See recent posts. Please note that links in the below posts may have become inactive.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2004
MORE ILC DT posts Day 3 summaries; Jerry Jordan of San Diego reports a "wonderful spirit of worship, humility and cooperation."
MORE NEW PLANTINGS Quebec City, Canada and Giurgiu, Romania join our list of recent church plantings on the Missions page.
5TO Our sister church in Lima, Peru marks its fifth anniversary.
KIT We add the NYCCOC Long Island Region website to our list of 99 standalone websites of churches, groups of churches and campus ministries. Thanks to so many who have recently written to suggest new links or simply to offer encouragement.
SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
INFO OVERLOAD There has been a delightful post-ILC surge of missions information; at times, it is hard to keep up with it all. We have organized much of the information shared at the ILC, plus other stories we previously linked to or reported, in our new Missions feature. It is a work in progress, so check back for updates.
NEW STATS IN Seventeen churches are added to this table of 207 churches for which we have collected recent (post-2002) membership data. These 207 churches made up over 53% of our total membership at the end of 2002. Our latest estimate of current membership, based on data collected so far, is 111,122. A description of this effort, and how you can help, is posted here.
VER TO SNA Luis and Teresa Priego join the fulltime ministry staff of the LACOC's Orange County Latino Sector from Veracruz, Mexico.
HELP FOR HAITI NYCOC collects $32K as of yesterday.
SEPTEMBER 28, 2004
LAX TO GUA Jaime DeAnda reports on the 2004 Singles Missions Tour. Five singles from the LACOC visit our sister church in Guatemala City in advance of the Central American Missions Conference.
DAY 2 DT posts summaries of September 24 ILC sessions and makes available to non-subscribers audio of Steve Staten's message.
WELCOME A warm welcome to new readers coming here for the first time via the link in the Boston Church of Christ ILC report. See more ILC news in September 23-25 posts, downpage.
CONFERENCIA MUNDIAL Rafael Lua reports (in Spanish) on the ILC.
DARE DPI announces the publication of Jeff Chacon's Dare to Dream Again, available October 27.
SOME THINGS DO NOT MOVE The Sao Paolo Church of Christ website posts James Shults' latest article (in Portuguese), Algumas Coisas Não Mudam.
AFTERMATH The Christian Chronicle relays reports by "missionaries and local ministers" of "more than 100 deaths among members of churches of Christ" in Haiti in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne.
ELSEWHERE CT reports attacks on Catholic mission workers in India; Time, writing of church splits among Episcopalians, wonders "How many other schisms will follow?"
SEPTEMBER 27, 2004
AS PROMISED Seven participants from New England share their impressions of the ILC on the Boston Church of Christ website.
BRIEFLY DT begins to post short summaries of ILC sessions in the area open to non-subscribers.
MOST ENCOURAGING The Boston Church of Christ website promises what is certain to be the first of several upbeat reports on the ILC: "Fifteen leaders from the Boston Church and a number from other New England and European churches just returned from the leadership conference in Chicago. Watch for a report coming soon on this most encouraging and healing event and hear how God is at work moving us to healthy new places." Update: The article has since been revised to begin, "Nineteen leaders from the Boston Church...."
CRUCIAL CONVERSATION The program page describing the ILC Friday evening "crucial conversation" (this description comes from a similarly-titled book) can be viewed here as a PDF.
ILC ONLINE DT begins posting audio (subscription required) of the ILC messages and reports.
MOW TO IAR The Moscow Church of Christ announces (in Russian) the planting of a new church in Yaroslavl, slated for October 17.
MSQ TO GME A new church is planted (announcement in Russian) in Gomel, Belarus.
SLATED Tomorrow George Irungu and Steve Mukenya visit the Charlotte Church, which reports sending $94K for African missions earlier this month. Duncan and Lisa Comrie of Johannesburg visit our sister church in San Antonio, Texas, this week as well. Douglas Jacoby teaches in Philadelphia October 9.
BML TO CGN Mirko Russo reports (in German) on a recent visit to our sister church in Cologne.
VISION The SFCC prepares to announce, on October 10, its "comprehensive road map" for the church's next five years.
MILESTONE The Northern Virginia Church of Christ, first incorporated as a self-governing church from the former Washington, D.C. Church of Christ a year ago, marks its first anniversary with a special edition of its weekly newsletter.
SEPTEMBER 26, 2004
GONAIVES Reggie Lambert reports from Haiti after the most recent hurricane.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2004
SEE YOU IN SEATTLE The main program of the 2004 ILC concludes today with an announcement that next year's event will be hosted by the Seattle Church of Christ. The practice of rotating hosts--not just cities but organizers--is but one indication among many this weekend of just how much has changed in the way our fellowship of churches organize themselves and relate to each other.
