Thomaston Road Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, Streams Sunday Bible Class During Pandemic

Erik Tryggestad, president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle, wrote in a May 30, 2020, column about a virtual visit to Thomaston Road Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, his hometown congregation. He said the church was formerly known as Southside Church of Christ during the years he attended there, from 1978 until he left for Lipscomb University in 1992. He recalled being baptized at the congregation on the Sunday night before Christmas in 1987.

The church now meets on a property that Tryggestad said he knew only as “the property.” He wrote that the move to Thomaston Road took years, perhaps decades, and that the congregation now has a building and an outdoor facility called “Camp Canaan.”

Tryggestad had planned to preach at the church during spring break and to interview the congregation’s recently retired minister, Rob Robinson, for a feature. He said the COVID-19 pandemic canceled those plans. Instead, he joined the church’s Sunday morning Bible class by livestream from Oklahoma, where he was in lockdown. He said a number of former members, including his sister and father, had settled in Middle Tennessee and also joined the live feed before their own congregations began streaming services.

Tryggestad wrote that Dave Sparrow teaches the class and had recently focused on the defining characteristics of “church.” Tryggestad described Sparrow as the congregation’s welcome and announcement leader since at least the late 1980s. In the lesson Tryggestad highlighted, Sparrow addressed how believers should treat one another. Tryggestad noted that the lesson was recorded the day before the killing of George Floyd and the violent protests that followed, and he said it seemed especially relevant afterward. Sparrow also addressed the differing views in the church about reopening congregations and the debates on social media about reopening and mask-wearing. Tryggestad quoted Sparrow as saying social media “can be a blessing and social media can be the devil,” and that even among people of faith, civil discourse had become “remarkably uncivil.” Sparrow’s lesson drew on a piece by Bobby Harrington of Renew.org titled “The Romans 14 Posture as a Guide to Reopening,” which is based on Paul’s writings on the weak and the strong. Sparrow’s teaching on treating one another well, even amid disagreement, points toward peaceable speech (Romans 12:18).

Tryggestad also reported on a recent worship service he viewed later. He said it included comments on the Lord’s Supper that focused on Jesus’ sense of betrayal and the necessity of his separation from the Father in order to become a perfect sacrifice. He said one of the church’s elders, Tom Behel, preached on the need for faith during difficult times. According to Tryggestad, Behel read from passages including Hebrews 11 and urged listeners to practice faith daily rather than inconsistently.

Source: Read the original report