The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Preaching (Page 1 of 25)

I Work for the Lord

October 22, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Cornell Green, the great Dallas Cowboys defensive back from the trailblazing 1960s and the championship ’70s, died yesterday at 86. Gil Brandt took a flyer on Green, a star basketball player at Utah State who had only played one year of high school football, offering him a $1000 signing bonus in the summer of 1962 to try out for Dallas. And he went on to dominate the NFL, never missing a game in 13 years, helping the Cowboys get to two Super Bowls and winning one, and picking up multiple Pro Bowl and All Pro honors along the way. He belongs in the Cowboys Ring of Honor, for sure, and maybe even the Pro Football Hall of Fame–several people are making those cases today. Dallas Morning News writer Kevin Sherrington is pointing out that if Green hadn’t been so good, Brandt likely wouldn’t have been given the leash to sign future non-football-players like Bob Hayes, Pete Gent, and Toni Fritsch. And Carl Lewis. I added that one. RIP to Cornell Green, the greatest #34 in Cowboys history.

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Jadyn, Jim, and I joined almost a hundred preachers and congregational ministers in Waco earlier this week for a one-day ReMission Conference at the Crestview Church of Christ. I’ll have more to write about this gathering tomorrow and in the coming days, but let me share this with you. This is especially for the preachers. Jeff Brooks, the longtime preacher at Lake Cities CofC, read this to us at the end of the night Sunday. He says it was written by Mike Cope and delivered to a group of preachers in 1993, and he’s held onto it all these years. After hearing it, I know why. If you are a preacher, I pray this encourages your soul. If you know a preacher, I hope it gives you some insight.

I Work for the Lord
I love it when some of my brothers and sisters at church express their appreciation for my ministry. A note of encouragement in the mail is worth more than a year’s salary. An arm around the shoulder with an affirming nod by an elder is a rescuing arm. A smile from the pew when I make eye contact is a vaccination that protects me from the despair and discouragement that so easily seep into my life. I love my brothers and sisters. But I work for the Lord.

It hurts when some can only find fault, when they question my motives, when they belittle my attempts to lead, when they gossip about me behind my back. That kind of treatment is a third-degree burn. But I work for the Lord.

Sometimes my conscience is clear: I feel like my motives are noble; I know that my preparation has been thorough; I remember that I have ministered not only to the people but with the people. A clear conscience is a vacation that can be enjoyed any week! But I work for the Lord.

At other times my conscience isn’t so clear. It’s a bit murky. I know that my motives are mixed, that my mind wants to be fully devoted to the Lord while my life lags behind by about half a lap. I feel a deep sense of inadequacy. I think the people deserve better. Someone more genuine. But I work for the Lord.

So while judgments about me swirl all around, I must remember that only one judgment counts. And while every day my feelings soar or sink based upon the evaluations of people, I must remember that there is a Great Day coming. Ultimately, it is the only day that counts.

Because I work for the Lord.

Peace,
Allan

Open to Our Witness

October 7, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Jonah is asleep at the bottom of the ship when the Lord sends a violent storm. The ship is taking on water, the Bible says the boat is beginning to break up. The sailors all believe they’re going to die. They’re each praying to their own gods. These are not Israelite sailors–these are pagans. Idol worshipers. Foreigners. From different countries with different customs and cultures and languages. And they’re scared to death.

They go downstairs and wake up Jonah. We drew straws! We cast lots! We rolled the dice! We shook up the Magic 8-Ball! And it all points to you, Jonah! What’s the deal? Who are you? 

And Jonah, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the turmoil and chaos, in the middle of the anxiety and fear, in the middle of a foreign mission field on board a pagan ship, says,

“I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.” ~Jonah 1:9

The Scripture says this terrified the sailors even more. What, are you crazy? You’re running away from the God who created the sea, ON THE SEA?!? Who does that?? We’re all dead!!

Here’s what I see in the first chapter of Jonah. The runaway prophet confessed God as Lord, and that’s all it took to save these pagan sailors.

Jonah confesses the Lord out loud to these frightened men. They reluctantly act on Jonah’s instructions, they throw him overboard. And they call on the name of the Lord. They beg the Lord for forgiveness. And when the storm immediately goes away and the sea immediately grows calm, they greatly fear the Lord. They revere the Lord. They’re in awe of the Lord. They’re moved. And they worship the Lord. They offer sacrifices to God and they make vows, they make commitments to God right there on the spot. Jonah confessed the Lord to these pagan sailors. And the sailors saw God. They experienced God’s salvation. And their lives were forever changed.

