Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Monday, September 29, 2014
Kathy Talley passes away
Our Sympathy is extended to the family of Kathy Talley who passed away Saturday morning at Vanderbilt Hospital. A Service will be held Thursday at 11am at Higgins Funeral Home with visitation Wednesday evening from 5-8pm.
This week's VOICE of Washington Street
Mon 09/29/2014 14:51:03.71
This week's bulletin is now available for viewing at www.wscoc.net/voice.cfm.
God bless,
Jim Black
This week's bulletin is now available for viewing at www.wscoc.net/voice.cfm.
God bless,
Jim Black
Rethinking Church
I have always been fascinated studying church history by that
part of our past known as the Restoration Movement. In the early part of the 19th
century when the nation was still young a number of frontier evangelists from
various religious backgrounds begin having the same sort of misgivings about
the “religious establishment.” Something
of a revival was taking place on the frontier and it was a time of religious
fervor for many. Men like Thomas
Campbell- a Presbyterian, Elias Smith- a Baptist, and James O’Kelly- a Methodist, began questioning their church
traditions and practices. They began
“rethiking church.” Shortly Campbell’s
son, Alexander and a fiery Presbyterian preacher from the frontier, Barton W.
Stone began reminding everyone of the “oneness” of the church and sent out a
call towards Christian unity that prompted many churches to drop their
denominational ‘names’… and come together as “Christians, and Christians
only.” It was a time of great upheavel
for many. Many had to let go of
long-held traditions and practices in order to recover the Biblical faith of
the early church. What is it with
mankind that we have a tendency towards forming traditions outside of Biblical
authority and a propensity to legislate commands where God has not?
Today as we look out over the religious landscape of 21st
century America, I wonder if it is time once again for a new “restoration
movement”… a new effort of to recover the authentic, simple and Biblical faith
of the early church. Is there a need to
“Rethink Church” today? I believe
so! While much has been done to recover
the structures and the practices of the early church… it seems there is still
much work to be done. There is way too
little effort towards striving for Christian unity today. There are few congregations who model the
giving and sharing together that characterized the early church. And Mission?
Mission work has been delegated to the professional “missionaries”
instead of being a responsibility of the whole body of Christ! Indeed, it falls to every generation to
“rethink church”… to go back to the Bible and ask the hard questions. “Are we being faithful to the call of God in
our generation?” “Are we about the
mission of God in this community as He would have us to be?” “What ARE our purposes and why ARE we here?”
These are all good questions and I hope you’ll be with us
each Sunday for the next several weeks as we “Rethink Church” together.
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