Regional Happenings

Regional Happenings

Coming soon…

2023 Regional Assembly Part 2

Download Registration Packet| Register for Saturday’s 175th Assembly ***Scroll down to register for a Pre-Assembly event on Friday.*** On behalf of our Regional Minister and the Commission on Regional Assembly, we extend a cordial welcome to each of you attending the historic 175th Regional Assembly at Barton College, Wilson, NC. The purpose of the Regional Assembly is to give expression to the life and diversity of our region. As such, we represent wholeness and unity in our very nature as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) within the body of Christ. We acknowledge that in this season, many things can distract us from the vision of God’s beloved community. However, with our eyes fixed firmly on Jesus, we will gather at Barton College with resounding praise. Our theme, “Celebrating and Anticipating: Past, Present, and Future” (Revelation 1:8), will guide our hope to imagine more fully what God can do in our midst. To our God, be glory in the Church and Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Our Pre-Events on Friday will provide educational opportunities. Please pay attention to the seating capacity listed on the assembly schedule. Racial Equity – required ministerial renewal training on Thursday and Friday [REGISTER] Healthy Boundaries – required ministerial renewal training [REGISTER] Laity Bootcamp (50 seats available)  – Join Disciples Home Missions, Church Extension, Global Ministries, Barton College, and Eden Theological Seminary, as they relate their particular ministry content to the changing context of local church to strengthen their reach and impact. This is skill-based training! [REGISTER] Trauma Training (50 seats available) – Join experts as they walk us through the necessary steps for trauma healing and recovery within the framework of the local congregation. [REGISTER] Introduction to Regional Ministry (25 seats available) – Join a guest Regional Minister who will share about the role of Regional Ministry. [REGISTER] Technology Training 101 (25 seats available) – Our Google Partner once again brings us assistance for rebranding our ministries. [REGISTER] …

2023 NC Disciple Summer Retreat for Men, Women, and Families

Download the Registration Form | Register Online Family Matters North Carolina Disciple Summer Retreat for Men, Women & Families August 12, 2023 from 9-4 First Christian Church Winston Salem 2320 Country Club Rd., Winston Salem, NC All men, women, and families are invited to come and enjoy! For more information and registration, please visit our website: Meaningful Mission Trip Animated Panel Discussion (Led By Area Pastors/Leaders) Powerful Worship & Preaching by Rev. Dara Cobb Lewis Fun & Fellowship ***Youth only pay for lunch. No registration fee required. …

Summer Camp 2023

Camp 2023 Update We are excitedly preparing for the 2023 camping season. All camp directors are busy planning wonderful weeks for their campers. Below you will find some information about this year’s theme and the specific camps. If you want to register, visit our registration page. “Get Real: Finding Your True Self in Jesus,” is our theme for the 2023 camp season for all camps with the exception of Created to Be Me. This curriculum comes from Inside Out: Christian Resources for Outdoor Ministries, this is an all-inclusive summer camp curriculum that uses the same daily theme for each age group to provide, a fun, enriching, spiritual, and biblically-based camp experience. There’s a lot of fake out there. In a culture of manicured online profiles, electronically altered images, and relentless deception in advertising, it’s difficult to know who our friends are and whom we can trust. Not to mention how easy it is to buckle under pressure and try to become the images we see. We all must seek our own real identity from a trustworthy source. God is the most trustworthy friend any of us will ever know.  “Get Real” – teaching campers and staff that we are not created in the image of popular culture. We are created in the image of God, who loves us just as we are and asks us to love others in the same way. Camp directors, counselors, and camp staff will each day guide and engage campers as they: EXPLORE scripture — what it says and what it means for them. EXPERIENCE a wide variety of activities that develop the Get Real theme and help campers connect with Bible teachings and Christian community. EXPRESS their growing love of Jesus through worship and song. Created To Be Me (or 8ers camp) is a tightly designed ecumenical camping program focused on spirituality and sexuality. This camp provides campers with factual and spiritual sexuality education that will help them view sexual intimacy as a gift from God intended for loving lifelong committed relationship.  For more information about this camp, please visit the Just Say Know Ministry website.  You can view their camper information and their parent information as well. Why do we have only one camp for 8th graders? As a region, we believe in the mission of Just Say Know Ministry, our partner in this camping experience.  In fact, we believe in it so much that we only one offer opportunity for 8th graders to attend camp.  All the 8th graders under our camping ministries’ care are asked to attend this camp.  While it may seem weird at first, we promise this will be the best week of your life at camp! Why is it longer and slightly more expensive? Because we partner with Just Say Know Ministry, we have to purchase their resources and curriculum to provide this experience.  Also, this camp is one day longer than all our other camps, so we have adjusted for the cost there as well.…

Repeat the Sounding Joy…A Resilient Region!

