They had no idea his late mother, Maria Landa, was an Ivy League-educated psychologist.

They just knew the son of Cuban immigrants looked homeless — and desperately needed a bath.

“I mean, Jesus is for everyone,” said David Duncan, preaching minister for the Memorial Church of Christ, which averages Sunday attendance of about 800. “Nobody’s going to be turned away. And he obviously had some very dire needs.”

“I mean, Jesus is for everyone. Nobody’s going to be turned away.”

Costabile, 59, who battles a variety of physical and mental health issues, saw a banner advertising the congregation at Houston’s Memorial City Mall. 

He walked 1.3 miles from the shopping center to the church building, just off Interstate 10.

“Let’s be honest: There have been conversations where people are like, ‘He doesn’t need to be here. It’s not safe for our kids,’” said Mike Avery, Memorial’s community minister. “Some people don’t want him around. But that’s because the church is human, right? And they’re scared, and they’re fearful.

Maurice Costabile enjoys a moment of relaxation at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston.

“But I’m happy that our church overall has really worked to help him and not kick him out,” Avery added. “So we’re really trying, and we’re not going to give up on him.”

Avery helped Costabile connect with Houston law enforcement’s Homeless Outreach Team and has taken him to medical appointments.

However, finding a long-term solution off the streets has proven more difficult. Costabile’s lack of official documents, such as a birth certificate or a Social Security card, complicates applying for government benefits.

“We tried to get him into a halfway house,” Avery said, “but he only lasted a few days because it’s made for people who can take care of themselves physically, and he can’t do that.”

To make Costabile more presentable for worship, the congregation began renting a hotel room to give him a shower before the Sunday service.

“He knows how to survive on the street, but he’s in terrible health,” Duncan said. “It’s not that you can save everybody, but when somebody comes into your church building, I think you have a responsibility to help.”

“It’s not that you can save everybody, but when somebody comes into your church building, I think you have a responsibility to help.”

‘Maurice is God’s child’

With more than 25 nationalities represented in the pews, the Memorial congregation reflects the diversity of Houston.

Church volunteers — including an 83-year-old Jamaican immigrant named Sadie Powell and a 38-year-old Russian immigrant named Yulia Merchant — lead the effort to help Costabile.

On a typical Saturday night, Merchant, a nurse practitioner, and her three school-age sons pick up food for Costabile from Spencer Prather, one of Memorial’s children’s ministers.

The Memorial Church of Christ in Houston rents a hotel room to give Maurice Costabile a shower.

Then the mother and boys give Costabile a ride from the church building to the hotel, where they connect with Powell.

Costabile has leg wounds caused by lymphedema.

“We shower him together, and after his shower, I change any wound dressings, if needed, and wrap his legs,” said Merchant, who also spearheaded the launch of Memorial’s thriving ministry for Ukrainian refugees. “He usually gets a very good night’s sleep at the hotel.”

On Sunday morning, Merchant makes sure Costabile has breakfast and drives him to worship. Powell takes him to lunch.

Costabile has the mind of a child and can’t care for himself, Merchant said.

“If that would be my child, and God would take me to heaven, I would want my child to be taken care of,” she said of her motivation. “And Maurice is God’s child.”

A missing person

Costabile told church members that he and his mother were living in an extended-stay hotel during the pandemic. But then she got into an accident and later died of COVID-19, he said.

After he wandered away from the hospital, loved ones filed a missing person report in 2021.

“But the people who filed that have since died,” Avery said.

Memorial leaders pray that publicity about Costabile might alert relatives to his whereabouts and prompt them to contact the church.

“You got some new clothes,” Duncan, the preaching minister, said as he greeted Costabile in the church office this week.

“Yeah,” Costabile replied before turning the conversation to recent heavy rains in Houston. “It’s very bad weather out. The other day, there was a lot of thunder.”

Maurice Costabile enjoys a meal with a church member.

“I just can’t believe that you’re wearing a Mets hat,” Duncan teased, noting that Costabile’s father, who died in 2001, worked for the Yankees. “Do you like the Mets better?”

“Yeah,” Costabile replied. “They’re very, very, very nice people.”

Duncan introduced me to Costabile.

“Mr. Ross, like the store?” Costabile replied, referring to the Ross Dress for Less chain. “I heard of that. It’s a good store.”

As Powell discussed Costabile’s mental health concerns, he interjected, “I may be bipolar, but I’m pretty intelligent on stuff.”

“Extremely intelligent,” Powell agreed.

Maurice Costabile poses for a picture after getting a haircut and a shave at Great Clips.

‘Is this guy … an angel?’

Avery describes Costabile as friendly with the mindset of a 7-year-old.

“He loves to color and draw airplane cockpits, and he draws them to scale,” Avery said. “And his memory is incredible as far as things that happened a long time ago.

“But I always wonder: Is this guy like an angel? Or is it like, he’s one of ‘the least of these,’ and God is testing us?” the community minister added, alluding to Matthew 25. “Sometimes I wonder about that, but he’s really an interesting guy.”

David Bean, another Memorial member active in helping Costabile, came across a documentary video recounting his father’s camera work with the Yankees.

Duilio Costabile, left, shares a laugh with Yankees first base coach José Cardenal in the 2007 documentary “Duilio: Home Movies From The Bronx.” (Video still via YouTube. Warning: Video contains R-rated language.)

Duilio Costabile worked alongside Yankees greats Phil Rizzuto and Bobby Murcer.

Bean played the video for Maurice Costabile.

“At first, it made me really sad because I know this life is not what his parents would have wanted for him,” Duncan said. “But it also made me think that maybe there are people out there who know him and want to help him.

“But secondly and momentarily, it made me really happy that he had an opportunity to see a video with his dad, whom he hadn’t seen in many years,” the minister added. “It brought real joy to him. He kept saying, ‘My dad! My dad!’”

Maurice Costabile visits with a reporter at the Memorial Church of Christ in Houston as Sadie Powell listens.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Ross writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged, where this piece originally appeared. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Members of the Central Church of Christ congregation gather in a prayer circle while members of the response team work to save Keith Braud’s life.

In the next 2 minutes and 57 seconds, one church member dialed 911 while others performed CPR and retrieved an automated external defibrillator. Before paramedics arrived at the church, the AED restored Braud’s heartbeat — the result of a successful emergency response plan.

“Everybody just fell into place and did everything they were supposed to do,” said Tammie Crowder, a church member and emergency room nurse of 42 years.

‘There was no pulse’ 

The emergency unfolded quickly, about 10 minutes into the Bible class in the church’s auditorium. As Braud sat with his wife, Elizabeth, he began to feel something was wrong.

“Before I blacked out, I remember thinking, ‘I’m about to pass out,’” Braud told The Christian Chronicle. “A little ringing in my ear, tunnel vision, and that’s all I remember.”

Keith and Elizabeth Braud

When Elizabeth Braud alerted the congregation that her husband had collapsed, registered nurse Evan Johnson reached Braud within seconds. Simultaneously, church secretary Robin Large fetched the AED from the kitchen, as another member called emergency services.

“I think I just got up in his face, just trying to see — did he pass out, did he fall asleep, or are we making a big ruckus out of nothing?” Johnson said.

As the response began inside the auditorium, church members who were not directly involved in the medical efforts stepped outside. About 20 gathered on the sidewalk in a circle of prayer while the emergency unfolded inside.

Rachel Neill

While Braud lay on the pew, Large brought the AED to physical therapist Rachel Neill, who prepared the device alongside Tabitha Gibbs.

“We were pretty sure we felt a pulse at first,” Johnson told the Chronicle. “But when we laid him down and reassessed, there was no pulse. That’s when we started CPR.”

About 1 minute and 28 seconds after the initial alert, Braud had no pulse, and CPR began. As compressions continued, the response team applied the AED as it began charging.

At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, the AED delivered a shock, and CPR continued.

A jolt from Braud followed the shock and rescue breaths.

“My vision started coming on very dimly, and I saw Evan, like right here in my face, and I kind of knew it was Evan,” Braud recalled. “But the first thing I said was, ‘Who are you? You need to get off of me.’”

Members of the Central Church of Christ used an automated external defibrillator to revive a churchgoer in cardiac arrest.

Braud regained a pulse, and two minutes later, police arrived, followed by EMS, which transported him to CommonSpirit Memorial Hospital. A week later, the Louisiana native returned home to Georgia after physical therapy.

“The AED 100 percent saved my life — and I wouldn’t be here without it,” Braud said, wiping away a tear. “I’m just so glad I was at church — God is good.”

‘What if we hadn’t been prepared?’

The outcome of Braud’s medical emergency was swift and lifesaving. Yet, the case underscores a broader concern: If a similar emergency occurred during services or Bible class, would other congregations be prepared to respond?

According to Mike Garron, recruitment and public relations specialist for Hamilton County EMS, many churches and other organizations fail to prepare for medical emergencies because they assume they are unlikely to occur.

Mike Garron

“People tend to get complacent — ‘that’s never happened here’ — but it will at some point,” Garron said. “It’s a lack of education. People don’t realize how quickly organs can be damaged without oxygen-rich blood.”

What unfolded in under three minutes in the Central Church of Christ auditorium was guided by an emergency response plan developed and refined over several years. Crowder, the ER nurse, saw the need for the plan’s creation after the lack of an accessible AED contributed to a death at a church retreat she attended years earlier. That experience reshaped how she viewed preparedness in places of worship.

Crowder explained that the foundation of the church’s response plan includes monthly CPR training, AED awareness and clearly assigned roles during emergencies to avoid miscommunication.

The church’s AED is kept in a designated, easily accessible location in the kitchen and includes a guidebook for its use. The building also contains an anti-choking device and a first-aid kit. Expiration dates and battery levels for each device get checked regularly.

A GregO2 device used in instances of choking and a manual on how to use it rests on the wall in the fellowship hall.

On the Sunday following Braud’s cardiac arrest, members of the response team reviewed security camera footage and participated in an after-action debriefing. They produced a written report on what happened, what worked and where response time or communication could be improved.

Crowder said that such continual refinement is intentional and necessary, noting that the goal is to prepare for any situation before it occurs.

The Central Church of Christ sign rests above the same sidewalks where members of the congregation prayed on June 3, 2026.

“There’s not a person here at this church that wouldn’t give $1,000 to make sure we had an AED after Wednesday night,” she added.

In the days following the incident, the congregation has prayed and reflected not only on what happened inside the church’s auditorium but also on the blessing of life and the importance of readiness in any place of worship.

“You think, ‘It won’t happen at church on a Wednesday night.’ And then what if we hadn’t been prepared? It could have been a very different story.”

“You think, ‘It won’t happen at church on a Wednesday night,’” said Large, the church secretary. “And then what if we hadn’t been prepared? It could have been a very different story.”

For more resources on how to develop an emergency plan geared for houses of worship, visit the Guide for Developing Emergency Plans for Houses of Worship.

EPHRAIM RODENBACH, a sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a Christian Chronicle intern. Contact ephraim@christianchronicle.org.

For many cancer patients, ringing the bell signals the end of their journey. But it marked another milestone in an ongoing battle for McCurley, minister for the Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson, 40 miles west of Nashville.

The preacher has spent the past two years navigating prostate cancer, a journey that led to a diagnosis of stage four metastatic disease. In its most advanced stage, the cancer spread outside of its original location earlier this year. While radiation successfully targeted tumors, his treatment continues through hormone therapy and medication.

Yet throughout daily chemotherapy treatments and hour-long commutes to Nashville, McCurley has embraced a phrase that has shaped his outlook: “Cancer can be a ministry.”

“I don’t believe God gave me cancer, but I certainly believe he’s used it,” the husband and father of three said.

‘Why am I scared?’

McCurley’s cancer journey began in February 2024, when rising prostate-specific antigen levels signaled to doctors that a malignant growth could be developing. An MRI and biopsy confirmed a small cancerous tumor, measuring about 1 millimeter in diameter, or about the tip of a needle.

Doctors offered the 49-year-old preacher several treatment options, including radiation and proton therapy. He ultimately chose radical prostate surgery to remove the tumor.

“To me, I had cancer and I wanted it out,” McCurley said. “And it wasn’t hard to convince me.”

Chris McCurley preaches at the Walnut Street Church of Christ.

Although the surgery appeared successful, post-operation pathology revealed that the growth extended beyond the prostate capsule. Still, for nearly a year and a half, McCurley’s prostate-specific antigen levels remained undetectable.

In early 2026, as he prepared for the birth of his second grandchild, doctors found that the cancer had returned and progressed to stage four metastatic prostate cancer.

“I was scared. And I feel bad about that. I’m a man of faith. I’m a preacher. Why am I scared?”

“I was scared. And I feel bad about that,” McCurley said. “I’m a man of faith. I’m a preacher. Why am I scared?”

As the cancer spread to the bones, including the spine, femur and iliac bone, McCurley said he found peace in his relationship with God, leaning on a saying: “It’s you and me, no matter what, and it’s going to be OK.”

From that point forward, the diagnosis — and the faith that came along with it — became a daily reality, defined by chemotherapy treatments, long drives to Nashville and what he describes as unseen opportunities to share his faith.

‘This is life now — you’re a cancer patient’

After the stage four diagnosis, McCurley said the challenge shifted from treatment decisions to daily endurance. Working out at a higher intensity and taking naps on the couch in his church office became part of a new daily rhythm.

“This is life now,” he said. “You’re a cancer patient.”

For eight weeks, McCurley’s routine began early in the morning, with coffee and Bible reading before departing his Dickson home for the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. There, he underwent a series of 10- to 15-minute radiation treatments.

Chris McCurley walks down the driveway holding the hand of his granddaughter, Ash Jobe.

Waiting for him at many of those appointments was Trace Pierce, a radiation therapist at Vanderbilt and a fellow member of the Walnut Street church. Pierce first reached out after watching McCurley announce his diagnosis on Facebook, offering support and connections with medical resources at the hospital. As treatment progressed, the two developed a strong bond.

“The hardest part sometimes is just waking up every day and driving in for 39 treatments,” Pierce said. “That takes a toll in itself.”

As the weeks passed, McCurley began to feel the side effects of radiation on his body. But even on days when the preacher wasn’t feeling his best, Pierce said, few people in the waiting room and during his treatments would have known.

“He’d still come in, talk to everybody, ask how they were doing and offer to pray with them,” Pierce said. “That’s just who he is as a person.”

Those interactions became an unexpected blessing in a new season of life. McCurley said he does not miss the radiation, but he does miss the fellowship shared in waiting rooms and hospital hallways.

Chris McCurley and his wife, Libby, pose for a picture during a University of Arkansas baseball game.

“There is a sense where I’m going to miss these because you develop these friendships,” he said. “You sit in the lobby and meet these people who are there every day that had a brain tumor removed, and you get to sit there and counsel with them and do ministry, and they do ministry with you.”

The same openness that led McCurley in forming relationships at Vanderbilt reinforced a belief that had guided him throughout his walk: Even cancer can be a ministry.

“Cancer has been such a big blessing to me in so many ways,” he said. “There are things I would never have experienced if not for this diagnosis.”

‘This is a God story’

For the Walnut Street minister, that ministry did not end when he left Vanderbilt’s waiting room. Even with stage four metastatic cancer and ongoing hormone therapy through medication, McCurley continues preaching the glory of God. The cancer and an uncertain future remain, but so does his trust in faith, family and his belief that “God wins.”

Between treatments and sermon preparations, McCurley avoided turning his cancer journey into the focus of his mission. Instead, he documented every step through a series of Facebook posts, providing updates and showing appreciation for prayers.

What started as simple updates became a lifeline for many members of his congregation looking for ways to support their preaching minister.

“The videos keep us informed so we know how to pray for him,” said Joanne Brown, who has attended Walnut Street since 1976. “He’s definitely seeing that love and support full-fledged because of what he’s going through.”

The Walnut Street church’s sign references the hymn “Goodness of God.”

The updates also reflect a philosophy that, church leaders say, has defined McCurley’s ministry since he joined the congregation in 2022, long before his diagnosis.

“Ministry is not a thing you do on Sundays. It’s your life,” Walnut Street shepherd Brian Reagan said of McCurley, who’s authored multiple books and hosted over 200 episodes of the “Dear Church” podcast.. “Chris has extended that into speaking in very real, transparent terms about what’s going on in his life.”

“It’s a story about how God has navigated Chris McCurley through cancer, and how Chris McCurley is going to win because God wins.”

Even as the possibility of recurrence remains, McCurley said he does not view his story as one defined by illness but by faith. The bell at Vanderbilt marked the end of his radiation treatment but not of his ministry.

“This is not a Chris McCurley cancer story. This is a God story,” he said. “It’s a story about how God has navigated Chris McCurley through cancer, and how Chris McCurley is going to win because God wins.”

EPHRAIM RODENBACH, a sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a Christian Chronicle intern. Contact ephraim@christianchronicle.org.

Featured image (above): Allen Wai Jang, right, receives American Tai Chi & Qigong Association Master status from Master Chung Wu from the Maryland Institute for Tai Chi Arts.

ALABAMA

FLORENCE — Hundreds of souls gathered on the grounds of the Mars Hill Bible School for an old-fashioned tent revival.

Twelve local Churches of Christ helped organize the event, which met five evenings on the Larimore Lawn. It’s the former site of noted Restoration Movement preacher T.B. Larimore’s home and the Mars Hill Academy he founded in 1871.

Larimore later changed the name to Mars Hill College and ran the school until 1887. The current K-12 school opened in 1947.

Hundreds of north Alabamians worship during a tent revival at the Mars Hill Bible School.

Attendees at the revival packed in and around a large white tent — with standing-room only Wednesday night — to hear a gospel message.

Guest preachers at the meeting included area ministers and Bible School teachers — Matt Heupel, Brad Adcock, Frank Mills, Harrison Chastain, Dewayne Tapscott — who spoke on the authority of Christ, Christ and his church, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and the Great Commission.

A contribution each night supported several local ministries: Isaiah’s Call, North Alabama Christian Children’s Home, the University of North Alabama Christian Student Center, Heritage Christian University and World Evangelism Missions.

MISSOURI

ST. LOUIS — The Christian Academy of Greater St. Louis celebrated its 50th graduating class, deemed the “Golden Graduation.”

The small K-12 school was founded in 1976 and is associated with Churches of Christ.

The academy hosted a series of celebratory events in honor of its anniversary, including a Kick-off Celebration Picnic, Coming Home Celebration and Appreciation Celebration Luncheon — dedicated to founders, donors and leaders who helped shape the school’s mission of “preparing students to live a life of value and meaning to God, society, and self.”

The 50th graduating class of the Christian Academy of Greater St. Louis celebrates commencement.

At the commencement, the nine graduating seniors stood alongside alumni from the academy’s first graduating class and a founding board member, Bob McGuire.

“The Class of 2026 joins a legacy of alumni who have gone on to serve in ministry, medicine, education and the military, with most of CA graduates pursuing higher education, military service and the trades,” the school said in a statement.

The academy also celebrates the retirement of longtime administrator and former student Carla J. Payne, who served as head of school for 35 years.

Payne was also an inaugural student, attending from 1976 to 1980.

TEXAS

FRITCH — Ministry League, a free app that for more than a decade has offered lyrics to hundreds of worship and devotional songs, launched a major update.

Developed by Tyler Brassfield, a member of the Fritch Church of Christ in Texas, the app has been rebranded as The Ministry Network.

In addition to Ministry League’s songbook and podcasts and teaching materials by members of Churches of Christ, the app refresh introduces Anchor Studio — a collection of devotional and study books with podcasts by the book authors.

The Ministry Network app offers new features.

The app also serves as a resource for participants of Exposure Youth Camp — an annual youth event in Huntsville, Ala. Attendees can register and access the schedule, news, keynotes and more.

“The app’s intent is to help provide materials, opportunities (and) knowledge for those in ministry both professionally and vocationally to spread the Word,” Brassfield said.

The new app rolled out alongside the Ministry Summit at the Piedmont Road Church of Christ in Marietta, Ga.

NEWSMAKERS

AWARDED — JOANNA ESTES, the Girl Scout Silver Award for her project, “Brighten Up the Blahs.” Joanna made flowers and butterflies from pipe cleaners to add color to the rooms of a hospital where she stayed during her treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma. She and her parents worship with the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. ALLEN WAI JANG, Master status from the American Tai Chi & Qigong Association. Jang is a member of the Sierra Madre Church of Christ in California. MELVIN L. OTEY, the Student Organization Faculty Advisor of the Year award from Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala.

From left, Joanna Estes, Malik Beauford, Destiny Calderon, Erica and Jason Noble.

HONORED — MALIK BEAUFORD and DESTINY CALDERON as Mr. and Miss Falcon Athletics by Florida College in Temple Terrace, Fla. JASON and ERICA NOBLE for 20 years of service to the Friendly Avenue Church of Christ in Greensboro, N.C., where Jason is preaching minister.

NAMED — JEREMY ASHLIN, JENNA GOVE and KATIE WAMPLER to the theatre department at Harding University. BETTY BRUSH and GARRY STEINBACH to the board of directors of Program for Humanitarian Aid, a Texas-based nonprofit that serves vulnerable Ukrainians and is supported by Churches of Christ. GRANT BURNS, head men’s basketball coach for Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. The FHU Lions are defending NAIA National Champions. KENNETH HAWLEY, dean of the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation Honors College and KREGG FEHR, Dean of the J.E. and Eileen Hancock College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Lubbock Christian University in Texas. ANDY MITCHELL, evangelist for the Wellsburg Church of Christ in West Virginia.

At the congregation’s 150th homecoming celebration in 2009, more than 150 members filled the pews.

The Owen Chapel Church of Christ sign on Franklin Road displays service times.

But for years, numbers dwindled as church elders dipped into the congregation’s trust fund to keep the lights on.

Elsewhere in the Nashville area, a group of Christians, unsettled by a doctrinal disagreement with their church’s elders, was looking for a new home.

“There was a group of people who were looking for help, and there was another group of people looking for a place to help,” said Dan Harrell, Owen Chapel’s minister. “And God brought us together.”

Arrival of ‘Cowboy Dan’

In 2024, Owen Chapel placed advertisements searching for a new minister. From that search came Harrell, a West Texas native better known to the congregation as “Cowboy Dan.”

A graduate of Abilene Christian University, Harrell moved to Middle Tennessee as an aspiring songwriter before building a career in agriculture. Outside of his ministry, he creates songs that spotlight agriculture while sharing his faith.

“Cowboy Dan” Harrell preaches to members of the Owen Chapel Church of Christ.

Known for his cowboy boots and Western style, he quickly brought a friendly, outgoing presence to the congregation.

Before his arrival, Sunday attendance had fallen to 10 to 15 worshipers.

“Then here comes Dan, who brings in warmth and hugging, like everybody is coming together as a group.”

“Then here comes Dan, who brings in warmth and hugging, like everybody is coming together as a group,” longtime member Sharon Cummings said.

Outside his bandana-print ties and country drawl, Harrell also brought about 70 Christians from a Bible study at his previous congregation, where the doctrinal dispute occurred. Soon, new faces filled the wooden white pews.

Members of the Owen Chapel Church of Christ laugh during a Sunday service.

For Cummings and other longtime members, the new arrivals breathed life into a church that had struggled to keep its doors open.

The influx required a few adjustments for the old-timers. For example, they were used to hearing the names of everyone on the prayer list during announcements. The growth meant a running list in the bulletin — too long to recite out loud each Sunday.

“We had a few discussions about it,” Cummings said of the prayer list. “We just needed to know, where do we go from here? How do we mesh it together?”

‘Kept moving forward’

The question of how to mesh together two groups of Christians with different traditions created a new church environment built on an ongoing conversation.

“When you bring two groups together, you’re going to have changes,” Harrell said. “But we’ve worked through them and kept moving forward.”

Dale Denny leads a hymn during worship.

The congregation’s growth also drew in Jerry Jennings, now one of Owen Chapel’s three elders. After his wife’s death, Jennings searched for a new church home. What first caught his attention was a full parking lot, up from five or six cars on Sunday.

Word had spread among neighbors that Owen Chapel was filling the pews. Intrigued, Jennings visited and found his new spiritual home.

“I walked in, and I already knew most of the people here,” the shepherd said. “It was kind of a ready-made family for me.”

Tradition and change

Over the last two years, the church’s growth has blended tradition with change. New technology includes a modern speaker system, a microphone passed around during Bible study and television screens displaying hymns and Scripture readings.

While the congregation has experienced a revival and technological updates, much of the original building remains unchanged.

Owen Chapel’s meetinghouse, built in 1867, includes two entrances that were once for men and women to enter separately.

Owen Chapel’s meetinghouse was completed in 1867, making it one of the oldest churches in Williamson County — a fast-growing county of about 750,000 people south of Nashville. It’s one of two Williamson County churches built during the Civil War that are still standing.

On Oct. 23, 1986, Owen Chapel was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The building contains many of its original features, including wooden trusses imported from Liverpool, England, and pews that have remained in place for generations.

A historic marker details some of the history of the Owen Chapel Church of Christ and its connection to David Lipscomb. A separate plaque notes the buildings place on the National Register of Historic Places.

The simple architecture — including separate entrances that once divided male and female members during services — reflects the church’s founding ideals.

For a congregation that once worried about survival, Sunday mornings now fill with laughter, conversation and hymns echoing beneath the aging wooden trusses.

A seat cushion at the Owen Chapel church is embroidered with the words of Psalm 100, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.”

“We walk by faith and not by sight,” Harrell said. “That’s what we’re doing. That’s the only thing we’ve got.”

Inside a church whose brick walls have stood beside Franklin Road for almost 160 years, new life has taken hold.

At Owen Chapel, new members now sit side by side with longtime worshipers — two groups that have become one congregation.

EPHRAIM RODENBACH, a sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a Christian Chronicle intern.

More than half of adults under 50 said they interacted with AI at least once per day in 2025, according to Pew Research.

Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of practicing Christians said in a recent Barna study that AI is improving their lives and making the world a better place — compared to 53 percent of U.S. adults overall.

But as AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and other AI tools become ubiquitous in everyday life, what does the technology mean for the mission of the church?

Wes Woodell

“I believe tech will play a role in this great movement of Jesus around the world, because tech is simply a means for spreading the most powerful thing given to humans — and that’s the Gospel,” said Wes Woodell, a church planter and founder of Connect My Church.

Woodell explained that Christians have always been at the forefront of new technology, often innovating new means to share the Good News. He pointed to the church’s adoption of mediums like books, magazines, radio, movies, TV, websites, podcasts, phone apps and online livestreaming — all for the furtherance of the Gospel.

“The mediums change, but the mission doesn’t,” noted Woodell, whose company — besides offering church management software — is developing AI tools for Bible study and discipleship.

AI in the pulpit

Mark Posey, minister for the Winfield Church of Christ in Alabama, likened using AI to presenting “Old Truths in New Robes.” That was the title of a pair of books by Franklin Camp, a prominent 20th century evangelist in the Yellowhammer State.

Mark Posey

“The premise of those two books was, the principles never change, but there are times when we present them in new robes to make them relevant to the time — to stay, in essence, practically up to date,” Posey told The Christian Chronicle.

“I’m just trying to use it in a balanced fashion to continue to present the unchanging truths of God’s holy word,” the preacher said of AI.

Posey said he uses ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini as research tools for sermon outlines, vacation plans, financial advice and other topics — as well as to generate graphics for the sermon starters he posts to his Pulpit Preview Facebook group.

He emphasized that he treats AI as a resource to draw ideas and concepts from — not to develop his theology. It “goes without saying,” he said, “all theology comes from the Bible.”

Mark Posey uses AI to generate graphics for the sermon starters he writes for his Pulpit Preview Facebook page.

But the Alabama minister — who’s made more than 40 mission trips to Ukraine — warned against creating “a generation of lazy preachers.”

“I do see a danger of preachers being aware of their own spiritual growth and not becoming dependent, or relying completely, on an outside source for all of their knowledge,” Posey said, recalling similar concerns about sermon outline books in years past.

AI-generated media

At the Madison Church of Christ in Alabama, media outreach minister Jason Helton helped create a series of Bible character trading cards using AI-generated imagery. The church printed hundreds of cards every week to coincide with a study of Judges and Kings.

After each sermon, kids could go up to an elder and tell him something about the day’s lesson to receive a card.

The Madison Church of Christ used AI to create Bible trading cards depicting the judges and kings found in Scripture.

“By the end of the sermon series, not only did they learn about characters and the folks in the Bible, but they also had this new relationship with every one of our elders, so the value was tremendous,” Helton told the Chronicle.

“I would much rather my Bible class teachers reward my kids with those (cards) that are constantly teaching them than with candy and little trinkets and stuff that break and don’t really have any value.”

That success later inspired Apologetics Press — a Montgomery, Ala., publisher associated with Churches of Christ — to launch a full collection of Discovery Bible trading cards.

Helton is also looking into the AI research tools of the Logos Bible study app and ways to use AI to analyze church attendance trends.

Coty Elder

At the Renaissance Church of Christ in Atlanta, Coty Elder and his team use AI to generate images and videos to accompany sermons and worship songs as well as to create social media content.

“The goal is to take a single sermon or subject and then break it all out into different mediums,” the software developer said. “I jump on Chat(GPT). I say the sermon title. We’ve already kind of prepped our Chat to know what it needs to look like, so I don’t have to prompt it multiple times. And then at that point, it generates the image.”

Elder’s company, Plotabl, also used AI tools to create Quest 4 The Kingdom, a video game-like digital experience that integrates Bible class lessons and study tools for Renaissance youth.

Avoiding artificial relationships

But Helton cautions Christians to use discernment when engaging with AI and to weigh the spiritual value of anything AI generated.

“To me, the greatest danger from a spiritual standpoint … is that it does blur our perspective of what is authentic and what is artificial,” he said. “The idea of shortcuts is a really fine line that requires a lot of wisdom and discernment to know when you’re in pursuit of efficiency but also know when you’ve gone too far. … I think spiritually speaking, shortcuts are really dangerous. I think every sin could be looked at as a shortcut.”

“The greatest danger from a spiritual standpoint … is that it does blur our perspective of what is authentic and what is artificial. The idea of shortcuts is a really fine line that requires a lot of wisdom and discernment.”

The outreach minister is especially concerned about young people developing relationships with AI chatbots and characters — often unwittingly.

“Particularly with children, they don’t know the difference — they can’t discern because they don’t have the life experience, the wisdom and even the cognitive development,” Helton said. “That’s what’s really, really dangerous to me about any kind of bot interaction among adolescents.”

Woodell, meanwhile, is pursuing an AI model that can be trained on good theology and self-contained on a small device to be sent into mission fields — similar to the solar-powered MP3 players with Bible translations and courses used by Sunset International.

“What if, instead of just being an MP3 player, you put the very best Bible professors in the world on here, where they could ask this thing a question and it’ll just talk to them conversationally?” Woodell posed.

But he stipulated that he’s not trying to replace the human element of the Great Commission.

“I am not trying to eliminate human connection,” added the Harding University graduate. “I see this as a medium to enhance human connection and a way to build the kingdom of God — not to be a hindrance, but to magnify truth, not to magnify error.”

‘Digital Babylon’

Helton developed a workshop called “Analog Faith in Digital Babylon” to help churches and families navigate an increasingly digital culture without being consumed by it, just as God gave his people a purpose in Babylonian exile in Jeremiah 29.

Jason Helton

“God says you’re going into this place that’s opposed to me, but I want you to create the culture that I’m ascribing to you and describing for you. I want you to create godly culture,” said the Faulkner University alum. “And I think that’s the role of the church in any age but especially the digital age.”

As 44 percent of millennials and 39 percent of Generation Z trust spiritual advice from AI as much as from a minister, according to another Barna study, Posey advises Christians to always go back to the Bible.

“We must have a healthy balance within the Lord’s church of cross-generation encouragement to always be the people of the book,” the preacher said.

Likewise, Helton encourages Christians to simply approach AI mindfully — not ignorantly.

“We need to be cautiously skeptical of technology, but not innovation,” he said. “I think we need to ask questions like, ‘What is my spiritual purpose for this?’ and ‘What is the spiritual value of this?’ And in doing so, I think that we can thrive in this digital Babylon age that we live in.”

CALVIN COCKRELL is Managing Editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

The associate minister for the Kansas Expressway Church of Christ in Springfield, Mo., was about halfway through his sermon, titled “Satan Wants You,” when a summer squall erupted outside. Rain pounded the A-frame, wood-slat roof of the Branson Church of Christ’s auditorium. The winds howled, attempting to drown out the message.

Brent Green shows an artificial intelligence-generated image during his sermon at the Show Me State Bible Lectures. A friend heard the title of Green’s sermon, “Satan Wants You,” and said it reminded him of armed forces recruiting posters featuring Uncle Sam, which prompted Green to have another friend create the AI image.

Green wasn’t even scheduled to speak on the next-to-last day of the Show Me State Bible Lectures. Another minister, slated for the Saturday night spot, contracted meningitis and was hospitalized just before the lectureship. Organizers asked Green, who also teaches for the Bible Institute of Missouri, to fill in. 

Despite the impromptu request and the noisy weather, Green preached fervently, quoting from Ephesians 5:15-16 as he warned about Satan’s use of distractions to tear believers’ focus away from God: “See then that you walk carefully, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” 

“We’re in a battle for our spiritual lives,” Green said. “The devil does not take a day off.”

Thunderstorms pelted this tourist town in the Ozark Mountains throughout the week. But the weather didn’t stop the 40-member Branson congregation from offering eight days of gospel preaching by 29 ministers, seven congregational singing sessions and six fellowship meals. Nearly 300 church members came for the kickoff service on Sunday, and an average of 200 attended throughout the week, representing nearly 90 congregations in 14 states, organizers said.

Speakers at the Show Me State Bible Lectures put heavy emphasis on Scripture, in keeping with the state’s unofficial nickname. The “Show Me State” is thought to come from an 1899 speech by Missouri Rep. Willard Duncan Vandiver. “Frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me,” Vandiver said. “I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” 

Participants in the Show Me State Bible Lectures sing hymns, including “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” before the Saturday night sermons.

Evan Orr traveled 730 miles from Midland, Texas, to see what the lectures had to show him.

“It’s a good spiritual refresher, always uplifting,” said Orr, who at home worships with the Westside Church of Christ. “It’s almost like a family reunion.” 

Orr’s uncle, Blane Orr, is an elder of the Branson church, which launched the lectures in 2017 as a community outreach, said longtime member Danny Menter. The church broadcasts and records the sessions on its YouTube and social media channels. 

Danny Menter leads an opening prayer during the Show Me State Bible Lectures

Unlike the music shows, dinner theaters and dramas that draw 10 million visitors to Branson each year, the church does not charge attendees.

Providing the free event is expensive, said Tim Kidwell, elder and minister for the church. Costs, including housing speakers and providing meals, are close to $25,000. 

With that price tag in mind, launching the event was a leap of faith, Kidwell said. But soon after the church announced the first lectures, a real estate agent approached the leaders about buying a piece of land that the congregation owned but wasn’t using. The sale gave the church the money it needed for the lectureship. 

Participants browse through the offerings from Chula Vista Books during the Show Me State Bible Lectures.

“Ever since, the pockets of God have been deep,” Kidwell said. Churches across the Show Me State and beyond contribute to keep the lectures going.

The schedule alternates between afternoon and evening start times, allowing participants to enjoy Branson’s activities. Rather than set a theme, organizers ask ministers to share “something that the church needs to hear,” Kidwell said. 

Topics this year ranged from “I’m Too Wicked for God to Save Me” by T Roy Hass to “Scientific Evidence Supporting the Biblical Age of the Earth” by Jeff Miller to “What Will Happen to America?” by Kerry Duke. 

Steave Pearce speaks on “Dealing with Disagreement” during the Show Me State Bible Lectures.

Attendees and speakers found the lectures useful, said Steve Pearce, who delivered a sermon before Green on Saturday night. As Pearce prepared to speak on “Dealing with Disagreement,” the minister for the Aurora Church of Christ in Missouri found himself revising and rewriting his thoughts continually, eventually leading to self-doubt. Then he recalled Noah Olson’s sermon from the previous afternoon on “How to Love Myself” and Cory Orr’s on “Worry.” 

“Was I even listening?” Pearce asked himself. 

During his sermon, Pearce used the example from Philippians 4 of Euodia and Syntyche, two Christian women in the midst of disagreement. The minister outlined the apostle Paul’s model of commendation, confrontation and resolution when dealing with conflicts among believers.

Teens listen and take notes in their Bibles as Steve Pearce speaks during the Show Me State Bible Lectures.

A cluster of teens from the Kansas Expressway church was among the Saturday night attendees. 

“I thought they nailed it,” Cayden Green, 18, said of the speakers. “I got the chance to ink up my Bible. I take a lot of notes in the margins.”

Even in the digital age, the teens prefer to read — and make notes in — paper copies of God’s Word. Although there are multiple Bible apps available, “I just get distracted” when using a phone to read Scripture, said Nolan Heavin, also 18.

“I got the chance to ink up my Bible. I take a lot of notes in the margins.”

Heavin and his family have attended the lectures all 10 years. His sister, Grace, 14, said that the lectures give her a chance “to see a bunch of friends that I don’t get to see a lot.”

Nolan, a recent high school grad, plans to study at the Bible Institute of Missouri and visit Africa this summer. The Missouri school is part of the Global Schools of Biblical Studies, a network that includes campuses in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia.

“I really want to teach people how to become Christians, and the Gospels,” Heavin said. 

From left, Eli Heavin, Cayden Green, Grace Heavin and Nolan Heavin speak with The Christian Chronicle after the Saturday night sermons at the Show Me State Bible Lectures.

Tracy Menter, who has worshiped with the Branson Church of Christ since 2000, said that the small congregation enjoys seeing friends from across the country on an annual basis.

Though the devil and the winds may wail outside, “this is what heaven is going to be like,” she said, “all of us together, worshiping and singing.”

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

Glover and his crewmates — Americans Reid Weisman and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — traveled 252,756 miles, a new record for human spaceflight.

Listen to the full exclusive interview on Episode 156 of the Chronicle’s podcast, hosted by B.T. Irwin.

The Chronicle’s Irwin talked to Glover, a member of the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, about faith, prayer and exploration, drawing from the unique perspective of his 10-day journey.

Here are three takeaways from the 50-year-old Christian’s reflections on the life-changing mission:

1. Grace shapes life on Earth and in deep space.

Inside the Orion capsule — roughly the size of a minivan — four astronauts lived and worked in a confined space, where success depended on character just as much as skill.

Over three years, the four members of the Artemis II crew worked with specialized NASA operational psychologists in preparation for life in orbit.

Their training extended beyond spaceflight, ranging from learning from British historians about the moon’s historical and religious significance to studying creative language with an English professor.

Midway through their lunar observation period, the Artemis II crew members – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – pause to turn the camera around for a selfie inside the Orion spacecraft.

“We worked as hard at all the facets of this, and we still probably forgot something, but we did it intentionally — that is the point,” Glover said. “We were willing and intentional, and we went and reached out to the people who could help us.”

The preparation shaped not only his readiness to manage tasks on the mission but also, in Glover’s case, personal faith practices, including reading the Bible and focusing on prayer.

One theme remained consistent among the crew throughout the years of preparation and eventual execution: grace.

“There was a heaping of grace in that capsule. We had to give and receive grace continually.”

“There was a heaping of grace in that capsule,” he said. “We had to give and receive grace continually.”

Although the crew named the capsule “Integrity,” Glover noted that it also could have been called “Grace,” mirroring the dependence required for living in close quarters.

2. Prayer in orbit was planned — and unplanned.

From hundreds of thousands of miles away, Earth appeared small from the window of the Orion capsule — “about the size of your thumb,” Glover said.

Prayer during the mission, he said, became both structured and spontaneous.

Before launch, it was intentional, part of a ritual that included preparation, speaking to his family and grounding himself. But once in orbit, prayer also emerged unexpectedly through the awe of exploring space.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft captures the moon and the Earth in one frame during the Artemis II crew’s deep space journey. The right side of NASA’s Orion spacecraft is seen lit up by the Sun.

“Your natural response is to call on God,” Glover said. “The number of times that I heard, ‘Oh, my God,’ and it was truly the only thing that made sense.”

At one point during the Artemis II mission, the crew lost communication with Earth for about 40 minutes as the moon blocked radio signals. In the blackout, with no anchor point for orientation or contact with mission control, Glover paused his geological observations of the lunar surface.

“Your natural response is to call on God. The number of times that I heard, ‘Oh, my God,’ and it was truly the only thing that made sense.”

For several moments, only the sounds of the capsule systems and the crew’s voices filled the cabin.

With his headset still on, Glover’s first response was to pray to God.

“It welled up inside of me,” he said of the prayer, “and that’s something I’m actually going to spend more time thinking about. It’s kind of the ritual versus the response, what was just truly authentic and organic — and was a response to what we were seeing and experiencing.”

3. Landing on Earth brought a new perspective for Glover.

The farther Glover and the Artemis II mission traveled from Earth, the more he began to consider what it means, as Christians, to bring faith into unexplored places — and what it means that God is always present.

“We need to appreciate God in that new place,” he said. “The weak link coming into that circumstance is us. It’s not that beautiful creation that we’re surrounded by.”

Having served aboard the International Space Station in 2020 and 2021, Glover already carried a perspective on Earth that few had experienced. But the moon mission further developed his view of how to share his experiences.

Artemis II astronauts pose for a post-mission group photo after viewing the Orion spacecraft in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha

As the spacecraft splashed down April 10 near San Diego, one defining moment came in the medical bay as crewmate Wiseman wept with a chaplain.

The scene reminded Glover that exploration reveals human dependence through the lens of achievement.

“I have a commitment to share this experience in a way that isn’t me telling you about this one once-in-a-lifetime experience I’ve had,” Glover said. “It’s to give it to you.”

“I have a commitment to share this experience in a way that isn’t me telling you about this one once-in-a-lifetime experience I’ve had. It’s to give it to you.”

From that view 252,756 miles away, Glover’s mission to the far side of the moon deepened his belief that exploration should draw people to God — and to each other.

“When I say you’re more like me than you think, or I am more like you, or we are more like one another — we’re all weak mortal beings that won’t be here forever, and we need help,” he told the Chronicle. “We need God’s help, and we need each other’s help.”

EPHRAIM RODENBACH, a sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is a Christian Chronicle intern.

“Top Gun” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” were massive hits at the box office.

Telephones were attached to the wall, and long-distance calls were expensive. Not home? People left messages on answering machines.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram landed in my driveway each morning, and when I had enough quarters, I bought the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Times Herald at newsracks outside Food Fare, the only grocery store in this North Texas community.

Big hair was, um, big — both for the girls I knew and the pop culture that defined the time.

The year was 1986.

Bobby Ross Jr.’s senior picture appears in the Keller High School yearbook in 1986.

I graduated from Keller High School that May — exactly 40 years ago — so I find myself a bit nostalgic during this annual season of pomp and circumstance.

In past columns, I’ve reflected on my 35 years in full-time journalism and my 25 years covering religion news.

But I got my actual start writing for newspapers as a KHS student.

Keller, about 15 miles north of Fort Worth, was still more farm town than burgeoning suburb back then. An old gray water tower that proclaimed “Keller: Home of the Indians” greeted visitors along U.S. 377, referring to the school mascot.

I played sousaphone in the KHS marching band, traveled on mission trips to Mexico with my church youth group and drove my old Ford Pinto to flip Quarter Pounders at a McDonald’s in nearby North Richland Hills. In my free time, I listened to Texas Rangers games on my transistor radio.

But the turning point that transformed my high school experience — and my eventual career path — came when my late friend Jack O’Pelt urged me to join him in taking a journalism class.

The late Jack O’Pelt and Bobby Ross Jr. read a newspaper in the late 1980s or early 1990s. O’Pelt, the best friend of Bobby’s brother, Scott Ross, for 30 years, died suddenly in 2015.

But those ancient skills weren’t the most important lessons Ms. Crane bestowed.

Diana Dworin’s notes from a high school journalism class taught by Janie Crane Burchfield in the 1980s offer tips for counting headlines.

From the moment I walked into her classroom my sophomore year, her passion for core journalistic values such as truth, accuracy, fairness and impartiality resonated with me. She taught English students, too, but that subject wasn’t what drove her 25-year teaching career.

“The only reason I taught was to teach journalism,” she told me in a Facebook message this week.

It didn’t take me long to decide I wanted to spend my life in the newspaper business.

But first, I had to muster the courage to conduct my first interview.

Shy and introverted, I moved around a lot as a kid. My father served in the Air Force and then became a preacher. I attended schools in five states — Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Missouri and Tennessee — before we moved to Keller in 1982 for Mom and Dad to serve as houseparents at a Christian children’s home. In my freshman year at KHS, I often ate lunch alone.

So when I got my first story assignment — a piece on the KHS stage band earning superior ratings — I scribbled my questions on a piece of paper. I snuck into band director Wayne Tympanick’s office and stuck my request for answers on his desk.

1980s-era copies of The Wigwam, the Keller High School student newspaper, are pictured.

Before long, Tympanick came and found me.

“If you want to be a journalist, you need to sit down and ask me these questions,” he told me.

So I did.

Over the next two years, I devoted more and more of my time to The Wigwam. I reported on topics ranging from students cheating to a fatal crash involving classmates I knew. By the second half of my junior year, I became the editor.

I covered trends such as the “VCR craze” — as we described it in a headline.

Here was the lede I wrote as an 18-year-old senior:

Signs that something’s sizzling, maybe even sweeping the nation, certainly abound.

From the ever-expanding number of video specialty shoppes to local supermarkets to convenience stores, rent-a-movie places are popping up almost everywhere.

Many teens are staying home on the weekends, popping their own corn and throwing “VCR parties”, as a substitute for those expensive, sky-high-priced trips to the movie theaters.

Besides our serious reporting, we had a whole lot of fun, too.

A Keller High School yearbook article from the 1980s profiles the student newspaper staff, including Bobby Ross Jr. Although Ross is pictured in a Texas Longhorns hat, he later repented and became an Oklahoma Sooners fan.

My junior year, Keller High opened a new school building with a large classroom for the newspaper and yearbook staffs. Each publication had its own office. They were side by side, and one day I mischievously lifted the tiles above the newspaper office and crawled into the ceiling space above the yearbook side to listen to the conversation below. Fortunately, when I crashed to the ground as I left a messy crater overhead, a chair below softened my fall.

Ms. Crane was anything but happy with me. But she evidently didn’t kill me. Because I lived to type this.

Fellow Wigwam staff member Diana Williams — now Diana Dworin — was a year younger than me but just as devoted to a future in journalism. While I was a geeky teen, her outgoing, bubbly personality made her popular beyond the newspaper classroom. She’d later attend the University of Texas and work for the Austin American-Statesman.

One time, Dworin and I wrote a joint column on how “squeezing the Charmin” had joined the list of KHS extracurricular activities. Yes, pranking people by covering their house, yard or trees with toilet paper was a thing even back then.

As high school students, Bobby Ross Jr. and Diana Dworin wrote a column about students’ toilet paper pranks.

To my delight, Dworin — now a hospital chaplain and, like me, a doting grandparent — recently mailed me a package of old Wigwams that helped stir the memories I’m sharing.

Another Wigwam alum is Barry Ryan, a fellow Class of 1986 graduate who was one of my best friends at KHS. We still enjoy catching up from time to time at Rangers games.

“We were a very good team that complemented each other well,” Ryan said of our high school newspaper experience. “I enjoyed both the camaraderie and, in the case of Bobby and Diana, the playful and healthy competition. As a bystander to it all, it was great to watch the banter and the occasional one-upmanship.

“For me,” he added in a Facebook message, “the opportunity to explore, learn and develop skills in addition to some outstanding friendship was a privilege and a blessing.”

Amen to all of that!

After graduating from KHS, I attended Oklahoma Christian University, where I edited the campus newspaper The Talon and earned my journalism degree in 1990. I later reported for small community newspapers in Oklahoma for three years before joining The Oklahoman staff in 1993 and then going to work for The Associated Press in Nashville, Tenn., in 2002.

Friends who worked together at McDonald’s in the 1980s reunite at a Texas Rangers game in 2023. Pictured, from left, are Barry Ryan, Rick Kalifa, Scott Ross, Bobby Ross Jr., Tony Cintron and Cintron’s wife.

I’ve spent the past 21 years with The Christian Chronicle, based in Oklahoma City. I’ve traveled to all 50 states and 20 countries to cover the news. I launched the Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged in 2020 and am in my seventh year of writing it.

In so many ways, I’m living my dream life as a journalist — four decades after my Wigwam days at Keller High.

In so many ways, I’m living my dream life as a journalist — four decades after my Wigwam days at Keller High.

To all my friends in the Class of 1986, happy 40th anniversary!

I know there’s a reunion planned, but I won’t be able to make it. Total honesty: That shy, introverted teen inside me never completely disappeared, and I’m still not ready for that level of social interaction.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Ross writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged, where this piece originally appeared. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

In God’s timing.

That’s how members and leaders alike characterize the merger of the Coventry Hills Church of Christ and the Chesmont Church of Christ.

First in a series. Click to read all the stories. 

After decades apart, the congregations — halfway between the high-rises of Philadelphia and the horse-drawn buggies of Amish country — have joined together to become the Cornerstone Church of Christ.

“It feels like the work of the Lord,” said Christine Ober, 36, wife of Caleb and mother of 8-month-old Mabel May.

The Obers were among the few young families at Coventry Hills, which averaged Sunday attendance of roughly 30. Chesmont, which met at a Christian school 6.5 miles away, drew about 110 men, women and children on a typical Lord’s Day.

“The members that were here at Coventry Hills were willing to come under the leadership at Chesmont,” said Josh Dove, who was one of three elders at Chesmont and now serves in that role for Cornerstone. “It just seemed like it was God leading us that way.”

The pieces fit.

Coventry Hills had a church building. Chesmont had a full-time preacher and elders. Both congregations had members eager to serve the Lord and reach the lost.

Together, members and leaders believe, the new intergenerational body offers a brighter future.

“When God’s people do God’s things in God’s ways, we let all the extra stuff go, and we can dwell in unity,” said minister Thomas Wise, pointing to the apostle Paul’s admonition in Philippians 2:3-4 to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit” but “in humility value others above yourselves.”

Visitors take photos during the baptism of Ariana Boyd at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

‘Wounds were deep’

In the case of Coventry Hills and Chesmont, “all the extra stuff” included trauma, hurt feelings and lingering concerns about past differences that caused a church split in the early 1990s.

Elder Rick Elam came to the Chesmont church with his wife, Kathy, in 1996 after the split occurred, so he has no firsthand knowledge of what transpired.

“But I know that those wounds were deep and painful for those involved,” Elam said.

Emmmitt Channell and Rick Elam pose for a picture at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

“This has been a big healing process,” he said of the merger, which became official earlier this year. “People have joy here.”

Over the years, the frosty relationship between the congregations in Pottstown — a town of 23,000 about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia — had thawed.

Chesmont had used the Coventry Hills baptistry from time to time since the school didn’t have one. Members of both congregations had enjoyed hymn singings together.

“Coventry Hills was dying. That was true,” Wise said. “At Chesmont, we had just grown stagnant in the environment we were in.

“The elders recognized it, and for (the merger) to work, each group of people needed to see who they are and where they’re at clearly,” the minister added. “And I believe that starts with God’s authority … and will we choose to put others above ourself?”

Coventry Hills members had a knack for greeting visitors and making them feel welcome, Wise said.

Chesmont members were known for engaging and teaching young people and for their volunteer spirit, he said. That spirit has come in handy as the merged body works to refurbish the church building, which was constructed in 1973 and could use a few improvements, such as new carpeting.

In becoming one, the previously separate congregations have brought those talents together.

Minister Thomas Wise teaches an adult Bible class at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

‘God’s timing’

Talk of the possible merger began organically — as Wise remembers it — with Chesmont elder Jeff Custer, who was preaching at Coventry Hills once a month.

“Jeff made some kind of comment in a sermon about not knowing why the churches weren’t together,” Wise said. “And then one of the younger Coventry Hills members was inspired by it and made up a survey about merging and got the ball rolling.”

The merger possibility had prompted conversation in the past, but this time the idea gained traction.

“It definitely seems like God’s timing is always the right timing,” Wise said.

“God’s timing is always the right timing.”

Emmitt Channell, 90, has preached for more than 70 years. Channell said he and other Coventry Hills members welcomed the latest overture.

“We were down to about 20 or 25 members at that point,” he said. “We had a lot of deaths, and a lot of people moved back to the South, so we were very glad to have new life. So it’s been really great.”

Wise, 34, recalls that he was 12 years old when he was baptized — by Channell.

“It’s crazy how the circle goes,” said Wise, who later moved away from Pennsylvania before returning five years ago to serve as Chesmont’s preacher. “It’s great to see old faces, like Emmitt, whom I’ve known my whole life.”

Channell emphasized that brothers and sisters in Christ “need to be working together and healing all kinds of personal problems that we’ve had.

“Christ is our focus, and that’s where we should put our efforts in working together for the Lord,” added the retired minister, whose late wife, Betty, once served as the secretary for Olan Hicks, who founded The Christian Chronicle in 1943.

Jack Turner leads singing at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

‘Don’t hold grudges’

Nancy McGrady, who attended Coventry Hills in past decades, said she left the church for “a very long time” because she didn’t feel like she belonged.

But the merger inspired her to return to worship.

“When Cornerstone came together, it was amazing for me,” said McGrady, 52. “I just love being here. … It’s everything that I’ve ever dreamed for a church family to be.”

Ken Anderson, 71, was a part of the Coventry Hills congregation before the merger.

“I was always taught that you don’t hold grudges,” Anderson said. “You just prayed that things will change. And I know it took a lot of years, but we prayed about it, and we’re all together as a family.”

Elders Josh Dove, Jeff Custer and Rick Elam and member Pedro Delgado pray for Ariana Boyd after her baptism at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

A building to call their own

Coventry Hills served as the original home for Coventry Christian Schools, which has roots dating back to 1984 and has grown to more than 630 students in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

By 1993, Coventry Christian moved to a new location, and the Chesmont church began meeting in a school auditorium.

Matt Richard — now a deacon at Cornerstone after serving in that role at Chesmont — attended Coventry Hills in the early 2000s.

“The funny thing was that originally, the church here would talk about that church being progressive over there,” Richard said.

But then Richard visited Chesmont when Coventry Hills canceled services during an ice storm.

“We wound up going over there, and we were like, ‘There’s nothing crazy going on,’” he said. “So then one of the ladies invited my wife, Meredith, to a Bible study, and we started visiting with Chesmont. And then we just decided to change churches.”

Daniel Niehls, pictured with his 9-year-old daughter, Penelope, serves as a deacon of the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

Now the deacon and his family — including two young children — are back worshiping in the Coventry Hills building.

“We were definitely excited about having our own space,” said Richard, who is also the facilities supervisor at nearby Camp Manatawny, which is associated with Churches of Christ.

“It’s always hard when you’re a tenant in a building — we were renting from the Christian school — because nothing’s your own as a congregation,” Richard added. “You always had to worry about what the kids were doing after church.”

Another deacon, Daniel Niehls, echoed Richard.

“If you’re a tenant anywhere, if you’re renting, you’re kind of limited with what you can do,” Niehls said. “So it’s just nice, and it feels more like a church, when you have your own building. So that’s really been a benefit and blessing.

“Unfortunately, not all of my family decided to come join us here, so that’s been a little bit of a challenge at times,” he added. “But we’re very happy here. We’re excited to be here.”

John Eli Richard, right, indulges in the dessert offerings at a fellowship meal of the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

‘A pleasant view’

About one-third of the previous Chesmont congregation did not make the move to Coventry Hills.

Those members, including Mark Niehls, Daniel’s uncle and a founder of Coventry Christian Schools, formed the new Pleasantview Church of Christ, which meets at the school.

“Those of us that are still meeting on the school’s campus have felt that our initial vision and mission for the church to reach out and evangelize in our community is still very valid and needed,” said Mark Niehls, the school’s president emeritus.

“Our initial vision and mission for the church to reach out and evangelize in our community is still very valid and needed.”

Coventry Christian draws students from about 70 churches in and around Pottstown, he said. Only a handful of those congregations are Churches of Christ.

“The Pleasantview Church of Christ that’s meeting on the school’s campus sees that as an opportunity to reach those people who are maybe not really churched,” Mark Niehls said. “They may be on an attendance or membership roll somewhere, but they don’t regularly attend, or they’re dissatisfied with where they’re at.”

Mark Niehls declined to discuss the merger of Coventry Hills and Chesmont.

“We’re still meeting on the school’s campus on Pleasantview Road,” he said, “and we’ve kind of adopted the motto that we’re going to have a pleasant view.”

Elam, one of Cornerstone’s three elders, said he doesn’t believe any hard feelings exist between Cornerstone and Pleasantview.

“Maybe at the outset, but those seem to have calmed down,” Elam said. “We all feel like we’re wishing them well and godspeed, and they’re doing the same for us. We’re praying for each other.”

Pedro Delgado baptizes Ariana Boyd as Kelly Smyth watches at the Cornerstone Church of Christ in Pottstown, Pa.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Pennsylvania to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

In the ACP’s “Best of the Church Press” competition, the Chronicle claimed the Best in Class honor as overall top newspaper for the 10th time.

The prize was presented at the faith-based journalist group’s recent convention in Toronto.

“Quite a selection of reading, all smoothly written with a consistent voice,” the ACP judge commented, praising the Oklahoma-based international newspaper for Churches of Christ.

In the EPA contest, the Chronicle’s overall excellence was honored in the categories for best print newspaper, best online news and best publication serving a specific group. EPA winners were recognized at the Christian professional organization’s national meeting in Franklin, Tenn., south of Nashville.

RNA’s Excellence in Religion Reporting Award recipients were announced during a banquet in Decatur, Ga., just outside Atlanta.

“We are extremely honored and humbled by these awards,” Chronicle President and CEO Erik Tryggestad and Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross Jr. said in a joint statement. “They speak to the strong commitment of our board, staff and generous supporters to high-quality journalism serving our fellowship around the world.”

“We are extremely honored and humbled by these awards. They speak to the strong commitment of our board, staff and generous supporters to high-quality journalism serving our fellowship around the world.”

See a list of the other winners below:

Associated Church Press “Best of the Church Press” awards

FIRST PLACE

• Theme issue, section or series: “In search of Shalom — the struggle for divine reconciliation” (Erik Tryggestad)

• News story (short format): “While mourning fire losses, California church helps neighbors and trusts God” (Bobby Ross Jr.)

Christians helping with the fire relief effort of the Lincoln Avenue Church of Christ in Pasadena, Calif., gather in a circle to pray in February 2025.

• In-depth coverage: Texas flooding package, including “Grief and guilt over Texas flooding deaths” by Bobby Ross Jr., “‘We were safe the whole time'” by Andrew Reneau, “Creek by Texas camp floods” by Kenzie James and “Christians organize food and supplies after catastrophic flooding” by Cheryl Mann Bacon.

• Biographical profile: “Andrew Hairston is the ‘strength that runs through our veins'” (Erik Tryggestad)

SECOND PLACE

• Biographical profile: “Christian at center of big case has ‘this sweet spirit'” (Kenneth Pybus)

• Feature article — international reporting (short format): “Bonjour! How an Algerian immigrant couple found their calling in France” (Bobby Ross Jr.)

Khaled and Djedjiga Hassani, Algerian immigrants to France, serve as caretakers for the former Betheline monastery, which is being renovated as a Christian outreach center.

THIRD PLACE

• Theme issue, section or series: “Faith in France: Exploring spiritual renewal in a secular country” (Bobby Ross Jr.)

• Convention or meeting coverage: “A journey of forgiveness on Botham Jean’s island” (Erik Tryggestad)

At the Red Tie Gala, members of Botham Jean’s family (from left, aunt Desma Charles, father Bertrum Jean, mother Allison Jean, sister Alyssa Charles-Finley and brother Valdez Franklin) watch a video about the Botham Jean Foundation’s accomplishments.

• Feature article — international reporting (short format): “Why go back to Ukraine?” (Erik Tryggestad)

• Personal experience (short format): Pope Francis yearned to be with ‘the least of these’ (Erik Tryggestad)

Evangelical Press Association Awards 

FIRST PLACE

• Emerging Journalist Award: Calvin Cockrell

• General article (short): “Church-supported nonprofit loses, then regains, USAID funding after reprieve from Elon Musk” (Erik Tryggestad)

• Single photo (candid): “In the land of ‘The Savior,’ Bibles are welcomed” (Audrey Jackson)

Children rehearse for a play at the La Palma Christian School in El Salvador.

SECOND PLACE

• Reporting: “In secular France, Christians work to bring new life to old monastery” (Bobby Ross Jr.)

• Column: Insight (Erik Tryggestad), including “Did Jesus come to bring division?” and “One man with God is everything.”

Erik Tryggestad sings hymns alongside Thailand missionary Robert Reagan and church members from across Asia during the “Bricks to Blessings” banquet hosted by the Moulmein Church of Christ.

THIRD PLACE

• Student Writer of the Year: “A Spanglish church where all are welcome” (Andrew Reneau)

• Department: International news (Erik Tryggestad and Audrey Jackson)

FOURTH PLACE

• Article series: “In search of Shalom — the struggle for divine reconciliation” (Erik Tryggestad)

• Personality article: “Confessions of a Jesus Freak” (Jerry Mitchell)

• Cover design: April 2025 front page (Audrey Jackson)

Front page of the April 2025 edition of The Christian Chronicle.

FIFTH PLACE

• Article series: “Faith in France: Exploring spiritual renewal in a secular country” (Bobby Ross Jr.)

• Editorial: “There is one body, so let’s act like it” (Calvin Cockrell)

Religion News Association Awards

SECOND PLACE

• Excellence in audio: Commentary and conversation: Episode 111, The Christian Chronicle Podcast (B.T. Irwin and Kenneth Pybus)

• Excellence in analysis and explanatory reporting: Weekend Plug-in columns for Religion Unplugged and the Chronicle (Bobby Ross Jr.), including “A miracle in my family — it’s time to tell the story” and “Grief and guilt after Texas over flooding deaths.”

Tod Dillard, second from left, with his wife Tracie, sister Tamie and brother-in-law Bobby at the Farris Church of Christ in southeastern Oklahoma.

---

Want to receive the monthly print edition in the mail? It’s free. Sign up here.

In fact, we must resist the temptation to pile more and more duties on our friend and colleague.

Calvin Cockrell, 30, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama, maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA each time.

Calvin joined the Chronicle in 2021 as a part-time writer, editor and social media manager. In 2025, God provided the opportunity for us to hire him full time as our managing editor.

He helps coordinate coverage strategy, contributors and online and print publication. He crafts a weekly email newsletter along with social media posts highlighting the Chronicle’s articles.

Calvin has reported from seven states. Besides writing, he contributes photos, videos and reviews. He launched the Chronicle’s TikTok and grew it to 17,000 followers, with regular engagement and a viral video that reached 4.5 million views. He also published a Facebook post that reached 3 million views.

Calvin Cockrell, fifth from left, poses for a group photo with fellow Christian Chronicle staff members during a meeting in Dallas. Also pictured, from left, are Cheryl Mann Bacon, Sawmi Sektak, Bobby Ross Jr., Erik Tryggestad, Connie Penick, Melinda Wilson and Alan Phillips.

See what I mean? There’s nothing Calvin can’t do.

That’s why I nominated him for the Evangelical Press Association’s 2026 Emerging Journalist Award — and why all of us at the Chronicle were so excited when the EPA recently announced him as the winner.

“The first time I met Calvin was on a Zoom call,” said Erik Tryggestad, the Chronicle’s president and CEO. “I honestly thought that his screen kept freezing, but then I realized that he was just being really still and really quiet.

“He’s a man of few words, but he’s one of the brightest, hardest-working and most dependable people I’ve ever met,” Erik added. “The thing I appreciate most about Calvin is the initiative he takes without any kind of prompting. When you ask Calvin for a hamburger, he gives you a steak. He makes the Chronicle better, and I think he makes all of us better, too.”

