Laity Sunday: Go now, and share the feast
The 2008 theme for the Week of Laity shifts from the feeding of the multitude (Matthew 14:13-21) to Christ's reminders of those outside our traditional circles who also need to be fed-and the 2008 Week of the Laity theme, Go now, and share the Feast. The scriptural reference for the week will be Matthew 26:35-40 "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat …".
Beginning in November, visit the DHM Web site for the 2008 Week of the Laity resource packet. Any or all of the pages are available to download in PDF format. Resources will include: objectives and explanations, planning guide, children's sermon, Sunday School resources, adult and children's bulletin inserts, and worship ideas (litany, hymns, sermon ideas).
Anyone with questions or comments about the materials should contact Bill Culp at wculp@dhm.disciples.org or (888) 346-2631.
Alternative Giving options benefit refugees
Looking for an alternative Christmas gift for a relative or friend! Visit the Alternative Giving Catalog of DHM‘s Refugee and Immigration Ministries and pick from the following:
- $2.50 provides an Afghan refugee primary health care and vaccination for a year;
- $8.50 provides a Burundian refugee secondary education, books, and a school lunch for a year;
- $10 provides a toy for a child assisted by the Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries;
- $20 provides school shoes for refugee children arriving in the United States;
- $25 provides water for migrants in the desert through Humane Borders;
- $48 provides a small group film screening and facilitated discussion for women on the topic of HIV/AIDS in refugee camps in Kenya and Tanzania;
- $129 provides a bus ticket for an asylum seeker released from a border detention center to be reunited with family pending the outcome of their court case;
- $137.50 provides one week's rent for a refugee family resettled into the United States; and
- $250 provides three month's rent and food for a female-headed Colombian refugee family to be resettled in Chile.
The Alternative Giving Catalog and gift cards are available at www.discipleshomemissions.org/rim/AlternativeGiving.htm.
(Any amount for any of these projects will be gratefully received.)
New ministry resources available
The Office of Search and Call has three new documents available on the DHM Web site: www.discipleshomemissions.org/Ministers/ MinistryGuidelines/PDF.htm.
Among many other resources already available, our most-recent additions include:
Come! A Clergy Spiritual Retreat. This retreat model was written by Esther Robles, a Latino Disciples of Christ minister, in response to a request by Disciples Home Missions. It is intended to be a self-contained retreat guide, used by collegial clergy groups. Watch for additional retreat models to be made available by the end of the year.
Closing Well — Continuing Strong. This booklet is a training tool for use by pastors and their spouses as they plan for and enter retirement. This is a document provided by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth W. Moore, Regional Minister in Nebraska. This document is an adaptation from a resource originally developed in the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
Reading the Disclosure Form and Criminal Background Check. This document was written by the Search and Call Sub-committee of the General Commission on Ministry. It is intended as a Guide for Search Committees in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Building your congregation: a resource
Need practical, actionable strategies to reach people more effectively? The popular "50 Ways to Build Strength" series by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership provides tips for building strength in areas that are vital to church growth. Topics include: Caring for Children, Caring for Youth, Participation, Welcoming New Members, Adult Education, Communication, Church Finances, Encouraging Faithful Giving, and Annual Stewardship Campaigns. Find all these free ideas at www.churchleadership.com.
DHM and Week of Compassion to launch Fair Trade coffee partnership
In January 2008, Disciples Home Missions and Week of Compassion plan to launch the Disciples Coffee Project with Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-operative dedicated to Fair Trade. Through the Disciples of Christ Coffee Project, Disciples congregations will have the opportunity to learn about Fair Trade, food security, and sustainable development while enjoying fairly traded coffee, tea, and chocolate in fellowship with our global neighbors. Keep your eyes open for the project launch in the next issue of Home Mission Advocate!
Is your congregation a transforming congregation?
How do you know if your congregation is in transformation? Transformation is a spiritual, systemic, and strategic journey traveled by a congregation  urgently striving to realize what God has called it to be and do. Congregations in transformation now can share their goals and experiences with the broader church.
Our goal? 1,000 transforming congregations!
