March 2016 Meeting

The first service team meeting of 2016 was in March. The primary discussion for this meeting was the women’s role. The teachers are studying the biblical role of women and how we can better utilize the gifts of women in our churches. The Women’s Service Team asked us to consider this topic.

March 22, 2016

First day discussion: How can we best utilize the gifts of women in our ministries?

The following are various thoughts that were expressed by various sisters and brothers during this discussion:

• The prophet Joel says the Spirit will be poured out on sons and daughters. We need to bring Jesus to the forefront and see how Jesus was with women. It’s not about women empowerment; it’s about how we can further the cause of Jesus.
• This topic is a crucial topic that deserves our attention.
• There’s not an active elevation of the women’s role happening in our churches. We’ve articulated the path to become a Bible talk leader, evangelist, elder, but not a woman who wants to pursue a role in the church. Girls grow up in the church, and they see the role of men elevated. What about our women? The hope is to learn together and have a wider discussion, not in pockets so we’re not repeating each other.
• It would help if we came up with a consistent hermeneutic before we move to pastoral concerns.
• Our biggest challenge is gender as it relates to the church or being a millennial in the church. If we ask our kids what they think about this topic, they will speak their mind.
• We need to discover a biblical, Christ-centered path for women to use their gifts in the church. We’ve inherited a viewpoint and taught it all over the world.
• The majority of the members of our churches are female. Often discussions about women’s role are about what they cannot do. We need to change the conversation.
• We need to ask a respectful, humble question: What did God intend? We’re brothers and sisters in Christ first and foremost. The call to lead and the call to follow are equally challenging.

Hot issues on the topic:

• Women speaking in the church
• Women teaching in the assembly
• Multi-cultural sensitivity
• Discipling – women discipling brothers  
• Offices in the church; church polity
• Role of the women’s ministry leader
• Positions in the world; secular authority
• Women leading in worship
• Disintegration of family impacting women in the church
• Mutual respect between women and men
• OT heroines who had offices and authority
• Abigail who discipled a king
• Cross-cultural assessment of our church culture
• Generational concerns
• Social trends and women’s role
• Cultural values and women’s role
• How we often reflect what’s going on in society in the church
• Church in the Bible is often counter-cultural. How does this play in the counter-cultural trends in the Bible regarding treatment of women? 

The various passages that need to be studied:

• Luke 8
• 1 Corinthians 11
• Priscilla & Aquila
• Acts 21:9, Philip’s 4 daughters
• Acts 16, Lydia
• Samaritan woman, John 4
• Mary Magdalene
• Marys of the resurrection
• Mary of Bethany, Luke 10
• Poor widow and her two mites
• Anna prophetess
• Mary the mother of God
• Matt 12:49, disciples including women
• Romans 16, 40% of Paul’s greetings in a male-dominated society are to women
• 1 Corinthians 9
• Rhoda
• Euodia & Syntyche
• 1 Thessalonians 2
• Proverbs 8
• Revelation 12
• Covenant of circumcision was for men only, but baptism was for men and women.

What are the big questions in the ICOC fellowship that we need to answer?

• Can a woman be an elder?
• Can a woman be an evangelist?
• Can a woman speak in church in a mixed company in a mixed audience?
• Can a woman pray in the assembly?

Assignment of passages to be studies to various people:

• 1 Cor 11 – Andy Fleming
• 1 Tim 2  – Kay McKean, Gordon Ferguson, Courtney Bailey
• 1 Cor 14 – Courtney Bailey, SteveKinnard
• Titus 2 – Suzette Lewis
• Write two-page papers on these scriptures

Wednesday March 23, 2016

Reports:

• At the Southwest Ministry retreat the leaders decided to begin a MTA program for the Southwest family of churches.
• Gabe Santos who was the Dean of Sociology at Lynchburg College is leaving to be on the full time staff in Richmond, VA.
• Teachers’ Blog on Disciples Today
  • Roger Lamb has invited us to set up a teachers’ blog on Disciples Today. This would be a centralized teachers’ blog that all teachers can contribute to.
  • Director/Editor: Tammy Fleming
  • Vetting – Joey Harris, Steve Kinnard, Andy Fleming
  • Everyone on the teachers team should send 2-3 articles.
• Teacher Development:
  • We need a catalogue of teachers. This catalogue would be a roster of teachers’ locations and their specialty. We should track people who want to be recognized as teachers.
  • Andy Fleming volunteered to help with this.
  • Everyone should send Andy the names, locations, and the speciality of teachers in your church family.
  • Let’s find out where we have Schools of Ministry/Missions, MTAs, who’s the director, and what work is being done in those MTAs.
  • Teachers need to be recognized by their local ministry.  This was discussed in teachers’ paper. Congregations recognize teachers in different ways and that’s fine. We want the local ministry to recognize the person.
• Teachers Working with Local Ministries:
  • How can we as teachers help with local churches to accomplishing their mission? What are ways we are trying to influence people. How can we help people grow and mature?
  • How can we help grow leaders and mature members?
    • Dave Pocta answered, we can begin with our children. How do we build faith in our teens? We use character studies, but is that best? The problem with some of our kids is that they grow up in the church, and they already have an inbred performance theology. When we do character studies, they have this idea that I have to become perfect or good enough before I am allowed to do the real studies. This creates a huge gap. Unfortunately, in our local ministries our youngest, least experienced interns are often feeding content to our teens. We need to write new material that is more God-oriented.
    • Ed Anton mentioned, in our local ministries we need to develop a hermeneutic of grace to make sure we don’t create these performance hurdles.We need to create church growth resources. The ACR has the Body Builders, Meat Eaters, and Cross Bearers classes on their Commonwealth Academy. We should collect personal ministry victories of teachers and post on the blog, Teachicoc.org website. Share on the blog something that is going on in your church where teachers are being used to grow the church. 

July 2016 Meeting in St. Louis

We invited several young prospective teachers to be a part of the meeting in St. Louis. The Teachers Service Team wanted to get the perspective of Millennials.

• Daniel Burke – Charleston, SC
• TJ Parisi – New York
• Bobby Ritter – St. Louis
• Matt Fisk – Virginia Beach
• Katie Fisk – Virginia Beach
• Talia Laing – Raleigh, NC

The Teachers Service Team, an explanation

We want to train more teachers. We want to be a service team that not only looks at difficult passages but also meets needs in the ministry. We want to teach our teachers how to develop more teachers. We want to build relationships globally with the teaching ministry and share resources with one another. We want to establish Ministry Training Academies in every region of our movement. We want to help those who have the gift of teaching to use it in a great way for God

James 3:1 reads, “Not many of you should be teachers, my brothers and sisters, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” We recognize that the teaching ministry is not for everyone. Teaching is a gift. Jesus was a rabbi, Paul spoke of himself as a teacher. The teaching role is a great role in the church, but it’s not not for everyone. There is a stricter, greater judgment. Criticism comes your way. James gives a stern warning to be careful when you teach. Speech has the ability to bless and the potential to encourage and build up. There is also the potential for false teaching.

In our context today with social media, what you say is out there forever and judgment goes on and on.

Teachers have influence in our churches. Our own Douglas J probably has traveled to more churches in our movement of churches than anyone else. And he has traveled as a teacher. Teaching opens door for us to share with people. There is a respect that is given to teachers, therefore, we have a great responsibility.

We want to create an atmosphere of admiration for one another in the teaching ministry and encourage one another to use our gifts to the utmost for God. There is no competition within this service team. We want the best for each other.

We encourage you to think about what you can do as a teacher. What you can teach? Then, get about doing that. Write a blog, teach a small group, develop a course for the church.

Some good news

• Dave Pocta – the MTAs in Africa are on a six-year cycle. They conduct two programs per year, and are just coming into their first graduates. They are working on a college credit accreditation program in South Africa. Many of the church leaders have to have some kind of formal training in Africa, so these courses help to meet that requirement.
• Ed  Anton – we’ve put our 70th person into the full time ministry out of Commonwealth Academy. Many of them are middle-aged secular folks who decided to re-evaluate their lives and serve in a full time way.
• Joey Harris – The North River church started the Atlanta School of Ministry in conjunction with AIM. Many young leaders in their 20s are attending. Columbia South Carolina started a Columbia School of Ministry. They’ve had 3 sessions for their staff. They are inviting teachers from other parts of the Southeast to attend.
• Steve K – in NY we have a ministry training program for college students. It’s a three-year program. The students do two courses at the Hope camp with students from the ACR. Teachers are Ed Anton, Dr. Deb Anton, Dr. Steve Kinnard, Dr. Gabe Santos ,Brett Miller, and others. If a student joins the program at beginning of their sophomore year, they can graduate the MTA the same time as they graduate college.
• Joey Harris reported for Courtney Bailey — the Damien Jean Baptiste Caribbean School of Ministry is now in the second year of classes. They have two campuses, the Eastern and the Western Caribbean. The entire ministry staff, plus many members, elders, and deacons are involved. The classes are held in Trinidad and Jamaica. Courtney is a full time lawyer with young children, and he helps out with church. Then, he directs the school of ministry, and if that’s not enough, he’s a PhD student in biblical studies.

