North American Christian Convention

It was our first NACC and it was exciting. Exciting because it was a special gathering of the Restoration Movement family. There will some who read this blog who have no idea of what the Restoration Movement is - or was. But, the modern day manifestation of the history of that movement is the existance of the Churches of Christ and the Independent Christian Churches. Those two separate streams of christianity and christian thinking came out of the same movement. Those involved in the movement parted company 100 years ago (in 1906) - mostly because of a disagreement over the question of the use of instrumental music in the assemblies of the church. The Churches of Christ taking the postion that it was wrong and the Christian Churches taking the position that it was acceptable. So, we divided.

It's not my intent here to record the history of the movement nor even the forces that are at work to reunify the two traditoins that have developed since the split a century ago. I'll simply say that we have been blessed to be very near those who are leading the efforts to restore fellowship between family members who have long been estranged. We are convinced that God hates division. Its says so, specifically, in the book of Proverbs. Jesus wants unity. He says so, specifically, in the book of John. So, armed with those truths, leaders and members of the two movements came together to celebrate our love for God and His Kingdom. We spoke of our differences, but we spoke more of our common love. It was an exciting gathering.


Prior to the Convention Marilyn and I had been invited to sit at a "round table" with others who, like me, work for large churches and serve them as their "Minister of Missions." We were the only CofC ones there. Marilyn was the only female and she bowed out after the first day. She wanted to go tour the Cane Ridge church - the place that was one of the main physical locations of the beginning of the Restoration Movement. I talked with the other ministers for two days. I learned a lot. Also, I was able to share how RHCC runs its worldwide efforts to share Jesus. I think the others learned a lot, as well. There were eight Ministers at this Round Table Discussion. Plans are to do it again in November.



Another side agenda we were involved in at the NACC was a couple of meetings of the folks working toward establishing a Christian university in Mbale, Uganda. This project is one that is huge and involves both the Churches of Christ and the Christian Churches. It is The Real Thing when we begin talking of collaboration and unity between the two streams of the movement. It is also The Real Thing when we begin talking about partnering with African Christian leaders in the work of saving the lost on that continient. We have a group of church leaders from both fellowships who have had a series of meetings to do what we can from this side of the Atlantic. We have called ourselves the Harmony Project. So, we had a Harmony Project meeting as a sidebar at the NACC. This project is such a good example of collaboration that it was mentioned, specifically, by one of the keynotes speakers at the NACC. That speaker was Rick Atchley - the RHCC preacher and one of the leaders of the unity movement.

There were probably 50 or 60 people of the 9,000 present who were from RHCC. We had seven of our elders there. I think there were eight from our ministerial staff. There was a contingent of 15 women from our Over 50 Single Women's group. They mostly behaved themselves. It was a great time of RHCC fellowship as well as the larger gathering. What a blessing it is to be a part of the RHCC family.