Praying Together

Join with Regional Minister Josh Patty for fifteen minutes of prayer on Thursday, January 4 at 9:30 am via YouTube or Facebook. This is a time of prayer for the congregations, ministers, and shared ministries of our region. Josh will invite joys and concerns and pray through part of the 2024 regional prayer calendar. A recording of the prayer time will be available on regional YouTube and Facebook pages. In 2024, Praying Together will happen live on first Thursdays of each month at 9:30 am.

After Christmas Sermon

Rev. Josh Patty's sermon "Pondering" is available to churches in the Upper Midwest for use on any Sunday after Christmas. The sermon, along with worship resources based upon Luke 2:19, were sent via email on December 15. If you missed it, please contact office@uppermidwestcc.org to receive them again.

Staff Departure

For personal reasons, Rev. Katie Russell Hainline has resigned from her position as Interim Associate Regional Minister for Camp and Connections. Some of her responsibilities will be assumed by Transitional Executive Regional Minister, Rev. Lisa Grace, while other duties are still being assigned. Rest assured, plans for the 2024 camp season are underway! You can send inquiries to office@uppermidwestcc.org.



Christmas Special Offering, December 17 & 24

The Christmas Special Offering supports regional ministries. This includes church camp and other youth programs, the training and support of pastors, walking with congregations in search and call, congregational ministry grants, and more! 100% of your Christmas Offering gifts remain in the Upper Midwest Region for our shared ministries and needs. You are invited to share this Christmas Offering video with your congregations.

UMW Celebrations

Rev. Jim Wakelin, pastor of Davis Street Christian Church in Ottumwa, retires after many years of faithful ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Rev. Josh Patty presented him with the Honored Ministers Pin.

Operations Council News

At the Nov. 16 meeting, regional officers were elected to 1 year terms: 

• Moderator: Dennis Sanders, pastor of First Christian Church, St Paul, MN
• Vice-Moderator/Moderator-elect: Mark MacWhorter, pastor of First Christian Church, Sac City, IA
• Treasurer: Tim Butler, member of Elkhart Christian Church, Elkhart, IA
• Secretary: David Lester, member of Norwalk Christian Church, Norwalk, IA

The regional Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation team shared their charter, which was approved by the Operations Council. This formal recognitional is encouraged by Reconciliation Ministry as a means of support and accountability.

A Reconciliation Grant was approved for Downtown Disciples and New Beginnings Christian Church who, along with Urbandale United Church of Christ, are beginning a Q & A (Queer and Ally) Youth Group and Ministry in the Des Moines area.

CMEP Course Offering

The Upper Midwest Region's Commissioned Minister Education Program (CMEP) is offering the course "Church History for the Contemporary Church, Part 2" beginning January 8. Participants may register here. Instructor Rev. Tim Diebel describes the course this way:

William Faulkner famously observed that, “The past is never dead. It's not even past."  Indeed, the church continues to engage, manifest and struggle with the questions and challenges of every generation:  what does it mean and look like to follow Jesus?

In this second semester of “Church History for the Contemporary Church,” students will pick up the church’s story with the Reformation and follow it up to the present.  Developed around weekly readings, facilitated online discussions in our Zoom classroom, partnered learning and independent inquiry, the course intends to equip students with knowledge, understanding, and insight from the past in order to more seriously engage the church of today.

Class sessions will be held on Mondays at 7 pm Central time, beginning January 8.

Text for the class will be, The Story of Christianity, vol. 2:  The Reformation to the Present Day, by Justo L. Gonzalez, 2nd edition, 2010.