The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Final Thoughts on the Creation Accounts

October 4, 2007 / / 4 Comments

Despite all the differences between the two creation stories in Genesis, which cannot be ignored, there are a couple of things I’d like to point out that bring both accounts together and that should serve to form our theology and shape the way we live today.

First — and I wrote about this Tuesday — the two radically different pictures of our God presented in the two accounts are significant in that they form our idea of our God as both transcendent and immanent. He’s above all else as perfectly holy and “wholly other.” But he’s also very near, very close, to his creation. He’s our compassionate Father. We must have those two views of God. And we must keep those two views in balance.

Another thing that we absolutely cannot miss in the creation stories is that God’s creation is good. It’s all good. Every bit of it. The Lord our God declares it good five times over the course of creation and then sums it up by saying it’s all “very good.” And how we view that fundamental goodness of creation shapes the way we live in and with creation.

I’m not a tree-hugger. I’m not a vegetarian. I would never spend hundreds of dollars on vet bills. And I’m not at all concerned about global warming. But I do know that as God’s children and part of his perfect design we’d better be in the business of taking care of his creation.  

Some Christians go out of their way to tell us that God is going to destroy this earth with fire and so we really don’t need to worry about taking care of it. They say it’s arrogant to believe that we could have any impact at all on the future — good or bad — of God’s earth. So don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter. Harmful emissions. Radiation. Litter. Destroying the forests. Polluting the seas. Who cares?

Wait a second.

God’s creation is good. Very good. And Scripture tells us in unambiguous terms that God’s work since the beginning of time right up until the present is focused on redeeming creation back to himself. All of creation. The earth groans. God’s redeeming it. He’s working to make it all perfect again. Someday it will be perfect again. Shouldn’t we be about our Father’s business? Everytime one of God’s children throws a candy wrapper out the window or pours his motor oil into the creek, he’s defiantly working against God’s plan.

I’m one of those who believes we may very well have jobs, or tasks, on the other side. Our service to God in Heaven, I think, may be in work he gives us to do. That’s another topic for another day. But we do know God’s instruction to man when he placed him on earth in the very beginning was to “work it and take care of it.” Why would that be different for us today?

Here’s the last thing. Notice there is nothing haphazard about God’s creation. He brings order out of chaos. He brings light out of darkness. He brings life out of the abyss. The chaos and waste, the “tohu and bohu,” (one of the few Hebrew phrases I know) of the empty and formless expanse produces goodness and perfection at the sound of the Father’s voice. And our same God who brought light and order out of chaos and darkness still does.

Whatever chaos and darkness you’re in right now is no match for the Creator of the universe. Disease, bankruptcy, issues with your children, divorce, depression — you name it. Our God still brings life out of the abyss. He’s never quit the creation business.

The word for create, “bara,” is only used of God in Scripture. It’s used in Isaiah when God’s children were in exile. God is said to be creating a new Israel out of nothing. The apostle Paul refers to God’s work in Christ as creating something new in us. All of creation is new when one puts on the Son in baptism.

God never stopped actively creating after the creation. And I wouldn’t put any limits on what he’s creating right now in your life and mine.

Peace,

Allan

Concerning Baseball and Church

October 3, 2007 / / 2 Comments

I’m excited for the start of the Major League Baseball Division Series that begin today. And I have a couple of personal rooting interests. My good friend, Scott Franzke, is the play-by-play voice on the Philadelphia Phillies Radio Network and I’d really like to see them do well. Scott and I worked together at KRLD and TSN and the Rangers Radio Network for three years. And I appreciated so much his dedication to excellence and professionalism in the job he did for us there. When the Rangers canned Vince Cotroneo, another great guy, before the ’05 season, they passed on Scott for Victor Rojas. Bad call. Scott went on to the Phils where he and his wife Lori are doing great. Scott has an extremely laid back personality. He was also negative and cynical, in an understated hilarious sort of way. There was nobody who made me laugh harder at work than Scott. And nobody who worked harder at what he did. And he deserves every bit of the honor and prestige and excitement that’s coming his way as the Phillies begin the playoffs today at 2:00 agaisnt the Amazing Rockies.

