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Category: Ministry (Page 17 of 35)

Savior of the World

July 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“We know that this man really is the Savior of the world!” ~John 4:42

After just a couple of hours with Jesus, the Samaritan woman at the well knew it. After just two days with him, the villagers of Sychar proclaimed it. The rarest of biblical titles for our King was declared unashamedly by the socially marginalized, the religious outcasts, the “sinners.”

How did they know? What did they experience that led them to this bold confession?

Jesus had purposefully put himself at great risk by going through Samaria in order to find this woman. He had crossed every barrier and cleared every obstacle; he had blown past the social and cultural walls, the political and economic hurdles, the religious and gender boundaries to reach this lonely and forgotten soul. He had refused to be bogged down in religious debate and questions of worship, instead focusing on his relationship with her. And he had exposed her great sin against God at high noon in the town square — and graciously and powerfully forgiven her.

Without partiality, without prejudice, without compromise, Jesus is the true light who goes into the darkness to rescue the whole world. The scars you’ve suffered, the fences you’ve erected, the sins you’ve committed — none of this registers as even a speed bump to the Savior of the World.

Once you realize it, how do you respond? Because you have to respond. Jesus is not going away. He sat down on the edge of the well, an unavoidable obstacle to the Samaritan woman. And to you. The woman, Scripture says dropped her jar, she left the well, and ran back into town to tell everyone about the Messiah. The town sleaze had become a Gospel preacher!

How do you respond to the Savior of the World?

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As part of our “Gifted 2 Go” series here at Central, our oldest daughter, Whitney, and I wound up with almost twenty others at Brock’s Laundry last night, about two blocks west of our church building. Armed with $300 dollars in quarters, our task was to pay for everybody’s washers and dryers for two hours. There are 25 dryers along the back wall at Brock’s and 50 washing machines arranged in the middle. And we had all 75 of those things spinning until after 8:30 last night. We met young families and single moms, one college-aged kid and a couple of older folks. We packed and unpacked machines, folded clothes into laundry baskets and cardboard boxes, playfully fighting over the limited number of dryers and laughing loudly together as we took over Brock’s and made it the center of attention at Washington and 14th.

We met John, who I think used to have some ties to Central but refused to elaborate. We visited with Berto and his wife and held their precious seven-month-old daughter, Leah, while they switched out washers and dryers. We talked to Tiffany who admitted to hating Amarillo and wanting to move to San Antonio to be closer to an aunt. Justin and Mallory had just had the back glass and side window of their car blown out by gunfire Monday night. Miranda wouldn’t stop thanking us. Another woman there, almost in tears, told Shelly that for the first time in more than a year, she and her husband were now going to be able to do laundry and put gas in his truck during the same week. A young man named Matthew surveyed the room while his jeans and T-shirts cycled and commented to Myrl, “Y’all must have an awesome church.” To which Myrl replied, “Well, we have an awesome God!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A block away, Lon and Jeff and their crew washed almost twenty cars while Bob and his group changed oil a block south in another fifteen or twenty vehicles.

At 9:00 last night, as we were loading up the leftover sodas and water bottles in the laundromat parking lot, I turned to Shelley and said, “That sure beats a boring Wednesday night Bible class, huh?” Shelly said, “Yes, sir! Not that there’s anything wrong with our Bible classes, but THIS is what we’re supposed to be doing!”

We’re making inroads into our community. Slowly but surely, steady and purposefully, we’re meeting our neighbors and blessing them with the love and grace of our Lord. We’re seeking relationship. We’re meeting people where they are. We’re giving the cup of water, the handful of quarters, in the name of our King. And trusting him to use us to his eternal glory and praise.

Peace,

Allan

Quick Theology Check

July 17, 2013 / / 2 Comments

All right, let’s get some theology straight here. Our church is in the middle of this “Gifted 2 Go” project and it’s important that we be somewhat clear regarding the reasons we do things. Our motivations and expectations for what we do should always be guided by the Gospel of Christ. And we should all be at least close to the same understandings about what that is.