Discussion on Women Using their Gifts for God

We want to continue to explore the most effective ways women can use their gifts in the church. Also, how can we as a TST help to facilitate women using their gifts? We want to promote Biblical literacy for women and help women continue to increase their love for the Bible. We know that women need to have their voices heard. We all agree that men and women are equal in God’s sight. However their roles are not interchangeable. The boundaries set by God are intended to enhance us.

The goal is to decide what we agree upon and what we will practice across all our churches.

Monday, July 4 2017 – Day 2 Teachers Service Team

We discussed possible topics to be studied in the future:

• Teachers Directory which focuses on people who are teachers, up and coming teachers, programs in existence, and developing online resources for people to use.
• How to reach the younger generation.
• The tithe, offering, and stewardship. Ed and Andy are interested in this.
• Our church as a movement. An Evaluation. Steve Staten – renaissance thinking and things we need to look at within our movement of churches, different topics that need to be addressed.
• Inputed or imparted righteousness – Ed is interested in this.
• How to reach people who are miles away from any church.
• How to discuss political matters spiritually.
• Homosexuality. Expanding Guy Hammond’s work for campuses and teens.

Discussions

• Marriage Divorce Remarriage Paper (MDR) presented by Valdur Koha
  • We’ve been looking at the following categories in this paper:
    1. What does the Bible teach/not teach, and where are we not sure of what the Bible is teaching? We should be unified as much as possible on this and have a shared hermeneutic.
    2. Counseling: what advice do we give? In specific situations, there is room for differences. It is impossible to say that everybody gets the same counseling. The paper ought to help guide the counseling sessions.
    3. Where do we exert church discipline? Ideally we are united on this.
       1. Church discipline should hold from church to church.
• Church Discipline paper presented by Steve Staten
  • Since 2003 there have been some prominent church discipline malfunctions throughout our churches. There are some recurring dynamics. Most of the problems have occurred because of carelessness. We need to realize that one bad misfire can effect a whole colony of churches and now the whole world. We are creating templates of how to handle these situations. Many people who mishandled things have commented, “I wish I had had these templates before.”
  • The idea of “tell it to the church” should be based on proximity and influence, namely, the person’s sphere of influence. We don’t want to bring members’ sins before our visitors. And, we don’t need to discipline our former members. If they have left our fellowship, they are no longer members. We are working on a road map for helping people to come back from being disfellowshipped.
• Three other important notes:
  • Gordon Ferguson resigned from being an active member of the service team. He will be a team member emeritus.
  • Steve Kinnard stepped down from chairing the group. His term was up.
  • Ed Anton will be the new chair.
• Personal note from Dr. Kinnard:

I want to express my respect for all of you who serve and have served on the Teachers Service Team. It’s been a joy to chair this team for the past several years. You guys are easy to work with. We laugh, have fun, and get work done.

Some of you pay your own way to get to our meetings. You take time away from your secular jobs to be on the team. All of you volunteer your time to work on the team. You use your gifts of scholarship and teaching to benefit our churches. You spend time writing and rewriting papers, and your name doesn’t appear on the final copy. Your sacrifice often goes unnoticed by our larger fellowship, but I’ve noticed and greatly appreciate the work you are doing. More importantly, God has noticed.

I believe we’ve done good work in the years that I’ve been with you. And, I believe that we will continue to do good in the years to come.

Much love,

Steve

Teachers Service Team Subcommittees

• Teacher Development. Valdur Koha, chair
  • Steve Kinnard, Joey Harris, Rolan Monje
• Congregational Teaching. Ed Anton, chair
  • Fred Faller, Douglas Jacoby, Joey Harris
• Technology. Arturo Elizarraras, chair
  • Joey Harris
• Accreditation/RMSMT: Glenn Giles, chair
  • Steve Kinnard
• Disputable Matters and Hermeneutics: Steve Staten, chair
  • Douglas Jacoby, Joey Harris, Kay McKean, Steve Kinnard
• Women’s Teaching Ministry. Kay McKean, Deb Anton, co-chair
  • Suzette Lewis
• International Teachers Seminar: Douglas Jacoby, chair
  • Steve Kinnard
• Divorce and Remarriage, a re-examination. Valdur Koha, chair
  • Steve Kinnard, Suzette Lewis, Courtney Bailey, Joey Harris
• Church Discipline: Steve Staten, chair
  • Deb Anton, Glenn Giles
• Women’s Role
  • Deb Anton, Suzette Lewis, Kay McKean, Steve Kinnard, Courtney Bailey, Joey Harris
• Teacher’s Corner
  • Tammy Fleming

Members of the Teachers Service Team:

Ed Anton, chair, Virginia Beach

Dr. Deb Anton, Virginia Beach

Kay McKean, Northern Virginia

Steve Brown, Buenos Aries

Steve Staten, Chicago

Dr. Douglas Jacoby, Atlanta

Joey Harris, Augusta

Andy Fleming, Moscow

Tammy Fleming, Moscow

Dr. Glenn Giles, Denver

Fred Faller, Boston

Valdur Koha, Boston

Courtney Bailey, Kingston

Arturo Elizarraras, Mexico City

Suzette Lewis, Toronto

Dr. Rolan Monje, Manila

Dave Pocta, San Antonio

Dr. Steve Kinnard, New York

The Teachers Service Team met in early April in Dallas of 2017.

Here are the items we discussed:

The Rocky Mountain School of Ministry and Theology (RMSMT) 

We began with a report from Glenn Giles, the director of the Rocky Mountain School of Ministry and Theology in Denver. The school offers both online and hybrid (online and face-to-face) classroom courses toward three state authorized Master’s degrees, one in Christian Ministry and one in Biblical Studies and now a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies with Languages (Greek and Hebrew). The school also in its relationship with Lincoln Christian University provides for students to transfer up to half of the credits taken at RMSMT toward LCU accredited Masters degrees in ministry and theology, including specifically the Master of Arts in Bible and Theology and the Master of Divinity degrees. We have just had our first RMSMT student (Jan Louie Uy) transfer graduate credits into the LCU Master of Arts in Bible and Theology program.

Many students are taking advantage of this affordable means of getting training in Bible study. Third World students are taking courses for one-fourth the tuition or less than first world students pay. It is one of our main mission goals to provide affordable graduate Bible and Ministry education to third world students. Students from the third world are very grateful for the online courses. They can have online discussions and learn from one another.

The school has been asked to create a Bachelors program. The certificate program is on hold right now as we look more at the Bachelor’s degree program for worldwide students. We had two students who began our trial certificate program but neither one has completed their first course successfully so we have discontinued the certificate program. What we are looking at doing is creating a regular MTA program here in Denver separate from the graduate or undergraduate programs of RMSMT. It would be for those students who may not be able to do graduate study or who do not want to do the full blown graduate or undergraduate level programs. But this has to be developed and would not be in our RMSMT catalog. It would be a separate entity.

Rolan Monje commented, “There has been an increase in interest for Bible knowledge in the last few years. This is especially true for older Disciples. The international component gives extra ‘sinews’ for connecting the worldwide moment. The students appreciate the teachers being active ministers.”

Steve Kinnard commented, “The school allows students to get a degree for a much reduced price before getting into Lincoln Christian University accredited degree program. The international fellowships brings a great dynamic to the online discussion. It is mutually beneficial for 1st and 3rd world partners.”

Dr. Glenn Giles is to be commended for the work he has put into the school. It was his dream to launch a theological school among our movement of churches, and the dream has become a reality.

Some of the accomplishments this year:

1. Student enrollment has now increased to 46 students, half of which are first world students and half of which are third world students. We now have students in the Philippines, Singapore, Kenya, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, UK, Haiti, and the US.
2. We had our first transfer of credits of one of our students to LCU validating the quality of our programs are on a level equivalent with regional accreditation standards.

Ministry Training Academies (MTA)

The Teachers Service Team completed a core curriculum of twelve classes for our MTAs across the world.  The curriculum was approved by the Evangelists and Elders teams. Many MTAs have been started in various regions of the world.

Most recently a MTA was started in Lagos, Nigeria to train and educate interns throughout English-speaking West Africa. Fred George is directing this school.

Also, Steve Brown reports from Ecuador:

This year we started teaching the MTA curriculum online in Spanish for the South American churches (with the help of Sebastian Sierra and the help of a number of other teachers). We are talking with Glenn Giles about becoming the Spanish arm of the Denver school. We had over 200 students sign up for the first course.

