The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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4 Midland’s Christmas Day Message

December 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments

They managed to scrub all Christian thought and words completely out of the story, but last night’s “Eye on America” feature on the CBS Evening News highlighting our “4 Midland” partnership was still a positive message of unity in our divided world. And I thank God for it.

You know, our Lord told us that if we’ll love one another and come together in him, the world will take notice. Well, there’s nothing more worldly than the national news media, and they have noticed.

They used the word “tolerance” instead of “unity,” and they didn’t use any of what all four of us asserted as the motivation for our worship and service partnership: the fellowship we all share by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We’re not coming together out of a desire for tolerance, we’re uniting because our Lord told us to, because that’s his desire, his will, because that’s what he prayed on that last night, that all his followers would be as united as he is with the Father, so the world will know. That’s all we talked about with the CBS crew, but they didn’t use any of it.

The problem is that you have a very difficult time using the world’s methods to express the Gospel. The world is never going to preach Jesus or the ways of our God. It’s up to us, it’s up to followers of Christ. As we told the reporter, Jason Allen, on camera many times, if God’s people won’t unite in Christ Jesus, who will? As God’s children and disciples of Jesus, we are called, ordained by God, to express this unity in Christ to our world as a divine alternative to the way societies typically operate. I’m disappointed that Jesus was not the center of the story, as it is certainly the center of the friendship between us four pastors and the fellowship we share between our four congregations. Disappointed. Not surprised.

But, we can certainly celebrate small steps, little victories. Overall, it’s a very positive thing. It’s a start. And I’m grateful to Jason and his whole entourage for coming to Midland and spending parts of two days with us in order to tell our story. I pray that this helps affirm the things we are doing at GCR and, by God’s grace, the kind of church we want to become. And I pray the story can serve as an encouragement to our city and, who knows, maybe even widespread parts of the country. It’s a start.

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Here’s a photo of the three of us at the GCR Christmas Eve service Tuesday. We heard the bells! And then we went to Texas Roadhouse before going home to watch Albert Finney’s A Christmas Carol.

I’m writing to you from Carley and Collin’s kitchen in Flower Mound, the hub of our continued Christmas festivities. Carrie-Anne, Whitney, and I spent all day yesterday in Arlington with C-A’s side of the family and today we’re driving to Liberty City for quality time with my side. Since Carley and Collin moved back to DFW, their house has become a hotel for us: Kennedy Estates. I’m not sure it’s a blessing to them like it is to us.

Peace,

Allan

Opened from the Outside

December 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

We can’t save ourselves, have you noticed? We’ve been trying for centuries. We are completely unable to save ourselves. In fact, believing we can somehow save ourselves has only led us into deeper darkness and loss. The forgiveness we desire, the acceptance we chase, the restoration we crave, the salvation we need only comes through God in Christ. It can only come from outside us as a gift.

On November 21, 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter from Tegel prison. He was being held by the Nazis for his opposition to Hitler and for running an illegal underground seminary. In the middle of the letter, Bonhoeffer writes:

“Life in a prison cell reminds me a great deal of Advent–one waits and hopes and potters about but, in the end, what we do is of little consequence, for the door is shut. And it can only be opened from the outside.”

For God so loved the world that he OPENED the door! For God so loved the world that he GAVE his one and only Son! God SENT his only Son for us as a gracious gift of his limitless love!

May we receive God’s gift of great joy to us. May we experience God’s presence with us. And may our hearts be changed so that God’s life is our life. Today and every day until our Lord Jesus comes again.

Peace,

Allan

 

See the Light. Be the Light.

December 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

John the Baptist is sitting in a jail cell. He’s sitting in darkness. He sends word to Jesus. “How do we know you’re the one? Are you really the answer to all our prayers, or do we need to keep looking?”

Jesus says, “Keep looking for what? It’s right in front of you!”

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor!” ~Matthew 11:4-5

You and I can see the Kingdom of God being ushered in by Jesus. The Christ is born in the city of David and hurting people are comforted. Distressed people are encouraged. Everywhere Jesus goes, hopeless people are filled with hope. Prisoners are released and captives are given their freedom. Jesus walks in and sick people are made well, sinful people are forgiven. Jesus shows up and the devil’s grip on God’s people is broken forever. You can see Jesus bringing in the promised Kingdom of God!

