MAIL BAG: Readers Respond to our Summit Editorial

Our editorial generated a lot of emails.  Here's a sampling...

We got a lot of responses to our editorial, “Has a New Era Begun in the ICOC”.  A flood of emails agreed that the conference signaled a turning point for our churches…

From Florida:

“Hi Mike, I wholeheartedly agree. We are seeing a regeneration of Gods people after a period of sin and repentence. Thanks for your hard work and leadership. The conference was so inspiring. The classes were deep and taught by humble leaders...”  Tom, Orlando, USA

From South Carolina:

 “Mike, the summit was an incredible time of joy, fellowship and challenge.  The summit renewed a sense of gratitude and passion for His kingdom within my heart. My wife and I were converted in the late 80’s in South Florida but eventually left in 2003 and spent the next 8 years wandering in a spiritual desert. We were restored in 2011 in Charleston SC, and immediately saw the difference. We expected to be “blasted” but we were loved, we expected harshness, but we found patience and through it all God was faithful. Earlier this year our teenaged son was baptized into Christ.  Truly God has done great things through all that has happened and we are eternally grateful to be back.  Thanks so much for all the hard work in making the summit the life changing “Mountain top experience” that it was!!”  From Charleston, USA

From North Carolina:

“The Summit was more than I could have asked, and many have already stated that better than I. I also think everyone, including yourself, was suprised that after all the grief and pain of our crisis that there could still be so much zeal for the kingdom and in particular for such a gathering of disciples as was the Summit. I, too, would have suggested four thousand to be a good number for the Summit planners, but now that we survivors and new converts have all seen each other, we realize that the negative vibes we had so much accepted were just a lie from Satan. No leaders could have told us this. We had to see each other face to face.”  Mark, Raleigh, USA

From London, England:

Thanks for your message on the ICOC website about a new era. I feel very encouraged after reading it. I was baptised in Johannesburg in 1992, and moved to the UK in 2003 just as all the uproar in the churches kicked off. At the first service I attended in the UK, the lead evangelist stood up and announced he was resigning. Each week at church after that more & more people stood up and voiced their complaints, and I started to feel more & more discouraged. I eventually stopped going to church for a while because I found it all so discouraging. Then I started attending the Thames Valley Church of Christ (ICOC) in Reading, which was further away, but which didn’t seem to be going through as much turmoil as the London churches. To cut a long story short, the church here is great – very family orientated and we have wonderful friends. There are also quite a few ex-South Africans here, so it helps to have them to talk to as we have a lot in common…” 

Let me note here that the London churches are now healthy and growing stronger.  All eight regions have reunited.  The storms in London from a decade ago are now passed.

Many churches are using the videos at dtoday.tv to multiply the impact of the conference.  Here’s a note from Baltimore…

“Today at our service we showed 5 different videos from the conference interspersed throughout the service.  We have a very internationally diverse congregation (over 30 different countries represented) so the opening ceremony video as well as the video with "Praises heard Around The World" were particularly impacting.  For our members who went it was a reminder of what they were a part of and for those who could not go it felt like we had brought the conference right to them.  In addition we had open mic sharing from the conference at our midweek this past Wednesday and the convictions and decisions by teens, college students, singles, and marrieds who shared was inspiring for the whole church.  Already there is a renewed zeal and spirit in our church with tons of new studies and visitors in just the week after the conference.  Thanks again for all of your hard work before, during, and since the conference.”  Doug, Baltimore.

Thanks everyone for the emails.

Mike