Signs of Hope
The landscape of Churches of Christ looks very different today than it did back in 1992 when Wineskins magazine was launched. Here are five signs of hope:
1. Churches all over are struggling with their identity, trying to break from being defined by what we’re not. (Not Catholic, not Baptist, not Presbyterian, etc.) And for many, the language being used has to do with being missional: living out the Way of Christ in a world that God deeply loves and seeks to repair. There is more focus on kingdom language, echoing the dominant theme of Jesus’ preaching. I hear less discussion, e. g., of how our understanding of baptism is better than everyone else’s and more interest in what the implications are of baptism. Also, many more are talking about salvation as an on-going way of living — the continual process of God peeling away layers of selfishness that would demand our own way.
2. There is a revival happening in many of our Christian colleges and campus ministries. Just ask anyone who’s been to the Gulf Coast Get-a-Way in recent years. For a weekend in February, nearly 2000 university students crash in Panana City to be challenged and to challenge one another to live for Christ on their campuses. At Lipscomb, the wise, courageous leadership of Randy Lowry is showing quickly. Look for them to become a leading school in the next decade. At Pepperdine, Rochester College, and ACU (under the leadership of Andy Benton, Mike Westerfield [and before him Ken Johnson], and Royce Money), these schools have opened dialogue beyond our own small world and have built strong Bible faculties to help form students theologically and missionally. The books that have been coming from “The Heart of the Restoration” series from ACU have been insightful. (Check them out: The Crux of the Matter: Crisis, Tradition, and the Future of Churches of Christ
3. The Christian Chronicle continues to bless Churches of Christ. Fifteen years ago the editorial tone of the journal was often harsh. “Young reformers” were encouraged to leave. But no longer. The Chronicle has a very responsible way of reporting and encouraging. Right now I find them to be a great rallying point of unity.
4. The response of Churches of Christ after the tsunami and after Katrina has reminded us again that there is a hurting world that isn’t interested in our internecine discussions. Churches large and small have cooperated to pray, to give, and to send workers to help.
5. The focus of “worship renewal” has changed for the better, INMO. The language I’m hearing at Zoe conferences, Stream in the Desert, the Tulsa Workshop, Pepperdine, ACU, etc. — would indicate that we’re thinking more holistically about worship. While some time needs to be spent praying and planning for the corporate times of gathering, even more important is that those times of gathering allow us to stir one another on toward love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24f). We come together to remember who we are as Christ-followers, and we send one another out, freshly commissioned to live worshipful lives of service throughout the week. Praise, thanksgiving, confession, and lament permit us to remember that God, despite outward appearances at times, is in control and that he is blessing us to be a blessing.
There are many other signs I could have included in this brief list, such as the shared discussions this year with Christian Churches and the growing sense that the family of God is much larger than our streams of the “Restoration Movement.”
I have no crystal ball. I have no idea if there will be a major split in Churches of Christ in the future . . . or just a growing, informal split . . . or maybe a renewal of unity around the old idea of being Christians only but not the only Christians.
And I thought of rolls of tummy fat….
Kathy -
Wow… my congregation is just now starting to make progress on “clapping”. I don’t think “rolling” will ever happen — even with the men!
[I, too, got a chuckle out of the "women's roll" comments... sometimes you have to laugh...]
Mary
How well I know that these differences can bring deep pain to all involved. Some of us are more acquainted with the harm done by spiritiual slavery than others. It is difficult for some men in particular, to understand the grip of that slavery, to recognize that women, like men, have God-given gifts that God will call us to accountability about their use, as He will men and their gifts.
Paul writes that in Jesus there are no racial differences to separate us, no economical nor political either, AND there are no gender differences in the LORD, we are all equal and co-heirs in Jesus. Yet most of my life, the men leading the spiritual body we call the Church have spent their time trying to separate us along all of the above lines. The last to go seems to be women’s spiritual slavery in the church.
Women are told to sit down and be quiet – to keep their ideas to themselves should they be bold enough to disagree with what the men are saying. How brutal it is to be told and taught that you have NO rights in the men’s church, except those and only those the men deign to dole out. To be told, for instance, that your talents must be limited to teaching only children, that you may NOT have any part in adult teaching can be frustrating and is certainly demeaning.
