Listening and Visioning Together

Rev. Joshua Patty

Regional Minister and President

I'm confident you have plenty on your plate as you prepare for Holy Week and Easter services. May your efforts and those of your teams be meaningful for you personally and may they bless those who will join your services.

Again this year, our region will share a recorded sermon that congregations and ministers can use in a service after Easter. Our Transitional Executive Regional Minister, Rev. Lisa Grace, will reflect on John 20:19-31 in a sermon entitled, "Wanting to Be an Easter Peep." Ways to download or access the sermon through YouTube will be shared with congregations and ministers on or before March 22.

Regional Listening & Visioning

I am hosting several Listening & Visioning sessions in March, April, and May. We will consider some important questions: What does it mean to be Disciples Together in 2024? What are we doing? What are our priorities?

These hybrid sessions will be hosted at locations around our region with opportunities to participate via Zoom. Sessions will be scheduled at a variety of days and times. I will offer an overview of our current regional structure and staffing and invite conversation about what is good, what is challenging, and what can we might try.

Please join one of these sessions and invite others. Most of us are impacted by our regional ministries. Our region hosts summer church camps, nurtures people who become ordained and commissioned ministers, helps congregation call new ministers, connects connections in shared mission, problem solves for congregational leaders, supports ministers, and much more. If you have opinions about how these things are done, or could be done, you should participate in one of these sessions.