In Allen's Own Words . . .

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8-25-10 The Meeting Last Sunday

While I was in Abilene y’all had your meeting on Sunday night about focusing our ministry on what God wants. I was anxious to hear how the meeting went and had spent a great deal of time praying about it. If you heard Laura’s cell phone ring during the closing prayer that was me calling her. I had waited till 7:30 when I was sure the meeting would be long over but I was wrong. Steve called me later that night to give me the elder’s perspective. From everything I hear it was a great meeting. Lots of people came and lots of people shared things that they felt like they had heard from God. You have to realize how exciting that is to me.

What is the advantage of focusing? Some might think that the effect of focusing is to shut out certain ministries but I don’t think that is true. Focusing helps prevent us from having a bunch of random ministries that have no common purpose. Matthew 28:19-20 gives us a common purpose and focusing ourselves helps us make sure the purpose is driving everything we do. I think we have realized this in terms of our service projects. We have learned a lot about how to work in this community but we still are lacking in finding ways to connect that work to our overall purpose of making disciples. Focusing causes us to stop for a minute so we can find a better way to do things.

Another advantage of focusing is we will plan our ministries with everyone in mind. When we have a bunch of random ministries not one of them feels responsible for finding a place for every member. The thought is that if you can’t work in my ministry you will find some other one. When we focus we are forced to ask the question of how every member fits in, including the children. When we have decided what our mission is the leaders will need to search for ways that every age group can be involved and every gift is participating. I think in the long run it will make our ministries much better as they work to support the overall mission of this Church.

I am convinced that focusing will help all of us to be more involved in the mission of God. I believe that this will help each one of us with some of the nagging problems we face as Christians. I am convinced that mission will make you a more disciplined and active disciple of Christ. In her book, The Core Issue, Christine Caine writes, “When we embrace God and His purpose wholeheartedly, it is easier to stay passionate about our faith, our spiritual disciplines and every other aspect of our spiritual walk.” She goes on to say, “All of our actions and activities flow from our love relationship with God rather than from an obligation to fulfill a Christian requirement.” I believe what she believes about this and that is why I am so excited about us focusing on the mission of God.

What a great week!
Allen L. Close

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08-18-10 Autumn

I guess I have to admit that summer is over. Brianna went back to school this morning, Luke left for Harding last Friday and I take Ashley to Abilene tomorrow. Laura has been back to school for several weeks. I don’t like this time of year. It is the time of year when our household gets smaller. I like the beginning of summer when our family gets bigger. Even though this was a very hot summer it doesn’t change the fact that summer is my favorite season. I should look on the bright side – the temperatures will start getting nicer and we won’t have to buy near as many groceries now that our food destroyer has gone back to Searcy.

One thing I do enjoy that puts off for a short time one of our kids leaving is my trip to Abilene with Ashley. I get to enjoy two days on the road with her. We know most of the Starbucks between here and Abilene and she will go to the library today to get a book for us to listen to while we travel. There is no telling what book she will get but I know it will be good. We have listened to several John Steinbeck books that have been really good. Once we get to Abilene I will get to spend a few days with my family there and at this time of life that is important. My Grandparents are 93 and 91 so time is precious.

Last Wednesday night we had a good time at the home of Septama. We cleared out a lot of underbrush in front and besides her house. Keke did his Paul Bunyan impersonation cutting down a tree in the back yard. By the end we hauled away three truck loads of branches and stuff and Septama was very happy. After we finished we all crowded into her living room and had a prayer with her. At that point most people left but a few of us stayed and visited with her for about twenty minutes. While with her we did meet a recent widow friend of hers that may need some help sometime in the future. This week we received a nice letter of thanks.

This Sunday night is a very important night. This Sunday the elders are going to lead a discussion about what we have heard from God in terms of his mission for us. We have attempted to use Acts 13 as a guide for hearing the voice of God and now we would love to share with each other what we believe God is saying. It has been important to us that everyone is involved in the process and we have attempted to encourage you in that process as much as we know how. The scripture time and the prayer time were both focused on helping you connect with God so that you could hear what He had to say. I hope you enjoyed that. I will not be here on Sunday night but I think you hear plenty of my thoughts. Believe me when I say that I will be praying a lot about this before Sunday night.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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08-11-10 Discerning Together

On Sunday night we had the first of our discernment exercises. It was a three column bible study of Jeremiah 29:10-14. We actually made it a four column bible study since we added “We will” statements after the “I will” statements. This was a suggestion from Ross Kellis and I thought it worked out very well. We broke up into about eight or nine groups to discuss the meaning of the passage and to suggest applications for each of us personally and for us as a group. When we were finished we came back together and shared a little of what we came up with in our groups. The following are six We Will statements that were shared from the groups:

1. We will dig into each other’s lives.
2. We will listen to each other.
3. We will remember our group tonight and hold each other accountable.
4. We will give up our will for His will.
5. We will take time to come to some conclusions.
6. We will seek God with all of our hearts.

How exciting to be part of a congregation that can hear things like this from God. These are very simple statements but they are things that are often hard to hear because we don’t want to hear them. Who doesn’t know that theoretically we should give up our will for the will of God but how often are we willing to admit that we have heard God say it specifically to us? The most thrilling thing I heard from several people that night was their conviction that this time of discernment was something we all needed to be working on all month. Listening to the voice of God is a grassroots project.

This Sunday night we will focus on prayer. Our preliminary plan is to have several stations around the building to which you move for prayer. Each one will be different and you will spend whatever time you want at which ever ones you choose. As usual the focus will be on listening to God and we will try to make it suitable for all ages older than five.

I was thankful to God for the number of people that came out this last Sunday. Thank you for your dedication to the mission of God. If you were unable to come I hope you will plan to come this week. I really think you will be blessed by the process. I realize that some people just cannot come out on a Sunday night. Would you bless us by supporting us in prayer? We are a body and we cannot all do the same things but we can support one another in whatever ways possible. Whether we realize it or not I know we will be blessed by your prayers.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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08-04-10 Discernment

It was nice to be together this last Sunday night. It was the first of five Sundays in a row that we will meet at the building for times of discernment. We are asking the Lord to tell us what he wants us to do in terms of focusing our mission. He has already told us that our mission is to the lost of this world (see Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15-16). Now we are asking him if there is particular group of lost people or a particular way that we could focus on so that we would be more effective in his purposes.

In case you were unable to be there last Sunday here is what you missed. We spent the first twenty minutes singing. I think there have been several occasions lately at which we would have liked to sing more but were interrupted by time so we had to quit. We didn’t get to sing as much as we may have liked but it was nice to sing some. After that we had all five staff members get up and share how each one of us has come to this point and how our particular ministry fits into the mission of this Church. One thing that struck me was how diverse a staff we have and yet how united we are. Each one of us shared from a different perspective and yet you could hear a coherent voice coming through all of us. Together with the elders, we have been working on this for a long time. The truth is this congregation has been working on this for decades. I don’t think there has ever been a time in the history of this Church that we were not working on putting ourselves in a better position to do the mission of God. At times you can see the hand of God at work pushing us to new places or challenging us with new work but this is not really something new.

Over the next four weeks we plan to begin with a time of discerning the will of God through Bible study. We will work together through Jeremiah 29:10-14. Please feel free to study ahead. Any test we have will be open book so feel free to bring you Bible (just kidding about the test). On the fifteenth we will focus on discerning God’s will through prayer. The week after that the elders will lead us in a discussion that is meant for everyone that wants to share what they hear God saying. The emphasis will be on what we hear God saying, not what we want or what we think will work. The final Sunday night in August, if God wills, will be when the elders announce their decision based on our month together. The rest of that evening we will celebrate, which means we will sing.

It is such a blessing to be at a congregation where we can set aside a month like this to ask God for more direction. We have come a long way towards being useful to God and I am so grateful for that. You make my job such a pleasure and I thank God for you.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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07-28-10 Goodbye

I have really enjoyed having Ross and Heather here for the month of July. It seems like a long time ago that we had them speak to the College group on a Monday night about their plans to go to Tanzania and to share why they are going. They have squeezed a lot into a month and I am so thankful for their willingness to spread themselves out so as many people as possible could have some of their time. One of my favorite things of this month was having them come to our staff meetings. Last week we spent time brainstorming about what we believe God wants the Church to look like and it was so nice having the input of both Ross and Heather. Ross and Heather make a very good team just the two of them. How great it is that they also have a good team of three other couples.

I was very impressed by the Makonde Team in general. This was my first time to meet the team. The other time they were here I was away. What a great group of people. I think we could all see the different gifts represented with the five that were here and I am sure if I knew all eight I would be even more impressed. I saw a beautiful mix of knowledge and humility that makes me think they will do very well. The knowledge shows they have thought this thing through and are not going over there unprepared. It also shows me that they have been prepared by some people that know about what they are talking. The humility shows me that they will be coachable in the future and that they will listen to God since they understand how much they need him. I didn’t get the feeling from anyone that they know everything or that they have it all together. This says to me that they have been raised right to love and respect the power of God and his Holy Spirit.

It is with a great deal of excitement that I say goodbye to them knowing that this journey is about to begin for them and for us. I am already thankful for the chance we have to join with them in this mission and I eagerly await the future blessing s that are coming as we start making trips to Tanzania and as the African Christians begin to pray for us.

And now we are about to move into the month of August – our month of discernment. Please plan to help us discern the will of God for this congregation. Begin asking God in prayer to show us ways that we could serve him better. Are there some things on which he would like us to focus? Is there an evil that he would like to use us to battle? How can we position ourselves to be more useful in his purposes? For five Sunday nights we will be searching for answers to these type of questions and we want your help to do it.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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07-21-10 Heavenly Father

I remember when we first moved here I quickly decided the answer to everyone’s problems was to move to Lexington. Whenever people from somewhere else told me about a problem they were having I would immediately tell them that the answer to their problem was to move to Lexington. Whatever it was that was bothering them could be fixed simply by moving here and going to this Church.

I think that is the kind of faith we should have about our God. Whatever is bothering you I know my Father can fix it and you should talk to him. Maybe you want me to talk to him about you or maybe I can get a bunch of people to talk to him on your behalf but He is the answer you need. Maybe you can hear that I don’t put faith in prayer, I put faith in God. I have said several times that I don’t believe in the power of prayer I believe in the power of God. I don’t really mean everything I just said I am just wishing to emphasize that the power comes from God and prayer is simply a way of accessing that power. In other words, when I pray about something I don’t get any of the credit or glory because I prayed. It isn’t my prayers that accomplish things it is God that accomplishes things.

Lately I have noticed that we have a lot of people needing something special from God. Many Sundays we have several special requests for prayers about ourselves or someone we love. Whether it is praying for Chris Shedd or Issac to get out of prison or it is asking for God to intervene on behalf of Camielle Bar what we want is for God to act in the circumstances of someone. I like to tell people that we are praying for them but I like even more the confidence I have knowing that God especially loves this person and will act on their behalf.

I never separate my prayers from what I know about the character of God. I know he is loving and kind and I don’t believe that he is technical in how he relates to us. By that I mean I don’t believe he is waiting for a particular number of prayers or has a quota that we must reach before he can act. He loves us and wants to be involved in our lives and I believe he enjoys engaging with us in the particulars of our lives. Therefore I just keep going to my Father with the needs of those around me and I trust that he will deal with them in the best way possible.

By the way, I still think the solution to people’s problems is to move to Lexington so if you are reading this from somewhere else go ahead and reserve a moving truck right now.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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07-14-10 Golden Opportunity

I went to see Camielle Barr, the baby we have been praying for the last two weeks in the hospital yesterday. She is so sweet and tiny. Her mother, Whitney, is very nice and is open to us helping her. Her husband, Randy, is in Afghanistan for about twenty more days before he will be able to come home. When he comes home they will be stationed in Fayetteville, NC. Whitney is spending all of her time caring for the baby who is in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit right now. We know Whitney because she lives next door to Ben and Sara Izard. In a few weeks she is going to need to move to NC and we have told her that we will do the move for her. I am hoping that we can pick a day and take a crew over to pack up everything for her and then have a crew pack up the truck and move her and get her set up in Fayetteville. We are going to need a lot of people to do this but we have two things that we cannot resist. First of all we cannot resist helping a wife whose husband is serving our country in Afghanistan. Secondly we cannot resist helping a baby in need. So please be ready when the call goes out. Ben and Sara are staying in close contact with the family and will let us know the timetable as soon as there is one. Once again I get to feel the pleasure of offering real help to a family in need knowing that this congregation will back up everything I’m offering.

