Dani's Blog
My Heart and Soul Were Stirred Up!
10/27/2010 04:21 PM
My heart and soul were stirred up! Yes, it was great to see Disciples gathered together! Yes, it was great to hold an Assembly in several places in order to "Cross the Boundaries" that exist between two Areas. Yes, it was great to work with volunteers and speakers and caterers and hotel folk and greeters and details and, and, and....(I got the "and, and, and..." from Suzanne Stabile!) Yes, there was great MUSIC....aahhhh, the music! Both the joined choirs and All-Assembly choir, and Organ music, and piano music and Ken Medema's music.......aaahhhh! Yes, God's Spirit was at work in the midst of us.....thanks be to God!
And....my heart and soul were stirred up by what I heard. This is a summary:
- That I more easily act like Orpah, than like Ruth. (Jose F. Morales, Jr.)
- That I really need to get out of God's Bizness and show up, pay attention, do the part I am supposed to do, tell the truth and don't get attached to the results (Suzanne Stabile)
- That I need to be in conversation with the world (Paul Nixon)
- That anytime I hear the message in music – it sticks even more! (Ken Medema lived this out!)
So, then I came home and was dusting some book shelves and found a book by Reggie McNeal entitled, "The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church." It was written in 2003 and I bought it somewhere during 2003. I had read about 3 chapters....I could tell by the dog-earred pages and the underlining....and then I stopped. The premise of the book was that how we are/were being the Christian church in North America is quickly going to need to stop and we need to get back to being the church of Jesus Christ. These were the questions the church was asking in 2003:
Here's the questions we used to ask that are the WRONG questions:
- How do we do church better?
- How do we grow this church? (How do we get them to come to us?)
- How do we turn "members" into "ministers?"
- How do we develop church members?
- How do we plan for the future?
- How do we develop leaders for church work?
Here's the Questions as Reggie McNeal re-wrote them for 2003 congregations:
- How do we Deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?
- How do we Transform our Community? (How Do We Hit the Streets with the Gospel?)
- How do we turn "members" into "missionaries?"
- How do we develop followers of Jesus?
- How do we prepare for the future?
- How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?
I was upset at myself that I had evidently purchased this resource to use in the life of the congregations I was serving, and did not. I was upset to realize that for me, and some of those I serve, the "ORIGINAL" questions provided some "stretch" for how we are doing church....much less the ones that were designed to "stretch" us further in 2003. And, maybe making the step from the OLD questions to the NEW ones is progress....
Yes, the questions are good ones. And they do help to turn us more toward "mission" and "ministry" than the ones we normally ask....but they still do not get at the heart of where God is calling us in 2010 and into the future. God calls us even further into a future we do not know, to be a people reaching out to a world who does not know, and bringing to it the love and peace and grace and little bit of certainty that we can bring to calm the chaos around us.
If we get really honest with ourselves, the reality is that we are struggling in the church to reach the people in our neighborhood, not to mention the "whole world." And we don't know what to do to fix the situation we are in, because if we did, we would have already done it. We don't.
In my struggling faith, I can claim that all we really know is that: 1) God is in charge. 2) We are not. 3) Change is scary. 4 ) Transformation is even scarier! 5) God is with us. Every step of the way. 6) That is our HOPE. 7) AND....God is revealing some stuff we need to be doing. 8) Let's do it.
My heart and my soul were stirred up.....are still stirring....I invite your heart and your soul to be "stirred up," too. God is calling us forward....into the future....and
I am excited to see what is next!!!
Struggling alongside you, with HOPE,
Dani
The National Convocation Meeting
08/03/2010 10:31 PM
Dear Friends across the CCSW:
As I participated in the National Convocation meeting this last weekend on your behalf, one of the parts of the gathering that I attended was their business meeting.
Now, I usually don't choose to go to business meetings that I do not have to attend - but I was drawn to find out more about the work of this historic part of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and how I could be a better partner in ministry with our African-American and Africana congregations.
Dr. Tim James, Executive Secretary for the National Convocation, shared with the group a report of their sharing in the greater life of the whole church. He pointed out that several congregations had not participated in the sharing of gifts with the whole church through Disciples Mission Fund. He also pointed out that several congregations had not participated in the Special Day offerings nor the Week of Compassion or Reconciliation offering. I appreciated how he brought this up, because it wasn't in a berating or mean way - it was in the spirit of community and being the church together. It was honest and open and helpful.
