Oro Valley

I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with the Council at Oro Valley UCC yesterday. Pictured here with me are John, Jack, Pat, Peggy, and June. Pastor Jim Briney is taking the picture.

We spent the afternoon talking about By-Laws, and ways they might consider rewriting them. Then we went and had a wonderful dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Yumm!!!

This is what I had to face driving home:



Nonetheless, I made it home safely.

Catching up....

In the last few days, a number of things have happened.

Here is a picture of the Council at the Church of the Painted Hills in Tucson. I met with them to talk about Interim leadership, as their Pastor Lee Milligan has announced his resignation and intention to serve as the called pastor at Casas Adobes UCC in Tucson.



I also met with Brent Smith and Michelle Mellot, who have been nurturing the dream of doing a new church start in Lavine, AZ. They have some very creative thoughts, some real passion, and what we hope are the seeds needed to plant a church in this developing community.



On Saturday, the Board of Directors met. Here are just a couple of pictures from the day we spent together.

Coming soon to a church near you...

These are pictures of some very proud people. The Rev. Jaci Meade Scot stands next to our own Rev. John Herman in the first picture; while the Rev. Dr. Vernon Meyer stands next to Lisa Roger and The Rev. Dr. Steve Wayles in the second. Vernon and Jaci, ordained respectively in the Catholic and Lutheran churches, have been approved by the Committee on Church and Ministry for Privilege of Call, and now are free to submit themselves to the wider Conference for an Ecclesiastical Council. Stay tuned for details on the time, date, and location of those.





We are happy for both of them, and proud to invite them into the household of our own family. Welcome to both of them!, and may God's Spirit bless each and all as they continue their unfolding journey of faith.

Fun at the Old Ballpark

Conference Ministry sure is hard work.

Why, just last night I got stuck doing a pastoral consultation till the late hours of the evening.

I have pictures to prove it.Here we both are working hard, Luis and I. We were exhausted by the end of our meeting, which lasted about three hours and nine full innings:

I was interviewed while preparing for the march that we participated in on Saturday, May 29th. You can view that interview at this link.

But I wasn't the only one. Here are some other links to other interviews from UCC leaders at the March:

Felix Carrion,Executive Director of the UCC's Still-Speaking campaign;

Luis Gonzalez, pastor at TOX ministries, an Hispanic new church start in Phoenix;

Alfonso Escareno, associate pastor at TOX.

Worship with TOX

I had the joy of worshipping with TOX ministries on the Sunday after our March through the streets of downtown Arizona. There was both a spirit of profound joy, and a real sense of lingering pain in the room. Luis, a true pastor, preached a very powerful sermon to his people about faith in Jesus. It was very moving.