CCOK301, Author at Christian Church in Oklahoma

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

They had only imagined

To remind the people that

Each is as good as the other

And that no one is beneath

Nor above you

To remember your own young years

And look with favor upon the lost

And the least and the lonely

To put the mantel of your protection

Around the bodies of

The young and defenseless

To take the hand of the despised

And diseased and walk proudly with them

In the high street

Some might see you and

Be encouraged to do likewise . . .

. . . To let gratitude be the pillow

Upon which you kneel to

Say your nightly prayer

And let faith be the bridge

You build to overcome evil

And welcome good

To ignore no vision

Which comes to enlarge your range

And increase your spirit

To dare to love deeply

And risk everything

For the good thing . . .

And by doing so

You and your ministry

Will be able to continue

Eternally

May God’s blessing continue to be upon you, Lori,

and Leslie

and all of us

as we go from this place

to share the love and peace and grace of God.

So be it. Amen.

CCOK3012018-12-12T16:50:26-06:00Dec 12, 2018|Regional News|Comments Off

New Hope Christian Church Renovates Chancel

New Hope Christian Church in Oklahoma City recently renovated their chancel. It is beautiful!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

CCOK3012018-12-18T12:09:48-06:00Dec 12, 2018|Congregations|Comments Off

2018 Christmas Offering Video

We invite you to enjoy our Christmas video celebrating the ministries of the Christian Church in Oklahoma!

CCOK3012018-12-11T15:54:33-06:00Dec 11, 2018|Regional News|Comments Off

Regional Board Approves Commission on Immigration & Refugees

At the October 20, 2018 the Regional Church Board approved the Commission on Immigration & Refugees, a much needed ministry in Oklahoma. If you would like to serve on this Commission or know someone in your congregation who would be interested, please contact the Regional office at 405-528-3577.

This Commission on Immigration & Refugees will be learning about the needs in Oklahoma and will seek the wisdom of Rev. Sharon Stanley-Rae who serves as Director of Refugee & Immigration Ministries (RIM) for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

RIM works to mobilize Disciples congregations around the country to offer hospitality to immigrants, provide refugee resettlement assistance to refugees, strengthen relationships of solidarity and advocacy with refugees and immigrants, and seek justice for farm workers. RIM’s office is located inside National City Christian Church, and works closely with 50+ national and interfaith partners through the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.

Here is a link to a video created by the SALT Project titled, “Jesus Was A Refugee, a Free Advent Film.”

Click HERE to read an article from The American Home Missionary, titled “I am the Immigrant” first published in the 1913 Yearbook Churches of Christ.

CCOK3012018-12-12T14:25:38-06:00Dec 11, 2018|Regional News|Comments Off

Remind & Renew January 23 & 24, 2019 – Registration is Open

Remind & Renew “Negotiating Empire: Stories of Accommodation and Resistance from the New Testament” will take place on January 23 & 24, 2019 at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa.

Click HERE to register before January 4th to receive an early registration discount.

Christian churches have a long record of both supporting and resisting the empires they have encountered over the centuries. Two Phillips Theological Seminary faculty members will explore this complicated relationship during the 2019 Remind & Renew conference.

Phillips New Testament scholars, Dr. Arthur Carter and Dr. Warren Carter, will discuss how early Christian communities dealt with the Roman Empire in differing ways.

Arthur Carter will primarily speak from the Acts of the Apostles and bring his focus on diaspora studies as a lens to explore early Christian identity construction within early imperial Rome.

Warren Carter will primarily use the text from the Book of Matthew to examine “interactions between the Jesus movement and the imperial world.”

“Focusing on the varied experiences of early Christians and the empire in which they lived will provide insight for people of faith today who experience their own feelings of unease and lack of belonging in today’s world,” said Dr. Nancy Claire Pittman, interim president of Phillips.

In a special evening event, Dr. Phil Snider will present a talk on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. titled, “Reeling, Resisting, and Regathering: On the Urgency of Being the Church.” Snider is the pastor of Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, MO and the editor of a new Chalice Press book, Preaching as Resistance: Voices of Hope, Justice, and Solidarity.

“Phil’s book is receiving wonderful reviews,” Pittman said. “We also decided to invite two clergywomen who have sermons included in this new book.”

Preachers for the 2019 Remind & Renew are Dr. Cassandra Gould, executive director of Missouri Faith Voice and a pastor in the AME church, and the Rev. Lori Walke, associate minister of Mayflower United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

The Rev. Emily Bowen-Marler, associate minister at Brentwood Christian Church, returns to Remind & Renew as this year’s worship leader.

CCOK3012018-12-18T11:15:26-06:00Dec 4, 2018|Clergy News|Comments Off

Winter Talk 2019 February 25-27, 2019

Winter Talk 2019 is February 25-27, 2019 at Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, OK. Registration is open HERE.

Rev. Chebon Kernell is the 2019 speaker. The sixth annual Winter Talk is a three day conversation on the Christian Doctrine of Discovery (DOD) and its influence on Christian theology and polity, with an emphasis on the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) relationship with Indigenous tribes and peoples.

Hosted by the Yakama Christian Mission Council, and Phillips Theological Seminary, Winter Talk is dedicated to furthering the conversation on the Christian Doctrine of Discovery and its dismantling.

Winter Talk is an important time for American Indians and non-Indians, to gather and eat, learn, and talk about the impact of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery. This is a space of accountability to American Indians where the Indian voice is the principle voice in an exploration of the past, an understanding of the present, and a visioning of the future.

CCOK3012018-12-18T12:10:42-06:00Dec 4, 2018|Clergy News|Comments Off

CCOK301

About CCOK301

Faith in Action Commission Introduces Season of Prayer on Racism

One-Day Workshops for Clergy and Laity

Join us for a Season of Prayer on Racism

We invite you to enjoy our Christmas video celebrating the ministries of the Christian Church in Oklahoma!