The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Play Ball!

April 1, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Optimism springs eternal on Opening Day. Yes, it does, even for Rangers fans. We’re four hours away from C. J.’s first pitch in today’s opener at the Ballpark against the Red Sox. The sun is shining, the skies are blue, and it’s already 71-degrees. Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Coming off the American League pennant and first ever World Series appearance, the normal Rangers Opening Day optimism is running deeper and stronger than ever. Today is a very important day.

Texas’ pitching is a concern, but no more so than it was last April. Michael Young’s not going anywhere. Beltre is healthy. Kinsler and Elvis and Murphy are a year older with more experience — playoff experience at that! Napoli brings added pop against lefties like Lester today. And Hamilton’s even in an early groove. There’s no reason to believe these Rangers can’t repeat as division champs and make another legitimate run to the title.

In recognition of just how far things have come for the Rangers and their fans, I direct your attention back to 1973. It was the Rangers’ second season in Texas. The soon-to-be legendary Whitey Herzog was the Rangers skipper. And he was managing arguably the worst team in Major League Baseball history.

On the first day of spring training, Herzog summed up their chances this way: “This team is two players away from being a contender — Sandy Koufax and Babe Ruth.”

He wasn’t kidding.

Rico Carty, the washed up Braves slugger, was the big offseason signing for the Rangers. After Carty’s first spring workout, Herzog said he’d “seen better knees on a camel.” For the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Herzog added, “When Rico runs from home plate to first, you can time him with a sundial.”

It was bad. Even before the start of spring training, Herzog had said, “If Rich Billings is the starting catcher again, we’re in deep trouble.” When that evaluation was passed along to Billings, he simply nodded and said, “Obviously, Whitey has seen me play.”

During spring training in Pompano Beach, Herzog told reporters, “Defensively, these guys are really substandard. But with our pitching, it doesn’t really matter.”

Early that season Jim Palmer took a perfect game into the eighth inning against the Rangers in Baltimore. But Ken Suarez spoiled it with a grounder up the middle with two outs in that eighth. After the game, Herzog was quoted as saying, “If anybody throws a perfect game against this lineup, they oughtta slap an asterisk on it.”

That Rangers team finished 1973 with 105 losses. Herzog was fired with about a month to go and replaced by Billy Martin the very next day. Whitey wound up in K. C. with the Royals. The Rangers fired Martin almost exactly a year later. And he wound up managing the Yankees in ’75.

Yeah, it used to be bad around here. Really bad.

I was six-years-old during that 1973 season. My uncle Gary was there the night David Clyde made his debut in Arlington. My dad and my grandmother started taking me to Rangers games when I was ten or eleven. Sundberg. Harrah. Hargrove. Bell. I started taking my little brother, Keith, to Rangers games when he was eight or nine. Sierra. McDowell. Krueter. And they never won anything until the fall of ’96, after I’d been married for seven years and we were expecting our first daughter.

It’s not bad anymore. In fact, it’s great to be a Rangers fan today. The Stars are going to miss the playoffs. The Mavs got killed by another Western Conferece contender last night. And the Cowboys are making more news off the field this off-season than they will on the field this fall.

That first daughter and I can’t wait for today’s first pitch.

Play ball!

Allan

Just Like Us

March 31, 2011 / / 3 Comments

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans four that Abraham never wavered in his faith regarding the promise of a son and countless descendents. He never wavered. Yet, I seem to recall a situation or two with laughter. And Hagar. And Ishmael. Never wavered?

Scripture makes it clear that King David was a man after God’s own heart. Really? What about Bathsheba? Didn’t David go out of his way to premeditate and plan to break six or seven of the ten commandments in one weekend? Didn’t he lie and cheat and steal with his band of strong men in the wilderness? A man after God’s own heart?

We tell our little kids the story of Samson. We use flannelgraph and puppets and color sheets to tell them all about this hero of the faith. But when’s the last time you really read his whole story? You don’t tell the kids about the women and the sex and the lying and the breaking of his holy vows and his selfish pride and lust for violence and revenge.

Why not?

Because that’s the bad stuff.

Exactly.

The heroes in the Bible are more like us than we think. In a lot of ways, they are exactly like you. And me. A mixture of good and evil. A mess of noble intentions and horrible choices. A fluid cocktail of loyalty and rebellion. A patchwork of ultimate highs and miserable lows.

Our God has always chosen to do his greatest work through people exactly like you. And me. People just like the ones in your church. “Elijah was a man just like us…” Yeah, he was. So was Peter and Jacob and John and Joshua and Mary and Ruth.

Just like us.

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For Legacy members only!!!

It’s crazy — absolutely crazy — that Carrie-Anne and I are the only ones from our congregation who make the trip north of the border to the Tulsa Workshop. Crazy! Next year, if I must, I’m planning our Legacy church trip to Tulsa. I’ll handle the hotel reservations, plan the caravan, and pick out all the restaurants. You’ll be encouraged, uplifted, inspired, equipped, empowered, enlightened, and educated. You’ll sing at the top of your lungs, you’ll ‘amen’ some of the greatest preachers in the faith, and you’ll be transformed. You’ll grow. God will change you.