Yet, women continue to be the majority of faithful workers in our churches. Strange, to say the least. I suppose one might say that due to this spiritual slavery women have learned how to serve their LORD rather than the church.
This lack of acceptance of women in the church can often been seen in physical activity. May I suggest we begin to notice, for instance, when a man and woman are talking in a church setting and a second man approaches them, rarely will he excuse himself for breaking into the conversation. He will just take the first man’s arm, and turn him away, or he might even position himself between the woman and the person she was speaking to, cutting off her participation in a conversation, as he interjects his own.
Guys, Jesus traveled with women as much as He did men. He appeared first to women after He arose, giving them the first preaching job about the risen Savior, of teaching the apostles [all men ya' know lol] about His resurrection.
In short, Jesus didn’t hold women in spiritiual slavery, He freed us! Praise You, LORD!!
I’m thinking that one of the sisters needs to just stand up and start speaking…”I have a dream…”
Institutionalized discrimination does not die. When it is exposed it scurries away into the shadows from whence it awaits an opportune time to reemerge. Before we are free from the bonds of the past, we must eradicate the vestiges of discrimination in the present. There is no “bug bomb” sufficient for the task. Broken and contrite spirits, combined with a willingness to bring forth the fruit of repentance is the need of the hour. May God’s Spirit work deep within the hearts and minds of men helping us become more of what God wants us to be.
God Bless,
I will not call you an idiot for your poor grammar, but if you are going to offer a challange like you did proof reading is a very good idea. We would all do well to remind ourselves that many of us a long time ago were right where he is today. I remember when I actually made a clandestine visit to a “liberal” church to hear a well known “liberal.” That night changed my life. God Bless, keep studying and keep and open mind, and develop a thick skin. God’s grace is wonderful. I live in it ever day.
Mike,
Please, take your “I love my brother more than God” garbage and everyone that follows the will of man first and maybe God next and GO “JOIN” YOU LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD christian CHURCH ’cause I want MY GOD’S Church BACK!!!! This movement that has been dreamed up and implemented by the likes of Rick Warren, Lucado, Shelly and the like has nothing to do with THE Church at all. If we SUCK so BAD, go join them! LEAVE US ALONE. We are commanded to flee from spewers of false doctrine so we do. This is a free country still and your DREAMS of religious genocide are not only damning, but illegal. Please, for the sake of my family, GO AWAY!
Mike,
I do agree that we need “worship renewal”, but not in the way you are suggesting. We must worship in spirit and in TRUTH! There are many examples in the Old Testament when people who claim to be christians fail to do as God comands, and the outcome was not pleasant. I do not want to be counted in that number. The Bible warns us that there will be false teachers who will secretly introduce strange heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. It also states that many will follow. 2 Peter chapter 2. There seems to many who do follow this movement to stray away from the teaching of our Lord, and that saddens me. It is my prayer that people like yourself will seek the old paths. Jeremiah 6″16 states, ” Thus says the Lord, Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, and you will find rest for your souls.” The people refused, and disaster took place. The right path for living is ancient and has been marked out by God. We face the same decision today, going Gods way, or following a new path of our own choosing. Dont be misled. The only way to find peace and rest is to walk on Gods path. If we stick to the teachings of God and do as it says, the Church will grow, but in the right way. Stick to God’s path.
Mike,
I do agree that we need “worship renewal”, but not in the way you are suggesting. We must worship in spirit and in TRUTH! There are many examples in the Old Testament when people who claim to be christians fail to do as God comands, and the outcome was not pleasant. I do not want to be counted in that number. The Bible warns us that there will be false teachers who will secretly introduce strange heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. It also states that many will follow. 2 Peter chapter 2. There seems to many who do follow this movement to stray away from the teaching of our Lord, and that saddens me. It is my prayer that people like yourself will seek the old paths. Jeremiah 6″16 states, ” Thus says the Lord, Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, and you will find rest for your souls.” The people refused, and disaster took place. The right path for living is ancient and has been marked out by God. We face the same decision today, going Gods way, or following a new path of our own choosing. Dont be misled. The only way to find peace and rest is to walk on Gods path. If we stick to the teachings of God and do as it says, the Church will grow, but in the right way. Stick to God’s path.
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