Tom Allen

I thought that title might get your attention.  Bill Hybels once said, "There are three topics I can preach on that I'm guaranteed will draw a crowd...Sex, End Times and will there be sex in the End Times?".  That little three-letter word packs a wallop.  It turns some heads, grabs some people's attention, makes a few really squeamish, but seldom has no response at all.  SEX gets your attention. The power of sex cannot be overstated.  Recently, I have been reading some statistics regarding sex and  our sexual activity in the U.S.  They are amazing, eye-opening and disgusting, all at the same time.  The Church points to culture, pointing a harsh finger, but there are a few fingers that need to be pointed back at the church.  By either our silence on the subject, or our party-line of "Just Don't Do It!", we are complicit with the magnitude of the mess. Someone once said, " Every bad thing is a good thing perverted".   That was never more true

Last week, we looked at some key mistakes that people make to sabotage our ability to have lasting, loving relationships, as well as some keys to make sure our present and future relationships have a chance to go the distance.  This week, we'll pick up where we left off.  But, this time we'll take it up a notch. This Sunday we'll look at what God has to say that may just be the most important key to not just falling in love, but staying in love for a lifetime.  I don't think I'm overstating it when I say, this could be life-changing.  If you want to have a marriage that lasts a lifetime, DO NOT MISS IT! See you Sunday!

I'm writing my blog a little later than usual.  However, what's later than usual may become the usual in the days to come.  I realized something...My writing time was cutting into my praying time.  My talking to you was taking precedence over my talking to God.  I didn't kill my prayer life, it just infringed upon it. I was reminded recently, of the important and the power and the absolute necessity of prayer.  I think most of us would agree with #1 and #2, but would, at best, give lip-service to #3...the absolute necessity of prayer.   Most would easily agree its important and powerful, but absolutely necessary ?  That's a bit of a stretch. What happens when we're faced with the dilemma of prayer or work, prayer or breakfast, prayer or sleep, prayer or productivity?  In most of those cases, prayer usually gets relegated back to the important and powerful, but not the absolutely necessary. Martin Luther once said, " I have so many things to do today, I mu

Do you ever have those "Eureka" moments in life?  Those times when the lightbulb goes on.  When you want to hit your forehead and go, "Why didn't I see that till now?"  Maybe for you they're "duh" moments.  Moments of sudden clarity, when something comes into focus...finally.  When you suddenly "Get it"! Eureka is an interesting word.  One of my favorites.  It comes from a Greek word that sounds a little like e-hu-rees-ko.... EUREKA!  It means, " to find".   Like, suddenly, out of the dark, possibly by total surprise, I find something.  Maybe something I've been looking for.  Maybe not.  Maybe something I thought I had found, only to discover I hadn't...but, now I have. I LOVE e ureka moments in life.  When out of the blue something crystalizes and becomes absolutely, unmistakably clear.  Sometimes, they can be a little scary.  I think to myself, what if I didn't have this moment.  What if the universe hadn't

We like to think of ourselves as a Christian nation, even though our President likes to go abroad and announce to the world that we aren't.  However, a recent study may lend credence to such a pronouncement. For years, Gallup polls have indicated that about 40% of the American populace attend a Christian Church on a regular basis.   A new study, done by the Director of Church Planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church indicates that on any given Sunday the percentage of Americans in a Christian Church is actually closer to 20%.  Taking into consideration population growth patterns and declining Church attendance trends, the study estimates that if projections continue on this track, that by 2050, only about 12% of Americans will attend a Christian Church on any given Sunday. Those statistics are sobering.  So, we ask the logical question, "Why?".  One answer may be helpful.  The oldest churches and denominations have shown the greatest decline.  In essence, they hav