Hear me on this. The world is not closed to our witness. Even if it’s a weak witness. The world is open.

I imagine when Jonah first payed his fare and boarded that ship, he never dreamed of talking to those sailors about God. They would never listen. Those are some rough dudes. I can’t relate to these guys. Those kinds of people aren’t interested in God. And Jonah goes downstairs to take a nap. But the truth in the next parts of the story tell us that the world is open to our confession. Even when it’s weak.

Our world is in crisis. The world we live in right now is desperate, it’s hopeless. People in Midland are searching for truth. People all around you are dying for something to believe in, something stable and secure to hold on to. People all over the world are rolling the dice, casting lots, drawing straws, shaking the Magic 8-Ball, looking, looking, looking, for answers. Looking for help. And they’re mostly wide open to the truth if we’ll just confess it in front of them.

The sailors were not looking for this witness. They weren’t looking for Jonah’s confession of faith, they weren’t looking for the Creator of Heaven and Earth, they didn’t know what they were looking for. But through Jonah’s witness, as weak as it maybe was, they encountered our God and experienced his salvation from the storm. They acknowledged their helplessness. They realized the futility of rowing against the storm by themselves. And they believed in the Word of God and they acted on it. And they worshiped him.

Open your mouth and confess God as Lord in front of non-believers. The people around you are open.

Peace,
Allan

Answering the Call

October 5, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Missions Month at GCR has become just about my favorite time of the year because we get to hang out with some of the very best people I know. Brad and Melissa Hooley, our Nexus church-planting partners from the Mountain View Christian Church in Kalispell, Montana, spent the weekend with us and we had an absolute blast getting caught up on everything the Lord is doing up there. We grilled fajitas for ten Saturday night and ate and laughed and prayed together around our dining room table. Brad and Melissa led our communion time Sunday and then we celebrated GCR CrocktoberFest with a Crockpot potluck feast after church. While the little kids played loudly, Jason Kumalo told us all the great salvation things God is doing in and through our Namwianga Missions partners in Zambia. Brad and Melissa joined us in the DP room Sunday afternoon to watch the Texans yellow flag themselves into a loss to the Cowboys. Then we hoofed it back to church for a pizza party with the GCR group that visited Kalispell three summers ago when Mountain View Christian first launched. We capped the night with a rousing game of “99” back at Stanglin Manor in which I was the first one eliminated and Brad ran the table to win. Mostly graciously.

I’m not even sure it’s possible. But if it is, I almost had too much sopapilla cheesecake.

God bless the Hooleys–all six of them!–and our brothers and sisters at Mountain View Christian.

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To help us better understand our God’s will to save the whole world and our role in his salvation plans, we are spending four Sundays in Jonah–one chapter of the story per Sunday. One of the takeaways from yesterday’s lesson is that God’s call is very clear. Always. He tells Jonah to go and preach to Nineveh. Very direct and to the point. There’s no misinterpreting or misunderstanding God’s call on Jonah. It’s really very simple. Go and preach to Nineveh.

Nineveh is the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians are Israel’s national enemies.

Jonah doesn’t misunderstand God’s call. God’s call is crystal clear. Jonah just disagrees with God’s way of dealing with the bad situation in Nineveh. I can almost hear Jonah:

Nineveh? Seriously? Those people are terrible! You don’t preach to people like that; you wipe ’em out! You destroy them! Those people are despicable! They have no regard for human rights! They treat women horribly! They’re always starting wars! They kill people at the drop of a hat! They don’t believe in our God! They don’t share our values! They’re all crazy! Come on, God, you’ve seen the news! Those people are insane! They’ve always been that way and they will be that way forever! They’re trying to take over the world and force their philosophy on everybody! They’d love to see us all dead! Have you read the things they write? Have you seen their videos? The best thing that could happen to them is you blowing them to Kingdom come! We should turn that whole part of the world into a giant sand trap!

I’ve been reading Jonah’s forwarded emails.

God wants all the people of Nineveh saved. He wants them to repent and come into a saving relationship with him. And God wants to use Jonah to make it happen. But Jonah doesn’t want to participate in the salvation of this particular people. So Jonah runs. I think he knows he can’t run away from God, but maybe he can get lost in another culture, another place, where he can ignore God. Jonah can maybe immerse himself in other things. He can become overly occupied with his possessions, his job, his hobbies, sports, a house, maybe a wife and kids.

