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Stillness in Fear

May 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I hear fear. I hear it every day. I believe it is because fear sells, fear makes people a lot of money, and smart people have figured out how to make tons of it preying upon and stoking our fears. Christians express fear out loud quite often. The fears are varied and they are constant. We’re anxious about so many different kinds of perceived danger and threat to our personal safety, to our “religious freedoms,” to our way of life. We’re more aware now than ever before about our societal woes and political insecurities–it surrounds us.

We are allowing our fears and burdens to overwhelm us and, as a consequence, the common ground even in our churches has eroded. Very much like the world we are in but not of, our space and capacity for rational conversation is disappearing. We’re not really talking anymore, we don’t have the desire or sense the need to listen to anybody with whom we disagree. One buzz word or catch phrase from another person and we’ve got them immediately labeled and tagged so there’s no need for conversation.

Today, I am largely stealing from Sandra McCracken’s article in the latest issue of Christianity Today. You can find her article here. If you don’t read the whole thing, please give a couple of minutes to these important excerpts. I pray these words are an encouragement to you and a challenge if and where you need it.

Unchecked fear keeps us on the run and fuels our disagreements, but God’s power and providence over us allow us to find security in his care. When we look to him, he will deliver us from all our fears and give us the wisdom to navigate the complexities we face.

We need wisdom in troubled times, but we cannot conjure it by ourselves. If we seek him, God’s wisdom abounds to us–the same wisdom that enables him to be the one who “breaks the bow and shatters the spear,” and “makes wars cease to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 46:9). These passages outline God’s poetic power, and the psalm concludes with a word to us: “Be still and know that I am God… I will be exalted in the earth” (46:10).

In an anxious age, this stillness might be just one of our greatest acts of worship. Before you watch or read the news, stillness. Before you cast your vote, stillness. Before you make dinner, stillness. To worship God in this way is to point to his faithfulness, past, present, and future. It bolsters our hearts to endure more of this present reality–not as avoiders or cynics, but as messengers of hope.

When our anxious fears take their place under the holy fear of the Lord, we become teachable (Proverbs 1:7). The fear of the Lord calls us to admit when we’re wrong. The fear of the Lord gives us courage to speak up for what is right, even when it’s unpopular. And the fear of the Lord reminds us that we are not our own but belong to Christ, that he is God and we are not. He draws us out of hiding, engaging us to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Peace,

Allan

Blended Worship

May 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Here’s my calendar for the next two weeks:

Wednesday May 22 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 1
Thursday May 23 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 1
Friday May 24 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 2
Saturday May 25 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 2
Sunday May 26 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 3
Monday May 27 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 3
Tuesday May 28 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 4
Wednesday May 29 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 4
Thursday May 30 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 5
Friday May 31 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 5
Saturday June 1 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 6
Sunday June 2 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 6
Monday June 3 – Dallas Mavericks Western Conference Finals Game 7 (if necessary)
Tuesday June 4 – Dallas Stars Western Conference Finals Game 7 (if necessary)

We’re a long way from this–we’re only halfway through both of these championship tournaments. But what if Dallas becomes “Title Town” and the Cowboys have nothing to do with it!

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Here at GCR Church we practice what a lot of people call a blended style of worship. Blended worship. Some people call it mutually miserable. With blended worship, we are equal opportunity offenders. Everybody’s miserable part of the time. There’s some part of this worship service you’re going to hate–we guarantee it!

I make fun of it. But, most of the time, I’m pushing for it. Because, if nothing else, it’s a way of driving home the point that we are not a monolithic church of just one style or one generation or one approach. We’re a diverse family of Christian disciples. So, every Sunday, we sing a pretty good mix of newer contemporary worship songs and older classic hymns. We do it all.

It helps us, I think, to emphasize that our Christian faith and our community of faith at GCR is not a one-track deal. We’re trying our best to foster a culture where everybody connects with God. We’re not perfect at this. But we try to communicate with our blended styles and practices that everybody is invited, that everybody is welcome, that everybody can hear and be heard, and that everybody can sing their song.

