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.