Calvin and his wife, Katie, have a 2-year-old daughter, Violet. The family lives in his native Alabama, where he serves as the minister for young adults at the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ.

Calvin Cockrell, left, receives the 2026 Emerging Journalist Award from Dwight Widaman, president of the Evangelical Press Association. The honor was announced at EPA’s recent national convention in Franklin, Tenn., south of Nashville.

Most of the Chronicle staff is based in Oklahoma City, so we don’t see Calvin often in person. But we enjoyed catching up with him during a recent meeting of the Chronicle’s national board of trustees in Dallas.

“It’s been a huge blessing from God to be a part of the awesome team at The Christian Chronicle and help share the good work of the church among our fellowship,” Calvin said of winning the Emerging Journalist Award.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Should we keep printing this paper?

I asked the question in my January Insight column and received a lot of feedback. The price of printing and mailing this publication has risen substantially, costing the Chronicle about $56,000 per month. That’s tough to sustain for 12 issues per year. Meanwhile, we’ve enhanced our digital offerings through downloadable PDFs of the print edition and have expanded our online coverage with video and additional photos we don’t have space to run in print. We’re active on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok. And we’re getting ready to enhance our award-winning podcast.

Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of readers who responded talked about how much they value the print edition — particularly, the ability to hold the news in their hand and to read it in a space and manner of their choosing. “I believe I am more likely to read it cover-to-cover, as I do now,” one reader said. “I usually keep it out on the counter and read it over the course of a few days. With digital, it wouldn’t be in plain sight for me to keep going back to.” Other readers pointed out how much they love our crossword puzzle. Even if it means going bimonthly or quarterly, they want the Chronicle to stay in print.

Our plan is to keep producing a print edition as long as possible. This year we’re experimenting with producing 10 issues instead of 12 to see how this impacts our bottom line. Please know how much I deeply appreciate your feedback and all of the kind words you said about this ministry.

“Having a central location of news for the church helps (to) keep the community feeling part of the larger Christian family,” one reader wrote. That’s why we do this.

Are you getting multiple copies?

After reading about our concerns with the cost of producing and mailing the paper, some of you likely were surprised to find two copies of the Chronicle in your mailbox. As part of our move to independence, we moved our database to a new system and a few glitches resulted. If you’re getting multiple copies of the print edition, please contact Sawmi Sektak in our office at sawmi@christianchronicle.org or call us at (405) 425-5070 and we’ll get it fixed.

New PO Box

Moving to independence from Oklahoma Christian University also required us to separate our mail from the Post Office Box used by the university. Some of our dedicated supporters still have Business Reply Mail envelopes that have the old address. Please do not send contributions or correspondence to PO Box 11000 in Oklahoma City. Our new address is PO Box 5240, Edmond, OK 73083-5240. You also can send correspondence directly to our office at 2801 E Memorial Rd. Ste 102, Edmond, OK 73013.

Thank you!

Last year we set the ambitious goal of raising $168,000 to help with one-time transition and equipment costs and ever-rising prices. I’m thrilled to report that, thanks to your gifts, we met and exceeded that goal!

If you missed the chance to contribute, fear not! We currently have a $100,000 matching gift given toward our spring appeal. The funds we raise will go toward stories that matter to you, including our “Who Are We?” series. Please mail checks to the address above or look for the “donate” button on our website, christianchronicle.org.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

Winners were announced this past weekend at RNA’s 77th annual conference, held at an Atlanta-area hotel.

B.T. Irwin, the Chronicle’s podcast host and director, and Kenneth Pybus, a freelance correspondent, earned second place in the audio conversation and commentary category.

B.T. Irwin

Irwin and Pybus were recognized for Episode 111, an interview with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti about his role in the U.S. Supreme Court’s biggest transgender case ever.

Bobby Ross Jr., the Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, accepted the award for Irwin and Pybus.

“The greatest joy in receiving this honor with The Christian Chronicle team is knowing that we made something that the people in the pews received as fresh air and light,” Irwin said in a statement read by Ross at the awards banquet. “On their behalf, thank you for encouraging us to always strive for higher standards.”

In his own statement, Pybus, a professor and chair of communication and journalism at Abilene Christian University in Texas, said: “I’m honored to receive this recognition from the Religion News Association for my podcast interviewing. I’m grateful for the opportunity to engage thoughtful discussions where faith connects with law and public life, and I appreciate the colleagues and listeners who make that work meaningful.”

Kenneth Pybus

The award comes as the Detroit-based Irwin prepares to leave his role with the podcast, which he launched in January 2023 and has guided through more than 150 episodes.

“Being part of The Christian Chronicle team is one of my all-time favorite experiences,” said Irwin, who will remain in his role through the end of May. “It’s been such an honor and privilege to get to learn from some of the best journalists and most earnest Christians anywhere. And it’s been pure joy to get to meet and serve so many Christians from all over the world and all walks of life. I’m excited to see what The Christian Chronicle does next with new media like the podcast.”

The Chronicle will announce future plans for the podcast soon.

“We’re grateful to Brad for all the hard work and expertise he has put into making the Chronicle’s podcast so relevant to our audience,” Ross said. “We have some exciting plans in the works to keep building and improving our audio journalism efforts.”

Also at the RNA conference, Ross won an award for analysis and explanatory reporting for the Weekend Plug-in column he writes for Religion Unplugged. It’s the eighth RNA award of his career.

Bobby Ross Jr. accepts an award at the Religion News Association annual conference in Decatur, Ga.

After Sunday morning worship, elder Doug Boyle thanks fellow members of the Garriott Road Church of Christ for their concern during the April 23, 2026, tornado.

The storm “wiped out that entire neighborhood,” said Doug Boyle, an elder of the Garriott Road Church of Christ who lives just south of Gray Ridge. “It’s just like a war zone,” the combat veteran said, “trees snapped, houses gone, nothing but rubble.”

As the funnel cloud touched down, multiple church members called or texted Boyle. 

“My phone was blowing up on Thursday,” the elder said as he addressed the congregation after Sunday worship, thanking them for their concern.

One call came from Bret Moore, a church member in Edmond, Okla., who works with Alabama-based Project Unify. Moore and Boyle rounded up volunteers and helped storm victims recover personal items from the debris. Boyle said he was impressed by Project Unify’s emphasis on serving victims’ physical and spiritual needs.

The Garriott Road church’s Sunday bulletin had a special insert titled “Emergency Safety Instructions.” The flyer told church members what they should do in the event of an active shooter, a power outage, a fire and, finally, a tornado warning.

A copy of the Garriott Road Church of Christ bulletin with an insert about emergency procedures is next to a hymnal on a church pew.

The timing was coincidental, said Dan Biby, leader of the church’s newly formed safety team. But it emphasized the need for Christians to know what to do in an emergency, he said, especially in a state known for deadly weather.

Dan Biby

“This was the fastest-building storm I’ve ever witnessed,” Biby said of the April 23 tornado. He grew up on a cattle ranch in the nearby community of Nash, Okla., and remembers a 1964 twister that sprung to life after midnight and destroyed his family’s barn. He was 3 years old, and back then “the only tornado warning you got was when the power went out.”

That’s not the case in 2026. Warning sirens abound in most Oklahoma municipalities, and TV weather forecasters can pinpoint the “hook echo” of a tornado-producing supercell down to the nearest cross streets. Most Oklahomans have easy access to storm shelters. Despite the damage, no deaths or serious injuries were reported after the Thursday storm.

The Sunday service focused on the Garriott Road church’s global outreach. Guest speaker Alex Coloma preached on “God’s Mission is Our Mission.” Coloma, a former missionary on the island of Guam, is finishing a degree at the Memphis School of Preaching and will soon return with his wife, Brenda, to their native Philippines. The couple plans to stay at least seven years planting churches in the South Cotabato province of Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines.

“The Lord’s church is something that lasts through eternity,” Alex Coloma tells the Garriott Road Church of Christ as he discusses his upcoming mission work in the Philippines.

Jesus “does not wait for people to find him,” Coloma said. “He came to earth to seek and save the lost.” He urged church members to pray fervently for lost souls in the Philippines. He also asked them to send encouraging messages to mission workers, to make short-term trips to see the work and to give of their earthly wealth to support the mission.

Those also are good principles for disaster relief, Boyle said. 

“If you know anybody that lives in (Gray Ridge), reach out to them, give them the words of encouragement that they need, especially at a devastating time like this,” he told his fellow Christians. “Think about how everything was lost, we’re talking even the basics. They’re gone. They have absolutely nothing.”

Workers with Project Unify and the Garriott Road Church of Christ take a break during tornado cleanup work in Enid, Okla.

Boyle prayed that God would meet the victims’ short-term physical needs. “But we also pray for an influence in their lives, a godly influence, an influence that will touch their hearts spiritually,” he prayed. 

“Heavenly Father, let them know that you are there and that you are God and that you’re the one true God and the Holy Father, that you love them and that you want what’s best for them.”

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

The Gray Ridge neighborhood in Enid sustained heavy damage from an EF4 tornado on April 23, 2026.

An overturned boat stands among the ruins of a home in Enid, Okla., after the April 23, 2026 tornado.

Deacon Roger Gaddie oversees the welcome table before Sunday worship at the Garriott Road Church of Christ in Enid, Okla.

The sign for the Garriott Road Church of Christ stands on a main thoroughfare in Enid, Okla.

Mark Posey speaks on “The Lord’s Church Wears Scriptural Names” in the Lester Chapel at Faulkner University.

“That divine name identifies that sacred relationship between Christ and his church,” said Mark Posey, minister for the Winfield Church of Christ in Alabama.

“The church, it belongs to Christ,” Posey added in a recent lecture at Faulkner University in Montgomery. “Therefore it should wear only names that glorify Christ, reflect Scripture and certainly preserve our unity. “

“I understand it descriptively,” echoed Charles Teddington, who preaches for the Vintage Park Church of Christ in Elk Grove, Calif.

“It’s not a title, like a corporate title. It’s not a denominational name. It’s a relational statement, and it’s a declaration of ownership.”

“It’s not a title, like a corporate title. It’s not a denominational name. It’s a relational statement, and it’s a declaration of ownership.”

The description “churches of Christ” has its origins in Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 16, the closing salutations of his letter to the church in Rome, “All the churches of Christ send greetings.”

This is part of a series exploring the identity of Churches of Christ. Read more here.

But the 19th century American Restoration Movement popularized the use of the identifier, along with “Christian Church” and “Disciples of Christ.”

For a group of believers intent on being “Christians only” with “no creed but Christ” — as popular phrases in the movement went — it was a rejection of denominational names in favor of biblical descriptors.

“When Scripture calls it either the churches of Christ plural or we see the emphasis in regard to the church our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ built, it reflects and declares those that are called out that belong to Christ,” Posey said.

“Not to Luther, not to Wesley … not to Campbell, not to Stone,” he added, referring to the Protestant Reformation figure Martin Luther, Methodist Church founder John Wesley and Restoration Movement leaders Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone.

Not just ‘the right denomination’

“Church of Christ” eventually became the “the more common name for more doctrinally conservative congregations,” noted John Young, a Restoration Movement scholar at Amridge University in Montgomery.

Teddington said he believes many Christians have misunderstood the name.

“I would say that it’s very plausible that it almost seems to be like a brand,” the California minister told The Christian Chronicle. “I don’t personally see it that way, but … it seems like the lack of understanding of what Christ was saying has made this a brand, maybe even unintentionally.”

That tension between Scriptural descriptor and denominational label is not a new one.

In a 1964 issue of the Chronicle, M. Norvel Young — then-president of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., which is associated with Churches of Christ — lamented a growing misconception.

“As the plea for non-denominational New Testament Christians becomes more popular and is accepted by more people,” he said, “it is easy for those who make the plea to accommodate themselves to thinking of the church as ‘the right denomination’ rather than the non-denominational Kingdom, the body of Christ, which includes all those through the ages who have obeyed the gospel and who have been added by the Lord. …

In the Oct. 30, 1964, issue of The Christian Chronicle, M. Norvel Young writes a special editorial on “Congregations of the Church.”

“We must be careful that we do not use ‘churches of Christ’ in a sectarian or party sense,” Norvel Young added. “Other descriptions of the church such as ‘church of God’ or ‘the Kingdom’ or ‘churches of God in Christ Jesus’ are just as Scriptural and as appropriate and should be used along with ‘church of Christ’ in order to avoid giving the wrong impression that we think ‘church of Christ is a denominational name.”

About 20 years ago, The Christian Chronicle began using the capitalized “Churches of Christ,” in keeping with The Associated Press Stylebook’s recommendation for news reporting.

Some readers object to the practice, expressing concern that capitalizing “Church” and using the fellowship’s name as a modifier (as in “Church of Christ preacher”) is tantamount to identifying the fellowship as a denomination.

‘A secret handshake’

Jeff Brown, minister for the Woodmont Hills Church in Nashville, Tenn., said “Church of Christ,” like denominational names, has become for many a “shorthand for sorting people in groups” with specific expectations. Woodmont Hills considers itself a Church of Christ, though it no longer prominently uses the name.

Jeff Brown

“I grew up in Oklahoma in Churches of Christ, and it did often feel like it was like a secret handshake,” Brown told the Chronicle. “If somebody said, you know, I am a member of the church, it’s like, oh, they’re part of a Church of Christ. That was like the wink and the nod that they’re one of us.”

The Tennessee preacher noted, too, that the phrase “Church of Christ” means different things to different people.

“What I have discovered it means to people has a lot to do with where they came from. … I think it depends a lot on what your first experiences were, whether they were good or bad,” Brown said.

When the a cappella Northside Church of Christ and instrumental Sunrise Church of Christ in Spokane, Wash., merged in 2024, perceptions were a major factor as leaders discussed whether their new name should include “Church of Christ.”

Troy Burns, right, and Henry Holub preach at the CityLight Church’s first service.

Most Christians associated with Churches of Christ would expect an a cappella congregation, said Troy Burns, preacher for the merged church, called CityLight Church: A Church of Christ Family.

Despite having preached for the instrumental Sunrise church previously, Burns said even he primarily associates “Church of Christ” with a cappella worship.

At the same time, others in the region would associate the phrase with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church.

And for the unchurched members of the surrounding neighborhoods, “the name ‘Church of Christ’ doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Burns added.

Park Linscomb

Still, the history and tradition associated with the name was important to many members, especially those from the former Northside church.

“There’s a number of people that it was really difficult for them to think about us not having that name included,” Burns told the Chronicle.

Dropping the designation can say as much as including it, said Park Linscomb, minister for the Rock Hill Church of Christ in Frisco, Texas.

“These days, deliberately omitting ‘Church of Christ’ from public advertising is almost always a way of saying that the congregation has left the brotherhood’s doctrines of a cappella music, baptism and/or male leadership,” Linscomb said.

‘Scriptural names’

So does the name on the sign even matter?

No — but yes, said several ministers.

“To think that somebody selected a different name, and they’re somehow ruled out from being in the body of Christ — I just don’t see any evidence at all in Scripture that God is concerned, that God requires or desires a specific name on the sign,” said Brown, the Nashville preacher.

“I just don’t see any evidence at all in Scripture that God is concerned, that God requires or desires a specific name on the sign.”

It’s not the name but the fruit that shows whether a church body belongs to Christ, he added: “Let’s look deeper than the name on the sign or even the printed order of worship on a Sunday morning — to look for evidence of the work of God, for the fruit of the Holy Spirit.”

Teddington, the California preacher, went even further: “Do you need a name on the building at all? You don’t.

“And how do you tell that someone is subscribing to New Testament doctrine?” he added. “By what they’re teaching and by what they’re practicing based upon what they’re teaching. And the first century church didn’t have this problem because the only Christian movement was Christ.”

Still, Teddington and other preachers emphasized that if a name — or description — is used, it must be biblical.

Clint Davison

“I don’t believe the specific name ‘Church of Christ’ is a mandatory thing, as long as a group uses a biblical name which identifies who the worshipers truly are — the church, the assembly, the called-out, who belong to Jesus,” said Clint Davison, associate minister for the Linder Road Church of Christ in Meridian, Idaho.

“Congregations should guard against titles or slogans that detract from the cross,” Posey said in his lecture, titled “The Lord’s Church Wears Scriptural Names.”

He recalled what his father, Glenn Posey, a longtime preacher in Churches of Christ, told him: “Remember, the Church of Christ wears his name because it bears his cross.”

CALVIN COCKRELL is Managing Editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

Featured image (above): A new church plant, The Way, meets in downtown Abilene, Texas.

GEORGIA

ATLANTA — Morehouse College, the historically Black alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr., recently inducted Edward J. Cribbs Sr. into its Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers.

The honor recognizes “distinguished clergy from across the nation who exemplify moral leadership, spiritual conviction, and a commitment to justice and service in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

Cribbs preaches for the Oakland Church of Christ in Southfield, Mich., and serves as chief operations officer for the Crusade for Christ.

Edward Cribbs poses with Georgia senator and minister Raphael Warnock at the Morehouse induction ceremony.

He’s also preached for the Russell Woods Church of Christ in Detroit and taught middle school social studies.

“Bro. Cribbs’ induction reflects a life of faithful preaching, servant leadership, and an unwavering commitment to advancing the gospel through both ministry and organized evangelistic efforts,” the Crusade for Christ said in a statement.

“Crusade leadership gives thanks to God for Bro. Cribbs’ faithful service and his continued leadership. … This honor reflects … the spirit and mission of the work he helps lead, with a continued impact on the work of evangelism.”

TENNESSEE

PIGEON FORGE — At the LeConte Event Center — minutes from Dollywood, the theme park named for iconic singer Dolly Parton — 13,000 gathered for the Challenge Youth Conference.

“While headlines often focus on a narrative of decline, a powerful story of hope and spiritual hunger is unfolding in our churches,” said P.J. Hicks, minister for the Whitney Church of Christ in Texas.

“This event wasn’t just another weekend getaway,” he added. “It was a vibrant testament to a generation actively seeking a deeper connection with God.”

Kyle Butt speaks at the Challenge Youth Conference in Tennessee

The theme of the year’s youth event was “ChatCYC: Hearing God in a Digital Age,” a play on the name of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Teens came together to grow closer to God and each other through worship, devotionals and fun activities.

Hicks was encouraged by the passion and energy he saw at CYC.

“Today’s teens are not looking for superficial programs or watered-down messages,” he said. “They are searching for authenticity and substance. They crave solid biblical truth that speaks to the complex challenges they face daily.”

TEXAS

ABILENE — The Remington Ridge Church of Christ on the outskirts of this West Texas city has planted a new church in downtown Abilene.

The new congregation, called “The Way — A Church of Christ,” meets at the 201 Mesquite Event Center west of Front Porch Coffee Co. and Bakery.

A new church plant, The Way, meets in downtown Abilene, Texas.

“From the time we started worshiping together as Remington Ridge in 2017, part of our vision has been to plant more churches in the Abilene area to continue spreading the Word of God,” said Ron McElyea, one of Remington Ridge’s elders. “We’re in our ninth year, and that’s happening.”

Zane Dennis, another elder, explained that Remington Ridge was intentional about growing a church to about 375 to 400 members, which leaders believed was a good size for members to actively engage in ministry and fellowship.

“We didn’t want to be a megachurch,” Dennis said. “So when our numbers neared the 400 mark, conversations started about seeding another church. Matthew 28:19 says ‘go,’ and that’s what we’re doing.”

NEWSMAKERS

BAPTIZED — ROBERT CLANTON of the Maysville Church of Christ in Alabama. BRENT CLARK of the Central Church of Christ in Paducah, Ky. SOPHIA DEBOLT and KENLEE VANDAGRIFF of the North Terrace Church of Christ in Zanesville, Ohio. SYLOUS GATROST of the Camden Church of Christ in Tennessee. JACOB GRIFFIN and TRAVIS HANEY of the Sullivan Village Church of Christ in Lawton, Okla. LYNN JARVIS of the Millington Church of Christ in Tennessee. YOLANDA JOHNSON of the Bellingrath Road Church of Christ in Theodore, Ala. SAM JONES of the Prattville Church of Christ in Alabama. ANJI ORTIZE of the Roosevelt Drive Church of Christ in Jacksonville, N.C. JASMINE PETTY and TYSHIRA, DAMARI, DAMIAN and DECANTER GORDON of the U.S. 19 Church of Christ in Albany, Ga. RHONDA SESSION of the Dominion Park Church of Christ in Houston. MAXIMO SOTO of the Rome Church of Christ in Tampa, Fla. CHLOE WALKER of the Jefferson Avenue Church of Christ in Cookeville, Tenn. ANGELA WESNER of the Sunset Road Church of Christ in Burlington, N.J.

Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso, Dr. Deborah Octobre Stock and Joshua Marcum

AWARDED — ELIZABETH KRUMREI MANCUSO, professor of psychology at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., a $1.2 million grant from Templeton Religion Trust to conduct three years of research on religious pluralism. The funds are part of a $2.2 million award distributed to the University of Kansas to fund an interdisciplinary team of four scholars within the domains of philosophy, religious studies and psychology. Mancuso is the project’s co-director.

ACCOMPLISHED — DR. DEBORAH OCTOBRE STOCK passed the Philippines Medical Board Exam. She and her husband, Michael, are missionaries for Churches of Christ and work in Tagbilaran on Bohol Island in the Philippines.

Dennis Marquardt, Kristi Reynolds, Rob Phillips and Zechariah Smith

NAMED— GRIFF ALDRICH, head men’s basketball coach at Pepperdine University. ETHAN LASTER, assistant professor of theology, and JOSHUA MARCUM, director of the Christian Workers Institute at Harding School of Theology in Searcy, Ark. The institute is a new program funded through the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. Marcum also will serve as assistant professor of ministry. DENNIS MARQUARDT, dean of the Paul R. Carter College of Business Administration, and BRETT BIGGS, senior advisor to the president and executive in residence for the College of Business Administration at Harding University in Searcy. ROB PHILLIPS, head football coach for Columbia Academy in Tennessee. KRISTI REYNOLDS, head of upper school and assistant head of school for strategic and innovative initiatives at Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tenn. ZECHARIAH SMITH, minister for the Dellcrest Church of Christ in San Antonio.

After serving in various churches across the Midwest as a youth minister and preaching minister since 2001, in 2019 he began noticing symptoms of what he would later come to know as burnout.

“I didn’t even know what to call it at the time. I thought I might be depressed or just unfaithful,” Sears said. “Even though I had to write all those papers that stressed me out, I had a great network of minister friends in school. I didn’t realize how much I missed that until I was out of it.”

“I didn’t even know what to call it at the time. I thought I might be depressed or just unfaithful.”

After he began a doctorate in ministry at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., which is also associated with Churches of Christ, Sears’ experience in ministry inspired him to complete a dissertation focused on minister burnout in 2023. Leaving full-time ministry, he began teaching at York.

“Part of the reason that I got out of full-time preaching was I wanted to be a person that got to help train students going into ministry,” Sears said. “But I also felt a calling in my heart from God to be some kind of lifeline for ministers that are in the field.”

In his office, Darrel Sears prepares for one of the THRIVE Cohort’s meetings.

While teaching at York, Sears approached the university’s Kite Center for Ministry. He offered to be a tool for the center, unsure of where this calling might go.

The connection led Sears to create the THRIVE Cohort. Started in January 2026, the cohort consists of Sears and seven ministers who meet online eight times throughout the year, with breaks during summer and December. Sears plans to start another cohort every year “as long as it’s beneficial.”

“It’s called THRIVE because we’re not supposed to just survive in ministry or in our Christian life, but God made … us to flourish,” Sears said. “I want ministers to really love what they’re doing and thrive in ministry.”

While Sears’ research has focused on burnout, he emphasized that isn’t the cohort’s sole focus — it’s to offer community and support for those in every stage of ministry.

Rion Curtis

Rion Curtis, preaching minister for the Clearwater Church of Christ in Kansas, is early on in his ministry. But he said the THRIVE Cohort has helped him look out for the warning signs of burnout — and prevent it before it starts.

“We make sure we know we’re not alone as ministers because it’s not an easy job,” Curtis said.

Connor Lewis, preacher for the Trinity Baptist Church in Douglas, Wy., has also only been in ministry for a few months, but he’s found valuable support with THRIVE. At 26, he’s the youngest in the group and says he’s been able to learn from the more experienced members.

“I look forward to learning more from their experience and their wisdom,” Lewis said, “And for this cohort to be a safe place to have other ministers to rely on.”

During their meetings, cohort members have time to check in with one another and enjoy a unique kind of community they may not find elsewhere. “I have lots of good friends in the church, but there’s something that only ministers will understand,” Sears said. “They know what it’s like to always be ‘on.’”

He explained the difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance when he was in full-time ministry: “I was always ‘Preacher Darrel’ or ‘Youth Minister Darrel,’ but I needed spaces for myself where I could just be ‘Darrel,’” Sears said. “So I’m trying to create a space for these guys where they don’t have to be ‘preacher’ or ‘teacher,’ but they’re just ‘disciple of Jesus’ — and hopefully that’s what makes this cohort lifegiving for them.”

Darrel Sears, far right, meets with students and future ministers in York University’s cafeteria.

As cohort members talk, read, learn and practice spiritual disciplines together, Sears’ goal is to ensure ministers aren’t trying to give life to their churches apart from the source of life.

“I just feel like there’s far too many of us in ministry that are disconnected from the vine,” he said, referencing Jesus’ metaphor in John 15.

“We preach and we teach all the time, but I’ve realized I would go an entire day of doing ministry without thinking about Jesus.” Sears said. “How did that happen?

“I want us to be connected to the vine and thinking about Jesus. I want us to be able to give life to our congregants, but we also have to have life within us. I’m just passionate about making sure we’re thriving through the Spirit, not just surviving.”

ELIZA ROHDA is a senior at York University in Nebraska double majoring in vocational ministry and English — with an emphasis in professional and media writing — and minoring in Greek. She’s written for the Seward County Independent in Seward, Neb.

We know you must be tired, but you energized us.

You and your Artemis II crewmates traveled 252,756 miles from Earth — a record for humanity.

We won’t take a lot of your time. But as your brothers and sisters in Christ, we must thank you.

Not for becoming the first African American astronaut to fly to the moon, although that’s cool.

Not for the fame piloting NASA’s first moon mission in 53 years brought you, although that’s terrific.

Not for the technical skills you demonstrated aboard “Integrity” — the name your crew gave the Orion spacecraft — although you’re brilliant.

Instead, we must thank you for the faith and humility you displayed throughout the mission.

You made us proud.

So, so proud.

A member of the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, you never failed to glorify God. Again and again, you publicly thanked the Creator of the universe.

And again and again, you emphasized the importance of love. Specifically, you pointed to Jesus’ instruction to love our neighbors.

“To all of you down there on Earth and around Earth,” you said while still in space, “we love you from the moon.”

Your message came in loud and clear. A quarter million miles from home, you made the world seem smaller and brought us all closer together. Given the division that so often permeates our corner of the galaxy, that’s an amazing accomplishment.

Please pass along our appreciation, too, to your crewmates: Reid Weisman, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. 

Each of you reminded us of the value of teamwork and camaraderie. You didn’t just work hard. You also enjoyed each other’s company.

Even when faced with not-so-otherworldly problems — namely a clogged toilet in a part of the universe lacking plumbers — you kept laughing.

The Artemis II crew, including Reid Weisman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, greets friends, family and colleagues at Ellington Airport near NASA’s Sapce Center Houston.

To our delight, you made us all feel like a part of the team.

“We wanted to go out and try to do something that would bring the world together, to unite the world,” Wiseman said.

Congratulations! Mission accomplished.

Koch talked about how much the support from those who followed Artemis II meant to the crew of three Americans and one Canadian.

“It was every bit as important as accomplishing the technical goals and being there for our NASA teammates,” she said. “(We wanted) to make this the world’s mission and for it to have a positive impact.”

Again, congratulations! Mission accomplished.

Hansen described viewing the Earth, the moon and the stars from such an amazing vantage point.

“We’re all kind of struck by these things that make us feel small,” he said. “The sense I had was this sense of fragility and feeling small — infinitesimally small — but yet this powerful feeling as a human feeling, like as a group.”

Amen!

Victor, thank you and your crewmates for journeying farther into space than anyone in history. You inspired us. You increased our awe.

We can’t wait to see where the Lord leads you on your next adventure.

Godspeed, dear brother.

Victor, thank you and your crewmates for journeying farther into space than anyone in history. You inspired us. You increased our awe.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He wrote this editorial on behalf of the Chronicle’s Editorial Board. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Authored by Collin Packer, Jerry Taylor and Mark Hamilton, the 975-word letter details concerns about “clear evidence of great evil,” including the “deliberate and ongoing persecution of people of color in our country — a persecution that is intensifying, not receding. 

“We see the removal of migrants without due process of law or regard for the danger those removed may face,” write Packer, director of strategic development for Dallas-based Let’s Talk Race Ministries; Taylor, retired founding director of Abilene Christian University’s Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action; and Hamilton, a professor in ACU’s Graduate School of Theology.

“We see the steady erosion of hard-won civil rights and even basic respect for African Americans and other people of color, including our fellow Christians,” the letter adds. “And we hear the church’s deafening silence as confused or self-deluding white Christians blithely throw away the good news of Jesus Christ in favor of the bad news of Empire.”

The co-authors characterize the statement as “An Open Letter to a Beloved Fellowship,” written by “Christians with affiliations to Churches of Christ and the American Restoration Movement and as partisans of the kingdom of God.” 

The spiritual danger, the letter maintains, “goes under many names, most notably Christian nationalism or in its most extreme forms, Christian Dominionism.

“The movement confuses the gospel with a political agenda and makes us susceptible to the death-dealing designs of corrupting leaders,” the statement declares. “It disguises venomous hatred with pious words. It uses the precious name of our Savior, the saving symbol of the cross, and the music by which we celebrate our redemption to mask the great harm done to large groups of our fellow human beings. It wrests the very Scriptures of the church in order to seduce men and women into flagrant disobedience to their Lord.”

Why some signed the letter

At the time this story was published, the number of signatures stood at 969 from 42 states and 11 countries.

Mika Roland

Among those endorsing the letter: Mika Roland, a member of the College Church of Christ in Fresno, Calif., and a former missionary to Mozambique. 

“When I see migrants removed without due process, when I hear dehumanizing rhetoric go unchallenged, when I watch the church stay silent — I cannot stay silent alongside it,” Roland told The Christian Chronicle. “God is the God of the marginalized, the non-American and the American alike.”

Like Roland, Carlos Carbajal, a Miami Christian who has ministered to congregations in Honduras and the U.S., felt compelled to back Salt & Light Resistance’s statement.

“In this moment, I believe the church, especially within the Restoration Movement, is called to recover its prophetic voice,” Carbajal said. “This means courageously discerning and confronting ideas, systems and powers that distort the Gospel, while also offering a faithful, Christ-centered alternative grounded in love, justice and truth.”

Carisse Mickey Berryhill, a member of the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, and a retired Christian university professor, said: “Christians should advocate for peace and justice in the secular state, but we must protest when human government, or any part of society, promotes war, cruelty or injustice in the name of Jesus Christ.”

The open letter, shown on a computer screen, has accumulated nearly 1,000 signatures.

Why others didn’t sign it

But the letter, made public March 31, has drawn sharp criticism from other Christians.

“I view this letter as absolutely harmful to the unity of the church and for the church’s ability to present Jesus as Light and the salvation for the world,” said Gail Hopkins, a former longtime board chairman of now-defunct Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W.Va., whose family traces its Restoration Movement roots back to the 1800s. 

“This letter is quite simply a contemporary political effort couched in theological, biblical and historical terms,” Hopkins wrote in an email. “It is an effort to gin up opposition to President Donald Trump’s current federal government’s efforts to control illegal immigration into the United States of America.”

Jay Kelley, evangelist for the Austin Street Church of Christ in Levelland, Texas, said: “I believe these folks have allowed themselves to be deluded into the very thing they decry — the politicization of Christianity.”

Donald T. Eason, a minister and elder of the Metro Church of Christ in Sterling Heights, Mich., said he believes the co-authors and signers of the letter “are of the best intentions.”

Donald Eason

But Eason, who serves as president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Urban Renewal and Education, takes issue with the statement’s claims.

