2006 February — wadehodges.com

In a recent article in the Christian Chronicle, Truitt Adair and John Reese said that the reason their respective organizations won?t be participating in the workshop this year is because of a “shift away from a soul-winning emphasis.” (Update: Read John Reese’s apology here) When the Chronicle asked me to respond to Adair?s comment, I said that I was happy to let the workshop program speak for itself. At the time, I was thinking that anyone who took a look at the program would see that such assertions are as baseless as the Texas Panhandle is mountainless. But I?ve heard enough now to conclude that some folks are reading the Chronicle and assuming that Adair and Reese are accurate in their assessment.

I respectfully contend that they are not.

Just take a look at these class titles, all of which I believe are connected to the theme of soul-winning/evangelism:

Bridging the Gap: From Attractional to Missional
It?s All About Souls
Becoming a Missional Church
Stewarding a God-Conceived Mission
Engaging the American Mission Field: The Power of Emerging Churches
Hope for the Flowers (Church Planting)
The WWYC Story–Creating Hip-Deep Christ Community in a Youth Camp Knee-Deep in Sin
Can you Hear Me Now – A God of 2nd Chances and 2nd Glances
Bridging the Gap: From Spectators to Ministers
Not Just Evangelism…But, Disciplers
Missions and Transformation: Why our Churches Have it Backwards
Missional Church Planting
The Emerging Church of Christ: Both/And
Jesus Evangelism – Inviting People on a Journey Beyond Themselves
Bridging the Gap: From Prospects to Persons
From Conversation to Conversion
Discipling–Another Look
Contagious Holiness
Stewarding a God-Formed Vision
Church Planting: God’s Surprising Movement in the 21st Century
God is at Work: Business People on the Mission Field
From Churches that Send to Churches that are Sent: Why Sending Others Isn?t Enough
Jesus: He Calls Us Through Courageous Doctrine
Jesus: He Calls Us To Courageous Living

How can ANYONE say that this year?s workshop doesn?t have a soul-winning/evangelistic emphasis?

I?ve only listed the class titles that are overtly related to soul-winning/evangelism or those classes that I know are going to include something about it based upon a conversation I?ve had with the teacher. (If you?re teaching a class at the workshop that somehow pertains to soul-winning and your class title isn?t listed above, please let me know and I?ll add it.)

Surely no one can conclude from this year?s theme–For the Good of the World, To the Glory of God-that the workshop has departed from a soul-winning/evangelistic emphasis. Are we, by asking the keynote speakers to base their messages on portions of Paul?s letter to the Ephesians, communicating that soul-winning is no longer a priority?

There will actually be very few classes pertaining to the Church of Christ/Christian Church unity effort. I?m not asking the tag-team keynote speakers to speak about the reunion. I?m asking them to demonstrate unity by sharing the same stage together. True, Max Lucado and Bob Russell will be speaking on “Maintaining Unity” on Friday night, but that is only because that?s what Paul is talking about in Ephesians 4. Was Paul shifting away from a soul-winning emphasis by making unity such an issue in his letter?

I bristle at the notion that “unity” is somehow distinct from soul-winning/evangelism.

A couple of passages come to mind:

John 13:34-35 (NIV)
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 17:20-23 (NIV)
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Could it be that demonstrating unity helps give credibility to the Message we so desperately want our neighbors to embrace so that their souls–not to mention their hearts and minds and bodies and families and neighborhoods and countries and planet–can be saved?

I preached Stella Hereford’s funeral earlier today. She was 87. Unless you already knew her, you wouldn’t have had any reason to get to know her. Several years ago she fell and broke her hip and spent her last few years on a walker.

If you saw her hobbling in and out of church on Sunday morning, all you would see was an old lady on a walker. Every church has at least one. You would see her and never think twice about it. You would certainly never guess what kind of life she lived.

It’s always amazing to me how many details of a person’s life go unknown until their funeral. The crowd that gathers to say goodbye to a friend hears revelations about someone they thought they knew. They’re usually the kind of things we would love to have known before the funeral, if only to be able to coax a few more details out of the storyteller.

It’s especially surprising to hear the stories of those whom we have only known in their old age. We can only remember them as we knew them–wrinkled, hunched over, and frail–rather than who they once were.

Today, we were surprised by the story of Stella Hereford’s life.

She was born in October of 1918, during the great influenza outbreak that killed millions of people worldwide. The day after she was born, both her mother and father died. She and her older sister were raised by her grandparents. Her grandmother died when Stella was twelve, leaving her and her older sister to care for their aging grandfather, in the middle of The Great Depression.

In 1943, Stella joined the Navy and served as a physician’s assistant in WW2.

In 1946 she married. Sixteen years and five kids later, her husband died. Stella worked day and night to raise her kids by herself. In 1973 she bought a house. She lived there for the remainder of her life. She was intensely proud of the fact that she paid for it with no outside help.

Though unwilling to accept help from others, she was always ready to help anyone in need. She made her home available to her family and their friends, never asking anyone for a cent of rent. She shared whatever food she had.

After a lengthy bout with a stomach infection, she told her oldest son on Saturday night, “I’ve had a bad day today. I’m going to sleep now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

Now she sleeps and we wait for the great Tomorrow during which we will be able to get to know her a little better.

Stella Hereford was not just an old lady on a walker.