North American Convention - Tuesday

Tuesdays see the gathering of the General Assembly at the North American Convention. Many pastors, in particular, will drive in just to be part of this annual meeting. Attendance this year appeared to be quite strong, consistent with is happening all around at NAC. We heard today that NAC attendance is up 18% from last year. That's impressive considering some of the negativity that was floating around prior by those upset with some of the changes.

GA has become fairly straightforward and predictable in recent years, and there were not too many surprises this year. A major theme was the recent budget shortfalls that have severely impacted Church of God Ministries. We learned that 1021 of our congregations do not give anything to the World Mission Budget. At the end of the day prayer groups gathered to pray over the matter, and an impromptu offering was held and over $31,000 was raised! Also, decided today was the formation of a study committee to assess the viability of the North American Convention.

A new innovation to the GA this year is the provision of open forums. Yesterday's Town Hall was the first such opportunity, and today after the business session another opportunity was provided for people to come to he mic and asks questions or share reflections, but all outside of the formal business meeting. The opportunity for input and dialogue seemed to be welcomed by people, and something we need more of.

Today's services were quite powerful. In the morning, following the first GA session, emerging leader Patrick Nachtigall spoke, giving an optimistic outlook for the church despite the realities of messiness and change. This evening's service was another inspiring one, providing a interesting array of music ranging from caribbean to Gaither-era gospel to traditional hymns. Milton Grannum shared his powerful story of how he was brought into the church because of Church of God missionaries in Guyana.

I noticed a real positive buzz around the various events and sites. God is working among us!

North American Convention - Monday

With the first intensive day of the North American Convention also came a trend toward cooler weather. It was a pleasant day, but things are looking to be quite cool by Wednesday!

This afternoon were two significant events. First, was the annual Doctrinal Dialogue, sponsored by the School of Theology. This year's discussion was on Women in Ministry, with the main paper presented by Dr. John Stanley. I am astounded as to the consistent low turnout for these discussions, as we really need more dialogue in the Church of God, especially on matters such as this. It's no wonder we have trouble talking to each other. Anyway the presentations challenged us to affirm the biblical teaching concerning women in ministry and to live it out in our churches. I wish more people could have been there, although the papers presented are available online.

Perhaps the people staying away from the Doctrinal Dialogue were saving up for the Town Hall Meeting that followed with General Director Ron Duncan and General Assembly chair Bob Moss. There was a strong turnout at Reardon Auditorium, likely because there are some pressing issues confronting us. Sure enough, a wide range of questions were addressed to Dr. Duncan, most of which concerned some aspect of Church of God identity and vision. A few individuals asked about the future of "Anderson Campmeeting" and the current format. Overall, I was impressed with the civility in which everyone conducted themselves, as there were no outbursts on hot button issues.

Tonight's service focused on the commissioning of new missionaries, something that normally has taken place on Wednesday evenings. Milfred Minatrea, of the Missional Church Center, challenged us to accept our marching orders to "Go" and make disciples.  (It was good to once again have a speaker from outside the Church of God address us!). Also, included in the service, right in the middle of Minatrea's sermon, was a time for annointing.

Attendance hit another peak tonight, and resulted in me experiencing the overflow room first-hand, itself at capacity. The quality video presentation did not lessen the experience, and only reinforced the possibilities of technology to overcome limitations and for expanding ministry.

North American Convention - Sunday

Sunday was a perfect weather day to be at the North American Convention. In the morning local Church of God congregations received convention visitors, except for those visiting the "official" venue, Park Place.

Fortunately, Sunday at NAC is not packed full of programs. It is a great day to catch-up with friends over lunch or coffee. There were also some receptions scheduled that offered more formal opportunities for networking and connection. For example, I was at the annual CMA meet-and-greet, and the Living Link reception sponsored by Global Missions.

Tonight's service continues the new tradition of a global communion service webcast shared by other churches around the world. At least 95 other congregations in North America were sharing in the service live tonight. In keeping with this year's global missions' centennial missions was a big theme tonight, and included a powerful music and visual presentation featuring and past and present missionaries. Hopefully, all the web watchers were able to catch all of tonight's service, as I have been hearing of numerous complaints of the streaming quality from people through Twitter.

Tomorrow begins three very full days of activity. After a late evening of visiting with some friends, including missionaries, I need to get to bed for an early start in the morning.

North American Convention - Saturday

Technically, Saturday is the first day at NAC. For me, personally, it is the busiest, as I had numerous meetings associated with my role as an Area Administrator. But, for others there were a wide variety of conferences, etc. during the day, including a family day activity at Madison Park.

