The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Act Justly, Love Mercy

October 30, 2025 / / 0 Comments

The federal government shutdown is creating immediate and significant financial strains for more than 40-million people in this country, many of them right here in Midland. There are potentially hundreds of families here in West Texas who, beginning this weekend, will not receive their SNAP benefits for groceries or their federally-funded childcare subsidies. These families are stressed. To say the least.

Our church’s local missions partners are already seeing greater needs and are working hard to respond to the crisis. And as a body of Christians here at GCR, we want to ensure they have the resources necessary to continue serving their families in practical and meaningful ways. Thanks to our forward-thinking Connections Minister, Ryan Rampton, and our shepherds, we have approved up to $50,000 in Breakthrough funds to support our local partners, engage our congregation in personal and relational ministry, and address the pressing needs of our community.

This is how we are distributing the funds:

Mission Agape – $26,000 to provide an additional 1,000 food boxes for families in need. We are gathering as a church to help pack some of those boxes on Wednesday November 12. One hundred of these boxes are being reserved for Opportunity Tribe families, to be distributed by GCR members.

Family Promise – $11,000 to cover increased grocery and childcare costs for families transitioning out of homelessness. GCR members are also serving meals at Family Promise November 10-13.

Emerson Elementary – we are providing $250 HEB gift cards for every teacher and staff member at our adopted school who is receiving SNAP benefits. And we are referring students and their families needing food assistance to Mission Agape.

Praise God that, by his grace and the generosity of our church three years ago, we are able to use Breakthrough money to respond quickly and meaningfully to the needs of our city. Please be in prayer for the families who are worried right now, and consider how you might be able to give of your time in the coming weeks to serve our neighbors, to love like Jesus.

Our sermon this Sunday is from one of GCR’s Core Scriptures, Micah 6:6-8, in which God tells us through his prophet that he is most concerned that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. God’s people in Micah are living well while others in the community are suffering; God’s people are getting rich while their neighbors are hungry and poor; and God’s people are only concerned that their worship practices are in accordance with God’s commands. The Lord tells them they’ve broken the covenant, and they respond by asking how they should fix their corporate worship. That’s when God tells them they are missing the point–the most important thing is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him.

I think what GCR is doing in our local context during this national crisis, feeding our neighbors and providing for their needs, fits the spirit of acting justly and loving mercy. What this nation, what our city, needs from God’s people right now is not for us to be liberal or conservative, they don’t need us to be red or blue; they need us to be followers of Christ Jesus, they need us to operate in a certain way in our community because of our baptisms into the name of Jesus.

Peace,
Allan

Personal Relational Ministry

October 29, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Our vision statement at GCR Church is “Being Changed by God to Love Like Jesus.” It’s about both transformation and mission. It’s viewing everything through the lens of what God is doing both in us and through us. The vision emphasizes, without apology, the transformation of our people for the sake of loving others like our Lord. It’s our people doing ministry in personal and relational settings–being powerfully present with one another in our congregation and with others in our community.

We get that from our King. Thankfully, for us, it’s been part of our GCR DNA for several decades now.

 

 

 

 

 

Eugene Goudeau, in 1981, is one guy from GCR who said I must go to Brazil to help plant churches. That’s how SerCris Training School in Campo Grande got started.

John DeFore, 30 years ago, is one guy from GCR doing World Bible School correspondence courses with people in Kenya. He says I need to go meet these people, I need to do some personal follow-up with these new Christians. That’s how Kenya Widows and Orphans got started–KWO.

Jarrod Brown, 20 years ago, goes to Honduras with not much more than his Bible and a Toyota pickup. He said I want to live with these people, I want to do life with these people in their community. That’s how Mission Lazarus got started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we partner with our missionaries in foreign lands, it changes us. It transforms us. It informs and shapes the way we do missions here in Midland. Personal. Relational.

We don’t drop dinner off at Family Promise and leave. We sit down and we share a meal with the people at Family Promise.

We don’t do Harvest Party in our parking lot anymore. We take Harvest Party to the people at Family Promise and Midland FairHavens and Safe Place. I love the way we do Harvest Party now. All the pictures in this post are from the Harvest Party we threw for Family Promise this past Sunday evening.

 

 

 

 

 

We go inside Emerson Elementary and read books to the kids during lunch. We stand at their door on Mondays and fist bump all those little kids as they begin their week.

