Our online business meeting at the Come and Believe Regional Assembly is the last time the Christian Church in Illinois and Wisconsin and the Christian Church, Michigan Region will conduct business as two separate bodies. On January 1, the future Living Waters Region becomes, simply, the Living Waters Region. Nearly everything on this year’s agenda is the work of building toward that day: the approvals and commitments that carry three states of Disciples into one emerging region.
Meeting online is a practical gift as much as a necessity. A pastor in Detroit and an elder in southern Illinois can both take their seat at the same table without a tank of gas or a night away from home. The region we are becoming stretches across three states, and it makes sense to gather the way that region will often have to gather — present to one another across distance, and no less the church for it.
And this is no ordinary business meeting! The evening opens in praise and prayer, moves through the work the region has set before us, and closes at the Table, where we share communion across the miles — one loaf and one cup, honored in a dozen places at the same hour, the same Spirit moving over a video call the way she moves over water.
Think of it as worship that happens to include a docket.
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
– John 7:37–38 (NRSVUE)
If your congregation is sending delegates, they must be registered in advance. Once you register, you’ll receive the video link and voting instructions by email in the days before October 1.
Register for the online business meeting.
Come and BELIEVE with us and be part of the new thing God is doing in Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin!