served. This is a very mature congregation filled with folks who are being transformed by God’s Spirit into the image of Christ. That’s obvious.
Third, I’m reminded of the privilege it is to be the preacher here. This is a very mission minded, very generous, over-the-top giving church. They give. They give graciously and radically out of their genuine love and concern for all of God’s people all over the world. And I’m so honored to belong to them.
Peace,
Allan
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