Leaders forum draws crowd to Sin City

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NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEV. — Just 9 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Christians gathered at the North Las Vegas Church of Christ to tackle challenges facing the body of Christ in 2025.

A predominantly Black coalition of about 200 ministry leaders traveled to Sin City for the recent 60th West Coast Preachers and Leaders Forum.

Attendees represented 55 Churches of Christ in 12 states, most in the West. However, a few leaders came from as far away as Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Alabama.

The North Las Vegas church last hosted the forum in January 2020 — just two months before COVID-19 lockdowns began in the U.S.

So it seemed fitting that much discussion focused on the long-term effects of churches closing their doors and livestreaming worship services.

Preachers from Oregon, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma told The Christian Chronicle that while their worship numbers have rebounded some since the pandemic, they are still down 20 percent or more from pre-pandemic times.

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That’s at least partly due to some members choosing to worship online rather than in person.

But concerns about “virtual church” go beyond just numbers. Attendees lamented the lack of fellowship, noting the importance of a simple handshake or hug and the ability to look into church members’ eyes and see how they’re doing.

“If you’re doing this (worshiping at home) just for your own pleasure and not coming to assemble with the saints, then to me, that’s a sin, that’s wrong.”

While acknowledging the benefits of livestreaming for those who are physically unable to attend, leaders also worry that many taking advantage of online worship are violating Scripture.

“If you’re doing this (worshiping at home) just for your own pleasure and not coming to assemble with the saints, then to me, that’s a sin, that’s wrong,” Leo Gay, North Las Vegas’ minister, told the Chronicle.

“Because we are told, don’t forsake the assembly. If I can see you at Walmart, why can’t I see you in the pew? If you go to your doctor’s office, then you know, Doctor Jesus needs to work on you, too.”

In a panel discussion, Victor Norris, who preaches for the Richmond Avenue Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, said the livestream brought out a “sense of laziness” in some church members.

“I experienced it — you can sit back in your pajamas,” Norris told the audience. “You don’t have to get ready for church. … You can do whatever you want to do, until you get ready to do what you want to do on that Lord’s day.”

For Charles Teddington, minister for the Vintage Park Church of Christ in Elk Grove, Calif., condoning the practice was always a mistake — even during the pandemic.

“Now the catch-22 is this: When you let people do virtual worship because situational ethics says let’s do it — there ain’t no situation that we can compromise what God said,” Teddington told the crowd of ministry leaders. “So … why are you going to try to stop me now? … Why is it wrong now?”

Unscriptural church practices

Adherence to Scripture was another theme at the conference, and speakers warned against several church practices they described as “denominationalism” or “denominationally influenced.”

Among them: praise teams, female song leaders, instrumental music and beatboxing.

“People have had problems … knowing what a song leader is, what gender a song leader is, in the church after all these years,” Bobby Tinnion, minister for the South Central Church of Christ in Dallas, said in a song leaders workshop.

“Forcing one act of emotion upon an individual or a group in congregational singing encourages false reactions, thus false praise, and it equals artificial stimulation,” he added.

“When our worship services become performance and performative and like you’re at a concert, you have crossed the line and went beyond what the Lord has told us (about) how to worship him.”

Tinnion compared instruments and unintelligible sounds to the uninterpreted tongues described in 1 Corinthians 14, noting they do not teach and edify.

Likewise, Kenney Johnson, minister for the Southside Church of Christ in Seattle, preached that “when our worship services become production units, when our worship services become performance and performative and like you’re at a concert, you have crossed the line and went beyond what the Lord has told us (about) how to worship him.”

There were also lengthy deliberations over referring to leaders by academic or hierarchical titles and creating new church names.

“There is no Scripture against being called doctor or any other such title,” noted James Brooks, preacher for the Myrtle Avenue Church of Christ in Long Beach, Calif. But “we are what God calls us. We’re Christians. We’re brothers and sisters. … That’s sufficient within itself. A brother is no longer satisfied being a good, faithful brother. They want titles to separate and elevate themselves.”

Teddington similarly spoke against titles such as “senior minister” or “senior pastor.”

“It’s religious institutionalism, and it is not ordained in the Lord’s body,” he told attendees. “We’re brethren. … The only hierarchy is King Jesus.”

“They’re trying to draw into the new thing. And some will say, ‘Well, we just wanted to be relevant.’ I believe Jesus will always be relevant.”

On church names that are not location-based, such as “Living Tree” or “One Way” Church of Christ, “watch the optics,” urged Alfred Anderson, a member of the Estes Park Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

“When you see the name of that congregation put an adjective up there larger than the Church of Christ, then they have betrayed what they’re really after, and so they’re trying to draw into the new thing. And some will say, ‘Well, we just wanted to be relevant.’ I believe Jesus will always be relevant.”

Unity and the future of the church

While forum speakers devoted much time to what is non-negotiable, they also discussed the importance of knowing what is negotiable for the sake of unity and the future of the church.

“One of the biggest issues of the churches in my area is the inability of Churches of Christ to be connected culturally, ethnically, to be able to work together as one, because of the horrors that we still have to deal with in our world,” said Jesse Trice, an elder of a Spanish-speaking Church of Christ in Whittier, Calif., and board member of the Church of Christ Foundation.

“We have too many African American congregations,” he told the Chronicle. “We too have too many European-based American (congregations). We have too many congregations that are not able to come together.”

In a panel discussion, Trice noted that “Churches of Christ are dying because we are not talking and interacting and ministering to one another. We’ve got churches that have needs, and they keep it to themselves and call it autonomy.”

Gay, too, noted a lack of trust between churches — as well as difficulties in discerning which differences are based in doctrine and which are based in tradition and opinion.

For Ray Ellison, minister for the Mallory Church of Christ in Portland, Ore., that distinction is particularly important as he works to evangelize in what he described as one of the “most unchurched states” in America.

“It seems like people are trying to come back and find a way back to the Lord,” Ellison told the Chronicle. “And so, as times have changed, we need to — not change the doctrine, but maybe change the ways that we’re presenting God’s word. …

“We need to hear from our young people what’s important for them to be able to get across to other young people,” the preacher added, noting a lack of leadership in the home and a potent worldly influence.

“It’s a shame when the church is persecuting the church. We have difficulty in understanding that if we are fighting with one another, the world will not believe that God sent Jesus.”

Indeed, Christians should be focused on saving the world, not quibbling with each other, preached LaVance Anderson, minister for the Downtown Church of Christ in Kansas City, Mo.

“It’s a shame when the church is persecuting the church,” Anderson told the forum crowd. “We have difficulty in understanding that if we are fighting with one another, the world will not believe that God sent Jesus.”

The minister quoted from John 17 (New American Standard Bible), where Jesus prayed, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone but for those who also shall believe on me through their word, that they may all be one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in you, that they may also believe in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

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CALVIN COCKRELL is the media editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves as the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Reach him at [email protected].

Filed under: black churches Christian unity COVID-19 Denominationalism instrumental music livestreaming Ministry conference National News North Las Vegas Church of Christ online worship pandemic pandemic anniversary Post-Pandemic Church Sin City Top Stories unity virtual church West Coast Preachers and Leaders Forum Worship practices