Pastor Alex Gee of Fountain of Life Church kicked off the New Beginnings Conference at City Church last evening with a strong message on unity. “You want the glory of God? There’s got to be unity,” he said.
Pastors from several Madison churches will be speaking at the conference, which runs through Saturday morning, with services at 10am and 7pm. Sam Dharam of Youth With a Mission speaks Thursday morning, Nic Gibson of High Point Church speaks Friday morning and Glenn Smith of Metro Believers Church speaks Saturday morning. Brian White, who grew up on Madison’s east side and is now an English professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, will be the speaker Thursday and Friday evening. All of the meetings are held at City Church, at 4909 E. Buckeye Road, Madison.
Focus on Worship
“The center of this conference is worship,” said City Church senior pastor Tom Flaherty, as he introduced Gee to speak. “The center of this conference is His presence. We’re waiting on God. We’ve kind of lost that in the church but you don’t get fast food from God.”
Flaherty described a get-acquainted meeting with Alex Gee a number of months ago, when Gee laid out the work that he’s involved in through his church, which is predominantly African American, and its Nehemiah Project, which is primarily focused on at-risk members of Madison’s African American community.
He also referenced a series of articles in this week’s Wisconsin State Journal which reported that young black men growing up in Madison have a 50-percent chance of being arrested. “His church is on the front lines, right where Jesus is,” Flaherty said, adding that all of the money received in offerings from the New Beginnings conference will go to support the Nehemiah Project.
Church’s Responsibility
Looking back on his 30 years of ministry in Madison, Gee said that God raised up the church to change society. “God is walking the earth physically,” he said. “It’s called the church.”
But Madison isn’t exactly church friendly. “Madison loves young black men like me, who earn a college degree and become successful, until I say Jesus is the reason for my success,” he said. “I’ve tried the middle class dance that won’t let me say Jesus and Him crucified.”
Speaking historically, Gee noted how the Christian church made inroads into the Roman Empire through sacrificial acts of love. “Don’t think we can’t turn Madison around,” he said. But it’s going to take church people who are willing to come out of their comfort zones.
“The church lacks the true authority of God without unity,” he said, pointing to stories in Acts chapters two, eight, and ten which showed how God poured out his spirit following acts of unity. “It is our inward fighting that has destroyed the unity of the church. You want the glory of God? There’s got to be unity.”