The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Adventure in the Kingdom

April 3, 2012 / / 1 Comment

A new cancer diagnosis every minute. More pink slips and foreclosures. Economic uncertainties. Tornados. Divorce. Car wrecks. War. Rumors of wars. These are not settled times in this country. Not at all. But they are — they should be — exciting and adventurous times.

Praise teams. Women’s roles. Church leadership structures. Instruments in worship. Small groups. Ecumenical movements and interdenominational partnerships. These are not settled times in the Churches of Christ. Not at all. But they are — they should be — exciting and adventurous times.

I’m reminded of something Stanley Hauerwas, that great theologian from the Grove, wrote almost twenty years ago:

“God has not promised us safety, but participation in an adventure called the Kingdom. That seems to me to be great news in a world that is literally dying of boredom.”

It’s all out there in front of us. Adventure. Thrills. Daring missions. Risky change. Challenging discussions. Exciting encounters. What are we waiting for? To get all our ducks in a row? To find all the answers first? To make sure everybody in our boat is on board with the exact same theology and uniform practices? No! What’s exciting about that?!?

What’s going to save more people? What’s going to redeem my part of the world for Christ? What’s going to make you and me more like Jesus?

Not worrying or complaining about current politics or health care or the culture. No ma’am. And not arguing and debating about church politics and practices and church culture.

Getting out there in the middle of it, with other Christians, sacrificing and serving, saving and learning, throwing our entire selves into the mission of God with full knowledge and trust that he is going to do something incredibly wonderful with it if we’ll just submit to him and his calling. That’s going to save people! That’s going to reconcile God’s world! That’s going to make us all more like our Risen Lord!

But what about this post-modern, post-Christian society? Nobody wants to listen to anything about Jesus. No, stop it. Everybody you know at work and in your neighborhood and at your Wal-Mart is desperately looking to be a part of something that’s hugely significant and bigger than themselves.

But what about our Church of Christ identity? How is the world going to know that we’re different from other churches? No, stop it. Jesus died on the cross so we would all be one in him, so I’m sure he’d be thrilled if we worked according to his plan for a change.

These are exciting and adventurous times in the Kingdom of God. Of course, as long as your faith is in you and your particular church or congregation instead of in the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, you won’t see them as anything but unsettling and dangerous. Faith in God tells us that we’re surrounded by divine potential. Holy mystery. Heavenly adventure. Eternal excitement. It’s high time we abandon ourselves and jump in with everything we’ve got.

Peace,

Allan

A Wholistic Approach to Sexuality

April 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We officially and publicly ordained Tanner Albright yesterday as our new full-time youth minister here at Central. It was a great day for Tanner and his family. I am so privileged to be serving with Tanner as co-workers in our Lord, so blessed to be his partner, so it was a great day for me, too. And because of what God has done through Tanner and what he is continuing to do with and through Tanner, it was a great day for the Central church family.

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Adam and Tanner just concluded a teaching series for our Middle School and High School students and their parents that took a truly wholistic approach to sexuality. It was called “Good Sex,” a provocative title to be sure. But the classes were about so much more than just sex.

Our youth ministers and volunteers presented the ideas of purity and sex in the larger context of discipleship to Jesus. Yes, seeking to live a life in pursuit of Christ means being holy in matters of sex. But it’s not just sex; it’s everything. Holy living, following Jesus, means being righteous and pure in all we do. It was a very Sermon on the Mount approach to living in Christ. It’s not just about the sex act itself; it’s just as much about other things we might do or say that are not submissive to Jesus as our King.

And you might get that in a lot of youth programs on sexuality. The thing that made this series really different, though, is the white-hot spotlight it put on the parents. The adults were challenged every week to be pure in their own sexuality, to take captive every thought, to submit everything to the Lordship of Jesus. Even as married adults, most of us struggle to maintain this purity in the things we think about, the things we look at and watch, the relationships we maintain, or the language we use. I told the kids and their parents at the closing ceremony last week, it doesn’t get any easier when you’re married. It’s just as difficult to be pure, it’s just as tough to be righteous.

