Arkansas
The road to ReMission
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Jeremie Beller is my designated driver.…
‘We lost our mission’
Churches must revive passion for winning souls, Arkansas conference declares.
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LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — The vision for ReMission started small.
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.”
Related: The road to ReMission
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.
Related: Why I attended ReMission
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 [email protected].
