August 12, 2016
by John Williams

Jeremiah 23:28-29
Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

In the text and in the verses preceding and just following, Jeremiah gives a rather sober scolding to self-professed prophets who promote their private dreams born of their own wit and wisdom without the power of God's Word to back them up. How do you compare the imagined with the reality of an authentic Word from God? Share your dreams, but don't let them claim the place of God's saving truth.
There is a danger still of convincing ourselves that our dreams of what the Church should be are the correct ones, but will the fire that is God's Word put in flames our inadequate visions? Will the power of God's Truth hammer away at our less than complete hopeful pleas? It seems the prophet is calling us to study and debate and wrestle with God's Word until we are so familiar with it, we are so connected to it that our dreams for the Church reflect and reveal the Truth of God.
John R.W. Scott said: "We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior." Oh, dream your dreams and share them, but do your homework. Immerse yourself in the Word so that your dreams can be worthy expressions of God's great hope.

Spend some time in the Word of God this week. Find a Bible with a concordance and look up all the verses you can find that include "dream" or "vision" and see if you can find some new-to-you inspiration and words of hope.

Prayer: God of the Word, confront us daily, disturb our secure lives, overcome our comfortableness, and overturn those things that prevent us from dreaming big dreams born out of the knowledge of your guiding Word. Amen.

September 24th, 2016

Rev. Dr. Keith Wilson, Performance Trainer
The workshop is based on performance psychology which Dr. Wilson teaches on a daily basis and issues of compassion fatigue that he contained while being a full time mental health provider for over 20 years. The workshop starts with the concept of the clergy person being in the "zone of optimal performance." This is the state where emotional and physiological states are in optimal intensity so the professional can perform at their best in the moment. Clearly, the zone is different when preaching than doing pastoral care. It is different in a church meeting or having lunch with a parishioner. 

Many stressors impact the clergy person's ability to be self-aware of changing situations and making the appropriate shifts in physiological state and attention strategies. The number of stressors which impact clergy are significant and would include as example: 1) physiological exhaustion, 2) emotional exhaustion, 3) interrupted sleep, 4) unreasonable expectation of parishioners, 5) too many hours of work a week, and 6) emotional strain of hospital or office pastoral care.

There are many strategies to combat these stressors which are important to utilize. This workshop will focus on performance skills which can be used throughout the day and in any environment. One does not have to wait to be at home or on vacation to address these stressors. Specific skills which will be taught include: 1) Physiological modulation which can be done in any situation to bring the system to a more effective state, 2) Rumination control to help shut down the brain at night while trying to go to sleep, 3) Attention control skills to recognize specific skills to use to reduce the stress of an attentional mismatch and 4) Cognitive skills to help refine thinking concerning successes and failures.

Our annual lock-in for youths grades 7-12.

Starts:		Saturday, August 20th, 2016
Ends:		Sunday, August 21st, 2016
Location:	First Christian Church of Sacramento

Dear Friends,

During the summer of 1857, a small group of Disciples met to form a new congregation in the community of Visalia.  For more than 159 years the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has maintained a congregation here with Disciples of Christ-Visalia offering the current expression of the church for the past eleven years.

To paraphrase one of the original founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) now is the time to prepare for bringing to a close this ministry that It may "sink into union with the Body of Christ at large."   This will formally occur on Sunday, October 2, 2016.  We invite you to join us in a celebration of the ministry that has continued to share God's grace and love within the congregation and in the broader community.  The celebrative service will be held at Brandman University, our place of gathering for many years, located at 649 South County Center Drive, Visalia, CA 93277, beginning at 10:00 AM.

We look forward to having you share our story of ministry with us on October 2.  It would be helpful if you would RSVP at Disciples of Christ-Visalia, P.O. Box 7808, Visalia, CA 93290 or by email to jwjordan318@sbcglobal.net.

Faithfully,

The Rev. Natalie Chamberlain
Interim Minister

Raynor Park Christian Church Cordially Invite You to
The ordination service for Lora Chrisney Baxter
Sunday, August 21st at 3:30 p.m.

Raynor Park Church
1515 Partridge Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94087

RSVP By August 13th
Text: 9160505-4667 - or Email: denisemarshall756@yahoo.com

The Annual Women's Fall Retreat at Mission Springs is quickly approaching!  A few dates deadlines are approaching, and we don't want you to miss ANYTHING. 

Our theme this year is "Understanding Our Stories" -- that means that the retreat is not complete without YOUR story.  The retreat dates are Sept. 23-25.

Please note that we will have childcare this year but we will need your child registered ASAP to make sure we have a sufficient number of childcare providers!  
Calling all Youth!  Get in your Youth Steward applications.  You attend the retreat for very little cost, and you get to have a lot of fun.  Haley Corbett will help lead you -- we are putting together a project around Fair Trade products and ending human trafficking.  Download steward applications here.  The deadline is passed, but we will accept applications for another week or so.

Thinking about attending the retreat but not sure yet?  We have Saturday only options at a reasonable rate.  Check out our FAQs about the retreat.  Look at our past pictures and videos.  This is a space where lives are changed.

Register today.  Spaces are filling quickly.

Register Here - Now!

Sandra Berry was ordained on Saturday July 30, at Cottage Way Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Arne Larsen has been selected to be Interim Minister at Oakdale Christian Church for two years

We will be offering a Disciples History and Polity class from August 17-20 at Disciples Seminary Foundation in Claremont. This class will survey the history of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from its founding two centuries ago to the contemporary manifestations of the church. Please see the brochure attached below for more information.

STUDENTS PLEASE NOTE: As part of your covenant agreement with DSF, all DOC students must take this course before they graduate. Also, this course is mandatory for fulfilling PSWR ordination requirements.

If you are not sure if you need to take the class or have any questions, contact Belva Brown Jordan or Jose Morales.

DSF History and Polity Brochure

The second part of the two part Anti-Racism Training with Sandhya Jha and David Bell has been scheduled for Saturdya, October 15, 2016. Anyone who attended the first part is invited to attend this follow-up training. This training is also available to those who have taken any DOC Anti-racism training in the past, or the Crossroads Ministries Anti-Racism training

This is not a boundaries training and does not count towards the annual boundaries training requirement.

Location, Time and cost to be determined.

Arden Christian Church is celebrating 60 years as a congregation on September 18th.

Niles Discovery Church: With sadness we announce the death of Julia Parks on Sunday evening after a long a beautiful life.  Plans for a memorial service are pending. Please hold Bill Parks, Glennda Chui, and the Parks family in your prayers as they grieve this loss.



New Members
Cottage Way Christian Church of Sacramento announced four new members
Oakdale Christian Church has reported one new member
Sacramenton FCC has reported one new member
Christian Church of Vacaville reports one new member

REMINDER:  Pastors and church secretaries, the region wishes to acknowledge and congratulate those children, youth and adults who make the decision to join a church by transfer or baptism, as well as the names of any child and the parents' names of a dedicated child.  Please send names, addresses, type of membership, child, youth or adult and church name to Cliff Cole (23mcc24x@comcast.net) whenever this occurs.


Let us pray for their vitality, spiritual and numerical growth, their commitment to serving their neighborhood and their openness to the Spirit of God calling them into ministry in the 21st century. Please consider incorporating this congregation into your congregational prayers this week during worship or in your newsletter, so we can grow together in prayer.

Please pray for the churches who are in transition.

Christian Church of  Northern California-Nevada