Greetings to all in the Love of Jesus Christ:
Most of you are probably familiar with the old Disciples slogan: “Christian Unity is our Polar Star.” From the beginnings of our movement, Disciples have stressed the importance of unity, of staying together, of valuing and affirming each other. And yet …
Too often we settle for a superficial unity. We take photos of Disciples with various skin colors, publish them, and proclaim that we are practicing unity. But that is “photo-op unity.” Many of you are familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s contrast between “costly grace” and “cheap grace.” We might also say there is such a thing as “cheap unity” — superficial unity, photo-op unity. As your Regional Mission Focus Team discussed this topic, we came up with the term “Prophetic Unity” to express our goal to go beyond the cheap unity of photo-ops to unity based on mutual respect, shared power, and shared resources. And so we are delighted to announce that registration is now open for our 2022 Regional Assembly: “Unidad Proftica/Prophetic Unity.”
Regional Assembly is for everyone. We will have a wonderful nursery for children who haven’t yet attended kindergarten, an outstanding program for elementary children and youth, worship and panel discussions and workshops and lovely new purple T-shirts! We’ll praise God in Spanish and English with a variety of music and three deeply faithful and truly inspiring guest speakers. But most of all, we will be exploring the theme of Prophetic Unity.
I invite you to join us, to come with open spirits, to come willing to step a little bit out of your comfort zone and with a desire to grow. Many of us will see old friends. All of us will have the opportunity to begin new friendships. And together we can take a step forward to practicing a unity that is based in truly mutual respect, shared power, and shared resources.
Registration for Regional Assembly is now open!!!
Dios les bendiga!
Pastor Jay
Regional Minister and President, Christian Church in Arizona
We invite you to pray for the following congregations in the coming months. Visit our Regional Calendar of Weekly Prayers for our annual list.
September
11 Desert Dove Christian Church (Tucson) led by Interim Minister Vernon Mayer
18 Saguaro Christian Church & Sol Food Initiatives (Tucson) led by Pastor Kelley Dick
25 Anti-Racism and Reconciliation efforts (Reconciliation Special Offering)
October
2 Anti-Racism and Reconciliation efforts (Reconciliation Special Offering)
9 Prophetic Unity & Regional Assembly
16 Prophetic Unity & Regional Assembly
23 Prophetic Unity & Regional Assembly
30 Arizona Saints and Congregations that have come before us