We plan on making a directory of the schools in the near future. We also plan on making a directory of the recognized teachers across our churches.

Committee Reports

• Women’s Committee
  • A committee has been formed to research the women’s role from a biblical perspective and to discuss ways that the gifts of women can be utilized in a greater way to glorify God and strengthen our churches.
  • Although we have spent time discussing this issue, no paper has been started. Some of the teachers in the Chicago church and the US Midwest churches have been working on a paper.  We need to spend more focused and directed time on this important topic.
• Technology
  • We continue to use various teaching platforms like Blackboard to get classes to our people.
• Teacher Development
  • Valdur Koha encouraged us to take a fresh look at what we want to accomplish here. Some congregations, like Boston, do have programs where teachers are being trained. Steve Kinnard asked us to take a look globally. Steve has been training teachers in Africa and the Caribbean.
  • We should ask:
    • What goals can be set for regional families?
    • What are the regional needs?
    • What are best practices?
    • What are the best models?
  • Also, we must have local buy-in for this to be effective. It is crucial that we work with regional chairmen for this to make progress.
• Disputable Matters & Hermeneutics
  • Although this has been a committee for years, we aren’t any closer to working on a paper than we were years ago. Although we understand the importance of the topic and some of us have written individually on the topic, it is difficult to get momentum as a group here. This is where a lack of resources hurts us. Most of us are working as full time staff in the ministry and doing the teaching ministry. If we could only focus on teaching, then these projects would be easier.
• International Teachers Seminar/Biblical Study Tour
  • In October of 2016 Douglas Jacoby, Steve Kinnard, and Joey Harris co-led the 2016 Biblical Study Tour to the Holy Land. Everyone had a great time walking in the steps of Jesus. The highlight for most people was the Sunday church service with prayer time in the Garden of Gethsemane.
  • In August of 2017 Jacoby and Kinnard will lead another tour. 85 people from 20 different countries are attending.  The weather will be hot, but that will not not squelch the spirit of the participants.
  • Another tour is scheduled for late October of 2018. Information can be found at https://www.douglasjacoby.com/2018-biblical-study-tour/
  • We are discussing hosting a Teachers Conference alongside one of our upcoming Teachers Service Team meeting in 2018 or 2019. Be on the lookout for more information concerning this Teachers Conference.
• Divorce and Remarriage: A paper on marriage, divorce, and remarriage has been completed. It has been sent to the evangelists and elders service teams for review.  After they review the paper, it will be posted for everyone to read and use.
• Congregational Teaching: We want to capture and highlight what is going on currently in many of our churches. Some churches are doing an excellent job here. Resources are being created, but we need a way to advertise and distribute these resources.
• Church Discipline Taskforce: A template and some background has been generated. We must figure out a way to disseminate this material to other people.
• The Teachers Corner: The Teachers Service team has a presence on Disciples Today. It is called The Teachers Corner. Tammy Fleming has done an amazing job on this project. The material can also be found at teachicoc.org. We want to continue to add material to these sites.

ICOC 3.0

A big part of the April meeting was the discussion ICOC 3.0. Ed Anton opened our discussion with a couple of questions: Why is it needed for us to do this rethink for ICOC 3.0? How can we do a better job of bringing Jesus to the entire world? Then Ed suggested, “We must try to forge something very different from what we have done in the past–The cooperation of hierarchy with the benefits of autonomy.”

Here are a few points that were made by various people during our discussion:

• Is the delegates system working?
• We must ask the question–Is what we are doing working well? 1.5% growth is low with no plan or expectation for change.
• We have lost a mantra as a movement. Our problem is not leadership. In Boston, discipleship was fantastic and simple. In ’86 to ’88 we grew fastest when we were assimilating as a movement. In ’97 Europe, Africa and the Middle East got stretched. We must revive the moment. That is more important than the structure. We must be clear about what our problem is. It takes 25 disciples to make a disciple now.
• We don’t seem to be united on a global vision. What is the best global vision for us as a movement. Is there better wording that inspires us. What is our ethos and mantra?
• We have set structure for the solution, but many people in our churches don’t understand what the problem really is. We have a concern about understanding the structure versus the mission. We are missing the component of diversity, younger people, and women in this meeting
• We need cooperation and purpose. We must be cooperative with a structure that has a clear function.

Conclusion

This discussion was healthy and vibrant. The next couple of days were spend in small group discussions on the topic.

To help prepare everyone for the ICOC 3.0 discussions, the Teachers Service Team was tasked with developing a few video lessons. The following brothers did an excellent job with their presentations:

• Ed Anton – Cooperation in the New Testament
• Steve Staten – Cooperation, A Look Through the Church History
• Gordon Ferguson – Cooperation and Autonomy, a Comparison
• Valdur Koha – Organizing For the Future

Teachers Service Team Subcommittees:

• Teacher Development. Valdur Koha, chair
  • Steve Kinnard, Joey Harris, Rolan Monje
• Congregational Teaching. Ed Anton, chair
  • Fred Faller, Douglas Jacoby, Joey Harris
• Technology. Arturo Elizarraras, chair
  • Joey Harris
• Accreditation/RMSMT: Glenn Giles, chair
  • Steve Kinnard
• Disputable Matters and Hermeneutics: Steve Staten, chair
  • Douglas Jacoby, Joey Harris, Kay McKean, Steve Kinnard
• Women’s Teaching Ministry. Kay McKean, Deb Anton, co-chair
  • Suzette Lewis
• International Teachers Seminar: Douglas Jacoby, chair
  • Steve Kinnard
• Divorce and Remarriage, a re-examination. Valdur Koha, chair
  • Steve Kinnard, Suzette Lewis, Courtney Bailey
• Church Discipline: Steve Staten, chair
  • Deb Anton, Glenn Giles
• Women’s Role
  • Deb Anton, Suzette Lewis, Kay McKean, Steve Kinnard, Courtney Bailey
• Teacher’s Corner
  • Tammy Fleming

Members of the Teachers Service Team:

Ed Anton, chair, Virginia Beach

Dr. Deb Anton, Virginia Beach

Kay McKean, Northern Virginia

Steve Brown, Buenos Aries

Steve Staten, Chicago

Dr. Douglas Jacoby, Atlanta

Joey Harris, Augusta

Andy Fleming, Moscow

Tammy Fleming, Moscow

Dr. Glenn Giles, Denver

Fred Faller, Boston

Valdur Koha, Boston

Courtney Bailey, Kingston

Arturo Elizarraras, Mexico City

Suzette Lewis, Toronto

Dr. Rolan Monje, Manila

Dave Pocta, San Antonio

Dr. Steve Kinnard, New York

BEFORE the Delegates Meeting:

2500 leaders from around the world gave their input on needs for our movement to accomplish God’s mission in the future. Task Forces were charged with focusing of one of five consensus areas of need:  Missions, Structure, Finances, Communication and Unity.  Each Task Force, made up of a variety of leaders from around the world, was charged with creating conceptual options for the Delegates to consider in their particular focus.  All the Task Force Options were published on DisciplesToday.org and icocleaders.org by the end of August.

In preparation for the 2017 Delegates Meeting in Chicago from October 4-6:

• Pray and fast. “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
• Please click here to download and read the 2017 Delegates Meeting Booklet which contains the complete program, vital information and the ballots.
• Review the additional materials below to better understand the Task Force Options.

DURING the Delegates Meeting: 

The Task Forces will each present a wide variety of options, answer questions and lead extensive discussions. Everyone will join in prayer for God’s guidance. A vote will be taken to give the Task Forces direction on which concepts to pursue.

AFTER the Delegates Meeting:

• The entire Delegates Meeting is being recorded and will be available on DToday.tv the week after the conference.
• Regional Chairmen and Delegates are encouraged to communicate the results of the Delegates Meeting to the other leaders in their Regional Families of Churches.
• The Task Forces will take the direction given them in Chicago and develop specific proposals to be discussed and reviewed through the Proposal Process for 2018.
• With much more prayer, openness, humility and collaboration, the final proposals will be voted on at the 2018 Delegates Meeting.

ICOC 3.0 Update #4  

 Conflict Resolution Task Force

• Options to Consider

Global Missions Task Force Options

• Options to Consider
• Global Missions Handout

 Structure Task Force Options

• Options to Consider
• Task Force Video

 Finances Task Force Options

• Options to Consider
• Task Force Presentation

Communications Task Force Options

• Options to Consider
• Task Force Video

By Walter Evans (Elders Service Team), Ed Anton (Teachers Service Team) and Doug Arthur (Evangelists Service Team)

As recorded in Acts 15, a historic meeting took place in the early church to consider some very difficult questions that has arisen in the brotherhood of believers. As it states in vs.6 “the apostles and elders met to consider the question” where “much discussion” took place and to be sure persuasive messages and impassioned pleas were offered regarding the topics at hand. We can most likely know that many ideas were exchanged and strong statements were made along the way. In the end we see a unified front, and a clear way for the church of the first century to move forward.

