World Convention 2012 04/15/2011
 If you're a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, a cappella Churches of Christ or International Churches of Christ (ICOC), you may or may not know that your fellowship is part of a larger communion known either as the Restoration Movement or the Stone-Campbell Movement (or even, the " Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement"). It's even less likely that you know there's a gathering held every four years in a different international location to which all members of Stone-Campbell churches worldwide are invited. It's called World Convention, and next year (2012) it will be held in Goiania, Brazil. World Convention is more than a gathering every so often. It's a non-profit organization that works in the intervening years to promote connectivity between churches of this movement, and between these churches and the larger ecumenical movement. It provides us a voice with such organizations as Christian Churches Together in the USA. What World Convention is not is a governing body or a denominational structure superior to the local church. It's a ministry of unity, not domination (or denomination!). As I mentioned above, the global gathering is held every four years, with the next to take place in Brazil in July 2012. Why participate? The main reason is to connect. As someone who was baptized through the ministry of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, trained for ministry via an a cappella churches university and currently a member of a congregation of the ICOC, I still won't likely find many members of these particular groupings at the convention next year. I'll encounter a few a cappella folks and many from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and other similar international fellowships, as well as folks from the Pentecostal Churches of Christ in Brazil (actually, these are the churches connected historically to independent Christian Churches in the United States, but which embraced Pentecostal doctrine and practice -- I say "Pentecostal" to refer to their distinctive doctrinal position). In going, I will be informally representing, at the very least, the ICOC fellowship in which I now find myself. It's good to go, meet people and through prayer, conversation and study break down barriers. The information below below was gathered from World Convention announcements. The video discusses the World Convention's importance, and further down in the post you can find information on what to expect, who will be speaking and how to register.
Plenary Speakers We are excited to announce the Goiania Global Gathering main speakers!
Victor Hugo Queiroz serves as Vice-President of the World Convention, President of the Christian Church/Church of Christ Ministerial Council of Brazil, and Senior Minister at Anapolis Christian Church in Anapolis, Goias. He has a B.A. degree in Bible Studies and a postgraduate degree in Religious Sciences. In the past he has worked as Cabinet Chief of the Mayor's Office of Anapolis, Vice-Mayor of Anapolis, Secretary of Education of Anapolis and President of the Counsel of Economics Development of Anapolis, Administrative Secretary of the state of Goias, Administrator of the Urban Transportation of Goiania, and President of the Council of Ministers of Anapolis.
Jerry Taylor has been involved in congregational ministry in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, and had a ministry working with the poor in Atlanta. During that time, local college students joined him in forming an inner-city ministry team. Jerry carries a full teaching load at Abilene Christian University, while finding time to preach, deliver lectures at various conferences, and write - drawing from a wealth of personal experience. Jerry graduated from Southwestern Christian College with a bachelor's degree in Bible in 1984. He received his Master of Divinity degree in 1988 as well as his Doctor of Ministry degree in 1995 from Southern Methodist University.
Daisy L. Machado serves, since July 2010, as Union's Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Church History. Her scholarship focuses specifically on United States Christianities. She holds a B.A., Brooklyn College, an M.S.W., Hunter College School of Social Work, a Master of Divinity, Union Theological Seminary, New York, and a Ph.D., University of Chicago. She is the first U.S. Latina ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1981 in the Northeast Region and has served inner city congregations in Brooklyn, Houston, and Fort Worth.
Samuel is the Director of the Heritage Christian College (HCC), which was established in 1982 by the Nsawam Road church of Christ in Accra, Ghana West Africa. HCC is designed to educate, train and equip capable people with the knowledge and skills to evangelize, plant churches and minister to the spiritual and physical needs especially of the disenfranchised. He has been preaching the gospel full time since 1984 and led in planting 23 churches around the his home country of Ghana. He has also spoken at international conferences and lectureships in Canada, US and Britain. Samuel holds a Master of Arts in Religion degree from Abilene Christian University, Texas and is working toward a doctoral degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.
Having worked as a Youth Pastor, School Chaplain, College Lecturer, Denominational Executive and Senior Pastor, Andrew brings twenty years of Christian ministry and leadership experience to CCTC. He has led in various contexts including one of Australia's largest churches; a remote, country school; the renewal of a 100+ year old church; and a house/emergent church. He has also served in leadership capacities in wider expressions of God's church, such as Chairperson of Schools Ministry Group (SA) overseeing the placement and resourcing of primary and secondary school chaplains; Chairperson of the Tabor College Victoria Board; and as Chairperson of various denominational committees. He is currently the Australian Director of an international research project on mission in Western culture across twelve nations. A regular speaker and strategist, Andrew is interested in the formation and development of leaders and missional practitioners in conventional and emerging settings for ministry.