I have had some people ask me about life groups in the fall. We are putting off our plans for the fall until after the month of discerning the will of God in August. I believe God is calling us to focus on His mission and we need to stop and listen to what he is saying to us. I hesitate to make plans for Sunday nights in the fall because I think it is entirely possible that what God has us focus on will involve our Sunday nights.

I would really urge you to be in prayer about the month of August. I have talked to some friends of mine that say their congregation was completely transformed by focusing on the mission of God. I have also seen the hand of God blessing our mission efforts around here lately and that tells me that we are on the right track. I am counting on us coming together as a group on Sunday nights in August to follow the example of the first century Church that we read about in Acts 13. I want God to use us the way he used them, that is why we are approaching him the way they did. During the month of August my sermons will be on the mission of God and how that relates to us.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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07-06-10 CO2

Last Sunday I mentioned a thing called Church of Two that several of us are using as a listening to the voice of God exercise. I would like to give you more information about it. The first thing you should do if you are at all interested is to look it up online. If you google “Church of two C02” it will show up in the list of websites. The website is www.scribd.com/doc/20072785/C02-Church-of-Two. If you do the google search and find the scribd.com website you will be at the right place. If you just go to the scribd.com website you may have a hard time finding C02. There is a two page explanation of what C02 is that you should read. What you will find is a very powerful tool for two people to use together to help each other listen to the voice of God.

The first part of the exercise is to spend time in quietness asking God to reveal his will to you. This part you do on your own before getting together. The article describes four steps to doing this including quieting yourself, fixing the eyes of your heart on Jesus, listening for a spontaneous flow of thoughts, and journaling. You will do this sometime during the day, although I will admit that I haven’t done the journaling. When you get together you do three things. The first is called SASHET which is simply finding a word that describes the condition of your heart at present. SASHET stands for: Sad-Angry-Scared-Happy-Excited-Tender as choices for possible words to describe how you feel. After you both do this you go on to ask each other what God has been saying to you today. The third and final thing is to pray together. You are finished. This will probably take somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes.

If you would like to do this with someone you could ask any of our staff or elders or while they are here you could ask Ross or Heather. Other than doing it with your spouse we would like to limit it to someone of the same gender as you. It doesn’t have to be someone your age, in fact there are real benefits of doing it with someone from a different age group than you. I am presently going through the exercise for the second time and the person I did it with first is already on to the third person and the second person he did it with is going on to a second person as well. Can you see how this will spread? You don’t have to start with a leader. You can start with anyone you wish just with the limitation of single gender.

What I have found is that my awareness of what God is doing is raised so very much. I spend my day working to have a humble attitude towards God so that I can hear what he has to say. Sometimes what I find is deep sometimes it is not. I also have loved having someone with whom to pray. The first time we did just the week, not weekends, and we did it for three weeks. We met together at ten pm since we lived close together. My new one is every day and we have done it all over the phone. In both cases I have been richly blessed by the experience and I am sure you will be as well.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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06-30-10 24

How many times does God tell us he is always with us? Just in the book of John he tells us several times that he will not leave us. The one I really like is in Matthew where he closes the book by saying he will always be with us to the very close of the ages. With these thoughts in mind I reflect on last Sunday. Not only was God with us on Sunday but he made his presence obvious. It was one of the most enjoyable days I have had for a long time.

You know how sometimes we will say “Good morning” and you will mumble back “good morning” and someone will joke about you not having your coffee yet and say it again? Well that was not the case on Sunday. Ya’ll were jacked up from the first note. I could see on Rick’s face that he noticed it also. By the time we got to the second song, Days of Elijah, the youth group decided on their own that we must stand up and so they did and Rick knew that he had lost control and I could tell by his face that he was absolutely thrilled. Robin got up and shared about PBC and the needs of our children and how we can all work together for the glory of God and I praised God for his enthusiasm for something I also love. As we worked our way towards the celebration of the Lord’s Supper I realized that Jeff Larsen wasn’t here so I decided I would fill in for him. As I thought about what I would do I saw Phil come sit on the front row and realized he had made the same decision so that was fine. Then along came James Sutton to tell us both to keep our seats because he had it covered. God had told him to talk about our children during the Lord’s Supper and so he did. I loved looking at such a beautiful bunch of kids up on the stage. When James shared the story about the money I knew why God had told him to do it.

That was just the assembly. The day wasn’t nearly over. One from our College group, L.P., went with the group out to the Kellis’ and asked to be baptized. I hear everyone jumped in the water with him afterwards including a fully clothed Rom. Later that evening our life group met in Ernie & Karen’s neighborhood and enjoyed homemade ice cream and cake with their neighbors. We sat and enjoyed each other for two hours. May God bless all of these events and bring more fruit from them. I ended the night with over four sets of tennis with Corey, Robin, and Jonathan. I won’t bore you with all the details but I will say winning isn’t everything.

Now it is Wednesday morning and God has shown himself in several other ways for me and I am sure he has done things for you as well. What a joy it is for me to work alongside you and to listen with you for the voice of God. Hallelujah!

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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06-23-10 PBC

On Friday morning at camp I looked out from the Ark across the lake and across the ball field and realized that another year at camp was almost over. We work long and hard to make camp at PBC good and it always seems surreal when the week is over. I really think this year was one of the best weeks we have ever had. It is hard to say what makes me feel that way other than the overall feel of a very good week.

Once again I had the privilege of working with Danny Vaden, the preacher from Clemson, planning the evening chapel times. One thing we planned that I thought worked very well was a mission prayer walk. We had four stations that the senior campers went through. One was about American Samoa. It was done by Philip and Jaime. Another was led by a youth minister from Atlanta and he worked with the kids becoming contagious Christians. James Sutton came down and worked with the kids building some chairs. That was supposed to simulate a mission trip where they build something like they do in Honduras. The kids really liked it. Finally the kids came to my station where I played the role of a non-Christian and they told me about Jesus. I especially enjoyed my station because I got to hear how they would describe Jesus. Some of their answers to my questions were incredible.

There are always a lot of fun things to do at camp. I enjoy hanging out very late at night with some of the late night staff including my kids. I enjoyed going to the upper falls for the first time and enjoying the cool water flowing down on such a hot day. I even got Brian W. to get right in the falls with me and he loved it. On Thursday we wrestled with the youngest boy’s cabin. It was fun and I am not too old for this yet. We had a good football game on Thursday. We were worried that this year the campers had a good enough team to beat us. Believe me when I say worried is not overstating how much we care about keeping our unbeaten streak alive. The game was competitive but the staff ended up winning 46-28. Once again I insist that I am not too old for this and you need to quit thinking that. Finally I got to enjoy being in the oldest boys cabin and experiencing the devos we have every night.

Being with the staff helped me to feel like we are not as alone as I sometimes feel. There are other churches trying to make the same changes we are. They are trying to respond to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and they are hearing the same things from him that we are. Even more inspiring to me were the campers. I saw so many acts of kindness from them towards each other and I saw and heard spiritual things from them that made me realize what a great group of kids they are. It makes me want to do the work I do to the best of my ability so that the Church will be where God wants it when this generation takes over the leadership.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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06-16-10 Another Time of Discernment

I need you to begin preparing for the month of August. We are planning to spend the month discerning the will of God again like we did last year. Just like last year we will meet at the building every Sunday night during that month for prayer time and seeking the will of God. There are two passages that we will use to steer the process. They are Jeremiah 29:10-14 and Acts 13:1-3. It would be great if you would look over those verses several times before August.

I believe in our ability to seek God’s will and find it because of the way he likes to be found by people who seek him. I believe that God speaks to us today and I believe the Holy Spirit of God leads us. I believe that the same powerful Holy Spirit that led Paul is alive and well today and just as powerful today as he was then. I also believe that the God who became one of us so that we could understand him better still likes to help us understand him. I believe that God lives amongst us and right inside of us and that he is actively working in this world and that he invites us to join him in his work. With all of these beliefs it seems like a no-brainer that we would spend time seeking the face of God and his presence in our lives.

For four and a half years we have been focusing in on missional theology and the implications of it on our Church. We have started new ministries because of our desire to be involved in the mission of God. I think specifically of our Hispanic outreach, our projects ministry, and our involvement at Finlay Park. These are not the only ones but they represent our desire to put the agenda of God and his kingdom at the very center of this Church. Now I think God would have us become more focused. If that is true where would he like us to focus? A question I think we should ask God is what evil in this world would you like to use us to fight? I believe God would have us think in terms of his mission rather than our ministry. In terms of ministry we might ask what ministry would be the best for us. In terms of mission we ask about the needs of God. One is more focused on us, the other is more focused on God. I think God’s mission should be our focus – but what part of that mission. That is why we need this time in August.

Please feel free to talk to me or an elder about any thoughts or questions you may have going into this process. I am very excited about it and am spending a lot of my time preparing for it. I am not worried at all about God doing his part. It may not be in August but God is not going to neglect us if we seek him with our whole heart. God is faithful.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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06-09-10 Rest

I like the way God has built rest into his creation. Each day the sun comes up but each night the sun goes down and the earth becomes a place of rest for most of creation. As busy as the birds are all day flying around gathering sticks and looking for things to eat, not to mention darting in front of oncoming cars, they get in their nests and go to sleep at night. Even the animals that come out at night have been asleep all day. In the fall the trees prepare to rest during the winter. Your grass goes dormant and certain animals hibernate. Our creator made us so that we would always have to stop what we are doing and go to sleep. If he didn’t do that some people would just keep working twenty four hours a day.

This week we are in Hilton Head vacationing. I love going to Hilton Head Island. I think I could go there every summer for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. We always rent a condo that also has access to tennis courts and a swimming pool. Our schedule is very relaxed and everyone has figured out how to have a good time and still get an afternoon nap. I think the family time is very important as well as the rest. We all take books that we want to read and I am careful not to bring books that have to do with work so I can actually get away. This week the girls tell me I am going to read Francine Rivers books from the Mark of the Lion series. A couple of years ago we made the decision to not eat at restaurants and instead to rent jet skis. We have had a lot of fun as a result of that decision. Not sure what we will do this year but I am sure it will be fun.

I realize that Hilton Head is not for everyone but I do hope that you and your family get the chance to go away and rest. I think God encourages us to do things like this in the way he created the earth. He wouldn’t have built rest into the creation or even rested himself unless he wanted us to get the hint that we need it as well. When you do remember that you are not getting away from God, you are joining him in his rest.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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06-02-10 Be a Cat

One morning, shortly after we moved into our neighborhood, Laura woke me up and said there was someone in our bathroom. It was about 2 am. I tried to tell her that I would stay in bed to make sure no one crept up from behind while she was checking it out but she didn’t go for that. Instead, I bravely got up and grabbed a tennis racket to go see who was banging cupboard doors but wouldn’t answer. When I got in the room there was no one in there. As I turned to go a door opened and I saw the paw of who was in our house – it was a cat. I opened the door and out walked a cat. It was acting like there was nothing weird at all about what it was doing and did we have anything to eat. It was a friendly cat and it was cold outside so I quickly made it a bed in our garage and let it spend the night in there. Fortunately for us and the cat Dixie didn’t know about any of this. I know what you’re thinking, because we let the cat stay we now have a cat but it isn’t true. The next morning the cat left and she never did it again. I guess it was just her way of checking out the new people on the block.

Lately God has been opening doors for us. A lady that lives over by Butler Street has opened several doors of service for our Church. God has shown us several single women that could really use some help with their yards and around the house. We will do some of this on Wednesday nights and Dawn is considering organizing a day for our youth and some other youth groups to do some painting. God has opened the door and we should boldly walk through. God has also opened doors in the Oliver’s neighborhood. We spent last Saturday morning cleaning up the yard of a couple that are having health problems. We did this with our lifegroup and with the neighbors around Ernie and Karen. On Sunday our lifegroup went over and had a time of worship and supper with the couple. All of this began when we had a grill out in Ernie’s front yard and invited the neighbors. God opened the door and we walked through.

What is going to come of any of this? I don’t know. I know that when we worked with the neighborhood on Saturday morning we ended the time with a prayer. I also know that they have begun to ask questions about spiritual things that are relevant to them. In the end I think we need to be like cats and when God opens the door we boldly walk through. We do this not with self-confidence but God-confidence. We believe that God is leading and if we pay close attention to him he will guide us to do what he wants and needs. The main thing is to be available.

Be praying for God to open doors and then keep your eyes and ears open. He is faithful.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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05-26-10 Weekend

What a weekend! I went with my parents to Philadelphia to celebrate my Mom’s graduation with her Marriage and Family Doctorate. I was certainly proud to see her walk across the stage and receive her diploma, especially considering all the other things she has been doing while she was working on her degree. I believe the Lord will bless this Church in many ways using the work Mom has done and will continue to do.

One of the highlights of the trip was hearing Elizabeth Conde-Frazier give the graduation address on Saturday. She did an unbelievable job of explaining the theology of the Kingdom of God in a way that everyone could understand but still feel challenged. She talked about how God cares for people that we might call the “wrong” people and how he uses them for his purposes. By the end of her talk you would have thought you were attending a revival because the audience was getting so loud in responding to what she was saying. The same thing happened when a guy led us in a prayer at the beginning. I have never heard such a spirited prayer in my life.

After an all night drive back to Lexington I took a short nap before coming to our Sunday assembly. I really enjoyed the ceremony for the graduates. What a great group they are. I enjoy watching the videos each year. Some people haven’t changed since they were a baby, just got bigger. I think we experienced history on Sunday. I doubt we will ever see another tie-dyed suit again.

In the afternoon we went to the Global Day of Prayer. It was at the Colonial Life Arena and there was around forty five hundred there. The program consisted of a few very short talks, prayer, and worship. It lasted for two hours and we thought it flowed very smoothly. It was a very fast two hours. One thing that impressed me was that no one that took the mike told who they were or what Church they were from. Even in the program they handed out there was no mention of any particular Church. I thought that was classy. My favorite part was when we prayed for the teachers of this area. Certainly since my wife is one I feel the importance of their job but I think I would even if Laura wasn’t a teacher. When you consider how many people’s lives they touch and how much time they spend with the kids it is easy to see their importance.

This Sunday is the last of the Sundays where we focus on the Lord’s Supper. In June we will go back to the book of John where I will pick up in chapter eighteen. On June 6 we will be on vacation and Al McKechnie will speak.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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05-19-10 Living History

Last Monday I flew to DFW and had Ashley pick me up so I could drive home with her. We spent the night at my aunt and uncle’s lake house and planned to get up in the morning and head home. We ended up leaving their house around 1:00 so that we could only get to Birmingham that first night and had to stop. The reason we stayed so long was because my uncle got to talking about his experiences in World War II and we just couldn’t leave.

My uncle Ray flew in a B-25 bomber over Germany. One morning his plane was part of a very large bomber group going to drop bombs on industrial centers inside of Germany. They were part of a group of around 250 planes. Unfortunately they were in a group of 35 planes that were led off course because of a mistake made by a navigator. By the time they realized they were separated from the rest of the group it was too late and when the German Luftwaffe showed up with their fighters the bombers were all sitting ducks with no fighter support of their own. The German fighters shot down every one of the 35 planes except for 4. Fortunately Ray survived the crash and was picked up by some friendly people that took him to a prison camp instead of killing him on the spot. He ended up spending the next nine month in a prison camp with thousands of other prisoners from several different countries. General Patton and his army liberated the prisoners as the war in Europe was ending. My uncle actually got to see General Patton as he rode by.

Patton’s army was engaged in chasing the Nazis so he didn’t have time to give the newly freed prisoners a ride so they were left to fend for themselves. Fortunately, most of the people in the villages wanted Americans in their homes. They were opening their homes and inviting all of the American prisoners to stay with them hoping that they could protect them from the Nazis but also from the soldiers of other countries of whom they were scared. Ray and his buddy stayed for over a week with a family and they feed them and took care of them as well as possible in the closing days of the war.

Now maybe you can see why we weren’t in a hurry to leave. My uncle is 90 years old and even though he is in amazing health for being 90 it makes you realize that we will not have first-hand stories about WWII for much longer. He is being interviewed this week by the library of Congress to put his stories into an archive for future generations but Ashley and I got to talk to him directly and for that I am thankful.

Tonight the teens and adults are doing a get-to-know-you exercise. Just like the world has changed so has the Church. Some of our older members have stories of how the Church was and how they did things. I think these stories are a valuable treasure of our heritage and I am thankful that we have this opportunity for our youth to hear these stories directly. One day we will only have books to tell us these things but right now we have people that lived it. I hope you enjoyed the experience.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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05-13-10 A Project Encounter

I am very glad to report that Jeff Kerby has agreed to begin helping James Sutton with our community projects ministry. He will be organizing the events every second Wednesday night of the month. He is working alongside James to try to make our projects as God-honoring as possible. They will do their best to see that we have projects that involve as many people as possible each time we do one. I hope you will continue to give them your support and if you haven’t been involved in the past I would invite you to join in.

Last night we went to the future Butterfly house on Butler Street in Lexington. We had a good group of people there doing outside cleanup. We raked up a lot of leaves and trimmed bushes and trees and even cleaned out the gutters on the roof. Thank you to such a hard-working crew that made a real difference. Jeff is putting together a newsletter that includes pictures each time so you should be seeing what we did real soon. There was also an event at Virginia Hilton Park for the children but I don’t know if Jeff and Trish had any.

While we were cleaning up a councilwoman stopped by to talk to us about some complaints the neighbors had made about the future facility. Some of them are scared that keeping homeless people across their street will be bad for the neighborhood. By the end of the evening there was three people sitting in their driveway across from the Butterfly House so I decided to go talk to them. I wanted to see if I could calm their fears and at least let them know that they didn’t need to see our Church as an opponent. When I first approached I think they felt a little apprehensive but they quickly warmed up when I told them we weren’t trying to help anyone get around the rules of the Town of Lexington or anything like that. By the end of the conversation they were all supplying me with names of people that could use our help. I am hopeful that we will go back to that street and do yard cleanup for several older single women that live alone.

As I stood trying to decide whether or not to go across the street I thought of the people I know have invited their neighbors to grill outs lately. I thought of how we have been praying all year that God would use us in the lives of people around us. I thought of how we are struggling as a Church to be more useful to God. With all of that how could I ignore an opportunity like this one last night? I was worried that they might be unfriendly towards me but by the power of God it turned out just the opposite. Praise God!

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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05-05-10 Focusing on the Lord’s Supper

This month we are focusing on the Lord’s Supper on Sunday mornings. Last week we talked about how we can see the nature of God reflected in the way Jesus did the first Lord’s Supper. God often uses very common things, including common people, to do very important projects. When you consider the powerful images that are portrayed in communion it is hard to believe he chose emblems as simple as bread and wine, but he did. When you consider how he has acted throughout history I guess we should have expected it. This Sunday we are going to focus on Mothers, since it will be Mother’s Day, and consider how God’s nature shows up in the love of a Mother. Rick and I have put together a video clip that we will show as part of the service. On May 16 we will focus on the sadness of the events surrounding the Lord’s Supper. This is often the way we think of communion and I don’t think there is anything wrong with thinking about the sadness we feel about what our Lord had to do. The week after that we are putting together a service that will use many prayers that have been written throughout the years focusing on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I will be asking several of you to read these prayers. The final Sunday of May we will concentrate on the celebration associated with the Lord’s Supper. When it is all done I hope you will have a renewed love and respect for what Jesus did for you.

One of the things that I remember about Bill Irwin is how important he always thought the Lord’s Supper was. He never failed to remind us that it was the reason we came together on Sundays. He also never failed to ensure that we were paying this remembrance the respect it deserved. I appreciated Bill’s passion for something that really is so central to the gospel. I also felt like Bill understood that the power of communion is not in the technical issues involved but in the meaning behind the symbols. His passion was actually for Jesus and the fact that we should honor him for the sacrifice he was willing to make. That is a good thing about which to be passionate.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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04-28-10 Love

Spoken words of love carry a lot of weight. When we express our love to each other it can change the direction of a life. Last night in our Monday night Bible study the College group spent the entire time expressing our love to one another. We told the person to our right that we loved them and why and then we did the same thing to the person on our left. When we finished that we opened it up for anyone to speak to anyone and someone suggested that I tell everyone why I loved them and so I did. Then several of them shared why they love me and it went from there. When it was all over we were all very encouraged and refreshed and the funny thing is there were twelve people there, many of whom are new to the group. You don’t have to know someone for a long time to be able to express love to them. We had people last night that have been with the group for just over two weeks now and they did fine.

A couple of Sundays ago I shared a prayer with everyone and asked the women to say it and then the men to say it. What I really liked was hearing you say, “We love you – indeed we love you above all things.” I think it is so important to hear each other express love to God. That is one reason singing is so important since it is in our singing that we most openly express how we feel about God.

When I think of love passages in the New Testament I often think of First Peter chapter one verse twenty two. Peter writes, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.” It is so amazing to me that Peter teaches these young Christians that the first thing they need to work on as a newly baptized believer is love. I guess he had heard Jesus more than once talk about the two greatest commandments and he took it to heart. As he worked with young Christians he made sure that this priority was correctly in place.

Why not find an excuse this week to tell people around you that you love them and why you love them. People will be changed for the better because of your effort. One of my other favorite love passages is Romans chapter five verse five where Paul talks about God pouring love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I just like to think about God pouring love in and me hopefully being willing to share it because I know God will pour more in. I hope you have a great week sharing love.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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04-21-10 Workshorts

A few weeks ago Allan Whitacre and Steve Izard went to Elderlink in Atlanta. It was a seminar put on by ACU and Lipscomb University to help equip elders and other Church leaders. They came back with some cd’s to which many of us have listened. Randy Harris is one of the speakers and I have loved to listen to Randy for a long time. His lessons are entitled Equipping for the Future and Mentoring the Next Generation. I have listened to them several times. If you would like to listen to them you can borrow my copies or you can ask any of the staff or elders to borrow their copy. You just might enjoy listening to what is capturing the attention of the leadership at this congregation. Last week I suggested some books to read, this week you just need a couple of hours to hear the cd’s.

Today is a good day! I am at work wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and running shoes. Tonight I have two activities that will require a lot of running. The first is a class that Cameron Kerby and I are starting. It is for middle school students. It will combine Bible learning and activity. It is open to both boys and girls but they need to come prepared to sweat. Our first class is on the creation of God from the book of Genesis. We will have activities that they do combined with Bible memory and learning about God through creation. It is our intention for it to be both fun and challenging. If your middle schooler didn’t come last night you should be sure they come next month. It is always the same night that the youth group and adults do something together – the third Wednesday night of the month. The second activity is adults, college group, and the youth group playing ultimate Frisbee. I have been eagerly waiting for this event for a long time. Last month we got rained out but I think it is going to happen tonight.

Think back to when you were a kid. Can you imagine going to Church to play some game with the adults? Sometimes we would get a teacher that would let us talk them into playing “Bible British Bulldog” which was an excuse to play tackle each other. Truthfully there really wasn’t any Bible part to the game. I don’t remember telling my parents about it because I would figure that we were supposed to be in Bible class and not fooling around outside – even if the teacher was involved. Tonight no one is going to have to pretend to be doing something we are not. We will all go out and enjoy ourselves and I promise you the kids will remember this for their entire life. Even if you don’t play Frisbee I hope you will see the importance this places on our youth group and college kids and come watch and cheer them on. When I tell Luke and Ashley what we are doing they are both envious, especially Luke. We should all feel so fortunate to be a part of this. I know I do.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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04-14-10 Books

Let’s talk about books. Maybe you are looking for a gift for someone so let’s talk about a book or two you could buy. Or maybe you want to read a good book this summer and were wondering what would be good. Let me give you some suggestions. Keep in mind that I recommend each of these books despite the fact that there may be some things in them with which I disagree. These are books that I consider to have redeeming value even if I disagree with some of what the author says.

I really liked reading The Shack by William Young. It is a fictional story about a man’s encounter with God that takes place in a shack out in the woods. It ends up being a story about forgiveness but along the way it portrays the trinity in ways I have never seen before. Some of it may be hard for you to take at the beginning but eventually you will come to understand why the author uses the images he does. There is some disturbing material in the book so you should consider that before giving it to a young person to read.

A favorite of Laura and my girls is Francine Rivers. They like all of her books but they are all bugging me to read The Mark of the Lion trilogy. It is about the first century Christians and includes a lot of history about Rome. I have started reading a short book called Unafraid. It is about Mary the mother of Jesus. She has written five short books about women in the genealogy of Jesus. The other four are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.

If you would like something that might help you understand the missional movement I would highly recommend two books, both of which are very readable. The first is The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. There is a book and a separate workbook called a primer. It is a practical book about how the Church has been called to go to the lost of this world instead of trying to attract them to ourselves and our building. Everyone I know that has read it has loved it. Another similar book that I started reading this week is The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch. I think when you read books like these you will see why I believe the missional movement is from God.

Theology books are touchy to recommend but if you are interested I love to read books by N.T. Wright. Simply Christian is fairly easy to read and I enjoyed it a lot. For some reason Wright attracts a lot of criticism but I have yet to understand why.

Another author I like a lot is Donald Miller. I have read four of his books, the most famous of which is Blue Like Jazz. My favorite of his is Searching For God Knows What. I actually think it does a good job of explaining missional thinking. Miller’s books are funny in a quirky kind of way and easy to read. I know several of Ashley & Brianna’s friends have read Blue Like Jazz and liked it.

That is a very small sampling but I hope it is helpful to you if you are looking for something to read this summer at the beach. You can always talk to me if you want more.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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04-07-10 Projects at Camp

Have you ever wondered why we do projects in this community? Did God really put us here to rake leaves? This week I got at least part of the answer. It is a bit of a long story but stay with me.

Last year at camp some of the staff went rafting on the river close to camp. As they went by one house that backs the river the homeowner became very angry and told them rather heatedly that they were trespassing. Later that day Robin Akers went back and fixed part of a broken bridge or retaining wall or something like that for the man. He spent a good part of a day helping the man and as you can imagine the man’s attitude changed dramatically. This week Robin came up with the idea of using the senior campers to do some work in the area for the people that live around there. Can you imagine how much this will change the homeowners attitude towards the camp and hopefully their attitude toward God and His people. We will be able to use the good will we created with this one man to open doors into the rest of the community. Besides this it will be good for the campers to see how God uses his people to meet the needs of people around them. I am so excited about the possibilities of this happening. I know it will be a bit of a headache finding work for that many kids but if we can pull it off I think the reward will be unbelievable. We hope we can do it Wednesday afternoon and then during chapel time we will be able to talk about the mission of God with a whole new perspective for the kids.

Let’s go back to my original question – why do we do projects? We do them in part so that we develop an expertise that is useful to God in whatever setting he chooses to use it. I never would have imagined that our skills in this could be used at camp, but they can. I expect that five years from now, when we are enjoying good relations with the community around camp, we will look back on this as the event that changed everything.

We have recently read reports that say kids are leaving Church at alarming rates in part because they don’t see their Church doing anything besides worship services. When I read this I am so thankful that God is leading us to be involved in our community and in other communities. We do it because God tells us to but we reap benefits because God knows what he is talking about. All we really need to do is keep searching for God’s will and doing it when we find it. The results are his responsibility and his glory.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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3-31-10 GOAL!!!!!

Last week Laura and I were driving through the peach orchards to the town of Ridge Spring so we could eat at Juniper’s restaurant. As we saw the beautiful peach blossoms it made me glad to live in South Carolina. Soon the dogwoods will bloom and I will once again enjoy the most beautiful of all tree blossoms. I do enjoy the warmth of the South. Last weekend, however, I did get to enjoy the North. For the first time in twelve years I got to play hockey. In my mind I haven’t lost anything in those twelve years but I am afraid everyone else thought I had lost a lot of skills. At the beginning of the game I told my team, which was kids at least twenty years younger than I, that I had to score. The reason was because I was going to write the bulletin article and I had to score. It didn’t matter if it was a good goal because I could make any necessary adjustments needed as I wrote it up. I encouraged them to just shoot the puck at me and maybe it would bounce off of me into the goal. We played for two and a half hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. By the end I was lengthening my shifts since it might be the last time I play for a long time. The young guys didn’t seem to mind since they were tired. I may not skate as smooth as I used to but I do still have wind. I’ll make you wait to the end to see if I scored.

One thing I found out while I was there was that Kristina Meeks, who is on the same team as Ross and Heather, is the daughter of Mark and Jill Brazle. They are one of the couples I spent a year in Belgium with. I worked with Mark more than anyone else while I was there. When Laura and I drive to Detroit we stop in and see them. If this is the kind of people that are on this team I am even more thankful than ever to be supporting their work.

I did get to spend a lot of time with friends that mean a lot to me. One of my friends, Lowell, has always been an anchor for my faith. Whenever I have struggled faith-wise in the last thirty years I have relied upon him to get me back on track. I remember a time particularly when I was in College that I was struggling with my faith. I went home at Christmas and hung out with him and when I went back to Abilene I was better. He didn’t really do anything except set his steady life alongside mine. Often that is all it takes.

It is good to be home. On the way home I was able to get off my flight from Chicago to here and they gave me a free ticket. As we were waiting to board the next flight, two hours later, I stood right by the counter to see if I could get another one for Laura but the flight was not full. By the way, I did score a goal and got a couple of assists. I scored the goal myself. It was not a deflection off my head or anything like that. It was a real beauty. I was flying down the left wing and slashed into the middle of the ice, beat the defenseman and buried it in the back of the net gloveside. Or maybe I was standing in front of the net and took a pass and somehow it trickled in when the goalie dropped it. You make the call.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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3-24-10 Unity

Unity amongst Christians has been on my agenda for over fifteen years. Before that it wasn’t on my radar at all. I began to realize how important unity was to God through a study of John chapter seventeen. I think it would do you good to read John 17 several times before I begin preaching it in a couple of weeks. In verse 21 Jesus prays that Christians would be one, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Again, in verse 23 Jesus says, “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” In both of these verses you can see why Jesus thinks unity is important. He connects it to the world’s ability to believe in God. In other words when we are in harmony it reflects upon God, and when we are not it also reflects on our Father.

A unity event is coming up in May and I hope we will all be involved. It is the Global Day of Prayer that is from May 13-23. On Sunday May 23 that will be a large meeting of Christians at the Colonial Life Arena at 3:00 for prayer and worship. I have offered our praise team to help lead the worship and I am still waiting to hear about that. Don’t you think that would be great to have a Church of Christ group leading Christians in terms of unity? I think it would be wonderful. I also think it would be a sign of how much God is moving amongst us in this direction.

I think you can see how unity has begun to touch our hearts. For me the only disappointment I ever feel about our projects is when we don’t have another Church helping us. I like getting the work done but I also like enjoying united fellowship at the same time. I have heard that the youth group feels the same way about their events. They also want to be involved with other youth groups so they can also promote unity. Think of how that would open doors in this area for us to have events right here that use the relationships our kids already have at school.

In Saskatoon I saw God move to bring about unity there. It was there that I saw what has to take place in order for unity to happen – Churches have to let go of empire building. As long as leaders think in terms of how is this going to grow my little empire (Church) there cannot be unity because we are always worried about who is going to get the credit and who will reap the benefits. Once you let that go and replace it with a love for the kingdom of God you can do all sorts of things without worrying about those things. I am beginning to see this in the Lexington area. Praise God.

Have a great week!

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3-18-10 I want to know Christ!

So far the first two and a half months of this year have been pretty heavy for me. I began the year determined to spend the year exploring Jesus and trying to understand him better. During this period I have read over fourteen hundred pages of books written about Jesus. I have read Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy, and two books by NT Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, and Jesus and the Victory of God. I will soon get to the third book by Wright called The Resurrection of the Son of God. Some people consider Wright to be the foremost New Testament scholar alive. Others consider him a major heretic that should be completely avoided. I tend to see him as a very good scholar.

When I began reading the books by Wright they were mind-numbing boring. I felt like I was reading a six hundred page introduction but I kept telling myself that it would get better and it would be worth it so just keep going. I was right. Now that I am almost finished the second book I feel like I am learning things about Jesus and what his life was all about. I think some of this is already being reflected in my preaching but it is not so much information that I can pass on as much as it is thoughts that are changing who I am. I believe that anyone that explores the life of Jesus will be changed by the adventure. You can’t help it. The more you know about Jesus the deeper your respect for what he was all about. Don’t misunderstand me to be saying that you have to read books like this to know Jesus – you don’t. One of the best ways to know Jesus is to read about him from the gospels and then imitate his example. This is actually the best way to know him available.

What are you doing to open your life to him? What could you do this year to explore Jesus and know him better? I promise you that our God is a God who loves to be found and therefore he will help you as you seek him. If there is a desire inside of you to be more of what God wants I think this is the answer. If you have always wanted your Christianity to be deeper and more meaningful this is what I would suggest. For me it hasn’t been easy or magic but I certainly do think it has been rewarding. There is a newfound passion that boils inside of me that even goes to the point that I look forward to one day sitting down beside Jesus to listen to him tell about his life here on Earth. The more I think about him the more questions I have. Besides questions I also have a lot I want to say about my amazement at his strength, courage, and love. I guess there will be a lot of time for that.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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3-10-10 8 Person Sermon Team

I really enjoyed this last Sunday. My favorite thing about the morning was doing a sermon that took the skills and gifts of eight people to deliver. There was not one person that worked on the video that could have done it alone. That is an example of the body of Christ operating the way in which God designed it. Maybe this is part of the secret of how we could do great things for the Lord and the glory go to him instead of to us. When we work together it becomes more obvious that God is orchestrating things according to his pleasure and we realize the missing parts of our own giftedness.

Surely you went home realizing how many more people’s stories we could have included in the video. Even now I think of some of the stories we didn’t tell and I wish we could have. However, the point of the video was not us, it was Jesus. I thought the song that Rick put together at the end really drove home that emphasis. I hope you were blessed.

This Tuesday morning I went to a breakfast at the Capital City Club that was about the upcoming Global Day of Prayer. Beginning May 13 people all over the world are going to put forth a special effort of praying that will last for ten days. I plan to be involved and I think we will all be blessed by joining with all these people that will be petitioning God on behalf of our world. In this area the ten days of prayer will end on Pentecost Sunday May 23. On that day we will meet at the Colonial Life Arena from three till five for worship and prayer. Several of my friends are helping with the planning so I feel confident that it is going to be great. This movement began in South Africa and has now spread completely across the world. Graham Power, the chairman of the movement writes, “On May 23, 2010, God is again calling the nations from the North, South, East and West to embark on this prayer journey with Him. God is moving in His awesome power, and He is challenging us to be part of this journey. It is a journey that is not about us, but about a world in desperate need for His glory and compassionate love. It is a call to respond to His invitation in II Chronicles 7:14 to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. May he hear our prayers, forgive our sin and heal our land. I humbly invite you to join hundreds of millions of Christians as we come before God for this day of repentance and prayer.”

I can’t wait.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

3-03-10 Another blow-me-away moment!

I like to think that every Sunday is a special Sunday. Any day we all get together and celebrate the great things God does in our lives is a special day. However, this Sunday is going to be special – really. Rick and I are working on a video presentation together. We are using the work of several members as they recall stories of faithful people and how they got through to the end. I don’t want to give too much away but I think you will be blessed for being here and it will absolutely be appropriate for you to bring visitors.

I enjoyed the weekend with the Van Rheenan’s. I felt especially privileged to have them stay in our home. This gave us a lot of informal time with them to talk. On Sunday afternoon I went for a walk with them and especially wanted to get some advice from Becky. We had watched the end of the third period of the US – Canada hockey game and were going to come back in time to watch overtime. As we walked I decided I would rather hear what they had to say than watch hockey so we just kept going. By the time we returned the game was over and Canada had won. Believe it or not I was actually cheering for the US. I hope you were blessed by their being here.

Surely you have heard in my preaching the dissatisfaction I feel toward the accepted model of what a successful church should look like. I tend to believe that in North America the Church has become very consumeristic or focused on what we want. It is structured to meet our needs/desires and make us proud. We lean toward believing we are responsible for growth and therefore end up taking the credit if we do experience growth. It seems to me that this does not reflect the Church of the New Testament. In the first century the Church was very dependent on God and his Holy Spirit. Pride was a problem then too but the leaders knew pride was ridiculous since they were all just trying to keep up with the Holy Spirit and no one could rightly take credit. I believe that God cares greatly about the needs of Christians I just think he meets those needs best when don’t worry about our needs and instead focus on the will of God.

I believe that every problem we face is ultimately a spiritual problem and should therefore be dealt with in a spiritual way. God is the expert on how the Church should run and he holds every key to our success. The real challenge we face is how to align ourselves with his will and power. I enjoyed very much hearing this godly couple say many of the same things. I know many of you already believe these things which makes it so enjoyable for me to be here.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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2-24-10 Don’t Miss This Sunday

I hated to miss all the activities surrounding the special contribution for the Makonde team. We have been planning for this special time for months. Rom asked me, on the Wednesday before, how I was feeling about things and I really wasn’t sure. I work for the State, as most of you know, and in case you haven’t heard, the State is having a few budget issues. So I hear a lot about no money & no jobs. It can really affect my attitude sometimes and this was one of those times. I was rather anxious on Sunday the 14th. As we sang words this past Sunday like, “I will trust in you and not be shaken…” and “be still my soul…” I realized that I hadn’t totally lived that out in my anxiousness and was ashamed. When Dennis called me that Sunday and told me the awesome news, I was blown away! I wanted to jump up and down, but we were in the car so I didn’t. I did praise God and have a full heart all day. I am really looking forward to the next special time together. I don’t know about you, but spending time praying and fasting felt really good. Rick and I were signed up to pray from 7-8 p.m. and did something a bit different for us. We were driving at that time and had a sort of conversational prayer time with God. It was different and good. It was such a joy to give up dinner that night and have the mission on our minds and in our conversation. I hope you all had some wonderful moments with God and each other. If you were encouraged and had your faith built up during this event, why not share that with someone and encourage them too? Dennis and I want to thank you all for being so generous! May God continue to bless you.
Sandi

Please remember our special weekend with Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenan starting this Friday and running through Sunday afternoon. We would love for all of our ladies to come to the brunch at 10 on Saturday to hear Becky. This would be a great thing to bring a friend. On Saturday night it is open for everyone that wants to come hear Gailyn and Becky talk about missional change and youth. On Sunday afternoon it is open to everyone but I would like for at least one person from every life group to attend. Please try to arrange for someone from your group to be there at 3.

I went home last Sunday so encouraged by our prayer time together. Thank you to each person that shared a need. I was especially glad to see how comfortable some of our Hispanic people felt. Praise God for the work he is doing amongst us.

Allen L. Close

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2-17-10 Last Weekend & Next Weekend

During my prayer time Sunday morning for the Makonde team I prayed that we would give the entire $48,000 later that morning. The Lord is good and you opened your hearts and we were closer than $2000 from that goal. My hope is that before the next scheduled special offering we will completely close out what we need to give for this year and can focus on the fasting and praying instead of money. Wouldn’t that be fun? If you didn’t sign up for the prayer chain I am telling you the truth when I say you missed out on a blessing. For me it didn’t seem like a chore at all. I think the next time we will do this is in September so go ahead and make your plans to participate – just leave me the 2:30 am slot.

I talked to Ross on Monday and he was thrilled. He wanted to express their thankfulness for our gift to them (see his note in this bulletin). Think ahead to the first time we send some of our members to Tanzania to see the work. That will be so exciting.

Next weekend is when Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenan will be here. They lead Mission Alive, the organization that hosted the seminars we went to last year. They will meet with the Elders, staff and spouses on Friday night. On Saturday Becky will speak at the ladies brunch at 10 while Gailyn will meet with our elders. The ladies need to bring a breakfast item for their brunch. On Saturday night Gailyn and Becky will meet with the youth group and their parents at 7 in the youth room. Gailyn and Becky will teach Sunday morning in the auditorium and Gailyn will preach. On Sunday afternoon they will meet with all interested life group leaders and participants to talk about how small groups can be used to reach the lost at 3. Please make plans to take in as much of this as you can. Gailyn and Becky lived in Kenya for a long time and have been a big influence on the Makonde team so I see this as a chance for us to grow in the same direction as our team going to Tanzania.

Our Weekend with Gailyn & Becky Van Rheenan

February 26-28
Friday 7 PM - Elders, Staff & Spouses
Saturday 10 AM - Ladies Brunch
Saturday 10 AM - Elders
Saturday 7 PM - Youth Group & Parents
Sunday 3 PM - Life Group Leaders & Participants

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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2-10-10 Makonde Offering

This Sunday is the day we officially begin our involvement with the work in Tanzania, Africa. We will take up the first of many special contributions for the Makonde team. Several amounts have been tossed around but the elders have decided we will commit $48 thousand to the team. Each year we will take up two special contributions to raise these funds.

I had plans of not eating out one Friday a month and having Brianna and I cook supper so we could save money as a family but we haven’t gotten around to it. I guess we will just need to write a check. Maybe after this Sunday we can get started with the cooking idea.

Can we afford this? I can’t answer that question for you but I can tell you how I look at it for us. A couple of months ago Dan Nobles sent me an email asking for money for the work in India. That week Brianna and I had gone to a football game that cost us about $150 (don’t tell Laura). Dan was asking for $140. How could I possibly say I couldn’t afford it when I could afford more than that to go to a football game? Maybe you wouldn’t spend that kind of money on a football game, especially when they lost anyway, but chances are good you spend money on things that go beyond necessity. I just think we should consider that when we consider whether or not we can afford a work like this.

I have heard people saying we are giving the money to Ross and Heather, and that is true, but we are really giving the money to God. We are putting the money in his hands and asking him to use it to do whatever he wants amongst the Makonde people. Earlier this month we put $1400 in his hands and asked him to do whatever he wants with the people of Haiti. That was fun and this will be fun as well. The nice thing for me is I know I can trust God with the money. I believe that he will use it wisely in the business of his kingdom and it makes me happy to know that the fruit of that money will make God happy. I want to be involved in things that make God happy.

P.S. It is very nice to be home. My three weeks away were very beneficial I think. I got a lot of reading done that I don’t think I could have done with the limited time I have during a normal week. I’m sure I’ll share more in the coming weeks but thank you for the time away.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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What a Weekend By Sandi Chamberlain

What a weekend! First we had the Praise Summit, which was an awesome time of praise and worship. Then yesterday. WOW! Starting from Bible class then moving through to the songs and then the lesson. Everything tied together so perfectly. I don’t know about you, but I can never look up at the night sky in quite the same way anymore. What a reminder of the incredibly awesome God we serve! He knows the stars by name! And the same God who made the stars and knows their name, made each one of us. And He knows how many hairs are on our heads! If I can’t even comprehend the vastness of the universe which is physical, how can I begin to comprehend the vastness of the spiritual – the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us? Just like the stars that are too many to comprehend, so are the lost in the world. It’s very hard to wrap our minds around these faceless people and therefore, kind of hard to love them. Right now I’m thinking of the Makonde. They are not faceless to God. He made them too and knows how many hairs on their heads. During our meditation time on Friday night the scripture I chose was Colossians 1:15-22. I kept coming back to the phrase, “Yet He reconciled you in His fleshly body through death…” That took me to the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was praying in the garden and asked His disciples to wait with him. They fell asleep! He even said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” They slept! I wonder how many times I have slept when I needed to be watching and praying. Jesus sacrificed, fasted and prayed while here on the earth in the flesh. Can I not do the same? Jesus died for the world. That’s HUGE! Do I get it? What am I willing to give up to help someone else come to know Him? Jesus cried over the lost. Do I love them enough to cry? The special contribution for the Makonde team is coming up quickly and we’ve been invited to join God in His work in Africa. My prayer was and is that God will help us understand the awesomeness of this work. To help us love those we don’t even know yet. To help us understand the privilege and trust of being invited to participate. I pray that we will allow God to sit on the throne of our hearts and reign. Wake us up so we won’t sleep through the incredible plans You have for us, God.

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01-27-2010 Special Offering

Last week I spoke about God letting us in on his mission. On February 14 we have a chance to be involved in God’s mission in another way. That is the day we take up our first special offering for the Makonde Team. On that day we will take up a separate offering besides our normal offering to support Ross and Heather Kellis. They have asked for $23,000 to complete their support and we have agreed to supply that. Our plan is to take up a special contribution twice a year. On the day that we take up the contribution we will pray and some of us will fast for the work in South Eastern Tanzania. They will also pray and fast for us and our work in the Lexington area.

Most of us know Ross well and are getting to know his wife Heather as well. If you want to know more about them you can go to www.Mkondeteam.com and you will find lots of information. I am so proud of these four couples because of their willingness to leave the comforts of home to go to another place to be used by God in his work. They are planning to be there at least ten years. When I look at their picture (they look so young), I can’t help but marvel at how much they will have grown when they have been there ten years. They will not look as young nor will they be as naïve. What a blessing it is to know that as they put their lives, and the lives of their children, in God’s hands they will be blessed. There is no telling what kinds of experiences they will have and how their faith will be stretched and grown but we do know Him that is leading them. The same Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that works through us will be working through and with them.

I hope you feel the privilege it is to be a part of this. When you give your money on the 14th I hope you feel a rush of joy. I thank God that Ross and Heather asked this congregation to be involved in their support. I also thank God that when Sandi and Dennis brought this before the congregation you overwhelmingly said you were supportive. I am also impressed by the number of people I have heard say they want to go to Tanzania when the team gets there. Things like this make me so proud of this congregation and so thankful that I am here.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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01-20-2010 February

There are three exciting things I want you to know about for the month of February. The first is that on Wednesday the 10th we are going to have a service project that involves us helping the people of Haiti. I don’t know the details yet but it will probably involve us getting some items together and boxing them up to be shipped to Haiti. We will use some organization that has the capability of sending a lot of help and just add our stuff to theirs. I think it is so important for the kingdom of God to respond when a country that really is a pretty dark place has a need like this. More details will come as we know them.

The second thing is Saturday the 20th. On this Saturday we are going to work with Radius Church and Church of the Destiny to do cleanup at the community center in the Gibson Road area. We have worked there before on a Wednesday night. The director of the center has asked for our help and he will be there. Our plan is to do whatever work he needs us to do at the center and then to spread out into the community around there to offer to help with whatever we can do. This will be so similar to the work we did that one Wednesday night. We are also hoping to have a pig pickin afterwards. I think it will be a great time working with other Christians and getting to know some people in this community that we have worked with before. This is the same area that we painted houses at for workcamp. The details of this event are subject to change because there are so many different groups involved but these are the details for now. If anything changes I will let you know as soon as I know.

The third thing is my friends Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenan are coming to spend a weekend with this congregation February 26-28. Please mark your calendar right now for this important weekend. Gailyn and Becky lead Mission Alive, the organization that put on the two seminars that I went to with Allan and Steve in Dallas. The elders and staff and spouses will meet with them on Friday night. Becky will meet with all our ladies on Saturday while Gailyn meets with the elders. Saturday evening they will meet with the teens and their parents and anyone else that would like to come. They will teach class on Sunday and Gailyn will preach. Sunday afternoon they will meet with our lifegroup leaders and anyone else that wants to be there to talk about how God is using groups like this in his mission. You can go to www.missionalive.org to find out more about Mission Alive.

     I am excited about all three of these events.  I love it when God shares his mission with us so we can be involved with him.  The blessing is ours in things like these.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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01-13-2010 Scheduling

We have a regular Wednesday night schedule now so that you can remember what we are doing. On the second Wednesday of every month we plan to do a service project that involves most if not all of the congregation. This will typically also involve the teens and College group. When this must be changed for some reason we will let you know by email what the changes are. On the third Wednesday of every month we will be planning an event that involves the youth group, the college group, and adults meeting together. Normally we follow a rotation of play, get to know you exercise, and worship. This month we are doing worship again because it is pretty cold to go outside and play something. It is also because I begged Dawn not to play ultimate Frisbee while I was gone. The worship event planned for January 20 will be very different than anything we have done before and it will help the adults and young people get to know each other. I don’t want to spoil the surprise that Dawn and Rick have planned but you should be there.

Today I am meeting with leaders from two other Churches to talk about our projects ministry. They are both Churches that have worked with us before. I am always thrilled when we can do things that bring unity amongst Christians. Soon I will be preaching from John 17 and you will see just how much unity pleases our Father. If God is able to use us to spread that notion that Church can be done in places besides our building I am pleased. If God is able to use other Christians to show us how to impact the spiritual lives of people we work with then I am pleased as well. We have always worked with the attitude that we work alongside God and trust that he will give the growth and we will continue to have that attitude. At the same time, however, we want to do our best to bring glory to God and His kingdom by sharing everything we have with people including our love for God. Doing projects all year long brings some challenges we hadn’t faced before. One big challenge is the fact that it gets dark so early. This makes working outside impossible so we have to find projects that are indoors. This is the main reason we worked at LICS in November and are doing it again this month. There is something nice about having light and heat this time of year. If you know of anyone that could use our help for something just let me or James Sutton know and we will look into it.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

Sabbatical

The elders announced that they have decided to give me a three week sabbatical beginning January 18. After eleven years they thought it would be good to give me a time to refresh myself away from the daily demands of my job. I am very much looking forward to it and I think it will be beneficial to all of us. Let me share with you what I have planned for the three weeks.

First of all I will go to Abilene for two weeks beginning on the eighteenth. I plan to spend a lot of the time in the library studying to prepare myself for a year of exploring the life of Jesus. I have three books by N.T. Wright that I hope to get read sometime this year. I plan to get at least two of them read. I have several other books I hope to get through as well. I also plan to spend some time with some of my professors and to go to San Antonio to spend some time with my brother-in-law and especially to see Lynn Anderson. Lynn has been a friend and mentor for a long time and I am very much looking forward to spending some time with him. One of the things I like at ACU is a place called The Quiet Place in the Bible building. It has several rooms that are designed for prayer and meditation. I will use the opportunity to spend time in one of these rooms each day. I will also have the chance to go to chapel with Ashley some and maybe go to one of her classes. She is taking a Bible class from Mike Cope this next semester so I might go to that. My Grandparents are in their nineties so it will be nice to be with them. We plan to take them out, along with the rest of that family, to celebrate their seventieth wedding anniversary that took place December 27. Not a lot of people get to celebrate seventy years of marriage. All in all I expect my time in Texas will be very nice.

When I come back I will have a week left and do not have it as planned out as the first two weeks. I would like to do something with some of the local pastors around here. There are a lot of guys that preach in Lexington that I respect a lot and have a good relationship with and it would be fun to spend time exchanging ideas with them. A few years ago we had a retreat together and I loved it.

On the final weekend Laura and I are planning to get away together. The one bad thing about these three weeks is the time away from most of my family so it will be nice to get away. Usually when we go away for a weekend we have to get up early to be back here before nine so it will be nice to not have to do that and I always enjoy worshipping with other Christians in different settings.

On the three Sundays I am away Ross Kellis, Dan Nobles, and Robert Kimberly will speak in that order. I have other people lined up to take care of my other responsibilities. By the time the three weeks are over I know I will be ready to be back home where I belong. Thank you for this opportunity.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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12-16-09 Merry Christmas

Don’t you hate it when you ask someone what they want for Christmas and they say they don’t know? Actually, what they often say is I don’t want anything. Men, don’t believe that for one second. If you’ve been married for more than one Christmas you know what I’m talking about but if you are a newlywed you just might make a big mistake and I am trying to help you out. What they mean when they say nothing is surprise me. What they mean by surprise me is get me exactly what I want without me telling you because we have this amazing connection. Happy Shopping!

Our congregation got an early Christmas present from the middle school boys the past two Sundays. Once again the young Timothy’s came through and did a great job. Grayson, Zach and Brian all spoke and each did a great job. T.J. led a prayer and made me proud again. What I can’t wait for is the next time they speak and you are able to see the improvement. That will be cool.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you enjoy your family and do some really fun things with them. I hope you eat too much food and watch too much football. I hope you get to watch all of your favorite Christmas movies with loved ones and shed a tear or two while doing it. I hope you spend time with God during this break and end 2009 by moving closer to God and being more open to the leadership of his Spirit.

Allen L. Close

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12-09-2009 Young Timothy’s

I was so proud of the young timothy guys last Sunday. I thought it was great the way Donnie Guill just walked right up there and started. When I told him he was going to be first and he would just need to walk up as soon as the song was over he didn’t even bat an eye. And when the time came for him to go he just went. It was great. It was so nice to hear the story of Jesus in his own words with an application at the end.

After Donnie we heard from T.J. I know T.J. touched everyone in the audience with his honest way of dealing with a very tough subject. It took a lot of courage to tackle an issue that is so close to his heart because anyone would have a hard time getting through the talk without breaking down. I appreciate what he had to say and I thank God that he gave T.J. the courage to say it. I can see that God has gifted T.J. to speak to people from his heart and I am so proud of him.

Brian did a great job of choosing a reading that would prepare us to give. Next week he will speak from John 1. Zach Giles and Grayson Carter will also speak on Sunday. Wayne Burress and I have worked with these guys since last spring. I have enjoyed every minute of it. The last three months have been my favorite because of the way they stayed with the same talk and continued to work on them during that time. Each month we would give them suggestions and they would come back the next time and show the progress they had made.

When we first moved to Canada when I was eleven I joined the young timothy’s at my Church in Weyburn under the preacher, Clinton Brazle. I learned a lot from him about what it meant to be a preacher. Now I am thankful for the opportunity to help these boys the way I was helped. No matter what they end up doing for a living the Church will be blessed by their ability to communicate God’s word.

Isn’t it nice to have such great young people at this Church? I am so thankful for the opportunities I get to work with them. I consider it a real privilege to work with our college-aged kids. I learn a lot from them and I enjoy hearing the fresh ways they look at scripture. I would hate to be a pulpit minister that didn’t get to be with the youth. I am growing to look forward to the Wednesday night each month that we do something together with the teens and college. I’m pushing for ultimate Frisbee the next time we play games together. I know you can’t wait.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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12-02-2009 Trust

Letting Jeff Kerby go as an elder is a trust issue for me. I am sad about it and could be even sadder except I trust God and believe that he is leading and therefore we should expect good to come from this. I have worked with and alongside Jeff in many ways for over eleven years. He was my accountability partner for eight years. During those eight years we met at his office at one o’clock every Wednesday. He and I have prayed with many people together at the hospital. He helped me with the College group last year taking care of their activities on Sunday, while I took care of Monday and Wednesday night. We have crammed into a taxi and walked muddy roads in Guyana together. What I’m trying to say is we have a history of working together for the kingdom of God. The trust part comes as he resigns as an elder and I have to trust that God will continue to allow me to work with Jeff in the plans that God has for him. Jeff and I worked together before he was an elder and I know that I will be able to count on him now that he is no longer an elder.

Our life group has been meeting with the teens for a month and we have really enjoyed it. Most of the time we have met at the building to accommodate the numbers but we met at Fran’s one night so we could have a bonfire. This last week we let the kids discuss whatever they wanted to discuss and gave them a few suggestions. Very quickly they brought up the discouragement they feel at school because of the way their schoolmates talk and the things they talk about. It seemed like all the teens agreed and many of them shared about their experience. It gave us adults a chance to share some of our thoughts with them and to try to encourage them. We also had a few suggestions of some things to try. In the end I think we were all encouraged by the unity we felt between the teens and the adults. It is nice as an adult to think that we matter to the teens. It is also nice to hear them share things that are really part of their life. Every time I am with our teens I am so impressed with the depth of things they think about and the way they handle themselves around other people. If you would like for your life group to have a month with the teens you need to talk to Dawn. There are more groups than months so not everyone is going to get to have them.

Let me encourage you to either keep doing the three things associated with life groups or to begin doing them. I believe you will be blessed tremendously if you do the prayer, bible reading, and hospitality. Every week we have a new verse and it is printed in the Sunday handout. If for some reason you miss it you can find it on our website. This week we are reading Luke 15:1-7.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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11-25-2009 Traveling for Thanksgiving

Have you ever noticed how much trouble we go to in order to be with family during the Thanksgiving holiday? Some of our families are in other parts of the country right now having a good time I’m sure. Others of us have had kids come back from University or family travel in from all over the place. It’s sad to us that because of the distance and the fact that ACU only gets three days off Ashley doesn’t get to come home this week. Fortunately she will be home on December 10 for Christmas so that makes it a little better. I saw in the news that they are afraid that all of this getting together and traveling might make the spread of swine flu worse. It seems to me that it would take more than the possible spread of the flu to keep families apart during the holidays. What this says to me is that family is very important to us and for that I am very thankful.

As long as kids are important to parents and those parents care about the wellbeing of their kids I feel good about our society. As long as kids love their grandparents and grandparents their grandchildren we will have hope. When the family disintegrates we will be in serious trouble. When I see families driving all over the place to be with family I have hope.

I hope everyone of you had a blessed time together and had plenty of good food to eat. While I know it is impossible I also hope everyone’s team won as you watched the game with your family. More than anything I hope that you were encouraged in your faith by being with people that you love and that God used that love to draw you closer to Him.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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11-18-2009 Donald Miller

Monday night I went to the Watershed bookstore to hear Donald Miller, a Christian author, speak. He is in the last few days of a sixty five stop book tour that has covered a lot of this country and Canada. When I got to Watershed the parking lot was jammed and I was worried that I might not be able to get in. Fortunately, because of all my time at the Wired Bean, I knew the person in charge and she let me in even though it was already oversold. I was so glad I went.

There was a lady named Susan Isaacs that was traveling with him that spoke first. At first I thought she was weird but by the end I really liked what she was saying. I bought her book, Angry Conversations with God. We’ll see.

Donald Miller got up around eight and I immediately was glad I came. Throughout his talk I kept thinking about what I had preached last Sunday from John 12. He was saying some of the same things, just a lot better. I do find that he articulates things I’ve been trying to say for a long time but can’t seem to find the right words. After listening to him I now know why I hate the things that Joel Osteen preaches. It’s not that they are shallow or sugary; it is that they are a perversion of all that Jesus preached. They have not just missed the point they have totally changed the content of the message. I also have a better feel for why I get bugged by all the promises that Church seminars make about the abundant life if you will just do these five things or read this book or whatever. I believe in abundant life just not the way that they present it.

