General Board Archives - Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

General Board Nominations Deadline Extended

Angelique Jordan Byrd — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 18:33:52 +0000

The new deadline for submitting General Board nominations is February 22, 2025.

One of the primary goals of GA-2343 is to foster a more connected church. We want congregations to be more connected to one another and the General Board, and to have more of a voice in the present and future of the church.

In pursuit of this goal, we are broadening the nomination process for General Board Delegates. Now, as a Disciple, you have the exciting opportunity to nominate delegates to serve on the General Board.

Additionally, the General Nominating Committee is tasked with nominating a Moderator Team to offer leadership to the denomination during the 2025-2028 triennium. The Moderator-Elect, First Vice Moderator, and Second Vice Moderator are nominated by the GNC and elected by the General Assembly. The Moderator-Elect shall serve for three years and then serve as Moderator for three years.

Going forward, the Moderator Team and General Board Members will be sought with a variety of gifts as identified by the General Board. They will be invited to serve by the General Nominating Committee based on the following attributes, with the understanding that qualifications may change depending on the current needs of the church:

Demonstrates spiritual maturity, possessing a deep understanding and appreciation of Disciples Identity;
Demonstrates an understanding of the missional interconnectedness and covenantal relationships of all expressions of the church including a foundational understanding of the institutional structures of the local, regional, and general church;
Displays a willingness to be a servant leader with a deep respect for differing opinions and cultural diversity as well as being open and inviting toward the understandings of others;
Demonstrates effective communication skills both in person and virtually (including possesses a comfort level with the computer literacy skills needed to conduct board business);
Possesses an understanding of budgets and the financial literacy needed to conduct the business of the greater church; and
Demonstrates a desire to share specialized skills with the greater church as identified as needed by the General Board.

Learn more about the nominating process in this educational pamphlet.
Begin the nominating process for the Moderator Team, the non- salaried officers of the General Assembly here, and the General Board by clicking here. The deadline to submit nominations is February 22, 2025.

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Northern Lights Region Calls Paul Allen as its New Regional Minister – President

Bet Hannon — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 16:22:52 +0000

A special assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Northern Lights Region meeting Saturday, December 9, unanimously voted to call the Reverend Paul Allen IV to be its next Regional Minister-President.

Paul Allen is currently the pastor of First Christian Church, Huntsville, Alabama, having previously served congregations in North Carolina and Manhattan, Kansas

Paul is a graduate of Barton College and Lexington Theological Seminary and has regional ministry in his genes. Both Paul’s parents served in Disciples congregations and regional ministry. He is married to Patti who is a Registered Nurse. Their daughter Abby is a junior at Auburn University and their son Joe is a junior in high school.

As the newest region in the church, the Northern Lights Region is excited to welcome Paul to leadership as we continue to live into who God is calling us to become, supporting pastors and congregations as we strive to faithfully answer God’s call to ministry as we do together that which we cannot do apart.

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OGMP announces Director of Communications

Bet Hannon — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:43:26 +0000

The Office of the General Minister and President is pleased to announce that Angelique Jordan Byrd has been appointed as the new Director of Communications, effective January 1, 2024. She has a wealth of marketing experience spanning 29 years and is adept at planning and executing omnichannel campaigns with strong analytical, strategy, project management, and leadership skills. She reflects, “working for a major advertising agency, telecommunication company, and a leading utility corporation was rewarding, but nothing compares to using my gifts in ministry.”

She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Advertising from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and a Master of Science Degree in Marketing Communications from Roosevelt University.

Angelique previously served as the Regional Director of the Communications Ministry in The Christian Church (DOC) in Illinois and Wisconsin (and Michigan). She is a Disciple from Illinois. She authored the book, “The Phygital Church: Using Social Ministry to Make Disciples,” to assist congregations with being intentional about ministry in the digital space.

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2023 State of the Church

Bet Hannon — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:28:57 +0000

On April 14-18, 2023 the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada gathered in person in Cincinnati, Ohio, to worship, learn, discern and work. At the opening gathering of the General Board, General Minister and President, Rev. Terri Hord Owens presented the State of the Church. In it she highlighted several ongoing and forthcoming initiatives of the church and celebrated the work of the church across the United States and Canada.

Learn more about the Covenant Project, Church Narrative Project and the Proclamation Project. Learn more about ALEX, the church reporting system and database.

2023 State of the Church

Rev. Terri Hord Owens

April 15, 2023

Thank you, all. It is good to be in your presence, to see you physically. There have been limited opportunities for some of us to continue to gather but there’s an old spiritual that says ‘tell me how did you feel when you come out the wilderness leaning on the Lord.’ And we have certainly been doing that over these past several years I want to thank you for your patience, for your prayers, for your faithfulness, for your forbearance, as we have pivoted as a church to do our business and do our work and make difficult decisions like canceling a General Assembly, conducting General Board online for the first time. We need to celebrate God’s resilience in us that we are still here.

[Applause]

Tonight I want to begin as I like to begin always when I preach whatever we do we must first begin with what it is that we believe about God, what we believe about God drives what we

understand about Jesus and then it drives who we understand ourselves to be as church and the body of Christ.

I have a scripture here on this slide. Too bad Tom Murray is not in the room I was at Anointed Temple of Praise in Memphis, Tennessee, in January where I met representative Justin Pearson by the way who’s one of our own. And he had just been elected in the special election there so we hold him close and we’re glad to see that he’s been restored to his rightful place. Thank you. But the title of my sermon was I Want God’s Foolishness. You may have guessed over the past few years I kind of like Walter Bruggeman. I like James Cone I like a lot of people. Like Walter Bruggeman when I was on sabbatical I re-read probably three or four times prophetic imagination and the practice of imagination I read a lot of things and you know how sometimes when you read and reread and something hits you that you didn’t see that was there before? In the introduction that he wrote to the 40th anniversary edition of that book he talks about getting inside God’s imagination. And this is the text First Corinthians 1: 25-27, ‘for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.’

We’ve been talking about imagining God’s Limitless love I believe all those Omni words that I learned in Sunday School. That God is all present that he is all knowing that he is all loving that he is never failing, that God is limitless. I use he/she you may hear me go back and forth when I refer to God so don’t be upset about that. I believe that God can do anything. I believe that with God nothing shall be impossible and that there is nothing that we can imagine for our future as a church that God cannot accomplish. And if you don’t believe that we probably should just adjourn and go home. Let’s go to the next slide. In January February of 2020 I had been in retreat with a few folks who I wanted to help me think and vision after being elected and after our first General Assembly with me as GMP in Des Moines and somebody asked me we were in a safe space with folks who none of whom are on the General Board people that were all Disciples nobody who worked for the church just people that I like to think with and talk to and somebody said to me ‘Terri, what excites you about what you’ve seen so far after two years of travel around the church?’ And I said ‘what is giving me excitement and joy is when I see our church daring to imagine that things could be different. Daring to imagine that things can change.’

And so I came to you as a General Board in February of 2020 and I said we must imagine a new church for a new world. And I talked about having the courage to try new things the courage to imagine that what currently exists might be different that it might be possible that something different could actually work. I talked about giving ourselves permission to change, giving ourselves permission to do something different, to giving ourselvespermission to change and I also talked about walking in freedom. Freedom from fear of what happens when we change, fear of what happens when we let go, fear of what happens when the shifting sands beneath our feet throw us off balance. When we’re called to live and lead in situations that we’ve never seen before that was the middle of February of 2020.

A group of us from Global Ministries had just spent two weeks in southern Asia. Rick Spleth and Crystal Williams and I rejoice that we got home safely from that trip. Three weeks after that General Board we were in lockdown and I was recording a video saying ‘my travel is suspended. You all follow the CDC guidelines and stay safe.’

Three weeks later the new world landed in our laps and we were afraid and we weren’t sure what was going on. We didn’t need permission to change anymore. We had to! We had to respond. We had to pivot. We had to figure it out. And the courage and resilience and creativity of our pastors all across the church, our regional ministers. We are coming out of the wilderness and we’re still tired. We’re still carrying the scars and the trauma and the fatigue of that experience but we emerge not afraid. Let us not confuse fatigue with fear. It’s okay to be tired. It’s okay to wonder what’s next. It’s okay to question how and why, but let us not be afraid.

My friend Bruggeman “The prophet engages in futuring fantasy. The prophet does not ask if the vision can be implemented, for questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The imagination must come before the implementation. Our culture is competent to implement almost anything and to imagine almost nothing. The same royal consciousness that make it possible to implement anything and everything is the one that shrinks imagination because imagination is a danger. Thus every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king…or the institution…wants to urge as the only thinkable one.”

Church, we must shift our understanding. Not only do we need to change. It should change and it can change.

When I was elected in 2017 when I think about the job description that I was given. I tell people it would scare you. We want vision. We want strategy. We want change. Do you now? Do you?

We must change. If the pandemic taught us nothing we can’t go back. We simply there’s no back to go to! Time has shifted. You may have seen in some presentations the Council of Theological Education President Charisse Gillette who chairs that body had a person from the Association of Theological Schools speak to us and they talked about the difference between some short time temporal changes, right? It’s a bad storm that’s coming through. And then there’s a real tectonic plates are shifting beneath the Earth. There’s an Ice Age the marker that something major has happened that’s what happened to the pandemic. All around us people are choosing different choices for institutions. We’re working differently. The General Ministries of the Christian Church are mostly working on a two to three a day week basis from space that’s since empty. And we’re trying to sublet as much as we can. We’re working differently we’ve learned what we can do because we didn’t have a choice.

We can no longer afford this meeting the way it’s currently constructed a hundreds I’m telling we can’t afford it. Pre-pandemic we would say ‘oh, a general board meeting in person costs maybe ninety thousand dollars.” We’re probably looking at this meeting being upwards close to maybe 120,000 for the Office of General Minister and President. What I can’t do with that money. What I can’t do with that money. We are no longer in a place where we have to mail out hard copy binders of board materials, where things have to go in the mail. We have different ways and we’ve learned because of the pandemic that we can! We just have to decide that we want to. Let’s go to the next one…

Of the major items that’s on the agenda for this meeting is what we’ve been calling the Covenant Project GA-2343 and part of your job in your small groups will be to review suggest changes and think about what that means for the life of the church before sending it on to the General Assembly with whatever recommendation you have. The governance committee began meeting in a retreat September of 2019 and we studied and prayed over the Preamble to the Design. Would you read it with me?

Together as members of the Christian Church we confess that Jesus is the Christ the son of the Living God and Proclaim him Lord and savior of the world in God’s name and by his grace we accept our mission of witness and service to all people we rejoice in God maker of heaven and Earth and in God’s covenant of Love which binds us to God and to one another through baptism into Christ we enter into newness of life and we are made one with the whole people of God in the communion of the Holy Spirit we are joined together in discipleship and in obedience to Christ. At the Table of the Lord we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ within the universal church we receive the gift of ministry and the light of scripture. In the bonds of Christian faith we yield ourselves to God that we may serve the one whose kingdom has no end blessing Glory and Honor be to God forever. Amen.

