The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

AllanStanglin.com

Category: Preaching (Page 15 of 25)

Everybody a Preacher

July 8, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Day of Pentecost. Acts 2. There’s this mob in the street demanding an explanation for what’s happening in the upper room with the noise and the tongues of fire and the different languages. And Peter starts preaching from a passage in Joel:

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
~Acts 2:17-18 (from Joel 2:28-29)

Through most of our history with God, Holy Spirit empowered talk (preaching) has been limited to a few select prophets. But when Christ comes, when the day of the Messiah and the coming of the Kingdom of God arrives, God’s Holy Spirit will be poured out on everybody! Young and old, men and women, rich and poor, educated and not, people who’ve never stood up to speak before, people who’ve never even looked at a microphone before, all God’s people will speak up and speak out. Everyone will preach the truth. Everybody’s a preacher! We are living right now today in the age of this promised free speech.

That’s why Jesus’ people are always big talkers. Have you noticed? We’ll talk to anybody. We love to talk. And we won’t shut up. No matter what our neighbors say. No matter what the government says.

Jesus was a preacher. And he sends his disciples out to preach. Faith comes from what is heard. That’s why when we get together on Sundays we mostly talk and shout and sing and read and speak. The most difficult part of my Sunday morning is standing before the crowd at Legacy at 10:00 and trying to get everybody quiet. We love to talk. And we won’t shut up. About Jesus. Because we’re all preachers, filled with the Spirit of Christ, re-created to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in all its eternal glory.

One of my favorite parables of Jesus, the preacher, is about the sower who went forth to sow. What’s the Kingdom of God like? A farmer goes out and just starts slinging seed. Hey, it’s the Kingdom of God! And he’s just throwing seed everywhere. Wasting lots of good seed with a reckless abandon.

That sounds like a really lousy way to grow a crop of wheat. But Jesus says it’s the best way to spread the good news. May our God bless us as we refuse to shut up.

Peace,

Allan

Renew Them In Our Day

May 11, 2011 / / 0 Comments

“Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known.” ~Habakkuk 3:2

I’m still learning how to pray. I read the psalms and I read the prayers of the prophets and I realize I have such a long way to go. In order to pray with the mind of Christ, I must pray the will of the Father. But during my moments of most honest reflection, I admit, I’m usually praying for the will of the preacher.

Habakkuk prays that God’s deeds, not his own deeds or desires, might be renewed. Usually, I’m sorry to say, I’m talking to God about some specific project or idea or initiative and asking him to renew my work. I’m cruising along preaching and ministering and administrating and doing what a good preacher in a good church is supposed to do and everything’s great. But as soon as somebody bumps the table, as soon as there’s a little mess, suddenly prayer becomes very, very important to me. Now I’m really alert to prayer and the deep need for prayer and my intense dependence on prayer.

And I beg God to renew my work. God, fix my preaching. Lord, help our Small Groups. God, would you please revive my Bible class? Lord, build my ministry back up. If I’m not careful, my interest is really on what I’m building and not really on what God may actually want. It’s humbling to admit, and a tough lesson to learn, that quite possibly God’s not nearly as interested in my little stacks of programs and sermons as I am.

God, renew your deeds. Revive your work.

Do a new work, Lord. Don’t just refurbish or clean up what I’m doing. God, create something brand new here, something I haven’t even thought about. Do something I would never dream of, Lord. For your purposes. To your eternal glory, God. May your will be done in my preaching, not mine. May your will be done at Legacy, not mine. Lord, may your will be done in our Small Groups, in our elders’ meetings, and in this community, just like it is in heaven.

Renew your deeds, God. Not mine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve added a new link to the list there on the right. This is a blog I read regularly and have been meaning to include on my site for quite a while. I’ve just not taken the time.

John Mark Hicks’ blog, John Mark Hicks Ministries, is a wonderful source for Restoration and Church of Christ history and perspective. John Mark’s is a prophetic voice, speaking God’s Word into the culture and into our churches with spirit and truth. And, as regular readers to my blog know, I’m a huge fan of his research and writings on the Lord’s Supper, baptism, and our corporate worship assemblies. His trilogy of books on those three “sacraments” are among the best written on the topics in decades. “Come to the Table” is arguably the greatest work on communion ever produced by a C of C scholar. OK, I know. All that sounds a little over the top. Sorry. Hicks is good. You’ll like his blog.

Peace,

Allan

Truly, Truly

April 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

“You can never make everybody happy unless you’re doing things that are disingenuous.”

                                                                  ~C. J. Wilson

Snowplow on Mid-Cities!

February 4, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Four days of sub-23-degree temperatures. Glacier-esque (to describe just how slowly it’s eroding; there’s no melting going on here) ice still on all of the roads. We haven’t had a lick of precipitation since Tuesday, but the schools have been closed for four days. Rolling blackouts that had us in the dark for about 30-minutes twice yesterday. Lows in the lower teens, highs in the upper teens all week. Church services and Bible studies canceled. Meetings postponed. And this morning we wake up to a fresh three-inches of snow on the ground. And it’s still coming down!

Coming into work this morning, driving very slowly on Mid-Cities Boulevard, when I attempt to turn left on Martin to go in the back way (I’ve tried the front entrance off Mid-Cities twice this week; I’m oh-for-two — that’s steeper than it looks). And here it comes just over the hill. Something, I daresay, has never been seen in this zip code. Ever.

A snowplow. (Is that one word, or two? I honestly have no idea.) A snow plow on Mid-Cities! I could have turned in front of it. I had plenty of time. But I just didn’t want to. I wanted it to go by me. I wanted to watch it. I wanted to see it up close. I was mesmerized. I couldn’t take my eyes off this thing. Here it came, in the far left lane, right at me, a mountain of snow and ice being shoved to the shoulder in front of it.

I rolled my window down to get a good look at the driver as he passed. Had they imported a guy from Pittsburgh or Green Bay? I’m sure nobody around here has ever driven one of these things. At the very least this operator has to be from Pampa or Amarillo. No, it was actually an employee of the City of North Richland Hills, wearing his official green city-issued coat. I smiled — almost laughed, actually — and shook my head in wonderment and even a bit of amusement as he went by. Our eyes met for a brief moment.

He was not smiling.

I love it.

No apologies. I really do enjoy this. It’s wild. It’s unprecedented. It’s extreme. It’s new. It gets everybody excited. It makes everybody hyper. It really heightens the senses when you’re driving around on / in it. And it breaks up the monotony.

But, seriously, tonight we’ve gotta get out of the house. We’ve watched movies together, we’ve cooked together, we’ve stayed up late and slept in together. We’ve played Uno, Phase 10, Apples to Apples, Skip-Bo, and even a few made up games. And we’ve all got a bit of cabin fever. It’s not gotten to the Jack Nicholson – Shelly Duval point in The Shining yet. Not yet. But we’re definitely going to go do something else tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~

So our Small Group is getting together Sunday evening to watch the Super Bowl. Michael sent an email to all of us a couple of days ago claiming that one cannot attend a Super Bowl party and not have a rooting interest. He wanted to know which team we were each pulling for. Here was my reply:

If the Steelers were playing the devil himself and an army of demons from hell, I’d root for the devil. I would have to. Cheering for the Steelers to win a Super Bowl is evil incarnate. In fact, if anyone at our Small Group party is pulling for Pittsburgh, I believe it will cease to be a Christian gathering. I’ve lost 15-pounds already this week because I vomit everytime the TV shows the Steelers logo painted in the end zone at Cowboys Stadium.

On the other hand, how can any of us legitimately root for the Packers? If it weren’t for Jerry Kramer and Bart Starr the Super Bowl hardware would be called the Landry Trophy instead of the Lombardi.

Sunday is truly about finding the lesser of two evils. I’m firmly convinced that’s Green Bay.

I’ve reconciled all of this by choosing not to pull for either of these two hated franchises. I’m merely rooting for the Steelers to lose. It’s the only way. My brain and my heart have found peace with that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My favorite quote from Super Bowl week came a couple of days ago from Troy Aikman.

When asked about the awful weather in DFW, Aikman blamed Roger Staubach. “He’s the one with the direct line to God; at least that’s what I’ve been told all these years.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My friend Dan Bouchelle, the director of Missions Resource Network, has written a great post today on his blog Confessions of a Former Preacher. (He used to be one of us.) Dan pens some great insights into the burden of the church a preacher carries. But I especially like his observations on the relationship between preaching and community and worship and community. It’s good stuff. Click here to read it.

Peace,

Allan

Trust the Word

February 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

[Allow me just a couple of more postings about Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Eric Metaxas’s latest biography.]

