C H U R C H - N E W S
To stop the flow of young people leaving Churches of Christ
intergenerational relationships are vital Ron Bruner David Kinnaman has confirmed what many of us have long suspected: The church is losing too many members of ...
Ministry matchmaking: Students find churches
PHOTO BY BOBBY ROSS JR. WEST TEXAS INTERVIEW - At a ministry intern job fair at Lubbock Christian Un...
Church-supported ministries partner to take little dresses to Africa
Children in Uganda express thanks for the clothes they received through the Little Dresses for Africa ministry. (Photo via www.littledressesforafrica.org) ...
Reaching a world of 7 billion souls
PHOTO BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD7 billion souls - Liberian minister David Kolleh says that the earth's rapdly growing population leaves "no doubt that the challenges before...
‘Thrifty’ Tennessee church participates in Christmastime benevolence
Farragut Church of Christ Senior Minister Paul Phelps and his daughter, Abbie Phelps, 12, stack boxes of donated items in the church hallway that are earmarked for KARM as part of a progra...
Out Of Money For Crack, Man Snatches Purse During Prayer At Church
December 6, 2011 - A Flomaton man is charged with stealing a woman’s purse during prayer at a local church because, he told police, he was smoking crack in Century and ran out of money. ...
Declining church support concerns Christian children's homes
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SOUTHEASTERNStill a core ministry? - Southeastern Children's Home serves young people in three group homes. DUNCAN, S.C. - Southeastern Children’s Home cares fo...
Mississippi church supports Ferguson family in time of grief
Les and Karen Ferguson, with Conner, Casey and Cole. Not pictured is the Ferguson's oldest son, Kyle. The Sun Herald in Gulfport, Miss., reports: GULFPORT — There are no words that can help Minist...
A New Name for North Little Rock
River City Ministry teams with local mayors in the so-called 'meanest city to the homeless.' ...
'Christ' in Christmas?: Churches of Christ and the holiday season
PHOTO VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS For many members of Churches of Christ, Christmas once meant decorated trees, colorfully wrapped gifts and Santa Clauses all around — but definitely no menti...
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To stop the flow of young people leaving Churches of Christ
Saturday, January 14 2012 03:11 -
Ministry matchmaking: Students find churches
Friday, January 06 2012 16:11 -
Church-supported ministries partner to take little dresses to Africa
Wednesday, December 28 2011 21:57 -
Reaching a world of 7 billion souls
Wednesday, December 14 2011 05:37 -
‘Thrifty’ Tennessee church participates in Christmastime benevolence
Saturday, December 10 2011 06:16 -
Out Of Money For Crack, Man Snatches Purse During Prayer At Church
Wednesday, December 07 2011 15:26 -
Declining church support concerns Christian children's homes
Wednesday, December 07 2011 15:18 -
Mississippi church supports Ferguson family in time of grief
Tuesday, December 06 2011 03:34 -
A New Name for North Little Rock
Tuesday, December 06 2011 03:26 -
'Christ' in Christmas?: Churches of Christ and the holiday season
Tuesday, December 06 2011 03:23
Church News
To stop the flow of young people leaving Churches of Christ
Written by RON BRUNERintergenerational relationships are vital
Why is that?
In “You Lost Me,” Kinnaman tells us, “It’s a disciple-making problem. The church is not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing culture.”
This is no new problem. After visiting congregations across Kentucky in 1843, Barton Stone concluded, “There has been more labor expended in reaping down the harvest than in preserving it when reaped.”
Societal changes since the time of Stone have worsened the situation. Labor laws and public schools have shaped a better world for children while unintentionally complicating day-to-day, intergenerational sharing of faith like that described in Deuteronomy 6.
As a fellowship, our response to these changes has been inadequate.
“So many of us think that when we’ve baptized our children, we’re done,” says Dudley Chancey, associate professor of youth ministry at Oklahoma Christian University. “We tend to forget the second part of the commission from Jesus: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.’”
Accelerating change in all areas of life over the past decades has made it even more difficult for churches to help young people seeking to build a coherent faith. For young disciples, the church seems overprotective, shallow, anti-science, repressive, exclusive and doubtless.
In the years to come, churches that hope to turn this tide will build faith-shaping connections between generations. The very best children’s, youth and family ministries will be the ones that intentionally build lifelong, intergenerational connections.
How do we build these connections? There is much ongoing research, including that of the Intergenerational Faith Center at Oklahoma Christian.
So far, some of the common denominators appear to be connection, spiritual practices, shared experience, story and communal discernment.
When my daughter, Bailey, was 4, she began visiting the nursing home with a family friend, Phyllis Morgan. On Wednesday afternoons, my wife, Ann, would fix a basket of goodies for Bailey to share, and Phyllis would drive by our house to pick her up. Together they would spend an hour or two talking with their friends at the home.
Afterward, Phyllis would take Bailey out for something to eat and catch up with the rest of us at Wednesday evening services. Later they would tell us stories of their adventures.
Occasionally Phyllis would call the house: “Ron, I need to talk with Bailey. Sister S. passed away last night, and I need to talk to her about it.”
I would hand the phone to Bailey and watch while her grandmother in the faith helped her move through grief toward a shared hope and faith.
What keys does this anecdote give us for sharing faith between generations?
• Connection — Phyllis has her own flesh and blood. She chose, though, to treat Ann and me like her children in the faith and our children as her grandchildren. She persistently offered a connection to Bailey that was and remains an irresistible call into the community of God’s people.
• Spiritual practice — Phyllis and Bailey entered into spiritually formative practices together. Beyond Phyllis helping Bailey to learn to sing and pray in cradle roll, their later practice made visiting the elderly into a habit that shaped the virtues and values of both. In turn, their ministry touched the faith of everyone with whom they ministered. When we truly see ourselves as a priesthood of believers, then we allow all of the believers to serve.
