The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Inappropriate Use of a Football Team

September 20, 2007 / / 4 Comments

Terrell Owens got fined $7,500 by the NFL this week for what they’re calling “inappropriate use of a football.”

Jason Reeves knows a little about that.

When will the league fine Jerry Wayne for inappropriate use of a football team?

I’m afraid if Julius Jones gets hurt today in practice, the Cowboys will call O. J. Simpson. He should be out of jail any day now. Hey, if this Romo thing doesn’t work out, Michael Vick will be ready to go for 2009. You can inagurate the new stadium with a new quarterback. Why not?

The Cowboys’ signing of defensive lineman Tank Johnson is unexplainable and inexcuseable. In the past 18 months — which represents most of Johnson’s NFL career with Chicago — Johnson’s been arrested four times on gun charges and probation violation stemming from the gun charges. In a raid on Johnson’s suburban Chicago home, police found caged pit bulls and seized three rifles, a semi-automatic weapon, three handguns, and over 500 rounds of ammunition. In a scuffle with police in which officers used mace to help subdue him, Johnson is reported to have told one of the men, “You’re not the only one with a glock! If it weren’t for your gun and your badge, I’d kick your ___!” He was pulled over recently at 3:30 am on suspicion of drunken driving.

Nice.

Welcome to the Cowboys. Where character counts and integrity matters. Unless we’re really in a bind and you can really play ball.

Jerry Wayne made a pretty big deal about taking Johnson off their draft board in 2004 because of his character issues coming out of college. He openly bragged about it. We’re not going to bring in that kind of element. But as soon as Jason Ferguson goes down, Tank Johnson’s character is suddenly not a factor anymore.

It reminds me of the year I first started rooting against the Cowboys. Summer of ’96. Lots of player arrests. Lots of off-field issues. And Jerry Wayne threw down the gauntlet. No more tolerance. You break team rules, you’re gone. Kendall Watkins, a third-string tight end, was spotted at a Dallas bar Jerry had declared off limits. And he was canned the next day. Big headlines. News conference. Jerry bragging. Zero tolerance.

Less than two weeks later Michael Irvin’s busted in his drug and hit-man scandal. It’s all on tape! But Jerry says, “Michael’s family. Look at all he’s done for this organization. He’s family. He needs us to help him. We’re doing what’s best for him now. He doesn’t need us to throw him out. That’s not right. He needs us to love him and get through this together.”

And Jerry, yesterday, says he signed Tank Johnson because he believes in second chances.

It would be nice if Jerry would just say they signed Johnson this week because he can help give them some inside info on the Bears, Sunday night’s opponent. That would be sleazy. It would be underhanded. Skirting the rules. Flaunting the system. Breaking written and unwritten NFL policies.

And it would be much more palatable than what they’re actually doing.

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It’s great to be back in the office / study today here at Legacy. I missed everybody and felt strangely disconnected from things while we were in Abilene.

But what a great experience we had at the ACU Lectureships! I’ll have to talk more about all that tomorrow. Lots of observations and opinions I’ll share that, I’m sure, will spark plenty of theological reflection and discussion.

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Please be in prayer today for our oldest daughter, Whitney. Following a series of tests two weeks ago, doctors just told us yesterday morning that one of her optic nerves is swollen and they’re calling us in at 4:00 this afternoon for further tests. Her eyesight has been deteriorating in rapid and noticeable fashion over the past couple of months. She’s wearing bifocals now. And this swollen nerve issue may be the reason. We’re hoping this is something that can be fixed with little or no problem. She’s nervous and so are we. Your prayers on her behalf are very much appreciated.

Peace,

Allan

My New Favorite Speaker

September 19, 2007 / / 4 Comments

Jeff Walling always gets me with his illustrations. They’re masterful. They’re real. Walling’s illustrations are powerful in that they always create in me life-altering pictures that I never forget. And I look forward to the Tulsa Workshop and WinterFest every year because I know I’ll get to sit at the feet of Jeff Walling and receive God’s truth in a way that will impact me and never leave me.

Randy Harris nails me every time with his dry wit and sarcasm. It’s subtle. And you have to pay attention. But he’ll be cruising along and then mutter something, almost under his breath, that absolutely pricks my heart and convicts me. It’s like he’s been living inside my house — hockey players say “in my kitchen”— and knows all my shortcomings and failures and sins. And his little throwaway line causes my soul to bleed and my entire being to turn completely to my God who saves me. And I look forward to Tulsa every year because I know I’ll be challenged by Randy.