“The idea that a leader guided by Christian principles is ‘susceptible to the death-dealing designs of corrupting leaders’ is concerning,” Eason said. “Those that created this document are Christians but seem to disdain the idea of Christian leadership in the political realm.”

Bill Robinson, a domestic missionary who serves the Upper West Manhattan Church of Christ in New York City, also said he does not question the letter’s sincerity.

“But sincerity does not determine truth,” Robinson said. “The only safe ground is the Word of God. At the heart of the letter is a fundamental error. It shifts the focus from sin against God to social and political conditions as the defining moral crisis. Scripture does not do this.”

Meaning of Christian nationalism

Debate over Christian nationalism has raged since Trump’s 2016 election as president. 

The war of words intensified after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — many waving signs linking the Republican political leader, who disputed his 2020 defeat, to their Christian faith.

Tiffany Dahlman

“The embrace of Christian nationalism, even in its subtle forms, rejects participation in the embrace of God, which leaves those who traditionally hold little power in our contexts vulnerable to serious harm,” said Tiffany Dahlman, lead minister for the Courtyard Church of Christ in Fayetteville, N.C., and a member of Salt & Light Resistance’s 12-person guiding coalition.

Trump and many of his supporters maintain that God saved him from an assassination attempt during his successful 2024 campaign “to make America great again.”

“Whether ‘Christian nationalism’ is a danger or not depends very much on how one defines the term,” political scientist J. Matthew Wilson, director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, told the Chronicle. “If it means the belief that the United States has been, is and/or should be governed by a general ethos rooted in Christianity, this is a widely held view that is hard to construe as dangerous.

“If, on the other hand, one means the belief that only Christians can legitimately be American, or that other religions should be actively suppressed, this is much more dangerous to the American social fabric — but also much less common,” Wilson added. “Social science research on American public opinion consistently shows that support for more extreme, exclusivist formulations of Christian nationalism remains a fringe position.”

Protesters wave flags and climb the walls of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

‘A public witness’

Salt & Light Resistance’s letter does not mention Trump or any political party by name.

However, in an interview with the Chronicle, Packer voiced concern about the manner of the federal government’s crackdown on illegal immigration in major cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago.

“It really isn’t related to this administration,” Packer said of the letter. “We really believe there’s a public witness that’s needed whenever leaders of any party are creating a threat to our brothers and sisters and really all of our citizens and those who are undocumented.”

Such a letter “sort of runs against the grain of how Churches of Christ have viewed autonomy,” said John Mark Hicks, a retired Bible professor at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., and an expert on the Restoration Movement.

“At the same time, unheard or ignored voices might only be heard through this medium,” Hicks said. “When autonomy silences people, they will find ways to voice their concerns and offer an alternative public witness.”

“When autonomy silences people, they will find ways to voice their concerns and offer an alternative public witness.”

John Young, a Restoration Movement scholar at Amridge University in Montgomery, Ala., signed the letter. He emphasized that he did so as an individual, not as a representative of the university.

“While there were undoubtedly efforts at mass mobilization among Churches of Christ prior to the internet age, it’s hard to imagine something like this taking off without social media making it possible for this message to be shared,” Young said. “There are definite geographic clusters of signees but also participants from some pretty far-flung areas, and this kind of connection, which is not directly tied to a particular congregation, publication, university or other institution, is unusual.”

Patrick Odum serves as a minister and elder of the Northwest Church of Christ, a Chicago congregation that offers worship services in English, Spanish and Korean.

“I wanted my church, many of whom are immigrants, people of color and others that Christian nationalism excludes, to know where I stand and that I have their back,” said Odum, who signed the letter.

Christians enjoy a multicultural potluck meal at the Northwest Church of Christ in Chicago in 2023.

On the other hand, Kevin Withem, senior minister for the North County Church of Christ in Escondido, Calif., chose not to add his name to the list.

“It seems like ‘Christian nationalism’ is sometimes overapplied as a term,” Withem said. “I think you can have love and appreciation for certain aspects of your country, which offers unparalleled freedoms, without being idolatrous toward it.”

Managing Editor Calvin Cockrell contributed to this report.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Both had special reasons for doing so.

Hankins serves as an elder of the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, the congregation about 6 miles from NASA’s Space Center Houston that Artemis II pilot Victor Glover and his wife, Dionna, call home.

“He’s just a top-shelf guy and down to earth, but with all the experiences and accolades,” Hankins said of Glover, who launched into space with three other astronauts at 6:35 p.m. EDT April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

As a shepherd, Hankins said he came to love and support the Glover family and cheer and pray for them.

“It was a rush,” the Texas elder said of witnessing the launch. “I mean, I think we all had tears in our eyes. When we got to about five seconds in the countdown, the magnitude of that was pretty overwhelming.”

Pilot Victor Glover, second from left, with Artemis II crew members, including Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

Lamm, a member of the Twickenham Church of Christ in Huntsville, Ala., spent 38 years working for NASA and private companies in the space industry. He attended the Southeast church during a four-year stint as a chief operating officer at Space Center Houston in the 2010s.

“It’s pretty moving,” said Lamm, who — with Hankins — watched the beginning of the 10-day test flight around the moon from a seventh-floor hotel rooftop.

Lamm’s voice choked with emotion as he spoke.

“We’ve been trying to find this new launch vehicle and a spacecraft to get us to the moon,” he said. “I spent a lot of years trying to help do that. … It just meant a whole lot to be able to be there and see that.”

Journey into the history books

Glover, a U.S. Navy captain set to celebrate his 50th birthday April 30, became the first Black astronaut to journey around the moon.

Lamm recalled hearing the former combat pilot speak at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Glover paid tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen and other pioneering Black military pilots who came before him.

“I got to hear him say, ‘I’m standing on the shoulders of greatness,’” Lamm said.

“But it goes back to … the connection to God, the connection to people,” the Alabama church member added. “And then being able to share that in a way that brings people to understand that we’re humans, but we were filled with a spirit to serve and to honor and to glorify God in anything that we may do.”

Before Glover’s 168-day International Space Station mission from November 2020 to May 2021, he talked to The Christian Chronicle about sending up communion cups and a Bible for his time in space.

“I want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA,” he told the Chronicle in that interview. “That’s really the thing I think the most about.”

Podcast: Victor Glover discusses his faith with The Christian Chronicle

After his return home from the space station, Glover discussed his faith on the Chronicle’s podcast and reflected on the lessons he learned partaking of the Lord’s Supper 250 miles above Earth.

“In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes,” he said on the podcast. “There aren’t any on top of rockets, either.”

NASA astronaut Victor Glover shakes hands with Scott Tingle, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, after Glover’s extraction from the Orion spacecraft upon splashdown off the coast of San Diego.

‘On the shoulders of greatness’

Glover and his Artemis II crewmates — Americans Reid Weisman and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — made a record 252,756-mile journey around the moon before looping back to Earth.

Dionna and the couple’s four daughters — Genesis, Maya, Joai and Corinne — invited Hankins and Lamm to attend a reception after the  launch. The daughters are all in their late teens or early 20s.

Dionna grew up in the Pinole Church of Christ, about 20 miles east of San Francisco.

Before her husband’s International Space Station trip in 2020, she talked about the mix of emotions she felt as an astronaut’s wife.

“Of course I’m excited, but it’s also a little scary,” she told the Chronicle then. “I’m nervous. I’m excited for him. I have Scriptures that I’m reading regularly to try to remind myself not to worry and not to stress.”

No doubt she experienced similar feelings during her husband’s moon mission.

At the reception, Hankins said he hugged Dionna and told her, “God is so good. I celebrate with you. My heart is exploding with you.”

He recalled telling Corinne, the youngest daughter, “I just love that y’all are Jesus-loving people.”

At the end of the Chronicle’s 45-minute interview with Hankins and Lamm, Hankins asked if he could pray.

“Father, I want to lift up my brother, Victor, and his team that are on this mission,” Hankins said as he raised his voice toward heaven. “Let your name be glorified in it all.”

Victor Glover with his wife and daughters after his return from the moon mission.

Jesus’ ‘greatest command

Glover certainly did his part to glorify God’s name.

In an April 5 interview with Glover and his crewmates, CBS News’ Mark Strassman noted that Apollo 8 — which in 1968 became the first human spaceflight to reach the moon — “had a memorable Christmas Eve reading from Genesis.

“Do you have a message from space that you’d like to share about Easter Sunday?” Strassman asked.

Glover replied that he didn’t have anything prepared but was glad Strassman brought it up.

Then the 49-year-old former combat aviator offered this eloquent response:

“I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think for me one of the really personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And when I read the Bible and look at all the amazing things that were done for us — who were created — you have this amazing place, this spaceship.

“You guys are talking to us because we are on a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos.

“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special. But we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me: You are special.

“In all of this emptiness — this is a whole lot of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world — whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not — this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are and that we are the same thing and that we got to get through this together.”

On April 6, just before the Orion spacecraft experienced an anticipated 40-minute communications blackout on the far side of the moon, Glover again reflected on his faith.

“As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth — as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos — I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth,” Glover said.

“As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth — as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos — I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth.”

“And that’s love,” he added. “Christ said in response to what was the greatest command that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.

“And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”

the Earth draws closer to passing behind the moon.

A hero’s welcome

Americans — and the entire world — celebrated April 10 when the Artemis II crew splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

In his first post-mission public appearance upon his return to Houston on April 11, Glover again referenced his faith.

“I wanted to thank God in public,” he said, recalling the journey’s beginning. “And I want to thank God again, because even bigger than my challenge trying to describe what we went through, the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being with who I was with … it’s too big to just be in one body.”

Given a hero’s welcome outside his Houston-area home April 12, Glover had a message for his neighbors.

Again, it involved Jesus’ greatest command.

“Some of us have never met before, and you know whose fault that is? Ours,” Glover said. “So let’s choose to do this. Let’s be this more. Let’s be neighbors.

The Artemis II crew is pictured: clockwise from left: Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen and Victor Glover.

“I don’t know if you heard me say it,” he added, “but God told us to love him with all that we are and love our neighbors as ourselves.”

“That’s right!” a woman screamed as the crowd cheered.

“I love you!” Glover replied. “I love you!”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He interviewed Victor Glover in 2020. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Measures meant to make camps safer may instead cause some to close permanently.

On April 7, 19 Texas camps filed a lawsuit in Travis County against the Texas Department of State Health Services challenging the constitutionality of the proceeding statutes that require redundant internet service, including end-to-end fiber among other things.

One of the plaintiffs, Texoma Youth Camp, was originally owned by Boles Home, a children’s home associated with Churches of Christ. Texoma is located on Lake Texoma on the Texas-Oklahoma border and leases its facilities to Churches of Christ and some other organizations to conduct camps each summer.

Cam Havens, president of the Texoma board of directors, said he was not at liberty to discuss the litigation. But he did explain that the camp had been told by a major provider that they could get fiber to the camp entrance for $120,000 but work could not begin for six months.

Numerous other camps associated with Churches of Christ face similar dilemmas. Or worse.

Even in a normal summer, the whims of Texas weather, the emotional highs and lows of adolescence and the spiritual awakening many campers find when surrounded by nature and friends can drive the most stalwart director to his knees.

The summer of 2025 was anything but normal.

Most of the 700-plus camps operating in Texas lie many miles from the Guadalupe River, which brought record flooding to central Texas on the Fourth of July. At least 137 people — including 27 campers and staff from Camp Mystic, near Hunt — died.

‘Doing camp right’

In 2022, Riley Watkins moved his family to Camp Oak Haven, some 200 miles east of Camp Mystic, to fulfill a lifelong dream of “doing camp right.”

Watkins thought that dream had come true when Gulf Coast Christian Camp owners responded to an inquiry about selling their property. They offered to give it to a nonprofit foundation.

“We sold everything we owned, moved and changed the name to Camp Oak Haven,” Watkins said. He and his wife, Brynna, lived there with their two children in a travel trailer on the grounds.

Riley and Brynna Watkins with their children, Paisley and Davis.

Oak Haven is small by Texas standards. It’s set on a hill just off Interstate 10 outside Columbus on 112.5 acres with 118 beds and a grove of 200-year-old oak trees.

The Watkinses spent eight months getting the facility ready for inspection by the Texas Department of State Health Services. They fixed the air conditioning, fenced the pool and made the site operational.

Word spread.

The sun sets over a pavilion at Camp Oak Haven.

“We passed with flying colors in 2023,” Riley Watkins said.

In addition to their own camp programs, Oak Haven also rented the facility to others. Bookings jumped from two that first year to 40 for 2026.

Watkins had big plans for 2026. Then on Sept. 3 last year, he heard about two bills moving through the Texas Legislature in response to the tragic losses at Camp Mystic.

‘We didn’t think they’d apply to all camps’

Search and rescue operations in Kerr County were still underway when Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session July 9. Flood-related issues topped his agenda. But political theatrics over more partisan issues led to Democrats leaving the state to prevent a quorum, and little lawmaking happened.

When the second special was called on Aug. 15, the House and Senate made camp safety their first priority with the introduction of House Bill 1, Senate Bill 1 and several other bills, all of which passed with substantial bipartisan majorities after emotional testimony by families of campers at Camp Mystic and elsewhere.

Many of the new requirements seemed reasonable to camp directors who talked to The Christian Chronicle. They said emergency and evacuation plans, enhanced training, public address systems and parental access to emergency information were attainable or already in place.

Regarding other rules, Watkins said, “We didn’t think they would apply to all camps — just camps in flood plains.”

Martin Tucker

But they did. Camps in flood plains do face additional regulations, but two of the most onerous changes affected everyone: increased license fees and redundant internet access, including at least one end-to-end, fiber-optic service — regardless of size, location, proximity to a body of water or a flood plain.

A preliminary study by the Christian Camps and Conference Association found that at least 173 camps in Texas do not have access to fiber.

Camp Deer Run near Winnsboro, about 40 to 50 miles north of Tyler, saw the cost of its license increase from $600 to $10,000. Martin Tucker, a Deer Run board member for 25 years, volunteers with the college ministry at Shiloh Road Church of Christ in Tyler.

“In no way are we unsympathetic to the families or the victims at Camp Mystic,” Tucker said. “It’s an enormous task to try to legislate to protect against a natural disaster — something that is unforeseen.”

“There are campers that are unable to go to camp because the ones that remain open will have a flood of clientele that they can’t serve. For camps that feel the charge to spread the seeds of the Gospel, it’s devastating.”

Although Deer Run was fortunate to have the required internet access in place, Tucker said he knew some camps would close, and the impact will be felt even by those that remain open.

“There are campers that are unable to go to camp because the ones that remain open will have a flood of clientele that they can’t serve,” he said. “For camps that feel the charge to spread the seeds of the Gospel, it’s devastating.”

‘A little overwhelmed’

Camp Bandina was also fortunate. Less than an hour south of Camp Mystic, the campsite is elevated above the flood plain despite its location near the Medina River.

Even last year’s record-setting floods did not reach the campgrounds.

End-to-end fiber was installed a couple years ago, according to Elaine Stotts, Bandina manager. Starlink service provides the required redundancy.

Water races under the bridge over the Medina River leading to Texas Highway 16 in 2025. The river is about 100 feet downhill from Camp Bandina.

But, Stotts said, a newly mandated alarm system cost $6,000, and the license rose from $750 to over $10,000.

A new law authorized the Department of State Health Services to adjust fees “as necessary to recover the costs.”

The department declined a request for an interview for this story. In an email, senior press officer Lara Anton said, “Youth camps can renew their license at any time. However, they must pay a $250 late fee if they renew it after March 31.”

“We’ve called, but we were told, ‘We’re a little overwhelmed.’”

She added that licensure requirements would be reviewed prior to an inspection, and the process can take several weeks to complete for each camp.

As of the last week in March, Stotts still didn’t know when the state health services inspection would happen, even though the deadline for renewal was March 31.

“We’ve called,” she said, “but we were told, ‘We’re a little overwhelmed.’”

No camp this summer

The ironically named Lake Cisco Christian Camp isn’t on Lake Cisco, nor anywhere near a flood plain. About 45 miles east of Abilene, the facility was acquired by several Churches of Christ in 1958 — but records go back to 1921.

Jonothan Masters attended as a camper and has served as director for six and a half years.

Jonothan Masters

“The lake is across the highway, but we don’t even have lake access,” Masters said. “We’re on top of the mountainside. I get asked all the time, ‘Do ya’ll have jet skis?’ No! We can’t afford jet skis!”

And they can’t afford fiber.

“We’re in a little better spot than camps in rural areas — we have fiber somewhat nearby,” Masters said. But even if fiber were brought to the camp, they can’t afford the monthly fee of about $600 a month.

So Lake Cisco won’t open for any camps this summer, though it can host some retreats, which by definition can only last three days and two nights.

Joe Howe, board president at Peach Valley Christian Youth Camp between Gonzalez and Shiner, began calling internet providers the moment he heard the news. The major provider costs were prohibitive, but the camp was able to secure a half-mile connection to the Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative for just 10 cents a foot and $130 per month.

The chapel at Lake Cisco Christian Camp.

“We have submitted our application and paid the fee that’s five times what it’s been in the past,” Howe said. “For a small camp, that’s a big deal.” Like other camp directors, he had hoped lawmakers would revisit the issues raised in committee testimony. But without a special session, that can’t happen until the legislature reconvenes in January 2027, too late for many camps that can’t afford an entire year with no income.

Joe Howe

“I think it was a hastily written and poorly constructed bill,” Howe said. “It doesn’t mean I think there weren’t things needed in response to the tragedy at Camp Mystic.”

The Chronicle tried to reach sponsors of the legislation for this story. The office of Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said he was not available for an interview. The office of Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, did not respond to interview requests.

Howe said some things are positive for Peach Valley. “We’re a mile-plus from any flood plain — and we’re getting to know the emergency management of our county — that’s good. Everyone’s for kids’ safety.”

‘A long road to the middle of nowhere’

Oak Haven was not that fortunate.

The camp is located “at the end of a long road to the middle of nowhere,” Riley Watkins explained.  “We can’t get fiber.”

Campers gather in the tabernacle at the Peach Valley Christian Youth Camp.

And so on March 30, the camp closed its gates for good. The property has been sold. Watkins has accepted a job as a maintenance tech with Camp Pine Cove, a multimillion dollar enterprise with camps in three states. After more than a decade as a youth minister and three more at Camp Oak Haven, he will have a job with benefits for the first time in his life.

“I’m looking forward to that. God is redeeming this situation for our family,” Watkins said. “We’re waiting to see how he’ll redeem it for our campers.”

CHERYL MANN BACON is a contributing editor for The Christian Chronicle. She served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University in Texas.

In an in-depth story last year, the Chronicle reported that “the one-time downtown anchor faces litigation and a future full of uncertainty.” That story followed weeks of reporting spurred by a Wall Street Journal article on the “yearslong legal dispute” between the church and benefactor Andrew Mizell “A.M.” Burton’s heirs, including singer-songwriter Amy Grant.

In later coverage, the Chronicle detailed a settlement agreement reached between Burton’s estate and the Nashville church, requiring the sale of the historic building. A later story noted that the church had settled a second lawsuit and would restore $440,000 to the trust and transfer it to a nearby church.

Mark Thomson, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who focuses on defamation and First Amendment cases, asserts that the Chronicle “falsely reported that NCC’s congregation ceased meeting in the Church’s historic building in 2018.” 

In an emailed letter, Thomson provided an image that he said “shows NCC’s congregation meeting in its historic building in 2019. I trust that suffices to get the Chronicle to correct the error, but please let me know if more is required.”

The Chronicle could not independently verify the date on the electronic image.

During the Chronicle’s reporting last year, a different attorney representing the church declined to respond to specific questions, instead referring the newspaper to public documents.

The detail challenged by Thomson came from the “Memorandum in Support of Nashville Church of Christ, Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgement,” filed in the Davidson County Chancery Court on Nov. 5, 2021.

On page 6 of the Memorandum under the third section, “Additional Facts,” the church itself states, “In December 2018, it became necessary for NCC’s congregation to temporarily meet at locations other than the church building for worship services while renovations were and are ongoing.”

That sentence suggests that renovation, which started in 2018 and was still under way in 2021, when NCC filed the court document, caused the congregation to meet somewhere other than at its historic building. 

Thomson also asserts that the Chronicle “falsely reported that Dr. Shawn Mathis and his wife joined Central Church of Christ in 2017. Dr. Mathis and his wife joined CCC in 2016. Dr. Mathis can personally attest to that, as can Spencer Davidson, NCC’s Preaching Minister.”

The date cited in the Chronicle’s story was attributed to Howell Townes, who grew up in the Central church and served as its treasurer for 30 years. The story noted that Townes “recalled that Mathis and his wife began attending sometime in 2017.”

In this photo taken in 2025, a plaque marks the meeting place of the Central Church of Christ, later owned by the Nashville Church of Christ.

Thomson also claims: “The Chronicle falsely reported that CCC was a nonprofit before Dr. Mathis convinced its leaders to incorporate” as a 501(c)(3) organization.

The Chronicle quoted former member Ken Tucker as saying, “He was insistent, right from the beginning to … make it a nonprofit organization, although it was already a nonprofit organization.” 

According to the IRS, churches “are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for and obtain recognition of exempt status from the IRS.”

Thomson also takes issue with the Chronicle’s note that the legal battles “stemmed from the January 2018 incorporation of the Central church as the Nashville Church of Christ, shortly after Shawn Mathis became the church’s third elder.”

“That’s not true,” Thomson said. “None of NCC’s ‘legal battles’ was caused by, or even related to, the decision to incorporate. Nor is it a matter of opinion to say so. It’s just a false factual assertion, which the Chronicle should correct as a matter of basic truthfulness.”

Bobby Ross Jr., the Chronicle’s editor-in-chief, said the newspaper worked hard to report the story in a journalistically responsible manner, despite the church’s unwillingness to answer questions at the time the articles were written.

“The facts were presented as fairly and accurately as possible given the information that we had available to us,” Ross said.

To respond to this story, email letters@christianchronicle.org.

In an interview with Glover and his crewmates Sunday, CBS News’ Mark Strassman noted that Apollo 8 — which in 1968 became the first human spaceflight to reach the moon — “had a memorable Christmas Eve reading from Genesis.

“Do you have a message from space that you’d like to share about Easter Sunday?” Strassman asked.

Glover replied that he didn’t have anything prepared but was glad Strassman brought it up.

Then the 49-year-old former combat aviator offered this eloquent response: 

“I think these observances are important, and as we are so far from Earth and looking at the beauty of creation, I think for me one of the really personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing. And when I read the Bible and look at all the amazing things that were done for us — who were created — you have this amazing place, this spaceship.

“You guys are talking to us because we are on a spaceship really far from Earth. But you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. 

“Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special. But we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you, just trust me: You are special. 

“In all of this emptiness — this is a whole lot of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together. I think as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world — whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not — this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are and that we are the same thing and that we got to get through this together.”

The moon, backlit by the Sun during a solar eclipse, is photographed by NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Monday during the Artemis II mission. Orion is visible in the foreground on the left. Earth is reflecting sunlight at the left edge of the moon, which is slightly brighter than the rest of the disk. The bright spot visible just below the moon’s bottom right edge is Saturn. Beyond that, the bright spot at the right edge of the image is Mars.

‘Love God with all that you are’

On Monday, just before the Orion spacecraft experienced an anticipated 40-minute communications blackout on the far side of the moon, Glover again reflected on his faith.

“As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth — as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos — I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth,” Glover said. 

“And that’s love,” he added. “Christ said in response to what was the greatest command that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that to is love your neighbor as yourself.

“And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”

I first became aware of Glover’s devotion to Jesus in 2020 — in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic — when a fellow Christian suggested that I tell his story.

At the time, the father of four daughters was preparing to embark on a six-month mission to the International Space Station.

I tried official and unofficial channels to request an interview, contacting NASA and sending an email to Glover’s wife, Dionna.

“It is likely too close to launch for us to be able to arrange for any time with Victor, but if you want to fill out the attached form and send it back to us, we can take a look and see if there’s anything we might be able to do,” a NASA public affairs specialist replied.

Podcast: Victor Glover discusses his faith with The Christian Chronicle

Two weeks later, when I checked on the status of my request, I was told, “I’m sorry, we don’t have any individual interview time left with Victor before his launch. However, he will be participating in a virtual Q&A event a few days before launch which you are welcome to join.”

But the next day, NASA emailed again to inform me Glover wanted to do the interview with The Christian Chronicle.

“We typically cannot arrange interviews this close to launch, but since Victor wants to support we definitely will,” said the NASA contact, who arranged a 30-minute window that afternoon for me to visit with Victor and Dionna via Zoom.

Glover’s faith journey

When we talked, Glover indicated that marrying Dionna and becoming a father played a major role in his faith journey.

“As we’ve become parents, that’s when I’ve really found an appreciation for my own faith and really growing my relationship with the Bible and my own personal spiritual growth,” said Glover, whose family attends the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, about 6 miles from NASA’s Space Center Houston.

Of the International Space Station mission, he said, “I want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA. That’s really the thing I think the most about.”

In that same interview, Glover talked about learning patience. He joined NASA in 2013 and then trained for more than seven years before embarking on his first space mission.

“I would love to go to the moon, but that’s not something I control,” he told me then. “That’s really helped me understand patience. I spent some time meditating and thinking about that and praying and writing about that.”

Glover may be a famous astronaut, but he’s an attentive husband, too. When he sent me family photos to use with my story, he made sure to copy his wife.

“Of course, Dionna has first right of refusal,” he said in the email. “Thanks again and God bless you.”

After returning home from the space station, Glover appeared on the Chronicle’s podcast, hosted by my colleague B.T. Irwin.

“In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes,” Glover said on the podcast. “There aren’t any on top of rockets, either, I would think.”

Victor Glover’s wife and daughters pose for a photo with fellow Christians after last week’s launch of Artemis II.

Faith in space

In a 2024 Associated Press feature, Holly Meyer highlighted a Baptist church’s effort to support its members on the space station:

About 10 miles from Johnson Space Center, a Houston-area church takes a moment during Wednesday Bible studies and Sunday evening services to pray for two members who cannot be there.

In fact, there’s no way on Earth for NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Tracy Dyson to show up at Providence Baptist Church. They’re in space, orbiting the planet. More specifically, these two members are working on the International Space Station together.

Like many astronauts before them, they brought along their faith when they launched into space.

“God uses all of us in pretty neat ways, and I think I get the most joy from what I do thinking about it in those terms,” said Dyson, discussing her job on the “Bible Project” podcast ahead of her March launch on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

While the Apollo 8 and Artemis II missions both included public references to religion, astronauts aboard the Artemis’ Orion spacecraft have struck a broader, more global tone, according to Religion News Service’s Jack Jenkins, who did his graduate thesis on religion in space.

In a story this week, Jenkins writes:

Much of the God-talk on the Artemis mission has centered on Glover, who is also the most publicly religious astronaut on the mission. He reportedly brought a Bible along with him for the 10-day journey in space, which is something he’s done before: He told The Christian Chronicle in 2020 that he had a Bible and Communion cups sent to the International Space Station in preparation for his arrival aboard a Space X capsule in November of that year. At the time, Glover suggested he planned to worship virtually with his church while in orbit, as he had been doing throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On his Substack this week, Daniel Silliman — who interviewed Glover for Christianity Today in 2023 — recalled asking the astronaut about prayer:

Glover took the opportunity to talk about how prayer changed the way he saw himself as a pilot on a mission to the moon. He talked about how prayer shapes the pray-er, and that’s part of why Christians do it, not only to ask for things out there in the world but to communicate a request, a desire, a willingness for internal transformation. Prayer is an act of submission. It’s like opening a hand, more than pointing.

He gave the example of the Lord’s prayer, saying he prayed that a lot, praying that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven” as he anticipated slipping over the line from earth to space.

“When Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray, he used that very specific prayer that we all know, ‘Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name …,’” he said. “So, listen, I am a messenger of his kingdom; his will be done.”

The Artemis II crew is expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego later today.

As Glover offers his post-mission thoughts, don’t be surprised to hear more about his faith.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Ross writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged, where this piece originally appeared. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

So said Steve Cloer in his keynote address to open the 33rd National Urban Ministry Conference. About 130 city ministers, scholars and students gathered for the meeting at the Levy Church of Christ in this city of 65,000. They represented 40 churches and ministries from a dozen states.

Steve Cloer

Attendees nodded with familiarity when Cloer compared city ministry to the story of the apostle Peter getting out of his boat and trying to walk to Jesus on a stormy sea. Peter began to sink.

“In city ministry, it is so easy to take our eyes off Jesus,” said Cloer, director of the Harding School of Theology’s Center for Church and City Engagement in Memphis, Tenn. “It is so easy to sink.

“But even in our moments of little faith, let’s remember that Jesus is going to be there.”

Tracing its roots to a few inner city Church of Christ ministers who gathered in 1990 for mutual encouragement and support, the National Urban Ministry Conference evolved into a hub for city ministers to learn, network and take time for themselves.

The 2026 iteration featured a preconference workshop, three keynote lectures and 19 breakout sessions. Organizers said attendance and the breadth and quality of conference programming continue to grow in the post-pandemic years.

Ron Clark, co-director for Agape Community Ministries in Portland, Ore., returned to the conference after several years away. He said the event fills a need for many city ministers like him.

Ron Clark, left, and Taylor Cave pray with other conference attendees.

“A lot of the conferences that I go to are more from the academic perspective, but there’s a real need to train the people who do hands-on ministry,” Clark said. “I’m impressed with how the people here are coming to learn how to do ministry more effectively.”

Aron Clevenger, a children’s minister with the bilingual South Walker Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, was a first-time attendee at the urban ministry conference. She said the event gave her a sense of community with fellow city ministers. New to city ministry, Clevenger expressed gratitude for how the conference gave her new ideas and tools for her work.

“I came to Oklahoma City from a very rural setting, so it’s been a cultural shock for me to live there, much less worship there,” she said. “So I’m excited to learn more by being at the conference.”

But for a meeting that many city ministers attend to get ideas for what they can do, organizers wanted this year’s event to focus on what God can and is doing in cities.

Participants pray during the National Urban Ministry Conference in North Little Rock, Ark.

“Our theme, ‘Deeper and Wider,’ came from the Gospel of John, Chapter 15,” said Keith Lape, an evangelist for the River City Church in North Little Rock and one of the conference organizers. “We wanted our focus to be on heeding the call of Jesus to abide in him and to bear much fruit.”

One example of that focus was a two-hour prayer session that many participants described as the highlight of their experience.

“I’ve never been to a conference where they took two full hours just to pray,” said Walter Pierce, another first-time attendee and minister for the Uptown Church of Christ in Chicago. “That was really powerful because it helps us see and understand that God is the lifeblood of our ministries. Change is not going to come because of our works — it’s going to come through the work of God.”

Cloer said he found the 2026 National Urban Ministry Conference to be the best yet. He foresees the conference becoming one of the most important annual gatherings of ministers.

“As the world becomes more urban, there needs to be more spaces where ministers and leaders can think strategically about how to engage the city with good news and good works.”

“This conference is vital for the future of Churches of Christ,” Cloer said. “As the world becomes more urban, there needs to be more spaces where ministers and leaders can think strategically about how to engage the city with good news and good works.”

The 34th National Urban Ministry Conference will convene at the South Walker Church of Christ next February.

B.T. IRWIN directs and hosts The Christian Chronicle podcast. He and his family live in Clawson, Mich., and are members of the Rochester Church of Christ in nearby Rochester Hills.

Both had special reasons for doing so.

Hankins serves as an elder of the Southeast Church of Christ in Friendswood, Texas, the congregation about 6 miles from NASA’s Space Center Houston that Artemis II pilot Victor Glover and his wife, Dionna, call home.

“He’s just a top-shelf guy and down to earth, but with all the experiences and accolades,” Hankins said of Glover, who launched into space with three other astronauts at 6:35 p.m. EDT Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

Pilot Victor Glover, second from left, with Artemis II crew members: Commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

As a shepherd, Hankins said he came to love and support the Glover family and cheer and pray for them.

“It was a rush,” the Texas elder said of witnessing the launch. “I mean, I think we all had tears in our eyes. When we got to about five seconds in the countdown, the magnitude of that was pretty overwhelming.”

