The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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The Transforming Church

January 14, 2026 / / 0 Comments

“The closer we draw to the Church, the closer Christ draws to us.” ~ Kenneth B

I’m still posting some excerpts from this past Sunday’s sermon on how we are transformed more into the image of Jesus in and through the local church. I am also sharing some lines from the excellent article I found Monday–a few days too late!–written by Kenneth B on Substack about the same topic. You can read his outstanding piece here.

The main point of Sunday’s sermon is that the differences we have with one another in our churches are precisely the areas where our Father shapes us into his image. It’s in those differences and disappointments that the Spirit changes us to more consistently think like God and more regularly and predictably act like Jesus. We have different ideas, different preferences, different buttons and triggers–there’s never going to be anything we all agree on together within our churches.

And that’s okay.

If we had to agree with everybody in our churches on everything, Carrie-Anne and I would be at two different churches.

If unity means uniformity, a bunch of us are going to have stop thinking. Nobody wants that.

God’s people are messy in community. But I think that’s the point.

“You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people, and members of God’s household… In him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” ~ Ephesians 2:19-22

“In fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” ~ 1 Corinthians 12:18

I believe that every man, woman, and child in your church is there because God placed them there. You are a part of your congregation for a reason: God’s reason. We need each other if God’s going to work in us and through us the way he intends. Our mindset must be: We are together in this church because of what God is doing in Christ. If that’s the mindset, then we commit to one another. We vow to make it work.

We were watching a TV show a couple of weeks ago in which two of the characters work together, and they’re dating. They’re in a relationship. He did something at work she didn’t like, something that messed up what she was trying to accomplish, and it made her angry. So she broke up with him. It’s over. And he said, “So, that’s how it is? You don’t get your way and you sever the relationship? You’re going to be a sad and lonely woman.”

Some people leave their church when they don’t get their way. They just leave because something’s not going the way they want.

No! That misses the whole point of Christian community! It’s a family, it’s like a marriage. You work it out. You don’t leave. You work through it. And it’s hard and it’s painful and sometimes it’s disappointing and sometimes it hurts. But this is precisely what leads to spiritual growth. This is what facilitates increased Christ-likeness. You don’t treat your church like you treat your car or your shampoo. Your mindset is: I am all in with these people in this place because God has put me here and he’s doing something.

“In Christ, we, who are many, form one body. And each member belongs to all the others.” ~ Romans 12:5

We belong together in our church communities. And it’s in your church community where God’s grace transforms you. Being together all the time with people you don’t necessarily agree with, worshiping and serving together, living and dying together with people you didn’t choose, forces us to grow in Christ-likeness.

Love one another. Build one another up. Encourage one another. Honor one another. Be in harmony with one another. Pray for one another. Be devoted to one another. Instruct one another. Greet one another. Accept one another. Serve one another. Be patient with one another. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Submit to one another. Forgive one another. These biblical commands can only be obeyed in community. We can only follow our Lord’s instructions if we’re together, if we really belong to each other. And when we do these things, by God’s grace, when we commit to this way of being together in Christian community, we’ll find that we are more consistently thinking like God and more regularly and predictably acting like Jesus.

This is how God works. And where.

I’ll end today with this paragraph from the Kenneth B article. Again, I urge you to read the whole thing here.

“A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is real, but it is not solitary. It is lived through the Church. You do not discover Christ by escaping the community, but by joining it. You do not grow closer to God by seeking exceptional moments, but by entering the ordinary pattern of worship, repentance, fasting, and love that has formed saints for two thousand years… We meet him as members of his Body. We are saved together, healed together, shaped together, and restored together. Even our most personal experiences of grace arise from the shared life of the Church, it’s sacraments, its Scriptures, its prayers, its elders, its martyrs, and its saints… In the ancient world, to speak of knowing Christ personally was to speak of being united to his Body, standing shoulder to shoulder with the community he founded, and learning from the people who had already learned to pray, to repent, to love, and to die with hope.”

Peace,
Allan

Church is God’s Work

January 13, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I paid off a Cowboys debt today. I bet Myles back in August that the Cowboys would not get seven wins this year. Myles is a squirrely 13-year-old kid in our youth group and the son of the wonderful Brandon and Ashlee. He and I share a love for Whataburger, the Texas Longhorns, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and our Lord Jesus. But that’s about the extent of what we have in common. He loves the Cowboys. Poor kid.

Our wagers are always for lunch at Whataburger. Loser buys. Including the vanilla and strawberry shakes. So, I picked up Myles from school today. And his friend, Nolan. I’m not sure how I got roped into buying his lunch, too. I don’t know this kid. Why am I buying his lunch?

When’s the last time you shared a meal with a teenager from your church? I’d suggest doing it soon. It’s awesome.

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A lot of people have this idea that the church is a volunteer organization; that every person in the church makes his or her own decision to belong or not; like we each experience a personal relationship with Christ, and then we join a church that promotes my individual spiritual health. This way, people join the church or leave the church based on whether they feel like their needs are being met or not.

No. Our knowledge of God–understanding who God is and what he is doing–re-shapes the way we think about Christian community, the way we view church. Church is God’s work, not ours. Not yours and not mine.

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light… Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” ~ 1 Peter 2:9-10

Earlier in 1 Peter 2, the apostle writes that you–this is the plural form of the word, you all, or, as I like to say, y’all–are chosen by God and precious. You (y’all) are being built into a spiritual house. You are not building it; you are being built by God. Belonging to a community of faith is not your choice, it is God’s decision. It’s God’s work.

“God has called you (y’all) into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~1 Corinthians 1:9
“Brothers and sisters, think of what you (y’all) were when you were called.” ~1 Corinthians 1:26
“It is because of God that you (y’all) are in Christ Jesus.” ~1 Corinthians 1:30

In the Bible, whenever the Gospel is preached, wherever the power of what God has done and is doing in Christ Jesus is proclaimed, these communities of faith just pop up. The churches in the Bible are defined ONLY by their acceptance of the Good News and their commitment to Christ and to one another. Jews and Gentiles together. Rich and poor together. Free people and slaves together. Men and women, tax collectors and Zealots, national citizens and foreigners together. Young and old, fugitives and business leaders together.

You and I don’t CHOOSE to belong to group like that. We would NEVER choose that. Putting a church together is what God does.

Peace,
Allan

A Very Late Cultural Invention

January 12, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The great Drew Pearson is 75 today. The OG 88. Walk around today with a little bit of a chip on your shoulder in his honor. Try to use the phrase “Hail Mary” at least a couple of times. And just point to the crowd knowingly. Don’t spike it.

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I’m not a hundred-percent sure what to do with Substack. It feels like social media, to which I am fundamentally opposed. But some of the best writers I know personally are writing there regularly. So, I’m reading Jim Martin and Daniel Harris and Carrie McKean. Then Steve Schorr, my brother and partner in the Gospel at First Presbyterian, turned me on to the Disarming Leviathan guys. And now I have come across Kenneth B.

I do not know who Kenneth B. is. He is an orthodox Christian. That’s it. Maybe that’s all I need to know. He has written an excellent piece on the Church and our understandings of Church as the Body of Christ. Or, better said, our gross misunderstandings. And it is the best article on Church as the transforming community of faith I have read in a long time.

He writes about people a little younger than me, people in their 40s and 50s maybe, and how they were raised to view Christianity as a personal relationship with Jesus, faith as an emotional experience, and the Church as functioning to produce that experience.

“The idea that church existed to form a people rather than to stimulate an individual was unimaginable to us. Church was treated like a spiritual energy drink. You consumed it for a jolt of religious feeling, and if you stopped feeling the jolt, you changed flavors… Looking back, I realize that what I was handed was not the faith of the apostles, but a very late cultural invention.”

I just preached yesterday about how God’s Holy Spirit transforms us in Christian community, how our commitments to Christ and to his people–people we would never choose, people we don’t agree with, people we may not even like–form us more and more into his holy image. I only wish I had read Kenneth B’s article before I had preached. I think I might have just read the whole thing to everybody and called it good. This is excellent stuff.

“Because the entire structure was built around individual experience, religious feeling became the engine and the evidence of faith. A good church was one that gave you an experience. A bad church was one that did not. Piety was defined by how deeply a song moved you, how intensely a sermon pierced your conscience, how often you felt the Spirit goosebump the back of your neck. If you prayed and felt nothing, the prayer was thought to have failed. If you worshiped and felt nothing, the worship was considered dead.” 

Please read this whole article. It’s right here. Click right here. Read it twice. I think I’m going to write about it in sections this week, along with excerpts from yesterday’s sermon.

“Consider how the early Christians spoke. They did not describe salvation as me and Jesus but as us in Christ. Baptism did not place you in a private booth with God. It plunged you into a people. The Eucharist did not symbolize an internal feeling. It joined your life with every believer at the table.” 

Okay. It’s really good. Check it out. Then come back tomorrow.

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The boys are six months old. They are both rolling over consistently and sleeping on their bellies. Elliott is starting to hold his own bottle, here and there. Sam is watching Elliott intensely and hollering at him when he feels ignored. They are the two coolest little kids on the planet and they will be center stage at the annual Baby Dedication Service at the Jenks Church this Sunday. We will be on the front row. Cheering and laughing and praising God for his grace in the gift of these guys who fill us with so much joy.

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I had an incredible weekend in Dallas with some of the people I absolutely love the most. Three of the four Horsemen had lunch together at Dan’s house Friday. I snuck in a box of Swiss Cake Rolls and Zebra Cakes–don’t tell Debbie–and we laughed together and talked about all that God is doing in our lives. The Parkinson’s keeps Dan-O mostly confined to his bedroom now, but his Spirit has never known any bounds. He is as full of joy and encouragement as I’ve ever seen him. I thank God for Dan and for his continuous encouragement to me. He sees things in me I never did. Still does. He speaks them into existence, to our Lord and to me, sometimes at the same time.

Friday night, my sister Rhonda and I drove to Oak Cliff to take our Aunt Louann to dinner at the historic Norma’s Cafe. I knew we were going to make for a very loud party, so I made sure we sat in a booth in the very back corner of the restaurant. I think we still scared away some of the patrons. Oh, my word, we shared memories and Stanglin stories, we puzzled over unanswered questions and deep family mysteries, we sang songs (hard to explain), and laughed at everything. And we did it all way too loud.

At one point, the couple in the booth behind Louann got up to leave and looked at us with huge grins on their faces. They laughed and said, “Y’all have some really interesting stories!” I apologized and they assured us it was fine, they were entertained. They could tell we were having fun and that made it fun for them. As they walked away, Louann yelled at me, “WHAT DID THEY SAY?” So I told her. And Louann responded, “DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!” And I yelled back, “I DON’T KNOW! DO YOU THINK THEY HEARD US?!”

Then Saturday morning, Rhonda and I met at the Saturn Road Church of Christ in Garland for Coach Richmond’s funeral. Coach Larry Richmond was my high school football coach at Dallas Christian. He was a history and health teacher and, for a couple of years in an emergency situation, our tennis coach. And we all loved him deeply. There were about 20 of us at the service who played for Coach Richmond, and we took pictures together and swapped a lot of football stories in the foyer, at the reception, and for about three hours at the On the Border at Saturn Road and Northwest Highway.

That crazy last drive and the Savage Fake that beat Metro Christian. The 4th quarter meltdown in that playoff game at Bishop Lynch. Cowboy drills. Sideline tackle drills. Uphill forties. Dean Stewart’s grades that were questionable for the Trinity game and kept him out of the First Baptist game. The Greenhill bell. Crack-backing on Greg Lybrand in practice and fearing for my life every day after until he graduated. A certain peanut butter incident after a week of two-a-days at football camp. The Bomb Squad. Ground Control. Coach T’s “Major Tom” towel. All the nicknames. Pearhead’s intense running. Godoy’s speed and the physical way he went after a football. Dumb Adkins’ toughness and leadership. Coach Lisle.

As I drove to Midland after that long lunch, my head aching from laughing too hard for too long, and Rhonda drove home to Edmond, we talked on the phone with each other for almost an hour and a half. Psycho-analyzing all of it. Reviewing feelings and reactions. Remembering people who weren’t there. Reminding of something funny or unexpected that was done or said.

I came away from the weekend overflowing with gratitude to God for all the amazingly wonderful people he has placed in my life. My whole life. Coach Richmond was MY coach! So was Coach Lisle! I had both of them! And Coach A and Coach T and Coach Savage and Coach Smith and Coach Shack. How was I so blessed? Jason Reeves is MY friend. So is Dan and Kevin and Robby John! Todd Adkins was MY teammate and running buddy in high school and MY roommate in college. I also went to high school and was friends with Mark Cawyer and Randy Hill and Michelle Peoples and Jeff Majors and Stephen Fitzhugh and Kyle Douthit! How? Rhonda Kingsley is MY sister! Completely undeserved! Totally lucky! Deeply and richly blessed by God!

Don’t wait until next week. Tell the people you love that you love them.

Peace,

Allan

No Direction Home

January 6, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Just a couple of quick observations about the Dallas Cowboys after their season ended Sunday with a 34-17 loss to the New York Giants.

First, they lost 34-17 to the New York Giants. The Giants were still in the running for the number one draft pick when the game began. They were 3-13, had already fired their coach, and were starting Jaxson Dart at quarterback, Tyrone Tracy at running back, and Gunner Olszewski at wide receiver. The Cowboys talked all week about getting the win, finishing above .500, playing all their healthy starters, and ending the season with some momentum that would carry over into next year.

Instead, Tracy ran for 103 yards. Tracy has played in the NFL for six years and never had a 100-yard season. But he had 103 in an afternoon against the Cowboys.

Olszewski had eight catches. He’s played in the NFL for six years and never had an eight catch season. But he had eight in one game against the Cowboys.

The Giants scored 37 and 34 points in their two games this year against Dallas, 71 of the 511 total points the Cowboys surrendered. For the first time in their 66 year history, Dallas gave up a season average of more than 30 points per game. That makes this Cowboys defense the worst in franchise history. Matt Eberflus will take the fall for the disaster–he may have already been fired before you’re reading this. But that means Dallas will have its fourth different defensive coordinator in four years. In other words, nothing is going to change. Who’s in charge of this?

Second, they finished the season at 7-9-1. After beating the Chiefs and the Eagles in a five day Thanksgiving week stretch, Dallas lost four of their last five games to teams with records of 9-8, 8-9, 11-6, and 4-13. They had Dak Prescott for all 17 games this season after he started only eight for Dallas last year. And they improved by half a game, from 7-10 to 7-9-1. Who’s in charge of this?

Third, this is the 15th year out of the past 30 in which the Cowboys have finished at or below .500. Jerry’s team has not won a divisional playoff game in 30 seasons, and half of those seasons they have failed to produce a winning record. It’s staggering to study their win-loss tallies during this 30-year tragedy and see in black-and-white how the Cowboys’ consistently trend toward mediocrity. Or worse.

In 1996, the first season after their last conference championship game appearance, Dallas went 10-6. But then they went 6-10 the next season. In 2003, they went 10-6, but then finished 6-10 the next season. In 2014, Dallas went 12-4, but reversed it to 4-12 the next year. In 2018, the Cowboys went 10-6, but hit 8-8 before getting back to 6-10. It’s remarkable. The Cowboys have only had eleven seasons of double-digit wins during this 30-year drought, and only once did they manage to string two of those seasons back-to-back. That was Mike McCarthy’s stretch of three straight 12-5 years, which resulted in a playoff record of 1-3. One Wild Card win in Tom Brady’s last game at Tampa Bay. And you know what has happened since. Nothing changes. Who’s in charge of this?

Lastly, I noticed that the Atlanta Falcons fired their head coach and GM yesterday after winning their last four games of the season. The Falcons have played in four NFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls since the Cowboys last did either. The Falcons! The Falcons’ standards are higher than the Cowboys’. The Falcons demand more. The Falcons don’t want to be the Cowboys; the Cowboys should aspire to be like the Falcons. For crying out loud! We’re talking about the Falcons!!

Seattle has made three championship game appearances and three Super Bowls during these 30-years, and might be headed to another. Carolina has been to four conference championships and two Super Bowls during the Dallas drought–the Panthers, for pity’s sake!! The Bears have played in two conference title games and the Saints in three, with two Super Bowls between them! The Eagles, Green Bay, and the 49ers have each played in eight NFC Conference Championship Games and a total of ten Super Bowls in these 30-years. Every team manages to get into an NFC Championship Game; just dumb luck and averages almost guarantees it. Shoot, the Arizona Cardinals have played in two title games and one Super Bowl during this disaster. The Commanders have been there. The Lions! The Giants have made three Super Bowls since ’95!

Meanwhile, Dallas hasn’t won a single divisional playoff game. And doesn’t look close.

Who’s in charge of this?

Allan

Beyond All Doubt

December 31, 2025 / / 2 Comments

On the eve of a new calendar year seems like a good time to be reminded of God’s will for our lives. Maybe you’re facing some big decisions this next month or in this coming year. Maybe you’re asking, “Is it God’s will that I stay in this job or look for another one?” “Does God want me to stay in this city or relocate to that one?” “Is it God’s will that I go to this college or that one?” “Does God want me to marry her now or wait?” “What is God’s will for me in this specific situation?”

I hope you are not paralyzed in seeking God’s specific will for your particular circumstance. I tell people all the time that God’s not nearly as interested in which job you take or what town you live in or who you marry; he’s much more interested in your faithfulness, in your character.

I know you want to follow God’s will, so when you’re facing a difficult choice or deciding on a new direction, you take discernment very seriously. You lay out some kind of fleece for divine confirmation. You fast and pray in hopes of increased clarity. You engage solitude hoping to hear God’s voice. You look for confirmation from a friend or your spouse. You squint at the sky, hoping for some holy handwriting in the clouds. What does God want me to do here?

If you’re not careful, while you’re seeking God’s will for your circumstance, you may overlook his will for your character. In your desire for certainty, you may become fixated on doing and become forgetful of being.

God does have a will for your life that is beyond all doubt. It is clearly stated. Crystal clear. His will is that you be sanctified, made holy, and conformed into the image of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:3, Ephesians 5:1).

You don’t have to lay out a fleece to know for certain that it is God’s will that you live a self-controlled, upright, and godly life (Titus 2:12).

You don’t have to fast to be one hundred percent certain that it is God’s will that you be free of selfish ambition and vain conceit (Philippians 2:3).

You don’t have to look for handwriting on the wall to know beyond a doubt that it is God’s will that you set aside impurity and greed (Ephesians 5:3).

You don’t have to wait for confirmation from a friend or spouse that it is God’s will that you be slow to anger (James 1:19).

You don’t have to listen for a small, still voice to know without reservation that it is God’s will that you practice thankfulness (Ephesians 5:4).

You don’t have to search the sky for a message in the clouds to know without doubt that it is God’s will that you be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4).

God has spoken to you with clarity through his Word. You are called to be changed. You are called by God, saved by Christ Jesus, and transformed by the Holy Spirit to seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, trusting your circumstances to his sovereign care and submitting your character to his gracious will.

Peace,
Allan

No Gift to Bring

December 29, 2025 / / 0 Comments

What an indescribable joy to have all the girls, all the sons-in-law, and all the grandsons for five nights and parts of six days over Christmas. We ate our favorite foods, watched the right movie on the correct night, worshiped together at GCR, walked the lights at Centennial Park, gave and received generous and fun gifts, survived a broken garage door and a busted exterior water faucet, played ping-pong, fed the boys their first ever bites of Blue Bell Cookies n Cream, and gave ourselves headaches laughing so hard during five rounds of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.

I thank God for our family and for the time he gives us to spend together. Blessings upon blessings of his grace. Thank you, Lord.

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The lyrics to The Little Drummer Boy are sparse. What words we have are so crowded out by all the “pa-rum-pum-pum-pums” that it’s hard to tell what’s really happening. But when the young boy peers into the manger, the newborn King he sees causes the drummer to say, “I am a poor boy, too; I have no gift to bring.”

We’ve all experienced that moment. We begin to seriously consider Jesus, maybe for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time ever. We seriously seek Jesus. And something happens. We believe. Really. We understand. Truly. Something clicks. The dots are connected. The light bulb flashes on. And you realize your bankruptcy is totally exposed. You really see Jesus and you really comprehend his glory and you look at yourself and realize, “I am broken. I am empty and poor. I’ve got nothing to bring this King that even comes close to what is due him. All I have is this drum.”

Like the little boy in the Gospels who approaches Jesus and says, “All I have is my lunch, two loaves and five tiny fish.”

Like the widow and her two mites. Jesus says she gave more than all the others combined.

That’s us. We’re the ones who feel completely inadequate and, in some sense, we always will. When we see the King and we understand exactly who he is and his eternal significance, we can’t help but sense our own frailty. Our own poverty. All we have is this drum. What in the world could ever be enough for this King? I’ve just got this drum.

So you ask. “Do you want that? Do you want this stupid drum?”

And Jesus says, “Yes. Bring me your nothing. Play your drum.”

So you play it for him. You play your best for him–declaring that you are small, acknowledging that you are weak, knowing that he doesn’t need you or what you have or what you do. But with all that you are, with every ounce and speck of the nothing you have, you are giving it to him. Like Psalm 103, you are praising the Lord with all your inmost being! You are giving it to him!

“Then he smiled at me; me and my drum.”

The eternal King of Glory, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, comes here to us as a helpless flesh-and-blood human baby. He put aside his power and his status and his position to give to us. By his life of love, his sacrificial death, and his glorious resurrection. our King gives us forgiveness, he reconciles us to a righteous relationship with our God and with one another, he gives us his divine peace and joy and life. He gives us abundant life, life to the full.

“Apart from me you can do nothing… Remain in my love… I am telling you this so my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete… You are my friends… I have called you friends… You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last.” ~John 15:5-17

Without Jesus, you and I have nothing. We are nothing. But because of Jesus, because he came, because he was born in that stable in Bethlehem on that starry night, because of him, we are absolutely, completely, and wonderfully his. Me and my drum–all his!

Jesus is not nearly as interested in my presents for him as my presence with him. That’s all he wants. He wants me. He wants you. Give yourself to him. Give all of yourself to Jesus. And feel his smile.

May we all see the newborn King with fresh eyes and open hearts. And may we follow his lead. Let’s trade our cravings for power for a desire to sacrifice. Let’s be identified by our patience with others, by our service to the least of these, and by our unconditional love for our neighbors. And let’s adopt the humble attitude of the Little Drummer Boy and receive the gracious gift of Jesus.

Peace,
Allan

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