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PO Box 50998
Nashville, Tennessee 37205-0998
Call us: 615-298-1824
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to our Everywhere, Every Day Ministry
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...join in the conversation
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YOUR GIFT GIVES MORE
Thanks to the generosity of two donors, all gifts from individuals through the end of 2012 will be matched.
So if you have made your gift this year, we ask for another generous gift. And if you have not given this year, please prayerfully consider doing so.
Your gifts make it possible to continue to our ongoing ministry of connecting everywhere, every day.
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to our Everywhere, Every Day Ministry
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One Minute, One Dollar
Your gifts of prayer and resource are so appreciated! We have acknowledged many of them by name on our website under the heading Giving One Minute, One Dollar. Your constant support of World Convention is making a difference everywhere, every day. |
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Daily Disciple
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FREE TRIP TO BRAZIL
If you were not able to attend our Global Gathering in Brazil in August, you missed the experience of a lifetime. However, you can experience part of it at home by listening to the plenary speakers on our website.
Manuscripts are also available for several of the workshops and women's conversations. You'll find them at the end of the speaker's profile.
And you are invited to begin making your plans for Korea in 2016! You'll find details in ChristiaNet as it develops.
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Important Dates...
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Secretaries of World Christian Communions
Geneva
November 2-4, 2012
Congresso Mulheres
November 9-11, 2012
Eastern Christian Conference
November 15-18, 2012
International Conference on Missions
January 8-11, 2013
Christian Churches Together
January 18-25, 2013
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
February 25-28, 2013
Webb Lectures, Milligan College
April 5-6, 2013
Stone-Campbell Journal Conference
April 29-May 3, 2013
Pepperdine Lectures
May 20-21, 2013
Eubanks Institute for Missions Conference
June 5-8, 2013
Christian Scholars Conference - Lipscomb
July 3-6, 2013
Summer Celebration - Lipscomb
July 9-12, 2013
North American Christian Convention
July 13-17, 2013
Disciples General Assembly
October 30-November 8, 2013
10th Assembly - World Council of Churches
November 14-17, 2013
Eastern Christian Conference
November 17-22, 2013
Secretaries of World Christian Communions
Lebanon
June 25 - 29, 2014
IDWM Quadrennial Assembly
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Click and Go to World Convention web site
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Southern Pacific
Conference on Missions
Missionaries Tim and Dawn Yates report the success of the first SPCOM held in Sydney, Australia in July. With work represented from Australia - including inner-city and aboriginal works - New Zealand, the USA, India, Peru and Thailand enough momentum resulted to plan the next conference in 2013 (Sydney, Australia) and 2014 (New Zealand). Fellow worker, Peter Gray (Australia) fueled the creation of this event based on the benefits seen by International Conference On Missions (formerly National Missionary Conference) in the USA.
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Remembering...
Lives of Stone-Campbell Leaders and Educators
Please click on names to read about their lives. |
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make a U turn
as soon as possible
- Lyndsay Jacobs
Reflecting on directions for unity and mission in the 21st century, Lyndsay helps readers to understand that Christian unity is a central (and not optional) dimension to both their Christian faith and the mission of the church. Visit www.broadviewpublishers.co.nz for sample chapters and ordering information.
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| ChristiaNet
October, 2012
Issue 112
Connecting Everywhere...Every Day
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PO Box 50998 Nashville, TN USA 37205-0998 615-298-1824 Visit our office at 4101 Harding Pike, Nashville, TN 37205 USA |
OUR CHURCHES ARE WORKING!
Gary Holloway
God is at work among us.
God is at work within us.
We believe that, but still we hear the comments (sometimes from our own mouths).
"Our churches are full of gray hairs."
"Our churches are shrinking in numbers."
"Our churches are just doing the same old things."
"Our churches are not reaching their neighbors."
"Our churches are too small to accomplish anything."
One joy of my calling at World Convention is that I get to visit our churches throughout the United States and the world. What I have found are vibrant, welcoming congregations that are serving their communities in creative ways.
 
Last month, for example, I visited three churches in different parts of the United States. First, Overland Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Kansas. This congregation has many older members, but I was impressed by all the ways they are reaching out to their community. They were planning a community festival, with many of these older members signing up for the dunking booth! This was in no way a trivializing of the gospel but a way of making the good news take on flesh for that neighborhood.
Next I was at Southeast Christian Church in Minneapolis. This small multi-cultural church was inaugurating a Vietnamese language service and a new college age ministry the Sunday Deb and I were there. They were also serving a meal that Sunday at their neighborhood park.
Finally, we attended the church closest to our house, Donelson Church of Christ. Under the leadership of their minister, Russ King, Donelson has partnered with a local elementary school to provide materials to students, encouragement to teachers, and a relationship with administrators and parents. Donelson has also begun a creative Bible study, The Story, for all their classes, infants to adults.
In short, these churches are working. They work because God is at work among them and within them.
And these examples from the United States can be multiplied worldwide. With my own eyes I have seen working congregations in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Brazil, England, and Italy. Our churches are working in 181 countries! And each congregation is working the same, by the power of God. And each is working differently, to reach their particular neighborhood.
So let us not bemoan the age or size of our congregations, but trust that God is at work.
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The Women's Desk
Two missions will share the gathered resources of Global Women Connecting. Gifts of attention, finance and prayer will be focused on Harvest View Academy in Kenya and Hope School/Hope Home in Mozambique in response to our call to help.
A unique opportunity to build community.
Missionaries
Kléber & Juracema Ribeiro of
LAR ESPERANÇA (Hope Home) and ESCOLA ESPERANÇA (Hope School) started years ago in the state of Nampula at Angoche district, administrative post of Sangache. While visiting one of our churches a mother introduced them to two girls saying she wanted to give them both girls to be educated. They weren't able to continue with their studies and she didn't want them to stay in the village because they would get pregnant. At that time the Ribeiros had no means to keep her children. They did not have necessities such as food, a place to live or a way to educate. They decided to pray to see what God might do. Some time later, in the city of Nampula, a gentleman came to their church with another child saying: ``I came here to bring you my sister; we have no father, our mother is hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital (now deceased) and our other brother committed suicide by hanging himself inside his hut. I am her only brother and I live in extreme poverty. I have three children, so I cannot take care of her. I came here to give her to the church so you can raise her.'' As they were praying for the first two girls and now for this girl, they decided to start with what God had shown them and began the Hope Home. 
Martin and Nancy Phiri learned about children in the Nairobi, Kenya area like Agatha, a 14 year old who joined HARVEST VIEW ACADEMY last year. Agatha's
father died from a mysterious disease 4 years ago. After her father's death, her brother Joseph was born with a mental problem. Her mother did not have a job and with the difficulties in caring for Joseph, Agatha had to drop out of school so that she could fetch for the family. She was employed as a maid (house girl) which paid her $15.00 a month. Her employer used to frustrate her, beat her and sometimes deny her food if Agatha did not perform household duties and take care of the four children as expected. Agatha was so traumatized that she decided to run away. Ending up in streets without a place to sleep, no food to eat and no clothes to wear, a man who seemed to have known her father offered to help her and took her to his house.
(We later learned he was a member of a cult religion where her father belonged.)
Agatha was now very sick and weak and was unconscious for several days in this man's house. When she gained consciousness and wanted to go back home, the man refused and instead started to sexually abuse her. Eventually Agatha managed to escape and found herself in the streets again. She met a woman who heard her story with compassion and took her to the police station. Although they tried to help, Agatha could not remember her home. Having no other alternative, they decided to take her to a government institution for lost children where she stayed nearly eight months. One day a woman who used to be their family's neighbor came to that institution to look for her lost son and Agatha recognized her. After a long search, they discovered that Agatha's family had moved to another house in the Nairobi slum called Kibera, population one million. Thank God, Agatha was rejoined with her family and found a connection to Harvest View where she could continue her education with hope. 
Two similar needs. One compassionate Lord.
A growing, loving community.
Like Global Women Connecting on 
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The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History Encompassing the world history of the Stone-Campbell Movement, this book will be the newest and most comprehensive volume available. Visit Chalice Press for ordering information. Available 2013. |
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