The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Holy Ministry

June 4, 2013 / / 1 Comment

From start to finish, the Scriptures call God’s people to be different from the rest of the world. We are called to be separate. To be distinct from the culture. The apostle Paul sets his argument up in 2 Corinthians with a series of five rhetorical questions in which the answers are all negative. The answers to his questions are either none or nothing.

What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Nothing.

What fellowship can light have with darkness? None.

What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? None.

What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? Nothing.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? None.

What true Texan roots for the New York Yankees? None.

Paul could have gone on and on. And he kinda does. But he’s making the point that this point doesn’t really need making. It’s obvious. The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are at severe odds. They always have been. We are called to stand out to the world as being very different from the world.

Now, let’s be clear, Paul is not talking about Christians withdrawing from the world. He’s not saying that Christians should only do business with other Christians, that we should only live in Christian neighborhoods, and eat only with other Christians in Christian restaurants. He’s not saying we have to play on Christian sports teams and go to Christian schools and exercise with Christian yoga groups at Christian church buildings. Those kinds of things aren’t even options, and never have been, throughout most of the world throughout all of history. Being involved in and in community with non-Christians is not only unavoidable and necessary, it’s actually essential for the spread of the Gospel. Paul’s not talking about a church commune out on a big ranch somewhere or a Christian compound up in the mountains. He’s talking about purifying the Christian community in order to do ministry.

We will not be able to minister to the world and thus fulfill God’s purpose for his church unless we show the people of the world that we are different.

From Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon:

“The most interesting, creative, political solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs. The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.

The world needs the church, not to help the world run more smoothly or to make the world a better and safer place for Christians to live. Rather, the world needs the church because, without the church, the world does not know who it is. The only way for the world to know that it needs redeeming is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. The way for the world to know that it needs redeeming, that it is broken and fallen, is for the church to enable the world to strike hard against something which is an alternative to what the world offers.”

The ministry of the church is not just to spread a message. The goal of the ministry is not merely information. We don’t assemble together and live and die together like we’re students in a classroom taking notes on theology. We are a pocket of God’s presence in the world. And from this pocket of God’s presence we are taking his world back from enemy hands. We live in enemy occupied territory. And God uses our alternative faith community and our transformed ways of thinking and speaking and acting to win it back.

“God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” ~1 Thessalonians 4:7

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Speaking of Hauerwas, score another one for P-Grove! My great friend Jim Martin has been announced as the new vice-president at Harding School of Theology in Memphis. Jim is a godly man; beyond reproach; trustworthy and true. Our God speaks to Jim and I know that Jim listens. He is God’s dear friend. And I believe our God regards Jim as one of his greatest servants. And now our Lord has given him that next job.

If the people he leads at Harding receive just a tiny fraction of the blessings and strength and wisdom that Jim has given to me… Man, I can’t imagine the great impact this is going to have on God’s eternal Kingdom.

Peace,

Allan

Making Many Rich

May 30, 2013 / / 1 Comment

“…genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich.” ~2 Corinthians 6:9-10

Paul says Christian ministry is a spectacular joy and a debilitating hardship. When he’s talking about ministry, Paul describes both blessing and suffering. And it’s not an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp,” in which the two words in a phrase cancel each other out. It’s not “rap music.” Or “military intelligence.” Or “random order.” Blessing and suffering actually always go together in Christian ministry.

Throughout all of 2 Corinthians, Paul says over and over that the power of God is not proven by the absence of pain. God’s approval, his work, is not seen in the absence of suffering. It’s Paul’s faithful endurance in the middle of the pain, his faithful perseverance in the middle of suffering, where God does his greatest work. And in the above passage, Paul says something quite shocking: Many people are made rich through his suffering.

This is the reality that transforms his ministry. He knows that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. He’s convinced that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. He’s sold on the fact that Christ’s grace is sufficient and that God does his best work in the midst of howling emptiness.

We are called to live for others as the very embodiment of the One who died for us. That’s going to involve suffering. And Paul understands that suffering makes him more like Christ — it imitates, in a way, the death of Jesus on the cross. God works through our sufferings, in a way, to save others.

Paul says his personal poverty, by the grace of God, is making many people rich. He has nothing, he says, and yet, because he sees the eternal significance of his hardships, he says “I have everything.” Poor. Yet making many rich.

Then, two chapters later, Paul reminds us: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)

Paul makes the connection: God works through us for the sake of the world in very similar ways as he worked/works through Christ Jesus. Our Lord did his very best work, he accomplished the greatest event in the history of mankind, in the deepest and darkest shadows of suffering and death. Your suffering, your poverty, right now by the grace of God, is accomplishing similar things for a desperate and dying world.

Peace,

Allan

Hail-acious!

May 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Yeah, it’s a Skip Bayless headline, but it’s the best I’ve got today on just four-and-a-half hours of sleep.

It was a rock-and-roll night in Amarillo, starting with the 70+ mph winds at 5:00 in the evening that downed a huge billboard on Western Street, to the tornado warnings and funnel clouds spotted at 45th and Soncy, about a mile and a half from our house, to the five or six minutes of intense wind and hail that drove all five of us to the closet with our pillows and cell phones. Neither of last night’s two tornadoes — the one near our house and the one near downtown — actually touched the ground. But the hail and the high winds did plenty of damage to the Sleepy Hollow and Puckett neighborhoods of southwest Amarillo.

The tornado warning was issued for Randall County at just before 11:00 last night. I woke up Carrie-Anne and we started getting the closet ready. I moved Whitney’s truck as close to the northeast corner of the house as I could, locked all the doors, and closed all the shutters. I grabbed the weather radio out of the garage, a flashlight, and one more Diet Dr Pepper, and headed back to the TV in our bedroom to watch the radar. It was definitely coming our way. In fact, John Harris, the guy on channel four, drew the path of the storm and said, “It’s going to travel east right between 45th and 34th.” He may as well have drawn a little house on his map and said, “Right there, the Stanglins’ house, that’s where it’s going to hit!” The sirens started sounding in our neighborhood at about 11:10, prompting us to wake up the girls and herd them down the hall to the closet.

While they were hunkering down, I kept my radar vigil in the bedroom until they announced the tornado at 45th and Soncy. It was dark, of course, and I couldn’t see the sky. I had no feel for what was really happening. So, for the first time in my life, I actually got in the closet with Carrie-Anne and the girls. Whew, it was hot in there. All five of us with our pillows and blankets and more than a little anxiety and stress. Yuk. I left the door cracked just enough so we could get a little bit of air and still listen to the TV. I texted with John Todd, who had experienced the storm first in Bushland and came out OK. I talked briefly to Greg Dowell, whose family had already fled to the safety of Doug Hershey’s basement. Declan called to tell me that he and some friends were determined to stay outside through the storm. (Way to go, Declan!) And the girls were all texting their friends, too.

Then it hit. Hard. Loud. Scary. Five or six minutes of high winds and heavy hail. Almost an inch-and-a-quarter of rain. Our house was just getting pounded. And then, in an instant, it was over. Almost too quickly, it was over. We hesitated to come out. Is it safe? Is it really over? Are we in the middle of something and about to get slammed by the back end of it?

Then I heard John Harris freaking out on the TV. They got a visual of the downtown funnel just down the street from their studios and they were scrambling. The on-air guys were yelling for everybody to get in the bathrooms. They were knocked off the air for about thirty seconds. And I couldn’t stand it anymore. I jumped up to watch and, once I got a look at the radar, realized we were in the clear. It was time to go outside and check the property.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I assumed our four sky lights were going to be smashed, but somehow they made it OK. The only broken glass was on the north side of the house where the hail broke through two of our game room windows. Thankfully, those windows are double-paned, so all the weather stayed outside. And one fence post was blown down along the driveway in the back. The ping-pong ball sized hail stripped our flowerbeds and scattered leaves and twigs all over the yard and street. The hail was stacked up in big drifts in lots of places and was spread out like snow in others. But, other than that, there’s just going to be a lot of raking and sweeping over the next day or two.

Well, and I may want to think about adding a ceiling fan to that closet.

Peace,

Allan

The New Has Come!

May 28, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” ~2 Corinthians 5:17

We hear the word “new” about thirty-one thousand times a day. All in TV commercials, I think. New this, new that, new everything. Everything’s new. New and improved. New and longer lasting. New and April fresh. No, most of those things aren’t really new. That detergent’s not really new: they just added some blue sprinkles inside the box and a fourth color on the outside of the box. That cereal’s not new; they just replaced the yellow stars with purple ponies. Come on, we’re wise to this scam. The word “new” just means less content, more complicated packaging, at a higher price.

That’s why Paul says “new creation.” Paul says participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus dramatically changes everything. The same God who created the heavens and the earth out of emptiness and darkness takes your emptiness and darkness, he takes your confusion and chaos, and creates a brand new person. You are truly a brand new person, full of God’s Holy Spirit, made to experience all of life in a brand new way. All of this is from God, Paul says.

The same power that was on display when God first said, “Let there be light” is at work in you. The same glory that characterized the forming of the mountains and the seas, the same glory of the making of the sun and the moon and the stars, the same glory that was present in the creation of that very first human being from the dust of the ground in the holy image of Almighty God, that same original and eternal power and glory now characterizes you! And everything around you!

The old has gone; the new has come! He has changed us! He has changed everything! What God has done and is doing in your life is just as magnificent and miraculous as the creation of the world!

I’m glad Paul said, “new creation,” and not just “new.”

“New creation” changes everything.

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My good friend Matt Richardson’s grandmother died Sunday in Abilene. He and I were exchanging some texts today about her and about the funeral later this week. He described her to me — “a Godly woman with plenty of spunk.” And then he wrote, “You’ll like her when you meet her.”

“You’ll like her when you meet her.”

Yeah, I love that. I am going to meet Matt’s grandmother some day soon. I will get to know her. And I will like her.

I thanked Matt for writing that, for reminding me that his grandmother lives forever and that we will eat and drink together with our risen King around his banquet table in his eternal Kingdom. For reminding me that my grandmother lives, too. For reminding me that he who believes in Jesus will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die.

When I thanked Matt for writing, “You’ll like her when you meet her,” he texted right back:

“I didn’t mean today…”

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Carley and the show choir at Bonham Middle School rocked the ’80s last night. If the music from my high school days is considered by today’s kids to be old and nostalgic, what does that make me?

Peace,

Allan

Our Lord’s Will

May 24, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Burt Palmer, the “Sheep Dog,” the warm, funny, out-going, self-deprecating senior pastor at Polk Street Methodist Church has said it a few times recently and repeated it again in front of sixty-five other elders and ministers at last night’s 4 Amarillo prayer meeting: “I can’t believe it’s the Church of Christ guy who’s pushing this ecumenical partnership.” Howard Griffin, the straight-laced, forward-thinking, super-organized, community-minded senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church has told me that when he tells his people about our 4 Amarillo plans, their reaction is something along the lines of, “Are you sure the Church of Christ wants to be involved in this?” Howie Batson, the most senior of all us senior pastors downtown, the long-time and much-loved, brilliant and soft-spoken, pastoral-face-of-the-city senior pastor at First Baptist Church whispered to me at breakfast yesterday and again after last night’s meeting, “You know, you’re going to get some push back from the other Churches of Christ in town.”

Yeah, some of it’s funny. Some of it’s sad. None of it surprises me. But, this is just the right thing to do. It’s right and it’s good; it’s very good. Because we know for a fact that the unity of all God’s children as a testimony to his power is the will of our Lord Jesus. Good gravy, it’s the last thing he prayed for on his way to the cross.