That line that we’ve highlighted is the line that resonated with our entire committee ‘God’s covenant of love which binds us to God and to one another.’ Apart from a theological understanding of Covenant there is actually nothing in our polity that makes us do anything. We’re a little allergic to authority and sadly even accountability in places. But the why of this is as the called people of Jesus Christ the tradition that we have as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) this covenantal relationship, it begins at the table. We just celebrate celebrated Resurrection Sunday. Jesus says this is a new covenant in my blood as I used to say at the table as a pastor this is a new covenant between God and God’s creation that’s where it starts God has already Rewritten and changed and the revolutionary Christ that we celebrate as the resurrected Lord has shown us the way to have fellowship and reconciliation with God and so therefore we must live in Covenant and be reconciled to one another that’s why we must live as a reconciled covenantal people followers of Jesus Christ. So the Covenant Project—we quit calling it the governance project because everyone is triggered by the word governance—but we wanted you to understand why it’s so important because the goal of the Covenant Project is not to restructure the church that’s not the goal. The why is not to make regions look different. We haven’t redrawn any boundaries. We haven’t marked off the paper our three expressions of

Congregations, Regional, and General Church. We’re trying to be better disciples for Jesus Christ and create processes and systems that allow us to work together to edify the work that God has called us to do. If one could put a thousand to flight two can put ten thousand. We are better together. We do not do ministry alone that’s the purpose of covenant and we simply need to have structures and processes because we’re a human system that allows us to live faithfully into that. Next one…

We keep going to this timeline because it’s important to say we’ve been talking about this for a long time our original thought was that we would have a resolution to come before Louisville in 2021. And so we were working our way back after that retreat in 2019 we began even if you remember February of 2020 those of you who are on the board we had presentations on Covenant we did small group discernment about what it meant to live as a covenant church. From that work came the Covenant conversations online curriculum there was a subcommittee of the governance committee that developed this online curriculum. Those of you who participated in that work would you just raise your hand—Nadine Burton, several Regional ministers. Lots of folks were part of putting that digital resource online and we’ve had great reception we then began an iterative process starting with the Administrative Committee in the fall of 2020 after that General Board saying ‘okay so how do we move forward?’ We had three subcommittees—Design Alignment that were design alignment was intentional as we prepared to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the design.

My good friend Rick Lowry and former President of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society taught me so many things as we prepared for that and one of the things that he shared with me was that Paul Tillich invited the global church to think about God’s design as they were creating the World Council of Churches and so as our forebears came together during restructure period in the mid-late 60s that language stuck. They found that to really resonate the idea is that we want to seek first of all God’s design and so then our document follows that you know our design was provisional for many years they intended that we would revisit and rethink it we’ve just got to figure out what sense it makes for us in our time and how we move forward so from…I’m sorry going back to this iterative process it’s important for you to see it—April, October, February, October, the summer, we’ve been going back and around with the General Board, the Administrative Committee, Cabinet of General Ministries, Regional Ministers have had various conversations.

Last summer we decided that we needed to really start talking to the wider church in a very direct way. We’ve held over 30 digital town halls in which we’ve presented the concepts and I’m going to show you a couple of the slides. We didn’t have the resolution. The resolution is just codifying the concepts but the concepts have been discussed in this body and in other places across the church for the past three years. Let’s go to the next slide.

We found one of the things we learned is that people don’t know our current process and most of the people attending these Town Halls were congregational leaders. I won’t share the percentages of other folks who were or were not there but most of our folks were congregational leaders so we created these slides because we realized people need to understand. What you’re doing now is a big mystery to some people. They don’t know how the General Board works, how the Administrative Committee works, what happens at General Assembly. There’s a lot of folks out there who think that having a chalice on the door it’s just ‘oh I get to do what I want by myself.’

John Embler famously said to me as I began my tenure as GMP says ‘Terri, autonomy is a theological heresy.’ We do not do ministry alone and what I’ve learned in my travels is that we have a lot of disconnection across our church and people don’t have a sense of themselves as part of a whole. They may or may not be connected to Regional life. They may or may not be connected to general life. The face of the college has changed. As of December 2022 I had installed 10 Regional ministers out of about 28 because some of them serve more than one region. Now we have six regions currently in search process 16 from 31 is over 50 percent within the next year during my time almost half of the college will have shifted. And what these Regional ministers are finding as they go out into their regions is that there is disconnection out there. There’s disconnection in some cases there’s disaffection. Relationships have been broken for whatever reason—people don’t understand, we have not been able to reach people, sometimes they they’re just unplugged because they just don’t know anymore. In our capacity to do a lot of that work we can’t just leave it to one region to do that work. We together have to join together to create a culture that honors all of our congregational presence, invites people to participate in Regional life and also helps them understand that this whole that came in the general Ministry stepped up. Regions stepped up during the pandemic. If we’re not careful we won’t have a whole to help the individual pieces because the weight of the structure financially and otherwise is onerous.

Currently ideas and recommendations come from congregations, regions, and general ministries that goes both to the General Assembly every two years as well as to the Administrative Committee and the General Board. We have about 117 people on the General Board…the next slide. Ideas still must come from congregations. General Ministries all of these entities that are part of our expressions of our church must continue to participate in the genesis of ideas in the service of moving the church forward. What’s exciting to me is not so much that the general board is smaller and we can talk about we have lots of issues to discuss there and I know many of you have lots of questions but the golden piece of this proposal to me are those red boxes. Because what they mean is that our congregations are on a regular basis…we’re creating an environment where people will be invited to listen…deep listening. We don’t we don’t get to do that very much. We get this year’s resolutions it’s going to be a late year because of a late General Assembly. The resolutions that you’re discussing when we’re finished it’s going to go out the church has about three months to get ready to talk about them. These are deep and heavy issues—Christian nationalism, Israel Palestine. Ideally we would have been talking about these things collectively across the life of the church to discern long before now what it is that we want to say. So having an opportunity during this virtual process in between these in-person meetings for people to listen learn and then decide. It should be possible to have a meeting where we just listen to one another and learn. We don’t have to take a vote on everything at every meeting. And if we listen and learn then we’re much more educated and better prepared to make a vote, instead of being triggered by an issue or not fully understanding what someone intended when they put an idea forward.

So that’s the goal of this and it really is almost like a cloud of witnesses around the General Board, the General Assembly becomes not just an event we are you know as an incorporated entity the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that’s our corporate name so that’s the entity that we are it’s not just an event we are the General Assembly the forebears intended that the General Board would do work on behalf of the General Assembly people gathered who would come together from across all congregations.

I remember the days of 9,000 people at General Assembly. I have a letter from to my son from Linda Allen. My husband was the music director in 1997 and Mitchell sang a solo the night that Marion Wright Edelman preached. He was seven and Linda said Mitchell you were such a

brave little boy singing in front of over 7,000 people. Twenty-five years later we were budgeted maybe for about 2,400 because we have to be conservative. Because we bear financial risk as to who’s going to show up so how we’re educating how we’re listening how we’re deciding about things has to change. Let’s go to the next…

The Covenant project acknowledges there is a historic and a current need for change we’ve been talking about some of these ideas for multiple GMP Administrations if I were to take depositions from the living former GMP’s and I have in my own way done that work they would tell you that some of these ideas are things that we’ve been trying to move forward for a long time the first one of the first things we did in April of 2018 when Sue Morris was moderate. We had to make a decision about the pilot for Mission First and we decided to end the pilot but the church committed they said you must take the learnings from that process and move it forward and those of you who may be involved with Mission First a lot of what we’re proposing was a part of the Mission First we celebrated getting together and sharing our ministries but there was real work and proposal about how to shift the work of the General Board to make it more sustainable and more effective it’s not just about the money in today’s environment it’s much more important that we open up the conversations beyond people who are in this room to our congregations that you all have opportunity to hear from more than just a region of your general Ministry General Ministries and regions need the opportunity to engage in different ways so that they can do their work more effectively and I think if we start building connection at the congregational level it’s going to bless and enrich the work that you’re doing strategically and prophetically in your regions and it’s also going to be clearer to the general Ministries what our real priorities should be because you’re going to hear from those people all the time we encourage the church to keep moving and dreaming you know what happens when you get into a comfortable seat in a system. You don’t want that system to change because you feel comfortable doing what you’re doing. It’s hard to think about if you got a lot on you do I have to now shift and move.

Why now? Why not now? We don’t have time to do nothing. We have to give ourselves permission and capacity to try new things learn and try again. Constant conversation across the life of our church on a regular basis. And when we say we’ve got to work out some things in implementation what that means is we know that all the dot eyes are not dotted and the t’s are not crossed in terms of standing rules and special rules what it doesn’t mean is that an implementation process will go into some dark hole and you’re not going to see it again until it’s ready to happen in 25. The culture of this church requires ongoing conversation. We’ve got to be an ongoing conversation as we move forward we’re asking the church to bless this idea and help us move forward and over the next couple of years all of us together in every expression of the church working really hard to come up with the initial implementation. The work will probably not be done while I’m GMP if you elect me to a second term. And you got to decide that we’ve got work to do. But we’ve got to begin. We can’t stay in ports and say, ‘well when are we going to go in a different direction?’ And we’re just sit we’ve dropped anchor and we’re sitting there. We’ve got to start moving. We got to move and start doing things and listen to one another and we’ll be able to refine and change as we go this environment I believe creates an opportunity for us to teach and learn biblical literacy if you can imagine our seminaries are already doing an awesome job of reaching lay folks and digital education. Imagine having a greater access to a network of congregations that we can leverage. Imagine General Ministries being able to have greater access to congregations in this new way it invites us to be inspired across the life of the church. One of the awesome things about Mission First was that sharing of ideas, the meetings and the gatherings. And I believe we can continue to do this it’s creating an infrastructure and an ecosystem to be able to have that conversation across the life of the church.

Next you are going to have the opportunity to review that resolution and you should review it and we need to talk about it together and have ideas about what needs to happen. But here is what I want to say to you: Let’s move forward! We may have to measure the steps. We may have to decide that this next steps are different than what we initially imagined. But I do believe we need to move forward and ask the church to hold us accountable to come back to them with the next steps. And there is no idea whatsoever that this work would somehow be settled in a back room. This church doesn’t work that way. I ain’t no ignorant woman as they say. We understand that we’re going to have to continue to have conversation and to work with people and get your ideas and think through it and it’s going to take your hard work and engagement and it’s going to mean more meetings and more engagement because the governance committee didn’t do this work by meeting once a year. The church can no longer just meet once a year and expect change to happen it’s not going to happen so we’ll have conversation about Covenant Project. But remember we got to believe. Do y’all believe God can do anything? Really? God can do anything but fail.

Church narrative project this is a project that began really out of an attempt to think about where we needed to move with Reconciliation Ministry. David Anderson Hooker who’s our lead consultant on this project. And it’s being shepherded by the Rev. Yvonne Gilmore helped me to understand that and we knew that we needed more than anti-racism training. We’ve been training people for 20 years. We know that we need we’ve been auditing. We’ve been doing all these things David’s analogy is that our Narrative of the church is the highway and our stories are our cars and we can only go where the highway allows us to go I will say to you what I’ve said at the Kirkpatrick Lecture the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Our narrative we’re predominantly white church and we feel good about the fact that we’ve invited other people to sit at the table we have not yet created a narrative that truly invites all to contribute to the leadership and the sharing of power in the church. We’ve got to write a new narrative with all of us sitting together at the table.