Ah, the ceremony. This past Wednesday night. Another fabulous job by Adam and Tanner. All the teens and their parents down in the community room to celebrate the past couple of months and to make solemn vows to one another, to themselves, and to our God to seek purity, not only in their (our) sexuality, but in all facets of their (our) lives of discipleship to Christ.

We promised to be a real family to one another. We promised to protect and defend one another, to support and encourage, to correct and discipline one another as we follow Jesus together. As church leaders, we promised these teens and their families that Central will always be a place (and a people) where we can talk and pray openly about anything and everything. We promised that Central will always be where one can find forgiveness, acceptance, and accountability.

Adam wrote a beautiful set of vows that we recited together. You can access those vows by clicking here.

We worshiped together, we exchanged gifts and prayers with our children, and we expressed our love and commitment to one another and to our Lord.

It was just perfect. We need more of this, not less. Excellent job Adam and Tanner. Thank you so much. I’m so blessed by our Father to work alongside you.

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Whitney, Valerie, and Carley,

You are our precious daughters whom we love and in whom we are well pleased. You are no longer little girls. You are beautiful young ladies. And we can’t wait to see what our Lord has planned for you. Your mother and I want you to know how important you are to us and to God. You are beautiful, beloved, and worthy. We want to bless you with the promises of God. You belong to God and have been set apart from the world for his holy purposes. We want to bless you with God’s everlasting love, wisdom, peace, and joy. We also want to bless you with sexual purity and marital faithfulness.

We pray every day for our God’s hand to be present in your lives. May you faithfully serve our Lord Jesus Christ. And may he bless you richly with his mercy and strength.

We love you dearly and are so proud of you.

Dad

Two Press Releases

March 30, 2012 / / 2 Comments

I’m so pleased and proud to share the news that my brother, Keith Stanglin, is leaving his post at Harding University to become Professor of Scripture and Historical Theology at Austin Graduate School of Theology. Officially, Keith is filling the vacancy created by the imminent departure of Dr. Allan McNicol. Unofficially, I hope, Keith is preparing for the position by working on his Australian accent, growing his hair out so it can be a bit more disheveled, and beginning… to… measure… each… word… very… carefully.

You can access the Austin Grad press release by clicking here.

I feel like Keith and Amanda and their three beautiful kids are moving closer to us, but that’s probably just because we’re both now going to be in Texas at the same time for the first time since we were sharing bunk beds in the mid ’80s. Truth is, I think Amarillo is just as far away from Searcy as it is from Austin. But it feels closer. And I’m grateful for that, too.

I’m excited that Keith is going to be working every day, side by side, with some of the greatest people and strongest influences in my life. I consider the faculty and staff at Austin Grad to be among the best and brightest people I’ve ever had the blessing to know. Austin Grad is going to be good for Keith. And Keith is going to be very, very good for Austin Grad.

Congratulations, brother.

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You may have heard yesterday that Jerry Wayne and Troy Aikman are partnering to open up more than 50 Dunkin’ Donuts locations in DFW over the next five years. The quote by Jerry in the official press release is nauseating. At least.

“We have a lot of greats to be proud of here in North Texas. Great people, great sports teams, and great traditions, which is why I am excited about being a part of bringing great coffee, iced tea, and baked goods from Dunkin’ Donuts to the area.”

The release also states that Jones will share responsibilities for “strategic planning, expansion, and marketing” of the donut venture.

Is there another NFL General Manager who’s also running 50 donut shops? How can this man do everything he tries to do with any excellence? How in the world does Jerry Wayne go from negotiating his Dunkin’ Donuts deal and reviewing the scripts for the commercials and approving the logos for the billboards to running down the hall to watch film on a free agent fullback or to take a phone call from another team regarding a potential trade for an upgrade in the secondary? He sits down with his coaches and he’s interrupted by a phone call from Papa John’s about a coupon deal. He’s talking to Pepsi about a corporate tie-in and Mike Shanahan’s on the other line wanting to visit about a free safety. How can Jerry do both?

