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12-3-06 -- Musical and Spiritual Training
Making Some Noise
The Web site for the Harvester Music Academy, a ministry of Harvester Christian Church (St. Charles, Missouri), includes a wonderful purpose statement; the academy exists not only to encourage personal growth and development, but to help students "use the gift that God has given them to make a loud noise for the Lord!"
Of course, the industrious academy students make music for the Lord, as well. Each Tuesday and Thursday from 4:00-8:00 pm, HMA instructors offer beginner and advanced private lessons in piano, voice, guitar, saxophone, drums, and more. The 30-minute sessions begin and end with prayer, and Harvester encourages the teachers to provide spiritual leadership as well as musical training.
www.harvestercc.org
Developing Canadian Leaders
Impact Canada (Mississauga, Ontario) works with U.S. and Canadian churches, other partnering organizations, and individuals from both countries to plant new churches throughout Toronto, southern Ontario, and beyond. Now, in addition to launching these new churches, the ministry is also working to develop the current and future leaders of these congregations.
Jona Sagisi, communications and administrative director at Impact Canada, laments that there are so few Restoration Movement churches in the country. "We don’t have many opportunities to train emerging leaders in our history and background or even the basic principles of good leadership. Our pastors and elders interested in this type of work usually visit schools and conferences in the States."
To help fill this gap, Impact Canada recently launched its new Strategic Training and Equipping Centre.
"The centre isn’t a bricks and mortar location," Sagisi says. "It’s a program dedicated to equipping leaders."
The centre will offer quarterly classes in local church leadership, fundamentals of the "Restoration plea," and more. Well-known speakers including LeRoy Lawson and Bob Russell will teach the sessions.
"We hold these gatherings in fairly small venues, often with only 50 or 60 seats," says Sagisi. "It’s a wonderful opportunity for our Canadian ministers to learn from high-profile leaders in an environment that encourages discussion and interaction."
www.impactcanada.org
Welcome Brooks Christian!
Brooks Christian Church (Fayette-ville, Georgia) is one of our newest churches in the Southeast. But BCC isn’t a church plant or second campus; instead, it’s an established congregation that recently voted to withdraw from the Disciples of Christ and become an independent Christian church.
Paul Carrier, who previously served at Christ’s Church at Whitewater (Fayetteville) and Atlanta Christian College, has ministered at Brooks the last two years and will continue to provide leadership during this transition. In the local newspaper, The Citizen, Carrier shared, "It was felt by most of the members that this would be a better fit for their conservative belief system and their perspectives on many political, social, and moral issues of our time."
Stories of Service
During this season, churches organize special service projects and community outreach activities. But many churches also serve their communities the other 11 months of the year, often in creative ways.
Some, like Central Christian Church (St. Petersburg, Florida) practice "random acts of kindness;" CCC’s Drive-Thru Ministry encourages members to anonymously pay for the meals of customers behind them in line.
Other churches "serve the servants" by donating baked treats to fire departments and police stations. Volunteers from Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church and Christ’s Church at Mason (Ohio) bake and deliver homemade pies each month. "We also take brochures about the church," says Jim Dempsey, associate minister at Worthington. "Our group always receives a warm welcome." (The program can even have side benefits—Dempsey hints that Howard Pauley, senior adults minister at CCM and coordinator of its "In His Name" pie delivery team, once avoided a speeding ticket from the Mason police!)
Each church could tell a unique story about efforts to reach out to the community. We’d love to hear yours—even if it doesn’t involve food! E-mail us at buzz@standardpub.com.
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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