As I listened, I began to think about all of us in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest. I came back to my office this week and pulled up a report of our giving. I discovered that almost 100 of our 435 congregations have given nothing to Disciples Mission Fund in 2009 or 2010 (to date) and that almost one-half of those (49) have not shared their mission dollars with ANY Disciples outreach offering.
So....I think, first, that folks just don't know the critical work done by Disciples Mission Fund and these Special day offerings. Did you know that Disciples Mission Fund is the common fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that supports 72 ministries of wholeness all across the world? The mission funding system is overseen by the General Board of the Christian Church which allows the church to partner together for promotion, interpretation, and the receipting and distribution of gifts. In 1941, at the International Convention of the Christian Church, congregations agreed to give 10% of their local operating receipts to the whole church for this shared ministry approach.
The Special Offerings (Easter, Pentecost, Thanksgiving & Christmas) each benefit a particular ministry of the church. Easter offering specifically benefits the General ministries of the church. Eleven ministries share these gifts for ministries like Disciples Home Missions, Central Pastoral Office for Hispanic Ministries, National Convocation, Division of Overseas Ministries/Global Missions, Higher Education and Leadership Ministries, Disciples of Christ Historical Society, to name a few.
The Pentecost offering is for the expressed purpose of New Church. One-half of the offerings received stay in the CCSW for the purpose of starting and supporting new congregations. The other half is distributed through New Church Ministries for the benefit of those who have interest in being new church planters and supporting the work of our new church pastors across the whole church.
The Thanksgiving offering benefits Higher Education and Leadership Ministries. This offering provides a direct way to give to 14 colleges or universities, 3 seminaries and 4 seminary foundations/divinity houses. Jarvis Christian College, Texas Christian University and Brite Divinity School all benefit from this offering.
The Christmas offering benefits the Regional Church. It is returned back to the Region from where it was given....for example, if your church gave $100.00 in the Christmas offering, then $100.00 would be returned to the Christian Church in the Southwest to support ministry here.
There are two further offerings that you need to know about. The Week of Compassion offering (usually taken in February) benefits this disaster and development ministry around the world. If there is a hurricane, a tornado, a tsunami, an earthquake - Week of Compassion is there - on YOUR behalf - to provide presence and support in times of disaster and need. Some folks have asked, "Should I designate my money for Week of Compassion for a particular event?" Yes, you can do that. However, there is more flexibility for your money to help people across the whole world, if you give it to Week of Compassion without restriction so they can use it to meet the most critical need.
You can check and see how your church is doing by visiting the Disciples Mission Fund website at www.disciplesmissionfund.org. There are lots of tools there to use in learning more about how your gifts are used.
Finally, one thing that makes it more complicated is that in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest, we also share our gifts directly in our Areas to support the partnership ministry shared there through leadership training, support for congregations in search and call, resources for times of conflict, pastoral support and care, continuing education for pastors and the process for licensing, camping programs and ministry in so many unseen ways through the presence of an Area minister who is a closeby colleague in ministry. How are you doing in being a partner in that ministry, as well?
In these times of economic strain, the church is the one place that I know is making the most of ministry with every dollar that is given! I hope you will spend some time reflecting on the places where your congregation has shared in the ministry of your Area and with the whole church through these many ways to share. Check the websites and your Area reports. How are you doing in partnering in the ministry to which God calls us?
Thanks, Dr. Timothy James, for making me think and reflect on my own sharing of gifts and that of our congregations with whom we partner in ministry!
Blessings,
Dani
Connecting Our Community
02/17/2010 10:20 PM
WOW! I've just spent thirty minutes online sharing conversation with folks with all across the Region in our Connected Community! I've talked about church membership and what it really means. I discussed evangelism ideas for 2010 and beyond. I've wondered when the Lectionary Discussion Group was going to kick off. I've shared information with the Regional Assembly Planning Group. I've even talked with folks about the New Day, New Direction documents that are making their debut soon around the Region. I also "lurked" on an idea some folks are talking about that involves Disciples Men and TCU....GO Frogs!
I hope you have discovered our Connected Community. If you are not using any social networking, it's fairly simple to find your way around. Log-in and click FORUMS...and there you are. Ready to join many conversations across the Region.
If you are on Facebook or other social networking sites, it's a bit simpler and without all the million dollar bells and whistles - but it works! And I am thrilled to see us crossing the boundaries of time and geography and history to engage one another in such a great tool! Won't you join us?