The Church Narrative project is going region by region by region as Yvonne says reverse musical chairs we have at least one region a month scheduled for the rest of the calendar year. I’m committing to be at all of them I won’t be in Arizona at the end of April because I’ll just be getting back from the Middle East. Here’s what’s happening we’re inviting people to share stories and tomorrow night you’re going to have the opportunity to experience hearing stories from people like Gary Kidwell and Diane Watkins and Paul Che, learning about one another, hearing those stories, builds community. Then we invite people to talk about what is the pro what are the problems in the church. Not who are the problematic people. David Anderson Hooker says the people are not the problem the problem is the problem. So what are the problems? Do you know how much energy comes when you give people space to tell what’s wrong? People are almost can’t believe it that you’re inviting them to say ‘oh you really want to hear what I think?’ Yes, we do. And we’re capturing and we’re even planning for those first few regions for them to start to compare notes but it’s not just talking about what’s wrong what is your vision for the church what’s that narrative look like what are the marks not just the marks of a faithful congregation but what would it look and feel like if we were truly being who we say we are? What is the movement for wholeness in a fragment of the world? What is that anti-racist church look like on the ground regardless of geography? Regardless of identity what

are those common elements that you would walk into a church and say ‘oh these are Disciples of Christ’ beyond the communion table? Because the communion table as long as it’s just a ritual and not a metaphor for inclusion we still have a lot of work to do.

The Church Narrative Project is inviting people to discuss and we’ve seen energy in each region that we’ve gone to and people are ready to share and talk about what’s happening. Church Narrative Project will not replace your Regional strategic processes, it will fuel them. It will help folks get together to talk about what the polity, what the possibilities are across the life of your region and your church. And it also starts to build capacity for them to participate in this new model of General Assembly and General Board. Can we go to the new, building capacity for deep conversation, creating investment in our stories, and letting people talk about the church that we want. Regions will have the opportunity to benefit from these conversations to help shape their own Regional vision. The regional life of the church doesn’t disappear it becomes enhanced. And we’re inviting people. That’s why we’re doing it region by region. Because that’s where the community is. And then as we start to share across Regional we begin to see the benefits for the whole. Let’s go on to the next…

We’ve been talking about the big three—Covenant Project, Church Narrative (and if you’re interested in your region participating a church narrative if you’re a General Ministry and you want to know how you can financially support that please see the Rev. Yvonne Gilmore),

Proclamation Project. We just received a 1 million dollar Grant from the Lily endowment.

[Applause]

Yay! You can thank God for that. The Rev Lee Hull Moses has stepped over into the role of Executive Director of what we’re calling the Proclamation Project to develop a Center for Proclamation. We had an online preaching workshop in January of this year over 200 people were online. We had three preachers. Each person dealing with one aspect of the General Assembly texts and boy it was energizing just to sit back and hear some good preaching. If you preach a lot you know that you don’t have the opportunity always to sit and listen and hear people who are really effective in preaching. Let’s move to the next slide…

We need to imagine who we are in a new world. We understand that the modalities for communication and preaching are changing and how do we continue to ensure that this core task, this core art of preaching and proclaim the gospel continues to speak to generations yet unborn and that those of us who may be mid-career and a little older or went to seminary during a time when it was just basic exegetical preaching and no one asked you to do slides or no one asks you to put nuggets on social media or nobody ask you to incorporate videos. You thought a 30-minute sermon was uh was exciting. In the black church you can preach for a good long time and a lot of folks today they’re not interested in sitting to listen to a sermon for a good long time. We’re getting snippets, Tic Toks, Reels, every shorts everything is quick and the way in which we communicate has to shift. So the goal of the Proclamation Project is to build a resource library for our church we’re calling upon and Lee’s putting together an advisory team we’re calling on the academy great scholars we want great preachers to help us imagine what this is going forward. So she’s just beginning that work and we’re really excited about participating in this work with Lily.

So how do the projects connect in order to be the church we need? Spiritual depth, biblical literacy and relationship. Church Narrative really gets at the relationship and also the spiritual development. Because storytelling is really testimony. Those are practices that we’re building and learning from one another together. The Covenant Project—GA 2043—begins to imagine what does the church look like when we have multiple possibilities to educate listen learn discern and decide in new ways that allow us to be nimble. We had to issue a pastoral letter about Israel Palestine because we canceled our General Assembly in 21. There are things that we can’t do on a two or three year cycle and the church is the General Assembly. Those representatives or if they’re one or three serving for multiple years, understanding I really believe there’s a spirit of volunteerism that we have not tapped into in our church. I think there are people who want to get engaged in our church and we just haven’t provided with them a window to get engaged. The only way to participate cannot be just to be a General Board member. I think there are people in your regions and your congregations who will be like ‘oh I can set up the hot link.’ ‘I can, we can have a cluster’ and ‘we can host people at here at our church for the conversation on question XYZ or for the education that’s going to be delivered.’ We gotta imagine it first we gotta believe that it’s possible because people are hungry congregational leaders on these 30 plus Town Halls are excited that their congregation might be able to participate not only in their region but in the wider life of the church.

What does this have to do even with making disciples? We don’t do ministry alone. We’re all part of the one body of Christ. We have to understand that the strength of each Church contributes to the strength of the whole and if we don’t work to find a way to strengthen the whole the whole won’t be able to nurture the individual pieces. Let’s go to the next one.

ALEX I’m just going to say a brief word and show you a couple of slides the point of this is to show you what’s now possible we’ve been collecting data for ALEX like I think three years Dean three years meet our ministry information consultant Rev. Dean Phelps.

[Applause]

We are looking at um this is the third year we’ve had folks submitting. I’ve seen a lot of good conversation about now what we can start to do with the data but a Connected Church we have a couple of graphs that help you understand the things that we’re now able to see because we now have data in a database that we can look at it. A Connected Congregation is one that’s connected with the wider Church by submitting a yearbook report via Alex or giving to some form of Disciples outreach. DMF or one of our special offerings so this Venn diagram of the

2974 listed congregations you’ll see on the right the sort of orange circle the numbers of people so you have to take the—you guys know how to read a Venn diagram!

What the both for once from the right side ALEX reporting plus the both in the middle means that those people are communicating with ALEX and uh or reporting the other side is how many of the people who are doing outreach so 2140 connected through either reporting or outreach 258 are the people who just reported 537 are the people who there are people who are giving who are not reporting. That’s the point of the slide. If everybody who was listed gave

our financial picture would be very different. So we’re just showing you we’re still doing a lot of work on what kind of data would be helpful but we have the data in a place now where we

can start to play with it and start to query and start to ask questions. Let’s go to the next slide…

So this is sort of a line graph of the same thing the numbers of connected congregations who

either gave or reported and there’s a decline but we do have a number of people who are either giving or reporting. The question is we want to see more people doing both. Offering participation comparing all of the special offerings one of the theories that’s been raised

is did the creation of special offerings weaken DMF participation? There’s a graph that John Goebel has it’s kind of depressing to look at because DMF just continues on this steady slide but here you can see people love Week of Compassion and we understand why. It’s tangible, there’s a constant need and then we look at Easter offering which benefits the General Ministries you see a real dip for everything in 2020 Pentecost offering for new church um some of these things we think not only the pandemic but varying levels of how con have how ministries market their particular offerings can affect how people respond. The Reconciliation Offering, the Thanksgiving offering which benefits higher education and theChristmas offering which benefits the regions.

We’ve shared these graphs with the Regional ministers and there’s lots of good conversation about ways that we might use ALEX and so that’s an ongoing conversation just wanted to share those things so that you can see that we’re moving forward what’s possible now that wasn’t before to answer some of these questions you would have had to line up 11 yearbooks and go through them one by one. And put them together we approach Lily about funding for this initiative and Kris Coble just kind of shook his head. It’s no longer considered strategic. We are literally the last of the mainline churches to have this capability. We’re doing work with United Church of Christ because they’re using Saran systems for their search and call. We’re thinking about some partnership to leverage we have some strengths they have some strengths. Grateful for Dean and Adam Friedberg who are helping to bring this vision to pass but it’s happening and people were like ‘oh I want my paper.’ It’s 2023 we got to move forward. So that’s what was possible we have so much now that’s possible because by the end of this year we’ll have a true data warehouse where data from ALEX is being put into a repository and we’ll be able to query it and ask questions and mine data.

Ministry highlights I want to go through this pretty quickly because I know the hour is late but I felt I needed to take this time. Are you guys all right to give me a few more minutes? I hope that you’ve read the reports from your Regional and General Ministries please read those reports because in your small groups it’s important that we hear from one another and this is the

form of accountability that we have. This is not only the form of accountability but it’s the place where we can go to get advice and counsel. The questions will say what do you want to celebrate what do you need help from the church, what kind of support do you need from the church?

In a very unpredictable Financial Market our financial Ministries are weathering the markets well. I appreciate Gary Kidwell every time there’s some kind of volatile thing that happens with the market he will issue some missive of interpretation to help us feel better first of all but also understand that people are watching the markets and that we need not run and hide despite

market headwinds. Foundation continues to contribute it’s a huge contributor to DMF all the ways in which those donors wanted to move that money to Mission. It’s happening. Pension Fund continues to be healthy and we’re continuing to identify through the work of Church Extension ministry assets that can be leveraged to new ministries. It’s not just making loans

but it’s helping people understand how they can use buildings or other assets. They’ve been making technology grants to help people pivot after the pandemic so our financial ministers are doing awesome.

2022 we saw a return to in-person events. Celebrating the fact that we could be together how many of you went to the Pension Fund’s Pastors Conference. I was at the World Council of Churches and couldn’t go. But just being together it was wonderful that we were able to do that. We’re starting now to evaluating how you gather how you do your Regional Ministries, your board meetings. We’re all thinking about that and we’re reimagining partnerships. In those reports you’ll see lots of collaboration between regions and various Ministries in the church and that kind of work needs to continue.

We have a continued commitment to ecumenical partnerships. We’re in a bilateral dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. We’re not talking merger we’re just in a dialogue. We’re talking about how we can do work together. That the work is turning out to be a very fruitful.

The invasion of Ukraine lots of our ministries we’re doing work everything from refugee resettlement to supporting Global Partners around the world that can address the issues in Ukraine. And ministries like NBA who continue to develop social entrepreneurship many of our ministries are still we’re still committed to leadership development, right? That was part of vision 2020. That’s part of our DNA. Mental health awareness and community engagement—mental health awareness is huge. I think we finally got to the point where we can openly talk about it as a necessary element of our own personal health and health ministry. I’m excited the NBA will be sending a person to the National Council of Churches who is convening a new health and wellness policy roundtable and we’ll be part of that because we have a Health and Social Services Ministry to participate. So thank you Mark for responding to that call.

Increase in natural disasters we’re seeing not only contributions to Week of Compassion but our regional ministers are in the position of having to do much more pastoral care to the communities in which they serve. It’s amazing to me I’m always watching the news the storms floods tornadoes hurricanes fires our pastors are on the ground and our regional ministers are having to pastor and shepherd. There’s so much more trauma and stress in our communities because of these natural disasters and so pastors who are experiencing these kinds of

stresses are still being faithfully supported by ministerial relief and so we’re grateful for the health of the Pension Fund that allows that. But we have to remember this is stress on our

system this is stress on our system that takes us away from doing other things. Week of Compassion has added people to help congregations with Refugee resettlement. There’s so much that’s going on in the world that’s why we got to be more nimble and be able to change and look at things and do things differently.

