Join us in California for the Pepperdine Bible Lectures

Pepperdine University (photo via www.pepperdine.edu)

I’m headed to sunny Malibu, Calif., next week for the 69th annual Bible Lectures at Pepperdine University.
(Most of my trips require malaria pills and mosquito nets. This one will be a change from the norm, but I’ll muddle through somehow.)
If you’re attending this year’s lectures, please allow me to stump for two Christian Chronicle-related events:
• Lunch with The Christian Chronicle — noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 2 in Heritage Hall.

Bart and Tamika Rybinski with Izabela, one of their three children. (Photo provided)

Join us for lunch as we discuss the latest developments in Christian journalism. Our guest speaker is Bartosz “Bart” Rybinski, vice president for European operations for Eastern European Mission.
(I didn’t know in advance that Rybinski would be the speaker, but I couldn’t be happier. A native of Poland, he is the former singles minister for the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. About 10 years ago, during breakfast at a Cracker Barrel, he and his wife, Tamika, introduced me to an attractive medical school student named Jeanie. Eighteen months later, I married her, and Bart Rybinski was my best man.)
For more, not-so-personal background information, see our report from Ukraine about EEM’s 50th anniversary and our Dialogue with Tamika Rybinski.
 
• “What’s Right With Churches of Christ? How Global Expansion is Enriching Our Restoration Heritage” — 9:45 a.m. Thursday (Part 1) and 9:45 a.m. Friday (Part 2) in the Howard A. White Center (HAWC)
We read a lot of “bad news” these days about declining membership among Churches of Christ in the U.S.
But that’s not the whole story.
Dyron Daughrity, associate professor of religion at Pepperdine, and I present a two-part class exploring the Restoration heritage of Churches of Christ — and how global demographic shifts in our fellowship are enriching that heritage. Daughrity has identified defining characteristics of the Restoration Movement, and we will provide examples of how we see those traits displayed among Churches of Christ in locales including Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Asia and Latin America. The classes will draw on inspiring stories we highlighted in our recent Global South series. (Daughrity, who has traveled extensively throughout the Global South, was a valued consultant and contributor to the award-winning series.)
We hope the class will help Christians focus on the strengths of our fellowship and help us all to consider — and strengthen — Churches of Christ on a global scale.
 
This will be the final Pepperdine lectureship with Jerry Rushford at the helm. The Christian Chronicle’s editor, Lynn McMillon, penned a glowing tribute to Rushford in our most recent issue.
As a reporter of international news, I’m thrilled by the variety of nationalities Rushford puts together for the lectures. Here’s a sampling of this year’s international speakers, with links to stories we’ve written about them in the Chronicle.
• Dusty and Cecily Breeding, workers with the Made in the Streets ministry in Kenya.
• Ronald Bwana and Abraham Mulongo, workers with the Kibo Group in Uganda.
• Winston and Hong-Ngee Chong, church members in Singapore.
• Greg and Sonia Clodfelter, workers with the Right Steps ministry in Kenya.
• Luis “Chito” Cusi, longtime medical mission coordinator in the Philippines.
• Philippe and Dolores Dauner, church members, ministry coordinators in Marseilles, France.
• Joseph Dzamesi, minister, Christian school director in Ho, Ghana.
• Joel Joseph and Luckson Previl, ministers in Cap Haitien, Haiti.
• Rabson, Regina and Herbert Mhango, ministers in Lusaka, Zambia (Rabson Mhango is helping to coordinate this year’s Africans Claiming Africa for Christ conference in Zambia).
• Charles and Florence Ngoje, workers with the Nairobi Great Commission School in Kenya.
• Lawrence and Patience Oduro, coordinators of ministry and school in Ateiku, Ghana.
• Oji and Ngozi Oji, church members and publication directors in Nigeria.
• Ammiel Perez, longtime minister in Cuba.
• Kurt and Wendy Platt, workers with African Christian College in Swaziland.
• Samuel Twumasi-Ankrah, longtime minister, college director in Ghana.
• Dennis and Sharon Welch, missionaries in Cambodia.
 

• Feedback
  Join me for my class at Pepperdine entitled “Good and Beautiful: Introduction to a Life of Christ Following” at 2:00 PM on Wednesday in CAC 214.

  Steve Puckett

  April, 27 2012