• Shared experience — Beyond the church building, Phyllis and Bailey shared time. They ate together. They talked and laughed together. In my heart, I can still hear them singing alto together in worship as their experience led them into the presence of God.
• Story — As they shared time, they came to share their stories. Phyllis knows the story of Bailey’s life. Bailey knows enough of the life of Phyllis to love her and respect her for who she is. Together they have woven their combined experiences into the story of God. If, as Kinnaman says, “every story matters,” then we ought to show our love for each other by knowing each other’s stories.
• Communal discernment — As Bailey grew more experienced in walking alongside Phyllis, they began to talk more about what to do in their time together and how to do it. It was about more than having ownership of the decision. Bailey needed to hear Phyllis’ wisdom, and Phyllis needed to access Bailey’s insight. They could make better decisions together.
In the years to come, we can hope that ongoing research will improve our insight into the practice of inter-generational ministry.
Until then, we should approach these conversations with a healthy dose of humility. What works for one congregation may not work so well for another. What makes one young person soar may turn off another.
Whatever we do, we should attempt with the help of God to discern as a community what practices are wise for our own community.
RON BRUNER is executive director of Westview Boys’ Home in Hollis, Okla. He is collecting stories about faith-sharing across generations. Submit stories to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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| PHOTO BY BOBBY ROSS JR. WEST TEXAS INTERVIEW - At a ministry intern job fair at Lubbock Christian University, a student, left, visits with youth ministers from the Golf Course Road Church of Christ in Midland, Texas. |
“There is simply no way to be prepared to work in a church until you have been mentored and trained in an environment comparable to an internship,” said Robertson, who served last semester as a college ministry intern with the Greenlawn Church of Christ in Lubbock. Brittney Warren, 19, a children’s ministry major, said she gained interview experience and connected with ministers she would not have otherwise. “You can read all about the mission field and ministry from others, and you can take class after class ... but immersing yourself in a ministry can be a completely different playing field,” Warren said. “Being able to have this opportunity better prepares and equips us as students for future ministry.”
MINISTERS AS MENTORS
At Harding University in Searcy, Ark., a ministry fair each January is set up “much like a speed-dating event where students move from table to table during 30-minute interviews,” said Deb Bashaw, director of career services. “We encourage the churches to be open about their programs and where they would fall in what we commonly call ‘conservative to liberal,’” Bashaw said, “so that the students can choose places where they will feel at home philosophically. (That way), the internship can be a good experience for all.” Increasingly, churches hire female as well as male youth ministry interns, said Walter Surdacki, who teaches in the College of Bible and Ministry at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. In fact, he said, “There are far more internships for females than we are able to fill.” Internship programs also allow many non-ministry majors to work with a church for the summer, Surdacki said. “Many non-youth ministry majors find a calling in youth ministry that they may not have otherwise known existed,” he said. “Once they get their hands dirty in the trenches of ministry, they find this is exactly how God has shaped them, and they stick with it.” Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City hosts ministry intern job fairs throughout the year, youth ministry professor Dudley Chancey said. But networking between congregations and Bible professors — to identify talented ministry majors — plays an equally important role, he said. “The smart youth ministers do not wait around for the fairs,” Chancey said. “They call me and ask who is the best girl or guy that needs an internship, and they fly up here ... and hire them.” Many churches wait until after spring break to begin inquiring about interns, he said. That’s too late, in Chancey’s opinion. He urges churches to have a job description and be clear about expectations. “Please mentor them in ministry,” he said of students hired. “The internship is as much for them as it is for the church they are serving.”
EXPERIENCE ON A CHURCH STAFF
Several ministers who interviewed students at Lubbock Christian said they see internships as important to Kingdom building. “Our ability to invest in and raise Christian leaders who desire to serve full time in ministry should not be overlooked,” said Lantz Howard, youth and family minister for the High Pointe Church of Christ in McKinney, Texas. “The universities are preparing them mentally and spiritually for full-time work, but we could help prepare them emotionally and give them real-life experience.” Like Howard, Brandon Baker, youth and family minister for the Western Hills Church of Christ in Temple, Texas, said he places a high value on mentoring the next generation of church leaders. Baker spent time with potential interns at LCU and its West Texas sister college: Abilene Christian University. “Our staff team enjoys the fresh ideas and perspectives that interns bring, and we hope to offer the internship that we wish we had had,” Baker said. “Our hope is that interns experience a summer with us as a legitimate role on a staff team as opposed to a support position that doesn’t reflect the actual role of a minister.” Lubbock Christian has more than 100 Bible majors — 90 percent focused on youth and family ministry, said Steven Bonner, director of LCU’s Youth and Family Ministry Program. “It has always been important, and it is growing in its necessity,” Bonner said of ministry majors interning with churches, “particularly for students to get field experience.” Bonner said he encourages his students to seek church internships — or to work with Christian camps — early in their college years. Internships can help students determine if ministry is right for them, he said. “Sometimes, negative experiences are good experiences as well,” he said. “You tend to learn a lot. ... Some of them come back and say, ‘This wasn’t for me.’ But most of them come back and say, ‘Wow, this was great.’ It affirms their calling, and they drive forward.”
Church-supported ministries partner to take little dresses to Africa
Written by Erik TryggestadChildren in Uganda express thanks for the clothes they received through the Little Dresses for Africa ministry. (Photo via www.littledressesforafrica.org)NBC produced a “Making a Difference” segment in 2010 featuring the ministry, and recently the network produced an update on the work:
Less than 24 hours after our original story aired, Rachel O’Neill sent me a text message: “Crazy! Love it! $2200 in donations so far and emails by the truckload! Lots of great leads to get dresses to the kids. Lots of comments about the fact that I don’t sew. Seems to encourage others with similar lack of skills.” …
Three years ago, Rachel never could have pictured what a success her idea would turn into. She started her project, “Little Dresses for Africa,” in a church basement with five friends. Their initial plan was to sew 1,000 dresses using fabric from pillowcases and send them to needy girls. To date they’ve received and distributed more than 100,000 dresses, many of them much more intricately designed than the original pillowcase patterns they started with. And the dresses keep coming.
