In 2016, God blessed the two-fold mission of World Convention – to encourage fellowship, understanding, and common purpose within the Christian-Churches of Christ-Disciples of Christ global family of churches and to relate them to the whole Church for the sake of unity in Christ Jesus.
This two-fold global mission supports the mission of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) “to be and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, witnessing, loving and serving from our doorsteps “to the ends of the earth.”
World Convention related our churches to other Christians in many ways in 2016. The most notable was participation in Joint Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration of the Reformation, held in Lund, Sweden on October 31. This joint worship service begins a year of remembrance leading to the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, 2017. In this anniversary year, Catholics and Lutherans hope this common commemoration under the theme of “From Conflict to Communion” will “affirm the common conviction that there is more that unites than that which divides us.”
World Convention represented the Stone-Campbell Movement at this historic service since its theme of Christian unity is at the heart of the mission statement of World Convention:
In Christ, all are reconciled to God and to each other, and in the Spirit, God calls us to proclaim this good news throughout the world. World Convention (Christian-Churches of Christ-Disciples of Christ) embodies and encourages fellowship, understanding, and common purpose within this global family of churches and relates them to the whole Church for the sake of unity in Christ Jesus.
However, most of the work of World Convention in 2016 was in encouraging fellowship, understanding, and common purpose within the Christian-Churches of Christ-Disciples of Christ global family of churches, connecting these churches everywhere, every day.
Every few years World Convention holds a Global Gathering. Gatherings bring together people from the ‘Stone-Campbell’ family of Churches (Christian – Churches of Christ – Disciples) from around the world. The Gatherings focus on meaningful worship (including outstanding preaching and inspirational music), learning (with study of significant themes), contemporary evangelism (Bader Lectures) and global fellowship. Our Damoh Gathering, January 12-15, 2017, is our first in Asia. In 2016, much of the work of World Convention was in preparing for the Gathering in India. Visit http://www.worldconvention.org/ for a brief review and access to the video library.