The more I listened to Miller the more I wanted to preach from John 12:23-28 again. And that is exactly what I am going to do. This time I will come at it from a slightly different angle but I believe the passage can easily carry the weight of being preached two weeks in a row. If you missed the first sermon on this passage you can listen to it at our website.

One side-effect of going to the talk on Monday night was that I drank coffee too late at night. I guess I realized how much I liked Wired Bean coffee and so I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t resist the first cup or the refill so by the time I got home I knew I wouldn’t be going to sleep anytime soon. I did get to call my brother that lives on the west coast. That was nice. I also got to think about the sermon for Sunday, even after I got in bed at 1:30. Oh well, it was worth it.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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11-11-2009 Sharper Than Any Sword

The book of Hebrews tells us that the word of God is, “living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” My question for you is whether or not you let the word of God grab you on Sunday or not. Did any of the verses we looked out from the first twelve chapters of John penetrate you?

One of the ones that got me was from John twelve where John writes, “And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” I really believe that every time any of the people that were there caught a whiff of that perfume again for the rest of their life they went right back to this anointing. Smell has that effect on us. If it was me I would seek out that smell every time I felt down or was feeling sorry for myself and I think the feeling would go away. I bet the same was true for Mary. I bet she could pull that empty flask out of her drawer and smell the pure nard and be flooded with warm memories of Jesus. I bet she did it often.

Another one that gets to me is Jesus saying, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It is the freedom he mentions that intrigues me. It says to me that every bit of his truth that I ignore enslaves me. I hope I am not like the people that heard him say this. They argued with him instead of catching the meaning of what he was saying. They were too busy trying to prove that they were not slaves. Do I do that?

A third passage that grabs me is right before the one about freedom. John writes, “Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.” I know that faith develops over a lifetime and it takes time for faith to become mature but there is a moment when faith is born. There is a time when a decision is made to put your faith in Jesus or not. It appears to me that this moment does not have to be drawn out. The process is hearing the words of Jesus and either letting them penetrate or letting them bounce off. I try to practice letting them penetrate.

I hope you are allowing the word of God to be alive and active in your life. We try to expose you as much as possible to the word of God and it is our hope and prayer that you are allowing it to judge your thoughts and attitudes. By the way, how are you doing with Philippians 2:1-11?

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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10-21-2009 The Word Of God

You should be a part of our class on Sunday mornings. We are studying the book of Hebrews and I think it has been very worthwhile. I have loved this book for a long time and having the chance to go over it again has been a lot of fun for me. I have especially enjoyed the interaction we have during the class as we work through difficult things together. Two weeks ago we wrestled our way through two verses. They come at the end of chapter four. Do we believe that Jesus was in fact tempted in every way like us and do we believe that this means we can approach him during times of temptation? I know that the Bible says these things my question is do we believe it enough to do it. This is just one of the places where I see that this book explains things in ways that the rest of the Bible does not. One other thing this book explains is grace. When we get to chapter ten you will see what I mean. You know how much I love grace and how much I can’t stand works theology and when we study chapter ten you will see why. You will also see where I get the idea that everything comes back to relationship with God. I sometimes admit to stealing ideas and now you will see where I stole that idea.

The reason that I would like for you to be at the class if you can is because I believe it is one way that God is working on us to shape us into his image. I know it is not the only way but I think it is a significant way. It gives me great joy to see people wrestle with the word of God. When we wrestle it is often not because we misunderstand the word it is because we do understand what is being said and we struggle with how to bring this into our lives. In this case the struggle is good. It means we are battling to allow the word of God to come into our life and become real. If we aren’t careful we can treat verses as purely academic statements that are food for thought instead of the living words of our living God that are trying to literally change us from the inside out.

Ya’ll keep dwelling in the word of God and I will keep teaching it the best I know how and we will wait together on God to use it to change us.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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10-14-2009 The Good Shepherd

Can you imagine all of the things that our Heavenly Father has led people through? The Bible is full of stories of people that get into messes and have God lead them out of the mess. It all begins with the first couple. Adam and Eve were not satisfied with having everything they could possibly need. They decided they were missing out on something good and for the first time on Earth people created a mess by listening to the advice of Satan and ignoring the word of God. Once they realized the mess they had made they did what we all continue to do and that is to try to hide from God. Despite the fact that God had never led a human being through a problem before he was able to lead them back to a relationship with him even though it was a very different relationship. From that point on every person we read about finds their way into a predicament and are led out of it by God – assuming they are willing to accept God’s help.

One of my favorite stories is the story of Job. Job finds himself in a miserable place and it has nothing to do with anything he has done wrong. He has a very hard time dealing with the fact that it looks like he is being punished even though he insists that he has done nothing wrong. Throughout the book of Job he takes his problem straight to God. He wants an answer from God. For some time God allows Job to rant and rave about the unfairness of everything to the point that Job starts accusing God of being mean, dishonest, and uncaring. At the end of the book you see God lead him through the pain to a new point of faith and it is this newfound faith that is the prize at the end of the book. God gives job faith instead of answers and Job is satisfied.

These are just two of the hundreds of stories we have in our Bible to help us believe that God is the good shepherd. They are there to convince us that God always knows what he is doing so that we will come to him when we are in some sort of mess. The book of Hebrews sums it up beautifully for us at the end of chapter two and the end of chapter four. In both places we are told that we can come to God whenever we are in need because Jesus understands the problems of this life – he has lived here. In chapter eleven of Hebrews we see a list of people that God has led. Toward the end of the chapter he says that there are many more examples but he can only list a few of them. Can you imagine how long that list would be today?

I know that people in this congregation go through things that are hard. God has given us each other to give love to one another during tough times but this is no substitute for his presence and leadership. No matter what you are going through you need to the leadership of your good shepherd to get through it. Let me encourage you to stay close to God no matter what is going on in your life so that when you enter a tough time you will be where you need to be – close to God.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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10-07-2009 Time to Refresh

Today I am heading to Fairhaven Ministries near Johnson City, TN. I am going for a short spiritual retreat at this retreat center that I have visited before. Every now and then I feel the need to get away from everything and have a time of spiritual renewal. I will return Wednesday afternoon in time to get ready for the evening activities.
One of the things about my job that is different than most jobs is that my own spiritual wellbeing is tied to my job. I know spirituality is not limited to preachers but there is something different about the spiritual demands connected to work for preachers. I am thankful for the opportunity I have to do things like this to take care of myself. When I go on these retreats I usually have a lot to do. I spend time in devotions with God, praying and reading scripture. I also take things with me to study and this time is no exception. I have several books I have been wanting to read so I have packed them in my backpack and hopefully I will get them read this week. One of the books I am taking is Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala. I have read it before but feel the need to reread it. I will also spend time going for walks along the many trails that are on the property that go by streams and through the mountains. Just for fun I will use the hills to work on my running uphill since my race in two weeks is supposed to be very hilly. The thing I like about this retreat place is there is no TV and I am not taking a computer or anything like that. I can hardly use my phone while I am there. Each night I go into the nearest town for supper and while there I can make any calls I need to make.
Our new lifegroups were revealed Sunday morning. If you were away and want to know what group you are in you can either find that out on Wednesday or you can call the office. We also handed out instructions about some things you need to begin doing this week. You may remember how I have mentioned three activities we are doing during the week and then discussing them during our group time. The three activities are fixed hour prayer, Bible study, and hospitality. The Bible passage to read every day this week is Matthew 22:34-40. I hope everyone will take advantage of our new Missional Living Discussion Groups (what we used to call Life Groups).
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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9-30-2009 Life Groups Are Here (Almost).

We are planning to begin life groups on Sunday, October 11. We are making a few changes to the groups this year. First of all we are changing the name to Missional Living Discussion Groups or MLDG for short. This is because we would like for our groups to begin to transition towards becoming more outreaching than they have been in the past. We are also changing the format of what we do during groups. Our activities will be much more streamlined so that there is no extra burden for the leader on any night.
There are three things we would like the groups to discuss at their meetings. All three things are activities you will do during the week and then come together so you can talk about your experiences. The first is called fixed hour prayer. What this means is you set a time every day to interrupt what you are doing so that you can pray. This is different from most other times of prayer because it is an interruption. Most people can set their phone to give them a reminder at a certain time of day. The prayer doesn’t have to be long nor do you have to find a special place to go pray – you pray right where you are. The second thing is Bible study. Each week the group will get a passage to read every day during the week. At the end of the week you get together and talk about it. The third thing is hospitality. What have you done this week to cause your life to overlap with the life of a non-Christian? On Sunday night your group will get together to discuss your experience with these three things.
The teens (high school) will be meeting together with one of the groups for one month at a time. Dawn will arrange which group will host the teens which month. This will be a great opportunity for our adults to interact with our high school kids. The young adults or college ministry will be scattered throughout the groups. Mike and Kris have agreed to meet with the middle school kids but they are still seeking input about what the parents want. There are several options about what they could do so if you have middle school aged kids you should talk with Mike and Kris about it.
I am really looking forward to getting these groups started. I believe we will find that the things we liked about life groups before will still be there and probably be even better. At the same time we will be getting in step with the will of God in ways we needed to before.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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9-16- 2009 Wednesday Nights

I have really grown to like Wednesday nights. Last week we were at the home of Molly Davis painting, replacing her floor, fixing her lights, repairing part of her roof, and cleaning up her yard. She was so grateful for the help that it made us all feel like we had spent the night in a good way. The Church that helped us that night is already making plans to go back and do some more repairs. I have really enjoyed working with Church of the Destiny the times we have worked together. Tonight we are planning to play kickball with the teens. As I write this I am sitting in shorts and a tee shirt. We will play games with the teens about once a quarter. The other two times we meet with the teens we will do Bible study or worship together. On the Wednesdays that we meet together we will also have Young Timothy’s for the middle school boys and the missional living discussion group at 6. On the Wednesdays that we are not doing a justice initiative or meeting with the teens Jeff Kerby will teach a class on applying the sermon from that Sunday. Next Wednesday Jeff will discuss the sermon which will be on the woman caught in adultery.
Please keep reading the book of Hebrews. Each week I will try to help you be able to understand the book better and have the tools you need for it to make sense. It would be great if by the end of the quarter you will have read the book around ten times. The book is meaty enough for you to read it that many times and still get new things out of it. I think if you would read the book now knowing that it is about people that are on the brink of giving up then a lot of the book will make more sense. For me knowing the context is everything. I will continue to try to open up the context for you so keep reading.
This Sunday night is a big night for our congregation. We will have the meeting that was originally scheduled for last week but needed to be postponed because of Jack Lanham’s funeral. By the way, if you got to hear Jeff Lanham talk at the service you were richly blessed. It was so nice to hear him speak so eloquently about his Dad. Back to the meeting – we will meet at 6:00 this Sunday to discuss our involvement with the Makonde Team that is going to Tanzania. Please be in prayer about this in preparation for the meeting and then come and give your input. We believe God speaks to congregations so we need the congregation together that night.
I better get this finished so I can go set up the field for kickball. I love Wednesday nights!
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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9-23-2009 Makonde Team

Sunday night was a special time for this congregation. It was the first time since I have been here that we have been in a position to decide what we think we should do about a foreign mission opportunity. The decision to support the work in Guyana was made around 1994 which was before many of us were a part of this congregation. The decision we are making is not between Guyana and Tanzania. We will continue to support that work and several of us will continue to go there to make sure they are doing well. This decision is whether to add the Makonde Team to our foreign effort and I thought that you could feel the excitement in the air as different people talked and as people had a chance to voice their opinion.
Dennis Carter and Sandy Chamberlain both made presentations as the leaders of this ministry. In both of their cases it was obvious the passion they feel. I like what both of these people bring to the table with them. Allan Whitacre talked a little about our history and how that fits in to our involvement with Guyana and now Tanzania. Several of our members made the point that they want our commitment to be much more than money. They want our entire Church to be behind this and for it to influence everything we do. Several mentioned how they want their children to be influenced by this commitment.
My assessment from what I heard Sunday night is that we would like to support at least one of the families to the tune of $23,000 a year. Each family needs $23,000 I think for their work fund. It is not all the money they need but it is what they have left to raise. I also get the feeling that many would like for this to be raised mostly through special contributions. We would have these contributions at least twice a year and they would be combined with a time of fasting and praying. I realize that some are on fixed incomes and special contributions are hard for them so probably some would be in the budget to accommodate them. Sandy shared some ideas she had of ways we could each raise the money in a way that would involve sacrifice on our part. She also had ways that we could do this as a family.
I came out of the meeting encouraged. I thank God that he would see fit to let us be a part of such a great team and such a great work. I know we will be blessed in unforeseen ways and I look forward to those blessings.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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9-9-2009 "Missionaries and Us"