Suzi Stephens of the Malawi Project, left, looks over dresses Rachel O'Neill has prepared for distribution in Africa. (Photo via www.malawiproject.org)(I traveled through Malawi in 2009 with Malawi Project coordinator Dick Stephens and wrote stories about the experience for our Global South series.)
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| PHOTO BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD 7 billion souls - Liberian minister David Kolleh says that the earth's rapdly growing population leaves "no doubt that the challenges before the human race are enormous." |
The Christian Chronicle asked church members, ministers and ministry leaders around the world about the population milestone and its implications for Churches of Christ. The survey included questions about natural resources, the increasing diversity of ages on the planet and whether or not the rapidly growing population should create a sense of urgency in Christians to spread the Gospel.
Following is a sampling of responses.
Bill Brant, president, Herald of Truth Ministries:
"While there are 7 billion people in our world, the most striking statistic is that it is estimated that two-thirds — 4.4 to 4.6 billion — still don’t know who my Jesus is.
"Our ancestors are 13 guys who turned the world upside down, which means we still have a lot of telling to do. We must take the words of Jesus to his world, everyday."
David Kolleh, minister in Gbarnga, Liberia:
"More than one million identified species of animals and plants inhabit the earth. Of these, only man can in part control and modify his environment. Because of this ability, he now dominates the earth to an extent probably never before approached by any species. This reproductive potential has been and still is controlled by disease, limitation of the food supply and interspecies competition in the struggle for existence. With the world’s population at 7 billion, there is no doubt that the challenges before the human race are enormous.
"As more people inhabit the earth, the issues of jobs, employment and sustainability become crucial. Urbanization also becomes a problem to tackle. As people continue to rush to urban areas for better life, rural areas are abandoned, leaving aging populations that cannot carry out any development. Overcrowding, street prostitution and crime often increase.
"This therefore calls for action to increase the campaign to reach the souls and design strategies that will cope with the population explosion so that many people are not left abandoned. Every plan should be put into place to tackle the problem of the unsaved."
Denise Dickinson, member of the Grace Chapel Church of Christ in Cumming, Ga.:
"I do not believe that, as Christians, we should feel any more urgency with 7 billion (or the projected 8 billion) than with the 6 billion of past decades. The parable of the lost sheep had the shepherd leaving the 99 for the one lost. We should never feel comfortable turning as a flock and leaving one behind. That doesn't mean they will choose to come with us, but we should try. That is all God asks of us."
George Hall, director, Biblical Institute of Central America:
"We must reach the world with the Gospel! Jesus' apostles were to take the Gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:16).They did it! They preached the gospel to the whole creation (Colossians 1:23). We can do it with very little money, but we can only do it with great resolve. We can only do it by biblical methods."
John Reese, president, World Bible School:
"Jimmie Lovell (the founder of World Bible School) used to say, 'Every person has more right to hear the Gospel once than any person has to hear it twice.' His aim to give every person the opportunity for rescue remains valid. But, in the decades since Jimmie, our lack of focus on the mission has only increased the ratio of those who have never heard to those who have.
"At 7 billion, the task now seems harder than ever. On the other hand, God has given means of communication that are faster and better than ever. The challenge is not in the numbers. The challenge is in our hearts. Will we take the mission seriously this time? Will we focus on spreading the Gospel seed? Are we willing to sacrifice so that others can hear once what we have heard so often?"
Chris Burke, minister in Johannesburg and lecturer at Southern Africa Bible College:
"The urgency doesn’t really change with the rising population. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether we have the faith to do it. The apostle Paul wasn’t deterred by any circumstance but he was motivated as long as the gospel was preached. I like his attitude, ‘What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes and I will rejoice’ (Phil 1:18).
"The church benefits when it has a good mix of generations. When it consists of just older people (like me) then it’s in danger of becoming an old age home. When it’s made up of just young people then it’s little more than a youth group. The church functions like a family and the interaction of generations is healthy. The young motivate the old and the old teach the young.
"I minister in a congregation in Johannesburg with many university students, and so I have seen the benefit of this. We have always had a lot of people in our home and so our children were raised with many generations around the table. They learned to relate to different ages and formed strong values and ideas from the interaction."
Larry Musick, former president of Global Samaritan Resources and coordinator of earthquake relief trips to Japan:
"These numbers encourage me. I'm encouraged because I'm reminded that God's intention for this world's population to grow and expand is working according to his divine plan. I'm also reminded that his divine plan includes a way for everyone to hear the Good News. I know he uses me in his plan to share the Good News! Therefore, I have no worry for the future, but joyful anticipation about what will happen as we submit ourselves to his will in our lives."
Julius Mwambu, evangelist in Mombasa, Kenya:
"It's always good to ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to reach lost souls — and, if we are reaching them, are we giving the right diet?
"Christ said the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. This is what is happening today. ... Most us are in offices and sometimes we reach none, or very few. We need to organize ourselves and form evangelical teams everywhere and try to reach the lost ones with the real message.
"I myself I have a dream. I'm praying to God that, within five years, I may begin a 'Back to the Bible' ministry in which I will be able to move from market to market, holding seminars and teaching the Word of God.
"That's what I'm planning. With God all is possible. Pray for me to achieve this goal."
Remy Kingsley, church member and representative of Metro Manila Ministries:
"It does not bother me about the rise in population since God is in control of everything. It is our duty as Christians to share the Gospel with the lost. People are dying and living everyday. We should be aware of those around us as we continue to be good examples in our deeds and tell them about Christ."
Moses K. Banda, a native of Malawi and student at African Christian College in Swaziland:
"To us as Christians, it's a challenge to push us into service, to help these people depend on God. We need to find good ways to reach them and empower them. They need skills to be strong and self-sustainable. I think we should look at them as a great harvest for God's house.
"We also need to look at issues that draw us apart and dwell on things that draw us closer. Remember the theme of John 17, that they all (the 7 billion souls) may be one just as you and I are one.
"I strongly believe that mission work is still needed in areas like the United States, Sudan, Egypt and many of the 10-40 countries north of the equator. Unity and commitment will help us empower these 7 billion-plus people."
Mark Hooper, facilitator for Asia, Missions Resource Network:
"Of the seven billion souls on the planet, almost 60 percent of them are in Asia. Churches of Christ send only 13 percent of their missionaries to Asia. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
"Thankfully, more Asians are stepping up and saying, “Here am I, send me.” Chinese, Singaporean, Filipino and Indian church members are being sent out as missionaries to other peoples. Pray. Send. Go."
Moses Akpanudo, founder of Obong University, a Christian university in Nigeria:
"The increase in world population to seven billion this year is a great challenge to Christians to reach everyone with the Gospel."
Dick Ady, president, World English Institute:
"It means that there are more and more people who need to hear the Gospel of Christ. It also concerns me that we are not reaching enough of them. It also concerns me that so many Christians think locally rather than globally.
"I am discouraged that we aren't doing more as the people of God to teach them the good news about Christ. I am encouraged that we have such a tremendous opportunity to lead people to Christ.
"I can see why the younger generation (between 18 and 30) focuses on service and responding to human need. At the same time, we must not neglect the Great Commission, which focuses on response to the spiritual needs of people by sharing the good news about Christ with them. The holistic ministry of Jesus included healing and feeding bodies AND spiritual teaching. What shall it profit a man if he gains good health, plenty of food and water and long life if he loses his soul?"
William Singleton, missionary in Cambodia:
"It is and has been the mission of the church (every true Christian on earth) since before Pentecost to take the Gospel to all the earth's population. The Gospel went to the ends of the world in Paul's life time (Rom. 10:18). They did not have modern means of travel or communication, but the first century Christians, through zeal and dedication, accomplished what they had been ordered by God to do. If you love God you keep his commandments.
"We have the same command today, but much more effective and convenient means of travel and communication. If we love God we will keep his commandments also.
"Pauley Sim, an older man I baptized into Christ in 2001, began sharing Jesus almost immediately. Within a year he had over 30 in his home that wanted to be baptized. Since that time he has baptized over 1,800 into Christ. If one person were to teach and convert one person a year and teach them well enough that they would convert one person a year with that pattern continually repeating its self with each convert, that one chain of events would reach the entire world's population in 33 years."
Bob Towell, director of Internet program for World English Institute:
"People are being born faster than Christians are teaching them. However, there is good news: The Internet makes it possible for Christians to teach them. Just as Rome's roads made it possible to spread the Good News of Jesus to the whole Roman Empire in just 30 or 40 years, so the Internet makes it possible to teach every one of the 7 billion people who will study with us even if they reside on the other side of the world.
"Christians need to ask themselves, 'What am I going to present God on Judgment Day? Will it be places I visited? Will it be 'holes-in-one' I scored? Or will it be the hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of people I taught that God will forgive them if they quit sinning, acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, show their sincerity by being immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit and live righteously the rest of their lives trusting in Jesus to save them?"
‘Thrifty’ Tennessee church participates in Christmastime benevolence
Written by Amy McRary |
| Farragut Church of Christ Senior Minister Paul Phelps and his daughter, Abbie Phelps, 12, stack boxes of donated items in the church hallway that are earmarked for KARM as part of a program called Corners of Your Field. |
Knoxville Tenn - The new Knox Area Rescue Ministries program "Corners of Your Field" is based on an Old Testament passage supporters say easily translates to answer today's needs.
Leviticus 19: 9-10 instruct farmers to leave the "corners of your field" unharvested "for the needy and for the stranger" to reap. Convert those Old Testament fields into today's closets, garages, basements and attics filled with excess or unwanted items. That's the idea behind KARM's 21st-century "Corner of Your Field."
The program's a partnership with 42 East Tennessee nonprofits. Most are churches in Knox County, although other groups including Young Life and the Knoxville Opera participate.
The program offers an incentive for congregations to donate used objects members no longer need or use to KARM thrift stores. KARM returns between 1 and 3 percent of the value of the donated goods to the church in the form of "KARM Cares" gift cards. The cards can be used to buy items at any KARM thrift store.
"Churches effectively increase what they are giving by asking their people to consciously give their used household goods to the thrift stores. We turn those items into financial resources," says Pete Zanoni, KARM director of product donations.
Many people give unwanted items based on convenience, KARM Vice President of Development Angie Sledge says. They load up too-small clothes and outgrown toys in their cars and take them to the closest donation spot. Or they give to an organization because it will pick up the items. KARM, Sledge says, wanted to make those donations more about conscious giving, a modern rendition of a farmer leaving parts of his field for others to harvest.
"It's ministry no matter where you turn," Sledge says. "Everybody is benefiting. You donate to the thrift store. The proceeds made by the thrift store support 100 percent the mission of KARM. The stores create jobs and job training. Donors know their gifts are going to be used for something good. The church they belong to gets a benefit by having their benevolence fund enhanced."
Some churches gather items as a congregation for the program; some contribute what's left from rummage sales. Many times individual members bring items to KARM and tell workers which church gets the credit.
The program has increased donations. In 2010 items valued at $39,000 were given KARM stores by donors who listed church affiliations. This year almost $70,000 has been brought in by church members. Zanoni attributes the boost directly to Corners of Your Field. That figure doesn't include the items KARM picked up from churches.
KARM calculates the giveback for gift cards four times a year. Some churches may get $40 in cards, others $300 to $400. Since the program launched in January $10,000 in gift cards have been given participating churches or nonprofits, Zanoni says. He estimates that number will be $12,000 by year's end.
A family who survived a house fire received some cards. Other cards were given to a family a church member knew needed coats and school clothes for their children. Blake used the cards to buy clothing for an elderly woman living in assisted living with limited finances. "She was in tears. She was so happy," recalls Blake.
"The first thing I love about this program is that there is no stigma attached to it. It is a gift card," says Blake. "People are buying what they need in the sizes they want, the style they want. It allows us to give them more financially than we would have been able to otherwise.
"The second reason I love this program is because it is so cyclical, It gives back in so many ways," says Blake. It really is another way that God provides. It reminds me of the (New Testament) story of the loaves and the fishes. God can really make a lot out of a little."
Out Of Money For Crack, Man Snatches Purse During Prayer At Church
Written by AdministratorDecember 6, 2011 - A Flomaton man is charged with stealing a woman’s purse during prayer at a local church because, he told police, he was smoking crack in Century and ran out of money.
The man, later identified as 30-year old Morris Andy Cumbie, walked into the Sunday evening service at the Flomaton Church of Christ about 6:15. Witnesses told Flomaton Police that Cumbie sat down in a pew, and as soon as heads were bowed for the opening prayer, he grabbed a church member’s purse and bolted out the door.
Church members gave chase, but backed off when Cumbie told them that he had a gun, Flomaton Police Chief Geoff McGraw said. He then sped away in Toyota Corolla.
Police turned to technology in an attempt to catch their purse snatcher. The victim’s cellphone was inside the purse; the cellphone company was able to narrow the location of the phone down to the area of Campbell and Old Flomaton roads in Century. Police were unable to locate the phone in the dark, but witnesses did report seeing a Toyota Corolla matching the suspect’s in the area.
“Then I was blessed enough to remember having dealt with Mr. Cumbie before,” McGraw said, “and we went to his house out from Brewton.”
McGraw said Cumbie initially denied any involvement and eventually gave authorities consent to search his home and Toyota Corolla. In the car, police found a bank statement belonging to the victim that had been in her purse.
Cumbie was booked into the Escambia County (Ala.) Detention Center in Brewton on charges of felony first degree robbery and second degree theft of property.
Declining church support concerns Christian children's homes
Written by BOBBY ROSS JR. |
| PHOTO PROVIDED BY SOUTHEASTERN Still a core ministry? - Southeastern Children's Home serves young people in three group homes. |
Boys row out in a boat to catch bass and bream in a spring-fed pond. A beekeeper teaches girls how to cultivate honey.
The home’s residents ride horses as part of therapy and enjoy swing sets, basketball goals and a volleyball court.
As the Christian child-care agency meets physical needs, it fulfills a more important mission: sharing Jesus with children and families, executive director Robert Kimberly said.
“We’ve had eight of our kids become Christians this year, and so it’s been wonderful,” Kimberly said.
Yet he and many colleagues across the nation question if Churches of Christ are as passionate about caring for children in need as they once were.
In a survey of 20 children’s homes in more than a dozen states, The Christian Chronicle found widespread concern about declining church support amid trying economic times and shifting ministry priorities.
“It has been tough to watch as more and more homes have been squeezed out of church budgets,” said Cory Long, CEO of Carpenter’s Place, a girls’ home in Wichita, Kan., “and more and more homes are having to look outside the churches to get support.”
For 50-plus years, children’s homes have been a core ministry of mainstream congregations, said Kimberly, a board member for the Christian Child and Family Services Association. (In the mid-1900s, congregations that opposed church-supported children’s homes became known as non-institutional Churches of Christ.)
But now, the South Carolina church member said, “we’re sort of falling through the cracks.”
“I think a big concern is that fewer and fewer of our dollars are coming from the churches,” said Kimberly, a member of the Central Church of Christ in Spartanburg, east of the small town where Southeastern relocated in 1986. “So the pressure is to go to corporations and maybe even to take state dollars.”
LESS EMPHASIS, LESS SUPPORT?
Growing up in the West Side Church of Christ in Muskogee, Okla., Kenny Holton knew where to look for elder Willis Tudor, husband of his second-grade Sunday school teacher, Alma.
“I fondly remember brother Tudor standing at the main door of the church building every month, with basket in hand after worship, inviting us to ‘put in our change’ for the kids,” Holton said.
The funds benefited Turley Children’s Home — now known as Hope Harbor.
The lesson in giving influenced Holton’s future career: He serves as executive director of Raintree Village children’s home in Valdosta, Ga.
“My experience has been that there has been less and less of an emphasis on Christian child care, which leads to less and less financial support,” Holton said.
Ralph Brewer, president of Potter Children’s Home and Family Ministries in Bowling Green, Ky., said: “I believe the support of children’s homes is directly related to the amount of education which takes place among the churches. God’s emphasis on it used to be taught more than it is today in many churches.”
In many cases, churches have kept supporting children’s homes but not increased the amount, leaders said — even as costs rise to meet increased government regulations and demand for professional caregivers and counseling.
“If they gave $100 a month 50 years ago, we continue to get that amount today,” said Brian L. King, executive director of Tennessee Children’s Home in Spring Hill. “The churches that are more in tune to the changes we have made have been generous in increasing their support.”
Delton McGuire, executive director of Cherokee Home for Children in Texas, said: “Probably a majority are giving the same amount as they gave 30 or 40 years ago. But considering the financial struggles of small, rural congregations, this must still be considered a generous gift.”
Many small congregations still provide “a large and steady part of day-to-day support,” said Ron Bruner, executive director of Westview Boys’ Home in Hollis, Okla.
“Yet as some congregations diminish in attendance and contribution to the point that their financial survival is at stake, they are sometimes forced to the unpleasant necessity of removing such ministries from their budgets,” Bruner said.