In early March, I'm taking a vision trip to Haiti.  Our Missions Pastor and I will travel there for several days and see what Mission of Hope, Haiti is doing and if it's something God is calling us to join in.  One of the things you have to do before you travel to such an under-developed country as Haiti is acquire all the proper inoculations.  That's shots for the less literate. Interesting how most inoculations work.  They take the virus or bacteria that they want to protect you against...a small amount, sometimes live, sometimes dead...and shoot it into your bloodstream.  Then your body goes to work and your own immune system builds up the necessary antibodies to fight off what it's been tricked into thinking you have contracted.  Rather than the whole disease or the live disease, you get just enough to fool your body into thinking, "I've had this before, no problem".  Then when you're exposed to the real thing, your body just kind of goes, "

One of the ways our government is considering dealing with the financial hole we have dug for our selves into is to limit the tax deduction for our charitable donations.  If I thought this was being done to do something about our National Debt, I might, at least, have some sort of compulsion to try and understand.  But, it's not.  It's simply a means to raise revenues (that's the new code word for taxes) to fund the enormous programs that the administration outlined this week. Of all the things to stick a fork into, why would we choose the one good thing Americans do...give generously to charities.  Isn't that behavior we would want to reward , not punish?   In a recent article, it was summed up like this... Results of a recent national study conducted by Dunham and Company show that the American public are strongly against the proposed cap on charitable deductions. Sixty-one percent of Americans polled feel strongly against capping current tax reductions. Nine

Are you a project person?  I know guys who build boats in their backyards and airplanes in their garages.  I know women who always have a project going, whether its painting the Living Room a new shade of whatever, to making new curtains for the Bedroom to refinishing that piece of furniture that's was sitting by the side of the road. You can fill in your own story.  Some people thrive on projects.  Some people just married people who thrive on them, and thus, get sucked in.  Some people actually need them, or else they would never get anything done. My son was recently talking about a guy he knows and likes, but who is extremely antagonistic to organized religion, and thus, to Christ and His Church.  They've developed a friendship and enjoy spending time together, so rather than being turned off by his anti-Christian rants, or just changing the subject to save the friendship, he's made this guy his Project. He purposely spends time with him, listens to his objections

I watched the State of the Union Address from the President last night, as I commonly do.  There were many things I agreed with and many things I disagreed with...your typical Address.  But, of all the things that were said, one stood out to me more than any other. The President shared of the great accomplishment of trimming over $2 trillion off the nation's deficit.  Later in the same speech, he shared how in only a few month's the nation would be faced, once again, with exceeding its Debt Ceiling.  If compromises were not reached, automatic spending cuts would go into effect. OK, wait.  I'm not a numbers guy.  I'm more of a words guy.  But, I'm confused.  If, indeed, we have trimmed $2 trillion off of our National Debt, then why are we facing the impending catastrophe of automatic slashing of funding to programs due to exceeding our Debt Ceiling?  Which is it?  Did we cut and slash and save and put a dent in our deficit or  did we spend like there's no tom

Actually, the title should read, IT'S THAT WEEK!  GUYS: Consider this your warning.   VALENTINES DAY is this week.   Do with that information whatever you feel is appropriate.  But know, you've been warned. Now, listen carefully...this may save your life...even if your wife says Valentine's Day is stupid...Valentine's Day is a evil plan hatched by Hallmark & Florists of the world who have conspired to guilt you into purchasing their products...even if she says she hates red...even if she says, " Don't even think another thought about that stupid day", and you're sure you, unlike every other man, have found the perfect woman...HOLD YOUR PROVERBIAL HORSES! Do not fall for this.  Do not allow yourself to be sucked in.  Be " wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove", ( yes, Jesus was particularly talking about Valentine's Day when he uttered these words...little known fact, but true). Marriage is hard.  What makes it really hard is

LOOK BACK Debt is not a sin, but it is a form of SLAVERY.  Here's a little-known statistic that may curl your toes.  The AVERAGE AMERICAN spends $600,000 over a lifetime   in INTEREST.   $600,000...what could you do with an extra $600,000?  This is just in INTEREST.   Where does interest come from?  Debt.  No debt, no interest.  No debt...put an extra $600,000 in your pocket.  Not a bad payoff. What do you get for an interest payment?   NOTHING.   It's just like flushing $600,000 down the toilet. You get exactly the same benefit.  Think about it. LOOK FORWARD Sunday begins a brand new series... LOVE, SEX & HAPPILY EVER AFTER...   We'll be taking some really practical looks at what it takes to make relationships work.  Our culture is Relationally-Challenged.   Dating is tough, marriages don't work, and those that do aren't very satisfying.  But, God is a relational God and created us in His image to be relational people.  So...there's hope and help to b

