The first night of the World Convention was amazing. People of (at least) three denominations from nations around the world met in the Nashville convention center to worship.
Ken and Cole Young led the worship — but this wasn’t your father’s C of C lectureship. Some of the music was a cappella. (My favorite song of the evening was “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” which we sang a cappella.) But the bagpipes on “Amazing Grace” and the violin accompaniment for “In Christ Alone” were just right. Very moving. It was the first time I’d seen Cole lead with his father, and I loved it. However, it made me smile several times. The two of them and Matt and I have taken a few “guy trips” that left plenty of humorous memories. I think, for example, about the time we were snowmobiling in northern New Mexico when I buried my snowmobile in a soft, deep spot. I looked up and here came Cole and Matt to the rescue as Ken yelled, “Nooooooooo.” Too late. We then had three snowmobiles buried handle deep and spent the next hour digging them out.
The speaker for the evening was Cynthia Hale, senior pastor for a vibrant Disciples of Christ congregation in Atlanta. She was articulate, warm, and convicting. Tonight we’ll get to hear Bob Russell. (I speak Friday evening.)
One thing I’m especially anticipating at 9:00 this morning is an option of worship experiences. Since people are here from all over the world, several have been invited to lead times of worship. One option is described this way: “Non Instrumental Worship: This will be led by Nashville congregations of the Church of Christ and will be a reflection of US non instrumental worship.” While I think that will be wonderful, and I imagine several will want to experience that . . . I think I’ve got that one covered. I’ll probably go more for: “traditional anthems (both accompanied and a cappella), contemporary instrumental and vocal, gospel quartet music, stringed and woodwind accompaniment” or “African worship: This service will reflect Kenyan Church worship.”
Sounds really wonderful.
What fun to see how our Brothers and Sisters (from other tribes, as you like to say and I like hearing) worship. I would love to be there and experience it! Please continue to relay what you are experiencing so we can vicariously “live through you” this week!
Bobcat Pass just southwest of AngelFire, New Mexico, is as breathtaking to see as it is to snowmobile. My Mom, Brother, and I ventured up there about ten years ago for a day of snowmobiling and hit blizzard like conditions on the way up. They received 17 inches on top of 4 to 5 feet of already pristine snow. A great day!
Bob Russell is one of my favorite speakers, and one of the mentors to one of mine. It is amazing how many individuals in the Christian Church/Church of Christ stream (if you will) he and his wife have impacted through retelling the story and serving their lives over the years. Southeast Christian Church has received a ton of attention over the years (good and bad), and I am thankful and blessed by all those who continue to seek both Unity and Truth with those close to their own heritage, and those who are very different.
Wish I was there…
Ditto on the “wish I was there”.
DU
I’ve personally been blessed by several similar events (though only local in participation) here in Austin, TX. The presentations by our brothers and sisters living on other arms of our movement reminds me how much we long for Christ and how wonderful is the complexity of our relationship. And honestly, I just never get enough of Doug Foster and Gary Holloway.
Here is a photo of our worship leaders in the morning worship time. One of them belted out the lead while dancing and with a baby tied onto her back.
May you give and receive rich blessings as you seek God together with brothers and sisters from the Restoration Movement. May the Spirit of the living God move and breathe in powerful ways among those who are gathered, and those who will be touched by those gathered in Nashville this week.
Seriously NOT trying to be a butthead here, but I have a genuine question. At a conference with many worship experiences we think it is great. However, in a local church setting we would pass it off as consumerism. Can we not custom design experiences for specific audiences without it being consumerism? I know there must be a fine line. I guess I get aggravated with the notion that if I don’t connect with a style communication or music that I’m being selfish. I’m a right-brained, postmodern, single person who loves the body of Christ. But there are some messages (spoken or sung) that are just clanging cymbal to me.
Mike, Thanks for posting about this convention. Would love to be there—listening & learning.
Totally confused and willing to admit it–is unity a matter of give and take so we can worship together or is it a matter of each person going to convention and choosing which worship style is preferred? Shouldn’t unity be a blending as in the Nashville churches (referenced earlier) singing with the bagpipe folks and the violinist playing while the African lady leads worship?
Sounds very interesting. I think I would have liked to have been there. Thank you for sharing.
Jon,
I hear you. I think this conference and work towards unity is wonderful and a huge blessing. But you bring up a good point about local church life. I also struggle with the awkward balance between consumerism and contextualization in our local churches.
