The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Preaching (Page 13 of 25)

On Charles, A Great Man

February 1, 2012 / / 3 Comments

I’ve only heard Charles Siburt speak a couple of times. I’ve shaken his hand once. Just once. But I’m profoundly and eternally impacted by this great man. Chances are, so are you.

Charles Siburt is the “go-to guy” when it comes to healing churches, fixing church leaders, maturing disciples along the Way. He has worked with countless Church of Christ congregations, scores of elders and shepherds, and more preachers than any of us could count. He’s written books and articles, preached and taught sermons and lessons, and in some way counseled and advised almost every church leader I know.

I was blessed to spend three hours with Charles in two separate phone conversations in June last year. I wanted to find out what he knew about this Central Church of Christ in Amarillo. Turns out, he knew everything. And everybody. He gave me some things to consider. He cautioned me about a couple of potential problems. He probed into my own issues and problems like we had known each other for years. He dug deep to find out where I was spiritually, emotionally, mentally. But mostly he just went on and on about how great this church was. How healthy the leadership is here. How unified and focused and committed the elders and ministers are here to lead the church family in living and growing in Christ-likeness.

I remember a preacher friend of mine telling me after my first conversation with Charles, “If Charles says that’s a healthy church, you can know without a doubt it’s a healthy church. Charles knows a healthy church.”

At the end of my second and last phone conversation with Charles — I was sitting in my truck in my driveway in North Richland Hills, Charles was in some airport somewhere — he told me, “I think you and Central would be a perfect fit; you’re made for each other.”

That night I told another preaching colleague what Charles had said. He replied, “If Charles says it’s a good fit, then you know it’s a good fit. Charles knows how to match preachers and churches.”

They were all correct. Charles was correct. I couldn’t be happier. The match couldn’t be better. The fit here couldn’t be more perfect. And I know I went into this next phase of my Christian ministry in Amarillo in a better frame of mind more appropriately equipped because of Charles’ counsel. I read the books he recommended. I answered the questions he told me to ask myself. And I spoke to the people he said I should.

And I’m grateful. Eternally grateful.

We’re all expecting Charles to pass from this life to the next in just a few days. Our brother Charles is close, very close, to being in the intense face-to-face glory and presence of our God. How great for him. People who know Charles much better than I do are setting aside this Friday, February 3, day after tomorrow, as a day of prayer and fasting. I plan to join them. I plan to spend a great part of that day thanking our gracious God for blessing so many of us and our congregations with Charles’ expertise and passion; asking God to bless Charles’ wife, Judy, as she experiences the loss of her dearest companion; begging God to raise up others to pick up the encouraging and mentoring and healing where Charles is leaving off.

To read much more about Charles and this day of prayer and fasting please click on these links to people who really, really, really know him. My great friend Jim Martin’s thoughts can be found here. Dan Bouchelle has penned his own thoughts here. And Jordan Hubbard’s reflections are here.

During my two conversations with Charles seven months ago, he never told me that he was a big part of the reason Central is such a healthy church. Charles has been working very closely with this family of believers in downtown Amarillo for many, many years. He has encouraged our shepherds, he’s helped heal some very painful hurts, and he’s counseled our ministers here for a long, long time. It shows. The Kingdom of God is greater for it. The city of Amarillo is blessed because of it. And the new preacher here is grateful. Eternally grateful.

God bless Charles Siburt with his merciful comfort and peace.

Allan

Faithful Among the Stumps

October 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Of all the really cool stuff in Isaiah — the servant songs, the allusions to Christ, the prophesies about the Messiah, the comfort passages — the words at the end of chapter six about preaching to people who refuse to listen are the most quoted in the New Testament.

Jesus uses Isaiah’s words in Matthew 13 after telling the parable of the four soils. Same thing in Mark 4 and Luke 8. Jesus says, man, this is how Isaiah must have felt.

In John 12, right after Jesus predicts his death, God’s voice thunders down from heaven for the benefit of the people in the crowds. But they’re not listening. They don’t understand. They refuse to change. And, again, Jesus uses the Isaiah 6 passage to account for the blind eyes and stubborn hearts.

