The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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White October

October 27, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I had heard the forecast as I was leaving Amarillo for Arlington Monday morning: slight chance for snow flurries late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Of course, I blew it off. Snow in October? Yeah, it’ll get cold. It might rain a bit. But it’s surely not going to snow. By yesterday afternoon, the weather forecasters were pretty sure we could get an inch or more. It started raining once everybody got home from church. And when we woke up this morning, there it was!

Thirty-one degrees. Strong north winds. And over an inch and a half of snow and still falling. Little tiny slushy snow flakes, blowing around in the breeze.

It’s still October! Where in the world have we moved to?!?

Royse Anne texted Carrie-Anne at about 7:30 this morning: “Welcome to Amarillo!” My first text came from Dan Miller: “Pump your brakes, don’t slam them.” Then Bentley texted me: “Forgot to tell you about the early snows. Get used to it.”

I actually love it. It’s beautiful. It’s exciting. It’s unexpected. It puts everybody in a good mood. And it reminds me all over again that our God is really in control. This is his planet. It’s his creation. It’s his weather. He’s in charge. And I should learn to expect his surprises. Whether it’s an October snow, or a move to a new church in a new part of the state, or a new insight from his Holy Word, our God is active and working to keep me aware of his presence in my life and in his world.

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We held our Fall Festival last night here at Central and it was a blast! Lots of booths. Lots of candy. Lots of costumes. Hot dogs, games, and prizes. But, mostly, inter-generational family fun.

What a blessing to see our older people helping our littlest kids. What a joy to watch our white hairs play with our toddlers. What a beautiful portrait of passing on the faith. Acting like family. Looking out for one another. Commenting on all the Ninja Turtles and Disney princesses, congratulating the Buzz Lightyears and ladybugs, laughing with the teenagers.

All of the research about young people leaving the Church or remaining with the Church points to one consistent factor. All of the studies say there is one thing that will determine whether a kid stays in Church. It’s not youth group. It’s not worship style. And it has nothing to do with technology. It’s relationships with adults outside their immediate family. Those young people who have adult friends in their churches— people who care about them, people who spend time with them, people who ask them how they’re doing, people who go out of their way to be with them — are much more likely to stay in God’s Church once they leave for college and then remain in the Church through their adult lives.

That’s why events like last night are so important. That’s why we need to be much more intentional about mixing our generations in our churches. Segregating ourselves according to age in our Bible classes and our worship assemblies isn’t doing us any good. Regularly getting people of all ages around the table together is critical to passing on the faith.

Of course, we know this. It only makes perfect common sense. But it takes sacrifice and service. It demands putting the needs of others ahead of our own. It means being like Jesus. And we’re still not very good at that. We have to think about it. We have to be intentional about it.

I keep thinking events like Fall Festival will help. All of the good things we experience during those two hours we’re all mixed up together will eventually bleed over into the ways we re-think Bible classes and worship assemblies and youth ministry and senior adult ministry, right? At some point we’ll all WANT to be involved in the lives of people who are older or younger than us because we’ve experienced the tremendous benefit, right?

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Nothing can stop Game Six tonight. It’s going to happen. And the Rangers are going to win it. I keep thinking that this extra day off is going to benefit Texas. I keep thinking that it’s bad for the Cardinals players to have to spend an extra day in their town listening to all the second-guessing, being exposed to all the negative energy, being hammered one day by all the questions. They gave the Rangers their best shot in Game Five. Carpenter was on the hill and they had runners in scoring position in at least seven innings. And they still got beat. I think that gives Colby Lewis and the Rangers tons of confidence. And I think having to live with that for three full days is going to weigh adversely on the Cards.

If you want some good stuff to read between now and first pitch at 7:05, here’s a really good article by ESPN’s Jayson Stark on just what the Rangers are trying to accomplish with their first ever World Series win. A Texas victory could start a major cultural shift in the regional sports landscape.

This is a good column by ESPN’s Gene Wojo about Jon Daniels and Ron Washington. The angle is that the movie Moneyball is about the wrong GM. It should be about Daniels.

Here’s a link to the Texas Rangers official website. And, finally, you can’t really watch a Rangers playoff game without first reading the Newburg report. Especially this one.

Go Rangers!