Most everyone acknowledges that we contextualize worship to our culture and the socioeconomic makeup of the congregation (read: preferences). In our restoration movement, a big part of our identity is to offer grace and liberty in matters of opinion (read: preferences). So then, why do we sometimes say that meeting or prioritizing preferences is consumerism? Could it be to dismiss preferences that are different than our own? I think I’m guilty of that sometimes. I’m probably guilty of only offering liberty in matters of opinion when the opinion deviates from the normal, traditional way of doing things. That is, I’m quicker to offer liberty for progressive, forward leaning things, than I am for preferences of doing things the same old way.
I have a hard time sorting through contextualization vs. consumerism. Maybe someone else here can help us through it?
Eddy - Great question. The point of these morning worship sessions was to allow us to experience worship through the styles of brothers and sisters from around the world. The African worship time this morning was more aerobic than my normal experience. Last night I experienced unity through the diversity of styles. Today I learned more about unity by identifying with my brothers and sisters in Africa. And though there are lots of Africans here, not many were there where I was. I’m guessing they probably went to something outside their experience — such as the one led by Nashville Churches of Christ.
Jon and Eric - Also great questions. Eric, I think you’re all over an important topic: the difference between contextualization and consumerism.
Here’s a brief response: Western Christianity has too often become about what I want. And it’s resulted in church hoppers and church shoppers looking for the newest worship, the coolest youth ministry, etc.
The whole MISSIONAL church movement is a response to that. In many ways, it isn’t new. It’s just the word being applied to the most recent corrective. It asks this question: What would my life look like (as it pertains to church, world, vocation, etc.) if I truly believed that I’ve been called to participate with God in his healing of the world?
Will there still be contextualization? Absolutely. But that’s very different from building churches by market testing and by luring people through the latest preferences. We contextualize our presence in a community — and that community calls us to live beyond ourselves for the sake of the world. We are blessed to be a blessing.
I know, Eric, you’re asking for much more than this. (I’m sure this is preaching to the choir.) Would be a great topic for us to pursue sometime — or even here and now if others would like to jump in.
Thank you.
Thanks for your thoughts Mike. I’m part of a church that excels in contextualizing herself to our community in missional ways. Our location borders on the inner city of Jackson, MS, so we are involved in inner city missions, we own a couple of houses across the street that we use to help homeless families get back on their feet (and in that process we practice hospitality in inviting them to the Table of the Lord too). We mentor, feed the poor, clothe the poor, fill gas tanks, build houses, break racial barriers, etc. It’s a blessing to be part of a body that understands what it means to pour themselves out as living sacrifices. Our mission statement, and frequently repeated mantra, is “To be the Hands and Feet of Jesus”. I’m thrilled about how we are participating with God in the Kingdom work He is doing through and around us.
When it comes to Sunday morning worship, though, as a worship minister I confess that I still struggle with meeting varying preferences of the congregation. I always go to what I think is best in forming our people, regardless of style, but I’m also aware of preferences and that does affect our worship times. I’m confident that’s true to some degree for every congregation.
Even in an outwardly focused church like mine, we still desire meaningful, moving worship that is somewhat shaped by our preferences. After all what is meaningful, moving, and transformational to one person may not affect someone else in the same way.
So as I continue to wrestle with this, we have a blended - contemporary - traditional - progressive - conservative - modern - ancient style of worship that 1. glorifies God, 2. edifies the church, and 3. transforms us into a Kingdom people and sends us out to be a blessing to the world.
This sounds like a unique experience. I would like to be there, in fact it was even mentioned in the Waynesboro, TN local paper. That was a shocker.
http://www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org
loved living it through you, keep us posted.
What a wonderful, time we live in. The conference sounds great. I doubt you remember me Mike but I am from your home town and I presently work as a LCSW teaching Social Work and Sociology for good old Crowder College and also do some private practice on the side. I just want to say I use your sight for a spiritual pick me up that helps keep my work in perspective. Please keep up your postings as they get me through the day often. God bless! Joan Wilson
Hi Eric from Texas, and all others.
Let me say this consumerism is about finding the greatest value. People pay $4.00 for a Starbucks cup of coffee because it is good. No one would pay that much for a cup of gas station coffee. Finding the greatest spiritual value may be termed spiritual consumerism. To me searching for the greatest spiritual value is innate to our journey with God to faith. Only a few years ago there was no Starbucks coffee for the church just the old gas station coffee. This analogy is good for the church also. Do you think the Gas station churches like their regular customers going down the street to buy a $4.00 cup of coffee? No, they probably think they are people are just caught in “consumerism”.