A lot of our folks are still planting new congregations it’s exciting to me to see that NAPAD is one of the fastest growing parts of the church. Nineteen new congregations in the last year and these are congregations that are deciding to become part of us, right Chung? They’re choosing us. They’re choosing us. That’s one of the youngest boards in the church, the NAPAD board. So kudos to you Chung!

Technology everyone is investing in technology so that we can do our administrative work as well as reaching out. We have regions working to serve unhoused neighbors and support young mothers, developing new leaders. Everybody is trying to do that work people are trying to be creative in the ways in which they meet the needs of their community and so we’re so grateful for all this collaboration to incubate new ideas.

I began by talking about what it is that we believe about God and I reminded you that back in 2020 we talked about having to imagine a new church for a new world and we’re in that new world. We’ve got important work to do today. We have questions. Yes, things that are unknown. But have you ever been on a cruise? One of the most fun parts of the cruise is leaving port big celebration right everybody gets out on the deck and we’re all excited that we’re headed on this new destination. We realize that we’re not getting there tomorrow, right? If you’re…we know that this journey we’re not going to get there next week or even next year. But we got this big Battleship of a church that we got a shift and turn directions and we simply must begin. We can’t stay in port and keep saying well “we want a leader who’s going to change things.” And then we don’t want to change well what did you do? I don’t have the authority to say ‘so let it be written, so let it be done’ if that were the case it would have been done, I assure you.

[Applause]

But I’m a part of this church and God has called us all just to continue to be faithful. I wear the address of this scripture around my neck. Many of you if you see me, you’ll see it. It says Philippians 1:6. Here’s where my confidence lies… ‘I am confident in this,’ Paul says, ‘that the one who began the good work and you will continue to complete it by the day of Jesus Christ.’ God doesn’t promise a day of completion. That’s not the point. And so my confidence quite honestly is not in any individual one of you. It’s in our collective faithfulness to the God who has begun the work in us to the tradition that we carry. Like the African Sankofa bird we must have our feet looking forward. And it’s okay to reach back from our heritage or things that have worked for us that we want to carry forward. That’s okay. But like that cruise ship we’re not going to get anywhere until we leave port and I want to departure ceremony that celebrates the fact that we’re ready to go. That we believe and trust God to say ‘God lead me, guide me all along the way. For if you lead me I will not stray, Lord. Let me walk each day with you. Lead me, O Lord, lead me.’ Let’s go Church!

[Applause]

Transcript of 2023 State of the Church PDF Download

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Dear Disciples: July 29, 2022

Cara Gilger — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 14:54:04 +0000

In today’s message from General Minister and President, Rev. Terri Hord Owens prayerfully addresses the recent climate change disasters and invites the church to attend one of the many digital Covenant town hall.

“. In the midst of so much devastation and natural disasters however I remind myself daily that there is yet hope because of Jesus Christ.” – Rev. Terri Hord Owens

Resources

Nominations Sought for General Board and Moderator Team

Cara Gilger — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 19:44:56 +0000

God’s calling the next group of Disciples leaders! Can you help identify them?

In service to the wider Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the General Nominating Committee holds the responsibility of recruiting faithful, dedicated, and diverse leaders for a number of roles critical to the work and witness of the denomination.

The GNC is currently seeking nominations for the General Board, which is the governing body that meets in between General Assemblies to oversee the business and support of the church.

Additionally, the GNC is tasked with nominating a Moderator Team to offer leadership to the denomination during the 2023-2025 biennium. The Moderator-Elect, First Vice Moderator, and Second Vice Moderator are nominated by the GNC and elected by the General Assembly. The Moderator-Elect shall serve for two years and then serve as Moderator for two years.

In identifying these leaders, the GNC seeks leaders with strong connections to the life of our denomination, especially at the congregational level. The GNC also prioritizes the recruitment of diverse leadership in a broad range of categories in order to reflect the rich diversity of the church.

The General Nominating Committee is also paying close attention to the potential changes being explored by the Covenant Project and is looking for new leaders who will offer bold and visionary leadership for the church in a time of change.

If you know of a person who is qualified and gifted to provide faithful leadership to the church, please submit their name by using the online nomination form below. Self-nominations are welcomed.

Nominations are due no later than October 15, 2022

Nomination Form

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Covenant Journal 2022

Cara Gilger — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:30:00 +0000

In spring of 2022 the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) gathered digitally to prayerfully consider the work of the church. The Covenant Journal highlights the reports and work from that gathering as well as features upcoming events in the life of the church.

2022 Covenant Journal_final Web only Download

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The General Board has Begun the Process for Re-Electing the General Minister and President

Cara Gilger — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 21:56:33 +0000

March 23, 2022

from Rev. Belva Brown Jordan

The General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has begun the process for re-electing the General Minister and President, Rev. Teresa “Terri” Hord Owens. In a letter to Moderator Belva Brown Jordan, Hord Owens wrote,

“I continue to feel the call of God to serve as GMP. Having now served for 4-1/2 years, two of those in the midst of a pandemic, I want to continue to walk with Disciples as we together imagine who we must be as church in order to help make real the reign of God’s kindom on earth. And in declaring my desire to be considered for re-election, I re-commit myself to use my gifts in leadership and service to this church, which I so dearly love.”

The process for re-electing a General Minister and President is outlined in the Standing Rules for the General Board, section 9. Following this process, the Administrative Committee, meeting virtually in executive session in February 2022, voted to initiate the re-election process and identified members of the Review/Search and Call Committee. The committee was then confirmed by the General Board at its February 2022 meeting.

Over the next year, the Review/Search and Call Committee will continue to follow the process outlined in the Standing Rules, gathering information from across the church. The Administrative Committee will receive the report of the Review/Search and Call Committee when it meets April 2023 and will vote to confirm or not confirm the re-election of the current General Minister and President.

Members of the Review/Search and Call Committee are as follows:

The members of the moderator team

Belva Brown Jordan

Stephanie Kendell

Néstor Gómez

Clyde Hunt

From the Administrative Committee

Candis Wilson, Committee chair

Steven Smith

From the membership of the General Board

Candyce Black-Wells

Jessa Decker-Smith

Miriam Rodriquez

Allison Ruari

Neomai Uesi

Alternate

Katie Hays

Rev. Terri Hord Owens was elected to a six-year term as General Minister and President in 2017. Her first term will end at General Assembly in 2023, and she is eligible for a second term.

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2022 State of the Church given at general board

Cara Gilger — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 05:00:00 +0000

As part of the gathering of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, Rev. Teresa “Terri” Hord Owens deliver the State of the Church address on Friday, February 11, 2022. Addressing some of the celebrations and challenges across the many ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Rev. Hord Owens also shared a reflection on scripture and urges the church to “get inside God’s imagination” as we imagine how to live out God’s limitless love. “Let’s get inside God’s imagination and ensure that our church is actively bringing about the Kindom of God.” -Rev. Terri Hord Owens

Transcript

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Imagine With Me: Moderator Elect Clyde Hunt

Cherilyn Williams — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 05:06:00 +0000

There’s only so much we can do in terms of our intellect, but when the Spirit of God moves, and when we can recognize that, and we walk in that path of righteousness, and when that decision was made peace, peace was given. Yeah, you know we moved forward. There were financial concerns and all of that. At some point, as in all of our lives, we have to release and allow God to be God, and that’s what we did. – Moderator Elect Clyde Hunt speaking of the work of the moderator team and administrative committee

Rev. Terri Hord Owens has a conversation with Clyde Hunt, moderator elect of the General Assembly, about the work of the moderator team and administrative committee as it stewards the work of the church.

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10.29.2021 Imagine With Me Clyde Hunt Transcript Download

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Covenant Conversation curriculum

Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church

Light of the World Christian Church

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Imagine With Me: Governance grounding

Cherilyn Williams — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:02:34 +0000

“They prayed for us and that prayer, I think, helped to re-energize us, even when we didn’t know who it that was praying for us.” – Rev. Belva Brown Jordan, moderator, General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Rev. Terri Hord Owens talks with General Assembly Moderator Rev. Belva Brown Jordan about the power of the spiritual discipline of prayer in the work of the governance committee.

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07.07.2021Imagine-With-MeTranscript

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Covenant Journal 2021

Cherilyn Williams — Tue, 25 May 2021 20:54:34 +0000

Find out what is happening across the life of the church with this synopsis from the General Board meeting.

2021 Covenant Journal (PDF)Download

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2021 State of the Church

Cherilyn Williams — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 11:57:24 +0000

“God’s limitless love is where it all begins, so we must start there. We’re going to be a movement for wholeness a church that acts to dismantle systems of injustice and oppression, not because it’s a political endeavor, but because it’s a moral endeavor.

“And God calls us to that work as part of bearing witness of God’s limitless love. We’re going to be bolder, not afraid of change.” – Rev. Terri Hord Owens

2021 State of the Church transcript Download

GB-2101 General Assembly of the Christian Church including OGMP report to the 2021 General Board Download

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Imagine With Me: How we organize for a new world

Cherilyn Williams — Fri, 09 Apr 2021 12:16:27 +0000

“There’s so much that God could do through our Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that has already done good work, but building on that for the future – there’s so much more we can do.” – Rev. Dr. Bill Rose-Heim

04.09.2021 Imagine – Governance transcript

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Editorial error: Yearbook missing a ministry report

Cherilyn Williams — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 21:46:49 +0000

The editors of the 2020 Yearbook & Directory apologize for a recently discovered error. The report of the National Benevolent Association, as submitted to the General Board in February of this year, was inadvertenly omitted from the printed yearbook published this summer.

Please take a few minutes to read the report below or download to add to your physical copy of the yearbook.

GB-2012-National Benevolent Association Download

National Benevolent Association (NBA)

of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

www.nbacares.org

Mark D. Anderson, President and CEO

January 2020

Our Mission

Following God’s call, the National Benevolent Association exists to inspire and connect the people and ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), to accompany one another in the creation of communities of compassion and care, and to advocate for the well-being of humanity.

Our Core Values

Serving as the Disciples health and social service general ministry for more than 130 years, NBA’s mission has been, and continues to be, responsive to the needs of the church and society. Over this long history, we have had the joy—and the challenge—of supporting the church across a rich array of issues. As the NBA, we are grounded in core values that focus our work:

Rooted in Compassionate Care: We celebrate those who have served before us in creating a just world. The NBA’s mission and work emerged from the faithful witness of six Disciples women seeking to address the needs of children and families in need. We value this legacy of serving the “least of these” and endeavor to root all our initiatives in the value and dignity of human life and in serving a world that God so loves.
Accountability: We claim our duty to be effective stewards of the resources entrusted to us. We are fiscally responsible and acknowledge our accountability to our partners and the communities we serve. We treat others with respect and strive to conduct our work in the spirit of transparency and openness. Where there is brokenness, we strive for reconciliation.
Collaborative Partnerships: We believe that meaningful results to build compassionate and caring communities happen only when we can work in partnership with God and a wide diversity of others – individuals, communities, churches and organizations. We affirm that by working with partners, as well as those we serve, and by practicing humble leadership, we have what we need to make a difference.
Accompaniment: We value the creative voice and mind of all people as we seek to heed God’s call, especially in developing solutions through creative and innovative efforts designed to address personal challenges and systemic oppression. As we assume a posture of openness, we find in each other’s company the “bread” that will sustain us all. As we share life’s joys and struggles, at times picking up one another’s load and going the hard way together, we create communities of compassion and care.
Forward Leaning: We commit to learning and adapting as we move into the future. We understand that during times of change and new directions, the path forward often involves uncertainty and challenges. Through our shared efforts of advocacy, education, pastoral response, and professional care and services, we move towards the health and well-being of all.