Allan

Reign Delay

October 26, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Yes!!!

Tonight’s Game Six has been postponed to tomorrow night in St. Louis.

I was sweating this thing big-time. Our fall festival here at Central is set for tonight from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. I’ve got a management cluster budget meeting at 8:15 pm. And who knows how long that’s going to last? I’ve been working the emails since 8:30 this morning trying to get our budget meeting moved. But everybody’s schedule’s are crazy and it just wasn’t working.

Here the Rangers are on the cusp of winning their first ever World Series in their 51-year history. We’ve suffered through decades of embarrassing futility, wandering aimlessly in the hopelessness of baseball’s wilderness, unable to even dream about the possibilities of one day — maybe — hoisting the World Series tropy. It would be such a shame for Mike Napoli to hit the World Series winning double in the 9th inning of a tie game and we missed it because we were in a budget meeting talking about air conditioners and parking lots and replenishing the reserve fund.

But now the game’s been postponed. The news instantly resulted in congratulatory text messages and emails from preacher friends of mine who were also agonizing over the conflict.

The championship celebration will wait one more day. The Texas Rangers’ coronation as baseball kings will wait until tomorrow.

And I expect to see all of y’all tonight at church.

Peace,

Allan

Muttering

October 26, 2011 / / 1 Comment

The religious leaders we see in Scripture are always forcing Jesus to defend himself and his mission. Jesus is welcoming the outcasts and eating with sinners. He’s associating with and accepting these people who just don’t measure up. Jesus is continually embracing these misfits, giving to them, serving them, teaching them, fellowshipping with them. And the established religion of the community couldn’t handle it. One of the main political and religious charges against Jesus that led to his execution was the fact that he “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15 is just one of many places in the Gospels where we find that when Jesus associated with the marginalized, “the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law muttered.”

They muttered.

They mutter and grumble and complain among themselves. They do it behind Jesus’ back. They gripe under their breath. Because a religious person would never say these kinds of things out loud:

“Those people don’t speak English.”
“Those kind of people won’t give.”
“Their kids are not well-behaved.”
“Have you seen what they wear?”
“They’ll mess things up.”
“They’re on welfare.”
“He just got out of prison.”
“She has AIDS.”
“He cusses.”
“She smokes.”
“We have to protect our kids.”
“We have to be careful.”
“They should probably go somewhere else.”

Church people don’t talk like that out loud, right? A religious person would never say stuff like that in public. Not from the pulpit, not in a Bible class, not in an elders meeting.

No. Religious people mutter these kinds of things under their breath. Among themselves. In private.

If we’re following our Savior — and we are! — we have to recognize that Jesus came with everything he had to seek and to save the lost. And the lost responded to Jesus, not because he catered to them or compromised his message, but because he cared for them. He loved them. He understood their needs and helped them while the religious leaders criticized them and kept their distance.

Jesus strongly rebukes that attitude. His every word, his every deed rebukes that self-centered mindset. Jesus invested his time and energy in sinners. He associated freely with them. He ate with them. He became personally and intimately involved in their messy lives and desperate struggles. Jesus pursued sinners with such enthusiasm and commitment that the religious community questioned his character and his motives. But he kept seeking and saving the lost. With everything he had. And then he died for them.

We don’t ever dare make fun of, poke fun at, or look down on any person made in the image of our God.

Ever.

We don’t mutter.

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I’ve been to a couple of Rangers playoff games at the Ballpark in Arlington, one in ’96 and another in ’99. I was there when they clinched the division title in ’99. I’ve been to important division games in September. I’ve been in the stands for weekend games against the Yankees when the Rangers were rallying to take a lead in the 8th inning and winning it in the 9th. And I’ve thought many times that there’s no way the Ballpark could ever be louder or as exciting as this.

Until Napoli’s two-run double with the bases loaded in the 8th inning against the Cardinals Monday night in Game Five of the World Series. I’ve never been a part of anything quite so loud and exciting at the Ballpark. It was improbable. It was emotional. Magical.

From Roger Staubach’s ceremonial first pitch to Feliz’s last, it was a nail-biter. Nerve-wracking. Gut-wrenching. It seemed that St. Louis had runners at second and third in every inning. Every pitch was do or die. Every Cardinal at-bat went full count. And Texas couldn’t do anything right. Murphy and Moreland were booting balls, C. J. couldn’t find the plate, and nobody could get on base. That 2-1 deficit seemed like 10-1. Or 100-1. It was awful.

