First Christian Church Cushing welcomed a new church into their space beginning September 11, 2016.
Hope. Church will hold services in FCC Cushing’s space on Sunday evenings at 5:30 pm and 7:00 pm. Hope. Church is a network church of Life. Church.
Mission work is local and global. And maybe, it’s not so much mission as much as helping a neighbor in need. Disciples are known for lending a hand in our local communities and in far off places too.
First Christian Church in El Reno is helping a local resident with some needed home repair and painting. Pastor Tara Dew took a few photos of the beginning work of scraping the house.
First Christian Church in Tulsa celebrated the installation of Rev. Susan Payne during worship on Sunday, September 11. She joins the staff to serve as Minister of Administration. Rev. Michael Davison, Associate Regional Minister, led the covenant of installation liturgy for the congregation and staff.
Rev. Payne joins Associate Ministers Rev. Cassie Sexton-Riggs and Rev. Joshua Toulouse alongside Sr. Minister Rev. Michael Riggs in serving the congregation and downtown Tulsa.
First Christian Church in Lawton is finding new ways to engage the wider community. Kathy Cooper, church member and the head of a college nursing program, initiated a monthly health clinic as part of a new way to engage the wider community. The ministry was recognized by the local newspaper. READ>>
Deanna Deville, a transgender woman, and Brandon Johnson, pastor at FCC Lawton, affirm transgender rights in Oklahoma and Texas. Their efforts were featured in the Texoma’s newspaper. READ>>
The 2016 Reconciliation Special Offering is used to fund our Church’s mission imperative to become an pro-reconciling and anti-racist church utilizing experiential education, inclusive worship and intentional dialogue. Our efforts to promote healing, relationship and restoration in the whole family of God are enlivened by funds from this offering. The 2016 Reconciliation Offering will be collected in congregations Sept. 25 and Oct 2.
With this offering we are able to provide programs for
Recent events have reignited the conversation about human brokenness evidenced in the sin of racism and perpetuated in our institutional structures and systems. Your generous giving to Reconciliation Ministry is transforming lives and strengthening Christ’s witness in the world showing that we love one another, even as Christ continues to love us!
promotes healing, relationship and restoration in the whole family of God
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has a history dating from the 1960s of sharing our resources to address the racism of our society and the racism within our own church. We have called this process the Reconciliation Ministry.
We receive this offering in the fall and use the funds throughout the year to give grants to the pro-reconciliation/anti-racism initiative to organize to dismantle systems and structures that perpetuate this sin of division within the Church.
The 2020 Vision adopted by our church names this work as one of the four priorities of our mission together as a whole church. This voluntary annual offering is the only source of funding for this ministry.
Learn how to be proactive in your congregation with these Reconciliation resources.
The Reconciliation offering is divided in two parts with one half going back to the region from which it was received and one half going to the General Reconciliation Ministry administered by the Reconciliation Ministry Commission made up of volunteers from around our church body.
The regions choose the method of distributing the funds that remain within their own area. These programs vary widely between regions.
The Reconciliation Ministry Commission receives, reviews and allocate funds for grant requests submitted by our general ministries, higher education institutions, regions and recognized ministries of the church whose proposals meet the grant guidelines. Congregational grant requests are to be submitted to their Region for funding.
Donations on behalf of emergency grants on behalf of impacted communities and congregations toward healing for the communities of Ferguson, Staten Island, Charleston, S.C., and Baltimore can be directed to the Reconciliation Annual Fund/Racial Justice Response.
Lay leaders, laity and clergy are invited to engage with Rev. Bruce Barkhauer for fresh insights on sharing God’s abundance at “The Cup Runneth Over” events. As director of the Center for Faith and Giving, Barkhauer will speak on estate/legacy stewardship in the church and joyful giving. Clergy may receive continuing education credit for the event.
The Center for Faith and Giving exists to create a culture of generosity across the life of the whole church. It provides educational materials and serves as a conduit to teach stewardship as a spiritual discipline. Its mission is to encourage and promote the understanding of stewardship as a faith discipline and life practice in response to a generous God.
The Oklahoma Disciples Foundation is hosting the inspirational sessions at three locations in September.
September 18, 2016 • 2:30 – 5:00 pm • Tulsa – Harvard Avenue Christian Church
September 19, 2016 • 9:00 am – Noon • Enid – Central Christian Church
September 19, 2016 • 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm Dinner Event • Oklahoma City – Jim Thorpe Museum
Reservations required. $40 per person or $300 per table of 8, includes dinner, wine, beer and soft drinks. Meal catered by the Petroleum Club.
Download a poster to promote this event in your congregation.
