The Chronicle has posted the interviews they did with some of us who are quoted in the article. My portion of the interview is below.
Can you tell many how many people attended the workshop last year (I understand typical attendance is 10,000-15,000)? Also, do you expect Sunset’s decision to affect attendance this year?
Over the past few years I think attendance has ranged from 6,000-8,000. I don?t have an exact count for last year. We are preparing for an overflow crowd this year.
I read your January 2 letter on the workshop Web site, so no need to repeat all that information. But … can you tell me why it’s important in your view to have the special tag-team sessions this year with keynote speakers from a cappella Churches of Christ and independent Christian Churches?
I see it as a symbolic gesture of acceptance and fellowship, similar to table fellowship practices in the 1st Century. To see a Jew and Gentile eating at the same table was a sign that God was on the move.
You mention that you’re especially looking forward to the Friday night keynote featuring Max Lucado and Bob Russell. You’ve got one minister whose congregation has taken “Church of Christ” out of its name and another from a “Christian Church.” What kind of message does that send?
I think it sends the message that the Garnett Church of Christ considers Max Lucado and the Oak Hills Church to still be a part of the Church of Christ network/fellowship.
Truitt Adair’s letter to Sunset supporters suggested that “In 2006 the Tulsa Workshop will shift away from a soul-winning emphasis to focus on the reconciliation of the Churches of Christ and Independent Christian Churches.” Is this an accurate statement?
I?ll let the workshop program speak for itself: http://www.tulsaworkshop.org/schedule/
Have any other institutions or display booth operators besides Sunset decided not to have a presence at the workshop this year? And, have any additional ones chosen to attend because of the emphasis?
Compared to last year, we?re slightly ahead of schedule for booth reservations. We?ve had a few past exhibitors opt not to reserve a booth this year. We?ve also had booths reserved by exhibitors who are new to the workshop.
Will instrumental music be used at any of the workshop events or services? Why or why not?
No. The workshop has traditionally been an a cappella event. We have no desire to see that change.
Besides instrumental music, do you see any other differences (doctrinally or otherwise) between Churches of Christ and Christian Churches? If so, what are they?
I?m actually struck more by the similarities between the two, rather than the differences. Having said that, I?m finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the growing diversity in doctrine and practice in Churches of Christ, much less Christian Churches. My guess is that only God with His bird?s eye view can accurately contrast the two.
Do you have any thoughts on the long-term outlook that the reconciliation events (Abilene Lectureship, Tulsa Workshop, North American Christian Convention, etc.) will mean for our fellowship in 2006? Will it result in bringing people together (i.e., Churches of Christ and Christian Churches)?
One of the outcomes I?m hoping for is that on a local level Churches of Christ and Christian Churches will be inspired to work together in missional ways. I don?t expect to see a bunch of mergers occur and I?m not encouraging it. But I do think it would be really cool if a Church of Christ and a Christian Church built a Habitat for Humanity house together or pooled their resources to help the poor in their community or worked together to do something about the AIDS crisis in Africa as a result of these events.
Or will it result in splitting Churches of Christ (i.e., conservative and progressive)?
I?m praying that my brothers and sisters in the Churches of Christ will remember that our movement began with a plea for unity and that what is happening in 2006 is an opportunity to restore something that has been sadly forgotten by too many in the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
As a Sunset grad, I was extremely disappointed with their decision to distance themselves from the Workshop this year. They have always been a conservative\moderate school, but I had no idea they would take the stance they have taken. I know most of those men, and something just doesn’t seem right. I know they are really having difficulty trying keep the school running financially, and I just wonder if some of their funding is in jeapordy if they supported the Workshop’s effort to seek unity with the Christian Church? I guess that would be a scary thing for them to have to deal with, if that’s an issue. The “workshop is not evangelistic anymore” reason just doesn’t gel.
I think the Workshop is going to be a huge success and begin a new era of cooperation and fellowship between people of like faith. I know many won’t like it. There will be more conflict as a result of it, but some things are worth fighting and suffering for. God may have raised you up for such a time as this. People have been talking in closets for years about how other tribes of like faith just might make it to heaven. Finally that secret dream of many is beginning to grow legs and take a walk in public. Praise God for people of faith who are willing to take a leap and trust God to work it all out. Keep the Faith, Wade!
Thanks for this. For so long the exclusive voices ruled. Thanks for giving voice to the multitudes of us who feel differently.
Brad,
Nothing is worth fighting over and suffering over.
After all these years, 100 years, the Christian Church has moved on.
Have they tried reconciling their differences, admitting fault?
No.
We must move on too.
Kris,
Fulfilling some of Jesus’ last words when He prayed for unity of all believers is something worth fighting for, and by fighting I mean striving hard no matter the consequences. Unity resonated deeply in the heart of Christ before He left. I am not willing to set His words aside and move on.
I know many want the Christian Church to renounce their wicked and evil ways, and only after that will we accept them as brothers. We are the ones who need to do some repenting. We have taken something the New Testament doesn’t even mention, the instrument, and made law out of it, based on our faulty hermeneutic regarding silence. We have fabricated a command – “Thou shalt not use the instrument” – where God has not made a command. That clearly is sin, making laws where God has not made them.
Silence in Scripture is just that, silence. It has no power to approve or condemn, say yes or no, support or deny anything. It is silence. If God is silent on something, we must look then to the heart of God as revealed in Scripture. (1)Does the thing under consideration (in this case the instrument) violate any Biblical principle? No. The instrument does not violate the command to sing. They can co-exist. (2)Is there a biblical precedent set that would address the issue? Yes. God seemed to take delight in it in the O.T. This is not going back to the Old Covenant for authority, it’s just saying that at one point in time, God seemed to enjoy praise with the instrument. (3)Is it consistent with the Spirit of Christ? Yes. With everything I’ve learned about my Savior over the years, I really can’t imagine Him having a problem with a guitar plucking in the background while a person sings, “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after You”. It just doesn’t fit with what I know about Him.
I support the Christian Church in their “choice” to use the instrument, and it’s just that, a choice. We choose not to, they choose to. That is not something to deny fellowship over, and it’s been mainly us denying the fellowship.
Amen to Brad’s comments! Go ahead on brother! Especially the part about us needing to repent as a movement. Arrogance has ruled the day for too long. Let us be the first to NOT put another link in that chain.
Wade, thanks for this informative post.
DU
Wade, as you know, – but many don’t and would serve well to preface with this – I did not grow up in a “church” environment. Therefore, I have limited, first-hand perspective on the topic of church divisions. Except for this – these very similar “discussions” and “debates” are a big part of what kept me from the church in my youth. Can one simply believe in and desparately yearn to follow Christ without getting helplessly entangled in logistics and hermeneutics? I do realize the importance of scripture interpretation, but when Christ takes a backseat to the way we choose to BE Christian in ANY organizational sense, then something seems terribly skewed.
I love Christ. I want Him to govern my life as I continue to learn more about what it truly means to follow Him. I love what we have at Garnett, but that is not what makes me a Christian, and I gravitate through anger, compassion and sorrow when I consider all the lost souls that are alone and in need, but are afraid to enter the Christian “door” because they don’t know HOW to believe. The real shame comes in the realization that sometimes, in the eyes of the lost, we are the ones blocking the door.
I thank you for your efforts in focusing on the true Reason. Here’s to hoping that we ALL make the final cut.
Lance and others–please keep reminding us of what is at stake here. One of my favorite Cameroon Proverbs (actually it’s the only proverb from Cameroon that I know) says, “When elephants fight, the grass suffers.”
God Bless You in what you are doing. After I read the Chronicle article, I wrote my own post about it expressing my appreciation for what you are doing – http://theolivers.typepad.com/the_olivers/2006/01/reconciliation_.html.
Keep it up.
As I said on my blog after seeing the Chronicle article:
“Sure, there are still hard-liners out there who are outraged at this turn of events. Jack Evans, Sr., President of Southwestern Christian College says that these events are “just another ploy of Satan to help change the total identity of the New Testament church.” Such comments fall unavailing on the ears of a generation of CofC’ers that is tired of the diatribes and ready to move on with the business of the kingdom.”
Historically, our brethren already have to their credit the actual union of two groups into one. It represented a reversal of the divisive trend of sectarianism when the Reformers and the Christians came together at Lexington, Kentucky, on New Year`s Day in 1832. There were great differences between them, but they resolved to regard them as in the realm of opinion, and not to advocate them as conditions of fellowship. One prominent historian, M.M.Davis, writes: “Love was the leading element in this glorious consummation. The people first became acquainted with each other; this acquaintance ripened into freindship into love. No amount of argument and information exhortation in the absence of love could have wrought such results. Pieces of steel thrown together will not unite; BUT MELT THEM, and they become one common whole.”
I am glad to call you a brother in Christ…you are standing tall and challenging us to remember that it is at the cross where we all can begin to understand what we are called to be.
I feel like we are in the midst of a kind of “civil-war” so to speak. As our nation had to decide to be one (and many involuntarily) for the survival of a government by the people not to perish from the earth, so I feel our movement has a parallel survival at stake. We must move foward, maybe give up some of our long held traditions for the mission of bringing the world to Christ. For example, the methodist church has found a way to be relevant to many groups of people. They have kept some traditions, changed others, and they help people find a place (their motto, open hearts, open doors). I look foward to finding our place in helping lost souls find their place.
I have no doubt that this year’s Tulsa workshop and subsequent endeavors to bring unity between churches of Christ and “Christian Churches” are entered in with the best and most sincere of intentions. However I believe the formula implemented to this end will not bring about unity but will simply shift circles of fellowship. In the name of “unity” progressive churches of Christ will enter into fellowship with Christian Churches and will leave fellowship with “conservative” churches of Christ (if they haven’t already). This is simply repainting the lines of fellowship not joining the two bodies into one.
There is a fudamental difference in hermeneutical approaches that goes far beyond the instrument that is truly at the center of the divide. Having come out of denominationalism (the Baptist Faith) I feel this attempt at union would move closer to the denominations that surround about us and further from the pattern of the first century church.
I am so tired of thinking that what I do in the two hours on Sunday morning defines who I am as a Christian. I agree with Brad and appreciate his response.
I also appreciate you and the thinking of openness so needed in our churches and lives of today. We will never reach a dying world if we fight amoungst ourselves instead of depending on God and his grace to make decisions we should never attempt to make.