CCOK301, Author at Christian Church in Oklahoma

Rev. Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman Named President of Phillips Theological Seminary

Following a seven-month long search that yielded an impressive and diverse pool of applicants, the Board of Trustees of Phillips Theological Seminary has named the Rev. Dr. Nancy Pittman as the school’s next president. Pittman has served as interim president of the Seminary since July 1, 2018 and will immediately assume the presidency.

“Dr. Pittman is the clear choice because of her strong leadership skills and vision for the future of theological education,” said Claire Meredith, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees and the presidential search committee.

Read the full article published on the Phillips Theological Seminary website HERE

(photo provided by Phillips Theological Seminary)

CCOK3012019-01-08T11:28:57-06:00Jan 8, 2019|Regional News|Comments Off

Join Oklahoma Conference of Churches for “Day at the Legislature”

Registration is now open for the 2019 Day at the Legislature. Register HERE

Join Oklahoma Conference of Churches on Monday, February 25, 2019 at the Oklahoma State Capitol (2300 N Lincoln Blvd, Oklahoma City OK 73105) from 9am – 4pm.

For more information view the flyer HERE

CCOK3012019-01-08T10:58:58-06:00Jan 8, 2019|Regional News|Comments Off

Jan. 22, 2019: Oklahoma Disciples Women Central Area Meeting

Kick off the New Year by getting more involved with the Oklahoma Disciples Women. Come see where the Lord may lead your new year! The theme is Healthy Bodies as We Age.

Please plan to join the Central Area Disciples Women of Oklahoma at New Covenant Christian Church (12000 N. Rockwell, Oklahoma City) on January 22, 2019 for the next meeting. You do not have to be in the Central Area to join. Come and be a part of an amazing group of women and be blessed with the friendship and fellowship of Disciples Women.

Agenda:

9:30 am Coffee and Fellowship
10:00 am Meeting and Program
Lunch at Noon (Lunch $8.00)

Please RSVP by January 15th by calling 405-722-7445

CCOK3012019-01-03T10:27:50-06:00Jan 3, 2019|Disciples Women|Comments Off

PRAR Season of Prayer on Racism

Faith in Action Commission Introduces Season of Prayer on Racism

By Ms. Marilynn Knott (Retired Commissioned Minister)
Chair, Commission on Faith in Action
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC

My name is Marilynn Knott and I am currently the Chair of the Faith in Action Commission of the Christian Church in Oklahoma. Just over two years ago the Faith in Action Commission began exploring more deeply the need to address racism and other forms of discrimination from a faith perspective. We held a one-day workshop led by Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism team members from another Region and then began formation of an Oklahoma PRAR team. Interested people, including members of the Faith in Action Commission, participated in a more in-depth training the next summer.

One-Day Workshops for Clergy and Laity

Eventually we determined that we needed the whole Christian Church in Oklahoma to share in the formation of PRAR team and thus decided to provide ten one-day workshops, two in each area for clergy and laity both, to invite all to become a part of the process. The first five of these workshops are scheduled and will be held starting in March and continue throughout the spring. The second five will be held in the fall. Dates and places for the first five are on the Regional calendar along with dates for the fall workshops with places still to be determined. Reminders will be sent as we get closer to the dates and begin registering participants.

This initiative began following the flare up in Ferguson Missouri followed by the Terrance Crutcher incident in Tulsa, which raised the awareness of the need for people of faith to address discrimination and we still hear of similar tragedies today. There are no easy answers but there are answers as God calls us to love one another and puts no limitations on whether the other is black or white, male or female, immigrant or citizen.

Join us for a Season of Prayer on Racism

Starting today we are calling you to join us in prayer for discernment of God’s vision for our world of diverse people. Each Monday we will post some thoughts to encourage your prayers. We hope you will join us as we prepare to answer the call truly to love one another as Jesus loves us.

