Category: Lectureships (Page 10 of 11)

Going to California

September 23, 2008 / Allan / 6 Comments

“Made up my mind to make a new start;
Going to California with an aching in my heart.”
~Led Zeppelin (Correct me, Keith!)

My plane leaves DFW at 10:35 Texas time this morning and lands at high noon Pacific time in Fresno. And there’s no aching in my heart. I’m actually pretty excited about this trip. I’ve never been to California before. And although I may see nothing but the road between Jim Gardner’s house and his church and the inside of the Woodward Park building the whole time I’m there, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be speaking five times in four days at their annual workshop there in central California. And I can’t wait to experience the multi-cultural flavor of that body of believers. I’ll write more either tonight or Thursday morning. Right now I’m running late. I can’t afford to not be ready just in case Lance actually shows up on time to pick me up for the airport run. (Cheap shot, I know.)

Here’s the poll. Have fun.

The Trojans of Southern Cal retain 14 first place votes and the top five remain unchanged. Georgia takes two first place votes while LSU takes the other. Richard still refuses to name a #1, keeping USC and OU tied at #2. Auburn slips this week from #9 to 14. BYU moved way up from 16 to 12. Oregon and East Carolina fell out completely. And Alabama leaps over Wisconsin into the top ten.

Congratulations to Mark Hooper who sent in his poll this week from Cambodia! What dedication. Aaron & Jenn, that trumps your Hawaii submission from last week. Who can top Hooper? Who’s going to Lubbock?

Despite overwhelming and indisputable physical evidence, Aaron keeps holding out hope for his Vols. Larry this week has officially disowned his Mississippi State Bulldogs, calling them “a disgrace to the SEC!” That’s big news! The poll is off just a little because Charlie forgot to give us a #9 team in his list (He’s probably busy writing a small groups discussion guide). Enjoy.

September 23 , 2008

1. USC (14-1st place votes, 354 total votes) – “I’m bored with USC already.” TedS; “Put us out of our misery and move them to the NFC East where they’d still be #1.” MarkH; “This week’s practices has been their best competition.” BillyW

2. Oklahoma (316) – “Sooners are responsible for TCU not getting a vote from me this week.” JimG; “OU 30, TCU 17″ SteveF; “Will play Georgia in the national championship game.” LarryT; “He Hate Me.” TedS

3. Florida (310) – “Awful nice of Tennessee to Volunteer for a beating.” RichardA (Boo.); “Sorry, Steve, the Vols are not contenders.” PaulD; Urban Meyer gets on my nerves.” JimG; “Best team in Florida including the Bucs and Fins.” MarkH; “I want to see them play Georgia.” JennG

4. Georgia (2, 303) – “Barely gets by Arizona St. SEC is always overrated.” MarkH; “Mark Richt is the anti-Urban Meyer.” JimG; “Will still lose two games in the SEC.” CharlieJ; “A-J. A-J. Moreno. Moreno.” PaulD

5. Missouri (290) – “Wow.” LarryT; “Chase may be #1 in New York at the end of the season.” PaulD; “Defense is suspect. Anyone else see this?” CharlieJ

6. LSU (1, 285) – “It’s odd calling the national champions a ’sleeper.’” CharlieJ; “3rd best team in SEC.” MarkH

7. Texas (250) – “Don’t tell Carter I moved them up.” JerryK; “Lickin’ their chops.” CharlieJ; “Get a ‘name-your-score’ game against a woeful Arkansas team.” JimG; “Bring on the bacon!” RichardA; “Texas 34, Arkansas 17″ SteveF; “Will fall out of Top Ten once they play a ranked team.” LarryT; “Apparantly Colt McCoy has a new set of guns.” BillyW; “Note to Colt: aspire to be Major, not Vince.” TedS

8. Alabama (227) – “Top Ten after BBQing the Hogs.” MarkH; “Convinced they are a Top Ten team.” CharlieJ; “They’re back!” JimG; “Alabama 20, Georgia 18″ SteveF; “The Tide is on a roll!” LarryT (What are we doing?); “I guess Nick Saban should stay in college.” BillyW