We as a family of churches are now days away from our ICOC yearly delegates meeting, “Forward by Faith”. As we gather this year in Chicago we can take encouragement that we are following similar patterns as our brothers and sisters of long ago. Unlike our previous yearly meetings which were supportive, safe, and some would say stale, this year there has been a bold attempt offered up by the service team chairmen to start a discussion and make some progress on some issues that many consider crucial to our future as a movement.

Collaboration

There has been an effort like never before to be collaborative and transparent in this gathering of information. After our elders, evangelist, and teachers service team meeting in Dallas last April, the leadership group decided it would be best to take the same questions that were discussed in Dallas and send them to the 34 Regional Family of churches and gather their results. For the first time in many years, extensive efforts have been made to not only hear from our brothers and sisters in the US, but from all corners of our international fellowship so that everyone would be on equal footing.

As reports came in from 2500 leaders from all of our families of churches, five primary areas for discussion were the obvious focus of our 3.0 discussions – Missions, Structure, Communication, Finance, and Unity. We will meet in Chicago to hear from various regions around the world, have presentations and options offered up on these five topics, have groups for prayer and discussion, and have Town Hall Meetings hosted by the Task Forces to drill deeper into these important areas. On the last day of our meeting, the delegates will have the opportunity to vote. The vote will be used to narrow the focus of each of the five Task Forces as they continue to develop and refine their final proposals for 2018. Click here to see the Delegates Meeting Program.

Corrections

And yet, unlike the Acts 15 example given above, we have not had the apostolic advantage – mistakes have been made. This attempt to “start a conversation” in our brotherhood has been received by many with positive support, and for that we are grateful. At the same time, we now realize that the process was moving too fast for such a complex topic that needed global inclusion. Thank you to the many who spoke up, and in particular the Elders Service Committee who stressed that we needed to slow down. As a result we’ve amended the schedule to add all of 2018 for the task forces to listen, gather information, petition experts in the field, collaborate, and complete the process while at the same time making sure that we stay within the proper protocols that we’ve established among our family of churches.

Although the mistake of our pace has been corrected, the more egregious violation that has been made in this process has been the hurt that has been inflicted on respected brothers who have felt marginalized and disregarded as the 3.0 process moved along. The chairmen of the Elders, Evangelists, and Teachers Service Committees sincerely apologize to those who have felt left out as things have proceeded. This was never our intent, but we hear you and we are sorry. As we finish with phase 1 in Chicago, we will double our efforts to make sure that everyone who wants to have a voice in the process can collaborate with the task forces as they formulate their proposals for 2018.

The Great Commission

Our process, certainly, has been less than perfect. Collaboration on a global scale is challenging. The good news is that God specialized in taking the imperfect and doing amazing things! As we approach Chicago, let us all be glad that the conversations have started regarding topics that are important not only to here and now, but to future generations and the salvation of souls all around the world. Let us all continue to seek God’s guidance and move “Forward by Faith” together as we strive to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

IMPORTANT:  Please click here for 2017 DELEGATES MEETING – BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER

Where can I find more info?

• ICOC 3.0 FAQs
• ICOC 3.0 Update #1
• ICOC 3.0 Update #2
• ICOC 3.0 Update #3
• ICOC 3.0 Discussion Questions
• ICOC 3.0 Regional Discussions Report
• List of Regional Chairmen and Delegates
• List of Service Team Chairmen and Members
• ICOC Leadership Timeline

A recent edition of ICOC Weekly Podcast features a talk with Ed Anton about leadership discussions currently taking place in our fellowship, entitled “Forward By Faith”- ICOC 3.0. In this special episode, Ed addresses the genesis of the discussions, the history of the process to this point, and the plan moving forward.

ICOC Weekly is available on iTunes, SoundCloud & Google Play and access to this week’s episode is below. We hope this podcast will inform many and inspire prayers about the future plan of leadership for the ICOC!

2016 brought several new sisters into the women’s service team as others transitioned out. This team consists of the Elders Service Team wives and the wives of those on the Evangelist Service Team. The women on the Teachers’ Service Team have also been a part of the group. Together, we try to keep issues pertinent to the sisters around the world in focus as we seek to fulfill our team’s purpose:

The mission of the women’s committee is as follows:

To serve the sisters around the world by providing resources for growth and inspiration through the Women Today website, planning the women’s portion of worldwide conferences, and championing the need for healthy functioning of women’s ministry throughout all of our churches.

Of late, communication has still been pinpointed as the greatest service the women’s team can provide. We continue to send devotionals, lessons and good news concerning women to women church leaders around the world. The response has been extremely meaningful, and this helps us to feel more connected.

“Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, too.” – Acts 14:27 (NLT)

At the recent 2017 Delegates Meeting in Chicago, brothers and sisters from every inhabited continent presented the progress of the gospel in their respective countries. We were all encouraged to hear of expanding elderships, scores of church plantings, new ministry training academies, and faith-building anecdotes highlighting the power of the Spirit. At the same time, we were sobered by almost 100 cities with metro populations of at least one million still awaiting a church planting.

There is much to do. So we began with power. We prayed. We prayed for every continent, every need, every opportunity presented to us from the continental representatives. We logged over 300 collective hours of prayer during the continental presentations. Moreover, most arrived in Chicago after dedicating themselves to prayer and fasting for our brotherhood.

Please click these links for the visual presentations of good news and prayer needs for each continent:

Africa
Asia
Australia
Europe/Eurasia/Middle East
Latin America
North America/Caribbean

For more information:
ICOC Regional Families of Churches
Missions News
Regional News
ICOC HotNews videos

“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us . . .” – Acts 15:28

Our 2017 ICOC Delegates meeting in Chicago represents an important mile marker for us as a global fellowship. It synthesized the recent collaborative efforts from 2500 leaders throughout 34 regional family discussions. Furnished with insights from these discussions, we assembled with broad consensus to reach the world for the gospel of Christ, to work together, and to communicate more effectively all along the way.

While we all had the same great objective, we approached it with differing strategies and structures. Those strategies took shape in five task forces: global missions, conflict resolution, structure, communications, and financing. All five groups published and distributed their ideas to the delegates in the weeks leading up to the Chicago meeting. They also presented their ideas to the delegates to prepare all for a productive time of floor discussion and debate in town hall settings.

Each of the five task forces hosted a town hall discussion in a separate room. During the three hours budgeted for the debates, most delegates and visitors gravitated toward lively dialogue with the Structure Task Force. As one delegate noted after three hours with the Structure Task Force, ”Never before could I imagine disagreeing with the majority opinion so publicly and so passionately. Before today, I would have feared being labeled or benched or marginalized. Today, I was heard and respected.” Thus, those who engaged one another did so while maintaining the unity of the Spirit.

Please click below to see the presentations made at the 2017 Delegates Meeting by these Task Forces:

Global Missions
Conflict Resolution
Structure
Communications
Financing

For more information on the written Task Force Options:

• Global Missions Task Force
• Conflict Resolution Task Force
• Structure Task Force
• Communications Task Force
• Finances Task Force

Click here to read the results of the 2017 Delegates meeting and the voting:

• ICOC 3.0 Update #5
• 2017 Delegates Voting Results

For more information on the ICOC 3.0 process:

• ICOC 3.0 FAQs
• ICOC 3.0 Update #1
• ICOC 3.0 Update #2
• ICOC 3.0 Update #3
• ICOC 3.0 Update #4
• ICOC 3.0 Discussion Questions
• ICOC 3.0 Regional Discussions Report
• List of Regional Chairmen and Delegates
• List of Service Team Chairmen and Members
• ICOC Leadership Timeline

“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.” — Philippians 1:27

Over 300 representatives —delegates, service teams and guests including women’s ministry leaders, elders, evangelists, teachers, administrators, campus and singles leaders, and teen ministers — gathered in Chicago from October 3-6, 2017 to discuss how to best move “Forward by Faith.” We gathered from disparate backgrounds and geographies (over 150 nations represented), but we gathered “firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.”

During our times of praying and debating and voting and informing, God empowered us to rise to the charge to “conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” By the end of this historic gathering, we realized that the Holy Spirit had inspired, convicted, and guided us on a path of renewed trust, respect, cooperation and love. Although we still have a distance to go in some areas to reach true consensus, we all left Chicago with a new found prayerful confidence that we will get there together by the time we reach Panama City in October of 2018 as Jesus prayed in John 17:23, that we “may be brought to complete unity” on these important matters.

Prayers for and from Every Continent

Brothers and sisters from every inhabited continent presented the progress of the gospel in their respective countries. We were all encouraged to hear of expanding elderships, scores of church plantings, new ministry training academies, and faith-building anecdotes highlighting the power of the Spirit. At the same time, we were sobered by almost 100 cities with metro populations of at least one million still awaiting a church planting.

