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PHOTO BY BOBBY ROSS JR. New England - Moise Vincent shares a story with fellow members of the Manchester Church of Christ in Connecticut. Also pictured, from left, are Jodi Dean, Melissa Miller and Renee Howell. |
Willie Hubbard Jr., preacher for the District Heights Church of Christ in Maryland, appeared on “The Vision” recently.
The above video shows Hubbard’s interview with Alvedia King, niece of the late Martin Luther King Jr., and Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union.
Read Hubbard’s 2008 Christian Chronicle op-ed titled “Racism — on both sides — hurts church’s mission.”
156-YEAR-OLD CONGREGATION epitomizes the challenges faced by many small, rural Churches of Christ.
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Rural Renewal - Tom Collier walks to his car after a fellowship meal at the West Liberty Church of Christ, seven miles west of Montezuma, Iowa.
PHOTO BY BOBBY ROSS JR.
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A tornado that ripped through the north Georgia town of Adairsville Jan. 30 destroyed the east wing of the Adairsville Church of Christ’s building. (See our earlier post for additional photos.)
The congregation lost three of its classrooms, a supply room and a food pantry used to serve the needy in its community.
But church members didn’t let the loss keep them from helping neighbors in their storm-ravaged community, minister Steve McCaslin said.
The congregation filled its annex — across the street from the building, undamaged by the storm — with relief supplies. Nashville, Tenn.-based Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort packed and shipped a truckload of food boxes and cleaning supplies, which the church’s members distributed this past weekend. Deacons plan to deliver whatever supplies are left to those in need, McCaslin told The Christian Chronicle.
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The Adairsville Church of Christ's building before the storm. (Photo via www.adairsvillechurchofchrist.com) |
“We feel blessed. It could have been a lot worse,” said McCaslin, who has served as the church’s minister for about 19 years and also is one of its four elders. None of the congregation’s 120 members were injured, though one member lost his home in the storm. The member’s daughter, who lives in the house behind him, also lost her home as the family waited out the storm in their tornado shelter.
The church’s main auditorium sustained some damage, but a building inspector allowed the congregation to meet there for worship Sunday, Feb. 3. The building had power but no heat, so the church delayed the service until 2 p.m. Members distributed relief supplies Sunday morning.
The storm broke a window in McCaslin’s office and water leaked through the roof. Church members helped the minister, who had just retired from the pulpit, clear his books and belongings from the office.
“I was planning to move anyway,” he said, “but this was not the way I planned to empty my office.”
McCaslin was interviewing for the preaching job in 1994, staying at a hotel in nearby Calhoun, Ga., when a similar wave of storms struck north Georgia. The morning after the storms, a waitress told him that a tornado touched down in Adairsville.
“Does that happen often?” he asked.
“No, not really,” the waitress replied.
The church has insurance, but must pay a $5,000 deductible and various clean-up costs. Anyone wishing to help defray the expenses may send donations to:
Adairsville Church of Christ
P.O. Box 346
Adairsville, GA 30103
Phone: (770) 773-3362
Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort also sent supplies to congregations near other parts of the Southeast affected by the Jan. 30 storms, including the Calhoun Church of Christ in Georgia and the Coble Church of Christ in Centerville, Tenn.
from the Christian Chronicle Blog
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Halie Hilburn and Oscar audition for "American Idol." (Photo via www.americanidol.com) |
The good news: Halie Hilburn earned a coveted “golden ticket” to Hollywood on the Jan. 31 episode of “American Idol.”
The bad news: Her puppet, Oscar, didn’t.
Hilburn, a 2008 graduate of Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City and a ventriloquist since age 9, raised the eyebrows of the show’s judges — Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban — during the show’s Oklahoma City auditions. She performed a song alongside her hand-puppet dog Oscar.
But Hilburn earned her invitation to Hollywood when she set aside Oscar and sang a few lines from Gavin DeGraw’s “More Than Anyone.”
Here’s more information from Oklahoma Christian:
Halie Hilburn (Photo provided by Oklahoma Christian University)
Hilburn, who hails from Vernon, Texas, graduated with honors from Oklahoma Christian in 2008 with a degree in liberal studies.
She was a member of OC’s touring cover band, Summer Singers, and performed in Spring Sing, OC’s annual student-produced variety show. Like her older sister Corlie (Swan) Agnew, she was voted Homecoming Queen at Oklahoma Christian.
All three of the Swan siblings graduated from Oklahoma Christian. Corlie earned a degree in marketing and management in 2006, and followed that up with an MBA degree in leadership and organizational management in 2007. The youngest of the sisters, Whitnie (Swan) Huser graduated from OC in 2010 with a degree in public relations.
See the full news release.
from the Christian Chronicle Blog
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The meeting place of the Adairsville Church of Christ was damaged heavily by a Jan. 30 tornado. (Photo provided) |
The meeting place of a Church of Christ in north Georgia was destroyed during a round of deadly tornadoes that swept through the Southeast Jan. 30.
The Adairsville Church of Christ sustained heavy damage in the storm. Church member Jeremy Barton sent photos of the devastation.
We will post additional information as we get it.
Here’s more on the storm from the Associated Press:
WSB-TV in Atlanta aired footage of an enormous funnel cloud bearing down on Adairsville. Winds flattened homes and wiped out parts of a big manufacturing plant in the city about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. Pieces of insulation dangled from trees and power poles. A bank lost a big chunk of its roof.
Anthony Raines, 51, was killed when a tree crashed down on his mobile home, crushing him on his bed, Bartow County Coroner Joel Guyton said. Nine other people were hospitalized for minor injuries, authorities said.
Read the full story.
Youths hold the sign of the Adairsville Church of Christ, blown from its housing by a Jan. 30 tornado. (Photo provided)
from the Christian Chronicle Blog
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Firefighters respond to the Saturday night fire at the College Church of Christ across the street from Harding University in Searcy, Ark. (Photo by Noel Whitlock) |
The 1,600-member College Church of Christ in Searcy, Ark., won’t be able to meet in its auditorium for up to three months after a weekend fire blamed on an electrical short, pulpit minister Noel Whitlock said.
The electrical short occurred in a baptistery heater shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, in the original part of the 62-year-old building, Whitlock said. He noted that the heater had been replaced in recent years.
“We’re either going to have to replace our baptistery or change our doctrine,” the minister joked.
Flames were contained mostly to a small area with a lot of plaster and concrete, Whitlock said. However, the entire building — including classrooms — sustained extensive smoke damage.
Several hundred gallons of water spilled out of the baptistery, which probably helped cool the blaze, he said.
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A view inside the burned church. (Photo by Ruth Simpson) |
Fifteen to 20 firefighters responded and spent hours at the scene. Students who noticed smoke coming from the building notified the fire department about the same time as the church’s automatic smoke alarm alerted authorities.
The church may be able to resume using its Sunday school classrooms within a few weeks, but the congregation will worship in Benson Auditorium — on the Harding University campus across the street — for 2 1/2 to 3 months, Whitlock said.
“We’re blessed that we have Harding University and the big Benson Auditorium nearby,” Whitlock said.
Damages are insured, but the church does not have an estimate yet on what it will cost to make repairs.
from the Christian Chronicle Blog
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Meagan Cremeens shows off one of the thousands of stuffed animals collected as part of Project Teddy Bear Love. |
Pam and I joined forces with some willing volunteers, posted something on Facebook Friday night, and by Saturday, the entire community was ready and willing to get on board.The Lord had this prepared for us every step of the way. He provided for us in a way that only he could. Everything was taken care of before we took every next step, from our contact person, to volunteers, to shipping and everything in between. We were meant to do this.Pam Herring and Meagan Cremeens load the last bag of teddy bears on to the truck headed for Connecticut.With the Lord's hand upon this project, word got out to people not only across the state of Arkansas but surrounding states as well. And before we new it, we had ourselves a teddy bear drive.We called it "Project Teddy Bear Love." On Wednesday, we sent a truck to Connecticut carrying on it 6,150 bears. Most of them were tied with a card or note of some sort, and every single one had been hugged on and loved on and sent ready to bring healing and comfort to those in Newtown.People asked us, "Why teddy bears?" and the answer is simple. We remembered what teddy bears meant to us when our community went through this — it was a sign of healing, comfort, stability and love. When nothing else in the world made sense, a teddy bear did. And it makes sense now.We sent our driver off covered in protective prayers, goodies and the biggest hugs imaginable for being an angel bringing hope and good news to a community in need. What a perfect Christmas blessing. We pray that this project will bless those in Newtown and bring some healing to them like it has to the community members here.from the Christian Chronicle Blog
Recently we shared a video of children in Haiti receiving “Joy Boxes” from church members in the U.S. through Hope for Haiti’s Children, a church-supported ministry.
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The Dominican Republic (Map via www.mannaglobalministries.org) |
Members of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia, just outside Washington, share their experiences on a recent trip to the Spanish-speaking nation, where they distributed Magi Boxes (similar to the Joy Boxes in Haiti).
The congregation works with Manna Global Ministries, a church-supported nonprofit that works in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Africa.
The Fairfax church has a history of commitment to the people of the Dominican Republic — and Haiti. In 2010, I rode along with two of the church’s members, Mark Gibson and Tim Bynum, as they gathered relief supplies in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo, and drove them across the border into Haiti to aid victims of the earthquake that leveled much of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
from the Christian Chronicle Blog
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Sunday worship with the Gateway Church of Christ. (Photo by Jerry McCrea, Star-Ledger, via blog.nj.com) |
Mark Di Ionno, columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger in New Jersey, praises the “unsung heroes” — churches and church-supported relief agencies — that are helping the people of the Northeast recover after Hurricane Sandy.
The columnist attended Sunday worship with the The Gateway Church of Christ in Holmdel, N.J., and writes about their efforts in Sandy relief. (See our roundup of churches in New York and New Jersey assisting in relief, including Gateway, and our list of churches and ministries collecting funds and coordinating relief efforts.)
Di Ionno writes:
HOLMDEL — The Gateway Church of Christ holds its services in the Holmdel Senior Center, giving truth to the old adage that a church is its people, not a building.
On Sunday, the people of Gateway were hosting a Christmas service for their Bayshore neighbors left homeless or displaced by Hurricane Sandy, and the young families of the church came early to set up the empty room.
Homemade cookies and other treats were carried in, coffee was started and wrapped gifts for children were stacked in a corner. A visit from Santa would come later; now it was time to set up the altar (a plastic banquet table), the pulpit (a lectern on wheels) and the pews (about 100 cushioned folding chairs). But the storage closet was locked.
Carl Williamson wasn’t worried.
"We’ll figure it out," said the 32-year-old pastor whose energy and ever-present smile has not waned since Sandy struck. "We’ve solved a lot of problems in the last seven weeks. We’ll solve this one."
Within minutes, deacon Cliff Gray, with the confidence and deft of a professional burglar, matter-of-factly popped the lock with a coat hanger and the service furniture was rolled out.
This little parable is about faith and purpose defeating circumstance. God didn’t pop the lock. Cliff Gray did that. But his purpose came from God, and there is no better way to explain why religious organizations responded to Hurricane Sandy with such love and fervor and in such numbers. They are the unsung heroes of the storm.
Read the full story, and see an online gallery of photos from the Gateway church.