Archive for August, 2005

A Reporter With Heart

Published
by
Mike
on August 31, 2005
in General
. 27 Comments

I have seen one reporter whom I really loved during the coverage of this tragedy.

It isn’t the anchors from one network (that I’ve been told about) who keep complaining that we haven’t heard from other countries. Grow up and deal with the tragedy. We’re the wealthiest nation in the world. We can probably do without Sri Lanka’s aid. The question is HOW — not IS THERE ENOUGH MONEY?

It isn’t all the “on-the-spot” reporters who somehow became the story in their own coverage. It’s like a competition to see who can stay outside the longest. Anchors back home keep describing them as courageous. Please. Just get out of the wind if you don’t have to be there. Quit telling us that lots of stuff is falling apart. It’s a hurricane. That’s what happens.

The one reporter I’ve liked the most is the young woman who was interviewing a man who lost his wife. He turned loose of her when she demanded that he save their children and grandchildren. The young news reporter began crying and wiping tears. She lost her objectivity. She was caught up into the tragedy. Now THAT is a person I want to hear more from!

Thanks for your comments about places to send aid. So much needs to be done. But we’re all baffled. It’s so bad that no one knows how to get help there right now — with all the flooding, bridges out, etc. But the time will come. And we need to be prepared to jump in.

Our prayers are with all the churches in the area — not just because they’ve been impacted but also because God will use them courageously to minister in the name of Christ in the coming weeks and months. We’re going to count on them to let us know when and where we can help.

As you continue learning of relief opportunities that you trust, please leave comments here.

Harding Made the Right Call

Published
by
Mike
on August 30, 2005
in General
. 22 Comments

My alma mater, which I deeply love, has re-evaluated its decision to invite Ann Coulter to speak on campus. She is being replaced by Jose Maria Aznar, the former president of Spain.

I would like to thank all of you who took time to respectfully express your opinions to Harding board members and/or to the Harding administration. Most of you who did so had the same reason I did: not because Ann Coulter is conservative but because her words are divisive and damaging to public discourse in this country.

I would also like to thank those board members who spoke out and those administrators who made this tough–though very appropriate–decision.

Katrina Devastation

Published
by
Mike
on August 30, 2005
in General
. 9 Comments

These are places we love — places we’ve passed through every year in the summer since the late eighties: New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, etc. Pensacola Beach has been an annual vacation spot for us, at least until this year when it’s still recovering from Hurricane Ivan. Who knows how much devastation will be revealed in these areas throughout this day?

Dee, who comments regularly on this blog, is writing about the impact of the hurricane. Dee, please keep us informed “from the inside.”

If you know of legitimate relief efforts (in addition, of course, to the Red Cross), would you please post a website in the comments section?

The Drew Bledsoe Mistake

Published
by
Mike
on August 29, 2005
in Highland
. 15 Comments

Yesterday at Highland we announced that Dr. Jerry Taylor is joining the Highland staff part-time as the associate preaching minister. What a blessing to us! Jerry is one of the very best preachers you’ll hear in your lifetime.

Folks at Highland heard me tell this yesterday. When I received the good news that Jerry was going to accept the offer, I e-mailed my buddy Rick Atchley to tell him (knowing that Rick feels the same way I do about Jerry and his preaching). He responded immediately that it reminded him of how excited Drew Bledsoe was when he learned that Tom Brady was joining the Patriots. Moral of the story: beware when the back-up is better than the starter!

Oh, well, it’s a situation I’ve learned to get used to since coming to Highland. (Other regular fill-ins who are Highland members include Jack Reese, Randy Harris, Mark Love, and Steve Weathers!)

Jerry is a much-loved Bible professor at ACU. For the past couple years, he has also been the preaching minister at the great 10th and Treadaway church, but he decided that he didn’t have the time to continue in that capacity.

We’re going to be blessed under his preaching ministry. He’ll preach most of the Sundays I’m gone (beginning October 9 during the Zoe conference) and several Wednesday nights.

Happy 50th!

Published
by
Mike
on August 28, 2005
in family and marriage
. 10 Comments

Today is my parents’ fiftieth anniversary. (I’ve been around for all but eleven months of it!) Congratulations, Mom and Dad.