Paul’s near the end of his life in Acts 28, under house arrest in Rome. And he’s failed to make a dent in the sight or the hearing or the hearts of the religious leaders who’ve come to hear him preach. Nothing. And he quotes the Isaiah 6 passage. Same thing in Romans 11. “It’s still happening!” Paul says, “To this very day!” Paul’s a failed preacher in pretty good company.

The point of the last half of Isaiah 6, and the reason the passage is repeated so many times in the early history of God’s Church, is that we are called to be faithful to our Father and to his mission, regardless of where it takes us. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how many people reject the truth, we are called to keep preaching the truth.

The point of Isaiah 6:8-13 is that if we trust God, if we’ll remain faithful to him, he’ll do something with those closed eyes and plugged up ears. Those stumps (Isaiah 6:13). Isaiah and Jesus and the apostles are reminding us that God does his best work in the middle of a desolate field of worthless stumps.

God created the universe out of nothing. He raised a mighty nation out of a 90-year-old barren womb. He pulled a young boy from the bottom of a well and made him a powerful ruler of the most important nation in the world. He uses the death of a preacher and the persecution of his Church to spread the Good News of salvation from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. He delivered forgiveness and righteousness to all mankind through a cruel wooden cross.

There’s more happening in horrible situations than we ever realize. These awful circumstances are holy. God does holy things with faithful people in a field full of stumps.

“The holy seed is its stump.” ~Isaiah 6:13

Peace,

Allan

The Hope of Glory

September 18, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I have become the Church’s servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness — the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Peace,

Allan

Meaning To Do Them Good

September 17, 2011 / / 3 Comments

In less than 24 hours I’ll be preaching to and with my new church family. There will be a dozen people in our worship center who’ve heard me preach more than 200 sermons in person. These dear friends from Legacy know me. They love me and they know my deep love for them. But the overwhelming majority of the listeners tomorrow will be hearing me for the very first time.

And they need to know that I love our Lord. And I love them.

John Newton wrote that his congregation would take almost anything from him, however painful, because they knew “I mean to do them good.”

That is the litmus test for my preaching ministry. That’s my centering point for everything I do. Intending to always do them good means my sermon preparation is a more sacred endeavor than just satisfying my own personal love of study. It means my preaching will have characteristics that are maybe difficult to define but still sensed by my hearers that reflect what Paul meant when he talked about preaching and pastoring:

“We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” ~2 Corinthians 4:5

“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.” ~1 Thessalonians 2:8

“I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.” ~2 Corinthians 12:15

I have been receiving more phone calls and emails and text messages since yesterday from our brand new friends here at Central wishing me well, showering me with love and encouragement, and expressing their excitement. I received a voice mail this morning from a dear sister here who said, among other things, “We already love you and your family; you can’t do a single thing to make us love you more.”

They need to know I love them, too. God help me; I mean to do them good.

Peace,

Allan

Not My Church

September 14, 2011 / / 5 Comments

As I move around the oldest parts of this church building at Central — up and down stairs, in and out of rooms, through back hallways and across wide open concourses — I realize more and more that this is not my church. As I search for quiet places in this building to pray and to read the Scriptures — in the worship center balcony, the back of the chapel, the prayer room, outside in the shade at 14th and Jackson — I see very clearly that I’m in way over my head here.

Seriously. This is a different deal.

At Legacy, I was blessed to walk into a church building that was only six years old. All of it. Brand new location. Brand new building. New everything. Yes, there was a history. Legacy had been established as the Pipeline Road Church back in 1959. But Legacy wasn’t Pipeline. And that was fine. We were blessed to build and open a brand new 1,500 seat worship center in my second year there. I helped decide on some of the furnishings. I fought for a communion table. The current baptism practices and traditions at Legacy were started in that brand new room in the summer of 2008. I was the first and only Legacy preacher in that room. And if I’m really honest with myself, looking back, I think I actually felt some kind of ownership there. Maybe not always in the healthiest way.

It’s different here. Central was established by fourteen people in October 1908. They met in the downtown county couthouse. One hundred and three years ago. The very first Church of Christ in Amarillo. The first building this church owned was at 10th Street and Fillmore. But that was only until 1930. That was the year the Central Church of Christ, over 700 strong, held their first Christian assembly in this beautiful chapel that we still occasionally use today. Same stained glass windows. Same pews and light fixtures. Same pulpit. I walked in there with 81-year-old Scottie Witt yesterday and he pointed to the baptistry.