9. Wisconsin (217) – “Badgers will beat Michigan.” SteveF; “The ‘W’ on the helmet stands for ‘winning’ the Big 10.” MarkH; “Not convinced they are a Top Ten team.” CharlieJ

10. Texas Tech (198) – “Just waiting for the slip up.” CharlieJ; “History says defense will be their undoing.” JimG; “If we don’t vote for Tech, Leach will go all ‘tough, smart attorney’ on us.” TedS; “Waiting to play a real opponent.” BillyW

11. Penn St. (164) – “Looked good against Temple. So, what?” MarkH; “We are!…going to lose soon!” CharlieJ; “Did you see Joe Pa’s postgame comments? Can you say ’senility’?” JimG; “Joe Pa in the booth…look out!” PaulD; “Fight on, Joe Pa.” RichardA

12. BYU (152) – “Are we sure Ty Detmer wasn’t playing?” BillyW

13. South Florida (124) – “Barely beat a team with ‘International’ in their name.” MarkH

14. Ohio St. (120) – “Just because.” JimG; “Still too high.” PaulD

15. Auburn (104) – “Surely Auburn can recruit a punter.” PaulD; “Will bounce back.” BillyW; “If Vols will score 24 points they will win.” SteveF (Bless his heart)

16. Wake Forest (86) – “…even if they are the Demon Deacons.” MarkH; “Jim Grobe grateful today he didn’t take the Arkansas job.” JimG; ”Yawn…gratuitous ACC team.” CharlieJ; “Are there any Demon Deacons at Legacy?” RichardA

17. Utah (73) –

18. Kansas (70) – “Because I’m envious of Mark Mangino’s physique.” JimG; “Struggling.” BillyW

19. Clemson (28) – “Beginning to find the groove.” PaulD; “Clemson 29, Maryland 13″ SteveF

20. Boise St. (25) – “I believe they belong here.” PaulD

Also receiving votes: TCU (24) “I’m a believer in the power of purple” RichardA; Oregon (18); Vanderbilt (12) “A blue jeans company that’s 4-0!” TedS; West Virginia (5); UConn (3); Fresno St. (2) “Get by UCLA and they go to Boise 10-1 to end the year.” JimG; East Carolina (2) “Are there 51 states now?” DavidB; New York Yankees (2) “Because they’re not in the playoffs. Let’s all celebrate.” TedS; ACU (1); Oklahoma St. (1) “Games are won in the trenches and OSU has a tough experienced line.” CharlieJ; Tennessee (1) “Will be #20 by the end of the season.” AaronG; Miami Dolphins (1) “Brady or not, it’s great to see New England lose.” TedS

Coming Home…For a Minute

September 23, 2008 / Allan / 0 Comments

Couple of quick shots here before we head out for day two here at Abilene. Again, if you’re looking for this week’s “KK&C Top 20,” it’ll be up late, late tonight or early, early tomorrow morning.

We had a great first full day yesterday at the ACU lectureships. Ian Fair’s informative and practical information and advice on the relationships between church leadership and church growth. Rick Atchley’s powerful poke at our healthy and wealthy western culture from Amos. Eddie Sharp’s roundtable discussion on the dynamics of elder – preacher relations. David Fleer’s riveting proclamation of the impartiality of our Father. Kevin Murray’s eloquent portrayal of God’s grace for all mankind. To use Brady Bryce’s favorite word, it’s all been “wonderful.”

My favorite part may be in getting to catch up, if so very briefly, with tons of great people from my near and distant past. Especially the kids. Jeremy Moore’s standing outside Moody last night with at least half a dozen girls getting ready to go see a movie. Mackenzie Lewis, running out after the keynote to preside over some social service club project she’s orchestrating. I didn’t even recognize David Griffen. You wouldn’t believe his hair and his beard and his tattoo. The tatoo’s on his wrist, in Hebrew. I can’t read Hebrew. I hope it says, “I’m gonna regret this in 20 years.” I’m hoping to see all the Marble Falls kids at Rosa’s this afternoon.

