what lies ahead

It is really hard to contain myself as I look ahead to our work with CCK consultant, the Rev. Dr. Alan Roxburgh.

As has been well documented by now, CCK is at crossroads in its storied life. The landscape in which we perform our ministries has radically changed. That landscape includes congregational change, cultural change, denominational change and CCK change as we can no longer staff for the historic expectations that have defined us for so many years. Our options are to limp along and pretend things will suddenly get better if we just work harder and smarter at what we have always done or we can proactively discern God’s will for us and adapt appropriately for faithful, effective and innovative ministry amidst the sea of change that defines life today. The CCK staff and Board opted to be proactive.

On August 14-15, 2009, we will launch this journey with Alan at a “ya’ll come” event in which pastors and lay leaders throughout Kentucky are invited to come see first hand just what this is all about. This experience will allow us (CCK staff and executive team, congregational pastors and leaders, and Alan Roxburgh) to determine which 24 or so congregations will be part of our pilot experience that launches this October.

This is a journey to set free again our missional imagination much like the journey the Campbell’s, Stone and Scott launched over two hundred years ago. Their courageous faith called them to risk it all for God’s sake of the sake of the world God so loved. Friends, we can do no less. This is our moment. This is our calling as Kentucky Disciples today. The world needs our uniquely blended witness of compassion, hospitality and biblical justice. This is our calling and what a calling it is!

As we journey together we will discover where God’s priorities of ministry are in the world and what our part of God’s missional priorities are as Kentucky Disciples. Together we will discern our calling and then prepare ourselves to fulfill our calling. We will make it 240 different ways honoring the uniqueness of every congregation but it will be a shared and grounded witness clearly ours as Disciples of Christ.

Friends, we want everyone who is able to be present on August 14-15, 2009, at Middletown Christian Church in Louisville for this experience. Your pastor has all the information. The folks who showed up at the Cane Ridge Revival over two hundred years ago did not know they were launching a new movement. They just came to be spiritually fed and to be faithful to their God. I don’t know if God will launch a new movement through us in August, but I do know this, God is far from finished with us yet. And, I believe this is the time we will come to know just what unfinished business God has in store for us to do, together. I can’t wait for what lies ahead.