He can’t. It’s been obvious for almost two decades. He can’t.

The nice thing for Cowboys fans — how many of you are left? — is that this Dunkin’ Donuts deal wasn’t finalized three years ago. If it were, that new stadium in Arlington would be in the shape of a circle, with a much larger circular hole in the roof, complete with silver and blue sprinkles.

Peace,

Allan

Learn to Praise

March 27, 2012 / / 4 Comments

“Is this not the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” ~Daniel 4:30

We must be praisers of God. We are mostly praisers of people, praisers of things, praisers of ourselves, praisers of almost anything and everything but God. But we must learn to praise God. We must give him glory. We must give him honor. We must give him credit.

We must stop praising technology. We must stop praising innovation. We must stop praising politicians and platforms and parties, celebrities and athletes, preachers and churches, corporations and CEOs. We must learn to praise God.

Without him, we are sinners condemned to hell; with him, we are righteous sons and daughters of his eternal glory. Without him, we are an assembly of misfits and morons with no potential for good; with him, we are a community of heaven’s ambassadors on a mission to change the world. Without him, we are blind and lost; with him, we can see and we are saved. We must learn to praise him more and praise him better. We must give him more glory and honor.

We must stop just sitting there in our Christian assemblies, Sunday morning after Sunday morning, refusing to praise our God. Young people, old people, and everybody in between — we must learn to praise God. We must stop sitting there as spectators while others praise. We must stop the selfish and sinful practice of choosing when to praise and when not to praise according to who’s leading and what they’re leading. We must stop the arrogant practice of, even in our singing, while singing, being proud that we’re praising correctly, being proud that we’re doing it right. We must stop spending twenty minutes at a time writing down requests for prayers of physical healing and financial deliverance and start spending hours on our knees together in earnest prayers of praise and thanksgiving to the God who has already rescued us.

We were made to praise him, created to bring him glory, empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to give him honor. We were meant to turn our eyes and energies toward him, never toward ourselves. Good things happen when we praise. When we praise God, we actually feel better — physically, emotionally, spiritually — because we’re doing what we were always designed to do.

Power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. None of it belongs to us. All of it belongs to our God.

Peace,

Allan

Nothingness

March 26, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Nothingness really is a word. It is; I looked it up. It’s not one of these made-up words that college basketball commentators like to throw around during televised tournament games. I’m not sure of anyone’s “sizeability.” I don’t think any player has “longness.” And I’m certain that one cannot describe a coach’s “toughicity” or a power forward’s “reachness.” Give me Verne Lundquist any day. Every day. When words fail, I’ll take his “My gracious!” and “Merciful heavens!” over the made up stuff all the time. By the way, that Kansas pick isn’t looking so crazy now, is it?

Nothingness really is a word.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.” ~John 5:19

Jesus said that. Really. Jesus says without the Father, he is nothing. He can say nothing. He can do nothing. Jesus claims that he resides and operates in nothingness without God.

But, wait a second! He’s Jesus! This is the Son of God!

Yes, that’s true. But without the Father, he can do nothing.

See, Jesus understood that our God does his very best work in nothingness. Through nothingness, our God does eternally spectacular stuff. Our Father is very consistent on that. Scriptures present this truth very consistently. With God, the winners are exposed as losers and the losers are revealed to be winners. David and Goliath. Gideon. Jericho. The prodigal son and his older brother. The ones who are nothing are everything; the ones who seemingly have it all are actually defeated. Our God is a God of tremendous surprises.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself.”

Christian ministry is conducted in the middle of these great surprises. We work as disciples in the midst of these amazing shocks. We’re standing around in the middle of nothing in particular, doing nothing important, seeing nothing impressive, feeling nothing exciting, when suddenly God sees and does something huge! Right in the middle of all that nothingness, our Father will create something truly substantial and eternal. Something massive!

