Note: This Blog Written Before Youth Worship
by Greg Alexander, Acting General Minister,
CCK
Let me begin my GA blogging thoughts with praise for
the site of this year’s Assembly. What a beautiful city Portland is! What
a breathtaking state Oregon is! How wonderfully gracious are the Oregonians!
Nora and I will be making vacation plans to come out here in the near
future.
Some observations: Assembly goers
seem to be breathing in the air of guarded hope and cautious optimism for the
CC(DOC). That is very good news. Here are some of my reasons. 1) General
Minister and President, Chris Hobgood, delivered a challenging state of the
church address on Sunday evening. It was passionate, courageous, and, in my
judgment, “spot on.” After-hours conversations clearly reflected a
more energetic spirit as a result of Chris’ message to the church. 2)
Johnny Wray and the excellent work of Week of Compassion. Folks are still riding
high on the enormous outpouring of generosity related to the tsunami relief from
Disciples across North America. 3) We navigated the turbulent waters of the NBA
report without taking on more water. A genuine appreciation was shown to the new
leadership of NBA. Grace was definitely present. Many questions remain
unanswered and the healing of the deep wounds this debacle has caused will take
years to heal, but the waters seemed to calm a bit this morning. Maybe the grace
shown to the new leadership of NBA was the mouthpiece through which Jesus could
speak again the words, “Be still!” to stormy and threatening waters.
4) Jim Hamblett, President of the Pension Fund, is unveiling a promising new
strategy for churchwide healthcare that will give Disciples clergy a viable and
competitive option for healthcare once again. Let me say to all those Disciples
leaders within the sound of my keystrokes, PLEASE GIVE THIS A GOOD LOOK. It
seems to have a lot of promise. 5) SERF, the Southeast Regional Fellowship, a
cluster of Regions in the Southeast, hosted a reception last night and our room
was too small to handle the crowd! That was very affirming to all eight of us
RM’s who set this up. 6) You can see hope in people’s eyes as you
smooze and share the love in the lobby and exhibit
hall.
On the downside, will we ever get
worship right at a General Assembly?! Puhhhlease! The exhibit hall is a bit
lifeless, too spacious for the small number of exhibits, and frankly,
uninspiring. Cokesbury has proven to me that CBP knew a whole lot more about
setting up a book display than Cokebury does. Just a personal opinion.
I’ve passed through twice and left totally uninspired by the selections.
Nora will be glad to hear this. Thanks for listening!
Filed Wed - July 27, 2005, 05:13 PM in
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