Insights from two influential theologians, Augustine and David Lipscomb, provide valuable guidance for Christian engagement in the political process. Augustine, in his book “The City of God,” introduced the concept of dual citizenship: the “City of God” and the “City of Man.”

While Christians live in the earthly city, their ultimate allegiance is to the heavenly city. This dual citizenship requires engaging in worldly affairs, including politics, with a mindset oriented toward Christian principles.

Under Augustine’s guidance, we are encouraged to participate in politics to promote justice, peace and the common good. Augustine acknowledged human government’s imperfections but believed Christians should work within these systems to reflect God’s justice and priorities.

Related: On Episode 78 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast, two Christians — Shay Cathey, a Democrat from Texas; and Michele Woodhouse, a Republican from North Carolina — discuss their approaches to politics.

His approach recognized that no earthly government will ever be perfect, yet Christians have a duty to advocate for policies that align with their values, such as protecting the vulnerable and promoting ethical governance. This active political engagement seeks the common good in a fallen world while holding firm to your ultimate place in God’s Kingdom.

In contrast, David Lipscomb, a prominent figure in Churches of Christ, advocated for a more separatist approach in his book “Civil Government.” Lipscomb argued that human governments are inherently corrupt and that Christians should refrain from participating in political processes, including voting.

David Lipscomb, right, co-founded Lipscomb University with James A. Harding, left, as the Nashville Bible School in 1891.

He believed that Christians should focus on the Kingdom of God and live out their faith apart from worldly political systems. His views have powerfully shaped our churches and our consciences since the late 1800s.

Lipscomb’s view was that Christians should avoid entanglement with governmental affairs, seeing such involvement as compromising their spiritual integrity. He suggested that true allegiance to God’s Kingdom requires complete separation from the political machinations of the world.

In Oklahoma, a line of voters three-hours long stretches around the Edmond Church of Christ building during early balloting in 2016.

This perspective emphasizes the importance of living out Christian values through personal conduct and communal life rather than through political means. His approach calls for Christians to demonstrate their faith through acts of love, charity and peaceful living, rejecting the use of political power to achieve their goals.

Often, one of these two views — Augustine’s or Lipscomb’s — are present in the people we meet in our churches. It can be helpful while listening to someone think politically to ask which approach they are taking.

But what about your own thinking? Both Augustine and Lipscomb help us think about politics. While Lipscomb’s emphasis on nonparticipation highlights the dangers of political idolatry and corruption, Augustine’s approach offers a practical framework for engaging in politics without losing sight of one’s ultimate allegiance to God.

In the end, Christians should engage in prayerful discernment, seeking God’s guidance in their political choices. Following Lipscomb, we might affirm that government, though instituted by God, is imperfect at best and harmful at worst, a point which calls for measured participation and taking care not to idolize the political choices we make.

Following Augustine, we should evaluate candidates and policies critically, considering how they align with our Christian values and principles.

Informed by both thinkers, we should participate in the political process where it can promote the common good and reflect Christian ethics, while maintaining a critical distance from political idolatry. Both thinkers would encourage us to see that our ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God.

MATTHEW DOWLING is preaching minister for the Plymouth Church of Christ in Michigan and a hospital chaplain working in the surgical ICU and oncology floors at Trinity Health Ann Arbor hospital.

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The post Thinking about politics appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

The Honduran native understands the importance of elections — that Central American country’s former President Juan Orlando Hernández was recently convicted in a U.S. trial for his role in drug trafficking.

Carlos Estrada

That’s why Estrada encourages all citizens to exercise their voting rights in the face of corruption, and he counsels church members — younger ones, especially — to examine their political beliefs against the message of the Gospel.

But he never wants to give the impression that they should vote a certain way — in fact, he tries to avoid speaking about political issues from the pulpit entirely, even indirectly.

“If I want to mention something, I will talk about the Kingdom of God and how we are under the rule of the King of heavens,” Estrada told The Christian Chronicle.

While he and fellow Northwest ministers Patrick Odum and Paul Chae come to American politics from different perspectives, they agree that its only place in their preaching is in the context of the Kingdom.

“Our response tends to be not how do you vote — our response tends to be what do you do?” said Odum, who primarily preaches for the congregation’s English-speaking Black and White members. “How do you show love in those circumstances?”

Keeping ‘politics in perspective’

During another divisive political season, preachers in Churches of Christ across the nation are expressing similar messages.

Orpheus Heyward, preacher for the Renaissance Church of Christ in Atlanta, said he’s making sure church members “keep politics in perspective.”

Orpheus J. Heyward leads a roundtable discussion of “Church Music and Church Growth” during the Nehemiah Next Level Up Summit.

“That simply means when I do speak about it, I speak about it from the perspective of, the Christian faith will never find a political party that lines up with the standards that have been revealed by the apostles — that as we engage politics, we have to do so recognizing its limitations,” Heyward told the Chronicle.

“I often try to keep our church very realistic about the political realm and what it means to be part of a political party,” he added. “They need to be mindful that these things have precious little to do with God’s agenda, although God is able to use all things for his purpose.”

Walnut Street minister Chris McCurley, center, prays during a small-group meeting at his Tennessee home.

Likewise, Chris McCurley, preacher for the Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson, Tenn., reminds his fellow Christians that their Kingdom is not of this world.

“So while you can be active in politics, and while you have a voice and a vote and all those kind of things, just remember its place,” he said. “We know who sits on the throne. And at the end of the day, I’m a monarchist. Jesus is my king, and that’s where I land.

“And I try to present that so that folks understand politics is part of a man-made kingdom, a man-made system. And those systems always fail. They always become corrupt — I think the Bible shows us that.”

Voting with faith

At the same time, ministers are not ignorant of the impact elections have and the concerns people of faith have about who’s in the White House and other positions of government.

Robin Gough preaches for the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

“There’s almost a belief that a particular party … secures my future because at the base level, we’re human, and we are very concerned about protecting our own little sphere of influence,” said Robin Gough, minister for the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia. “If we just put the right person in the office of the White House, then everything’s going to be better.”

But it’s important that Christians not be motivated by fear and let their faith shape the way they interact with politics — not the other way around — he added.

“I want to speak (about) what’s going to build up the church,” Gough said. “Even though I love my country, and I vote and all those things, I’m not interested in making sure America is sustained as much as I am that the Kingdom of God is growing  — and sometimes those are at odds.”

David Duncan, preacher for the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston, agrees that the best way to influence how Christians navigate the election season is to just keep preaching Jesus.

“Politics do form people, there’s no doubt,” he said. “But what I want to do is continually preach Jesus and the principles of the Gospel. … If we are preaching and teaching those principles, then the way I treat my neighbor or the way I vote or the way I handle stress in my life — those things will eventually handle themselves if a person is truly being transformed in the image and likeness of Jesus.”

Related: Hear ministers Jerrard Davis of Spencer, Okla., Robin Gough of Fairfax, Va., and David Duncan of Houston discuss how they — as preachers — are maneuvering the 2024 election season on Episode 74 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast.

Striving for unity, not division

Patrick Odum

Ministers are also aware of the strain politics can put on relationships — in and outside the church.

“I think one of the things we have a responsibility for is to help people navigate how to disagree without turning guns on each other — metaphorically or otherwise,” said Odum, one of the Northwest ministers. “And recognize that we’re not united by voting the same way or believing the same thing politically. We’re united by what Jesus has done and by our citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

“And so we have a different standard as Christians, and we need to consider that. And unfortunately, that has not been something that Christians have done well in our country.”

The third Northwest preacher, Chae, said even the Korean members to whom he primarily ministers become divided over American politics.

Paul Chae

“We don’t want to argue in the church,” Chae said, “so we usually don’t want to (discuss) any political issue.”

Duncan, the Memorial preacher, remembers when Houston Christians left churches during the last election because of perceived political leanings of sermons and Bible classes.

That’s why he avoids talking about certain issues even in private conversations.

“I do not want to split the body of Jesus, and so, above everything, I’ve got to remember that’s what’s important,” Duncan said. “The country is not eternal, and this election is not eternal.”

Trusting in God

While Estrada, Odum, Heyward, McCurley and other ministers agree that Christians are privileged — but not obligated — to vote, they say God is still in control no matter who wins.

“Whoever’s in the White House, whoever’s leading, we’re just going to roll with the punches,” said Jerrard Davis, minister for the Spencer Church of Christ, east of Oklahoma City. “Maybe the candidate that we voted for, maybe the candidate that we did not vote for — either way, our hope and our trust doesn’t lie in a governmental position. Our trust and hope relies on God.”

That means, Davis added, that Christians have a duty to support their leaders spiritually even if not politically.

“Whoever God places in that position, I’m going to pray for them,” he said. “I’m going to encourage the members to pray for them. And it’s our responsibility to do our best to convert people to Jesus, not to a political figure. So we have to just stand right there and say we fight where God wants us to fight.”

Ultimately, McCurley, the Walnut Street preacher, said his duty is only to preach the Gospel — regardless of what’s going on in the world.

“When it comes to guiding people through a political season, I’m trying to guide them through any season,” he said, “and by doing that, getting them to focus properly and to remember where our hope lies. …

“Our responsibility as Christians, No. 1, is to be the agency by which the story of salvation is to be told. … And so I think my job is always to kind of refocus us, no matter what season it is, to remember that this world is not our home.”

CALVIN COCKRELL is the media editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adults minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

The post Kingdom over country appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

I was two weeks old when I first attended.

Except for the crazy COVID-19 period, I’ve spent most every Lord’s Day in the pews.

In two decades with The Christian Chronicle, I’ve reported from all 50 states and 18 countries (I’m only 74 countries behind Erik Tryggestad).

Given what I know, I have a pretty good idea when certain articles are going to be controversial.

Such is the case with our profile of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction. Walters, a member of the North MacArthur Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, has been on the Chronicle’s radar for a while. But we had not written about him until now.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, listens to a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Our reason for the delay: We focus on news of national and international significance, and we deemed Walters a state official. But we also knew reporting on such a divisive figure would ignite a firestorm — a prospect we did not relish.

However, Walters burst into the national headlines with his mandate to teach the Bible in every Oklahoma classroom. This changed our perspective. We are a newspaper, after all, and he is a part of our fellowship. We could not ignore the story.

So we attempted to report on Walters as fairly and accurately as possible, reflecting his perspective as well as that of his critics — and including as much relevant context as space would allow.

A few readers accused us of promoting Walters’ policies. A few on the other side charged us with anti-MAGA bias.

But most praised the delicate way we handled a difficult subject.

We are extremely grateful for that encouragement.

While we don’t claim journalistic perfection, we strive — with a lot of prayer and reliance on our Savior — to report real news in a way that honors God.

While we don’t claim journalistic perfection, we strive — with a lot of prayer and reliance on our Savior — to report real news in a way that honors God.

Another story that generated controversy is our feature on a Tennessee church that sold its building, reallocated the money to various ministries and launched a new, community-focused congregation in a public school.

As we note in our report, this less traditional congregation worships with instruments and allows increased roles for women. We discovered those practices, which vary from most Churches of Christ, during our reporting process.

Again, some accused us of promotion. But that is not our intent. Again, our role is to report the facts as fairly and accurately as possible. Readers deserve to be informed. Faithful Christians can make their own judgments about doctrinal matters, based on their Bible study and understanding of God’s word.

We have said this often, but it bears repeating: We are not a teaching or doctrinal publication. We are a newspaper with news and opinion content in clearly labeled sections.

We thank you for your readership and support. We pray that God will bless you. And we ask that you pray that he keeps blessing the Chronicle, as he has for 81 years.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

The post Reporting on controversies appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Before I got my start in religion reporting 25 years ago, I covered education news for The Oklahoman, the daily newspaper in Oklahoma City.

Way back in 1997, I did a piece on the national debate over teaching the Bible in public schools.

The top of the front page of the Nov. 19, 1997, edition of The Oklahoman.

In 1999, I delved into the hot-button topic of school vouchers. The question: Should parents be able to tap public funding to send children to religious schools?

A quarter-century later, the culture wars over such issues have not disappeared.

If anything, such fights have intensified.

Just this week, USA Today’s Kayla Jimenez and Murray Evans explored why GOP leaders in states such as Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas are pushing religion in public schools. (Full disclosure: Evans is a former Christian Chronicle correspondent and was a roommate of mine in our Oklahoma Christian University days.)

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In a similar piece, Reuters’ Liya Cui and Joseph Ax tackled “How U.S. public schools became a new religious battleground.”

For my part, my background in education and religion writing came in handy as I profiled Ryan Walters for the Chronicle. Walters is Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, overseeing a $4 billion-a-year educational system with 700,000 students.

This summer, a week after Louisiana leaders directed every classroom to display the Ten Commandments, Walters ignited a national furor with a mandate requiring Oklahoma schools to incorporate the Bible into academic instruction.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, listens to a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

For those seeking to understand the wrangling over religion in public schools, consider these three questions:

1. What do politicians such as Walters mean when they talk about “putting the Bible back in our schools?”

The Pew Research Center offers an excellent primer on the history of battles over religion in America’s schools.

A crucial chunk of context from Pew:

Conflicts over religion in school are hardly new. In the 19th century, Protestants and Catholics frequently fought over Bible reading and prayer in public schools. The disputes then were over which Bible and which prayers were appropriate to use in the classroom. Some Catholics were troubled that the schools’ reading materials included the King James version of the Bible, which was favored by Protestants. In 1844, fighting broke out between Protestants and Catholics in Philadelphia; a number of people died in the violence and several Catholic churches were burned. Similar conflicts erupted during the 1850s in Boston and other parts of New England. In the early 20th century, liberal Protestants and their secular allies battled religious conservatives over whether students in biology classes should be taught Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Check out the full primer (it’s an easy and relatively quick read) for helpful insight on various U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning prayer and religion in schools.

Do note this: The Pew piece was published in 2019 so doesn’t include more recent cases such as a Washington state high school football coach winning the right in 2022 to kneel on the field for postgame prayer.

2. Why is the push for placing the Ten Commandments and the Bible in public school classrooms happening now?

Reuters noted:

The movement is fueled by opposition to what conservatives call liberal curriculums, including a focus on diversity and LGBT rights, and by the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent as it moves American law rightward.

A critic of Walters whom I interviewed — Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McBride, who is a Republican and a longtime Southern Baptist — voiced concern that classrooms have become battlefields.

“I want people to go to school and learn reading, writing and arithmetic and not have the distraction of having to be taught the Bible in school,” McBride told me. “But I don’t want the gay pride flag in the classroom either.”

I quoted Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at religious liberty law firm Becket, in my recent Weekend Plug-in column on released time religious instruction.

Attorney Lori Windham, an Abilene Christian University graduate, is a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

Such programs, as you may recall, allow students to be released from public schools during the school day to study the Bible or another religious text, such as the Quran or the Book of Mormon. A 1952 Supreme Court decision set the legal precedent that governs released time.

“The Supreme Court approved released time back in the 1950s when you had a very separationist Supreme Court that was really policing the boundaries of religion in schools,” said Windham, a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia. “Now we have courts who recognize that religious expression in schools is OK.”

To put it another way: The court’s conservative majority gives religious mandates in states such as Louisiana and Oklahoma “a better shot at prevailing,” according to a prominent law professor quoted by USA Today.

The post Culture wars turn classrooms into battlefields appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

I know. He includes instructions in the admonition. Regardless, the flipside must certainly be, “Don’t look down on anyone because they are young.”

But we do. And it’s killing us. Young people are leaving, losing heart, losing sight of all they could accomplish for the Lord if we will let them.

I spent my entire career — before I retired and began a new one — on a university campus surrounded in succession by Generation X, the millennials (also known as Generation Y) and Generation Z. And I loved them. And not just the two 30-somethings who bring their clans to have Christmas morning with Mom.

Cheryl Mann Bacon with her son Michael Bacon and daughter Kate Ashby at a Texas Rangers game.

I loved their energy, their quirkiness, their questions, their neuroses. I loved their commitment to each other — and to better health and a better world. 

Their priorities challenged me. Their artistry awed me. I like to think they kept me young and open to new ideas. I loved how they embraced Jesus’ love for the least of these. At least a few of them seemed to love me back. And welcome some wisdom and instruction from me as well, a welcome I treasured.

Friends knew I’d object when they complained about some young employee’s flagging enthusiasm or about the pierced and tattooed barista. Or about one who wandered into church, shall we say, casually attired. 

Meh. I just loved them. And I learned a lot from them, including how to use “Meh.”

I also remembered that in the 1970s — now that was a weird time to come of age — the Greatest Generation was not thrilled about the baby boomers. And despite the complaints of those before and after us, we turned out all right, too.

Beyond the Starbucks counter and Sunday morning faded jeans, I’ve also seen Christians shake a worried head at the prospect of someone in their late 30s or early 40s becoming a church elder or filling a pulpit previously occupied by someone a generation or two older. 

“They’re so young.” 

Exactly. 

Young, but older than Jesus. Young, but older than the apostles. Young, but older than David or Esther or Mary or . . . well, you get the point. I hope.

Ageism is not limited to condescending descriptors of those who qualify for AARP cards. 

Most of us of a certain age have more or less earned the devotion or derision that comes our way. We’ve had our chance to be noble and wise and worthy of respect. Or not. Years accumulated do not entitle us to disrespect or deride the generations that follow us. Years accumulated are just that — years. 

On Aug. 29, I’ll have accumulated 70 of them. Zero birthdays can be a bit jolting. But I’m resolved to do this time what I tried to do at 30, 40, 50 and 60 — embrace it. Like all those other zeroes, 70 brings some privileges, and one of them is expressing opinions on what birthdays may mean. 

Are Joe and Donald too old to be president? Yes. 

Would it be good for many elderships to rotate in some younger, qualified leaders? Yes. 

Can young ministers preach the word in season and out of season, with power and relevance and compassion? Yes. I hear one every Sunday.

A more informed populace would have understood that the Founding Fathers, save Benjamin Franklin, were mostly very young men, an understanding that might have spared us the better part of a decade arguing about two old White guys.

And a more informed fellowship should understand that young people are not “the future of the church,” as we too often say with a wink. They are today’s church. And our willingness to anoint them, encourage them and yes, follow them, is not a failure but a sign that we are not afraid to embrace the zeroes.

Want to celebrate my birthday with me? Take a young person to lunch or coffee. Refrain from sharing your wisdom. Just listen. And let me know what you learn.

Want to celebrate my birthday with me? Take a young person to lunch or coffee. Refrain from sharing your wisdom. Just listen. And let me know what you learn.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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Then again, it’s not trying to be.

The church plant — which grew out of the Hermitage Church of Christ, a half-century-old congregation that closed in 2018 — seeks to reach a new generation with the Gospel.

Located about 20 minutes east of downtown Nashville in Hermitage, New Garden meets in a middle school auditorium. A member of the praise team strums a guitar. Women as well as men speak from the stage.

New Garden Church members partake of the Lord’s Supper each Sunday.

“We often say that too many churches are known for what they’re against, but we want to be known for what we’re for,” lead minister Michael Clinger explains in a video on the church website.

“We may be small in number, but we are a group of people from different generations who are committed to being in relationship with God, with each other and with our community,” adds Madeline Clinger, Michael’s wife and a part-time ministry staff member.

In just a few years, New Garden — which averages Sunday attendance of about 70 — has become known for serving its community.

Five times a year, the church feeds hundreds of neighbors through a large mobile grocery giveaway. 

Members provide back-to-school supplies and volunteer as mentors at DuPont Tyler Middle School, the low-income school where the church worships.

In addition, New Garden organizes holiday meals and year-round snacks for the teachers and helps with special events for the community.

“I truly cannot say enough about what a blessing they are to our faculty and staff,” assistant principal Dawn Roberts said. “The love of Christ most definitely shines through in all they do.”

