Eye on 4 Midland

Our exciting worship and service partnership between the “4 Midland” churches–First Baptist, First Methodist, First Presbyterian, and GCR Church of Christ–will be featured in the “Eye on America” segment on the CBS Evening News this next Wednesday, Christmas Day. CBS television reporter Jason Allen and a camera and sound crew of three spent Tuesday evening and most of yesterday here in Midland, shooting at all four of our churches, gathering video from our recent “4 Midland” preacher swap, and interviewing us four ministers for the story. Evidently, Christians putting aside their differences to unite in worship and service together is national news.

Jason picked up the Midland Reporter-Telegram’s story about our preacher swap and the combined “4 Midland” Thanksgiving service from his post in Dallas and contacted all four of us to talk about the CBS feature. He then put together a pitch to the Evening News producers in New York and they gave him the green light late last week.

The whole experience gave us four preachers an excuse to hang out together, which we love to do, and remember how this partnership began a little over two years ago. We got to tell the story all over again, about how our God is working in and through our friendships to bring Christians together in Midland and witness to the larger community that there is a better way to think and act with others than what our culture models. In a society as divided as ours, four pastors of four different churches from four different denominations focusing on what and who unites us instead of dividing over areas where we see things differently is a powerful testimony.

The CBS film crew followed us to Gerardo’s Casita for our monthly lunch and prayer time together. Having our normal conversation while surrounded by cameras, lights, and microphones was a little more difficult than we imagined and led to a couple of awkward moments. But we managed to talk about our churches and our ministries, our families and holiday plans, and, of course, a little football. I was reminded again of how blessed by God I am to be friends with these three men, to be Gospel partners together, and to minister to the same city at the same time with each other. By God’s grace, we have developed a very easy and mutual admiration and respect for one another. There’s a trust among us that defies the culture. Some of that, I pray, comes across in the CBS story on Christmas.

And then we headed over to First Baptist where Jason sat the four of us down for a more formal conversation.

Yes, there are some significant differences between us in how we believe and practice and teach and preach what God is doing through Christ. People outside Texas, especially non-Christians outside our state, may not understand how deeply held some of those distinctives are. They may think of Midland as a place where everyone’s a Christian and we all believe the same things and it’s not a big deal to switch preachers on a Sunday morning. We know it is. But for a national audience to understand the significance of what we’re doing, Jason told us, they need to grasp some of the differences between our faith traditions. So, we did spend a little time talking about that: women’s roles, beliefs about baptism, communion practices, church leadership structures and titles, Christian assurance, and the providence of God. And we forcefully confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ is bigger than all of it. God’s grace alone covers us, so we’re all in the same boat. Being saved by God’s grace gives us our unity. Our Christian unity is not something we have to create or manufacture; we already have it. It’s just a matter of whether we’ll receive it, whether we’ll accept it and live into it. And we’ve all four decided we’re going to, for the sake of our city. Steve Brooks, my brother from First Methodist, leaned right into the camera and said, “We’re never going to stop.”

I don’t know how much of everything we said will wind up in the “Eye on America” piece. It’s a little scary to watch the reporter and his crew drive away with over an hour of footage for what’s only going to be a two or three minute story. But I’m convinced our God is in this. He’s doing this. He’s using our story to testify to his salvation plan for the whole world. And I pray, that by our efforts and his grace, someday a group of Christians and churches putting aside their denominational differences for the sake of the world won’t be national news.

Peace,

Allan