100 Years of Ministry

I asked longtime preacher Glen Wheeler to pose with me after the minister's meeting in Worthington this morning. He figures between the two of us this picture represents about 100 years of ministry! Glen is now a resident of Worthington Christian Village, but he still has a heart for ministry. "I've taught many new residents here from other religious groups about the meaning of the Lord's Supper," he said during our discussion time. He has a goal of writing a book a year, and he volunteered to help lead this minister's meeting next year!

Their attendance was low, by their own estimate, and their attendance has been waning for the last several years. Meanwhile, Kingdom Synergy Partners meets every other month at the Worthington Christian Church, and its meetings are thriving with large attendances of leaders from all over the state. This is indicative of something, but I'm not sure what.

My work this week has been dominated by planning, meeting, arranging, discussing, and resolving conflict surrounding our plan to convert Christian Standard to a monthly publication, beginning with its September issue. The good news is that folks are accepting the writing assignments and the systems issues are closer to being resolved. Tomorrow we address marketing.

All that, plus preparing for this workshop today, plus doing some recruiting for the Stone-Campbell Dialogue meeting next fall, has kept my very busy--moving from one e-mail to the next meeting to the next phone call with no slack time in between. But it's satisfying to see a lot accomplished.

Tomorrow I have a full day at the office, and then only a half day till we take off for visits in three Tennessee spots that will keep us out till next Wednesday. Of course, getting normal weekly CS production done in the midst of all this adds further pressure.

But I'm not complaining. By and large, it is a good week.

A few have commented, on Facebook and here at the blog, on yesterday's post: "What's the Future of the Restoration Movement?" More comments are welcome.

What's the Future of the Restoration Movement?

How would you answer the question I'm supposed to address at a minister's meeting tomorrow in Worthington? "What is the future of the Restoration Movement?"
If I'd thought about it, I would have posted this a week ago and let some Facebook and Twitter friends weigh-in on the question.
Actually, I plan to offer more questions than prophecies. Among the elements of my presentation will be quotes from three different writers who spoke to the question in the pages (and on the website) of Christian Standard:

• Paul Williams wrote in his column: "Young leaders suggest our movement will be held together through relationships I hope they're right. The question then becomes, 'How do we leverage relationships to continue the plea for unity that brought this movement into being?'"

• A couple of years ago, Roy Lawson wrote, "We have outlived our enemies--and as a result have a dimmed sense of identity. Some of 'us' have trouble figuring out who 'we' are.  We once were energized and scrappy and sure of ourselves when we were fighting--Baptists, denominations in general, erring fellow Restorationists, and more. But without a fight, who are we?"

• In that same issue, Dick Alexander reminded us, "Movements last a generation or two at most. The Campbell-Stone Movement played itself out on the American frontier in the middle of the 19th century. And then in the first quarter of the 20th century this once great unity moment fractured into three distinct groups.
"In looking at our present and future, we would benefit from laying aside Restoration Movement terminology except as an historical reference, and developing a new vocabulary that is descriptive, and also capable of motivating future generations."

All three of these writers believe we need the tribe that has provided our heritage, our understanding of the Scripture, our ideals about the church, and our fellowship with each other. I'll be interested to see what the Ohio ministers think about this when I visit with a few of them tomorrow.