“…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe… May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me.” ~John 17:20-23

We know that last night’s prayer meeting and our long-term plans to join forces in worship and service for the sake of our city is pleasing to our Father. We can be certain of that. How many biblical passages about the Body of Christ, how many Scriptures about Christian unity, how many references to fellowship and brotherly love do you want me to cite?

There were twelve tables in that room last night with six to eight ministers and elders from the four churches at each one. Well, that’s not entirely true. The table that was positioned at the very front center of the room was empty, drawing attention to yet another thing we all have in common: nobody sits down front. I sat at a table with Jim and Mickye from First Baptist, Callie and Kim from Polk Street, and our own Matthew Blake. We read Scripture together and we prayed. We discussed together what each of our churches are already doing in Amarillo (a ton, as it turns out; praise God!) and dreamed out loud about what God might do through us in the future. As we prayed around our table, I couldn’t help but hear Leon praying for unity two tables over. I heard Steve Rogers behind me at his table, talking to God about his Holy Spirit. During our discussions I could hear Greg laughing a couple of tables to my right. I watched Steve and Larry introduce themselves to about forty different people. I was so proud of our guys last night, so proud of their eager participation and leadership in this great cause.

Burt led us in a time of meditation and prayer from Ephesians 4:3-6, reminding us that there is just one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, and, while we use different amounts of water, just one baptism, We recognized together in prayer that we are called to be a unified people of God. We acknowledged that God is the Father of us all. And we pledged to commit to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Howard led us in a time of brain-storming together about ways we could partner with one another for the benefit of others. If somebody comes to Polk Street looking for food, Polk Street’s not going to start a big food pantry, they’re going to send them to Central. If somebody comes to Central looking for an ESL class, we’re not going to start one, we’re going to send them to First Baptist. If First Baptist needs two more guys to accompany their trailer of supplies to tornado victims in Moore, they’ll call us or First Presbyterian to see if anybody wants to go. People at First Baptist who want to do prison ministry should partner with the programs already in place at Polk Street. People at Polk Street who want to work at Martha’s Home should partner with what Central is already doing instead of trying to reinvent another program. Why not?

I outlined our plans for the next twelve months to serve our city together in the name of Jesus: serving our downtown-area elementary schools, serving and worshiping together during Thanksgiving and Easter, building the Habitat for Humanity houses next summer. In the context of Ephesians 4:11-13, we thanked our God for the works he’s about to put in front of us. We recognized that, according to Scripture, these works of service lead to unity and to increased Christ-likeness. And we begged God to give us those works, to raise up the leaders within our four churches, and to prepare our city to be turned upside down for our risen Savior.

Howie brought it home with an inspiring story about a young girl he presented a Bible to more than a decade ago at one of their summer Bible schools. This young child, who was being starved and abused in her home at the time, has grown into a wonderful Christian young lady who’s written and published a book about her experiences. Howie reminded us that you never know at the time how our God is using our efforts to serve others. And he encouraged us to embrace these new efforts in our downtown neighborhoods with trust that our Father is going to blow us away with his grace and power. We read from Jesus’ prayer for Christian unity for the sake of the world in John 17, and then pledged to God to follow his lead. We asked God to take us to places we’ve never been before in sacrifice and service for others. And we gave our partnership and our plans, our projects and programs, to him in prayer.

I believe that Satan, the Accuser, has already noticed. I believe that when Burt stood up last night to kick off our meeting, Satan also stood up at the same time and said, “They’re doing what?!?” I believe that, after last night, hell is trembling. And I believe heaven is rejoicing. I believe that last night our Father said, “Finally!” And then he elbowed a couple of his angels and said, “Now, watch this!”

We are acknowledging that Jesus has the power to change everything, to fix everything, to make everything right. And we’re showing Amarillo what it looks like by our sacrifice and service, by our re-organized priorities, by our Christian unity, and by our lives.

