28 March, 2024

NACC Viewpoint 4: You Just Had to Be There

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by | 17 September, 2006 | 0 comments

By Steven Clark Goad

I am parson for a church of Christ that has a tradition of not singing with instruments in our assemblies. As a music major in college, and even now, I have often wondered what the fuss was over a lousy piano in the church house. Pianos don”t worship. Guitars and percussion instruments don”t worship. People do. We make melody in our hearts.

I am glad””elated, frankly””that we are coming together. At Pepperdine. At Abilene Christian. At Tulsa. And now Louisville. It”s about time. One hundred years is way too long to be estranged from brethren like the ones I met in Louisville June 27″“30.

Quotes

“Nobody is asking anyone to give up convictions.”

“Color must never divide us. We are kinfolk in the Lord, not skinfolk.”

“If penguins can get it right (a la March of the Penguins), why can”t we?”

“How often can Jesus be found in our sermons?”

“Our worship wars have typically been over small potatoes/matters/issues.”

Oh, I really liked this one: “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

“God doesn”t bless animosity.”

“We never look more like Christ than when we serve.”

“I had a drug problem as a kid. I was drug to church every Sunday and Wednesday.”

“We”ve contracted a terrible case of the “˜get-it-right” disease.”

“Sloppy agape.”

“Grace makes us humble and goads us to work hard for Jesus.”

“If we have no messes in our lives then we are either in Heaven or in denial. Perhaps this is why we know him as the Messiah.”

Prayers

“Dear Lord, We aren”t seeking blind uniformity or even unanimity, but we do pray for unity of purpose.”

“The world at its worst needs the church at its best.”

“As Jesus prayed so fervently in the garden, please unite us and make us one in Christ so that the world might believe. May we from now onward maintain a spirit of togetherness in Jesus so that our testimony of him might be powerful and convincing. May the world see us all living what we proclaim. In Jesus” holy name. Amen.”

Reflections

Unity in Christ must be practiced on an individual and a congregational level. We do it where I am presently ministering. One of our deacons came from the independent Christian church heritage. We have never demanded a litmus test of his right to lead our singing and commune with us in the Lord”s Supper. How arrogant that would be. One speaker said that a right position with the wrong disposition is counterproductive. It isn”t a sin to hold an opinion. I think the human voice is an amazing instrument. I also think the piano is an amazing instrument. But my heart says such matters as these become nothingness in the shadow of Jesus” prayer in Gethsemane.

A scholarly friend suggests we slow down a bit and rethink what divided us””to take a closer look at our hermeneutic and such matters as the “law of silence” about which many differ.

I disagree. I think we should speed things up. This division isn”t an issue of a keyboard or a flawed hermeneutic. It”s an issue of the heart. The only litmus test I can accept is whether or not I see the fruit of the Spirit in the lives of those disciples of Jesus I encounter.

I can”t really describe the NACC in Louisville. You just had to be there.


 

 

Steven Clark Goad is senior minister of a church in Southern California and is the author of two books on unity: A Unity Cordial and This Present Chaos (21st Century Christian). He may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

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