ATLANTA — Our God is a God of range, fairness and inclusion. That was Orpheus Heyward’s message to the Renaissance Church of Christ. The sermon title: “God’s DNA in DEI.” Yep, he went there!
And wow, what a thought-provoking message!
However I’m getting means forward of myself.
Associated: Andrew Hairston is ‘the energy that runs by way of our veins’
Earlier than I let you know in regards to the Sunday sermon (and earlier than you write me offended letters), let me again as much as that Friday, once I arrived in Atlanta for the funeral of Andrew J. Hairston.
Andrew J. Hairston sits among the many pews of the Simpson Road Church of Christ throughout a 2012 interview with The Christian Chronicle.
It was grey and drizzly as I drove previous Morehouse School and into the packed car parking zone of the Simpson Road Church of Christ, the place Hairston preached for about 55 years.
Inside, about 50 fellow preachers gathered for a “Ministers’ Memorial Second” to have a good time Hairston’s life. Richard Barclay, minister for the Stonecrest Church of Christ in close by McDonough, Ga., moderated the occasion. He referred to as Hairston “a large sequoia” within the forest of religion. Terry Wallace, minister for the West Oak Grove Church of Christ in Hernando, Miss., referred to as Hairston “a superb soldier” for the Lord. John Iverson, retired minister for the Southside Church of Christ in Valdosta, Ga., added that Hairston was “a fantastic servant” who believed the church must be lively all through the week and all through the neighborhood.
Don McLaughlin, minister for the North Atlanta Church of Christ, speaks throughout a ministers-only memorial service for Andrew Hairston.
The preachers shared a way of “gratefulness and grief,” stated Don McLaughlin, minister for the North Atlanta Church of Christ. He prayed for Marcus T. Watkins, who started preaching at Simpson Road about 5 years in the past.
Watkins promised that Hairston “is not going to be forgotten so long as I’m respiration. He’s the material of those partitions.”
John Iverson talks about his buddy Andrew J. Hairston throughout the Friday evening memorial service.
One factor in regards to the Friday evening service made me chuckle. Some ministers (I gained’t identify names) are identified for going only a bit over their allotted time. So once I came upon I’d be in a service by ministers, for ministers, filled with ministers, I figured we’d go over the allotted two hours — means over.
No joke, we completed this system with 20 minutes to spare.
The Saturday “Homegoing Service” lasted a bit longer. I believe I used to be on the church constructing for the higher a part of 5 hours.
However it wasn’t a funeral — it was a “fun-eral,” as Wesley T. Leonard put it.
Mourners go to the casket of Andrew J. Hairston earlier than the minister’s “Homegoing Service.”
“It’s a nasty factor to go to church on Sunday and a funeral get away,” stated Leonard, minister for the Southside Church of Christ in Orlando, Fla., who moderated the service. “However it’s a superb factor to go to a funeral and church get away.”
I grew up at one other Southside Church of Christ, about an hour south of Atlanta in Macon, Ga. And I used to be completely thrilled to get a faucet on the shoulder from Norma Baker, who was singing with the Andrew Hairston Memorial Refrain. She and her husband, Michael, had been members at Southside earlier than they moved to Atlanta. Michael Baker was one in every of my Lads to Leaders academics. They’re two of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet.
The Andrew Hairston Memorial Refrain sings hymns throughout the Homegoing Service on the Simpson Road Church of Christ. Norma Baker is on the left finish of the entrance row.
Erik Tryggestad reunites together with his Lads to Leaders instructor, Michael Baker.
The Simpson Road church catered an exquisite reception after the service, so I acquired to meet up with the Bakers. Then I headed northeast to the Northlake Church of Christ in Tucker, Ga. Charity Armstead, the spouse of worship minister Chris Armstead (and fellow Georgia Bulldog) invited me to their Worship Weekend. I witnessed a spirit-filled efficiency by A Cappella Alliance.
Associated: Voices solely: ‘Father’ and ‘The Lord Your God’
Clifford Mills of Dallas talks in regards to the once-forbidden use of tritones in church music.
The group, primarily based in Dallas, is made up of church members from throughout the Dallas-Fort Value metro. Clifford Mills, a member of the Lawrence and Marder Church of Christ in Dallas, shaped the group in 1989 on the request of the minister at his former congregation, the Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ. This was their first journey to Atlanta.
@christianchronicle TUCKER, GA. — A Cappella Alliance performs “Father,” by Mills Manna Music, for the primary time in entrance of an viewers throughout Worship Weekend on the Northlake Church of Christ within the Atlanta metro. #acappella #acappellaworship #acappellagroup #acappellaalliance #acappellaalliancemusic #worshipweekend #churchofchrist ♬ unique sound – The Christian Chronicle
Lastly, that brings me to Sunday morning, the Renaissance church and “God’s DNA in DEI.”
Brother Heyward shared his perspective. The federal government’s range, fairness and inclusion initiative definitely has flaws because it makes an attempt to supply a guardrail to make sure that minorities have a good probability at authorities jobs and development alternatives. However the reply must be to repair the guardrail reasonably to get rid of it totally, he stated.
However that wasn’t the thrust of his message. He introduced an instance of what I’d name “DEI performed proper.” It begins in Acts 10 when God speaks to a centurion named Cornelius and sends him to seek out Peter. About the identical time, God provides Peter a dream the place he lowers a sheet from heaven with every kind of animals — clear and unclean — and tells Peter to “kill and eat.” Think about how bonkers that sounded to Peter, a religious Jew his whole life!
Members greet one another on the Renaissance Church of Christ in Atlanta.
Quickly, Peter is in Cornelius’ home, saying “God has proven me that I shouldn’t name anybody impure or unclean.” That’s divine range. When he hears about Cornelius’ imaginative and prescient, Peter says “I now notice how true it’s that God doesn’t present favoritism.” That’s heavenly fairness. Lastly, the Holy Spirit comes upon all who hear Peter’s phrases, Jew and Gentile alike. That’s inclusion.
The church has a “Renaissance Stay” broadcast from its foyer earlier than the service. It’s like a Sunday bulletin meets NBC’s “As we speak” present — a extremely neat concept. Oh, and we sang an unbelievable, upbeat rendition of “Salvation Has Been Introduced Down.”
@christianchronicle ATLANTA — An upbeat model of a traditional hymn fills the auditorium of the Renaissance Church of Christ on a Sunday morning. #renaissance #renaissancechurchofchrist #acappella #acappellaworship #salvationhasbeenbroughtdown #churchofchrist ♬ unique sound – The Christian Chronicle
There have been about 900 of us on the service, and several other launched themselves to me, together with a girl with a British accent. She moved to Atlanta from London and by no means had heard of Church buildings of Christ earlier than worshiping with Renaissance.
I really useful a number of congregations in London, ought to she ever get again there.
Texas-based A Cappella Alliance performs a Saturday evening live performance for the Northlake Church of Christ in Tucker, Ga.
ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact [email protected], and comply with him on X @eriktryggestad.
