Invitation to Regional Family Leadership Discussions

Forward by Faith

Two years ago our Chairmen Service Team began prayerful discussions to set a culture among us of thoroughly reevaluating our movement every 10 years to seek God’s guidance for the next decade or until Jesus’ return, whichever came first. Two global Leadership Surveys were taken and the results distributed and discussed in numerous meetings and conversations. Listening to the hearts of many of our full-time and non-staff leaders around the world and with much prayer, the 2017 ICOC Spring Leadership Meetings focused on Forward by Faith . . . ICOC 3.0 

These meetings had two simple goals relying on the Spirit’s guidance to further the discussion:

  1. As we consider the future by God’s Spirit, where do we find strong consensus?
  2. Prepare to bring the conversation to our local families of churches.

We found consensus in many areas.  Now we need to engage in a broader discussion. Obviously, all those answers did not come in just three days, but we started the conversation. The goals were not to make any decisions, but simply to listen to one another and pray to discern God’s will.

After day three, the chairmen of the evangelists, elders, and teacher’s service teams decided to formally invite the leaders in our 33 families of churches around the world to join the discussion and to replicate the meeting in your part of the world. So this package of videos and presentations is now provided to the chairmen and delegates of these 33 families of churches, inviting your regional family leadership to participate.

Preparation

Prayer & fasting: Please encourage your group to pray and fast before these meetings seeking the Spirit’s guidance.

Use the following resources for your leaders to prayerfully prepare for this event. One of the great secrets of the success of the Spring Leadership Meetings was the lessons that were distributed beforehand provided time for real dialogue and meaningful discussions at the meetings.

  1. Resources for meeting coordinators:
  2. Resources for attendees 

Program

See the Schedule Templates for suggestions. Of course, adapt to your schedule and needs.

  • During each session, a presentation was made on one of these three topics:
    • Topic #1:  The Possible Dream
    • Topic #2:  Delegates Reconsidered
    • Topic #3:  Where is Our Heart Really?
    • A list of questions was handed out, and the tribes had a great time of discussion, expressing opinions and listening to one another.
  • The next session we came back together for:
    • Prayer
    • Devotional message
    • Brief reports from each tribe on the results of their discussions
    • Presentation of the next day’s topic
  • Final session:

Next steps:

  • May –  June:

    • Regional Family Leadership Discussions held. Some Regional Families may want to meet together.
    • Responses filled out online to survey sent by Disciples Today

  • July:

    • Disciples Today will then provide a report on all the responses to the Regional Chairmen and Delegates and the Chairmen Service Team.
    • Following our agreed on Proposal Protocol, the Chairmen will consolidate the results agreed on by a consensus of the responses and formulate Proposals to accomplish those changes.

  • August:

    • Proposals will be distributed to the Regional Chairmen, Delegates and Church Leadership for further discussion and input.

  • September:

    • Final Proposals will be distributed with any other preparation materials to Regional Chairmen, Delegates and Service Teams to review before our Delegates Meeting in Chicago October 3-6 where final discussions and votes will be taken.