Terry Rush breaks my heart every time with his passion for our Lord and our Lord’s people. Terry can’t preach a sermon without crying or almost crying. And it’s because he loves God’s church so much. And it’s real. Because Terry sees what God sees. That pathos of the prophets. He feels the same grief over sin and sickness and injustice that our God feels. And I look forward to Tulsa every year because I know Terry is going to awaken me to new realities.

Jason’s been talking about Billy Wilson for several weeks.

Billy’s been speaking at ACU now for several years. I’m sure he’s a regular at Pepperdine. And it’s possible he’s even made an appearance or two at Tulsa. If so, I don’t know where I’ve been. I’m sick I’ve never heard him or heard of him before this week.

He’s my new favorite speaker.

Maybe it’s just because he’s new and fresh to me. Maybe it has something to do with his Scottish accent that’s cool and forces me to pay more careful attention to his words. But I don’t think so.

Billy combines the passion of Rush and the dry wit of Harris and the perfectly painted illustrations of Walling to homiletically grab me and rip me open and pour the words of God directly into my soul.

He’s certainly passionate. He calls ’em like he sees ’em. He screams and he yells. And, while he hasn’t done it yet, I think he’s capeable of throwing something. He sort of scares me.

He takes everyday things, things that every single person in the room has experienced — a new bike at Christmas, trying to open a stubborn jar, breakfast — and twists them around to reveal a profound truth about the Church that will never leave your head or your heart.

And he’s funny.  Very funny.

Billy Wilson’s my new favorite speaker.

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Day Three is commencing. And I’m anxious for it, from Wilson’s opener this morning to Walling’s closer tonight. But, even more than that, I can’t wait to get home and see my girls. I miss them tremendously. They make me laugh and they fill my heart with joy. Carrie-Anne, I miss you, baby. I’ll see y’all soon.

Allan

That Thing God Does & Old Friends At ACU

September 18, 2007 / / 0 Comments

In response to Gary’s comment from yesterday: What is “God, do that thing you always do?”

 It’s our loving and compassionate Father whose eternal nature is to save us and redeem us and reconcile us back to him moving among his people to be present with them and in them. And that presence is then powerfully manifested in an outpouring of confession and prayer and connection and change.

It’s God overcoming my weakness and my sin and my lack of vision and understanding to blow our doors off with his message of forgiveness and hope. It’s when he causes something incredible to happen in an assembly of his people — something that nobody can plan or predict. He puts his message directly into people’s hearts. He pours his love straight into people’s souls. And then amazing things happen.

 It happens at retreats. It happens at workshops and seminars. It happens in living rooms and around kitchen tables. It happens on Sunday mornings Friday nights. And I can’t explain it.

It’s revival, maybe. It’s a reawakening to the Holy Spirit of God and the power he gives us. It works through intentional prayer and sacred songs and confession of sin. It works when God’s people truly humble themselves before him, recognizing their sin, and whole heartedly submitting to his Lordship.

I don’t know exactly what or how it is.

But I do know it’s our God who does it. He just jumps right into the big middle of everything we’re doing and almost disrupts things with his presence. And his people respond to that presence with tears of joy and sorrow, with prayers of confession and thanksgiving, and with an outpouring of love for each other.

And I know our God is present with us everytime we come together. But sometimes it’s more powerful than at other times. The feeling, not the presence or the power itself. Are we more in tune with our God and his presence and power at those times than at other times? Are our hearts more open and our minds more clear and our souls more ready? Or is God revealing himself in different ways at those times? Is he moving in us and through us differently during those times? I don’t have an answer. It’s a combination of all of it, I suppose.

All I know is that it happened Sunday morning and again Sunday night at Legacy. He’s getting us ready. He’s transforming us. And I’m convinced anew and more than ever that our God is going to do some powerful things in us and through us for the Kingdom.

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I don’t have time or space to tell you all the wonderful things about Day One at the ACU Lectureships. Randy Harris’ session on humility sparked much conversation and debate and reflection for the rest of the day and night. Billy Wilson’s presentation on the blessings of God found in the great Psalm 23, I think, is going to show up in at least a couple of sermons at Legacy. A panel discussion between us old guys and a bunch of college students was eye-opening as to why a lot of them are jaded by our Church of Christ fellowship. It’s nothing we don’t already know. But it really pushes some of our shortcomings to the front. And then Landon Saunders nailed it at last night’s keynote with a call from Micah to reach out to the people in our communities who make churches uncomfortable. The people in our town who are dying for forgiveness, longing for connection, yearning for love and acceptance. And he puts church leaders — you and me — squarely in the cross hairs of Micah’s message.

Day Two is upon us. I’m refreshed and ready to go.

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I hadn’t been on campus five minutes when I ran into Kirk Eason from Austin Grad. Stan Reid is also here and we visited a bit after last night’s session. I’ve also spoken with Dan and Reba Bonner, two wonderful people who went with us on our trip to Israel in January. Jim Martin, a godly man and gospel preacher in Waco and a longtime friend of the family sat two seats down from me during the morning keynote. Grady King from South MacArthur and Danny Sims from Alta Mesa are running the roundtable with the college students. Sid and Janetta Allen sat down right in front of me at last night’s keynote, dear friends from North Davis who were honored by ACU last night for their decades of Kingdom service in North and South Korea. Shannon Jackson’s here. Kyle Smith, one of our kids from Marble Falls hollered out “Larry!” out in the campus yesterday and I turned around. Of course. Later on, his brother Ryan and David Griffen showed up at Moody for the keynote. And I’ve seen Mackenzie Lewis, but I haven’t been able to visit with her yet.

May God bless us with a fantastic week in his service.

 Peace,

Allan

Greetings From Abilene

September 17, 2007 / / 5 Comments

I want to share with you this morning, before we leave the hotel room to go to the first day of the ACU Lectureships, a couple of ideas from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 that we just didn’t have time to deal with yesterday at Legacy. More on “yesterday at Legacy” later in the post.

There’s no doubting that verses 11 & 12 are a description of the “brotherly love” and the “more and more” in verses 9 & 10. Leading a quiet life, minding your own business, and working to support yourself is the way Paul describes keeping a low profile to keep harm from coming to the brothers and sisters of the congregation. That kind of brotherly love, putting Christian brothers and sisters and their well being at the forefront of all the decisions and choices we make in the community, is the “do so more and more.”

David DeSilva wrote a book four or five years ago on Christian ministry formation in the New Testament. And he wrote this about that particular passage:

“Feelings of attachment and experiences of encouragement within the group will outweigh feelings of disconnectedness from society and experiences of discouragement at the hands of outsiders. Care for and being cared for by the brothers and sisters will lead to an increased desire to conform to the values of the group, and to be held in esteem by those who are important to a Christian’s daily life.”

We all make decisions, every day, about how we’re going to be involved in the community. And Paul tells this new group of Christians that those decisions ought to be influenced by, if not determined by, our brotherly love. Love and concern for the well-being of my brothers and sisters will impact the way I live my life in society.

What you do out in the community today reflects on the person you sat by in church yesterday. The way I act today reflects on you. I need to be thinking about you when I make purchasing decisions and recreational choices and entertainment selections. You should be thinking about your church when you make career decisions and social judgments.

That’s taking it to the next step. That’s doing it more and more.

“Paul is not uninterested in acts of love and benevolence that reach beyond the group. But he seeks to promote first that level and kind of mutual affection and investment that will enhance the solidarity of the group, as well as convey to the individual member that these relationships are the most significant in his or her life.”

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The Lord moved in amazing ways through the Legacy church yesterday. He spoke words of comfort to us through the prophet Habakkuk and our brother Mac McAlister in the shock of the deaths of the sons of our dear friends Paul and Jean Dennis and Eldon and Marjorie McDowell. He showed us a beautiful picture of reconciliation between a man and his family and a man and his God with the new birth of our new brother Tyler Sharpe. He communicated to us what a humble heart and a sensitive spirit looks like in the confession of Mark Dunn. He touched us and moved us through Mason Scott’s open challenge to love one another more and depend on each other more. There was not a person in the building who wasn’t touched and impacted by at least one of the many things that happened yesterday morning. And then, as if the floodgates of mercy and compassion had been opened, Sunday night ended with a couple of dozen of our brothers and sisters requesting prayer from our elders. I lost count as couples and families prayed with our shepherds during the singing of beautiful hymns that proclaim our dependence on our God such as “I Need Thee Every Hour” and “It Is Well With My Soul.”

Terry Rush always prays before they worship at Memorial Road, “God, please do that thing you always do.”

I began praying that a year or so ago. Yesterday, God did that thing he always does.

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We didn’t arrive at the Best Western – Abilene until almost 2:00 this morning. Something about a construction issue on the roads in Forney for Dan and Jason as they left Diana to get to North Richland Hills to pick me up last night. I think it probably had more to do with an unscheduled stop at the Dairy Palace in Canton.

In Tulsa, we’re always having to choose between two or three excellent sessions every hour. Here, I don’t know how we’re going to do this. Every hour there are at least a dozen offerings that I don’t think I can miss. I know for sure we have Randy Harris at 8:30 and Jeff Walling at 9:45, even thought that means I have to miss Mark Shipp’s presentation on spiritual adultery in Hosea. After that, I’ll have to rely on my horsemen buddies to lead the way. I’ll probably be coming home with lots of CDs.

 Peace,

Allan

Too Much High School Football?

September 14, 2007 / / 1 Comment

Southlake Carroll has a stinking good football team. Since moving up to class 5-A in 2002, the Dragons have gone 80-1 and won four state championships. If they beat Northwestern tomorrow night it’ll be Carroll’s 50th straight victory, breaking the all-time consecutive wins mark set by Abilene High in 1954-57.

But about that game tomorrow night…

It’s on ESPNU. National TV, sorta. It’s at SMU’s Ford Stadium in Dallas. And it’s against Northwestern High School from Miami, Florida. It’s the mythical nation’s number one team against the mythical nation’s number two team in a showdown that’s being hyped and plugged like a BCS game.

This is the fourth straight year Carroll has played a game on national TV. Over a hundred media credential requests have been put in. High School Football in Texas has become a national industry with regular coverage in USA Today and Sports Illustrated. ESPN is televising 16 regular season high school football games this season and Fox Sports Net is broadcasting over a hundred.

At Carroll, and at other big name traditional powerhouse high schools with successful football programs, expectations are high. Through the roof high. National athletic wear brands are bidding for uniform rights. National soft drink companies fight for pouring rights. The money is flooding in in ever-increasing amounts. The stadiums are getting bigger and the practice facilities are getting nicer. The teams fly in chartered jets to out-of-state, made for TV matchups. Coaches angle for and get higher paying and higher profile NCAA  jobs. The players are being wined and dined by college recruiters as 14 year old freshmen. Football money is being used to fund other school programs, a lot of them academic programs.

They’re just 15-17 year old kids.

What, if anything, are we losing here? Are we trading anything in for the exposure and the money and the recognition?

In 2004 a football dad walked into the coach’s office at Canton high school and shot the head coach, a former defensive coordinator at Mesquite, because his son wasn’t getting enough playing time. The man’s sister publicly defended his actions by calling him a “concerned parent.”

In that same year, two high school football stars in the panhandle were arrested and charged with assault on the afternoon of a state playoff game. Two boosters bailed the boys out of jail and had them at the stadium at halftime. And they suited up and played. One scored two touchdowns. The other had a bunch of tackles and an interception. And they won.

The team Carroll is playing tonight, in my opinion, should not be traveling out of Miami and most certainly should not be playing on TV. Bulls running back Antwain Easterling was arrested and charged last December with “lewd and lascivious battery” against a 14 year old girl in a high school bathroom. According to court records, coaches and principals and counselors covered it up so Easterling could play in the Florida state championship game. Easterling ran for 157 yards that day and Northwestern won the state title. But since then, an investigation has led to several indictments and the firing of 21 coaches and counselors who knew of the assault but failed to report it. Northwestern’s football team has also been placed on one-year probation. But apparantly that probation doesn’t keep the Bulls from flying a jet to Dallas for a nationally televised football game and all the publicity and hype and money that go with it.

What are we trading here? How much is too much? What’s the message to these 15-17 year old kids about priorities and what’s important and what’s not so important? And, on a broader scale, what’s being communicated to society and accepted as normal?

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The monthly Four Horsemen lunch is actually going to be a four day trip to Abilene for the annual ACU Lectureships. Dan and Jason have always gone. Kevin, I think, has made the trek a couple of times. But I’ve never been. And when we made our pledge to have lunch once a month as soon as I moved back to DFW, we also made the ACU Lectureships a priority.

