Dear Rocky Mountain Mission Center: Let’s start with encounter! We’re on a journey. Engaging in spiritual practice is a key part of our journey together as people of faith. We are inviting you to encounter God’s heart by exploring and engaging in spiritual practices over the next eight months. We seek to understand more clearly the journey ahead. We desire to walk in community as we discern our future!
The mission center staff has been discovering “essential questions” for some time now. These questions include: How are we, as a mission center staff (and mission center) called into living Christ’s mission? How can we build relationships with one another in order to celebrate our unity and embrace our diversity? What does it mean to be a people of God in a changing world? We have come to believe that all of these questions and their answers begin with encounter – encountering God and each other in community. We’ve also come to understand that we cannot answer these questions without engaging you in the conversation!
So consider this an invitation. Over the next eight months you are invited to enter into the missional conversation. Through discernment, testimony, spiritual and missional practices and prayer, we will engage in a process of movement and growth. We may find that our usual ways of understanding and doing things becomes disrupted as we begin to discern God’s call for our mission center. This is powerful stuff, friends, and we anticipate great joy as we begin this journey together.
Please stop by the webpage every so often and check out what’s new. You will find more info here: http://cofchristrm.org/encountering-mission/ If you have a story or testimony to share about how your congregation is living Christ’s mission, please send it to Shandra (snewcom@cofchrist.org) and it will be added to the page. In addition, there is a link on this website called: Missional Practices. Here you will find a variety of missional practices that can be used personally on our journey or as a congregation or small group. (Go there now to see the practice Dwelling in the Word).
We pray that together we can more fully understand God’s will for the Rocky Mountain Mission Center. Where will we be in eight months? We don’t know for sure. But we do know that together, we will have begun to engage with and answer the “essential questions” that are important to our journey.
Let’s begin!
Tim, DeziRae, Melanie and Shandra, Rocky Mountain Mission Center Staff
ROCKY MOUNTAIN MISSION CENTER EVENTS: PLEASE SHARE THESE ANNOUNCEMENTS IN YOUR CONGREGATION!!!)
Young Adult Retreat: May 23-26, 2014 at Peaceful Valley Ranch. There is still time to register! The costs to attend are: Adult (ages 18-35) – $120, Child (ages 4-17) – $90, or Small Child (Ages 0-3) -$37.50. Registrations after May 5th will be an additional $25. The theme is: Experiencing the Divine Everyday. Our guest Minister will be President of Seventy Larry McGuire. Please put this exciting event on your calendar. We will begin Friday evening and end Monday around noon. This has been a meaningful event in the past and we anticipate another great experience this year! Please contact Shandra at: snewcom@cofchrist.org for more information. Registrations and payments can be made online at www.cofchristrm.org.
Camp Paradise Family Camp: June 18-22, 2014. The theme for this year is Do We Know How to Show Christ’s Love? Guest ministry will be Central Mission Center President, Barbara Borkowski, and LCM Coordinator Rob Borkowski. The camp schedule is available online at www.cofchristrm.org. For more information and registration, please contact Jim Smith at smiths.villa@hotmail.com.
Street Retreat and IYF Preparation Gathering: These two events will happen together the weekend of June 20-22. Everyone grades 9-1st year college are welcome to attend both.
Street Retreat will go Friday evening through Sunday morning.
IYF Preparation Gathering will be June 21 from 9-noon in Denver. All people attending IYF are expected to attend. There will be a possibility of Skyping in so you don’t have to drive if you live far away. But if you can make it, please do! We will be getting to know each other and preparing for IYF by learning info and sharing in fellowship. Please note: You do not have to attend the whole Street Retreat in order to come to the IYF Prep gathering. (But we encourage you attendance!)
International Youth Forum (IYF): July 15-18, 2014 at the Community of Christ Temple in Independence, MO. Early registration deadline is June 10, 2014 and the theme this year is Courage. The cost to attend is $210, with transportation and delegation costs approximately $300 per person (transportation fees combine if attending both IYF and SPEC). Eligible students will have completed 9th grade through the first year of university (approximate ages 15-19). We are now accepting online donations for those wanting to support youth attending IYF at: www.cofchristrm.org.
Spectacular: July 18-26, 2014 at Graceland University. Expanded age range for this year; campers who have just completed 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grades are invited to attend! The early registration deadline is June 10, 2014. The cost is $380 – sibling and first time friend discounts apply. Transportation will be coordinated by the mission center and will be approximately $300 (transportation fees will combine if attending both IYF and SPEC). Don’t miss this amazing opportunity to gather with nearly 1000 youth from around North America!
WORLD CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS
OTHER ITEMS:
10 Minute News: For more information from the World Church please go to
www.cofchrist.org/news/10min. The 10 Minutes News Report can be subscribed to electronically (see the side bar at the website titled E-Subscriptions.)
Shandra Newcom Rocky Mountain Mission Center Community of Christ 303-426-5900