My other personal rooting interest is with the Arizona Diamondbacks where Chad McDonald is the Assistant Director of Scouting. Chad’s wife, Julie, is the Children’s Minister at the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington where Carrie-Anne and I were when we made the decision to go into the ministry. At the time, Chad was an area scout for the Angels. And when our small group got together at a park for a cookout, it seemed like Chad was always on the other side of the park working out some pro prospect from an area high school. He taught Whitney’s Sunday morning Bible School class at North Davis and was always giving her a hard time about her Rangers. But his sweet note to her on Angels stationery upon our departure for Marble Falls is still one of her prized possessions. Chad took the job with Arizona shortly after we left. And I’m rooting for the DBacks hard against the Cubs tonight.

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One quick thought on the Cowboys and their 4-0 start: do you realize that if they go 6-6 the rest of the way, they’ll wind up 10-6 and in the playoffs? If they go 7-5 in their last 12 games, they’ll be 11-5 and probably have home field advantage in the postseason. I’m blown away. Almost depressed.

There’s still hope for a monumental collapse. But I certainly can’t imagine any kind of 4-8 finish that would knock them out of the picture. I would also never openly wish for any kind of injury to occur to any of them. Although, I’m beginning to think that this team can overcome almost anything that could happen. I think Romo might be the only player that, were he to miss more than a couple of weeks, would adversely impact the Cowboys.

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With the bustle of activity around here that is Give Away Day, my mind is continually on our role, as individuals and as a church, in joining God in redeeming creation back to him. Some of our creation theology impacts this. And I want to write more about that tomorrow. In the meantime, check out this offering from Paul Hanson’s article, “The Identity and Purpose of the Church.”

“The Church is not some curious or pitiable relic of the past seeking to justify itself either by appeal to an archaic golden age or by attempts to appear more progressive and radical than the latest protest movement, but is an agent of reconciliation and healing basing its identity on its sense of being present where God is present in the world, and for the same purpose.”

Peace,

Allan

The Two Gods of Creation

October 2, 2007 / / 1 Comment

How much attention have you paid to the radical and dramatic differences between the account of the creation in Genesis 1 and the creation account in Genesis 2? They’re almost like two completely different stories. The Genesis 1 account is so elegant and orderly. This is the one we have memorized. But Genesis 2 tells us that man was created before the plants and trees. And that messes with us.

The God in Genesis 1 is “Spirit.” His “hovering” implies distance. He speaks creation into existence. Nothing exists that’s not created by him. He is the source of all things. He makes it all work “according to their kinds.”

“And it was so.”

The God of Genesis 1 doesn’t have to touch, or even see, anything. He’s distant from it. All of creation seems to take care of itself once he’s finished. He gives orders and commands. God blesses and provides for his creation and gives it what it needs. But it’s all very matter of fact and general.

Contrast that with the God of Genesis 2. That account shows us a God who forms man and breathes into his nostrils. He performs surgery on Adam and then sculpts Eve with his hands. In fact, he forms every animal and bird from the dust of the ground, not just man. He “plants” the garden. He “brought” man to the garden. He “brought” the animals to Adam. And he provided Eve out of concern for the man.

The God in Genesis 2 gets his hands dirty. This is not the distant God of the first account. This is an involved God, one who cares about his creation and is intimately concerned with it. He has expectations. It’s very personal and very specific. And the story doesn’t have near the order and design of the first story.

Why?

Why does Scripture give us two different accounts of the same story? Why are they so different? Is God trying to tell us something about himself? Something about his relation to creation and creation’s relation to him? Why the two different pictures?

Genesis 1 shows us our transcendent God. He is holy and “wholly other.” He is not to be confused with his creation. He is diety. Sovereign. King. And distant.

Genesis 2 shows us our imminent God. He is near to his creation. He’s actively involved. He’s concerned with his creation. He is a Father. Friend.

Those two pictures describe our God perfectly. But we must have both in mind when we reflect on our God. Just one of those pictures won’t do. If we concentrate solely on God’s transcendence, there’s no relationship. And if our relationship with God is all we consider, we lose that sense of sovereignty and holiness. There’s design and purpose and meaning to the two pictures. And I think there’s also a method to the order in which the two pictures are presented. Only those who first know and understand God as holy and “other” and very different from us can then know God as the gentle Shepherd and Friend who gives everything, including his very life, for us.

Peace,

Allan

Controlled Chaos

October 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

SortingClothesThe hallways, the classrooms, the concourse, the lecture hall, the fellowship hall, the kitchen, every single square foot of space here at Legacy is being transformed for Give Away Day October 13. About a hundred of us stayed after yesterday morning’s assembly to unload the trailers and set up the racks and shelves and tables and chairs. Hundreds of boxes of clothes and linens and towels and toys and shoes and coats — new and used — are being sorted this week.  And I’m fully aware of the vision, the faith, and the guts it takes as a congregation to pull this off.

