New Look...

This is Holly here and I have hacked into Collin's blog in order to give it a fancy little facelift :D. Since he is out of town, I needed something to keep me busy!! So this occupied me for a few hours at least.

I hope you like the new look babe...We miss you and can't wait for you to get home!! Love ya lots!! :D - Hols

Maddox: Risk-Taking

It seems that more and more the greatest Christian virtue has become balance, which seems completely opposite of Scripture's story. Somehow we've been led to believe that good Christians are those whose life produces the least amount of risk possible.

One look at the life of Scripture's heroes shows something completely different. Abraham? Moses? Deborah? Elijah? The Prophets? John the Baptist? Mary? Peter? Paul? Jesus? I don't think so.

These are men and women of outrageous dedication whose lives looked completely out of balance. The world tries to form us into the same mold as everyone else, but the Sermon on the Mount beckons us to buck that trend.

Blessed are the poor in Spirit? Blessed are those who mourn? Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness? Don't be angry with anyone? Love your enemies? Pray for those who persecute you? Don't worry?

We're not called to be calibrated to the world's directional compass? We're called to be calibrated to the life of Jesus Christ, which puts us way off balance.

Maddox, may God bless you with an imbalanced life that looks like Jesus Christ. Along the way, you might want to take a risk for the kingdom of God. You might want to start an inner-city ministry or become a part of a Christian peacekeeping team in the midst of city torn apart by war. When you have those dreams, don't let your mother and I stand in the way of them. We might want you to stay safe, but don’t let our desire for your safety get in the way of God’s kingdom dream for you. I give you permission to defy us if we are standing in the way of you living out your kingdom vocation.

Should you choose to live this kind of imbalanced life, the world will look at you like you're crazy. However, few balanced people have ever changed the world. Be a risk taker for the kingdom of God. Perhaps nothing else will wake up Americans from our spiritual slumber than your risky life of discipleship!

Maddox: Heritage

I'm going to sound like an old man, but here it goes:

Tradition and Heritage, Maddox. Two words that you must learn to appreciate (Am I really 25?). Many children grow up unappreciative of the heritage they have been born into.

Maddox, should you choose to accept this mission, by my calculations you are a tenth generation member of the Restoration Movement. One of your long lost ancestors, Collin McKinney, was baptized by Barton W. Stone and helped to start some of the first Restoration Movement churches in north Texas. While we did not give you the honorable and distinctive name "Collin," this is your heritage.

Much like me, you have been born on third base, Maddox. Many children in the world do not grow up with grandparents and parents who all love the Lord, but you will. You will actually be born into a home with parents who have taken a combined 9 semesters of Greek and 2 semesters of Hebrew. (While your mom is not a nerd, I am open enough to admit that your father is.) While your mom and dad will not be perfect examples of Christ to you, we are committed to doing the best we can. You won't have to hit a homerun all by yourself and round all of the bases. You've been born on third base. You just have to find your way home.

I've grown up in the same situation. I was blessed to be born on third base. The walk home wasn't always easy, but it was a huge blessing to have parents, grandparents, and ancestors who paved the way for me to Jesus Christ. At times I took for granted my Christian heritage, but I encourage you to appreciate it. Even though being a preacher's kid isn't always the most fun, you will have advantages other kids won't have.

At this point, you don't know anything about Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, Walter Scott, David Lipscomb, or T.B. Larimore. You don't understand the vision it took for your great-great grandfather, Robert S. Bell, to start the Bell Trust, which gives Churches of Christ a chance to do mission work across the world. You don't know the names Prentice Meador, Rick Atchley, Mike Cope, Rubel Shelly, Chris Seidman, Josh Graves, or Josh Ross, but these are men who have paved the way for what will come next in Churches of Christ and the Restoration Movement.

It's easy to be critical of things. Anyone one can tear down a wall. But there are few who can build a new one. I pray that you will be grateful for your heritage. Not grateful in a naive way so that you won't be able to improve things in the future, but grateful so that you can help the church become more faithful to our changing context in the future.

And ultimately, please know that I'm not most concerned about you giving your life to a specific church or movement. I'm most concerned that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ in the most extreme way. Never forget that!

Maddox: 2009

Maddox, you've been born into the world at a fascinating time. In 2009:

-America swore in its first African American President and Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
-America struggles with a recession that only falls short of the Great Depression in our history
-In my estimation, 2009 has not been a great sports year thus far:
-Golf (Major winners Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover & Stewart Cink)
-Texas Longhorns were robbed of a chance to play in the National Championship football game
-But things are looking up for the Cowboys because Tony Romo broke up with Jessica Simpson
-It's a long shot, but a Rangers-Rockies World Series could happen
-And we're on the brink of football season! (Maddox saw ACU for the first time last night)
-Coldplay continues to dominate the music charts.
-Television continues to put out better material than movies with shows involving lost a bunch of lost people and employees who can never seem to get work done in an office.
-Conan O'Brien took over for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show
-Several important people have died this year:
-John Updike
-Paul Harvey
-Walter Kronkite
-Michael Jackson

Maddox, you will grow up in a world where you are able to get to know your grandparents, aunts, and uncles over webcam instead of just hearing their voices over the phone.

However, many Christians are not very excited about the future of Christianity in America. Several articles have come out this year projecting the decline of Christianity, but this is only bad news for those of us who have a stake in the power of Christendom.