The praise team leads worship at the New Garden Church, which meets in a school auditorium in Hermitage, Tenn.

Growth and decline

The Hermitage Church of Christ formed in the 1940s on the outskirts of Nashville.

By 1967, when members opened a large new building at a busy intersection, average Sunday attendance approached 500.

“The building site chosen by the Hermitage congregation is considered by planners to be one of the most ideal church locations in the Nashville area from the standpoint of accessibility and growth potential,” The Christian Chronicle reported in February 1967. “The Hermitage community, which will be served by the congregation, is one of the fastest growing areas in Davidson County.”

Eventually, the Sunday count topped 800, said Andy Borchers, a former Hermitage member who made the transition to New Garden, about a half-mile away.

But by the mid-2010s, Hermitage — like a lot of churches nationwide — found itself in decline. 

The flock grayed. The membership number fell to a few hundred. The cost to maintain the half-century-old facility rose.

Andy Borchers, pictured outside the school auditorium where the New Garden Church meets in Hermitage, Tenn., reflects on the congregation’s history.

“We were looking at $3,000 a week just to open the doors and not really seeing a lot of ministry,” Borchers said. 

“We had maintenance issues. We had roof leaks. We had mold in the building,” he added. “We were just scraping by, and the bank account was always tight.”

“We had maintenance issues. We had roof leaks. We had mold in the building. We were just scraping by, and the bank account was always tight.”

The Hermitage church faced tough decisions about its future, said Blair Bryan, board chairman for Heritage21, a consulting ministry that helps congregations with financial and legal issues.

“Instead of waiting until the congregation had lost all momentum and could only serve itself while their building slowly deteriorated around them,” Bryan said of Hermitage leaders, “they determined to be proactive and become a congregation that could effectively impact their community for Christ.”

Ja’ziyah and Lily, both 3 years old, greet each other before the New Garden Church’s Sunday assembly.

Reinvesting resources

Hermitage closed in 2018 and sold its building for $1.65 million in 2019 to the Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church, according to property records.

The congregation used the proceeds to benefit various ministries, Borchers said, from Kairos Church Planting to World Christian Broadcasting to Healing Hands International.

And Hermitage reinvested some of the funds to launch New Garden, including spending $100,000 to renovate the DuPont Tyler school auditorium, he noted. In exchange, the school district gave the church five years of free rent.

The new cushioned seats replaced old wooden folding chairs that were in poor condition.

“It’s a win-win deal,” Borchers said. “So now the school has band concerts in a nice place. And we have a place on Sundays for church.”

After its former minister took a new job, New Garden became a branch campus earlier this year of Nashville’s Woodmont Hills Church, which also has a heritage in Churches of Christ.

“For Hermitage” bumper stickers reflect the New Garden Church’s devotion to serving its community.

“We did not have a strategic plan to seek out additional campuses,” said Jeff Brown, Woodmont Hills’ lead minister. “We do, however, hold the crucial commitment to pay attention to what God might be up to.

“When New Garden approached us about a partnership, we listened through that lens,” Brown added. “At every phase of discernment, we found ourselves leaning in to know more. … We decided we can do better work together than we can apart.”

“At every phase of discernment, we found ourselves leaning in to know more. … We decided we can do better work together than we can apart.”

Josh and Olsa Whitson serve as the shepherding couple assigned to the New Garden campus. The former Hermitage members made the move to New Garden.

“That was a tough journey to go through,” Josh Whitson said of the transition from Hermitage to New Garden. “But I think we’re a healthier church on this side than we were on that side. 

“We’re not too big,” he added. “But that doesn’t always mean you’re a healthy church. We’re very close-knit. We’re very active in this community and in this school.”

A sign outside the school welcomes worshipers to the New Garden Church in Hermitage, Tenn.

Accommodating culture?

New Garden’s approach — including instrumental music and increased women’s roles — concerns leaders such as Phil Sanders, speaker for the national television ministry “In Search of the Lord’s Way.”

Such innovations depart from Scriptural teachings, those leaders believe.

“I can just see lots of problems … with regard to how they worship,” Sanders said. “Even if they’re baptizing according to the Scriptures — for the forgiveness of sins — their worship is going after the modern way and not after the Scriptures. I only see it as accommodating culture.”

John Mark Hicks, a retired Bible professor at Lipscomb University and an expert on the Restoration Movement, offers a different perspective.

While some of New Garden’s practices vary from more traditional churches, the congregation represents “an authentic heir of what we call Churches of Christ,” Hicks said.

“This is a new expression of the trajectory of Restoration churches,” Hicks said. “Few of those churches want to disconnect from the original heritage of congregationalism and the believer’s baptism and the weekly Lord’s Supper.”

Members and guests gather in the school lobby before a Sunday assembly of the New Garden Church in Hermitage, Tenn.

Instead, he suggested, leaders of such churches look at the older tradition and say: “I value that because I grew up in it. It formed me. I love the people there. … But the mission of the kingdom has led us to seek a new expression of that old common ground.”

Over the past 20 years, Kairos has worked with 40 church plant projects across the U.S., executive director Bruce Bates said.

Church planters view innovation as a means — and a necessity — to fulfill the Great Commission in the modern era, Bates said.

“I think those approaches, which New Garden and other churches are bravely trying, have Matthew 28 at the heart of them,” he said. “I’m proud to stand with them.”

But Sanders said “Search” receives calls each week from seekers — including young people — drawn to the same simple teachings that helped Churches of Christ grow decades ago.

“The thing that is so interesting,” he said, “is that more often than not, it is the distinctive doctrinal things that we are teaching that are attracting them rather than pushing them away.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Tennessee to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

The post Is this church plant innovative or unscriptural? appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Then again, it’s not trying to be.

The church plant — which grew out of the Hermitage Church of Christ, a half-century-old congregation that closed in 2018 — seeks to reach a new generation with the Gospel.

Located about 20 minutes east of downtown Nashville in Hermitage, New Garden meets in a middle school auditorium. A member of the praise team strums a guitar. Women as well as men speak from the stage.

New Garden Church members partake of the Lord’s Supper each Sunday.

“We often say that too many churches are known for what they’re against, but we want to be known for what we’re for,” lead minister Michael Clinger explains in a video on the church website.

“We may be small in number, but we are a group of people from different generations who are committed to being in relationship with God, with each other and with our community,” adds Madeline Clinger, Michael’s wife and a part-time ministry staff member.

In just a few years, New Garden — which averages Sunday attendance of about 70 — has become known for serving its community.

Five times a year, the church feeds hundreds of neighbors through a large mobile grocery giveaway. 

Members provide back-to-school supplies and volunteer as mentors at DuPont Tyler Middle School, the low-income school where the church worships.

In addition, New Garden organizes holiday meals and year-round snacks for the teachers and helps with special events for the community.

“I truly cannot say enough about what a blessing they are to our faculty and staff,” assistant principal Dawn Roberts said. “The love of Christ most definitely shines through in all they do.”

The praise team leads worship at the New Garden Church, which meets in a school auditorium in Hermitage, Tenn.

Growth and decline

The Hermitage Church of Christ formed in the 1940s on the outskirts of Nashville.

By 1967, when members opened a large new building at a busy intersection, average Sunday attendance approached 500.

“The building site chosen by the Hermitage congregation is considered by planners to be one of the most ideal church locations in the Nashville area from the standpoint of accessibility and growth potential,” The Christian Chronicle reported in February 1967. “The Hermitage community, which will be served by the congregation, is one of the fastest growing areas in Davidson County.”

Eventually, the Sunday count topped 800, said Andy Borchers, a former Hermitage member who made the transition to New Garden, about a half-mile away.

But by the mid-2010s, Hermitage — like a lot of churches nationwide — found itself in decline. 

The flock grayed. The membership number fell to a few hundred. The cost to maintain the half-century-old facility rose.

Andy Borchers, pictured outside the school auditorium where the New Garden Church meets in Hermitage, Tenn., reflects on the congregation’s history.

“We were looking at $3,000 a week just to open the doors and not really seeing a lot of ministry,” Borchers said. 

“We had maintenance issues. We had roof leaks. We had mold in the building,” he added. “We were just scraping by, and the bank account was always tight.”

“We had maintenance issues. We had roof leaks. We had mold in the building. We were just scraping by, and the bank account was always tight.”

The Hermitage church faced tough decisions about its future, said Blair Bryan, board chairman for Heritage21, a consulting ministry that helps congregations with financial and legal issues.

“Instead of waiting until the congregation had lost all momentum and could only serve itself while their building slowly deteriorated around them,” Bryan said of Hermitage leaders, “they determined to be proactive and become a congregation that could effectively impact their community for Christ.”

Ja’ziyah and Lily, both 3 years old, greet each other before the New Garden Church’s Sunday assembly.

Reinvesting resources

Hermitage closed in 2018 and sold its building for $1.65 million in 2019 to the Mount Gilead Missionary Baptist Church, according to property records.

The congregation used the proceeds to benefit various ministries, Borchers said, from Kairos Church Planting to World Christian Broadcasting to Healing Hands International.

And Hermitage reinvested some of the funds to launch New Garden, including spending $100,000 to renovate the DuPont Tyler school auditorium, he noted. In exchange, the school district gave the church five years of free rent.

The new cushioned seats replaced old wooden folding chairs that were in poor condition.

“It’s a win-win deal,” Borchers said. “So now the school has band concerts in a nice place. And we have a place on Sundays for church.”

After its former minister took a new job, New Garden became a branch campus earlier this year of Nashville’s Woodmont Hills Church, which also has a heritage in Churches of Christ.

“For Hermitage” bumper stickers reflect the New Garden Church’s devotion to serving its community.

“We did not have a strategic plan to seek out additional campuses,” said Jeff Brown, Woodmont Hills’ lead minister. “We do, however, hold the crucial commitment to pay attention to what God might be up to.

“When New Garden approached us about a partnership, we listened through that lens,” Brown added. “At every phase of discernment, we found ourselves leaning in to know more. … We decided we can do better work together than we can apart.”

“At every phase of discernment, we found ourselves leaning in to know more. … We decided we can do better work together than we can apart.”

Josh and Olsa Whitson serve as the shepherding couple assigned to the New Garden campus. The former Hermitage members made the move to New Garden.

“That was a tough journey to go through,” Josh Whitson said of the transition from Hermitage to New Garden. “But I think we’re a healthier church on this side than we were on that side. 

“We’re not too big,” he added. “But that doesn’t always mean you’re a healthy church. We’re very close-knit. We’re very active in this community and in this school.”

A sign outside the school welcomes worshipers to the New Garden Church in Hermitage, Tenn.

Innovative or unscriptural?

New Garden’s approach — including instrumental music and increased women’s roles — concerns leaders such as Phil Sanders, speaker for the national television ministry “In Search of the Lord’s Way.”

Such innovations depart from Scriptural teachings, those leaders believe.

“I can just see lots of problems … with regard to how they worship,” Sanders said. “Even if they’re baptizing according to the Scriptures — for the forgiveness of sins — their worship is going after the modern way and not after the Scriptures. I only see it as accommodating culture.”

John Mark Hicks, a retired Bible professor at Lipscomb University and an expert on the Restoration Movement, offers a different perspective.

While some of New Garden’s practices vary from more traditional churches, the congregation represents “an authentic heir of what we call Churches of Christ,” Hicks said.

“This is a new expression of the trajectory of Restoration churches,” Hicks said. “Few of those churches want to disconnect from the original heritage of congregationalism and the believer’s baptism and the weekly Lord’s Supper.”

Members and guests gather in the school lobby before a Sunday assembly of the New Garden Church in Hermitage, Tenn.

Instead, he suggested, leaders of such churches look at the older tradition and say: “I value that because I grew up in it. It formed me. I love the people there. … But the mission of the kingdom has led us to seek a new expression of that old common ground.”

Over the past 20 years, Kairos has worked with 40 church plant projects across the U.S., executive director Bruce Bates said.

Church planters view innovation as a means — and a necessity — to fulfill the Great Commission in the modern era, Bates said.

“I think those approaches, which New Garden and other churches are bravely trying, have Matthew 28 at the heart of them,” he said. “I’m proud to stand with them.”

But Sanders said “Search” receives calls each week from seekers — including young people — drawn to the same simple teachings that helped Churches of Christ grow decades ago.

“The thing that is so interesting,” he said, “is that more often than not, it is the distinctive doctrinal things that we are teaching that are attracting them rather than pushing them away.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Tennessee to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

The post Why a Tennessee congregation sold its building and moved into a school appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Neither was the 39-year-old Republican always a high-profile MAGA champion, denouncing liberal indoctrination; illegal immigration; LGBTQ-themed school library books; diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and the “Woke Olympics.”

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, makes a point during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Decades before winning election as Oklahoma’s top education official in 2022 — and before igniting a national furor on religion in public schools by requiring a Bible in every classroom — Walters was a schoolchild in a small town in eastern Oklahoma.

Baptized at an early age at the Main and Oklahoma Church of Christ in his hometown of McAlester, Walters traces his love for the Bible and history to his late grandfather Franklin “Dee” Delano Ball. 

Ball, a U.S. Navy veteran, served in Korea and Vietnam. After retiring from the military, he opened a barbecue restaurant with his brothers and raised cattle outside of McAlester, which is known as the home of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and the nearby McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. An elder of the North Town Church of Christ in McAlester, Ball died in 2020 at age 86.

“I’d go out there and help my grandfather with the cattle, and we’d be hours and hours on the tractor,” said Walters, who grew up to become an award-winning high school history teacher before his political career. “We’d talk about the Bible. We’d talk about history. He was kind of the history guru who really got me going down that route.

“And frankly,” added the grandson, who was a finalist for 2016 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, “my grandfather was the one where we really started having these conversations about what happened when they took the Bible out of school. … And so that was a big part of my growing up.”

A view of Oklahoma’s state Capitol.

Roots of his faith

Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, spoke to The Christian Chronicle in the Board of Education conference room at the state Capitol complex in Oklahoma City.

The 45-minute interview came amid national debate on Walters’ recent order that every teacher in Oklahoma must be provided with physical copies of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Ten Commandments.

“These documents are mandatory for the holistic education of students in Oklahoma,” according to instructional support guidelines issued by Walters.

Asked if the roots of his faith were planted early, Walters replied, “Yes, sir. My mom and dad are very devout. My mother was very, very engaged with us kids growing up. There was a lot of reading the Bible. … We spent a lot of time together as a family, a lot of time in church.”

Like his parents, Randy and Debbie, Walters attended Harding University in Searcy, Ark., which is associated with Churches of Christ. Today, Randy serves as the minister and Debbie as the elementary education director for the North Town church.

“We spent a lot of time together as a family, a lot of time in church.”

Walters met Katie, his wife of nearly 12 years, at Harding. They have four children: Violet, 10; Ella, 7; Benjamin, 5; and Samuel, 3. 

Harding honored Walters, a 2010 graduate, as its 2021 Outstanding Young Alumnus.

“I love Harding University,” Walters told the Chronicle. “It was truly an experience that has had a major impact on me.”

‘My favorite teacher’

Before entering the political arena, Walters taught Advanced Placement courses in world history, U.S. history and U.S. government for eight years at his hometown McAlester High School.

“He was my favorite teacher, and I think that goes for quite a lot of us,” said Starla Edge, a 2020 graduate who describes herself as queer and served as president of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance her junior year.

Celeste Lawson, left, and Starla Edge were founding members of McAlester High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

Edge remembers Walters letting her and her girlfriend leave his homeroom class to go get coffee as long as Edge brought him back a cappuccino.

Walters engaged students in thoughtful studies on subjects such as Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, and never revealed his personal feelings, Edge said.

That’s why, she said, she’s so shocked by the right-wing policies he has pushed as Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction — an elected role overseeing a $4 billion-a-year educational system with 700,000 students.

“I want to believe that he is a better person than that,” said Edge, who joined a protest against Walters’ policies at a recent state Board of Education meeting.

Walters, who praises former President Donald Trump’s appointment of justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, said students didn’t need to know about his conservative political leanings. 

The former teacher said he did incorporate the Bible into his history lessons when appropriate.

“I was trying to do the best I could do to have a true academic setting for those kids,” Walters said.

“I was trying to do the best I could do to have a true academic setting for those kids.”

He advocates that approach for history teachers using the Bible as a primary source.

“I’ve had people criticize (the mandate) and say, ‘What if a teacher pushes this or that on kids?’” he said. “And I go, ‘Well, you’re not supposed to do that as a teacher.’” 

Walters’ office issued professional guidelines for school districts statewide to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum. 

Bottom line, he said: “It’s to be done in its academic setting. It’s to be done in its historical context.”

Ryan Walters listens to a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

From teacher to politician 

Walters’ rise to statewide educational leadership came after he met future Gov. Kevin Stitt, a fellow Republican, at a tennis tournament where Stitt’s daughter competed in 2018.

“We kind of struck up a friendship, and his passion for education was apparent from the very beginning,” Stitt said in a video produced by Harding when Walters won the alumni award. 

In 2020, Stitt appointed Walters to his cabinet as secretary of education. Two years later, Walters campaigned for the state schools superintendent post and won the general election by 15 percentage points.

Oklahoma, known as one of the “reddest of the red states,” hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Trump won all 77 counties in 2016 and again in 2020. 

Still, controversy has marked Walters’ tenure at the state Education Department — ranging from criticism over spending state funds to book national media appearances for himself to alleged skirting of open records and open meetings laws to his ongoing clash with state Attorney General Gentner Drummond over a proposed Catholic charter school. Like Walters, Drummond is a Republican.

The state Supreme Court has ruled that the school, which Walters supports, is unconstitutional, and Drummond agrees. But the Statewide Charter School Board, on which Walters serves by virtue of his office, voted to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan Walters speaks during a state Board of Education meeting in August 2023.

One school district sued Walters — and won — after he sought to remove books he deemed pornographic from its library shelves. 

At least a dozen of the state’s largest school districts have said they won’t comply with his directive on teaching the Bible, according to The Oklahoman (a newspaper Walters labels “The Woklahoman”), prompting Walters to threaten to hold “rogue” administrators accountable. 

Asked if any of the criticism he has received is legitimate, Walters replied, “No.”

“What you see,” he said, “are folks who are lying to attack the agenda for the people of Oklahoma. You see, this is what the left does. … They lie about me, and they sue me, and they try to stop the agenda from moving forward. They’ve done the same thing with President Trump.”

But the criticism of Walters is not limited to the left.

State Rep. Mark McBride, a Republican from Moore, south of Oklahoma City, chairs a House education subcommittee.

McBride, a Southern Baptist who has done mission work around the world, said he found Walters “very well spoken” when they first met during the superintendent’s teaching days. 

But since his election, Walters has seemed to take extreme right-wing positions aimed at seeking higher office, McBride said.

“I don’t know who his handlers are … telling him to be this way,” the state representative said.

Trey Orndorff, a political scientist at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, said it seems clear that Walters’ “whole goal has been to be a national figure.”

“You can see that because that’s where he spends his time and his effort,” Orndorff said of Walters, who has appeared on cable TV networks such as Fox News and CNN to promote his Bible mandate.

During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Walters posted a photo and videos of himself sporting a red “Make America Great Again” hat as Trump spoke on stage.

But Walters insists he’s focused on his job — making sure Oklahoma’s educational system “is as good as it can possibly be and that it reflects the values of the people of Oklahoma.”

Ryan Walters sports a red “Make America Great Again” hat at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

‘Whose faith are you going to teach?’

Despite his own faith, Rep. McBride voices concerns about forcing the Bible and the Ten Commandments into the state’s classrooms. 

Oklahoma law already explicitly allows teachers to use the Bible when appropriate for instruction, according to the attorney general’s office.

Related: Teaching the Bible during public school hours? It’s totally constitutional?