Lamm, a member of the Twickenham Church of Christ in Huntsville, Ala., spent 38 years working for NASA and private companies in the space industry. He attended the Southeast church during a four-year stint as a chief operating officer at Space Center Houston in the 2010s.

“It’s pretty moving,” said Lamm, who — with Hankins — watched the beginning of the planned 10-day test flight around the moon from a seventh-floor hotel rooftop. 

Lamm’s voice choked with emotion as he spoke.

“We’ve been trying to find this new launch vehicle and a spacecraft to get us to the moon,” he said. “I spent a lot of years trying to help do that. … It just meant a whole lot to be able to be there and see that.”

No atheists on rockets

Glover, a 49-year-old U.S. Navy captain, will be the first Black astronaut to journey around the moon.

Lamm recalled hearing the former combat pilot speak at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. 

Glover paid tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen and other pioneering Black military pilots who came before him.

“I got to hear him say, ‘I’m standing on the shoulders of greatness,’” Lamm said. 

“But it goes back to … the connection to God, the connection to people,” the Alabama church member added. “And then being able to share that in a way that brings people to understand that we’re humans, but we were filled with a spirit to serve and to honor and to glorify God in anything that we may do.”

Before Glover’s 168-day International Space Station mission from November 2020 to May 2021, he talked to The Christian Chronicle about sending up communion cups and a Bible for his time in space.

“I want to use the abilities that God has given me to do my job well and support my crewmates and mission and NASA,” he told the Chronicle in that interview. “That’s really the thing I think the most about.”

After his return home, Glover discussed his faith on the Chronicle’s podcast and reflected on the lessons he learned partaking of the Lord’s Supper 250 miles above Earth.

“In the military, there’s a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes,” he said on the podcast. “There aren’t any on top of rockets, either, I would think.”

Excited and nervous

Now, Glover is rocketing nearly 250,000 miles to the moon.

Dionna and the couple’s four daughters — Genesis, Maya, Joai and Corinne — invited Hankins and Lamm to attend a reception after Wednesday’s launch. The daughters are all in their late teens or early 20s.

Dionna grew up in the Pinole Church of Christ, about 20 miles east of San Francisco. 

Brent Hankins, center, and Tracy Lamm pose for a photo with the Glover family after this week’s launch of Artemis II.

Before her husband’s International Space Station trip in 2020, she talked about the mix of emotions she felt as an astronaut’s wife. 

“Of course I’m excited, but it’s also a little scary,” she told the Chronicle then. “I’m nervous. I’m excited for him. I have Scriptures that I’m reading regularly to try to remind myself not to worry and not to stress.”

No doubt she’s experiencing similar feelings now. 

At the reception, Hankins said he hugged Dionna and told her, “God is so good. I celebrate with you. My heart is exploding with you.”

He recalled telling Corinne, the youngest daughter, “I just love that y’all are Jesus-loving people.”

At the end of the Chronicle’s 45-minute interview with Hankins and Lamm, Hankins asked if he could pray.

“Father, I want to lift up my brother, Victor, and his team that are on this mission,” Hankins said as he raised his voice toward heaven. 

“Let your name be glorified in it all.”

“Let your name be glorified in it all.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Inside the small wooden church, the theater-style seats began to fill with a capacity crowd for worship and a 200th anniversary celebration that brought together generations of Christians.

“There is love — honest, we love you here,” said Connie Dyer, a longtime member of the Bagdad Church of Christ. “People see it and they feel it.”

The homecoming celebration featured a flatbed trailer loaded with heaps of food, from cakes to barbecue and everything in between. The Sunday service filled every pew, and the sounds of laughter and kids playing echoed through the sanctuary.

The congregation tripled in size that Sunday, with 155 people attending. Edward Anderson, a former minister for the church in the 1960s, returned to deliver the sermon. Anderson also led a gospel meeting that ran from Sunday to Wednesday.

Homecomings have long been a hallmark of Bagdad, with tables spilling over with homemade dishes and members traveling miles to reconnect with their roots each year.

A sign notes meeting times for the Bagdad Church of Christ.

“They would actually have stretched wire outside and put tablecloths over it,” said Tim Agee, a lifetime Bagdad member and now elder. “There would be so much food. … It was a great meeting, good lessons and good fellowship.”

Founded in 1825, Bagdad exemplifies faith while preserving its small-town traditions.

“The church has been there 200 years — same congregation, same name,” Tim Agee said. “Of course, there have been a lot of different changes since then.”

“The church has been there 200 years — same congregation, same name. Of course, there have been a lot of different changes since then.”

In the two centuries since the church’s inception, the worship hall has undergone numerous changes, including the construction of a new building after a fire and the addition of a fellowship hall. Over that period, the overall population of Pleasant Shade shrank as families moved to urban centers in pursuit of job opportunities.

But the Bagdad congregation continues to host a healthy crowd of varying ages for worship. A typical Sunday morning church service averages 50 members, from gray-haired Christians to a bouncing baby boy.

Bagdad elder Tim Agee opens a worship service with a Scripture reading during the church’s 200th homecoming.

If you ask any member of the congregation, Sunday meals every month are a highlight of the tight-knit church family.

Due to an interpretation of Scripture, church elders first rejected the idea of eating in the church building, opting instead to eat at members’ homes or in front of the church.

But over time, the need for a place to cook and store food led the church to add a fellowship hall in the 1990s.

“We do not have any bickering and squabbling,” said Stan Agee, an elder. “We are like a family — more really, more than anything. You can tell that we enjoy being together, and we have a lot in common.”

“We do not have any bickering and squabbling. We are like a family — more really, more than anything. You can tell that we enjoy being together, and we have a lot in common.”

As the congregation looks back on 200 years of services, hymns and generations of families, members suggest that the future of the church can be seen in the youngest faces sitting in the pews or lying on the floor.

During Sunday services, young men in the church step forward and lead the congregation in song before the main worship service begins.

For most members, singing a cappella hymns from song books passed from generation to generation is one of the church’s defining traditions. The congregation fills the sanctuary with a tapestry of voices singing hymns like the “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and “The Old Rugged Cross.”

Members of the Bagdad church look over the trailer full of homemade dishes during the church’s 200th homecoming celebration.

“We’re known for our singing at Bagdad,” Tim Agee said. “A lot of people like to come because the building’s acoustics are really good, but I think we’ve also got some good singers.”

For older members, watching young families and children grow up within the church is a reminder of Bagdad’s continuing story and the enduring work of God.

“We look around at the kids and just say, ‘Thank you, God,’” Dyer said. “They are our future.”

As Pleasant Shade has grown quieter across decades, the small church along the creek bed continues to fill its pews with families, songs and fellowship.

Over 200 years after its founding, members say the foundation of the Bagdad Church of Christ has never been the building itself, but the generations of people who continue to walk through its doors each morning looking to carry out one thing: praise to their God.

“When you walk through those doors,” Dyer said, “you’re family.”

EPHRAIM RODENBACH is a sophomore sports journalism major at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. He’s the lead sports reporter for the MTSU Sidelines student newspaper.

He also wants everyone in the United States to take time to read God’s Word. 

Bob Burckle

Burckle is president and CEO of Eastern European Mission, a nonprofit that provides Bibles and Bible-based materials across the former communist world. He’s one of nearly 500 people — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and actress Candace Cameron Bure — who will take turns reading aloud through the entire Bible from April 19-25 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. 

The effort, America Reads the Bible, coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary and has as its goal “reigniting America’s spiritual foundation,” organizers said.

Burckle spoke with The Christian Chronicle in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro, where he serves as deacon of missions for the Grapevine Church of Christ. He grew up in the pews of the Highland Church of Christ in Louisville, Ky., and used amateur radio to speak with people in foreign countries. He earned master’s degrees in electrical engineering and business. He worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, on stealth and countermeasures projects during the height of the Cold War.

“At the time, Russia was the big bear and we were working on technology to penetrate Soviet airspace for the U.S. Air Force,” Burckle said. But he couldn’t shake a sense of futility, realizing that any attack would end in nuclear annihilation. 

“It’s not that I was anti-war or anti-technology,” Burckle said. “I just thought, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’”

At the same time, Eastern European Mission, or EEM, was smuggling tiny New Testaments under the Iron Curtain and into the communist world. Lynn Camp, the ministry’s former president, recalled young church leaders stuffing 80 Hungarian-language Bibles into a spare tire. Reading God’s Word and underground evangelism became forms of nonviolent, ideological protest in the Soviet Bloc, according to researchers and journalists including Barbara Von Der Heydt, author of “Candles Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution That Shattered Communism.”

Fliers advertising free literature from Eastern European Mission are prepared for the mail in Serbia.

As communism collapsed, EEM no longer had to produce tiny Bibles that could be mistaken for cigarette packs. The ministry moved its printing operations from Vienna, Austria, to former Soviet countries and produced full-size, hardback Bibles, sometimes in large print for the vision impaired and colorful children’s Bibles. Last year, the nonprofit produced 2.1 million Bibles and Bible-based materials in 32 languages and distributed them free of charge across 36 nations.

“Our books are spoken for before they’re even delivered,” said Burckle, who left a successful career in the private sector to serve as EEM’s president in 2016 — a temporary assignment that’s lasted 10 years. “Our Bibles are asked for and not just put on a shelf or in a drawer.”

Christians in Minsk, Belarus, demonstrate after their country’s contentious presidential election in 2020. They carry Bibles produced by Eastern European Mission.

Despite unprecedented access to the Bible in multiple versions and languages, only about 11 percent of Americans surveyed by the American Bible Society said that they read their Bible daily, the society reported in 2021. But the organization’s 2025 State of the Bible Report showed an upward trend in Bible users — people who read the Bible outside of church services at least three times a year. Much of the growth is among young adults. The number of millennials who said they read the Bible regularly jumped 29 percent from 2024. More than half of respondents said they wished they read the Bible more often.

Christians Engaged, a nonprofit that seeks to increase voter turnout and civic involvement among Christians, launched the America Reads the Bible project to call for nationwide spiritual renewal and to encourage regular reading of Scripture. Burckle is scheduled to read passages from the Old Testament book of Lamentations on April 23 at the Museum of the Bible. Organizers also will livestream the weeklong event.

“Reading the Bible is crucial for everyone, everywhere and in every language to know God and his truth,” Burckle said. “America Reads The Bible aligns with the heartbeat of EEM. It is a privilege to join others in reading aloud the most powerful and transformational book of all time. 

“We know the impact that the Word of God can have — we want everyone to get a Bible in their hands and for the Scriptures to be written on their hearts so that they can know and serve Jesus Christ. You may never know the eternal impact of someone getting a Bible.”

Bob Burckle holds a Polish language teen Bible produced by Eastern European Mission as he stands by photos of children looking through other EEM products.

Why read from Lamentations, a collection of poems in which Israel mourns  the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, who took them into captivity?

“Lamentations shows us what happens when people become disconnected from God’s Word — everything begins to unravel,” Burckle said. “Whether in Europe, Asia or here in America, putting Scripture into people’s hands is how lives are rebuilt and hope is restored.”

Featured image (above): Ed Modicue, third from right, offers a boxing pose with boys from the Forsythe Church of Christ in Monroe, La.

LOUISIANA

MONROE — Ed Modicue mentors youths in physical, mental and spiritual discipline at his gym in northeast Louisiana.

Modicue, a member of the Forsythe Church of Christ in Monroe, won five Golden Glove titles in the 1970s — from the same amateur boxing organization that launched careers of the likes of Muhammad Ali.

Now, Modicue trains boys in the art of boxing at his gym, but he uses the sport not as a tool for violence or victory. Rather, he strives to teach youths to be their best selves.

“Everybody is somebody” is his gym’s motto.

Modicue focuses on life skills such as self-control, preparation and healthy eating.

He also emphasizes faith: A poster on the wall of his gym in Monroe encourages trainees to “put on the full armor of God,” from Ephesians 6.

He recently taught a boys’ class at the Forsythe church about fitness and faith, preaching minister John Dobbs said.

“Ed is a genuine spirit who has a heart for the kids who need a godly influence in their lives,” Dobbs said. “I call him ‘Champ’ because he is a champion in life and faith. Ed and his wife, Sheila, are bright lights of encouragement.”

NEWSMAKERS

BAPTIZED — CINDY and ABRAHAM ANDRES and KEIRA CRUSE of the North Highlands Church of Christ in Russellville, Ala. SKYLAR BASINGER of the Oak Hill Church of Christ in Covington, Ga. JAMIE and HEATHER DUNCAN and SCOTT JONES of the Mayfair Church of Christ in Huntsville, Ala. JUSTIN FLYNN of the Mesquite Church of Christ in Texas. THEOPLIS REVOY HALE of the Oakland Church of Christ in Southfield, Mich. JADA IVY of the Martin Street Church of Christ in Water Valley, Miss. KALANI JOYNER of the Camden Church of Christ in Tennessee. ARMANDO and IRMA MORA of the Bridge Avenue Church of Christ in Weslaco, Texas. ALLAN MUNDEN and ALEXANDRA STRINGFELLOW of the Crieve Hall Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. TODD NAPPER of the Deep River Church of Christ in High Point, N.C. ALEC RADOSEVICH of the Northwest Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas. BOBBY RAINES and HAILEY MELTON of the Wylie Church of Christ in Texas. ERICA RAMIREZ of the Mannford Church of Christ in Oklahoma. ELAINA RENNICKER of the North Terrace Church of Christ in Zanesville, Ohio. PARKER SOUTHERLAND of the Clear Creek Church of Christ in Hixson, Tenn.

Vlad Malykhin wins the 2026 NCAA Division II national champion in men’s pole vault.

AWARDED — JOHN and BECKY HALEY, the 2026 Friend to Youth Award by Florida College in Temple Terrace, Fla. The college is associated with Churches of Christ. VLAD MALYKHIN, 2026 NCAA Division II national champion in men’s pole vault. Malykhin, a native of Shostka, Ukraine, is a senior at Harding University in Searcy, Ark.

APPOINTED — JEFF VEAL, superintendent of Harding Academy in Searcy, Ark. The pre-K through 12th grade school is associated with Churches of Christ and Harding University. Veal also will serve on the university’s cabinet. “He is mission-aligned with exceptional leadership acumen, communication skills, and experience leading in a Christ-centered institution,” said Mike Williams, president of Harding University. “He is warm, engaging, passionate and genuine.”

NAMED — JOY LEIGH JANE DANNE, Alachua County Court Judge in Gainesville, Fla. She is a graduate of Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Ala. BRYSON DAVIS, support associate, and BETHANY OWENS, graphic designer for World Bible School. INGRISD RODRÍGUEZ, academic assistant for Baxter Institute, a ministry training school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. JOEL SINGLETON, preaching minister for the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. LAURIE TIMMONS, CEO of Orphan’s Lifeline International. She is a cofounder of the child sponsorship ministry, which is supported by Churches of Christ. CHUCK WYETH, minister for the Casa Grande Church of Christ in Arizona.

Teams bearing names such as the Grateful Gleaners and the Tent Pegs — and wearing corresponding T-shirts — raced to answer questions about donkey jawbones and flaming foxes from the books of Judges and Ruth.

Seven teams competing in the Miami Valley Bible Bowl sport fox-themed shirts, referencing the story of Samson.

For the 40th Miami Valley Bible Bowl, 137 participants representing 11 Churches of Christ in West Virginia and Ohio converged on Wheeling for two days of competition and fellowship.

The Mountain State city of 27,000 lies on a once-bustling industrial corridor of the Ohio River. Tightly packed clusters of hillside homes built for coal and steel workers dot the nearby riverside.

A memorial on the National Road in Wheeling, W.Va., honors pioneer mothers.

The National Road Church of Christ, which hosted the Bible Bowl for the first time, lies on the first major federal highway, which reached Wheeling from Cumberland, Md., by 1818.

“It is a lot of work, but it has been a huge blessing,” said Ryan Parsons, who preaches for the 125-member church. “The unification that it’s brought for our congregation to rely on everybody’s strengths and … to use their talents and skills to really uplift the church has been phenomenal.”

“When many people read the book of Judges, their reaction is this: ‘This book is a dumpster fire,’” Ryan Parsons says in a sermon during the Miami Valley Bible Bowl. But “it’s actually something much, much more dangerous — like a wildfire.”

At the nearby Wheeling Park High School, 13 fourth through sixth grade teams and 19 seventh through 12th grade teams  — along with a few adult teams — answered four rounds of 25 multiple choice questions from the two assigned Bible books on a recent Saturday.

They raised their answer cards in the air — A, B or C — and noisily flopped them around in celebration when they got it right.

Most of the teams went on to participate in tournament-style brackets of buzzer — or speed — rounds on Sunday at the National Road church after an overcast morning of worship that turned into a crisp, sunny afternoon.

For each age group, teams of three or four faced off until a champion was crowned, testing their reflexes and memory as they pounded the 39-year-old buzzer panels to respond to open-ended questions from Scripture.

Competition and community

While the annual event is competitive in nature, it’s as much about camaraderie in Christ and spiritual growth.

Opposing teams traditionally huddle together in prayer before each round, and players often cheer even when an opponent answers correctly.

Miami Valley Bible Bowl competitors hold up answer cards for a multiple choice question.

Many of the participants and organizers cited fellowship as one of the most important aspects of the Bible Bowl.

Hayden Baillie’s team, the Buff Barley Cakes from the Weirton Heights Church of Christ in Weirton, W.Va., emerged as champions of the upper grade level.

The 18-year-old senior has won the buzzer round tournament all but one of the nine years he’s competed — he was also the only youth to get a perfect score in the multiple choice rounds.

But Baillie’s favorite part is spending time with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Hayden Baillie celebrates his team’s buzzer tournament victory with his teammates and coaches.

“This is the only time that I see all these people from the other churches is when we’re at this competition,” he told The Christian Chronicle. “It means community, it means friendship, it means studying God’s words, having fun with friends. It’s just a big part of my life, and I enjoy it very much.”

Jennifer Spain, a 46-year-old mother of three from the Marysville Church of Christ in Ohio, has also participated 13 times — but the beginning of her Bible Bowl journey goes back much further.

Jennifer Spain poses for a photo outside the National Road Church of Christ.

She started as a fourth grader at the Southwestern Church of Christ in Grove City, Ohio, in the 1990s.

Three years ago, she started participating again with the Marysville church, along with her kids: Matthew, 14; Patrick, 13; and Katherine, 11.

Longtime director Bruce Adams presents Jennifer Spain with an award at the 1992 Miami Valley Bible Bowl.

Spain enjoys the competition — especially the buzzer rounds. But more than that, the Bible Bowl “means family and getting to see my friends and stuff that I only see like once a year, and just learning more about God’s Word,” she said.

“I can pull Scripture knowledge when I need it and use a lot of Bible references,” she added of the competition’s impact on her faith. “And then I have people in Bible class, when I’m speaking up during the Bible class, asking, ‘How do you know so much?’”

Discipline and faith

For Spain and many other participants, the Miami Valley Bible Bowl is a tradition that spans across families and generations.

Mike Hallabrin is a 64-year-old member of the Richland Road Church of Christ in Marion, Ohio, and fellow elder with the Bible Bowl’s director, Brian Driver. Hallabrin has brought eight kids, now ranging in age from 19 to 43 through the program.

Mike and Doni Hallabrin pose for a photo at the Wheeling Park High School during the Miami Valley Bible Bowl.

He and his wife, Doni, incorporated each year’s theme books into their children’s homeschooling studies.

“It just became part of what every generation did,” Hallabrin told the Chronicle. “Nobody even questioned whether they were going to do it or not.

Youths enter the National Road Church of Christ building for Bible Bowl.

“It was a discipline that each of them still carries on today,” he added. “Just an appreciation for the Bible. … Studying it is something that they love to do. “

Now Doni, 61, participates on an adult team from Richland Road.

Doni Hallabrin and other Bible Bowl competitors answer a multiple choice question.

“I feel like it’s the best chance I have to know who God is,” she said of her experience. “And because I’m forced to keep reading the same things over and over, I just never fail to learn something new. It makes me feel just close to God.”

A few congregations also attend Leadership Training for Christ, an annual youth convention that has its closest location in Noblesville, Ind. But for many of the kids who attend the Bible Bowl, it’s their biggest church youth event of the year.

Youths participate in a rock, paper, scissors competition at the Miami Valley Bible Bowl.

The preparation, consequently, is focused and intense.

Ethan Godby, youth minister for the Centerville Church of Christ in Ohio, spent about three hours per week studying and practicing for the competition with his youth group of 15 — starting all the way back in October.

Ethan Godby poses for a photo during the Miami Valley Bible Bowl.

After growing up in Noblesville and doing LTC with the Green Valley Church of Christ, Godby was “blown away” by how big the Miami Valley Bible Bowl was, expecting a small event.

“You want to be really good. You want to impress each other,” Godby said. “But in doing all of that, we’re also learning more about God. … It’s building a biblical foundation for them as they grow into making their faith their own.”

‘A labor of love’

The Miami Valley Bible Bowl began in 1987 as a ministry of the Riverdale Church of Christ in Dayton, Ohio — the region from where it got its name. Four churches participated that year.

Riverdale youth minister Ken Grizzelle started the event, but for most of the Bible Bowl’s existence, Bruce Adams served as its director until he retired in 2019.

Bruce Adams presents Hayden Baillie with the Bruce Adams Award. Bible Bowl director Brian Driver stands to the side.

He stepped away from it in 1996 as he moved his family to Kentucky for a new job, but Riverdale — which had changed its name to the Turner Road Church of Christ — made some poorly received changes to the event and was going to end it after 2001.

Adams convinced his new congregation, the Summit Church of Christ in Cold Spring, Ky., to take over the Bible Bowl and returned to his role as director.

Katherine Spain from the Marysville Church of Christ in Ohio reflects as Lilly Morris, Ansley Williams and Lucy Morris — from the Belpre Church of Christ in Ohio —celebrate a correct answer at the Miami Valley Bible Bowl in Wheeling, W.Va.

The Bible Bowl was a “way of life” for him, his wife, Joy, and their five children.

“It takes a lot of time — takes a lot of time and hard work, and it is a labor of love,” Adams said in a presentation on the event’s history, celebrating 40 years and his 71st birthday. “You can ask my kids that — especially my son Jacob — how many late nights I’d be in his bedroom typing away questions.”

But it’s brought him a lot of delight, too, from watching kids grow physically and spiritually — and from watching fellow Christians grow closer together.

“To see the kids when they pray together up front, you know from different congregations, don’t even really know each other … and I know that brethren can get along,” Adams said in a later interview with the Chronicle.

Members of the Baal on the Run team from the Cassel Hills Church of Christ in Vandalia, Ohio, and the Centerville Team 1 from the Centerville Church of Christ in Ohio huddle together in prayer before a Bible Bowl buzzer round.

As the Bible Bowl goes on for what Adams hopes is another 40 years, he’s thankful for its continued impact on the lives of young believers.

“I think the more seeds of faith we plant, the more faithful they will be down the road,” he said. “This creates so many of those little moments that, taken as a whole, it’s like so encouraging to everybody’s faith. … It just creates that bond of family.”

CALVIN COCKRELL is Managing Editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

That could change soon, added VanZandt, a deacon of the University Church of Christ in Montgomery, Ala. In a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, a jury found that Meta and Google were responsible for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a child. 

The California jury awarded the 20-year-old woman, known by the names K.G.M. and Kaley, $3 million. 

But the verdict is “bigger than one case,” said VanZandt, co-lead attorney for Kaley and others suing social media companies.

Joseph VanZandt

“Today’s verdict is a referendum — from a jury, to an entire industry — that accountability has arrived,” VanZandt said in a joint statement with Kaley’s legal team, as reported by KUOW.

VanZandt was one of two attorneys with ties to Churches of Christ on the team. Mark Lanier, who grew up in the pews of the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, questioned witnesses, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during the five-week trial. Lanier, a renowned trial lawyer, author and Bible class teacher, also prayed on the courthouse steps with families who say their children have suffered grave harm as a result of social media. 

In a clip from “TODAY,” Mark Lanier prays on the steps of a Los Angeles courtroom with families who say that social media has harmed or contributed to the deaths of their children.

During the trial, Kaley’s team showed the court internal documents from Meta in which Zuckerberg and other executives detailed the company’s focus on getting and retaining young users on their platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram. The apps require users to be at least 13 years old, but one internal memo contained research on users at age 11.

“This is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children,” VanZandt told media, including the New York Times, after the verdict.

Kaley testified that she developed depression and body dysmorphia as she continually compared herself to others on social media and used filters to enhance her appearance. She craved the validation that apps such as Instagram provide through numbers of “likes” and often ran to the bathroom at school to check the number of “likes” she had received for her posts.

Social media companies are not legally responsible for what users post, according to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. But Kaley’s team argued that social media companies design their platforms to hold young people’s attention through features such as infinite scroll, notifications and autoplay.

Mark Lanier

“That’s called the engineering of addiction,” Lanier said. As he questioned Zuckerberg, Lanier and his team held up a 35-foot collage of hundreds of selfies Kaley had obsessively posted to Instagram as she struggled with body-image issues. 

Lanier earned an undergraduate degree in Bible from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., which is associated with Churches of Christ. He then returned to Lubbock and earned his juris doctorate from Texas Tech. He serves on Lipscomb’s board of trustees and is founder of the Lanier Theological Library in Houston.

Mark Lanier speaks during a luncheon on the campus of Lipscomb University.

VanZandt earned undergraduate and law degrees from Faulkner University in Montgomery, which also is associated with Churches of Christ. He serves on the board of directors of Agape of Central Alabama and Alabama Christian Academy.

For both sets of Lions, it was rematch of the 2024 title game between Freed-Hardeman, a Henderson, Tenn., university associated with Churches of Christ, and Langston, a Historically Black College and University in central Oklahoma. Freed-Hardeman won that contest, 71-67. This time, FHU (35-1) was stunned from the jump with Langston scoring the first four points of the game. FHU’s largest lead in the first half was four points. For every basket FHU would make, Langston was right there with an answer.

“We wanted to win the last 10 minutes,” coach Drew Stutts said. “We knew that if we kept it close that we could just grind it out at the last 10 because of our depth.”

Langston (29-8) scored the first six points of the second half, but FHU battled back and built a 10-point lead. Late in the game, Langston scored five points in 12 seconds to pull within one possession. But FHU senior wing Lane Lauderbaugh coolly sank two free throws to keep the game out of reach, 76-71.

“It’s so good to see coaches do things the right way,” said FHU President David Shannon, who attended the game. “It’s just great to see the team and to be able to see so many fans that come and have that experience together.”

Compared to the 2024 title, “This one feels special,” said Phil Horton, a graduate student and forward for FHU. “I know how hard it is to win it once, so winning it twice is amazing.” Horton, who ended the game with 18 points and six rembounds, was named the Chuck Taylor Tournament Most Valuable Player.

“I love Phil Horton,” Stutts said. “He has allowed me to coach him hard and, boy, did it pay off today.”

Matt Cook, a Bible professor at FHU, also made the trip to Kansas City.

“I had a couple of freshmen in my Life of Christ class this fall, thinking they were just freshmen and weren’t going to play. But they played a big part and so I’m really proud of my freshmen Caleb (Thomas) and Rodney (Henderson).”

The win caps FHU’s most successful season in wins, 35, win percentage, 97.2,  and wins in a row at 32 and counting. Athletic director Jonathan Estes praised Stutts and assistant coach Grant Burns for raising the standard at FHU. “It’s really impressive what they’ve been able to do with different players,” Estes said.

Read more on FHU’s national championship.

Zaiger, who with his wife, Ann, has served Hawkeye State congregations for 25 years, wanted to know more about his fellow Christians’ experiences.

This is part of a series exploring the identity of Churches of Christ. Read more here.

“I’ll be honest: I received more info on challenges maybe than opportunities,” he said last week at York University’s Equip Conference, which drew about 230 church leaders from 18 states and Canada to this Nebraska farming town.

But before detailing those challenges, Zaiger offered a glimpse into the hearts of Iowa’s Christians.

“In visiting with all of these people, something that I did hear was a love for God, a love for the truth and a love for the church,” he said. “I also heard in their voices a huge burden that they felt to share the Word and to help the church and to grow. … I heard passion, and I heard love.”

Ministers Zeboriah Carter from Kansas, Calvin Chapman from South Dakota and Rick Eldred from Nebraska joined Zaiger on the hourlong panel. Mike Cope, director of ministry outreach for Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., moderated the discussion. 

Both York and Pepperdine are associated with Churches of Christ.

As part of his work with Pepperdine, Cope leads university initiatives funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., including a $7.5 million grant program to strengthen Churches of Christ in rural areas and small towns across the U.S.

Cope allotted $1 million of the rural and small towns grant to York after seeing a 2024 Christian Chronicle story about Equip.

“Just something clicked,” he said of reading that article. “It’s like, ‘I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. People are doing this good work. We can just partner with people.’”

Jason Zaiger, Calvin Chapman, moderator Mike Cope, Zeboriah Carter and Rick Eldred speak at York University’s Equip Conference on challenges and opportunities facing small-town and rural Churches of Christ.

Ministry center launched

With a population of about 8,000, the town of York sits at the intersection of Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 81.

Miles and miles of corn and soybean farms surround the agricultural hub, about 50 miles west of Lincoln.

The university, started in 1890, has roots in Churches of Christ dating back to 1956. On-campus enrollment tops 400 with nearly 300 additional online and dual-credit students.

“People who know York … are using words like revival and renaissance” to describe its recent history, said Tim Westbrook, who joined the university as its 22nd president last summer. 

President Tim Westbrook speaks during the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

Westbrook came from Harding University in Searcy, Ark., where he’d worked since 2005 and directed the online program in Bible and ministry.

The Lilly funding has helped York University launch the new Kite Center for Ministry, led by co-executive directors Anessa Westbrook and Scott Laird, and enhance the Equip Conference.

Anessa Westbrook, Tim’s wife, is a former Bible professor at Harding and a leader in women’s ministry. The couple served as missionaries to Hungary before going to work at Harding.

Scott Laird talks about the new Kite Center for Ministry during a dinner at York University’s Equip Conference as Anessa Westbrook listens. Renew.org sponsored the meal at Chances “R” Restaurant in York, Neb.

Laird worked in full-time ministry for over four decades in Canada and Montana, including more than 30 years with the Great Falls Church of Christ. He serves on the Chronicle’s national board of trustees.

“We want to hear your ideas,” Anessa Westbrook told church leaders at Equip. “We want to hear your struggles and how we can help. We’re taking the time to build the center to make sure that it’s effective because one thing we’d really like is for it to make a long-term difference.”

A $2 million gift by an anonymous donor will allow York to renovate and enlarge its McGehee Hall, said Jared Stark, York’s executive vice president. That building will house the center for ministry and likely host the Equip Conference in future years.

Equip brings together top teachers and ministers from throughout the Midwest, the Plains and the Rocky Mountain states, said Garrett Best, chair of York’s Bible department.

The conference started with 85 attendees in 2023 and grew to 130 in 2024 and 185 in 2025. It began as a one-day event but expanded to two days the second year.

“It’s crazy,” Best said of the growth. “Every year as I watch the registrations come in, I’m just blown away.”

Garrett Best, chair of York University’s Bible department, presents the Minister’s Heart Award to Jim Coehoorn during the Equip Conference. Coehoorn is a longtime leader of the Elkhorn Church of Christ in Wisconsin and served as the Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp’s board president for 15 years.

Renae Delamarter, a member of the Richfield Church of Christ in the Minneapolis area, traveled nearly 500 miles with her husband, Ron, to participate in Equip.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s small churches, and we have a small church. And to hear the singing and get to network and talk to people — it’s really uplifting and fun.”

Danny Jaekel, who makes a four-hour round trip from York to preach for a tiny congregation in Auburn, Neb., each Sunday, echoed Delamarter’s sentiments.

“It’s a big reunion for me,” Jaekel said of the fellow Christians he sees at Equip.

York University students and Equip Conference attendees gather for a chapel assembly in the university’s gymnasium.

Ministry longevity

“Faithful,” as described in Hebrews 10:23, served as last week’s conference theme.

In keeping with that focus, four church leaders with a combined 192 years of service — Laird, Warren Baldwin from Kansas, Bruce Goodwin from Minnesota and Wayne Hawley from Wisconsin — shared insights on ministry longevity.

