Category: Ministry (Page 34 of 35)

No Fear, No Doubt

July 31, 2007 / Allan / 3 Comments

I submitted a photo of myself to the Simpsons website that Simpson-izes images.

This is me.

It looks exactly like me. Except for the gray hair.

Thanks, Jennifer Green, for the link.

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We don’t have to look around and conduct surveys or read books or bring in experts to tell us what our mission in Christian ministry is. We’re assured in Ephesians 2 that God prepares in advance those works for us to do. We can’t open our eyes or drive two blocks or turn around without running into a person or a family or a situation that is desperately crying out for the love of God in Jesus. People all around us are dying for reconciliation. They need forgiveness. They need peace. Their lives are empty without the things only God can give them. And because the mission is all around us, because it surrounds us in its enormity, we’re usually intimidated. It’s too big. The mission is obvious but we don’t know where to start. We’re only one person or one church in a sea of lost people and hopeless circumstances. But if we’ll just step out in faith with the God who gives us the ministry, we can be certain his mission will be accomplished. He works through us and in us. He uses us for his will and his Kingdom. He takes us in our unique settings with our unique talents and quirks and abilities and puts us in places and situations in which those gifts can be utilized for Christian ministry.

It’s only by his grace, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3, that we build on the foundations laid before us. It’s not me, Paul continues in that same letter. It’s not us. We are what we are and we do what we do only by the grace of God. And because it’s a God-given mission that we perform with God-given gifts, nothing else should really matter. We should have no misgivings about risking our reputations to reach out with God’s love to strangers. There should be no hesitation in helping others. We’re not afraid to get out of our houses and church buildings to join the Father’s work in progress.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Spiritual Care: “I expect naught from myself, everything from the work of Christ. My service has its objectivity in that expectation and by it I am freed from all anxiety about my insufficiency and failure.”

No fear, no doubt.

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58

Putting our faith in God — not in our programs and planning or in our abilities — is the key to Christian ministry.

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$Teixeira$ Add Mark Teixeira to the LONG list of Texas Rangers who leave Arlington to win championships in another city for another team. There is nobody on that Rangers team who’s wanted to build a winner right here and do great things as a team right here than Teixeira. Nobody.

I don’t blame him. I don’t blame Scott Boras. I blame Tom Hicks. He’s lost another great one. And this one is a team leader who leads with character and work ethic and selflessness. And he wanted to be a Ranger. He wanted to stay. If he could only see some hope of some light at the end of the tunnel some day.

I’ve never rooted for the Braves. But I’m rooting hard for a great guy who’s now playing first base in Atlanta.

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For the past week Whitney has been chewing gum every day and eating popcorn every night because this morning she finally got her braces. They’re purple. For over a year she’s been talking about getting blue and red braces for the Rangers. But she’s so disgusted with the Teixeira trade that she went with purple. To match her room.

She and the rest of the Legacy Youth group just left the building for a full day at Six Flags. The kids here are so kind and friendly to Whitney. They’ve been so accepting of her and welcomed her right into the mix. And Carrie-Anne and I are so grateful for that. It’s an answer to fervent prayer.

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There are 30 more days until football season and today’s #30 is an undrafted quarterback out of South Carolina who played mainly a backup role as a running back with the Dallas Cowboys and then made his mark in the NFL as a Super Bowl coach.

Danny Reeves played for Dallas from 1965-72, actually leading the team in rushing with 757 yards in 1966, the team’s first ever winning season. But he served much more effectively as an assistant coach under Tom Landry for eleven seasons, at one time the front-runner to replace him whenever he decided to step down.

But Reeves couldn’t wait that long. He got the opportunity to coach the Broncos in 1981 and took them to four AFC title games and three Super Bowls, winning NFL Coach of the Year honors three times. He also took the Falcons to a Super Bowl after a four year stint with the Giants. In all, Dan Reeves appeared as a player or a coach in 50 playoff games and nine Super Bowls. He won NFL Coach of the Year five times and he’s the 6th all-time winningest coach in NFL history with 201 victories. And he was Chan Gailey’s little league baseball coach in Americus, Georgia.

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We’re packing up the family and heading down to Marble Falls tomorrow morning for a quick little four day getaway before school starts. We’re going to the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco Wednesday (we try to make Waco and Dublin on alternating years), worshiping with our Marble Falls family Wednesday night, going to Schlitterbahn Thursday, and doing something in Austin on Friday.

