The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Spiritual Formation (Page 1 of 4)

Service

July 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I love the way Josh Ross begins his final chapter in Coreology, by reminding us of the teachings of our Lord Jesus and asking if we truly believe that he means what he says.

The first will be last and the last will be first. Did Jesus really mean that or was he exaggerating to make us think about our relationships with God?

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Was Jesus really rejecting James’ and John’s request for seats of honor and giving them a vision of service instead?

Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me. Was Jesus being literal, or was he just making a point?

I came not to be served, but to serve, and to give my life. Is that devotion to serving others for Jesus alone or is that the eternal model for you and me?

Josh holds up service as his sixth spiritual practice that will keep us from losing our Christian witness during this national election season.

#6 – I will choose to regularly serve others.

The 4th century Jewish historian Eusebius chronicled life and death in Caesarea during a terrible plague. Most people got out of Dodge. Eusebius tells us the Christians all stayed in town to serve:

“All day long some of them [Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them. Others gathered from all parts of the city a multitude of those withered from famine and distributed bread to them all.”

You don’t do these kinds of things unless you have sworn your allegiance to a different King and Kingdom.

Roman Emperor Julian, just a few decades later, urged the Empire’s pagan priests to imitate the charity and service modeled by Christians. Seriously. A pagan emperor was urging his pagan priests to behave more like Christians because of the good they brought to the world:

“The Christians support not only their poor, but ours as well. All people see that our people lack aid from us.”

The Kingdom of God and discipleship to Jesus spread all over the world because our Christian ancestors captured the attention of their pagan neighbors through their character, morality, friendship, and sacrificial service to others.

Josh writes, “If Paul were alive today, we’d be getting a letter.” The apostle’s letter would remind us that Jesus didn’t die and rise again for people to submit to a national party, a partisan leader, or a worldly agenda, but to the Kingdom that is above all kingdoms and to the King who is above all kings. And to his politics of service and love.

Imagine, Josh continues, if service became a regular part of our lives. Don’t you know it would help us to envision a world that is bigger than our own little story? Lives of service have always been one of the most noticeable ways to show that our hearts have been given over to Jesus. By lives of service, I mean the intentional things we do: holding doors, moving the neighbor’s trash can, paying for a stranger’s meal, and returning shopping carts at the grocery store. But it’s also volunteering with non-profits, feeding the hungry, and tutoring kids at the local elementary school. Service reminds us that we are part of a bigger story than ourselves.

Service is an overflow of God’s love for us. We don’t serve in order for God to love us, but because he loves us and gave himself so freely for us.

Service is at the core of the heart and mission of our Lord Jesus and so it must be a major and consistent part of our lives, too.

Josh concludes his book by asking us to imagine an election season in which disciples of Jesus have demonstrably renounced the ways of the world and are truly following Christ. I’m going to finish this series of posts by giving you the last lines of Coreology here:

Imagine if followers of Jesus diligently decided to take seriously our confession that Jesus is the Lord of our lives and nothing else is. How could we not live with greater loyalty and passion?

Imagine if Jesus-followers were to create and honor spiritual practices that keep us rooted in God. Can’t you envision how we could live in greater peace and meaning?

Imagine if we refuse to allow media outlets to have a loud voice in our lives. Don’t you know fear and anger would have a difficult time growing in us?

Imagine if we accept the challenge to be peacemakers. Are you able to see the role we could play in bringing God’s healing to this world?

Imagine if hospitality were to replace the internet as the primary place for conversations about what is happening in the world. Do you see how it can bring us together?

Imagine if service becomes a regular part of our lives. Can’t you see how hard it is for hatred to grow where love thrives?

Let’s be intentional, especially in election seasons, to live in a way that we will like who we are when the elections are over. Care about the world. Be educated about issues and policies. Vote if you feel the need to. But do not give your heart to any other leader or kingdom.

Your spiritual core will not be strengthened by accident. Grow in God. Grow with God. Grow for God.

Guard your heart. Protect your joy. Don’t lose your Kingdom witness. You can do this. We can do this. God can do this in us.

Peace,

Allan

Devotion

June 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Here is the second core principle from Josh Ross’s  book Coreology: Six Principles for Navigating an Election Season without Losing Our Witness.

#2 – I will create and honor regular spiritual practices that remind me of my devotion to Jesus

As preachers, pastors, and church leaders, a common observation is that increasingly more Christians are only spending time with God in Word and prayer when they’re at the church building a couple of times a month. Instead of a vital component to a vigorous life in Christ, daily devotions seem to be a thing of the quaint past. Regular, daily Christian practices or spiritual disciplines are engaged by fewer and fewer of us. At the same time, all of us are spending more and more hours every day in front of our screens–news, movies, sports, streaming, work emails, family Facebook, binging, whatever. We are being formed less and less by intentionally dwelling in the teachings and the presence of our Lord and more and more by algorithm-inspired propaganda, news, and on-demand entertainment.