If we don’t guard ourselves, we can very easily be confused into thinking that the Bible is mainly about what we’re supposed to be doing instead of Scripture being mainly about revealing to us a picture of our God. That makes a huge difference in the way we view and apply the Bible and in our own motivations for doing good.

Jesus taught that we should turn the other cheek. Yes. But Jesus never said turning the other cheek toward someone who hits you is a useful and efficient method for bringing out the best in that person. Turning the other cheek, giving up your coat, walking two miles instead of one — it’s not taught by our Lord because it works. Let’s be honest, it usually doesn’t. It’s taught because this is the way our God is. God is kind to the selfish and ungrateful. He is merciful and loving to his enemies. As we in Amarillo can testify this week, our Father brings his rains equally on the just and the unjust.

Doing good to others is not a strategy for getting what we want. Instead, doing good to others is the only way to live since, in Jesus, we clearly see what God wants. We seek reconciliation and relationship with our neighbor, not because it makes us feel good, but because reconciliation and relationship is what God is doing in the world right now through Christ.

So, tonight we’re baking and delivering cookies to our neighbors. We’re changing the oil in their cars, washing their pick-ups, and helping them with their laundry. Not because it’ll work. Not because it’ll make us feel good about ourselves. Not because it’ll cause our church to grow or give Central great publicity. We serve our neighbors because this is who God is.

Peace,

Allan

Gifted and Still Going

July 16, 2013 / / 2 Comments

One of the things we missed while hiking and climbing and walking all over the Painted Desert and Grand Canyon was the community cookout Central hosted at Ellwood Park. As part of our “Gifted to Go” summer series, Scott Flow grilled up the burgers and dogs while the rest of our congregation manned different booths around the park designed to serve our Plemons area neighbors. Todd and his crew repaired kids’ bicycles and skateboards; Brent and Duane sharpened lawnmower blades and changed oil in edgers; Leon built dozens of birdhouses with the neighborhood youngsters; Becky flew kites with the kids and untangled lots of string; Matthew organized water balloon volleyball matches, which were a huge hit; Tom and his volunteers took requests from our neighbors for small home repairs they’ll make over the coming weeks; and Adam led a powerful hour of prayer for our community in our historic chapel.

What a night!

According to all accounts, our neighbors were blessed and our God was praised. Those who live in the houses around our church building experienced God’s love and grace, they participated in his great blessings of joy, through the food and fun and gestures of kindness shared by our church family. Almost four hundred people showed up for the event, including Eboni Graham, the faith reporter for the Amarillo Globe-News. (You can read her front page story about the cookout and see a short video featuring Greg Dowell by clicking here.) And the message was fully received that the Central Church of Christ is compelled by the matchless grace of Jesus to love our neighbors. We are concerned about our community. We love the people around us. And we want to serve.

At the same time, our people experienced the true freedom that comes in using our own particular talents and abilities and passions to serve others in the name of Christ. What a joy to realize that we all have spiritual gifts! How liberating to recognize that all our gifts are different, yet, all equal in the eyes of God and in the holy results for his Kingdom. If we’ll just open our hearts to the great potential of doing what we’re good at and what we enjoy for the sake of others, we won’t need summer programs and organized activities. We’ll just naturally keep doing these things, planting seeds, doing good for others, spreading the Gospel of Peace, and our God will turn Amarillo upside down.

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A sad day for Dallas rock-and-roll radio. Jon Dillon, the long-time disc-jockey and personality at KZPS and original on-air member of the great 98 FM KZEW “The Zoo,” was let go by Clear Channel over the weekend. Another great loss for local radio as the giant communications companies continue to discard regional flavor for a homogenized formula sound. Jon Dillon’s a victim, yeah. But so is anything that any of us remember as local radio.

