The Gospel Of Thomas, Johnny Cash, and the Blues
Just got my lectureship brochure for the ACU Lectureship, which this year will be in the fall. September 17-20, 2006. Wow! Mark Love and Co. have done a great job. These lectureships really are incredible. I know Abilene has a hard time competing with some other places for “where-I’d-like-to-spend-a-couple-days-away” competition, but the fellowship will be lively and the world’s best bar-b-que places will be open!
I’m especially looking forward to having my friend Don McLaughlin come. He’s giving the theme speech on Tuesday night from John 17. But he’s also coming a bit early to preach at Highland (where two of his sons attend — which makes it a wee bit easier to convince him to come!) on Sunday the 17th. He’s also teaching a class called “Training for Warriors in the Peaceable Kingdom: Multicultural Churches As Salt and light.”
There is a Michael Card concert that Sunday at 2:00, prior to the first evening lecture. What a way to begin!
How about this:
Jeff Childers talking about “Deciphering the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas.”
Richard Beck discussing “Disgust, Death, Sex and the Gospel of Judas.”
A group of panelists talking about the challenges of faith and nation in a culture that leans toward national idolatry.
Darryl Tippens, Jackie Halstead, Bill Rankin, and Scott Hamm exploring the themes of Darryl’s new book, A Pilgrim Heart.
Another panel exploring “Churches of Christ and the Missional Church Movement.”
Evening vespers.
Evening coffee houses (like “The Man in Black: Music and message of Johnny Cash” or “The Gospel and the Blues”).
Need a lectureship brochure? You can go to this site to request one.
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Here’s just a reminder not to forget to read Larry James’s blog. Larry reflects in yesterday’s post about how different the health care experience is for his parents than it is for his friends in the part of the city where he lives and works.
Early last Thursday morning, I picked up my parents from their home and took them to the new Baylor Regional Hospital in Plano.
My dad was scheduled for an angiogram to determine exactly where blockage was located in the artery supplying blood and life to his left leg. Going into the procedure, the doctor hoped to be able to open the artery by means of angioplasty and/or a permanent stint.
My mom, who suffers from a non-cancerous blood disorder, needed a blood transfusion.
As it turned out, the hospital staff–an incredibly warm, accomplished and helpful team–arranged for the two of them to be in treatment rooms right across the hall from one another. That made my job much easier!
Both procedures went like clockwork.
My mother was all done by about 1:00 p.m. and feeling better. My father, complete with new stainless steel stint implanted successfully with blood flowing freely into his previously troubled leg, got into a room for an overnight stay around mid-afternoon.
All of this had been easily arranged in the week to ten days prior to their coming to the hospital. No long waiting period. Very little time for anxiety or worry or feeling poorly unnecessarily.
My dad had seen his heart surgeon who referred him over to the doctor who performed the flawless procedure. My mom had made her plans two days before following a routine visit to her blood specialist, a smart young doctor who is becoming her friend.
There had been no delays, no roadblocks, no question whatsoever about scheduling, cost, or whether or not their needs would be met in a most timely manner.
Both of my parents, now in their mid-80s, carry Medicare health insurance cards. Medicare is the national health plan provided by our government to persons past the age of retirement. An extremely efficient operation, Medicare works flawlessly for my folks. [Blogger's confession: Every time I hear someone bashing President Lyndon Johnson and his "War on Poverty," I can't help but think of Medicare--a program he delivered to America.]
As I waited for them in the really inviting environment of the new hospital, I couldn’t help but think of my friends who don’t enjoy such health benefits.
I thought of the long delays in arranging specialty treatment for the poor right here in Dallas. I thought of our overcrowded public hospital, a hospital doing amazing work, but stretched well beyond its limits.
I thought of the ease with which my parents have been able to find just the physicians they need when they need them, while my friends at the bottom of the economic pyramid struggle to find doctors because so many don’t work with Medicaid patients.
I also thought of the recent cutbacks in funding for the Medicaid insurance program designed for low-income persons.
Just thoughts while waiting for my parents.
Thoughts set alongside thoughts and memories of my friends in the city.