I enjoyed our time together on Sunday night. I appreciated the questions and the input so many people gave. I sense an air of excitement as we consider the changes God is asking us to make. The fact that God would pay us this much attention is inspiring.
I was surprised to see Ross and Heather Kellis here on Sunday. With our meeting this coming Sunday night being on the subject of our support of their work in Tanzania I was glad to see them. Ross made a very insightful comment about how to bring lost people into the community of the Church even before they commit to it. Afterwards Ross and I were talking and he said that it looks to him like we are going to be doing the same thing here that they will be doing in Africa. Isn’t that the way it should be? Why should the work of Christians in other countries be any different than the work of Christians in this country? I know that in the past we have expected things of “missionaries” that we don’t expect of ourselves. We expected them to learn their culture so they could move into that culture with the gospel. For ourselves we figured the culture knows who we are and if they want it they will come to Church. We expected missionaries to find ways to get into the homes of people but we didn’t expect that from ourselves. I pray fervently that our work will indeed be the same as the Makonde Team.
As I talk to Ross whenever he is here and on the phone I realize that he has been heavily influenced by the same ideas that I have. I can see the influence of Gailyn Van Rheenan and Mission Alive. I can hear the language of missional theology in the things he says. God is leading this team of four young couples and teaching them the same things he is teaching us. I find that encouraging. I pray that our partnership with them will include a lot more than money. I pray that we will reap a spiritual blessing from having their team and the Christians of the Makonde people praying for us regularly. I have spent two summers in Africa and I know of the spirituality of these people and so I want it on my side. I want young, zealous couples praying for us and our influence in this world. I want God to challenge all of us to present our lives as living sacrifices to him.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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9-2-2009 "A Good Sunday"

Last Sunday was a good day for us. We were able to consider the changes God is asking us to make in a very positive atmosphere. Dawn was able to present how she sees those changes affecting the youth program and how the adult ministry and the youth ministry are very much in sync. Finally we had the privilege of honoring our elders. I think they could have named the video of the elders after the great Broadway play “Hair”. Thank you to Sharon Carter and the people that helped her get the banquet ready. I noticed a lot of people staying afterwards to help clean up.
I thank God that I can present a diagram like I did on Sunday and have it mean something. Many of the pieces are already in place but there are some changes that will be a challenge. There are several paradigm changes needed if we are going to become the body of Christ like God would want. One change of belief we need to make is that we have to choose whether we are going to be outwardly focused or inwardly. Outward focus does not equal missional. Missional is being in step with what God wants. God told us to love each other. He also told us to go into all the world. These two commands are not opposed to each other. You don’t have to pick which one you are going to obey. If you use a lot of your leaders to lead the charge into our culture then someone is going to have to pick up the slack in caring for the body. It has always been God’s plan that the whole body would care for the body. God never meant for the Church to hire someone or appoint someone to visit people in the hospital or to go see those who can’t get out. Taking care of the needs of our members is everyone’s responsibility.
Another change we must make is separating our wants from our needs. If we equate our wants with our needs we cannot make the sacrifices necessary to engage our culture. Consider the changes we need to make to life groups. I know some people really love life groups the way they are and I don’t blame you but we can’t focus on what we want and use our groups for outreach. I know that every year around this time we all hope we get in a good life group. By good we usually mean in a group with people we enjoy being with. Maybe this year we could pray that we would get in a group that God will be able to use in ways we have never seen.
I have no doubt that little by little we will continue to grow in the grace of God. I am so thankful that we have each other with which to go through this. I don’t think I could do it alone but together I believe we will be able to submit to God no matter what happens.
Hebrews is coming this Sunday morning at 9:00.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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8-26-2009 "The Book of Hebrews"

I appreciate the work Rom has done teaching on the kingdom of God. Kingdom of God is a very important subject and I think it is critical that we understand what this is about so that we can be what God wants. We now turn to a book of the New Testament that I love – the book of Hebrews. When I went back to graduate school in 1992 I realized that I knew nothing about the book and decided that I would try to change that. I ended up being the graduate assistant for James Thompson who happens to be one of the real experts on the book in this country. His work, The Beginnings of Christian Philosophy, is mentioned in all of the scholarly works on Hebrews. When I finished working for him and having his Introduction to the New Testament I felt much better about my understanding of the book. I have since developed a very deep love for the book. One of my major papers at Abilene was on the structure of the book. That sounds boring I know and it was, but I did gain an unexpected view of the theme of the book by studying the structure. I promise I will leave out all of the boring parts but I will share the conclusions I found.
There are two things I need from you. First I need you to be at the class. Please make it a priority. I have had some people tell me that they need some Bible study so here you go. Secondly I need you to prepare for the class. Would you please read the book before next Sunday? There are thirteen chapters so it shouldn’t take you too long. As you read I would like for you to ask yourself what this book is all about. Can you see a theme that runs through the book? Make some sort of a note by anything that seems hard to understand. I’ll warn you, there are some things that are hard to understand in the book. Make a note by things that are familiar to you. You may know more about this great book than you think. We will cover the book in thirteen weeks which means I can’t get bogged down in every little detail.
There is one chapter in the book that completely changed my view of our restoration movement. See if you can figure out which chapter. This chapter opened the door for me to change a lot of the things I had grown up believing. We will get to it and when we do I will gladly show you what I mean.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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8-19-2009 "Fall is Coming"

Can you believe summer is over? Last night I wanted to mow my lawn but I guess I started too late because I wasn’t able to finish because it got too dark. Are the days getting shorter or something? All summer long I have felt like I had the entire summer as a buffer from the time that Luke and Ashley would head off to University. Now my buffer is gone. As you read this I will be driving back from Abilene by myself (insert sympathy for me here). Laura will fly back on Monday so she can get back for school and I will stay in Abilene a couple of extra days. When I get back Luke will have already left for Harding (insert more sympathy here).
On the other hand, fall is a very exciting time around here. We are going to spend the entire month of September seeking the will of our Father. That will be fun. We will specifically seek his will in terms of our support of Ross and Heather Kellis in their work in Tanzania. That will also be fun. November 6 & 7 are the probable dates for Sharefest this year. Sharefest is one of my favorite things of the year. In October we will re-launch life groups and I am convinced, especially after praying in September, that this will be great. Several classes are planned for the coming year that I think will be very beneficial and interesting. Put that together with our plans to do a justice initiative once a month on Wednesdays and to meet together with the teens once a month on Wednesdays and I see the potential for a lot of fun. One of the classes that will begin in September is me teaching the book of Hebrews on Sunday mornings. I will be seeking the help of Rom particularly in certain sections of the book because of his grasp of the Old Testament. I love the book of Hebrews. It is a piece of art unlike the other books of the Bible. While I am doing that Mark Cox will be teaching an apologetics class to the teens. I hope you will take advantage of these classes. This fall we will also unveil something Allan Whitacre has been doing in conjunction with my series on the gospel of John. That is all I’m going to say about that – wait for it.
Summer is my favorite time of year but that doesn’t change the fact that I am excited about this fall. I think we are going to have a lot of fun seeing what God will do and how he will use us. I am especially thankful that we have each other to go through this with.
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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8-12-2009 "11-10"

Last night’s softball game was one of the best we have played in a long time. We were playing the team that has won the league several times so we knew we would have to play well to win. We scored six runs in the first two innings and were ahead 6-4 a lot of the game. The game goes seven innings so we were looking good until they scored three runs in the sixth inning to go ahead 7-6. We batted in the top of the seventh needing at least a run to extend the game. We had two out and the bases loaded when Lance Daniel came up to bat. He either gets a hit and extends the game or he pops out (not that he ever would) and the game is over. Lance comes through under pressure and drives in two runs. We end up scoring three more runs to go into the bottom of the seventh leading 11-7. The first two outs come easy but there are two men on base and they need one run to tie the game and go into extra innings or if they score two runs the game is over. Their big third baseman comes up to bat and everyone backs up hoping we can limit the damage. Corey is pitching and he throws ball one and two. You can hear some of the players wondering what Corey is doing. The final pitch Corey basically rolls toward the plate. What on earth? Has Corey completely lost it? This brings up one of their other hitters who grounds into a game ending out at second.
There are a lot of lessons that we learn about life while playing sports. One of these lessons is to give each other a break whenever we see mistakes. In sports no one does everything right all of the time. We all make mistakes as a part of normal life. Each time we play softball there are different guys that simply blow a play from time to time. It just happens. As we learn to get over it we need to carry that lesson over to life. I think this is what Paul meant in Ephesians 4 verse 2 when he said, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” A second lesson we learn is to trust one another. Corey is a good pitcher. I think he walked one batter all night and he struck one out so when he pitches weird for one batter maybe we should trust that he knows what he is doing. Even as I write this Corey may read this and say he did just lose it for a moment but I choose to believe he knew what he was doing. I don’t like the feeling of not being trusted – do you? Finally, I love the camaraderie of working together as a team and the feeling of winning. Last night there was a marked difference between the two teams as we walked to our cars. Every time we finish working at someone’s house or something like that I feel like our softball team leaving the field after a win. It is a good feeling.
Have a good week!
Allen L. Close

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8-5-2009 "Important Change Notice"

This Tuesday night the elders and staff met with Dan Nobles to talk about the direction of this congregation. Dan has helped us a lot in the past and we have asked him to continue helping us on a monthly basis. I also use the time to spend several hours with him allowing him to help me personally. I praise God for the way he provides us with so many talented people at this Church and so many different gifts that all contribute to a beautiful body of Christ.
At last night’s meeting we went over a very detailed plan of where we believe God is leading us as a congregation. As a group we have come up with a drawing that illustrates the changes we need to make and the direction for the future. It was the first time we had all looked at it together. Our discussion went for over two hours. We would like to present it to the congregation on August 30 during the morning gathering at 10:00. I will make the presentation much like I made the presentation the time I used all the boards up on the stage. I think the drawing is a further explanation of the earlier drawings. Dawn will then present her plans for the youth ministry that same day during lunch. Her plans mesh completely with the plans for the congregation as a whole. For the parents of the teens it will be a chance for them to see how the plans of the youth ministry grow out of what God is directing us all to do. If nothing else it should help all of us to realize that our youth are the Church of today.
How big of a change are we talking about for Lexington Church of Christ? In some ways it looks like a big change and in other ways it is just explaining what we are already doing. One of the areas that I think you are aware that change is coming is life groups. Like every fall there is some apprehension before we begin life groups to see what kinds of changes there will be to the groups this year. I have sensed that this is true this year maybe even more than usual. As I have been working closely with Karen, Dawn and Rick on this we have prayed about it and worked on it trying to understand what God wants. Last night we decided that the changes we are considering need to be prayed over by the entire congregation. Therefore, we would like to postpone the beginning of life groups from the first of September to the first of October. We want to spend the entire month of September seeking the will of God. We will have praise gathering to accommodate this for four Sundays in September. We will have times where you can discuss things with the elders. We will have evenings of prayer and worship. We will have times of commitment. I really hope that you will plan to be here on the 30th for the initial presentation if at all possible. I also hope you will join us for a month of intense searching for the will of our loving Father.
I left the meeting last night feeling very good. I feel good knowing that you are going to work with your leaders to find what God wants. I feel very secure in the thought that we are going to do this together. I have no doubts that God will bless us. Hallelujah!
Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

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