CCOK3012019-01-28T16:22:45-06:00Jan 2, 2019|PRAR|Comments Off

Leadership Training School 2019: Registration Opens January 14th

“Abide in Me,” Okahoma’s 2019 Leadership Training School, is coming soon on February 23, 2019! This event will offer education, worship, fellowship, and renewal for those in ministry in Oklahoma congregations. LTS will be held at First Christian Church in Edmond, 9 a.m.-4:15 p.m.

Our preacher for the day is Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). There will be three opportunities for workshops, with participants choosing one workshops around topics of justice, Disciples roots, and inclusivity.

Presenters included are from local, regional, and general church ministry organizations, providing a full and vibrant day of learning options. The cost for the event is $35 per person.

Childcare will be provided free for those in 5th grade and below; please indicate your childcare needs when you preregister. Youth in grades 6-12 are encouraged to participate in the event. We hope you will join other Oklahoma Disciples at LTS 2019!

More details including registration will be coming soon!

CCOK3012019-01-08T11:55:05-06:00Dec 20, 2018|Regional News|2 Comments

2019 Caminante Mission Trips to the Dominican Republic

The Oklahoma Region is planning two mission trips to Caminante in the Dominican Republic in 2019:

March 16 – 23, 2019 (This trip is now full. Contact the Regional Office to be put on a waiting list)
July 21 – 30, 2019

These mission trips not only change the lives of the participants, but they also change the lives of the children we minister to through Caminante.

The first trip will take place around March 16-23, 2019. Those traveling will spend 7 or 8 days visiting the different ministries of Caminante. This trip is educational in nature. You will have the opportunity to observe the different programs at the vocational school and visit Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. You will work with local children in the homework rooms and have the opportunity to help the local teenagers make coconut jewelry.

The second trip will take place around July 21-30, 2019. You would spend 8 or 9 days working with the Sister Denisse and the Caminante staff as they minister to children in their summer community fair. This fair is similar to our Vacation Bible Schools. You would help the children play games, make crafts, help with lessons and serve snacks and lunch. The fair reaches about 250 children each day. What a blessing!

You will assist in taking this fair to one or two villages where Haitian immigrants live and have the opportunity to observe the different programs at the vocational school. You will visit and experience Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic.

These trips are safe and secure. The lodging is in a nice, clean hotel. There are age appropriate activities for recent high school graduates as well as older adults.

The total cost per participant for these trips will be between out $1700 to $1850 per person. This includes airfare, lodging, all meals, trip and medical insurance and sight-seeing expenses.

Partial scholarships are available for all participants. If you feel led to join this ministry please call the Regional Office 405-528-3577 or Don Johnson 580-402-2612 for more information.

CCOK3012019-01-08T11:31:29-06:00Dec 18, 2018|Mission|Comments Off

Oklahoma City Community Foundation Awards Grants to Seven Disciples Congregations

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation is helping provide warm meals to homebound elderly citizens this winter by awarding $53,400 in grants to 51 churches and organizations participating in Mobile Meals of Oklahoma County, including seven Christian churches. In addition, $5,000 each was awarded to Edmond Mobile Meals and Meals on Wheels of Norman.

The Oklahoma City Community Foundation has supported central Oklahoma’s Mobile Meals programs since 2008, awarding more than $350,000 over the past decade. According to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, the need for continued nutrition assistance is vital as Oklahoma’s senior citizen population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. The organization’s most recent State Plan on Aging reported 19 percent of our state’s population is now over age 60.

“Today, one in five Americans is over the age of 60 with the population expected to nearly double by 2060,” said Cristi Twenter, executive director of Edmond Mobile Meals. “Roughly 17 percent of Oklahoma’s senior population struggles with hunger. Nine percent of those seniors in our state are living in poverty, and 26 percent of Oklahoma seniors live alone. Grant programs to assist Mobile Meals programs are crucial in helping to keep pace with the growing demand for services. We believe no senior in our community should have to make a choice between paying for food, medication and other necessities, which is why we never base service on a client’s ability to pay for meals.”