“We live on a tumbleweed farm,” Baldwin said. “We’re in southwest Kansas, communing with nature … whether it’s hunting or just walking or hiking, and that’s been an important thing for us.”

Warren Baldwin, far right, talks about his 44 years in ministry during the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska. Also pictured, from left, are Anessa Westbrook, Bruce Goodwin, Scott Laird and Wayne Hawley.

Besides preaching for the Ulysses Church of Christ, Baldwin teaches high school history and has coached youth soccer and baseball for decades.

“That’s not necessarily what you would consider a spiritual activity,” he said of that community involvement. “But when you’re doing it with family, friends and community, it becomes a spiritual thing that has been strengthening for us.”

Cheryl Baldwin, Warren’s wife of 44 years, made the 380-mile trip to York with him.

“We go to other lectureships, and they’re very good, but this is for small churches,” she told the Chronicle. “It’s just such a need.”

Kailyn Ruckman and other students at York University in Nebraska pray during a chapel assembly at the Equip Conference.

Mike Cope presents a keynote lesson during the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

Scott Lambert, right, greets Walter Clark at the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

The prayer chapel at York University in Nebraska.

Facing the challenges

In Zaiger’s survey of Iowa church leaders, shrinking membership was a frequently cited challenge.

So, too, was the difficulty finding preachers.

“But another response that I heard was that no preacher is better than the wrong preacher,” Zaiger said.

Others concerns, he said, ranged from increasing politicization of the church to affluent members’ unwillingness to share their wealth to “the lack of strong male leadership in the church.”

Also mentioned often: the inability to win souls in a modern culture marked by technological advancement but profound spiritual disconnection.

“One said that in order to change this, we must unhitch the Gospel from the way things were done in the past,” Zaiger said. “Now, he didn’t elaborate on that.”

Iowa minister Jason Zaiger, center, makes a point during the panel discussion at York University’s Equip Conference.

But Zaiger said Christians have an opportunity to offer seekers “something true and real” that 21st century culture lacks.

“We offer a true relationship with the Lord,” he said.

When the Restoration Movement thrived, Zaiger said, the reason was that “people believed what they were doing. The Gospel came into Iowa through those early preachers. They were on fire.”

Now, he said, “What we need to do is call all people back to God and back to the Bible. They need to understand the truth of it, live it and share it. We can do it.”

Stephen Maxwell leads singing during chapel at the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Nebraska to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Despite high wind warnings and plummeting temperatures on my 400-mile route, I got up early to drive to the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

About 160 miles north of my home in Oklahoma City, I stopped for worship at the Northside Church of Christ in Wichita.

Toby Levering preaches at the Northside Church of Christ in Wichita, Kan.

“Maybe you didn’t intend to be here, but you’re from Nebraska, and you just blew in,” preaching minister Toby Levering said in greeting the crowd of 500.

I blew in from the opposite direction, but Levering’s astute observation made me chuckle.

I first met him back in 2015 when I did a feature on the Wichita Work Camp, an annual service-oriented event sponsored by the Northside church.

I enjoyed seeing Levering again and meeting a few of Northside’s elders, including Brian Middleton, who is active with the church’s Know Your Bible ministry, which began as a 30-minute TV program and is now a 24/7 resource online.

I missed saying hi to Mark Yeakley, Northside’s involvement minister and son of the late Flavil Yeakley, a church growth expert who was always extremely helpful to me in my Christian Chronicle reporting.

Mark Yeakley, who didn’t know I planned to visit, had to run to a missions committee meeting right after the service ended.

“Stop by again as soon as the wind changes direction!” he urged in a Facebook comment.

Mike Cope, Equip’s keynote speaker, was supposed to fly from Dallas to Omaha, Neb., and then drive 100 miles to York. 

But flights got canceled Sunday, and he didn’t make it until dinnertime Monday.

“It took a little doing to get here,” Cope, director of ministry outreach for Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., told Equip attendees Tuesday. “American Airlines pilots were not convinced that they wanted to land in 65 mph winds in Omaha.”

Mike Cope speaks at the Equip Conference at York University in Nebraska.

I don’t know which was louder on my drive to York: the howling outside my car windows or the country music I played to drown out that noise.

Somewhere near the Kansas-Nebraska line, I stopped at a Love’s Travel Stop to fill up my gas tank.

My car door slammed shut as I stepped into the storm, and I immediately feared my glasses might blow off my head. Somehow I managed to pull the door open again and place them inside.

I made it safely to my hotel late Sunday afternoon. After checking in, I headed to a nearby Walmart to buy a few snacks and a pair of gloves.

I’ve heard that Jesus can calm the wind. 

I credit him for doing just that. I awoke Monday to 8 degrees Fahrenheit outside — according to my car dashboard — but a much tamer gust. 

Kailyn Ruckman, right, and other students at York University in Nebraska pray during a chapel assembly at the Equip Conference.

I had a blast reporting on Equip and relished a peaceful drive home.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

I didn’t realize it at the time. As part of my visit to the Balkans for our “In Search of Shalom” series, I wanted to visit Vukovar, a city on the Serbian border that endured a monthslong siege during Croatia’s war for independence. Osijek has the closest airport, so I booked a flight on Croatia Airlines from the capital, Zagreb. 

The Osijek Airport welcomes visitors to northeastern Croatia.

I was one of six people on the small prop plane. When we touched down, minister Goran Kumrić was waiting for me. As we headed to Vukovar, we drove past field after field of bright yellow sunflowers. I thought about my friends in Ukraine who inspired the “Shalom” series. The sunflower is their national symbol. 

As I prepared to launch the series, I took a six-week online course through the nonprofit Peace Catalyst International, “Introduction to Christian Peacebuilding For Church Leaders.” The participants Zoomed in from locales around the globe and represented a diversity of faith traditions. Phil Gazley, a minister in Norwich, England, led the discussions.

Lisa Sharon Harper

Among the course materials were videos by Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of FreedomRoad.us. I downloaded an audio copy of her book, “The Very Good Gospel,” which she narrates herself.

I was surprised to learn that Harper had visited Osijek back in 2004 as part of a Balkan Pilgrimage for Reconciliation. She and her fellow sojourners saw the fields of sunflowers and broke into song, praising God. 

Later, they spoke with farmers who survived the wars of the 1990s. In a conference room in Osijek, “we shared with the director of a community development organization that we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the sunflowers,” Harper writes. 

The director’s response: “Yes. The sunflowers are so tall and plentiful because no one can go into the fields to plow them. The fields are full of mines.”

Harper also took part in a pilgrimage to 10 U.S. states, retracing the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the African American experience from slavery to civil rights. 

“I realized that my understanding of the Gospel was mute in the face of this evil, it had nothing to say,” she said in a video interview. “That was a frightening thought.” It also was the beginning of a 13-year journey of prayer and Bible study as she wrote “The Very Good Gospel.”

“The Very Good Gospel” by Lisa Sharon Harper (2016, WaterBrook).

“I believe that the Good News that Jesus himself proclaimed was that, in following the Jesus way, in following the way of Good News, then this world could be healed,” Harper said.

The book dives deep into Scripture, particularly the first three chapters of Genesis and the repeated phrase, “God saw that it was good.” It’s easy to read right past that without recognizing how good God’s goodness is. God declared shalom — a peace of wholeness, a just peace, a peace that theologian Neal Plantinga Jr. calls “the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment and delight.” 

That’s a lot better than “good.”

I got to spend a few minutes with Harper recently, and I asked her how the pilgrimages she undertook helped to shape the vision of shalom she presents in her book. How can people who have endured brutal attacks from each other move toward shalom?

Recognizing mutual needs, and how cooperation can meet those needs, is key, Harper said. In Osijek, farmers told the story of how one family that had property free of land mines opened it up for the community to grow crops. That was a tiny step toward reconciliation. 

Tourists from around the world walk the streets of Sarajevo in summer 2025.

Harper also visited Sarajevo, where a priest had assembled a choir of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. They sang each other’s sacred music.

“They’re not getting together in a room and working out things diplomatically,” Harper said. “but what they’ve done is built relationship and rebuilt trust from the very smallest unit of trust that they could muster, which is common need.”

I think back to 2011 when I attended a Bible conference on Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and witnessed baptisms in the Black Sea. Christian composer Konstantin Zhugulin, a Russian, led worship and introduced the crowd to some of his own, beautiful compositions in his language. Such exchanges seem unthinkable now, but perhaps someday music will once again be a tool God uses to restore shalom among our brothers and sisters in Eastern Europe. 

Konstantin Zhigulin, a church member in St. Petersburg, Russia, leads singing at an evangelistic seminar in Crimea in 2011.

This principle doesn’t just apply to Croats and Serbs or Ukrainians and Russians, Harper said. It can work in places like New York City or Minneapolis to bring healing among people in tension. Focusing on problems like poverty can build bridges among people of multiple, divergent faiths.

When people stop seeing each other as “other” and work toward a common goal, they can actually help heal the earth. Look no further than the sunflower. 

Sasha Prokopchuk baptizes and hugs a Bible student in the Black Sea during a 2011 conference in Crimea.

After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 in Ukraine, the Soviet Union began massive containment and cleanup operations that ultimately cost thousands of lives. Soldiers roamed the abandoned streets of the industrial town of Pripyat shooting housepets that were infected by radiation. Grim.

The Soviets also planted vast fields of sunflowers in the lands around Chernobyl. It turns out that Ukraine’s national symbol is a hyperaccumulator of dangerous heavy metals, including the cesium-137 and strontium-90 found in the soil near the reactor. 

Sunflowers bloom in the Kherson region of Ukraine.

“Planting sunflowers will not suddenly solve all of your nuclear nightmares,” writes Max Barnhart, a researcher at the University of Georgia, “but the flowers do something pretty cool to help clean up the environment.”

In the search for shalom, it’s all about the “pretty cool,” the tiny steps, the “very smallest unit of trust,” as Harper put it. 

May we all have faith as small as a sunflower seed.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn money from qualifying purchases made through the links on this page.

Union and Confederate, Black and White, slave and free — all gathered in the one-room meetinghouse on a summer day in 1862 to hear a gospel sermon preached by Union Brig. Gen. James Garfield.

“The only way that you can have that kind of union is in Christ,” said Chris Pressnell, a member of the board overseeing the Mooresville Church of Christ restoration project and preacher for the Flint Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala.

Two decades later, Garfield would become president of the restored Union — the only U.S. head of state with ties to Churches of Christ. He was a preacher associated with the Disciples of Christ, who at that time did not distinguish themselves from Churches of Christ within the broader Restoration Movement.

The historic Mooresville church building is undergoing restoration.

Before his visit to Mooresville, Garfield had participated in the Battle of Shiloh — an important Union victory in southwestern Tennessee — and subsequent siege of Corinth, Miss. He then led his brigade to repair the railroad between Corinth and Decatur, Ala., before camping in north Alabama, near Mooresville. Preacher and historian Earl Kimbrough documented the timeline in The Alabama Restoration Journal.

While soldiers made supply raids into the town — now on the National Register of Historic Places — the Mooresville church sent an invitation to Garfield.

“There is a church in the village of Mooresville near by and they have sent up inviting me to speak to them on Sunday. If I am not too unwell I have a notion to speak to them.”

It was likely written by J.H. Hundley, who helped found the congregation and had three sons fighting for the Confederacy.

Garfield wrote to his wife in a letter that historians date to July 5, 1862, “There is a church in the village of Mooresville near by and they have sent up inviting me to speak to them on Sunday. If I am not too unwell I have a notion to speak to them.”

A statue of James A. Garfield stands outside the Capitol in Washington. An inscription on the reverse side reads “Major General U-S-V (United States Volunteers), Member of Congress, Senator and President of the United States of America.”

According to the story handed down by generations of Mooresville members, Garfield was well enough to come preach to the 25-member church. He brought a small detail with him from his brigade, which would have likely included 1,000 or more soldiers.

The congregational Bible from which the general may have preached — along with other church artifacts — is conserved by board member John Bryson. He preached for Mooresville from 1988 until the congregation stopped meeting nearly a decade later. Bryson’s wife, Terri, also has deep familial ties to the church.

The history of a historic church

Hundley, a doctor and slave owner, began reading the writings of Walter Scott, an early Restoration Movement figure, in 1839.

After becoming convinced he needed to be immersed in baptism for the remission of sins, he wrote to a Church of Christ 50 miles west in Tuscumbia, Ala. Christians there sent an evangelist, Carroll Kendrick, to preach in Mooresville.

A historic photo shows the original Mooresville Church of Christ meetinghouse, prior to the addition of a vestibule and side wings.

Within a year, a congregation of 70 formed. They met in the only church building in town, a “free house of worship” for all religious groups, according to historian C. Wayne Kilpatrick.

But after several years, a group of Presbyterians shut out the Church of Christ from assembling there. The congregation continued meeting in members’ homes until 1854, when they had enough resources to build a new one-room meeting place.

Floor markings indicate where a picket line likely would have separated slaves worshiping at the Mooresville church.

The church shared the building with two fraternal organizations, the Odd Fellows and Sons of Temperance, who helped fund its construction.

There’s evidence of a picketed area where Hundley’s slaves and perhaps others would have stood and worshiped — unusual at a time when Black slaves were often fully segregated from White worshipers.

The Mooresville church’s bell tower has been inaccessible for some time. Based on old photos, a weathervane formerly sat atop it.

There’s also an inaccessible bell tower, as well as signs of a second floor and staircase that may have existed at some point. Around 1937, two small wings were added on either side of the sanctuary.

Various visiting evangelists preached gospel meetings at the Mooresville church and helped convert more residents, including some influential community members and several members of the Presbyterian church. A prominent preacher in Churches of Christ, T.B. Larimore, held a meeting there in 1877.

An attendance board documents the church’s final meeting.

Mooresville never gained a full-time preacher, but the congregation endured faithfully for more than 150 years.

Its meeting place now stands as the oldest Church of Christ building on its original foundation in the state, Pressnell told The Christian Chronicle.

Preserving the wood — and the story

After the church closed its doors in 1997, having dwindled to about 15 worshipers, some of the former members kept a financial account to maintain the property. Eventually, they appointed a board of trustees to oversee the historic building.

Randy Jenkins, a member of the Chase Park Church of Christ in Huntsville, Ala., recalled how he became involved. Jenkins met the late Fred Boseck, a sixth-generation member of the Mooresville church, through the Diana Singing, an annual a cappella gathering in Tennessee that Jenkins directs.

Randy Jenkins and Chris Pressnell, board members overseeing the Mooresville Church of Christ property, stand in front of the historic meetinghouse.

Boseck persuaded Jenkins, a self-described lover of old buildings, to come look at the Mooresville building with several others in the 2000s.

“As we walked in the door, he handed us the key and said, ‘You’re a board member now,’” Jenkins recalled with a chuckle. “So I sort of got hooked into it.” Jenkins, Pressnell and Bryson are the three remaining original board members, along with four additions.

In the past six years, the board has sought to restore the “gem of church history,” as Pressnell called it.

Restoration of the building’s exterior, including foundation and roof repairs, is mostly complete. Repair and restoration of the interior — including the ceiling, walls, floors and lighting — to its original look is underway, with help from a $75,000 grant from the Alabama Historical Commission.

The original 19th-century pews and floors remain in the Mooresville church building.

Hoping for some volunteer labor from area churches, board members estimate they’ll need an additional $70,000 to complete renovations.

That will involve updating the electrical system, adding heating and cooling, replacing windows, repairing siding and renovating the bathrooms in one of the side wings. It will also entail landscaping, painting and other exterior finishes, as well as erecting a historical marker.

Much of the interior of the sanctuary was gutted for restoration work.

But it’s not just about “preserving the wood,” Pressnell said. “We just want to preserve the story.

“We want to know, how can we all be unified? Well, they did that,” the minister added. “They brought unity with people from all different backgrounds, and the one common thread was Christ.”

Old photos and paintings of the Mooresville church sit atop the congregation’s original podium.

Even since the congregation disbanded, Christians have held occasional singings at the Mooresville church. With the restoration, board members hope to continue that tradition, as well as host gospel meetings and a regular worship service once a month for the community of about 50 residents.

They also intend to rent out the property as a wedding venue and use proceeds to fund future maintenance. Even then, the history of the place may preach its own gospel sermon.

An old, deteriorated sign for the Mooresville Church of Christ sits in storage in a side room.

“There are going to be people that walk through here that are going to read about (how) this is a church that wanted to go back to the Bible,” Pressnell said, “and have the Bible as their guide.”

A benefit singing for the Mooresville Church of Christ restoration project will be held at the Madison Church of Christ on May 15. To donate, visit mooresvillecocbuilding.org.

CALVIN COCKRELL is Managing Editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

Featured image (above): Aaron Howard, assistant professor of ethics and reconciliation at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., leads the Lipscomb Gospel Choir.

MISSOURI

ROLLA — Scammers defrauded Americans over age 60 of at least $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Some victims have lost their life savings to this “elder fraud,” said Jeff McKune, an elder of the Rolla Church of Christ.

Jeff McKune

To combat these crimes, the Rolla church has developed scenario-based training to help educate the elderly and their families about the different approaches and scams that are often used.

Investment scams, imposter scams, romance scams, tech support scams and lottery scams are among the most common cons — with perpetrators often contacting their targets via social media.

The program, developed by church members familiar with cybersecurity, includes 16 scenarios.

The course is available free of charge via the church’s website, and church leaders hope to share it with other congregations, civic groups and senior organizations.

McKune also believes the training could be used as part of a seminar that churches could organize to reach out to their communities.

“This is just a huge problem, and our church family wants to help in this fight,” he said.

ACCESS THE TRAINING program at seekgrowservelove.org/eftraining.

TENNESSEE

NASHVILLE — Lipscomb University has received a $250,000 grant from the Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life and Faith.

The funds will support a national initiative designed to educate, connect and sustain collegiate gospel choirs across the nation. It’s called “Joyful Noise in the Wilderness: A Collegiate Gospel Choir Network and Conference.”

Aaron Howard, assistant professor of ethics and reconciliation in Lipscomb’s College of Bible and Ministry and founding director of the Lipscomb Gospel Choir, leads the project. It will culminate in a three-day collegiate gospel choir conference hosted at Lipscomb in October.

“Gospel music has always been a powerful vehicle for faith, resilience and hope, yet many people are unaware of how deeply it continues to be nurtured within colleges and universities,” Howard said. “This grant allows us to build a national network of collegiate gospel choir directors and students who can encourage one another, exchange resources and celebrate the beauty and significance of this music together.”

The conference will feature a live recording with a 150- to 200-voice mass choir of students from universities across the U.S. The project also will include the development of a nationwide network of collegiate gospel choir directors who will convene monthly in virtual sessions. In addition, the project will result in an album being recorded and an accompanying songbook published.

NEWSMAKERS

BAPTIZED — SEMAZHAE ALFORD of the Millington Church of Christ in Tennessee. CARTER AUXIER and LOGAN BENNETT of the Paintsville Church of Christ in Kentucky. MONICA BROWN, JADE MAYBERRY and JUSTIN MCKINNEY of the Palm Beach Lakes Church of Christ in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. PATRICIA ISAACS of the Blue Springs Church of Christ  in Mount Vernon, Ky. P. MAYWEATHER of the Dallas West Church of Christ in Texas. LANE SATTRE of the North MacArthur Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. CHAD VAN SCHALKWYK of the Athlone Church of Christ in Cape Town, South Africa. KAMI WOODY of the Sunset Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. ABBY ZAHRNDT of the Piedmont Road Church of Christ in Marietta, Ga.

Brooke Landes, Gail Heiderich and Lee Williams

SENT — BROOKE LANDES has committed to work with a Church of Christ in Eindhoven, Netherlands, for two years through the Helpers in Missions program of the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. She is a 2025 graduate of Oklahoma Christian University.

HONORED — GAIL HEIDERICH is the namesake of a new, annual award presented by NationsUniversity, an accredited, online univerity associated with Churches of Christ. The Gail Heiderich Spiritual Formation Award honors the former missionary to Brazil and alumna of NationsUniversity. LEE WILLIAMS for his years of service as an elder of the Oakland Church of Christ in Southfield, Mich. “Brother Lee has faithfully served with generosity, wisdom and a servant’s heart,” church members said. “His impact reaches far beyond Oakland and has touched the broader metro Detroit Church of Christ family in meaningful ways.”

Josh Ross and Karen López

NAMED — LARRY G. AUTREY, JACK RICH and JOSH ROSS to the board of trustees of Abilene Christian University in Texas. BRANDON BABITZKE and DON BRANSCUM, elders of the Crosstown Church of Christ in Tulsa, Okla. JANET DONALDSON, vice president for research and LEE ANNE PARIS, dean of library services and educational technology for Abilene Christian University. DR. KAREN LÓPEZ, dentist for the James Moody Adams Clinic at Baxter Institute, a ministry training school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, associated with Churches of Christ. SCOTT SIMPSON, director of development for Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver. REED SUTTON, athletic director for Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala. MARCUS T. WATKINS to the board of the Andrew J. Hairston Liberian Missions Foundation Inc. Watson is minister for the Simpson Street Church of Christ in Atlanta and the successor to Andrew Hairston, who died in early 2025. The foundation supports Wells-Hairston High School in Monrovia, Liberia.

That same day, Lanier confronted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a quote from a 2018 internal presentation at Instagram, which Meta owns: “If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.”

“And yet you say that we would never do that,” Lanier said.

Lanier, who grew up in the pews of the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas, is at the center of a landmark case alleging that websites and apps such as Instagram and Facebook are addictive and harmful for young users, especially teens. The trial in California Superior Court, Los Angeles County, is a test case for thousands more.

The plaintiff is a 19-year-old California woman, identified as K.G.M., who says she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design, Reuters reports. Lanier, a renowned trial lawyer, author and preacher, represents K.G.M., who alleges social media apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts. Her case is part of a consolidated group of cases representing thousands of plaintiffs, collectively known as JCCP 5255.

Lanier, lead trial counsel for K.G.M.’s legal team, is one of at least two attorneys with ties to Churches of Christ representing the plaintiff. Co-lead counsel Joseph VanZandt of the Beasley Allen Law Firm is a deacon of the University Church of Christ in Montgomery, Ala.

Mark Lanier

Lanier earned an undergraduate degree in Bible from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., which is associated with Churches of Christ. Among his mentors were scholars of ancient language Clyde Miller, Rodney Cloud and Harvey Floyd.

“I wanted to either preach or be a lawyer,” Lanier said in a 2020 interview with The Christian Chronicle. Law school, he decided, would allow him to do both. He returned to Lubbock and earned his juris doctorate from Texas Tech. 

As a trial attorney, he built a reputation as a zealous advocate for clients in personal injury and product liability cases. In 1990 he founded the Lanier Law Firm, which has offices in Houston, New York and Los Angeles. He also founded the Christian Trial Lawyers Association and serves on Lipscomb’s board of trustees.

He founded the Lanier Theological Library, a 17,000-square-foot research facility in Houston containing more than 100,000 volumes on subjects from biblical archaeology to linguistics. The library’s learning center, completed in 2023, has hosted the Thomas H. Olbricht Christian Scholars’ Conference, an annual gathering of academics including Bible faculty from universities associated with Churches of Christ.

Attendees of the Christian Scholars’ Conference mingle at the Lanier Theological Library in 2023.

VanZandt earned undergraduate and law degrees from Faulkner University in Montgomery, which also is associated with Churches of Christ. He serves on the board of directors of Agape of Central Alabama and Alabama Christian Academy. He played a lead role in his congregation’s involvement with mission work in the South American nation of Guyana, said Scott Latham, an elder of the University church.

Joseph VanZandt

“This is going to be one of the most impactful litigations of our lifetime,” VanZandt, said last year, according to a report in Claims Journal. “This is about large corporations targeting vulnerable populations — children — for profit. That’s what we saw with the tobacco companies; they were also targeting adolescents and trying to get them addicted while they were young.”

In a recent interview with CNN, Lanier compared the addictive properties of social media apps to those of cigarettes and opiates.

“The companies did this, and they did this for money,” Lanier said of Meta and other tech giants. “That’s our allegation.”

Attorneys for Meta argue that the social media apps have guardrails in place to prevent young children from creating accounts or accessing sensitive information.

In a clip from “TODAY,” Mark Lanier prays on the steps of a Los Angeles courtroom with families who say that social media has harmed or contributed to the deaths of their children.

A statement posted on Meta’s website reads: “Despite the snippets of conversations or cherry-picked quotes that plaintiffs’ counsel may use to paint an intentionally misleading picture of the company, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, we stand by our record of putting teen safety first, and we’ll keep making improvements.”

The trial is expected to last about six weeks. 

The father of Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald — whose team defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 — developed kidney disease after battling hypertension for years.

The diagnosis came as a surprise to the 76-year-old Army veteran, a 1971 graduate of West Point, after a nephrologist had assured him not to worry about his kidneys.

But in summer 2024 — three years after retiring from a successful civilian career in tech sales and consulting — Macdonald got the terrible news. The doctor told him to start preparing for dialysis and a kidney transplant.

It was “just like a two-by-four hit me in the side of the head,” said Macdonald, a longtime member of the Northlake Church of Christ in Tucker, Ga.

As he waited nearly another year for treatments to begin, Sabrina, Macdonald’s wife of 18 years, watched his health continue to decline.

Hugh and Sabrina Macdonald

“I just kept thinking, well, how sick does he have to be?” recalled Sabrina, a former investment manager and graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.

As Hugh began searching for a kidney donor, a friend he’d met as an Army engineer officer, retired Army Col. Richard Donohue, told him about DOVE. The organization helps find donors for veterans in need of kidney transplants and facilitate the donation process.

At the same time, a neighbor and friend, Lynn Walker Gendusa, wrote about Hugh in a column that appeared in several Georgia news outlets.

“My dad is just such a steadying force. Talk about high character, high integrity, a right and wrong way to go about things.”

The Seahawks also published a story about him on their website. In it, Hugh’s son, Mike, noted his father’s selflessness and humility.

“My dad is just such a steadying force,” Mike said. “Talk about high character, high integrity, a right and wrong way to go about things.”

Hugh Macdonald poses with his son, Mike, and other family members after the Seattle Seahawks’ NFC Championship win over the Los Angeles Rams.

Because of Hugh’s character, he made clear to Gendusa and the Seahawks — and The Christian Chronicle — that he wanted to use his connections to help his fellow veterans, not himself.

“There’s a bunch of guys out there, a bunch of ladies and guys who are veterans, who have a higher probability of kidney disease … that need donors,” he said.

Finding a match

By summer 2025, Hugh hadn’t gotten a match. However, the Macdonalds knew two Northlake church members were beginning the testing process.

One of them, Samantha Harris, a 40-year-old nurse, also served with Sabrina on the board of the Decatur Church of Christ Senior Housing nonprofit, which operates two affordable senior housing communities in the Atlanta area. The Northlake church was known as the Decatur Church of Christ before it moved to its current location.

Hugh Macdonald with his kidney donor, Samantha Harris.

Still, the Macdonalds tried not to get their hopes up. Several potential donors, including family members, had already been disqualified.

But Harris kept pushing through the “very intensive” process, as Sabrina described it.

“Every time something came back — like if a piece of the lab work wasn’t quite where it needed to be — she would say, ‘Well, you know, the lab must have made a mistake. We’ll do that one again,’” Sabrina recalled, her voice breaking with emotion.

“If a piece of the lab work wasn’t quite where it needed to be — she would say, ‘Well, you know, the lab must have made a mistake. We’ll do that one again.’”

At the end of September, Harris and Hugh were approved for the transplant surgery, which was quickly scheduled for a couple weeks later.

After the operation, Hugh’s improvement was stark and immediate, though for several months his travel was limited mostly to home and the transplant clinic.

“Incrementally from one week to the next, you could see he was feeling better and better,” Sabrina said. “And after about two months, he was just bursting with how well he felt compared to how he had felt before.”

Holding the Lombardi

The Macdonalds were anticipating Hugh’s three-month milestone in early January, when he got the all-clear to travel domestically.

The next day, the Macdonalds traveled out of state for a memorial service for Hugh’s brother-in-law, Bill Limbacher.

And just a week later, they flew to Seattle for the Seahawks’ first playoff game on Jan. 17. The Macdonalds hadn’t planned it that way — at the time of the surgery, they didn’t even know the team would make it to the playoffs in just Mike’s second year as head coach.

Hugh Macdonald holds the Lombardi Trophy with his son, Mike, who led his team to win Super Bowl LX.

“The timing was incredible,” Hugh noted.

In a few more weeks, Hugh and Sabrina cheered on Mike and his Seahawks from a suite with the coach’s family at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., as Seattle conquered the Patriots 29-13. Hugh got to hold the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the Super Bowl champions’ award, with his son.

Hugh is “over the moon” with pride for Mike — even as a Massachusetts native who used to cheer for the Patriots.

“I’m just walking around with a smile on my face all the time. … It is such a juxtaposition against what it was like a year ago.”

“I mean, how blessed can you be?” Hugh remarked. “I’m just walking around with a smile on my face all the time. … It is such a juxtaposition against what it was like a year ago.”

Sabrina brags on her stepson, too, whom she describes as “ a replica of his father in all the best ways.”

Hugh Macdonald holds the Lombardi Trophy with his wife, Sabrina, after the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory. Sabrina had broken her foot traveling to the team’s first playoff game.

Hugh is also proud of his son’s faith — and that of his two daughters: Kate Reinmiller, who leads sales for an AI company, and Maggie Newell, a stunt actor and director who’s worked on “The Last of Us.”

After his Super Bowl win, Mike told reporters, “I believe God called me to be a coach, and I listened to him. And I thank him.”

Thanking God — and ‘Sam’

Hugh said his own faith helped sustain him through his health crisis.

“It’s a foundation — you just rely on it,” he said. “You just fall back on your faith. You really do. And I always said (to God), ‘Hey, you know, whatever you have planned is OK with me.’”

Hugh’s brothers and sisters in Christ at Northlake were invaluable too, he emphasized.

“It’s been months and months and months of prayers and reaching out and asking how you’re doing and being very, very supportive — just incredible, incredible people,” he said.

The Macdonalds have become good friends with Hugh’s donor, Samantha Harris, and her husband, Ben.

And the Macdonalds have grown close to Hugh’s donor, Samantha Harris, and her husband, Ben.

“I’ll talk till I’m blue in my face about how sweet this lady is. … She’s got a heart of gold,” Hugh said.

Samantha Harris, a nurse, sports a Seahawks cap in support of the Macdonalds.

He named his kidney “Sam” in her honor. “We talk about Sam every once in a while, how Sam’s doing,” Hugh added with a laugh.

Sabrina expressed her appreciation for Samantha, too.

“With God’s help, she saved my husband’s life,” Sabrina said. “She and her husband are part of our family now.”

“The whole process of being able to keep people alive and then to transplant — I mean, that’s a miracle.”

Hugh and Sabrina both describe his experience as a miracle.

“The whole process of being able to keep people alive and then to transplant — I mean, that’s a miracle,” Hugh said. “So, you know, all of a sudden, your faith is strengthened, because these are miracles out here.”

Sabrina added, “You hear a lot of times words like ‘amazing’ and ‘miracle’ thrown around willy-nilly, and this has really been a miracle to witness up close and personal.”

TO FIND OUT MORE about becoming a kidney donor, visit dovetransplant.org.

CALVIN COCKRELL is Managing Editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at calvin@christianchronicle.org.

Eager to lead souls to Jesus and refocus Christians’ hearts and minds on that mission, a group of preacher friends decided to gather.

This is part of a series exploring the identity of Churches of Christ. Read more here.

“It was just going to be a few guys together, and then more people heard about it: ‘Well, can I come, too?’” said Rick Atchley, senior minister for The Hills Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas, northeast of Fort Worth.

Thus developed a hastily arranged two-day meeting last year that drew about 300 ministers, leaders and spouses to the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock.

“There’s something that happens when people get on the same page,” said Tiffany Malone, a member of ReMission’s vision team and a church planter with her husband, Jerome, in Athens, Ala. “You can begin to see the seeds of that … forming as God is doing something really, really amazing.”

Those seeds led to a second annual conference in Arkansas’ largest city — with nearly double the first-year attendance.