The impetus for the trip, though, is Valerie’s movie audition Saturday morning.

We recieved a letter from Primrose Productions Casting about six weeks ago telling us that they, in cooperation with the Marble Falls School District and the Texas Film Commission through Governor Perry’s office, had been scouting out new potential child actors at Colt Elementary School. They spent a couple of weeks secretly observing kids in the classroom, at lunch, and on the playground. And they selected Valerie to audition for a role in a major motion picture they’re going to be filming next year in the Austin area. The audition is at 10:30 Saturday morning. We have no idea what kind of role or what kind of movie they’re talking about. But we’ll be there.

Valerie has a tendency to be incredibly outgoing and funny in front of family and friends and then shut down completely in front of strangers. They’re going to put her on camera and just talk to her Saturday and I have no clue how it’s going to go.

I’ll try to keep up with the blog and the countdown while we’re away. I’ll try.

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Legacy Worship Center Construction Update:

Does this look like progress? A dumpster AND a port-a-potty! What else could they possibly need before they start actually digging?

Peace,

Allan

Legacy Adopts Walker Creek Elementary!

July 30, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

There are so many things to be excited about at the Legacy Church of Christ. There are so many programs and ministries here that our God is using for the Kingdom — the new Worship Center construction, our new focus on small groups, the upcoming Giveaway Day, all that our young people are doing, the camps and mission trips, VBS. But adopting Walker Creek, claiming that campus for Christ, is exactly the kind of thing this body of disciples is called to do by every paragraph of our Scriptures. If we really believe we are the body of Christ then we must be Jesus Christ to our community. And we can’t fulfill even a fraction of what it means to be the body of Christ inside our church building. If we are to be Jesus, we do that outside, face to face, person to person, in relationship, showing love and compassion in our actions to the people with whom we live in community.

Just like Jesus, we bear the burdens of our world. We bear the infirmities and the iniquities of our community. We turn sorrow into joy in the name of our Savior.

Our community is sick. Its families are fractured. Its neighborhoods are diseased. We live in a broken world. And Christ says we are the light.

In his lectures delivered to the University of Berlin in 1933 Dietrich Bonhoeffer presented the church of Jesus as “a sociological category unique unto itself.”

“Unlike other human organizations, the Church is not a vehicle for some other goal but is, in fact, an end in itself, containing within its own proclamation and witness and work the very gifts it promises. Thus, within the Church’s proclamation and sacramental life, that grace which is eschatologically promised in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes present to the community and to the individual.”

In other words — although I like his so much better — the Church is Jesus to the community. The love and the grace, the compassion and the benevolence we show to others is actually the love and grace, compassion and benevolence of the risen Lord. The Church reaches out with the mercy of God to the community and becomes the healing touch of God to those persons and circumstances.

We’ve been given an opportunity, a good work prepared in advance by God for us to do, to adopt Walker Creek Elementary School. Our plan is to buy backpacks and school supplies for the nearly 200 economically-disadvantaged, mostly Hispanic students there and volunteer to read to them in their ESL classes and eat lunch with them occasionally. By being committed to doing these little things in the lives of these children, we can positively impact them and their families with the love of God and claim that part of our community for Christ.

Jason tells me a bunch of our teenagers went out and purchased several backpacks last night. At the dinner for the Dodds last night several of us began planning how our classes and small groups could expand the extent of the relationship with Walker Creek even further. The idea has already caught fire. Praise God for the opportunities he gives us to serve his people in the Kingdom!

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It was exactly one year ago today, July 30, 2006, that I preached my first sermon at Legacy. I was officially hired a couple of weeks later — the culmination of an amazing process, so strange and so wonderful it could have only been of God. But because of my commitments to school at Austin Grad we couldn’t start here until June. I was able to drive up here and preach at Legacy once a month during that ten month interim. So in a lot of ways, we’ve been a part of the Legacy family for a year now. But in so many other ways, I still feel brand new.

And those same feelings of humility and complete inadequacy in the pulpit and in my work as the preacher at this place won’t go away.

