CrocktoberFest at GCR

We kicked off our first-ever Missions Month at GCR Church Wednesday night with what we called “CrocktoberFest.” It was an all-church crockpot potluck and it was fabulous on all fronts. We packed right at 200 of us in the Family Center Gym and there must have been almost a hundred crockpots on the four serving lines. The crockpots contained the usual–soups, pasta dishes, beans, potatoes, lasagna, taco meat, and all kinds of seasoned chicken and pork. But lots of folks got creative, too. There were crockpots with Chick-fil-A nuggets and sauces, Oreo cookies, and — as requested from the Sunday morning pulpit at least twice — ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we shared that amazing dinner together, we gathered all our kids–where are all these kids at GCR coming from?!?– and spent about 15-minutes talking about our congregation’s foreign missions works. We introduced our church family to the missionaries and the organizations that represent our six largest global partnerships, and then we spent a few minutes at each table reading God’s Word and praying for these missionaries by name and place.

We’re spending the entire month of October showcasing our global missions partners because we want our church to see the pictures, to meet the missionaries, the hear the stories. We want our people to know it, to experience it, to own it.

In a lot of churches, “Missions” is just a special Sunday for a special offering for something that other people are doing a long way from here. There’s no engagement. So, the church budget determines, or limits, the mission of God instead of God’s mission setting the budget.

Or, “Missions” is just something the missions committee oversees–a half-dozen people managing the missions budget and staying in touch with the missionaries. And there’s no relationship with the church body. It’s not a partnership as much as it’s a holy banking service for a good cause.

We want all of GCR to get to know our missionaries and our partnerships. We want them to meet the people, to hear their stories, to be inspired by their courage and commitment, to learn to really love these people and organizations.

We engage in partnerships with these people and groups because we can do so much more together than we can as individuals. We’re partners. This kind of partnership brings us great joy when we do our part. And our part in these partnerships is to give our money, to encourage, and to pray.

It’s Missions Month at GCR. I know it’s going to become my favorite time of the year.

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Carrie-Anne, Whitney, and I took in the Zack Williams concert at the Ector County Coliseum in Odessa last night. C-A bought the tickets, so they were on the floor, tenth row, dead center. Outstanding seats and a pretty good show. Zack didn’t seem to have as much energy as he typically brings. He didn’t sing as many of his “hits” and played way too many from his brand new album that just came out like three weeks ago. And he only played 70-minutes. A little bit of a disappointment for Carrie-Anne.

I was most impressed with the band that performed right before Zack, a high-energy, hard-rocking group called We The Kingdom. Evidently, they’ve been around a while–C-A knew many of their songs. Either way, they way outperformed the headliner. It reminded of Van Halen touring to promote their debut album in 1978, opening for Black Sabbath, and famously blowing them away every night.

Peace,

Allan

Love Over Fear

Three selected quotes from Love Over Fear, by Dan White, Jr:

“In the Gospels, you see Jesus get really harsh with those who use religion as a tool of oppression and self-serving power. You don’t see Jesus get harsh with anyone for being too forgiving, too merciful, to generous, or loving others too much.”

“When you live in ‘culture war mode,’ there is always a battle to fight, a side to take, and people to fear. When you live in God’s Kingdom, there is always a stranger to welcome, a neighbor to befriend, and an enemy to love.”

“When you worship power, compassion will look like a sin.”

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I made good with Myles yesterday on our annual wager concerning the Rangers-Astros Silver Boot Series. Myles is one of the many–too many!–Astros fans in our church, and we enjoy mostly good-natured back and forth ribbing through every baseball season. Texas only needed to win one of the last three games against Houston two weeks ago to clinch their first Boot in nine years but, alas, the Astros got the sweep and I had to buy Myles lunch at Whataburger. Not only do I buy the lunch but, as the loser, I am forced to tell the server taking our order, “The Astros are better than the Rangers.” Humiliating for me. Hilarious for Myles.

Peace,

Allan

All Hail Bruce Bochy

Bruce Bochy is a Hall of Fame manager, maybe one of the best four or five managers in baseball history, and he led the Rangers to a place that had eluded the franchise for 52 seasons. He managed career years out of the hitters on that 2023 Rangers club and perfectly manipulated the pitchers to pull off that improbable run that culminated in the World Series championship. That makes him the best manager in Rangers history. By far. By miles. He delivered what we had waited for our whole lives, and I will forever be grateful.

I don’t know who’s next. Skip Schumaker? Probably. I don’t know who’s going to be on the roster. I’m pretty sure Adolis, Jonah, and Semien will be gone–the core of the team will be younger and the payroll will be less. None of that matters today. Today I thank Bruce Bochy.

I’m really going to miss watching him hobble to the mound to make pitching changes.

Whatever he does next–managing or consulting with the Giants, advising the Rangers via Zoom, or just chilling in Nashville with his grandchildren–I wish him the very best in peace and joy. And deep satisfaction, knowing that he has our undying admiration and affection for giving us something most of us thought we would never see.

Peace,
Allan

 

Shepherding at GCR

I finally got these awesome Texas Rangers onesies up to the boys in Tulsa–Elliott and Samuel are ten weeks old now–just in time for our baseball team to be officially mathematically eliminated from the pennant race. The grandsons are right on the edge now, in the very first stages, of responding to us with their eyes and smiles. Even a little intentional noise here and there, a distinct sound that might could be interpreted as an attempt at a word. I spent a good chunk of my weekend trying to get them to laugh and say “Grandpa.” Carrie-Anne had much more luck getting grins–she’s sweeter than I am and they know it. We ran some errands together and ate out a couple of times on Friday–that’s Elliott with the travel drip and the shades. And it doesn’t matter what you call these things they wore to church on Sunday, those are two cute little guys!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By God’s grace, we just concluded a smooth, drama-free, Holy Spirit led, and healthy shepherd selection process here at GCR Church. We ordained six new elders on Sunday–Eric Augesen, Lan Bundy, Craig Dawson, Roy Geer, Mark Helferich, and Jarrod Hutchinson–to join the current group of eight, to give us a terrific team of godly men committed to shepherding this church in the name and manner of our Lord Jesus. By all accounts, Sunday’s ordination ceremony was a beautiful and inspirational moment for our whole congregation.

We want these services to feel like the whole church is participating in ordaining these new shepherds and affirming and blessing the whole leadership. We want the charges and pledges to go both ways–the elders make promises to the church and the congregation makes promises to the elders. And I believe we have developed a model ordination ceremony that any church in our CofC tradition would find lovely.

 

 

 

 

First, we gathered around our elders and prayed thanksgiving and blessing over them. We asked all fourteen of our shepherds and their families to step out into the aisles so we could get to them, and we got out of our seats, put our hands on them and our arms around them, and talked to the Lord about them. We thanked God for the dedication of these men and their wives to seeking the Lord and following Christ and serving his Church. We expressed our love for them to the Father. And we lifted each of them–these men, their wives, their kids, their ministries, their service to our congregation–to the Lord in faith and trust.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we brought all fourteen couples to the stage and their children and grandchildren presented the new guys with beautiful shepherds’ staffs as symbols of godly leadership. We want these staffs to serve as reminders that they are called to lead us with the same priorities our God lays out in Ezekiel 34: lead us to good pastures where there is peace and rest, keep the big strong sheep from running over the smaller weaker sheep, keep all of us from butting heads with each other, search for the lost and bring back the strays, and bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.

And then we charged our elders with the specifics. I started the charge, but we had our other members of the church stand up in the middle of the congregation to also address the shepherds with our expectations. It went like this:

Allan: On behalf of the church family here at Golf Course Road, in the presence of our God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit; believing that we have not acted in haste, but have prayerfully depended on our God; we charge you men to be faithful shepherds of our flock.

Then Chuck and Bonnie Sohl stood up from their seats on the east side of the Worship Center: Believing that the Spirit of God has called you this ministry and that you are a gift of his grace to our congregation, we charge you to accept this calling with humility and compassion. We charge you to devote yourselves to prayer, to commit yourselves to the ministry of God’s Word, and to consecrate yourselves to the earnest shepherding of our church.

Elders: By God’s grace, we will.

Then Alan McGraw stood up on the west side of the room and read the next lines: As you shepherd us, will you submit to the Lordship of Jesus and to his example by taking the very nature of a servant and considering the needs of others more important than your own?

Elders: By God’s grace, we will submit to the Lordship of Christ, to his church here at GCR, and to one another. We will sacrificially serve the church with humility and compassion in the name and manner of Jesus.

Then Colton Rau, one of our teenagers, from the front pews, representing our young people: Will you diligently seek the Lord in ways that we can follow, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ?

Elders: By God’s grace, we will train ourselves for godliness; we will pursue the way of righteousness, faithfulness, gentleness, and love.

Next, it was Allison Brown from way in the back: And will you guard this church as the blood-purchased possession of Christ?

Elders: By God’s grace, we will teach and admonish in humility, encourage and support in love, and faithfully lead and protect our brothers and sisters at GCR as our Lord’s most prized possession.

At this point, I asked the entire congregation to stand and I asked them two questions, to which they responded in unison. First, do you acknowledge and publicly affirm these godly men as your shepherds and receive them as your elders as gifts of God’s Holy Spirit to this church?

Congregation: Yes, we acknowledge these men as elders ordained by God and we receive them as our shepherds and as gifts of God’s Holy Spirit to this church.

Will you love and pray for these men, will you work together with them, in humility and unity and good cheer, will you give them all due honor and support in the leadership to which our God has called them?

Congregation: By God’s grace, we will obey and submit to these men, so that their work will be a joy and not a burden.

Then I asked all in the church who agreed to affirm by saying, “Amen.” We all did. And then Eddie Lee, one of our former long-serving elders, led us in a beautiful congregational prayer of thanksgiving and blessing over the whole thing.

It wasn’t just six guys on the stage and a prayer. It was our whole church, from the youngest among us to the oldest, in the aisles, on the stage, asking and answering questions, making eye contact, making promises, giving and receiving blessings and hugs, saying prayers and being prayed over.

We do not “install” elders; that’s what you do with dishwashers. We ordain them. We affirm them. We charge them and bless them and use holy words to lift them up to the Father. It’s relational. It’s between a church and its spiritual leaders in the presence of God. It’s not an “installation.” It’s a sacred moment in the ongoing story of what the Lord is doing in and through his people in this place. Treating it as such will inspire your church. It will bless your shepherds. And it will honor our God who brings us together in Christ Jesus.

Peace,

Allan

Blessing a Minister

The boys turned two months old yesterday and they are still awesome. In fact, I think they might be a little awesomer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once a month, our ministry team here at GCR spends a whole morning together at my house. We eat breakfast, spend some important time in Word and Prayer, check in with each other, and then take an hour and a half or so planning whatever needs to be planned and deciding whatever needs to be decided. Yesterday, after some honest reflection together on that enormous canyon in Nowen’s prayer (see yesterday’s post), we went around the circle and blessed one another with these words from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17.

If you are wondering how to encourage one of your ministers or elders at your church, I would suggest sending him or her a note with these words, inserting her or his name in the blank. Remind him that, no matter what he’s enduring at the moment, he is loved by God. Remind her that, no matter what she feels, she is chosen by God. Tell him he is called by God. Tell her she shares in the glory of Christ. Bless them with the holy words of Scripture.

I thank God for you, ____________, loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through your belief in the truth.

He called you to this, this ministry, this church, through the Gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, ____________, stand firm and hold to the teachings.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved you and by his grace gave you eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your heart and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Amen.

I can assure you by my own experience, these are powerful words that mean the world coming from someone you really love.

Peace,
Allan

The Enormous Abyss

The Rangers took two of three from the Astros over the weekend, the first of which Whitney and Carley and I experienced in person at Globe Life Field Friday night. It was a 12-inning triumph in which the kids, particularly Cody Freeman and Dustin Harris, again played pivotal parts. The atmosphere was electric, as it always is when these two Lone Star rivals get together. The World Series trophy was on display–I guess we want to remind all the Astros fans that we won it last–and it was our first time to see the brand new Adrian Beltre statue outside the centerfield gates. So we patted Beltre’s head, took the pic with the trophy, and then sent the selfie to all our Rangers friends after Harris’ 12th inning single drove home the winning run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shockingly, the Rangers are still in this thing, just a half-game back of a wild card spot. Just as amazingly, if Texas can win just one of the three remaining games against the Astros, they will take the annual Silver Boot Trophy for the first time in nine years. And Myles Hill will have to buy me lunch at Whataburger.

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A prayer from A Cry for Mercy by Henri Nouwen. Especially if you are a minister or a congregational leader. My hope is that this might give voice to your heart in ways you never would have expected. And that you will be given encouragement and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I am impressed by my own spiritual insights. I probably know more about prayer and contemplation than most Christians do. I have read many books about the Christian life, and have even written a few myself. Still, as impressed as I am, I am more impressed by the enormous abyss between my insights and my life.

It seems as if I am standing on one side of a huge canyon and see how I should grow toward you, live in your presence and serve you, but cannot reach the other side of the canyon where you are. I can speak and write, preach and argue about the beauty and goodness of the life I see on the other side, but how, O Lord, can I get there? Sometimes I even have the painful feeling that the clearer the vision, the more aware I am of the depth of the canyon.

Am I doomed to live on the wrong side of the abyss? Am I destined to excite others to reach the promised land while remaining unable to enter there myself? Sometimes I feel imprisoned by my own insights and “spiritual competence.”

You alone, Lord, can reach out to me and save me. You alone.

I can only keep trying to be faithful, even though I feel faithless most of the time. What else can I do but keep praying to you, even when I feel dark; to keep writing about you, even when I feel numb; to keep speaking in your name, even when I feel alone.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Amen.

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