Which made it so much better once Napoli finally came through with his double and then chased Berkman to first base an inning later to end it.

We hugged and high fived everybody in the home run porch. We took pictures. We cringed when Darren Oliver came in and exhaled in relief when he left. We chanted Napoli’s name and laughed at the Ron Washington videos. We ran into Russ Garrison and his family. And we ate for the cycle. It was an awesome night! Thank you to Brian Gray for scoring the ticket. And for being the most superstitious baseball fan I’ve ever known.

 

Game Six tonight. In the cold and the rain in St. Louis. Colby Lewis has the stuff on the road to give the Rangers their first ever World Series title in their 51-year history. Start the DVRs.

Go Rangers.

Allan

Napoli Ever After

October 23, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Nap-o-li!
Nap-o-li!
Nap-o-li!

The Rangers’ battery came up huge tonight to tie the World Series at two games each and turn this thing into a best two-out-of-three. Dutch Holland pitched 8-1/3 innings of two-hit shutout ball while his backstop, Mike Napoli went deep with the “Jimmy Jack” that put it away for good. Kinsler and Elvis continue to make great plays in the infield. And Beltre’s making impossible plays at third base look so routine that I’m afraid we’re missing what he really means defensively in these tight games.

Thanks to my good friend Brian Gray, I will be in attendance tomorrow night when C. J. Wilson faces Chris Carpenter in Game Five.

I’ve never been to a World Series game before. I’ve been to playoff games in Arlington in ’96 and ’99. I’ve had John Wetteland pour champagne down my shirt after a division clinching win on a Sunday afternoon. But I’ve never been to a World Series game in my life.

Thank you, Brian.

Here’s hoping Ceej has learned how to breathe through his eyelids. And will somebody please point out that the rose goes in front.

Peace,

Allan

It’s Already Decided

October 21, 2011 / / 4 Comments

These first two games of the World Series are what October baseball is all about. The stakes are eternally high. The games are immeasurably close. The margin for error is razor thin. The drama of each game and the series itself builds with every half inning. We hold our breath with every pitch. Our heart rates increase and decrease every time bat strikes ball. Every pitching change, every managerial decision, every bunt, bobble, and base-on-balls is monumental. Both of these first two games have packed more drama than a month of soap opera Fridays. More tension. More uncertainty. More surprises. More oh-my-word-can-you-believe-that-just-happened thrill!

The outcome remains completely in doubt until the very last out of the very last inning.

We don’t know until that final K or that last base hit who’s going to win. Who will prevail? Will it be the loveable hunch-playing Wash, running in place in the Rangers dugout, or the calculating TLR with ice in his veins and evil in his cold stare? Will it be the All-American boy next door Michael Young and the redeemed Josh Hamilton or the all-powerful Pujols and the grizzled former Astro? We don’t know. We don’t know. Can a “catching” error really decide this thing? Yeah, maybe. Could the MVP really be a guy off the Cards’ bench? Perhaps. But we won’t know until the very bitter end.

That’s what we love about October baseball.

Aren’t we glad our eternal destinies don’t hang in the balance like the outcome of a World Series?

Aren’t we glad that we already know who wins between good and evil in this world? Aren’t we glad that God through Christ Jesus, our crucified and risen Lord, has already defeated forever the forces of sin and death and Satan and everything else that would ever separate us from him? Aren’t we glad that we already know the final score? Our destiny is already delivered. The outcome is certain. Holy Scripture and God’s great acts in history and our Father’s faithful promises for the future show us clearly that God wins. And it’s a rout! It’s a blowout! Not even close! One-hundred-gazillion to nothing! Satan doesn’t even get out of the starting blocks. Evil doesn’t even get a swing. Death never gets a runner in scoring position. God wins! Put it in six-inch headlines: GOD WINS!!!

So relax. Take a deep breath. Calm down. Smile a little.

You’re on the winning team, right?

There’s plenty to worry about with this World Series. But as far as our eternal salvation is concerned, it’s already game over.

Peace,

Allan

A Preacher’s Prayer of Thanksgiving

October 20, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

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