We don’t just pass out Thanksgiving food boxes in a drive-thru in our church parking lot anymore. We take time to visit with those we’re feeding. We pray with people. We hold their kids. We share desserts. We try to connect.

That’s our vision at GCR Church.

Personal. Relational.

Peace,
Allan

Missions Sunday Miracle

October 27, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” ~Philippians 4:19-20

Going into yesterday’s first-ever GCR Missions Sunday, there were at least a half dozen reasons why we might not make our giving goal of $416,000. There were questions. Maybe a couple of doubts.

But by the grace of God and the power of his Holy Spirit, this community of faith answered the call by giving $538,286!

I’m still trying to wrap my brain and my heart around what it all means. What happened yesterday makes no earthly sense. None. There’s nothing to do but give glory to God. There’s no one else to thank, nothing else to credit, no other explanation. That’s the way our God works. He is truly the only one.

Following Eric West’s announcement of the grand total, as the church burst into celebratory applause, I almost took off my shoes. Holy ground. Sacred space. A powerfully miraculous thing had occurred. Our God was moving in and with and through his people. God had far exceeded our grandest plans.

Thank you to every member of our GCR Church family who sacrificed in October and gave to fund our global missions efforts in 2026. Thank you for being so open to what our Lord is doing through our missions partners and for trusting him with your resources. Thank you for your commitment to the cause and your great generosity.

As blessings pile on top of blessings, we are increasingly convinced that our Father is keeping his covenant promises to GCR and to all his creation. May he be glorified and may his Son be exalted and may his Spirit be praised for ever and ever. Amen!

Peace,
Allan

Powerfully Present

October 22, 2025 / / 0 Comments

If we’re not careful, we can de-personalize our God. We can’t think about God in terms of an idea or a force or a doctrine. You can’t love an idea or a force, you can’t be in relationship with a doctrine. So, we effectively remove the command to love God and replace it with acknowledge God. Or respect God. Consider God. Defend God. Study God.

Those verbs require very little, if any, personal relationship.

But our God is a personal and relational God. We know this because he revealed himself to us in his very personal and relational Son. Jesus Christ gave up everything to live with us, to live among us, and to live like us.

The Gospels all record our Lord Jesus going out of his way to be relational and personal with the people he met along the way. Just in the Travel Narrative, that ten-chapter section in the middle of Luke that gives us the details of Jesus’ last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus interacts with people very personally. Intimately. Our Lord is powerfully present.

Luke 10 – Jesus is at Mary and Martha’s house getting ready for a meal. Picture our Lord inside their house, sitting down at their table eating their food, with them. Teaching them. Blessing them.

Luke 11 – Jesus teaches personally teaches his followers how to pray. And then he teaches them about hospitality by telling them a story about a meal. At the end of the chapter, Jesus is inside a Pharisee’s house, reclining at his table, eating his food, with him. And he teaches with a parable about dirty dishes.

Luke 13 – Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus is not a monk. He is at church every time the doors are opened, with God’s people, as was his custom. There’s a woman at church who’s been crippled for 18 years. When Jesus saw her, the text says, he called her near. He spoke to her. The Bible says he touched her. And he healed her. In the parable at the end of the chapter, Jesus paints a picture of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God by saying it’s like a huge meal: “People will come from east and west and north and south and will take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”

Luke 14 – Jesus is at another Pharisee’s house eating supper. If you pay attention, you’ll notice that our Lord is always eating a meal, just finishing a meal, or on his way to a meal. Jesus teaches and heals and blesses around the table. Around the bread and the fish, the fruit and the wine, the conversation and the hospitality. There are more stories about food in this chapter. The great banquet and all the invited guests. The open invitation. All things are ready! Everybody is invited to eat with the King!

Luke 15 – Jesus is accused of eating meals with sinners, of getting too close and personal with people who are unclean. So he tells these stories about seeking and saving the lost. Friends and neighbors rejoicing together over lost coins and sheep that have been found. The celebratory feast with the fattened calf and the loud music and dancing when the prodigal son comes home. Jesus says, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”

Luke 16 – Jesus tells a story about a poor man who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.

Luke 17 – Another story about sitting down and eating.

Luke 18 – Jesus pulls little children up into his lap. Sticky-fingered, snotty-nosed little kids. “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them!” At the end of the chapter our Lord encounters a blind man at the Jericho city gates. Jesus brings the man near to him, the Gospel says. “What do you want me to do for you?” And he heals him.