The Four Horsemen shared an inspiring three hour prayer session late into the night. I love these guys.

I’ll be back in NRH in time have a beautiful dinner with the wonderful ladies in my life and just long enough to pack up for Fresno.

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last…” ~Romans 1:16-17

Peace,

Allan

Obey & Submit

September 22, 2008 / Allan / 4 Comments

“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority.” ~Hebrews 13:17

Yield to their authority and respect their position. If you go back to verse 7 we see that these elders, these leaders, were the ones who had taught these Christians. They were the teachers. And they were living such exemplary lives of faith that the members of the congregation were told to imitate that faith. Follow the example of the godly lives of their leaders. Live like they’re living. And, yes, the elders are told they will have to give an account, not for the church finances or the proper use of the church gym, but for what they’re teaching and how they’re living their lives. And as the flock of these shepherds, we are to be open and accepting of their teaching and eager to imitate their examples.

But here’s the real thing. And here’s the crux of what we did yesterday at Legacy.

My concern with the elders is usually, “How are they treating me?”

And the answer, once I think about it, is always, “Better than I deserve.”

And the same goes for you.

You are more important to your elders than you know. They love you. They pray for you. They think about you. They wonder how to better serve you. They agonize over your soul. Every single day they wake up, completely aware of their limitations to perform the difficult task of shepherding a flock of believers, and it’s a tremendous burden. And they pray and they cry and they study and they grieve. And they pour their lives out for us. They sacrifice time with their families and work and vacation. They agonize over our souls. Did I already say that?

They would die for you. They would.

And yesterday we took a few minutes to pray over our elders. We drug our elders and our wives into the three center aisles and we prayed over them. The whole church. We got up out of our pews and walked over to our eleven elders (Jerry, wish you were here) and put our hands on them and our arms around each other and lifted them up to our God. Eleven big groups of loving brothers and sisters praying out loud for our Father to shower our leaders with his richest blessings of mercy and love and wisdom and strength. One of those memorable moments that I think was wonderful for our elders and for the church. Lots of tears. Lots of smiles. Lots of hugs. Lots of pats on the back. And a realization of the burden our shepherds carry and the church’s responsibility to help them carry it by encouraging them and making their difficult tasks a joy and not a burden.

Hug your elder today. Send him a card or an email. Love him. And try to make his job easier.

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I’ve got very little to say about the Cowboys game last night since I just saw the second half in our hotel room last night after the opening keynote at the ACU Lectureships here in Abilene. Maybe the Eagles have a pretty good offense. Maybe the Cowboys defense is better than we thought. Maybe Aaron Rodgers is already done. I don’t know. I wasn’t really able to pay much attention.

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The blogging will be sporadic this week. Hang with me. The “KK&C Top 20 College Football Poll” will be released late Tuesday night / early Wednesday morning.

Peace,

Allan

Clean Up

September 18, 2008 / Allan / 2 Comments

This is all follow-up and clean-up—an effort to tie up a few loose ends before the weekend.

I was wrong Tuesday in declaring that Aaron and Jennifer didn’t turn in their “KK&C Top 20” because they were in Hawaii. They actually took the time to put their numbers and teams together and emailed them to me from their hotel before the deadline. It’s just that our email server here at the church blocked it from getting to me because it was coming from the Hawaii hotel’s server. I didn’t see their lists until yesterday.

There’s nothing really earth-shattering that would have impacted the order of the teams in this week poll. But I do want to pass on a little trash talk. Everybody’s picking on Ohio St. And Jennifer piles on with this as she lists the Buckeyes at #12: “Do we really even have to include them this week? Yippee for USC putting them in their spot!” And Aaron boldly predicts that USC could beat the St. Louis Rams. They both put Florida at #3, declaring that the Gators will “spank Tennessee this Saturday to solidify their place.”

