When I first heard of the earthquake in Haiti on August 14th, my heart sank.

On Saturday August 21st delegates from nearly half of the congregations in Kansas and Oklahoma met to elect the Rev. Lorraine Ceniceros as it’s 8th Conference Minister.

The theme for the next handful of KO reflections is “RENEWAL,” so here’s what I know: I would have burned out a long time ago had a wise pastor not pulled me aside during my first few months in ministry and told me to schedule two days off in a row

In a few short weeks, you will gather virtually in a specially called meeting to elect a new Conference Minister; the candidate is Rev. Lorraine Ceniceros.

I didn’t expect to find renewal. And if I’m being honest, I didn’t know how much I needed it to find me. As is so often the case, renewal came to me through work with youth in my congregation.

The Conference Minister Search Committee has been engaged in the most difficult part of the entire process: narrowing down from our field of selected candidates for an in-person interview round.

The leadership at Wichita UCC has called Rachael to serve as their Transitional Minister.

In the United Church of Christ, we pride ourselves on our autonomy. We are proud of our local churches, and rightly so. But as much as we are a local people, we are also a covenant people.

By the time I arrived in Kansas-Oklahoma, Art Foster had already retired, but his legacy is well known. The lives he touched extend far beyond the two states of this Conference.

Gilbert Baker was born in a small Kansas town and left Kansas as soon as he could. No wonder.

While not every church in KO is ONA (Open and Affirming,) EVERY one of our congregations have members that support, love, advocate, and care for LGBTQI+ family and friends.

Over the years, Church Growth strategies have changed and we approach welcome and hospitality in different ways today. But sometimes old ways need to be revisited.

it’s so much easier to literally ignore the reality of the collective actions of our country than it is to own them and honestly deal with the outcome.

At the end of the movie The Prom, a 2020 straight-to-Netflix release, the antagonist, played by Kerry Washington, says to her newly-out daughter about her sexuality, “I just don’t want you to have a hard life.”

Disaster Ministries isn’t about churches being destroyed, that’s what insurance is for. This work is about responding to disasters in a community.

Every two years in the life of the United Church of Christ, delegates from across our denomination gather as a community to experience General Synod.

Do you love your work? It’s a question many of us wrestle with as work takes up a significant part of our time on Earth.

We recognize those who are graduating in 2021. Congratulations, graduates!

With gratitude for all those who have applied to be considered for the role of Kansas-Oklahoma Conference Minister, we are pleased to report that we are ready to move into the interview phase of our search

I call it the Love Factorial Greeting: “Let love be multiplied to you!”