And that God will transform us when we sing somebody else’s song.

Peace,

Allan

Promote the Mood

May 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Colorado is done. It’s most likely going to happen tonight. If not, it’ll be Friday. Certainly over the next two games, the Dallas Stars will vanquish the Avalanche and advance to the Western Conference Finals for a second consecutive season. The Stars are playing their best hockey of the year right now. Since dropping those first two home games to Vegas a million years ago, Dallas is 7-2 and absolutely romping on offense and completely locking things down on defense. Oh, man, they are fun to watch right now.

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Today’s post wraps up most of my thoughts on the Lord’s Supper right now. Thank you for hanging in there with me over the past couple of weeks. I believe the communion meal is the most important thing we Christians can do on a Sunday. It’s the primary reason we come together in the presence of God on his day: to share a fellowship meal at his table with him and with one another.

But this is really difficult for us. We struggle with this. Not just here at GCR and not just in Churches of Christ. All Christians and churches in the West have a hard time with this. We’ve been conditioned by our culture and, honestly, by our churches for centuries to view the Lord’s Supper as an individual act, a very personal moment between God and me.

Yes, there are times for private introspection and reflection. There are times for silent meditation on the death of Jesus at the cross. Yes, there are times for personal moments between the Lord and you. There must be! But the Lord’s Supper is not that time. The Lord’s Supper is intended to be the time when God’s people express and experience real community with God and one another.

That’s difficult because we’re not sitting around a big table together on Sundays in the Worship Center. There are 500 of us in there, sitting in straight rows, staring at the backs of each other’s heads. So, logistically, it’s hard. We can’t eat a full lunch with 500 of us inside that room every Sunday. That’s where your small groups come in, I hope.

During our Sunday worship assemblies, we can’t provide the food, but we can promote the mood.

Even though it’s just one bite and one sip, we can act like we’re sharing the meal the bread and cup represent. We can look each other in the eye, we can pat each other on the back, we can share encouraging words up and down your row. “God loves us. Thank you, Lord Jesus.” Or, “Hey, we’re forgiven and we belong to together at this table with Jesus!” If we’ll embrace the mood of a family meal, if we’ll foster that culture of community, the Lord’s Supper will shape us. It’ll change us. It’ll force us to recognize the body and serve each other instead of ourselves. It’ll be a transforming encounter.

We try this every now and then at GCR. We’ll ask our folks to say something to the people around them as the trays are being passed, to remember Jesus together, to share a Scripture or to talk together about your experiences with Christ. And we want to do more of that. Sharing. Fellowship. Koinonia. We want to put the communion back in communion.

We also want to set up a dozen tables around the room two or three times a year and ask our people to gather around them to promote more of the mealtime mood. There’s the bread and cup, but there’s also other little bites of things to enjoy and experience together and room and space and time to really serve one another, to share the food and drink, and to encourage one another. To talk. To hug. To welcome. To include. To remember Jesus and more fully express and experience the communion we have with God and each other.

And here’s something we started this past Sunday. We are working on a church-wide understanding that nobody eats alone. We’re making a commitment that nobody sits by themselves in our Worship Center and eats and drinks communion by themselves. If anyone is sitting alone on Sunday mornings, our folks have committed to getting up and joining them. Whether you know them or not–especially if you don’t!–we’re going to sit together for the Lord’s Supper. We’re going to make connections. We’re going to be encouraging. We’re going to communicate that belonging together the meal is intended to demonstrate.

I wasn’t sure it was going to happen–we’re asking people to really step out of their comfort zones. But during the song before the communion meal on Sunday, several people left their seats to join those who were sitting alone. The movement was scattered all over the Worship Center, in the front and the back. It happened. And it was beautiful. A clear demonstration of the realities of the Gospel of Christ.

At the Lord’s Supper, we are invited to sit down for a meal with the crucified and risen Savior of the World. We are all invited–all of us–which means we are reconciled not only to God, but also to one another. We are one body. A communion of the redeemed. And we’re all equal. Together. There aren’t any box seats at the table, no reservations for VIPs. We’re experiencing and expressing the Gospel of Jesus Christ at this meal. And we’re practicing for the ultimate potluck, the coming feast, rich food for all peoples, the best of meats, the Bible says, and the finest of wines. And, I can only assume, big bowls of banana pudding.

