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Changing the Churches of Christ

April 9, 2012 / / 2 Comments

The numbers are undeniable. The Churches of Christ are losing congregations, we’re losing members and their kids, we’re losing our families and our teenagers and our college graduates. We’re losing people. Big time. According to the recently released “Churches of Christ in the United States,” we’ve lost more than 23,000 members and their children since the last edition of the directory in 2009. Since the edition before that, in 2003, we’ve lost over 102,000 people and 708 congregations! 

(As a brief aside, let me make clear my disdain for directories such as this that label and pigeon-hole congregations according to what they believe or practice regarding communion services, Bible classes, worship styles, and outreach efforts. Directories such as these are part of our problem.)

That’s the bad news. And it’s real. Brother, is it real. It needs to be seriously studied and discussed. We need to prayerfully and carefully consider the reasons for these significant losses. And we need to be wide open to where our God is leading us, to what he might be doing in other places and in other ways, and to how we can adapt to more effectively create and maintain communities of faith that will spread the Kingdom of God to his eternal glory and praise.

Here’s the good news:

We’re not alone. Most every single Christian denomination in the United States is losing members right and left. It’s not just us.

Wait a second… this is still bad news. We’re not alone. More and more people in this country are checking “none” when asked their religious affiliations. According to a recent survey by the Pew Forum, sixteen percent of Americans claim to belong to no religious organization. That number grows to twenty-five percent — one out of every four! — when you consider just the 18-29 age group.

OK, now here’s the good news:

People my age and younger (how much longer am I going to get away with saying that?) are joining community churches and non-denominational churches like crazy. Some of them are going to Baptist churches and Disciples of Christ churches, too. But most of them are worshiping and serving in these community churches. They’re not giving up on Jesus and the Christian faith. It’s just that they have no real brand loyalty to Churches of Christ. They’re looking for genuine Christian worship. They’re seeking real faith relationships with Jesus and with other Christians.

As a result, “independent/non-denominational” churches in the U. S. have over twelve million members in more than 35,000 congregations.

That’s good news, right? This move toward a non-denominational following of Jesus is right up our Church of Christ alley, right? Isn’t that how we began? Isn’t that what we’ve always taught and worked toward? Isn’t that the ultimate answer to Christ’s prayer and God’s eternal will for his children?

(I’d love to put a new sign out in front of our building in Amarillo. “Central Church of Christ: a non-denominational community church.” That’s what we are, correct? Wouldn’t most of our people claim that’s what we’re supposed to be?)

Whether there’s a restoration taking place right now in the Restoration Movement or whether we’re at the edge of another broader Restoration Movement in this country altogether, we in the Churches of Christ are perfectly positioned and poised to lead the way. “Christians only, but not the only Christians!” “Bible things in Bible ways and Bible names!” “In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all matters, charity!” Come on, it’s all right there in our DNA! This is right in our wheelhouse. This is a hanging 82-mph slider that stays up in the zone. This is an answer to prayer.

We could be the leaders of such a movement. But we’d have to make some changes.

Like what?

Go ahead. I’d like to hear from you. To take advantage of this fluid church situation and lack of brand loyalty and non-denominational movement in a way that would bring glory and honor to God, what would we have to change in the Churches of Christ? We very obviously can’t keep doing what we’re doing. To stay viable, to remain as a voice at the table, what needs to happen?

Peace,

Allan

Happy Sunday!

April 8, 2012 / / 1 Comment

The great biblical scholar and writer N. T. Wright asks, “Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus if we don’t throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the Resurrection if we don’t do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn’t take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom?”

Yes, the Resurrection of Christ is our greatest event. Yes, Easter is the Church’s greatest day.

Take Christmas away and, in biblical terms, you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke. That’s it. Take Easter away and you don’t have a New Testament. You don’t have Christianity. As Paul says, our preaching is worthless; we are still in our sins and are to be pitied among all men.