They decided a couple years ago that they didn’t want a big reception. Instead they wanted to take their kids and sons/daughters-in-law on an Alaskan cruise. We cashed in on that decision in June with a wonderful trip.

New Wineskins Reconciliation Meeting

Published
by
Mike
on August 27, 2005
in justice
. 4 Comments

Last night I got to attend the New Wineskins Reconciliation Meeting in Ft. Worth. Jerry Taylor and Ken Greene, two of the best preachers I’ve ever heard in my life, began the conference by challenging the ministers to yield to the movement of God in their lives.

A predominantly African-American group, this was a hard-praying, joy-singing bunch. I hardly know most of these brothers, but I was struck by their faith and their courage. Can’t wait to get to know them better.

- - - -

A note to Highland folks: I want to beg you to pray for Klint and Rachel Pleasant. They left Highland and Abilene recently to move back to Rochester College. (Most of you know that Klint was ACU’s men’s basketball coach.) You can read his blog entry called “My Wife Is Sick” at www.klintpleasant.blogspot.com.

Dear Megan

Published
by
Mike
on August 25, 2005
in Megan and family
. 54 Comments

My Dear Megan,

Tomorrow you would have been 21. Every year since your death we’ve continued to have a birthday cake on August 26 and to tell “Megan stories.”

Last week when I was looking for your old percussor, Mom said, “It may be in Megan’s toy box.” Without thinking, I began digging through the box, and then it overwhelmed me. I was immersed in you: your shoes, a couple of your favorite blouses, the stuffed cat you loved, etc. I could smell you, hear you, even feel you there.

All that to say that I’ve never stopped missing you. It’s been ten years and nine months; but in grief-years it’s been so much less in some ways and so much more in other ways.

You rocked my world, my precious daughter. You didn’t enter this world with a bright intellect like your brothers did. You were, we eventually learned, “mentally handicapped.”

Big deal. There were so many other ways in which you were so precocious: in love, in forgiveness, and in joy. The only full sentence I ever heard you say in ten years was “I’m Megan”–and yet you became my minister who led me further along the way of Christ. Without even intending to, you exposed the shallowness of this world–a world obsessed with externals.

You were a jar of clay.

It’s hard to picture you at age 21. You have remained ten in our minds.

Since you died, life has in some ways been easier. You never wasted much of your short time sleeping! Easier . . . yet sadder. We would gladly go without sleep to be able to hold you and sing with you. (”I may never march in the infantry . . .”; “This is a song that doesn’t end . . . .”; “Jesus loves me . . . .”)

We would have loved seeing your joy at Matt and Jenna’s wedding. (You never got to meet her, but I think she would be your best friend.) And I imagined you there in ICU patting Christopher’s broken and bruised body after the wreck.

Your simple faith still guides us. Your love overwhelms and empowers us.

Soon and very soon, my dear . . . .

Love, Dad

Diet DP: My Addiction of Choice

Published
by
Mike
on August 23, 2005
in food
. 34 Comments

No offense to my NY friends, but would someone please stop the Yankees? They have underperformed this year (considering they have the best team money can buy), but that doesn’t mean they won’t wake up from their coma and win the World Series if they make the playoffs. Keep the Evil Empire out of the postseason.

- - - -

Tiger won’t break Nicklaus’s majors record (18). You read it here. Are you out there, Boone? Am I right? (By the way, heard you did great with the Senior PGA for the Golf Channel last weekend.)

- - - -

We made a trip to the emergency room last night to have Chris’s ankle x-rayed. The doctor said, “Well, whatever’s wrong, he looks better than the last time I saw him.” That was January 16, before he was put on a place to fly to Cook’s.

This morning we helped him forget about his ankle pain by having four teeth extracted.

- - - -

ACU pays me to teach 18- and 19-year-old students about Jesus. Go figure.

- - - -

I don’t understand the popularity of Hummers.

- - - -

Guacamole is my food addiction; Diet Dr. Pepper is my drink addiction. If Jesus were alive today, he’d turn the water to Diet DP. Especially after he read all the stuff on how it wasn’t really wine, anyway. On a normal day, I can get by on one can. If I put down a second can, you can tell the stress level is high.

