At our Called Regional Assembly, June 28, 2025, I was invited by the Search Committee and Board to offer a word before the business meeting. Below is the text of my words.
Hello, Oklahoma Disciples. It’s good to see you again.
Have you heard the saying, “That wasn’t on my bingo card.” Well, becoming the Regional Minister was not on mine. I’ve been the youth guy, the camp guy, and a consigliere. Through the encouragement of colleagues, friends, and people I’ve met along my journey in faith, blended with prayer and silence, I’ve listened and discerned a call to serve.
As an Associate Regional Minister in two different regions, I’ve learned that no matter which bingo card you’re playing or how many, the free space says, “Disciples, you are a blessing.” When I think back over the years, a few words bubble up that describe what I’ve witnessed and what I’ve experienced about us:
Believe. Inspire. Generous. Nuance. Open-Minded.
From May to December in 1831, Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of our little movement, wrote in The Millennial Harbenger on the theme of cooperation among congregations. His words, “A church can do what an individual disciple cannot, and so can a district of churches do what a single congregation cannot.”(1)
The world is different from what it was then, but I want to believe Campbell’s words are true today. We are stronger together. We need one another for this unique call to connect, equip, and empower Disciples to love and serve like Jesus in our fragmented world.
Randy Kuss, thank you for serving as our Interim Regional Minister.
Susan and members of the search committee, thank you for your work and service.
Madam Moderator, Executive Committee, and Regional Board, thank you for your work and service.
Siblings in faith, thank you for gathering today, both here and in the digital sanctuary via Zoom and YouTube. Thank you for being a voice of gospel from your corner of Oklahoma into the world. Look at the person sitting next to you. Turn and look at the people in front and behind you. If you are on Zoom today, look at the people in the squares on the screen next to yours. If you are participating via YouTube, look closely and pick out someone you recognize. I am grateful and we are grateful for how you live out the covenant of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Oklahoma—through your participation, including your time, talents, and financial support. Your voice is part of a chorus that echoes the mystery of gospel in our time through this ministry covenant we claim and we share.
Jesus of Nazareth met people where they were:
the poor and the rich,
the powerful and the powerless,
the healthy and sick,
the in-group, the outcast, the uncertain, or unaffiliated.
Jesus summarized his understanding of his faith and offered it as a teaching that his followers embraced as commandments.
“Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” And, “love your neighbor as yourself.”(2)
That’s a mysterious gospel to which all followers of Jesus are ambassadors, inspiring neighbors through our service, and inviting them to a life of discipleship and faith in Jesus as Christ. That’s one of the implicit messages at church camp because your age doesn’t matter.
Disciples remember that God’s grace and peace are not abstract concepts. God’s grace, peace, and God’s very image are present in this world through your faith and your actions. Your individual choices and collective efforts as a congregation have the power to transform the world around you, even if it is just for a moment, and I still believe a moment might be, can be enough.
It’s the way you tend to your neighbors.
It’s the way you tend to one another.
It’s the way you tend to your pastor.
Sometimes, you can sense it.
Sometimes, you can see it.
Usually, you don’t know how kindness, grace, or a supportive word or action can alter the trajectory of a person’s day, week, or their life. And, it may take some time to realize how that moment affected you.
If called as Oklahoma’s Regional minister, I’ll continue to walk alongside you and your congregation. I’ll do my best to connect you with Disciples who are doing what I call radically ordinary things: like feeding people—through volunteering or partnering with a food bank, providing a weekly or monthly meal in their building, distributing backpacks of food or school supplies for kids, or stocking non-perishable items in a blessing box on their property.
Last year, one of our congregations used part of a gift from an estate to buy medical debt in their county and forgive it.(3)
Radically ordinary things.
Like speaking up and acting on behalf of the outcast, the vulnerable, and the marginalized. Like mission trips—to lend a hand, to learn, or simply to be present. Like welcoming as you’ve been welcomed at the table.
Radically ordinary things. It’s that old old saying attributed to several people, “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”
There was a time when we wouldn’t have considered any of that radical. We would have just called it being the church. Similar to a church camp experience, being the church involves a blend of play (fellowship), prayer, study, worship, and service. It’s the invitation to a journey in faith. It happens in covenant within your congregation, the Region, and the General Church.
Community and consistency aren’t easy. You have to want it and work for it. That’s why I think that, regardless of how people articulate their faith in Jesus as Christ and their faith in God, the standard is that followers of Jesus do Jesus-like things. That’s happening in our congregations all around Oklahoma. We trust in God that it is happening in and through our denomination.
Followers of Jesus do Jesus-like things. That’s our reminder, our mirror, and our evaluation tool for times like these to manage the essentials of unity, the liberty of non-essentials, and the charity; perhaps ‘grace’ or ‘graciousness’ are better words for what we extend to our neighbors and one another. That consistency isn’t easy. The one we claim as Christ never promised it would be. We won’t always get it right, but Jesus never said we would. He asked us to love one another and set for us an example. On this side of eternity, the rest is up to us with the help of God.
Rev. Dr Peter Gomes said it like this at our 2003 General Assembly in Charlotte:
Maybe what it means to be a disciple of Christ is to be reasonable in an unreasonable world.
To be faithful in a faithless world.
To be loving in a hateful world.
To be peace-like in a war-filled world.
Maybe that’s what Paul means when he says this is our reasonable service. To be living sacrifices in a world where nobody is prepared to give up anything for anybody.(4)
We can worry ourselves about being the best-kept secret in town, in the State, in Christendom, or how to hang on. Or we can decide what kind of ancestors(5) we want to be right now and go be them.(6) There is ministry to do and gospel to be that only we can do and only we can be in our communities, in our Region, and through the denomination. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it. My guess is you have too.
I’m humbled and energized by the opportunity to serve as Regional Minister. I’m curious about what the future holds for our little movement. To borrow from the late Pope Francis, “I’ll pray for you. I ask you to pray for me.”
Disciples, you are a blessing.
Notes
1. Lester G. McAllister and William E. Tucker, Journey in Faith (St. Louis: CBP, 1989), 169. Quote taken from The Millennial Harbenger, 1831, p. 237.
2. Matthew 22:37-39
3. First Christian Church in Claremore worked with Undue Medical Debt (https://unduemedicaldebt.org) to purchase medical debt in Rogers Co. and forgave it for pennies on the dollar.)
4. Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes, speaking to the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Charlotte, NC., October 17-21, 2003.Listen to Dr. Gomes’ complete keynote here.
5. “What kind of ancestors?” During the 2023 Northeast Area Clergy Retreat, Rev. Cameron Trimble asked the gathering to imagine the world in fifty years. She asked, “Where does the church fit in that world? What will the church (Christianity) be like in fifty years?” After some discussion, she asked, “What kind of ancestors do we need to be now for that church (Christianity) to exist?
6. A phrase adapted from The Avett Brothers’ song, “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.” It appears on their album I and Love and You (2009). The original lyric, “Decide what to be and go be it.”