“Once you allow this (new mandate) in, whose faith are you going to teach?” asked McBride, who said he believes in the separation of church and state. “The Church of Christ is a little bit different than the Southern Baptists, and the Southern Baptists are different from the Mormons. So where do you draw the line?”

As McBride sees it, classrooms have become battlefields.

“I want people to go to school and learn reading, writing and arithmetic and not have the distraction of having to be taught the Bible in school,” he said. “But I don’t want the gay pride flag in the classroom either.”

“The Church of Christ is a little bit different than the Southern Baptists, and the Southern Baptists are different from the Mormons. So where do you draw the line?”

Rep. Mike Osburn, a Republican from Edmond, north of Oklahoma City, attends The Springs Church of Christ in Edmond. 

Osburn and two other lawmakers were refused entry into a recent state Board of Education executive session. The attorney general’s office called the denial a “willful violation” of the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act.

Osburn said he sought to attend the closed session related to a teacher certification case in his district. Osburn and Walters haven’t discussed their shared faith specifically, the lawmaker said, but they have talked about mutual acquaintances in Churches of Christ.

Like McBride, Osburn questions the Bible mandate.

“My view is, aside from the constitutional issues, treating the Bible as only a historical document trivializes what I believe is a sacred text and the inspired word of God,” said Osburn, an attorney who began his political career as former Gov. Frank Keating’s campaign manager in 1994. “The risk of this sacred text being further compromised by mandating that all teachers, including believers and nonbelievers, explain the Bible is another concern.”

Moreover, Osburn argued, “Current law is that statewide curriculum changes require legislative approval. Textbooks are chosen by local school boards. Without legislative and local school board approval and because of the questionable constitutionality, I don’t believe the mandate is legitimate, and I disagree with it.”

Two churches’ approaches

On the Sunday after announcing his Bible mandate, Walters appeared on stage at Sheridan.Church, an evangelical church in Tulsa, with his three younger children.

The family received a standing ovation, and Jackson Lahmeyer, founder of Pastors for Trump, praised Walters’ courage in pushing to teach about the Bible’s role in American history.

“The media has lost their minds over this,” Walters told the crowd. “And you know what I told them? I said, ‘Listen, you can be offended. You can be mad. You can be upset. But here’s what you can’t do: You can’t rewrite our history.’”

“Amen!” Lahmeyer and the church agreed.

“And it is crystal clear in American history,” Walters continued. “You can go back to the Declaration of Independence — our rights are endowed by our Creator. … You can listen to Abraham Lincoln mention God and the Bible almost in every speech, every letter he wrote. You can go all the way up to, by the way, Martin Luther King Jr. referencing in the Civil Rights Movement — in the ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail’ — what God intended, and he’s quoting the Bible.

“So how do you teach history without the Bible?” Walters added. “You can’t. It is academic malpractice, so we are incredibly proud to be the first state in the country to put the Bible back in the classroom.”

Related: ‘Overhyped’ Christian nationalism label draws political backlash

On the same Sunday that the Sheridan.Church prayed over Walters and his children, the family’s home congregation in Oklahoma City — the North MacArthur Church of Christ — made no mention of the Bible mandate or partisan politics. Minister Tim Lewis preached a sermon on peace and reconciliation in the Christian life, focusing on Jesus — not politics — as is the congregation’s general practice.

“Each church is different, right?” Walters said when asked about the varying approaches.

His family first connected with North MacArthur when his children attended the church’s Vacation Bible School a few years ago.

“They’ve embraced our family rather well, and the kids love the Bible classes there,” he said of the congregation. “We’ve loved our time there, and there are truly salt-of-the-earth people there. … It’s a really great congregation.”

“They’ve embraced our family rather well, and the kids love the Bible classes there. We’ve loved our time there, and there are truly salt-of-the-earth people there.”

The three older children attend Deer Creek public schools — a district that includes parts of Oklahoma City and Edmond. The children have great teachers, Walters said, and the girls enjoy playing school even after they get home.

Before rushing to another meeting, Walters emphasized that his faith is what drives him.

“At the beginning of the day and the end of the day, that’s what I look at as where I get my sense of right and wrong, my direction,” he said. “I am in the Bible every day. I try to read it very much openly and try to share it with my kids as much as I can. My wife and I have a very close relationship, and we read it together.”

Ryan Walters answers a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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She spent the first years of her life playing on a dirt floor. 

One of nine children, she shared a single-room house with her family, barely scraping by during the Great Depression and World War II.

Her family rarely had money. Most of their meals depended on food stamps. Eventually, even those were affected by war-time rationing. 

Then her mother died due to an infection.

“It was in the early 1940s,” recalled Porch, now 89. “And that’s when everything fell apart.”

Tiffany Jones, right, helps Shirley Porch with her oxygen mask tubing as she arrives at a hotel in Wichita, Kan.

A chance for more

Eight decades later, the faithful Christian lives in Arkansas and attends services led by the West Side Church of Christ at her assisted living facility in Searcy.

But a recent summer evening found her back in Kansas, nearly 500 miles from the retirement center, enjoying dinner with the Jones family.

She wondered aloud during the meal how her life might have unfolded if her mother had lived.

Maybe she would have remained impoverished. Perhaps she would have never found God. 

The sun sets as Shirley Porch reminisces about her childhood on a drive back to her hotel after dinner with the Jones family.

But those potential outcomes all changed when “one woman made a huge difference,” said Tiffany Jones, director of development for Carpenter Place, a children’s home associated with Churches of Christ.

Gladys Childs, distantly related to the little girl by marriage and a member of the Riverside Church of Christ in Wichita, heard of the family’s misfortune.

The youngest of Porch’s siblings, a newborn boy, had already been adopted. Porch’s father, struggling to hold the household together, agreed to legally terminate his parental rights. 

Childs approached the Riverside congregation with a plea: Take care of the children. 

Ruth Garthwaite, a member of the neighboring West Douglas Church of Christ, offered to house them if the Riverside church covered the expenses. 

Then church members heard about more children in need. 

In 1946, the now-defunct Riverside church opened the Midwest Children’s Home, known today as Carpenter Place in honor of Maude Carpenter, an early benefactor.

“When Ruth took those kids in, I doubt they ever dreamed it would still be going over 80 years from then,” Jones said. “I don’t think she would ever have imagined that that would have happened.”

The Brazeals, the first houseparents hired by the Midwest Children’s Home, adopted Porch when she was 10. 

“The life that they offered us gave us a chance for more,” Porch recalled.

“The life that they offered us gave us a chance for more.”

New structure, same mission

The children’s home has evolved in many ways since its founding.

Carpenter Place transitioned to being a girls-only home in the early 2000s. Girls ages 12 to 17 from all over the country stay for 18 to 24 months depending on their needs. 

Three sets of houseparents oversee their care. Therapists visit the campus weekly. Teachers give lessons in person and remotely. 

Tiffany Jones gives a tour of the Shellee Morrison Christian Learning Center at Carpenter Place in Wichita, Kan.

“Unlike with Shirley back then, these girls are not orphans,” Jones said. “They have families, so a lot of the things that will bring them to us are just behavioral issues of different and varying kinds.”

Yet the organization’s mission remains the same.

“The people in the church took us because they saw a need, and they introduced us to Christ, because that was their mission,” Porch said. “That’s still their mission. Now these girls — God only knows what’s in their future — there is no guarantee they’re going to be really good, upstanding, worthwhile citizens once they leave the influence of the home. And it was the same with us. But the church is giving them a foundation, and they gave us a foundation.”

“The people in the church took us because they saw a need, and they introduced us to Christ, because that was their mission. That’s still their mission.

Porch is the organization’s “shining example,” Jones said. 

The last surviving member of the founding children, she was baptized at 9 years old after being introduced to church through the home.

“I didn’t know there was such a thing as a church,” before living with Garthwaite, Porch said. A mother of three, Porch raised all her sons in the church as a result. 

“The home gave me my faith,” Porch stressed. “If it had not been for the church taking us into that home, I don’t think we would have ever known a faith. Right now, my family is a Christian family because of what happened when I was young.”

One of her grandsons serves as an international missionary with his family. 

Gary Ross, her middle son, taught at Harding University in Searcy for 20 years. He also served for several years as an elder of the Downtown Church of Christ and now serves as an elder for the Living Way Church of Christ.

“She taught my Bible classes and taught us to have respect for others and for God and to do the right thing,” Ross, 70, recalled of his upbringing. “She was very wonderful for us, but for her to come from the background she came from, I often wonder, ‘Man, how did she do that for us?’”

But her influence is not limited to childhood. Ross said she inspires his faith, even now. 

“I’ll go to see her, and she’ll say, ‘Look what I found in the Bible. I didn’t know that was in there. Where have I been all my life?’” Ross said. “She’s always reading and showing me stuff, knowing that she needs to learn, even at 89 years old. To me, that’s really inspirational.”

“She’s always reading and showing me stuff, knowing that she needs to learn, even at 89 years old. To me, that’s really inspirational.”

A butterfly effect on future generations

Jones and her husband, Michael, first met Porch on a trip to Harding after hearing about the children’s home connection. 

That visit led them to arranging Porch’s recent trip to Carpenter Place, where she shared her testimony with the board of directors and the seven girls currently staying at the home. 

“All of her siblings have passed,” Jones said. “The founding people, they’re all gone. So having that connection, that link, to what Carpenter Place was then and what it is now — I just felt like that was so important. 

“She’s so full of wisdom,” she added. “She knows what it’s like to be in a group home and to share her experiences with those girls was just priceless.”

Porch brought her personal collection of butterfly pins to share with the girls, which she began accumulating after learning her biological grandmother had an affinity for the colorful insects. 

The gesture represented more than jewelry or kindness to Michael Jones, preaching minister for the East Point Church of Christ in Wichita and a member of Carpenter Place’s board of directors. 

Shirley Porch poses for a portrait in one of her butterfly shirts.

“Her life reminds me of the butterfly effect,” Michael Jones said, referring to the theory that describes how one small change can lead to large, non-linear effects elsewhere. 

“The effect that she has had because she’s been at Carpenter Place and the effect that Carpenter Place has had on her life have affected her children and her children’s children’s lives,” Tiffany Jones added. “And we see that like every day at Carpenter Place. 

“We see things that are going to affect the girls and their families, their lives and — hopefully — generations to come.”

Shirley Porch hugs Sophie Jones during her recent trip to visit Carpenter Place in Wichita, Kan.

AUDREY JACKSON is Managing Editor of The Christian Chronicle. Contact audrey@christianchronicle.org.

The post ‘The home gave me my faith’ appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

I learned that much during my visit to this Southeast Asian city, about an hour south of Kuala Lumpur. I experienced care, concern, respect and love from so many brothers and sisters in Christ after I had the kind of accident that, up until now, I’ve only heard other international travelers talk about.

I was covering a four-day retreat for ministers and ministry leaders, especially those who care for orphaned and abandoned children. Steve Shaner, board chair for Agape Asia, invited me to attend. I met dedicated believers who serve the “least of these” — as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40 — from China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia.

The retreat was a model of congregational cooperation, with the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore coordinating and the Seremban Church of Christ hosting.

Thomas Teng, a member of the Seremban church, invited me on a Friday evening hike.

“He’s in his 60s, so how tough could it be?” I asked myself. Later, I learned that Thomas’ nickname is Mountain Goat.

I reached the church building just as Thomas was pulling away in his truck. He honked, I jumped in, and we headed for the trail.

My friends from China and Singapore use ropes to begin the challenging climb to the top of Kepayang “Hill.” For me, this was the first indication that I had bitten off more than I could chew, climbing-wise.

It wasn’t hiking so much as it was climbing. Thomas led me, a family from China and a guy from Singapore up a winding set of switchbacks that required ropes and (for me) a lot of prayer. I was an unkempt mess of sweat and dirt as I finally dragged myself to the summit of what I assumed was a mighty Malaysian mountain.

At the very top was a sign that read “Kepayang Hill.”

At the top of Kepayang Hill, I posed for this photo. At the time, I thought my troubles were over. I was blissfully unaware of the big break that would come my way a few minutes later.

The trail down was supposed to be easier. Nonetheless, I stepped on some loose rocks, and my left foot flew out from under me. My right leg buckled — not at an awkward angle or anything, but I knew something was wrong. It hurt terribly to walk. I stumbled off the trail and onto a bench. 

A passerby named Alice became the first of many angels who would help me in the days to come. She massaged my ankle, lent me her walking stick and accompanied us on the agonizing walk back to Thomas’ truck. My brother from Singapore bought me bottled water and Nescafé — essentials for an invalid, as I saw it — and helped me back to my hotel room.

Alice, left, was one of the first of many angels I would encounter in Southeast Asia. She wasn’t a part of our group — just a passerby who saw I needed help.

I iced down my ankle overnight, but the pain remained intense when I put weight on it. I messaged the retreat group on WhatsApp and told them I couldn’t join them for the tour of historic Malacca, and I might need to see a doctor. Betty Chukka from India gave me her shoulder to lean on as I limped to the restaurant where everyone was eating breakfast. Tan Beng Chuan, one of the ministers at Pasir Panjang, was there and had set up a ride to the hospital.

Betty Chukka helped me limp along after my injury and checked up on multiple times. This is us just before Sunday worship with the Seremban Church of Christ.

Minutes later, Seremban church member Julia Cheah pulled up and helped me into her car. Julia had worked at the facility, now known as CMH Specialist Hospital, and knew a bunch of the folks there. She had already set up a visit with the ER doc, who sent me for X-rays. The polite tech told me, “You have a fracture.” Thankfully, the orthopedic surgeon was in and could see me.

Julia and Beng Chuan sat with me in the waiting room as the reality of my situation crept in. If only I’d arrived at the church building a few seconds later, I lamented. I would have missed the truck, and none of this would have happened. Now I was halfway around the world from home with a broken leg — and nearly 20 hours of flight time to get home. And, after that, I was taking my family to Disneyland.

This was my view from a wheelchair in the waiting area of the CMH Specialist Hospital in Seremban. Tan Beng Chuan, left, waited with me. He’s a minister for the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore and a longtime friend.

Sensing my depression, Julia phoned our mutual friend Dennis Cady, a former missionary to Malaysia. Days earlier, on the island of Nias in Indonesia, I had seen the hotel where Dennis stayed while he did relief work after the 2004 tsunami. As a terrible earthquake shook Nias, he jumped out of a hotel window, fracturing something (or several somethings). From his home in Wichita Falls, Texas, Dennis commiserated with me and kindly informed me that, just perhaps, I wasn’t as young as I was when I started traveling for The Christian Chronicle back in 2001. I laughed and felt better.

My fractured right leg.

The surgeon, Dr. Maidin Bin Sarman, took a look at the X-ray and said, “Whoa!” It’s definitely gonna hurt, he told me, and it’s going to take a while to heal. But the fracture was high enough on the tibia that there shouldn’t be a need for surgery, nor even a cast or a boot. (My doctor in Oklahoma later confirmed all of this.)

I was relieved — and pleasantly surprised when the charges for the consults and X-rays came in at just under $60 U.S. I would have racked up that much in copays in the States.

Dr. Maidin Bin Sarman took good care of me.

Julia and Beng Chuan took me to get crutches. There was no parking at the pharmacy, so the techs (whom Julia also knew) met us in the middle of the street to adjust them to my height. Julia, who teaches English, had to rearrange her schedule to help me. She treated us to a lunch of Indian cuisine before driving me back to my hotel.

Kenneth Gong welcomes visitors during Sunday worship in Seremban, Malaysia.

The next day, Sunday, I worshiped alongside my brothers and sisters from across Southeast Asia, and I thanked them for their prayers. I had to miss the afternoon tour of Kuala Lumpur, but a couple kindly brought me back some candy and a refrigerator magnet of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Using his two working legs, Steve Shaner got this awe-inspiring photo of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On Monday I joined the group from Pasir Panjang for the bus ride to Singapore. John Lim, one of the church’s ministers and a longtime friend, gave me a tour of the church’s refurbished building. John’s parents took us out for pizza and dropped me off at the Moulmein Church of Christ, which I had last visited just before the demolition of the church’s old building in 2015. Another longtime minister friend, Mit Vikraman, gave me a tour of Moulmein’s new facility. I had dinner with a group of good friends who worship at Moulmein. One of the church’s members, Sung Kok, drives for Grab, a Southeast Asia version of Uber. He took me to the airport and made sure I got a wheelchair.

John Lim and I have run into each other unexpectedly on multiple continents over the years. We met at the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore in 2015. We saw each other again in Cambodia at the Angkor of Faith youth mission the next year. In 2018 I was worshiping with the Glyfada Church of Christ in Athens, Greece, when he showed up with his fellow Harding University students who were participating in the school’s semester abroad program. In 2019, I was covering Keith Lancaster’s Worship Leader Institute in Madison, Tenn. “We’ve even got a student here from Singapore,” Keith told me. “Lemme guess, John Lim,” I said. Here we are in 2024 eating pizza with John’s parents. My crutches are against the wall.

I’m still in pain, and I mourn the loss of mobility. It will take months for things to get better, the doctors tell me. Perhaps I can use this time to focus on the importance of accepting hospitality — letting others do for me what I can’t do for myself.

That’s a tough lesson. I spend so much of my energy in pain avoidance or reduction, and I pride myself on my perceived self-sufficiency. But this is all futility and mythology. We’re all dependent upon the unearned grace we receive from our Father. And perhaps, just perhaps, my multiple encounters with the many angels of Southeast Asia will teach me that.

I was blessed to have dinner with some good friends at the Moulmein Church of Christ. From left are Dave Hogan, Chan Kim Kai, Tommy Chia, me, Mit Vikraman and Edwin Choy.

Here I am with a group of Christians from Singapore and Malaysia after Sunday evening worship. Since I was unable to take a tour of Kuala Lumpur, I accompanied these folks to a new facility overseen by the Seremban Church of Christ. The new meeting place, dedicated in 2020, is located in a development called Seremban 2. Members of the Seremban church use the facility for Sunday night worship and hope to launch the work as a church plant, the Sendayan Church of Christ, in the years to come.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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Built by the living God,

For all of every nation,

Who seek that grand abode.”

About 200 Christians of multiple nationalities — Russian, Ukrainian, Iranian and Israeli, to name a few — sang that verse of unity together, their citizenship on Earth far less important than a shared home in heaven. 

Some attendees drove 45 minutes. Others spent more than a day on planes and buses. 

They gathered in a city known for a particular distance — 26.2 miles. 

That’s how far the legendary messenger Pheidippides ran from here to Athens to announce the defeat of the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. After the run, he collapsed and died. 

The view of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, from Mars Hill where Paul delivered his sermon in Acts 17.

More than 2,500 years later, Christians gathered in Marathon, on the coast of the Aegean Sea, for the sixth Mediterranean Christian Conference sponsored by the Glyfada Church of Christ in Athens. 

Tim Burow, president of Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, Texas, studied the multinational crowd.

“Every tribe and every nation, every tongue and every people, they are the ones that Jesus died for,” Burow said, referencing Revelation 5:9-10. “And what did Jesus make them into? Kings and priests. And they reign upon the Earth. They are not a defeated church.”

He talked about “all of the barriers that seem to exist in our world and might seem to get in the way.”

Christians are a diverse people who speak different languages, he added, and come from different cultures “where sometimes our national governments may not get along with one another.”

“In spite of all those things and in spite of the religious backgrounds that may exist where we come from,” Burow stressed, “when we are in Christ, you and I are one people.

“There is nothing that keeps me from loving you. And there is nothing that keeps you from loving me.”

“There is nothing that keeps me from loving you. And there is nothing that keeps you from loving me.”

A multipurpose, multicultural conference

Conference director Dino Roussos has a history of multicultural ministry. 

He is the senior minister of the Glyfada church, which hosts services in five languages — Greek, English, Russian, Farsi and Albanian — every Sunday. 