To set up his second principle, Josh points to Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 6 to seek his Kingdom first. In order to guard our hearts from getting lost in the culture wars or the election seasons, we must create and honor these regular times with God in Word and prayer. It must be intentional and it must be more than a quick checklist endeavor:

“You can’t give God a three-minute devotional time in the morning, yet soak in cable news and podcasts for hours a day and think you can live a life devoted to Christ… Devotion to Jesus takes practices that keep us rooted, grounded, and growing. Without such practices, we will drift from our center. We will fail to strengthen our core.”

A lot of the fear, worry, and anger that people experience in the world today is induced by cable news and social media. The more time a person spends with that, the more likely that person is to equate the ways and means of the culture with the ends and goals of God’s Kingdom. Especially when that person is not spending at least as much time with God in Word and prayer, to keep the story straight, to keep the Kingdom goals and the Jesus ways straight. It begins to seem like the only way to accomplish change in the world–in my world–is to holler and yell and insult and threaten. Well, now you’re working in decidedly un-Christian ways toward highly questionable goals. And you start to believe that the Kingdom of God is something for later, after you die, instead of for living and bringing to God’s world right now today.

“In his world, ‘Kingdom’ language was political. Jesus’ hearers knew about other kingdoms–the kingdom of Herod and the kingdom of Rome. The Kingdom of God had to be something different from those kingdoms. The Kingdom of God is for the earth. The Lord’s Prayer speaks of God’s Kingdom coming on earth, even as it already exists in heaven. It is about the transformation of this world–what life would be on earth if God were ruler and the lords of the domination systems were not.” ~Marcus Borg, Jesus and Politics, 2019

I love this paragraph as Josh concludes this chapter on devotion:

“Jesus intends for his followers to live by a different set of rules than any earthly kingdom sets in place. Our King is in place. His Kingdom has been set in motion. Through Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, we have citizenship in this Kingdom. We have values, principles, and commands. We have a mission to build bridges in order to invite others, instead of building walls to keep others out. This is what the church–Jesus’ church–has been tasked to pray for and live into.”

Renouncing the kingdoms and the ways of the world and embracing Christ’s Kingdom and the ways of Jesus requires spiritual discipline. Especially now, we should all be doubling down on our spiritual practices. Pick one day a week and read one of the Gospels out loud all the way through so you can read all four every month. That will get you into the Word and get the Word into you. Pray several times during the day. Practice personal examination at lunch, at the end of your work day, and as you get ready for bed: how have I behaved in the past four to five hours? Did I think and talk and act like Jesus? Do I need to apologize to anybody? Volunteer at a non-profit in a different part of town. There are lots of ways to stay locked in to your commitments to Jesus and his Kingdom. But they don’t happen by default. It’s got to be intentional.

Peace,

Allan

Blended Worship

May 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Here’s my calendar for the next two weeks:

Wednesday May 22 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 1
Thursday May 23 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 1
Friday May 24 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 2
Saturday May 25 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 2
Sunday May 26 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 3
Monday May 27 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 3
Tuesday May 28 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 4
Wednesday May 29 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 4
Thursday May 30 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 5
Friday May 31 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 5
Saturday June 1 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 6
Sunday June 2 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 6
Monday June 3 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 7 (if necessary)
Tuesday June 4 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 7 (if necessary)

We’re a long way from this–we’re only halfway through both of these championship tournaments. But what if Dallas becomes “Title Town” and the Cowboys have nothing to do with it!

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Here at GCR Church we practice what a lot of people call a blended style of worship. Blended worship. Some people call it mutually miserable. With blended worship, we are equal opportunity offenders. Everybody’s miserable part of the time. There’s some part of this worship service you’re going to hate–we guarantee it!

I make fun of it. But, most of the time, I’m pushing for it. Because, if nothing else, it’s a way of driving home the point that we are not a monolithic church of just one style or one generation or one approach. We’re a diverse family of Christian disciples. So, every Sunday, we sing a pretty good mix of newer contemporary worship songs and older classic hymns. We do it all.

It helps us, I think, to emphasize that our Christian faith and our community of faith at GCR is not a one-track deal. We’re trying our best to foster a culture where everybody connects with God. We’re not perfect at this. But we try to communicate with our blended styles and practices that everybody is invited, that everybody is welcome, that everybody can hear and be heard, and that everybody can sing their song.

