WE WILL STILL BE CHURCH
Arizona Disciples,
May God’s peace and love surround you and your families during these days of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. As we have been asked to no longer gather in person, I was inspired by the words of Saguaro Christian Church pastor Rev. Owen Chandler in the face of all the changes: “WE WILL STILL BE CHURCH!” Towards that end, this webpage will outline some of the ways that we will still be church. We will continue to update this page as new information becomes available, so if your congregation has a link to share please email it with a description to Matthew Clark at mclark@azdisciples.org.
Return to In-Person Gatherings Resource Links
As we see some state and local agencies begin planning phases of re-opening we pass along some potentially helpful resources for your congregations plan. Please first read or watch Rev. Hartley’s April 30 message, available in both English and Spanish on this page. For the safety of our churches and communities we are still recommending at this time that our congregations continue to not worship or gather together in person.
Resources with phased plans:
Healthy at church from the Christian Church in Kentucky
Gathering for Abundant Life from the Episodical Diocese of Arizona
Informational Resources
The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them by Erin Bromage, PhD., Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
General Minister and President on re-opening congregations
Latest Messages from our Regional Minister and President
2020 Regional Assembly – November 7
Above all, let’s treat each other with grace
Greetings to all in the Love of Jesus Christ: “What’s the hardest thing about being a minister?” someone once asked me. My response: “Standing in the pulpit, looking out at the congregation, and seeing all kinds of different needs.” One Sunday I looked out and saw a...
Regional Support
- Every Tuesday beginning March 24, Pastor Jay Hartley will host a Zoom call for all pastors (link will be emailed directly to ministers).
- Pastor Jay is also available to talk with church leaders about any concerns or support needed. Please email him at jhartley@azdisciples.org.
- Regional “Technology Grants” are offered to any congregation that needs help getting set up to live stream or communicate with their congregation. Please email Jay Hartley or Matthew Clark with your proposal of what you need and how you will use it.
- We are also happy to help teach people new to Zoom and Facebook how to use them.
- The Region has advice for how you give on-line to your local congregation. Please see the section below.
- The Region has also purchased for every congregation a new resource from the Center for Faith and Giving that encourages year-round stewardship education. Access to this resource will be sent to every congregational pastor and office this week.
- Below are linked all the Facebook pages for each Arizona Disciples church. Once you click a link you can click the “Like” button and their posts will start showing up in your feed. Also, please follow the Arizona Region and our General Church on Facebook.
Regional Events
The Disciples Women Spring “Pray and Play” event scheduled for March 28 has been cancelled. All registrants have been sent a letter to that effect.
All other Regional Events are still on as of now. We continue to plan for excellent events. We will monitor the news and health recommendations and will make adjustments as needed. We invite you to go ahead and register, and should we have to cancel the events we will of course communicate directly with registrants and also inform church leadership. For events that the Region is collecting registrations directly (marked with an * below) we will provide information regarding receiving a full refund. For events where registration is being handled by another Disciples ministry we expect the process will be similar.
- WWOW – Wild Women of the West (POSTPONED)
- Summer Church Camp (CANCELED – Read More)
- Unite (for youth and young adults) (POSTPONED)
- DWM retreat in September 11-13*
- Regional Assembly in November 6-7*
Online Giving
Many of our congregations already have setup online giving to help continue serving their communities. For those that haven’t an easy option to setup quickly (approx. 30 minutes) is Givelify (https://www.givelify.com) or Tithely (https://get.tithe.ly).
Rev. Jenny Wynn of First Christian Church, Scottsdale (pastor@fccscottsdale.org) has recently setup Givelify and Rev. Abigail Conley of Chalice Christian Church (rev.abigail.conley@gmail.com) has recently set up Tithely. Both would be happy to chat about how easy the process was or answer any questions. Also feel free to reach out to the Regional Office for assistance.
Also visit the Center for Faith and Giving for a helpful article about Electronic Giving and other stewardship resources.
General Church Resources
Our General Church has put together a page with several great resources for congregations and their leadership. This information includes resources for worship services, health information and response to the COVID-19 outbreak, tutorials for live streaming worship services, and more. Visit the page at https://disciples.org/dns/disciples-and-covid-19/. Check back frequently as the page will continue to be updated.
Online Worship Services
These links will direct you either directly to the church’s video based worship (sometimes Facebook) or to their response page that has the most up to date information on how they are being community in this time. Please contact Matthew Clark (mclark@azdisciples.org) at the Regional Office to add or change your link.
You also can visit our Congregations page for websites and Facebook page links for all our churches.
- Alfa y Omega
- Capilla del Sol Christian Church
- Chalice Christian Church
- Community Christian Church – Marana
- Community Christian Church – Tempe
- Coolwater Christian Church
- Cristo Pan de la Familia
- Desert Dove Christian Church
- Desert Heritage Church (UCC/DOC)
- East Mesa Christian Church
- First Christian Church – Globe
- First Christian Church – Mesa
- First Christian Church – Prescott
- First Christian Church – Scottsdale
- First Christian Church – Tucson
- Foothills Christian Church
- Iglesia Alas de Salvacion
- Iglesia Casa de Adoraction
- Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer
- Iglesia El Buen Samaritano
- Iglesia Dios de Segunda Oportunidad
- Larkspur Christian Church
- Saguaro Christian Church
- Sun City Christian Church
- Templo Cristiano Central
Quick instructions for having your Facebook Live stream on your website
- Click in a post box on the page, and click Live.
- Click on Schedule a Live Video (on the left of the screen) and select the date and time.
- Give the video a title and description.
- Select an image (we can create a thumbnail for it, like our logo with “Worship with us LIVE this Sunday at 10”)
- Expand the Stream tab in the center of the page, and copy the embed code.
- Click on Schedule Live Video after adjusting any other settings you want.
- Go to the your web page (you might use services such as squarespace, cloversites, WordPress, etc) and add a code element, paste the code. Apply/save/update.