And you will thank me.

Hold me to it.

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Check out this blog post from a theology professor at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. The man’s name is Ted Campbell. He’s a Methodist — a “heart-core Methodist, — who recently attended a Sunday worship assembly at Preston Road Church of Christ in Dallas. And in his review of the experience , Campbell concludes that “the Churches of Christ were right after all.” It’s a good read from an outsider’s perspective. And I only mean “outsider” as not an official member of our little stream of the Christian faith. Click here to read his article.

Peace,

Allan

March Gladness

March 29, 2011 / / 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

We are still riding the incredible wave of Spirit energy and enthusiasm generated by our God’s kind and gracious actions with his people at Legacy on Sunday. It was our annual Missions Sunday. We had prayerfully set a pretty lofty goal of collecting $250,702 to fund our entire local and foreign missions budget for 2011. And on Sunday, our Lord blew that number right out of the water. And he blew us all away with many powerful reminders of his great love and faithfulness.

Our God came through big time on Sunday: $273,327!! And the money is still coming in!! Give him all the glory and praise!!

But that doesn’t even begin to tell half the story of our Sunday with God and his people at Legacy.

Our assembly time began with our kids. All our precious kids, from two-years-old through sixth grade, inspired us with their dramatic offerings and bold proclamations of what God is doing through them. The congregation burst out with audible gasps as each class announced their total offerings. $64! $298! $101. The second grade brought in more than $900! And they gave with such joy. God showed us through our children what cheerful giving looks like.

David and Olivia Nelson shared the Word with us from the middle of their evening assembly in Kharkov, Ukraine. As we listened to the words from Acts 2:42-47, the camera panned around the Nelsons’ living room to show us that they were packed to the gills. Standing room only. In fact, the Father’s provision is forcing them to begin planning for a second congregation due to the sheer numbers of people who are coming to study the Bible. God showed us through David and Olivia what faithfulness to his mission call looks like.

Then, my great friend Manuel Calderon captivated us with stories about what our God is doing in the Hispanic communities of the Rosemont area of South Fort Worth. Melissa brought tears to the eyes of everyone who heard her stirring testimony to God’s transforming power that has changed her from a lost and lonely lesbian to a saved sister in the Lord’s Kingdom. Then, Irvin moved us with his undeniable witness to the Spirit’s work that has rescued him from a life of alcohol and drug abuse and gang violence to one of eternal salvation and peace in Christ Jesus. God showed us through these two disciples what “new creation” really looks like.

All of this is further proof to our church family that our God is alive and working with his people. It’s further testimony to our God’s faithfulness to his children. It’s lasting evidence that his Holy Spirit is convicting and transforming the world.

We are at our best on Missions Sunday. We are thinking about others instead of ourselves. We are sacrificing and giving of ourselves and our resources for the higher causes of Christ. We arrive at the building with great expectations and we are unified in our communion and worship. And blessings just seem to pile on top of blessings.

Our Father is keeping his covenant promises to Legacy and to all of his creation. May he be glorified and may his Son be exalted for ever and ever. Amen.

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Allright, all you facebook fanatics who keep telling me to get an account, watch this video. It’s an Onion parody that presents facebook as a CIA enterprise meant to collect and compile information on everybody in the world. One of the funniest lines in the video is about the government’s disappointment with Twitter, another of their attempts at spying on the public: “400 billion tweets, and not one useful bit of data has ever been transmitted.”

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Finally, March Gladness of a different strain. I have reclaimed my crown as the college basketball king at Stanglin Manor. It wasn’t pretty. Nobody in the house picked a single Final Four team. So, the final results are in and, for the first time in four years, I’m back on top. I finished with 58 points by correctly selecting five of the Elite Eight, barely edging Carley who finished with 57. Whitney came in third place with 53 points, followed by Carrie-Anne’s 52 and Valerie’s 31. This means I get to pick where we dine when we break our Missions Month fast from eating out. I can smell and taste those buffalo chicken strips at Cheddar’s right now.

Go VCU. Whatever.

Peace,

Allan

Traditional Church

March 22, 2011 / / 0 Comments

N. T. Wright says the problem with traditional church is that usually “there’s too much tradition and not enough church.” Put another way, there is a big difference between doing church and being church, right?

When the church is seen by the world as moving straight from the worship of God into making a difference in the community; when it’s clear that the people who feast at Christ’s table are also the ones working to eliminate hunger and famine; when people realize that those who pray for the Spirit to work through them are the same ones who seem to have extra measures of patience and grace; when the world really experiences the love of God in the children of God, it becomes natural for people to recognize that something is going on they want to be a part of.

In a lot of cases, I think, genuine forgiveness and/or a hot meal do much better evangelism than a church service or a sermon. When the church is living out the mission of God —say, like in Acts 2:42-47 — the Word of God will spread powerfully and do its own salvation work in the world.

