The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Golf Course Road Church (Page 2 of 29)

Knit Together in Love

July 22, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“…that they may be encouraged in heart and knit together in love.” ~Colossians 2:2

We spent a good chunk of our sermon time one Sunday last month throwing yarn all over the Golf Course Road Church worship center. There were ten different colors of yarn, representing ten things that eternally connect us together in our church: the grace of God, the blood of Jesus, the love of the Spirit, the mission of the Church, forgiveness of sin, the promises of God, and others. We held onto all that yarn together so we could both experience and express our inseparable bonds with each other, our undeniable connections.

A couple of weeks later we read together from Colossians 2:2 at the end of a completely different sermon, how we are united in love or, as the older translations put it, knit together in love. I mentioned, almost off-handedly, how cool it would be if someone could take all that yarn and knit a blanket to further illustrate our connections. I didn’t know it at the time, but somebody had already done it!

Melinda Henderson had taken a ton of the yarn home with her that day and had set immediately to work. She untangled all the yarn, which took over four hours. Somehow she managed to get Rex involved–I’m not sure if that added to the time it took or shortened it. They sorted the yarn and organized it into a bunch of brightly colored balls, and Melinda made the blanket!

 

 

 

 

It’s not knitting, she told me; it’s crochet. I told the church this past Sunday, when I showed them the blanket, that it’s not playing fast and loose with the Scriptures to say the Greek word in Colossians 2:2 can be translated “crocheted.” We are crocheted together in love!

This blanket is us. This blanket represents every man, woman, and child in our church and all the ways we are connected by the gracious gifts of our God. All the eternal things, the things that truly matter, the things we call salvation things, the things all of us say are the most important things–we have all of them in common.

We need to be reminded of this. We can’t talk about this enough. This is the truth of who we are at GCR that needs to inform our thinking and shape the ways we talk to and treat one another.

Thank you so much to Melinda for her beautiful gift to our congregation! We’ve already figured out how to frame and display the blanket so that everyone in our church sees it all the time. I hope it’s up before school starts. May it continue to be a blessing and a divine reminder that at GCR we are all crocheted together in love.

Peace,
Allan

Holding the Net Together

July 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Jesus said he would make us fishers of men, fishers of people. He has sent us out, you and me, to be fishers of “every human.” But you’re not fishing with a pole. You’re not sitting by yourself at the end of a pier with a rod and reel. We’re fishing together with a net. You’re not by yourself holding a stick and a string. We are all holding the net. Together.

It’s a huge net. It’s massive. It’s not the size of a volleyball net, it’s a giant net that spans across generational time and space. And it’s not made of rope or cord; it’s made of Christian seed sown to the Holy Spirit wind.

It’s a song written by Charles Wesley here, a plane assembled by Boeing there, a pie baked by a widow in 1843, an invitation to church written in 1391–God’s Holy Spirit weaves together all these weak and meager threads and it becomes the net. Do you see it?

It’s so big. And it sweeps back and forth across the world. It sweeps across every society and through every culture. The net is drawn in and out through all the decades and centuries. It turns and dips to snag one more soul God is faithfully trying to reach. It speeds up and slows down, it expands and withdraws to catch one more dad, one more teenager, one more generation. While you were sleeping last night, the net was catching souls: maybe a prisoner in Russia, maybe a single mom in Vermont, maybe a cab driver in Tokyo, or a teacher in Nigeria were swept up by the love of Christ.

The mission of the Church is a huge net and you’re holding onto it with us. Your faith and hope and love keep that net moving. Your good deeds for others, the ways you proclaim and share the love and grace of God with your words and acts of service–all of that contributes to our Lord’s salvation net.

The net is floating today by the eternal seeds of the Kingdom sown at GCR by Bert Mercer, Doug Parsons, and Ronnie White. When you serve a meal at Family Promise, when you read to kids at Emerson Elementary, when you write a check for Missions Sunday, when you send a card to your co-worker, when you use blue food coloring and whipped cream at VBS to tell the story of Jesus walking on the water, you are helping to maneuver that massive net.

When you warmly greet a visitor at church on Sunday morning, when you buy lunch for the guy behind you in the drive-thru, when you pray for your neighbor, the Holy Spirit breath of God moves another corner of that net to snare one more lost soul.

Here at our church in Midland, I think about Willie Goudeau and Yvonne Brooks and James and Debbie VanStavern who are still holding that net with Gabby and Kendall and M.J. and Preston. Frances Collins and Wanda McGraw are holding that net; so are Dalton and Hannah Mills, Philip and Caitlin Landry, and Justin and Anna Washburn.