I believe with all my heart that it’s our God who is using me. He inspires me through the week in my study and my prayer and then speaks through me on Sundays. He takes his message and places it right into the hearts of the people here, in exactly the place where and when and how they need it. I’m totally baffled by the way it works. None of it is me. All of it is Him. And a week doesn’t go by that several people talk to me about how the message reached them and touched them, the exactly perfect words were said at exactly the perfect time. The word of grace they needed at just that moment was delivered, perfectly tailored to specifically comfort and encourage them. None of it is me. All of it is Him. And it blows me away.

People I don’t know that well, people I’ve barely met, will talk to me about their innermost fears and anxieties, their sins and their struggles with faith and hope. And we’ll cry together and we’ll pray together. And I don’t even know these people yet. As they’re talking to me, I can’t help thinking, “Why are they telling me these things? What am I supposed to do? They’re telling me things and confiding in me things they wouldn’t tell their dearest friend. Why?”

It’s because I’m the preacher. I represent God and the Word of God to these people. I represent a deeper relationship to our God to the church. I’m expected to give them spiritual direction and comfort and hope straight from the Lord.

And when I’m finished with those conversations, I feel so small and insignificant. I feel like I haven’t helped at all. I feel like I haven’t said a thing they couldn’t have heard from almost anyone else. I feel so humble. Everytime it happens, I look at my own life. I look at my own sin and selfishness and inclinations to evil. I look at all the things I don’t understand about God and his ways and his will. And he still uses me. And that completely blows me away.

I find myself every day praying the prayer of Terry Rush up in Tulsa: “God, please keep doing that thing you do.”

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31 days until football season and two more running backs in the countdown. #31 is the great Jim Taylor of those Titletown Packers in the ’60s. As Green Bay’s top pick out of LSU in 1958, Taylor ran for over a thousand yards in five straight seasons, he led the NFL in rushing in 1962 and was the league’s player of the year that season. He was a ferocious runner and a powerful blocker and a member of that original “run to daylight” backfield with the Packers.

Yesterday’s #32 is not O. J. Simpson, Franco Harris, or Marcus Allen, although they all three deserve honorable mention for their college and pro careers. Walt Garrison’s a personal favorite at #32 but probably doesn’t fit in the same category as the greatest ever. The best ever #32 is Jim Brown. As an All-America out of Syracuse, he was built like a lineman and punshished defenders when he ran over them. He was the Browns’ top draft pick in 1957 and led the NFL in rushing eight times, winning the league’s MVP award twice. His career lasted only nine seasons. But he racked up 58 100-yard games and a combined 15,459 yards from scrimmage. He still holds 20 NFL records. His career rushing average is 5.2 yards per carry. His career receiving average is 9.5 yards per catch. And he’s appeared in 39 movies.

I don’t care much for his politics or his demeanor. But Jim Brown was the best to ever wear #32.

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Happy Birthday, Rhonda! I love you. Thank you for not letting go.

Peace,

Allan

Elijah's Ministry of Deed

July 18, 2007 / Allan / 0 Comments

While I’m counting down the days to football season (43, by the way) most everyone else in the church is counting down the days until our Vacation Bible School (4). And I’m getting excited about it, too. The two-story stage is now finished and the nearly 30 cast members of the musical have been up here rehearsing every night for weeks. Everything’s almost completely decorated. And the energy in the air is unmistakable. We’re expecting over 900 here for the Family Kickoff and dinner Sunday evening. And then three evenings of study and performance centered on the life of Elijah for children of every age and adults! I’m even preaching Sunday morning on the very first mention we have of Elijah in Scripture: his pronouncement of divine judgment on Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 17. I toyed with the idea of wearing camel skin and a leather belt. For about two seconds.

It’s odd to me that, as great as Elijah is, he didn’t say a whole lot. We don’t have too many of his words recorded in Scripture. He’s mentioned more times by New Testament writers than any other prophet. His influence and importance as a man of God and a critical player in God’s salvation plans is unquestioned. But I’m not sure he did a whole lot of preaching. If he did, we don’t have it. What we have are a few short sentences from just five or six episodes of his ministry.

Consider that initial mention of Elijah. He comes out of nowhere, lands on the front steps of Ahab’s palace, announces a drought and a famine, and then disappears for three-and-a-half years. He’s gone just as quickly as he came. After just one sentence. When he reappears, it’s just for a day. Three more times he reappears in history, but each time it is just for a day. And doesn’t do a whole lot of talking.

