{"id":24006,"date":"2024-07-07T02:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T02:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=24006"},"modified":"2024-07-07T02:00:49","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T02:00:49","slug":"discipleship-leadership-formation-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2024\/discipleship-leadership-formation-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Discipleship and Leadership Formation Dinner learns about \u2018(w)holistic engagement\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Frank Ramirez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The featured speaker at Thursday evening\u2019s Discipleship and Leadership Formation Dinner paused a second, as if taking special enjoyment from his introduction as executive director of the Christian Community Development Association. \u201cThat was my first time being introduced as Dr. Lorenzo Watson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking on the topic, \u201c(W)holistically Engaged–The Church in the Community,\u201d the newly anointed Ph.D. recipient spoke to what he called an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d he experienced when he first went to college. He grappled \u201cwith who is God, what is the work of the church, and why am I here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watson admitted, \u201cI was one of those weird kids who actually liked going to church.\u201d He attended what he described as a \u201ctraditional Black church that came with a set of rules about how we were to live.\u201d That included restrictions of what words could be said, what beverages could be consumed, what clothes could be worn, and as for movies–out of the question. So when he attended college and met people who identified themselves as Christians, he experienced a major clash of cultures. \u201cThere were so many things that blew my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat challenge ushered me into a greater experience of God\u201d and he came to realize that \u201csome of my greatest experiences of God happened outside church.\u201d His basic notions were challenged. He learned some of his earlier notions were not necessarily incorrect so much as waiting for new understandings. He compared it to learning that you can\u2019t take three from two in first grade math, only to learn later that indeed, you can take three from two. Over time, this new understanding led to what he called a \u201crecipe for spiritual development.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lorenzo Watson speaking at the Discipleship and Leadership Formation dinner. Photo by Donna Parcell<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Watson read the famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, \u201cTo everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under the sun.\u201d<\/em> He added, \u201cWe must learn to be appropriate for each season in life. How often do we find ourselves misaligned with what is appropriate for that season?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two things are always in season, he explained: \u201cThe presence of God\u2019s love and the presence of the Beloved Community.\u201d Three things are always true: \u201cFirst, God is absolutely and unapologetically in love with you. Second, we are in the light of God\u2019s love. We are to love God with everything we have, and to love our neighbor just the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Gospel message must have relevance to folks with their backs to the wall. God\u2019s message is relevant to those whom you surround yourself with–the Beloved Community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#cobac2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The featured speaker at Thursday evening\u2019s Discipleship and Leadership Formation Dinner paused a second, as if taking special enjoyment from his introduction as executive director of the Christian Community Development Association. \u201cThat was my first time being introduced as Dr. Lorenzo Watson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1258,2886,2610],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-24006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2024","tag-discipleship-and-leadership-formation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24009,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24006\/revisions\/24009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24006"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=24006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}