We had Eli's first birthday party a little early, opening presents in the afternoon and having cake and ice cream after dinner. Joel, Denise, and two-week-old Jacob joined us for dinner. Their other three kids were spending the week in eastern NC with their Aunt Tonya.

From an article of the same title by Peter Smith of The Courier-Journal:

In another setting it would have just been a switch in style: a praise band with guitars and drums opening a worship service, then giving way to a choir weaving tight, multi-part harmonies a capella -- without musical accompaniment.

The display of musical variety at the Kentucky International Convention Center this week was also a theological statement.

Members of two church movements have been holding services of reconciliation this week to mark the 100th anniversary of their bitter division over whether the Bible allows the use of musical instruments in church.

The gathering is taking place at the North American Christian Convention, an annual gathering of independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. The difference this year is that another group of Churches of Christ -- those who traditionally don't use musical instruments -- are also there, with some of them preaching and leading worship.

"Thick books have been written on what caused the split," said Rick Atchley, pastor of Richland Hills Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas.

But "for many in my generation, the interest isn't so much in understanding what happened as … we don't want to pass it on. I do believe in an increasingly secular world, people of faith are finding reasons to fellowship with people who believe in the same savior and the same Scripture."

Jeff Walling, pastor of a non-instrumental Church of Christ in North Carolina, demonstrated that view last night when he gave his Bible, a gift from his mother, to Dave Stone, senior minister of Louisville's Southeast Christian Church.

"It's time to be family," Walling told the crowd…

Both movements consist of conservative evangelical churches rooted in an early American revival movement -- led in part by Kentuckian Barton Stone -- that sought to drop all denominational structures and restore the model of the early church.

In the 1906 split, some Churches of Christ, mainly in the South, concluded that they shouldn't use musical instruments because the New Testament never calls for them.

Scholars say there was more going on behind the scenes: different methods of biblical interpretation, lingering Civil War tensions and the sense that richer churches -- those able to afford organs -- were becoming too liberal.

Today, although their churches govern themselves, each movement has its own network of Bible colleges, publications and conferences. Each movement has roughly 1.5 million adherents…

A third branch of the movement, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has become a more structured denomination.

North American Christian Convention's executive director, Allan Dunbar, said that while this year's focus is on reconciliation with the Churches of Christ, he hopes he hopes rank-and-file Disciples can participate in future conventions.

An article in The Christian Chronicle gives more details about the reconciliation.

Selected items from an article by Bobby Ross, Jr. in The Christian Chronicle that resonated with me:

you might be a member of the church of Christ …

• If you know exactly what song I'm talking about when I ask you to turn to number 728b.
• If you could recite all the books of the Bible before you could even read them.
• If you know the first and third verse of nearly every song.
• If you actually know what a "ready recollection" is and have been thoroughly "guide-guard-and-directed" all your life. (If you're really a member, you know that "guide-guard-and-directed" must be followed by "and-bring-us-back-at-the-next-appointed-time.")
• If you think "progressive" refers to those in the church who want a sound system and PowerPoint.
• If you think the Bible questions on Jeopardy are way too easy.
• If you immediately reach for your wallet when you hear the phrase, "Now, separate and apart from the Lord's Supper … "
• If you know all the words to all the verses of Trust and Obey.
• If, when you're happy and you know it, you clap your hands, stomp your feet and say "Amen!"