General Assembly - Day 2

Another full day at the General Assembly. There were more people around today (at least it seemed much more crowded). And I've now run into several people from the West Virginia region, including most of the regional staff.

The business meeting for the day was fairly uneventful. Several more reports were received from ministries of the General church, including the Board of Publication, Church Extension (which featured a skit -- a nice way to liven up talk about dollars and cents), and Higher Education (HELM), which featured their now-anticipated skit. (Even though I'd never been to an assembly, I'd heard about the HELM presentations.)

Three resolutions were considered by the Assembly today. A resolution sponsored by the Disciples Peace Fellowship about the importance of pacifism based on our desire for Christian unity was referred to the Council on Christian Unity for further discussion. A change in regional borders -- moving one congregation from one region to another based on proximity to other Disciples congregations -- was approved. A motion to consider changing the times of future assemblies to an alternating summer/fall schedule was defeated.

In the afternoon, there were several guided discussions about our churches and our future together, adapting a model developed by a group called World Cafe. These discussions, called the Wholeness Cafe, were interesting, if a little too long for most people (including me). I found the process exciting for a couple of reasons.

First, I met a young women of college age who spoke about why she really liked being a Disciple. She talked about how she appreciated that she was responsible for her faith in our church. No one was going to give her a list of rules or heavy-handed expectations. Instead, she had to develop a moral compass based on her faith. She spoke of how she felt empowered to ask tough questions, and nurtured by her congregation to look for answers. Often as a pastor, I hear about how no one wants a faith like she described -- they just want people to give them answers. It was exciting to see someone passionately talking about a much more vibrant faith.

Second, towards the end, our groups were supposed to come up with a BOLD (their capitalization) idea for the church based on our discussions. Our group came up with a proposal that, I realized after a few minutes, we are already on our way to beginning at Central Christian -- to find ways to invite people outside our church to non-Sunday morning activities. Given that it was not at all my proposal to the group (by that time, I was too tired to do much heavy thinking), it feels like we might be on a good path.

Our evening worship was about sin -- not a terribly uplifting topic, but a necessary one given the theme of the Assembly: "For the healing of the nations." The worship was mostly comforting, though I suppose challenging to those who, unlike myself, are not of a Calvinist bent. Certainly the sermon was a solid exploration of the issue, if a little long for many people's tastes. (Personally, I was okay with it, but I heard lots of discussion about it.)

I continue to run into friends and acquaintances here. Discipledom is a very small world sometimes. I am amazed how many people I have met is such a short time (as a pretty new Disciple myself) over the years. It is invigorating to connect with them face to face again.

I also had a brief conversation with Larry Grimes, the new Director of Church Relations at Bethany College (after many years as a professor there). We spoke about my plans to organize a trip to Bethany in the fall (as you may have noticed in the August newsletter) and I learned that there are several special events, including a talk by Dr. Grimes, on the Saturday I announced, corresponding to the 200th anniversary of Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address. So we can join in the celebration with our trip.