I was seven years old in the summer of 1973 when “The Zoo” hit the Dallas airways with its brand new album rock format. It was all rock-and-roll. And not just the hits. The Zoo played B-sides and deep cuts. And for an entire generation of people who grew up in Dallas, people who are today in their 40s and 50s, it was THE radio station.

As a pre-teen and teenager, I don’t remember ever NOT listening to The Zoo. I was introduced to Van Halen and Aerosmith on The Zoo. When I got my huge AM-FM stereo and turntable for Christmas right after my 11th birthday, one of the first things I did was slap a Zoo sticker right in the center of the smokey gray dust cover. The Zoo was cool. I listened to LaBella and Rody’s “Morning Zoo” from the moment I woke up every day until we walked out the door for school. And I would beg my dad to tune the car radio from KRLD to The Zoo, which he would do just as soon as Brad Sham’s daily “Cowboys Report” concluded. I fell asleep every night during those years listening to The Zoo. I was what they called back then a “Zoo Freak.”

LaBella and Rody were the funny, over-the-top, irreverent morning guys. My friend Todd Adkins and I cut school twice to attend the “Morning Zoo’s Breakfast Club” at Monopoly’s in North Dallas. We were too young to get into the club legally, so we’d wake up extra early and sneak in at about 5:30 while the roadies were setting up. I still have a couple of the “Breakfast Club” buttons here in my office. Somewhere in a box in my attic is a Mike Rhyner (he was the “Morning Zoo’s” sports guy) autographed picture that says “Nice Huey Lewis t-shirt!” in reference to my wardrobe that first day I met him. My old Zoo pin is prominently displayed in a shadow box in my home along with lots of other treasured items from my childhood.

Jon Dillon was the midday personality on The Zoo, part of the original on-air lineup in 1973, working at KZEW until it went off the air in 1989. His was the voice that went in and out of the Fleetwood Mac and Eagles songs I listened to while doing my homework. He was the one who told me how hot it was and that it was “a skosh” past 4:00 as I drove home from school. He gave me Two-fer Tuesdays with the Scorpions and the Rolling Stones and Elton John. In a day when radio wasn’t nearly as researched and formatted, when DJs themselves — not a corporate play list generated in New York or California — decided what records they would play, Jon Dillon would sometimes talk for several minutes between songs. He gave me the background stories to the lyrics and the bands. He knew the guitar players, he was hanging out with the lead singers. He knew Tom Petty and Randy Bachman and Don Henley and Ted Nugent. Listening to JD introduce a Z Z Top song (“that little ol’ band from Texas”) was a tremendous joy.

The Zoo was the soundtrack for my formative years. From the time I was seven until I graduated college, The Zoo dominated the Dallas airwaves and I never listened to anything else.

Once it disappeared in ’89 — Belo had sold the station and things got weird pretty fast — Jon Dillon hooked on at KZPS and spun classic rock there until this past Friday. For almost 24 more years, he played my Led Zeppelin and Bad Company and The Who on 92.5. When we’ve lived in DFW, I’ve listened to JD. When we’ve not lived in DFW, I’ve listened to him every single time we’ve visited. My kids have listened to Jon Dillon. Yes, it’s mostly nostalgic, I’m sure. But I’m saddened that he’s been let go. I’m not sure why they fired him. Clear Channel’s not saying and nobody’s heard from Jon Dillon yet. He’s 62 or 63 years old, I think. He probably talked too much between songs. He might have refused to do anything overly corporate and cheesy.

I’ve never met the guy; our radio paths never crossed. But I wish to salute him and thank him today. He is radio greatness, one of the very best and last of a dying breed and a fading era. I occasionally say “skosh” when I’m talking about time or distance. When I hear a Z Z Top song, it’s Jon Dillon’s baritone “how, how, how!” that resonates in my head. I’ve been listening to Jon Dillon my whole life. My deep love for local radio is directly tied to this cool cat. My deep lament for local radio also connects sadly. Thanks, JD.