The country we live in would tell us we have “enemies” in Iran. You may know that Iran is one of the two or three places in the world right now where Christianity is growing the fastest. Our government would tell us we have “enemies” in Russia and China. And our God loves them and he wants them to be saved. We know that. But sometimes our language and our prayers and our forwarded emails and posts don’t reflect that.

How quickly we forget that while we were God’s enemies, Christ died for us.

We have “enemies” right here in Midland. You have “enemies” in your town, too. Enemies of our property values. Enemies of our employment figures and tax rates. Enemies of our political positions and comfort zones. And our God’s unmistakable call is to take to them the Good News of salvation in Christ Jesus.

It’s clear.

We believe our Lord meant it when he said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We believe in the Great Commission. We understand Christ calls us to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and all over the whole world, to the very ends of the earth. We believe witnessing like that, showing God’s love and mercy to our enemies, imitates our Lord.

Our Savior crosses all the barriers that separate people–social, cultural, racial, political, geographical, economic–he smashes through all that to save violent outcasts, those possessed by demons, warring Zealots, traitorous tax collectors, Roman centurions, and thieves on crosses. He broke through all those barriers to save you. And me.

And our God unmistakably calls us to reach out to others the same way.

Peace,
Allan

Open the Curtains!

April 16, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I believe God calls us to regular and serious self-examination, but my experience with this is that serious self-examination can be both difficult and dangerous. It’s very easy for the enemy to turn my thoughts against me. I avoid silence and solitude–just me and our Lord–because of what gets very quickly revealed about me and my soul. I find it easier to pray about others and minister to others and work harder and produce more than to deal with my own stuff. It’s better when I remember that the enemy is a big fat liar. But I do struggle with this.

Introspection and self-reflection is hard. It can be confusing, maybe even chaotic. Are these gifts from God or is it arrogance? Am I passionate or am I a bully? How mixed are my motives? Am I really making any kind of a difference in our church? Is my own level of discipleship to Jesus too inconsistent to be a preacher? Man, I can get twisted up inside myself pretty fast.

Thomas Chalmers, a 19th century Scottish pastor and theologian compared self-examination to walking into and sitting in a dark room. You can’t see what’s inside the room because the room is dark. So how do you see? How do you brighten the room? Not by straining your eyes or looking harder. Not by sitting longer in the dark and taking more time. Not by squinting. Not by concentrating.

You can’t see yourself more clearly just by focusing more intently on yourself.

Chalmers says you must go to the window and open up the curtains! Let the light of Christ, he says, break into the darkness of whatever’s going on in your soul. And Chalmers says the light is the Word of God.

“If we derive no good from the work of self-examination, because we find that all is confusion and mistiness within, then let us go forth upon the truths which are from without, and these will pour a flood of light into all the mazes and intricacies of your soul, and at length will render that work easy, which before was impossible.”

Self-reflection is difficult and dangerous. Don’t attempt it without soaking in the sunshine of God’s Word. Listen to the voice of the Lord. Learn to look more at Christ than at yourself. You’re not changed by focusing on yourself, but by focusing on Jesus.

God knows the very worst about you, and he still loves you. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He promises that if we confess, he will forgive us and cleanse us and transform us. You must be secure in the love of God for you before any self-examination can be confident or fruitful. Know how precious and honored you are in God’s sight, know the glory of who you are in Jesus, know the guaranteed future you have with God in Christ. Remember that God is for you!

Now.

Now you can identify where God is at work in you. Now you can keep going with the assurance that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
Now I can identify where God is at work in me. Now I can keep going with the assurance that he who began a good work in me will bring it to completion.

This post is more about me than you. Let’s both try to be better at this.

Peace,
Allan

Concerning the Robe

November 24, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Just to dispel the rumors, I did NOT preach in Steve Schorr’s robe yesterday at First Presbyterian Church. I did preach the Word with our brothers and sisters at First Pres yesterday, and I was honored and blessed by God to do it. But I did not preach in any robe.

I was gathered with the excellent pastoral team at First Pres–Walter, Dillon, Erica, Charlotte–and going over the order of service, checking my microphone, praying, and all the things you do before a Sunday morning worship assembly. Dillon joked about me wearing the robe and it turned into a photo gag for Steve. I put the robe on, we took the pic, and they sent it to Steve. Hey, ha ha, Allan is wearing your robe!