NBA Mission and Ministry Grant Program

2019 was the third year of NBA’s Mission and Ministry Grant Program, supporting Disciples congregations and health and social service ministries working with older adults and at-risk children and youth across the life of the church. Utilizing approved, purpose-restricted funds in these two areas, grants are available for Disciples congregations and health and social service ministries across three categories/amounts:

Catalyst Grants: $1,000 – $5,000: These are startup funds to get projects up and running and/or to expand an existing project to a new area/initiative.
Innovation Grants: $6,000 – $15,000: These funds should help move an established project to a new level of effectiveness and impact.
Impact Grants: $20,000+: These funds should be used for major leaps in project areas with a proven plan for how these will move the organization to a new level of sustainability and impact.

The Grant Committee accepted applications during the summer/fall 2019, and grantees were announced in December 2019. For this third cohort, the NBA granted a total of $166,200 to 22 Disciples projects located across 13 Disciples regions. Of these 22 selected projects, 13 are focused on at-risk children and youth; 7 are focused on older adults; and 2 are intergenerational, serving both communities. Five of these grantees also received Mission and Ministry Grant funds from NBA last year. Stories and impact reports from these grantees will be shared on our website, nbacares.org, throughout the year.

Our Ministries and Partners

The National Benevolent Association (NBA) serves as a general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The NBA works with individuals – nonprofit administrators, volunteer leaders, lay and clergy – and nonprofit organizations to strengthen and transform communities. We support individuals through professional and leadership development that includes models of peer to peer learning cohorts, coaching and mentorship, and intentional living and learning communities. We foster opportunities for continuing education for our partners and the general public through online learning webinars, intensive educational retreats, and small group cohorts. In our work with direct care and advocacy nonprofits, we offer consultation services in areas such as strategic planning, human resources, board development, and financial accounting. The NBA serves in collaborative partnership with congregations, regions, and other general ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), along with Disciples-related health and direct care providers.

NBA Incubate Initiative

The NBA Incubate Initiative strives to encourage and support the development of new and innovative health and social service ministries and organizations by Disciples. These ministries, in turn, inform and inspire fellow Disciples throughout our communities and across the life of the church. Together, we expand the church’s understanding of and capacity for health and social service ministry as part of Christ’s work in the world. The goal of this initiative is to support and empower new Disciple-related health and social service organizations, projects, and ministries—what we’re also calling social enterprises—to focus on their growth, strengthen their impact, and work toward sustainability.

As of January 2020, ten ministries are formally affiliated with the NBA as part of the NBA Incubate Initiative. We help these entities strategically strengthen areas such as board development, capacity building, administrative mentoring, marketing and communications, fundraising and development, bookkeeping services, sustainability, Disciples relationships, and more. Last year, the NBA welcomed a new Incubate Partner based in Los Angeles, California, known as Broken, Mended, and Restored (BMAR) led by Rev. Dr. Lisa Enders Tunstall.

In March 2019, the NBA hosted its fifth Incubate Retreat for emerging Disciples-related health and social service ministry leaders to create intentional space for rest, renewal, and equipping for the ministry of social entrepreneurship. In September 2019, the NBA again hosted the SENT Seminar: Equipping Social Entrepreneurs for Leadership and Change. This training brought together 15 Disciples-related health and social service ministry start-ups to learn and share in a variety of topics, including leadership coaching, legal principles for faith-based entities, marketing, and fundraising.

The NBA Incubate Initiative also continued our Social Enterprise Resource Bank, an online clearinghouse featuring blogs, webinars, and other resources to help support Disciples social entrepreneurs and ministries across the life of the church. Virtual learning opportunities include an expanded webinar series, with topics in 2019 including fundraising, community transformation, mission/vision/values, board development, and succession planning.

NBA XPLOR

In 2019-2020, we are now in our sixth year of NBA XPLOR, a 10-month, faith-based residency for young adults who are exploring the intersections of the life of faith and the work of justice. The Residency provides 10-months of leadership development and vocational discernment for 21- to 30-year-olds to live simply in community and engage in direct service and justice work. In 2018-19, NBA XPLOR placed 20 Residents at six host sites—Bloomington, Indiana; St. Louis, Missouri; Hiram-Mantua, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Spokane, Washington; and XPLORmore in Charlotte, North Carolina—the latter serving as a new, second-year Residency experience called XPLORmore.

The cohort begins with an intensive week of orientation and anti-oppression training, called XPLOR Laboratory, which was held in Leavenworth, KS, in late August before the XPLOR Residents traveled to their host communities. There, NBA XPLOR Residents serve six hours a week with their host congregations and about 30 hours a week through community engagement site internships spanning a variety of health, social services, and social justice ministries and organizations.

NBA XPLOR Residents are currently working with low-income families, unhoused individuals, people with disabilities, older adults, vulnerable children, and undocumented persons, among others. They are learning grant writing, event planning, community advocacy, and much, much more. These professional and leadership skills make a huge impact. Through their dedicated work, spiritual practices, and exploration this year, these young adults are now discerning calls to social work, education, community organizing, medicine, military, ministry, and more.

Advocacy and Activism

We also continue to deepen our engagement in Advocacy and Activism to transform the root causes of social injustice. In NBA’s strategic planning for 2018-2021, we named Advocacy and Activism as a strategic priority, flowing from NBA’s mission to “advocate for the well-being of humanity.” Following the trajectory of the work begun with the Ferguson Justice Initiative, these efforts utilize relationships, wisdom, and processes built and tested through that work.

Through a 0.5 FTE Program Coordinator for Advocacy and Activism, the NBA nurtures engagement strategies to equip and train partners to address the critical social justice issues most relevant to their work and collaborates with NBA staff to cultivate partnerships across the life of the church to coordinate efforts related to social justice theology, action, and advocacy. In 2019, the work included the following areas:

Advocacy and Activism Peer Group:

This peer group continued meeting, resourcing, and supporting one another as members and in their advocacy work. As members, they meet virtually and in-person with a particular focus on social justice issues; language and the theological foundations of social justice; and direct action and advocacy efforts. Last year, members of the peer group participated in an NBA-sponsored immersion and learning delegation along the U.S. and Mexico border that focused on justice issues impacting immigrants and families. The peer group, which launched in August 2018, is preparing to conclude and transition in August 2020.

Disciples Public Presence Working Group:

The Standing Rock Protests and other social justice crises led to the creation of Disciples Public Presence, a Facebook group and advocacy platform to give Disciples a common place to share their life in current justice movements. In October 2018, the first Disciples Public Presence Conference and Working Group were formed, gathering more than 60 Disciples and 25 working group members committed to strengthening the justice infrastructure by implementing priorities in worship/theology, communications, mass mobilization and sustained organizing. The NBA, along with several other justice-related ministries, provided staff time and programmatic support to ensure the forward momentum of the movement.

Prison and Jail Ministries

The NBA connects collaborative communities of Disciples working together on particular health and social service justice issues. Through Prison and Jail Ministries, the NBA supports Disciples engaged in spiritual care and advocacy ministries with those who are or have been incarcerated and their families. This area of work centers around education, inspiration, and advocacy. The Prison and Jail Ministries webinar series continued in 2019, with topics including the restoration of voting rights for returning citizens after incarceration; mental health, the criminal justice system and the Church; Bail reform; and an introduction to the resource video series on the criminal justice system, “We Are Witnesses.”

Prison and Jail Ministries Peer Group:

In August 2018, NBA launched the second cohort of the Prison and Jail Ministries Peer Group, welcoming 10 members to this two-year peer group experience, which focuses on: 1) education through peer-to-peer learning and sharing experiences, expertise, and resources on prison- and jail-related issues; 2) inspiration through spiritual renewal practices and self-care; and 3) advocacy by engaging in a collaborative service or advocacy project. As mentioned above, this peer group helped lead and coordinate the fall immersion and learning delegation to the U.S. and Mexico border to engage and know more about the issues impacting immigrants and their families.

Mental Health and Wellness Initiative: Embodying and Promoting a Vision of Holistic Wellness

The NBA takes seriously its call to create communities of compassion and care through dialogue and action centered on issues related to mental health. Our work centers on resourcing Disciples-related health and social organizations and ministries. We seek to serve the whole church through partnerships with general ministry partners, collaborations with regional offices/ministries, and support for congregations, higher-education institutions, and community-based organizations. Our NBA Mental Health and Wellness Initiative takes a collaborative approach that is rooted in:

Sound and liberating theological understanding of mental health and wellness
Effective and practical strategies for spiritual coping/ practices
Accessible and clinically-informed education and resources

We seek to equip Disciples communities and organizations in crafting structures and models of wellness with a particular emphasis on leadership wellness and corporate health. Ways we lived into this commitment in 2019 included offering SoulCare moments to the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in July in Des Moines (OH), continued work with peer groups/networks such as Disciples chaplains and pastors, seminarians, activists/organizers, and conducting trainings on mental health and wellness for our NBA program participants (XPLOR and Incubate partners). Another core commitment in our initiative is that we support wellness and mental health work in all communities in order to address and combat issues of wellness equity. Related to this commitment, our work included hosting information and training sessions in partnership with Obra Hispana Disciples’ communities, offering culturally contextual workshops, and creating resources that address mental health stigmas and misperceptions.

This shared work supporting mental health extended to regional ministry through the Regional Mental Health Initiative with the Christian Church in Georgia (GAMHI), providing education, support, and infrastructure development to Disciples leaders and congregations in the Georgia Region. This pilot partnership concluded in 2018, with the Georgia Region and the NBA. In January of 2019, leaders hosted a webinar sharing resources and learnings around the initiative. Additional webinars presented in 2019 included a grief and loss worship service, suicide post-vention, and another webinar on children and trauma with a special focus on detention and incarceration.

Chaplains Peer Group:

The Mental Health Initiative launched in early 2019. The vision of this peer group is to provide an opportunity for likeminded individuals living out their call through chaplaincy to focus on:

1) education through peer-to-peer learning and sharing experiences, expertise, and resources on chaplaincy related issues; 2) inspiration through spiritual renewal practices and self-care; and 3) advocacy by engaging in a collaborative service or advocacy project. Influenced by the needs of the cohort, this peer group will also give particular attention to the issues of mental health, personal spiritual devotion practices, and healthy work/life balance formation.

Disciples-Related Health and Social Service Ministries

The NBA continues to support and partner with a network of care providers and justice-minded individuals who serve as the “hands and feet of God” in their communities. Our goals are to connect, resource, and amplify these ministries, providing access to a constellation of support and services, such as marketing and development consulting, executive coaching, back-office accounting, and executive searches, as well as networking with other partners through webinars, educational trainings, and peer learning and wellness group opportunities.

The first Connect Conference for Disciples-related Health and Social Service Ministries was held in October 2018 with plans underway for another conference in the fall of 2020.

A directory of Disciples-related health and social service ministries connected with NBA follows this report. For more information about all NBA ministries, and for stories, upcoming events, and worship and study resources, please visit www.nbacares.org.

