General Assembly 2005 - Part 1
My family and I are in Portland, Oregon for the General Assembly (GA) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It's my second GA, but the first for the rest of my family. We came a few days early for a much-needed vacation. Besides just spending time together without any particular schedule to keep, we have enjoyed seeing Multnomah Falls, the Oregon coast, and the Oregon Zoo. We also helped the local economy by visiting Powell's Books. I simply can't describe it. And there is a reason -- I never made it out of the first room. But I still managed to spend over $150. That'll be a recurring theme.
As I write, the GA is in full swing. As a brand new elder in my congregation, I spent Saturday at the Elders' pre-assembly conference. I took a lot of notes, but the most valuable part of the day was that I feel I passed the sanity check with flying colors. I believe that my congregation has a good understanding of the role of elders as spiritual leaders, and that we are moving in the right direction in terms of making that leadership more visible to the congregation.
Charisse Gillett's message for Saturday night's opening worship service made my wife, Margaret, and me realize that we had become in unintentionally disconnected from the denomination, in that we did not share the sense of crisis that many apparently do. We decided that this is because it has been a very eventful couple of years for our congregation, and that has consumed our attention. Having had a couple of days now to reflect on Charisse's message, I now see that for us it began a process of reconnection to the denomination, and I pray that we will be able to share that with our congregation.
Sunday was a very full day. We began by worshipping at First Christian Church, one of the local congregations that so graciously invited the masses attending GA into their church home. Everything about the church was wonderful. I especially appreciated the warm welcome we recieved, the beauty of the sanctuary, the insight and eloquence of the offering message, and the fact that they handed out the sheet music for the praise songs. At my insistence, we got to the church a little after 7:30 so that we would be sure to get seats. We got the best seats in the sanctuary and got to hear the choir running through their final rehearsal.
We chose First Christian because we wanted to hear Verity Jones' sermon. She spoke on having the courage to follow God because we love God, not because we expect God to protect us. One of her sentences haunts me, because it so succinctly captures one of my greatest fears. I can't remember her exact words, but the essence is that there may come a time when we can't distinguish between patriotism and Christianity.
We got to sit with William Wagnon (Verity's husband) during the first service, while our almost 5 year-old son JT and their identically-aged daughter Gracie were reunited after having not seen each other in a year or so. We got to sit with Verity during the second service, at which Alvin Jackson preached. Both his message and his delivery were excellent, as one would expect. I will confess that his passionate style is different enough from what I am accustomed to that I was occasionally distracted from his message. Along those lines, I was amused when JT pointed at his picture and whispered to me, "that's the man that yelled."
Sunday continued with an open forum to meet Sharon Watkins, the nominee for General Minister and President. I have heard only good things about her, and I thought she answered all of the questions well -- some of them superbly. She mentioned that she will be looking for ways to take advantage of technology to facilitate better communication within the denomination. I hope to have a chance to help with that.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to a panel discussion of the events surrounding the bankruptcy and restructuring of the National Benevolent Association. I will make no attempt to summarize the discussion here, but I'll say that I thought the panel was very effective.
We took Gracie to dinner with us, so that Verity and William could go to a dinner event. She and JT were absolutely adorable together. Then I spent about $150 at the Cokesbury press booth. Margaret was giving me a hard time about how I was going to get all the books home, so one of the things I bought was a zippered shoulder bag.
Sunday night's worship was essentially a well-deserved tribute to our outgoing General Minister and President, Chris Hobgood. He came out of retirement to take the position which Dick Hamm stepped down two years early. He took the position even though he knew that it was going to be a rough couple of years for the denomination. To say that he is passionate about social justice would be a criminal understatement. I wish him shalom.
Margaret and JT were exhausted that night (JT fell asleep in his clothes in less time than it took me to undress myself). We didn't set the alarm clock, and as a result missed most of the morning sessions. We arrived in the middle of the discussion of the NBA report, but didn't really learn anything that we hadn't learned at the panel discussion.
We went to Chipotle for lunch (Margaret has to get her fix whenever we're out of Terre Haute), and then split up for the afternoon. JT went to child care, excited to play with his "girl friend." Margaret tried to go to Michael Kinnamon's workshop, but couldn't get into the overflowing room. I went to a workshop on campus ministry, which has me inspired to develop a Residential Student Center in Terre Haute.
As I was leaving the workshop hotel, two local girls who were stopped at a traffic light whistled at me, said "Boy, we like you!", told me I had nice legs, and asked me to walk in front of them. Now, either they have a fetish for overweight, pale, balding men, or they were giving me a hard time. Either way, I'm buying a bicycle when I get home.
I couldn't get into the second workshop I wanted to go to (I was late and it was apparently moved, but there was no indication where), so I spent another $100 at the Cokesbury press booth. Then I talked to Verity about writing book reviews for Disciple's World and met up with Margaret to go to the Higher Education and Leadership Ministry dinner. That gave us a chance to talk to the guys who ran the campus ministry workshop, as well as a chance to learn some Disciples of Christ trivia. Apparently, Alexander Campbell was NOT born in Scotland, but in Ireland. What's up with that?
Monday night's sermon was given by Lisa Davison, an Old Testament professor at Lexington Theological Seminary. I very much appreciated her call to embrace the unique character of the Disciples of Christ. I wish that she had said more about how we can make our voice heard over that of the less progressive voices that currently dominate.