He lets his actions speak for him and his God. He declares himself in 1 Kings 17:1 as a servant of God, standing before the God of Israel as his slave, and that’s enough.

It reminds me of Joe Malone. As our preacher at Pleasant Grove when I was a kid he used to recite a poem ocassionally that spoke to a minister’s life outside the pulpit. The poem ended with the line “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one anyday.”

It’s been said that, in preaching, the thing of least importance is the sermon.

The truth is that a lot of people have learned to tune our sermons out. They know full well that words are cheap and that emotion can be simulated. They wonder how much of our discourse we really believe and practice ourselves. And they look to our lives outside the pulpit for the answer.

Unfortunately, we’ve all known preachers who “slash the throats of their sermons by their lives.”

“Nothing influences others so much as character. Few people are capable of reasoning, and fewer still like the trouble of it; and besides, men have hearts as well as heads. Hence, consistency, reality, ever-present principle, shining through the person in whom they dwell, and making themselves perceptible, have more weight than many arguments, than much preaching.” ~ Heygate, from “Ember Hours”

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Quick update on postdiluvian Marble Falls: I spoke to Greg Neill yesterday and he tells me that 15 of the 17 families in the church who were impacted by the floods of three weeks ago are, for the most part, back in their homes. Please keep the Jamars and the Montgomerys in your thoughts and prayers, as they are still displaced and facing some very tough decisions in the coming days. As with most everyone there who didn’t have flood insurance, their homes were nowhere near the 100-year flood plain. I’m happy to report that the Marble Falls Church has received almost ten thousand dollars from other congregations to help those brothers and sisters, one thousand of that from us at Legacy. They’re not finished with it yet. But the focus has now turned more to cleaning and repairing the town.

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There are only 43 more days until football season begins August 30 with eleven college games and the SEC tilt between LSU and Mississippi State that night on ESPN. And today’s #43 is Dallas Cowboys great Don Perkins. As a three-time all conference running back at New Mexico, Tex Schramm and Tom Landry signed him to a personal services contract before the Cowboys franchise even existed. But it didn’t start out that well.

Perkins almost got cut on the first day of that very first ever Cowboys training camp, in July 1960 in Forest Grove, Oregon. Perkins had reported to camp 20 pounds overweight thanks to an offseason program of, as he says today, biscuits and gravy. And Landry opened up his camp with that now famous Landry Mile. It was actually a mile and a quarter and Landry had every single player run it on the first day of camp for 29 years. And Perkins couldn’t even finish it. He fell down several times and then quit. The Landry Mile was designed to weed out those with no pride or determination. But because they had so few good players on that first roster they gave Perkins another chance. And he broke his foot. Perkins had to sit out that awful inaugural season of 1960 and wasn’t able to play until ’61. But he was definitely worth the wait.

Perkins was the NFL Rookie of the Year that season and finished in the top ten in the league in rushing every single one of his eight years with the Cowboys. He’s still the #3 all time leading rusher in Cowboys history behind Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett and #6 in all-purpose yards. Perkins literally carried the Cowboys from a winless expansion team to two straight NFL Championship Games. And when the Cowboys unveiled the famed Ring of Honor, Perkins was the second honoree to be inducted behind Hall of Famer Bob Lilly.

Cliff “Captain Crash” Harris gets a sentimental honorable mention. But Don Perkins is the best to ever wear #43.

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Is it weird to be sad about a weatherman retiring? After 31 years at Channel 8 in Dallas, Troy Dungan and his goofy bow ties are calling it quits. He had just arrived when my 4th grade class at Dallas Christian took a field trip to WFAA downtown to visit Troy. And we all decorated bow ties in recognition of his signature accessory as our nametags. Troy judged our nametags and declared mine third best behind Kristi Warmann and somebody else I can’t recall. Anway, my dad went with us as a sponsor and took his weather records to show Troy. (There’s not enough time in the day or space on our server to tell you about my dad and weather.) And Troy was kind enough and gracious enough to listen to my dad talk about his charts and records that he became our family favorite. Troy even recruited my dad and my aunt as his first weather-watchers — my dad in Pleasant Grove and my aunt in North Dallas. And dad stayed with him until they moved to Liberty City in 2000. It was not unusual for dad to have one of us call Troy at Channel 8 to report our rainfall amounts at the house or for Troy to call us if something really big was happening in the Grove. And we always thought that was cool. I remember C-A and I running into Troy and his family at the El Chico in Waco one Sunday afternoon and he recalled each one of us by name and asked about everybody. He’s always just as nice and friendly in person as he seems to be on air. Delkus and Fields and everybody else on Channel 8 seem so fake and cheesy compared to Troy. And I hate it that he’s leaving.

