CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST) PACIFIC SOUTHWEST REGION GENERAL BOARD REPORT April 18-19, 2016

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1 General Board Business Item #GB CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST) PACIFIC SOUTHWEST REGION GENERAL BOARD REPORT April 18-19, 2016 Submitted by Don Dewey, Co-Regional Minister-President Regional Ministry Team Don Dewey, Co- Regional Minister-President, ordained, M, C, FT Susan Gonzales Dewey, Co-Regional Minister-CEO, ordained, F, H, FT Young Jun Yang & Young Lan Kim, Staff for Asian Ministries/NAPAD, ordained, M & F, A, FT JoAnne Bynum, Staff for African-American Ministries, ordained, F, AA, PT BJ Barlow, Youth Ministry, M, C, FT Sloan Hamilton, Camp Manager for Loch Leven Camp & Conference Center, F, C, FT Office Staff Bruce Indermill, Sr. Administrator, M, C, FT Branden Hendricks, Administrative Assistant, M, C, FT Janelle Vannoy, Office Assistant, F, C, FT Alisa Mittelstaedt, Media and Communications, F, C, PT Michel Johnson, Support staff, F, C, PT Keith Clark, Financial Advisor, M, C, PT We believe God calls the Pacific Southwest Region to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. The Pacific Southwest Region is made up of 110 congregations, with 25 congregations affiliating. We have a wide diversity of participating members, which include Hispanic, Chinese, Korean, African American, Samoan and many multiethnic, multi-racial congregations. OUR VISION, to be a faithful, growing regional church that demonstrates true community, deep Christian spirituality and a passion for justice (Micah 6:8); and, OUR MISSION, to be and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, witnessing, loving and serving from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) OUR GOALS, 1) To be One Church; 2) To be a Missional Church; 3) To nurture and develop vital, healthy, growing congregations; 4) To be a well-organized and well administered Region.

2 As we seek to fulfill the General Church priority of becoming a Proreconciling/Anti-racist church Goal #1 To Be One Church: In 2015 & 2016 we held an Anti-Racism Education event for our youth and young adult as a part of our Annual MLK celebration. We co-hosted a two-day Anti-Racism training event with leaders Rev. Sandhya Jha and David Bell. Our Committee on Ministry has now made Anti- Racism a requirement for Ordination. As a Region we are committed to seeking as a goal to have at least 50% persons of color on our Board. We also have planned for 2016 a Anti-Racism audit working with April Johnson and her team. Our Regional Gathering was held October 2015 at First Christian Church of Riverside and had over 450 in attendance with the theme: I Am the PSWR with our scripture focus of Psalm 139 We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our keynote speaker was Rev. Dr. William Lee, pastor of Loudon Avenue Christian Church in Roanoke, Virginia. Also in October 2015 we held our Annual Pastors Summit with over 150 pastors attending with Rev. Dr. Frank Thomas. In addition we held a Youth Gathering with guest preacher Eddie Anderson. Goal #2 To Be a Missional Church: Within our Region we have two significant mission sites, All Peoples Christian Center, located in South Central Los Angeles and Eastmont Community Center, located in East Los Angeles. The mission of All Peoples Christian Center is to provide a broad spectrum of social services to all, regardless of faith or race, and to empower the community to meet its needs by promoting equality, unity, respect and self-determination among all who participate in its programs. Handson mission experiences are conducted by groups within the Region and outside the Region at All Peoples. Eastmont Community Center in collaboration with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is designed to enhance the quality of life for children, youth, working adults and seniors in low-income families by providing needed education, social services, and health and wellness services that promote personal development and self-sufficiency. Another unit of our Region is Project IMPACT. Project IMPACT is partnering with congregations as a part of a comprehensive plan for transformation and missiondirected ministry through free tutoring services for at risk youth in local schools. They have members of Disciples congregations providing tutoring, support and facilities for this ministry. We continue to be a Global Mission Partner Region and co-host Global Mission Interpreters Training with our UCC partners and General Church. Plans are under way