And I can’t wait.

My time with my dear Christian brothers is always excellent. I’ve learned so much from Kevin about dreaming big and setting lofty goals and believing that God has in mind much more than I do. He believes in me more than I do. Kevin motivates me.

Dan has taught me so much about seeing the Kingdom of our Father in places I never look. His view of Jesus’ church as it relates to loving and serving Christian brothers and sisters living on the streets and in run down apartment complexes comes straight out of the teachings of our Savior. Dan’s passion and action for people challenges me.

And Jason shows me how to live the Word. He’s in it. In depth. Constantly. He talks it. He walks it. He is a godly man with godly principles and a godly focus. Jason inspires me.

We’re leaving from my house at about 9:30 Sunday night because Dan’s never been able to say no to a free breakfast in Abilene. And we’ll stay for all three days. The focus of the lectureships this year is on the Prophets. And I’m excited about that because I see gospel preachers as prophets — spokesmen for God. But the prophets of Scripture had such a close relationship with God, always talking to God, always being spoken to by God, always in communion with God, that they saw what God saw and felt what God felt. The same compassion God has for his people, the prophets felt. The same injustice God saw, the prophets saw.

And I long for that same vision and pathos of my God. I want to see the things he sees and feel the way he feels. I want sin to grieve me the way it does my God. I want poverty and inequality to break my heart like it does God’s. I want to have his joy and his sorrow and his viewpoint on everything. That’s the Scriptural picture of the prophets. And it’s one of the things I pray about every day. I’m confident this experience in Abilene, featuring some of the best teachers and preachers in our brotherhood, will be very encouraging and uplifting for me.

Peace,

Allan

I Am A Disciple of His

September 13, 2007 / / 0 Comments

“Everyone wishes very much to be a servant of Christ, but no one wishes to be his follower. No one can love Christ who does not follow the example of his holy life.” ~ Johann Arndt, 1610

“I feel a burning desire to be in everything a complete Christian; and conformed to the blessed image of Jesus Christ.” ~ Jonathan Edwards, 1720

“Whoever wishes to truly understand the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.” ~ Thomas a Kempis, 1451

“The object of the Christian religion is to make men and women like Jesus Christ. To the extent that it fails to make us like Christ in our whole character, to that extent it fails to benefit man. The great end to be gained here through the religion he has given us is to make ourselves like him in all that we think, feel, purpose, and do.” ~ David Lipscomb, 1867

“I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” ~ Galatians 4:19

I’m captured by the concept of Christ being formed in those of us who are “being saved.” There is no other goal. Giving ourselves completely over to the resurrection of our Savior and the power of that resurrection to save us takes away all of our fears and anxieties about following him. There should be no hesitation. No doubt. We’re not afraid to risk anything because we don’t have anything to risk. We’ve given it all to him. And we trust him to furnish our every need as we become more and more like him.

Rick Ross, the preaching minister at Mesquite at the time, gave me a copy of a discipleship pledge in 2001. (By the way, his dynamic wife, Beverly Ross, is the featured speaker for our ladies at this Saturday’s Redeeming the Time event here at Legacy.) He had used it in a sermon on commitment and it really moved me. I’ve kept the copy, fairly tattered now, taped to the top of my desk or tacked to the wall above my computer wherever I’ve been ever since. And I read it everyday. I don’t know who wrote it. I think it was a missionary from maybe nearly a hundred years ago. I think it’s timeless.

I am a member of the fellowship of the unashamed.

I have Holy Spirit power.

The die has been cast.

I have stepped over the line.

The decision has been made.

I am a disciple of his.

I won’t look back, slow down, back away, or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure.

I am finished and done with low living, side walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, same visions, mundane talking, cinchy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminance, prosperity, promotions, position, plaudits, or popularity.

I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, regarded, rewarded, or praised.

I now live by present, lean by faith. walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor power.

My face is set, my gait it fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised, lured, manipulated, enticed, or bribed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the Adversary, negotiate at the table of the Enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I’ve stayed up, prayed up, and preached for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of his.

I must go until he comes, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until he stops me.

And when he comes back he will have no problem recognizing me.

For I have forgotten all that is in the past, I’m pressing on for the prize, the high calling of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My colors are clear.

I am a disciple of his.

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