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I would recommend a brand new banana pudding milkshake at Chick-Fil-A. Right now.

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Before we leave for the annual Tulsa Workshop, I’ll leave you with a George Burns line that was forwarded to me today by a kind and sweet but wholly misguided brother in the Lord. “The secret to a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending…and to have the two as close together as possible.”

Tulsa Time,

Allan

Whitney’s Milestone Moment

March 21, 2011 / / 3 Comments

She did it. Friday afternoon at the DPS office in Lake Worth. Whitney expertly whipped the truck in between the two yellow poles like she’d been parallel parking for years. Then she took off with the trooper in the passenger seat and returned fifteen minutes later with her real State of Texas issued driver license. A banner day for the Whitster! And a weird day for her parents.

Our oldest child is driving now. A glorious day of freedom for us, right?

Well, yes. Absolutely. There’s tremendous freedom for us in that I didn’t have to get out at 10:45 Friday night to pick Whitney and Valerie up from the youth group movie thing at the church. Whitney drove them home. Yesterday afternoon, when it was time for LTC practice, Whitney drove Val and Carley to the church; not me. So, yes, freedom.

It’s just not perfect freedom.

When Whitney took off for the movie thing Friday night she had explicit instructions to text me the moment she arrived. Nine minutes. Ten minutes. Eleven minutes passed. Carrie-Anne and I just stared at my cell phone. We just stared at it. Why hasn’t she texted yet? Shouldn’t they be there by now? It usually only takes me eight or nine minutes. Should we have followed them? Why aren’t they there yet?

And then it came. “We made it. We’re here.”

I was in the yard yesterday Miracle-Growing our flowerbeds when all three girls took off for LTC. Once they turned out of sight, Carrie-Anne observed, “You realize all three of our children are in the same car at the same time. And Whitney’s driving!” She shouldn’t think that way. But I know I never fully relaxed until Whitney was safe at home 25 minutes later. I piddled around outside, right by the street, until she returned.

I’m sure this will get better. But, wow, it’s hard letting her just take off like that.

Of course, we’re very proud of Whitney. She’s overly careful and cautious behind the wheel which is far better than being underly careful and cautious. She has lane-change issues and still has a hard time maintaining a steady speed. But she’s an excellent observer and a master on the blinker. And she has a terrific sense of direction. She’s going to be great.

As for her mom and me: our cell phones just became a lot more important.

Peace,

Allan

A Little Child Will Lead Them

March 18, 2011 / / 1 Comment

“…and a little child will lead them.” ~Isaiah 11:6

Maddie Thompson purchased the ingredients to bake oatmeal-raisin cookies. Kendra Morgan bought colorful pipe cleaners to make exotic rings and bracelets. Mason Mallory stocked up on hair gel in order to spike Legacy’s lids.

Our little kids here at church have taken the lesson of Jesus’ talents parable in Matthew 25 and they’re running with it!

As part of our Missions Month kickoff at Legacy two weeks ago our elementary aged children were each given a five dollar bill with instructions to put the money to work. They were told to multiply their money, just like the servants in Jesus’ story, and then to present the totals as their offering on Missions Sunday.

So, at our Small Group, Kendra unveiled a black velvet display of her amazing jewelry ($1 each piece). Maddie was taking cookie orders before and after Bible class Wednesday night ($1 for 3 cookies, $2 to have them dipped in chocolate). And by the time I made my way from the worship center down to the gym after class, every man between the ages of 25 and 45 had his hair standing straight up, spiked to the max ($2).

Our kids are washing cars and hosting garage sales, making buttons and bookmarks and coasters; babysitting, cooking, creating. They’re multiplying those five dollar bills by, in some cases, over two thousand percent! And they’re giving one hundred percent of the money to Legacy’s missions efforts at the end of the month.

Here’s where you and I come in:

Perhaps one of the most important things you can do over the next two weeks is hand one of these kids a buck for a cookie or a bracelet. You will be partnering with our Father in increasing the faith of our children. You’ll be showing them that God always provides, that God always honors our efforts to serve him, that God always gives the increase and multiplies our works done in his name. You’ll be communicating to them that they are a valuable part of what this church family is all about. The kids will think you’re really cool. You might be sowing the seeds of a really special relationship.

Our children are on fire right now for joining God in his mission of redeeming the world. They’re experiencing what it’s like to engage in something that’s bigger than themselves, to really give of themselves for a greater cause. And it thrills me. It’s one of the neatest things I’ve experienced here at Legacy. They’re leading us. They’re showing us what it looks like to be enthusiastic for our Lord. They’re showing us what it feels like to depend on God to bless our heart-felt efforts and then experience those blessings in outrageous measure. They’re proving to us that if we had the faith of a child, our God would work through us to blow that measly little $250,702 goal out of the water!

Let’s encourage them. Let’s fan those gifts into flame. Let’s all bring one dollar bills to church Sunday, ready to pass our faith on to our kids.

The hair gel is temporary; it washes out. The dollar you give and the encouragement you share may very well last forever.

Peace,

Allan

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