The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Worship (Page 1 of 28)

Against Boring Church

May 26, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Rangers were no-hit last night by a trio of Astros pitchers you’ve never heard of in a disheartening 9-0 shutout loss that extends their losing streak to four games and has Texas one loss away from falling into fourth place in the AL West. The Rangers are just impossible to watch right now; they’re not even competitive. Multiple fielding and base-running errors, strikeouts with runners in scoring position, weak pop ups, double-digit runners left on base–it’s putrid. And tons of injuries. Seager, Josh Smith, and Wyatt are still out; none of the Rangers who started last night’s game were starters on Opening Day. It’s hard to argue that this is not a bad team. Like really bad. I think it’s going to be a long summer.

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It’s time for you to take a principled stand against boring church! There’s no excuse for boring church! We shouldn’t allow it and you shouldn’t put up with it!

Why is church boring? It’s our fault. We did it. Somehow, over the decades, we allowed church to become a spectator event. We turned church into a show. So, the members of the church walk away from the church service judging it. Talking about whether they were “fed” or whether the songs were “moving” or whether the preacher was “relevant” or whether they “felt” anything.

Hey! You’re not a spectator in church! You are a Holy Spirit-filled participant! You should take that God-ordained role back!

The Bible tells us that every single member of God’s Church is blessed with Holy Spirit gifts intended to build up the Body of Christ. When we come together in Lord’s Day assembly, God means for us to bless one another with the gifts he’s given us. God intends for us to love somebody. He wants us to encourage somebody. He wants us to build somebody up.

So, this Sunday, go to church with that expectation. You know what your gift is. Your know what your gifts are. You know what you’re good at. And you know God gave that to you in order to bless somebody else. So, use it this Sunday. Go to church with your gift to build somebody up. Say something unexpected and super nice to somebody who’s not going to see it coming. Compliment somebody on their clothes or their smile. Tell somebody how much they inspire you. Tell somebody “Thank you” for something they did for you a long time ago. Offer to hold a fidgety baby. Hold the door open for like twelve people in a row. Go to church with a commitment to be a blessing and an encouragement to people. Every Sunday. Forget about what you might or might not be “getting” and embrace the role God intends for you during church and start “giving” and “blessing” and “building up.”

What might happen?

I’m not sure.

But it won’t be boring.

Peace,
Allan

The Load In

April 30, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Equipment began arriving late yesterday afternoon, the big trucks and trailers and crews were here early this morning, and the Worship Center at GCR is starting to look like a concert venue. Colton Dixon plays GCR tonight on his “The Love I Have For You” tour, along with Tasha Layton and bodie. They have raised and expanded our stage, rearranged many rows of seats, and secured several large canisters of some kind of flammable gas to each side of the stage for, I think, some kind of effect (they’ve promised us they’re not shooting confetti). Everybody’s super nice and it should be a really good show.

 

 

 

 

 

Doors open at 6:30 this evening and the concert starts at 7:00. You can still buy your tickets on the GCR website here, or you can get them tonight at the door. If you live in Midland or anywhere in the Basin, I hope to see you here.

Peace,
Allan

Sing Loud, Die Happy

April 20, 2026 / / 2 Comments

We’ve got Minnesota right where we want ’em. The Wild outplayed the Stars in Saturday’s Game One up and down the ice for the entirety of all three periods. They out-skated us and out-hit us, they won every face off and beat us to every loose puck, they out-shot us, out-fought us, out-hustled us, out-goalied us, and killed us on special teams. It was Game One. Again. For the eighth time in the Stars’ past ten playoff series. We’ve got ’em right where we want ’em.

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Coconut Cream Dr Pepper is back and it’s just as wonderful as I remembered! It’s been a couple of years since Dr Pepper first gave us this glorious option and then took it away almost as soon as it arrived–I didn’t realize how seriously they were using the phrase “limited edition.” For almost two years now I’ve been lamenting its demise and begging for its return. It’s back now–for how long, I don’t know–and it is still, by far, the very best of the many different flavored Dr Peppers. The coconut flavor is really strong–you smell it before your first sip and it lingers even after you swallow. It smells like summer and it tastes even better. And, yes, we are stocked up at Stanglin Manor.

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I have just ordered a book based on a review by D.J. Bulls in Restoration Quarterly, and I’m planning to read it before the end of the week. The book is called Sing Loud, Die Happy: An Exploration of How God’s Gift of Song is Meant to Change Us. The title is intriguing enough, yes? The author, Jim Thompson, surveys the entirety of Scripture to present a comprehensive case for the paramount priority of singing for the individual disciple of Jesus and for his gathered church. According to D.J., Thompson explores the whole of Church history and encourages us to reinvest in singing. He also quotes from a variety of historical Church and music figures, including Aristotle, Martin Luther, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Bono. Here’s a quote from the book:

“We do not sing in worship to reflect our moods any more than our sermons should reflect our pet theories on the Gospel. Rather, quite bluntly, we sing in an effort to take us away from what we think and draw us toward what we ought to think, feel, and experience. We sing to create a mood more than to reflect one.”

And, from the last chapter, a list of ten encouragements for all of us:

1 – Sing with your family.
2 – Be a part of a church that enjoys singing and whose singing reflects the variety of song found in Scripture.
3 – Join a church where the song leaders aren’t trying to be faddish Christian celebrities but are shepherding people by inviting them into the transformative power of singing together.
4 – Learn and sing along to new music.
5 – Remember and sing along to old music.
6 – Look at people when you sing.
7 – Sing when you don’t feel like it.
8 – If you can’t sing with your lips, sing with your soul.
9 – Gather some friends for a sing-along.
10 – Sing with people different from you.

Singing is not only what we do; as children of God and followers of Christ Jesus, it is an important part of who we are.

Peace,
Allan

Church on a Snow Day

January 26, 2026 / / 0 Comments

We made the decision to open the doors Sunday morning and hold a worship service at GCR Church. It was snowing, the roads were icy, and the temperatures were in the teens; it was a winter weather situation we don’t get into that much in Midland, maybe only once every four or five years. Several Midland churches cancelled their services on Friday. As Friday turned into Saturday, even more churches posted their announcements that they were canceling their worship gatherings.

The restaurants were open. The grocery stores and retail outlets were open. The movie theaters and Costco and Bass Pro Shop were open. The club teams were all going forward with their basketball practices.

It seems to me that if two-thirds of the town is open, the church should not be closed.

We are ordained by God and charged by our community of faith to administer the sacraments of Word and Table every Lord’s Day. If 500 people show up to worship, it’s great. And if only five people show up, it’s still really great. God still meets us. God still transforms us. We are still in his presence, gathered together in the name of Jesus and by the power of his Spirit. Why would we cancel?

I know the rub. In situations like this, all the people younger than me who have no problem navigating the weather conditions will stay home, and all the people older than me who shouldn’t be out in this stuff will go to church. So, the thinking goes, we have to cancel so the older people don’t hurt themselves.

I’ve never known what to do with that. I’m open to suggestions.

I was at the building early Sunday morning, but not before Tim and Justin. They were here at 6:00am, shoveling the snow and ice and blowing dry the south and east sidewalks, preparing the way to church.

I called Carrie-Anne from the building at 9:00am. “Do you want me to come pick y’all up?” She replied, “Who am I? Your grandmother?! I know how to drive on this stuff!” I think I offended her. I love her for that.

The later it got in the week and the more buildup we heard from our local Midland media and saw on everybody’s Facebook posts about how terrible it was going to be, I was convinced that everyone had already made up their minds about whether or not they were going to attend church. I began getting the texts on Wednesday. “What are the chances we cancel church Sunday?” I responded, “Almost zero.” It felt like people had already decided. I started telling people by Thursday that even if it’s sunny and 40-degrees on Sunday, we’ll still have fewer than 100 people here.

Does that mean we should cancel?

Doesn’t cancelling church when most of the town is open and most of our congregation is eating out and going to practice and buying groceries send a message that church isn’t as important as we say it is? No, we are going to open the doors and greet one another warmly and hear the Word and eat and drink the communion meal; we’re going to sing praise to the Lord and hug each other and pray together and be reminded that we are redeemed children of God, that we belong to him and to one another, and that this is our primary identity and purpose.

More than 70 people showed up. Younger and older and lots of in-between. I even met a couple of visitors. We all huddled together down front, closer together, not spread out. Cory made a couple of jokes about the “Frozen Chosen” and we launched into the singing. We heard the Word of God from Philippians 2. I told some stories about God’s mission and how giving yourself to God’s mission changes us. I was able to make eye contact with every person in the room. We ate and drank the meal together. Richard gave us some news about the budget (Can you believe we come to church on a day like today and it’s Budget Sunday?!?). And we sang some more. And, afterwards, everybody hung out in the Worship Center talking and visiting, laughing and catching up with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

It was sweet. It was intimate. It was special.

We had our monthly 4 Midland lunch today. Me and my great friends, these pastor partners who knew we had church on Sunday when they didn’t. As soon as I sat down, Steve asked me, “Well, how many showed up?”

“The Lord showed up,” I replied. “And he was awesome.”

Peace,
Allan

A Very Late Cultural Invention

January 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The great Drew Pearson is 75 today. The OG 88. Walk around today with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder in his honor. Try to use the phrase “Hail Mary” at least a couple of times. And just point to the crowd knowingly. Don’t spike it.

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I’m not a hundred-percent sure what to do with Substack. It feels like social media, to which I am fundamentally opposed. But some of the best writers I know personally are writing there regularly. So, I’m reading Jim Martin and Daniel Harris and Carrie McKean. Then Steve Schorr, my brother and partner in the Gospel at First Presbyterian, turned me on to the Disarming Leviathan guys. And now I have come across Kenneth B.

I do not know who Kenneth B. is. He is an orthodox Christian. That’s it. Maybe that’s all I need to know. He has written an excellent piece on the Church and our understandings of Church as the Body of Christ. Or, better said, our gross misunderstandings. And it is the best article on Church as the transforming community of faith I have read in a long time.

He writes about people a little younger than me, people in their 40s and 50s maybe, and how they were raised to view Christianity as a personal relationship with Jesus, faith as an emotional experience, and the Church as functioning to produce that experience.

“The idea that church existed to form a people rather than to stimulate an individual was unimaginable to us. Church was treated like a spiritual energy drink. You consumed it for a jolt of religious feeling, and if you stopped feeling the jolt, you changed flavors… Looking back, I realize that what I was handed was not the faith of the apostles, but a very late cultural invention.”

I just preached yesterday about how God’s Holy Spirit transforms us in Christian community, how our commitments to Christ and to his people–people we would never choose, people we don’t agree with, people we may not even like–form us more and more into his holy image. I only wish I had read Kenneth B’s article before I had preached. I think I might have just read the whole thing to everybody and called it good. This is excellent stuff.

“Because the entire structure was built around individual experience, religious feeling became the engine and the evidence of faith. A good church was one that gave you an experience. A bad church was one that did not. Piety was defined by how deeply a song moved you, how intensely a sermon pierced your conscience, how often you felt the Spirit goosebump the back of your neck. If you prayed and felt nothing, the prayer was thought to have failed. If you worshiped and felt nothing, the worship was considered dead.” 

Please read this whole article. It’s right here. Click right here. Read it twice. I think I’m going to write about it in sections this week, along with excerpts from yesterday’s sermon.

“Consider how the early Christians spoke. They did not describe salvation as me and Jesus but as us in Christ. Baptism did not place you in a private booth with God. It plunged you into a people. The Eucharist did not symbolize an internal feeling. It joined your life with every believer at the table.” 

Okay. It’s really good. Check it out. Then come back tomorrow.

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The boys are six months old. They are both rolling over consistently and sleeping on their bellies. Elliott is starting to hold his own bottle, here and there. Sam is watching Elliott intensely and hollering at him when he feels ignored. They are the two coolest little kids on the planet and they will be center stage at the annual Baby Dedication Service at the Jenks Church this Sunday. We will be on the front row. Cheering and laughing and praising God for his grace in the gift of these guys who fill us with so much joy.

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I had an incredible weekend in Dallas with some of the people I absolutely love the most. Three of the four Horsemen had lunch together at Dan’s house Friday. I snuck in a box of Swiss Cake Rolls and Zebra Cakes–don’t tell Debbie–and we laughed together and talked about all that God is doing in our lives. The Parkinson’s keeps Dan-O mostly confined to his bedroom now, but his Spirit has never known any bounds. He is as full of joy and encouragement as I’ve ever seen him. I thank God for Dan and for his continuous encouragement to me. He sees things in me I never did. Still does. He speaks them into existence, to our Lord and to me, sometimes at the same time.

Friday night, my sister Rhonda and I drove to Oak Cliff to take our Aunt Louann to dinner at the historic Norma’s Cafe. I knew we were going to make for a very loud party, so I made sure we sat in a booth in the very back corner of the restaurant. I think we still scared away some of the patrons. Oh, my word, we shared memories and Stanglin stories, we puzzled over unanswered questions and deep family mysteries, we sang songs (hard to explain), and laughed at everything. And we did it all way too loud.

At one point, the couple in the booth behind Louann got up to leave and looked at us with huge grins on their faces. They laughed and said, “Y’all have some really interesting stories!” I apologized and they assured us it was fine, they were entertained. They could tell we were having fun and that made it fun for them. As they walked away, Louann yelled at me, “WHAT DID THEY SAY?” So I told her. And Louann responded, “DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!” And I yelled back, “I DON’T KNOW! DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!”

Then Saturday morning, Rhonda and I met at the Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland for Coach Richmond’s funeral. Coach Larry Richmond was my high school football coach at Dallas Christian. He was a history and health teacher and, for a couple of years in an emergency situation, our tennis coach. And we all loved him deeply. There were about 20 of us at the service who played for Coach Richmond, and we took pictures together and swapped a lot of football stories in the foyer, at the reception, and for about three hours at the On the Border at Saturn Road and Northwest Highway.

That crazy last drive and the Savage Fake that beat Metro Christian. The 4th quarter meltdown in that playoff game at Bishop Lynch. Cowboy drills. Sideline tackle drills. Uphill forties. Dean Stewart’s grades that were questionable for the Trinity game and kept him out of the First Baptist game. The Greenhill bell. Crack-backing on Greg Lybrand in practice and fearing for my life every day after until he graduated. A certain peanut butter incident after a week of two-a-days at football camp. The Bomb Squad. Ground Control. Coach T’s “Major Tom” towel. All the nicknames. Pearhead’s intense running. Godoy’s speed and the physical way he went after a football. Dumb Adkins’ toughness and leadership. Coach Lisle.

As I drove to Midland after that long lunch, my head aching from laughing too hard for too long, and Rhonda drove home to Edmond, we talked on the phone with each other for almost an hour and a half. Psycho-analyzing all of it. Reviewing feelings and reactions. Remembering people who weren’t there. Reminding of something funny or unexpected that was done or said.

I came away from the weekend overflowing with gratitude to God for all the amazingly wonderful people he has placed in my life. My whole life. Coach Richmond was MY coach! So was Coach Lisle! I had both of them! And Coach A and Coach T and Coach Savage and Coach Smith and Coach Shack. How was I so blessed? Jason Reeves is MY friend. So is Dan and Kevin and Robby John! Todd Adkins was MY teammate and running buddy in high school and MY roommate in college. I also went to high school and was friends with Mark Cawyer and Randy Hill and Michelle Peoples and Jeff Majors and Stephen Fitzhugh and Kyle Douthit! How? Rhonda Kingsley is MY sister! Completely undeserved! Totally lucky! Deeply and richly blessed by God!

Don’t wait until next week. Tell the people you love that you love them.

Peace,

Allan

Micah 6: Priorities

November 5, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“He has showed you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” ~Micah 6:8

God has announced to Israel that they have broken the covenant, that he is going to punish them because they have been disloyal to him, and they immediately figure it must have something to do with their corporate worship. What do I sacrifice to make God happy? How do we do church right? How do we need to worship correctly? What sacrifices do I bring, and how much?

And our God says, No! It’s not about the sacrifices. It’s never been about the sacrifices. The very heart of the covenant has always been you loving other people and treating other people the same way I’ve loved and treated you. Everybody.

See, God’s covenant is a relational covenant. He is in relationship with us. And his covenant relationship with us lays a holy claim on all our relationships. The relationship between you and your spouse. The relationship between you and your children. You and your brothers and sisters in your church. The relationship between you and your boss, you and your co-workers, you and your teachers and classmates, Your relationship with your neighbor on food stamps. Your relationship with your enemies. With your customers. With the lady in front of you at the store. Your relationship with the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant at the wall. All these people. Every single relationship. Everyone in your community. How do you treat them? What do you think about them? What do you say about them? What do you do for them?

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

It doesn’t matter what happens in the temple on Saturday or at church on Sunday if your life with your neighbors is out of whack the other six days of the week. God’s people know this. We’ve always known it.

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.” ~1 Samuel 15:22

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” ~Hosea 6:6

“Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me!… I cannot bear your evil assemblies!… When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen…. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” ~Isaiah 1:11-17

It’s very similar to what our Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount. If you’re offering your gift at the altar and remember you’re crossways with somebody, if you’re not acting with love or mercy or justice with somebody, get out of the temple! And don’t come back until you’ve made things right!

The expert in the Law told Jesus that to love God and love neighbor “is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33-34). Jesus told him that his statement was correct and that he was “not far from the Kingdom of God.”

You know, it’s dangerous for Jesus to insist that loving your neighbor is more important than what happens in church services, but that’s what he always says all the time.

“You hypocrites! You give a tenth of all your spices–mint, dill, and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Jesus is quoting Micah 6)… You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel!” ~Matthew 23:23-24

You can do worship exactly right–whatever “right” means to you or your friends or your group. You can close your eyes during every prayer, keep your hands in your lap while you sing ancient hymns, look up every Scripture during the sermon, and read Matthew 27 silently to yourself during communion. It doesn’t matter if you lied to your boss Friday and you plan on lying to him again tomorrow.

You can clap and raise your hands to contemporary praise songs and kneel down on the floor during every prayer and read responsive psalms ’til the cows come home and recite the Apostles’ Creed. But it’s not doing you or God any good if you’re ignoring the poor or cheating your customers or posting hateful speech online.

Priorities. Knowing how to pay attention to what really counts versus fooling around with insignificant issues. We don’t want to major in the minors. Jesus calls that neglecting the more important matters. The weightier matters. The heavy stuff.

If the specifics of our corporate worship are not the number one concern of God, why is it sometimes our number one priority? Have we misunderstood what pleases God? Or are we really just concerned with what pleases us?

Why are God’s people in Micah so willing to do the religious stuff, but not the heavy stuff that God cares the most about?

Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

Peace,
Allan

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