Peace,

Allan

Gifted and Going

July 7, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” ~1 Peter 4:10

Once again, we’ve kicked off our summer Wednesday nights at Central by cancelling all our Bible classes. No, not to stay home and do nothing. Not as some reluctant surrender to the culture. And not because, hey, it’s summer and everybody’s schedules are nuts anyway. This summer, we’re cancelling our Bible classes on Wednesday nights so we can better practice as a church what we preach: that every single person who confesses Jesus as Lord is gifted by God’s Holy Spirit in different ways; that all the gifts are intended to serve other people with God’s love and grace; and that the exercise of those gifts will grow us more into the image of the Christ.

Throughout the month of July, our church family is participating in 27 different service projects throughout our city, mainly concentrating on the Plemons neighborhood around our church building. Most of the projects are just going to take about two hours each, most of them are fairly simple, and most of them require skills and abilities we don’t normally classify as spiritual gifts. We’re calling it “Gifted 2 Go.”

We’re painting benches and rails at Bivins Elementary, sharpening lawnmower blades and changing oil in cars, flying kites and building birdhouses, singing at hospitals and nursing homes, stuffing pillows, and doing small home repairs. Our aim is that we realize our very different and various talents come from God and that when we use them to bless others in his name, those are indeed spiritual gifts. We want to redefine the term “spiritual gift” so that the things we’re good at, the things we really enjoy doing, those are “spiritual gifts” when we give them to God to be used for his purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past Wednesday I led a group of about twenty-five — young and old, men and women, dressed in grubbies and armed with paint brushes and rags — to Bivins Elementary, just down the street from our church building. There we met the principal, Tim White, and we painted the benches and picnic tables around the school, the rails around all the ramps and stairs, some playground equipment, and a big wooden shed behind the gym. Kevin took a group of about forty-five — again, young and old alike — and they sang their hearts out at the Continental Assisted Living Center and Westgate Mall. Todd and Mary’s group put together a huge playscape thing at the Southlawn Assembly of God where we partner together on a weekly pantry ministry. Around sixty others sewed and stuffed 500 pillows for hospital and hospice patients. Twenty others cleared a vacant lot for Another Chance House. And another twenty or so knocked nearly 600 doors in the Plemons area, getting to know our neighbors and inviting them to the events and services to come in the following weeks.

My prayer is that the people of Amarillo will experience the love and grace of Christ Jesus in our efforts. I also pray that we will all realize that these very things we enjoy so much, the things we’re so good at individually, serve a much greater purpose than what we’ve always figured. And we don’t have to wait for our ministers or church staff to come up with programs to exercise those gifts. It should be a lifestyle. My small group should be figuring out ways to serve Amarillo in the name of Jesus on a regular basis, not just during the summer. My family should be blessing my neighborhood monthly, weekly, daily. My Bible class can be doing similar projects all the time. If our church finishes this summer series, celebrates with a slide show, and then sits around waiting for next summer’s special program, we haven’t apprehended the true meaning and purpose of “Gifted 2 Go!”

I believe “Gifted 2 Go!” is going to bless Amarillo in ways that we can’t yet begin to imagine. Our neighbors are going to experience God’s love and mercy through us. And I think we’re all going to be challenged to growth, spiritual growth in our righteous relationships with one another and with our Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Holy Ministry

June 4, 2013 / / 1 Comment

From start to finish, the Scriptures call God’s people to be different from the rest of the world. We are called to be separate. To be distinct from the culture. The apostle Paul sets his argument up in 2 Corinthians with a series of five rhetorical questions in which the answers are all negative. The answers to his questions are either none or nothing.

What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Nothing.

What fellowship can light have with darkness? None.

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? None.

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Nothing.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? None.

What true Texan roots for the New York Yankees? None.

Paul could have gone on and on. And he kinda does. But he’s making the point that this point doesn’t really need making. It’s obvious. The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are at severe odds. They always have been. We are called to stand out to the world as being very different from the world.

