The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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The Last First Day

August 5, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s the first day of school for our youngest daughter, Carley, as she begins her Senior Year at Oklahoma Christian University. This is Carley outside her third floor on campus apartment holding her dog, Siggy. Or, I should say, barely holding her dog; this picture must have been taken one second before she dropped the poor animal. The first day of school pic always showed our girls with their new lunch boxes and back packs, surrounded by dozens of WalMart bags containing spiral notebooks, crayons, pens, and boxes of Kleenex. Now, it’s just Carley and her dog.

I was late singing “School Bells” to her this morning. Terribly late – I didn’t get to her until she was having dinner with her friends. After I told her this was her last first day of school, she reminded me that she’s going to earn her Master’s Degree and so will be starting another school year in 2022. Well, this is the last first day of school I’m paying for. I think.

We love you, Carley. Good luck with your studies and with Theta, with your new job at the golf course, and with all you’re wanting to accomplish. We hope you have a really terrific last year at OC.

Love,

Dad

Howard Griffin Nostalgia Tour

August 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

My great friend Howard Griffin, the pastor at First Presbyterian in Amarillo and my across-the-street neighbor for ten years, drove down to his hometown of Midland today to visit his mom and to take me to lunch at La Bodega. Howard was the first pastor in Amarillo to call me up and take me to lunch when we first moved there in 2011. That friendship quickly expanded to Burt and Howie and blossomed into what we called “4 Amarillo.” And that worship and service partnership between our four downtown churches has been the absolute highlight of my nearly 15 years in congregational ministry.

So, of course, we reminisced about “4 Amarillo” over chicken and cheese enchiladas. We prayed for each other’s families and churches, just like we’ve done together for a decade.

And then Howard took me for a ride back to his childhood. He drove me by Midland Memorial Hospital where he was born and then by First Pres here in Midland where he was born again. He showed me the house where he grew up and the high school where he played ball, the McDonald’s where he ate and the Whataburger where he hung out. He showed me the churches that had changed names and the restaurants that have become something else. I got a lot of “where the so-and-so used to be” today. And then we went back to GCR to see the church gym.

Back when Howard was in high school, the Golf Course Road Church of Christ opened up their gym for pick up basketball several nights a week, but especially on Friday nights in the fall after the high school football games. Some of Howard’s best teenage memories are of late night hoops in the GCR gym. It’s not carpeted anymore like it was back then – we have a nice professional sports floor in there now – but as soon as we walked in, Howard went straight for a couple of almost-fully-inflated basketballs in the corner and started shooting baskets. We shot baskets together for almost 15-minutes, talking about Amarillo church leagues, Tuesday night pickup at the DAC, and his long ago Friday nights at GCR.

I am thankful to God for a great couple of hours today. I got some additional insight into what makes this faithful Christian minister friend of mine tick. And I got a pretty good history lesson on our new city and even on our new church. Howard has fond memories of GCR and of his friends who were members here back in the 80s. I’m pretty sure we’re making some pretty fond memories here right now.

Peace,

Allan

A Display for the Work of God

August 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

In John 9, Jesus and his disciples come across this man born blind. And the followers of the Christ immediately turn this guy into a theological case study. Who sinned? Whose fault is it? This is a terrible thing that’s happened, who’s responsible? Who’s to blame? Let’s start the debate, let’s take sides. Ready? Go!

And while the apostles are pulling out their commentaries and Hebrew word studies and their grandfather’s old lectureship notes, our Lord Jesus completely sidesteps the whole argument. Jesus says nobody sinned. Nobody did anything wrong. That’s not why this man is blind. Then Jesus heals the man. He gives this man exactly what he needs right there on the spot. It’s a great story. Praise God.

But the question remains: Why is he blind? That question is not going away. Why was this man born blind? What’s the reason this happened? It’s so cruel and awful and unfair. Why was this man born blind? Why was this woman abused? Why does that man have cancer? Why am I divorced? Why did I lose my job? Why did bad things happen at my church? What’s the reason?

Jesus answers the question. And his words provide just the perspective we need to increase our imaginations and expand our vision.

“This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” ~John 9:3

Jesus says you’re asking the wrong questions, you’re focused on the wrong things. Jesus says this man was born blind so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. This man’s life is divinely intended to be a display for the salvation work of God. He is to be a huge billboard, a bright flashing neon sign, a massive marquee that proclaims the glory of God and his saving work in the world.

That’s your church, too. Your church is a banner that displays to your whole community what our God is doing in the world. As individuals, of course, but also as a church, we are unfurled before the watching world as a banner that proclaims the goodness and glory of our God. That’s our call. That’s our mission. That’s our purpose. That’s the reason you are who you are and where you are: to be a display for the great power and boundless love of our God.