Tonight's keynote service introduced Carma Wood as our worship leader for the week. Andy Stephenson, Coordinator of Christian Education, Youth and Family for Church of God Ministries spoke. With the global missions emphasis this week I was especially impressed with the predominance of this theme permeating the entire service. God's mission as part of worship is frequently neglected or minimized, so this was not only inspiring, but refreshing. Stephenson's message reinforced the theme with several multi-media pieces, and a group exercise demonstrating the rapidity and effectiveness of touching just three other people. My only frustration with the service tonight is that the sound seemed to lack clarity, and was slightly muffled.

I also had an opportunity to visit the exhibits at Madison Park. Instead of the one big exhibit hall or tent, the various displays are spread across several classrooms. I wonder how many people will find their way down the hallway to the rooms, and if this format will be effective for the colleges and agencies desiring to connect and promote.

Time to get ready for Sunday.

North American Convention - Friday

Like hundreds of others I have made my pilgrimage to Anderson for the North American Convention of the Church of God. While people will be arriving throughout the event, if you want to be at the very first service Friday is a must. It is a service of worship and celebration sponsored by Anderson University.

The service itself was a powerful, choral-based presentation with the theme, "One Lord, One Faith". Interspersed among the various selections were presentations from the presidents of our four primary Church of God colleges, highlighting the missions' focus of each school. This is in keeping with the overall focus of the entire convention, which is celebrating 100 years of global missions.

Of course, the big story tonight and this week is the venue change to Madison Park Church of God for the evening services. This is major change, as it is the most posh facility ever used for this event, and it spreads out the various activities of the convention throughout the city, creating transportation and other logistic challenges. It is easy to see how this year the NAC has moved further along the continuum from "campmeeting" and toward a true "convention". Overall, I was quite impressed with the Madison Park facility. The luxurious theater seats are very comfortable compared to anything we've had to endure in the past, and the sound and ambience of the auditorium create a great environment for a worship service. The biggest downside to the facility is the auditorium's limited size (apparently around 2000), and tonight it was practically full.

Time for bed. For me, tomorrow's activities begin real early!

(Reminder to keep up with instant updates throughout NAC on Twitter: @chogblog)

NAC Coverage

Later this week I will be heading to Anderson for the North American Convention of the Church of God. There is much nervous anticipation about this year's event because of all the changes. Because of these significant shifts this is truly an historic year for our "campmeeting".

As has become a tradition over the past few years I will once again be providing daily blog reflections on the NAC. Last year I also offered Twitter updates during the General Assembly, but this year I will be expanding my Twitter coverage throughout the entire NAC. If you are looking for on-the-ground reports and reflections be sure to follow @chogblog. (For anyone else twittering during NAC I would encourage you to use the #nacchog hashtag for easy searching and compilation).

Also, one other NAC announcement: If you will be in Anderson be sure to attend the second annual CHOGBlog Get Together:

Sunday evening
9:30pm
at Starbucks
(4235 Scatterfield Road, Anderson)

I look forward to connecting with you over the next week!

New look Church of God Ministries website

Church of God Ministries today unveiled a revamped website (www.chog.org), with a fresh new look and improved navigation. The site is titled "Official Site of the North American Church of God: Transforming culture by being the body of Christ".

The re-design is a welcome change, as the previous website was hardly attractive, difficult to get around, and too narrow for today's computer monitors. A new consistent menu system at the top of each page will make it easier to find what one is looking for, and the site is generally much more colorful and appealing.

I also noticed the introduction of a section surprisingly called "Chog Blog" (I knew I should have trademarked that name!). There are 14 different blogs listed with RSS feeds. It would be great to have more of our national office staff blogging, let alone Twittering, etc. But, unfortunately, I am not sure they get the blogging thing, as the execution is way off the mark. Almost of all the blogs represent topics or departments - far from the personality-driven nature of blogs. And, both technically and in terms of usability they are not following standard blog formats. So, it will be frustrating for people to work with.

Other new "eCHOG" features include discussion forums and CHOG Tube.

I know that websites are always evolving, and I am sure this one will as well. On my wish list, for now, is better handling of RSS feeds for news stories. It's there, but not properly setup for easy syndication.

What do you think of the new website design?

Church planting discussion

My recent post on "The future of church planting" has generated a number of comments from at least a few individuals. I'd encourage more to jump in on the discussion.

The recent economic climate has impacted church planting in the Church of God. Instead of seeing this as a hopeless situation, I wonder if we are ready to use this as an opportunity to explore new models that could have even greater, long-term impact on Kingdom and church growth?