News from the Summit
Friday, April 26 2002
With attendance nearing 500, day 2 of the 2002 Summit began with the morning
Bible study and ended over twelve hours later with the end of the evening
gathering.
One participant coming from the Chicago area, when asked about the Friday workshops, said, "The first one this morning was worth the whole cost of the trip. Then I went to the second one--that was worth another whole trip!"
Highlights:
-- Curtis Dean and musicians from Nations Ford Community Church (Charlotte) led
us in worship to open the day.
-- Philip Davis, the pastor of Nations Ford Community Church, presented the
first of two Bible studies, spoke from Galatians 3:26-28, challenging the
participants to attack the cancer of racism.
-- Morning and afternoon workshops, visits to the displays, and gatherings of
special interest groups filled out the day until the evening meal.
-- Curtis Dean and the musicians and choir from Nations Ford Community Church
helped us list our hearts and voices in praise to start the evening meeting.
-- Charlotte Mayor pro tem, Patrick Cannon, brought a welcome from the people of
Charlotte.
-- The choir from the Korean Baptist Church of Charlotte sang.
-- Dr. W. Dan Lee continued his series on the changing demographics in the USA.
He described the statistical realities of ethnic groups and contrasted those
realities with the often erroneous assumptions held by the general population.
He spoke of the hurt experienced by people of ethnic background when the white,
anglo American treats them as inadequate foreigners. Never assume "ethnic" means
"exotic." And never assume that having a particular ethnic background means
people of that background are all alike.
-- Benjamin Lall played and sang an original composition as the offering was
collected.
-- HaGiao Cilpam and his wife told a story so amazing all the participants were
on their feet applauding the Lord after they heard it. They told how Mr. Giao
had to leave Vietnam suddenly, leaving his wife behind, then how they were
reunited 26 years later.
-- Dr. Manuel Ortiz called us to leave aside all paternalistic notions of
"older" versus "younger" churches and "mother" versus "daughter" churches and
realize we are all partners together in the task of building the church. We need
to find ways to share resources so that the whole worldwide church can be in
worldwide missions.