It’s big. It’s almost overwhelming. And I’m so grateful for those who had the vision and faith and guts 21 years ago when this all started, and the ones who keep the vision alive with their own faith and guts year in and year out. Give Away Day is part of our Gospel story at Legacy. It is one of the biggest ways we, as a church family, join God in his work of reconciling creation back to him by reaching out in love and compassion to his people.

In last night’s assembly we shared our Give Away Day stories. Charley Potter told us how it all began with the Pipeline church helping that first lady with coats for her kids. Kenzie Brewer, one of our teens, talked about the impact Give Away Day has had on her and how her views of what we do have matured and grown as she’s grown up around the event. And then David Byrnes capped it all with a touching story about his dad and that Nike jacket he “gave” to a person who needed it at Give Away Day.

I think telling the stories behind our traditions is important. That appeal to a common memory connects us to those who went before us, those on whose shoulders we’re standing today. Keeping and repeating our traditions reminds us that it’s so much bigger than “me,” that our God was working in his world and in this church long before I got here and he’ll be working in his world and in this church long after I leave.

It was barely more than controlled chaos yesterday. But it was shared by little kids, teenagers, young adults, singles, marrieds, whole families, newly retired, widows, and the elderly. We’re all in it together. And it’s beautiful.

Ashley&Jesse JimCollins  PackingItIn  Crates  GiveAwayGals  KerriBates  MovingIn  MatchingRacks  Racks UnloadingShelves  Valerie&Laura  WayneCart  Whitney

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RomoRunI’m looking. You know I’m looking for ways to explain away the Cowboys 4-0 start.

Good grief, the pitiful Rams were missing eight starters yesterday due to injury or suspension before the game even began. And before it was over three more had gone down. That doesn’t even consider Marc Bulger who started the afternoon with two broken ribs and maybe woke up this morning with a couple more. That also doesn’t factor in the St. Louis kicker who missed a chip shot that would have given his team the lead in the first half. The Rams haven’t scored an offensive touchdown now in 30 consecutive possessions!

And look at the quarterbacks the Cowboys have faced in their last three games: Bulger, Rex Grossman (who’s been since benched), and Trent Green (who’s about to be benched). The Giants, Dolphins, Bears, and Rams are a combined 3-13! What do we really know about this Cowboys team? How do we know if they’re any good?

And I keep coming back to this one fact, all last night and all day today. I have nothing to say in argument against this one fact.

It’s tough to get wins in the NFL.

You can pit the best team in the league against the worst team in the league and never really know how it’s going to turn out. Most NFL games are working with a Vegas spread of six-points or less. They’re all close. And they all come down to just a couple of plays here and there. The great teams lose games they’re supposed to win. And the bad teams always win a couple they’re supposed to lose.

And that’s what impresses me about what the Cowboys have done in their first four games. They’re not just winning. They’re killing. They’re making it look easy. And there’s nothing about the NFL that’s easy. They’re winning by an average of 19.8 points per game. They scored three touchdowns in eleven plays at one point in the third quarter yesterday. And there are some NFL teams that couldn’t do that if they were playing against folding chairs and orange cones.

I’ve got nothing today. Nothing. Nothing but admiration for Romo and Crayton and Witten and Ware and Reeves and James and Davis.

To win is one thing. It’s an entirely different thing to make it look so easy.

Peace,

Allan

Blue Jean Sunday!

September 28, 2007 / / 1 Comment

This coming Sunday at Legacy we continue a tradition associated with our 21 year old Give Away Day. It’s been called Blue Jean Sunday, but it’s really just a work day to set everything up for Give Away Day. Everyone’s encouraged to wear their work clothes to the assembly Sunday morning, stay for a congregational meal together, and then work together all afternoon setting up the tables and racks and shelves, sorting clothes and shoes and appliances, and stacking chairs. Usually we’ll be done right around 3:00 or so. But there are plenty of folks who stick around until our 5:30 afternoon assembly.

Calling it Blue Jean Sunday doesn’t really have the impact it once had. Just about everybody wears their blue jeans to church now anyway. But I will be preaching in my blue jeans Sunday (not blue jean shorts, Chris!!). And I’m afraid I’ll experience a constant dread of being struck by lightning. Or, worse than that, I’m afraid my dad will find out.

