Disciples Together
Regional News of the Christian Church in the Upper Midwest
October | 2021
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All-Region Worship Services
December 26
Our Upper Midwest Region will provide a worship service for use by all congregations on Sunday, December 26. We want to show our appreciation and support for the efforts by ministers and worship leaders in 2021.
The full worship service will premiere on our region’s YouTube channel at 10 am on December 26. In addition, the service and its various pieces will be available for download to use for both in person and online worship services. Congregations and ministers will be able to access these files, and receive the YouTube link, by December 17.
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Anti-Racism/
Pro-Reconciliation Team Documentary and Discussion
"True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality" follows 30 years of Equal Justice Initiative’s work on behalf of the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. The film won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary, and is the winner of the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications’s 26th annual Vision Award and a Peabody Award. (From the eji.org description of the documentary)
The Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team would like to invite you to a viewing and discussion of the documentary “True Justice” on Sunday evening, December 5. This event will consist of two parts online: a watch event at 5 p.m., followed by a 20 minute break, and discussion at 7 p.m. You can learn more about the documentary and even watch it prior to the event at eji.org/projects/true-justice/. To access either or both of the parts of the event you must register for free using the button below.
Prior to watching the movie, either on your own or as a part of our watch event, it might be helpful to think about these questions:
- How much do I know about mass incarceration and what it even is?
- What are my personal beliefs about why people are poor?
- What stereotypes and biases do I harbor about people who are or were formerly incarcerated?
- How have I personally, or as a part of my faith group or organization, been complicit in racial injustice?
- What are my feelings about the current state of the criminal justice system?
We look forward to seeing you on December 5!
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Upcoming Offerings:
CMEP Retreat: Worship
Dates: Nov. 19-20, 2021
Facilitator: Rev. Joshua Patty
Where: Christian Conference Center
The theme for the November retreat will be “Worship.” Rev. Joshua Patty, our regional minister, will explore some practical approaches for worship planning, worship leadership, worship calendars, and special worship services (weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc.).
CMEP Retreats take place at the Christian Conference Center. They begin after dinner on Friday night and end mid-afternoon on Saturday. Attendees stay in the air-conditioned cabins. Breakfast and lunch on Saturday are provided.
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Ordinations
An ordination service for Angelo Luis will be celebrated on Sunday, November 14, 3 PM, at St. John Lutheran Church in Carroll, IA. Clergy are invited to wear red stoles; no robes please.
An ordination service for Mike Kindred is scheduled on November 21, 2021, 3 PM at First Christian Church in Muscatine. The church is located at 700 Kindler Avenue. Clergy are invited to robe and wear red stoles. Mike and the congregation also hope to make a link available for those who would like to participate virtually in the service.
Please join us in prayer for Angelo, Mike, Downtown Disciples, and FCC, Muscatine as they prepare for these celebrations.
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Operations Council Update
The Operations Council met on Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
Elections for Operations Council members were held in conjunction with our All Congregational Gathering on Oct. 2. The 2021-2022 Operations Council Members include:
- Mary Jane Button-Harrison, Clergy
- Owen Cayton, Clergy
- Leslie Dotson,Clergy
- Katie Russell Hainline, Clergy
- Mark MacWhorter, Clergy
- Doug Pfeiffer, Clergy
- Dennis Sanders, Clergy
- Tony Thurston, Clergy
- Justin Carlson, Minnesota Area
- Vern Hawkins, Boone Area
- Dan Mineck, Waterloo Area
- Sharon Kearney, Oakland Area
- Diana Pallwitz, Des Moines Area
- Peg-Rosine-Levinson, Keokuk Area
- Tim Butler, Altoona Area
- Mary Jane Hazelwood, Marshalltown Area
- Betty Rae Potts, Ottumwa Area
- Jay Thomas, Muscatine/Davenport Area
- Nancy Berneman, Hampton Area
- Jovey Molayal, Panora Area
The following seats remain open:
- Spencer/Sioux City
- Creston/Osceola
The next Operations Council meeting, including our newly elected representatives, will take place on Oct. 28, 2021 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.
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Winter Youth Retreats Postponed
The Chi Rho and CYF Winter Youth Retreats that were on the regional calendar for Nov. 5-7 and Nov. 19-21 will be postponed until later in the spring. UMwYC will be working this fall on re-envisioning those events.
The Junior Retreat will take place as planned on Feb. 11-13.
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Save the date for the 2022 Ministers Institute! This annual event will be taking place in hybrid format this year with options to attend in person at the Christian Conference Center or virtually. Both options will include opportunities for clergy to learn (and earn continuing education hours), worship, fellowship, and relax. The event will begin on Jan. 24 and close on Jan. 25, with an option to stay through the 26th for an additional education session meeting the anti-racism/pro-reconciliation experience requirement.
Watch here and your mailbox for more information!
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Yearbook reporting time is, once again, right around the corner! Hopefully yearbook reports will be significantly easier for all of us this year as there are so many automated features in ALEX.
If you are not yet familiar with ALEX and not sure whether your congregation has a log-in established, please contact the regional office. |
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Upcoming Events and Resources |
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Thanksgiving Offering
Received on Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, 2021
The Thanksgiving Offering benefits the Colleges, Universities, Seminaries, and Divinity Houses affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Higher education has been an important focus for Disciples since the very beginning of the movement. Throughout our history, Disciples have founded institutions of higher learning to educate students and form leaders to make a difference in the world. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is still committed to higher education. Your gift to the Thanksgiving Offering helps support the education of thousands of students at our fifteen colleges and universities as well as our seven seminaries and divinity houses.
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Christmas Offering, benefitting the Regional Ministries of the Upper Midwest, will be collected on Dec. 12 and 19 |
Copyright Basics for Churches
In case you missed it: the Insurance Board's recent program on copyright concerns was an outstanding explanation of the issues worship leaders and church ministries face. The 40 minute session, available to watch on YouTube, provides examples of how easy it is to violate copyright, what the legal penalties might be (meaning how much money you might have to pay to a copyright holder), and how to gain permission to use copyrighted material.
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Conference on Faith and Refugees
Church World Service is offering a 5-day online conference to help congregations and faith leaders learn about refugee resettlement and migration. “Together We Welcome” is planned for November 7-11. It will include special sessions on Afghan refugee resettlement. Learn more here.
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Design worship to engage in-person and virtual audiences
Most people are familiar with hybrids: cars, for example. Hybrid cars run on two kinds of fuel — electricity and gasoline.
But as the U.S. slowly rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s another kind of hybrid emerging: hybrid worship. Many congregations that scrambled to improve their digital presence during COVID have been returning to in-person worship. Most value the lessons and opportunities gained in the forced immersion of online worship services. After all, with this new outlet, congregations are no longer limited to their physical footprint. They can reach not only worshipers in lock-down or otherwise home-bound, but also worshipers as far as the Internet can reach.
With any innovation, managing the change — taking advantage of the opportunities it offers — requires intention, new technical skills and a little luck.
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Christian Church in the Upper Midwest | http://uppermidwestcc.org
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