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‘Training Rooted in Our Movement’
School of Thought
“Some of our planters wanted to offer advanced ministry training to their staff,” says Brent Storms, managing director at Orchard Group, a church planting organization based in New York City. “Many of them hire people from within the church plant who have little or no ministry background. They could send these new staff members to a Bible college in the Northeast, but the Orchard Group planters wanted training rooted in our movement.”
To meet this need, Orchard Group partnered with Hope International University (Fullerton, California) to launch the Orchard Group Institute, “an intense program in theological and ministry formation.”
The institute currently offers six courses including Biblical Hermeneutics, Theo-
logy Through the
History of the Church, and Contemporary Culture and the Restoration Movement. The classes are offered over several days at churches in the Northeast; in addition to 18 hours of classroom instruction per course, outside reading and/or writing are required.
“We tried to boil it down to essentials,” Storms says. “If someone did no other work, what would enable him to speak intelligently about Bible interpretation, doctrine, church history, and the Christian churches?”
Each course can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit; after completing all six courses at the graduate level, students are almost halfway to an MA degree with Hope and can complete the rest via distance learning.
The Orchard Group held its first two classes last fall and another two this spring.
www.orchardgroup.org
www.hiu.edu
Taking Off
Four church of Christ congregations were excluded from the 2009 version of the “Churches of Christ in the United States” directory because they now use instrumental music in one or more weekend worship service, The Christian Chronicle reported recently. Richland Hills (Texas) Church of Christ, the largest in the U.S., was among the four churches dropped from the directory.
Although past editions stopped listing churches that intentionally left the churches of Christ, Richland Hills executive minister Mike Washburn says the church is “saddened and disappointed” to be removed.
“Richland Hills’ elders have not broken ties with Churches of Christ, nor did they ask to be excluded from the 2009 directory,” Washburn says in the Chronicle. “However, we are a part of a huge movement in our fellowship who do not believe a cappella worship is the sole way of defining who churches of Christ are.”
The directory also excluded Farmers Branch Church of Christ (Dallas, Texas), Jenks (Oklahoma) Church, and Redwood (California) Church. Each of these congregations offers both instrumental and a cappella worship.
Carl Royster, who compiles the annual directory, says it is intended as a reference tool, not a “theological document” or an authoritative list of churches of Christ.
www.christianchronicle.org
www.rhchurch.org
Fit Together
Although many Christians avoid yoga because of its connections to transcendental meditation, First Christian Church (Phoenix, Arizona) has embraced the exercise as a way to help church members improve their physical health and as an outreach to not-yet-Christians.
FCC began the weekly yoga classes in October. Each hour-long class includes practice in many of the traditional yoga poses. Christian music plays in the background, and the instructor encourages students to focus on God’s Word—not mind-emptying mantras.
“Our yoga classes have nothing to do with Eastern meditation,” says Debbi Dilk, care pastor. “We focus on the health benefits of yoga and deep breathing. Several students have reported fewer headaches and better sleep.”
The classes are open to adults of all ages and fitness levels. Dilk says classes are also open to community members and hopes the sessions can be a comfortable introduction to First Christian for people who might not otherwise visit a church.
“We call it ‘basic yoga with a Christian flair,’” she says. “Christians sometimes forget we have a responsibility to take good care of our bodies, and this is one way to get started.”
www.fccphx.com
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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