At 5:30 we’re going to explore this whole Give Away Day thing that’s such a big part of the Gospel story of the Pipeline / Legacy Church of Christ. We’ll look at old pictures and slides. And we’ll hear from three or four of our members about their Give Away Day experiences and stories, including Charley Potter’s recollections of that very first Give Away Day 21 years ago. The focus of our time together will be on our church family acting as the hands and feet of Jesus in this community. And going after the folks in our neighborhoods with love and peace just as hard as our God does.

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By the time Paul sat down to pen his great letter to the church in Thessalonica, the term “Day of the Lord” carried great weight and baggage. The earliest account we have of that term is the prophet Amos, 700 years before Paul and the establishment of that church at Jason’s house.

The Hebrew Scriptures’ use of the term explicitly reference the day when God actively intervenes in history, usually with terrible wrath and judgment. It was a day marked by gloom and darkness. Mountains melt on the “Day of the Lord.” The moon turns to blood. Stars fall out of the sky. It was a day to be dreaded. The term and the images that accompanied the term struck fear in the hearts of God’s people. Nobody looked forward to the “Day of the Lord.” They were actually instructed to dread it because, when it came, it would be awful. It was the day all the world, including God’s chosen nation, would be judged and punished for its sins.

But every New Testament reference to the “Day of the Lord” is positive. God’s people are told to anticipate the “Day of the Lord” with great enthusiasm and to greet it with rejoicing. Paul writes to the Corinthians and the Philippians to tell them that they will be pure and blameless on that Day. Spirits will be saved on that Day. Paul will boast on that Day, for others and for himself.

What changed?

1 Thessalonians is the very first, very earliest, book in the New Testament, written in 50-52 AD. And Paul provides for us there the very first written connection between the death of Jesus and our salvation (5:10).

Jesus died. That’s what changed. It changed everything. And disciples of Jesus look forward now to the “Day of the Lord” with tremendous anticipation knowing that he died for us “that we may live together with him.”

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***Legacy Church of Christ Construction Update***

ConcreteTrucks ParkingSpaces 

ConcretePump  ConcreteTruck

The concrete trucks have been out here all week, pouring the foundation trenches (is that what you call those?) and all the new parking areas. I’m told we won’t be able to park in the new spaces this weekend. But next Sunday, the 7th, it’s wide open. Right now, in between our two morning services during Bible class time, our parking lot resembles a shopping mall in December. No spaces and lots of cars in long lines driving up and down the packed aisles.

BenevolenceCenter  KentSupervising  KentRobinson

Notice Kent right in the smack dab middle of all of it. Insert your own comment or smart aleck remark here: ________.

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No time this week to break down the Cowboys, how impressed I finally am with Tony Romo, Patrick Crayton’s Jackie Smith moment, Mark Cuban’s moves, or Nolan Ryan’s falling a half-notch from the lofty pedestal on which I’ve placed him. No time. Go Rams.

100KMy truck turned over 100,000 miles on the way in Tuesday morning. Remember when that used to be a big deal? Was it because the numbers all flipped back to zeroes? I don’t think cars used to be built to drive that long. It’s not as uncommon as it once was. I think Doug Deere’s truck has over 260,000 miles on it right now. I still thought it was pretty cool. Dad, the picture’s for you.

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Carrie-Anne and I are leaving at noon today for Austin where I’m one of the speakers at Austin Grad’s big fundraising dinner tonight at the Austin Country Club. They’re in the middle of a huge fundraising and building project. And I’m honored they think anything I say might make a difference for them. I’m hoping it does. I love that school. I love everything about every minute I spent with the people there. And I highly recommend it to anyone who’s wanting to upgrade their understanding of God’s Word and Christian Ministry.

Earlier this week, I was going through the notes of a speech I made to some Austin Grad donors (is that what you call them?) back in April 2006. And towards the end of my speech I said this:

“I have no idea where I’m going to be 13-months from now. But we’re giddy with anticipation. In May 2007 I hope and pray to find a community that desperately needs God and a church family willing to roll up its sleeves to take our God to that community. I want God to use me and that church to turn that town upside down for him. I want our Father to completely use us up in service to him. I want him to work through me and that church to fulfill his mission. I want to be the catalyst in that community for revival among his children and for the saving of many souls. I want to bring God’s people closer to him and closer to each other.”

