18 wheels and a heart to serve
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — In the dark, John Kincaid could…
For Churches of Christ, winter storm is an unchosen Sabbath
As ice disrupts church and school events — including the Freed-Hardeman lectures — congregations work to keep warm and provide for their communities.
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In downtown Nashville, Tenn., the historic meeting place of the Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ is under a historic sheet of ice.
Record snowfall covered a 2,000-miles swath of the United States in the final week of January. From New Mexico to Maine, congregations canceled Sunday morning in-person worship services, many moving to an online format.
A sheet of ice coats the building of the Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ in Nashville.
“No one likes to miss the assembly,” Lindsley Avenue minister Alden Bass told the congregation via a video message posted to social media. “It’s good to be together. God’s called us to meet regularly as brothers and sisters. But there’s also a call in Scripture for times of quietness and rest, times of solitude, time to be alone.”
As congregations in Nashville met online, snow transitioned to ice, creating treacherous road conditions and downing power lines.
Ice coats the sign of the Lindsley Street Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn.
Lipscomb University, where Bass serves as a Bible professor, lost power on Sunday afternoon. The storm is the worst to hit Lipscomb’s campus since 1994, said Kim Chaudoin, the university’s vice president of communications and marketing.
“Students were assigned to the buildings powered by generators if they wanted to go there,” Chaudoin told The Christian Chronicle. “They could also sleep in their rooms in their dorms if they chose to in the evening. … Bennett Campus Center served as a hub and had WiFi access and supplies of essential items. Bennett was powered by a generator, ensuring that food services remained available to students.”
Students at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., build with Lego bricks as they stay warm inside the student center, which ran on a generator when the campus lost power Jan. 25.
Emergency workers restored power to Lipscomb’s campus on Tuesday, but more than 99,000 Nashville Electric Services customers, including many in the Green Hills community near Lipscomb, were still without power as of Wednesday night. Cell service across the area is spotty.
Find updates from Lipscomb University here.
Ice causes trees to sag near the Allen Bell Tower on Lipscomb University’s campus.
Lipscomb moved its classes online through Friday, as did other schools associated with Churches of Christ, including Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. The small town about three hours west of Nashville experienced brief power outages on Sunday, said Freed-Hardeman spokesperson Dawn Bramblett. The university canceled on-campus activities including a Lads to Leaders event scheduled for Saturday.
Bible Lectureship delayed, abbreviated
Amid challenging weather and road conditions, organizers of Freed-Hardeman’s 90th annual Bible Lectureship, which was slated to begin Sunday night, delayed and shortened the weeklong event.
Instead of a its traditional lectureship, the university plans a Spiritual Growth Workshop for Wednesday, Feb. 4, through Friday, Feb. 6, with all sessions in Dryden Auditorium. “To avoid traveling after dark, workshop sessions will begin each day at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 4:30 p.m.,” organizers said in a news release. “The Hispanic Lectureship, which was set to begin Friday, Jan. 30, will be postponed to 2027.”
Snow and ice blanket the campus of Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn.
“We look forward to gathering for worship and study of God’s Word as conditions allow, and we appreciate all those who are readjusting to still make this a time of edification,” said Freed-Hardeman president David Shannon. “We are grateful for 90 years of treasured fellowship, as Christians around the country and world gather in Henderson to glorify God.”
The schedule for the new Spiritual Growth Workshop will be available at fhu.edu/lectureship by the end of Friday, Jan. 30, said lectureship director Doug Burleson. “With this unprecedented change, we are grateful for the flexibility of our guests, speakers, vendors and campus community,” he added.
No on-campus housing will be available, and no special meals or banquets are planned for the workshop.
Heartbreak and healing in Mississippi
A small number of residences on the edges of Chester County, where Freed-Hardeman is located, have gone several days without electricity and water services, Bramblett said.
A limb cracking under the weight of ice partially blocks Nashville’s Belmont Boulevard near Lipscomb University.
The situation is far worse in Nashville and to the south of Chester County, including parts of Mississippi, said Bramblet, who described photos from the area as “heartbreaking.”
That includes Ripley, a town of about 5,500 people in north Mississippi’s Tippah County.
“Nearly the entire county was without power for more than 30 hours, and many people have also been without water,” Donnie DeBord, minister for the Ripley Church of Christ, told the Chronicle. “Supplies are thin, and once everything finally thaws, there will be a great deal of cleanup ahead.”
A truck from Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort arrives at the Ripley Church of Christ in Mississippi on Jan. 29.
The church reached out to Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort, which sent shipments of water, food and other relief supplies. On Thursday the church used its fellowship hall as a “free food and warming center” for the community.
Donnie DeBord
“In the middle of all this hardship, we continue to pray that God will be glorified and that his care will be made visible through his people,” said DeBord, who also serves as an assistant professor of Bible at Freed-Hardeman.
CCDRE is based in Nashville and is ready to distribute aid to the people of its hometown, said Mike Lewis, the nonprofit’s executive director. Locally, the ministry has received a few inquiries about generators, which it does not provide.
Alden Bass
Related: 18 wheels and a heart to serve
As power slowly returns to the city, ministers encourage church members to stay safe — and use the break from their normal lives to practice solitude with their Creator. The children of Israel did this on the Sabbath — and Jesus spent time alone with God throughout his earthly life.
In his message to the Lindsley Avenue church, Bass quoted from Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.”
“In our culture, it’s difficult to take time off from work, to stop thinking about work, to stop working,” the minister said. “So even though we didn’t choose this Sabbath, we can receive it as a gift from God.”
ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact [email protected].