DISCIPLES-RELATED HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICE MINISTRIES

A Small Hand

Ann McBroom, Executive Director

Edinburg Christian Church

210 Center Street, PO Box 117, Edinburg, Virginia 22824-0117

(540) 933-6313

www.helpingshenandoahcountyinfantsinneed.blogspot.com

A Small Hand provides age-appropriate food, diapers, and hygiene essentials to infants in need from newborns to 36 months in the Shenandoah County of Virginia. The focus of our ministry is to serve as a specialist pantry providing care to the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community. All of our clients are enrolled in government supplemental feeding programs (SNAP/Food Stamps or WIC). As these programs were never designed to provide a full month of nutrition, families and infants often do not have enough for non-food essentials such as diapers, feeding bottles, pacifiers, and hygiene essentials. These are the gaps that A Small Hand fills. As an all-volunteer agency, the vision and goals of A Small Hand are that children can reach their full developmental potential.

Broken, Mended and Restored (BMAR)

Rev. Dr. Lisa Enders Tunstall, Founder and Executive Director

(310) 639-5974

www.team-bmar.com

Broken, Mended and Restored (BMAR) is an organization that equips churches with the knowledge and resources necessary to provide emotionally healthy environments for the emotionally traumatized and relationship abuse victims. Founded in 2008 by Rev. Dr. Tunstall, their mission is to engage communities in promoting abuse-free relationships, family violence prevention/intervention education and resource/referral information. For more than a decade, the organization has held conferences and learning opportunities for clergy and faith leaders in efforts to shed light on the type of abuse that can happen behind closed doors and across communities.

Chain Reaction Ministries

David Finklea, Executive Director

Memorial Drive Christian Church: 11750 Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas 77024

First Christian Church: 3700 N. Walker Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118

(713) 789-0060

www.chainreactionbikes.org

Chain Reaction Ministries provides freedom of transportation to those in need through a ministry of bicycle recycling. Started at Memorial Drive Christian Church in Houston, Texas, CRM recycles bicycles by linking donors with identified needs in the community. CRM had humble beginnings in 2009 by answering a call by Westside Homeless Partnership for used bikes for kids in their program. People have an emotional attachment to their bicycles. It was their first bike, or their kid’s first bike – and they don’t simply want to set it on the curb, or donate it to a large, faceless charity. They want to know that their bike can provide the same freedom and hope to a person in need that they experienced.

Child Saving Institute (CSI)

Peg Harriott, President and CEO

4545 Dodge Street, Omaha, Nebraska 68132

(402) 553-6000

www.childsaving.org

Child Saving Institute provides a safe haven and healing for thousands of innocent young victims of family crisis, neglect and abuse. We offer the vital services necessary to make at-risk children safe and fractured families whole through programs such as early childhood education, foster care, adoption, an emergency shelter, parenting classes and therapy. Our mission is “responding to the cry of a child,” but it is our vision that guides us as we work to give the children we serve safe, happy childhoods. Our vision is that all children have homes where hope is kindled and dreams can be achieved. This is our work, and they are ALL our children.

Christian Care Communities

Mary Lynn Spaulding, President/CEO

12710 Townepark Way, Suite 1000, Louisville, Kentucky 40243

(800) 662-1738

www.christiancarecommunities.org

Christian Care Communities is the oldest provider of older adult care related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We are Kentucky’s largest faith-based provider of housing, long-term care, adult day centers, and community based services for older adults. We serve approximately 3,000 individuals and their families throughout Kentucky. We actively work with churches helping them with older adult ministries.

Christian Church Homes (CCH)

Syd Najeeb, President and CEO

303 Hegenberger Road, Suite 201, Oakland, California 94621

(510) 632-6712

www.cchnc.org

At Christian Church Homes (CCH) we build and manage affordable housing communities where seniors can live and thrive in the comfort of their own homes, because we believe doing so is better for communities as a whole and the seniors we serve. Having served more than 100,000 seniors over 50 years, CCH has now grown to 57 caring communities that are More Than a Home to residents in seven states.

Christian Services for Children in Alabama (CSCA)

Rev. Tabitha Isner, Interim Executive Director

1792 Highway 14 East, Selma, Alabama 36702

(334) 875-0608

Christian Services for Children in Alabama strives to be an organization that has a positive, recognizable, long-term impact on ALL children and youth in our care by providing professional, cost-effective, and timely services. CSCA is a pioneer for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Alabama/Northwest Florida in promoting ministries that nurture, restore, and reclaim those children who have experienced various types of abuse and neglect.

We provide opportunities for families and individuals (who wish) to share their love, time, and resources to nurture vulnerable children and youth toward independence and enriched lives.

Cleveland Christian Home

Charles Tuttle, CEO

1400 West 25th Street, 2nd Floor, Cleveland, Ohio 44113

(216) 671-0977

www.cchome.org

Cleveland Christian Home exists to be a haven of hope and healing for children, youth and families struggling with mental illness, abuse and neglect. Cleveland Christian Home will be a center of excellence providing the highest quality services to meet the physical, emotional, intellectual, cultural and spiritual needs of children, youth and families.

Columbia Area Older Adult Ministry

Rev. Sally A. Robinson, Chaplain

101 North Tenth Street, Columbia, Missouri 65201

(573) 819-5043

The Columbia Area Older Adult Ministry (CAOAM) provides spiritual and emotional support to the growing elderly population in long-term care and retirement communities in the Columbia, MO, area. Though this is an ecumenical ministry, it is recognized as a ministry of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Columbia, MO. Currently CAOAM provides spiritual support in seven long-term care and retirement communities on a regular schedule.

Disciple Homes Management Group

Karen Wardlaw, Administrator/CEO

327 Eden Drive, Longview, Texas 75605

(903) 845-7638

www.disciplehomes.org

Disciple Homes has been providing quality affordable housing for senior adults (age 62 years or older) and their household since 1972 in Northeast Texas. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, rental assistance is available to all of our residents that qualify. Qualified residents pay 30% of their adjusted income for rent and utilities. Disciple Homes Management Group provides social services and housing to meet the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs of person, in the loving and caring spirit of Christ.

Disciples Retirement Community of Oklahoma (DRCO)

Sallie Spillman, Board Member

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Oklahoma

301 NW 36th St., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73118

580-821-6561

Disciples Retirement Community of Oklahoma (DRCO) provides funding to assist Disciples older adults living in Bradford Village senior living community in Edmond, OK.

Florida Christian Center

Rev. Kimberly Weir, Executive Director

1115 Edgewood Avenue S., Jacksonville, Florida 32205

(904) 981-3095

www.flchristiancenter.org

The Florida Christian Center provides ministry, pastoral care, worship services, classes on faith and aging and other programs and services focused on the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of the senior and disabled residents in our community. Serving more than 300 residents in three buildings—Sundale Manor Apartments and Florida Christian Apartments provide subsidized housing for senior and disabled adults, along with Edgewood Condominiums, a senior community on-site—and with a full-time Activity Director and full-time Chaplain/Executive Director, FCC seeks to provide an array of services that honor the body, mind and spirit.

Garden of Eden Health Center

Alicia Rodriguez Davila, Founder/CEO

2833 Eagle Eye Court

Kissimmee, FL 34746

(407) 414-5511

www.gardenofedenhealthcenter.org

The Garden of Eden Health Center (GOEHC) is a vision of a future community health clinic; a faith-based health education program focused on women, infants, and children; and a senior and therapeutic health center, deep in the heart of the central mountain range (Cordillera Central) of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. As a not-for-profit healthcare organization, GOEHC aims to provide quality healthcare, preventive medicine, and holistic health education to higher risk communities (rural residences, women, children, and seniors), while also providing local work and volunteer opportunities for children, youth, and families.

HER Faith Ministries

Rev. Elaine Y. Sanford, Executive Director

3396 Park Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38111

(901) 324-3705

www.herfaithministries.org

HER Faith Ministries is a 501(c)(3) Christian charity that provides assistance to homeless and needy women and children. The ministry provides emergency food, clothing, transportation, dental assistance, and housing to impoverished women and children. HER Faith also provides family counseling and programs for ministry and reading to incarcerated individuals.

Hiram Farm

Leeanne Saro Jereb, Executive Director

PO Box 157, Hiram, Ohio 44234

(330) 569-3441

www.hiramfarm.org

Hiram Farm is a nonprofit organization, agricultural setting that serves developmentally disabled adults, with an emphasis on adults on the autism spectrum. The Farm provides opportunities for these adults to grow, learn, and work in a setting focused on respect and support for individuals and the environment. Here, farmers can develop both professional and social skills and accomplish meaningful work. The program began serving six adults with autism in June 2009. Today, the Farm has grown to provide meaningful work for 24 farmers.

Juliette Fowler Communities

Nicole Gann, President and CEO

1234 Abrams Road, Dallas, Texas 75214

(214) 827-0813

www.fowlercommunities.org

Juliette Fowler Communities is a neighborhood of choice and connection, of caring and service, of faith and fulfillment. Founded more than 120 years ago as an intergenerational community, Fowler serves children, youth and seniors, as well as their families, at our East Dallas location. As a continuing care retirement community, Fowler’s residential services and care offerings for older adults include: Independent Living, Assisted Living, Memory Support, Health and Rehabilitation, and Affordable Senior Housing. As an intergenerational community, Fowler’s residential offerings for children, youth and young women include: Foster-to-Adopt and The Ebby House.

Manistee Manor Apartment Homes

Debi Windahl, Administrator

7987 N. 53rd Avenue, Glendale, Arizona 85301

(623) 915-5039

www.manisteemanor.com

In the loving and caring spirit of Christ, Disciples House of Glendale Inc. and Manistee Manor are passionately committed to exceed the needs and expectations of our residents by providing quality senior housing and other services to enhance the lives of those we serve in a friendly family-style community environment. A place our residents are proud to call home. Manistee provides apartment home rentals for our low-income senior residents in a safe and caring environment where they can continue to age in place independently (with or without the help of out-side services) in an active senior community.

Mission Behind Bars and Beyond

Rev. Dean Bucalos, Executive Director

PO Box 22-34, Louisville, Kentucky, 40252

(502) 396-3543

www.missionbehindbarsandbeyond.org

Mission Behind Bars and Beyond is a nonprofit, faith-based organization providing community based mentoring programs for those released from prison and returning to communities in Kentucky. In conjunction with a Disciples of Christ congregation, New Life in Christ Christian Church, which is located in a women’s halfway house, we minister to those incarcerated, train outside volunteers to form Nurture, Support and Accountability Groups (NSAG) and connect returning citizens with a NSAG which will then walk alongside each person for six months to a year to equip them for a successful re-entry into the community to which they are returning.

New Communion

Rev. David Harrison, Jr., Director

2320 Country Club Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27104

(336) 722-2714

New Communion is a faith-based organization with the goal of enhancing community relationships and diminishing the impacts of hunger and food insecurity. We are committed to providing nourishing food and being in relationship with those experiencing food insecurity and hunger in the communities we serve. Through the model of Asset Based Community Development, New Communion emphasizes shared abundance in ways that transform individuals and systems of poverty. We function as an interfaith organization and utilize interdisciplinary practices in order to promote healthy food systems through shared abundance and redistribution of resources. Currently, New Communion is feeding over 150 local families a week, and would like to continue to grow, increasing the number of families being fed, using shared abundance and expanding our food and financial sponsorship to support securing healthy nutrition for all.