On a special day in 2018, I heard a significant sound. It was a still, small voice sharing one phrase repeatedly: “They are resilient!” Holy Spirit communicated the message, and the phrase referred to you, the Christian Church in North Carolina. We are the resilient Body of Christ, bound together by an unapologetic belief in Christ as Lord and Savior of the world, and in the Lord’s Table as a unifying experience where things in common are celebrated and diversity is respected. This is also true of your faithful support to the Region. This special Christmas offering is another chance for your gifts to keep the sound of resilience repeating as your Regional staff seeks to empower our congregations by providing the right gifts and resources. Gifts that inspire bravery and facilitate the change of their new realities. Resources that enlarge our capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and adapt well to adversity and stress. Isaac Watts’s famous Christmas hymn, “Joy to the World” reminds us that amid life’s various challenges, there is still a sound of joy ringing in the hearts of Christians everywhere. This hymn invites us to join Heaven and earth, fields and floods, hills and plains in celebrating the wonders of God’s love. Similarly, your support of the Christmas offering produces a joyful reverberation throughout the year. As we fully engage the Advent season, anticipating our Lord coming once again in new and marvelous ways, we are assured that your faithful support to your Region will joyfully resound: through camping, conferences, and retreats for our youth and young adults through all persons seeking affirmation for ministry through congregations welcoming a new pastor or neighbor through bold efforts to resolve conflict and build bridges across racial divides through new relationships far and wide through our trust in a God who makes all things possible! Thank you for remembering that you are the lifeline of your Region. Checks should be made payable to the Christian Church in NC with a memo: Christmas offering and mailed to P. O. BOX 1568, Wilson, NC  27894, or you may donate online. May joy resound within us all! Bishop Valerie J. Melvin Regional Minister…

Racial Equity Training

Registration Information If you request a scholarship, please call Bishop Valerie Melvin at the regional office (252-291-4047 ext 202). Registration Cost – $150 per person (Includes lunch) – Register here. (Download the poster). Resolution 116, passed at the 2016 Regional Assembly held in Greenville, NC, requires all commissioned and ordained ministers who desire to maintain their standing to complete this training. 2023 Training Schedule January 20-21: First Christian Church (1900 W. Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27403) October 12-13: First Christian Church (207 Tarboro Street N, Wilson, NC 27893)Sessions Times: First day: 10:00am-6:00pm Second day 9:00am-5:00pm …

Order the 2023 Just Women Bible Study

The 2023 edition of Just Women, a Bible study for women by women, invites readers into conversation with scripture about navigating the feeling of being stuck between the reality of our sometimes-dark circumstances and the desire to lean into the hope of Christ, who lights the darkness. This year’s theme, “Fanning the Flames of Hope”, is based on Lamentations 3:19-24 and includes 13 lessons, feature articles, and other resources to help women lean into Christ’s light by dealing with issues such as anxiety, complicated grief, compassion fatigue, needing a healthy community, and more. This is an excellent resource for individual and group studies, and for only $20, you can be resourced for the entire year. Why wait? Pre-order by Dec. 9th and you qualify for FREE shipping. Just put in your order here: Order Your JW23 Bible Study Here!…

Regional Assembly 2023

2023 Regional Assembly Celebrating and Anticipating: Past, Present, and Future!Download the Letter | Download the Flyer Friends, We are so excited about our upcoming 2023 North Carolina Regional Assembly! This year’s theme is “Celebrating and Anticipating: Past, Present, and Future!” This theme is based on Revelation 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’” The first recorded Union meeting was held among NC Disciples in March of 1834 at the Little Sister meeting house in Lenoir County. In 1845, the first state convention of Disciples of Christ, then known as the Bethel Conference and Union Meeting of Disciples of Christ, was held. This upcoming assembly will be our first in-person Assembly since 2019, certainly a time to celebrate the regathering of our North Carolina Disciples with the same spirit of unity that was present in the founding of the Christian Church in North Carolina. We are a changed people living in a changing world, and our present mandate is to navigate this change effectively. Next year marks 175 years since our Region was officially organized, but God has been at work since before our inception. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and we forge ahead, mindful that future generations will be standing on our shoulders. We celebrate the courage of those who came before us and claim that courage for ourselves and those who will come after us. In these 175 years, our Region has seen many changes. “They say,” whoever “they” is that the only constant in life is change. Change is inevitable and scary, but we must always remain open to the moving of the Holy Spirit within us, among us, beside us, and around us. Amid the Alpha and Omega moments of life and ministry, we can steady ourselves on the foundation that God’s presence was in the world from the very beginning and will be forever. God’s love calls us forward, guiding us into an ever-changing landscape and propelling us to respond to the world’s needs in new and different ways. We remain grounded in the promise that God is present with us always, and it is God’s church we serve. Let us join you in Charlotte on April 29, 2023, and at Barton College on October 14, 2023, to celebrate being together again – honoring our past and present and anticipating the wonderful work God is planning for us in the future. We look forward to seeing you at RA2023!! Rev. Bruce Baker-Rooks Rev. Addie M. Harris Rawls Co-Chairs of the Regional Assembly Planning Committee …