And that God will transform us when we sing somebody else’s song.

Peace,

Allan

Remembering Dr. Weed

April 29, 2024 / / 1 Comment

In December 2006, I was given the honor and the horror of being selected to “roast” Dr. Michael Weed at the faculty-student Christmas party at Austin Graduate School of Theology. The five minute bit was part of a video we students made as the main entertainment for the evening. I played Dr. Weed giving a lecture on New Testament theology to a class of a dozen or so diligent note-takers. And I played up every one of Dr. Weed’s idiosyncrasies and habits.

I exaggerated the way Dr. Weed dug into both eyes with the heels of his hands as he tried to remember a name or a date from the Middle Ages. I overdid the way he rubbed his forehead with all ten fingers as he contemplated the answer to a student’s question that had nothing to do with the topic at hand. I made fun of how Dr. Weed would talk randomly about seemingly unrelated events from different continents and centuries and then connect them all together to drive home his point that you didn’t even know he was making.

I quoted a lot of his well-worn lines like, “I’m old enough to say this book was written five years ago and it was really thirty” and “I wanna say this carefully…” and “I don’t want this to sound pejorative” and “I’ll give you a chance to push back on that in a minute.”

At one point in the video I mimicked Dr. Weed’s breakneck lecturing pace. We showed closeups of students doing their best to keep up. One student’s desk was littered with nubs of pencils he’d gone through. We used matches and slow motion to make it look like one student’s pen was literally catching on fire as she tried to keep up. I said one of Dr. Weed’s most used lines: “Am I going too fast? I’ll slow down.” And then I started talking even faster.

“Think with me…”
“We can do ethics in theology. Or are we doing theology in history? What class is this?”
“Fair enough?”
“Oh, Bernice!”

I ended the video with the way Dr. Weed always ended every single one of his lectures. “Peace.”

Later in the evening, Dr. Weed began his encouragement to the students by pointing out to everyone how foolish it was of me to put that performance on video the week before finals.

Those two years at Austin Grad were a formative time for me and Dr. Weed was at the very front and center of it all. I was reading the Bible for the first time as a narrative, as the Story of our God and his people, instead of a verse here and a verse there pulled out of context to support an argument. Scriptural dots were being connected. My faith in the Lord and his salvation mission was becoming more important than my strict adherence to a set of rules. I was appreciating Church history for the very first time in my life. I was understanding for the first time that tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. He introduced me to Karl Barth and Augustine, Reinhold Niebuhr and Neil Postman, Bonhoeffer and Erasmus. He taught me about the sacral framework of our communities and churches. He showed me how we are being formed all the time by everything around us; nothing is neutral, everything is created or made for a purpose; form is function; the medium is the message. He personally worked with me through some of my early issues with what he called “theological puberty.” In my second year at Austin Grad I made sure I spent at least one afternoon per week in his office talking about theology and ministry, the current state and the coming future of our congregation in Marble Falls and the Church in America as a whole.

During my first seven or eight years preaching, a month did not go by that I didn’t consult my old Austin Grad notebooks to find a quote or an illustration from Dr. Weed that would help me in a sermon. The exact analogy. The perfect example. Dr. Weed made nearly half of my early sermons tolerable instead of torture.

After every lecture, Dr. Weed would stop and say, “Now, here’s how the Church needs to hear this. Here’s why this matters.” And it would get really practical really fast. Here’s what’s happening to Christians, this is what they are hearing and believing and doing, and here’s where the Scriptures can better form us. Here’s where the history can inform us. Here’s how our faith can transform us. When I returned to Austin Grad for a sermon seminar he would always ask me, “Allan, how are your people being formed?” It was always top-notch world-class scholarship with Dr. Weed. But it was always for the Church.

Dr. Weed finished his race on Saturday. He ran well. Very well. He died in Austin, loved by our God, forgiven by Christ Jesus, and filled to overflowing by the Holy Spirit of our Lord.

The tributes and memorials will be many over the next few days. Here’s a link to a beautiful piece authored by Todd Hall. Even if you’ve never heard of Michael Weed, this tribute by Todd is worth the read. Todd shares a letter Dr. Weed wrote to him after Todd’s wife died in 2000, a wonderful portrait of a teacher who genuinely loves his Lord and loves his students.

Dr. Weed is a renowned Christian scholar, a prolific writer, and a beloved teacher. His impact on preachers and churches and the Kingdom of God can never truly be measured. I am just one of his thousands of students. He was my teacher. So influential. I admire him and his thinking and his faith so much. My careful attention to Christian formation is a gift from Dr. Weed to me and to the churches where I’ve preached. Transformation and mission. Formation zones. Christian practices and spiritual disciplines. Ecumenical partnerships. 4Amarillo and 4Midland. All of that grows from seeds Dr. Weed planted in me and nurtured by faith during those crucial two years at Austin Grad.

