I spoke for the first time at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures in 1986. I’ve been there every single year since then. There is nothing else even close in my travel and speaking experience. Even the year I was in a fog of grief, I accepted Jerry Rushford’s offer to teach in Smothers.
What’s that about? Why have I kept going?
Great lectures and worship experiences 
Seafood
Close friends
Mountains
Insightful classes (where freedom to stretch is offered)
Ocean and seabreeze
Eager learners
Summary: friends, teaching (giving and receiving), and MALIBU
So now I’m gonna follow the most successful lectureship director in the history of the planet. (OK, in the history of the American Restoration Movement.) We all knew someone had to be foolish enough to try to follow Jerry. It might as well be me.
I said “yes” finally for these reasons: what the lectures have meant to me for a quarter of a century, my belief in Pepperdine, my love for my religious heritage, and my confidence in Andy Benton, the school’s president.
So now . . . as the clock ticks toward my official starting date (5/15/12) . . . HELP ME think about the future of the Pepperdine lectureship. If you’ve been, what do you like about it? What do you hope remains the same? What are some ways in which you hope it might evolve as time moves (and as churches and our culture change)?
Shoot me your best suggestions!!
It’s been a sleepless night, praying for my student, my four former students, and the other ACU students and faculty members who were in an accident yesterday as they headed on a ministry trip to Medina Children’s Home.
For us, it’s eerily familiar: one vehicle accident, rollover, people scattered beside the highway, one dead and others injured (with injuries ranging from minor to critical), families being alerted, hospitals filling, prayers being offered.
It was the same road that a couple hundred Highland people (including our son who’s been in the 2005 wreck) were traveling yesterday afternoon, heading to the Highland family retreat at the HEB encampment a Leakey, TX. He called saying that he was stuck in traffic on highway 83 with sirens all around and helicopters landing. It gave him a perspective on what many people observed while he lay injured in the ditch a few years back.
Please pray for the family of Anabel Reid, for those who are injured, and for the ACU community.
(Thanks to Hannah Vickers for this photo, taken from last night’s prayer vigil on the campus.)
Following is a piece from Ian Morgan Cron’s blog entitled “Believers in Exile. A New Christian Diaspora?” To read the rest of the article and the comments, go here:
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“Why’d you leave church?” I asked.
It’s a question I probably could have answered myself. I’ve heard the same story over and over from friends all around the US and Europe. I’ve heard it more in Nashville than just about anywhere else.
used with permission
“Our church became an echo chamber where the only voices or opinions we could hear were our own. People who questioned our brand of Christianity were considered suspect or dangerous. One day I went off the reservation and started reading books by thinkers I’d been told to watch out for. Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, and Stanley Hauerwas were some that blew me away.
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“One Sunday I walked out of church and never went back,” he said. “I want spiritual community, I just don’t think the church as it is right now is where I’m going to find it.”
Most of the people I meet who are leaving church aren’t young. They’re in their forties and fifties. After years of reading off the same theological script they began yearning for deeper, more open conversations about faith that included considering diverse perspectives and conversations that widened rather than narrowed their souls. Their churches were either threatened by these folks or unprepared for their emergence.
My friend shared other reasons why people are leaving. They were edgier.
“Some of us began meeting gay people in committed relationships, and we couldn’t square what we were taught about human sexuality at church, with who we knew our gay friends were in real life. Others had neighbors who were raised in other religious traditions who lived out the values of the kingdom more consistently than we did.
One day I asked myself, “Isn’t it strange to tell these people that Jesus wants us to love our enemies and forgive seventy times seventy, but then he sends people to hell for not receiving him as their Lord? I kept asking friends and pastors at church what they thought about this stuff because it troubled me, but no one really wanted to talk deeply. They just went right to the scripted answers.”
“So you left church because you had too many questions?” I asked.
“I left my church because it didn’t honor my questions. I got pegged as having gone rogue,” he said, swallowing the last of his coffee and glancing at his watch.
Traditions are funny things. Even though they help give us identity, we often don’t know how they caught on in the first place.
We’re about to head to my son’s house for spaghetti with my granddaughters. Why spaghetti, you ask?
It goes back to 1987. My sister and niece rushed over to join Matt, Megan, Diane, and me for a quick meal before we went Trick-or-Treating. (Trick-or-treating with Megan was a trick. And a treat.) Because it’s quick and easy, we had spaghetti. No other reason.
The next year we did the same thing. We were just about to throw burgers on the grill when Matt complained, “Where’s the spaghetti?”