There is much to do. So we began with power. We prayed. We prayed for every continent, every need, every opportunity presented to us from the continental representatives. We logged over 300 collective hours of prayer during the continental presentations. Moreover, most arrived in Chicago after dedicating themselves to prayer and fasting for our brotherhood. (Click here to view the Continental presentations.)

From Collaboration to Town Hall Discussions

Our Chicago meeting represents an important mile marker for us as a global fellowship. It synthesized the recent collaborative efforts from 2500 leaders throughout 34 regional family discussions. Furnished with insights from these discussions, we assembled with broad consensus to reach the world for the gospel of Christ, to work together, and to communicate more effectively all along the way. While we all had the same great objective, we approached it with differing strategies and structures. Those strategies took shape in five task forces: global missions, conflict resolution, structure, communications, and financing. All five groups published and distributed their ideas to the delegates in the weeks leading up to the Chicago meeting. They also presented their ideas to the delegates to prepare all for a productive time of floor discussion and debate in town hall settings.

Each of the five task forces hosted a town hall discussion in a separate room. During the three hours budgeted for the debates, most delegates and visitors gravitated toward lively dialogue with the Structure Task Force. As one delegate noted after three hours with the Structure Task Force, “Never before could I imagine disagreeing with the majority opinion so publicly and so passionately. Before today, I would have feared being labeled or benched or marginalized. Today, I was heard and respected.” Thus, those who engaged one another did so while maintaining the unity of the Spirit. (Click here to view the Task Force presentations.)

Voting Results

After the town hall discussions, we conducted a poll to gauge support for various ideas. With five options, the structure poll showed the most diversity of support.

11% supported a congress of churches model, 22% supported a regional chairmen model, 35% supported a region-building team model, 17% supported the current delegates model, while 16% indicated that they needed more time. If a single idea did not garner 75%+ support, then the task forces will develop the top two ideas for a 2018 proposal. Ordinarily that would narrow the structure development to only the regional chairmen model and the region-building team model. In this case, all 10 chairmen of the service teams more carefully reviewed this polling result, because many speculated that the majority of those who voted for “more time” would likely have voted for the current delegates model if they knew that the delegates model would fail to gain enough votes for further development. Therefore, the chairmen proposed that three models, rather than just two, would be developed more fully by the structure task force. The decision was very well received. So now the structure task force will expand its team to include more proponents of the current delegates model.

The results for the other task forces proved less complicated. See the graphics above. More thorough explanations of the options can be found online.

The Road Forward

The five task forces gained great insights from the town hall floor discussions with the delegates and service teams and were given direction for which concepts to develop further. Each task force will now either expand or reconfigure its team to include members who can best develop the options selected by the delegates’ polling results. Please continue to pray for these teams as they seek “the wisdom that comes from heaven.” Contact your delegate if you wish to provide input to the task forces by December 1st. By February 1, 2018, the task forces will enter their respective proposals into the delegates proposal process for multiple broad reviews resulting in the final proposals being voted on at the 2018 Delegates Meeting.

Access all the Presentations from Chicago

Please visit disciplestoday.com and icocleaders.org, for all ICOC 3.0 materials and ongoing updates as we move forward by faith. All of the continental presentations and the task force presentation videos will be available at DToday.tv as soon as they are edited by ICOC HotNews.

Ed Anton (Teachers Service Team Chair), Walter Evans (Elders Service Team Chair), Doug Arthur (Evangelists Service Team Chair)

Over 300 representatives —delegates, service teams and guests including women’s ministry leaders, elders, evangelists, teachers, administrators, campus and singles leaders, and teen ministers — gathered in Chicago from October 3-6, 2017 to discuss how to best move “Forward by Faith.”

We gathered from disparate backgrounds and geographies (over 150 nations represented), but we gathered “firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.”

To watch all four days of the conference, click here.

The Structure Task Force would like to thank all the brothers and sisters who have shown their support by praying and joining the discussions regarding ICOC 3.0. Several of you have accepted the challenge and are sharing your passion and insight by becoming a part of one of the three Subgroups tasked with further developing the three models voted on in October. The deadline for general input on these models is December 1, 2017.

Subgroup Chairmen:
Model B: Valdur Koha [valdurkoha@gmail.com]
Model C: Ed Anton [edwardanton@gmail.com]
Model D: Ron Quint [ronquint@hotmail.com]

Each Subgroup has a working team to refine their particular model. Selected by the Subgroup chairman, each team will be involved in conference calls as they seek God’s guidance through prayer and healthy collaboration.

However, we know there are brothers and sisters who want to contribute to this work. We want to encourage you to reach out to the chairman of the Model of your choice and share your thoughts and ideas by giving your feedback and input.

As announced at the Chicago Delegates Meeting and published in the ICOC 3.0 Update #5, the last date for each Subgroup to get feedback and input from you is December 1, 2017. We want to hear from you.

Here is the Delegates Meeting summary video:

ICOC 3.0 Structure Task Force
Dinesh George, Chairman
Bangalore, India

Currently in our fellowship there are approximately 7000-8000 campus students worldwide. Typically this is the fastest growing sector of our family of churches. Therefore we have invested a significant portion of our resources and attention to campus initiatives. It has been much easier to keep the US campus ministries connected to one another than it is for the US campus ministries to stay connected to those ministries abroad, for obvious reasons. Yet, there is a lot of work going on outside the US to build campus ministry as well.

While the hub of campus ministry began in the US, we are still trying to figure out ways to more easily and consistently get news about what is happening all over the world. As campus ministers are the least internationally connected and the ones who are least likely to travel abroad to make those connections, the work of regular international communication is very much incomplete. Therefore this report will largely cover the US efforts. We are hoping in the near future to produce a report of the excellent work that is taking place outside the US to complement the current one.

US Results from the 2016-2017 Campaign

This year the campus ministries seemed to take a small step back. We had almost a 10% decrease in conversions from Fall 2016 to Spring 2017 semesters. As there is no pattern to examine for this decrease (our first decline in over a decade) the reasons for this could be manifold. There is no reason to think that the conversions will not rebound.

One common element that most of the campus regions in the US seemed to identify was the smaller number of graduates desiring to enter the full-time ministry. The fact that this is happening broadly seems to indicate something significant. As a result this issue was speciffically addressed during the ICMCs this year. The call for students to consider a life of ministry was impressed during some of the classes and keynote messages. Whether this is connected to lower rates of conversions remains to be seen, but is certainly a possibility. Either way, these are things largely upon the committee’s radar during the coming year.

Members

The Campus Service Team is presently made up of US and international representatives. Many of our international brothers have moved on from the campus ministry and we are still in the midst of repopulating our international member list. We will have a better idea of which international leaders will be partners to our US based representatives by mid-year.

Our October meeting in Chicago proved once again to be a time of inspiration, forward thinking and a realization of the huge task at hand to fulfill our mission. 2017 brought several new sisters into the women’s service team as others transitioned out. This team consists of the Elders Service Team wives and the wives of those on the Evangelist Service Team. The women on the Teachers’ Service Team have also been a part of the group. Together, we try to keep issues pertinent to the sisters around the world in focus as we seek to fulfill our team’s purpose.

The mission of the women’s committee is:

Inspiring women globally to grow spiritually, connect, and advance the gospel.

Of late, communication has still been pinpointed as the greatest service the women’s team can provide. Plans of developing a communications subcommittee that explores options of ways to gather and share spiritual resources and training materials for women in leadership was identified as a need we will work towards. We continue to send devotionals, lessons and good news concerning women to women church leaders around the world weekly. The response has been extremely meaningful. This also helps us to feel more connected.

In the most recent gathering of the women’s service team several topics were discussed. First, a top concern was uniting women generationally as God’s daughters across the world. There was a strong desire expressed to find ways of representing every demographic of women in our fellowship. We spoke of striving to represent a voice for those who are not able to attend meetings. We acknowledged that it will take a concerted effort to ensure that we are truly representing the voices of the sisters in every part of the world and across our collective generations. We want to strive to gain a wide range of perspectives and to hear the needs from sisters in each stage of life. One suggestion brought forward was to find more non-paid ministry sisters that deeply have the women’s ministry on their hearts. That we would work to involve them and to gather their input, their suggestions and ultimately their participation in achieving our mission.

We landed on a decision to continue utilizing a globally recognized day to highlight our vision. The global “International Women’s Day” takes place every year on March 8th. The 2018 theme for us will be “Push for Spiritual Progress” So on March 7th of 2018 we will have a day of prayer and fasting for the sisters in all of our churches. Then we are asking that on March 8th the sisters around the world act on that prayer and push for spiritual progress as they serve God in whatever way God has so moved them. We feel that this event will be both unifying and productive and can continue to serve as an annual event for our sisterhood. Our goal is to continue to capitalize on this day each year. Annually we will come together in whatever ways we can to meet the needs of the women around us. Our vision is to see a greater level of unity through prayer, servitude, Bible studies, meeting the needs of the poor or even some day rallying women to hear God’s word preached at conferences around the world.

You can read about this year’s exciting time and all the ways God has moved by clicking here: Be Bold for Spiritual Change.

Also please note this important website providing resources for growth and inspiration, Women Today.

Our committee consists of the following women:

Kim Evans – Elders Wives Service Team Chair

Marci Arneson – Evangelist Wives Service Team Chair

Wives of Evangelists Service Team: Rolayo Ogbonnaya (Lagos); Vicky Auki (Nairobi); Faridah Enrile (Manilla); Caroline George (Bangalore); Siu Wai Wong (Hong Kong); Anne-Brigitte Taliaferro (San Antonio); Patty Asaad (Dallas); Marci Arneson (Chicago); Cynthia Powell (New York); Joyce Arthur (Boston); Kay McKean (N.Virginia); Renee Quint (Los Angeles); Tatyana Zhuravlev (Moscow); Helen Nanjundan (London); Tatiana Kravetz (Kiev); Silvia Mendez (Mexico City); Sarai Serra (Buenos Aires)

Wives of Elders Service Team: Jeanie Shaw (Boston); Abigail Ereola (Lagos); Gloria Baird (Phoenix); Sally Hooper (Dallas); Elexa Liu (Hong Kong); Pat Brush (S. Florida); Linda Brumley (San Diego); Mary Lou Craig (New York); Geri Laing (S. Florida); Kim Evans (Philadelphia); Erica Kim (Denver); Sharon Gauthier (Chicago); Erlyn Sugarman (Los Angeles)

Women on the Teacher’s Service Team: Deb Anton (Virginia Beach), Tammy Flemming (Seattle), Suzette Lewis (Toronto), Kay McKean (N.Virginia)

The Administration Service Team was created in late 2016 with the approval of the ICOC Delegates at the July 2016 REACH Summit. The team was commissioned to focus on identifying guidelines and methods for the effective administration of churches in multiple areas, with committees set up for future focus. Recognizing that legal and other issues faced by churches in the United States are not the same outside the US, the team is determined to clarify the spiritual and conceptual issues underlying policies and procedures so that appropriate versions can be adapted in other countries, cultures, and regulatory/legal environments. At the same time, some products can be adapted fairly directly.

One of the earliest goals will be the development of a library of compensation models, based on the Hay method, that will provide a set of frameworks for churches to select a compensation plan. The models are highly adaptable, enabling churches to find a solid, objective basis for paying their staff. The Compensation subcommittee expects to complete the initial library of models in 2018.

At the team’s meeting in Chicago in October 2017, we were delighted and honored to have all four (4) lead administrators from the African regional church families in attendance.

Carol Abuor Ochieng – Nairobi, Kenya

Erick Li Sik – Johannesburg, South Africa

Michael Koutouan – Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Sam Onuoha – Lagos, Nigeria

The African Missions Society made this possible, and God blessed all four with visas to attend. Although our only current team member from outside the United States is Paul Rowden from London, Paul Ramsey has invested many years of direct service training to churches in Africa, and Christen McDuffee has been directly involved in administration and service with the European churches. We are hoping to have additional participation from experienced church administrators outside the United States. Ray Schalk, administrator for the San Diego church, also attended the October meeting.

Team structure and organization

Vision – to provide support to ICOC ministries to maximize the sustained growth and strength of the work of the Lord. “Do all that you have in mind. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.” –1 Samuel 14:7

Mission

Church administration will serve the ministry, not as boundary keepers and naysayers, but by facilitating the preparation and execution of the superlative track – smoothing the rough edges that might otherwise tamper, distract, or perhaps even derail, the work.

• Set a standard of an upward call to disciples who are talented administratively to devote their skills and experience to church administration as a ministry, whether on a full-time or part-time basis.
• Provide training for church administration, using regional and local programs as well as web-based platforms to enable churches of all sizes to secure and retain effective administrative personnel, whether volunteer or employed.
• Ensure current awareness of issues (legal, administrative and social) and establish guidelines and protocols to protect the ministries and to facilitate maximum sustained growth.

Team membership and committees

Human Resources Committee (including Compensation, Benefits, Employment Practices)

Steve Smith, Chair – Dallas, Texas
Christen McDuffee – Boston, Massachusetts
Gary Slebodnick – Boston, Massachusetts
Tom McCurry – Los Angeles, California

Compensation Subcommittee

Gary Slebodnick – Boston
Steve Smith – Dallas

Governance (including Board, Legal, Policies/Procedures)

Cheryl Kaplan – Northern Virginia
Paul Ramsey – Columbia, South Carolina

General Administration (including Accounting, Taxation)

Connie Beene, Chair – New York City
Vivian Hanes – Atlanta, Georgia
Brian Gross – St. Louis, Missouri

International Administration

Paul Ramsey, Chair – Columbia
Christen McDuffee – Boston
Paul Rowden – London, England

Risk Management (including Liability Insurance)

Tom Briscoe, Chair – Dallas
Cheryl Kaplan – Northern Virginia
Paul Ramsey – Columbia

Position Title: Regional Communications Director (RCD)

Purpose: The position of the RCD is to further the mission of Disciples Today: To inspire, inform, unify and grow the International Churches of Christ.

Location: This is a remote position and can be fulfilled alongside other work responsibilities.

Qualities Required:

1. Recognized as a reliable and effective communicator.
2. Responds promptly to emails and other forms of communication.
3. Works well with the Regional Church Family Chairman & ICOC Global Communications Chairperson.
4. The position will be a self-driven one-year commitment, re-appointed annually by the Regional Family Chairman

Key Responsibilities:

1. Provide an updated Regional Family Church Leadership Directory with updated email addresses, phone numbers & website addresses to Disciples Today and ICOC HotNews to keep in our ICOC database.
2. Update the Disciples Today “Church Locator” whenever there are changes or new churches are planted.
3. Liaise with the CEO of Disciples Today on Key Global Communications and ensure they are passed on to the relevant local leadership groups in your Regional Family of Churches.
4. Inquire about and encourage the churches to regularly show the HotNews and HOPEww videos in his/her geographic region.

Additional Responsibilities:

1. Provide good news stories to DT, ICOC HotNews, HOPEww and the relevant Missions Societies from your family of churches. (The frequency of these would be determined by the Regional Chairman of your family of churches.)
2. Develop a network of volunteer journalists in their family of churches to provide stories and respond quickly in times of emergencies.
3. Communicate key events and deadlines relevant to the ICOC family of churches.

Support Provided:

1. Regional Family Chairman will empower you to find, write and publish stories.
2. Disciples Today will work with you to develop best practices and provide assistance in developing tools for communications.

“Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise.” — Psalm 79:13

As our Uber driver dropped us off at America’s Center in St. Louis, he exclaimed, “The news people should be down here telling this story! These people are so young, happy and diverse!”  That pretty much sums up the nearly 18,000 who attended Reach2016, the ICOC North American Discipleship Summit July 7-10.

As Jeff Mannel, conference director and lead evangelist for the host Gateway City Church, shared in the summary video, from his hotel room it looked like ants with lanyards took over downtown St. Louis.  They came from Canada, the United States and the Caribbean to love, listen and learn. ICOC leaders from around the world attended the International Leadership Conference. Others shared in the teen, campus, singles, marrieds, Spanish and deaf tracks that ran concurrently.

At night and on Sunday the entire crowd filled half of The Dome stadium with spirit-lifting singing, powerful messages and bone-crushing hugs. A new feature incredibly well-received this year was the men’s and women’s programs on Saturday morning in a Ted Talk and interview format.

Each general session celebrated a different theme as Shawn Wooten moved us to Reach Up, Chip Mitchell challenged us to Reach In, Doug Arthur inspired us to Reach Out and Frank Kim showed us that God’s vision is Within Reach. Even as the U.S. was filled with tragic violence and racial tension that very week, disciples of all races, economic, education and social levels stood level at the foot of the cross in love, hope and faith praying for God to use us to bring the real answer to our countries, cities and neighborhoods.

Just the videos of these large assemblies alone have been loaded over 121,000 times in over 100 countries. In addition, hundreds of classes have been listened to on audio. All are available on DToday.tv for viewing, listening and download.

Before Reach, various ICOC Service Teams, the ICOC Delegates and numerous missions groups met to plan and pray for God’s blessings. A new website was released that provides transparent leadership information for our global efforts: www.icocleaders.org.

