Category: Preaching (Page 23 of 25)

Happy At Work

November 12, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

A recently completed University of Chicago study sought to determine the link between happy people and their jobs. According to the study, the number one top occupation in general happiness was “clergy.” Now, I only get mail and phone calls for “Reverend Stanglin” occasionally and I’ve been called a “priest” only once. But I’m identifying with the “clergy” label here because of the official job description: “conduct religious worship and perform spiritual functions associated with beliefs and practices of religious faith or denomination.”

People in the clergy, according to this study, are the happiest. 67.2% of them say they’re “very happy.”

That’s compared to 57.2% of firefighters and 56.5% of travel agents, numbers two and three on the list. The rest of the list, in order from number four through ten are architects (Kevin H!!), special education teachers, actors, science technicians, mechanics, industrial engineers, and airline pilots.

Surprised? I would have been three years ago. But not now.

Preaching is the most difficult and most challenging work I’ve ever done. But it’s also easily the most rewarding. Easily. Yes, there are issues and misunderstandings. There are distasteful politics and misplaced priorities. There are problems. And there’s that whole “burden of the churches” thing. There are frequent periods of self-doubt and unrelenting feelings of inadequacy. And I think sometimes I am wholly unequal to the task.

But I do get to see up close, every single day, what our great God is doing in his world. I get to be on the inside of how he’s redeeming people, rescuing people, and comforting people. I see what happens in hospital rooms and funeral home offices. I’m there when the lightbulbs go off and people experience the grace of our Lord for the first time. I get glimpses of the eternal glory that’s waiting for us, praying with a young engaged couple in my office or with the elders on a Thursday night. I speak to God on behalf of this place. And he answers. He’s changing people here. And I get to see it. He puts people in my life to challenge me and encourage me and push me and keep me on the right track. And he works through me to bring hope and compassion to people who need it most.

Can’t you see how amazing that is? How humbling? How incredible to know I’m partnering with the Creator of the Universe? To know I’m a co-worker with him in redeeming the world? It’s huge!

And it makes me happy.

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Today the Dallas Cowboys are in last place in their division, the Dallas Mavericks are in last place in their division, and the Dallas Stars are in last place in their division. The Texas Rangers finished second in their division this past season. But they were 21 games behind the Angels. The other 5 second place teams in Major League Baseball’s other divisions were a combined 14-1/2 games back. I guess DFW might become a college sports town yet!

Mark R, one of our “KK&C Top 20” pollsters emailed me this morning, lamenting the fact that Texas Tech is #1 in this week’s college football poll. He writes that the Red Raiders being top ranked is “…just wrong. Lubbock’s only claim to fame is Mac Davis. And he only made it to the top with ‘Baby, Don’t Get Hooked On Me.’ Get it? Don’t get used to being at the top. Hooked? As in ‘Hook ’em?’ After the OU game, I suggest we just sit back and enjoy another one of his hits, ‘Lubbock Texas In My Rearview Mirror.'”

My reply?

“Hang on just a cotton-pickin’ second! You’re leaving out THE Lubbock, Texas icon: the great inimitable Buddy Holly. But the Red Raiders’ actual national championship hopes still have a tie in to this legend’s greatest hits: ‘That’ll Be The Day’ and ‘Fade Away.'”

Peace,

Allan

Where's the "Amen"?

October 21, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

Allow me two or three quick shots here before we get into the meat of today’s post. I need to catch up from yesterday. I’m finding it increasingly difficult to post on Mondays and Fridays. I’m not giving up. But it’s getting tougher. Hang with me.

The Dallas Cowboys are spiraling around the bowl and they’re going down. And nobody should be surprised. This thing was headed in the tank long before Romo and Felix and McBriar got hurt. This season was doomed before it began. You can’t keep signing players like Terrell Owens and Tank Johnson and PacMan Jones and expect everything to go well. There’s a reason the Titans are undefeated right now. They canned PacMan. Kicked him off the team. Took a stand for right and reason. But not Jerry Wayne. The Cowboys are getting everything they deserve.

Watching Sunday’s game reminded me of the Dave Campo days. Senseless penalties. Turnovers. Sacks. Drops. Finger-pointing. No heart. No guts. It’s not Wade Phillips’ fault. It’s Jerry’s.

Somebody said yesterday Roy Williams (the safety) broke his forearm while deflecting blame. Great line. Roy Williams (the receiver) was shut out—no catches—for the first time in his five year career. Detroit has to be looking pretty good right now. The Lions never won a game. But they were never humiliated like this, either.

Jerry’s putting the finishing touches on a trade right now with the North Carolina basketball team to bring in their Roy Williams as a motivational speaker/special teams coach.

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Three observations on Sunday night’s great Game Seven in the ALCS: 1) I don’t know how Rays pitcher Matt Garza doesn’t dehydrate by the 3rd inning. I’ve never seen a human spit that much, that often; 2) MLB could cut their games from three hours long down to an hour and a half if they would pass a rule allowing a maximum of three batting gloves adjustments per at-bat. Did A-Rod start this mess? They all adjust their gloves three times in between pitches! and 3) does the Rays’ success mean that now Arizona State will simply call their teams the Sun?

I’m a Phillies Phan for the next ten days. My good friend Scott Franzke, who hosted our Rangers pre-game and post-game shows when we were together at KRLD, is now the play-by-play voice of the Phils. He’s a great guy who deserves all the fun he’s having right now. We spent many a long, long evening together disecting 11-4 Rangers’ losses. Go Phranzke!

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What a blessing to have as our guests at Legacy Sunday morning my great friends Dan & Debbie Miller! Dan’s one of the Four Horsemen, a great personal encourager of mine, and the most positive, optimistic, upbeat, man I know. He blesses my life in more ways than he could ever imagine. Dan seems to know exactly what our God is doing in almost every situation. And he points it out to me all the time. He and Debbie have shown great faith and endurance through her cancer and surgeries and treatments. They’re both an inspiration to everyone who knows them.

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For the first time in the storied history of the “KK&C Top Twenty” college football poll, we have a unanimous number one! The Texas Longhorns, fresh off their whipping of then #11 Missouri, receive all 14 1st place votes in this week’s poll. Even Jerry K put “ut” at the top “…for now.” Nine of the top ten teams stayed the same with very little shifting. The exception is BYU. The Cougars fell from #9 to #20 after being destroyed by TCU’s Frogs. Utah makes it Top Ten debut, moving up from #13. Michigan State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, and Vandy all dropped out of the poll, replaced by TCU, South Florida, Pitt, and Tulsa.

Pollster Richard A delivers the most uncomfortable remark of the week by referring to TCU’s win as the “Mormon Massacre.” Paul D gets in some denominational shots in his comments about Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley. Mark H’s comment about Virginia Tech’s “BC” is the most confusing remark of the week. And Charlie J delivers yet another golden Mangino reference. Beautifully placed. The subtlety makes it genius. Billy W, who’s taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the Sagarin Poll gives us this: “The fightin’ Texas Aggies are #110 in the latest Sagarin rankings, behind 12 Division I-AA schools and the other eleven Big 12 teams. The good news is that they are 85 spots in front of North Texas.” And panelist Steve F will actually be at the Alabama-Tennessee game in Knoxville Saturday night. He says he’s “requested the resume of Texas Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp to personally deliver” to the higher-ups at Tennessee.

You can find this week’s poll, released late every Monday night, along with all the comments by the pollsters, and their pictures and bios by clicking here or by clicking the green “KK&C Top 20” tab in the upper right corner of this front page.

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“Through Christ, the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” ~2 Corinthians 1:20

Why don’t we say “Amen” in our Christian assemblies? Where’s the “Amen?” In the middle of, and after, our prayers? In the middle of, and after, our readings from Scripture? In the middle of, and after, our songs of praise? In the middle of, and after, our sermons? In the middle of, and after, our communion time around the table? Where’s the “Amen?”

Paul assumes in 1 Corinthians 14:16 that those in the assembly who are being edified, those who understand what’s being said or sung, those who are thankful, those who are in tune with what’s happening, are saying “Amen!” The apostle makes it clear in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that the congregation’s “Amen” is a response to the promises of God as they’re fulfilled in Christ. As the promises are revealed and understood and accepted, this congregational “Amen” affirms our salvation and redemption in Christ and brings glory to God.

So, where’s the “Amen?”

I can’t tell you how many times—at least four or five times a week since I’ve been here at Legacy—someone will come up to me following an assembly and say, “Boy, I really wanted to say ‘Amen,’ but I just didn’t.” Or, “I was saying ‘Amen’ in my heart today, just not out loud.” Men and women alike tell me things like this all the time. Although, about half the time our women add, “Of course, if I said ‘Amen” I’d get in trouble.” (sigh……..)

Why aren’t we saying “Amen” or “Right On!” or “Yes” or “That’s Right!” constantly during our time together in our Christian assemblies? Did we ever? Is this a Church of Christ thing? Is it a white suburban thing? Is it something we used to do all the time and don’t anymore? Or have we never been a people to verbally participate as a congregation in the things that are said from the front? What’s the deal?

I have tons to say on this. Admittedly, this thread or this conversation might last all week. There’s a lot to be said for the “homothumadon” throughout the book of Acts. Deuteronomy 27 gives us great insights into the verbal affirmation of a congregation. Saying “Amen” isn’t just to show approval of what’s being said. It’s not just to communicate agreement. Saying “Amen” or “Yes” or “Right On” affirms this is what we believe. This is how we live. This is truth. This is what I’m holding on to.

Our time together should always be spent as participants, not spectators. Always. Full participants in every prayer offered, every song sung, every Bible passage read, and every sermon preached. Never as spectators. It’s not Matt’s prayer, it’s the church’s prayer. It’s not Jim’s Scripture reading, it’s the church’s recitation of the words of our God. It’s not Allan’s sermon, it’s the church’s proclamation of the gospel of Christ Jesus! It all belongs to the church. We own it. And we participate in it when we raise our voices to say “Amen! Yes! That’s what we believe. That’s how we live. That’s where we put our faith.”

Together. Out loud. In the assembly.

Where’s the “Amen?” What’s the deal?

My own frustrations with this problem boiled over in a weird, and not entirely Christian, way in the middle of a sermon here at Legacy two Sundays ago. I apologized to the church this past Sunday, not for being enthusiastic about my God and my rescue from hell through Christ, but for accusing and judging the church in a way that set me up above everybody else. That was wrong. But the problem of our passivity and our spectator-stances in our assemblies remains. Needless to say, I’ve received a few emails and had a few conversations with our people about this over the past ten days. A couple of them have given me permission to post their comments here. Maybe this can foster some increased conversation.

“American culture has made us complacent and lazy — we don’t get out of our cars to get food or leave our houses to rent movies — and we bring this attitude on Sunday mornings. We confuse you (the preacher) with our favorite fast-food drive-thru and expect our religion to be preached quickly, with quality, not too hot or cold. We’re so used to our corporate worship setting, sitting in our assigned seats and being spoon fed from the pulpit that we get a little uncomfortable when we’re reminded that we just can’t sit back and absorb the faith.” ~Aaron G.

“The Creator of all things in existence, everything that was or is, sent his only Son to die for our sins. Every blessing, every dollar we have, every bite of food we eat is a benevolent act from our Father. If that doesn’t excite us and get us involved, I don’t know what will! We need, MUST, act like a people who embrace our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We need to be a people excited about Christ coming again. Not like hourly working punching our Sunday morning time clock.” ~Rusty T.

“If you had been preaching that sermon to a poor, have-nothing, group of people, you would have been drowned out by the ‘amens’!!” ~Doug D.

Where’s the “Amen?”

Ready. Set. Go.

Peace,

Allan

The Poll Must Go On

October 14, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

Maybe it was Give Away Day hangover. Maybe it was too many upsets on the same day. But on the craziest weekend of the college football season so far, we only had 11 of our 20 panelists submit their polls. And that’s a shame. I hate that maybe UT’s new #1 ranking may be tainted a bit by the small sample that is this week’s poll. And I wonder if LSU’s huge drop (from #5 to #12) or Penn State’s huge jump (from #6 to #3) would look any different if we had all 20 sets of votes. Auburn and South Florida dropped out this week. Michigan State makes its debut at #17 while North Carolina shows up for the first time at #19. I hate that Larry T didn’t chime in this week. He officially swore off his Mississippi State Bulldogs last week, six days before they upset Vandy. With the Dallas Stars regular season underway now (have they won a game yet?) we may not hear from Ted S again. Ten of our eleven pollsters ranked Texas #1. The lone dissenter is Jerry K. The hard-core Aggie votes “tu” and “Texas-Stinkin’-Tech” lower than they should be every week. Jerry ranks Texas today #2. And big Texas supporter Billy W gives us this nice little nugget: “The fightin’ Texas Aggies (you have to read this in your best Dave South voice) are #104 in the latest Sagarin Rankings, behind eight Division I-AA schools and all eleven other Big 12 teams.” Hang in there, Jerry and Charlie. It’s not all bad being known as a basketball school.

1. Texas (10 1st place votes, 219 total votes) – “Lisa, that was a good win right there.” JimG; “Deserves to be at the top.” BW; “Next in line of #1s that will fall.” CJ; “Colt for Heisman! JennG; “I had no doubts about their toughness. I hope Missouri isn’t mad.” RA; “Colt is fully grown.” PD; “Proved superiority in the Big 12, the best football conference on the planet.” MH; “Texas is #1 to stay. Horns 34, Missouri 26.” SF.

2. Alabama (202) – “Moving up because others fell.” MH; “Really, can they hang up here?” JennG; “Tide rolls through the bye week.” JimG; “Has looked unbeatable, but SEC is too tough.” BW; “In good shape for national championship run.” CJ.

3. Penn State (1, 201) – “Go, Papa Joe!” DM; “Coasting to Big 10 title and national championship game.” SF; “Maybe if Joe Pa gets a national title, he’ll retire.” JennG; “An octogenarian in the national title hunt. Go AARP!” MH; “This bunch is for real.” PD; “Should be able to go undefeated in the Big 2/Little 9.” BW; “Go ahead and knock them down the list. They will lose to Ohio State.” CJ.

4. Florida (175) – “LSU proved to be gator-bait.” RA; “Best one-loss team right now.” MH; “Looked like the old Gators.” BW; “Will be in the top three soon.” CJ.

5. Oklahoma (165) – “They are good, just not as good as the Horns.” MH; “Outcoached.” PD; “Stoops got a case of Tom Osbourne Syndrome.” JimG; “OU stinks!!!!!” RA; “And the Oscar goes to….OU’s punter!” CJ; “Sorry, Sam.” JennG.

6. USC (155) – “Still a powerhouse.” MH; “Did they blow up hot dog Rudy Carpenter, or what?” JimG; “May fall as the year goes on in that I-AA conference.” BW; “Don’t rule them out.” SF; “Almost time for ESPN to re-anoint them the greatest team ever.” CJ.

7. Oklahoma St. (152) – “The right Cowboys won this week.” RA; “WHOA! I would NOT have picked them to beat Missouri!” JennG; “Making me a believer.” JK; “Maybe the best ‘Cowboys’ in Texas and Oklahoma.” MH; “Boone Picket done bought himself a football team.” PD; “I’m 40!! I’m a man!! I can take it!!” JimG.

8. Texas Tech (151) – “Fortunate win over Huskers.” DM; “Leach sucks the life out of opponents. 4th & 5? Are you kidding me?” CJ; “Same old, same old; no D.” PD; “Barely gets by a weak Nebraska team…still no D in Lubbock.” MH; “Shaky” JK; “Still not convinced by their defense.” JimG; “Struggled against who?” BW; “Where’s A&M?” JennG; “Aggies are tough at Kyle Field.” RA.

9. BYU (129) – “Someone please beat them!” SF; “Mormon intervention helps them get by New Mexico.” JimG; “They’ll sleep-walk through their conference.” BW; “A 16-game winning streak. If they make it 20 straight, Cougars could be in the national hunt.” MH; “Still hangin’ strong.” JennG; “Dream will end Thursday night.” CJ.

10. Georgia (126) – “Beat up a weak Vols team. So what?” MH; “Not impressive.” PD; “Too many tough games to go.” BW; “Talent can only get you so far without discipline.” CJ.

11. Missouri (114) – “Chase looked human.” MH; “Shave the mohawk, Chase, and lose the ’stache, too.” DM; “Misery against T. Boone’s Cowpokes.” JimG; “Will not beat Texas in Austin.” JK; “No longer in the ‘chase’ for the Heisman, much less the title.” CJ.

12. LSU (90) – “Didn’t show up against Florida.” MH; “The wood shed is that way->” CJ; “What happened to the vaunted Tiger D?” JimG; “They’ll bounce back.” BW.

13. Utah (89) – “”Do we have to put them on this list?” CJ; Nice team that nobody sees.” BW; Second-best undefeated team in their state.” MH; “Matchup with BYU will determine a BCS berth.” JimG.

14. Ohio State (79) – “Getting close to Top Ten again.” MH; “2009 will be scary for the rest of the country.” CJ; “Blah…” JimG.

15. Boise State (61) – “Played one quarter at Southern Miss, but scored enough to win.” MH; “Idaho—where all conversations about football begin and end.” CJ; “Could there be two flies in the BCS ointment this year?” JimG.

15. (tie) Kansas (61) – “They keep winning but they can’t move up.” BW; “Manhandled Colorado, but falling next week.” MH; “Will be looking ahead to hoops after trip to Norman this week.” CJ; “Insert your own Mangino reference here.” JimG.

17. Michigan St. (37) – “For real.” PD; “Thank ESPN for this ranking.” CJ.

17. (tie) Virginia Tech (37) – “ECU loss looks worse every week.” RA; “Show the Hokies some love.” MH; “Seem to have righted the ship.” BW.

19. North Carolina (31) – “New one in the group.” PD; “On the ‘heels’ of a great season.” CJ (Charlie, we’d rather have a lame Mangino reference than a lame Carolina joke); “Finally beginning to recover from Mack Brown leaving.” BW; “Butch Davis should be calling plays in Fayetteville.” JimG.

20. Vanderbilt (9) – “Ooops.” PD; “Proving there is SOME depth in the SEC.” MH.

Also receiving votes: Tulsa (7) “An offensive machine.” JimG; Minnesota (4); South Florida (4); Wake Forest (4); Ball State (3) “Just because a 7-0 team deserves it.” JimG; “Really? 7-0?” RA; ”Didn’t know we had a state named Ball.” MH; TCU (3) “Better be ready to bring it against the Mormons next week.” RA; Nebraska (1); Pittsburgh (1) “This team is starting to play well. Look out Big East.” BW; Texas A&M (1) “Will continue their dominance in the turnovers category. The Red Raiders are overlooking A&M. Aggies will be in the Big 12 Championshp Game in 2010. Guarantee!” CJ.

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“In a sense, the theologian is like a sparring partner. His job is to keep the church on its toes both intellectually and spiritually. If the church neglects truth, sooner or later it will get flabby and go sick; and what once were soul-stirring insights will degenerate into hollow platitudes. And if the church neglects its call to live out the gospel as the people of God, then whatever truth the church has will go sour on it.”

—Colin Brown, 1967

Home Again

July 14, 2008 / Allan / 3 Comments

It’s 4:05 Texas time Monday afternoon and I’m just now taking a breath for the first time since we got home from St. Louis early Saturday morning. It’s great to be home.

It was good to be gone, but it’s great to be home.

All day Saturday was spent doing laundry and packing and buying things Whitney and Valerie needed for Kingdom Camp at Three Mountain. Sunday we worshiped at Legacy and I didn’t preach. I actually sat in the middle of the pew, not on the aisle. And we left after Bible class, before second service to take the kids to camp. How strange. Can I leave with another worship assembly to go? Is it possible that this body of believers can function without me? Don’t I need to be organizing something or coordinating with someone? Can all of this still happen if I’m not in there?

They did very very well for 48 years before I got here. And they’re going to do very very well for 48 more years and beyond after I leave.

For one thing, this church family is full of capable proclaimers of the Gospel. Jim preached for us yesterday. And while our personalities and delivery styles couldn’t be much more different, I could sense Jim connecting with people all around me while he preached. It could have been John or J or Mark or either of a couple of Jacks. The important thing—the obvious thing—is that our God takes his Word and he places it into the hearts of his people when they come together to hear it proclaimed. His Word is powerful. It impacts everyone who hears it and it changes everyone who obeys it. And I’m humbled and I’m blessed to be able to preach it on a regular basis.

And, I missed it.

I missed not preaching to the Legacy family yesterday. I’ve come to love preaching God’s Word, much more so than I realized I might. I missed discovering the voice of God in our Scriptures and working all week on the best ways to communicate that message to his people. I missed seeing the nods of understanding and hearing the “amens” from my brothers and sisters as they affirm our sermon, our message. I missed the butterflies—no! much more than that—the sheer feelings of inadequacy and near panic as we sing that song before the sermon and I realize I’m about to address hundreds of God’s people and speak to them from God’s Holy Scriptures some word of grace or love or caution or warning or salvation or mercy that will spur them on to walk the rest of the week faithfully with our Lord. I missed the adrenaline rush (I’m being honest here) of taking my eyes off my Bible and my notes long enough to pour my heart out to my church family. I missed the urgency of preaching the Good News. The importance of proclaiming the Word. The absurdity of my great and magnificent God using me in all of my insignificance and shortcomings to partner with him in redeeming this lost world.

I missed it.

We didn’t get back from Three Mountain until late last night. Today has been filled with answering all the emails, writing all the letters, returning all the phone calls, and taking care of all the things that didn’t take care of themselves while we were in St. Louis.

And now, I think, I’m caught up. It’s almost 4:30. The offices are all empty here at Legacy. It’s just me. And now I’m about to dive back into the Word.

And I can’t wait ’til Sunday.

Peace,

Allan

The Gospel AND Our Lives

June 4, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

“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 1:8

We spent a few moments yesterday in our monthly meeting of the Waco Alliance continuing a weeks-long discussion of how, as preachers, we should strive to be transparent to our congregations. It’s a position I’ve taken since I entered the ministry.

No holding back. Hiding nothing. Sharing with my church family all my best and worst. My greatest moments and my most awful. My great faith and my serious doubts. The things I know and the things about which I know nothing. What you see is what you get. Warts and all.

When friends of mine who were on the preacher search committee here or any one of our elders have mentioned to me that’s one of the reasons they hired me—“You’re so open!”— I always counter with, “And it’ll wind up being one of the reasons you fire me.”

Paul’s words to the congregation in Thessalonica reveal his love for the brothers and sisters. Yes, he shared the Gospel of Salvation with them. But he had grown to love them so much he shared with them his very life. No holding back. He gave them everything he had. All of it.

Yes, we get disappointed with our churches. Sometimes the only appropriate response to the things our people do and say is, “What a knucklehead!”

But, like family, he’s my knucklehead. And I love them and I defend them and I protect them with everything I have. Like with my little sisters. I can tease them and get frustrated with them at times. But don’t you dare come in here talking bad about them or treating them improperly.

Paul’s words in this short verse reveal a lot about him. He was commited to that congregation and to those families. He didn’t preach to them because they had a nice building or he enjoyed the town or the pay was right. He wasn’t looking elsewhere. He loved them. They were his family. And he shared with them his very life.

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I’ve added a new link to the Resource page of this blog. It’s part of the one year anniversary celebration of The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys. (Next year there’s going to be a huge mattress sale at one of the shops on Davis.) This link gets you to the page on the Legacy Church website that stores the streaming audio from our ten latest sermons. The Habakkuk series is still all there. And both of the first installments from the current Servant Songs series are there. You might also notice a couple of new links to the right hand side of this blog’s home page that take you to the blogs of Jim Martin at Crestview in Waco, Terry Rush up at Memorial in Tulsa, and William Willimon.

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Terry Rush’s post from yesterday’s Morning Rush is about the progression of praise during their corporate worship at Memorial. He writes about their congregation learning to really praise God. When they assemble now on Sundays, according to Terry, they “robustly cut loose and get lost in his wonder. We do stand in awe! We do mean it when we say ‘Thank You, Lord!'”

Terry writes, “we have shifted from worshiping and wondering who is upset with ‘over that move’ to wondering if God is loving our gifts of vocal / mindful worship of him.”

He closes his post with this:

“We enter his presence…really. Was it not being done before? I can’t answer that for anyone but myself. For me? It wasn’t being done. I was too focused on who did or didn’t like what was sung, prayed, or preached. I was too interrupted by singing a song and hearing comments regarding observing this note and that chorus. It seems to me the more the church learns to voice the praises of God, whether through song or testimony, the more God unleashes his grand grace upon our gatherings.”

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I was listening to Jerry Wayne and Terrell Owens announce the receiver’s new four-year contract during a 35-minute press conference driving home from Waco yesterday afternoon. Toward the end of the session, a reporter asked Owens about new Cowboys cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones. Owens said Jones needs to turn his life around, he knows he needs to turn his life around, he understands he needs to turn his life around, and he WILL turn his life around because he’s being cared for and mentored by………..

And I just assumed Terrell was going to say Calvin Hill.

If not Calvin Hill, maybe somebody else on the Cowboys staff who helps troubled players. Maybe the team chaplain. Maybe even Drew Pearson or Everson Walls.

No.

Terrell Owens is certain that Pacman Jones is going to be fine because he’s being cared for and mentored by Deion Sanders.

And as far as I could tell from listening to the live audio, nobody in that crowded room of team officials and reporters gasped or recoiled in shock and horror or fell down laughing.

Peace,

Allan

Back In The Saddle

May 27, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Now, where were we?

I can’t say enough about the Sermon Seminar at Austin Grad. Sitting at the feet of great preachers and great teachers of preachers is refreshing and rejuvenating and a lot of hard work. Dwight Robarts, the preacher at the Skillman Church in Dallas took us through the wonderful book of Hebrews and showed us how to remind our congregations to keep the main things as the main things. Rick Marrs from Pepperdine guided us through Genesis 12-50 and revealed to us some provocative themes and concepts found in the stories of Abraham and Joseph. Austin Grad’s own Jeff Peterson walked us through a study of Galatians and drew rich comparisons between us and the Church in Galatia. And Mark Hamilton, from ACU, presented the grace and the will of God as it’s discovered in Amos.

The study and the learning and the insights and information is overwhelming. But when I attend the Sermon Seminar, I also come away with a great sense of belonging. I’m not the only one. We’re not the only ones. There are preachers of the Word, proclaimers of the Gospel, all doing the very best we can from D.C. to California, from Florida to Michigan, and everywhere in between. We’re all motivated by the same call of our God and we’re all driven by the same will to preach salvation through Christ and to equip people to better serve God and their fellow man. We’re also frustrated by the same things and disappointed by the same things. And it’s just so great to be with each other for those four days. What a blessing.

I began my 25-minute presentation to these preachers on Things I’ve Learned After One Year Of Preaching this way:

“I’ve learned that there are people in the church who love me and people who don’t. There are people there who support me and people who don’t. There are people who want me to succeed and people who don’t.

But, enough about my elders….!”

OK. OK. It was good for a cheap laugh. In fact, everybody laughed. I got exactly the response I wanted. The truth is, I can’t imagine working with a better group of church leaders than the elders who serve at Legacy. They’re open with each other and the church family, they’re honest about their own strengths and weaknesses, they’re committed to our Lord and his people, and they carefully and prayerfully consider everything that comes to them.

I spoke about learning to expect the unexpected and used stories from my first year to illustrate it. My first baptism at Legacy wound up with my baptisee sprawled out on the wet baptistry floor with a twisted knee. My first wedding was for a couple who already had a combined 120 years of marriage between them. One of the first couples to place membership after I arrived told me a joke about exorcism during the invitation song.

But then I talked about the Baileys and the Browns.

My first sermon as the full-time preacher at Legacy was going to be perfect. It was going to be inspirational. So much energy. So much enthusiasm. So much excitement. I’d been planning it and praying about it and working to perfect it for two years. People were going to write poems and sing songs about this sermon.

And then the Baileys and the Browns suffered that tragedy on Memorial Day that no parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, or cousin should have to endure. And instead of planning the perfect sermon, I wound up at Parkland Hospital in Dallas that Thursday praying with our church’s most beloved family as they planned a funeral for one child and begged God to heal another.

And that very first Sunday at Legacy was not about me. It had nothing to do with me. The new preacher that had finally arrived was the last thing on anybody’s mind. Everybody was thinking about John and Rose and J and Laurie and all the kids who weren’t there. I was powerless. Helpless. I was an intruder.

And I didn’t expect any of that.

But, through those events, God has worked in their lives and in my life and in the life of the Legacy family to make us stronger and closer to him and to each other.

The other thing I talked about was that God uses wholly inadequate people (me) to do holy amazing things.

People I don’t know very well, people I’ve barely met, will talk to me about their innermost fears and anxieties, their sins and struggles with faith and hope. We’ll cry together. We’ll pray together. They tell me things they wouldn’t tell their dearest friends. Because I’m their preacher. I represent God and the Word of God to these people. To the church, I represent a deeper relationship with God. I’m expected to give them spiritual direction and comfort and hope straight from the Lord.

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

I’m so burdened sometimes by the things I know I’m supposed to say. I’m so relieved when they come out right. So discouraged when they don’t. The calling is so demanding and so satisfying. It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done and the most rewarding. It’s so right for me in that I feel capeable of study and public speaking. So wrong in that I’m so selfish and sinful and weak.

It’s so up and down. It’s so exhilerating and terrifying. All at the same time. All the time.

But the grace for me—the thing I’ve learned—is that it’s not me. It’s God in me. It’s God through me. It’s God for me. And that’s where I get my courage and my confidence.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “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.”

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I got home at 2:45 Thursday afternoon. Carrie-Anne and I got reacquainted briefly and then sped out to pick up the girls to take in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I won’t ruin the movie for you. I’ll talk about the plot and the ending of a movie from 1963 in the pulpit and get accused of ruining it for somebody. So I won’t do that here. Let’s just say that the characters in the movie are not developed at all. The dialogue is much less clever and much less comfortable than what we’ve come to expect from Spielberg and Lucas. A lot of the adventure and chase scenes were ripoffs from the previous flicks. And there weren’t any surprises.

It’s almost like they knew they could throw almost anything together with these names and characters and plot lines and make a ton of money off ticket prices, product placement, and merchandising without even trying. And they did. And they are.

But it’s still Indiana Jones. And we still eat it up at Stanglin Manor.

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

We got together Sunday night at Chisholm Park in Hurst with all the members of the three Small Groups that formed from our original Small Group that first started meeting in January. There were almost 50 of us. Matt & Rechelle cooked the fajitas. We sang and prayed in the big pavilion. And the kids played together all afternoon. We plan to do this probably once a quarter as our groups keep growing bigger and bigger and multiply into even more groups. May our Father continue to bless us with more people and more opportunities to grow and to serve and to share with our Christian brothers and sisters.

Peace,

Allan

Category: Preaching (Page 23 of 25)

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