“What do you mean?” we asked.
“It’s Halloween and we ALWAYS have spaghetti on Halloween.”
So we had spaghetti. Because it was Halloween.
This now marks our 25th year with the tradition.
Ok, so for one day I like cats!
OK, I’m kidding. I took those at a game at Wrigley. We were NOWHERE near that close to the field. But from the nosebleed section of left field, the following pictures actually were taken last night:
Wait until you see the huge Missouri flag that’s rolled out right before the national anthem at tomorrow night’s game!
Next Sunday will mark the end of a year of triathloning. I started the same weekend in 2010 with the Monster Triathlon in Keller, TX. This will make five sprint triathlons, one olympic tri, and one 70.3 (half ironman). I’ve loved it!
Perhaps the most memorable moment came last month in the half ironman in Branson. We swam our 1.2 mile in clear Table Rock Lake, then we biked 56 miles in the hills of the Ozarks. Just as I was in transition from cycling to running, the heavens opened up. I ran my half marathon in pouring rain—most of the time with lightning all around.
It was raining on us. But it was also raining on the spectators, including my parents.
Three times we looped around, and each time they were standing there in the pouring rain to cheer me on. (This is saying something since it took me 7.5 hours to finish!)
This was no easy feat for my dad. A strong athlete for most of his life, Parkinson’s has stripped much of his mobility, balance, and ability to show emotion.
But each time I came by in the pouring rain, he—this man who ran the Boston Marathon five times in the 1980s—was standing there waiting (as was Mom).
My last time by I still had about 45 minutes left. I was gassed. On the two previous loops, I had talked to them as I went by. But this time I could hardly push extra breath out. Dad saw me and said, “Bring it home, son.”
I’ll never forget those words. I will indeed seek to bring it home.
I’m excited to have Mark Moore and the Manabago gang coming to Abilene as part of their cross-country tour.
I first got close to Mark when I was preaching at the College Church in Searcy and he was a Harding student. We stayed close through his family’s eight years in Uganda. And since then I’ve enjoyed following his career as an advocate for Africa in DC and now as the CEO and founder of MANA (Mother Administered Nutritive Aid). (I have a close friend who has said several times that if he ever wins the lotto he wants to use the money just to fund all the kingdom dreams that Mark Moore has!)
Some talk about feeding the world. Mark and the Mana folks have a plan.
Peanut butter.
Yep, you can read Mark’s editorial in the Huffington Post about it here.
How do you get word out about this amazing idea? Well, rent a 1971 Winnebago, dub it the “Manabago,” and take off to college campuses (and other places, including the famous Lanier Christmas Party in Houston), of course.
Can’t wait for Mark to speak to my class on Monday morning. If you’re in Abilene, watch for the Manabago and come visit!
I was there in St. Louis in 1964. (I’ve written before on this blog about my dirty secret: I cheered for the Yankees. 
My only defense: I was eight years old and Mickey Mantle was one of my two baseball heroes [along with Willie Mays]). For many people 1964 was the year of the Beatles. For me, it was the year of Mickey Mantle, Roger Marris, and Bob Gibson.
I was there again in 1967. And 1968. And 1982. And 1985.
There were certain privileges to being in a newspaper family. Scoring World Series tickets was among them!
But this is my fantasy World Series. My favorite AL team (Texas Rangers) vs. my favorite NL team (St. Louis Cardinals). Many have asked me who I’m rooting for, and I can’t really decide. Maybe I’m leaning more into the Rangers because they’re our home team. But if they win, I hope it’s despite an amazing performance by Albert Pujols, the best player in baseball (go ahead: Google the words “best player in baseball” and see what comes up!) and one of the best players in the game’s history.
And yes, I’d love to go to a game with my sons. We’re keeping an eye on stub hub!
[10/21/11 update: tickets scored! Nosebleed section, but still in the ballpark.]
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Here’s a chance to bid on two tickets from Touch-a-Life:
People have been wondering who’d be crazy enough to try to follow Jerry Rushford? They should have thought back: who was crazy enough to follow Jim Woodroof and Lynn Anderson?
Here’s the article and interview from the Christian Chronicle. (Thanks so much, Bobby!) Let me just say: it is a joy and pleasure to work with President Andy Benton, Rick Gibson, Joella Michael, Tami Williamson, and all the people at Pepperdine.
http://www.christianchronicle.org/blog/2011/10/the-new-jerry-rushford-mike-cope-to-direct-pepperdine-bible-lectures/
