I’m reading Organic Church by Neil Cole and he poses an interesting question: What is a Church?
So I’m asking: In your opinion/thought what is a church? What defines it? What is required to have a church?
I appreciate your thoughts.
I’m still working on the disciplines. I’ve only missed one of my boxing classes (Sat. before Easter), I’ve been doing well on my reading, my eating is coming along…a few hiccups here and there, but it’s coming along…, and we are set to pay off my truck next month. After my truck is paid off, we will have paid about $12,000.00 and have about $11,000.00 left to pay (my wife’s car and the despised Visa credit card). Oh I can’t wait to be rid of Visa forever…and then to invest in them…start making money off of them for a change.
My wife paid of her Visa at the end of February…32.5%! Can you believe that? We tried to get the rate down last fall, but they wouldn’t help us. When she paid it off and called them to cancel the account, they offered to lower her rate…GRRRR! She was exstatic the day she paid it off, and then again yesterday when she opened her online account and the credit card account was finally gone.
We will be the last Allen’s on my side of the family tree to ever be in debt!!!!!
This last year has been a year of change for me and my family. For a while we had been talking about paying off our debt, but not doing anything about it. 6 months ago, due to a crisis, we discovered that we were 1 of the many Americans living paycheck to paycheck. This crisis caused us to take action. To date, we have $1500 in savings, have paid off about $10,000.00 in debt and will be debt free around September…paying off $23,000.00 total. 6 months after that, we will have nearly $15,000.00 in savings as an emergency fund. We’ve done the work, God has been faithful in providing for us, and Dave Ramsey supplied the plan.
I also committed to daily reading God’s Word at the beginning of the year. I’m not perfect with it, but I have been consistent and God is working in me through this discipline.
The third area of change for me has been my health. I was about 235 pounds when I graduated high school, now, sadly I am at 342 pounds. I thought about joining a gym, but the up-front fee, the contract commitment, and the self-motivation I would need don’t appeal to me much (…I would predict a month of use and about 11 months of no shows). So, the solution: boxing! This past Tuesday was my first class with Paulie Ayala (2-time world champion boxer and passionate follower of Jesus…little guy…big heart). It’s circuit-style training that incorporates cardio, calesthenics, 5 pound dumbbells while doing an assortment of exercises, punching bags, gettin’ in the ring with the mits. It’s killing me, but I know the investment I am making now will pay off huge dividends in the future!
Today at church we had a Palestinian Christian as our guest. Not only is he a Christian, but he is the founder and president of a Seminary in Bethlehem - spurred to act after seeing christians dwindle from 20% of the population to 2%, and seeing so many called to the ministry with nowhere to go but America…where they stayed. Sadly, his kind has been considered an insignificant segment of the Kingdom of God by the west and America…all this while we (the American Church) pour considerable resources into Israel and seeing Jews come to Christ, as well as, hoping for an end to all the conflict and violence in the middle east. As Bob Roberts (my pastor….passionate, humble, courageous) asks rhetorically, “God love the Jews? Amen! God loves America? Amen! God loves the Palestinians? Amen! We want the violence to end and for peace to reign in that region of the world. The ONLY hope for that is Jesus!
If that’s the hope, to see peace among Jews and Muslims, through Jesus Christ, then as Bob said, “who is better positioned than the Palestinian Christians to see that through?” They are well respected by their Muslim neighbors, speak the language, and have a burden to see them transformed by Christ. Get involved, pray, and act so that we can see it happen and not be guilty of continuing to damn them by our policies and indifference to their significance in God’s Kingdom.
Well, it’s been a few days since I last blogged about deep issues. I’m still rooting against the Patriots, and praying that God would clearly indicate which is the right man for the job of President, but those are minor in comparison to what God is doing in me on a personal level.
I’m still swinging away. I’ve been pretty faithful spending time in the word. My church is reading through most of the OT (get in on it at www.interactivebiblereading.org ) and Psalms. It has been good for me. It’s not that it’s some deep theological experience for me, but that it’s really simple. I’m enjoying reading the narrative of how God delivered Noah and his family, how he used Abram and blessed him and Sarai even after they blew it with Hagar. For quite some time I have made a habit out of reading the Bible only when I am preparing to preach or teach, extrapolating information to pass along instead of allowing God’s Word to penetrate and transform my character…my being.
Lately, as I have read, I have also noticed that I am praying more. I’m not spending hours on my knees, but I desire to communicate with God before I read, and about people and issues around me. Much of my time praying for some time has been with regard to the big picture of church planting or leading, rather than being the man God desires me to be, and that I must be to effectively lead others.
I wouldn’t say an alcoholic has kicked his habit after only a few weeks, so in no way would I say I have arrived, but I’m on my way and by God’s power & mercy at work within my life I will begin to walk in purity, integrity, passion, purpose, and so much more.
Well, I’m a little bummed this morning about the Cowboys’ loss to the Giants.
My thoughts: Romo’s vacation had nothing to do with it…T.O. really cares about this team…our special teams coverage sucks…Crayton dropped some key passes…so did Fasano…our defense stepped up in the 2nd half, but that last Giants touchdown in the 1st half was HUGE for them…their defensive line took over in the 2nd half with a ton of pressure on Romo…Brandon Jacobs’ td celebration where he threw the ball into the play clock was DUMB…Romo made some plays that would normally help you win the game with timely scrambles and the flip pass to Witten…Romo made some plays that really hurt with the two big sacks where he had plenty of time to throw the ball away, but held it too long…Jason Garrett is a good coach, but those considering firing Philips after 1 season just to hold onto Garrett are ridiculous - he’s only been the offensive coordinator for 1 year - let’s give them both another year or two to grow.
I was telling my wife that I am a bit jealous of talk radio hosts. They get to vent their feelings about different issues, knowing that someone’s listening. Lucky guys, huh? Well, here is my rant.
1-I think it is stupid that Tony Romo takes flak for going on a quick trip to Mexico on an off week. Come on! Athletes work extremely hard during the football season, and they had no specific opponent to prepare for so shouldn’t getting some r&r be priority? I know it would be for me.
2-I think it is ridiculous that athletes get paid as much money as they do to play a game…and I love the games they play. Although they do take a lot of flak at times (see #1).
3-I think our government spends too much money! The adage: “money doesn’t grow on trees” is seemingly lost on these men and women as soon as they cross into D.C. I don’t think the sky is falling, but common sense says: Spending much more than you make (by taxes) = Major Problem.
4-I hate the idea of raising our taxes (taking our hard-earned money)! If you can learn to do #3, and raising our taxes follows fiscal discipline, then I would be open to it, but until then….NO!
5-I love people, period; however, the thought of a law-abiding citizen (hispanic, although it doesn’t matter) working their entire life in this country and paying taxes, then retiring, losing insurance (Get Insurance People…lesson #1 I learned in college), having a major medical issue, and now will probably be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, sickens me considering that an immigrant can cross the border, get medical treatment and walk away from it all….leaving you, me, and the law-abiding citizen with major issues holding the bill.
6-Al Sharpton…and guys like him…make me sick! Dude, have you heard of McCarthyism….we now have Sharptonism? Give it up…you’re chasing rabbits…and worse…for your own gain. I love people that fight for injustice, but you are not that guy.
7-I really like Obama….really. The guy just lifts you up, and then you look at his record…yikes! Back the truck up a second!
8-I really like Bush…really. I have been disappointed in some of his decisions. I voted for him. I really get frustrated when people do not consider that he was the leader of our country during one of the darkest days in our history, and unlike Pearl Harbor…he did not have a clearly defined political enemy to bring to justice. I do not care who was in office on that day….we may be in a different place as a country, but I don’t think it would be any better or any worse.
9-I think that we need to understand that there are Christians in Palestine. We so back Israel for whatever reason (biblically speculative theology, political ally, etc) that we forget that we are called to love all people. The Palestinian Christians are spurned by those in their homeland that are predominantly Muslim, by those in Israel that are primarily Jewish, and, very sadly, by those of us in the West that are predominantly Christian. (please see Bob Roberts blog at www.glocal.net …thanks Bob for challenging my perspective on this issue)
10-I think if the Church would step up and lead the way in adopting children, caring for widows and orphans, and serving those around them, we would have no need for universal healthcare if we really lived out our so-called “Christian Values” on a daily basis.
Feel free to agree, disagree, comment or whatever to this. These are just things that have been frustrating me lately. Have a good one!
Well, much like a batter has to do when in a slump…I figure I must just keep pluggin’ away. In Gen. 4:7 God rhetorically asks Cain “If you do well, will I not accept you? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching outside your door.” I figure that I am in one of those times in my life, where I must try to do well. I think I see an implication in that verse that says you will not always do well. Thank God. Sometimes you may be feeling it, but your swing gets off. Sometimes you may be in a slump, but occasionally it’s gonna click and you hit a solid hit.
There are two keys I see in the verse. 1 - I must “do”. I must try to “do well”, at all times, but it’s not always going to work out that way. 2 - I must master my sin…this is the hard part! Those times when I do not do well….sin is lerking outside my door…ready to consume me. If I can learn to master sin…then I have a chance to continue pluggin’ away. If I don’t…then I will stop “doing” and just be consumed by sin.
Therefore, I am going to do. I know it’s right to get my head down and my tail up….read scripture, pray, worship…even when I don’t feel like “doing”. I am not saying I have to do something to gain (really continue) commune with God. After God did not accept Cain’s offer, it was God that approached Cain to talk…he pursued Cain, even when Cain was about to burst through the door and get pounced on by sin….thus killing his brother. I must “do”. God has taken the full force of all the sin I have committed, and forgiven me for it. I must “do” life like I am not consumed.
Clear as mud? 
Well, it’s been since March that I last blogged. I’d love to say that all I had set out to do in the last year has come true, but it hasn’t. Right now, my wife and I are plugging away on debt…thanks Dave Ramsey for making sense of it all. It’s not sexy, but it’s the best thing for us to be doing while we wait for further direction.
Other than that, I’m just trying to get up and walk. I’ve been eating potato chips on the couch for a while instead of getting in the fray of life…spiritually. My prayer life and personal devotional time has been slim to none for some time now, and therefore other areas have suffered as well. I hope to sit down for a bit this afternoon and consider a solid plan for wholistic change in my life. I have started reading through the Old Testament with Northwood Church this year, as well as reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Those are just a start for me….we’ll see how this plan develops and hopefully focuses my aim.
Just wanted to quickly update and let ya know I’m still processing my trips to Colorado and the Far East. As you all know, it’s tough to process stuff like this when you’re facing jetlag and getting back into the busyness of life. This weekend I’ve been fighting with car issues (one rear drum brake has taken much of the weekend), and next weekend I’m moving. I hope to steal away a few hours over Easter Weekend to reflect. We’ll be in my favorite place for relaxing - Bremond, TX - where my parents built a new house and have around 450 acres.
Thanks for your patience, but I’ll be excited to share what God is teaching me.