For details and registration visit www.okdfdn.org or call Julie Bowers at the Oklahoma Disciples Foundation 405.525.6530
Each month the Northwest Area ministers and congregations receive a short newsletter emailed with news and information. Click here to read the Northwest Area Synopsis.
First Christian Church in Edmond is pleased to host an educational weekend event featuring renowned author and New Testament scholar Dr. John Dominic Crossan August 26-28.
The event is open to the public and will include small group presentations throughout the weekend. Dr. Crossan will also preach at three worship services on August 28; service times are 8:15, 9:00 and 11:00 am at the church located at 201 E. 2nd Street in Edmond.
John Dominic Crossan has received awards for scholarly excellence from the American Academy of Religion, DePaul University, and an honorary doctorate from Stetson University, DeLand, FL. An author of twenty-seven books on the historical Jesus, the apostle Paul, and earliest Christianity, Crossan’s work has been translated into thirteen foreign languages. His most recent book is How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis through Revelation (HarperOne, 2015).
For more information on the event contact the First Christian Church of Edmond (405) 341-3544 or go to http://www.fccedmond.org/summerseries. UPDATED SCHEDULE OF EVENTS LINK
John Dominic Crossan was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, in 1934. He was educated in Ireland and the United States, received a Doctorate of Divinity from Maynooth College, Ireland, in 1959, and did post-doctoral research at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome from 1959 to 1961 and at the École Biblique in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1967. He was a member of a thirteenth-century Roman Catholic religious order, the Servites (Ordo Servorum Mariae), from 1950 to 1969 and an ordained priest from 1957 to 1969. He joined DePaul University, Chicago, in 1969 and remained there until 1995. He is now a Professor Emeritus in its Department of Religious Studies.
He was Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar from 1985 to 1996 as it met in twice-annual meetings to debate the historicity of the life of Jesus in the gospels. He was Chair of the Parables Seminar in 1972-76, Editor of Semeia. An Experimental Journal for Biblical Criticism in 1980-86, and Chair of the Historical Jesus Section in 1993-1998, within the Society of Biblical Literature, an international scholarly association for biblical study based in the United States. He was elected Vice President of that Society for 2010-2011 and President for 2011-2012.
He has received awards for scholarly excellence from the American Academy of Religion in 1989, DePaul University in 1991 and 1995, and an honorary doctorate from Stetson University, DeLand, FL, in 2003.
He has lectured to lay and scholarly audiences across the United States as well as in Ireland and England, Scandinavia and Finland, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil, Japan, and South Africa. He has been interviewed on 200 radio stations, including four times on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross. He has been interviewed on television networks in England–such as Weekend TV, Channel 4 and the BBC; also in the United States–such as ABC’sPrimeTime, Peter Jennings Reporting, and Nightline, CBS’ Early Show and 48 Hours, NBC’s Dateline, and Fox News’The O’Reilly Factor, as well as on cable programs such as A&E, History, Discovery, and the National Geographic Channel.
He has written twenty-seven books on the historical Jesus, the apostle Paul, and earliest Christianity, and his work has been translated into thirteen foreign languages, including Polish, Hungarian, Russian, as well as Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.
Five of those books have been national religious bestsellers for a combined total of twenty-four months. The scholarly core of his work is the trilogy from The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991) through The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus (1998), to In Search of Paul: How Jesus’s Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom, co-authored with the archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed (2004).
Along with Marcus Borg, he has co-authored a series of books: The Last Week: A Day by Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem (2006); The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach about the Birth of Jesus(2007); and The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon (2009).
His most recent book is How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis through Revelation (HarperOne, 2015).
You have an opportunity this year to incorporate calls to attend the 2017 General Assembly with your worship and newsletters. Check this out!
• GA is providing a short video you can download from the promotion page to show before or during worship (or add to your website!).
• Just posted on the new General Assembly website is a document (in Word and PDF) that contains text for newsletters/bulletins and suggested hymns for the fifth Sundays between now and the opening of the event.
• In addition there are communion and offering meditations and liturgies based on the Common Lectionary for the date.
• And the first two weeks of this month (and offered again in October and continuously from January to June) you can order polo shirts with the 
General Assembly logo to wear as promotion and also bring along to the event. Ten percent of all sales benefit Disciples Mission Fund. You can also order customization for a small fee and your purchase will still benefit DMF.
The quarterly meeting of the Central Area Disciples Men will be held at 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 14, 2016. The gathering will take place at Wildewood Christian Church (South Building), 6900 N. Kelley Ave., Oklahoma City.
Spouses are welcome to attend. Please phone your reservation for the $8.00 meal to Randy at (405) 306-9695 by Friday July 8.