Tiffany Malone is a member of ReMission’s vision team.

In all, 586 people from 168 congregations in 23 states came together on a recent Monday and Tuesday.

More than 650 registered in advance, but ice storms disrupted travel plans for some Christians in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Mississippi.

The Pleasant Valley church again hosted ReMission. Attendees included the Bible deans of seven universities associated with Churches of Christ.

“It may have been an historic session,” Leonard Allen, dean of the College of Ministry and Bible at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., said of the deans’ panel discussion. “At least I’ve not heard of such an event in my lifetime.”

Speaking on a panel at ReMission are, from left, Jeff Cary of Lubbock Christian University in Texas; Monte Cox of Harding University in Searcy, Ark.; Carson Reed of Abilene Christian University in Texas; Jeremie Beller of Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City; Garrett Best of York University in Nebraska; Leonard Allen of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.; and Dyron Daughrity of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

Only ones going to heaven?

Twenty-first century Churches of Christ — roughly 10,000 autonomous congregations in the United States — trace their modern-day roots to the Restoration Movement of the early 1800s.

The movement, strongly identified with Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, emphasized a mantra of “Christians only, but not the only Christians.”

Related: The road to ReMission

Stone and Campbell, both ordained Presbyterian clergymen, sought to unite Christians by abandoning denominations and relying solely on the Bible.

Still, Churches of Christ have struggled with legalism and sectarianism.

“I’m of a generation that some of you can remember,” Atchley told the ReMission crowd. “I grew up in Churches of Christ, and I grew up in a church that some of you grew up in: We were the only ones going to heaven, and most of us were in trouble.”

The audience laughed knowingly.

“The Scriptures led me to understand his grace,” the Texas minister said, referring to Jesus, “and I’m not in that place anymore. I’ve left that sectarianism, and all of you have, too.

“But here’s what I think — at least in my generation — happened,” he added. “We moved from ‘We’re the only ones going to heaven’ to ‘No one’s going to hell.’ When we made that move, we lost our mission.”

Rick Atchley, senior minister for The Hills Church of Christ in North Richland Hills, Texas, makes a point during the ReMission conference.

‘Mission drift’

Jonathan Storment, Pleasant Valley’s preaching minister, echoed Atchley’s concern that battles over issues unrelated to Christianity’s core purpose have contributed to thousands of churches closing.

“I do think our fellowship has had a significant mission drift,” Storment told The Christian Chronicle. “I do believe that the core mission of the church is to make disciples who make disciples and to reach people who are far from God. We have settled for lots of smaller, more insignificant missions over the last couple of decades.”

ReMission brought together Churches of Christ deemed progressive — in terms of praise styles and women’s roles — as well as more traditional congregations with exclusively a cappella singing and male worship leaders.

Jonathan Storment, preaching minister for the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, Ark., addresses the crowd at ReMission.

The conference touts a theology “rooted in historic, Christ-centered faith and shaped by the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Jason Thompson serves as the executive minister for the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tenn., south of Nashville.

Thompson welcomed ReMission attendees and shared fond memories of growing up in a small congregation in the backwoods of Georgia.

Baptized at age 10, he and his cousin Deana would “play church” after worship on Sunday, he recalled.

“We almost had a church split because Deana wanted to be the preacher, and I was the preacher,” he said to laughter. “And then we also wanted to be with our deacons. So we would go out to her carport and take out our candy cigarettes.

“But hear me,” he added. “All my life I have known the presence of God because of that little country church that sang ‘O Why Not Tonight?’ on Sunday mornings. The man you’re looking at had three parents: a mama, a daddy and a church.”

Jason Thompson, executive minister for the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tenn., welcomes attendees to ReMission.

Moving beyond squabbles

Speakers and attendees alike expressed a love for their heritage in Churches of Christ while conveying a desire to move beyond divisive squabbles.

ReMission featured a cappella singing led by the racially diverse group United Voice Worship.

Praise times mixed hymns such as “Our God, He Is Alive” — the unofficial national anthem of Churches of Christ — with contemporary Christian hits like “Gratitude” and “Holy Forever.”

Jeremie Beller, dean of the College of Bible at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, said he welcomes ReMission’s focus on what unites Christians.

Next year’s conference is already set for Feb. 8-9 at The Park Church of Christ in Tulsa, Okla.

“I think culturally and even in the church, we have often started with observing our differences,” said Beller, who worships with the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. “That has prevented us from having meaningful dialogue and conversation. We assume the worst in people and seem to have lost the ability to sit at tables with people.”

Micah Kennedy sings with United Voice Worship during the ReMission conference in Little Rock, Ark. Kennedy serves as the associate worship minister for the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tenn.

Among the shared values cited by ReMission organizers: a commitment to reconciliation and unity in the body of Christ, an orthodox view of sexuality and an authoritative view of Scripture.

Scott Meyer, senior minister for the Western Hills Church of Christ in Temple, Texas, said “the sense of guys that were passionate about the local church, passionate about Scripture and passionate about reaching people for Jesus” inspired him to make the 450-mile trip.

“That fervor, that energy, that camaraderie, that support, that encouragement — it was lightning in a bottle,” he said of what he experienced.

“That fervor, that energy, that camaraderie, that support, that encouragement — it was lightning in a bottle.”

Opposition has arisen within some circles of Christianity to the orthodox view of sexuality as reserved for marriage between one man and one woman.

“I was feeling like I was in a minority of ministers who were still holding on to those core beliefs,” Meyer said. “This was a gathering of like-minded people who said, ‘No, we still hold on to that, too.’”

Sierra Gustafson, children’s minister for the Levy Church of Christ in North Little Rock, said she appreciates the “eclectic group” of voices represented.

“Just having a place where we can all come together and just be in conversation is critical,” Gustafson said.

Connecting with other leaders who desire to reach lost souls — but struggle with it — heartened Robin Gough, preaching minister for the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

“To hear that other people are in the same boat has been really, really encouraging,” Gough said.

Ministers, including Chris Seidman (in red), pray during a connection time at ReMission. To the right of Seidman are Rick Atchley, Josh Ross and Evertt Huffard,

‘Good old Church of Christ’

Preaching minister Nathan Burrow and college minister Zachary McCartney from the Hillcrest Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas, led a session on transformation in a traditional church setting.

“You don’t have to have … the attractional church model where everything is super produced,” McCartney said. “You can have it with a good old Church of Christ.”

Nathan Burrow, preaching minister for the Hillcrest Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas, talks about what ReMission has meant to him. Also on stage to talk about the conference are Tiffany Malone, Jason Thompson and Matt Paden.

Not long ago, Hillcrest had a reputation as the Abilene church where one’s grandparents would go, Burrow said. That’s still the case in many ways.

Zachary McCartney serves as the college minister for the Hillcrest Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.

But the congregation has grown through a reliance on the Holy Spirit and evangelistic outreach, the ministers said.

Baptizing homeless people, drug addicts and former inmates — and walking alongside them in their faith journey — has helped push Hillcrest’s average Sunday attendance over 700.

McCartney believes concerns about legalism in Churches of Christ led to an “antinomian, everything goes” approach to faith.

“What I saw in ReMission,” McCartney told the Chronicle, “was a group of ministers who were saying, ‘Hey, we need to refocus on saving souls and doing things that churches are all about rather than pursuing social justice or political conservatism or political progressivism.’

“It was, ‘We’re trying to get back to the basics,’ and I thought that was worth pursuing.”

Serena Coles sings with United Voice Worship at the ReMission conference.

What is truth?

Atchley preaches for the nation’s largest Church of Christ, which has typical Sunday attendance of about 6,000 scattered across four campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Abilene Christian University and served for five years on the West Texas university’s board of trustees.

Atchley moderated the panel discussion with the Bible deans.

Besides Lipscomb’s Allen and Oklahoma Christian’s Beller, scholars represented were Garrett Best of York University in Nebraska; Jeff Cary of Lubbock Christian University in Texas; Monte Cox of Harding University in Searcy, Ark.; Dyron Daughrity of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.; and ACU’s Carson Reed.

Three Christian university presidents — Oklahoma Christian’s Ken Jones, Harding’s Mike Williams and Nations University’s John Baxter — attended ReMission but did not speak on the panel.

“I’ve always been very, very, very proud of the scholarship represented by our Christian universities, especially in the area of Bible,” Atchley told the deans.

Josh Ross, lead minister for the Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, Tenn., prays for Christian university deans at ReMission. PIctured are Monte Cox of Harding University in Searcy, Ark., and Carson Reed of Abilene Christian University in Texas.

“When I was in school, back in the Dark Ages, things like the authority of Scripture or commitment to orthodox sexuality … these were unquestioned,” he added. “It was not even in the realm of possibility that a teacher would have taught me differently. … Well, times have changed.”

Now, many students and some faculty members would hold a different view, he noted.

Two years ago, a battle erupted at ACU over traditional vs. affirming views on same-sex relationships. The university’s board unanimously reconfirmed its policy calling for chastity outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

Related: ACU reaffirms its sexual stewardship policy

Harding unveiled a comprehensive new statement of faith this past fall. All faculty and staff must adhere to it, including the belief “that human sexuality is God’s gift governed by the biblical boundaries for individuals and of marriage between one woman and one man.”

Atchley asked the deans to discuss the challenge of Christian higher education at a time of cultural change.

“At Lipscomb … we’ve noticed over the last 10 years that we are getting more and more and more students who come to us not dogmatic and narrow and fundamentalist in their beliefs,” Allen said. “Faculty used to take pride in upending those people.”

Rather, the students arrive with a fragile or even ignorant faith, he said.

“More and more, our main challenge is to ground them in the faith,” Allen said.

ACU’s Reed agreed with Allen and said students increasingly see themselves as “the autonomous judge of what truth will be.”

“The authority is not Scripture,” Reed said of that worldview. “It’s not a church. It’s not an institution. It’s not a university. It’s not the government. It’s me. I get to decide what is truth, and that’s variable from day to day.”

An overhead view of the crowd at the ReMission conference in Little Rock, Ark.

Other topics covered during the hourlong panel ranged from closing the gap between real-life ministry and academic theory to the need for churches to produce outreach-minded young people.

“The few Bible majors that I have at York that are excited about mission, that are, like, actually disciple making, they don’t come from Churches of Christ,” Best said.

“So if you’re asking, what can you do to support us?” he added. “It’s to send us students who are excited to be Bible disciple makers.”

“So if you’re asking, what can you do to support us? It’s to send us students who are excited to be Bible disciple makers.”

‘First-generation Christians’

In an interview with the Chronicle, Storment — the Pleasant Valley church’s preacher — said he grew up in a 10-person non-institutional congregation.

“They took out a loan for me to go to Harding. So always, these are my people,” he said of Churches of Christ.

The world, Storment said, “feels more fragile and broken and hurting than ever before” in his lifetime.

Attendees pray for each other during the ReMission conference in Little Rock, Ark.

“I think the question is, does the church have a gospel word for the world still?” he said. “I think we do.”

He points to the Pleasant Valley church.

The growing Arkansas congregation averages a combined attendance of about 950 at its two Sunday services.

“We’re seeing people come to faith — first-generation Christians — over and over again,” Storment said. “We baptized Charles Darwin’s great-great grandson a little over a year ago. One of our greeters here is a woman named Rikka, who grew up in faith as a Muslim, and she came to faith in Jesus two years ago.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Little Rock to report this story. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

On a chilly Wednesday morning, a little more than 100 hearty souls carefully made their way into Freed-Hardeman University’s Dryden Auditorium. K.J. Moore, a minister for the Katy Church of Christ in Texas, led a song before university President David Shannon talked about the early church described in the book of Acts. 

Christians, even those baptized decades ago, can learn a lot from that 2,000-year-old church, Shannon said. 

K.J. Moore leads an opening hymn at Freed-Hardeman’s Spiritual Growth Workshop.

“Everybody here has room to grow tremendously,” he said. “Will you grow spiritually?”

The topic, timing and attendance were vastly different from what organizers planned for the university’s 90th annual Bible lectureship. But a brutal, late January ice storm forced a change in the program. For the first time since 1994, the university postponed its full-scale lectureship until next year and offered instead what officials jokingly referred to as “lectureship 89.5,” a three-day Spiritual Growth Workshop, presented online and in person for those able to make the trip.

@christianchronicle HENDERSON, TENN. — Keith Harris, incoming president of Freed-Hardeman University, leads “We Shall Assemble” during the 2026 Spiritual Growth Workshop. The university, which is associated with Churches of Christ, replaced its 90 annual Bible Lectureship with the workshop in the aftermath of a record-breaking ice storm. The event continues through Feb. 6. #freedhardeman #spiritualgrowth #bibleworkshop #churchofchrist ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

Don Reel looked like he’d summited a mountain as he entered the auditorium, bundled up and carrying an ornate walking stick that resembled a wizard’s staff. He and his wife, Carol, traveled 90 miles south from their home in Tiptonville, Tenn., to reach campus. Don, a 1969 FHU graduate, has preached for 50 years and currently ministers for congregations including the Burrus Chapel Church of Christ in West Tennessee. He and Carol rarely miss the lectureship.

Don Reel, left, follows along in the book of Acts as FHU president David Shannon speaks on “Want to Grow Spiritually? Surrender to His Lordship.”

He bought the walking staff for $13 at Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tenn. It’s great for climbing hills and starting conversations,“but it’s no help on ice,” he said with a chuckle. 

Although power outages were brief in Henderson compared to communities to the east, including Nashville, the storm crippled FHU’s campus for more than a week. At one point, the ice was so thick that roads couldn’t be distinguished from sidewalks, Shannon said. The Henderson Church of Christ moved its Jan. 25 worship online and offered a limited afternoon service on Feb. 1, the day the lectureship was to begin.

Attendees carefully make their way from the parking lot to the auditorium at Freed-Hardeman University.

Campus workers, led by director of facilities Shannon Sewell, spent long hours chipping ice away from the auditorium’s stairs and walkways for the event, which began three days after the scheduled lectureship. The workers were heroes “who worked tirelessly through this brutal weather,” said FHU vice president T.J. Kirk, “getting to campus early, often not leaving until late at night, making sure the power stayed on, the heat kept blowing and pipes didn’t freeze.”

During the workshop, Hiram Kemp quoted from a well-known verse, Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” That’s easy to do when the sun is shining, said Kemp, a minister for the Cumberland Trace Church of Christ in Bowling Green, Ky. But Paul’s admonition to the church in Philippi is to rejoice through the ice storms of life as well.

Hiram Kemp speaks on “The Path to Spiritual Maturity” during the Spiritual Growth Workshop at Freed-Hardeman University.

The university’s Wednesday classes were online, as they had been for the past week, and chapel was canceled. Nonetheless, small groups of students made their way to the auditorium to hear Kemp, who spoke during the time slot normally used for chapel.

“Personally, I am an introvert,” said Huey Allen, a freshman business major from Huntsville, Ala. “But as it’s been closed for a long time, and we normally have chapel every day, it is nice to be able to fellowship directly with the saints, to meet them face to face. … That’s something that is really important.”

While cooped up in their dormitories, students caught up on assignments and hosted their own devotionals, said Brooke Wheeler, a junior nursing and Bible major from Houston. 

“But getting together with a lot more people, getting back into it has been really nice,” Wheeler said.

Students (from left) Emily Taylor, Daniel Hamrick, Huey Allen and Brooke Wheeler speak with The Christian Chronicle after a session at the Spiritual Growth Workshop.

The original lectureship’s theme, “Our God, His Kingdom,” focused on the Gospel of Matthew. In contrast, speakers at the Spiritual Growth Workshop pulled from a variety of biblical sources as they discussed spiritual maturity, Christian apologetics, money management and “Growing Even When Prayers Seem Unanswered.”

“I actually enjoyed what they did more,” said Emily Taylor, a junior website design major from Dayton, Tenn., “because it’s a more diverse range of topics.” The focus on Christian growth, in one’s personal life and career, was particularly useful, she added.

Kirk Brothers speaks on “Put ‘Mission’ Back in the ‘Commission'” during the Spiritual Growth Workshop.

Kirk Brothers, president of Heritage Christian University in Florence, Ala., talked about the often-overlooked role of spiritual development in the Great Commission, Jesus’ final words to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. Ministers and missionaries often focus on the first part of the commission, Matthew 28:19, “Go … and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

But the main verb in the passage isn’t “go,” Brothers said. A less-quoted command comes in verse 20, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”

“God built something into the DNA of his people,” Brothers said. Christians are lifelong learners and workers. “A disciple is an apprentice of Jesus who is learning to live like him.”

Doug Burleson thanks guests who made the icy journey to the 2026 Spiritual Growth Workshop at Freed-Hardeman University.

As attendees ate lunch in the university’s dining hall, sunlight broke through the clouds. Streets and sidewalks thawed rapidly over the next two days. In all, the workshop featured 27 speakers and brought in about 500 attendees, said Doug Burleson, assistant dean of FHU’s Bible college and lectureship director. An additional 870 people attended online.

“It was painful to have to pivot away from the lectureship we had spent so much time preparing for,” Burleson said, “and yet we were reminded of what God can do in moments like this. For me, the result of the hastily planned ‘Spiritual Growth Seminar’ was spiritual growth, and for that I am thankful.” 

Josh Ketchum speaks on “Equipping the Saints for the Work of Ministry” during the Spiritual Growth Workshop.

Don Reel shows his walking staff between sessions at the FHU Spiritual Growth Workshop.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

Keith Stanglin, pulpit minister for the University Avenue Church of Christ in Austin, Texas, experienced a jolt himself when he discovered it.

“In the last year or two,” Stanglin told me in an email, “I’ve started watching a little more football (NFL and NCAA) again, after taking a nearly total hiatus for many years. So I easily notice how things have changed (in and around the game). One of the most obvious new changes is the ubiquitous advertising and promoting of online sports betting. I find it shocking and horrible; it angers me.”

Americans are expected to wager a record $1.76 billion legally on Sunday’s Super Bowl LX game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, according to USA Today.

For decades, religious opponents waged battles — albeit often unsuccessfully — to prevent legalized gambling. Nearly a quarter-century ago, I covered the fight over a proposed Tennessee state lottery for The Associated Press.

“Since 47 states have gambling, I would have to think God’s not really against it,” Democratic state Sen. Steve Cohen — Tennessee’s chief lottery proponent, who is now a U.S. congressman — told me in 2002.

Based on that logic, God must really love Americans’ ability to click on a smartphone and wager on a live NBA, MLB or NFL game.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ban on sports betting. That decision opened the floodgates as nearly 40 states rushed to legalize the practice, an AP story noted.

It all happened so quickly — mostly without the fierce religious opposition seen on earlier gambling questions.

Why?

Christianity Today’s Emily Belz’s offered this explanation in a 2024 report:

State-level Christian organizations that tried to fight off the recent legalization of sports betting or put guardrails around it found that there was too much money on the other side of the issue and not much appetite for fighting in the pews.

Few Christians see sports gambling as a problem. A 2016 survey from Lifeway Research found that only 36 percent of Christians thought sports betting was morally wrong. Pastors carry more reservations, with a majority telling Lifeway in 2019 that betting on sports is morally wrong and three-quarters believing it should not be legal.

People responding on social media to critiques of gambling on Desiring God or The Gospel Coalition argued that the authors were being “legalistic” and that betting was no different than investing in the stock market or a 401(k).

Putting bucks on the big game through a few clicks on an app or sports site doesn’t have the social stigma that casino gambling used to carry. The 2020 Gallup figures on the issue showed that 71 percent of Americans said gambling was morally acceptable, the highest level in the 18 years it had done the survey.

But those who continue to be involved in antigambling activism say it’s still harmful.

In a different 2024 story, Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana cited similar reasons “why faith leaders lost the battle against online sports betting.”

Smietana emphasized the speed at which the nearly nationwide defeats occurred:

Some of the nation’s largest faith groups have long considered gambling immoral, or a “menace to society,” as the United Methodist Church social principles put it. But faith leaders like (Baptist pastor Greg) Davis are likely fighting an uphill battle, said longtime Boston College professor and Jesuit priest Richard McGowan.

McGowan, who has been nicknamed “the Odds Father” because of his research on gambling, said faith leaders were caught flatfooted by how fast legalized sports gambling became commonplace.

After New Hampshire started the first state-run lottery in 1964, he said, it took nearly 60 years for 40 other states to follow suit. Legalized sports betting took five years to get that popular — after the Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that limited legal sports betting to Nevada.

Instead of having to jet off to Las Vegas to place a legal bet, in most states, people can pull out their phones and use a popular app like FanDuel or Caesar Sportsbook to place bets on the outcomes of games along with almost anything else that happens in a game.

The ease of legalized betting coincided with what McGowan called “the ethics of tolerance.”

This past fall, Slate’s Molly Olmstead delved into why evangelical gambling critics have “largely gone quiet at the moment the country needs them most.”

Olmstead noted:

To understand why evangelicals appear to have lost their taste for anti-gambling crusades, it’s necessary to first look at the ways the sports betting industry has enfeebled its entire opposition.

This issue cannot be understood properly without an acknowledgement of the bogglingly large sums of money poured into it. DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and other major commercial interests have flooded statehouses with teams of lobbyists who often pitch gambling as a way to fund popular causes, such as scholarships or clean water. And those companies aren’t the only big players: The major sports leagues have seen the potential for their own gain—from increased fan engagement, from official paid partnerships, from media licensing, and from licensing the data sold to sportsbooks—and thrown their support behind the legalization bills. That pivot, a complete turnaround from the industry’s firm opposition to sports betting back in the ’90s, when athletes and league bigwigs testified that betting would corrupt sports, has eliminated one of the last major checks on the gambling industry’s lobbying power. 

Now, 14 percent of U.S. adults say they bet on professional or college sports online, according to AP, with a growing list of sports betting scandals making headlines.

A record $1.76 billion is expected to be wagered on the Super Bowl.

More people seem to be asking if legal sports betting is good or bad for America.

In a Pew Research Center survey last year, 43 percent of U.S. adults said “the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society.” That was up from 34 percent in 2022.

An expert quoted by the Deseret News’ Dennis Romboy detailed his concerns:

“I just feel like this all happened so quickly for people that they didn’t necessarily have a chance to digest what the stakes were, what the dangers were,” said journalist Danny Funt, who chronicled the rise of American sports gambling in a new book titled “Everybody Loses” due out in January.

“It happened so quickly that the gambling industry and their business partners had such a powerful lobby and public platform to assure people that this was, if not neutral, actually a good thing for sports and society.”

Funt said evidence of rising gambling addiction rates and dangers to public health along personal finance issues such as higher bankruptcy rates, less savings and college students tapping into their tuition fund is trickling in.

“All of these studies and research projects are creating a mountain of bad news,” he said. “I would expect those figures (in the poll) to continue to skew toward more concern than optimism as time passes.”

I have an email list that I sometimes use to seek feedback on topics such as this. So in advance of the Super Bowl, I asked about sports betting.

“It’s three will get you five that you don’t get the truth,” one friend replied, using betting parlance for high odds.

To be sure, no one replied to advocate for betting on Sunday’s game. But others shared thoughtful comments.

“For many Christians, the concern isn’t about a single bet — it’s about the cultural shift,” said Aaron Sayles, a member of the Newport News Church of Christ in Virginia.

“Gambling is now accessible 24/7,” added Sayles, who plans to watch the Super Bowl. “It is aggressively marketed. It is statistically addictive. It is financially destructive for millions. It subtly reshapes the heart toward risk, greed and escapism.”

“Gambling is now accessible 24/7. It is aggressively marketed. It is statistically addictive. It is financially destructive for millions. It subtly reshapes the heart toward risk, greed and escapism.”

Kevin Ward, a sports radio program director and an elder of The Park Church of Christ in Tulsa, Okla., said, “People can actually bet on something while the game is going on. I think this has become an epidemic among younger men, especially.

“Because bets are placed in smaller increments, I think a lot of people don’t view it as a big deal,” Ward added. “But then when you look back over time, it likely adds up to the same amount of spending.”

Makenzie Young, youth minister with her husband, Jonathan, for the Eugene Church of Christ in Oregon, said she heard a parent exclaim, “Man, I bet $100 on this game!” at a recent kindergarten basketball scrimmage.

“This was at a game where they don’t even keep score,” Young said.

“We talk about it some with our teens, to which most of them ask why it would be bad to go to Vegas only once,” she added. “I think a lot of people see it as a fun ‘once’ thing to do. But in reality, it’s a waste of resources God has given you, and it gives the devil a potentially huge foothold, in my opinion.”

Mitch East, adult education minister for the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, said online sports gambling preys on men.

“If pornography is a vice that enslaves male libido, online sports betting is a vice that enslaves men’s desire for risk and adventure,” East said. “I will not bet on the Super Bowl, and I never want any access to sports betting apps for me or my kids. I think every Christian parent should be worried if they have sons.”

Jake Perkins, senior minister for the Grace Crossing Church of Christ in Conroe, Texas, said he preached a series last fall called “Raised by a Casino” in which he attempted “to show people how the modern architecture of phone apps is built on the decades-old design of casinos in Vegas and beyond.

“It is definitely a problem,” Perkins said.

“And no, I don’t bet,” he quipped. “I am a preacher. Who has the money to bet?”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Ross writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged, where this piece originally appeared. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

He’ll go back a new creation.

Faiver Alejandro surrendered his life to Jesus in baptism on Jan. 4, a little more than 24 hours after he learned that U.S. forces had attacked his homeland’s capital and seized its president, Nicolás Maduro. The timing was a coincidence, he said. On New Year’s Eve, he made the decision to be immersed.

“If I go back to Venezuela,” he said, “it’s going to be as a different Faiver.”

Lenin Munguia, Hispanic minister for the Waterview Church of Christ, and Venezuelan immigrant Faiver Alejandro speak with The Christian Chronicle in Plano, Texas.

Alejandro spoke with The Christian Chronicle at a Chipotle restaurant in the bustling Dallas suburb of Plano, where he works as a delivery driver. Lenin Munguia, Hispanic minister for the Waterview Church of Christ in nearby Richardson, translated for the new Christian, who started attending the church’s Spanish services in October.

About 10 families at Waterview are from Venezuela, said Munguia, a native of Nicaragua who earned degrees from Baxter Institute in Honduras in 2009 and Harding School of Theology in Memphis, Tenn., in 2014. Between those years, large numbers of Venezuelans had migrated to the Dallas metro, and more followed. These days, Munguia said, he encounters more Venezuelans than Mexicans as he reaches out to the city’s Latinos.

Alejandro and his wife earned university degrees in Venezuela. He worked in industrial security until the economy soured. Then he found work wherever he could, traveling to other parts of Venezuela. His wife texted him photos of their daughter, “and she was wearing pretty much rags,” Alejandro said.

So he looked for more lucrative work in Ecuador, then Peru and then Chile, where his family joined him. He found a good job there, but his father-in-law’s illness brought them back to Venezuela. Low on options, he decided to make the dangerous journey to the U.S.

In Cúcuta, Colombia, Venezuelans walk from the border in 2017.

He crossed the Venezuelan border into Cucutá, Colombia. There, as he slept, one of his traveling companions stole $500 — a third of his money — and disappeared. His brother sent him additional funds, and he made his way north to Panama’s Darién province, a strip of land that connects South and Central America. It’s a wilderness of swamps, dense rainforests, mountains and drug traffickers. Alejandro saw dead bodies along the way — refugees who couldn’t survive the arduous journey.

Missionaries from Alabama walk near the village Torti, Panama, a town close to the country’s El Darién, in 2009.

But “crossing the Darién is nothing compared to crossing Mexico,” he said. There, he walked from sunup to sundown, dodging drug cartels and police who threatened to turn him over to the cartels unless he paid them. Finally, he reached Juárez, just south of El Paso, Texas, and took refuge with a priest who ran a substance abuse recovery program. His weight had dropped from 260 pounds to less than 140. He applied for permission to enter the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, program offered to Venezuelans under the Biden administration.

He made his way to Dallas but struggled to find work. Then the Trump administration ended TPS for Venezuelans. Work became harder to find and shelter harder to afford. Alejandro slept in his car.

Then help came from an unexpected source — a Church of Christ in Valencia, Venezuela. A member there started bringing Alejandro’s son to worship and learned of the immigrant’s plight. The Valencia church’s minister contacted Munguia at the Waterview church, and Munguia reached out to Alejandro.

“I offered to help,” Munguia said, but Alejandro resisted. He was too proud to accept assistance, but he was interested in studying the Bible. “He didn’t want to come to church because of material stuff. He said, ‘You know, I have hit rock bottom in my life. I’ve never been this in need of God.’”

“When Venezuelans or Hispanics turn to God here in the U.S., in my experience, they turn with all their heart.”

Many Latinos come to the U.S. “because they want to have a better financial life,” the minister said. “Sometimes that takes them away from church and God. … They get caught up in the busyness of American society and culture, and once they have what they want — better life and money — they easily forget God.

“So, when Venezuelans or Hispanics turn to God here in the U.S., in my experience, they turn with all their heart.”

Lenin Munguia, Hispanic minister for the Waterview Church of Christ, baptizes Venezuelan immigrant Faiver Alejandro.

That was the case with Alejandro. He studied the Bible with church members, and they found him a place to live. Finally, he decided to be baptized.

“After all the things that he’s been through, he didn’t find God,” Munguia said. “God found him.”

As Venezuela faces a new and uncertain future, Alejandro plans to save up money in the coming months so that he can return and help his homeland rebuild its economy.

More importantly, “I’m committed to continue working for the church,” he said. “I’m 48 years old, so I have told my wife that we cannot waste time any longer because we’re not getting younger. Once I go back, I will stay committed to continue growing in my walk with God.”

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

As the economy sank and political repression rose in their native Venezuela, they made the heartwrenching decision to leave everything and start anew in the U.S. They arrived in South Florida with little money, a few sets of clothes and their faith.

Juan Carlos Martinez, right, prepares to lead Spanish-language Bible class for the West Broward Church of Christ in Plantation, Fla.

Juan Carlos Martinez, Josefina Garcia and Omar Catari were dedicated members of Iglesias de Cristo (Churches of Christ) in Venezuela. They rebuilt their lives among the skyscrapers and palm trees of the Miami/Fort Lauderdale metro. Now they preach, teach Bible classes and share the Gospel here — in Spanish and English.

Like many of the estimated 350,000 Venezuelans in Florida, the Christians rejoiced at the sudden and shocking capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Jan. 3.

“I pretty much woke up, and there were 200 missed calls on my phone,” Martinez said. One was from his dad, who still lives in Venezuela.

Church members pray during the Spanish Bible class of the West Broward Church of Christ in Plantation, Fla.

Maduro’s capture for an alleged narcoterrorism conspiracy followed months of uncertainty for Venezuelans in the U.S. In April, the government ended Temporary Protected Status, or TPS,  for many immigrants, revoking their permission to work and drive and subjecting them to deportation.

After their initial elation at seeing Maduro deposed, Venezuelans fear that their lives soon will be uprooted again, that they’ll be forcibly returned to a nation where Maduro loyalists are still in power.

“What’s our prayer now? We can ask for an easy transition, for justice, for the freedom to be happy again in Venezuela, for people to be reunited, for the church to be thriving again, like the church that I met when I was a kid.”

“What’s our prayer now?” Martinez asked. “We can ask for an easy transition, for justice, for the freedom to be happy again in Venezuela, for people to be reunited, for the church to be thriving again, like the church that I met when I was a kid.”

But his family — his wife, Lizbeth, their three children, Lizbeth’s parents and Juan Carlos’ mother — have a life here now. The kids love Thanksgiving, Martinez said, and he’s learned to cook a turkey. They adore their family at the West Broward Church of Christ in nearby Plantation, where Juan Carlos serves as a deacon.

“It’s a lot of noise,” he said, describing the political climate in both his birthplace and his new, adopted home. So he prays “to just keep going, one day at a time.”

A Venezuelan exodus

Weston, at the edge of the Florida Everglades, is a hub for the Venezuelan diaspora. At a coffee shop in a strip mall, Martinez, 45, spoke with The Christian Chronicle on a Monday morning. He taught Bible class and preached for the West Broward church’s Spanish service the day before and had a few hours before his shift began at a nearby pizzeria.