The truth is the kingdom of God is multiplying in many places throughout our world. The decline is only true of white Christianity. There was a time when Europe was the center of Christianity, but all that's left now are a few followers of Jesus and many empty cathedrals. And if I'm honest with you, I think we are entering a similar time in our nation.

But the exciting thing is that God is bringing incredible growth to his kingdom in other places. Christianity is exploding in South America, Africa, and China. Our God is a God of surprises and he is doing some surprising things across the globe. We're finding out that his mission doesn't depend on the West quite like we thought it did for the last millennium.

By the time you turn 25, there might be less than 50 million Christians in America. I tell you this not to scare you about the future, but to let you know that your generation will be crucial to the future of Christianity here. And God wants to recruit you to be his missionary to the United States for such a time as this. Like the first century, you will likely be persecuted for your beliefs. But God always grows his kingdom in times of persecution. He grows his church at the margins. You can be the next Moses or Joshua here. You can be the next Peter or Paul. God has great things planned for you, my son!

Maddox Austin Packer

I've been waiting to post about the birth of our son because I had an idea about a post I wanted to do for Maddox. But in typical Blogger Collin fashion I've procrastinated and come up with a better idea to hide my procrastination.

Instead of my original brilliant idea, I'm going to write an even more brilliant series of blog posts in the coming weeks in honor of my dear son. These posts are intended to orient him to this broken world and to prompt him toward God's healing kingdom that continues to blossom. While he might not be able to read these posts yet (he's pretty smart so we'll see), I hope these will be posts he can refer back to when he grows up.

I will preach an abbreviated series at Littleton in the next two weeks that will cover some of the content in these blog posts entitled "Finding God in the Delivery Room." My first sermon will focus on the the things the church can learn from our hospital experience. The second sermon will be a sermon directed to Maddox prompting him toward a radical kingdom lifestyle. That sermon will often be very helpful for Littleton to overhear as we seek to become a church that lives as salt and light in our culture. It should be good stuff!

So, let me end post one in the series with the stats. Maddox Austin Packer was born Monday, June 29th at 7:59 PM. He was 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.

But more than that he's the perfect gift of God that has been given to us for a time. Father, Holly and I commit to raising him in a Christian home. And we long for the day when we will hear the confession "Jesus is Lord" in the baptistry with him. Thank you for this gift!

Perceptions

I am currently in the middle of six week series entitled "Perceptions." In this series, I've tackled the top six perceptions 16-29 year old outsiders have of Christianity. The research behind this series has come primarily from the book unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity. The Barna Group has put out this research and I believe the church must consider these findings.

What are the top perceptions?
1) Christians are hypocritical.
2) Christians are only out to convert people.
3) Christians are antihomosexual.
4) Christians are sheltered.
5) Christians are too political.
6) Christians are judgmental.

It's easy to get defensive about these perceptions, but for the people we're trying to reach, perception is reality. It's been a great series so far! The church has certainly responded well to these difficult subjects.

We'll see how it goes this week. I'm preaching on perception #5 (too political), which might be a bit controversial. But if we can't talk about these things at church, where can we talk about them? I believe our people want to have these conversations. And so far, Littleton has confirmed my hypothesis.

What do you think about these perceptions? Are they fair? And what other perceptions aren't named in this list?

Tribute to Prentice Meador

Prentice Meador was one of the most influential mentors in my life. My first preaching internship was under Prentice in the summer of 2003. Prentice not only showed me how to preach well, he tutored me in the way of Christ. And he was the first person to tell me that I had what it took to be a preacher. His encouragement and advice marked the path that I am still continuing down. And many people don't know that he is one of the biggest reasons I ended up at the Littleton Church of Christ.

Prentice passed away last year unexpectedly on November 21st at 70 years old. His unexpected passing was felt by so many people throughout the world. I was grateful to be able to express my appreciation to him during the Lipscomb Conference on Preaching last October. While many miss him, we are grateful for his life and the impact he had on so many of us.

I am excited to announce that, under the vision and leadership of Bob Chisholm (Prentice's long time friend and co-worker), there is going to be an upcoming book of sermons on the Psalms produced in tribute to Prentice. Psalms was one of Prentice's favorite books and he taught his last college class on the Psalms as well.

The book, currently untitled, will be published by Leafwood and released in October at the Lipscomb Conference on Preaching. The proceeds from this rich resource will go to fund a Christian scholarship in Prentice's name at Lipscomb University. Bob Chisholm and Dave Bland will write an introduction to the book and Randy Lowry, the President of Lipscomb, will write the forward.

Here is a list of preachers who will have sermons in the book:

Lynn Anderson – Psalm 23
Rick Atchley – Psalm 103
Bob Chisholm – Psalm 115
Mike Cope – Psalm 137
Jennings Davis – Psalm 112
Ken Durham – Psalm 126
Harold Hazelip – Psalm 90
Gary Holloway – Psalm 142
Tom Jones – Psalm 51
Jim Martin – Psalm 73
Royce Money – Psalm 71
Collin Packer – Psalm 32
Jack Reese – Psalm 89
David Rubio – Psalm 13
Scott Sager – Psalm 22
Landon Saunders – Psalm 27
Chris Seidman – Psalm 63
Tim Spivey – Psalm 122
John York – Psalm 34

I am so honored to be a part of this project. It will be a great resource for preachers and a great tribute to the legacy of Prentice Meador.