It’s important that you see your church as the billowing banner it really is. Stop asking the wrong questions. Don’t focus on the wrong things. I’m asking you to see your church the way our Lord sees it. Think about your church the way Jesus thinks about your church. Our God is using whatever has happened in your church or in your life in order to display to the world his eternal salvation and his matchless grace.

Peace,

Allan

Going to Work (Whitney Edition)

August 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Whitney made her Midland debut today at Market Street and, of course, she absolutely killed it! She wasn’t in training too long today before they realized she knew everything there is to know about customer service, produce codes, and running the till at United grocery stores. She’s checking out the customers’ groceries here just like she did for more than eight years in Amarillo and, because we’re living in Midland, she’s making a little more money. Fat stacks, Whit!!

United / Market Street has been such a great company to work for and a tremendous blessing for our oldest daughter. Her longtime manager in Amarillo knows the Market Street manager here and the transfer has been smoooooooth. Whitney will be working her usual 25 hours or so per week and it won’t be too long before she’s a rock star in this town. She’ll have her own customers, the friends she makes, these people who approach her at restaurants and in the mall to tell her ‘hi.’ It’s awesome.

Congrats on the new job, sweetie. I admire everything about the way you perform your job, the way you bless the people you encounter, and the way you reflect our God’s glory in your workplace.

I promise I’ll stop telling people that you’ll give them free ice cream if they’ll go through your line.

I love you.

Dad

Going to Work

August 1, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I was more nervous than I should have been and the sermon didn’t all come out exactly the way I practiced it, but my first day to preach today at Golf Course Road proved to be a really good start to our partnership together in the Gospel here in Midland. Carrie-Anne and I met more people today, made some holy connections back to Amarillo and DFW and even Marble Falls, encountered several visitors, and experienced a church-wide joy and enthusiasm for what our God is doing in us and through us at GCR.

Over the next couple of days I will post in this space some of what we preached today. Or, you can click here and watch the whole thing right now. Today, it’s enough to say that our gracious God has us exactly where he wants us. Carrie-Anne and I don’t feel as guided or led by God as much as we feel pushed by him to be at this place, with these good people, all together at the same church at the same time for his very specific Gospel purposes. We’re here together at GCR for a reason. That gives me a tremendous confidence and courage. And joy. We’re so happy and grateful to God and his church here for allowing us to share in the blessing of whatever he’s about to do.

Whatever has happened at GCR over the past six decades, over the past six years, over the past six months — all the good, all the bad, and all the really weird unexplainable stuff — we’re choosing to take our Lord’s perspective. We’re not going to dwell on the wrong questions, we’re not going to focus on the wrong things. Jesus says these things happened that the work of God might be displayed in this church. Well, our God is going to work at GCR, throughout the city of Midland and beyond, and all of us are rolling up our sleeves to join in. Together.

It was a really good day. We introduced Cory Legg to the church as our new Worship Minister. We gave EricWest a standing ovation for his excellent leadership during the interim. We celebrated all the Gospel works the Lord has done in and through us this summer for the least of these in our city. We were all encouraged. The room was full, the singing was dynamic, and the preaching was decent. It was a really good day at GCR. God be praised.

Peace,

Allan

The Night Before

July 31, 2021 / / 2 Comments

It’s Saturday in Midland, Texas. But Sunday is coming. And not just any Sunday. Tomorrow is a special Sunday. A watershed Sunday. A pivotal Sunday for my preaching ministry and for Golf Course Road Church of Christ.

Tomorrow I will attempt to speak a Word from our God to several hundred people I don’t yet know. As their preacher. As the one they have ordained to speak to them, to encourage them, to challenge them, to instruct and correct them, to lead them and to love them. By God’s grace and by the mysterious work of his Holy Spirit, these people at this historically great church in West Texas have called me to join their community of faith and preach for them. Preach with them. I am honored to do so. And I’m nervous.

Tomorrow I join a long list of faithful men who’ve stood before this church and dared to preach the Word. Doug Parsons. Randy Fenter. Ronnie White. Mike Cope. Tod Brown. Many others. For a very long time, these people have been used to some of the very best preaching there is. It’s incredibly humbling to be a part of that now, to be inserted into this formidable line.

Carrie-Anne and I feel very much at peace with our move, very certain that our Lord has pushed us here and that he wants us in Midland with these people at this time for his very specific Gospel purposes. I am calm about tomorrow and prayerful that our God will speak through me the affirmation and encouragement I know he wants to give his children at GCR.

Tonight I feel very blessed by our God and incredibly honored by the church at GCR, these good people I don’t really know yet. I am confident that tomorrow is going to be a really good day and that my family and this church family are embarking on a long and fruitful partnership together.

May God bless us richly with his grace and peace. And may he bless his church at GCR. May our Lord do whatever he wants in and through us together and may we embrace it with imagination and vision and joy to his eternal glory and praise!

Peace,

Allan

 

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