Some have come to Athens fleeing conflicts in their homelands, Roussos said, but all share in spiritual unity. 

“They want to hear the word of God in their own language and with their own people,” he said. “And that’s what we’re doing.”

Yevhen Marushko translates an English lecture into Russian for non-English speaking refugees attending the conference.

Dino Roussos, director of the Mediterranean Christian Conference and senior minister of the Glyfada Church of Christ, listens to a speaker.

The conference is simply one outreach to bring diverse Christians together.

“This conference has many purposes,” Russos said. “The first purpose is to evangelize those who never heard the Gospel of Christ. That’s why we also invited about 50 Ukrainian refugees who recently came to Greece that come to our church. 

“Another great purpose is for preachers and elders and church leaders who are many times isolated in the mission field to come here and find here a spiritual oasis in the desert of their lives and to be strengthened, built up.” 

The last purpose, Roussos said, is to minister to children — some of whom have lost homes to war or persecution.

What the church will be — and what it already is

Tim Yaeger, chief information officer for World Bible School, leads the conference’s children’s ministry. 

About half of the children each year are refugees, he said. The two largest displaced nationalities are Iranian and Ukrainian. 

He and his wife, Katie, take trauma into careful consideration when organizing activities. 

Tim Yaeger leads the children’s program at the sixth Mediterranean Christian Conference.

Children pray during the sixth Mediterranean Christian Conference in Marathon, Greece.

“In their life circumstances, they’re fleeing different types of persecution or war,” Tim Yaeger said. “Some of the kids from Ukraine were near where the bombings were happening.”

“We have to be careful with loud noises,” Katie Yaeger added. “If a balloon pops, they get very jittery.”

But the children’s fraught experiences did not seem to dampen the joy of coloring and crafts. 

Across language barriers and different backgrounds, they made friendships through shared art supplies. 

They saw potential playmates. 

The Yaegers saw Christ’s love. 

“I think it’s a representation of what the church will be like, what the church is,” Katie Yager said. “I love it. We see how Christ has worked in all these different people and all these different cultures.”

“I think it’s a representation of what the church will be like, what the church is. I love it. We see how Christ has worked in all these different people and all these different cultures.”

‘God is on his throne’

While the children played, the adults gathered upstairs to pray — in between speakers — for the world’s conflicts.

“We pray for salvation,” Burow said. “We pray for protection. We pray for deliverance from the current situation, and we pray for peace within our land. 

“We ask you, O Lord, that you would work through this conference in the hearts and the minds of those who have been displaced from their homes,” he added, “who have seen the tragedy of war and the difficulties of seeing the loss of their homes and family members.”

Ibrahim Fatahi, an Iranian Christian, opens a door with the words, “Christ for the nations,” translated into 29 languages.

Afterward, multiple nationalities took turns singing hymns in their native languages before concluding with a shared fellowship song in English. 

Russians and Ukranians exchanged hugs. Iranians shook hands with Americans.  

“No matter what happens in this world, no matter what the barriers may be, God is on his throne,” Burow reminded the attendees. “In the midst of our diversity, God is still on the throne. Even when evil kings and rulers are in power on the Earth, God is on his throne. When wars take place on this Earth, God is on his throne.”

AUDREY JACKSON is Managing Editor of The Christian Chronicle. Contact audrey@christianchronicle.org.

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LIBERIA

MONROVIA — In a place called Chicken Soup Factory, they provided chicken soup for the soul.

A team of Liberian, Nigerian and American church members recently completed a Back to the Bible evangelism workshop and door-knocking campaign in the Gardnersville Township of Monrovia, the capital of this West African nation.

The Gulf Church of Christ in Chicken Soup Factory hosted the event. The community of about 25,000 people gets its unusual name from a now-defunct chicken bouillon cube factory once operated by the Maggi spice company.

A new believer is baptized during the Back to the Bible campaign in Liberia.

Prince Ugbe, director of the Darrell Memorial Bible Institute in Nigeria, and his wife, Regina, worked with Liberian missionary Edmund Borfay and Phil Taylor and Ray Hawkins of Manassas, Va. The team gave away more than 100 Bibles, spoke with nearly 200 Liberians and baptized five people during the first week of the campaign.

“A door of faith is open,” Prince Ugbe said, “within the Chicken Soup Factory.”

PAKISTAN

LAHORE — In this predominantly Muslim nation of 236 million people, about a dozen preachers from Churches of Christ gathered to train and encourage each other at a recent seminar. The preachers, who face persecution and alienation for their faith, also honored the legacy of two Christians who committed much of their lives to gospel work in Pakistan. Native evangelist Eric Masih died in 2021 from COVID-19. Bruce Antsey, missions liaison to Pakistan for the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn., died in 2022.

Seminar organizers presented certificates to the participants and gave special recognition to a 17-year-old Christian who coordinates online services for the church in Lahore in addition to song leading and youth outreach.

UNITED KINGDOM

KINCARDINE — About 30 Christian women gathered at Tulliallan Castle in Scotland for the recent Field of Refuge Women’s Renewal — the first since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants in the Field of Refuge Women’s Retreat share their original artwork.

Participants focused on “Grace,” the theme for the 2024 retreat. Speakers including Cinde Cesone and Chrissy Vick offered “encouraging and challenging lessons on God’s grace and the grace that we should show others,” said Sarah Haddow, a participant from Dundee, Scotland.

Another participant, Marianne Dale of Livingston, Scotland, said, “We bloom where we’re planted, and we are all at different stages in our Christian growth. And when we offer grace to others, like the blowing of a wish on a dandelion, it reminds us that we may never know how it travels or lands with the wind.”

This report appeared in a recent issue of Christian Worker, a publication for Churches of Christ in the U.K.

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It was 1977, and Mariko was part of an exchange program that had started three years earlier between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian University. We toured the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla.

In 1986, Connie Penick spends the summer with a Japanese family and attends Ibaraki Christian.

Nine years later, I was the exchange student, spending my summer living with a Japanese family and taking classes at Ibaraki Christian. I became good friends with Tomoko, a close friend of my host family’s daughter.

Forty-seven years after that first meeting with Mariko and 38 years after hanging out with Tomoko, I reunited with both of these wonderful women in Japan as we celebrated a half-century of cultural exchanges between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian. It’s the longest continuous mutual exchange program between any two schools in the U.S. and Japan, said John deSteiguer, Oklahoma Christian’s chancellor, who traveled to Japan for the commemoration.

Connie Penick and Mariko reunite in 2024.

My father, Joe McCormack, was on faculty at Oklahoma Christian when the schools became sister campuses in 1974. He sponsored some of the first groups who made the journey from Oklahoma to Japan. It’s because of my father that I was in Tulsa that day in 1977 — and he’s why, while I was a student at Oklahoma Christian, I spent the summers after my freshman and junior years in Japan. My dad’s love for the program played a role in my decision to spend a year in Japan in 1992, teaching English at a junior high school.

The relationship with Ibaraki Christian has changed lives for eternity in both countries. In 1980, I witnessed my friend Emiko give her life to Christ on a frigid day in Japan. The baptistery was built into the stage floor of an unheated auditorium on Ibaraki’s campus. Emiko went into that ice-cold water so that she could be united with Christ and become my sister.

Mariko, whom I met back in 1977, met her husband, Larry Weatherford, through the exchange program. So did Tomoko, who spent a year at Oklahoma Christian. There she met Mike McLain. Now they run an English school in Japan.

Although Ibaraki Christian has roots in Churches of Christ, most of its 2,500 students do not come from a Christian background.

Oklahoma Christian University professor Joe McCormack teaches students from Ibaraki Christian University as part of the two institutions’ exchange program.

Christianity is a minority faith among the 125 million souls in Japan, and the country has fewer than 1,200 Church of Christ members.

That’s why the partnership between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian is so important. It has helped missionaries strengthen congregations across Japan. Short-term mission teams study the Bible with Japanese English students, many of whom would never hear the Gospel otherwise. In Oklahoma, OC students invite visiting Ibaraki students to church.

Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno. Oklahoma Christian unveiled a carved stone on campus that commemorates the 50-year partnership.

On Ibaraki’s campus, the university hosted a standing-room-only reception for those of us visiting from Oklahoma. Yoshiya Noguchi, Ibaraki Christian’s chaplain, led “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in Japanese and English. Jim Batten, an Oklahoma Christian alum, was there with his wife, Michiyo. The Battens dedicated their lives to Ibaraki Christian, where Jim served as a professor and chancellor. Also present was Randy Voss, who was part of the first exchange program in 1976. He now serves as principal for Ibaraki Christian’s junior high and high schools.

The celebration was an example of a Japanese concept of ichi-go ichi-e, “one time, one meeting.” My brother, Dr. Jeff McCormack, discovered the term while reading our father’s journals, which spanned three decades of travels to Japan. Jeff recently retired after serving as Oklahoma Christian’s chief academic officer. He loved the exchange program, just like our dad, who passed away in 2022. The 50-year celebration was an ichi-go ichi-e gathering that occurs once and never again, Jeff said.

Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno.

But the partnership between the two universities is far from over, said Ibaraki Christian’s new president, Hiroshi Shoji.

“It feels like there is still so much ahead,” he said.

John deSteiguer agreed, adding, “Mark your calendars for May 17, 2074. We’ll be back for the 100th.”

CONNIE PENICK is an administrative assistant for The Christian Chronicle. She and her husband, Jay, worship with the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

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The immaculate simplicity of the Irpin Church of Christ feels like a warm embrace, an answer to the chaos outside these walls — two years of tanks and bombs, bombs and guns.

The Irpin Church of Christ near Kyiv worships on a Sunday morning.

Most of the congregants are older women. Standing behind them, a young woman leads singing, waving her arms as she follows the lyrics projected on one of the bright, white walls. It’s a Ukrainian-language translation of “10,000 Reasons,” a song that challenges us to bless the Lord, even when our strength is failing.

“For all Your goodness I will keep on singing; 10,000 reasons for my heart to find.”

“You are mighty, God,” prays Ruslan Adamenko. Two days earlier I watched him graduate from the Ukrainian Bible Institute. “Unify us as one body of Christ. May we hear your Word and apply it to our lives.”

Moments later, my friend Dennis Zolotaryov asks the Lord to “strengthen the families that are separated right now.”

Soon, it’s time for me to offer prayers for the Lord’s Supper. I’ve been struggling to find the words to say since the church’s minister, Sergey Shupishov, asked me to speak. I tell my fellow Christians how proud I am of what God has done through them. When the bombs drop, when the lights go out, they keep finding reasons to bless the Lord.

“Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.”

Then Richard Baggett, who I’ve accompanied to Ukraine multiple times in the past 20 years, delivers the sermon. He shares a bit about post-traumatic stress disorder and the impact it’s had on his family. He reads from the Old Testament book of Job, a man who endured unimaginable suffering but held fast to his faith.

Richard Baggett preaches while Inna Kuzmenko translates during the Irpin Church of Christ’s Sunday worship.

“I’m going to live like God is good because I believe he is good, even when I can’t see it,” he says, summarizing Job’s belief. “God is just, and there will be justice. He will not allow any evil to go unpunished.”

One woman in the audience responds, in Ukrainian. “Hope it’s gonna happen soon!”

That’s what most of the psalmists in the Bible said, Richard replies. “God, please come soon!”

After the sermon, we celebrate with Tamara Petrina, who was baptized just a few days ago. She and her daughter were in the capital, Kyiv, when the war started. Her husband and her mother hid in a basement here as Russian troops invaded. Petrina worried that her mom, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, would scream. Her husband did his best to keep his mother-in-law calm.

Richard Baggett and I ask Petrina how she learned about the Church of Christ. They gave her bread, she explains. In the days after Ukrainian forces repelled the invaders from Irpin, the Church of Christ distributed aid to people as they returned home.

“I had never been to church in my lifetime,” Petrina says, but she had to know more about these people. Now, they’re family.

Another woman, Rimma Bukova, pulls Richard aside to tell him how much she appreciated his sermon. Her son is serving in the military. Weeks pass between messages from him.

Richard Baggett, left, speaks with Rimma Bukova after Sunday worship in Irpin, Ukraine.

There’s a brace on her right arm. Recently, she got a call that her son was missing, she explains. She got so distraught that she fell and fractured it.

Eventually, she heard from her son. He’s OK, but he’s changed. He told her, “I pray every day for forgiveness from God for the things I’m doing.”

Sergey Shupishov, the Irpin church’s minister, also got a call from the Ukrainian government. The squad his brother, Dima, was serving in is missing in action.

That call came more than four months ago.

As we wait for lunch at a Georgian shish kebab restaurant, I ask Sergey to tell me about his brother. He pulls me aside to a corner booth and shows me photos on his phone of the two of them, together. They had a rough life, growing up in eastern Ukraine. While Sergey got baptized, married and studied at Ukrainian Bible institute, Dima got caught up in crime and went to prison in the city of Zaporizhzhia for stealing.

Dima Shupishov teaches Bible to a Church of Christ in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

God didn’t give up on Dima. He got involved in prison ministry and got baptized, eventually joining his brother in Irpin. Then he joined a team of evangelists in Chernihiv, just south of the Belarus border. Dima was making a big impact in the small city, his brother says. Then Dima was called into military service.

“He is a person who loves people very much. … And you’ll notice that I’m speaking about him in the present tense because I don’t want to believe that he’s not here.”

Since his brother went missing, it’s been hard to preach, Sergey says. But he’s had little choice. There are so few men left in our congregations. Ukraine is short on soldiers and has intensified its draft. Sergey is exempt from that draft now because of his brother’s sacrifice, he says — a kind of “Saving Private Ryan” rule.

He doesn’t know if he’ll see his brother again on this earth, Sergey says. But he will see him again.

Sergey Shupishov, left, with his mother and his brother, Dima.

We return to the table with the rest of our small fellowship. I sit next to Oleksandr Sikorskii, one of the Irpin church’s elders. He fought with the Soviet army in Afghanistan. I ask him if he knew Dima.

“Yes, I know him,” he replies. “He is a person who loves people very much.”

Dima answered the call to serve in Chernihiv without hesitation — without even visiting the city first, Sikorskii says.

“He’s a kind person, a worthy example,” the elder adds, “and you’ll notice that I’m speaking about him in the present tense, because I don’t want to believe that he’s not here.”

And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come, still my soul will sing your praise unending, 10,000 years and then forevermore.

Dennis Zolotaryov, left, and Sergey Shupishov speak after the Irpin Church of Christ’s Sunday worship. The congregation meets in a building near the city’s downtown square.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

The post Sunday in Ukraine appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Rick Krug and Jessica Knapp. “Tombstones to Cornerstones: Hope and Help for Churches in Stress and Decline.” Xulon Press. 2022. 192 pages. $23.99.

To kindle our interest, Rick Krug and Jessica Knapp first evoke fond memories from a golden age of church growth animated by singings, frequent meetings, evangelism, fellowship and Bible studies.

After skillfully compressing many precious recollections, the book contrasts this glorious past with confusion and hopelessness among churches confronting decline.

The authors use a life cycle model based on meaningful research applicable to thousands of organizations. Their frequent theme is to recognize warning signs and make corrections prior to decline.

A pivotal point involves sustained growth, after which potential decline can be averted by applying renewal strategies through resetting goals and future vision. That is, without critically timed intervention plans and anticipating pivotal points, a shocking decline is likely.

The authors frequently honor faithful members and leaders who struggle and are stressed when encountering loss. Sadly, however, the harsh truths of cultural change, membership decline and program defeat spool up in anger and misguided blame.

Decline reactivity occurs in identifiable patterns of attitude:

1. Dumbfounded and worried (“weary and need help”).
2. Optimistic, work harder, only just a cycle (“the hurt but hopeful”).
3. Victimized, as in “we are under attack” (i.e., cultural shifts, social forces, etc.).

In further response, churches deny or pursue incomplete plans to forestall loss only to discover they missed the hidden causes.

Even sincere attitudes unknowingly foster platitudes blunting reality. The authors commend self-evaluation, reimagination and vision casting as grounding to avoid decline. The goal is action for congregational transition planning. It begins by reviewing successful history.

These powerful memories lead to the evocative “tombstone” metaphor galvanizing prayerful principles and converting loss into a future new form — a “cornerstone,” representing past threads living on in hope and “finishing God’s work.”

The authors empathize with any negative reactions regarding decline and its conversational awkwardness. They insist the discussion is not fatalistic but realistic, merging messages of warning and encouragement, sprinkled with effective directions into a helpful pathway.

This important book stimulates thoughts about future volumes, bolstering statistical data and case studies. It is a courageous text — a must read addressing an imminent need!

CARLEY H. DODD is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication and Sociology at Abilene Christian University. He has authored numerous academic articles and books and serves as an elder of the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.

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Cynthia Powell

Vic McCracken, professor of ethics and theology at Abilene Christian University, co-teaches the medical bioethics course with Cynthia Powell, who directs ACU’s Center for Pre-Health Professions.

Every year the class includes students who were born through IVF.

“It’s not uncommon in our fold,” Powell said.

The professors tell students up front that technological advancements spurred many questions to be explored.

“It was harder to argue about embryonic life when people didn’t know what’s happening in the womb,” McCracken said. But now they must ask, “What is the moral status of embryonic life? Do they have the status of undeniable persons, no status at all or some lesser status?”

Powell wants future health professionals to be understand the viewpoint of the patient when they consider medical interventions to treat infertility.

Read this related story about Christians experience with infertility and IVF.

“It’s easy to say, ‘I don’t think IVF is morally permissible’ if you aren’t a person suffering with infertility,” Powell said.

Jim Nichols, now retired, is past chair of ACU’s biology department and has served as a chaplain at Hendrick Health in Abilene for 16 years.

“It’s easy to say, ‘I don’t think IVF is morally permissible’ if you aren’t a person suffering with infertility,”

He says those experiences — and approaching 80 — have impacted his views.

“At the stage I am in my life right now, I don’t like to make decisions for other people on much of anything, especially something as private and personal as this is,” he said.

Jim Nichols

“Part of me says this is something where a couple is not accepting nature and the boundaries nature has put on the world.”

But, he added, “The other part of me says that’s judgmental of people, and they should have the right to exercise whatever science options they have, and this is a science option that works. I would not apprise people not to do it.”

He is concerned about the growing throng of unused embryos cryogenically preserved in labs.

So is McCracken who would prefer to minimize the number of embryos created, though that would make the process more invasive and more expensive.

“I’m supportive of IVF, but I have moral reservations about a practice that entails creation of embryos for research. And yet it’s hard to argue we should choose to discard embryos rather than use them.”

“I don’t think they’re a person,” Nichols said, “but they have some value morally.”

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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“I just tell her, ‘A very nice family gave us you, and you were sooooo tiny. And they put you inside me so you could grow. When it was time to come out, you did. We had shared blood, but I have brown hair, and you have blond,’” said Chelsea Buchholtz, an Austin, Texas, attorney. “‘But I’m your only mommy.’”

Neither Chelsea nor her husband, Scott, was able to have biological children. After exploring fostering and traditional adoption, she learned about embryo adoption.

“It’s the most clear time in my life in which the Holy Spirit has spoken to me. It allowed us to have a family in kind of a traditional way.”

The Buchholtzes attend Providence Church, a church plant that partners with the University Avenue Church of Christ, where Chelsea grew up and her father served many years as an elder. Her youth minister from those years and his wife were the first of several to mention in vitro fertilization by donation.

“It’s the most clear time in my life in which the Holy Spirit has spoken to me,” Chelsea said. “It allowed us to have a family in kind of a traditional way.”

So she tells Rosie what she believes to be true: “That embryo was created by God, and I’m so glad he created you for us.”

