Two years ago we held Sunday night discussions around three texts. Two essays entitled “The Death…” and “The Resurrection of Middle Judicatories.” The third was a book titled “ Recreating the Church.” All three were written by our former General Minister and President of the Disciples of Christ, Richard Hamm.
I and maybe some of us entered the study with an imbedded respect for Dr. Hamm’s work. While he was president of our denomination, he authored a book titled “2020 Vision” that helped inform a movement in the Disciples of Christ that became an intimate part of our own creation as a congregation. The book issued a simple challenge. Start 1000 new churches by the year 2020; in a 1000 different ways.
The same year Dr. Hamm’s book was published, Wylie Christian Church became an official congregation in formation. Already our general ministries based in Indianapolis were resourcing and coaching planters and new congregations. New Church Ministries was staffed with passionate and committed people and they came to Abilene, more than once. We received training and partnered with the staff of NCM and travelled from Charlotte, NC to Las Vegas, NM, in Indianapolis and Bethany, WV. The Sunday that Judy Turner from NCM attended church with us was nothing short of special. Ordained.
There was a second challenge in “2020 Vision.” It was to revitalize 1000 old congregations in the same 20 year period. For all the challenges in planting new congregations, the more daunting task has clearly been in the second half of the challenge. New training and resourcing was needed and our General Ministries responded again through programs like Hope Partnership designed to help older congregations find new life in mission and new partners for the journey.
New and old congregations have since been searching for new models for success. New ways of thinking or too often old ways of thinking not so cleverly disguised as new ways of thinking. In our own region we have experienced change mostly brought on by attrition; fewer church members, fewer churches, fewer dollars. We have experienced the loss of our area office; the death of a hub. While we still have a connection to the Regional Church in Ft. Worth, it still feels more distant than the Area structure we once could support. Our nearest neighbor in ministry and especially church camp programming became further apart. Our problem with geography multiplied and brought new challenges and also new opportunities.
So, all this time later we found ourselves discussing what some call the death of hub (Pastor’s Notes continued)
and spoke models; what Dr. Hamm calls “The Death of Middle Judicatory.” There is plenty of hope in this study. Remember the second essay, “The Resurrection of Middle Judicatory,” and much is found in the second half of the title of Dr. Hamm’s book, “Recreating the Church: Leadership for the Post Modern Age.”
Over the next couple of months I want to recollect some of the thoughts that surfaced from our discussions and share some of what we learned with you here in this column……to be continued.
I and maybe some of us entered the study with an imbedded respect for Dr. Hamm’s work. While he was president of our denomination, he authored a book titled “2020 Vision” that helped inform a movement in the Disciples of Christ that became an intimate part of our own creation as a congregation. The book issued a simple challenge. Start 1000 new churches by the year 2020; in a 1000 different ways.
The same year Dr. Hamm’s book was published, Wylie Christian Church became an official congregation in formation. Already our general ministries based in Indianapolis were resourcing and coaching planters and new congregations. New Church Ministries was staffed with passionate and committed people and they came to Abilene, more than once. We received training and partnered with the staff of NCM and travelled from Charlotte, NC to Las Vegas, NM, in Indianapolis and Bethany, WV. The Sunday that Judy Turner from NCM attended church with us was nothing short of special. Ordained.
There was a second challenge in “2020 Vision.” It was to revitalize 1000 old congregations in the same 20 year period. For all the challenges in planting new congregations, the more daunting task has clearly been in the second half of the challenge. New training and resourcing was needed and our General Ministries responded again through programs like Hope Partnership designed to help older congregations find new life in mission and new partners for the journey.
New and old congregations have since been searching for new models for success. New ways of thinking or too often old ways of thinking not so cleverly disguised as new ways of thinking. In our own region we have experienced change mostly brought on by attrition; fewer church members, fewer churches, fewer dollars. We have experienced the loss of our area office; the death of a hub. While we still have a connection to the Regional Church in Ft. Worth, it still feels more distant than the Area structure we once could support. Our nearest neighbor in ministry and especially church camp programming became further apart. Our problem with geography multiplied and brought new challenges and also new opportunities.
So, all this time later we found ourselves discussing what some call the death of hub (Pastor’s Notes continued)
and spoke models; what Dr. Hamm calls “The Death of Middle Judicatory.” There is plenty of hope in this study. Remember the second essay, “The Resurrection of Middle Judicatory,” and much is found in the second half of the title of Dr. Hamm’s book, “Recreating the Church: Leadership for the Post Modern Age.”
Over the next couple of months I want to recollect some of the thoughts that surfaced from our discussions and share some of what we learned with you here in this column……to be continued.