3 for our 9 th annual mission trip to Nicaragua. In 2014 & 2015 a Global Mission team again traveled to Cuba in a partnership work trip. We are began partnership relationship with the PROK in South Korea in April of In addition we have established a partner relationship with Disciple congregations along the Mexican border. In partnership with our General Churches Common Global Missions ministry the PSWR supports Paul Turner, member of Abundant Life Christian Church in Los Angeles as a missionary to the Congo in Africa, which began in In our efforts to fulfill the General Church priority of forming 1000 new congregations by 2020, our New Church Development Committee provides ongoing support, guidance and direction for all of our affiliating congregations and churches in formation. We currently have 25 congregations Under Care in the PSWR. We are also plan to plant 3 new congregations in Since the beginning of 2015 we have launched a new church-planting ministry in the PSWR. This exciting new ministry, called the Hatchery, is being supported by both our New Church Development and our Leadership Committee. It is designed as an innovative, residential learning program for individuals who want to become social transformation entrepreneurs and invest in a local community for multiple years by launching a sustainable common cause community. Our first class began in September 2015 and has completed their first semester of Theological Studies through our partnership with United Seminary in Minneapolis. In our efforts to fulfill the General Church priority of transforming 1000 current congregations by 2020 we continue to send pastors to the Hope Partnerships Leadership Academy for Training. We are now developing Coaching opportunities for pastors and congregations. Our Transformation Team is now conducting Appreciative Inquiry work with several congregations and we have also begun the Journey program with several congregations as well as a special version of the Journey geared toward our African American congregations. Goal #3 To Develop Vital, Healthy, Growing Congregations: In 2015 we hired a full time Regional Youth Pastor to help develop and expand our work with youth across the Region. One of the first new programs created was a Youth Immersion Ministry. The focus of YIM is to be on Anti-Racism and Leadership Development in a Multi-Cultural context. They participated in our General Assembly and organized a MLK event for youth and young adults. In 2016 they are planning a immersion trip to Puerto Rico to meet and engage Disciple youth there. Also, our Youth

4 Leadership Team with be co-hosting with our Region 10 youth from the PROK in South Korea as a mission exchange program. We also had youth attending winter camps for both Jr. High and High School in partnership with the UCC. In addition, in April we held our annual Spring Fling for High School students, which is a leadership-training event. We also had over 250 children and youth attending summer camp this year, with a new Wee Camp for our youngest campers starting at age 3yrs.. Our Disciples Women strengthen our congregations by holding successful Women s Convocation and Spiritual Growth retreats. Through our new program the Hatchery we held to learning Enfolding conferences, one on spirituality and another on theology. We have sponsored spiritual direction retreats and in 2016 will host a Practicing Compassion retreat with Dr. Frank Rogers, Jr. In our efforts to fulfill the General Church 4 th priority of Leadership Development, we continue to have great success with our Leadership Apprentice program, training women for leadership for local, regional, and general church. We ve developed a Guides program for young women to develop leadership skills. Our Regional Youth Leadership Team receives training and experience while giving excellent leadership to all our Regional youth programming. We hold annual training opportunities for Camp Directors and Camp Counselors. We continue to hold annual Pastor s Gathering Retreats and Pastor s Summits with well over 100 participating for fellowship, educational development, networking, and spiritual renewal. We currently have 15 to 18 of our Hispanic Pastors participating in the CMS (Certificate of Ministry Studies) program. This is a two-year seminary level educational program with our partner DSF (Disciples Seminary Foundation) coordinated by our Regional Staff, Xose Escamilla, for Hispanic Ministries. We are also developing an MDiv program for Korean speaking Pastors, also with our partner DSF headed by Rev. Dr. Aaron Park, Pastor of Saegil Christian Church. In addition, we continue with our Bethany West program modeled and supported by Bethany Fellowship for pastors in the PSWR. This program is focused on young pastors from our ethnic communities and in their first call. Goal #4 To Be a Well Organized and Well Administered Region: To improve our financial accounting we have invested in new software that allows us to manage resources more effectively and efficiently as well maintain accurate date collecting. We are also beginning the process to digitize all our documents in order to be cost effective and to be ecologically sound. We will soon have the Region s entire operational budget supported through investment income.

5 Our Regional Board has approved a Master Plan for future development our Camp and Conference Center as well as a plan for fully endowing our camping program. Significant improvements and usage have already begun with more planned for Recommended Action On behalf of the General Board, the Administrative Committee receives the report of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Pacific Northwest.