Critical Presence: Sharing God's Love At The Point Of Greatest Need

Transcription

1 General Board 2015 General Board Report Business Item #GB Great River Region..... of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Critical Presence: Sharing God's Love At The Point Of Greatest Need ADDRESS 9302 Geyer Springs Road Little Rock, AR REGIONAL STAFF Barbara E. Jones, ordained,ft, female, caucasian, 1995 Wendy Paquette, FT, female, caucasian, 1998 Tina Jones, FT, female African-American, 2005 Alisha Gourley, contract, female, caucasian, REGIONAL ASSEMBLY Teach Us To Pray Park Hill Christian Church North Little Rock, AR November 7,8, Zedric Clayton, Preaching Friday PM Dick Hamm & Sharon Watkins Saturday PM Sharon Watkins Sunday AM 60 th Birthday Party for RM Barbara Jones & 20 th Yr LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 1) Youth: our youth program includes intentional leadership development for those serving on the commission, those serving as stewards in camp and conference, those who serve as summer interns, and eventually the one who becomes Youth Coordinator. npartnership did a study across the region to bring all parties to the table to discuss future directions for Youth Ministry as we are now 10 years old and it's time to move beyond the programs we adoped from previous regions 2) Mississippi Christian Missionary Convention holds a pre-convention Educational Event.100% of Clergy attend. Last summer Rick Morse led the event. This year April Johnson will bring training/program from Reconciliation Mission. 3) Disciples Women continues to be creative in its networking of women and teaching leadership skills. It is a very diverse group black and white, younger and older women. Though some complain that the process and

2 material is stagnant, their ministry is dynamic. 4) Ministry Committee: Mentoring of ministry candidates and those new to Disciples. We dropped subcommittees and found our stride with one committee that handles everything and moves around the region several times a year. Our work with commissioned ministers is dynamic, and we are filling pulpits not served by Search and Call. 5) Regional Board is an intentional venue for leader taining. Each member learns about the congregations repersented there as well as the region and general church. We strive to implement the Design and teach polity as we go... each of them are Disciples, nurtured in a faith community, serve in regional ministries that network them with other congregations in the region and at the same time are members of the General Assembly. Todd Adams led our new board in 6 hours of governance training which I highly recommend. NEW & TRANSFORMING CONGREGATIONS Anti-Racism / Pro- Reconciliation 1) FCC in Lafayette, LA, sold its building to fund a restart congregation. The proceeds of the sale of the building are available to fund the new congregation. Ashley Sherrard is the new church planter and our board is very pleased with the pace and progress of her work. 2) Pacific Islands Christian Church in Rogers, AR, is nesting at FCC Rogers. It is a congregation of people in NW Arkansas from Microneasia.. 3) Real Faith Christian Church in Clarksdale, MS, is Coming out of crisis mode, through the gracious help of BCE, DHM, Week of Compassion, Disciples Volunteering and those across our region. The call to Zedrick Clayton as pastor 3 years ago has been a blessing and worship is back up to over 150. They hope to worship in the new facility for Easter. Many thanks to covenantal partnership in action!. Building relationships with congregations and understanding the cultural contexts of Mississippi Christian Missionary Convention continues to evolve over the years, stronger each year. I am so very proud of the identity our region has claimed.. The strong point of commonality is participation in Disciples Women, Regional Board, and Regional Assembly. However, at the recent MCMC board meeting it was voiced by a lay lleader in a congregation that the shortage of Disciples ministers hurts the congregations as they end up with independent Baptist ministers who don t know anything about what it means to be Disciples. In our region, there exists a gulf of the permanent underclass will grow as support for education, unemployment, medical assistance, support of doctors for rural communities, cuts in jobs our working poor depend on for survival... all of these "roots of poverty" are also intentional tools of institutional racism. What I studied in

3 the late 60's and early 70's is back again with a vengence. But this time there is also the mandate that babies will be born (with no prenatal or postnatal care) as mothers who discover they are pregnant past 12 weeks have no choice in the matter. Single mothers and persons of color are at a disadvantage. It matters not if you are Asian, Latina, African American, Caribbean, Marshallese, or Anglo. Cuts in the state the state jobs may have tightened state bugets, but have also put many middle class persons of color out of work. Public service was a good avenue for African Americans to have stable income with benefits and good retirement. Numbers do not show which populations are being affected by public service leadership whether schools, government, transportation, or other jobs in the infrastructure. Being a Global Mission Region We have lost touch with our global mission partner, The Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic. With our loss of staff, financial crunch, and redirection of funds that once came to us, our work with the DR is on hold. I am very sad about this, but it is reality. Felix Ortiz has been very helpful, and continues to be present with US at our Assemblies. His care for and presesence with us has illustrated CRITICAL PRESENCE as we have been undergoing such stress. Finances When the region began, we had 7 full-time and 5 contract staff members. We now have 1full time clergy person, 2 support staff and 1 contract staff for youth ministry. The expectations have not changed significantly but we find ways to work smarter not harder... We submitted to the AC and our board a look back financial review that went clear back to the shift in 2009/2010 to a calendar year through 2013, and will receive our review of 2014 in the next few weeks. Leadership Transition After 20 years as Executive Regional Minister, Barbara E. Jones has resigned to return to Kansas City and be closer to her parents who are now 85 and 86. Though she has just entered search and call, she will be writing her dissertation Governance, Leadership and Ethical Practice in Self-Governing Congregations. She passed her Comprehensive Eaminations and this is what remains to complete her PhD. The Great River Region has established a Transition Team. Jones looks forward to serving where God calls. Confident that the GRR is ready for new leadership.

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6 Recommended Action: The General Board receives the report from the Great River Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).