“That’s where I was baptized, right there,” he said. “1943. I was thirteen years old.”

And Scottie will be in there listening to me preach this Sunday night! In that same room! He’s listened to 16 other Central preachers before me. He’s heard them all. He can tell you how and where they stood, their favorite gestures and phrases, something memorable or funny about each one of them.

There’s rich history in this sacred space. Every room has stories, every staircase has a tale, every pew has a testimony to the faithfulness of God with his people.

This is not my church.

I have landed in a place where God has been working in and through his people for over a hundred years. Faithful men and women have been doing good deeds in the name of Jesus, serving others in the manner of Christ, worshiping God in the Spirit at this place for more than a century. Who do I think I am, coming in here and pretending to be able to speak to them a word from our Father?

I’m merely number seventeen, the latest in a long, long list of faithful men who have stood in these rooms and dared to preach the Word. From F. L. Young and  F. B. Shepherd at the turn of one century through Dick Marcear and Dan Bouchelle at the turn of another. I suppose I should preach at least one sermon first but, eventually, they’re going to put my picture up on a wall among pictures of the likes of Robert Jones, Silas Templeton, and M. C. Cuthberson. It’s so incredibly humbling. And dreadfully frightening.

If I think too long about it, I can get overwhelmed with a true sense of inadequacy. I’m wholly inadequate for this task. I’m not qualified for this gig. I don’t have the ideas or the abilities, the smarts or the skills, to do this. I’ve been pushed into something that’s so much bigger than me. God’s been doing great and miraculous things here for 103 years! And I’m going to stand up Sunday after Sunday here and preach?!? I’m not sure I can do this. I don’t fully understand how I’m going to do this.

And, upon further review, I’m certain that’s exactly where my God wants me: wholly dependent on him to do the job he’s called me to do; fully recognizing that all-surpassing power is from him, not me; and understanding that any competence I may have is a gracious gift from above.

Central is not my church; it belongs to God. It’s not mine to lead; that is the job of our Father.

Whew!

Allan

Consider the Lilies

September 12, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Emily Dickinson once wrote that “Consider the lilies of the field” is the only commandment she never broke. I’m trying to do better and better about keeping that command.

This huge big sky in Amarillo makes the sunrises and sunsets seem so much more dramatic, more beautiful, than I remember. This sky with all its brilliant colors and shades that seems to go on forever was created by my Father to remind me of the boundless nature of his love. That love also manifests itself in many forms and hues and, like the expanse above me, has no end.

The butterfly that Carley can’t quite catch is sent by my God to make me smile. The chimpanzees at the zoo that make Valerie laugh are evidence of our Maker’s sense of humor. The thunder and lightning that make Whitney jump in my lap are proof of his great power.

Bluebonnets in the spring witness to God’s eye for beauty. An overdue rain shower in August testifies to his faithfulness. Falling leaves in October speak to our Father’s sovereignty. Little squirrels eating stored up nuts in the dead of winter remind us of God’s great provision. His concern for his creation. His care for the things and people he loves.

Even the wildfires that are ravaging parts of the state I love and profoundly impacting people I love remind me that our God is sovereign over his creation. He cleanses and restores, he purges and purifies. He destroys and makes new again. He does it to his world. And he does it in me.

Slow down. Look around. Spend some time today considering the lilies and the trees and the prarie dogs. Even the weeds growing up through the cracks in the sidewalk have something to say about the determination of our God to give life to what is dead, to bring light out of darkness.

I’m beginning to question the leadership capabilities of the shepherds here at Central. Why in the world would they schedule Jerry Taylor to preach here for a full month and a half before my first sermon? I told Jerry three weeks ago that if he really wanted to help me out, he could deliver a couple of real clunkers in his last few visits. Throwing out a real stink-o would be his last gracious act to me as Central’s new preacher. I’m afraid I’m going to get up there this Sunday and, after just five minutes or so, most of the church will be wondering, “When is Jerry coming back?”

My great friend David Byrnes emailed me this morning and, among other things, said, “May the Lord bless those poor people at Central this Sunday who will have to endure a preacher who’s been bottled up for over a month!”

I’ll be sure to include a couple of intermissions.

Peace,

Allan

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