So are you. You’re holding the net. We are, all of us, right now today and forever, connected together by the mission of the Church.

Peace,
Allan

On VBS and Blue Food Coloring

July 20, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Vacation Bible School has become my favorite annual event at our Golf Course Road Church. It’s predictably chaotic and crazy, understandably loud and messy, always a lot of very hard work, and SOOO consistently encouraging and uplifting,

 

 

 

 

 

We were blessed by our God with almost 200 children in our building four nights last week–more than half of them are not members of our congregation–singing and dancing, learning and growing, playing and praying as we talked about what God is doing in and through our Lord Jesus. Davy Wavy the Shark made his typical appearances, delighting both young and old as he bungled through the memory verses each night. Tracey and Kayla led us in powerful worship. The youth group did an outstanding job in the gym organizing the games and showing the littles how it’s done. Judy and Peg killed it with the crafts that made each night’s Bible story come to life. Bailey and her expert snack crew somehow managed to turn those tables over every time without missing a beat or a kid’s allergy. Ryan and Alicia expertly coordinated the children as they packed boxes and bags for Mission Agape and Family Promise. Tracey and Kristin and Ashlee, of course, did their remarkable work in planning and organizing and leading us through every minute. And our God was there every single night, just like he promised, transforming all of us, inspiring us, drawing us closer together and making us more like him.

 

 

 

 

 

Whitney, Addie, and I were assigned to lead one of the 4th and 5th grade groups. We were the Green Knights, the cool kids in the back. We were the ones starting all the chants as we marched from station to station, extolling our own virtues, praising the snacks, and proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. We said coloring with crayons was beneath us, and then fought over the colors we wanted. We packed double the boxes and bags at the Mission Station. We laughed at Davy Wavy and made fun of Doctor Tentacles, the “villain” who made his GCR debut Tuesday. And we took care of each other, we used our manners, and we learned more about how Jesus really is The Way.

 

 

 

 

 

We also learned that it only takes a tiny amount of blue food coloring to do the job. One little squirt can turn a fist-sized mound of whipped cream into a stormy sea on which Jesus and Peter, played by two Teddy Grahams, walk. AND permanently stain everyone’s teeth, tongues, and lips.

 

 

 

 

 

We learned that running the 4th and 5th graders all around the gym for 20-minutes and then moving them directly into the least-ventilated room in our church building for 20-minutes of crafts is not a good order of rotation. That room still smells like a JV-football locker room after summer two-a-days.

And we learned that Mr. Mark likes to sprinkle old TV and movie references into his stage show: “Daaaavy Waaaavy! Come out to plaaaaay-aaaaaay” Brilliant.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s what I love the most about VBS at GCR. I love watching those who have been at GCR for a long time and those who just got here in the past couple of years or months working together for four hard nights. I love watching our people get to know each other and start to love each other while they’re serving together. One really cool thing about VBS is that everybody there really wants to be there; nobody is there against their will. So everyone is smiling while they serve; everyone is laughing while they worship; everyone is positive and seeing the good in what God is doing all around us. And rejoicing in it. Together.

VBS at GCR is such a great joy, such a wonderful blessing from our God. If you are one of the dozens of folks who made last week around here so great, you have my most sincere gratitude and admiration. Thank you. The work you do for these Kingdom Kids matters today and generationally and for all eternity.

I can’t wait for next year. And I’m glad we’re not doing it next week.

Peace,
Allan

 

Summer Break

June 22, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Just a note in between long summer trips to let you know that I’m still here.

Back in the day I used to post something here every single day, even when I was on a mission trip or on vacation. I don’t do that anymore. I returned late Thursday from a wildly successful GCR mission trip to Campo Grande, Brazil and Carrie-Anne and I are leaving this morning for a ten day vacation to Hawaii. The timing of our summer travel is less than ideal–I got home with just enough time to do all my laundry, re-pack, preach a sermon, and hook it to Flower Mound. We spent the night last night with our youngest daughter, Carley, and she’s taking us to DFW this morning. I probably won’t post here again until July 5.

For a brief re-cap of our trip to SerCris, you could watch the first five minutes of yesterday’s sermon at GCR. You can find it here. The video clip of those students lifting Ryan Gernentz into the air is well worth the trouble of a couple of clicks. And, yes, watching Brazil play their first World Cup match at a watch party with 40 Brazilians in Brazil was a once-in-a-lifetime treat. Crazy!

I will return to my normal writing/posting schedule when I return.