Become a transforming congregation and share your story:
https://secure.disciples.org/transformation/form/index.asp
Undocumented persons are not criminals
Undocumented persons have violated U.S. immigration laws by overstaying their temporary visas or by entering the country without proper documentation. However, the laws they have violated are civil law rather than criminal law. Those who are caught are put into a process for deportation. The Supreme Court has held that "a deportation proceeding is a purely civil action to determine the eligibility to remain in this country, not to punish an unlawful entry …"
Because they have not violated a criminal law, the undocumented are not entitled to an attorney. They must find their own attorney or go without an attorney as they pursue their immigration case through the judicial system. Those undocumented who are detained, pending the outcome of their immigration case, are placed in immigration detention facilities rather than criminal prisons. However, because there are not enough U.S. detention centers, the Department of Homeland Security sometimes contracts with local prisons to hold people in detention, but they are supposed to be treated differently than the criminals in the prison.
There are some undocumented persons who are criminals, but they are criminals because they have committed a crime after entering the United States. They must serve the sentence for their crime, and after serving that sentence they are deported. However, recent studies have shown that first generation immigrants (which include many undocumented) are substantially less likely to commit crimes than are citizens or immigrants who have been here for many years.
To learn more about the undocumented see "Is Immigration Good for the United States?" at www.discipleshomemissions.org/RIM/ImmigrationMinistries.htm.
The Rev. Jennifer Riggs, director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries, is a native of Winamac, Ind., and a member of Central Christian Church, Indianapolis.
Background check services available for all Disciples organizations
When the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) negotiated for Search and Call Criminal Background Check services to be provided by Oxford Document Company (ODM), a process was also put in place so that any Disciples organization can establish their own direct relationship with ODM for meeting their background check needs beyond the search and call system. General ministries, regions, congregations, seminaries and other organizations can even develop a multi-level background check program with ODM, performing different types of searches for different types of employees and volunteers.
For more information, you may go to Oxford Document Management Company‘s Web site at www.oxforddoc.com/disciples/welcome.asp and click on the box marked "For Disciples units, regions and congregations." Or, you can call Chuck Koterba, ODM's Client Services director, at (800) 801-9114.
Programs available to help Disciples "green" their congregations
With Earth Stewardship Sunday taking place April 22, Disciples of Christ congregations can observe this day by launching an initiative to "go green."Two programs are available for congregations that want to move toward a more environmentally-friendly sanctuary, building, and theology.
One of the programs, known as the Green Sanctuary program, is administered through the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth. A congregation that has met certain standards is accredited for its efforts and certified as a Green Sanctuary. Disciples congregations can participate in the Unitarian initiative, according to the Rev. Katherine Jesch, director of Environmental Ministry.
"We would be pleased to certify non-UU churches as Green Sanctuaries,"said Jesch. "The program is broad enough that theological differences between faith communities won't matter."If Disciples congregations pursue the accreditation, they would be the first non-UU churches to participate in the program. (There is a nominal cost to participate in this program.)
Meanwhile, for congregations looking for more theological grounding in their environmental efforts, Seattle-based Earth Ministry offers the Greening Congregations program that is solidly grounded in Christian theology.
Congregations could easily work through both programs so that the structured step-by-step actions called for in the Green Sanctuary program would be balanced with the theological and worship resources offered by Earth Ministry.
About Earth Ministry's Greening Congregation's program
As people within congregations work to foster an awareness of the value of God's creation, and develop acts of care that reflect this awareness, Earth Ministry provides helpful tools for this important work. The Greening Congregations Partners process offers a partnership with Earth Ministry and a flexible strategy for engaging congregation members in creation-care efforts. The process also provides means for envisioning and celebrating the "greening" of a variety of congregational dimensions.
For more information about Earth Ministry's Greening Congregations program, visit www.earthministry.org/Congregations/greening_ resources.htm.
About the Unitarian Universalist Green Sanctuary program
A Green Sanctuary is a congregation that lives out its commitment to the Earth by creating a sustainable life style for its members as individuals and as a faith community. Sustainable living is not about our material comfort (though these choices are an important part of the overall life style); it is about choosing to live in a way that nurtures life, builds relationships, and rejects material consumption as the sole determinant of happiness. The Green Sanctuary Program includes a total of twelve activities in four program areas which are explained in detail in the Manual which is available for $25.
To learn more, visit uuministryforearth.org/grs_overview.htm.
Congregations that decide to pursue one or both programs should contact Angela Herrmann so DHM can recognize their efforts. Contact her at aherrman@dhm.disciples.org or (888) 346-2631.
(The Earth Ministry and Green Sanctuary information was taken from each program's Web site.)
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