Oakland Peace Center

Rev. Sandhya Jha, Executive Director

111 Fairmount Avenue, Oakland, California 94611

www.oaklandpeacecenter.org

As an emerging social entrepreneurship nonprofit model of ministry, the Oakland Peace Center exists as a physical space (40,000 square feet gifted by First Christian Church of Oakland) and a network of people and organizations (over 40 Bay Area based nonprofits). It brings together more than 40 direct service, advocacy, youth empowerment, art and culture-shift nonprofits to connect and collaborate with each other in the struggle for peace and justice.

Oklahoma Family Empowerment Center (OFEC)

Rev. Sharyn Cosby, Executive Director

1020 South Garnett Road, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74128 

(918) 551-6017 

www.ofec.co

Oklahoma Family Empowerment Center, a related organization of In the Spirit Christian Church, is a not-for-profit agency that seeks to provide resources and assistance to individuals and their families that will empower them to live a successful and purposeful life. In an effort to reduce the disparity of minority contact with law enforcement, Oklahoma Family Empowerment Center has entered into an agreement with the City of Tulsa and partnered with various state, local, and community agencies to implement the Tulsa County Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Community and Strategic Planning Demonstration Project through a grant funded by the Office of Juvenile Affairs.

Patchwork Central / Sozo Health Ministry

Rev. John Rich and Amy Rich, Co-Executive Directors

100 Washington Avenue, Evansville, Indiana 47713

(812) 424-2735

www.patchwork.org

Patchwork Central has worked to serve its neighborhood through flexible and innovative programming that matches the talents and interests of those involved to the needs of our community. Today, Patchwork serves individuals and families with a food pantry (since 1982), neighborhood hospitality (a cup of coffee, telephone usage, someone to listen, etc.), a community garden (created in 1995), low-rent facilities for other community organizations, a bicycle program for the homeless, a Health Ministry, and unique art/education programs (Arts & Smarts) that have been available free of charge to at-risk children and youth since 1980. As part of the community fabric, Patchwork Central changes the lives of those it serves by giving them a sense of hope, a place of acceptance, and a bright outlook for the future.

QC Family Tree

Rev. Helms Jarrell and Rev. Greg Jarrell, Executive Directors

2910 Parkway Avenue, Charlotte, North Carolina 28208

(704) 654-7429

www.qcfamilytree.org

QC Family Tree’s mission is to be kinfolk rooted in discipleship in West Charlotte, NC. They embody this mission through creativity, prayer, and welcome. The Family Tree offers hospitality in their homes to neighbors who are in transition. Participants enjoy family-style meals each evening with neighbors and guests and gather for prayer every weekday morning and midday. The ministry has grown to include: Freedom School summer literacy camp, Wednesday evening dinner and devotionals for youth and children, twice monthly community meals, arts activities, young adult leadership development through internship programs, edible gardens, community outreach activities, and microbusiness in order that provides employment to neighbors as well as sustainable income to their nonprofit.

Reach Beyond Mission

Rev. Mary Lu Johnston, Executive Director

15907 Braesgate Drive, Austin, Texas 78717

(512) 218-4335

www.reachbeyondmission.org

Reach Beyond Mission is a fully planned youth mission/poverty education experience. Youth join youth from other churches across the country to explore issues of culture, gender, and poverty in an urban setting. Participants volunteer at numerous metropolitan area nonprofits working with the homeless, low-income families, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Summer mission week focus on food justice, housing, or advocacy. RBM provides speakers, age-appropriate activities, and discussion starters to help young people explore the biblical, theological, economic, social, and political issues related to poverty. Our goal is to help youth begin to explore how to spend a lifetime changing the systems that sustain poverty through their votes, career choices, and how they spend their money.

Recovery Café San Jose

Rev. Dana Bainbridge, Founder and Development Officer

80 South 5th Street, San Jose, CA 95112

(408) 294-2963

Recovery Cafe San Jose is a healing community for those traumatized by homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges. We are founded on the belief that every human being is precious, worthy of love, and deserving of the opportunities to fulfill his or her potential. Located in the heart of downtown San Jose, Recovery Cafe San Jose members come for long-term support in a safe, sober, and supportive environment. Program elements include Recovery Circles (small, peer-support groups), School for Recovery classes in job and life skills, group meals, guest speakers, creative activities, and connections to community resources. Through the Cafe, members gather the skills and strength needed to gain and maintain employment and housing, and achieve their goals in health, family, and sobriety.

Safe Haven Day Shelter

Joni Laurence and Donna Hawley, Co-Coordinators

6165 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, Virginia 22044

(703) 532-8220

www.fccfc.org/safe-haven/

Safe Haven in Falls Church, VA, is a drop-in program working together with Northern Virginia Family Services to provide a welcoming environment for those experiencing homelessness and poverty. This program began as an outreach program at First Christian Church to an average of 15-20 individuals and has grown to a drop-in program serving more than 100 clients weekly, now an interfaith coalition of faith-based communities contributing hot meals and volunteers to the program.

Serra Center

Lisa Senadenos, CEO

2610 Central Avenue, Suite 120, Union City, California 94587

(510) 477-1000

www.serracenter.org

Serra Center offers three types of support services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Intermediate Care Facilities (ICF-DDH) provides 24-hour care and supervision in six-bed homes in residential neighborhoods. Individuals in Supported Living Services live in the environment of their choice, with care and support based on their individual needs. Independent Living Services provide services focusing on specific identified living skills, working toward eliminating the need for services when the skills are mastered. All individuals served are active during the day either at jobs or in a day program.

SHARE (Sharing Hands: A Respite Experience)

Rev. Tom Jones, Executive Director

3500 N. A Street, Suite 2200, Midland, Texas 79705

(432) 818-1253

Upon the diagnosis of a child’s disability, families find themselves on a lonely journey in which they are isolated from friends, other families who care for children with special needs, and the community. The constant care demands of the child’s disability create stress and leave little time for relationships and personal care. SHARE provides respite care for these families, including parent support groups, counseling services, family events, and programming for siblings. SHARE cares for the whole family because strong families are needed to provide care for the person with special needs—now and well into the future.

Southern Christian Services for Children and Youth, Inc.

Jamie Himes, Executive Director

860 East River Place, Suite 104, Jackson, Mississippi 39202

(601) 354-0983

www.scscy.org

SCSCY provides services through 11 different statewide locations including therapeutic group homes for children and youth, a transitional living facility for older teens who are homeless, an array of adoption, therapeutic foster case, and post adoption services, and education services that include independent living preparation for teens in the foster care system, and abstinence education for at-risk youth.

SquareOne Villages (formerly Opportunity Village)

Rev. Dan Bryant, Executive Director

458 Blair Boulevard, Eugene, Oregon 97402

(541) 606-4455

www.squareonevillages.org

As we grow into an organization with multiple projects, Opportunity Village Eugene has recently evolved to SquareOne Villages. Our mission continues to be to create self-managed communities of low-cost tiny houses for people in need of housing. SquareOne Villages has two projects: Opportunity Village Eugene, which provides transitional shelter for approximately 35 people, and Emerald Village Eugene, an affordable housing project of 22 tiny homes being built in fall 2016. Both communities provide stable, safe and sustainable places for people in need of housing through alternative, cost-effective approaches.

StoneSoup Community Venture / Tulsa’s Table

Rev. Christy Moore, Founder and CEO

2232 S. Nogales Ave. Tulsa, OK 74107

(918) 984-8225

www.tulsastable.org

Tulsa’s Table is a project of StoneSoup Community Venture, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established in 2010. Our identity springs from the heart of the stone soup folktale, in which community members provide valuable contributions that turn a soup of stone into a nourishing, sustainable meal. The mission of Tulsa’s Table is to provide enriching, seed-to-table educational experiences as solutions to hunger and poverty for youth living in at-risk communities in Tulsa. Our objective is to nourish community for a purpose by providing opportunities for youth to obtain solid job and life skills through the learning laboratory operations of a food production garden and our pay-what-you-can community café. The long-range goal is for our garden and café to be fully operated by graduates of our programming who develop a sense of ownership in the operation through their learning experiences at Tulsa’s Table. The garden will supply fresh, locally-grown food to the café that will function five days per week, serving lunch or dinner to everyone on a pay-what-you-can basis.

The Summit

Gina Meadows, Executive Director

1400 Enterprise Drive, Lynchburg, Virginia 24502

(434) 941-7606

www.summitlynchburg.com

The Summit is a senior living community providing an environment for each resident to be engaged in life. We provide services, amenities and facilities that support an active lifestyle in Independent Living for each individual. As residents’ needs change, The Summit’s campus has a continuum of care available through Assisted Living and The Summit Health and Rehab Center.

Tennyson Center for Children

Ned Breslin, CEO

2950 Tennyson Center, Denver, Colorado 80212

(303) 433-2541

www.tennysoncenter.org

Tennyson Center provides 24-hour intensive residential care, day treatment, special education and home/community based services for approximately 150 children and their families every day. Children with severe behavioral and mental health problems along with educational delays are the primary client population. The families of these children have experienced or are experiencing extreme trauma, physical and/or sexual abuse, mental illness, substance abuse, or extreme poverty and/or homelessness. Tennyson is a leader in advocating for the needs of all children and families in need in Colorado through legislative and policy development.

Urban Mission Community Partners

Rev. Al Lopez, President

810 S. White Avenue, Pomona, CA 91766

(909) 764-8054

Located on the campus of UrbanMission (a UCC/DOC new church start), UMCP is a community-focused nonprofit organization that seeks community wholeness, resilience, and sustainability in the Pomona area of Los Angeles County, California, by working with families and individuals at risk from poverty, hunger, homelessness, incarceration, and/or inadequate education and healthcare. In cooperation with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, as well as other denominations, faith communities, neighborhoods, community organizations, and public/ government entities, UMCP actively seeks out and develops opportunities to empower and walk with our community towards a brighter tomorrow. This includes but is not limited to: Social service provision to individuals, families, and neighborhoods at risk from poverty, hunger, homelessness, incarceration, and/or inadequate education and health care. Other opportunities for UMCP’s intended work include involvement in nonviolent civic engagement; advocacy for social uplift in local, state, and national legislation; urban agriculture; supportive and transitional housing for vulnerable populations; and deeply inclusive neighborhoods.

Woodhaven

C. Mark Palmer, CEO

1405 Hathman Place, Columbia, Missouri 65201

(573) 881-9840

www.woodhaventeam.org

Woodhaven is a caring team advocating for those with disabilities. Its Community Living program supports more than 100 men and women in more than 50 apartments and homes, and its Community Connections program provides opportunities for individuals who do not work during the day. Our mission is not just about providing supports; it is about working toward a fundamental shift in how the community perceives people with disabilities. Every day, the men and women we support are living full, independent lives as active members of the community. With every shirt they buy, hour they work, and life they touch, they’re changing the face of ability.

