2020 National Gathering Sermon: Floretta Barbee-Watkins

Rev. Floretta Barbee-Watkins preaches during the mid-week worship service at the 2020 National Gathering in Cincinnati.

2020 National Gathering Sermon: Brian Blount

Dr. Brian Blount preaches during the closing worship service at the 2020 National Gathering in Cincinnati.

2020 National Gathering Testimony: Mary Delaney and Cynthia Ford

Mary Delaney and Cynthia Ford offer an impactful testimony about their work in the Lower Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati.

2020 National Gathering Testimony: Damon Lynch III & Miriam Terlinchamp

A testimony from the 2020 National Gathering with Rev. Damon Lynch III and Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp.

2020 National Gathering Keynote: De’Amon Harges and Mike Mather

De’Amon Harges and Mike Mather from Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis give a keynote about paying attention, being astonished, and telling somebody.

2020 National Gathering Keynote: Dr. Miguel De La Torre

2020 National Gathering – Keynote with Dr. Miguel De La Torre

2020 National Gathering – Opening Worship

Our 10th National Gathering kicks off with a powerful sermon by NEXT Church Director Jessica Tate.

2019 National Gathering Closing Worship

Opening Song: “Come and Let Us Sing” by Israel & New Breed

Welcome, Census, and Remembering

We come from every corner of God’s creation,
We have brought our whole selves to this place,
Our bodies
Our hearts
Our souls
Our worries
Our doubts
Our dreams
Our questions
Our anger
Our fear
Our frustration
Our joy
We have come in our particularities
And in our communal stories
To be present
To be counted
To be celebrated
And to celebrate the love of the one who names and claim us:
And we name those who we want to remember, and bring into this sacred place:
We come to worship God.

Song: “Who You Say I Am” by Hillsong

Speaking Our Truth

Song: “Hungry” by Kathryn Scott

Filling the Font

From all the corners of our coming and going we bring our water:
Sacred
Ordinary
Life-giving water:
From taps
And snow caps
From seas
And ponds
Rainwater
And drinking water
Waters of life… we have migrated with this water
to this time and this place,
to pour into the common and sacred font,
to remember
and to be re-membered
to renew our covenant
with the God of the migrant and the exiled
with the God of water and life
with the God of mercy and grace.

Song: “All Who Are Thirsty” by Brenton Brown and Glenn Roberston

Invitation to the Offering

Song: “Good Good Father/Friend of God” by Trey McLaughlin

The Story

Spoken by Glenn McCray

Sermon

Rev. Eliana Maxim

Blessing & Sending

We remember the stories of our hearts
We listen to the stories of our siblings
We treasure that which unites us.
Our struggles
Our dreams
Our uncertainties
Our faithfulness
Our faithlessness
Our hopes
Our brokenness.

Yet at the font
We reclaim our name: ha’adam and place: adamah– human from earth.
We recommit to one another in our baptism;
Named, called, held by the One who created us
Strengthened, sustained, convicted by the One who loves us still

I am because we are
My story is incomplete without yours
And our story goes on still in
Caracas
Lagos
Flint
Yemen
Ferguson

Pyongyang
Tijuana
Kashmir
Washington DC

We came from across the map
We leave as children of the Triune God.
Come, remember your baptism.
Take a strip of fabric, proclaim the name of a child of God
and go from this place to live into our story,
and together we be the church.

Song:”Psalm 23 (I Am Not Alone)” by People & Songs

2019 National Gathering Keynote: Jennifer Harvey

Jennifer Harvey, professor of religion and ethics at Drake University, gives a keynote presentation on racial justice and white anti-racism at the 2019 NEXT Church National Gathering in Seattle.