Lectureship History

In the late 1970s, a group of preachers from across the state met in Nashville at the Ramsey Street Church of Christ to organize the first Tennessee State Lectureship of the Churches of Christ. There was discussion concerning what time of the year the lectures should be held. It was concluded that the Labor Day weekend would not be a good time since it was the last holiday before school began and many families had their reunions.

The first lectureship was held in Nashville. For several years the gathering met on a rotating schedule — Middle, West, and East Tennessee — at different times of the year at the host congregation's convenience. Because of the lack of participation, the lectureship was eventually combined with the State Youth Conference. This format continued through April of 1987, when the steering committee for the youth conference decided that it could not continue to manage both the conference and the lectureship. So the lectureship was discontinued.

The Tennessee State Lectureship was founded and designed for the purpose of leading and assisting the churches in growing and developing according to the Holy Bible through preaching, teaching, workshops, projects, and other biblically based programs into stronger Churches of Jesus Christ. Importantly, the goal of the lectureship goes beyond providing a preaching forum alone. Its main design is to speak to issues, problems, and concerns that exist for Christians and churches through productive procedures, programs, and methods that promise beneficial results for the church and Christians in the state of Tennessee and beyond.

Beyond all doubt, the Holy Scriptures are accepted and believed by the participants of the lectureship as the authoritative and inspired Word of God. The Bible will be the final basis of the mission and the objectives of the Annual Tennessee State Lectureship.