Luke 19 – Jesus plucks a wee little man out of a Sycamore tree and says, “I must stay at your house today!”

The point is that Jesus went inside people’s houses. He went to people where they were. Around a table. In the kitchen. In the living room. Eating and sharing meals together.

Jesus never does anything halfway. When it comes to people, when it comes to the lost, our Savior goes all the way. He goes into people’s houses where it’s personal and close. He looks at their family pictures on the walls in the hallway. He reads the cartoons and the baby shower announcements held in place by flower magnets on the refrigerator. He sits down and shares meals. He passes the mashed potatoes. He compliments the cook. He laughs. He listens. And he shares.

Personal. Relational. Powerfully present.

Peace,
Allan

The Sins of My Youth

October 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Today is Tom Petty’s 75th birthday. I’ve been celebrating / remembering this American Rock and Roll icon all weekend by posting some of my thoughts and some of his songs. These are not my favorite Tom Petty songs of all time; these are songs that I believe capture the essence of what I love so much about his writing and singing. Tom and the Heartbreakers are not my all-time favorite band; I still claim Van Halen as my number one and Aerosmith a very close second. But I would never call Tom Petty a third. He holds a special place that defies those kinds of rankings.

Here’s the deal with Tom Petty and me. He has been my constant musical companion since my Junior High days until this very moment because he kept writing. He kept working. As Tom aged and matured, he kept writing and singing and recording the songs, and the songs kept growing and maturing along with me. His music kept speaking to me, reflecting me, giving voice to my heart and my thoughts in my current present right now context.

Some of my favorite music from some of my favorite bands is only really relevant to the ‘80s. And who I was in the ‘80s. It’s great. I still love it. But I’m not that guy anymore. That’s why Tom’s in a different place with me.

Tom Petty didn’t dwell in the past. Or try to keep re-creating the past. None of us can; none of us should.

The albums “Wildflowers” and “Into the Great Wide Open” would never contain songs like “Anything that’s Rock and Roll” or “Rockin’ Around with You.” His last several albums are packed with wistful and reflective songs, lyrics that speak to regret, mistakes made, broken promises, and a realistic or maybe even cynical view of the present. The lines from “Anything That’s Rock and Roll” are a whole lot different from the lines in “All You Can Carry.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. Every one of Tom’s albums contains a whole lot of what every one of his albums contains. You’re going to find some rebellion and some hard rock guitar riffs. And, yes, there’s plenty of cynicism, or realism, in those early records, too. The first lines of “American Girl” tell you right away that Tom Petty’s gonna call ‘em like he sees ‘em.

But his latest works over the past 30 years have grown up with me. Or I’ve grown up with them. It’s both. That might be the most meaningful, significant reason Tom’s music feels so different and special. At least, it does for me.

Please enjoy “Sins of My Youth” from Tom Petty’s last studio album, “Hypnotic Eye.”

Peace,
Allan

The Wild One, Forever

October 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Tom Petty would have been 75 tomorrow and I’m celebrating / remembering his greatness this whole weekend by posting some of my favorite songs. I’ve always really appreciated Tom Petty’s music. It’s always connected to me. Deeply. Profoundly. I’ve always loved it. But it’s not easy articulating how. Or why.

There’s a lot there.

It’s Tom’s unique and nasally voice, his slow southern accent, and his wry and dry sense of humor. It’s his laid-back style, his incredible versatility, and the way he made all of it look so easy, like he wasn’t even really trying. Part of it is the way Tom says “down” and “town.” I love that.

Mostly, though, it’s the lyrics. Tom’s not just a rock and roll legend, he is one of this country’s greatest ever songwriters. No one can paint a more vivid portrait or tell a more captivating story in just a three-minute song like Tom Petty–like he puts YOU in his song.

Take the opening lines of “The Wild One, Forever,” off Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1976 debut: “The moon sank and the wind blew and the streetlights slowly died.”

Man, you can SEE that. You know exactly what that street looks like, you can see the sky, what color it is, you can feel the wind. You can FEEL the whole scene.

You’re in it. You’re hooked. And you want to know what’s going to happen.

This is a deep cut. An unappreciated gem from their first album. I hope you enjoy it.

Peace,
Allan

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