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About last night…

Every now and then, maybe once every couple of months, I get a weird vibe from the congregation here at Legacy while I’m preaching. It’s like they’re all staring at me, not with scowls, but with very serious looks on thier faces and with great intensity. And I’m never sure if everybody’s upset with what I’m saying or if they’re just really, really paying attention.

It happened last night in Oasis.

I’m preaching the Colossians 3:11 and Galatians 3:28 stuff I talked about in yesterday’s blog. In Christ, we all belong to each other. Just as Jesus lived and died to obliterate the differences that separate us, we too should be committed to breaking down the barriers of culture and language and socio-economic status that exist in our churches. And now, as we gear up for Give Away Day, is the perfect time to start thinking about and talking about these things. It’s time to be perfectly clear about how we understand the Gospel message.

Because the three-thousand people who visit us on Give Away Day and the people who are being brought to Christ by Manuel and our Spanish-speaking ministry are, in some ways, our enemies. They are enemies of our comfort zones, enemies of our decency and order, enemies of our property values, enemies of our traditions. And may God have mercy on us if we communicate to them in any way that you must be a white, working, middle-class, English-speaking American citizen in order to use our buildings or our classrooms or our worship center or our restrooms.

If we put any limits at all on anybody who’s different because they’re different—any limits—we are not of God. We are not acting like Jesus. If we exclude them from the table or shun them to another room, if we don’t give them full and complete access to all the physical blessings of this church family, we are, in essence, denying them access to the full and complete salvation from God. Because the Gospel of Jesus is that ALL barriers are annihilated. ALL the walls are destroyed. There are no differences. Christ is all and is in all.

And I’m looking at our church and wondering, “Are they all mad or are they just chewing on this?”

They’re just chewing on it. They’re taking it all in. I believe they’re listening and understanding and even agreeing. But at the same time they’re saying, “But that’s hard.”

Yes, it is. Christianity is a very difficult religion. Very difficult. As Neil Postman says, “Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.”

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I’m leaving Sunday afternoon for the ACU Lectureships with the rest of the Four Horsemen. After Jason preaches in Diana, he’ll meet Kevin at Dan’s house in Forney and they’ll all pick me up here at about 3:00. And we’ll eat Jalapeno chips and Whoppers (Jason will eat Corn Nuts. Nasty.) and we’ll laugh and we’ll make fun of each other and play on each other’s personality quirks and bad habits. Man, are we going to laugh. We always do. Along with our February camping trip, this is our other annual time to be together for a few days and minister to each other and study and pray together and grow together in Christ and in each other. What a blessing these three godly men are to me. What a tremendous source of strength for me in my difficult walk with Christ Jesus and his people. My heart overflows with gratitude to our God who saw fit to bring together a Garland cop, an architect, a jewelry salesman, and a radio anchor seven years ago to dramatically change all of our lives. To eternally alter our lives. And the rest of my prayer is that our God will use us in huge, massive ways to impact our communities and this whole planet for his Kingdom.

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I have to leave Abilene early—Tuesday after lunch—because I’m flying out of DFW Wednesday morning for Fresno, California to spend four days with the Woodward Park Church of Christ and my great friend Jim Gardner. I’m speaking five times in those four days, four times as part of their annual Spiritual Growth Workshop and then preaching at Woodward Park Sunday morning. And I’m excited about it on many fronts.

I’ve never been to California before. Never. I’m anxious to see the beautiful central California valley, even if I probably won’t make it out to the beach. I’m excited to experience the multi-cultural church family there at Woodward Park. Over a thousand members, like here at Legacy, but only about 600 English-speaking. Wonderful. I can’t wait. I’ll be preaching to a pretty huge crowd on Saturday night, probably the biggest ever for me personally. So, I’m looking forward to that. But mainly I’m thrilled to be spending a little time with Jim. As busy as he’s going to be, it will probably only be a little time. But it will be valuable. What a heart for preaching. What a spirit for evangelism. The more he can rub off on me, the better for us here at home. I miss Mandy and his precious daughters. I haven’t seen them since they left Marble Falls two years ago. And I’ll get to see Jimmy Mitchell again. Jim’s flying him in to lead our worship at the workshop.

