Words of Welcome

Jeremiah 31:31-34 What does the future hold for the Michigan Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)? Some of us participated in listening sessions this past week so we could learn about a proposed partnership with the Illinois-Wisconsin Region. If this happened, the Rev. Teresa Dulyea-Parker would become our Regional Minister after the retirement of the Rev. Eugene James.  Why am I bringing this up? Well, it has to do with the way we envision who we are as a church. Our connection as a congregation to the Region and to the General Church is defined in terms of a mutual covenant. In theory, we’re not a hierarchical people. Pastor Eugene is not my boss, though he is my pastor. If we ended up partnering with the Illinois-Wisconsin Region, we would add another form of covenant to our other covenant relationships.    As we have discovered during this Lenten season, there are different kinds of covenants. Some are unilateral, like the covenant God made with ...

1 Corinthians 11:27-34 When we are young, we learn our table manners. They may be culturally defined, but there are some things that you do and some things you don’t do. That makes cross cultural dining an adventure, because when you go into a different culture you may not know the proper etiquette!  As for me, when I was a child I learned that I shouldn’t talk with my mouth full of food. I also learned a proper way of holding the fork and the knife. And, I was taught to wait until everyone was served before I began eating. Whether we obey the rules or not, they have a purpose!