NBA Board of Trustees

Cinthia Kim Hengst, Chair, Elmhurst, Illinois

Mary Lou Kegler, Vice Chair, Kansas City, Missouri

Orlando Scott, Secretary, Norcross, Georgia

William Jennison, Treasurer, Spokane, Washington

Darren Phelps, At-Large, Melbourne, Florida

Lisa Buday, California, Pennsylvania

Jabari Butler, Atlanta, Georgia

Alex Cooper, Cleburne, Texas

Jacque Foster, St. Louis, Missouri

Audrey Jackson, Cleveland, Ohio

Clarence Johnson, Oakland, California

Ariel Kidwell, Dallas, Texas

Lisa Legeer, Smithfield, Virginia

Cristian Marin, Eureka, Illinois

Suzanne Quenette, Austin, Texas

David Rodriguez, Bronx, New York

Elaine Sanford, Memphis, Tennessee

Mark D. Anderson, St. Louis, Missouri*

Terri Hord Owens, Indianapolis, Indiana**

Michael Readinger, Cleveland, Ohio*

*Ex-Officio with Vote

**Ex-Officio without Vote

NBA Staff

Mark D. Anderson, President and CEO

Dietra Wise Baker, Program Coordinator for Advocacy and Activism

Ben Bohren, Mission Specialist, NBA XPLOR

Dean Bucalos, Mission Specialist, Prison and Jail Ministries

Dani Loving Cartwright, Vice President of Operations

Lesley Durham, Director of Operations Accounting

Darnell Fennell, Director of Social Entrepreneurship

Angelica Santiago Gonzalez, Administrative Assistant

Rebecca Hale, Executive Vice President

Héctor J. Hernández, Peer Group Convener and Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for NBA Mental Health Initiative

Monica Wedlock Kilpatrick, Associate Vice President of Organizational Development

Brittany King, Marketing Associate

L. Christine Koetting, Associate Vice President of Accounting

Virzola Law, Mission Specialist, NBA XPLOR

April Lewton, Vice President of Development and Marketing

Larry J. Morris III, Program Associate, NBA Incubate Initiative

Bonnie Osei-Frimpong, Director of NBA XPLOR

Kara Whitehouse, Executive Support Manager and Grants Coordinator

Angela Whitenhill, Mental Health Initiative Manager

Gary Zimmerman, Vice President for Administration and CFO

The post Editorial error: Yearbook missing a ministry report appeared first on Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

News about the 2021 General Assembly

Cherilyn Williams — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 16:34:18 +0000

Dear Church:

We write to you in unprecedented times to share some unprecedented news: In a special called meeting of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) via Zoom on Sunday, July 19, 2020, the board voted to cancel the 2021 General Assembly originally scheduled for July 31-Aug. 4, 2021, in Louisville, KY.

This was not a decision that was made lightly. After many weeks of prayer, investigation and long discussion, it became obvious to us that we needed to act in the best interests of the Church going forward. The COVID-19 pandemic has made travel and large gatherings ill-advised until the situation becomes more stable.

We have worked closely with staff to explore all our options. Regional ministers and presidents of the general ministries were consulted as well. All of us were united in our desire to keep our members safe. When we took the situation to the Administrative Committee, they, too, were in agreement it would be best to not gather in person next summer. The health and safety of our church family is far too important to risk meeting in an environment when we can’t be sure that everyone will be safe.

Deciding now to cancel the event, even as we don’t know yet know what next summer will bring, is also an act of stewardship for the Church. There will be financial implications to cancelling, but had we proceeded in planning an event which needed to be cancelled at a later date, or one which was only sparsely attended, we might have incurred even greater expense.

We join you in grieving the loss of this beloved event. While w have some mourning to do before we can begin to find a way forward, we also see this as an opportunity: an opportunity to take a collective deep breath, an opportunity to listen courageously to the Holy Spirit, an opportunity to imagine new ways of gathering and doing business together as a church.

We know you may have many questions and thoughts about this situation, and so we invite you to register for a live conversation Wednesday evening, Aug. 19, via Zoom and also streamed to Facebook and YouTube. In that conversation, we will share more about the process by which we arrived at this decision and reflect on the opportunities this change offers us. If you aren’t able to join us, the recording of the session will be available on the General Assembly website. You are also welcome to send your questions to news@disciples .org. We’ll be gathering up the most common questions and sharing responses later this week on the General Assembly website.

Even in these difficult days, and maybe more so in these difficult days, we are united in our conviction that God is with us. Over these past several months, we have often prayed together using the words of Romans 8:38-39, which would have been our theme scripture at the General Assembly: There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

We know this to be true.

With gratitude,

Rev. Terri Hord Owens, General Minister and President

Rev. Belva Brown Jordan, Moderator

Rev. Stephanie Kendell, First Vice Moderator

Rev. Dr. Nestor Gomez, Second Vice Moderator

Clyde Hunt, Moderator Elect

Resource for grieving by First Vice Moderator Stephanie Kendell (PDF)Download

Donate to help defray the costs of cancellation

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General Minister and President offers pastoral word in response to COVID19 pandemic

Cherilyn Williams — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 19:42:43 +0000

“Hello Disciples, this is your General Minister and President Terri Hord Owens.

Psalm 46 tells us that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and the mountains even crumble into the sea. there is a lot going on in our world today that causes us fear – rumors of wars, economic instability, clashes within our own society, anxiety over election results, and of course the COVID19 coronavirus.

Here at Disciples Center we are working across our general ministries to ensure that essential tasks are being carried out – but also that our staff are safe, and we’re encouraging as many people to work at home as can. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on any changes to our schedule here at Disciples Center.

After consultation with the moderators of the General Assembly, I have decided to suspend my own travel and public appearances for the time being. One of the most important things that we can all do during this time is to follow the guidance and counsel of state and local authorities, as well as the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Please continue to visit our website, disciples.org, where we have compiled a list of resources and other valuable information – everything from the most recent guidance from the CDC and the World Health Organization, to helpful suggestions and plans shared from other regions and congregations throughout the Church. I know you will find this resource helpful.

During these difficult and uncertain times, it’s so important that we stay connected as Church. I encourage you to follow us regularly on our social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In addition, please go to our website, disciples.org, and sign up for our weekly e-newsletter Disciples News Service. We’ll be communicating with you on a very regular basis through our social media and sending out weekly updates via email. You want to be sure to get the latest news and information from across the Church.

Week of Compassion, the ministry that responds to natural disasters across our Church, will be, in fact, helping us to manage the Church’s response to outbreaks and cases of coronavirus. if you have a case in your congregation or in your region, please contact Week of Compassion, just as you would during any difficult situation, and they are prepared to help coordinate resources to ensure that whatever we can do for churches, families, and congregations, we are in a position to do. Week of Compassion will still be there.

Church, it’s hard to stay faithful during times of difficulty and uncertainty, in times when we’re simply fearful. But our scripture for the General Assembly in 2021, Romans 8:38-39, reminds us of Paul’s own confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul says, ‘I am convinced’ that neither death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, nor powers, nor principalities, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

During these times, I hope that you will continue to practice your own spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study, to remind yourself that God is still with us. We pray for you daily and we’ll continue to pray for you. I am convinced that God will take care of us, that God will lead us through these difficult moments.

Be sure to follow the good advice that’s being given to you by health officials, take care of yourselves, be conservative with your own exposure to public events, and know that we are praying for you, that God loves you.

Disciples, I am convinced that nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus. Let’s stay connected, and together we’ll get through this. God bless you. We’ll be praying for you.”

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Report on the 2019 General Board meeting

Cherilyn Williams — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 19:10:47 +0000

The 2019 Covenant Journal, a report on the 2019 General Board meeting in February, is mailed to each congregation and available for [faicon icon=”file-pdf-o”] download here.

View full texts of reports and business items on the General Assembly business page.

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Tougaloo College formalizes affiliation with Disciples

Cherilyn Williams — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 14:08:29 +0000

from Higher Education and Leadership Ministries (HELM)

Higher education has been a priority of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from the earliest days of the movement. Alexander Campbell once said, “Colleges and churches go hand in hand in the progress of Christian civilization.” It is that idea and vision that has propelled Disciples across the generations to be committed to promoting education through the establishment of colleges, universities and theological institutions across the country. Disciples remain proud of this heritage and committed to keeping our institutions of higher education strong. One of the schools that is part of this legacy is Tougaloo College in Mississippi.

Having been founded in 1882 by the Home Missionary Society of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Southern Christian Institute of Edwards, MS, served black students during the Jim Crow era and trained several generations of African American educators, clergy and other leaders. In 1954, the Southern Christian Institute merged with Tougaloo College and continued its central mission of education, while also playing a critical role in advancing the cause of freedom justice during the Civil Rights Movement.

While Tougaloo was not an original signatory to the 1977 Covenant between the colleges and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Tougaloo has continued to appreciate its affiliation with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has stated such in its mission statement over the years. Beginning in 2015, Rev. Dr. Alivin O. Jackson, retired Disciples clergy and member of the Tougaloo board of trustees, began facilitating conversations to try and strengthen the relationship between Tougaloo College and the Disciples. These conversations led to a formal meeting between Dr. Beverly Hogan, President of Tougaloo College, and Rev. Chris Dorsey, President of HELM, where both agreed to work toward Tougaloo achieving full affiliation with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

At a recent Tougaloo College Board of Trustees Meeting in October 2018, the Board voted to affirm its commitment to the current Covenant between Colleges and Universities and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and officially requested to join in full affiliation with the other fourteen affiliated colleges and universities of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In November, the HELM Board of Directors voted to approve Tougaloo’s request for full affiliation, and this was followed by an affirmative vote by the Presidents who make up the Disciples Council of Colleges and Universities. Finally, the Administrative Committee of the General Board voted to approve Tougaloo’s request. This brings the total number of Disciples colleges and universities to fifteen!

At a time when many private colleges and universities are giving up their affiliations with churches and religious organizations, it is rare that a school would seek to strengthen its relationship with the church. Furthermore, as the church celebrates the merger agreement that brought together the National Christian Missionary Convention with the International Convention of the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), this is an opportunity for the Church to welcome another HBCU into a full affiliation with the Church. We give thanks for the deepening of the relationship between the Disciples and Tougaloo College as we continue to strive to make Campbell’s words a reality.

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Annual Year Book connects Disciples congregations and ministries

Cherilyn Williams — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 14:40:44 +0000

How do we take a snapshot of our denomination? Where can we find some history on our congregation? How many Disciples congregations are there in my area? What do our general ministries do?

These questions and more are answered in the annual Year Book and Directory.

The Year Book serves numerous administrative functions, compiling General Board reports and General Assembly resolutions, and serving as the official record of congregations receiving 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status through the Internal Revenue Service.

The data collected during the Year Book reporting process is invaluable for regional and general ministries.

Regions benefit from Year Book data, using the information provided to analyze regional health and vitality. “Transparency in information sharing is one sign of a healthy organization,” says Rev. Greg Alexander, regional minister in Kentucky and president of the College of Regional Ministers. “The Year Book and Directory is a resource, when used in full transparency, that helps us have a clearer picture of how and where to focus our best energies in strengthening the whole church. It is the honest look at who and where we are that we need to give ourselves to be more effective witnesses to the Gospel.”

General ministries use Year Book data to update their own records and mailing lists of Disciples congregations. Being listed in the Year Book is also a prerequisite for a congregation to participate in many general ministries’ programs.

To have their information included in the annual Year Book, congregations must submit a report by March 15. The report can be submitted online, or by emailing or mailing a paper copy of the report to the Year Book office.

Congregational statistics published in the Year Book include financial information, membership data, and giving records. The Year Book also includes a Ministers Directory of all clergy ordained and commissioned by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The annual Year Book is available for purchase and is prepared and delivered each summer. Physical and digital copies of the 2019 Year Book are available for pre-order now, and copies of the 2018 Year Book are still available.

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