Little did I know that Steve, who was preparing to preach at GCR, gave his phone to Andrew and Tim in the A/V booth and they grabbed the photo to show to our whole church! Steve put it up on the big screens early in his sermon!

Needless to say, I had several text messages waiting for me after church. Mostly smart-alack remarks. A couple of pointed questions. And they kept coming. All afternoon. As soon as I entered our building Sunday afternoon for the 4Midland Thanksgiving Service. And a couple more after the service.

Wearing that robe, even for that short amount of time, even as a joke, has caused me to do some deeper reflection on the whole clergy regalia thing. I’ve always had many reasons–convictions!–for not wearing a robe while I preach. But, for the first time ever, I’ve realized there are some good reasons for embracing it.

  1. I would never have to iron a shirt on Saturday night. I would never have to decide what to wear. The robe covers everything. My socks wouldn’t even have to match!
  2. The robe gives off a very pious look. People might take me more seriously.
  3. Big pockets. There are huge pockets inside that robe. Places to put my gum, my pen, my index cards. Pockets enough to conceal a Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll and a Diet Dr Pepper.
  4. The slimming effect. At least two people told me I looked thinner in the robe. Because it’s black? I don’t know. This is a very compelling reason to change my mind about robes.
  5. It’s the only reason anybody would ever think of maybe calling me “Your Eminence.” I’ve always wanted somebody to call me “Your Eminence.”

I’ll write more about the amazing 4Midland Thanksgiving Service tomorrow. I just wanted to clear up any questions about the robe.

Peace,
Allan

Holding On

October 10, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I thank God for refreshing my soul and rekindling my heart for his holy mission the way he does every single year at ACU’s Summit. My spirit is overflowing with gratitude today for our Lord and for the good people at Abilene Christian University who continue this annual gathering of church leaders despite the many challenges in providing physical space, brilliant content, inspiring worship, and relational opportunities for an increasingly digitized and individualized group of ministers and pastors.

We typically take seven or eight of our nine ministers on the team at GCR, but this year only four of us were able to make the two-hour drive for the event that covers parts of three days. We do our own tracks with our fellow preachers, youth ministers, children’s ministers, and formation ministers from all over Texas, the Southwest, and parts unknown. But we worship, take in the keynotes, and eat our meals together, sharing what we’ve learned, praying for each other, and laughing. On Thursday, we were honored to be joined for lunch at Twisted Root with Jason Minor, one of our amazing GCR teenagers who is enjoying the first weeks of his freshman year at ACU. We want to keep connections with our kids; what a joy to know that our kids want to maintain those connections with us.

I am at once dismayed and greatly encouraged to know that most preachers are dealing with all the same things when it comes to the current climates in our churches. Today, “Christian” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, both inside and outside the Church. Some of those things are decidedly un-Christian, which is killing our witness to a desperate and dying world.

I’ll paraphrase what the brilliant Mark Hamilton said during a session on Isaiah 40-55 and its message to our present time and culture. He said the greatest gift the Church can give to our communities and to our world, is calm, reasoned discourse. We should call the demagogues for what they are–in the government and in our society, who they are and what they are doing–we should be clear about it. We should tell our brothers and sisters who are in the rabbit holes to repent and, if they don’t repent, to leave our congregations. Because people who are searching for God will discern very quickly that the church is not the place to seek. This is not a hypothetical; this is real. It is happening with a majority of younger people right now today.

Jerry Taylor’s powerful homily on our fear of death and the spirit of Cain and of the anti-Christ that is so prevalent in our communities and our churches left me feeling incredibly inadequate and gutless. I know my church needs to hear these things, I know I am called by our God to proclaim the truth that Christ lives and that Jesus alone is Lord and that we are collectively losing our minds and our souls by employing the ways of the world and chasing after political power to remake society in our own images. When I asked Jerry afterwards if he had a word for preachers like me in the situations we’re in–there are hundreds of us–he said, “Allan, there are bigger things at stake than your employment.”

I know courage thrives in community and in collaboration. That’s why I am so thankful for my pastor friends in Midland; for my longtime friendships with preachers I’ve known for 25-plus years; for Jason, with whom I study and pray and argue and laugh; and with guys and gals in our unique fraternity I’m just now meeting and getting to know. We hold on to Scripture. We hold on to justice. We hold on to love. We hold on to our Lord and the promises of our God. And we hold on to each other.

Peace,
Allan

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