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What a fabulous 60th Anniversary and Homecoming weekend at our GCR Church! People came from all over Midland and even traveled from out of state, coming from as far away as Arkansas, Colorado, and North Carolina to renew relationships and catch up with old friends. More than 500 showed up at the picnic on Saturday for burgers and dogs, cornhole and volleyball, and a once in a lifetime total solar eclipse. We held a youth ministry reunion Saturday afternoon, and then a Praise and Pie event that evening in our newly remodeled worship center. And then 873 of us came together Sunday for a time of reflection and thanksgiving, worship, and a catered lunch. At every event I felt like I had never seen a third of the people. There was energy and excitement, gratitude and praise, and lots of laughter.
It was really good for me, personally, to just hang around and listen to the old stories, the formative events from GCR’s past, the really great times and the tough times, to get a better handle on all the connections, and to hear the hope and joy for the present and the future. I’ve only been here a little over two years. I needed to hear about O.C. Collins and those faithful Christians from the North A Church of Christ who planted GCR in 1963. I needed to hear Ronnie White preach — yes, he still knows how. I needed to worship with Andy Spell, I needed to eat coconut cream pie with people who “used to go to GCR,” I needed to look at those old directories and Stream videos. I needed to hear the motivations behind the apartments ministry and the passion for divorce recovery and care and single parent family camp. I needed to be in the same room with these people when they laughed at a 35-year-old memory and when they cried during It Is Well With My Soul and How Great Thou Art.
It’s good for me and for our present day church at GCR to realize that everything we’re doing now, by God’s grace, is done with the same spirit, the same passion, the same drive, the same love for our Lord and his people that has always characterized the Christians at Golf Course Road. This is a grace-oriented, redemption-minded church. Always has been. Still is.
What we’re doing now and where we’re going — these aren’t new things. Our vision is not an innovative thing. Our local missions partnerships and ecumenical efforts are not a new direction or some kind of revolution. It’s an evolution born of the Spirit and what has gone before. It’s our church’s refusal to stand pat, our refusal to allow the status to remain quo, our conviction that our God is at work in and through GCR to his eternal glory and praise.
We’ve got great shepherds at GCR. Holy and godly men who share a unified desire for transformation and mission.
We’ve got a great ministry team here. A tremendous group of talented and dedicated disciples of Jesus who share a unified vision for ministry and service.
We’ve got a great church at GCR. An historically great church. A loving and giving church that wants to be challenged, wants to grow, and shares a desire to impact our city for Christ.
Much more than all that, we have our God. We belong to a mighty God, a faithful God, who has promised to finish in us and through us what he started 60 years ago on Golf Course Road.
The one who calls us is faithful and he will do it.
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Nasty Nate did it again yesterday, becoming the first pitcher in these 2023 playoffs with three wins. The Rangers plated four runs on five hits and an error in the first inning, and tight defense and clutch pitching made it stand to take a two-games-to-none lead in the ALCS. Eovaldi worked masterfully out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the fifth inning, and finished with nine strikeouts and one walk in six outstanding innings to earn the win. That’s 24 K’s against one walk for Big Game Nate in this postseason. And that’s seven straight playoff wins for Texas, six of those games on the road. Now the Astros and Rangers head north up I-45 to Arlington, where Mad Max takes the hill tomorrow night in Game Three.
No team has ever won the first two games of a league championship series on the road and gone on to lose that series. The Rangers need to win two games out of the remaining five to get to their first World Series since 2011. And the next three are in Arlington.
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Mike McCarthy really said out loud last night after the Cowboys squeaker over the Chargers that he intentionally allowed the clock to run down so they could kick that field goal from the 14-yard-line at the end of the first half. The referees and the time keeper had stopped the clock at eight-seconds, assuming McCarthy would take one of his two remaining timeouts and throw the ball into the end zone. If it’s caught, it’s a touchdown. If it’s not, they kick the gimmee three-pointer and go to the locker room. The referees even asked McCarthy, “You don’t want the timeout? Are you sure?” They’re begging him to do the right thing! And he declined, telling reporters after the game he’s all about getting the points. The Cowboys had committed a holding penalty earlier on that drive and he just wanted to make sure nothing was going to mess up that automatic field goal.
He’s all about getting the points? That does not explain McCarthy’s going for it on 4th down inside the red zone two other times last night. It confuses the whole conversation. It must be madness for Dak having McCarthy in his helmet for three hours.
Peace,
Allan
The GCR Church family celebrates our 60th Anniversary and Homecoming this weekend with an all-church cookout, a youth ministry reunion, and praise and pie tomorrow, followed by a Sunday morning of reflection and gratitude and worship, capped by a catered lunch.
The foyers are decorated with flowers and balloons, the tables and chairs are set up in the Gathering Space and the Family Center to handle 800 for lunch, and there are old photos displayed and old video loops running in almost every public space. Andy Spell is coming back to help Cory Legg and Eric West lead our worship and the great Ronnie White is back to bring us an inspiring lesson from God’s Word.
As we look at old pictures and tell and re-tell the old stories, as we reflect on all that’s been accomplished since 1963, we remember we belong to a much bigger story of God and his people. Our focus is on what God has done and what he is doing. We rejoice in the indescribable mercies and grace our Father has lavished on us. Our souls bask in his great love. Our spirits sing of the power of his salvation.
We are being changed by God to love like Jesus. That’s worth celebrating this Sunday at GCR.
Peace,
Allan
Walt Garrison, the Cowboys’ cowboy, has died at 79. The gritty, hard-nosed, tough running back who bridged the gap between Don Perkins and Tony Dorsett and played well in both of the Cowboys’ first Super Bowls; the “aw, shucks” friendly and funny rodeo star who slipped out of the Cowboys’ hotel after team meetings the night before home games to wrestle steers in Mansfield; the Skoal brother who made “just a pinch between your cheek and gum” part of our cultural vernacular in the 1970s; the Denton native who played football as a Cowboy at Oklahoma State and in Dallas, and lived as one off the field — passed away last night. Garrison is one of those “characters” who captured the hearts of football fans and the curiosity of everyone else, and helped make those Cowboys “America’s Team.”
The two times I was lucky enough to encounter Walt personally — once on the sidelines at a Cowboys game in 2003 and once in a Texas Stadium suite six years later — he was everything you want your childhood heroes to be. Down to earth. Friendly. Genuinely pleased to meet you. Really dry and witty sense of humor.
The same guy who answered the reporter’s question, “Did you ever see Tom Landry smile?” with “No. But I was only there nine years.”
Peace,
Allan
It’s official now. The Rangers and Astros will square off in the ALCS in a best of seven showdown for a trip to the World Series. So, the first thing I did this morning when I arrived at my study was to rearrange some furniture. Not furniture. They’re knickknacks. Keepsakes. Souvenirs. My office here at church is decorated (Carrie-Anne uses the word ‘littered’) with sports memorabilia. Most of it’s really old and represents my former fondness of the Cowboys, my current rooting interests in the Stars and Mavs, and my everlasting obsession with the Rangers. You’ll also find in my office, here and there, some really old artifacts that reflect my love of Texas history. Three of these items are Houston Astros items.
Rooting for the Astros as my second favorite team was never a problem. Houston was always in the National League and my Rangers were always in the American League. The two never played one another and the only way they could ever meet would be in a World Series. Well, there was never any chance of that.
Until interleague play began in 1997. No big deal. Friendly in-state rivalry. No real impact on the division standings. Just a fun in-season diversion a couple of times a year.
Then, Bud Selig fleeced Drayton McClane in 2013 and moved the Astros to the American League West against everybody’s wishes. Everybody’s. Today those games against Houston really matter. Every contest is a two-game swing in the division. And now, for the first time in history, the Rangers and Astros are meeting in the playoffs with the AL pennant at stake. A four-out-of-seven series up and down I-45 for a ticket to the 2023 World Series.
There’s a lot on the line here. This is important. Heavy. Thus, with the Rangers being my absolute favorite team and baseball being by far the most superstitious of all the sports, I’ve rearranged a few things this morning in my office.
The ceramic Astros piggy-bank from the ’60s that has sheepishly smiled from a prominent place on my bookshelf is now turned around backwards.
The Astros ashtray from the ’70s that’s suspended on my wall under the matching Oilers ashtray is now hanging upside down.
And the old metal Houston Astros lunchbox that serves alongside my Juan Gonzalez lunchkit as a backdrop to my myriad bobbleheads has been turned over on its side with the Rangers lunchbox now perched on top in a superior and conquering position.
I’m ready. I’m ready for this still-budding rivalry to completely take over our football-crazed Republic. I’m ready for six or seven games over the coming ten days or so to totally dominate our conversations and our imagination. I’m ready for the exhilarating victories and I’m prepared for the inevitable gut punch of the ultimate defeat — I am a Rangers fan, you know.
I do believe it’s going to be the Rangers and Astros battling each other for American League pennants for the next several years. I’ve been targeting next year, 2024, all along as the year the baton gets passed from Houston to Arlington. I believe the Rangers are, today, where the Astros were in 2016 and it’s about to get really fun. Houston got their Dusty Baker and now we’ve got our Bruce Bochy.
Let’s Go Rangers!
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
The sell-out crowd at Globe Life Field was chanting “We Want Houston!” last night as soon as Jose LeClerc struck out Jordan Westburg to punch the Rangers ticket to the American League Championship series for the first time since 2011. From the comfort of my couch in the back of my house in front of my large television, I thought, “Shouldn’t we vote on that first?”
Let’s worry about the Astros later. Today, let’s celebrate the darndest baseball team anybody’s ever seen. Who are these guys? Resilient. Scrappy. Unpredictable. Streaky. The most fun a Rangers team has ever been to watch since, well, those World Series teams of 2010 and 2011. Even Bruce Bochy, who has seen it all and won it all, can’t figure this group out. He’s as perplexed as anybody. Part of the joy in last night’s on field and clubhouse celebration was watching Bochy trying to suppress his smile. It’s been a crazy, unexpected, up and down ride with these Rangers. And it’s not over yet.
The bottom line with this group is that they only have one weakness: that blasted bullpen. It’s terrible. Chapman proved that again in the 8th inning last night, loading the bases with Orioles to inject the only drama during the blowout win. But the hitting, the starting pitching, and the superb defense are neutralizing their only disadvantage.
The lineup is incredibly deep. Spots 1-9 are loaded and give opposing pitchers no breathing room. There’s no break. The O’s walked Seager last night to load the bases for Mitch Garver the day after they did the same thing which resulted in a Garver grand slam! This time it was only a two-run double — I guess that’s a win for Baltimore — but Garcia hit a three run jimmy-jack on the very next pitch. That sequence illustrates the point. Lowe has reclaimed his groove, Carter has added to the lineup’s threat, Garcia’s confidence is soaring, and Seager’s going to get on base four times a night. Their chase rate is the lowest in the majors. The Rangers walked 18 times during the three game sweep. It’s a pitcher’s nightmare.
And the pitching is there. Nate Eovaldi is nasty again, Jordan Montgomery is going to give you seven solid innings, and Jon Gray and Mad Max look like they’re going to be ready for this next round. Bochy can wave his wand to get through the seventh and eighth innings so LeClerc can finish it off with a three or four out save, whatever is needed.
The Rangers are getting healthier, their confidence is through the roof, and they’ve got a Hall of Fame manager calling the shots.
I remember telling our daughter Whitney during the ALCS and World Series in 2011 to really enjoy it. Soak it in and remember it, because we’re not guaranteed it’ll ever happen again. This could be it, you never know. I still suffer from PTSD related to Cruz’s drop in Game Six. Last Wednesday, when Sean McDonough announced during the 9th inning in Tampa that the Rangers were “one strike away,” my heart sank into my socks and I threw up a little bit in my mouth. Yes, I still suffer from PTSD. And for the past several years, it has felt like we’d never get back. Well, we’re back. Enjoy it. Soak it in. Remember this. We’re living in the good ol’ days again with the Texas Rangers.
Do we want Houston? We’re getting them whether we want them or not. An I-45 series for much more than a clunky silver boot. A Lone Star matchup for the AL pennant.
Peace,
Allan
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