does the nacc have a future?

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.

in the enews—wednesday

Christian Standard’s enews comes out every Wednesday, and one of today’s stories is a recap of two more baptism celebration weekends, one at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, one at Mountain Christian Church in Maryland. As with the cardboard testimony craze, people around the country are learning about the huge impact of these weekends—in which the pastor preaches on baptism and invites everyone who wants to make a decision to come forward in whatever they’re wearing and be baptized at that moment—and trying the idea at their own churches. I can be kind of snarky about bandwagons, but you can’t argue with these results: Savannah Christian Church kicked off the idea with hundreds of baptisms, Christ’s Church of the Valley dunked 482 one weekend in January (with another 100+ the next week), and Crossroads Christian in Corona, CA baptized 518 on Palm Sunday.

And then there are these latest two with stories that are wonderful, and wonderfully too numerous to fit in just one online update: Mountain Christian reports “the elderly woman who, with trembling lips, just before she was lowered in baptism, said, ‘Jesus, I’m sorry I kept you waiting so long;’” the woman who cleans the church handing her mop to someone and coming forward in her cleaning uniform; the husband who ran on stage when he saw his wife in the baptistery, shouting his love for her over the music.

Jud Wilhite, senior pastor at Central, writes, “I watched college students, CEOs, soccer moms, bikers, models, entrepreneurs and every other kind of person you could imagine climb into cold water in their street clothes with no regard for themselves, for their clothes, or for their appearance—only Jesus. I stood by a thirty-something guy decked out in $1,000 clothes who could care less about them. He just wanted Jesus.”

Jud notes that his invitation was straightforward and not based on an emotional appeal. “This was not about great programming, but about our great God who chose to move in people’s lives in a tremendous way, in one of the world’s least likely cities,” he says. “I’m reminded of what Paul wrote: ‘God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God…. As the Scriptures say, ‘If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:27-31, NLT). We are boasting about the Lord today and so thankful that we could witness his move.”

Hard to be snarky about that.