The Christian churches reported their volunteers provide nutritious meals, wellness checks and meaningful contact to more than 160 homebound senior citizens living in central Oklahoma who are unable to prepare their own meals.

“For nearly 50 years, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation has listened to both the needs of our community and to the wishes of our donors, leading us to focus on the health and wellness of senior citizens in the community,” said Nancy B. Anthony, Oklahoma City Community Foundation. “Our local Mobile Meals programs are crucial to seniors in this community, and we’re privileged to have the opportunity to support their work.”

Grants were awarded to the following Christian churches that provide meals through Mobile Meals of Oklahoma County:

Crown Heights Christian Church
First Christian Church
Hillcrest Christian Church
New Covenant Christian Church
Nicoma Park Christian Church
Putnam City Christian Church
Western Oaks Christian Church

About the Oklahoma City Community Foundation

Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works with donors to create charitable funds that will benefit our community both now and in the future. To learn more about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, visit www.occf.org.

CCOK3012019-01-14T11:41:06-06:00Dec 18, 2018|Regional News|Comments Off

Reception Honoring Rev. Leslie Dotson and Lori Richcreek’s Ministries

On December 6th, the Region and the Northeast Area celebrated the ministries of Lori Richcreek, Administrative Assistant, and Rev. Leslie Dotson, Associate Regional Minister.

Below are photos and some of the words that were shared that day.

Lori, In February of 2013, Rev. Leslie Dotson invited Lori to serve as the Northeast Area Administrative Assistant. On behalf of the Region, it has been an honor to have you, Lori, serving the Regional Church and the Northeast Area for almost six years. We have experienced your gifts of serving with joy and prayer, and we know you, in turn, have received many blessings in this ministry we do together. We have appreciated your leadership with the Northeast Area Council and the Newsletter and most especially the leadership you have given the women’s ministry. And, on behalf of the Regional staff, we thank you for your hospitality and your grace and your deep and abiding spirituality and all that you have offered to us. We thank you for engaging in God’s “body-building” work.

Leslie, you have served the Regional Church as an Associate Regional Minister for ten years. We are grateful for your years of service as a servant leader for pastors and for congregations all over the Region, but particularly with those in the Northeast and Southeast Areas. Who are grateful for your pastoral presence, your preaching, your teaching, your coaching, your guidance, your prayers, your compassion for all of God’s people, which naturally reflects your passion for social justice. Over the years, you have represented and advocated for diversity. You have provided leadership for the women, for pastors in the Commissioned Minister’s Training Program, Leadership Training School, Regional Assemblies. For Pro-Reconciliation Anti-Racism, for Healthy Boundaries. Most important is your deep and abiding care and prayer that you are so disciplined about and your quiet and unassuming writing each and every person you pray for to let them know how much God cares. We are grateful for the peace and grace of God that goes with you in every situation around the Region! We honor and celebrate your ministry and will surely miss all that you have shared as a minister to the Regional Church.

On behalf of the Regional staff, thank you for that divine peace and grace that lives within you, as well your love, your deep and abiding spirit that has been reflected in your leadership in Oklahoma.

Thank you to all of you here today to honor and celebrate Lori and Leslie’s ministries. We especially give thanks to our Regional Moderator, Tom Stanley, and the NEA Moderator, Kevin Howe, for making all the arrangements for this reception today, and thank you to Phillips for offering their hospitality of hosting this blessed occasion.

The blessing today is an adaptation from Maya Angelou’s poem, “Amazing Peace,” Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer, New York: Random House, Inc., 2006.

Our [prayer] for you

Is that you continue

To be who and how you are

To astonish a mean world

With your acts of kindness

To allow humor to lighten the burden

Of your tender hearts

In a society dark with cruelty

To let the people [see and] hear the grandeur

Of God in your [presence and prayers]

To let your eloquence

Elevate the people to heights