Preach the Word. Preach the Word. How many times I have been told, “Preach the Word!” Jimmy Butler here at Legacy exhorts me with, “Preach the Word, brother!” at least a couple of times every week. People write that to me at the ends of cards and letters and emails. I’ve written it and said it — even texted it —  to my preacher friends countless times. In California, I’ve heard it shouted from the congregation as a preacher takes the pulpit.

Preach the Word. Yes. That is our call as ministers of the Scriptures. Proclaim boldly and courageously the Holy Word of God. Faithfully. Without compromise.

Bonhoeffer certainly pushed his students to preach the Word. But he encouraged them to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian proclaimer when he urged them to “trust the Word.”

In 1932, Bonhoeffer told his young seminarians at his illegal underground training school at Finkenwalde, “We must be able to speak about our faith so that hands will be stretched out toward us faster than we can fill them. A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of water and then saying, ‘Do you want it?’ Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God’s Word, but testify to it. Trust the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity.”

Trust the Word. What a powerful idea.

We must understand that when the Word of our God is presented it will shake people, it will wake people, it will completely undo people. The Word of God has the power within itself to cause people to see their great need for salvation from God in Christ. If the Word is truly preached, the answers to the deepest needs of mankind will be received without all the baggage and camouflage and add-ons of “religion” and false piety and denominational hogwash. The grace of God, without filters and arguments, will touch people.

We don’t have to try to make it relevant. It is eternally relevant!

We don’t have to worry about it being powerful. It is supremely powerful!

And we preachers need to trust it. Trust the Word.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has promised us that not one bit of his proclaimed Word will ever return to him empty. Trust that great promise. Trust the Word.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Packers and Steelers arrived in North Texas yesterday and brought snow and ice and temperatures in the teens and minus-zero wind chills with them. The roads are all completely iced over after an all night sleet and freezing rain and flurry fest. Schools are out today. The church offices are closed. Ditches are littered with abandoned cars. Tree limbs are snapping. Power lines are sagging. Nobody’s outside.

It was sunny and 75-degrees Saturday and Sunday. It’s 16-degrees right now, snowing, with 30-mile-per-hour north winds. I’m really interested to watch all the national shows tonight and read all the national press tomorrow to see how DFW fares in the eyes of the global sports media.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve added another great link to the “Around the Table” page on this blog. It’s a click to several communion meditations by Jay Guin. I recommend checking them out. Instead of beginning your table talk this Sunday morning with, “When Howard called me last night and asked me to do the Lord’s Supper…” how about starting it with some theology? Some inspirational Scripture? A short illustration that ties what’s happening at the table today with Jesus’ meals from two thousand years ago or that great wedding feast of the Lamb to come? I invite you to read these meditations. And use them.

Peace,

Allan

To My Co-Workers In God’s Pulpits

December 30, 2010 / / 2 Comments

To Jason, Jim, Grady, Jim, Rick, Kyle, Greg, Chris, Erich, Charlie, John Mark, Jordan, David, Scott, Terry, Larry, Buddy, and Patrick:

You are not a salesman, you are a mediator of God’s Holy Spirit. You are not a motivational speaker, you are a faithful proclaimer of God’s Gospel. You are not a therapist, you are a Christian minister. Self-help tips are not the tools of your trade; it’s the inspired Scriptures. You are not a church chaplain, holding the hands of church people as you go about church business; you are a powerful spokesman for God, confronting sin and calling our Lord’s people to repentance. You are not a comedian, you are a comforter to those who dwell in dark places. Your call did not come from a family member or a spouse or a professor or a mentor, it came from the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. Your passions are not motivated by financial gain or popularity or prestige, but by the burning desire in your bones to seek and save the lost. Your goal is not to fill pews and collection trays, it is to forcefully advance the Kingdom of Heaven in the hearts and lives of your hearers and in your community.

You guys are so cool.

You give it up every day. Every day. You live it. You breathe it. You assimilate it into every cell of your being and it radiates through every one of your words and deeds to bless with God’s grace every person you meet. It’s incredible, really, how powerful you are. Very powerful. A critical cog in God’s salvation plan for all mankind, a vital link in his eternal chain to reconcile the world to himself and redeem the heavens and earth. You reside in the company of Isaiah and Ezekiel, Amos and Hosea, John the Baptist and Peter and Paul.

It is our God who works in you. And the cool thing is that you know that without a doubt. It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purposes.

I love you guys. All of you. You inspire me to be better.

I pray God’s richest blessings for you and your great ministries in 2011.

Peace,

Allan

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