Should health care continue to be treated as a commodity to be consumed? Or, should a higher, nobler view of life inform our perspectives on what we provide and demand. . .for everyone?
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Many of our seniors recently made a trip to New Orleans to work in the recovery ministry there. It made us even more thankful for the amazing work of the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ. Steve Hare told me about how this church cut a hole in their brand, spankin’ new auditorium to make it easier to serve food to people who are there to work in this relief effort. That’s church at its finest, isn’t it?
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Take a couple minutes and listen to “Preaching to the Pocketbooks” from yesterday’s “All Things Considered” program.
AMEN to all of your news!
Robert Franklin’s commentary is exactly what I think everytime I flip through the cable channels and see the woman with the big white hair crying, Rod Sparsley sweating up a storm, or some of the other preachers wanting me to send in money to get a handkerchief. It is sad that many have a view of Christianity wearing a polyester suit with a neon sign.
Thank’s for a great blog!
Mike, thanks for the props here! Appreciate your thoughts and your leadership.
Don’t forget the debut gathering of the women of the Coffee Group! Laughter, Tears and Inspiration ofcourse! All right here at our own ACU. thecoffeegroup.net
I really liked the NPR piece, but want to know if you can provide a link to the guy who will pray for 12 months of no bad decisions if you send his church some money. I need to get in on that action.
The Tammany Oaks church housed about 400 of us at JINO (Jesus in New Orleans) this summer as we worked in that devasted community. They are a great church that is making a difference.
Your mention of Cash’s Gospel got me to thinking about a post I wrote on my own blog back in January. There’s a poignant scene in Walk the Line where Sam Phillips talks to Johnny, a Gospel singer at the time, about music that really saves people. It really struck a chord with me.
Here’s my blog posting about it.
http://manersthoughts.blogspot.com/2006/01/cashs-gospel.html
Tammany Oaks has shown all of us how a “church” building can be used. I spent six weeks in that general area doing disaster relief work with the Red Cross and Hilltop Relief and Rescue. To walk into that brand new buiding and see all the relief functions working out of it was amazing and honestly brought tears to my eyes.
Health Care Crisis for indigent populations, a battle that is raging all across America. Thanks for the peek at Larry James Blog.
I heard the Robert Franklin piece on the drive home yesterday . . . here’s another angle we ought to consider: Franklin took the time and effort to submit this to NPR and they played this expression of the gospel that I believe many hunger for while being put off and out by the version he critiqued in the piece.
I’m pleased to see people like Franklin out speaking a good and faithful word for Christ in arenas such as NPR.
Mike – and to you all –
There are no words eloquent enough to praise the works of God’s children at Tammany Oaks in all things, both pre and post Katrina. We’ve just moved a bit too far away for me to be “regular, full time” member any longer at Tammany Oaks, but I’m definitely still an “as often, as I can” member with close ties and on-going work on my part “for the Lord’s cause” there.
I’d encourage each and every one of you to travel down to Tammany Oaks or any of the other churches all along the gulf coast to participate in the ongoing effort in disaster relief, which is still so far away from being accomplished.
Life here in Katrina Zone will never be the same again, but hopefully, with God’s grace, providence and good will, along with the utmost efforts of His people from all across this vast land of ours, His will and might and love will be more evident than ever before and many will be brought into His fold and underneath the blessings of His arms for eternity.
I highly commend unto you all the works of the Saints in the Tammany Oaks Church of Christ in Mandeville, Lousiana.
Man in White, by Johnny Cash
An excellent novel of the life of Paul
Everyone who goes to the ACU Lectureship will be privileged to get a taste of what WE are fortunate to feast off of every week: a sermon by Don McLaughlin!!
So you got Fud and Bub at Highland… Don came to teach the LSU spring break college camp every year when I was in college (’88-’91). He had such an impact on me, and he shared so much of his family with us (Fud, Bub, Caleb and Amy!) that I felt like extended family…of course, when I met him at Jubilee years later, he didn’t know me from Adam (or Eve). Oh well… I still love running across any Mclaughlins and I’d love to be there to hear him again.
cash til payday
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