We’re not just remembering the acts of the past that secured our salvation in Jesus; we’re experiencing and expressing the present realities of our unity and community together in Christ.

Peace,

Allan

Unworthy Manner

May 14, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Today I want to zero in on a couple of verses that have been key to our misunderstandings of both the form and the function of the Lord’s Supper. The verses come from the end of 1 Corinthians 11, the only passage in the New Testament that tells us how to eat the communion meal.

“Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A person ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:27-29

The phrase “unworthy manner” is an English translation of the original Greek word “anaxios.” It is an adverb, not an adjective. This word describes the verb in the sentence, not the noun. This is a really boring detail to build this blog post around, but it’s so profound. It’s so significant to the meaning of Scripture’s instructions. “Unworthy” does not describe you. This isn’t about the state of your soul. “Unworthy” is not about your life this week or for the past month, it’s about the way you’re eating right now. Is the manner in which you are eating and drinking this meal with your church family worthy of the Lord?

It’s not, “Are you worthy to eat and drink with the risen Christ and his holy people?” That question has already been answered. No, you are not worthy! None of us is worthy. We are all unholy sinners who have no right to be in God’s presence, eating with him at his feast. Or, yes, we are all worthy! By the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we are all made worthy. All of us are equally worthy by grace through faith in Christ. You see what I’m saying? The question of your worthiness is not the issue here.

It’s more like, “Now that you are made righteous by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, how are you eating and drinking this meal?” Are you only concerned about yourself? Are you paying attention to the people around you? As you eat and drink, are you recognizing the body? Not “body of the Lord.” Some of the Bible translations add “of the Lord” in verse 29, but that’s not in the original text. It’s just “recognize the body,” the group. Every time Paul uses the word “body” in 1 Corinthians, especially in this immediate context, he’s referring to the congregation (10:16-17, 12:12-13). Discern the body, the community. Not the bloody, mangled, dying or dead body of Jesus on the cross. Pay attention to the community, the people. The main point of the Lord’s Supper is to share with one another, not to satisfy your own needs. That’s the core of Paul’s instructions here. This is how he sums it up.

“So, then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:33

If you’re concerned about filling your belly and getting drunk, stay home. This meal is not as much about the food and drink as it is about sharing and serving one another as a community in Christ. Wait for each other, he says. Be considerate. Think about one another. Do this together. Communion.

Peace,

Allan

The Table and the Way of Jesus

May 10, 2024 / / 0 Comments

We’ve spent all of this week in 1 Corinthians 10-11 because it is the only place in the New Testament that tells us how to eat the Lord’s Supper. We’ve detailed exactly what the church in Corinth was doing wrong; it was the way they were eating the meal. It wasn’t the types of foods or the amount of foods, it was that they weren’t waiting for each before they dug in, they weren’t sharing the food equally, the selfishness and “me/us first” attitudes were causing division.

So how does Paul correct the problem? He points to Jesus. He reminds them of Jesus.

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:23-25

The table is shaped by the salvation work of Jesus. The Church’s meal reflects and demonstrates the Gospel values of sacrifice and service. The Lord’s Supper expresses the way of Jesus–selflessness, giving to others, considering the needs of others more important than your own.

“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” ~ 1 Corinthians 11:26

The Lord’s death broke down all the barriers between us and God and between us and each other. The Lord’s death unites all of God’s people together. Around the table on Sundays, and anytime we eat and drink together in his name, we’re proclaiming and practicing all the salvation things Jesus died for, everything that was accomplished at the cross: acceptance, fellowship, unity, forgiveness, peace.

How we eat the Lord’s Supper matters.

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The Stars have more depth and the better goalie. The Avalanche have more speed and more purely skilled scorers. This thing’s going seven and it’s going to be a two-and-a-half hour heart attack every night.

Peace,

Allan

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