Peace,
Allan

 

Brazil Bound

June 9, 2026 / / 0 Comments

You are looking at the ten-day forecast for Campo Grande, Brazil, the home of SerCris Training School, which our GCR Church of Christ established almost 50 years ago and has supported in a variety of ways ever since. I and twelve of my brothers and sisters from GCR are flying to Campo Grande tomorrow for an eight-day mission trip to build tighter relationships and offer as much encouragement to the SerCris students and staff as we can. Among the many things we are planning to do together–worship, sight-seeing, World Cup parties, devotionals, painting classrooms, Texas Night–is a massive sidewalk removal and replacement project on the school campus. This is the centerpiece project of our trip, tearing out and replacing more than 1,800 square feet of concrete and stone pavers.

I have never once in my life ever prayed against rain and I’m not about to start now; that’s the kind of thing that’ll get you disfellowshipped from most Texas churches. But I am packing an extra pair of shoes and a waterproof jacket.

Our twin grandsons turned eleven-months-old yesterday and they are becoming more active and more expressive by the day. They couldn’t get any cuter or more adorable. But they are getting big and a little harder to contain. Happy Monthday, Boys!

Peace,
Allan

Connected

June 8, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Right now, our nation feels so fractured. Politics. Economics. Social issues. Just turn on the news for about four seconds. Any channel. Any network.

In our own community here in Midland, we’ll choose sides and draw lines and fight about anything. Everything. City and county government. The school district. Construction. Budgets. Just glance at your Facebook and your feeds.

Our own families and neighbors seem awkwardly distant.

The whole world is focused on the distinctions and differences between us and it’s using our digital devices to highlight those differences to divide us.

Right now it feels like that if you don’t live where I do for as long as I have, we can’t be on the same team. If you don’t look like I do or speak the same language as I do or vote like I do or worship like I do or if you and I are different races or different nationalities, then we can’t be on the same side. We can’t be for each other. If we don’t have those things in common, then we must not have anything in common. We can’t.

That is decidedly NOT what Christians believe.

We believe that all of us are inseparably bound together. We belong to each other. We are connected to one another deeply. Thoroughly. We are connected by much bigger things, much more important things, eternal things–the things that truly matter. We believe all Christians are connected by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We all need and receive and rely on the grace of God. We are all saved by and continuously cleansed by the blood of Christ. We are all given gifts by and daily nourished by the Spirit. And we’re all called and sent by God on the same mission of the Church, to partner with God as he redeems and restores and reconciles all people and all things together in his Son Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don’t all vote the same. We don’t all have the same income levels or education levels. We weren’t all born in Midland; we come from everywhere. We are different ages and different generations. We weren’t all raised the same way. We don’t all have the same experiences and backgrounds that have shaped how we think and talk and act. We don’t all see eye-to-eye on some church issues like women’s roles and musical instruments. We don’t all have the same interpretations of Revelation or Genesis 1-11.

God’s grace is bigger than all those things. The blood of Jesus is more important than all those things. The power of the Holy Spirit is deeper than all those things. And all of us share those eternal things in common.

Yesterday at GCR, we talked about our connections to one another in Christ. And we did our own version of the old youth group thing in which our connections are made visible by yarn. Yeah, we threw yarn at each other across our Worship Center in the middle of the sermon!

We used 20 spools of yarn in ten different colors to represent all the things that connect us together. The yellow yarn was the grace of God. The red yarn was the blood of Jesus. The blue yarn was the power of the Holy Spirit. We had different colors representing God’s love, God’s promises, the forgiveness of sin, and the mission of the Church. Some of the yarn stood for the truth of the Gospel, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Ten non-negotiables. Ten eternal truths to which we all hold and share in common.

Once we overcame our apprehension, once enough of us got hit in the head with a spool of yarn, once we all relaxed a bit and gave ourselves to the exercise, it was glorious! By the end of the game, each of us in that Worship Center were holding onto at least three or four strands of yarn that represented the Gospel truths that save us and connect us from one end of our church to the other.

I told GCR, “The things in our lives that matter most, the biggest things, the most important things, the eternal things, the things that truly matter–the things I know YOU hold most dear–are the very things that connect all of us in this church together. We all have these things in common.”

But this is the line I really hope everyone remembers: “There’s nothing outside of these eternal bonds and beliefs that should ever distract us or divide us from the Gospel truth of our connections.”

The everlasting truth of God’s amazing grace is that he so loved the world that he came here to us. He redeems us by his blood and restores us by his love and he connects all of us together in himself. All of us. One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.

We are all eternally connected. Let those who hear, understand. Let those who understand, commit to living in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus.

Peace,
Allan

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