My prayers have been answered far beyond my expectations. Legacy and North Richland Hills. A situation like this never one time crossed my mind. Our God is always dreaming bigger than we are. We can’t ever out-vision him.

But let’s try. Let’s join our Father in reclaiming creation and reconciling all of it back to him.

Have a great weekend.

Peace,

Allan

To The Teens

September 27, 2007 / / 11 Comments

I’m 40 years old, I have a green mini-van (Carrie-Anne drives it, not me), and, not only have I never played with a Wii, up until two days ago I didn’t even know how to spell it. I own, and sometimes wear, a pair of blue jean shorts. And with the exceptions of Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Audio Adrenaline, if it was recorded after 1985, I don’t listen to it. I have tube socks older than you. If I had my way, every room or office would have a Lava Lamp, the first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA basketball tournament would be declared national holidays, and we would sing “How Great Thou Art,” “It Is Well With My Soul,” and “A Mighty Fortress” during every single worship assembly. In my mind, Tom Landry is still the only coach the Cowboys have ever had.

Maybe we don’t have a ton of things in common. But let me tell you this: I love you.

I love you. Your youth minister loves you. The elders in your church love you. Your preacher loves you. The older lady that you think frowns at you all the time loves you. The man in the back who refuses to sing a “new song” loves you. Your friends’ families love you. And your parents love you more than you can possibly begin to imagine.

If you were beginning to learn how to drive a car and your dad took you to the Driver’s Ed place and the teacher told your dad, “We offer two different education packages. For $39 I can teach your child everything he needs to know to pass the test. It’s only the basic stuff. It’s not too difficult, he should breeze right through it, and we can get him his license in just a couple of weeks.”

“But for $79 I can give your child the extended course. We’ll teach him the basics, naturally. But we’ll also give him tons of practical experience behind the wheel in both urban and rural settings. We’ll take him out on the highways and through the school zones. We’ll teach him safety. We’ll show him how to react in emergency situations. How to avoid dangerous circumstances. How to react when faced with difficult conditions. It takes two months instead of two weeks. And it’s not nearly as easy. It’ll require some dedication and study and lots of field work. But I think it’s worth it in the long run.”

One course gets you your license. The other course provides you with the teaching and the tools necessary to greatly increase your odds of being safe and staying alive. Which one will your dad choose?

Don’t carry the metaphor too far out. It may break down.

Why would the person who loves you the most give you just the basics? He wouldn’t! He would want you to be fully equipped to face whatever challenges or crises come your way.

And that’s what everybody in your church wants for you. We love you.

I want, more than I can explain, to provide you with the teachings and the tools you need to live exactly like our Savior. I want you to be just like him. I want you to think about and talk about sacrificing and serving and thinking more highly of others than you do yourselves. Submitting to each other in love. Seeing your place in the body of Christ, both now and in the future, as vital and critical and paramount to the growth and spread of the Kingdom.

Trust me (and you know this already), we concentrate on you because we see how we’ve messed things up for ourselves. We want things to be better for you than they are for us. We know very well how we’re supposed to act. And we know very well that we don’t. And we know that if the Church of Jesus is going to make a difference in reclaiming the world for its Creator, we’ve got to change. And we see you as the ones who can more than likely do what we’re unable to do.

I believe Jesus’ apostles were teenagers when he called them. Going through both Scripture and ancient Jewish education history, I think it’s clear that the apostles were likely between the ages of 12 and 19 when they decided to follow Jesus. Peter is the only one that Scripture points to as maybe possibly being in his 20s. I think they were teens.

And I think Jesus chose teenagers, not just because that was the way the rabbinical system had been working for a couple of centuries, but because he knew the passion and the energy and the desires of teens to identify with a cause and dedicate themselves entirely to it. I know that fire, too. I see that fire in you all the time — at youth rallies, on retreats, at WinterFest, and around campsite campfires at 2:00 am. You’ve got it. You want, most of you, more than anything else in the whole world to be exactly like Jesus. And you look to church and church leaders and church culture to find out exactly what Jesus was like and what he taught so you can be exactly like him.

And I’m afraid we let you down.

The last two posts on this blog have not been about you. They’ve been about us. They’ve been about me.

And here’s my plea, to you from me: don’t leave us.

Statistics show you’re leaving the churches of Christ in record numbers. It happens as soon as you get out of high school. Some of you come back eventually. Most of you don’t. And we’re all scrambling, every one of us, trying to figure out why and what we can do about it.

Don’t leave us.