I know it makes me old. But does it make me weird?

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Finally got the Texas flag up on the house. Finally feels, and looks, like home.

Peace,

Allan

The Ministry of Reconciliation

July 17, 2007 / Allan / 1 Comment

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.” ~2 Corinthians 5:17-20

If Christian ministry is a continuation and an extension of what God began long ago, his mighty acts in history to reconcile the world to himself, then our ministry in his church should be a ministry that focuses on reconciliation.

We were made in the image of God, perfect beings in a perfect world. Man is God’s greatest creation and he longs to be reunited with us in perfection, the way it was in the very beginning. So while we were powerless, dead in our sins, enemies of God, he sent his only Son as a sacrifice to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. God is a God of reconciliation. His love in redeeming us is without cause, without merit, without limit, and without end.

And exhibiting those same ideas of redemption is at the core of Christian ministry. God wants husbands and wives to be together. He wants children reunited with their parents. He wants churches to stay in step. He desires unity among his people.

And that same unity should be evident within our own individual lives, between our brains and our bodies, our thinking and our doing. His will is that there should be no inconsistencies, no incongruence, no deviation. Our words and actions should reflect the impact his saving love and grace has had on us. Our ministry should seek to restore that kind of peace to shattered lives and broken relationships with the ultimate goal of complete reconciliation to the Father.

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There are 44 more days until the beginning of football season. And #44 in the countdown is the only Heisman Trophy winner to ever play for Bear Bryant and, I think, the only Texas A&M Aggie on my list. John David Crow was a consensus All-America halfback / linebacker for Bryant’s Aggies in the ’50s. He actually edged out Alex Karras, believe it or not, for the Heisman in 1957. And he was undoubtedly the greatest Aggies football player ever.

Ever.

He only played in seven games his senior season because of a knee injury. But in his three years at College Station, the Aggies went 24-5-2. He was a two-time All Southwest Conference selection and even served as the Texas A&M Athletics Director from 1988-1993. He was drafted #1 by the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals in ’58 and spent eleven years with the Cards and 49ers, making it to four Pro Bowls and even winning the NFL rushing title in 1960.

He’s in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. And he edges out Donnie Anderson, John Riggens, and Kyle Rote as the best #44 to ever play the game.

Peace,

Allan

Jumping Into God's Work

July 2, 2007 / Allan / 4 Comments

I was set up. I was ambushed. Looking back now, I should have seen it coming. But I was blinded by my unabashed love and devotion to my brothers in Christ. I was naive to the deceit and scheming going on all around me. My belief and faith in my brothers clouded my vision. Trust me, it will never happen again.

Things were rocking along pretty well at the church cookout last night. Great burgers and dogs. Outstanding fellowship. Kudos to Paul and Andrea Brightwell and their ministry group who planned and executed the evening so wonderfully. What a great night! And then we went outside to play games. Whitney and I KILLED in the egg toss. She made two amazing catches between her elbows on a couple of short throws. I made one spectacular one-handed, left-handed running grab. We finished fourth! And then the water balloon toss. We didn’t fare as well there, but we were still having lots of fun. After the second game of water balloon toss, I figured we were done. But Steve Fleming talked me into one more game. He paired me up with a girl I had never met. And instead of everybody on one side tossing their balloon at the same time, he had me toss mine first. Alone.

I should have seen it coming.

As soon as I threw my balloon, they came after me. 30-40 little kids and a couple of adults. I was completely defenseless and they were all armed. It was like running in a swamp following the 40-days and 40-nights of rain we’ve had here in North Texas. I got hit a couple of times. And then I went down. I slipped in the mud. I went down. And it was over. They pounded me. It turned into a little bit of a dog pile. Somebody brought in some eggs. It was ugly. I tried to take down as many of the kids as I could. But everything was so slippery.

And then the acts of cowardice.