During Reach, numerous workshops were held addressing needs from grief recovery to Kingdom Kid leaders to empty nesters, adoptive families, professionals, and more. HOPE worldwide’s new CEO Robert Carrillo held an extensive workshop and celebrated their 25^th anniversary! During the weekend, the generous gathering donated over $120,000 to HOPE worldwide to serve the poor. Steve Johnson and Sherwin Mackintosh produced a revival of the famous Upside Down musical that sold out six shows in the beautiful Ferrara Theater. The DVD will be available for distribution soon.

God has truly blessed us with incredibly talented disciples to lead us in profound and meaningful worship. Thanks to Brian Craig and many others for months of tireless preparation. Incredible servants volunteered at every level to make this major event happen. Through the visionary leadership of Jeff Mannel and the elders of the Gateway City Church, and the partnership with Disciples Today, new advances were made in technology for the registration, the app, the presentations and the entire experience. The entire team from the Gateway Church heroically set new standards of excellence for us all. I seriously doubt there is any other conference you can attend of this caliber and content for this low of a registration fee. Sometimes it helps to hear the observations of brothers who have not previously been to our gatherings. You will enjoy this column by Lynn McMillon, CEO of the Christian Chronicle who attended with his wonderful wife Joy, former editor.

Continental Summits

These gatherings are well worth the miles, hours and dollars just for the family reunion but they are invaluable for the spiritual impact on personal lives and souls. A much smaller conference in Florida changed my life 40 years ago this month. Others too numerous to mention have sped my spiritual growth over the years. How do these assemblies relate to our movement at this hour?  My personal view is that God speaks to us and moves us powerfully reminiscent of gatherings we read of in the Bible. After years of incredible miracles and monumental meetings through our movement’s first 20 years, we faced a serious crisis that caused us to reevaluate our convictions, our hearts and our relationships. God honored our humility, faith and repentance and gave us a new, more mature vision for his will. Disciples began gathering again in regional and global conferences first to comfort each other and then to seek his will anew. God hadn’t changed. Gratefully he changed us.

Mike Taliaferro and the heroic Mission Point Church in San Antonio, Texas offered to host a World Discipleship Summit in 2012. Speculation was high about how many would come. Leaders were wondering if we should dare even mention a goal of 10,000. Through great prayer, planning and cooperation, 17,000 showed up for that historic moment. Tears flowed as we worshipped and recommitted ourselves to God, each other and the lost. The membership spoke loud and clear they were ready for our spiritual leaders to lead. A crucial moment happened in the final sermon when Mike Taliaferro challenged us with the need for a new global missions plan. The crowd erupted in applause and joy.

Since that gathering God moved the hearts of leaders on every continent to host a Discipleship Summit in 2016. TheAsian Summit was the first held in June in Bali, Indonesia and opened with a baptism service for over 50 people! TheAfrican Discipleship Summit was held August 4-7 in Accra, Ghana. The Australian Summit is in Sydney in September and the Las Américas Summit is in October in Lima, Peru. Other gatherings are being held as well.

Mission and generation

Two crucial themes stayed with me from Reach: mission and generation. God showed us in San Antonio we were able to not just survive but to thrive. In St. Louis, God called us to move from just thriving to his mission. Since that moment in San Antonio, our evangelists have been working hard to develop a global missions strategy with our elders, professionals, and men and women of all races and nations.

The Global Missions committee, first led by Doug Arthur and succeeded by AT Arneson of Chicago, distributed an incredible handbook of the ICOC Global missions plan to every person attending the International Leadership Conference, one of the Reach tracks, outlining in detail the work, giving and dreams of the 14 missions groups who are committed to each evangelizing their focused part of the world and to collaboration and cooperation with each other. In his keynote message, with the help of several Scriptures and Frisbees, Boston missionary and lead evangelist Doug Arthur lifted our eyes to “Reach Out” farther and deeper than ever before.

Closing out the conference, Denver elder and missionaryFrank Kim drew our attention that God’s plan for mission is from generation to generation. Clearly walking us through the Scriptures, he showed us that the Bible never gives the command to evangelize the world in one generation, which we too often have zealously but mistakenly applied to the Great Commission of Jesus. But throughout the Scriptures, God expresses his heart’s desire that every generation acknowledge him and pass their faith on to the next generation. My prayer is this will become a seminal moment in our movement.

God gave me a personal powerful visual aid for these two messages. Jeff Mannel, Reach director, first came to a vacation Bible school in Charleston, Illinois nearly 40 years ago. I drove him and his brother to our church on Sundays and Wednesdays after that because they loved our Kingdom Kids ministry. Eventually their parents, John and Nancy, came to see what this church was all about. They had put up a for sale sign on their house and been to a divorce lawyer.

Soon after, John and Nancy were baptized into Christ and have since seen all their children and some grandchildren become disciples, and have served in shepherding roles in Chicago, Los Angeles and now St. Louis. Jeff just led us in our best and largest conference ever. How different that story could have been. What a great illustration of mission and generation.

I close with a few prayer requests. Two men met during Reach were baptized recently, one from St. Louis and another from Texas! Also, one of our rising young stars, Conor McCormick, a 16-year-old from Springfield, Massachusetts, was severely injured in a diving accidentwhen he returned home from Reach. Please bring these brothers before the Lord as well as all those baptized in Bali and everyone attending these conferences around the world.

We cannot wait to hear of how God will move in the other Summits this year and in the lives of each person. We are deeply grateful to the valiant Gateway City Church who hosted us in St. Louis. And we pray God will move us powerfully to Reach Up, In, Out and Beyond over the next four years and then gather in Orlando, Florida for the 2020 World Discipleship Summit to celebrate and take his next challenge.

ICOC International Leadership Conference – Seattle, Washington

Editor’s Note:   The following announcement was made on September 10 at the conclusion of the 2005 International Leadership Conference for the International Churches of Christ in Seattle, Washington.  Disciples Today encourages ICOC church websites to translate and publish this announcement in your language. 

Background

For many months, numerous brothers from our family of churches around the world have expressed a desire for a greater brotherhood cooperation to meet the needs of the disciples, the lost and the poor.

Following discussions with and recommendations from several church leaders around the world and sensing the opportunity for cooperation at the 2005 International Leadership Conference in Seattle, the elders and regional evangelists of the Los Angeles Church introduced a proposal a few weeks ago that included an appeal for brotherhood unity and revival.  In the days that followed, it became obvious that additional time would enable more churches to prayerfully consider this initiative and furnish additional input and even other proposals. Therefore, at the beginning of the International Leadership Conference, the Los Angeles brothers recommended that their proposal be a part of a wider plan to solicit other proposals and asked the many churches who had agreed to the original initiative, or had expressed strong interest in it, to extend patience in favor of this broader plan to solicit additional proposals from all parts of our fellowship for consideration.

Selection

Since we have no worldwide representative group in place, this idea was presented in Seattle to the planning group for the next International Leadership Conference.  The idea seemed good to the 33 brothers who were from most geographical areas of the world.  After some discussion and much prayer, 9 brothers were selected to serve on a group to gather input for a brotherhood cooperation proposal.  These men were selected by the simple qualifications of: servants who were full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3); who hold the deep truths of the faith (1 Timothy 3:9); have been tested and proven faithful (1 Timothy 3:10); are advocates of a cooperative effort (Ephesians 4:1-3); have no selfish ambition (James 3:13-16); have gifts needed for this task (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12); desire to serve in this group; and have global relationships (2 Timothy 3:10)

The 33 worldwide conference planning members spent a night in prayer and then selected the following brothers by secret ballot, commending them to the fellowship to serve as the Cooperation Proposal Group:  

Andy Fleming, Missions Evangelist, Middle East and Eurasia   
Mike Fontenot, Evangelist and Elder, Hampton Roads, Virginia
Scott Green, Evangelist, Seattle, Washington
Philip Lam, Evangelist, Hong Kong, China
John Louis, Evangelist, Singapore, Southeast Asia
Sam Powell, Evangelist and Elder, New York, New York
Steve Staten, Evangelist and Teacher, Chicago, Illinois
Mike Taliaferro, Evangelist, San Antonio, Texas and Africa
Bruce Williams, Evangelist and Elder, Los Angeles, California

Process

These brothers will now solicit and accept proposals for brotherhood cooperation, unity and revival from anyone with a desire to build the body of Christ to the glory of God.  To help keep this process manageable and progressive, the Cooperation Proposal Group respectfully requests that groups of disciples from all parts of our fellowship of churches discuss, pray and submit proposals to this group by November 1, 2005.  Information about how to submit your proposal will soon be available on the Disciples Today website.  

The only purpose of this group is to review all proposals, prayerfully synthesize the best ideas from them, and by February 1, 2006  to submit a recommended proposal for brotherhood consideration to our family of churches

We appreciate the willingness of these brothers to serve.  This process is all about respectfully listening to each other and seeking God’s will for brotherhood, unity, cooperation and mission.  The Cooperation Proposal Group will send out more details regarding the proposals soon.  Please continue to pray that we will all seek the Spirit of unity and revival that God desires for us.