A young man named Brian, a college student at ACU, asked that panel why it was such a big deal when teens born and raised in the churches of Christ left for other faith traditions. If we’re still claiming Jesus as Lord and still serving Christ in love, he said, why does it hurt you when we leave this particular heritage?

I waited until the session was over and grabbed him in the hallway. (Not literally. I said his name.) Yes, it hurts us when you leave, I told him. It kills us. Because it means we’ve let you down. It means we were not successful in passing on the baton of faith and tradition and heritage in our own fellowship to our own kids.  We take it as a sign that we’ve failed. And it kills us. It means to us that you didn’t really see us, the churches of Christ, as a family. And that’s what all of us long for it to be.

Don’t leave us.

I know we’ve horribly distorted the Church that Jesus died for. You’re not stupid. You know it, too. You know how inconsistent we are. You know how we preach and teach one thing and then act totally the oppposite. You see right through our feeble attempts to justify our own wants and desires and comfort zones by misapplying this passage or pulling that verse completely out of context. It’s crazy sometimes! Sometimes it makes me want to leave!

Don’t leave.

As I told Brian that day at ACU, stay and help us. Wrestle with us. Grow with us. Teach us. Show us how to worship with passion and joy and with the freedom we have in Christ. Point out the inconsistencies. We know how crazy it is to say you can clap and raise your hands in the Youth House but not in the auditorium. We know that makes absolutely no sense. But we keep doing it anyway. We’ve been so inconsistent for so long, we’re blind to a lot of it. Show it to us. Challenge us. You know how God works best when we’re getting our hands dirty in the low income apartment complexes and the homeless shelters and soup kitchens. Most of the people in your churches know it, too. But there’s nobody challenging them to act on it. We know it’s nuts to expect you to submit and sacrifice for us when you see us slamming each other and gossiping all the time. Tell us about it.

Find somebody in your congregation, maybe somebody other than a youth minister or an elder or a parent, someone with a big picture view of things who’s not going to be caught in the middle because of job descriptions or expectations, and talk to them. Make that contact. Make that friend. And then when somebody or something in the church is beating you down, go to that person. I think you’ll find that, if you haven’t already, when you engage an adult in serious reflection and discussion and give him your trust, he becomes your biggest fan.

To the youth group here at Legacy, specifically: I’m your biggest fan. Getting to know you at the Discipleship Retreat last Spring was such a wonderful experience for Carrie-Anne and me. Listening to you, sharing with you, especially those of you in Group Five (“common name, uncommon game”), gave me such optimism and joy. It made me so excited to be coming to a church family with such a thoughtful and passionate group of young people. If anybody or anything in our church family is beating you down, if you’re confronted with a teaching or a directive that’s contrary to Jesus’ example or teachings, you let me know. Come see me. And I’ll be at the very front of your parade with flags and trumpets and whistles and bells. Driving a green mini-van. Wearing blue jean shorts.

Don’t leave us. Stay with us and help us grow together in our Lord.

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My sympathies are certainly with Pat Cox and Dale and Kimberly and the whole Cox family after the passing of Billy Ray. What a great man. What a great family. Billy Ray is the one who, while I was in high school, brought Roger Staubach to speak at chapel at Dallas Christian. It was a big secret. But he let me in on it early, the day before, so I could bring my Staubach poster to school and get it autographed. Their son, Dale, was a football hero to me. Their daughter, Kimberly, was a great friend to me who wound up marrying one of my best friends, David Grogan. Billy Ray and Pat had the biggest house. And the very best of my high school parties and gatherings were held there. Billy Ray is the one who helped us get Whitney into Dallas Christian when we moved back to Mesquite from Wichita Falls. And he’s the one who helped me secure funding from the Saturn Road Church of Christ when we moved to Marble Falls and Austin Grad.

I preached at Saturn Road on a Sunday night last October, almost a year ago now, and Billy Ray spoke after I was finished. And, as always, his words were full of praise and encouragment and kindness and warmth and love. He’s one of those guys with a long, long reach. The impact he’s had on the Church and on Christian education is impossible to measure and will continue far into the future. Billy Ray Cox was a great man. And I’m a better man for having known him and his sweet family. I count him among the many who encouraged me in my efforts to ditch radio for the ministry. And I’m eternally grateful.

I’ll be attending the funeral this afternoon at Saturn Road. And I’m looking forward to seeing tons of old friends and praising our God for the wonderul life of Billy Ray Cox.

Peace,

Allan

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