We attended one of nine classes held this morning, a panel discussion by Ron Brumley, Walter Evans, Mike Kwasniewski and Steve Martin on the role of evangelists and elders. The shift in thinking on this topic is so pronounced, and portends so much for the way our churches will be governed, we will post notes from the class here, soon.
CRUCIAL CONVERSATION Andy Fleming and Philip Lam report on last night's "Unity Session," to which 31 "brothers [who] have at one time or another made a significant contribution to harmony and the reconciliation of individuals" were invited. Mr. Fleming and Mr. Lam reported an "affirmation of commitment to be a brotherhood and work together," and a desire to meet again as leaders next year, but with greater representation from developing world churches.
Most former relationships between supporting and missions churches were seen to be "in good shape" and capable of meeting existing needs. On the more difficult question of helping churches that may have heretofore been financially independent, the group agreed to three guidelines: 1) respectfully approach the local leadership, realizing that no single person can speak for the church, 2) first contact the church that previously had a role in leading the church in need to see what plans they may already have, and 3) encourage leaders and church members to keep in contact with churches less strongly affiliated with our fellowship.
More later on the "crucial conversation," lest we miss our flight home...
DT DEADLINE Roger Lamb seeks word from churches and individuals willing to commit to monthly support for DT in advance of a November board decision on whether or not to continue operations. While we have a different function from DT, we hope to serve in a complementary way. DT has shown itself to be a voice for brotherhood, and though we seldom include personal comments in our posts, indulge us this one: we're hoping for a green light for DT to continue operations in 2005.
SEPTEMBER 24, 2004
BEYOND CHICAGO It's hard to focus on much else at the moment when there's way more than we can post here, but check out the clean new design of MinisterioLatino, for a break from ILC news.
ILC REPORT II Yesterday attendees heard reports from sister churches outside the U.S. Today representatives of the Atlanta Church of Christ and the New York City Church of Christ gave reports from their congregations.
Atlanta's past 18 months were described as a "perfect storm": membership fell from 3,800 to 2,400; weekly contribution dropped from $140K to $70K in a few months time; a staff of 32 (couples counted as one) became 12. The church went from no elders to 11, from different geographic regions of the church; many did not know each other or the fulltime ministry staff well. The church's influential lead evangelist resigned. Update (9/28): A reader familiar with ACOC membership and recent history writes that the membership decline mentioned above included the membership transfer of "several hundred people" to the newly self-governing Athens Church of Christ.
Out of this perfect storm came unexpected results: "We have forged an incredible relationship--staff and elders--through the crucible of what we went through." The ACOC's summer camp saw an attendance of 1,200 from 36 congregations this summer; the campus ministry is "coming back." The church has collected $320K for direct support of African mission churches "so far" with more regions slated to take special contributions soon. The report concluded with an oft-heard sentiment: "We are with you heart and soul; we are in this thing together."
The NYCCOC reported the recent addition of several new ministry staff, a commitment to provide 80% of the financial support going to 52 African churches plus several in the Caribbean, and the forging of a strong working relationship between ministry staff and the church's four elders.
It wasn't on the schedule as a separate report, but Wyndham Shaw prefaced his address with a report from the Boston Church of Christ, including a collection of $750K to support New England and European mission churches, and a harmonious working relationship with its nine sister churches throughout New England.
ILC: DAY 2 Today's program includes two main addresses, by Tony Singh and Wyndham Shaw, and two periods for forums and classes, nine per session. This evening, 31 men "have been invited to attend a private meeting to discuss biblical unity." Two outside observers will report on the meeting at the final Saturday session.
Last night's program featured perhaps the most straightforward report we've heard at such an event of the state of the church in a particular place. Two attendees from the U.K. shared, with the caveat that they do not themselves
represent every one of our sister churches in the U.K., the current leadership structure and state of membership and fellowship among 21 affiliated churches in the U.K. Total church membership is only 1,500, and 106 ministry staff have been dismissed since early 2003. However, Malcolm Cox went on to report that "we are probably over the worst" and that while there are those who "are still hurting in many ways," the Christians "really want to move on."
The report concluded with a pointed statement: "Let there be no more talk of replanting [the] London [church], only rebuilding." Five new fulltime ministry staff are expected to join or rejoin the existing handful of fulltime leaders next month.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2004
ILC NEWS Attendees from churches outside the U.S. share news from various mission fields this afternoon. It's far more than we can quickly post here; we'll revisit the subject when more time is available. First-hand reports from India, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kingston, Moscow, Geneva, Budapest, Jerusalem, Kuala Lumpur, Lima, Bogota, Johannesburg, and Abijan provided a mix of state-of-the-church-reports (a mixture of reporting losses, reductions in staff, as well as stability and slight growth for some churches), news of new church plantings, and repeated expressions of gratitude for financial assistance.