It’ll be hectic every minute of every day between right now and next Sunday night, the 28th. Please ask our Father to bless me with safe travel and for his Word to be proclaimed powerfully through me and all the other speakers in Abilene and Fresno next week.

Peace,

Allan

Delay of Game

September 24, 2007 / Allan / 2 Comments

I’m sorry I’m so late with today’s post. I’ve been online all day trying to order a Tony Romo jersey.

Just kidding.

Forgive me. Today got completely away from me before it ever got started.

Now I’m waiting until tomorrow to get into all the ways our families and our churches and our institutions of higher learning are failing our teens. It’ll be one of those long, long posts that will probably spark more thought and discussion than anything else we’ve treated on this blog. And it’ll probably last the rest of the week. But it’s much more important than sacred space and song selection. The issue is so much bigger and deeper. And it impacts every last one of us.

Forgive me. And give me ’til tomorrow.

Peace,

Allan

My New Favorite Speaker

September 19, 2007 / Allan / 4 Comments

Jeff Walling always gets me with his illustrations. They’re masterful. They’re real. Walling’s illustrations are powerful in that they always create in me life-altering pictures that I never forget. And I look forward to the Tulsa Workshop and WinterFest every year because I know I’ll get to sit at the feet of Jeff Walling and receive God’s truth in a way that will impact me and never leave me.

Randy Harris nails me every time with his dry wit and sarcasm. It’s subtle. And you have to pay attention. But he’ll be cruising along and then mutter something, almost under his breath, that absolutely pricks my heart and convicts me. It’s like he’s been living inside my house — hockey players say “in my kitchen”— and knows all my shortcomings and failures and sins. And his little throwaway line causes my soul to bleed and my entire being to turn completely to my God who saves me. And I look forward to Tulsa every year because I know I’ll be challenged by Randy.

Terry Rush breaks my heart every time with his passion for our Lord and our Lord’s people. Terry can’t preach a sermon without crying or almost crying. And it’s because he loves God’s church so much. And it’s real. Because Terry sees what God sees. That pathos of the prophets. He feels the same grief over sin and sickness and injustice that our God feels. And I look forward to Tulsa every year because I know Terry is going to awaken me to new realities.

Jason’s been talking about Billy Wilson for several weeks.

Billy’s been speaking at ACU now for several years. I’m sure he’s a regular at Pepperdine. And it’s possible he’s even made an appearance or two at Tulsa. If so, I don’t know where I’ve been. I’m sick I’ve never heard him or heard of him before this week.

He’s my new favorite speaker.

Maybe it’s just because he’s new and fresh to me. Maybe it has something to do with his Scottish accent that’s cool and forces me to pay more careful attention to his words. But I don’t think so.

Billy combines the passion of Rush and the dry wit of Harris and the perfectly painted illustrations of Walling to homiletically grab me and rip me open and pour the words of God directly into my soul.

He’s certainly passionate. He calls ’em like he sees ’em. He screams and he yells. And, while he hasn’t done it yet, I think he’s capeable of throwing something. He sort of scares me.

He takes everyday things, things that every single person in the room has experienced — a new bike at Christmas, trying to open a stubborn jar, breakfast — and twists them around to reveal a profound truth about the Church that will never leave your head or your heart.

And he’s funny. Very funny.

Billy Wilson’s my new favorite speaker.

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Day Three is commencing. And I’m anxious for it, from Wilson’s opener this morning to Walling’s closer tonight. But, even more than that, I can’t wait to get home and see my girls. I miss them tremendously. They make me laugh and they fill my heart with joy. Carrie-Anne, I miss you, baby. I’ll see y’all soon.

Allan

Category: Lectureships (Page 10 of 11)

Going to California

Coming Home…For a Minute

Obey & Submit

Clean Up

Delay of Game

My New Favorite Speaker

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