And we walk in his light. By his life, death, and resurrection, by his obedience and faithfulness, his perfection is our perfection. His holiness, righteousness, and redemption is ours. His eternal life is your eternal life. His love is lavished on you. His peace embraces you. Christ’s Spirit lives in you, his power works for you, and his victory belongs to you! We walk in that light! Your church lives and worships and serves together in that light!

“The truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” ~1 John 2:8

We’re like Stonehenge. All of us, all our churches, we catch this light of Christ. We catch these beams of light from the Lord of Life and we reflect that light, we proclaim it, we project it, and we share it with everybody. We preach it, we embody it, we live it. So everybody in town knows that your church is the place and the people where your yoke can be shattered and the rod of your oppression can be broken forever by the brightest of lights that gives life to all people!

You can see the Kingdom of God. It’s visible right now in and among all us who claim to follow Jesus as Lord. When we decide to also be the Kingdom of God, well, now we’re on to something.

Peace,

Allan

Concerning Steers

December 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Texas Monthly, the venerable state-institution magazine that expertly chronicles all things Texas, has named Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Wayne Jones its 2024 Bum Steer of the Year. Jerry receives the magazine’s lowest annual dishonor for his leading role in completely destroying a once proud public trust.

You’ve got to read this.

The cover story in the current issue does a masterful job of comparing Jerry to a vampire, expertly melding together lines from the movie Interview with the Vampire and Jones’ own rant with reporters regarding the sunlight that blinds Cowboys players during home games halfway through every season. But, as the magazine observes, it’s not just speeches about the sun that Jerry has in common with the vampire; they “both thrive by sucking dry the lifeblood of others, leaving behind nothing but a pile of withered husks.”

Texas Monthly meticulously details how Jerry has, over the past 30 years, driven the Cowboys to abject mediocrity by spending very little on his coaching staff, making impulsive unilateral decisions, second-guessing his coaches, defending players who break team rules, and spending more time promoting his stadium than he does bettering his team. The history is concisely recounted, and then capped by a thorough drilling down into what’s gone so foul this season. Retaining Mike McCarthy after the playoff debacle against the Packers, waiting until the last second to re-sign Dak and Lamb, losing key starters and depth the free agency and replacing them with no one, all the blowout losses, threatening radio hosts with their jobs–it’s all here.

I’ll give you this line in its entirety:

“Any other general manager who’d acted this way, who’d spent decades failing to build a Super Bowl-worthy roster or give his coaches the breathing room to shape such a team, would have been fired long ago–presumably to be replaced by someone with hew ideas, fresh energy, and the motivation to succeed or risk losing the job. Jones, though, is the only NFL team owner who also serves as GM. Because he’s his own boss, he faces no accountability so long as fans continue to attend games and watch them on TV.”

I highly recommend the piece.

The best line of the article comes in the next-to-last paragraph. The author references a Texas Monthly cover from 2001 in which Jerry was depicted as Satan alongside the headline “Is Jerry Jones the Devil?” (If memory serves, I believe that was a Gary Cartwright story.) “But Cowboys fans aren’t trapped in hell–they’re trapped in a purgatory from which there’s little hope of escape.”

It’s a good article.

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I’m going with my heart over my head in making my college football bowl picks for our annual GCR Staff Bowl Challenge and picking the Texas Longhorns to win the national championship. In college football’s first ever twelve-team playoff, it seems that the ‘Horns have a simple path through the first two rounds. Hosting Clemson at Memorial Stadium this Saturday should be easy enough; the Texas defense ought to be able to shut down the over-achieving Tigers. Arizona State awaits the Longhorns in a second-round matchup at the Peach Bowl, but the Sun Devils are only there because the rest of the watered-down Big 12 imploded around them. Oregon appears to be the best team in the country, and Texas will have its hands full with the Ducks in their third round game in the Cotton Bowl. But that’ll be like a home game for the ‘Horns. Fair Park will be all burnt orange from Big Tex to the Tilt-a-Whirl, from end zone to end zone. And Oregon has not faced a defense like the Longhorns. As for the title game, it’ll be in Georgia again against the Bulldogs again. There’s no way Georgia beats Texas three times in one year, right? No way.

