One hurricane, two churches
MALIBU, Calif. — Two Churches of Christ met for worship at…
‘Peace, peace, be still’
The tempest was raging in Malibu, but the Master was still in control.
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MALIBU, Calif. — Maybe it was the hurricane.
Maybe it was the church name: Waves Church.
Whatever the reason, for the three days I spent at Pepperdine University, the chorus of the old hymn “Master, the Tempest is Raging!” was stuck on repeat in my head.
Related: One hurricane, two churches
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will:
Peace, be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea
Or demons or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies
The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
The lyrics provided an appropriate libretto to my conversations with people who are part of a new church being planted by the university and people who have been part of one begun by the university more than 53 years ago.
One of the joys of writing for The Christian Chronicle is visiting churches in different places. In five years with the Chronicle, and throughout my life, I’ve learned that kind, gracious, God-fearing people are found in churches that look and worship in many different ways and sometimes believe very differently from one another.
Tiny churches, big churches, Black churches, lily White churches, mother churches, church plants. Churches that others call too progressive or too conservative.
Sometimes the differences seem enormous, and the gulf between seems unassailable. But often they’re so small and should be insignificant given the scope of a world that desperately needs to hear Christians speaking peace.
Like a lot of Christians from the middle of the country, I grew up imagining Pepperdine as a college just barely associated with Churches of Christ, not at all like Abilene Christian or Harding or Lipscomb, not in my mind.
Cheryl Mann Bacon drenched from Tropical Storm Hilary in Malibu, Calif.
Well, no, Cheryl. It’s not like those places because Southern California is nothing like Texas or Arkansas or Tennessee. And just like the church in Rome probably bore little resemblance to those in Corinth or Ephesus or certainly Jerusalem, the church — and the colleges associated with it — looks different in different cities and cultures. But it’s still the body.
Through my travels earlier this summer with Jerry Rushford’s Hymns and Heritage tour and more recently during three days on the campus in Malibu, I got to know a lot of Pepperdine folks, and I asked them lots of questions. Remarkably, a lot of people were willing to talk to me about what was for them a sensitive and challenging story.
Some spoke frankly and boldly, some with great caution, a few off the record. Yet, in every interaction I was consistently impressed — no, moved — by the devotion of these people to our Restoration heritage. They didn’t all agree with each other about whether Pepperdine needed one church or two serving students here. But they all wanted to serve students — they wanted the good news of Jesus to be real in their lives.
Linger, O blessed Redeemer!
Leave me alone no more,
And with joy I shall make the blest harbor
And rest on the blissful shore.
No doubt I missed some malcontents somewhere, but I’m an incurable optimist when it comes to church things. If God has brought us through 2,000 years of human foolishness, I imagine he can do the same in this century.
No doubt I missed some malcontents somewhere, but I’m an incurable optimist when it comes to church things. If God has brought us through 2,000 years of human foolishness, I imagine he can do the same in this century.
As I drove out of Malibu, I stopped for breakfast on the pier. Just two days after Hilary blew through, the waters were calm. I watched a seal catch his breakfast, creating the only disruption in their glassy surface. And that song was still stuck on repeat.
Peace, peace, be still.
CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact [email protected].