Being in Nashville, are you able to get the Braves/Cards series? Your guys have beat up my guys for the first 3 but it looks like my guys will at least salvage some dignity. I love to watch Albert hit (with the bases empty); what a phenomenal ball-player.
I wish I were at the conference as well; I guess I’ll just have to wait for Zoe!!
Blessings
Mike:
I’m glad that you are representing our little tribe in this important event. God’s peace and grace upon you and in you.
Peace.
Josh Graves
Wish I was there!
I’m so jealous.
And thankful that this happens.
And wishing it were the way things are instead of a special event.
This is such a wonderful event. And I’ve never heard of it before your blog.
I pray God speaks mightily through you tonight. Who better to represent our tribe than Mike Cope?
We may make it over if we can figure out childcare, and if they’ll let us in! You might get a laugh out of my post today if you have a chance to check it out.
I would have loved to have been there. However, had I been there, I can imagine a problem for me: how to choose which venue? I would want to experience them all.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Mike.
Great reporting Mike! I too wish I were there. I guess I haven’t ever announced this before….after spending my first 45 years in a cofC, the last two years our family has been in a DOC church in east Texas. I’ve found far, far more similarities than differences in the two. Like I said, I wish we were there.
I would have loved to have heard Bob Russell. He has always been a solid Bible teacher and preacher.
Sounds like the awesome work of the Holy Spirit, bringing so many people, ethnic groups, social classes, and languages together and making it possible for them to all praise the ONE GOD! I love it!
Can’t leave well enough along. Suppose a person wanted to be non-denominational (versus inter-denominational), how would he go about doing it? Does unity mean the same thing as inter-denominational and if so, does one have to unite with all denominations in order to unite with one? Can I unite with Christian church but not with disciples of Christ? I’m sincerly seeking and not just looking for judgemental criticism back and forth.
To me eddy - unity means simply being non-judgmental toward one’s choosing of church preference, i.e. - trying to find common ground with others who profess Christ as risen Savior.
I’m somewhat confused by your final round of questions. Why not just drop the labels (inter vs. non, etc.) and accept? We find common ground with others in 98% of issues - and 100% on salvation issues - yet, it seems we’ve historically let the 2% divide us a multitude of times.
I’ll chime in as well with a “wish I was there with you.” I think Jon asks a great question as well. I liken my answer to the advice I always get from my ex-college fullback friend when we play golf together. He’ll get up on the first tee and crack off a 300 yard plus drive. I will attempt to do the same and invariably overswing and crack off a drive that will go about 150 yards down the fairway before making a 90 degree turn for the woods. My good friend will look at me and say, “You’re doing it again. Quit trying to be me and just be you.”
I think the answer to Jon’s question and folk’s varying “tastes in worship” depends on the individual church. For us, in recent years we’ve picked up a number of members from a local Christian Church. Our instrumental service has sprung up from within as a result of us just trying to be us. We would never point to us as a model for what works for one church may not work for the next.
Is this contextualization or consumerism on our part? I’d like to think its the first one but I’m sure others might say is the second. Either way, hopefully it our church just being our church as we strive to model Christ in our lives.
Does anyone know if the sessions are open to the public? We live in Nashville and would love to go tonight but can’t really pay the registration fee to get in. Anyone?
Two things:
“This isn’t your father’s C of C lectureship…” great quote. That is actually a phrase we hear from people who visit our church sans the lectureship part of course.
And secondly, Josh, of course it is open to the public. Just tell the guy at the door that you are there to be with Jesus. If he gives you any grief, just quote the passages about the disciples sending kids away and hungry people home and pharisees making it hard for people to come to God. That should work.
Josh–When I called last month to get info re: World Convention, I was told that there is a fee for day classes , but the p.m. sessions are all free. Hope you make it!! Let us hear about it if you get there!
I wish I could have attended and hope I get the chance to do so at some point. It isn’t often that World Convention is held in the United States.
In honor of World Convention this past week I did a series discussing “Does the Restoration Movement Matter?” This was a series based on questions raised in The Christian Standard. The first in the series is here: http://tinyurl.com/6elg2v
I grew up in the Church of Christ, in Chicago and in Franklin, Tennessee, where my mother’s family joined Fourth Avenue in 1915. For most of my adult life I have been a member of Vine St. Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nashville. Working as a volunteer at the check-in/information desk at World Convention and some personal responsibilities kept me from attending as many segments of the convention as I would have wished. However, hearing Mike Cope was a priority for me, and I was not disappointed. Bravo, Preacher Mike! What you said was perfectly suited to the event and a real inspiration. I sat next to a fourth-year student at Brite Divinity School who was equally impressed.