The Buchholtz family

Chelsea’s fertility doctor explained that IVF by adoption could be facilitated as a traditional adoption or as a transfer of property with a contractual agreement.

“I’m a lawyer. I said, ‘Let’s do a contract.’” They met the donor parents and their children previously conceived through IVF. The family gave the Buchholtzes five embryos, one of which was implanted and became Rosie.

Chelsea, 45, serves as executive director of the Texas Real Estate Commission but said her favorite title is Mom. Scott, 52, works as operations director for the Texas Economic Development Corporation. Though Rosie wishes for a sibling, they don’t plan to have more children.

“We have a dog named Sister!” Chelsea said, laughing.

They would like to give the other embryos to the next family.

How it works — and doesn’t work

The Buchholtz story is typical. And not at all typical. Which is the case for all families who choose IVF.

Their story is nothing like that of Brent and DeShonna Taylor, a Dallas couple whose 27-year-old quintuplets were born through IVF. And theirs, in turn, is nothing like Jessica Hemenway Knapp and her husband, David. The Arizona Christians endured three failed IVF attempts and a 14-year sojourn with infertility that included four miscarriages. Their four children were all conceived naturally over that same span of time.

“Nobody does IVF without a passion for having babies,” Jessica said. “It’s not just, ‘This is how I’ll get a kid.’”

Jessica Knapp

Knapp is minister of The Seed Gathering, a church plant associated with Churches of Christ on the University of Arizona campus, but she began her professional career as a math professor. David is an engineer.

Jessica described the expensive last resort treatment for couples dealing with infertility as physically and emotionally brutal. Doctors tailor the process to each couple’s needs. But typically it begins with a regimen of hormones and injections to stimulate the woman’s ovaries to overproduce eggs that are harvested through the first of two surgical procedures. The number harvested varies from as few as five or six to as many as 30, determined by factors including the mother’s health, age and history.

The eggs are fertilized in a lab using the father’s sperm or, if the father is infertile, using donated sperm. If the mother is infertile, a donated egg may be fertilized. Odds of infertility being due to the woman, the man or undetermined are about equal.

About 5 percent of couples with infertility will try IVF, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The total cost can range from $20,000 to $40,000 with insurance coverage varying.

Spontaneous abortion, or miscarriage, happens in 10 to 20 percent of pregnancies, even in naturally occurring, clinically recognized pregnancies. Clinically unrecognized loss is likely even higher. The numbers increase with maternal age.

In the IVF process, as in the womb, some eggs die. Some embryos die. In Knapp’s case, all of them died in the first two attempts before any could be transferred to her womb. A third attempt failed when the implanted embryo died in utero.

Embryos develop to six to 10 cells each within just two or three days of fertilization. They are tested for genetic anomalies and graded to assess which have the highest viability. One or more of the most viable are implanted in a second surgical procedure.

Chelsea Buchholtz only had to undergo the second procedure since she was using a donated embryo. And only one was transferred. That one became Rosie.

But when the Taylors underwent IVF 27 years ago, doctors commonly transferred multiple embryos, assuming some would not survive. Today, doctors more commonly transfer only one or two or three to avoid multiple births beyond twins.

The Taylor quintuplets at ages 1 and 18: Kenedy, Jonah, Jacob, Aleksi and Zachary. The five, now age 27, are the IVF babies of Brent and DeShonna Taylor of Dallas.

The remaining embryos are frozen. Parents may choose to use them later, donate them to other couples, donate them for medical research or allow them to be discarded.

And that’s where things get even more complicated. Enter the Catholics, the courts, the bioethicists, the Baptists. And, of course, the politicians.

Moral complexity

IVF was invented in 1978 by British physiologist Sir Robert Edwards. Since then, more than 8 million IVF babies have been born, according to the Cleveland Clinic. And Christians have sometimes found themselves conflicted, some objecting to the process, others to its consequences for unused embryos.

Yet there’s widespread support for what many call a pro-life practice. IVF allows babies to be born who would not have life without it.

Roman Catholic opposition to IVF was documented in “Donum Vitae: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation,” issued by Pope John Paul II in 1987. The instruction details objections to the side effects of IVF, specifically the creation of extra embryos and their destruction. But at its heart it disdains any form of reproduction outside the natural order, which it calls “the fidelity of the spouses in the unity of marriage.”

Read this related story about how Christian bioethicists at Abilene Christian University are helping students consider the moral complexities of IVF.

A May 2024 study published by Pew Research found that 65 percent of American Catholics believe IVF is a good thing, but the official stance remains unchanged. In the same study, mainstream Protestants and evangelicals also responded that IVF is a good thing at a rate of 63 percent to 78 percent, depending on how the groups were defined.

In a Gallup survey a month later wherein religiosity is measured by frequency of church attendance, 63 percent of Americans who attend weekly believe IVF is morally acceptable. But 54 percent believe destroying frozen human embryos is morally wrong.

That divergence was evident at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June. The nation’s largest Protestant denomination engaged in emotional debate over IVF. Delegates, called messengers, passed a resolution largely opposing IVF but most particularly the “destruction of embryonic human life” and “dehumanizing methods for determining suitability for life.”

They commended couples who have “sought to only utilize infertility treatments and reproductive technologies in ways consistent with the dignity of the human embryo as well as those who have adopted frozen embryos.”

What was once a fairly rare and little-discussed procedure designed to treat the most personal of medical conditions entered the spotlight via court cases in Alabama and Texas, legislation in Alabama and party posturing in Congress. A GOP bill called the IVF Protection Act and a Democratic bill, the Right to IVF Act, both failed amid political maneuvering.

Yet despite genuine moral complexity and protracted political wrangling, support for IVF remains surprisingly bipartisan — even in states such as Alabama and Texas, which have two of the largest concentrations of Churches of Christ.

Michael DeBoer

In February, a conservative Supreme Court in Alabama ruled that “extrauterine unborn children” created through IVF must be considered exactly the same as in utero embryos. Thus parents could sue clinics or physicians, or theoretically be held responsible themselves, for the embryos’ demise under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, passed in 1872.

Michael DeBoer, associate dean for academic affairs at Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law in Alabama, said the legal issue in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine was straightforward: “What does the statute say, and what does the statute mean?”

In this case, DeBoer said, that is, “What would the meaning of ‘minor child’ have been in the 1870s when that legislation was enacted?”

“Of course they didn’t know anything about what is termed ‘extra uterine children.’ But a minor child would have been known,” he said, “and I think what Justice (Jay) Mitchell is saying is ‘minor child’ was meant to be encompassing rather than excluding. So it’s minor children whether born or unborn.”

Property or personhood

DeBoer, a Southern Baptist, has been on the Faulkner faculty since 2011. His courses have included healthcare law, public health, and law and religion. His explainer on LePage, published by the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Center for Faith and Culture in Wake Forest, N.C., details the case and its rationale.

After LePage, many fertility clinics statewide put procedures on hold. Then less than three weeks later, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Bill Melson, a member of the Wood Avenue Church of Christ in Florence, protecting IVF providers and patients from prosecution in the event embryos die before they are implanted.

Melson, a Republican and an anesthesiologist, has a long list of conservative bonafides. The bill he authored passed in Alabama’s Republican-dominated House and Senate by overwhelming margins, garnering national and international media attention. The Christian Chronicle made multiple attempts to reach Melson for this article but failed to connect with him.

In the political arena, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist, and several governors, including Texas’ Greg Abbott, a Catholic, issued cautious statements supportive of IVF.

In June, Texas’ Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of Antoun v. Antoun, a case challenging a divorce settlement. The appeals court held that a contract between both parents and a fertility clinic several years earlier was enforceable, and in keeping with the contract, unused embryos would be the property of the father.

The property or personhood issue is abstract to some. Jessica Knapp understands it concretely.

“We still have two embryos frozen. We know they are not viable, but I’m not quite ready to have them destroyed. I don’t have an adjective for how it feels.”

“I did three rounds of IVF and got no babies,” she said and paused. “We still have two embryos frozen. We know they are not viable, but I’m not quite ready to have them destroyed. I don’t have an adjective for how it feels.”

“I want them to be considered my babies when I decide to implant them,” the mother said. “But I need them to be considered property in terms of how my husband and I manage what happens next. It’s both.”

‘Blessings we don’t have all the answers for’

Bill Chambers of Tyler, Texas, is retired now, but for 40 years he was an OB-GYN specializing in high-risk pregnancies and a life fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Chambers, a former elder of the Glenwood Church of Christ, said he “had no apprehension in referring couples, for whom we had done every other reasonable thing, for IVF.”

“Man has forgotten that there are many blessings that we don’t have all the answers for. (One of those is) the gift of unbelievable technological medicine.”

“Man has forgotten to be humble. Man has forgotten that there are many blessings that we don’t have all the answers for,” the physician said. One of those is “the gift of unbelievable technological medicine.”

Brent Taylor told his own mom something similar — but in West Texas vernacular — when she raised concerns almost three decades ago.

From left, Joshua, Kenedy, Zachary, Jonah, Jacob, Aleksi, Deshonna and Brent Taylor pose for a family photo.

Both Taylors are nurses and attend Highland Oaks Church of Christ in Dallas, where DeShonna is director of heart, lung and vascular at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In 1997 she was working at the hospital in Snyder, Texas, a small town midway between Abilene and Lubbock, and Brent was sports editor at the local newspaper.

“Mom was old, staunch C of C,” Brent said, “but I told her one day, ‘Mom, God gave these doctors and scientists the ability to figure this out, so what’s the problem?’ And of course from that point on, especially after they were born, she doesn’t have any problem. She added five grandkids in three minutes!”

The 37th Avenue Church of Christ in Snyder marshaled volunteers to work four-hour shifts helping care for the five little ones and their older brother.

“Even though we love all our kids unconditionally, I wouldn’t wish five kids on anybody ever,” Brent said.

When the fertility clinic called to ask what the couple wanted done with two remaining embryos, embryo adoption wasn’t yet a thing, DeShonna recalled.

“I’m not sure what I would have chosen — research or adoption,” she said. “Maybe my decision was made rashly — at the time I just remember having all those toddlers who were 2 or 3 years old. We knew we weren’t going to have any more kids. We just told them to let them thaw.”

Grace and redemption

In LePage, DeBoer saw an opportunity for one state to take a small first step toward better regulation of IVF, which he believes has not received the attention it deserves from the law.

“There’s a human impulse at work with IVF and assisted reproductive technology. … It’s an expensive process but one that holds a lot of promise for people who could not otherwise have children,” DeBoer said.

“I have lived long enough to see God’s redeeming hand in the care and development of technology that is within his will. And God has shown that blessing among his disciples.”

“That’s one reason people haven’t given it attention,” he added. “It’s a very difficult subject to speak into because it involves a lot of pain for a lot of people.”

As healthcare professionals, Chambers and DeShonna Taylor echoed DeBoer’s concerns about too little regulation of IVF.

Bill Chambers

Until that changes, Chambers believes physicians and patients must work it out together.

“It is not God’s fault that men will take those tools and use them for profit and convenience and fail to recognize or acknowledge the sanctity and miracle of life,” he said. “I have lived long enough to see God’s redeeming hand in the care and development of technology that is within his will. And God has shown that blessing among his disciples.”

Judges, politicians and ethicists debate whether an eight-celled organism is a human being to be protected or a collection of cells that lacks viability for life outside the womb.

Knapp believes the church must be part of the discussion. But because the church has denied science in a lot of places, “we aren’t getting to have a voice about ethical matters like this,” she said. “We have to be part of a conversation that’s aware of the legal and medical implications.”

Meanwhile, physicians sit with patients who arrived in their exam rooms after months or years of pain and prayer in pursuit of a positive stripe on a pregnancy test –– years praying to have a baby.

“If society wants to prohibit technology, then prohibit the misuse of it. But not those aspects that reveal the Creator’s mercy, grace and redemption of one of the most deeply embedded evidences, which is motherhood and fatherhood.”

“If society wants to prohibit technology, then prohibit the misuse of it,” Chambers said. “But not those aspects that reveal the Creator’s mercy, grace and redemption of one of the most deeply embedded evidences, which is motherhood and fatherhood.”

Perhaps 40 years spent delivering babies informs the physician’s conviction that grace and redemption can be found in IVF. In those 40 years he has seen several IVF babies grow to adulthood and lead Christian families of their own.

Babies like Rosie.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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Featured image (above): Crowley’s Ridge College leadership Tim Wooldridge, advancement executive; Paul McFadden, vice president for student affairs; Richard Johnson, president; Brett Carlile, vice president for enrollment and advancement; and Jeremy Pierce, vice president for academic affairs, pose with a grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation. The organization awarded a $662,333 grant to the college in Paragould, Ark., which is associated with Churches of Christ. The grant will partially fund the construction of the college’s new chemistry building and lift stations detailed in the college’s “Mission Possible $12 Million Capital Campaign.”

MISSOURI

CABOOL — More than 80 residents of this small Midwestern town gathered under a large canopy on a recent Sunday night to hear the gospel message, eat and fellowship together.

The Cabool Church of Christ hosted the tent revival with visiting preacher W. Tom Hall, minister for the Mt. Pleasant Church of Christ in Bowling Green, Ky.

The leadership team for the tent revival at the Cabool Church of Christ.

It was a significant turnout for a congregation that had averaged around 20 at Sunday worship — thanks in part to members knocking on hundreds of doors.

“We met so many people,” Hall said. “We could see their interest and realized maybe this would make a difference in this community.”

“And I believe it did. God can use old ways and new ones to remind us to share the Gospel.”

“There is something about being close to God’s creation that inspired worship without air-conditioned buildings and padded pews.”

For Cabool minister Jerry Tackitt, the meeting reminded him of a time of “evangelistic fervor.”

“Tent meetings were common,” he said. “There is something about being close to God’s creation that inspired worship without air-conditioned buildings and padded pews.”

OHIO

MIDDLETOWN — The Crosspointe Church of Christ recently moved from its rural cornfield location to a historic downtown building that formerly belonged to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

It’s the fourth move in the church’s 75-year history.

The Crosspointe church celebrates its move to a new location.

Though the 115-member congregation is downsizing its facilities, it has baptized an increasing number of new believers — some in a horse trough, since the new building doesn’t yet have a baptistery — and hopes to continue that trend.

“We are moving back to the center of our city, which is a mission field, where we can help more people,” said elder Jim Cornwell.

The sale of the previous building to Grace Point Fellowship has also provided the Crosspointe church with resources for additional Kingdom work, including a $5,000 check to Shalom Homeless Ministries given at the new location’s inaugural worship service.

Middletown Mayor Elizabeth Slamka, who attended the June 9 service, proclaimed the day “Crosspointe Church of Christ Day.”

SOUTH CAROLINA

ANDERSON — Two Churches of Christ in this community about 30 miles southwest of Greenville recently joined in fellowship and racial unity.

The predominantly White Upstate congregation and predominantly Black Graceview congregation worshiped together in Graceview’s building. Upstate minister Dakota Moody spoke from the pulpit.

His message was on the struggle of covetousness, based in Luke 12.

Afterward, members of both churches shared a meal with a goal of sitting with and getting to know unfamiliar faces.

Members of the Upstate and Graceview churches in Anderson, S.C., worship together in a unity service.

“As a White Christian, I realize how I and my other White brothers and sisters in the faith are missing out on the blessings of worship, teaching, singing and fellowshipping with our Black brothers and sisters in the faith,” Upstate member Connie Burth said. “Jesus prayed for unity — I’m sure this sort of unity was included.”

The two churches plan to swap roles in a future unity service, with Upstate hosting and Graceview minister John Davis Marshall preaching.

NEWSMAKERS

APPOINTED: Kaylan Stewart as associate vice president for enrollment management for Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. Stewart previously spent seven years leading the university’s undergraduate admissions.

BAPTIZED: Taron Barger and Dana Goodwin-Ross at the Newburg Church of Christ in Louisville, Ky. Rich Cicilia of the San Nicolas Church of Christ in Aruba. Brian Keith Johnson at the Vansant Church of Christ in Virginia. A.J. Schweinzger at the Violet Ridge Church of Christ in Crittenden, Ky. Blakley Highsmith at the Maysville Church of Christ in Oklahoma. Breanna Dishongh at the Hickory Knoll Church of Christ in Harahan, La. Gloria Arel at the Owens Cross Roads Church of Christ in Alabama. Nomar and Xyrus Macario at the Midtown Church of Christ in Baguio City, Philippines. Bo Neely Fowler at the Ninth Avenue Church of Christ in Haleyville, Ala.

From left, Kaylan Stewart, Taron Barger, Blakley Highsmith (center), Greg Ziegler.

NAMED: Scott Wyatt as the new director of chorale and an assistant professor of music at Freed-Hardeman University.

RETIRED: Greg Ziegler from ministry after more than 40 years. Ziegler served at the Odessa Church of Christ in Missouri for 30 years before moving to work for the Bentonville Church Of Christ in Arkansas 10 years ago.

The post Across the Nation: A tent revival, a ‘Church of Christ Day,’ a unity service and more quick takes appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Curious, he took it home and signed up.

A few months later, a missionary from Texas showed up at his family’s doorstep to present him with a certificate of completion — and to invite him to worship with a Church of Christ.

“All churches are churches of Christ,” Cardona’s dad replied. But he allowed Antonio to attend.

Antonio Cardona

A few decades later, Antonio Cardona became the newest member of The Christian Chronicle’s board of trustees, a group of Christian men and women who provide governance and guidance for the nonprofit, international newspaper for Churches of Christ.

“I am really excited to be a part of the board,” said Cardona, a member of the Princeton Church of Christ in New Jersey. “I will provide some good advisory information, contacts and inroads into the church.”

A New York native with Puerto Rican roots, Cardona recently retired from the New Jersey state government, where he served in a variety of training and human resource roles.

He has worked as an adjunct instructor at universities including Rutgers and Ohio Valley University. He also has served as a part-time minister for Churches of Christ in Sebring, Ohio, and Puerto Rico. He serves as a Spanish interpreter for the Princeton church.

Cardona and his wife, Rosa, have three children.

“I am looking to expand my horizons and help other people expand their horizons as well,” Cardona said. “I am trying to influence the world in a positive way within the communities I touch base with.”

Whether it is advising or writing for the paper, Cardona’s goal is to “expand the kingdom” with his input and guidance.

“I think that The Christian Chronicle is doing a fantastic job across the board,” Cardona said. “I see this as a place where I can expand the influence of the Chronicle.”

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Those words are every bit as relevant in 2024 as they were in 1981 when Howard Norton wrote them in his first editorial for The Christian Chronicle.

Brother Norton climbed many mountains during his 88 years on earth. He and his wife, Jane, were members of a pioneering mission team to Brazil. He was a preacher, a Bible professor, a school administrator and a gifted storyteller.

He helped to bring this publication back from near-death, serving as its first editor after missionary John Beckloff gifted The Christian Chronicle to Oklahoma Christian University. Howard was part of a team of dedicated Christians who revived the newspaper and expanded its reach — including Bailey McBride, Joy McMillon, Scott LaMascus, Lindy Adams, Glover Shipp and many more.

Jane and Howard Norton in 2016.

After a long battle with cancer, Howard Norton died Oct. 22, 2023, just 17 days after Jane Norton passed away. About a month earlier, I spoke to Howard about establishing an endowment to honor his service to the Chronicle, and he graciously agreed.

The Howard Norton Endowment, which already has $250,000 in commitments, will help the Chronicle keep telling the stories that meant so much to the Nortons. We will use income from the endowment for these purposes:

The Nortons celebrate Howard’s 80th birthday in 2015 with children (seated) Ted Norton, Laurie Diles and Tom Norton plus spouses and grandchildren. Survivors include their children, seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

• Covering Latin America: The Nortons dedicated 16 years to the people of Brazil as part of a mission team. Later in life, they moved to Honduras, where Howard served as president of Baxter Institute, which trains Spanish speakers for missions. They were instrumental in the founding of Great Cities Missions.