CHANGED FOCUS, MORE COMPETITION
Individual congregations have changed their focus, said Micah Brinkley, CEO and executive director of Children’s Homes Inc. in Paragould, Ark.
“I do not necessarily think the passion for ministries like Children’s Homes has changed,” Brinkley said. “It is just having to share the focus with a lot of other equally good ministries.
“Plus, I think a lot of congregations are having to turn inward to keep their members,” he added. “The church is competing today with all the things the world has to offer, so individual churches are having to develop programs and activities that pique the interest of the younger generations in order to keep them engaged.”
Churches desire much more personal involvement with the homes they support, said Glenn Newberry, president and CEO of Foster’s Home for Children in Stephenville, Texas.
“They want to see firsthand the work,” Newberry said. “They want some hands-on activities with our children. We are moving past the day where a church automatically sends a check each month to a post office box. And I agree that all of those changes are good, necessary and healthy.”
Too often, as Kevin McDonald sees it, churches view children’s homes as benevolence, not mission work.
As a result, homes have not received the same level of priority as other outreach efforts, said McDonald, president and CEO of Arms of Hope, which serves at-risk children and single-mother families at three Texas locations.
“In the past three years, we have seen almost 100 program residents in our care claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior through baptism,” McDonald said.
Among the converts: Chris Mayo, 16, baptized last year at the Eastridge Church of Christ in Rockwall, Texas.
Before moving to Boles Children’s Home, part of Arms of Hope, Mayo said he lived in a rundown trailer with drug-addicted parents.
“I remember waking up one night to my 4-year-old brother saying, ‘Bubba, go help Mommy! Daddy’s going to kill her!’” Mayo said. “That was the night God pulled us from that place. He gave me the strength to climb out my window and go call the police.”
SHIFT TO INTERNATIONAL ORPHANGES
In the U.S., the number of child-care agencies associated with Churches of Christ has declined to about 65, down from a peak of about 120, said Harold Shank, national spokesman for the Christian Child and Family Services Association.
A move in many states away from group homes — in favor of foster care, adoption and family reunification — has played a role, too.
At the same time, the last decade has brought “a dramatic rise in international work in child care,” from the creation of orphanages to the adoption of foreign children, said Shank, president of Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W.Va.
“A dollar of support for a domestic children’s home barely buys a bottle of water,” said Ray Crowder, former executive director of Shults-Lewis Child and Family Services in Valparaiso, Ind. “A dollar given to a children’s home in Zambia may buy gallons of water.”
Childhaven Inc. in Cullman, Ala., has seen a “distinct shift” by major donors toward supporting international orphanages, executive director Jim Wright said.
“They see less cost and almost no regulation and find that attractive,” Wright said.
As church funding shrinks, Christian Home and Bible School in Mount Dora, Fla., receives a larger proportion of funding from estate bequests and individual donors, said Chuck Shepherd, director of social services.
“More and more of our donor base continues to age and pass on to glory,” Shepherd said.
ONE TEEN’S ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
Southeastern Children’s Home traces its roots to the Carolina Lectureship in 1968.
That’s when a group of Christians got together and decided to serve needy and homeless children, Kimberly said.
In the beginning, Southeastern drew almost all its support from congregations, he said. But in the first 10 months of 2011, just 13 percent of revenues came from church treasuries.
On the Southeastern campus — located within a 150-mile radius of Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. — boys and girls reside in separate group homes. A few miles away, a third cottage benefits older girls transitioning into adulthood.
Southeastern also operates a community counseling center that serves a few hundred clients a year.
For eight years, Janice Axsom and her husband, Tony, have served as houseparents. Four girls — ages 17 to 20 — live with them in the transitional cottage and worship with the Central church.
The Axsoms and the girls stay busy with youth group activities. They travel to youth rallies and Palmetto Bible Camp in Marietta, S.C.
“Many of them have been baptized,” Janice Axsom said of the two dozen girls she has welcomed, “some of them in the swimming pool at the house.”
Jesse Roach, 15, came to live at Southeastern when a state caseworker removed him from his drug-infested home.
At Bible camp last year, he made the decision to accept Christ.
“I’m probably a lot stronger than I was before, both physically and emotionally,” Roach said of how he has changed since his baptism. “I used to have a bad attitude and all that. Now, I really don’t.”
Mississippi church supports Ferguson family in time of grief
Written by Bobby Ross Jr.
Les and Karen Ferguson, with Conner, Casey and Cole. Not pictured is the Ferguson's oldest son, Kyle.
The Sun Herald in Gulfport, Miss., reports:
GULFPORT — There are no words that can help Minister Les Ferguson and his family deal with the recent deaths of his wife, Karen, and son Cole. Ferguson and his sons Casey, Conner and Kyle are in mourning but are supported with love by the members of Orange Grove Church of Christ, where Ferguson is the minister.
“I want to thank everyone,” Ferguson said. “My church family was just here and took over my needs that could be met. I am leaning on them and God. I have not been alone and have not had to do things on my own. I am very grateful to everyone. The church has allowed me to take as much time as I need before returning to the pulpit.”
Elder Bob Boyd arrived on the scene in the Kenwood subdivision on Oct. 10 shortly after he heard the news that there was trouble at the Ferguson home.
“One of the most powerful statements was the presence that the church family and friends made immediately following the tragedy,” Boyd said. “Over half of the congregation was in the neighborhood. Vehicles lined both sides of the street and they were all there to support the family.”
River City Ministry teams with local mayors in the so-called 'meanest city to the homeless.'
I see her standing on the corner of Broadway and Hickory, open for business, if you know what I mean. Tisha is trapped in … prostitution to pay for prescription pills." Anthony Wood is describing one of the 100+ people he sees every day in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The skinny, wild-eyed woman trying to "get a date" to help support her drug habit looks like a hopeless case. Yet in the eyes of Wood—assistant director of River City Ministry (RCM) in North Little Rock—Tisha bears God's image. Until she and others like her are flourishing, his city can't flourish.