Now, let’s be clear, Paul is not talking about Christians withdrawing from the world. He’s not saying that Christians should only do business with other Christians, that we should only live in Christian neighborhoods, and eat only with other Christians in Christian restaurants. He’s not saying we have to play on Christian sports teams and go to Christian schools and exercise with Christian yoga groups at Christian church buildings. Those kinds of things aren’t even options, and never have been, throughout most of the world throughout all of history. Being involved in and in community with non-Christians is not only unavoidable and necessary, it’s actually essential for the spread of the Gospel. Paul’s not talking about a church commune out on a big ranch somewhere or a Christian compound up in the mountains. He’s talking about purifying the Christian community in order to do ministry.

We will not be able to minister to the world and thus fulfill God’s purpose for his church unless we show the people of the world that we are different.

From Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon:

“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 world needs the church, not to help the world run more smoothly or to make the world a better and safer place for Christians to live. Rather, the world needs the church because, without the church, the world does not know who it is. The only way for the world to know that it needs redeeming is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. The way for the world to know that it needs redeeming, that it is broken and fallen, is for the church to enable the world to strike hard against something which is an alternative to what the world offers.”

The ministry of the church is not just to spread a message. The goal of the ministry is not merely information. We don’t assemble together and live and die together like we’re students in a classroom taking notes on theology. We are a pocket of God’s presence in the world. And from this pocket of God’s presence we are taking his world back from enemy hands. We live in enemy occupied territory. And God uses our alternative faith community and our transformed ways of thinking and speaking and acting to win it back.

“God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:7

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Speaking of Hauerwas, score another one for P-Grove! My great friend Jim Martin has been announced as the new vice-president at Harding School of Theology in Memphis. Jim is a godly man; beyond reproach; trustworthy and true. Our God speaks to Jim and I know that Jim listens. He is God’s dear friend. And I believe our God regards Jim as one of his greatest servants. And now our Lord has given him that next job.

If the people he leads at Harding receive just a tiny fraction of the blessings and strength and wisdom that Jim has given to me… Man, I can’t imagine the great impact this is going to have on God’s eternal Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Making Many Rich

May 30, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“…genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich.” ~2 Corinthians 6:9-10

Paul says Christian ministry is a spectacular joy and a debilitating hardship. When he’s talking about ministry, Paul describes both blessing and suffering. And it’s not an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp,” in which the two words in a phrase cancel each other out. It’s not “rap music.” Or “military intelligence.” Or “random order.” Blessing and suffering actually always go together in Christian ministry.

Throughout all of 2 Corinthians, Paul says over and over that the power of God is not proven by the absence of pain. God’s approval, his work, is not seen in the absence of suffering. It’s Paul’s faithful endurance in the middle of the pain, his faithful perseverance in the middle of suffering, where God does his greatest work. And in the above passage, Paul says something quite shocking: Many people are made rich through his suffering.

This is the reality that transforms his ministry. He knows that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. He’s convinced that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. He’s sold on the fact that Christ’s grace is sufficient and that God does his best work in the midst of howling emptiness.

We are called to live for others as the very embodiment of the One who died for us. That’s going to involve suffering. And Paul understands that suffering makes him more like Christ — it imitates, in a way, the death of Jesus on the cross. God works through our sufferings, in a way, to save others.

Paul says his personal poverty, by the grace of God, is making many people rich. He has nothing, he says, and yet, because he sees the eternal significance of his hardships, he says “I have everything.” Poor. Yet making many rich.

Then, two chapters later, Paul reminds us: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

Paul makes the connection: God works through us for the sake of the world in very similar ways as he worked/works through Christ Jesus. Our Lord did his very best work, he accomplished the greatest event in the history of mankind, in the deepest and darkest shadows of suffering and death. Your suffering, your poverty, right now by the grace of God, is accomplishing similar things for a desperate and dying world.

Peace,

Allan

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