MIDLAND Allan Stanglin doesn’t regret spending 15 years in sports radio before making his transition to the ministry because it was good preparation.
Minister of Golf Course Road Church of Christ for 2 1/2 years, Stanglin had hit it big in the radio business as sports director at KRLD in Dallas, which controlled the Texas Rangers’ broadcast rights and covered the Dallas Cowboys’ home games.
“I learned how to write and it prepared me for being in front of a crowd,” he said. “Working in the news, you have to do your homework and make sure your facts are straight.
“I like to concentrate not so much on what we’re doing but on what God is doing. I remind people that we were saved to be partners with him.
“There is forgiving and reconciling to be done and there are barriers to be broken down.”
Stanglin took a degree in mass media at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond and later graduated from the Austin Graduate School of Theology in Austin and he came to Midland after 10 years at Central Church of Christ in Amarillo. He and his wife Carrie-Anne have three children.
Stanglin’s 3500 W. Golf Course Road church averages 500 people at its 10:15 a.m. Sunday services.
For the New Year, it’s emphasizing support of the Family Promise program to provide food and shelter and help families in transition and it is asking its members to volunteer for two hours each month in that and other forms of service.
Stanglin’s favorite scripture is John 16:33 where Jesus’ last words to his disciples before he was crucified were, “I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
“We should have a sense of astonishment and amazement that our sins have been forgiven,” Stanglin said. “It’s a miracle.
“We don’t have to fight anything and we don’t have to win anything. It has been taken care of. I like the assurance of that.”
Downtown Church of Christ Minister Greg Fleming, whose Midland church started Golf Course Road in 1963, said Stanglin “is a man in keeping with Jesus’ command in Luke 10:27 to love God and your neighbor.
“I see that play out in Allan’s ministry in his connections with other ministers in our community and his readiness to share the good news of Jesus in word and action with everyone he meets,” Fleming said. “We had a friend in common, Kim Scott, whom I first met when we were students at Lubbock Christian University and who was a member of the congregation that Allan ministered in Amarillo.
“When Kim passed away last year, Allan’s words at his funeral service blessed me greatly. It is my pleasure and privilege to count him as a friend.”