I am also picking my Dallas football team to post upset wins in the first two rounds to reach the final four. SMU–“Pony Up, Dallas!”–only has to hang onto the ball and they’ll score enough points to beat Penn State in a freezing, snowy Happy Valley. The only thing that has stopped the Mustangs offense this year is their own turnovers. Plus, contrary to public opinion, slippery field conditions always favor the offense. SMU may have never played in a blizzard before like they might have to tomorrow. But Penn State only has a defense. And it might not be enough.

Back to the Longhorns. When Whitney and I were comparing our picks last week, she questioned my picking Texas to win it all. Her exact words were, “Dad, have you watched Quinn Ewers this year?” Yeah, I know. It seems to take him a full first-half to find any rhythm. He’s thrown some awful interceptions in the first quarters of some really big games. He doesn’t look nearly as good the past two months as he looked in September. But here’s what I’m banking on:

Coach Steve Sarkisian.

I’ve got to believe Sark has spent the past four weeks scheming to make Arch Manning a more vital part of the Texas offense than just a once-a-game gimmick or decoy. They’ve put in some plays, yes? Arch is going to get a couple of series, right? That team belongs to Ewers, no question. But Arch has a stronger arm and poses a more dangerous threat to break a run for 30 yards. They are two completely different quarterbacks who present two totally different strengths and styles for which a defense must prepare. It’ll add another exciting dimension to their already explosive offense.

I think we’re going to see some things out of Sark over the next two weeks he’s been holding onto. Maybe he only flashes them against Clemson tomorrow. Maybe he gives Arizona State just a glimpse. But it’ll be enough to freak out Dan Lanning and Kirby Smart. It’ll put them on their heels in game-planning. It’ll give the Longhorns the advantage.

Plus, there’s no way Georgia beats Texas three times in one year. Right?

Peace,

Allan

Eye on 4 Midland

December 19, 2024 / / 4 Comments

Our exciting worship and service partnership between the “4 Midland” churches–First Baptist, First Methodist, First Presbyterian, and GCR Church of Christ–will be featured in the “Eye on America” segment on the CBS Evening News this next Wednesday, Christmas Day. CBS television reporter Jason Allen and a camera and sound crew of three spent Tuesday evening and most of yesterday here in Midland, shooting at all four of our churches, gathering video from our recent “4 Midland” preacher swap, and interviewing us four ministers for the story. Evidently, Christians putting aside their differences to unite in worship and service together is national news.

Jason picked up the Midland Reporter-Telegram’s story about our preacher swap and the combined “4 Midland” Thanksgiving service from his post in Dallas and contacted all four of us to talk about the CBS feature. He then put together a pitch to the Evening News producers in New York and they gave him the green light late last week.

The whole experience gave us four preachers an excuse to hang out together, which we love to do, and remember how this partnership began a little over two years ago. We got to tell the story all over again, about how our God is working in and through our friendships to bring Christians together in Midland and witness to the larger community that there is a better way to think and act with others than what our culture models. In a society as divided as ours, four pastors of four different churches from four different denominations focusing on what and who unites us instead of dividing over areas where we see things differently is a powerful testimony.

The CBS film crew followed us to Gerardo’s Casita for our monthly lunch and prayer time together. Having our normal conversation while surrounded by cameras, lights, and microphones was a little more difficult than we imagined and led to a couple of awkward moments. But we managed to talk about our churches and our ministries, our families and holiday plans, and, of course, a little football. I was reminded again of how blessed by God I am to be friends with these three men, to be Gospel partners together, and to minister to the same city at the same time with each other. By God’s grace, we have developed a very easy and mutual admiration and respect for one another. There’s a trust among us that defies the culture. Some of that, I pray, comes across in the CBS story on Christmas.

And then we headed over to First Baptist where Jason sat the four of us down for a more formal conversation.