His grandmother was one of the first converts baptized in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto in 1979. Martinez grew up in Iglesias de Cristo and preached for congregations in Caracas and Mérida, where he met Lizbeth. He worked for a tech company and traveled to the U.S. four times per year to a trade show in Las Vegas. When he returned, Venezuelan border guards pelted him with questions. Was he working for the Americans? How could he afford to travel when the economy was failing?

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, children in Venezuela’s Cojedes state receive meals paid for by Churches of Christ in the U.S.

Meanwhile, in Caracas, “the situation was getting worse and worse,” Martinez said. The Maduro government’s populist policies, overreliance on oil revenue and international sanctions resulted in frequent blackouts and internet outages. The tech company relocated to neighboring Colombia. Then, in 2020, as Martinez returned from the trade show, border guards held him in a room for nearly 10 hours, strip-searched him and refused to stamp his passport.

It was time to leave.

A sign in Cucuta, Colombia, points the way to the border crossing into Venezuela.

He and Lizbeth filled small suitcases. Their kids, then ages 10, 8 and 6, packed a few toys into backpacks. A guide took them across rivers and through forests, paying people along the route to assist them or look the other way. Finally, they arrived in the border city of Cúcuta, Colombia. It was the first time Lizbeth and the children had left their homeland.

A church-planting team of Latin American Christians in Cúcuta, Colombia, serves Venezuelans as they stream across the border.

They paid the Colombian government to get their documents in order and flew from the capital, Bogotá, to Orlando, Fla., where Martinez’s sister and brother-in-law live. They looked for a church home — not an easy task in the midst of the COVID-19 panic. Searching online, Martinez found West Broward, one of the few Florida churches offering in-person, Spanish-language worship.

“It was love at first sight,” he said of their initial visit.

Church members read Scripture during the Spanish Bible class of the West Broward Church of Christ in Plantation, Fla.

His children, who spoke only Spanish, struggled — and, at times, wept — as they adapted to Florida’s public school system. Five years later, they’re bilingual. The oldest still likes arepas (savory Venezuelan cornmeal patties) for breakfast, but their middle child, a daughter, is as likely to ask for a bagel. As for their youngest, Martinez says, “he’s not an American on paper, but I can tell you, I have an American kid!”

About 10 families at West Broward are Venezuelan, Martinez said. On Sunday, he preached from the book of Nehemiah, which tells the story of a devout Jew who, after years of serving in the royal court of Persia, traveled to Jerusalem to rebuild the city’s walls.

It seemed appropriate, he said, as Venezuelans ponder the possibility of returning to their homeland.

‘A controlled, limited joy’

South of Weston, Venezuelans worship in the Spanish- and English-language services of the Sunset Church of Christ.

@christianchronicle MIAMI — During Spanish- language worship, members of the Sunset Church of Christ make contributions while singing “God Will Make a Way.” #miami #spanishworship #iglesiadecristo #churchofchrist ♬ [Live recording] Record playback noise 04 (5 minutes) – Icy Light

On Sunday, bilingual minister Jim Holway preached for the English service in the fellowship hall and then walked to the auditorium to preach for the Spanish service. After worship, he gathered a small group of Venezuelans — including the church’s new youth minister, Gustavo Rivera, and his wife, Gaby — to speak with the Chronicle. Holway translated for those not fluent in English.

Jim Holway preaches for the Spanish-language service of the Sunset Church of Christ in Miami.

The Miami congregation rents part of its facility to a charter school. The small group met in a classroom used to teach elementary Spanish. Behind them, next to a photocopy of a U.S. passport, letters spelled out “Leer es viajar sin pasaporte” — “Reading is traveling without a passport.”

Growing up in Venezuela, Omar Catari was a fighter. Coaches recognized his talent and trained him to be a boxer. The discipline kept him out of trouble, he said. He won bronze in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and worked for Venezuela’s ministry of sport. Maduro’s regime “tried to pull him into more and more political events, and he wasn’t interested in doing that,” Holway translated. “And then they started making his life difficult, and they recorded him on two occasions saying things that, in their minds, were against the government.” Catari and his wife, Amparo, fled to South Florida in 2019.

Omar and Amparo Catari, left, talk about their exodus from Venezuela.

Josefina Garcia worked as a petroleum engineer until former President Hugo Chávez booted her and hundreds of her coworkers from their jobs on national TV and announced that he was nationalizing Venezuela’s oil industry. Garcia tried to continue in the oil business, but new government regulations made it impossible. She moved to Miami in 2010 and now works as Holway’s administrative assistant.

When they heard about Maduro’s capture, the Venezuelans felt “a controlled, limited joy,” Amparo Catari said. They later learned that some political prisoners in their homeland were freed, but some of their friends are still in custody. Meanwhile, rumors swirl that Venezuelans who return could be jailed or harassed if images of them celebrating Maduro’s downfall appear on social media.

Aris Granda speaks with The Christian Chronicle in a classroom used to teach Spanish.

This adds to their anxiety about the loss of Temporary Protected Status — even for Venezuelans who are now U.S. citizens, said Aris Granda. She moved to South Florida 18 years ago with her daughters. Granda’s husband, a Cuban, has preferred status, which helped her attain her citizenship. But her two adult daughters are in limbo. One lost her work permit, and the other daughter’s expires in March.

Josefina Garcia

Garcia also has become a U.S. citizen. She’s heard President Donald Trump’s promise to rebuild Venezuela’s economy using workers in the oil business. But at age 67, she doesn’t anticipate returning to her former life. Nor do her former coworkers.

“It’s difficult for us to think of returning to Venezuela,” Garcia said, “because we are building a new life here or in Canada. Maybe our sons and grandsons will go to Venezuela — the new Venezuela.”

Serving two Venezuelas

In addition to building new lives, Venezuelans “have completely transformed the South Florida culture,” Carlos Carbajal said. “You feel the vibe.”

Carbajal, a native of Honduras, came to the U.S. to work with the Sunset church. His wife, Karla, was a human rights attorney in Honduras. As her husband ministered in Miami, Karla earned a U.S. law degree and worked with a nonprofit that served immigrants, especially unaccompanied minors.

Carlos and Karla Carbajal speak with The Christian Chronicle in Doral, Fla.

A few years ago, the couple launched Oikos, a Spanish-language church that takes its name from the Greek word for household. Karla also started a law firm specializing in immigration. Most of her clients are Venezuelans.

The couple spoke with the Chronicle at Bocas House, a Latin American restaurant in Doral, a city in western Miami-Dade County that has earned the nickname “Doralzuela” for its booming Venezuelan population.

“The reality is, there’s two Venezuelas — the Venezuela over there and the Venezuela over here,” Carlos said.

The removal of TPS is the latest discrimination that Venezuelans have endured in the U.S., Karla said. Police target and detain immigrants based solely on their tattoos, accusing them of membership in Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang. Immigrants from Guatemala and other nations don’t receive this kind of scrutiny, the attorney said.

Carrying small bags filled with food and medicine, Venezuelans walk across the Tachira River from Cúcuta, Colombia, to San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela, in 2017.

Many Venezuelans also fall victim to scammers who offer to file their asylum cases and charge up to $25,000 and then disappear. When Karla takes over their cases, she discovers that the immigrants’ paperwork was never filed.

“It doesn’t make sense that, at this time of the year, many churches are already planning to do their mission trips to Latin America — to communicate the goodness of the Gospel — but they have been silent about these migrants.”

Carlos, who works alongside his wife and the firm’s 10 employees, said he would like to see churches do more to serve and advocate for their immigrant neighbors.

“It doesn’t make sense that, at this time of the year, many churches are already planning to do their mission trips to Latin America — to communicate the goodness of the Gospel — but they have been silent about these migrants,” he said. “Part of the Gospel, which is essential, is to be the voice of those who cannot express themselves.”

‘They have enriched us’

Despite the prejudices they endure, Venezuelans make America better, he added. “They’re extremely welcoming. That’s something that is in their DNA. They make others feel like part of them, family.” As a result, “they have brought revival to churches.”

Gaby and Gustavo Rivera visit with youths after the English-language worship service at the Sunset Church of Christ in Miami.

At Sunset, Josefina Garcia attributed her countrymen’s evangelistic zeal to missionaries from Churches of Christ, including Bob Brown, Albert Acosta, Larry Moran and Jon Steffins who planted the first Iglesias de Cristo in the 1970s and instilled in Venezuelans “a missionary spirit to plant a church wherever they went,” Garcia said.

Now, in Venezuela, young Christians don’t just “go to church because of their parents,” said Gustavo Rivera, the Sunset church’s youth minister. They take active roles and ownership in their congregations. Rivera works to instill those values in young believers in Miami.

The Venezuelans’ impact is noticeable, said Alphonso Thomas and Jeff Hinson, elders of the Sunset church. The immigrants are devoted and hard-working, Hinson said, and because of what they’ve endured, “they do just appreciate so much the family that they have here.”

Alphonso Thomas leads the closing prayer for the English-language service of the Sunset Church of Christ in Miami.

Thomas added, “If you believe in Christ, and you are part of the Church of Christ, no matter where you’re from — Venezuela, America, any other Spanish country — it is good. They have enriched us.”

Back at the coffee shop in Weston, Juan Carlos Martinez reflected on his own exodus from Venezuela to South Florida. He identifies a bit with Moses, who also fled his homeland at age 40 and started over in a new land.

Juan Carlos Martinez speaks with The Christian Chronicle over coffee in Weston, Fla.

But no earthly place — Egypt or Midian, Venezuela or the U.S. — will ever really be home, he said.

“It’s never like, ‘Breaking news: happiness! Everything is perfect!’” he said. “Because that’s heaven. … We don’t belong here, and we weren’t meant for all this craziness. We’re meant for a better thing.”

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org.

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

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 erik@christianchronicle.org.

Featured image (above): North Carolina official Dave Boliek presents members of the Biltmore Church of Christ with The Cardinal Award.

ALABAMA

HUNTSVILLE — Thousands of youths gathered at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville to “Reawaken Wonder” as they prepared for a new year at Exposure Youth Camp.

The 3,500 attendees heard from keynote speakers Matthew Morine, minister for the Castle Rock Church of Christ in Colorado; Dewayne Tapscott, minister for the Southwest Church of Christ in Huntsville; and Andrew Itson, minister for the Madison Church of Christ in Alabama.

Teens also participated in Spiritual Challenge Sessions — classes on deep subjects such as purpose, forgiveness and suffering.

Twenty youths confessed Christ and were baptized at Exposure Youth Camp.

This year’s theme centered on “pursuing absolute truth in a world full of fake realities.”

Morine told youths that struggles they face should not define their identity in failure but develop it in Christ.

Thousands of youths gathered at the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville to “Reawaken Wonder” as they prepared for a new year at Exposure Youth Camp.

“Challenges are a chisel, not a crutch,” he said.

Twenty were baptized at the event, and 140 publicly requested prayer.

On the final night of the camp, attendees gathered on the balconies surrounding the atrium of the Embassy Suites hotel — as they do each year — to fill the space with a cappella worship to God.

NORTH CAROLINA

ASHEVILLE — “I was hungry, and you fed me,” Eddie Woodhouse quoted from Matthew 25 on a recent Sunday at the Biltmore Church of Christ.

A year earlier, Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina’s mountain region, prompting Biltmore members to marshal forces to provide immediate aid to affected communities.

Biltmore’s effective outreach did not go unnoticed by Dave Boliek.

The North Carolina state auditor had traveled to Asheville to present Biltmore members The Cardinal Award, an official recognition given to citizens making exceptional and significant contributions to the state.

Boliek praised Biltmore members on behalf of the state.

North Carolina official Dave Boliek presents Susannah and Jason Smith with The Cardinal Award.

“All of North Carolina watched as the Biltmore Church of Christ lived out serving hurting people who, in one horrible storm, had their lives turned upside down,” the official said.

“The Biltmore Church of Christ is turning their lives right side up. And North Carolina is a better state, now, because of you. North Carolina’s Cardinal Award was created with the Biltmore Church of Christ in mind.”

TENNESSEE

HENDERSONVILLE — The Shepherd Network Southeast brought 200 church leaders and their spouses to the Hendersonville Church of Christ for the organization’s inaugural gathering.

Through worship, fellowship, keynote addresses and breakout sessions, these preachers and elders from 53 congregations in the Southeast encouraged and equipped each other to shepherd and minister to their flocks.

Two hundred church leaders gather for the first annual Shepherd Network Southeast conference.

Keynote speakers at the two-day event included Jerrie Barber, interim minister for the Hartsville Pike Church of Christ in Gallatin; Carlus Gupton, ministry professor at Lipscomb University in Nashville; David Holmes, interim minister for the Rural Hill Church of Christ in Antioch; and Chris McCurley, minister for the Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson.

Session topics ranged from “Shepherding the Anxious Church” to “Encouraging and Celebrating the Unique Calling of Church Leaders’ Spouses.”

The Shepherd Network is organized by leaders from 14 Nashville-area Churches of Christ.

NEWSMAKERS

BAPTIZED — FAIVER ALEJANDRO of the Waterview Church of Christ in Richardson, Texas. Emma Brennan, ETHAN HILL and SCOTT HANEY of the Sullivan Village Church of Christ in Lawton, Okla. BELLA ALLEN, EMMA ANDERSON, JORDAN DEWITT, MELISSA DEWITT, CHRISTIAN HEARD and LOGAN SMITH of the Norman Church of Christ in Oklahoma. BETTY EYRING of the Sweet Home Church of Christ in Broken Bow, Okla. THELMA FREEMAN of the Harlem Church of Christ in New York. ZACH and ASHLEY NELSON and NATHAN OVERBEY of the Temple Church of Christ in Georgia. SALVADOR RAMIRO of the West Broward Church of Christ in Plantation, Fla. MOZELL WOODS of the Church of Christ at Idaho Street in Selma, Ala.

From left, Isaax Gray, Jeff Smith and Dyron Daughrity.

HONORED — ISAAC GRAY with the NCAA Division II Elite Scholar-Athlete Award. Gray is a tight end for the Harding University football team in Searcy, Ark. JEFF SMITH with the Wally Wilkerson Legacy Award and LANCE and ASHLEY HALL with the Big Don Williams Lighthouse Award at the National Children’s and Youth Ministries Conference in Tucson, Ariz. Smith served as a youth and campus minister before founding Discipletrips, an organization that creates and leads short-term mission trips around the globe. He worships with the Sunset Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. The Halls serve the youths of the Springtown Church of Christ in Texas.

ELECTED — DYRON DAUGHRITY, president of the American Society of Church History (ASCH). Daughrity is divisional dean of religion and philosophy for Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., and senior minister for the Hilltop Community Church of Christ in El Segundo, Calif. Daughrity, a member of the 138-year-old society for nearly two decades, has authored and edited more than 20 books on church history and global Christianity.

From left, Rhonda Collier, Cady Jackson, Bruce Nash and Michael Rowand.

NAMED — RHONDA COLLIER, assistant vice president of academic enhancement and leadership development at Alabama State University in Montgomery. She is a member of the Tuskegee Church of Christ in Alabama. ASHLYN HOOPER, development communications coordinator for Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver. She and her family worship with the University Church of Christ in San Marcos, Texas. CADY JACKSON, director of communications — philanthropy for Walmart. She is a 2012 graduate of Oklahoma Christian University. BRUCE NASH, local coordinator for the 2027 Crusade for Christ scheduled for July 17–21, 2027, in the San Francisco Bay area. Nash is minister for the Laurel Avenue Church of Christ in East Palo Alto, Calif. MICHAEL ROWAND, connections minister for the Central Church of Christ in Martinez, Ga.

Featured image (above): Seven Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center residents received their college diplomas from Lipscomb University at a graduation ceremony.

GRAY ROAD CHRISTIAN ACADEMY

Jeremy Flowers

CINCINNATI — The Gray Road Church of Christ is launching a new Christian high school. The board of trustees of Gray Road Christian Academy has appointed Jeremy Flowers, the church’s senior minister, as the founding head of school and CEO. Opening in August, the academy will offer “accessible and affordable private-school education for residents of the inner city and inner-ring suburbs,” according to a news release.

Flowers most recently served as a school executive and faculty member at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, an independent K-12 school. Flowers earned a Doctor of Education degree in organizational leadership.

LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY

NASHVILLE, TENN. — Lipscomb University awarded degrees to seven Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center residents as it recently held its sixth graduation ceremony behind the prison’s bars. The residents studied as part of the LIFE — Lipscomb Initiative for Education — program. Rehabilitation center residents and traditional Lipscomb students study side by side at the prison each Wednesday night.

“This education has allowed me to become the best version of myself. Thanks to the Lipscomb community, I can lead from a place of healing and make a difference in the world around me,” said Alisha, who earned an Associate of Arts degree. “God has truly blessed us with this extraordinary experience.”

SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

During a birthday celebration, Ethel Benton shows off a jar of pennies for Southwestern Christian College.

TERRELL, TEXAS — Southwestern Christian College’s “Penny Lady,” Ethel Benton, died Dec. 11 at age 97. Known also as Aunt Suzy, she began a tradition of collecting pennies to support Southwestern, the only historically Black college associated with Churches of Christ.

Everywhere she traveled, she encouraged others to join her “Pennies for Southwestern Christian College” campaign. She presented the pennies annually to the college. The humble offering was “a testament to her belief that every contribution, no matter how small, could help advance the Lord’s work through Christian education,” Southwestern administrators said.

Born in Cullen, La., she was baptized at the Perrin Street Church of Christ in Shreveport, La. After her husband, John Benton, died, she kept serving the church, friends said. “Though she never bore children, Aunt Suzy became a mother figure to many, always ready to travel, support, and care for family whenever the need arose,” her obituary noted. “At her funeral service, her ‘Jug for Southwestern Christian College’ was present.”

Michael Jackson

Since 2022, Jackson has been associate director of accreditation for the Association for Biblical Higher Education, an interdenominational accrediting organization for Bible colleges.

Over the preceding 15 years, the HCU alum held roles as an administrator and professor at his alma mater, which is associated with Churches of Christ and focuses on biblical studies. He also holds a master’s degree in New Testament from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., and a Doctor of Education degree from Union University.

Jackson is a former associate minister for the Highland Park Church of Christ in Muscle Shoals, Ala., where he now serves as an elder.

In a press release, HCU said the new president brings “a clear vision aligned with HCU’s mission of advancing the Churches of Christ by equipping servants for real-world ministry.”

“He understands our mission, values the heritage that has defined HCU, and has the leadership experience to guide us with wisdom and faith,” added board chair Alan Laguna. “We are grateful to God for His faithful guidance throughout this search.”

“I look forward to being a steward of the HCU mission with humility, faith, and purpose,” Jackson said in the announcement. “I’m grateful for President W. Kirk Brothers’ faithful leadership and service to HCU, and I look forward to our future as we seek to advance the church in this generation.”

Brothers, who has led the university since 2018, will step back from the role at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. He plans to remain with HCU as a faculty member.

Doherty preaches for the Woodbury Church of Christ in a growing community east of St. Paul.

“The street we live on is maybe predominantly immigrant,” the father of three said. “For several of our neighbors, English isn’t their first language.”

Mexico. Cuba. Southeast Asia. The East African nation of Eritrea. These are just a few of his neighbors’ native lands.

ICE showing up wasn’t entirely surprising, given that President Donald Trump has made Minnesota a major focus of his administration’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.

Related: Inside the Minnesota immigration fight’s faith fault lines

Since December, the Department of Homeland Security has deployed about 3,000 federal agents to the state where Tim Walz — the 2024 running mate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris — serves as governor. 

“Most everybody has had some impact by it,” Doherty said of how the crackdown has touched his neighbors and fellow Christians. “It can be everything from their favorite restaurant is shut down because the workers aren’t available to someone they know is detained.”

Seeking ‘calmer hearts’

Local and state leaders have clashed with Homeland Security officials over the Minnesota operation. Protests by citizens have erupted in the streets. 

Agents’ fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens — Renee Good earlier this month and Alex Pretti on Saturday — have exacerbated the tensions and sparked widespread debate about the federal government’s tactics. In all, at least six people have died in the nationwide immigration enforcement campaign.

At Churches of Christ in the Twin Cities area, Christians devoted time Sunday to prayer and reflection on the ongoing turmoil.

“There are so many troubles that are on our minds this morning,” elder Ron Delamarter prayed at the Richfield Church of Christ in a Minneapolis suburb.

“The events in this city have torn us — the loss of life,” Delamarter added. “And we look to you for guidance, knowing that your will will be done in this circumstance, Lord. We don’t understand exactly why these things are taking place, but we pray for leaders that have calmer hearts and calmer minds and will resolve this peacefully.”

Elder Ron Delamarter prays at the Richfield Church of Christ in a Minneapolis suburb.

Within 2 miles of where Good and Pretti died, elder John Austion of the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ urged members to remain strong in their faith and not give into fear.

“I already love the Lord,” Austion said before leading the congregation in singing “I Really Love the Lord.” “If you don’t love the Lord by now, something is wrong because the Lord has been keeping us out of harm’s way so far.

“ICE has been to my job twice, harassing my co-workers,” the Costco employee added. “But I just want you to know that God has got us.”

Elder John Austion leads singing at the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ.

Even still, the predominantly Black congregation has seen Sunday attendance numbers drop as members stay home out of fear, minister Russell A. Pointer Sr. told The Christian Chronicle.

The congregation doesn’t have a lot of immigrant members, but “people are still scared to come out of their houses,” Pointer said. “People are on edge just because they (federal agents) have the propensity and the proclivity to pick on people of color. 

“They’re shooting Whites,” he added, referring to Good and Pretti, “but they’re picking on people of color, so they’ll pull you over.”

Food distribution numbers down

Minneapolis Central organizes a weekly Saturday food giveaway with a high proportion of immigrant clients. 

However, the number of families served has dropped from about 250 to 300 a week before the crackdown to roughly 150, the minister said.

“They’re scared to come,” said Pointer, who has started working at home most days rather than driving to his church office.

He’s emphasizing prayer and fasting for the congregation.

Volunteers prepare food bags for distribution at the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ in 2024.

“We feel like a Third World country,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s unprecedented. And so to deal with this, we have to fast and pray.”

Elsewhere in the Twin Cities, the Roseville Church of Christ — a predominantly African immigrant congregation with members from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Togo — prayed for peace to reign.

“We prayed for the people that are being affected,” said Richard Inyang, the church’s Nigerian-born minister. “And we show love and empathy for them. But at the same time, we always advise people to be law-abiding immigrants, law-abiding citizens. Work to get your path to become a citizen, but don’t break the law.”

The Inyang family poses for a photo by the Roseville Church of Christ sign in 2024. Richard Inyang, dressed in white, survived a fire that nearly killed him and has returned to full-time ministry.

Inyang said he urges church members to make sure they carry legal documentation and passports with them in case agents stop them. A few members have stopped attending worship out of fear, but the minister said he doesn’t know if they are in the U.S. legally or not.

Inyang, who survived a 2024 fire that nearly killed him, recently traveled on an annual mission trip to Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon. After returning, he took his family to lunch at a favorite Chinese buffet restaurant. 

“In normal times, we stand in line to get food,” he said. “But that Sunday was just like scanty — you see only the Americans and a very few people of color. 

“In general, everywhere is looking kind of quiet because of the situation,” he added. “Most of the restaurants — you don’t find a lot of people. And the streets and other places are kind of quiet.”

Looking for answers in Scriptures

At the Woodbury church, the congregation where Doherty preaches, all four elders read Scriptures, made brief comments and prayed for Minnesota — and the nation.

“The elders wrestle with and think and talk about how we should respond, what we should do, how to be wise, how to be balanced, how to share that we care,” elder Bruce Goodwin said in his remarks. “We believe that one of those ways is simply by reading from the Word, hearing what God has to say and also praying.”

Elder Matt Robinson told the congregation: “As Christians, our response to this present crisis will look different than that of the president or the governor, as our king is Jesus.”

In his sermon, Doherty mentioned the ICE raid on his street.

“I think what’s happening in our cities is wrong, and I realize you can disagree,” he said to fellow Christians. “I think the deaths are tragic, and I know we all agree on that.”

Doherty emphasized the importance of Christians maintaining unity, even if they disagree on certain matters. 

The minister said he ate lunch with a friend of a different political persuasion after ICE showed up in his neighborhood.

“I think if you cannot sit across from somebody you disagree with, you’ve got to check your heart,” he said. “Jesus had zealots and tax collectors and traitors on his team, and he washed all their feet.”

“I think if you cannot sit across from somebody you disagree with, you’ve got to check your heart.”

Latino family ‘pretty rattled’

After the ICE raid, Doherty went to check on Latino neighbors who live about five doors from him.

The family has “a lot of kids” who often play outside, the minister said.

He feared the father or mother might have been detained.

When he knocked on the front door, no one answered. At least not immediately.

But when the father recognized Doherty, he came outside.

“Is everybody OK?” the preacher asked.

“We’re good,” the man responded.

“He said his son had gone out to check the mail, and when that happened, ICE agents had grabbed him,” Doherty told the Chronicle. “They brought him back into the house, and they demanded to see everyone’s documents.

Demonstrators make noise outside of hotels thought to house U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 9.

“Nobody was detained. Everybody was legal. … But the family was pretty rattled, as you can imagine.”

Doherty said he was simply trying to be a good neighbor.

“If there was something that we could do — groceries or any sort of support or rides — you just don’t know how it’s going to unfold,” he said. “So I was just trying to be aware and available.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

The simple brick structure was home to the Silver Point West End Church of Christ, which met for decades in a rural community 60 miles east of Nashville. Its membership in decline, the church discontinued weekly services in the mid-1990s but lives on in yearly homecoming reunions.

A sign in front of the Silver Point West End of Church of Christ notes its establish date in 1909 and closing date in 1996.

A recent homecoming celebrated not only the preachers and other male leaders but the women who have garnered for Silver Point a prized place in the history of Black Churches of Christ.

“Do you realize how important Middle Tennessee is?” historian and speaker Edward J. Robinson asked the more than 100 people attending the 26th Silver Point reunion. “Everybody ought to take off your shoes, because we’re on holy ground.”

The homecoming activities began at noon on a recent Saturday with a ceremony honoring Silver Point members who had fought in both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam.

“Whatever the period and whatever the cause, the ones now entombed in this sacred earth are real heroes,” said Donnell Carr, whose parents along with other relatives rest in the church cemetery.

“Whatever the period and whatever the cause, the ones now entombed in this sacred earth are real heroes.”

After the memorial, guests entered the church building for a program about Silver Point’s history, followed by songs from musical groups from visiting congregations. A late lunch at a nearby community center ended the day.

The next morning featured an assembly, an afternoon potluck and a concluding worship service.

Silver Point reunion committee chair Harold Carr speaks to reunion attendees.

Robinson spoke on that Saturday about a key figure from Silver Point’s past, Annie C. Tuggle, born in 1890 near Memphis to former slaves.

Professor of history at Texas College in Tyler, Texas, where he also serves as minister for the North Tenneha Church of Christ, Robinson has written extensively on Black Churches of Christ.

“What would the church be without good and godly women?” he asked the crowd. “We’d be in bad shape.”

Robinson set Tuggle’s life squarely in America’s past, emphasizing — as Tuggle’s parents illustrated — the inescapable link between slavery and Black Churches of Christ.

Harold Carr and historian Edward J. Robinson display the certificate of appreciation Carr awarded Robinson for participating in the 26th Silver Point homecoming.

The plight of Black Americans, he said, has been a “drama within a drama.”

Tuggle’s story intersected Silver Point’s after she left the Methodist Church to become a member of Churches of Christ, converted by a preacher associated with George Phillip “G.P.” Bowser, the founder of the Silver Point Christian Institute. Bowser himself was responsible for the conversion of Tuggle’s mother.

G.P. Bowser, a renowned Black minister who preached for the Jackson Street Church of Christ in Nashville

Bowser launched the institute in the first decade of the 20th century to provide African American children in first through eighth grades a Christian education. What’s now the historic Silver Point church building was added a few years after the school’s beginning.

Learning of the Silver Point Christian Institute from Bowser’s periodical, the Christian Echo, Tuggle moved to Middle Tennessee and “joined the crusade, the movement of educating … African American youth,” Robinson explained.

Though Tuggle had a university degree, she moved to Silver Point “to absorb more Scripture,” Robinson said, adding that Bowser, aware of Tuggle’s talents, commissioned her to serve as ambassador for the school. She not only provided a role model for students but supported the institution as a fundraiser.

Robinson underscored Tuggle’s knowledge and insight as a Christian leader.

In the 1930s, Tuggle attended a meeting during which a Black congregation in Memphis was considering firing its preacher to pay the mortgage. Another woman at the meeting, who, like Tuggle, opposed the idea, nudged her Christian sister to say something.

“When you take the Gospel out of the church, you have a dead church,” Tuggle stood up to declare. Instead of letting the minister go, she suggested inviting famed evangelist Marshall Keeble to Memphis to grow the church.

“When you take the Gospel out of the church, you have a dead church.”

Keeble’s month-long meeting yielded 75 baptisms.

Tuggle’s support of the Silver Point Christian Institute became part of a chain of events that would make Bowser’s lifelong dream of an institution to educate Black Christians come true.

A historical marker outside the West End Silver Point Church of Christ.

Silver Point closed as a Christian school about a decade after its start. Later, Bowser founded the Bowser Christian Institute in Fort Smith, Ark., then the Southern Bible Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. The Fort Worth institute moved to Terrell, Texas, and became Southwestern Christian College.

“There is no Southwestern Christian College … without the Silver Point Christian Institute,” Robinson said.

Frances Baugh, a member of The United School Workers, a fundraising organization for Southwestern, appreciated Robinson’s message about Tuggle. Baugh had driven a church bus with 14 guests from her organization as well as Nashville’s Schrader Lane Church of Christ to the reunion.

“Hearing her story is always inspiring, to know that she had such an impact,” Baugh said about Tuggle. “She was a very strong, resilient woman. … The background of her … coming out of the Methodist Church, coming into the Church of Christ and really just being a major force in the church was very powerful.”

Harold Carr awards a commemorative plaque to Geraldine Tibbs, honoring her decades of work in organizing the Silver Point homecoming.

Geraldine Tibbs, who grew up at Silver Point and now lives in Memphis, invited Robinson to speak at the recent reunion at the request of Harold Carr, Donnell’s brother and chair of the homecoming committee.

Tibbs, 85, co-founded the Silver Point reunions with Silver Point’s Evelyn Buck, Harold Carr said.

Sitting on her front porch in the Middle Tennessee community of Silver Point, Evelyn Buck talks about her years growing up in the West End Church of Christ. Read more about the last of the ‘living water.’

“We were really a committee of two,” Tibbs said.

The organizer said that many Southwestern Christian College speakers had assisted with the reunions. Tibbs cherished the connection between Silver Point and Southwestern and longed for the homecomings to further the work of Southwestern, born of Bowser’s lifelong passion for educating Black Christians.

Following the group singing on Saturday afternoon, Harold Carr joined fellow committee member David Meek to present plaques to Buck and Tibbs in recognition of their years of work in organizing the reunions.

“I felt good,” Tibbs said. “I felt real proud that I did something … to help Silver Point.”

Silver Point guest Pam Scruggs, a member of Nashville’s Jackson Street Church of Christ, discusses the Silver Point hymnal with her 8-year-old granddaughter, Kennede Scruggs.

The Carrs’ older brother, Virgil, who traveled to the reunion from his home in Florida, referred to Tuggle’s unique testimony to the importance of women at Silver Point, the church cemetery and its rows of markers behind him as he spoke.

“She was ahead of her time,” Virgil Carr said about Tuggle.

Reunion guests enjoy a Sunday-afternoon potluck at the Silver Point Community Center near the historic Silver Point church.

“We sometimes forget, particularly in the Black … communities, the contributions of Black women,” he added. “You had some strong, strong Black women in this community who were not afraid to talk, not afraid to argue, not afraid to … compromise, not afraid to do a whole lot of things.

“I want to be buried up here, among our people,” Virgil Carr said. “I believe personally that the spirits of some of the people that died … are here.”

TED PARKS is a Nashville-based correspondent for The Christian Chronicle. A contributor to the Chronicle since the 1990s, he teaches Spanish at Lipscomb University. To offer feedback on this story, contact letters@christianchronicle.org.