Prior to 2004, Little Rock, Arkansas, was probably best known for giving America her 42nd President. But that year, the National Coalition for the Homeless gave Little Rock a different claim to fame: "the meanest city to the homeless." According to a report in USA Today, the designation was given, in part, "to deter the city from conducting a police sweep of homeless people" before the Clinton Presidential Library opened that year. For Wood, who has spent over two decades working with poor, homeless, and incarcerated individuals (serving in Little Rock and North Little Rock since 2007), the title was a call to action.
RCM , which grew out of a local Church of Christ in 1989, provides many services found at most shelters: showers, hot meals six days a week, laundry, medical attention, and help finding housing, as well as case management, mail services, rehab referrals, and life and job skills training—"most anything a person would need to get started back in life," says Wood, 52, who holds a Doctorate of Ministry from Harding School of Theology and co-authored Up Close and Personal: Embracing the Poor. This is all part of a holistic effort to offer immediate help as well as long-term transformation for Little Rock's homeless population.
Back in 2004, when some sources estimated the number of homeless adults in Little Rock at over 2,000, the city had one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. In response, the mayors of Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Jacksonville gathered to draft at 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness. They created the Homeless Day Resource Center, hiring a homeless coordinator, team social workers, and related staff. "This was the first time the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock allocated significant funding into their budgets to address the needs of the homeless," says Wood. This was also an opportunity for faith-based and government services to work together. RCM partnered with Central Arkansas Team Care for the Homeless, which brings together service providers, offering holistic services to the homeless.
Correlating efforts to address homelessness on both micro- and macro-levels, in 2008, the commission selected RCM as the temporary location of the Day Resource Center. "As part of the contract with the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, [local government] provides city funds to transport the homeless from overnight shelters to our facility for services we offer during the day," says Wood. Since 2008, RCM has received $267,000 per year from the city. Beginning this January, the Union Rescue Mission will be the Center's permanent home.
Wood reports that more mental health services, better connections with local rehab facilities (such as Recovery Center of Arkansas), permanent housing through HUD, and broader medical attention are now available because they are networked with government agencies and grant funding. "A good number of Tishas now have their own homes, enjoy good jobs, and have ended drug dependency," he says. RCM says that in 2009 alone, over 100 individuals moved from the streets into permanent housing.
Additionally, two new nonprofits have followed in River City Ministry's footsteps. HopeWorks, a personal and career development program designed to help the chronically unemployed, teaches and models life and job skills necessary to gaining meaningful employment. And Hand Up Housing offers recovering addicts a stable Christian residential environment in which men may gain employment, save funds, and grow in Christ while overcoming destructive behaviors.
For someone to truly flourish, his or her humanity must be acknowledged and restored, says Wood. "The poor and homeless want friendship, a place to belong, and real life, like everyone else. At RCM, we want these forgotten people, whom society tends to write off, to have the opportunity for the life God intended for them."
Thanks to their collaborating with local government agencies, says Jimmy Pritchett, the City of Little Rock's Homeless Services Coordinator, "With regard to Little Rock being top of the list as the meanest city to the homeless, today we're not even on the list."
Christy Tennant is director of engagement for the This Is Our City project.
'Christ' in Christmas?: Churches of Christ and the holiday season
Written by BOBBY ROSS JR.
Jim Hackney, minister for the Heritage Church of Christ in Keller, Texas, said Churches of Christ“missed out on a lot” by not observing Christmas in any kind of religious way.
“However, over the years, we have been able to change that,” Hackney said. “Visitors come to our church on Christmas expecting to hear about the birth of Jesus. We don’t disappoint them. It’s too important to reach out in a positive way at that time.”
But some remain steadfastly opposed to connecting Christ with Christmas.
Glynna Hartman, a member of the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, has been known to walk out of service to avoid singing "Silent Night" at Christmas after ignoring it the rest of the year.
A Christian for more than 60 years, Hartman blames churches’ increasing comfort with Christmas on“secularism creeping into a congregation.” While her family exchanges holiday gifts, she refrains from calling it “Christmas.”
“I am very careful about using God’s name and Christ’s name because I don’t want to put it in vain,” she said.
E. Dean Kelly, minister for the Highland Home Church of Christ in Alabama, said he has no problem preaching about Jesus’ birth 52 weeks a year. However, if it’s in the holiday season, he’ll stress that Christmas is not a biblical holiday, he said.
Instead, Kelly said he explains that Christians are told to celebrate the savior’s death, burial and resurrection with the Lord’s Supper every Sunday.
“I am grieved that so many are being drawn into thinking like and imitating the denominational world around us,” Kelly said. “It is a fact that we are not told to celebrate the birth of Jesus, though it is a very important fact of Scripture.”
But he said, “To keep a holiday as a civil and personal holiday is not unscriptural nor sinful — unless we cause ourselves to offend our conscience.”
FOR PAGANS OR PREACHERS?
Christmas, or“Christ’s Mass,” was adopted in the fourth century by Roman Emperor Constantine to encourage a common religious festival for Christians and Pagans.
Growing up in Caldwell, Idaho, John Free said his parents and grandparents taught him that Christmas was“something for Catholics and the denomoninations that did not embrace the idea that the silence of the Scriptures was to be respected as much as the precise words of the Scripture.”
But Free said the Sunny Hills Church of Christ in Fullerton, Calif., where he serves as an elder, views Christmas as a time to celebrate Jesus’ birth and tell his story.
“So Christmas carols are sung in our worship service on the Sunday closest to Christmas, and the sermons typically focus on that part of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke,” he said. “There is usually a disclaimer that we really don’t know when Jesus was born, but that is about as far as we go to reassure our more conservative members.”