After all the water balloons had been emptied onto my head, I regained my footing and my bearings and began to seek my revenge. Not on the kids, but on the adults I figured had planned the attack. As I grabbed the last carton of eggs, Steve Fleming began singing like a canary. He ratted out David Byrnes as the mastermind almost before I could ask. Such loyalty. Such dedication to his comrade. And as I approached Byrnes, he actually grabbed his wife, Shanna, and used her as a human shield. Unbelievable. It was worse than Costanza knocking over the seven-year-olds and his girlfriend’s grandmother to get out of the burning house. At least David acknowledged his character flaw late last night by emailing me a picture of himself.

Byrnes, I hope the yolk comes out of your pink shirt!

What a fabulous night. I’ve been so amazed to feel like such a part of the church family here in such a hurry. Your response and your encouragment, and even your water balloons and eggs have meant so much to me. Thank you.

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Our Christian ministry is a continuation of God’s work in Jesus Christ. God’s plans for his world began before there was time and will continue throughout eternity. And it encourages me to think of God’s work as this huge, massive, unmeasurable thing that’s always been and will never stop. When God called Abram out of Haran, I like to think he did it with my great-grandparents in mind. When he took Israel across the Red Sea, I like to think he did that for me. When he brought his people back from exile, he did it to benefit my great-grandchildren. His labor is for all people for all time. God has always been and will always be present in and with his people. He’s continually loving and blessing his people, redeeming and reconciling his people, and defeating the enemies of his people. That work didn’t end with the resurrection of Jesus or with the beginning of the church or even with the writing of the New Testament. Luke says in Acts 1 that the earthly ministry of Jesus was just the beginning of what he does and teaches. It continues. Present tense, on and on.

And when we recognize the big picture of God’s work in our world, we realize that we’re only jumping in to join it. Nothing originates with us. We’re not starting any new work or beginning any new ways to show the love of God. It’s a process that began long ago and will continue until Christ returns. We’re only taking part in God’s constant labor. It’s so much bigger than my ministry or the work of the Legacy Church. He’s working through us and his church, yes. But that work continues whether we’re in on it or not. Let’s all pledge to jump in and join it.

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59 days until football season. And the all-time best #59 in football history is Steelers linebacker Jack Ham. A consensus All-America from Penn State, he was drafted by Pittsburgh and became a starter his rookie year of 1971. He won four Super Bowl rings and went to eight Pro Bowls, racking up 25-1/2 sacks, 21 fumble recoveries, and 32 interceptions in his 12 year career. He’s in the college and pro football halls of fame. And as much as I hate to honor or recognize any Steeler from the ’70s, Ham’s the guy.

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Excellent dinner Saturday night at the Fairmont for the Medina Children’s Home. Over 1,300 people there raising money for a great cause. It was so good to hook up with so many dear friends from Mesquite, Saturn Road, and Dallas Christian. I don’t know yet how much money was raised, but it had to have been a record. Avery Johnson handled the awkward moment when one of the former Medina kids (she’s an Aggie, Charlie) said she’d rather get an internship with the Spurs than with the Mavericks because they’ve won four rings with great diplomacy and kindness. And his own story of reaching the heights of athletic success and popularity from the drug-infested ghettos of New Orleans was inspiring. Just remember two things: “Failure is not Final” and “Things Don’t Change if Things Don’t Change.”

Peace,

Allan

Ministry in the Interruptions

June 25, 2007 / Allan / 3 Comments

Christian ministry is a series of interruptions. And it’s our attitude toward and our selfless service in those interruptions that define our ministries.

My outlook on time and my control over my time was radically altered almost 20 years ago, the very first time I read C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, the affectionate devil, tells his protege nephew in chapter 11 that “man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift.”

Screwtape goes on to say that if in our “total service of the Enemy (God)” he demanded one day for us to do nothing more than listen for a half hour to the “conversation of a foolish woman,” we would be much relieved and happy to serve. If, one day, that’s all God wanted, just for you to pay attention for a little while to this person who needs you to listen, we’d be thrilled to obey. We’d be honored that God would choose us to be used by him in that way, that day. And then Screwtape concludes his thought by telling Wormwood, “if the man thinks about this assumption for a moment, even he is bound to realize that he is actually in this situation every day.”

