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Disciples now registering for General Assembly
Registrations for the July 21-25 gathering are arriving daily---electronically, by mail and fax. Rooms in the sixteen designated Assembly hotels are filling up. Shuttle bus transportation from the properties to the Fort Worth Convention Center, site of most of the Assembly events, will help make travel easier. The Assembly theme, “Share the Feast,” is based on Matthew 14, where Jesus feeds the 5,000. Assembly events will offer ways to both experience God’s abundance---blessings, opportunities, grace---and ways to share that abundance with others. One event all attendees will not want to miss is the all-Assembly Fiesta Sunday evening, July 22. It will be a celebration with food, carnival games and fun. Registration is needed. The fiesta will celebrate the church’s life during the last two years before Sunday night’s State of the Church address by General Minister and President Sharon Watkins. New learning tracks with ideas for congregational transformation and an issues forum are being developed for afternoon sessions. Other areas are being developed with congregational resources and a center for creativity. Morning plenary speakers include transformation specialist Alan Roxburgh of the Missional Leadership Institute in North Vancouver, Canada; and Carlos Cardoza, Associate Professor of World Christianity, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga. Cardoza will speak on the challenge of our cultural context. Preachers for evening worship services include justice advocate Jim Wallis, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners magazine and co-organizer of Call to Renewal, a federation of churches and faith-based organizations seeking to fight poverty. He will speak July 25. Also speaking is Daisy Machado, a prominent Latina theologian, currently serving as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean at Lexington (Ky.) Theological Seminary. She will address the assembly July 21. Disciples Moderator William Lee, Roanoke, Va., will speak July 23. Lee is pastor of Loudon Avenue Christian Church there. The pastor of the largest Disciples congregation, New Direction Christian Church, Memphis, Tenn., Stacy Spencer, will preach at a youth-led service Sunday morning, July 22 Mission opportunities, both in the air-conditioned convention center and outside are planned. Child-care, elementary age programs and youth activities are also in the organizational stages. Breakfasts, luncheons and dinners for special interest groups are being scheduled---important fellowship opportunities. Register today. For more information, see: www.disciples.org/ga. - End - Contact: |
Hundreds of Disciples are already making plans to be part of the 2007 General Assembly in Fort Worth. They are looking forward to: