Today we conclude our long look at Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” In his final essay, Garrett encourages Church of Christ congregations to look for and follow other congregations who are making the right changes in the right ways for the right reasons. The author specifically mentions the Preston Road and Skillman Avenue Churches of Christ in Dallas for their leadership in hosting restoration forums and church change seminars. He points to the Central Church of Christ in Irving which proudly proclaims on their sign out front that they are “An Ecumenical Fellowship.” The Central church there brings in preachers from other denominations to speak in their pulpit and cooperates with other churches in DFW in outreach and mercy ministries. The Richardson East congregation worships with other denominations in their buildings and fellowships Christians from all tradition streams. The Lake Highlands Church of Christ in Dallas encourages women to participate and lead in their worship assemblies and are not afraid to employ the use of musical instruments in videos and other special recordings. The Downtown Church of Christ in El Paso uses instrumental music and women teaching from the pulpit. The Quaker Avenue congregation in Lubbock reached out to the Broadway Church of Christ there to repent from and apologize for their own sectarian and exclusivistic ways and asked for Broadway’s fellowship and Christian cooperation for the benefit of God’s Kingdom.

You know, when I was a kid, 30-35 years ago, our family could be on a summer vacation and visit a Church of Christ in Colorado Springs or Austin or Memphis and experience worship and observe congregational structures identical to what we were used to at our home congregation in Dallas. We would hear the same words in prayers, sing the exact same songs, and read similar articles in the bulletins at these other congregations that we would hear and sing and read at home. Well, it’s not like that anymore. For a variety of reasons — I think all of them are related to technology — things are different. Your Church of Christ congregation is very different from the one down the street and from the ones in Houston and Nashville. Very different.

And it’s not a bad thing. It’s not bad at all. I believe our diversity is God-ordained. We don’t all have the same gifts; we don’t all come from the same places; we don’t all see things the exact same way. And that’s OK. We’re still all perfectly united by the blood of the Lamb that courses through our spiritual veins. And unity in diversity is a beautiful portrait of the Gospel.

The Churches of Christ are a beautiful people with lots of creative diversity. We should recognize our diversity and accept the liberating truth that oneness does not mean sameness.

(My good friend Paul Dennis is always saying, “You don’t have to be my twin to be my brother.” I think he’s quoting Al Maxey. But, to me, it’s Paul Dennis.)

We can have churches that have Sunday School and those that do not; those that support Herald of Truth and those that do not; those that have instrumental music and those that do not; those that use plurality of cups and those that do not; churches that are premillennial and those that are not; etc., etc., and yet be united in the essentials of the faith, and doing some things together. And no one has to compromise any truth or violate his or her conscience!

If we are to be saved as a people and recapture our heritage as a unity movement, we have no choice but to get on with it.

While interviewing for the preaching minister position here at Central in Amarillo, I was told on separate occasions by a couple of ministers and a couple of elders that Central is extremely proud of its Church of Christ heritage but is not bound by it. We hang on to our Church of Christ roots, we uphold our Church of Christ traditions, but we are not going to be held back by them. When it comes to our C of C traditions and heritage versus a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel or a more accurate portrait of God’s Kingdom, we’ll set the traditions and heritage aside every time.

The interesting thing, though, is that these changes suggested in Garrett’s book actually all go straight back to our original Church of Christ and Restoration Movement ideals. Breaking down denominational barriers and fellowshiping with all who call Jesus Lord is not some new liberal idea; it’s the very thing that compelled Stone and Campbell, the very thing that produced our movement. We are actually honoring our Church of Christ heritage when we pledge to not let issues of worship practice or congregational structure divide us.

Allow me to conclude this lengthy series with this: I believe with everything I’ve got that as the United States moves more rapidly into a post-denominational, post-Christian culture, the Churches of Christ are perfectly poised to be the leaders of a fiery Gospel revolution. Precisely because of our roots and our heritage, because of our commitment to Holy Scripture, because of the prominence we place on baptism and communion, because of the seriousness with which we have studied and practiced the Christian faith, we’re in the right place at the right time. God can use us to his eternal glory and praise. I believe God has moved us forward to this point, as a Movement, to be in front of a spiritual renewal in this country. Again, we are uniquely positioned, I believe, to do that here.

But not if we keep doing the same old things in the same old ways. There are some changes that have to be made.

May our God empower us by the strength of his Holy Spirit to make those changes. May we be faithful to our call as we partner with him in redeeming the world. And may he be given glory and honor in his Church today and forever more.

Peace,

Allan

Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?”  wraps up with two chapters that more or less summarize his thoughts. He spent most of the first 18 essays discussing specific changes in attitude, changes in practice, changes even in belief that we must make as a faith community if we’re to have any impact for Christ in our rapidly changing world. His 19th chapter, which we are considering together today, exhorts church leaders to make these changes carefully:

Effect purposeful and meaningful change, free of undue disruption and chaos.

[The Church of Christ] must become a changing church. I am not calling for change simply for the sake of change. The change must be positive and creative, displacing attitudes and methods that are no longer effective. The change must be in keeping with the mind of Christ, free of gimmickry, pride, and competitiveness. And it must be change without chaos, not unduly disruptive and threatening. It must be a balanced change that shows respect for the traditions of the past, the demands of the present, and the possibilities of the future.

God’s Church is always changing, right? Isn’t it? If your congregation is not changing, it’s not growing. Growth requires change. By definition growth means change. You can’t grow without change; it’s physically and spiritually impossible. Spiritual growth, numerical growth, physical growth — it all demands change.

Scripture commands us to be constantly changing.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on…” ~Philippians 3:12

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on…” ~Philippians 3:15

“…attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” ~Ephesians 4:13

“Make every effort to add to your faith…” ~2 Peter 1:5

I  believe our Lord is calling us to always attain to the ideal, to always strain toward bringing the Holy Kingdom of God in its fullness into our world, to practice the righteous will of God here on earth just as it is in heaven. Knowing it won’t be accomplished fully until our Christ returns, knowing we will suffer many setbacks and disappointments, knowing his Church will never be perfect until that day of glory, we strive, we press on, we attain, we add. We change. We evolve. We grow. We push. We move.

Just holding our own is a sin. Just maintaining your church community is wrong. Our Lord did not come to earth to live and suffer and die so we could maintain. Jesus isn’t calling anybody to be middle of the road. He’s calling us to grow. To mature in Christ-likeness. To change.

Here at Central, I’m proud to say we have bought into this biblical concept of change. I’m honored to serve with a group of shepherds and ministers who obsess over passionate and corporate desires to become more like Jesus. It’s thrilling. And it honors our God who calls us to be a sign of change, a sign of salvation to the world.

Our vision and mission statements present discipleship as an active, verb-driven way of life. In fact, everything we do at Central stems from our commitment to discipleship. That’s the main number one thing. We take the call to be more like Jesus seriously. And we understand it requires constant change. If Christ is to be formed in us, we’ll have to change. If we’re to have the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, we’re going to have to change. So we do.

It means partnering with the local non-denominational church and the Assembly of God congregation in a food pantry network for the needy in our downtown community. It means our elders praying with the Disciples of Christ elders. It means working with, not against, multi-denominational evangelism efforts like the Franklin Graham crusades and city prayer breakfasts. It means hosting nurse pinnings and GED graduations and hospice rose ceremonies and marriage enrichment seminars in our building. And, yes, while we’re committed to partnering with God in reconciling all of creation back to him, we still struggle with the nuts and bolts. We still wrestle with it. Growth is difficult.

We play the piano as we worship with our Loaves and Fishes outreach crowd, we run videos in our Sunday assemblies that contain guitars and drums, and we host Christian concerts without compromising our commitment to a cappella one bit. But it’s difficult. We equip and empower our sisters at Central to make announcements and to read Scripture in our Sunday assemblies, to actively participate in the leadership of our church life. But it’s not without its occasional heartburn. We’re wrestling with it. We’re trying.

To be disciples of Jesus means that we put the needs of our community ahead of our own. We must place the needs of the lost ahead of our own traditions and comfort zones. We have to consider the needs of the needy to be more important than our own preferences. And it’s hard. We’re committed to it. But it’s hard.

To do all this without chaos we must lay the proper groundwork for change. We must not surprise people with changes, especially in worship, leading them to respond with, “What’s next!?” We must “talk out” new ideas and methods, involving the entire congregation, before they are tried. And it must not be done at all until the right climate is created and there is general agreement. This can never be realized until the leadership takes the initiative and works for change. Those with objections are to be treated with forebearance. It is to be pointed out to them that they do not have to have their way, and that it becomes a Christian to be yielding. When such ones cannot adjust to changes that are deemed necessary for the good of the church as a whole, the congregation will have to allow such ones to go elsewhere, always of course with a love that is slow to let loose.

My advice would be to always ask the right questions when grappling with difficult decisions. “Will this decision make this congregation look more like what it’ll look like in heaven?” “Will this choice make us more like Jesus or less?” “Is this a selfless move or a selfish move?” “Does this change expand the borders of the Kingdom or restrict them?” “Are more people going to be welcomed to the table with this move or fewer?” “Is this a sacrificial thing to do or not?” “Are we following the difficult path of Christ or the broader way of the world?” “Will this communicate to the world an accurate portrait of the Gospel?”

And know that growth — spiritual growth, numerical growth, physical growth, God-commanded growth — requires change.

Peace,

Allan

Acknowledging together that we in the Churches of Christ must do something different if we’re going to remain a viable witness to the Christian faith in our rapidly changing world, we’re spending our time here reviewing and reflecting on Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?”

To paraphrase Garrett, what must we do to escape extinction in the decades ahead, to avoid being regarded as an insignificant Texas-Tennessee sect? What must we do to be loyal to the Scriptures and true to our Stone-Campbell heritage of unity? What’s it going to take for us to, as a movement, advance toward being “truly ecumenical, truly catholic, truly holy, and truly apostolic?”

In the 18th chapter, Garrett returns to the subject of women he addressed in chapter nine:

Bring women into the church.

Although Garrett gets much more into the “women’s role” passages in Corinthians and Timothy here than he did in the previous chapter, his focus in this essay is on Paul’s universal statement (creed?) in Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

If that passage means anything it means that gender is not to be made a test of fellowship or ministry, such as, “She can’t do that because she is a woman.” Paul himself may have sometimes fallen short of that ideal of perfect equality, due to the pressures of custom, as in the case of slavery, which he tolerated, and which is forbidden in that same passage, “There is neither slave nor free.” If socio-economic conditions had been different, Paul might not have said what he did about women and slaves, tolerating their unequal treatment.

To put it another way, Paul almost certainly would not say to the 21st century church what he said to the first century church about women and slaves. But still he laid down the principle that applies to all generations because it so reflects the mind of Christ: In the Church of Christ there is to be no distinction between slaves and freedmen, Jews and Gentiles, men and women! We have to recognize that this was the ideal that even he was not always able to effect due to the conditions beyond his control.

Despite Paul’s clear directive here and his similar admonition in Colossians 3:11, the Christian church in America used the Bible for decades to justify slavery. Wherever slavery is mentioned in Scripture as the current conditions in society at the time of the writing, those passages were used by Christians to say, “Well, God didn’t condemn it in that Scripture; it must be OK. Or at least, it’s just the way things are.”

Today the practice of slavery is officially, socially, morally, and publicly condemned in every corner of the United States. Our churches now preach against slavery, loudly abhor the idea of slavery, and lament the behavior of our forefathers who justified it. What changed? Scripture certainly has not changed. Our God has not changed. The evil of slavery has not changed. What’s changed is our society. That’s what’s different now. For an American church today to actually uphold the idea of slavery and teach and practice in favor of slavery is unthinkable. That church would not do very well at evangelizing. That church wouldn’t grow. That church today wouldn’t have much credibility when it came to proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. Who would listen to a church like that?

Regardless of the ways you might interpret 1 Corinthians 11 and 14 or 1 Timothy 2, we all agree that the social conditions that existed then in first century Corinth and Ephesus do not exist today in 21st century America. It’s vastly different. It is certainly not a shame for a woman to speak in public. It’s not a disgrace for a woman to teach in a room full of men. It happens all the time. Women are just as educated as men, just as capable as men, just as qualified as men. Nobody blinks when a woman is named president of a major university or CEO of a global corporation. Your professor or your police officer or your accountant or your doctor is just as likely to be a woman as a man. The cultural conditions to which Paul wrote in Corinth and Ephesus do not exist in America today. It’s different. It’s changed. For an American church today to actually uphold the idea of man’s superiority and teach and practice in favor of denying women leadership and teaching roles is unthinkable. That church would not do very well at evangelizing. That church wouldn’t grow. That church today wouldn’t have much credibility when it came to proclaiming the good news of salvation in Christ Jesus. Who would listen to a church like that?

OK, is that a little strong? Maybe. I hesitated to write it that way, but I think I need to in an effort to at least present the possibility that the two issues are the same in Paul’s eyes. Afterall, in speaking to the Galatians he uses both examples in the same breath.

Garret points out that we are very good at drawing lines according to our own preferences and comforts. Foot washing is both a command and an example in Scripture, but we decline to practice it because it only applied to that biblical culture during that biblical time. Same with the holy kiss. In Acts 15, the church council claims the Holy Spirit himself gave them four commands that had to be followed by all Gentile Christians. We completely ignore the first three! And I’m not so sure we even take the fourth one very seriously.

1 Timothy 2:8 tells men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing. It’s a command. Is it then, that all men who do not lift their hands while they pray are sinning against God and his Church? No! Of course not. The command is to pray; lifting hands was the customary and cultural prayer posture of the day. Does that mean that it’s OK for the women to be angry and to dispute? No! It’s that the men were apparently the problem in this particular Ephesian church, not the women.

1 Timothy 2:9 tells women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. Does that mean that all women who braid their hair are sinning against God? No! Of course not. It’s cultural. The command is to dress appropriately for the culture in order to preserve your Christian witness to a lost and dying world.

1 Timothy 2:11 says women should learn in quietness and submission; women are told not to teach or to seize authority from a man; women must be quiet. Does this mean then that a woman who speaks in church is sinning against God?

For way too long we’ve not hesitated to answer “Yes! Of course!” For way too long we’ve interpreted verses 8-10 as cultural and no longer applicable and verses 11-12 as universal and for all time.

A husband’s rule over his wife is part of the curse of sin and death in Genesis 3, not part of the original creation plan of God as found in Genesis 1-2. A husband’s superiority over his wife is a result of sin and death, not a divine facet of God’s eternal will. As children of God and partners of reconciliation with his son Jesus, we are commissioned to reverse the curse, to join our God in overturning the effects of sin and death. We never ever actually labor to impose the curse.

Our task in the 21st century is not to do precisely as they did, but to do for our generation what they did for theirs, bring in the Kingdom of God. And our men and women should be at it today just as their men and women were at it back then, but not necessarily in exactly the same way.

What I want for the Church of Christ down the road is that there will be no social, racial, or sexual lines drawn. None whatever. Liberties and ministries will be shared equally and indiscriminately, according to gifts and talents. We must overcome the mentality that half (or more) of the church is to be subservient to the other half. All because of gender! Christ has made us one and we are all equal — and half of us are not more equal than the other half!

Peace,

Allan

On a literal level we certainly disagree with the proverb. God is most definitely everywhere. But in a symbolic sense I dearly love what the proverb proclaims. For we do see our God in our mothers.

When our mothers cook for us our favorite meals, sew the patch in the knee of our blue jeans, slip us the cash for the movie, they are reflecting the provision of our God who always meets the needs of his children.

When our mothers hold us closely through the thunderstorm, watch us as we cross the street, and insist on meeting all our friends, they are mimicking the protection we’re promised by our Father.

When they wipe away the tears and apply the Band-Aids and force the cough medicine down our throats, they are shadowing our God, the Comforter and the Healer.

Our mothers love us unconditionally, despite the messes we make and the trouble we cause. Even when we don’t listen and we don’t behave, mom’s love never wanes. She disciplines us when we stray from the path. She forgives us when we wreck her carpet or her drapes. And she encourages us to be everything our God has created us to be.

Our mothers teach us right from wrong. They listen inexhaustibly. They rejoice in our success. And our setbacks cause their hearts to break. They know what we’re going to say before we say it. Our mothers brag about us to their friends and defend us to our peers. They believe in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves. They lead us from in front and push us from behind.

And there’s nothing that could ever separate us from their love. Nothing. Ever.

Yes, our God is everywhere. But so too, it seems, are our mothers.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Allan

As we review and reflect together on Leroy Garrett’s book, “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” we arrive today at the author’s 17th suggestion for avoiding “obscurantism, obsolescence, and irrelevance” in this increasingly post-denominational, post-Christian world. In order for us to remain a viable voice for Christ, in order to retain any credibility as a faithful witness to his redemption work, Garrett says we must appeal to the wisdom and insights of those who went before us.

Heed the principles set forth by Barton W. Stone.

Alexander Campbell’s group of restoration churches and the restoration churches that followed the teachings of Stone realized fairly early on that they had enough in common by the blood of Christ and by their devotion to our Lord’s plea for the unity of all God’s children that they should join together as one movement. So these Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, and Disciples of Christ Churches — nobody was worried about the actual name of the congregations at this early point — officially came together to worship, to work, and to spread the Good News. It eventually became known as the Stone-Campbell Movement. And it was during this time of coming together, in 1832, in the midst of the drama and trauma of the official union, that Stone wrote his “An Address to the Churches of Christ.” Stone’s purpose in writing this document was to head off at the pass a few problems that were already impacting this infant coalition of congregations. And Garrett says we should look back to that document for wisdom as we deal with our own doctrinal and unity differences today.

Early on in the Address [Stone] warned against unwritten creeds, which he considered more dangerous than written ones. The purpose of both, he noted, “is to exclude from fellowship the man who dissents from them.” He observes that there are those who clamor against (written) creeds and yet have creeds (unwritten) of their own, and they are as intolerant toward those who dissent from their creeds as those who make written creeds are toward their dissenters.

What pain we would have avoided had the wisdom of this pioneer reached our ears. With ne’er a (written) creed in sight we have been creed-makers, and, like Stone said, we have used them to draw lines on each other and to exclude one another from fellowship. We have made creeds of our opinions, whether in reference to theories like millennialism, questions such as marriage and divorce, or methods like instrumental music or Sunday schools. It is of course appropriate for each of us to follow his own conviction in reference to any of these, but it is not all right to make a creed out of them. Creed-making makes parties, whether they be written or unwritten creeds, and that is what lies behind all our divisions.

Garrett points to Stone’s conviction that the gift of God’s Holy Spirit is “the crowning blessing of all blessings” and the most important part of being a Christian. Stone wrote that the gift of the Spirit is “more necessary” than faith, reformation, and immersion. And he did not emphasize the importance of a particular method of baptism. It’s easy enough to admit that both of these ideas seem to fly in the face of where we are now as Churches of Christ. Honestly, we probably under-emphasize the Holy Spirit and over-emphasize the method of baptism.

But that’s probably OK. The point Stone was trying to make then and that Garrett is trying to make now is that Christians may differ on any number of things without dividing. Stone and Campbell managed it quite well for more than two generations.

[Stone] referred to two differences  between their churches at this time, which troubled people on both sides. The Campbell people placed greater emphasis upon immersion for remission of sins than the Stone churches, and the Campbell churches broke bread every first day while the Stone people didn’t.

This diversity of doctrine and practice led Stone to emphasize what had characterized the Movement from the outset: “We who profess to stand upon the Bible alone, and contend that opinions of truth should not be made terms of fellowship — shall we be intolerant towards each other because we may differ in our opinions? Forbid it, Heaven!”

Here Stone is telling us what we must do to be saved. We must cease and desist from making our own interpretation of what we believe to be truth (an opinion, Stone calls it) a test of fellowshipo. And he says this includes such matters as the design of baptism and the frequency of the Lord’s Supper.

Stone went on to say what should be proclaimed in every Church of Christ in the land today: “If you think your brother in error, labor in the spirit of love and meekness to convince him; but imposing zeal against him will only harden him against any good impression you would make. It will probably stir up strife and ultimately destroy love, the bond of union.”

We must repent of our ugly, sectarian past and resolve to follow Stone’s  advice when he went on to say in his Address to us, the Churches of Christ: “A little longer forbearance with each others’ weakness, and truth will triumph!”

I would personally point to Romans 14:1-15:7 here to remind you of the Biblical foundation for everything Stone wrote on the matter of differing opinions and unity and everything Garrett writes against imposing on other Christians the lines we draw for ourselves. But there’s no need. You already know what the passage says, right?

Peace,

Allan

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

In the 16th chapter of Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” he presses for more imagination, more risk, more innovation, more change in the way we are the Church. He complains, perhaps a bit too harshly, about our “boring, lifeless, gloomy” worship assemblies and, by implication, blames our declining numbers on our lack of joy and excitement. By pointing right at our Sunday assemblies right at the beginning of the chapter, Garrett probably causes the reader to focus on the wrong thing and actually miss his main point. I think Garrett’s main objective is to encourage joyful and exciting shifts in the ways we are church, not in the ways we do worship services. Although, the two paragraphs following his initial indictment certainly speak to all of our church life, not just what we do together on Sunday mornings:

At the heart of our problem is that we are caught in the trappings of our own institutionalism — or churchism might be the word. We have expensive edifices to pay for and to maintain, staffs to support, programs to fund. Our Achilles heel is the System. The System resists change, except occasional cosmetic change. Nothing real or substantial. The System demands conformity, and it is uneasy with thinking people around, especially a thinking preacher or a preacher that says something.

The System must maintain the status quo, and it must preserve itself at all cost. This is why it seeks to keep everyone satisfied by reacting rather than acting. And most significantly, the System is tied to the building. Regular church attendance, along with generous giving, is the essence of “faithfulness.”

This brings me to the one thing above most everything else that we must do to be saved. We must recover — or is it discover? — the great lost secret of primitive Christianity. That secret was the dynamic of joyous, Spirit-filled gatherings in homes.

Garrett is definitely speaking my language when he’s talking small groups.

If our salvation is tied directly to the Holy Spirit working in our lives to transform us more and more into the image of Christ — and it is! — churches should be in the business of teaching this transformation. This imitating Christ and becoming more like Christ should drive everything we do as a church. We should be all about planning the settings and fostering the atmospheres for this transformation to more easily and quickly take place. Where in your church do you and other members become more like Jesus? What program or setting in your church encourages self-sacrifice, considering the needs of others more important than your own, true community and fellowship, compassion and love and service? Which program or setting fosters Christian family where honesty and transparency are the norm and where burdens are shared? Which setting communicates accountability to one another, mutual responsibilities to one another, where we all rejoice and mourn with one another as equal members of the Lord’s Body? Which program more accurately reflects the gospel image of one people around the one table, fellowshiping with one another and with our Lord? It’s our small groups!

This kind of relationship and fellowship doesn’t happen in our ordered Sunday morning worship assemblies where, for the most part, we sit in neat rows and stare at the backs of each other’s heads while focusing our attention on one screen or one speaker. There’s more fellowship happening when you pass a hot dog to a stranger at a baseball game than when you pass the blood of Jesus to your brother in Christ at most Sunday morning gatherings. It doesn’t happen in our Bible classes either, not like it happens in smaller groups in our homes.

I’ll never get to know you — to really know you — if I never share a meal with you or spend time with you in your home. It’s in your home where I read the cartoons on your refrigerator and see the pictures of your children in the hall. You’ll never be completely honest with me and I’ll never be totally transparent with you until we get to know and trust one another. I can pray for you in Bible class when you add your name to the list. But I can’t really bear your burdens for you — with you — until I experience them with you together in our homes.

There’s more freedom to be spontaneous in our living rooms where the order of worship isn’t printed and distributed beforehand and the PowerPoint slides aren’t already in order. There’s more opportunity for Christian hospitality and serving one another where meals are shared and chores are assigned and kids are corralled. There’s more time for true testimony, more allowance for joyful laughter and even making fun of ourselves, and more room for tough questions and even periods of doubt.

These small groups are also ideal for friendship evangelism. Outsiders can often be introduced to spiritual things in the informal atmosphere of a private home rather than in a church setting. The joy and spontaneity of the home gatherings can also transfer to some degree to the public assemblies if only we will be less rigid. When are services are revved up and there is “a sweet spirit that fills this place” we will be more inclined to share it with others. Who wants to invite a friend to a boring service?

I’m a huge believer in regular small groups. I think our small groups do more for actual Christian transformation than our Sunday morning worship assemblies and our Bible classes combined. Yes, small groups are hard. They’re time-consuming. They’re energy-draining. They require a pouring out of oneself for the sake of others. Small groups demand personal sacrifice for the benefit of the whole. They call for commitment; they command sharing; they impose honesty and accountability. Small groups demand that we model compassion, that we forgive, and that we love. Does that sound like a Savior you know?

Peace,

Allan

We’re exploring chapter by chapter Leroy Garrett’s “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?”  In our increasingly post-denominational, post-Christian world, Garrett writes that we must make some significant changes if we are to remain a truly viable tool for God. The fifteenth of those suggestions is to center and focus our preaching and teaching and living on salvation from God in Christ, not on church ordinances and church histories and church rules.

Discover the Good in the Good News

Garrett points to the New Testament sermons of Peter and Paul and observes that they were centered on Christ and him crucified. They were all about God’s grace and his free gift of eternal life in the risen Jesus. New Testament sermons are about God’s great love as it’s revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of his Holy Son. That’s the Gospel! That’s the Good News! Jesus died for the sins of the world to redeem the world back into a righteous relationship with God!

Garrett says it’s wrong to preach sermons about baptism for seven straight nights and then call it a Gospel Meeting. But that’s what we’ve done.

Recent studies by some of our own scholars reveal that there has not been much good news in what we have called “gospel preaching.” In a 1988 article in the Gospel Advocate, F. W. Mattox explains that Church of Christ preachers have left it to “denominational preachers” to preach grace, faith, and the atonement while they “went about straightening out their misunderstandings of the place, action, and order of faith, repentance, and baptism in obtaining church membership.” Mattox notes that while others preached the atonement of Christ but not baptism, we preached baptism but not the atonement of Christ.

Garrett cites a study conducted by Bill Love in which Restoration Movement sermons from the early 1800s through the 1950s were analyzed for content. Compared to the 33 sermons found in the New Testament in which all 33 centered on the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus, our own Church of Christ sermons are embarrassingly weak. Love found the cross and empty tomb mentioned in only 25-percent of the hundreds of sermons he studied.

According to Love, 56% of the sermons during the Stone and Campbell generation contained the Gospel. But that number falls to 23% during the G. C. Brewer and Foy Wallace era. In the first two generations, before the Churches of Christ became a separate group, preachers referred to the cross an average of 52% of the time. Since then, the rate falls to 25%. Love’s conclusion is that “our focus moved from Christ crucified to his church, a subtle but destructive shift. Once our sickness took hold, we grew weaker and weaker, more and more anemic. Without the gospel, we lost the source of our faith.”

Yes, I’m afraid we have been guilty of diligently studying the Scriptures and believing that by them we have eternal life. At some point, sooner not later, we need to start preaching and teaching again that salvation is not found in the Bible, it’s found in the One to whom the Bible points. Forgiveness and reconciliation and eternal life are not found in the church, but in the One the church worships and serves. We’ve been guilty of maintaining a religion when we should have been maintaining a relationship with the Savior of the world.

More to Garrett’s point, he closes this chapter by claiming there are two “gospels” we can preach:

We can tell the world it is lost and must repent to be saved. Or we can tell the world what the Bible says, that just as in Adam all died so in Christ are all made alive, that all people are saved, so one only needs to accept the free gift. We can look at the world and say every one is lost except those the Bible says will be saved, or we can look at the world and say every one is saved except those the Bible says will be lost. Which is good news: You are lost, therefore repent; or You are saved, won’t you accept it?

The Church of Christ has had it backwards and has consequently preached bad news. We have preached that every one is lost, while the Bible teaches that every one is saved. Every one is saved except those who refuse the free gift.

Let’s preach the glorious good news. God has saved you through Christ, taking away all your sins. Won’t you accept it through faith and baptism?

Peace,

Allan

As it turns out, the Huddle leaders for this senior class, Jason and Kasey Love, have been a gracious answer to our prayers.

Jason and Kasey contacted us the week it was announced that we were moving to Amarillo to talk to us about Whitney. Within a week of our arrival here, Carrie-Anne and I were eating lunch with Jason and Kasey at Jorge’s. They promised us they would welcome Whitney into this already well-established group with open arms. And they did. Whitney spent every Wednesday night and countless Sunday afternoons at Jason and Kasey’s. Praying and singing with these twelve other seniors; playing and laughing, eating and sharing, watching movies and decorating brooms, studying and growing together in the name and the manner of our Lord. Jason and Kasey loved Whitney like they had known her for ten years. And, certainly because of their great leadership, the other kids in the group did, too.

Taylor and Barrett trash talked sports with her. Alyssa and Kristel cared for her. They all treated Whitney like one of their own. And before too long, she was.

It meant so much to her mom and me to listen to Whitney during our Senior Sunday ceremonies yesterday here at Central thanking her youth ministers, thanking her fellow classmates, thanking other individuals in our church family for loving her and supporting her in this transition. She thanked us, too. But her words for Adam and Missy and Tanner and Jason and Kasey seemed to matter more. It meant so much for Kasey to meet Whitney at the podium, to hug her like she did, to grab her hand, and speak those precious words of blessing to our first born. It meant the world for Kasey to read those jewels from Psalm 9 to my daughter in front of our whole church family:

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know your name will trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Thank you, Jason and Kasey, for the love you gave to Whitney. Thank you for sharing your house and your food and your sweet kids with our daughter. Thank you for pouring your lives into her, for selflessly giving your time and energy to her, for showing her what it looks like to consider the needs of others more important than your own. Thank you for being that answer to a parent’s prayers for his girl.

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Last night’s Senior Banquet was the perfect ending to a wonderful day. As is the tradition here at Central, each senior’s family decorates that honoree’s table for the dinner. So, Carrie-Anne and Valerie went all out with an over-the-top Texas Rangers theme complete with Rangers balloons, Rangers pennants, Rangers plates and napkins, and Rangers tickets for placecards. There were baseballs in a vase and boxes of Cracker Jack at our table, bags of peanuts and popcorn, little miniature apple pies, and even two bowls of Carrie-Anne’s famous Oreo balls decorated like baseballs. Thanks to Greg, we didn’t take any of the Oreo balls home.

What a night! We took such delight in meeting and getting to know everybody’s parents and grandparents and close friends. All of the tables were decorated magnificently. The brisket dinner was delicious. The service provided by the high school Juniors and their parents was excellent. The slide show was hilarious (and informative). And the entertainment was a roar.

The hired hypnotist cast his spell on Jason and Kasey and six of our seniors. And for almost two hours they entertained us in ways that they can’t ever understand, even after they watch all the video. Corbin falling flat on the floor before the hypnotist was even two minutes into his act. Barrett prancing around a little too naturally as Lady GaGa. Taylor milking that imaginary cow like there was no tomorrow. Jason almost breaking through the stage while he “played the drums.” Kasey forgetting her own name. Aaren jumping out of her chair. It was unforgettably funny and indescribably strange. My head ached from trying to figure it out while my stomach and my face hurt from laughing so hard.

Thank you to Tanner and Adam and Elaine and all the parents and volunteers who gave the Central seniors and their families an incredible day. We’re so blessed to be here with you. So very blessed.

Peace,

Allan

Tomorrow is Senior Day at Central. My fifth one as a preacher. My first as a dad of one of the Seniors. Everything we do together as a church family will carry some added significance because Whitney’s baby pictures will be in the slide show. Whitney’s words will be in the video. The shepherds will hand our Whitney a new Bible and then pray for her. It’ll have some additional impact for me, Whitney’s dad.

Let’s not forget that you don’t have to be a mom or a dad or a grandparent of one of the Seniors for it to be special. It’s special because Whitney is your kid, too. In fact, all thirteen of our Central Seniors belong to you. And to me.

As a body of believers, as a family of God, our Senior Sunday is one of the ways we publicly acknowledge God’s proprietership, his ownership, of our kids. Our children should be taught that they belong to God. We should treat them like they belong to God. Because they do.

The Church, God’s community of faith, is built child by child. The Kingdom of God is established child by child. Our children are precious and priceless treasures. And the Son of God tells us he doesn’t want one — not one! — to be lost. With that in mind, we teach our children. We encourage and challenge, love and support our children.

At the Central Church of Christ, we’re raising kids. We’re not raising immaculate buildings and well-oiled programs. We’re not raising perfect worship services and effective curricula. Not money. Not comfort levels. Not statistics. We’re raising kids. We’re passing our faith to the children our Lord has entrusted to us. We’re shaping them through a context of love and grace, encouragement and respect.

As our thirteen high school Seniors prepare to graduate and rapidly move on to the next chapters of their young lives, it is imperative that we, their community of faith in Christ, be there tomorrow to encourage them. It’s important that we show them by our actions that we really mean what we say with our mouths.

When Jesus sent out his apostles, he did so with much cheering and encouraging. “You can do it!” he said. “Get out there and be great! Go out there and turn the world upside down! Go boldly and change everything!”

“And remember, you didn’t choose me; I chose you!”

God has chosen these thirteen. He has gifted them and chosen them to represent him and his Kingdom wherever they go. He’s ordained them as his children to partner with him in redeeming the world. He really believes in them. Let’s make sure we’re all present and focused tomorrow to show our high school Seniors that we believe in them, too.

Peace,

Allan

We’re working through Leroy Garrett’s book “What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved?” We’re losing members and congregations at a steady rate in this country. Some would say we’re losing, or have already lost, a great deal of credibility. As a denomination (just wanted to see if you’re paying attention) there are some changes we need to make if we’re going to remain a viable partner in the Kingdom of God. Garrett’s fourteenth suggestion is a call for all our congregations to not just believe in the grace of God, but act on it. Live it!

Stand in the grace of God.

Every member of the Church of Christ believes in the grace of God. They would all readily acknowledge that we are saved by the grace of God and not by our own works. No one among us has the slightest interest in minimizing the significance of the grace of God. However, we must stand in the grace of God, and not simply believe in it. The Church of Christ has a head knowledge of grace, but at the gut level it does not, generally, know the grace of God. It is like living in a house wired for electricity and not being plugged into the power. This is why we’re not going anywhere, we’re not plugged in.

When we consider what grace does for people, we do not appear to have “seen the grace of God,” to quote Acts 11:23, even though we believe it is around. Grace makes believers more and more like Christ, but we are not known for our Christlikeness. Grace causes them to exult in their blessings, filling them with joy, good humor, and laughter; but we are not known for those qualities. Grace makes people gracious, less critical, more tolerant and more accepting; but is this where we are? Grace is never what one deserves, but is this what we have emphasized? Grace is God’s free gift, unconditionally bestowed, no strings attached; but haven’t we attached strings?

By now you’ve noticed a couple of fairly prominent themes in Garrett’s writings: Christian unity and grace. Our misunderstandings and misapplications of both have certainly stunted our growth as a Christian movement and greatly stifled our salvation impact in God’s world.

We have such a hard time realizing that God’s gift of grace is absolutely free, that it’s completely undeserved and totally unearned. We have traditionally understood the grace of God as his gift that makes up the difference as, or after, we travel the road to eternal life. We do the good works, we pray the right prayers, we worship in the correct manner, we get baptized by the proper method, we set everything up in our churches according to the Scriptural pattern, and God’s grace closes the gap to get us to heaven. We have lived by a “God helps those who help themselves” mentality, which, by the way, goes wholly counter to everything we read in the Bible. Scripture makes it clear that “God helps those who can’t do a crying thing for themselves.” But we don’t accept that. Or, at least, we’re not living like we do.

The proper view of God’s grace will, as Garrett observes, transform us into a more Christ-like people. We will act more like our Father when we finally realize what our Father has done for us. Jesus says we are to love one another as God has loved us. That means loving one another even when everybody around you is at their most unlovable. Our Lord tells us to forgive as God forgave us. That means forgiving everybody of everything. Everybody. Everything. Forgive. Forgive. Forgive. And Scripture says we are to accept one another as God in Christ accepted us. That means we accept each other — yes, we accept all other Christians; those within and those outside our Churches of Christ — who don’t have every single thing completely figured out.

Jesus told the parable about the servant who was forgiven by his master of his great debt and then refused to forgive a fellow servant of his tiny debt, abusing that fellow servant and throwing him in jail. And we’ve been guilty of the same thing. We’ve imagined grace as something that covers us in our sins, but not in our Scriptural interpretations and doctrinal understandings. Grace covers us for things we might do out in the world, but it’s not enough to take care of us if we get something wrong in the Church. We’re not totally saved; we’re just barely saved, maybe. And everybody else is in a lot more trouble than we are!

I hold to the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi: the way we worship is the way we believe. If we view our Father as a tight fisted tyrant who’s keeping track of every single misstep, as a God who’s looking to judge and condemn, as a Lord who delights in watching us sweat it out, then that’s how we’re going to behave, too. If we view him that way and worship him that way, looking over our shoulders to make sure we’re doing everything exactly right so we can get to heaven, we’re going to treat other people the way we think God is treating us. That is not Good News. It’s not salvation.

When we “stand” in the grace of God, trusting in his goodness and mercy, then love, joy, and peace will flood our hearts. We will then be a more gracious people, magnanimous, full of life and enthusiasm, eager to praise God for his great mercy. We will take ourselves less seriously and be able to laugh at our foibles. We will not be so uptight, we’ll quit worrying, be less critical of others, more accepting, more forgiving.

Peace,

Allan