Prayer and Fasting

The brothers in the Cooperation Proposal Group will spend November 1, 2005 in prayer and fasting for the Spirit’s guidance and wisdom.  We would appreciate any and all who are willing and able to join us in prayer and fasting that day and any other day as we seek God’s will.  

Beginning Monday, September 19, proposals can be sent to:   unity@chnts.net

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are grateful to God for all he has done among our family of churches called The International Churches of Christ.  He has redeemed us by the blood of Christ, built churches on every continent, disciplined us as his sons and daughters and now is preparing a harvest of righteousness and truth.  The opportunities ahead are staggering.

From the firestorm we have experienced together, we have all been refocused on the foundation of our churches which is — Jesus Christ.  We have also been given greater insight into which parts of our ministries were being built with "gold, silver and costly stones" and which were being built with "wood, hay or straw."  As a fellowship of churches we again have the opportunity to do what many Christian groups would long for – to recommit ourselves to the ideal of searching out the Scriptures for biblical principles and working together to humbly and prayerfully become the unified, caring body of Christ that God wants us to be – and to redefine their identity and connection in a prayerful, humble, collaborative and unifying manner.

During the International Leadership Conference in Seattle, it was evident that the Spirit of God was producing a growing desire for greater cooperation and unity among our fellowship of churches as a greater number of leaders were made more aware of the spiritual and financial toll that some of our churches have paid because of a breakdown of either unity, connection, or organization in different parts of our fellowship of churches.  Out of a desire to help meet those and other needs, as described in more detail in the above excerpt from the announcement that first appeared on www.DisciplesToday.net, it was thought best to solicit and gather proposals from as many as possible.  We have been asked to facilitate this process.  Although we all know that there are many others who are equally (or more) qualified, we humbly accept this opportunity to serve the Body of Christ through our family of churches.

Purpose:  The Holy Spirit created a unity among us through our repentance and baptism into the body of Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and our mission as disciples of Christ.  The challenge given to us in Scripture is to "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:3)  How we make every effort is where the proposals come in.  Many of us see a need for greater unity and connections between congregations and leaderships of churches.  We are eager to hear from those who have specific proposals.

Submitting Proposals:  Our first goal is to make sure that every part of our brotherhood is invited to submit proposals for cooperation.

While we will certainly review proposals submitted by individuals, in order to make this project manageable, we ask that individuals first consider working in groups to allow the Spirit to work through each of you and to present us with your collective wisdom.  "Many advisers make victory sure." (Proverbs 11:14)    Many of us are already traveling to, calling, speaking with and listening to various segments of our churches to make sure that the next month will be a fruitful writing and discussion period.  We want everyone in our family of churches to have the opportunity to contribute to this process.  Please forward this notice to others.

Scope of Proposals:  The scope of these proposals is to offer a practical, godly way for our churches to cooperate in a unified manner to glorify God and accomplish his will.  The most important issue is that we develop a clearly identified way to cooperate in a global manner to proclaim the gospel of Christ while respecting the local church. 

Please feel free to address whatever part of our brotherhood cooperation and identity that you are most concerned with.  Some of the areas that others have expressed a desire to address: simple statement of beliefs, mission plantings and funding, reconciliation and conflict resolution, continued training and shepherding of evangelists, elders, missionaries, and planted churches, unified beliefs, advice for hurting or weak churches, developing standards for administration, helping churches without ministers and ministers without churches, joint efforts with our youth, campus, singles, helping the poor, leadership development, etc.  You may have a proposal that would address one or many of these areas. 

We want to be clear to those who have trouble with writing, especially among to those outside of America – even brief emails and bullet points, no matter how coarse, are welcome.  If you are limited by technology or language, please send your proposal on paper to any one of us and we will do our best to bring your thoughts as input into the process.  Or send your proposal to:  Steve Staten   655 W. Grand Avenue  Suite 220   Elmhurst, Illinois  60126.

We are not suggesting that the proposal that will be submitted by us to the churches by February 1, 2006 will be intended to solve every major challenge facing our churches.  However, it is our prayer that God will help us suggest a proposal that will strengthen us locally and globally and enable us to more effectively accomplish God’s purposes throughout the world. The great diversity among us is a gift from God.  When each part of our fellowship of churches works in unison and harmony, God will be glorified as souls are saved, healed and matured.  (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4)

Process:  We request that all proposals be sent by November 1, 2005 to:  unity@chnts.net.  We will prayerfully review all proposals, synthesize the best ideas from them, and by February 1, 2006, submit a recommended proposal for brotherhood consideration to our family of churches.

Maintaining Connection
We ask all willing and able disciples to pray and fast with us on November 1, 2005 for the Spirit’s guidance and wisdom.  We ask that you continue to pray that the Spirit will work together through us so that the resulting proposal by February 1, 2006 is fruitful in answering the main questions as to how we will connect and cooperate maintaining the Spirit’s unity in the future.  We are committed to using the Bible as our standard and guide.  The New Testament reveals churches sharing their correspondence (Colossians 4:16, Revelation 1-3), working together to solve an inter-congregational problem (Acts 15:1-4), financially supporting missionaries and mission work (Philippians 4:14-18), cooperating in helping the poor saints in Judea (2 Corinthians 8:16-21), etc.   Although many of our congregations currently enjoy association with other sister congregations through cooperative mission efforts, historical ties and geographic proximity, there unfortunately remain others that feel isolated and unsupported or unsure as to how to proceed into the future.  Let us consider how to help all parts of our family.

The recent Seattle conference revealed the sincere, widespread desire for togetherness and cooperation in our fellowship.   There was a desire in the fellowship for new visions and improved plans to help our lost world receive the salvation of Jesus Christ.  Truly God has blessed our family of churches to now be composed of mature churches, young adult and very young churches. As we let our Heavenly Father lead this family, the overall mood of our fellowship indicates that the vast majority of our churches desire unity, cooperation, coordination while renouncing selfish ambition and competition

Updates
All proposals should be sent to unity@chnts.net by November 1, 2005.  Watch www.DisciplesToday.net for updates from this proposal group.  We solicit your prayers.
 
In Christ’s service,
 
Andy Fleming
Mike Fontenot
Scott Green
Philip Lam
John Louis
Sam Powell
Steve Staten
Mike Taliaferro
Bruce Williams
 
 
2005 Brotherhood Cooperation Proposal Group Announcement Excerpt

Background
For many months, numerous brothers from our family of churches around the world have expressed a desire for a greater brotherhood cooperation to meet the needs of the disciples, the lost and the poor. 
 
Following discussions with and recommendations from several church leaders around the world and sensing the opportunity for cooperation at the 2005 International Leadership Conference in Seattle, the elders and regional evangelists of the Los Angeles Church introduced a proposal a few weeks ago that included an appeal for brotherhood unity and revival.  In the days that followed, it became obvious that additional time would enable more churches to prayerfully consider this initiative and furnish additional input and even other proposals. Therefore, at the beginning of the International Leadership Conference, the Los Angeles brothers recommended that their proposal be a part of a wider plan to solicit other proposals and asked the many churches who had agreed to the original initiative, or had expressed strong interest in it, to extend patience in favor of this broader plan to solicit additional proposals from all parts of our fellowship for consideration.

Selection
Since we have no worldwide representative group in place, this idea was presented in Seattle to the planning group for the next International Leadership Conference.  The idea seemed good to the 33 brothers who were from most geographical areas of the world.  After some discussion and much prayer, 9 brothers were selected to serve on a group to gather input for a brotherhood cooperation proposal.  These men were selected by the simple qualifications of: servants who were full of the Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3); who hold the deep truths of the faith (1 Timothy 3:9); have been tested and proven faithful (1 Timothy 3:10); are advocates of a cooperative effort (Ephesians 4:1-3); have no selfish ambition (James 3:13-16); have gifts needed for this task (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12); desire to serve in this group; and have global relationships (2 Timothy 3:10)

The 33 worldwide conference planning members spent a night in prayer and then selected the following brothers by secret ballot, commending them to the fellowship to serve as the Cooperation Proposal Group: 

Andy Fleming, Missions Evangelist, Middle East and Eurasia  
Mike Fontenot, Evangelist and Elder, Hampton Roads, Virginia
Scott Green, Evangelist, Seattle, Washington
Philip Lam, Evangelist, Hong Kong, China
John Louis, Evangelist, Singapore, Southeast Asia
Sam Powell, Evangelist and Elder, New York, New York
Steve Staten, Evangelist and Teacher, Chicago, Illinois
Mike Taliaferro, Evangelist, San Antonio, Texas and Africa
Bruce Williams, Evangelist and Elder, Los Angeles, California