My dad just got back from his trip to Nairobi with Christian Missionary Fellowship, and writes one last blog post about his journey and the insights he’s still processing. Click here and here to read more about his trip.


Maybe Dick Alexander will ask Mary Kamau the question I posed to her in Nairobi about a week ago.

They’ll share the platform at this summer’s North American Christian Convention when the evening’s theme will be “Beyond Words: Global Impact.”

Dick preaches at LifeSpring Christian Church in Cincinnati, a congregation sponsoring work in one village in the sprawling Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi.

Mary is executive director of Missions of Hope International, an agency working to share Christ’s love among ten such communities jamming 800,000 shanty-dwellers in a 1.5 square mile labyrinth of oppression. Under her leadership an army of schoolteachers, social workers, and community development workers has been unleashed to share the gospel and combat the forces of darkness among people thirsty for hope.

Christian Missionary Fellowship has joined with the multifaceted mission Mary began to create a collaboration called Hope Partnership. This is one of CMF’s works I’ve just returned from visiting in Kenya.

Mary is a native Kenyan who came to the United States for her college education, which led me to my question.

“Many from the Majority World who study in the U.S. end up staying there,” I said to her. “Why did you return to Africa?”

She looked away and seemed to sigh before answering. “I believe I can be more useful here in Nairobi than there in America,” she said.


And even though I’ve flown away from the squalor and the sickness in the slum where she serves, I can’t get away from her answer.

It is something of a cliché, when comfortable Americans encounter abject poverty on the other side of the world, to speak of being overwhelmed by it.

It is also common, however, (perhaps subconsciously) for such mission-trippers to celebrate the “sacrifice” in their visit and then soon settle back, unchanged, into the luxuries of their middle class routines.


Mary’s testimony suggests a better response. Her answer to my question begs the question I must ask myself: “Where can I be used best?”

<> Am I convinced God is getting the greatest good from the opportunities he’s given me?

<> Am I working where I can have the greatest influence for him?

<> Am I spending my money where it will bring the greatest return for his kingdom?

<> How do my hobbies, my leisure time, or my entertainment contribute to my usability by him for others?


Considering such questions need not make us feel guilty. Not everyone can or should serve in Africa—or Haiti, or India, or Eastern Europe. There are many battles for God to be fought in the cities and suburbs—and yes, the slums—of America.

But after seeing some Christians doggedly bringing hope in a place like Kenya I’m convicted to listen for his answer to the question Mary Kamau dealt with many years ago.


“Where can I be used best?”

I’m a firm believer that it’s unfair to criticize something if you’re not willing to be part of the solution.

For instance, last Sunday the person clicking through the song lyrics and scriptures during the morning service at my church was either high, unable to read, a high schooler, or all three. Sometimes the words never appeared. Sometimes they appeared late. Sometimes we were treated to the chorus during the verses. Eventually I just sang with my eyes closed, which had the double advantage of keeping me sane AND making me seem super spiritual.

To be fair, this rarely happens, and I found out later it’s because the team recently switched systems and is still working out the bugs. But that’s my point—I found that out because I made a beeline to one of our staff people after the service and offered to help.

So, a few weeks ago I wrote a post questioning the NACC’s current mission and calling for “an overhaul of messaging methods and branding.” I can’t fix the mission part, but I already spend hours creating blogs, email updates and social media for other organizations. When Ben Cachiaras, this year’s president, asked me to do the same thing for the NACC I was more than willing.

The 2010 convention has a really strong program, but not enough people know about it. A few months of me sending emails won’t reach everyone or convince everyone, but it’s a good start at spreading the word and, yes, being constructive instead of just constructively critical. (Full disclosure: I am being paid a little bit.)

So over the next week I’ll be developing a weekly eblast that will not only promote the convention but will link to resources: articles, blogs, and videos by the 2010 main speakers and workshop presenters. We’ll also be sharing some of this info via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I may organize a blog tour in April.

I’m willing to help, but we need you, too. Join our Facebook page and invite your friends. Follow us on Twitter and retweet our stuff. Subscribe to the YouTube page and pass along a video you find interesting. Leave your blog URL in the comments if you’d be willing to write something about the convention on your blog this spring (I’ll even send you sample copy!). And email me (jen@seejenwrite.com) if you want to be added to the weekly email list.