Another highlight for me was hearing Lee Camp of David Lipscomb University speak about the pacifism of early leaders in the Stone-Campbell Movement. Even though I had promised myself to buy no books at World Convention, out of respect for the stack on my nightstand [and my dresser], I was moved to buy Camp’s book Mere Discipleship.
I am thrilled that those of us who are the heirs of those early leaders, despite our differences, are having opportunities to talk, to worship together, to learn from each other, to forgive, to love. Tomorrow those of us in Nashville will share communion. What a blessing!
I think this is great!
Thank you Mike for sharing this with us.
It is so encouraging seeing Christians striving to be ONE.
United in a common beleif, Jesus Christ.
I think this gives us hope of what can be.
Gospel and grandchildren. It does not get much better Mike! Your post reminded me of when one of my mentors, W. Carl Ketcherside, from St. Louis used to attend these conventions back in the 50’s and 60’s when there were very few CofC brethern who participated. I am thrilled to hear of the call of unity in Christ Jesus as Lord. Wherever God has a child, I have a brother or sister.
Blessings upon you and all of yours.
Mike:
Thanks for sharing the World Convention report.
Wanted to respond by sharing how two segments of the Restoration Movement came together to form one congregation two years ago in Miami.
At the very first gathering of the Christians in Miami(a house church made up of mostly Anglo a cappella CofC folks first met up with and shared a unity meeting with Iglesia Cristiana (a Hispanic Independent CC house church) from West Kendall in Miami, Florida, the Spanish-speaking congregation shared a special dream. This dream would someday become the slogan to “trademark” their unique identify as a congregation of God’s family. Their combined and incorporated designation as a congregation on May 21, 2006 became Centro Comunidad de JESUS Community Center.
This is the combined congregation’s slogan which accents the centrality of their vision: ¡El Centro de todo es JESUS is the Center of it all!
Also at that very first gathering which these two groups of Jesus’ disciples shared together, the Hispanic group introduced a very special song to the Christians in Hope. They brought their song as a very special gift to their English-speaking brothers and sisters. They brought their gift of praise in two languages to the disciples with whom they would eventually become just one united congregation but with two languages. The song’s title is He Reigns but tells the story of All God’s Children coming together to praise Him and serve Him. We share the rich message of that special song of praise to our Lord in both languages to close this story.
He Reigns! / All God’s Children
It’s the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain.
It’s the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain.
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God’s holy fire.
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation,
A love song born of a grateful choir.
Let it rise above the fore-winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound.
Let praises echo from towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground.
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist.
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this.
And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard.
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word.
CHORUS (after each stanza)
It’s all God’s children singin’
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He reigns, He reigns!
It’s all God’s children singin’
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He reigns, He reigns!
¡El Reina / Hijos de Dios
Es la canción de los santos subiendo de la África.
El canto de los perdonados mas fuerte que la lluvia de las Amazonas.
Cantantes de la Asia llenos del fuego del Espíritu.
De cada tribu, cada lengua, y nación, un canto de un coro agradecido.
Que suba más allá que los vientos
Captado en un sonido celestia.
Que alabanzas suenen de catedrales
A los fieles que reúnen escondidos.
De todas las alabanzas desde la creación
Algunas tienen que permanecer.
De todas las campanas de miles de iglesias
Ninguno suene tan claro como este.
Y todos los poderes de las tinieblas
Tiemblen con lo que acaban de escuchar.
Porque todos los poderes de tinieblas
No puedan acabar con esta palabra.
CHORUS (after each stanza)
Hijos de Dios cantando Gloria, Gloria
Aleluya el reina
Hijos de Dios cantando Gloria, Gloria
Aleluya el reina
One very special motivation for the faith and faithfulness of these disciples of Jesus Christ in Miami, Florida is their anticipation of the day when All God’s Children stand together, with all the faithful men and women of all ages, around the throne to praise Jesus who sits “in the center” as King of kings and Lord of lords. On that occasion there will be a multitude so large nobody could even begin to number them. And they will be worshipping the Lord with harps in hand, praising and singing one song but in many languages (Revelation chapter 5).
It’s all God’s children singin’
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He reigns, He reigns!
It’s all God’s children singin’
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He reigns, He reigns!
Kieth A. Mitchell
One of the Shepherds
Jesus Community Center, Miami
How are you?, Give something for help the hungry people from Africa and India,
I created this blog about them:
at http://tinyurl.com/5hu74e