Pastor of Church of Christ in Brasilia since 1994, Pastor Edson Gouveia is the leader of the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ Federal District Association that has over 80 churches. He leads the Pro Vida (Pro Life) Ministries in Brasilia, which has a day care for over 100 children, a village for the elderly and a camp that it is use for many purposes including the Ministerial Update that it is held in June for about 800 ministers Brother Gouveia is a well-known speaker in Brazil not only in the Stone-Campbell churches but also in the Evangelical Brazilian Churches. His B.A. degree is from the Christian Churches Bible College in Goiania and his M.Div. in NT is from the Baptist Seminary in Brasilia.
Waina Tedesco is the first woman consecrated to the office of pastor of the Church of Christ in Brasilia. Besides her full-time pastoral duties, Pastor Waina Tedesco is responsible for administering a variety of work in the Church of Christ in Brasilia. In addition, sister Wainia Tedesco, leads the Brazilian National Women Convention that gathers over two thousand women every year in September. She is much respected and has a great assistance ministry to the needy.
David Levistone's ministry with the UMIC (Union of Youth of the Churches of Christ) coordinates activities with young people throughout Brazil. UMIC is a Christian organization identified with the Restoration Movement and affiliated to the Ministerial Council of the Churches of Christ. Brother David earned his B.A. in Bible at the Bible College in Goiania, and holds a law degree from the state university. He is pastor at the Church of Christ Ministry New Horizon, Goiânia and works as a lawyer for the state of Goias. He is the national leader for the Youth National Convention of the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ in Brazil which serves over 3,000 participants annually.
Robert and Derlani Fife went to Portugal in March 1988 to work with missionaries Dick and Sarah Robison as a joint project of churches and individuals in Brazil and in the United States. After working with Portugal Christian Mission for nearly 17 years, they started Bridges to Life, which better corresponds to the reality of their present mission among the Portuguese-speaking peoples. Bridges to Life exists to promote the unity of the Body of Christ and provide networking relationships and/or pastoral care for missionaries among the Portuguese-speaking people so that the unreached might be reached in their own countries and in the world, through healthy ministers, healthy missionaries, and healthy churches. Registration fees for World Convention. Per person (children under 13 are free with parent/guardian)
10 or more from same congregation registering together (per person): $100.00
Add Comment Room Enough For Us All 03/25/2011
 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." - John 17:20-21 My late father often said that people who complained about overpopulation on a global scale didn't have a very good idea of how big the world really is. In general, I still agree with that thought. Although overpopulation in specific areas can cause severe environmental distress and there can be food shortages if resources and the supply chain are not well-managed, I do believe that there is room enough for the nearly 7 billion members of the human family that already draw breath on our planet, and many more as well. One social consequence of this unprecedented number of people alive at the same time is incredible diversity. Socially, there needs to be room enough for us all as well. To bring it even closer to home (for me, at least), the faith tradition of which I am part, the Stone-Campbell Movement, is in the process of increasing diversification. In North America it has long been said that there are three main branches of this movement, these being the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the a cappella Churches of Christ and the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. The a cappella Churches of Christ have long been composed of multiple sub-groups, and now within the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ there appear to be distinctions forming between those that tend to look more mainline evangelical in faith and practice, and those that are holding to a more traditional or "conservative" stance. Add to these the vibrant, relatively new fellowship of International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and a two century old movement for unity looks quite divided. Honestly, I don't despair, for three main reasons. First, with so many people coming from so many distinct backgrounds, there are bound to be diverse perspectives. Not everyone is going to come to understand every matter in exactly the same way. Yes, I know the bumper sticker that says "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." In real life, though, what I have seen over the years is that my understanding and perspective have changed with new information and experiences. The me of 2011 would likely grit his teeth if he had to hear what the me of 2001 thought about any number of topics, and vice versa. Worse, the me of days gone by might well label the me of now as a backslider or liberal. What to me looks like progress could be taken by someone else as regress. Second, different approaches are taken by different ministries. What's good in one place might not be the best way to carry out God's mission in another place. Or, it could even be that one place is so multicultural as to call for many different methods of outreach and engagement. Certainly rural Missouri is a far cry from Brooklyn, New York, and even within Brooklyn there are different kinds of people. This isn't to say that segregation is okay. The church is called to be multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, and I'm proud to be able to say that my home congregation, Central Jersey Church of Christ, is composed of disciples from 37 nations of people. At the same time, the way my home congregation "does ministry" might not reflect the perspective of many Christians. Some, believing women should be in all leadership roles of the church, will be more at home with the Disciples of Christ or some other group. Others, rejecting instrumental accompaniment in worship, will prefer the a cappella Churches of Christ. In actual fact, many will be brought to faith in Christ through these other ministries and will come to know those outlooks as normative. While I may disagree, there's room for us all. "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." - 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 Third, as I've said repeatedly since the outset of this post, there really is room for all of us on this earth. Although it disappointed me when when I was in college and heard classmates of the a cappella variety talking about parts of the United States as "unreached" where I knew that independent Christian Churches were thick (and had been for years), I have little interest in dissuading them from trying to evangelize in such areas. So long as what they are doing is true evangelism (so often it's just converting Baptists and others to their views) there are certainly people who can be "reached." The world is seeing the rise of megacities. Some of the largest are in South America. In these urban environments the churches of the Stone-Campbell Movement are so much the minority as to barely register the smallest fraction. Though, for instance, I'd rather see the ICOC, a cappella and Pentecostal Churches of Christ in São Paulo find ways to cooperate, that won't always be possible. According to Wikipedia, the population of that city in 2009 was estimated at 19,889,559. With that many people, there is plenty of work to be done without a lot of overlap. "Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.' Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches." - Acts 15:36-41 Paul and Barnabas had a serious disagreement over Mark, one that caused them to literally go their separate ways for a time. Certainly both did good in the directions they took. Sometimes in ministry we're going to disagree, even strongly, with our co-workers in the Gospel. If a point arrives that we can't continue along the same path, it's better if we bless each other and split up. After more time passed Paul and Barnabas were reconciled and Paul came to accept Mark (see 2 Timothy 4:11). In the region of the United States where I currently live there are four distinct groupings of Stone-Campbell churches (not counting the Christadelphians, who also have a minimal presence here). Two of these groups maintain their own campgrounds, and the other two rent facilities for youth camps. All have several congregations, though some are quite small and composed of mostly older people. In core matters of faith they are on the same page, but when looking at any details the variety comes into play. Some of these would likely not be willing to sit for long at the same table, but in them all I've seen the work of God and the fruit of the Spirit. It's a big world full of hurting people, oppressive regimes and idols that set themselves up against the only true God. There's a lot of work to do, a mighty Spirit empowering us and one true Lord sending us. There's room enough for us all. Let's get to work. "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." - Ephesians 4:1-6 All verses, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the New International Version, ©2011. If you're interested in unity and the Stone-Campbell Movement, why not consider attending the World Convention to be held next year (2012) in Brazil? Check out the following links for more info: A Gathering in Goiania About World Convention World Convention 2012 - Registration Info It has been eye-opening for me to learn over the past few days about how many international aid groups representing a wide range of perspectives and methods were already on the ground in Haiti when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck. There were medical personnel, engineers, social workers, missionaries and a diverse crowd of activists working throughout the country and in myriad ways for the betterment of the nation. Some of these are now missing, some confirmed dead and many, thankfully, alive and well. Christian religious groups from Catholic to Pentecostal and everything in between have been present in the country for years preaching good news and bringing a ministry of hope to this struggling country. The Stone-Cambell communion of churches is one of these groups present in Haiti, so today I'd like to share some sources for news on their current work in Haiti. Also, I'm providing links to charities associated with Christian Churches, Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ which are at work in Haiti. First, the news. The following websites are offering updates and news from the field in Haiti:
Above all, let's pray for Haiti. My wife and I have been trying over the past couple of years to visit other congregations of the Churches of Christ in our area. One Sunday not too long ago we decided to visit one we were told was a bit more "contemporary" in style. It met, we were told, in an area high school. We made the nearly 30 minute drive and got there thinking we were late. Walking into the school cafeteria we found the band tuning up. "Contemporary" was what we'd heard, so we figured this must be part of it. Once worship began, though, we began feeling terribly out of place. It was Communion Sunday, we were told, and the pastor introduced himself to us. Churches of Christ don't typically call their preachers "pastor," and they have the Lord's Supper every Sunday. This and other aspects of the gathering just weren't adding up. Finally I leaned over to my wife and suggested we were at the wrong church. Perhaps there was another church meeting in the same building. The thought really bothered her, and we made as graceful and quiet a departure as possible. Walking around the outside of the building we made our way to the auditorium. Sure enough, there was a sign outside the door announcing that a Church of Christ was meeting within. Argh!!! We were greeted warmly and told that although we'd missed several hymns and the Lord's Supper, the service was only about half over. A fellow kindly escorted us in to the auditorium where we found seats. Worship was led by a mixed group of men and women and the songs were definitely more contemporary in style, but not accompanied by instruments. The preacher gave an excellent lesson, and it was about 3 minutes into his message that I realized this was a congregation of the International Church of Christ (ICOC). Having heard of major changes for the better taking place among these churches, I didn't panic. After worship we spoke at length with several people, including the evangelist, and came away impressed. At the evangelical church I felt absolutely out of place. It wasn't the band (I have no issues with that, coming as I do from the perspective of independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ on the topic of worship), but rather the overall feel of the church. While I really can't put my finger on it, I think it's a question of traditions. The ICOC had a different style in some aspects and is the result of a split from the mainstream of a cappella Churches of Christ, but maintains traits held in common by other branches of the Stone-Campbell Movement. I believe that it was this commonality that made me feel at home with the ICOC folks, as it did also in times past at a Disciples congregation and a mutual edification Church of Christ. Whatever else I am as a Christian, I am at home within the Stone-Campbell Movement of churches. | 
Adam Gonnerman - Former missionary, ESL teacher, customer service rep, social media manager and web producer; currently employed as a project manager in New York and volunteering through HOPE worldwide.
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