We can’t allow Easter bunnies and eggs and dresses and bonnets (does anybody still wear Easter bonnets?) or furniture sales or car lot closeouts to distract us or blow us off course. Easter Sunday is our greatest Sunday. And we should put the banners out.

We should rejoice in our Lord’s Resurrection. We should celebrate his current and eternal reign at the right hand of the Father. We should declare the gracious gift of eternal life to that comes to all those who share in Christ’s Resurrection. And we should live — man, we should live! — into the Resurrection, through the Resurrection, because of the Resurrection! Today. Tomorrow. The next day. Every day.

Happy Sunday!

Allan

Play Ball!

April 6, 2012 / / 2 Comments

A sunny day in the mid 70s for a season opener at The Ballpark is always beautiful. It’s always great. Today was fabulous, almost perfect, even as I watched it from the microfiber couch instead of the pressbox. The Rangers began the 2012 season today by getting key hits from their key contributors in clutch situations. They scored with small ball and the long ball. Sacrifice flies and bunts. Hamilton saved a run with a great cut off on a line drive to center. Yorvit threw a perfect strike to Elvis to nail a would-be base-stealer. Colby Lewis gets nine Ks in six innings of work, giving up just the two runs. Ogando and Adams give up just one combined hit to get it to Joe Nathan who went three up three down to close it out.

What’s not to like? Even Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura made up in the visitors’ clubhouse before the game. There’s nothing negative, nothing troubling to speak of after this one. It’s an affirmation, really, of just how good this team still is. Expectations are high for the Rangers to improve on their win total yet again and take that one last final step to the championship they’ve been agonizingly close to for the past two seasons. And they responded today.

Evan Grant has mostly good things to say about today’s win right here. And there’s a super cool 360-degree photo from today’s Opening Day scene in Arlington right here.  

We generally put way too much emphasis on what happens on Opening Day. We exaggerate it when it’s good, we get too down when it’s bad. It’s one of 162 games. The over-emphasis on the results of Opening Day are wrong. But, because it is so overly-scrutinized, I think it matters. Not for the whole season, but maybe for the first few weeks. It’s important to get off to a good start. And today was a good start.

Peace,

Allan

Alive with Christ!

April 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ!” ~Ephesians 2:4-5

Some of us are still buried in a tomb. We’re dead. Or, at least we act like we’re dead. Most of us have followed Jesus to Jerusalem, deciding to die to ourselves, willing to die with Christ. We’ve followed Jesus to the garden and suffered, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, faithfully enduring pain and grief. We’ve followed Jesus step by step to the cross, exposing ourselves to ridicule and shame, sacrificing ourselves for the benefit of others.

A lot of us, though, have never followed Jesus out of the grave.

Even though we’ve been baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, even though we’ve received the gift of God’s Holy Spirit living inside us, a lot of us have never been resurrected. A lot of us don’t live like we’ve been given the gift of eternal life by the Almighty Author of Life. We live like we’re still dead.

We don’t sing. We don’t work. We don’t explore or experiment. We don’t accept challenges or tackle new tasks. We don’t grow. We don’t laugh.

Singing and working and exploring and growing and laughing are what you do when you’re alive. If you’re grumpy all the time, you’re not living the resurrection life. If you’re negative all the time, you’re dead. What are you thinking, “God’s going to fix my attitude when I get to heaven?”

Some of you are still asleep. You live like it. Wake up, O sleeper! Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you!

But I want to play it safe. Better safe than sorry. I don’t want to take any risks. I don’t want to go out on a limb. I don’t want to change. I don’t need to grow.

Man, you’re living in the dark and cold of the grave! And that’s not really living.

Jesus is no longer in that garden tomb. Our Christ is alive today and reigning in glory at the right hand of our Father in heaven! And that’s where you are, too. He’s already seated you there, right beside him. Now, start acting like it. Live like it! Follow Jesus out of the tomb, into the warmth and energy and light of his resurrection life.

Peace,

Allan

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

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