One In Jesus

I just received this comment —

It’s nice to read some supportive words. We’ve taken the no response route as you have suggested here.

On Thursday, May 1, the National Day of Prayer, we are hosting a joint worship service with at least 2 other churches from OKC – Catedral de Adoracion and Tabitha Baptist. A mostly white suburban Church of Christ, a Latino inner-city church and a black Baptist church coming together to worship and fellowship. Worship teams from all three churches will participate. Communion would be a great addition to the plan.

We’ll invite other churches of Christ and anyone else who would like to come be with us. You’re welcome as well of course.

Grace & peace to you,

Gary Bruce
Worship Minister
Quail Springs Church of Christ

I moved this to a post to make sure everyone sees it and it goes out to RSS feed and email subscribers.

On May 1, I’ll be at the Pepperdine lectureship, where I’ll be speaking on why the Churches of Christ are so divisive (kind of ironic, isn’t it?). I wish I could be in Oklahoma City! I’ll be there in spirit.

Readers, please attend this event! I pray that Quail Springs fills their auditorium, the church next door, the parking lot, and the streets with supportive brothers and sisters in Christ.

You see, those who persecute Quail Springs for worshiping God with an instrument stand opposed to the gospel of Christ. They don’t mean to. But they do. It’s the Galatian heresy — squared. We cannot sit by idly while a spiritual war is being fought by others.

It’s extremely important that the Church of Christ community in Oklahoma see that Quail Springs is supported by others. Elderships of other churches need to know that they can resist the forces of legalism and find support among their members and their sister congregations. If this isn’t worth standing for, what is?

Your brothers and sisters at Quail Springs need to see that they are loved and accepted. Please be there.

The antidote for divisiveness and backbiting is love — openly displayed.

Jay

Today is one of those nasty, winter days when it’s not cold enough to snow, not warm enough to be outside, too wet to want to get out of your car, and too windy to keep your umbrella over your head. Yuck.

And so I wasn’t surprised to feel a cold shiver as I drove to work this morning. I was pondering the state of the Churches of Christ as evidenced by this Quail Springs thing, when I realized that the lessons I’ve been posting come together to produce a bone-chilling conclusion. I’d been in my car for a while, and it was actually quite warm in there. The chill was from the thought, not the air.

This is kind of hard to explain. You’ve got to start by reading the last two posts on Galatians. Continue reading →

Is anyone aware of a Church of Christ minister or author who considers instrumental music a sin who has publicly condemned the ad published in the Oklahoman declaring the minister at Quail Springs disfellowshipped because his congregation added an instrumental service?

I’m just wondering if the instrumental-music-is-a-sin element within the Churches has developed such a bunker mentality that they’d rather be silent in the face of obvious sin than show the “liberals” a divided front. And I’m wondering whether truth has become political for us.

I think it’s an important test of our principles and am hoping for some good news.