Jesus, the Christ, is our perfect example of selfless service. And, apart from the cross, that service is best seen in the interruptions to his schedule. Jesus washed feet, hugged lepers, and called tax collectors down out of trees. Despite the strain on his schedule and the personal risk to his reputation and his position, people always came first to the Son of God. When a blind man or a beggar or a lonely woman called out to Jesus, he didn’t reschedule them or avoid them because it wasn’t in his plans that day. He healed them. He taught them. He served them.

Christian ministry is not in the things we schedule as much as in the interruptions to those schedules.

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Speaking of schedules, there are several big items on the calendar this week. Here at Legacy we’re honored to host the annual National Deaf Christian Workshop. Over 500 deaf Christians from all over the country are meeting here tonight through Thursday for a series of sessions revolving around the Texas-inspired theme “Deep in the Heart of God.” The lectures and classes focus on spiritual matters and deaf ministry issues and include such topics as “Improving Church Interpreting,” “Facial Expression in Interpreting,” and “A Heart for Interpreting.” This place has been buzzing with activity since before 7:00 this morning. And the unmistakable energy and enthusiasm in the air will only build through the week up to Tom Ramey’s message “Hearts That Are Heaven Bound” Thursday night. Congratulations to our own deaf minister Terry Heidecker and his wife Cindy, Bill and Katie Baker, and the dozens of others who’ve worked so hard to pull this off. May our God bless the workshop and use the workshop to spread the borders of the Kingdom!

I’ll begin a new tradition with some old friends this Friday in Dallas. The Four Horsemen are riding together with increased frequency and fervor. Woe to those who would………

Nevermind. More on that Friday.

And this Saturday night is the annual Medina Children’s Home Dinner and Auction at the Fairmont in downtown Dallas. I’ve been privileged in the past to work with my good friends David & Linda Cause in gathering autographed items from the Rangers and Stars and Mavericks to be auctioned off at the dinner. But this year I’m honored to be leading the invocation. Mavericks coach Avery Johnson is the guest speaker. And I’m looking forward to a wonderful night with dear friends to support a great cause.

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The resource page is beginning to take some kind of shape. Check it out for bulletin articles, book reviews, exegetical papers, and essays I’ve written in the past. And feel free to use them anywhere and anytime you’d like.

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Finally, there are 66 days until football season. And #66 in the countdown is the Packers long-time Hall of Fame middle linebacker Ray Nitschke. Nitschke was the core of the Green Bay defense during their dynasty days of the ’60s. They won five NFL titles in seven years, including the first two Super Bowls with Nitschke wreaking havoc for opposing quarterbacks and enforcing his will on opposing running backs. He kept his teeth on a shelf in his locker. His autobiography was entitled “Mean on Sunday.” In 1969 he was named the best linebacker in the history of the NFL. He was the first Packers defender from the ’60s to get into the Hall of Fame. And it’s amazing to me that he only played in one Pro Bowl. And of course, in that one Pro Bowl, in 1964, he returned an interception for a TD. Ray Nitschke is, without doubt, the best player to ever wear #66.

Catching up from the weekend (there’s gotta be a better way to do this): Russell Maryland is my #67. Maryland won two national championships and the Outland Trophy at the University of Miami, he won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys as their #1 draft pick in ’91, and finished his career with the Raiders and Packers. He was a great football player on great teams. His timing was impeccable. But more than that, he’s a really great guy. I had the pleasure of working with Russell at a benefit golf tournament three years ago for Athletes in Action and listened to him at dinner passionately tell the golfers about his conversion to Christ and his life as a disciple. God bless him and John Weber, John Wetteland, and Sean Payton for the work they’re doing for our Lord.

And #68 is old Cowboys nemesis L. C. Greenwood. Out of little bitty Arkansas Pine Bluff, he was a 10th round pick of the Steelers, but became the team’s all-time leading sack man with 73-1/2. On the famed Steel Curtain defense he played left defensive end next to Mean Joe Green, Ernie Holmes, and Dwight White; a defensive line that posted five shutouts in the last eight games of 1976. He wore those awful gold high top cleats, remember? And the NFL fined the team after every single game for the uniform violation. And Art Rooney wrote the checks with a smile. Greenwood sacked Roger Staubach three times in Super Bowl X. He was 6’6″, super quick, and unstoppable coming around that corner. Cowboys offensive lineman Herb Scott gets my #68 honorable mention. But Greenwood’s the best.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Ministry (Page 34 of 35)

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