Thoughts From Your Regional Minister
Do you hear what I hear?
Do you sense what I sense?
Do you feel what I feel?
There is something new happening in our region. There is a stirring that has been building for several years.
It began when Paxton Jones retired. We suspended our regional by-laws to begin dreaming of new ways of being the regional church. This fresh wind of the Spirit was fed by the revisioning committee and the people who took leadership training through the Kansas Leadership Center in 2018-19.
As Renee Bridwell retired and more recently Steve Martin, we have re-conceived the work of our Regional Ministers and full-time staff. The result is our on-line presence, and our ability to support local congregation pastors and secretaries has improved.
We have hired part-time contract staff who have taken on the work of our Regional Treasurer (Barb Koelling), Regional Men’s Coordinator (Luis A. Mendez), Communications Director (Steve Hart), Coordinator for Disciples Youth Ministries (Travis Smith McKee) and turned our Camp Caretaker’s role over to Camp Manager (Sid Rutland).
In addition, we have Laurie Lewis, Ruby Brower, Kelly Gindlesberger, and me representing Kansas in a Tri-Regional Partnership Initiative with the Nebraska and Greater Kansas City Regions exploring how to better support and nurture our congregations. The region is exploring calling a Regional Minister of New Church Ministries and recently transitioned our bookkeeping work to Treasury Services out of Indianapolis.
These are a few of the new visions and dreams that are bursting forth among us. As we focus on one of the goals from our revisioning team – building our Regional Programming around the resource of the Disciples Center at Tawakoni:
- What dreams do we see God leading us towards?
- How can we expand camp use beyond a summer camping program and a few retreats?
- Could we partner with Foster Parenting programs to bring hope to children throughout Kansas?
- What about pre-marital counseling, and marriage enrichment retreats?
- What about partnering with schools and universities to address climate change and the environment?
- What hopes, dreams, or visions is God laying on your hearts?
I would love to talk with you about them.