We plan to expand our coverage of Latin America, highlighting new generations of believers. One exciting development we plan to cover is Harvest Brazil, a Brazilian-led effort to plant churches in the six remaining Brazilian states with no Churches of Christ. Efforts in the capitals of three of these states already are underway.

After a group photo, members of the 1961 São Paulo mission team — including the Nortons — and their children sing hymns in Portuguese and English.

• The Norton Colloquium: We want to follow Howard’s example by facilitating robust discussions of issues facing our fellowship. The Chronicle will partner with lectureships, Christian universities and nonprofits to provide guest speakers, panel discussions and special events throughout the year.

The first Norton Colloquium is scheduled for Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 as part of “Inspire: The 101st Lectureship” at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. We plan to present classes on “The Present and Future of Churches of Christ,” “How Should We Talk About Politics?” and “Modern-Day Josephs (and Josephines).”

Howard Norton speaks to an attendee at the Baxter Institute’s annual seminar in Tegucigalpa in 2011.

• The Chronicle en Español: We will pursue opportunities to offer high-quality Spanish translations of our coverage online and in print.
Generous donors have stepped up to help us honor Howard Norton’s legacy. We would love to see this endowment grow to $1 million or more, allowing us to expand on the initiatives you see here.

Please consider a one-time or recurring gift to The Norton Endowment. See christianchronicle.org/norton or mail checks to The Christian Chronicle, P.O. Box 11000, Oklahoma City, OK 73136-1100 (note “Norton Endowment”).

The post New endowment honors legacy of Howard Norton appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

Police snipers were aiming at the AGR International Inc. building, he told her.

“I looked, but I felt safe, and I wanted to watch Trump,” said Becky, a member of the Zelienople Church of Christ, about 20 miles southwest of Butler. “That’s when I heard the first bullet.”

The exact timeline of Saturday’s events at the Butler Farm Show, the rally venue, is the subject of multiple law enforcement and congressional investigations. 

Trump and at least two others were wounded. Retired fire chief Corey Comparatore was killed. Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman, opened fire from the AGR roof, less than 150 meters (164 yards) from the farm show stage but outside the secured area.

“We didn’t know he was hit,” Becky said of Trump. “We were just getting down and taking cover.”

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday in Butler, Pa.

‘A bad feeling’

Becky almost skipped it all. But the farm show grounds are just a 15-minute walk from the couple’s home. So she and John, a former Church of Christ minister, went there the evening before to see how things would be set up. They decided to join the crowd of Trump supporters.

Becky had never been to a Trump rally before and said she was somewhat fearful about attending. But the ardent Trump supporter said her husband had been praying about the event for several weeks — and for 30 minutes before they left.

Some friends and family members she called “radicalized” have disowned her over her political views, she said. But young people at the dental practice where she’s the treatment coordinator were planning to go, and she wanted to stand up for what she believed. In the end, at least one co-worker did not attend because “she had a bad feeling about it.”

The first few hours she described as “like a family reunion.” She chatted with some women she met as they were waiting to get in, and they sang an impromptu “Star-Spangled Banner” together. She said that went well, “until it got to that high soprano part!”

A flag hanging over the stage became twisted by the wind, and Becky thought it looked like an angel, that perhaps the event staff had shaped it that way intentionally. They lowered it and untangled it before Trump took the stage. Later, images of the flag had “the internet convinced that (Trump) was protected by a higher power,” the New York Post reported.

John and Becky Krivak, members of the Zelienople Church of Christ in Pennsylvania, on the day of the campaign rally.

Becky grew up in western Pennsylvania. She and John lived in several places, including a tour of duty in Japan when he was in the military, then returned home. He earned a biblical languages degree from Harding University in Searcy, Ark., and preached for about a decade.  Today he works for MSA Safety Inc., which produces safety equipment for a variety of high-risk industries. 

The Zelienople church, the couple’s home congregation, comprises about 50 folks. Preacher Nathan Mayes describes the group as “not super political for the most part, though most have a conservative background.”

“I cannot think of anyone I know who specifically espouses a liberal or Democratic leaning,” Mayes said, “but there are several who certainly don’t call themselves Trump supporters, and I’d call myself one of them.”

He knew of no one at the church other than the Krivaks who would have gone to the rally.

And Mayes said no mention was made of the shooting that took place just hours earlier when the congregation gathered for Sunday worship.   

“We prayed for the country in the opening prayer,” he said, “and that was about it.”

President Donald Trump posted on his social media network after the attempted assassination.

‘We’re all grieving’

Becky wants people to pray for her community. She loves Butler.

She’ll be 63 next month, not old enough to remember the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and she thinks she and John were overseas when President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. But when she returned to the dental office and what should have been normal on Monday after the shooting, the Dallas reality of six decades ago was reincarnated in her hometown.

President John F. Kennedy rides in the limousine in Dallas minutes before the 1963 assassination.

“It was eerie,” she said.

“No one was talking about what happened, but as I reflected, we’re all grieving. This happened in our community. The farm show is where we go for fun. No one will want to go there for fun anymore. I don’t think any of us will be the same going there.”

On her personal Facebook page four days after the shooting, she wrote about chasing an elderly neighbor’s escaping dog down their shared fence line, even though every conversation with the neighbor includes the woman making it clear that she doesn’t like Trump.

“Jesus says, ‘love your neighbor and do good to those who hate you!’” Becky wrote in her post. “I’d run the fence line again! Be the neighbor Jesus would want you to be!”

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

“No one was talking about what happened, but as I reflected, we’re all grieving. This happened in our community.”

Related podcast

Listen to the podcast.

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Fifty years later, my fond memories of that time remain strong.

I was reminded of that experience as I perused the booths at last week’s inaugural Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, the popular vacation destination in the Ozark Mountains.

More on that in a moment. But first, a bit of background: Polishing the Pulpit began with three preachers — Allen Webster, Mark Howell and Floyd Bailey — getting together to brainstorm sermons 30 years ago.

Now, 5,500 men, women and children gather each August in Sevierville, Tenn., at the edge of the Smoky Mountains. The weeklong event has become so popular that organizers added a second Polishing the Pulpit this July in Branson, nearly 700 miles west of the East Tennessee location.

“The thought was that we would take some pressure off the Sevierville location because we’re maxing it out,” said minister Todd Clippard, who spoke to The Christian Chronicle at the request of Polishing the Pulpit’s directors. “And second, the Polishing the Pulpit in Sevierville is always the third week of August, and you have a lot of parents who can’t come because their kids are in school.”

A giant “PTP” sign — short for “Polishing the Pulpit” — greets attendees at the inaugural conference at the Chateau on the Lake Resort Spa and Convention Center in Branson, Mo.

Clippard, who preaches for the Burleson Church of Christ in Hamilton, Ala., characterizes Polishing the Pulpit as a spiritual feast.

The Branson conference featured more than 150 speakers and 500 classes for various age groups. Special tracks were geared toward preachers, elders, women, teens and children. Worship assemblies brought together the entire crowd for singing, prayer and preaching.

“You’ve got 2,000 people who are all on the same page, all striving toward the same goal,” Clippard said of the Branson gathering, which drew 1,944 attendees. “You see people — from newborns to 100 years old — who are still fighting the good fight.”

Dan Winkler preaches during the inaugural Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, Mo.

A minister’s ‘getaway’

Doug Gregory, pulpit minister for the West Side Church of Christ in Elkton, Ky., drove 420 miles to Branson with his wife, Annetta, and three sons.

Doug Gregory preaches for the West Side Church of Christ in Elkton, Ky.

Gregory, who recognized me from my picture in the Chronicle, calls Polishing the Pulpit his “getaway.”

“The minister stands in the pulpit every week and is supposed to be a well and pour out,” he said. “But if you don’t pour something in, you ain’t got nothing to pour out.”

He shared how last year’s Polishing the Pulpit in Sevierville galvanized his ministry.

Until then, he spent most of his workweek in his church office. But a series by Chris Donovant, evangelist for the Kensington Woods Church of Christ in Hattiesburg, Miss., changed his perspective.

“To sum it up … Jesus went around to meet physical needs to gain an opportunity to meet spiritual needs,” said Gregory, whose church has launched an addiction recovery ministry and turned its former parsonage into a refuge for the homeless.

Producing gospel preachers

Preaching is, of course, a focus at Polishing the Pulpit.

I couldn’t help but notice all the booths for preaching schools — from the Georgia School of Theology to the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver.

The Chronicle has reported extensively on the minister shortage in Churches of Christ, so I was eager to hear from the preaching school representatives.

Tom Moore, who has preached for 40 years, serves as dean of students for the Texas School of Preaching.

I talked to Tom Moore, dean of students for the Texas School of Preaching, a ministry of the BCS Church of Christ in the Bryan-College Station area. Now in its third year, the school graduated its first class of five last summer.

“We want to prepare people to be bold in the pulpit,” Moore said. “We just want to produce gospel preachers.”

“We want to prepare people to be bold in the pulpit. We just want to produce gospel preachers.”

I talked to Ethan Tate with the Tri-Cities School of Preaching and Christian Development — which started in 2001 and has its own building by the Stoney Creek Church of Christ in Elizabethton, Tenn. 

Tri-Cities serves about a dozen on-campus students and more than 50 in distance learning classes.

“Our focus is not just training men to preach the Word of God,” Tate said. “We want to train ladies to be Bible class teachers. … We want to help men become more mature in their position, wherever they serve in the church. 

“We want to help equip all Christians,” he added, “to be able to do the work for Jesus and for God’s glory.”

David Deagel with the West Virginia School of Preaching reports that recruiting students has been difficult.

‘We need students’

I talked to David Deagel with the West Virginia School of Preaching. The 30-year-old school is sponsored by the Hillview Terrace Church of Christ in Moundsville, about 70 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Lately, recruiting has been a challenge for the school, which has six students enrolled for the fall.

“You’ve probably seen all the ads you’ve been running in The Christian Chronicle where there are so many churches that need preachers,” Deagle said. “And we need students. But things have been kind of light the past couple of years (in terms of) men taking up that mantle to preach the Gospel.”

I talked to Caleb Griffith, a graduate of the Brown Trail School of Preaching in Bedford, Texas. The 20-year-old serves as a field representative for the school, which opened in 1965 and has six students.

Caleb Griffith serves as a field representative for the Brown Trail School of Preaching in Bedford, Texas.

“We believe there’s a shortage of quality preachers,” Griffith said. “We’re focusing less on turning out the quantity of men so much as the quality of men.”

I talked to Jackie Walker and Wayne Rodgers with the Memphis School of Preaching in Tennessee. Walker, whose late husband, Don, taught at the school, works with admissions and the library. Rodgers and his wife, Cindy, started 4:16 Ministries (based on Ephesians 4:16), which is partnering with the school on stateside mission work. 

Founded in 1966, the school expects about 50 students this fall.

Wayne Rodgers and Jackie Walker work with the Memphis School of Preaching in Tennessee.

“We have a preacher shortage — a sound preacher shortage — and we get calls all the time for preachers,” Walker said. “A lot of preachers are staying at congregations a long time, so the littler ones are struggling to find good preachers.”

I talked to Trent Kennedy and Steven Lloyd with the Southwest School of Bible Studies in Austin, Texas. The school, started in 1974 and sponsored by the Southwest Church of Christ, ranges between 12 and 25 students at any given time.

“There are more pulpits than there are men who want to preach,” Kennedy said. “In rural congregations, the salary is not real high, so a lot of those men will need to work part time and do a secular job of some sort to support themselves and their family.”

And I talked to Brian and Jagie Kenyon with the Florida School of Preaching, hosted since 1969 by the South Florida Avenue Church of Christ in Lakeland.

Brian Kenyon started as a student at the school in 1989 and has directed it since 2009. 

“I’m just full-out fired up about Jesus,” said Kenyon, who grew up in a nonreligious household and found his Christian faith after going through drug rehabilitation.

Brian Kenyon, pictured with his wife, Jagie, directs the Florida School of Preaching.

If everyone shows up, the school will have eight students this fall.

“The foundation you get at a preaching school — the Bible foundation — is something you can use no matter what you do in life,” said Kenyon, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. 

“Even if you don’t preach, it’ll make you a better husband,” he stressed. “It’ll make you a better elder or deacon in the church. It’ll make you a better employer or employee. It’ll just make you better.”

“The foundation you get at a preaching school — the Bible foundation — is something you can use no matter what you do in life.”

Why choose a preaching school?

In Churches of Christ, four basic criteria help explain the appeal of preaching schools, according to Carlus Gupton, director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.:

• Cost: “Preaching schools are much less expensive.” Most charge no tuition.

• Sense of trust: “Preaching schools are viewed by those who attend and the churches who hire their graduates as being more in line with their understanding of what constitutes sound teaching.”

• Curriculum: “Preaching schools often cover the entire canon of Scripture and related topics and are often focused strictly on those areas instead of requiring other subjects that may be helpful but not necessary for ministry roles.” 

• Community: “Preaching school cohorts are often small and tight-knit, with everyone taking the same classes and often living near each other for a few years. This is part of the reason their lectureships are strongly supported in that they allow friends to reconvene.”

On my 300-mile drive home from Polishing the Pulpit in Branson, I called my 79-year-old father, who still preaches for a rural congregation in North Texas.

While living in West Monroe, La., in the mid-1970s, the Rosses pose for a photo. Pictured are Bob and Judy with son Scott, daughter Christy and son Bobby.

We reminisced about the two years Dad spent at the since-closed White’s Ferry Road School of Preaching, devoting late nights to Bible study, making lifelong friendships and going on evangelistic campaigns across the U.S. — often taking along the entire family.

Ah, the precious memories.

“It was one of the highlights of our lives,” said my father, who later earned a Bible degree from Freed-Hardeman.

Amen, Dad.

Mike Vestal, minister for the Westside Church of Christ in Midland, Texas, poses for a photo with Bobby Ross Jr. during the Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, Mo. Vestal attended Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., with Bob Ross, Bobby’s father.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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“Shout, shout. Let it all out. These are the things I can do without. Come on. I’m talking to you. Come on.”

Maggie, my 16-year-old, and I sang along. Between songs, we talked about taking a trip to Washington, D.C., during the kids’ fall break. 

“That’ll be right before the election,” I said with a chuckle. “It’ll be good for y’all to see it before the inevitable rioting.” I meant it as a bipartisan jab. We’ve seen violence on both sides of the political spectrum in recent years.

We were blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding in Pennsylvania. As we approached the Oklahoma City metro, my father-in-law called and told us about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. After we got home and unloaded the car, I pulled up Facebook on my phone, a sense of dread coming over me.

Sure enough, a few of my brothers and sisters in Christ were letting it all out. 

This is the media’s fault, a couple of folks roared. For years they’ve smeared President Trump with fake news, demonizing him and comparing him to Hitler. Of course someone was going to get the wrong idea. What happened was inevitable. 

This is Trump’s fault, a few others cried. For years he’s spouted angry, belligerent rhetoric, inspiring his followers to commit the deplorable acts of Jan. 6. Now he has reaped what he sowed. What happened was inevitable.

At least they agree on that last point. 

I hate seeing my fellow church members joining in with the howling masses. I hate that my kids see it. These are the things I can do without. And, to borrow another line from Mr. Smith and Mr. Orzabel: “In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul.”

Social media serves as a kind of release valve. I understand that. But reactionary posts rob us of perspective.

Social media serves as a kind of release valve. I understand that. But reactionary posts rob us of perspective. In addition to the partisan attacks on Facebook, there were laments by people of faith that this whole episode shows how far we’ve sunk as a country. 

My response comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

 The specter of violence hangs over all of us in a fallen world, regardless of political affiliation. Republican Ronald Reagan, while serving as president, survived an assassination attempt on March 31, 1981. Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, while running for president, died in a June 5, 1968, assassination. His brother, Democrat John. F. Kennedy, died Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

The only U.S. president with ties to our fellowship, James A. Garfield, was shot at a railway station in Washington on July 2, 1881. He died after languishing for nearly three months. His assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, had campaigned for Garfield and believed that the president owed him a job. Later, he decided that a higher power had called him to kill the president. Guiteau’s family, fearing for his sanity, had attempted to have him committed prior to the attack.

We don’t yet know the motives of this current, would-be assassin. Perhaps he was motivated by projections of Trump’s character in the press. Perhaps Trump’s own words were the spark. Perhaps something else pushed him to take this terrible action. (John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Reagan, did so in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster.)

Making sense of the senseless for my girls is tough. All I can say is that, as I’ve traveled abroad for The Christian Chronicle, I’ve seen our Lord moving mountains amid political chaos. Even in Haiti, where the government has all but collapsed, I get reports of the hopeless receiving hope through the support of our churches and nonprofits. 

Everywhere I go, I see God at work, often in spite of us.

Dr. Freddy Juárez takes Emerita Duarte’s blood pressure during a home visit in the community of La Campana, Honduras.

A couple of years ago, managing editor Audrey Jackson and I were in Honduras reporting on the Predisan medical ministry. I spoke with Elvis Tejeda, who works with Predisan, about the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in his country.

On top of that, Honduras was about to have an election, Tejeda said, “And things get pretty crazy around here after an election.”

He paused. “Well … you know what I mean.”

Elvis Tejeda of Predisan talks about a mural near the Good Samaritan Clinic depicting Ramon Navarro, a famous marimba player from Honduras. Navarro and his wife died six months apart from COVID-19.

Sadly, I do. The political violence we endure brings us into mournful kinship with our brothers and sisters around the globe. 

I pray that I can be an example for my children by loving my country — but loving Christ more. May the Lord grant me the fortitude to resist falling in line behind voices that seek to capitalize on — and profit from — anger and rage.

In a world where everybody wants to rule the world (to borrow a line from another Tears for Fears song), may my gaze be ever on the only One who truly rules. 

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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But until this past weekend, that category of memories did not burden our children and grandchildren. Other tragedies have. Columbine. The Oklahoma City bombing. 9/11. Sandy Hook. Too many others. 

But more than four decades had passed since an assassination attempt on a current or former U.S. president — at least since one that was known to the public, one that happened on live TV.

For a time, we told ourselves these events brought us closer as a people. We recall 3-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s casket and President George W. Bush grabbing a bullhorn to thank first responders digging through the 9/11 rubble. We find bizarre comfort in nostalgia.

But in reality we are a flawed and cynical people, suspicious of all who see things differently. We have not mastered the lessons of history, much less the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount.

We forget that Christians with no political power whatsoever, believing in a risen Christ who never sought nor espoused any earthly power, changed the world in a generation.

They did it without a bully pulpit, without a 24/7 news cycle, without social media.

Amid war, disease and disaster, they fed the hungry, rescued abandoned babies and created hospitals to care for the sick and dying.  

The Romans didn’t change. Christians loved their neighbors anyway.

Heed that lesson.

Your community has hungry people in it. Go feed them.

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday in Butler, Pa.

Your state has neglected, abused and unwanted children. Take care of them. 

Your community has immigrants and refugees — legal and otherwise — who are frightened and lonely. Welcome them. 

In the process, you’ll almost certainly discover that someone working next to you votes differently than you do. Let them. Love them. Don’t waste your breath berating them. 

Just work together to help the hurting person in front of you. One of you will lose the election. One will win. Keep serving together anyway.

Paul told the Corinthians, “Christ’s love compels us.”

As we process the violence in Pennsylvania that killed a retired fire chief, Corey Comperatore, and wounded at least three others, including the former president, don’t be consumed with anger. Don’t get caught up in the blame game. “It’s his fault. It’s their fault. It’s the media’s fault.” 

The only path back to sanity is consistently choosing to follow in the steps of the Savior — a path of sacrifice, compassion and generosity to one another.  

Because Christ’s love compels us.

The Hashemis and the Kluvers pose for a group photo at the Afghan refugee family’s Oklahoma home. Christians, including the Kluvers, have helped the Hashemis acclimate to life in America.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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About 270 miles southeast of the Pennsylvania farm show grounds where shots rang out at Trump’s Saturday night campaign rally — and about 20 miles west of the nation’s capital — minister Robin Gough stepped to the pulpit at the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

The preacher immediately focused the congregation’s attention on the assassination attempt.

Robin Gough preaches for the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

“In times like these, it’s important for us to come together and pray for our nation,” Gough said. “Pray for the families of those who were killed, for healing and comfort. We should pray for former President Trump and President Biden, asking God to protect and guide them.

“We need to stand against divisiveness and violence,” the minister emphasized to the Washington, D.C.-area church. “What happens in an eye-for-an-eye world? Everyone ends up blind.”

The attack left the Republican presidential candidate bloodied — after a bullet grazed his ear — and claimed the life of a retired fire chief, Corey Comperatore. Two other spectators were wounded, while a U.S. Secret Service sniper gunned down the shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

At the Newark Church of Christ in Delaware — Biden’s home state, where the Democratic president was attending a Catholic Mass at the time of the Trump shooting — minister K. Rex Butts voiced his alarm and sadness Sunday at the political violence.

“I reminded the church that we are blessed to be peacemakers and then read 1 Timothy 2:1-4, ‘I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness,’” Butts said. “‘This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.’”

Related: Where does God Almighty stand on Biden vs. Trump?

A Newark elder then “offered a prayer for peace in our nation as well as around the world,” the minister said, “and for the safety of both President Biden and former President Trump.”

For months, leaders of the Reidland Church of Christ in Paducah, Ky., had planned a special service Sunday centered on praying for the nation’s leaders, minister Brian Brophy said.

The schedule called for a left-leaning member to pray for Trump and a right-leaning member to pray for Biden.

The idea was to “demonstrate that we can stand together praying for people we don’t necessarily agree with,” Brophy said. “We wanted to follow Paul’s command to Timothy to pray for our leaders regardless of how we feel about them.”

Saturday’s shooting caused the Kentucky church to reassess those plans.

“It was quite a shock to see the news,” Brophy said. “Needless to say, those involved in planning our service were texting back and forth about how this impacted what we would do. In the end, we decided it was more important than ever for us to pray for our leaders.

“We can sometimes forget that these political caricatures we see on TV are real people with real fears, real traumas and real families who care about them,” he added. “We need to pray for their safety and for their families and, most of all, that God would capture their hearts in such a way that they would lead our country in wisdom and peace, that the Gospel may spread.”

“We can sometimes forget that these political caricatures we see on TV are real people, with real fears, real traumas and real families who care about them.”

At the McDermott Road Church of Christ in Plano, Texas, minister Wes McAdams already planned to talk Sunday about “things going on in the world.” But after the attack on Trump, he decided to acknowledge specifically the “events in Pennsylvania.”

“I talked about violence, division and unrest but didn’t speak of anyone by name,” McAdams said. “I spoke briefly about the fear and anger many might be feeling.”

However, he intentionally kept his remarks within the context of his planned sermon, hoping to “acknowledge the tragedy and the emotions” without distracting from the Gospel or inflaming political passions on either side.

Wes McAdams preaches for the McDermott Road Church of Christ in Plano, Texas.

“I’m not sure whether I walked that tightrope in the best way or not,” McAdams said. “At least one member did not care for the way I handled it. He wished I had taken more time to talk explicitly about what happened and asked people to pray. However, shortly after that man spoke to me, another member admitted that he had been very angry, and the words this morning were helpful.”

In his communion remarks at the Pitman Road Church of Christ in Sewell, N.J., elder Dan Cooper said he “reminded the audience that we are in a world very much like the first century world” with “great political turmoil then as now.”

“Even as Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the upper room, he did so in a land that was occupied by the hated Romans,” Cooper said. “He reminded his disciples of the importance of his spiritual kingdom before any physical kingdom.”

During Bible class time at the Como Church of Christ in Mississippi, minister and elder Taylor Francis prayed for peace, asking that “God would heal the divisions in our nation and give us the willingness and ability to talk and discuss instead of lash out.”

The Alma School Road Church of Christ in Chandler, Ariz., “prayed for peace for our country and good health for Trump,” said Ryan Bitikofer, one of the ministers.

Dean Kelly, minister for the Highland Home Church of Christ in Alabama, took his Sunday sermon from Isaiah and focused on the hope in Christ.

“A mention of what happened to Trump fit naturally in talking about not finding hope in this world but only in Jesus,” Kelly said. 

“I mentioned where I was when both Kennedys were killed and stated that this is evil no matter what party is involved,” he added, referring to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the 1968 assassination of U.S. Sen. and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

President John F. Kennedy rides in the limousine in Dallas minutes before the 1963 assassination.

A leader of the Brunswick Church of Christ in Maine “denounced the act of violence, and prayers were offered for all involved and all in government,” minister Charlie Harrison said.

Bobby Valentine, minister for the Eastside Church of Christ in Antioch, Calif., spent about 10 minutes talking about the shooting in the introduction of his Sunday sermon.

“Then we prayed for President Trump, the family of the shooter, the other victims,” Valentine said, and “for leaders of the various political parties to sow seeds of peace.”

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday in Butler, Pa.

Adam Davis, minister for the Wheeler Road Church of Christ in Midland, Mich., announced a special prayer service for next Sunday.

“This service will invite us to lament the violence in our country, confess any role we have played in exacerbating it and listen to God’s voice through Scripture,” Davis said. “We will also allow the Holy Spirit to guide and challenge us in how to practice our faith during times of violent tragedy.”

Back in Fairfax, Gough said Christians can either escalate political polarization or struggle to embody a better way.

He prayed for the latter, which he called “the Jesus way.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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“Free Bibles.”

The simple messages catch the attention of motorists passing the Bridgewood Church of Christ — at a busy corner just off the East Loop 820 thoroughfare.

“Is it really free?’” people ask.

“It’s free,” church member Booker Williams assures them. “It’s like salvation. You’ve just got to come and get it.”

Bridgewood Church of Christ member Booker Williams, center, greets neighbors during the congregation’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

The North Texas church started giving away physical — and spiritual — food in its parking lot nearly three years ago. 

The outreach began as a one-time pop-up. It transformed into a twice-weekly benevolence program that connects the congregation with neighbors and leads souls to Jesus.

“A food pantry that I volunteer with … used to give us like two or three of these banana boxes of bread,” minister Jon McKenzie said. “Our members would just kind of grab the bread from the kitchen … and they could give it to a friend or a neighbor who needed it.”

But one day, the charity called and offered McKenzie extra bread — 24 cases in all.

He gulped and took it.

Contemplating how to distribute it, he thought, “We’re on a busy road, so why don’t we just try and give it away?” 

He rounded up Bibles to hand out with the bread, but he feared the impromptu pop-up might just go … pop.

“I was worried it was going to flop, so I didn’t call anybody for help. It was just me,” McKenzie recalled. “And the people came. … I guess the rest is history.”

Jon McKenzie serves as the minister for the Bridgewood Church of Christ. He’s pictured at the congregation’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

Doing good in Jesus’ name

Built in 1969 in an affluent area, the Bridgewood church grew to more than 500 members in the 1970s.

Ensuing decades brought increased poverty and crime to east Fort Worth. As many moved away or chose to worship elsewhere, Sunday attendance fell to about 80.

“Crime has leveled out and decreased,” McKenzie said, “but crime and the working poor remain a key issue.”

Several years ago, Bridgewood became known mainly as “the church across the street from Whataburger.” While the fast-food restaurant is a nice neighbor, the minister said, the church “wanted to be known for the things we actually do in the community — in the name of Christ.”

Members started volunteering at nearby schools. 

They planted a community garden. 

And — whether the result of happenstance or providence — they began organizing the bread-and-Bible pop-ups each Wednesday and Saturday.

Guests browse the options during the regular Saturday food giveaway of the Bridgewood Church of Christ.

Pam Griffin became a Christian after McKenzie and his wife, Brianne, mentored her granddaughter Alexus Giffen, now 13, at a public elementary school. 

Griffin’s husband, Robert, and other friends and relatives were baptized as well.

“The one thing that got me was that they were very loving, very caring,” Pam Griffin said of the Bridgewood church. “They don’t look at what you’re wearing. … They care more about the person that you are.”

“The one thing that got me was that they were very loving, very caring. They don’t look at what you’re wearing. … They care more about the person that you are.”

Longtime member Catie Mckee, 35, is a licensed barber and cosmetologist. 

She offered free haircuts during a recent pop-up.

“I do remember when Bridgewood was 500-plus strong,” Mckee said. “I have seen many families come and go, but I love seeing the new faces who become familiar faces.”

Bridgewood Church of Christ member Catie Mckee gives a free haircut during the congregation’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

A growing Spanish ministry

Those faces used to be predominantly White.

Now the flock reflects the area’s multicultural mix — with sizable numbers of Black and Hispanic members.

Average attendance tops 120 a week, including about 20 Spanish speakers, many reached through the pop-ups.

One of Bridgewood’s key volunteers, 80-year-old Carrol Harris Sr., grew up on a South Texas farm.

“All my friends were Mexican,” Harris said of how he became bilingual.

Carrol Harris Sr. hauls a trailer with drinks during the Bridgewood Church of Christ’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

Federico Sandatte and his wife, Amalia, lead the church’s Spanish ministry.

Federico previously served as an elder for a different congregation. The Sandattes connected with Bridgewood when they noticed the pop-up and stopped to say hello.

Harris recalls that first conversation.

“Hey brother, how are you doing?” Federico said to Harris in English.

Harris drew a chuckle when he responded in Spanish. 

Federico Sandatte, right, and his wife, Amalia Sandatte, look through a box of bread during the Bridgewood Church of Christ’s regular Saturday giveaway.

As the two men talked, Harris explained to Federico “that we were praying and trying to get the Spanish work started in this congregation.” 

“That’s really good,” Federico replied. “Keep praying.”

Two months later, the Sandattes decided to join the work at Bridgewood.

As Harris sees it, Bridgewood had no choice but to adapt to the area’s demographic changes.

“If we don’t change, we might as well go ahead and shut the door,” he said. “Because guess what? You don’t have to fly on a plane or ride on a bus to be on the mission field. It’s right here.”

The Bridgewood Church of Christ added a Spanish assembly to serve the changing needs of its neighborhood.

‘A fantastic thing’

“Pan, alimentos y biblias gratis,” reads a sign by the road.

In English, that means, “Free bread, food and Bibles.”

Bridgewood’s Spanish services draw attendees from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other countries.

On a recent Sunday, the group sang hymns such “Tuyo Soy Jesús” (“I Am Thine, O Lord”), “Canten del Amor de Cristo” (“When We All Get to Heaven”) and “En la Viña del Señor” (“In the Vineyard of the Lord”).

Richard Garcia leads singing during the Bridgewood Church of Christ’s Spanish assembly

Juan Noriega and his wife, Nuerys Malavè, visited the assembly. 

They came to the U.S. from Venezuela about a year ago. The free bread and Bibles led Noriega’s brother to accept Jesus in baptism.

“This is a fantastic thing for new immigrants,” Malavè said of the pop-ups, “to have some help and be able to get their feet on the ground.”

What accounts for the Spanish ministry’s growth?

“I think part of the reason,” Brianne McKenzie said, “is because (the immigrants) are coming from hard places, and they’re finding a sense of community.”

Carrol Harris Sr. chats with Juan Noriega and his wife, Nuerys Malavè, who visited the Bridgewood Church of Christ on a recent Sunday.

A prime location

For a smaller congregation, maintaining a facility built to serve hundreds presents a major challenge, as does paying for the upkeep and utilities, leaders said.

“But we’ve got such a good spot,” Jon McKenzie said of the location. “We hate to give it up.”

He quoted a neighbor who told him: “We need your church on that corner. We need someone to share good into the community on that corner.”

Church member Marsha Fry, a 74-year-old retired schoolteacher, volunteers at the pop-ups.

She began helping when key ministry leaders were out of town on mission trips to El Salvador and the Caribbean island of Dominica.

And she liked it.

“These men work very hard … lifting heavy boxes and everything,” Fry said. “I was blown away with admiration for them and respect. I may not be as strong as they are, but I come up here, and I do my best.”

Church member Marsha Fry offers a free Bible to a neighbor during the Bridgewood Church of Christ’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

A guest picks out a free loaf of bread during the Bridgewood Church of Christ’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

Rose Batiste, a 63-year-old grandmother, characterizes herself as a French-speaking Louisiana Cajun. 

A regular at the pop-ups, the transplanted Texan welcomes the free bread. The home health care worker said she makes about $10.50 an hour and struggles to make ends meet.

Through partnerships with the Midwest Food Bank of Texas and N.E.E.D. DFW, Bridgewood distributes thousands of pounds of bread and other grocery items each month.

“It helps people like me that don’t have anything,” Batiste said.

Bridgewood Church of Christ members pray for a neighbor — whose husband recently got out of the hospital — during the congregation’s regular Saturday food giveaway.

Getting too comfortable

Church member Williams often prays with those helped.

“A lot of times in the churches, we tell people, ‘Just come to see us on Sunday,’” said the 52-year-old information technology professional, who teaches Bridgewood’s Wednesday night adult Bible class. 

“But it’s like going to the mall,” he added. “Have you ever done any window shopping? You see something that you like, and you make the choice to go in there.”

Through the pop-ups, Williams said, hurting people meet Christians who care and then decide to visit.

On a recent Saturday, a woman receiving help asked for prayers. She meant prayers in a general sense. But Williams bowed his head and lifted her up to God right then and there.

Members sometimes lament what Bridgewood has lost — in terms of numbers.

Williams takes a different view.

He tells fellow Christians: “Y’all are so focused on what we lost that you don’t look at what we’ve gained. If you just invite one person every week, we can rebuild.”

A guest picks up a free Bible during the regular Saturday food giveaway of the Bridgewood Church of Christ.

Christians have become “so comfortable in these benches that we stopped inviting people,” he said. 

The pop-ups cultivate conversations that lead to such invitations. And it starts with simple messages.

“Free Bread.”

“Free Bibles.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Fort Worth to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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“I remember I felt hopeless,” Fong told The Christian Chronicle. “I didn’t know what to do until someone came and lent us a helping hand. 

“I know what it is to need assistance.”

Now Fong, a preacher earning his master’s in education at Harding University, wants to provide victims of another Category 5 storm, Beryl, with the same hope he received 36 years ago.

The home of a church member in southern Jamaica was damaged as Hurricane Beryl passed.

Before the storm plowed into Texas, Hurricane Beryl skirted the southern coast of Jamaica, bringing damaging winds and flooding to the parishes of Saint Clarendon, Saint Catherine, Manchester, Saint Elizabeth and Westmoreland. The storm tore roofs from buildings, destroyed mango orchards, flooded farmland and knocked out power.

“We have never seen winds of 165 mph in our history in this time of year — never,” said Gladwyn Kiddoe, director of the Jamaica School of Preaching and Biblical Studies International in Kingston. “We have to be ready. It’s the new normal.”

The Bull Savanna Church of Christ in Saint Elizabeth was hit particularly hard, Kiddoe said. The homes of several church members were severely damaged. 

A Christian family in southern Jamaica receives a generator from relief workers.

Later this week, Fong will travel from Harding in Searcy, Ark., to Jamaica to work alongside Robert Darby and other church members in recovery efforts.

“We’re going to work until we can’t work anymore,” Fong said, inviting fellow Christians in the U.S. to join him. “We see this effort as benevolent and evangelistic. We want to show the world that the church believes what the apostle Paul said (in Galatians 6:10): ‘As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.’”

Kiddoe and Francis Yorke, deputy director of the Jamaica School of Preaching, have served in disaster relief since Hurricane Gilbert. They have coordinated response teams and assistance from across Jamaica, the U.S. and the Caribbean. They even received aid from Christians in Ethiopia after Hurricane Gilbert, Kiddoe said.

Hurricane Beryl destroyed homes across southern Jamaica, including this one, the home of a church member.

Before Beryl swept by Jamaica, church members were assembling bags of food and making plans to help those in need, said Yorke, an evangelist for the Braeton Church of Christ in Jamaica. In the week since the storm, church members have assessed needs and made plans to send teams to hard-hit parishes.

In the past, Jamaicans have disregarded hurricane warnings, joking that “God is a Jamaican, so he will allow the storm to pass.” But people took Beryl seriously.

In the past, Jamaicans have disregarded hurricane warnings, joking that “God is a Jamaican, so he will allow the storm to pass,” Yorke said. But people took Beryl seriously, loading up on food and gas before the storm hit and boarding up their homes and businesses.

“This one was very emotionally and mentally taxing,” Yorke said.

The relief trip to Bull Savanna will be a homecoming of sorts for Fong, who was baptized in 1991 and graduated from the Jamaica School of Preaching in 2000. During his time at the school, he served on a mission team that planted the Bull Savanna congregation in 1996. The church’s first member was a blind man, Delgado Francis, who Jamaican Christians met at a funeral.

“Although he was blind, he could see he needed Christ,” Kiddoe said. Francis’ home was among those damaged by Hurricane Beryl. The relief team plans to repair it.

The home of Delgado Francis, the first convert of the Bull Savannah Church of Christ, sustained damage from Hurricane Beryl.

The Bull Savanna church met in a small, wooden building until 2004, when Hurricane Ivan flattened the facility. Church members built in its place a three-story cement building, which sustained only minor damage from Hurricane Beryl.

As hurricanes intensify and become more frequent, Churches of Christ should be ready to respond rapidly, to build back stronger and to show “the church at its best,” Fong said.

“We should be there,” he said. “The first thing they should see is us.”

A new believer emerges from the waters of baptism in Jamaica’s eastern parish of Portland. Churches of Christ conducted a gospel campaign in Portland despite the recent hurricane.

The Pangburn Church of Christ in Arkansas is collecting relief funds to help Christopher Fong’s mission team provide relief in Jamaica. Funds may be sent to Pangburn Church of Christ, PO Box 29, Pangburn, AR 72121.

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A true test of patience — waiting for the moment to celebrate. The pitcher hurled the ball to the plate, followed by a swing and a miss.

Black hats with orange logos flew under the lights of Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. Tennessee Volunteers fans sang the words of “Rocky Top” by the Osborne Brothers.

Players shared hugs and smiles on the infield clay. The occasion marked a first national championship for the University of Tennessee baseball team — and for freshman Hunter High, a member of the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville. 

“It was just surreal,” High told The Christian Chronicle. “We have done what we said we are going to do, and it’s an awesome dream come true.”

High said he always prays the same thing before games, telling God, “You are good. Whatever happens in this game, let it be your will. Without you, I am nothing.”

This season, the infielder from Crieve Hall, south of Nashville,  registered a .385 batting average in 11 games with the Volunteers. 

But the journey to the College World Series title began long before High’s time in college.

Hunter’s parents, Brent and Emily High, knew he possessed talent from a young age. 

“All talent is given from God,” Emily said. “Whatever it is that you do, try your best to use that talent to bring God glory.”

Emily, a former basketball player for Lipscomb University in Nashville, said struggles in athletics provided lifelong insight for her family.

“Sports and faith go hand in hand because it teaches you how to do hard things,” Emily said.

Hunter attended Lipscomb Academy, a K-12 Christian school operated by the university.

He succeeded on the diamond and gridiron, winning two state football championships with the Mustangs. 

Hunter is on Joey Roberts’ “Mount Rushmore” of favorite players. 

Hunter High, right, embraces Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello.

“We put him out there as a 140-pound linebacker, and he never flinched,” said Roberts, a former Lipscomb Academy football chief of staff. “He never backed down from any play, and he led from the sideline.” 