Peace,

Allan

4 Amarillo

May 23, 2013 / / 4 Comments

Four guys walk into a bar: a Baptist, a Methodist, a Church of Christ, and a Presbyterian… that’s a joke.

Four sets of ministers and elders walk into a church building to pray: Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, and Presbyterian… that’s not a joke. It’s the holy will of our God and a magnificent witness to our city of the power of Jesus! And it’s happening this evening!

“I pray also for those who will believe in me through [the apostles’] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” ~John 17:20-23

We believe that it is God’s will that all his children, all disciples of his Son, be reconciled. We think God’s great desire is for all Christians to be brought together as a powerful witness to the world of his love and peace. You know, this is in our Church of Christ DNA. It was established in the opening lines of Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address, the charter document for our Restoration Movement, written in August 1809:

“That it is the grand design and native tendency of our holy religion to reconcile and unite men to God and to each other in truth and love to the glory of God and their own present and eternal good will not, we presume, be denied by any of the genuine subjects of Christianity.”

The whole document is about reconciliation, the kind of reconciliation that drives God’s eternal plans. The very ministry of reconciliation he’s given those of us who profess our faith in him. The words in the document are bold and aggressive. And they ring with undeniable beauty and truth. They call for a swift end to all divisions among those who follow Jesus:

“Has the Captain of Salvation sounded a desist from pursuing this deadly enemy that is sheathing its sword in the very bowels of Christ’s Church, rending and mangling his mystical body to pieces? Has he said to his servants, ‘Let it alone?’ If not, where is the warrant for a  cessation of endeavors to have it removed?”

Campbell claims that tearing down the walls and uniting with all our brothers and sisters in Christ is a matter of universal right, a duty belonging to every citizen of Zion. And while the work will be difficult and the opposition will come mainly from within the church establishment, Campbell says it is God’s will. It is the Church’s will. It is the will of those who’ve gone before us:

“Both the mighty and the many are with us. The Lord himself, and all that are truly his people, are declaredly on our side. The prayers of all the churches, nay, the prayers of Christ himself, and of all that have ascended to his heavenly Kingdom, are with us.”

I thank God for the Campbells and the Stones and the other giants of the faith who latched on to God’s holy will as revealed to us in Scripture and would. not. let. go. I thank God for the ecumenical spirit of the Central Church of Christ toward our brothers and sisters in other Christian churches in our city. I’m grateful for the willingness here — the eagerness! — to unite with other Christ-followers.

This evening, the Central elders and ministers are meeting at Polk Street Methodist Church with their elders and ministers and with the elders and ministers from First Baptist and First Presbyterian to spend one-and-a-half hours together in prayer. We are forming an alliance, a partnership. We’re calling it “4 Amarillo.” It’s a hopefully obvious play on words. Four churches breaking down our walls, putting aside our differences to unite for the sake of our city.

We’re not 100% sure what this looks like yet. This August, we want to join together to serve our downtown area elementary schools. We’d like to serve and worship together during the Thanksgiving and Easter holidays. We’re going to swap pulpits with one another. We’re thinking we’d like to build some Habitat for Humanity houses together.

We do believe that this partnership between denominations will be a powerful witness to our city that Jesus really is the Prince of Peace, that he really does possess the power to reconcile and unite. Jesus says in the middle of Matthew 18 that if two or three people will come together and agree on anything, he’ll show up just to see that! And we believe he will.

Whatever good comes from this alliance, we know it must begin in prayer. So that’s what we’re doing tonight at Polk Street Methodist. We’re going to pray. We’re going to commit to one another — all four churches — as brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re going to pledge in prayer that we will not be competitive, that we will not be territorial, that we will see our downtown area as the part of the Kingdom of God we’ve been given to serve together. And we’re going to submit the whole thing to our God. In prayer, we’re going to give our partnership, our efforts, our projects, all of it to our merciful Father for his purposes and to his eternal glory and praise.

It starts tonight. I have only hopes and dreams of where it might be going. But it starts tonight.

Peace,

Allan

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