(NOTE: Jesus is very much alive today. I mean, “If he were still here in the flesh like he was in the gospels.”)

Open Letter to Harding Faculty and Staff

Published
by
Mike
on August 23, 2005
in General and scripture
. 50 Comments

An Open Letter to Harding Faculty and Staff:

Two or three years ago, a Harding board member attacked me at a Harding faculty/staff presession. Several of you called or e-mailed to tell me. Thanks.

I immediately called this board member. To say he was a bit surprised when I said, “Hello, this is Mike Cope” is an understatement. We had never talked before. It’s funny, really, because I’m not that hard to reach. My phone number and the Highland Church number are both listed. But rather than call me ahead of time to make sure he was right, he just went on the attack.

I told him that he was, of course, wrong. He had said that I don’t believe in baptism any longer. I read to him the part about baptism in our church’s “Foundations of Faith” statement. He said that that sounded good to him but I couldn’t believe that because I believe there are Christians who don’t understand scripture the same way.

Ah. It’s tough to live with that paradox: a high view of baptism and a belief that God has other followers who don’t interpret the passages the same way. But the best of our tradition has always had that perspective. “Christians only, but not the only Christians.” Christianity isn’t about following us and our interpretation of scripture; it’s about following Jesus. Just because they don’t fall in line with us doesn’t mean they aren’t followers of his.

It’s what I was taught at Harding and Harding Grad.

Of course, no apology came. That’s fine. I’ve never met him before and probably won’t in the future.

But it bothered me that something false had been stated in front of you–especially since I’m an alumnus of the university and the graduate school. And since I preached for seven years at the College Church and care deeply about you and the school.

So I wrote the board and the administration, asking for a chance to reply. After all, the public statement about me was made before all of you. I just asked for an opportunity to correct the misinformation.

I got a letter from the man who was the chairman of the board at the time. This is an incredible guy; I’ve known him for a long time and have always liked him. But he said that it would be inappropriate for me to respond because this board member had spoken for himself and not for the board. But someone either invited him or approved his request to speak!

Eventually I got a letter from an administrator, telling me that I should be grateful for men like this board member because he’s given generously through the years and that money helped pay for my scholarship while I was a student at the graduate school.

All right. So I can’t come tell you the truth. But here it is. I have a higher view of baptism than I’ve ever had. Read the statement on Highland’s site. Or check out what Jeff Childers wrote about baptism in UNVEILING GLORY (an incredible book all the way through). That’s what I believe.

But does someone have to agree with me on all the particulars of baptism in order to follow Jesus? No. For too long, we’ve thought of our salvation depending on getting everything right. But there are devoted Christ-followers who disagree on lots of important things.

I appreciate so much what you’re doing. My frustrations with my alma mater have nothing to do with your selfless service. Most of you are working for less than you could make at a state university. And you profs are teaching greater course loads (like they do at most other Christian universities) because you believe in the mission of equipping students for the service of Christ. I love knowing that a large number of students come out of Harding excited about mission work–whether that is mission work in Africa or mission work that is around them as they work in Memphis.

My frustrations with my alma mater right now — for example knowing that Ann Coulter can come speak while Jeff Walling (and many others) can’t — are not with you but with the administration. Thanks so much for your selfless work of ministry.

Bilbo-like Heroes

Published
by
Mike
on August 22, 2005
in faith and grief
. 14 Comments

John Kennedy was asked by a little boy how he became a war hero. He replied, “It was absolutely involuntary. They sank my boat.”

Most of my heroes of faith are people of character who have weathered grief and suffering with honesty and faith. Not “God-can’t-wait-to-bless-you” faith. But the deep, rugged variety. The kind that knows what it’s like to hang on by a thread.

I guess they didn’t seek out to be courageous believers. They’re like Bilbo: the ring came to him. Then he had to choose whether to carry out his assignment.

Kerri Lane, who gave her testimony Wednesday night, is one of my heroes. The words she spoke to us Wednesday night in the midst of her battle with melanoma are among the most faith-full we’ll ever hear. On behalf of her two precious little girls (who make me glad to be a minister), I ask you to beg for God’s against-all-medical-odds healing.