     If you remember the story of Jericho, there's one key part to remember that sums up everything... and the walls came tumbling down.   OK, now think of that in reverse.  That's what's happening today...if the weather cooperates.   The walls are going up!         The big, bad crane is in place and ready to start pulling each panel that's been poured right on top of the foundation off and set them in place.  One by one, they'll be come together to miraculously create the form of a building.  Hopefully, by the end of the weekend, all the walls will be up and a big empty lot will take on the shape of a new Crosspoint Campus.      Pretty amazing!  Pretty exciting!  It's happening!

What you got going today?  Today they begin to erect the walls at our new campus.  By the end of the week, we'll see buildings standing where nothing was just a few days removed.  That's pretty big...but not the biggest deal of my day. The power is out at the Old Alvin Campus, so we must all work from home.  Big deal, but not that big. The big news today is that GRIFFIN WILSON ALLEN will make his debut performance on the world's stage.  For those without a scorecard, that's grandchild #6 for Tom & Susan.  We have now surpassed our basketball team and are moving in the direction of a baseball squad.  Then we'll start working on a football team, I suppose. I'm looking forward to meeting this young man, as are his parents and brothers (although, I think one is still in denial...reality will set in soon enough).  Ah, Mr. Griffin, you have no idea how blessed you are, how loved you are and how lucky you are to be born into such a wonderful family.  Your dad

I know, you thought that series was over.  Well, you're right.  The series is over.  But, the need for BALANCE is a never ending struggle.  Yesterday, I was cleaning out my Inbox. (Waaaaay too many emails.  I have a tendency to be an email hoarder.  You never know when you might need that!)  But, as usual, I digress.  In doing so, I found a very disturbing email from the Finance guy.  Here was its contents: 5% (27 families) account for 35% of total giving 10% (53 families) account for 54% of total giving  20% (107 families) account for 76% of total giving I don't know...does that sound like BALANCE to you?  It might if we were flush with a group of Millionaires.  Maybe we are, but I doubt it.  I've always heard about the 80/20 Rule.   20% of the people do 80% of the work.  20% of the people give 80% of the money.   It appears to be about right on the money ( pun intended). It might be a rule, but it's definitely not a standard of health. What does it sa

My grandson, Luke, got his foot caught in a hammock at a Super Bowl Party (1st Qtr., of course) and took a header, splitting open his chin... really good.    So, we spent the second half of the game with them at the Emergency Care Clinic..  They had to knock him out to sew him up. The hard part was not laughing as he was trying to wake up.  It was one of those times when you have to forbid yourself from pulling out the iPhone camera and putting it on video, because you're not sure what's going to happen next, but you're pretty sure it's either going to be really funny or totally embarrassing later.  However, I refused to succumb to the temptation.  It's only a memory to cherish (and share publicly at totally inappropriate times) in the future.  Till he threw-up, it was hilarious, though. All weekend, I've had this shooting pain between my shoulder blade and my spine.  As the weekend wore on, rather than getting better, it got worse.  It just spread around th

For the last three weeks, I've been talking about creating and maintaining BALANCE in our financial lives.  BALANCE is a tricky thing.  I've heard people talk about feelings of discomfort about giving and people talk about feelings of discomfort about spending.  While I believe that Jesus did, indeed, come to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, I really don't believe his main purpose was our discomfort about all things financial in our lives. This Sunday, we're going to wrap it all up in a ball and put a bow on it.  We'll look at a very simple plan that will make this easy and all make perfect sense.  Very easy, very simple, very understandable, very doable.  The only problem we may incur is doing it.  And the only thing holding us back would be, not a financial issue, but a heart issue.  Who's #1?  That's the question.  Who's #1?  And, the big problem...there can only be one #1. So, who's #1 with you?