Hunter “spearheaded the brotherhood” that existed within the locker room, said Roberts, now a football administrator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

But his leadership translated on and off the field. He would lead Bible studies and speak in the players’ chapel. 

“He had a servant’s heart,” Roberts said. “He was a leader, but his version of leadership was serving.”

His servanthood and talent earned him the chance to play baseball for Tennessee. 

As the Volunteers began fall practices, Hunter said, he knew the team was fit for a national championship run. 

“The amount of talent was there, but also the amount of competitiveness too,” he said. “Everyone was treating each other well, and there was a sense of camaraderie.” 

Members of the team not only grew together as teammates but as brothers of Christ, Hunter told the Chronicle. 

Some Vols players, including Hunter, participate in a discipleship group led by Luke Hochevar, a former major league pitcher. 

“We all have the mindset that we are going to pursue God, regardless of our performance,” Hunter said. “That’s probably what helps the most when getting through that little tough patch.”

Hunter High poses with his mom, Emily, after the national championship victory.

Even after winning the national championship, Hunter pushes to improve on the diamond. 

He’s playing with the Bristol State Liners, a collegiate summer baseball team in the Appalachian League. (Bristol is a twin city on the Tennessee-Virginia state line.)

Whether competing in Bristol or Knoxville, High said he appreciates the teammates, coaches and family who surround him. 

“I have been really blessed with coaches and teammates that have helped me in all situations,” he said. “I’m loved just like how God loves us.”

Following the 6-5 title win over Texas A&M, scenes of jubilation filled the Tennessee crowd. 

As the celebrations took place on the field, Hunter High reminisced on the team’s motto: Next task.

After 73 hard-fought battles, the ultimate accomplishment was complete. 

“It’s kinda funny because there was no next task,” Hunter said. 

No next task for this season, but he’ll be praying again next season — before every game — for God’s will to be done.

NIC FRARACCIO, a senior journalism major at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., is The Christian Chronicle’s summer intern. Reach him at nic@christianchronicle.org.

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Everything was set for the ceremony. But the lights were still off.

Brandon Price, far right, and Matvei Bohomolov make last-minute arrangements to begin the Ukrainian Bible Institute’s graduation ceremony in an unlit room in Irpin, Ukraine.

“We decided to have no electricity to set the mood, so that you can’t see us crying,” joked Price, director of the Ukrainian Bible Institute, as administrator Natalia Maliuga translated his English words into Ukrainian.

“Completing UBI’s program has never been an easy task,” Price told the unlit room of smiling faces, “but obviously, given the last few years, it’s been even more challenging.”

“Challenging” has become routine for the graduates, who began their studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then came the war. Finally, after three years of study — sometimes online, sometimes without power — five students completed UBI’s ministry program.

At a Christian retreat center in Iripin, classroom windows are the only source of light as the Ukrainian Bible Institute’s graduation begins. Electricity returned a few minutes into the ceremony.

The institute honored the graduates — Ruslan Adamenko, Kostiantyn Bashtannyi, Dmytro Vorobiov, Roman Hadlevskyi and Larysa Dekhiarova — during a three-day retreat in Irpin that it hosted in cooperation with Texas-based Sunset International Bible Institute. The quiet, forested town was the scene of intense fighting in the early days of the conflict as the Russian army attempted to seize the capital, Kyiv.

The Russians have since changed tactics, concentrating on a ground war in eastern Ukraine while hitting the plants that power the capital with repeated missile strikes. Blackouts are common this summer, residents of Irpin told The Christian Chronicle. They dread the cold, dark winter ahead.

“How can I talk about the light when there’s no electricity?” asked Bashtannyi, a youth minister for the Vinograder Church of Christ in Kyiv. His classmates picked him to give a speech during the ceremony.

Kostiantyn Bashtannyi delivers an address on behalf of his fellow Ukrainian Bible Institute graduates.

“Every day, while we’re doing different ministries, we face this darkness,” he said. “It’s hard to break this darkness. I know that sometimes, when we shine, there’s no visible result. … This darkness is trying to influence us through a lack of faith, fear, war, COVID, other conflicts. Each of us goes through this.”

Jesus faced this same darkness, Bashtannyi told his fellow graduates.

“You were chosen for this particular mission,” he said. “You are not alone.”

‘Those Ukrainians really put us to shame’

Bashtannyi longs for the day when he doesn’t have to wait seven hours for the power to come on to make a cup of coffee, he said.

It could be worse. Reminders of how close the Russians came to seizing the capital are everywhere in Irpin. A block from the retreat center, bulldozers tore down the blackened frames of bombed houses. A few miles to the south, a bridge leading into Kyiv was destroyed by the Ukrainian army to hold back the invaders. It has become a memorial. So has a parking lot full of torched cars.

@christianchronicle IRPIN, Ukraine — The remains of a bridge that connects Irpin to Kyiv, Ukraine, have become a memorial to the lives lost in the two-year conflict with Russia. Ukrainian troops destroyed the bridge as Russian forces seized Bucha and much of Irpin in the early days of the invasion. Ukrainians have since built a new bridge. #ukrainianbridge #ukraine #ukrainewarrussia #destroyedbridge #ukrainememorial #irpin #bucha #bucharest #churchofchrist ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

A metal fence — pockmarked with bullet holes — stands across the alley from the hotel that housed U.S. Christians who came for the graduation. Russian troops occupied the hotel and used the fence for target practice, a neighbor said, though a hotel worker denied his account.

“We would never let Russians stay here,” she insisted.

Despite the omnipresent reminders of war, the Ukrainians’ sense of humor remains largely intact. That much was evident as the graduates shared a few words during the ceremony — a lot of jokes about online learning and playful jabs at each other and their teachers.

Dmytro Vorobiov unveils his sermon notes during the Ukrainian Bible Institute’s graduation ceremony.

Dmytro Vorobiov, who goes by Dima and works with the Pozniaky Church of Christ near Kyiv, said he had just a few remarks to share before unleashing a scroll of sermon notes that stretched down the podium and across the floor.

There were plenty of emotional moments as well. Roman Hadlevskyi, from Kamenskoye, southeast of Kyiv, was an orphan when he was baptized at age 13.

“I never knew my dad,” Hadlevskyi said. “I was like a leaf in the air. I didn’t see myself as a family man because I didn’t have that example.”

His instructors and fellow students changed all that, he said. Now he is surrounded by family members and role models.

“Thank you for your help, for your love,” he said. “We need to remember we are never alone.”

Larysa Dekhiarova receives her diploma from Ukrainian Bible Institute director Brandon Price. At left is fellow graduate Roman Hadlevskyi.

Larysa Dekhiarova has overcome addiction and other vices with the help of her Christian family. A member of the Obolon Church of Christ in Kyiv, she came to the institute “as a baby in Christ, newly baptized,” she said, adding that the opportunity to study was one in a million.

“In the beginning, I never thought I would be able to graduate,” she said. But the school’s staff, especially women such as Natalia Maliuga, helped her persevere. She was one of the institute’s top students, Price said.

“UBI is a spiritual school,” Dekhiarova said. “My spiritual personality was formed here.”

She got big, tear-filled hugs from the ceremony’s special guests — Jay Don and Mary Lee Rogers, who served in Ukraine for 19 years.

Mary Lee Rogers, left, greets Larysa Dekhiarova during breakfast at a Christian retreat center in Irpin, Ukraine.

“We are amazed by the dedication that is here,” said Jay Don Rogers, a former director of the Ukrainian Bible Institute. He and his wife now live in Texas, where they routinely visit congregations and talk about the Ukrainian’s faith.

“We tell them about your studies that you’ve gone through, and we also tell them about your dedication to go out and serve,” Jay Don Rogers said. “They say, ‘Those Ukrainians really put us to shame.’”

The former director led a prayer for the graduates, thanking God for their faith.

“When people here lost everything, they gained you,” he prayed, “and for that we are thankful.”   

Mary Lee and Jay Don Rogers, left, pray with Ukrainian Bible Institute students and their families.

Stars in a new normal

For Brandon Price, a former missionary to Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and Mariupol, the graduation was his first chance to see some of his first-year students in person. Since the institute reopened in the fall of 2022, he’s taught classes online. The institute has 15 students, who live in Ukraine and countries across Europe.

Graduates, Ruslan Adamenko, Roman Hadlevskyi, Larysa Dekhiarova, Kostiantyn Bashtannyi and Dmytro Vorobiov hold their UBI diplomas.

The institute has endured exodus after exodus since its launch in 1997. Its first home was Donetsk, a predominantly Russian-speaking city in Ukraine’s eastern, coal-rich Donbas region — a thriving hub for Churches of Christ after the Soviet Union collapsed.

In 2014, as pro-Russian militants took over Donetsk, the institute moved to Kyiv. Eight years later, as missiles struck the capital, the students parted ways. Price and some of the students went to Poland, where they found refuge with a Church of Christ in Sopot and began to coordinate relief shipments. Students who stayed in the besieged country helped to transport relief to people near the front lines in the east. They also ferried women and children to the relative safety of western Ukraine, or across the border into the European Union.

Alexander Maliuga, right, a Ukrainian Bible Institute instructor, leads a prayer for students past and present.

Eventually, Price and his wife, Katie, settled in Košice, Slovakia, near the Ukrainian border. Rob Hindman, another former missionary to Ukraine, and his wife, Denyce, joined them to work with the institute. Their families and Slovak minister Peter Haluštok worship with a small Church of Christ in Košice. Price and Hindman make monthly trips into Ukraine to distribute humanitarian aid. 

As they settled into a new normal, Ukrainians continued to share their faith. UBI students and graduates have put their studies into practice, planting new congregations and regularly reporting baptisms.

“I thank you for what you’ve taught us,” Price told the graduates.

“When you look at the sky what do you see? Do you see all of that black up there? Are the stars distracting you from the beautiful black? No, you see the stars.”

He quoted the apostle Paul, who told the first century church in Philippi to shine like stars despite the “warped and crooked generation” that surrounds them (Philippians 2:15).

“My dad always said, ‘When you look at the sky what do you see? Do you see all of that black up there? Are the stars distracting you from the beautiful black?’

“No, you see the stars. You don’t pay attention to the blackness of space. Be the stars. Shine the light.”

Alexander Maliuga, right, leads a prayer during the Ukrainian Bible Institute graduation.

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The nation of 38 million people, once part of the Soviet Union, was fertile soil for missionaries and church planters after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Since its independence in August of 1991, Ukraine has found itself increasingly at odds with its neighbor, Russia, and caught between the influences of East and West. In 2014 the tension turned violent as Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and pro-Russian separatists seized control of portions of eastern Ukraine.

Billboards along the road leading into Ivan-Frankivsk bear messages of support for Ukraine’s military and citizens.

The Christian Chronicle has covered the impact of the hostilities on Ukraine’s churches for more than a decade. When the first bombs fell on Feb. 24, 2022, the Chronicle published an explainer, “Why Ukraine matters to Churches of Christ,” detailing the history of the fellowship in this Eastern European nation.

Following are links to the Chronicle’s reports, filed from Ukraine, Europe and other parts of the globe. The most recent stories appear first.

Sending the light, even when it’s dark

Mary Lee Rogers, left, greets Larysa Dekhiarova during breakfast at a Christian retreat center in Irpin, Ukraine.

Despite two years of brutal war — and now, frequent blackouts — Ukrainian ministry students graduate and celebrate (from Irpin, Ukraine).

Where is God in a war zone?

Playground equipment stands in front of a battle-damaged apartment building in Irpin, Ukraine.

In besieged Ukraine, ministry leaders seek rest and inspiration amid ongoing grief and loss (from Irpin, Ukraine).

Insight: Why Ukraine still matters

Ukranian flags line Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), each honoring a Ukrainian who lost their life in the war with Russia.

After two years of war, we can’t forget our brothers and sisters in this war-torn nation (from Zosin, Poland).

Podcast: Reporting live from the streets of Ukraine

@christianchronicle Erik Tryggestad reports from Ukraine with translator Inna Kuzmenko in Episode 67 of the Christian Chronicle Podcast. #ccpodcast #churchofchrist #ukraine ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

Erik Tryggestad, Inna Kuzmenko and Richard Baggett discuss their experiences after a three-day ministry retreat and Sunday worship with a Ukrainian congregation (from Irpin, Ukraine).

‘Oldest Christian in Ukraine’ dies at 100

Anna Ivanova

Anna Ivanova survived the Nazis and the Soviets. She said she would only leave Ukraine if her next stop was heaven.

Podcast: Author Philip Yancey on ‘What Went Wrong’ in Russia and the path to Ukraine

The Christian Chronicle interviews renowned author Philip Yancey, whose works include ‘The Jesus I Never Knew,’ about his experiences in Russia and Ukraine at the end of the Cold War and the book he co-wrote with John A. Bernbaum, ‘What Went Wrong? Russia’s Lost Opportunity and the Path to Ukraine.’

Two lives lost in Ukraine

Igor Kozlovsky, left, receives a hero’s welcome at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport after his Dec. 27, 2017, release from a prison in Donetsk, where he was held by pro-Russian separatists. Kozlovsky died Sept. 6. Artem Vinogradar, — with his wife, Valentina, at right — died in combat Aug. 15 while serving in Ukraine’s airborne assault unit.

A preacher-turned-soldier and a theologian who was tortured in captivity are mourned by Christians across the besieged nation.

Ukrainian Christians: Life in The Hague need not be a prison sentence

Sasha and Nastia Nikolaienko stand near a Ukrainian flag at the Gemeente van Christus Den Haag (Church of Christ in The Hague).

A Church of Christ in the Netherlands welcomes refugees as it celebrates Pentecost (from The Hague, Netherlands)

How a Russian immigrant came to serve Ukrainian refugees

Julia, right, holds her son Mark as she visits with Ukrainian refugee Aleksandra Hmyria and daughter Milana at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston.

A Houston church develops a thriving outreach to families fleeing the war (from Houston).

Dam disaster adds to Ukrainians’ misery

In Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast (or region), a rescue worker carries a man out of an area flooded after a dam collapsed.

It is very emotionally hard,’ say Christians, tired yet resolved as they deliver aid to flood victims.

Insight: Five prayers for Ukraine

Victoria Virkhovska prays for soldiers, including her son, In Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, in 2022.

One year after the first Russian bombs fell on the Eastern European nation, Ukrainian Christians don’t want to merely survive. They want to thrive through ministry training and church planting.

‘I won’t leave them, too’

Andrii Bilokonnyi shares a message of hope and prayer for workers and refugees at a former boarding school in eastern Ukraine.

Despite the missiles that fall on a daily basis in eastern Ukraine, a Christian family keeps serving at-risk children — and adults.

Does God love Russians?

After Russia’s retreat, hungry Ukrainians in the city of Izium take loaves of bread delivered by Volunteer Brothers.

It’s a hurtful question but an understandable one, say Christians in Russia. Along with their Ukrainian brethren, they face an increasingly challenging task: loving their neighbor.

Where to next?

Viktoria Oshurko works as a translator in a Košice relief center. In the early days of the war, 2,000 Ukrainians per day came through the center. A native of western Ukraine, Oshuko came to Slovakia to study public administration at a university. “Mentally, it’s hard,” she said of the weight of the war.

It’s a difficult question for Ukrainian Christians as they find temporary shelter, and challenges, in the overstressed countries of Europe and the U.S. (from Košice, Slovakia).

‘We would sing louder than the shelling’

Only a few images from the church members’ seven-week ordeal remain, including this picture of one of the countless times they took refuge in their building’s hallway. As an evacuation corridor opened, most of the members deleted photos and videos of the siege from their phones, fearing that Russian soldiers would confiscate them.

Members of the Mariupol Church of Christ recall the 51 days they spent in ‘the valley of the shadow of death,’ huddled in their church building as Russian forces obliterated the eastern Ukrainian city (from Sopot, Poland).

A psalm of ‘our dwelling place’

Sasha Chekalenko takes notes during Sunday worship with the Sopot Church of Christ in Poland.

After surviving the siege of Mariupol, Ukrainian Christian shares a Psalm with a congregation of fellow refugees and their Polish hosts (from Sopot, Poland).

On a long, uncertain journey, a hotel of hope

As they get ready to watch a movie in the hotel, Ukrainian children make shadow puppets on a projected computer screen that reads “Pray for Ukraine!”

Polish and American Christians provide a place for Ukrainians to ponder a difficult question: ‘What next?’ (from Pabianice, Poland).

‘This is our Exodus’

The Kościoł Chrystusowy w Warszawie (Warsaw Church of Christ) meets in a rented facility in the Polish capital. Most of its members are refugees from Ukraine.

In Poland’s capital, Ukrainian refugees are ‘in each other’s faces, at each other’s throats’ — and are redefining what it means to be a church (from Warsaw, Poland).

Serving a church in exile

Yulian Parfenenko, 6, helps his mother, Alyona, with grocery shopping at the free resource center run by the Cluj-Napoca Church of Christ in Romania. The Parfenenko family fled Odessa, Ukraine, at the beginning of March.

Across the border from war-torn Ukraine, a Romanian congregation becomes family for traumatized souls (from Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

Insight: In Europe, border crossings and blessings abound

Multiple modes of transport can be seen at Ukraine’s border with Romania.

Erik Tryggestad reflects on The Christian Chronicle’s trip across the Romanian border into war-torn Ukraine (from Siret, Romania).

Weary travelers find rest, refuge

In Chernivtsi, Adi Voicu of Romania and Dennis Zolotaryov of Ukraine load Ukrainian- and Russian-language Bibles from Eastern European Mission for transport to Romania. The Bibles will be given to Ukrainian refugees.

A border town church in Ukraine becomes a hub of relocation and relief (from Chernivtsi, Ukraine).

A band of brothers drives Ukraine

Dima Grischuk, left, and fellow drivers with the Let’s Love ministry prepare for a journey to eastern Ukraine to distribute aid and to ferry back the displaced.

Christians who escaped the horrors of war journey back to the front lines to aid the hurting and share Jesus (from Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine).

Christians in U.S. check off ‘bucket lists’ for Ukraine

Paul Nance, coordinating minister for the Hillsboro Church of Christ, speaks on the Kelley Clarkson Show.

Churches across the nation gather supplies to help refugees in war-torn Eastern Europe — and get a $10,000 boost from TV host Kelly Clarkson (from Nashville, Tenn.).

Ukrainians count the days as they pray

A long line of Ukrainians walks toward the Polish border checkpoint, fleeing the war in their homeland.

Ukrainian-American family details their difficult journey from the Eastern European nation to the U.S. (from Oklahoma City).

Christians across U.S. find ways to support Ukraine

Members of the Grace Chapel Church of Christ in Cumming, Ga., hold signs at a prayer vigil for Ukraine.

Churches of Christ have strong connections to the Eastern European nation, now under assault from Russia.

Good news in Ukraine’s ‘real winter’

Bedding awaits Ukrainian refugees at the meeting place of the Sopot Church of Christ in Poland.

As Russian attacks intensify, Churches of Christ organize rescue missions, set up relief centers and experience baptisms.

Ukraine crisis: How to help

A separatist fighter carries a live artillery shell through the former meeting place of the Petrovsky Church of Christ in Donetsk, Ukraine. Militants seized the building in October 2014 and renamed the region the Donetsk People’s Republic.

A list of ministries associated with Churches of Christ and congregations collecting funds for Ukraine relief.

Why Ukraine matters to Churches of Christ

Members of the Church of Christ in the Kirovsky district of Donetsk, Ukraine, worship in 2003.

The Eastern European nation, now under siege by its Russian neighbors, has been fertile soil for the fellowship. As one young Ukrainian put it, ‘Christianity is the greatest treasure we have.’ 

The post War in Ukraine: Links to The Christian Chronicle’s coverage appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.