By Rev. Travis Smith McKee
Associate Regional Minister for Transformational Ministry
So .… What’s new these days? Anything interesting happened lately? When we’re talking about Church, something interesting has happened lately …. at least, in these last four years, we’ve had a lot of things change. So, what’s new?
Have you started seeing new opportunities in your Church? Have you found new partnerships, new connections within your community? Have some people stepped up to serve who you didn’t rely on before? Have you been asking different questions these days, noticing new challenges, dreaming new dreams?
Back in October, I had the privilege of attending our General New Church training, and Rev. Dr. Jose Martinez made a pretty important statement: every Church is new Church these days. There are so many things that used to work for us, but don’t anymore. So, we are all looking for what those next steps are. Or, even if those tried-and-true methods are still important, the context we live in has changed.
My role as Associate Regional Minister for Transformational Ministries is to help congregations in those questions. The language we use from the Kansas Leadership Center is adaptive challenges. We may not have exact answers or technical challenges, we are adapting to new realities and working together to intentionally uncover shared possibilities. Is your congregation looking to do this kind of work? I’d love to do that work with you.
I have grown up in the Disciples Church from the time I was born, and two things that I think highlight our strengths are:
- We live out the body of Christ when we are cooperative more than competitive.
- Regional staff is called to be supportive and help our congregations succeed.
In my half a year on regional staff, I’m finding ways to connect congregations with each other, with resources that they need, and finding ways that we can work together. I look forward to getting to know our congregations, more, building those deeper relationships, and seeing the new things that God has in store for the Christian Church in Kansas.
So, Church, let’s be new …. let’s try things we haven’t done before, let’s rebuild relationships, and let’s find ways to take on these adaptive challenges …. together.