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Highland Church of Christ

The Ministry of Giving (Luke 8:1-3) Chris Altrock – 7/22/18

As a preadolescent, I had very few experience in church. One of those rare experiences stands out. I remember attending church services one time with friends of my family. We were visiting them at their home in another city. They were church goers, so we went to church with them on the Sunday we were at their home. They had a son who was about the same age as me and my twin brother. He acted as a kind of guide, providing running commentary during the worship service, so we’d know what to do.

When it came time for the contribution, he was particularly helpful. I’d never experienced the contribution before, and I didn’t know what to do. My parents hadn’t adequately prepared us. They hadn’t provided Craig and I any coins or bills to put in the wicker baskets that were now making their way down the pews, marching inevitably toward us. And everyone else, it seemed, was putting something in the baskets. No one, it seemed, was just passing the basket to the person next to them without dropping something into the basket. This was long before the days of electronic giving when someone might be assumed to have arranged his or her giving through direct deposit. Everyone in this congregation was dropping coins or bills into these baskets. And I was feeling an increasing amount of pressure to do something when the basket came to me, to drop something in it. But I had nothing to put in it! Not a penny. Not a crayon. Not even a piece of paper on which I could scratch out to God an “I. O. U.” And those baskets were getting closer. My heart was racing. Sweat droplets were forming on my brow. What was I going to do?Read More »The Ministry of Giving (Luke 8:1-3) Chris Altrock – 7/22/18

The True You: Glory (Rom. 3:21-26) Chris Altrock – 7/8/18

This entry is part [part not set] of 7 in the series The True You

In June of this year Chadwick Boseman won the MTV Movie Award for Best Hero. You may not know about the MTV Movie Awards. You may not know who Chadwick Boseman is. He plays the Black Panther. His first movie as the Black Panther was phenomenally successful.  It is one of just over 30 movies to pull in over $1 billion.

The interesting thing is that when Boseman was given this award, he was grateful for it, but he immediately gave it away to someone else. In the audience that night was James Shaw Jr. Shaw had been in a Waffle House restaurant in Antioch, TN when a man shot four people dead. Shaw risked his life to stop the man from shooting more. Boseman invited Shaw to the stage at the MTV Movie Awards and gave the Best Hero award to him. He said, “It’s one thing to play a hero in a movie. It’s another to be a hero in real life.”

Read More »The True You: Glory (Rom. 3:21-26) Chris Altrock – 7/8/18

The True You: The King (Gen 49:10, 2 Sam 7:12-13 & Matt. 6:33) Chris Altrock – 6/3/18

This entry is part [part not set] of 7 in the series The True You

Life-Changing Decisions

I turned 50 in March of this year. I received the requisite birthday cards from family and friends making wisecracks about my age. And, unfortunately, I also received the requisite order from my doctor to get a colonoscopy.

The morning of that appointment Kendra and I drove to the office on Wolf River boulevard. After a short time in the waiting room, I was called to the procedure room. There an attendant asked me to sit down while she asked at least fifty health questions. I had already answered at least fifty questions on an online questionnaire before the appointment. But either I’d failed that questionaire or they were just really, really interested in my health.

When the attendant was done with her list of questions, she took out a form for me to sign. By signing the form, she said, I was making a commitment to several things. One of those commitments was put in these words:

“I will make no life-changing decisions today.”

Because I’d be going under anesthesia, and anesthesia can affect people in significant ways, they didn’t want any of their patients making life-changing decisions.Read More »The True You: The King (Gen 49:10, 2 Sam 7:12-13 & Matt. 6:33) Chris Altrock – 6/3/18

The True You: Abraham (Gen. 12:2-3) Chris Altrock – 5/20/18

This entry is part [part not set] of 7 in the series The True You

Little Library

            A couple of years ago a few of us from Highland visited Hangzhou, China. It was one of the cities we had identified as a potential site for a new mission work. We wanted to get to know the city and meet some of the local Christians in the house churches.

One evening we worshiped in a house church. Like so many of the informal gatherings of Christians in China, this one met in a small apartment. There were about twenty of us that night. Most were from Hangzhou. One was from Singapore. A few were from another country–American missionaries traveling through Hangzhou.

I remember seeing a small bookshelf in the apartment filled with Christian books. Before the worship service started, I thumbed through the books. These were this church’s church library, their resource room. It consisted of twenty or thirty books. These were the written materials forming their minds and hearts spiritually.

I was saddened by what I found.Read More »The True You: Abraham (Gen. 12:2-3) Chris Altrock – 5/20/18