Glover Shipp, a former longtime missionary who is an elder for the Edmond Church of Christ in Oklahoma, said he has mixed feelings about how to approach Christmas.
“To celebrate Christmas without Christ, making Santa the chief person in it, doesn’t make sense,” Shipp said. “However, it may not make sense to bow to the mixture of Pagan and Catholic traditions about Christmas.”
HEY, IS THAT AN EASTER DRESS?
Amy Smith, office assistant for the Nashua Church of Christ in New Hampshire, recalls that her family didn’t celebrate Christmas or Easter as religious holidays. Her mother would make her a new dress around Easter, she said.
“But I wouldn’t wear it for the first time on Easter Sunday, so as not to confuse my friends that I might be celebrating Easter,” said Smith, who likes that her congregation embraces both holidays as opportunities.
Lora Isenberg, communications director for the Rochester Church of Christ in Rochester Hills, Mich., said she, too, experienced the “don’t talk about Jesus” approach.
"I’m grateful to be worshiping at a church now that takes a different approach and uses this holiday to celebrate Jesus’ birth and, in turn, reach out to the community,”Isenberg said.As a boy, Tom Riley, minister for the Canyon Church of Christ in Anthem, Ariz., sold enough Christmas cards to earn a tool belt one year and a BB gun the next.
“For some of my most devout Christian customers, I knew to show them the secular cards,” Riley said. “Santa and Frosty hit the spot.”
These days, Riley’s congregation goes Christmas caroling, and he said he has “developed a voracious appetite for study of the birth of Jesus around Christmas.”
“People want to celebrate what God did,” he said. “So I’ve tried many ways to use Christmas as a time of beautiful, simple, low-pressure outreach.”
Christmas decorations adorn the North Central Church of Christ in Indianapolis, where minister David Mangum said he develops messages themed around Jesus’birth.
Similarly, the church focuses on moms on Mother’s Day and Christ’s resurrection on Easter, taking advantage of the calendar to reach the culture, Mangum said.
“I have long considered that it is not ‘unscriptural’to read Luke 2 in December,” he said. Suggesting that it is “just makes us look more quirky, not more faithful.”Teaching church leadership in a land needing leaders
Written by John R Irby
NORTH DAKOTA CONFERENCE - Calvin Chapman from Faith, S.D., speaks at the 45th annual Bismarck Church Leaders Workshop.
BISMARCK, N.D. — Churches of Christ often think of the Great Commission as a call to take the soul-saving Gospel to Africa, China, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.
But mission fields exist everywhere — just around the corner, close to home or just a few states away from the Bible Belt, in places like North Dakota, population 675,000.
Christians from across the region gathered in the capital city of the “Peace Garden State” for the 45th annual Bismarck Church Leaders Workshop. Preachers, elders and members came from North Dakota, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Canada.
The theme, “Goads and Nails,” came from Ecclesiastes 12:11: “The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.”
The workshop’s goal is to encourage ministers, elders and future leaders in the Northern Plains — a land that is “skinny” on leadership, said Scott Laird, the workshop’s director and minister for the Great Falls Church of Christ in Montana.
“The majority up here have grown up in the North,” Laird said. “The idea of staying here is a struggle” for those that migrate from other parts of America. “If we don’t grow our own leadership we are not typically blessed with many new members.”
The cold weather, sparse population and abundance of Catholics and Lutherans, buoyed by years of German and Scandinavian migration, often are credited with adding to the Church of Christ’s struggle in this wide-open mission field.
The largest congregation in North Dakota is in Bismarck. The church averages a Sunday morning attendance of about 60 men, women and children and has a full-time minister.
The church in Minot, with about 50 members, was without a full-time evangelist until recently. Only five other congregations exist in the state — a 25-member church in Mandan, churches of about 40 members each in Grand Forks, Fargo and Dickinson and a 50-member church in Williston. None of these has a full-time preacher.
Though small, “North Dakota churches are tough,” Laird said. “You can’t kill them off. People keep on going and serving even though they don’t get a lot of encouragement from outside. Their Christianity is real and important.”
The Great Falls church has almost 250 members. Laird credits that to longtime leadership and an influence from the Air Force base there.
Calvin Chapman, from Faith, S.D., told a story of what goaded a mentor of his into a long life as an evangelist. Chapman and the older preacher were riding in a car, approaching a funeral home.
Chapman asked the preacher what kept him going. After a pause, the man pointed to the funeral home and said he was still preaching because he wasn’t sure everyone who ended up there was ready to be there.
“God uses us to bring light and life to the darkness around us,” Chapman said. “The work of a preacher is to bring about the will of God.”
Bismarck minister Walter Clark said there isn’t much knowledge about the Church of Christ in North Dakota. While not blaming the state’s history and culture, he, like many others, is aware of a “stubbornness” that can play a role in openness to change.
“We need to push for every member to understand they are ministers of the Word and make themselves available to opportunities God may be bringing into their paths,” Clark said.
North Dakota’s growing population provides new opportunities to reach lost souls.
The state is experiencing an oil boom, and new jobs are being created in the energy industry. Unemployment is less than 1 percent in the “oil patch” and about 3 percent statewide. Some fast-food restaurants are paying people $15 an hour to flip burgers. Those who can turn a wrench, drill or fracture a well or drive an oil tanker can make much more.
But what these cash-rich immigrant workers need most is God — not the whiskey pubs and strippers, said workshop participants.
Bruce Goodwin, of Eden Prairie, Minn., summarized the urgent need to reach lost souls in the Northern Plans in the event’s final session.
“Each day we walk among the (spiritually) wounded,” he said. “The word ‘grace’ is experienced so much that the word ‘obedience’ can’t be heard. People don’t know they are living in darkness because that’s all they know.”
JOHN R. IRBY is a member of the Bismarck Church of Christ. He retired recently after more than 40 years as a newspaper editor, publisher and university journalism professor.
