Training sessions
get to the heart
of reconciliation

PASADENA—Curtis May, director of the Office of Reconciliation Ministries (ORM), continues to conduct mentoring sessions around the United States. The first session took place in Pasadena in May and was covered previously in the WN.

The second session was in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 22 and 23. The two-day, 16-hour session provided training for ORM chapter leaders Keith Brittain, Steve Brown and Randy Bloom.

Mr. May said, "Reconciliation cuts across all areas of discord around the world." He explained that training and designating chapter leaders is essential to meet the growing need as reconciliation becomes a vital topic across the United States.

In Charlotte, Mr. May cited a fourfold purpose of these mentoring sessions: 1) To review the mission, vision and goals of ORM, 2) To highlight the need for the ministry, 3) To share resources to serve as tools for enhancing our effectiveness, and 4) To remind us all that this ministry is a move of God.

The WCG established the Office of Reconciliation Ministries in 1999 to help the church model and teach reconciliation to the broader community.

Four nearby WCG pastors and some members from the Church of the Living Waters, Charlotte’s WCG congregation, attended all or part of the session. Each day began and ended with devotion consisting of prayer and songs of worship and praise. Between devotions came lectures, videos and open discussion. Then Mr. May shared a list of resources for further study. At the end of the second day, the group took communion.

This was the pattern for mentoring sessions conducted July 25 and 26 in Livonia, Michigan. Members and pastors from Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, Ohio; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Manhattan; New York; and Indianapolis, Indiana, met at the Sacred Heart Conference Center in Livonia.

Attendees were admonished to be honest and open with others with the love of Jesus as the basis for reconciliation. "True reconciliation with each other is possible only through our individual reconciliation to God," Mr. May said.

The final session ended with hands being laid on Sam Butler, Grand Rapids pastor, as he was commissioned as an ORM chapter representative. The communion service was led by Dan Bierer, pastor of the Manhattan and Westchester, New York, churches.

The fourth mentoring session began in Dallas, Sept. 10. Mr. May again led the discussions. Carn Catherwood, district superintendent, assisted him.

Also present were chapter leaders Chris Beam from Houston, Texas; Tom Pickett from Fort Worth, Texas; David Kaiser of Akron-Canton, Ohio; and Lynn Hebert of Dallas, Texas. They were commissioned as leaders at the end of the conference.

Others present were Sonny Parsons, San Antonio, Texas; Ester Reed Jr., Houston, Texas; Arnold Clauson and Leonard James, Dallas North; Dee Beam, Houston; and Adrienne and David Pickett, Fort Worth.

The first day of praise and worship was led by Murdock "Doc" Gibbs of the Dallas North congregation. Videos shown were Why Reconciliation?; A Message from John Dawson; Black History—Lost, Stolen or Strayed; Masters of Invention; and Face to Face.

The next morning the group was horrified at the terrorist attacks on America. The theme for the second day was to be on the subject of hate and the consequences of it. The group had plenty to talk about. They saw videos on The Shadow of Hate, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Reconciliation: A Move of God, produced by the WCG.

Mr. Beam led the group through an exercise of unaware racism. They concluded that if God hadn’t given them the keys to reconciliation, they would have never come up with the right answer.

Mr. May commented, "Reconciliation can occur only at the foot of the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ."

COMMISSIONING—Lynn Hebert, Dallas,
Texas, Central pastor, is commissioned as
an Office of Reconciliation Ministries chapter
leader. [Photo by Ester Reed Jr.]

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001