CPC Listening Sessions

Reminder: Our first CPC Listening Session is happening this coming Thursday, February 6th!

6:00pm–7:30pm PDT / 7:00pm–8:30pm MDT

Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5790725484

This session is being hosted by our Justice and Witness Ministry Team, so come prepared to share the Justice and Witness activities you're doing in your local churches, and the places where you see a need for God's Justice in your communities. We know where two or three are gathered, the Holy Spirit will be there to recharge us for the ministries God calls us to!

As a reminder, here's what our Conference Minister said about these Listening Sessions (including plans for future sessions) in the January On the Way:

When I arrived in the Central Pacific Conference in 2019, I came to a conference with a strong sense of purpose. You had spent the previous year gathering for Listening Sessions, and naming your mission priorities. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to those who planned and led those Listening Sessions, and who used them to create the CPC Mission Priorities. Significantly, one of those priorities is to Amplify Our Prophetic Voice.

I love the word “amplify” in that mission priority, because it’s a reminder that the conference is not the source of prophetic voice, but the amplification system for voices that already exist. I firmly believe there is no such thing as “the voiceless.” There are only those whose voices are not being heard, often because they aren’t being amplified. In this era of bombastic politics, that is as true as it’s ever been.

In November, remembering the importance of those previous Listening Sessions, the Chairs of Justice and Witness Ministries, Wider Church Ministries, and Local Church Ministries suggested to their teams that we launch a new set of Listening Sessions in the CPC. This will be an opportunity to Foster Stronger Connections (another mission priority) by listening for where the Spirit is moving in our conference. It will give the Ministry Teams a better sense of where their energies should be spent, and it will allow the conference to better amplify the prophetic voices of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.

Two Listening Sessions are already scheduled: 

Justice and Witness Ministries
Feb 6th - 6:00pm–7:30pm PDT / 7:00pm–8:30pm MDT

Wider Church Ministries
Feb 13th - 6:00pm–7:30pm PDT / 7:00pm–8:30pm MDT

Both sessions will be held at the same Zoom address:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5790725484

Please put them on your calendar, and plan to attend. And please watch for information about the Local Church Ministries Listening Session to come.

I want to offer one more metaphor, one which I borrow from Bishop Yvette Flunder who sometimes talks about how Christians too often think we are responsible for going around the world bringing the fire of the Holy Spirit to people who don’t have it. She says, we should instead look for the places where the fire of the Holy Spirit is already burning, and then bring wood to the fire. 

As you prepare for these Listening Sessions, I encourage you to look around your community for the places where the fire of the Holy Spirit is burning. Bring those stories to the Listening Sessions. Tell your ministry partners in the CPC so we can help you bring wood to the fire. 

Together, we can all be the church God needs for these troubled times.

Blessings,
Tyler