Category: Stanglin Family (Page 24 of 25)

I got the looks. He got the brains.

Allow me a moment today to brag on my little brother, Keith. Or, I should say, Dr. Keith D. Stanglin, esteemed Bible professor at Harding University. Keith did his dissertation research on “Jacobus Arminius and the Roots of the Leiden Debate over the Assurance of Salvation” at Leiden University in the Netherlands. And now he’s signed a contract to publish another work, The Lost Public Disputations of Jacobus Arminius: Introduction, Text, and Commentary.

Look at some of these comments about my little brother in a letter from the publisher, Wim Janse at Leiden:

He says Keith is notable for his “independence as a scholar, his linguistic skills (in reading and exploring a vast corpus of early modern theological texts in Latin), his ingenuity (also in tracing and attributing 27 new disputations to Arminius), and his unpretentiousness and sense of humor.”

He claims to be impressed by Keith’s “erudition, originality, and ability to express difficult matters (in fact, Reformed scholastic theology, drawing from medieval philosophy) in clear language.”

He lauds Keith’s “lucid style as he combines sober, succinct, and balanced scholarly prose with crystal-clear explanations of intricate theological questions.”

Of Keith’s published dissertation, Janse writes, “The author is a born teacher.”

Most of the book Keith is writing now will be original texts in Latin. Keith is writing the English introductions to each of the 15 chapters or arguments, plus all the footnotes, plus the commentary. Kind of like a Study Bible for these arguments about divine election and man’s free will from the 17th century. It’s not something you’ll be able to find at Mardell. But the publishers are calling it “a major step forward in the international scholarly research on Arminius and early modern Reformed theology.”

They call Keith the “world’s leading scholar on Arminius and Arminius’ thought.” And he’s scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at an international conference at Leiden in 2009.

I’d like to think I had something to do with encouraging Keith and pushing Keith and recognizing in Keith all of this potential when we were younger. But I’m afraid holding him on my shoulders at the Stevie Ray Vaughn concert at Fair Park and taking him to Rangers games at old Arlington Stadium and introducing him to the Naked Gun series of movies probably didn’t have much of an impact. At least not in that direction.

I’m so very proud of my little brother and all he’s accomplishing in the field of Reformed theology on this international scale. It blows me away. It really hit home to me the very first time I gave a chapel talk in my second semester at Austin Grad when Dr. Mark Shipp accidentally introduced me as Keith Stanglin. Being ten years younger than me, and going to the same church and the same schools as me, Keith was forever called Allan. His whole life. And now, in a seminary in Austin, Texas, I was being called Keith. Perfect.

Keith is doing tremendous work for the Kingdom, not just in the field of academics at Harding and abroad, but in the preaching and teaching he does in their church in Searcy and in the way he lives his life for our Lord. My phone conversations with him are always educational and encouraging. He inspires me.

Way to go, little bro! Congratulations! I love you.

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The November 4 deadline is looming for members here at Legacy to sign up to be Small Groups Co-Leaders. We’ve had more informational meetings, formally and informally, over the past couple of weeks than we’ve had in the previous three months combined. But it’s all very, very rewarding. For every person or family who’s reluctant to grab the dream and see the vision, there are a dozen others who absolutely can’t wait to get started.

One such family is Ron and Stephanie Frost. Stephanie tried to comment on one of these posts a couple of days ago, regarding small groups, but somehow my SPAM guard grabbed it and just now released it. Sorry about that. Here’s Stephanie’s post:

Gripes! I wrote a long-winded note yesterday to throw some support your way regarding small groups. I obviously did something wrong b/c it didn’t show up!

Here I go again… Ron and I are very excited about this change. We have experienced small groups at a previous church home and it was a huge blessing in our lives.

As new members at Alameda C of C, small groups gave us an immediate place to belong. We were instantly part of a ‘group’. It gave us access to ministry opportunities right from the start. It gave us a face and a name in a medium sized congregation where we could have easily disappeared. People missed us and not only that, called us when we didn’t show. (which we rarely didn’t show b/c our attendance mattered – when one couple is missing from a small group, the dynamics are effected)

As we became not-so-new members, they were our family. They knew our prayer concerns – big and small and we knew theirs. We prayed with each other, celebrated with each other, comforted each other…. They waited for HOURS at the hospital waiting for Brighton to be born. My parents couldn’t believe how packed our hospital room was when she finally arrived. One couple even went on a Bueno run for me!

I have experienced big, medium and small churches. I love different things about all of them. One thing that small groups accomplish really well is preventing the ’somebody else is already doing it’ dilema that can occur in medium and large congregations. Some things; jobs, ministries,and unfortunately PEOPLE can be overlooked and ignored – not because people aren’t thinking of them or caring, but b/c people ASSUME someone else is doing it. With small groups, we KNEW where the responsibility was. This is not to say the church as a whole didn’t pull together; however, the small groups were integral in initiating such endeavors b/c of the intimate knowledge and relationships that were developed.

Small groups create a non-threatening nuetral territory for non-church goers or those from differing denominational backgrounds. People can learn about and develop relationships with Christ in a living room. We witnessed this multiple times. Eventually, when their ‘church barriers’ would be broken down, they would come to Sunday mornining worship – already as baptized believers!

And just to touch on ‘multiplying’, b/c we weren’t allowed to say ’split’. Yes, our group grew and multiplied. Praise God! No, we didn’t lose friends. We gained more close friends that spread church wide. New leaders were continually being developed and sent out to grow God’s Kingdom. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

I know this isn’t supposed to be about us; however, selfishly, I am so excited about this change. Since I believe in the whole, ‘what you think about, you bring about idea…’ I am thinkin’ our small group is going to ROCK!

In Him,
steph

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As in every single thing we do, if you expect it to be great and wonderful, it will be. If you think it’ll be lousy, it will be. I know the Frosts and the Greens group is going to be fantastic. I know our group will be terrific. And I’m excited to see how our Father is going to “do that thing he does” in our church family through our Small Groups efforts.

Peace,

Allan

There have been several of our assemblies together at Legacy in the past year or so that have inspired me and moved me and humbled me. None so like what happened yesterday morning.

 Stan Stafford first came to Legacy seeking food through the benevolence program here about four months ago. He’s 99 years old, confined to a wheelchair, and just as pleasant and sharp as anybody you’d ever meet. That very first day Kenny Smith invited Stan to worship with us the following Sunday. And, sure enough, Stan showed up. He parked his wheelchair  with the big orange flag on it three-quarters of the way back, next to the sound booth. And to my knowledge, he’s not missed a Sunday yet. He’s starving for the Gospel. He’s thirsty for the knowledge of our God and his love and grace. Alvin Jennings and Kenny have been studying and praying with Stan. Over the past four months we’ve all befriended Stan. We’ve shared with Stan. We’ve listened to Stan. And we’ve come to love Stan.

And yesterday morning, during the third verse of the invitation song, that wheelchair came flying down the aisle toward me with Kenny and Alvin close behind. 16 days shy of his 100th birthday, Stan wanted to experience the new birth of a new resurrection life in God through Jesus Christ! Alvin shared a few stories about their time together over the past four months and then Stan confessed Jesus as the Son of God and the Lord of his life.

But how in the world were we going to do this?

In order to enter our baptistry at Legacy, you have to walk up four steps and then back down three into the water. And while Stan, when he has to, can go short distances by shuffling his feet, there’s no way he’s going up and down stairs. I hurriedly introduced a new family to the congregation and then hustled back to see if I could help. But I wasn’t needed. Jesse Villareal, whose physical size and strength is only surpassed by the size of his compassionate heart, was already suiting up in a set of waders that were way too small for him. He recognized from his seat what needed to be done and had jumped up to help. And when they were ready, Jesse lifted Stan and carried him up and down the steps and into the water. Jesse’s about a foot taller and a hundred pounds bigger than Alvin (that’s probably much more a statement about Alvin’s size than Jesse’s). And it was quite a sight — both of them baptizing Stan. And then Jesse carried Stan back up out of the water after we all shared in his new birth in Christ.

I don’t have the words to describe the beauty of the scene. I’ve been thinking about it and talking about it for almost 24 hours now. And I still don’t know how to write about it. If you were there, you know. If you weren’t, I’m sorry. I’m incapeable of describing it. The beauty of this tall, strong, young man and this wise older preacher lovingly carrying a 99-year old babe in the faith into and out of the waters of baptism with a cheering, weeping, admiring throng of 600-plus new brothers and sisters was overwhelming to me.

Our God is so wonderful. And his Church is so marvelous. And his people, indwelled by his Spirit, are amazing.

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To all the people who still have Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” running through their heads, I’m posting a bunch of pictures from our weekend at Lake Texoma. Just click on each picture to get the full size. I don’t have any pics of Kevin Welch, the only man to ever wear cleats to a family campout. I didn’t get Tate’s tumble during the kickball game that resulted in a broken collarbone and separated shoulder, nor the wild out-of-control John Deere Mule that Shanna Byrnes drove onto the field during play that started the chain reaction that led to the broken bones. (I’m not accepting any responsibility for the accident. The only reason I missed the throw at first was because I was dodging Shanna!) I did get a pretty good shot of Jennifer Green running the bases while holding Parker, Larry Tolleson and his Jolly Roger, and all kinds of sweet, precious little kids.

Go Bills.

 Allan