Kelly Petre explains that a task force appointed by the Boston Church of Christ has concluded that DPI is not viable as an ongoing entity, and recommends the publishing house be closed, perhaps as soon as the end of 2004. In a thoughtful statement read to all participants, he says "we're not pleading for money but communicating with you" and holds out hope for "help coming to us in unexpected ways." One paragraph of the statement brought sustained, spontaneous applause: a tribute to Thomas and Sheila Jones.
Apparently spontaneously organized breakout sessions after the report session (it's wasn't on the printed program) sees representatives of churches willing to cooperate on future missions funding in unstructured meetings long after the end of the official program.
ILC OPENS Mike Taliaferro receives a long, standing ovation from attendees at the opening session this morning of the 2004 International Leadership Conference. His message stresses the courage to preach both grace and truth, a call to forgive and heal, and to "dream again". He calls on church leaders to support DT, HOPE, and AIM, to train "a whole new generation of men and women" in the ministry, to resume planting new churches, and to financially support existing mission churches.
Some people might say, "Come on, planting churches is so 'five years ago.' Listen, planting church
is so 2000 years ago!
ILC The Chicago Church of Christ posts a fuller description of the conference's aims and schedule.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2004
AKTUELLE MITTEILUNGEN Our sister church in Berlin posts reports (in German) of baptisms in Berlin and Madrid, as well as news from Paris.
MGCC HW The two-year old Middle Georgia Christian Church seeks a fulltime evangelist.
NEW STATS IN New information raises our estimate of current membership slightly, to 113,010. Two new churches join this table of 190 churches that made up over 44% of total membership at the end of 2002. A description of this effort, and how you can help, is posted here.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2004
PICOC BYND Kip McKean welcomes visitors to a special invitation service with an overview of the church's brief history.
FEEDBACK A reader takes issue with our link yesterday to an article on the Islamization of Europe.
I'm shocked by the article you chose on the so-called islamization of europe. This article is biased and
highly political and untrue....[Y]ou brought politics where it doesn't belong. I exhort you to repent from
giving biased information to our fellow brothers...
First, links to articles here don't endorse the views of the website the article appears on, or even the entire content of the article. That said, on second look the article did have a strong element of politics to it. We paid no attention to that ourselves, focusing on the first few paragraphs describing changing demographics. We don't wish to represent a particular national or political viewpoint, and will avoid links to overtly political content in the future, or post a disclaimer alongside the link.
One comment, though, on something we really cannot control: "There is an ad [on the website you link to] that is harsh...." It's an impossibly high standard that requires any blog to avoid links to websites where a controversial ad might be seen. We hope our readers will distinguish between our steadfastly non-political, non-commercial environment, and that of websites we occasionally link to, which will contain advertising and viewpoints we don't endorse, but may have content of general interest to our readers.
SEPTEMBER 20, 2004
KBP TO BUD Seven members of our sister church in Kiev attend the European Spiritual Summer Retreat in Hungary and share (in Russian) their experiences.
Q&A John Oakes and Douglas Jacoby post new exchanges (here and here).
ELSEWHERE Regular readers know we focus on happenings in our fellowship of churches. Occasionally, though, we will post links to articles and websites that are likely to be of interest to members and friends of our churches, such as this one on the persecution of minority faiths in Eritrea, or this article on the Islamization of Europe.
SEPTEMBER 19, 2004
SEPTEMBER 17, 2004
THIS WEEKEND Fishing for HOPE, a retreat for married Spanish-speaking Christians, and two singles events make this this busiest weekend to date for our events page. Updates posted for both the 2004 and 2005 Southwest Singles Retreats, and more, can be found here.
Update: Due to weather and ocean conditions, the HOPE fishing classic is postponed.
PRAYER PARTNERS Andrew Lewis of Toronto asks, "Why all the fuss?"
PICOC Kip McKean calls on college and teen students to "not only to confess sin, but expose it."
According to Ephesians 5, when disciples expose sin, they wake up the "sleeping" disciples, so
"Christ will shine on them."
SEPTEMBER 16, 2004
KIT Today we add a link to the new website of the Makati Region of the Metro Manila Christian Church; coincidentally, the Philippines is "today's country" at Operation World.
NEW STATS IN We post new information to this table, which we believe to be the most comprehensive survey of current membership available, now including 188 churches that made up over 44% of total 2002 membership. Read more about this effort and how you can help.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2004
BOSTON VOICES Three elders of the Boston Church of Christ call on the church to "develop or revive deep convictions about" the "relationships in the Body of Christ in which we get encouragement, support, advice, perspective, correction and challenge." Their shared perspective:
As this church and sisters congregations have faced some of our mistakes, we have realized that on
occasions we went too far and that there was sometimes an element of control over other people that
should not have been there....While we have been eager to correct our mistakes and will continue to
pursue needed changes, the three of us want to share with you our conviction that we (personally) still
need the "one another" relationships" the Bible describes...
ORLANDO HW The Orlando Church of Christ seeks a campus minister.
ATL TO ORD The Atlanta Church of Christ announces "[s]everal of the Atlanta staff members" and "one of the elders" will attend the Worthy is the Lamb leadership conference in Chicago, September 23-25.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2004
ITM UPDATE Douglas Jacoby reports on visits to Australia...
As in many churches, these congregations are finding their way forward without the benefit of full-time
staff. (Sydney has elders; Brisbane is building an eldership.)
...and Agana, Guam, where he is met by a new church planting:
Imagine my surprise when I met the entire Saipan church at the teaching weekend! They had all made
the flight from Saipan, the island immediately to the north of Guam....I had no idea this congregation even
existed; they were planted by the Agana church nearly a year ago.
Back in the U.S., he speaks at a congregation that is "not a Church of Christ" and describes the courage of its preacher:
He showed from the scriptures that the "sinner's prayer" is nowhere to be found in scripture, insisting that
the only way to be saved is to have faith in Jesus, repent, and be baptized. Half the church walked out,
saying they preferred the altar call and sinner's prayer; naturally his job is less stable than it was before. To
find a man who teaches the biblical truth on (1) conversion and (2) commitment was very refreshing indeed.
The entire report is available here, and by e-mail subscription as well.
J.O.'S Q&A John Oakes posts new exchanges on C-14 dating, JWs and the synoptic problem.
SEPTEMBER 13, 2004
TIES Greg Marutzky reports "unity, fellowship, teaching and vision" among the 1,550 who attended the Texas International Evangelism Seminar, concluding:
The future of the church is brighter than ever. It was encouraging to realize how much stronger we are
becoming. Lessons learned from the past were shared without regret but with excitement to be able to
grow. Revival is in the air in the Texas churches. A period of discipline was needed and useful but we
are not going to wander in the wilderness.
While it is true that we have several churches that are struggling at this time, we have many more that
are advancing powerfully. Be it in Texas, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Singapore, Abidjan, Cape Town,
Chicago, etc, disciples are coming together in large numbers....From where I am sitting, this is a very
exciting time to be a Christian. We are very much alive, and quickly getting well.
The Greater Houston Church is slated to host the event in 2005.
NEW STATS IN This month we have added new membership data for seven churches and updated membership for another 45. We believe this table to be the most comprehensive survey of current membership available, now including 187 churches that made up 44% of total 2002 membership (the ICOC stopped collecting such information centrally in early 2003).
We encourage voluntary participation by churches and a mature understanding of statistics as but one measure among many of where we stand in our efforts to build and grow churches around the world. For more information about how your church can participate, kindly contact editor@icocinfo.org.
SEPTEMBER 12, 2004
El VIVE EN TI Mario Espinosa reports (article in Spanish) around 800 attend the singles conference held September 3-5 in Ixtapa, México.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2004
COMING SOON PICOC announces its plans for Upcyberdown21, to be launched in January, 2005.
FIELD DIARY Dr. Maxine Cargill writes about the work of "deep rural" health clinics in Jamaica.
ALL CT Jimmy Allen reports on the combined Sunday service of three of our sister churches in Connecticut.
SLATED Doug Jacoby visits Denver September 17-19 and Omaha October 16-17. Steve Johnson presents The Gospel According to Mark in Seffner, Florida on September 17.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2004
GOLDEN CITY Prague hosts (article in German) a meeting of leaders from sister churches throughout Europe from August 27-29.
FILLING NGO HALL Ben D'Souza addresses the growing marrieds ministry of the Bangalore Church of Christ.
DIGGING DEEPER The Boston Church of Christ invites Dr. Tom Olbricht to address its ministry staff and other ministry leaders from around New England. Other speakers include Kelly Petre and Dr. David McAnulty.
TIME OUT Tara Close delays a move in order to return briefly to Israel, and reports on the fellowship of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv disciples.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2004
FRANCES AND THE SFCC Church members in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties are hit the hardest according to a report posted today.
TAKE TWO The GBCOC website gets a new look, too. Recognize the design?
KIT We add new links today to the websites of sister churches in Lima, Peru, and Pachuca, Mexico. We frequently receive requests for contact information of churches without websites. If you can provide such information, please send it to editor@icocinfo.org and specify whether or not it can be posted here.
Q&A DJ answers a questioner seeking "a passage that’s not been taken out of context to make the point" that we should read the Bible daily.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2004
BKK TO KKC Julie Kaufman reports (first item under Missions, subscription required) the Bangkok Christian Church's first church planting, in northeast Thailand. The 14-member team moved from Bangkok to Khon Kaen late last year.
SEPTEMBER 6, 2004
EVENTS New on the events page: a teen rally in Texas, two singles retreats (Arizona and Texas), and a singles mixer for members of our sister churches in Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. Send multi-church event announcements to editor@icocinfo.org.
DIGGING DEEPER The Chicago Church of Christ posts lessons presented to its staff by Dr. Richard Oster of Harding University Graduate School of Religion here and here. Douglas Jacoby releases Foundations For Faith, a survey of the Old Testament.
SALARIES An ACU survey reports a wide range of salaries for fulltime staff in U.S. mainline Churches of Christ.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2004
PF DAY 2 Attendance above the 1,200 registered participants requires extra seats be brought out for the second day of the Texas International Evangelism Seminar in San Antonio. Justin Renton of Cape Town, South Africa, delivers the final keynote address.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2004
PROCLAIM FREEDOM The Texas International Evangelism Seminar opens at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. Keynote speakers today include Mike and Anne-Brigitte Taliaferro, Gregg Marutzky, and Scott Green. The program concludes with a presentation of Disciples Today by Steve Staten, and an a cappella choral rendition of The Lord Bless You and Keep You. Participating churches include host San Antonio, as well as Amarillo, Austin, College Station, Dallas, El Paso, Lubbock, Houston, and the Rio Grande Valley.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2004
MORE STATS We recently received stats which lead to a downward revision of our best estimate of current membership to 113,612, a decline of 16% since the end of 2002. We now have recent (that is, current as of the end of 2003 or later) membership information for 181 churches in our fellowship.
We collect and publish this information unofficially, as a service to members interested in church growth, missions and church planting. If you would like to share data for your church or other churches in our fellowship, please contact editor@icocinfo.org.
GUEST Randy Scott visits Portland.
TAKE TWO The NYCCOC website gets a new look, too.
SEPTEMBER 2, 2004
KAMPALA RESPONDS The Nairobi Christian Church posts an account of recent media criticism of our young sister church in Kampala, Uganda. Church leaders there responded:
The Kampala church put an ad in the two largest circulation national daily newspapers refuting the
errant claims and clarifying what they stood for. The media-staged tirade against the Kampala church
came to an abrupt and absolute stop.
OKC HW The Oklahoma City International Church of Christ seeks an evangelist.
SYMPATHY We extend condolences to the family and friends of five San Francisco Church of Christ members and children who lost their lives in a car accident while returning from Mexico.
AUGUST 31, 2004
UNINTENTIONAL DEPROGRAMMERS Gordon Ferguson writes that "many in our churches have unintentionally become deprogrammers -- of themselves and of their fellow disciples." He elaborates:
After churches appeared to be past the upheaval of 2003, and the members in general were feeling that
real changes had occurred in the church and were going to continue occurring, members still were leaving
their congregations. In talking to some of them about their decision, the answers they gave simply did not
add up. The idea of leaving a group of people who had been close friends for years over issues that were
in [the] process of being dealt with simply did not make sense. What was happening? I think they had
been subjected to a practical form of deprogramming without realizing it -- at their own hands and at the
hands of their friends. They had engaged in just too much negative talk about the church for too long...
KWI TO LAX Matt and Sandy Anjilivelil return from Kuwait for a visit to the West Region of the LACOC.
LAX TO MGA A Nicaraguan member of the LACOC returns home and pays a call on our sister church in Managua.
CHARLOTTE SMC The Charlotte Church announces a missions collection of $24K so far. The contribution will be "distributed to the Johannesburg Church of Christ to be fully dispersed to the churches of the East Region of Africa."
AUGUST 30, 2004
UN-BLOCKED We are still working far from home but now, finally in a country that allows access to this website. Thanks to regular readers who stayed with us despite the sparse blogging last week. Stay tuned today for some make-up posting.
ECKERO VOICES Messages from speakers at the XVIII Annual Nordic Missions Conference, including those by Andy Fleming, are now available online. The conference was organized by the Stockholm Church of Christ.
TRIANGLE UN-BLOCKED, TOO The Triangle Church website unveils a