I sometimes — actually, I should use the word “often” here — slip into a mood of thinking I can do all kinds of wonderful things. I can preach this and I can plan that and I can promote and encourage and teach and lead and write. I can be productive. I can be valuable. I can be important. I can do really good things.

Jesus says he can do nothing without the Father. Me, too. I can do nothing without our God. Nothing. All good gifts come from him in love, all good things I might possibly do are manifestations of his matchless grace and nothing else. I am nothing. My work is nothingness. My potential is nothingness. My abilities and talents are nothing.

And, praise God, that’s where he works. God works in nothingness. Where there is nothing, our Father does something, something big and everlasting. Where I see nothing, our God sees something, something important and eternal.

Jesus told Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul reminded that when we are weak, because of our Father, we are strong.

God is working right now in your nothingness. Lord, please work right now in our nothingness.

Peace,

Allan

Anticipating Tulsa

March 20, 2012 / / 1 Comment

“When I prayed to make the Broncos better, I didn’t mean Peyton Manning!”

~Tim Tebow

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Carrie-Anne and I are headed up to Tulsa for our annual time of spiritual renewal and ministry rejuvenation. The Tulsa Workshop has long been a favorite destination for us. Every year we are encouraged, uplifted, inspired, equipped, empowered, enlightened, and educated. It’s in Tulsa where we sing our lungs out, we “amen” some of the best preachers in the faith, and we’re transformed. We grow in Tulsa. We change in Tulsa.

I’m approaching this year’s three day event with the same anticipation. I’m so privileged to sit with Terry Rush in his office at 6:30 Thursday morning; what encouraging thing will he say to me this time? I’m so blessed to call Rick Atchley a good friend; what valuable advice will he give me when I see him? My life is more meaningful for knowing Rick and Beverly Ross and their whole family; how will Josh challenge me this year?; how much of their broken hearts and enduring faith will Rick and Beverly reveal to inspire me?

How much of Jeff Walling’s sermons will I steal? Who am I going to run into that I haven’t seen in ten years? How hard will Randy Harris make me laugh? How long will Chris Moore’s beard be, and how many rubber bands will be holding it in place? How many tears will roll down my cheeks as Keith Lancaster leads us in “It Is Well With My Soul” while I realize that my sin — not in part, but the whole! — has been nailed to the cross?

I’ll get to see Dan Bouchelle for the first time since I took his old job at this wonderful church in Amarillo (hopefully, nobody’s told him yet that I referred to him in a sermon two weeks ago as Central’s interim preacher). I’ll get to sing praises to our God with my wife and with our old friends from Mesquite and with new friends we haven’t even met yet and with hundreds and hundreds of Christ’s redeemed. Is Marvin Phillips still alive?!? I’ll listen to Jay Guin and Don McLaughlin and Patrick Mead. I’ll come back with books and CDs and a refreshed understanding of my own salvation and a renewed enthusiasm for the mission to which our Father has called me. And we might run into Garth Brooks again at the Mexican food restaurant.

I love the Tulsa Workshop. I highly recommend it.

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My friend Jerry Schemmel, the play-by-play voice of the Colorado Rockies, has just released a brand new clothing line with a Bible-based theme. This is his baby: 1925 Sports — workout gear with logos inspired by 1 Corinthians 9:25. “…to get a crown that will last forever.”

Here’s the link. Check it out. Way to go, Jerry. Very cool. I know your schedule’s about to get really hectic. Enjoy the relative calm of the final two weeks of spring training. Someday, when you get out of baseball broadcasting to enter the full-time preaching ministry, we’ll talk about hectic. Have a great season.

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The above Tim Tebow joke was submitted earlier today by Josh Penn. Thanks, Josh. See you at the Warrior Dash next month.

Peace,

Allan

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