The NACC still needs to address some bigger issues, in my opinion, but I’m willing to help this much, this year. Are you?

Apparently I offended someone with a recent post because I said the NACC was dying.

Maybe (probably) I offended more than one of you, and that’s okay. It’s never the goal of any post, but why would anyone read a blog they always agree with?

(A brief reminder: the opinions in this blog are solely mine, NOT necessarily those of Christian Standard or Standard Publishing.)


I worked on staff at the NACC for five conventions (1998-2002) with two managing directors and two executive directors. Since then I’ve served as a Continuation Committee and Executive Committee member and planned last year’s “conference within a conference” for women. I also write for CS, of course, plus manage our “denomination’s” online directory and news site at CCToday.com.

So, I kinda know this movement, and I really know the NACC. If I offended you with my statement, at least I’m informed enough to make it.


The plain truth is that attendance at, financial support for and interest in the NACC continue to drop off. I could spend this whole post exploring the various reasons why (less institutional loyalty throughout our culture, growth of specialized and niche events, an “uncool” reputation) but I’m more interested in thinking about whether it matters, and what can be done.

Most of my cooler, hipper friends will say it doesn’t matter. I’ve written about this before—because there are so many other events offering amazing resources and access to the preeminent Christian leaders of our time, they ask, why do we need another one?

It’s true; the broader evangelical world offers tons of events, podcasts, videos, books, networks and relationships to help our ministries. Why should we care about this network, about these relationships?


It matters because everyone needs a tribe. I read Andy Stanley and listen to Tim Keller and watch Rob Bell and follow Carlos Whittaker but none of those guys took me aside last month to hear my story and offer encouragement and mentoring. It was someone in “our” churches who has known and worked with me for years, someone who had a history with me.

On a broader scale, the same is true for all of us who affiliate, however loosely, with the Restoration Movement. Without long-term teamwork and relationship, organizations like Christian Missionary Fellowship, Orchard Group, Church Development Fund and our colleges—not to mention many of our individual churches—would be less effective (or non-existent), and the kingdom would be smaller for it.


So connections matter, and for some of us that connection is found in the independent Christian churches. Great. But that happens all year long, and would happen even if the NACC died tomorrow. We really don’t need a convention with big speakers and exhibit halls and Babyland to work together.

Because it’s really not about the event, it’s about the mission.

And that’s what needs to change. Getting together for the sake of getting together isn’t enough.


The convention’s current decline happened not because people don’t attend conferences, but because this conference no longer has a clearly-defined mission.

Is it for leaders or entire families? If leaders, vocational, volunteer or both? It’s “the connecting place” but to what end? Who’s connecting? Why is it valuable? How are the connections different from the other ways people are already working together?

It’s a hard truth and those are tough questions, but they offer hope: if the NACC can identify its unique mission, if it can connect us while celebrating our independence, if it can become indispensable in helping us plant churches and bring the Gospel to Nairobi and educate a new generation of leaders, it will thrive. If it doesn’t, it not only will die, it probably should.


Ben Cachiaras, Senior Pastor at Mountain Christian Church and president of the 2010 convention, gets this and has planned this year’s convention with a focus on going “BEYOND.” Francis Chan, Rick Warren, Gene Appel, Brian Jones, and many others will push us to move out of our comfort zones and think more deeply about evangelism, discipleship, racial and justice issues and our own calling. (You can read more, including a great interview with Ben, on the CS site.)

Say what you will about the NACC, this is as strong a lineup as any conference out there. But it’s just one year.

One of the convention’s systemic problems is the lack of continuity caused by annual changes in executive and board leadership. To reverse the convention’s decline, we need a multi-year leadership team committed to one easily-articulated mission, an overhaul of messaging methods and branding, and the money that (in theory) follows mission to pull it off.


“Keeping up with [Jesus] means leaving certain things behind,” Ben wrote about his 2010 theme. “And those who dare follow him quickly discover Jesus always takes you to new places.” Some people who love the movement need to leave behind their outdated cynicism about the NACC and give this year a chance. But the convention itself must leave behind old glory days to discover a new identity. If it does, the results could be beyond exciting.