Sorry for the (really) long post. I wanted to get "caught up" so that I can blog in closer-to-real-time for the rest of the GA.
As I write, the GA is in full swing. As a brand new elder in my congregation, I spent Saturday at the Elders' pre-assembly conference. I took a lot of notes, but the most valuable part of the day was that I feel I passed the sanity check with flying colors. I believe that my congregation has a good understanding of the role of elders as spiritual leaders, and that we are moving in the right direction in terms of making that leadership more visible to the congregation.
Charisse Gillett's message for Saturday night's opening worship service made my wife, Margaret, and me realize that we had become in unintentionally disconnected from the denomination, in that we did not share the sense of crisis that many apparently do. We decided that this is because it has been a very eventful couple of years for our congregation, and that has consumed our attention. Having had a couple of days now to reflect on Charisse's message, I now see that for us it began a process of reconnection to the denomination, and I pray that we will be able to share that with our congregation.
Sunday was a very full day. We began by worshipping at First Christian Church, one of the local congregations that so graciously invited the masses attending GA into their church home. Everything about the church was wonderful. I especially appreciated the warm welcome we recieved, the beauty of the sanctuary, the insight and eloquence of the offering message, and the fact that they handed out the sheet music for the praise songs. At my insistence, we got to the church a little after 7:30 so that we would be sure to get seats. We got the best seats in the sanctuary and got to hear the choir running through their final rehearsal.
We chose First Christian because we wanted to hear Verity Jones' sermon. She spoke on having the courage to follow God because we love God, not because we expect God to protect us. One of her sentences haunts me, because it so succinctly captures one of my greatest fears. I can't remember her exact words, but the essence is that there may come a time when we can't distinguish between patriotism and Christianity.
We got to sit with William Wagnon (Verity's husband) during the first service, while our almost 5 year-old son JT and their identically-aged daughter Gracie were reunited after having not seen each other in a year or so. We got to sit with Verity during the second service, at which Alvin Jackson preached. Both his message and his delivery were excellent, as one would expect. I will confess that his passionate style is different enough from what I am accustomed to that I was occasionally distracted from his message. Along those lines, I was amused when JT pointed at his picture and whispered to me, "that's the man that yelled."
Sunday continued with an open forum to meet Sharon Watkins, the nominee for General Minister and President. I have heard only good things about her, and I thought she answered all of the questions well -- some of them superbly. She mentioned that she will be looking for ways to take advantage of technology to facilitate better communication within the denomination. I hope to have a chance to help with that.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to a panel discussion of the events surrounding the bankruptcy and restructuring of the National Benevolent Association. I will make no attempt to summarize the discussion here, but I'll say that I thought the panel was very effective.
We took Gracie to dinner with us, so that Verity and William could go to a dinner event. She and JT were absolutely adorable together. Then I spent about $150 at the Cokesbury press booth. Margaret was giving me a hard time about how I was going to get all the books home, so one of the things I bought was a zippered shoulder bag.
Sunday night's worship was essentially a well-deserved tribute to our outgoing General Minister and President, Chris Hobgood. He came out of retirement to take the position which Dick Hamm stepped down two years early. He took the position even though he knew that it was going to be a rough couple of years for the denomination. To say that he is passionate about social justice would be a criminal understatement. I wish him shalom.
Margaret and JT were exhausted that night (JT fell asleep in his clothes in less time than it took me to undress myself). We didn't set the alarm clock, and as a result missed most of the morning sessions. We arrived in the middle of the discussion of the NBA report, but didn't really learn anything that we hadn't learned at the panel discussion.
We went to Chipotle for lunch (Margaret has to get her fix whenever we're out of Terre Haute), and then split up for the afternoon. JT went to child care, excited to play with his "girl friend." Margaret tried to go to Michael Kinnamon's workshop, but couldn't get into the overflowing room. I went to a workshop on campus ministry, which has me inspired to develop a Residential Student Center in Terre Haute.
As I was leaving the workshop hotel, two local girls who were stopped at a traffic light whistled at me, said "Boy, we like you!", told me I had nice legs, and asked me to walk in front of them. Now, either they have a fetish for overweight, pale, balding men, or they were giving me a hard time. Either way, I'm buying a bicycle when I get home.
I couldn't get into the second workshop I wanted to go to (I was late and it was apparently moved, but there was no indication where), so I spent another $100 at the Cokesbury press booth. Then I talked to Verity about writing book reviews for Disciple's World and met up with Margaret to go to the Higher Education and Leadership Ministry dinner. That gave us a chance to talk to the guys who ran the campus ministry workshop, as well as a chance to learn some Disciples of Christ trivia. Apparently, Alexander Campbell was NOT born in Scotland, but in Ireland. What's up with that?
Monday night's sermon was given by Lisa Davison, an Old Testament professor at Lexington Theological Seminary. I very much appreciated her call to embrace the unique character of the Disciples of Christ. I wish that she had said more about how we can make our voice heard over that of the less progressive voices that currently dominate.
Sorry for the (really) long post. I wanted to get "caught up" so that I can blog in closer-to-real-time for the rest of the GA.
posted by ManOfManyInterests at 7:43 AM
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