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Roger
Lamb - KNN - October 10, 2003
With
the theme, "Faith of Our Fathers," 515 leaders from the
International Churches of Christ gathered in Dallas, Texas from October
3 through the 5th. They included evangelists, elders, teachers, deacons,
ministry leaders, women's ministry leaders, board members,
administrators, and small group leaders, both full-time and non
full-time. They came because they
wanted to be there—from 16 countries, 31 states and
99 different congregations. Not a
decision-making meeting, this conference was a time of inspiration and
renewal.
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Though at the outset of the first night, the feelings were tenuous, the
fellowship, the worship and the Scriptural lessons soon renewed the deep
bonds of love among people who had not seen each other for some time. Numerous humble acknowledgements of the crisis in our churches were
met with three clear messages:
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A
deep love for the Father and learning from his discipline
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A
desire for brotherhood and unity
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A
renewed commitment to world evangelism
Sasha
Kostenko, Lead Evangelist of the Moscow Church, exemplified the tone of
honesty in his sharing, "Russia is the country between Korea and
Europe. We don't have much good
news this year. We had a great
meeting of the Eurasian leaders last month.
There are 11,000 disciples in Eurasia. Next year we will have good
news to share." Many speakers
openly spoke of profound and humble lessons God had taught them through
his discipline. There was an
obvious commitment to deeply love God first and to love each other and the
lost.
Mike
Taliaferro, Lead Evangelist for the San Antonio Church and Gregg Marutzky,
Lead Evangelist for the Dallas/Ft. Worth Church were the two primary
organizers for this event. Mike
said, "I just saw that so many of our leaders were becoming
disheartened and I wanted a way to encourage them."
Gregg commented, "This weekend showed me that we are not going
to let our unity and God's dream to evangelize the world die. I felt all
the people who came were committed to passing on a church they could be
proud of to the next generation." Here
are some other responses:
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"God
is with us regardless of the battles we endure.
It is encouraging to know that your brothers and sisters are
fighting with you and not against you. And
the musical 'Esther' was wonderful—very inspiring and an excellent
production." Hong Ngu, Bible
Talk Leader, Los Angeles
"There
was no edge on the relationships of those attending. The fellowship hugs were more real."
Steve Staten, Elder, Chicago
"I came not knowing what to expect, concerned
about what the messages would be. Now
I am so refreshed to see the humility, love and zeal of the leaders.
So many people still want to be unified to evangelize the
world." Josue Ortega,
Lead Evangelist, Mexico City Church.
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