The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada General Assembly is in Louisville this year! The assembly will be held from July 29 through August 1, 2023. Louisville has hosted General Assemblies in the past, but it has been many years. The General Assembly is a gathering of Disciples of Christ from all over North America, where we come together as one large community.
This year’s theme is “Kingdom of God: Within Us and Among Us.” There will be a series of workshops and sermons based around seeing the Kingdom of God in everything we do. Many of the speakers and teachers will be prominent members of our faith community, including our general minister and president.
If you would like to attend, you can pre register by visiting www.ga.disciples.org. On that website, you will also find a full list of the various activities and workshops. For those of you who have never attended a General Assembly, it is important to remember that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a large and diverse community.
The practices of our local church might be different in some ways than the practices of other churches in our denomination. For those of you who have attended general assemblies in the past, you may remember a time when speakers said something that made you slightly uncomfortable. However, just because an idea is expressed at the General Assembly does not mean Hurstbourne Christian Church must accept it. One of the beautiful features of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is that we are a congregational denomination. We as a congregation can forge our own path. Often Hurstbourne Christian Church is in step with the national church, but occasionally we walk in our own direction.
In our general body meetings, you will hear various ideas from all around the nation. People From New York, California, Canada, Puerto Rico, Texas, and everywhere else in North America will share their ideas. However, no one person, not even our General Minister, Terri Hord Owens, speaks for all Disciples of Christ churches.
Still, through the process of coming together and sharing sometimes uncomfortable ideas, we can grow as a church in faith and spirituality. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was started by people with big ideas and it was only through their sharing of those ideas that we are here today. I hope that many of you will consider attending at least some of the General Assembly. We will have a guest preacher at Hurstbourne Christian Church on Sunday, July 30, who will preach about uniting with the greater Disciples’ world!