I use the word “pejorative” because of Dr. Weed. I’m extra sensitive to the damaging effect of digital technologies because of Dr. Weed. And I sign every blog and every bulletin article and every letter and card with “Peace” because of Dr. Weed.

I thank God today for Dr. Weed. I praise God that he placed Dr. Weed right in front of me when I first started hungering and thirsting for a closer relationship with the Lord and growing in my desire to answer God’s calling to congregational ministry. May our heavenly Father bless all those who are grieving today. May we all be comforted by the many memories of how Dr. Weed impacted us, our ministries, and our faith. And may our Lord receive Dr. Weed into his loving and faithful arms on that great day of eternal resurrection that is coming very soon.

Peace.

Allan

Running with Word & Prayer

April 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

April 15. The day we realize that taxation with representation ain’t that great, either.

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I want to share some pictures from our latest Running the Race evening here at GCR. For five straight Wednesdays we are intentionally mixing up our younger people with our older people–worshiping together, playing silly games and eating ice cream together, reading Scripture and praying together. This past Wednesday, our children and youth group again led us in worship. We spent five minutes moving around the Worship Center praying over one another and asking others to pray over us. And then we spent the last 40-minutes or so with a few Christian practices.

 

 

 

 

 

We set up ten stations inside and around our Worship Center and asked everyone to spend ten minutes or so at three of them. The stations were all self-led. Some of the activities lent themselves more to group participation and others to individual reflection. Some were geared specifically toward the children and others toward more seasoned Christians. But for the entire 40-minutes, there were always at least six or seven people at each station, engaging God in creative ways through prayer and the Scriptures.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the Christian practices could be classified as ancient spiritual disciplines: borrowed prayer, lectio divina, praying the Psalms, discernment. Some of the stations featured newer ways to experience God through Word and prayer: eating the Word with drops of honey and wax paper on our Bibles, macaroni necklaces inspired by Deuteronomy 6,  and a couple of art projects.

 

 

 

 

 

J.E. Bundy said it best after it was over. The beautiful thing about these Running the Race events is that we’re not talking about what the church is or what the church should be doing. We’re just doing it. And being it. In our Church of Christ heritage, we have probably leaned a little too far into the Knowledge Zone as a way to connect with God and with one another. Now, we’re finally making room to just be the people God is calling us to be and we’re discovering the salvation power in it. Transparency. Vulnerability. Blessing others. Praying together and reading the Word together without a wristwatch or a set of goals to achieve.

That’s exactly what’s happening at GCR on Wednesday nights. By God’s grace, his people here are getting to know each other a little better around Word and Prayer, goofy games, and popsicles. We’re starting to appreciate one another a little more. We’re feeling a deeper sense of belonging. I think we’re loving each other more. And better.

I think this is what it looks like to run the race with purpose.

Peace,

Allan

Letters From Christ

October 25, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Arizona Diamondbacks, huh? You know, since Genesis 3 the serpent’s head is meant by God to be crushed. The Rangers are poised to proclaim the Gospel!

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Old letter writing 2 | Stock Video | Pond5

“You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” ~2 Corinthians 3:4

Jesus’ greatest gift to us as we wait for his triumphant return is the power of his presence through the Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit is alive and powerful and real. And he lives inside all who confess Jesus as Lord and put their faith for salvation in God through Christ.

He lives inside us.

Did you catch that part? The Spirit is within us, a holy being inside unholy humans. It’s amazing. It’s like science fiction. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to comprehend. The presence of God is not given to us in the clouds somewhere. It’s not at the top of a smoking and shaking mountain. It’s not hidden away in a chapel or a church building. God’s Spirit is not above us or beside us. He’s within us. He dwells inside us.

And he’s authoring a masterpiece. He’s writing a classic for the ages. In fact, what he’s writing is going to be read by everybody you know. They won’t find this masterpiece at Barnes and Noble. They can’t download it off Amazon. They read this divine work of art when they come in contact with you.

You are that Holy Spirit masterpiece, authored by the true and living God. Yes, it’s you! Look in the mirror! Don’t get distracted by the funny ears and the blemished skin. Don’t allow your height or your weight to keep you from recognizing it. Do not dare minimize what God is doing in your life. It’s not about you and me. It’s about the Spirit of God changing you, changing us, into his majestic handiwork. It’s about us living by his Spirit as a display, a massive banner, proclaiming his power and love to all we meet.

Peace,

Allan

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