By the time you read this, we will have completed our first Fall Festival. On Oct. 1, we are holding a Fall Festival for the Pre-K through 3rd graders and their families of Miller Elementary. There are going to be games and food and all sorts of fun for the people coming to the church. This is the first event since we completed the Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation program.
I am reading a book that referred to churches like ours stepping forward out of our comfort zones as going out into the mission fields, out on the edge. This triggered a connection to the heritage of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Our church began on the frontier of this nation.
We are back on the frontier of our church in Warner Robins. With this as inspiration, I have prepared sermons for the month of October looking at the core of our denomination for guidance as we move into the frontier. Rather than traditional sermons, there will be time for thoughts and dialogue as we explore how our founders looked at the Bible, focused upon communion, structured the church, dealt with challenging issues that might divide, and looked at other denominations.
Alexander Campbell and his father, Thomas, lived and ministered on the western border of Virginia and Barton Stone in the heart of the Kentucky frontier pulled together people who were out on the edge, beyond the familiar they had known before. The world in which they lived was dangerous, challenging, and even frightening. They needed a place to gather and people upon whom they could count on, not people who would look down on them or judge them as less than others. Sound a bit familiar? Aren’t we in a similar world today?
We grew up as a denomination in this world. Yes, we didn’t always get it right, but we did our best in that time. We can do the same by remembering from where we came. I hope you will participate in an exploration of our heritage.
Shalom, Darrell