Yes, there are some significant differences between us in how we believe and practice and teach and preach what God is doing through Christ. People outside Texas, especially non-Christians outside our state, may not understand how deeply held some of those distinctives are. They may think of Midland as a place where everyone’s a Christian and we all believe the same things and it’s not a big deal to switch preachers on a Sunday morning. We know it is. But for a national audience to understand the significance of what we’re doing, Jason told us, they need to grasp some of the differences between our faith traditions. So, we did spend a little time talking about that: women’s roles, beliefs about baptism, communion practices, church leadership structures and titles, Christian assurance, and the providence of God. And we forcefully confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ is bigger than all of it. God’s grace alone covers us, so we’re all in the same boat. Being saved by God’s grace gives us our unity. Our Christian unity is not something we have to create or manufacture; we already have it. It’s just a matter of whether we’ll receive it, whether we’ll accept it and live into it. And we’ve all four decided we’re going to, for the sake of our city. Steve Brooks, my brother from First Methodist, leaned right into the camera and said, “We’re never going to stop.”

I don’t know how much of everything we said will wind up in the “Eye on America” piece. It’s a little scary to watch the reporter and his crew drive away with over an hour of footage for what’s only going to be a two or three minute story. But I’m convinced our God is in this. He’s doing this. He’s using our story to testify to his salvation plan for the whole world. And I pray, that by our efforts and his grace, someday a group of Christians and churches putting aside their denominational differences for the sake of the world won’t be national news.

Peace,

Allan

God Gets You

December 14, 2024 / / 0 Comments

If God really has been born in a manger in Bethlehem, then we have something no other religion in world history has ever claimed. We belong to a God who truly and totally understands you. He gets you, from the inside of your experience. There’s no other religion that says God has suffered, that God had to be courageous, that God knows what it’s like to be abandoned by his friends, to be crushed by injustice, to be tortured and to die. Christmas shows us that God knows exactly what you’re going through. When you talk to God in Christ, yes, he totally understands.

Dorothy Sayers, a contemporary of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote this in the 1950s:

“The Incarnation means that God himself has gone through the whole of human experience–from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. He was born in poverty and suffered infinite pain–all for us–and thought it well worth his while.”

God taking on our everyday human condition is the means of our salvation. God reclaims us as his own by becoming one of us. That is good news of great joy for all of us. For you.

God joins you in the middle of your mess in order to save you. No one is so lost or so broken, YOU are not so far gone or so messed up that you are beyond God’s reach. Our God specializes in the mess. And I don’t care how messy your mess is, it doesn’t phase our God one bit. I don’t care how small or insignificant or unworthy you feel, you are exactly the one God came for.

God chose to be born in a manger and to come from Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Exactly! That’s the whole point!

This is how our God works. God brings his salvation to the ends of the earth not through the Egyptians or Romans, not through the Assyrians or Babylonians, but through Israel. He tells us he chose Israel because they are small and weak. God destroys Goliath, not with a bigger giant, but with a smaller shepherd boy the giant was laughing at. That’s the way God works. How does God speak to Elijah? Not through the earthquake or the wind or the fire, but through a small, still voice. A whisper. God works through Isaac, not Ishmael. He works through Jacob, not Esau. God works through Joseph and David, not their older brothers. God chooses old broken down Sarah, not young vibrant Hagar. He chooses unattractive Leah, not beautiful Rachel. He chooses Rebekah, who can’t have children. He chooses Hannah, who can’t have children. He chooses Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who can’t have children.

Why?

Over and over again our God says, “I will choose Nazareth over Jerusalem. I will choose the girl nobody wants. I will choose the boy everyone’s forgotten.”

Why? Because God just likes the underdog?

No. Because God is telling us something about salvation itself. Every other religion and moral philosophy in history tells you to summon up your strength and willpower and try real hard to live like you’re supposed to. That appeals to the strong. That appeals to gifted and talented people, people who are privileged, people who are able to pull it all together. Jesus is the only one who says, “I have come for the weak. I have come for those who admit they’re weak. I will save them not by what they do, but by what I do.”

Can anything good come from __________? Fill in the blank with your own mess, your own situation, your own failure. Go ahead. What is your shortcoming, your burden, your sin, your circumstance? Can anything good come from there?

If you repent and come to God through Jesus, not only will God accept you and work in you and through you, but he absolutely delights to work in and through people just like you. He’s been doing it through all of world history.

I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been gone or how far away you are. It doesn’t matter how dark it is or how bad. Christ Jesus is all in. He’s all in with you and he’s all in for you. He knows all about you and your past failures and your present situation. He knows. And he’s still all in.

That’s the best news you’ve ever heard.

Peace,

Allan

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