Around The Region And In My Heart
Rev. Allen V. Harris,
Regional Pastor & President
Trying To Become More Like Jesus
When I was a young boy about 12 or 13 years old I decided to become more active in the church of my birth, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I became very active in the youth group, began attending worship on Sunday mornings, read my Bible more and more, and went to retreats, camps, and conferences offered by the larger church. Soon thereafter I offered my confession of faith and was baptized. Rev. Karol Smith patiently led my Pastor’s Class, and the Rev. Monroe Miles immersed me in the waters of new life in Christ. I was changed forever.
Being eager in the faith, I quickly realized that one of the primary goals of a Christian’s life should be to become more and more like Jesus, to follow his model of life, and, as Luke 2:52 described the young Jesus, to increase “in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” Thus, the ultimate goal of life was to become a disciple of Jesus, which had to be of utmost importance because it was even in our church’s name, “(Disciples of Christ),” right?!
Naturally, much of my reading and meditating revolved around the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Even though they each clearly had their own perspective on how to follow Jesus most closely and each shared different events in Jesus’ life, I could tell they agreed on the major aspects of who he was and what he called us to do and be in this world.
Even as a youth, my young mind picked up on how Jesus seemed to challenge and was the hardest on those who held some kind of power or who acted superior about their faith. For example, in Matthew 23:1-5 Jesus takes on the religious leaders for displaying the signs and symbols of their faith in order to gain attention. Furthermore, he chastised them for laying heavy burdens of expectations about faith on others, even when they didn’t do what they themselves taught.
As a young person with little power in the world myself, I also quickly picked up on how Jesus seemed to care more for those who were, by worldly standards, the least, the lost, the loneliest, and the unlovable. Whether it was short tax collectors, women who were accused of doing something sinful, or everyday workers who fished or farmed, there were a slew of texts where Jesus spent significant amount of time and attention on those others clearly counted as “the least of these,” (ref. Matthew 25:31-46).
In particular, I read about Jesus lifting up in his ministry women and children, and though I had not engaged in any biblical studies yet, I knew from my own observation of life around me how women and children were devalued, disrespected, and even totally disregarded. In Mark 10:13-16 Jesus reprimanded his disciples when children were trying to come to him and he even named being like them as a means to enter into heaven. While eating at someone’s house, in Luke 7:36-50 we learn that a woman who wanted to honor Jesus was seen as less than (to put it mildly), but Jesus instead highlights her actions as showing “great love” toward him.
Also apparent to young me were the myriad of times Jesus offered healing and fullness of life to people who were thought to be demon possessed, or at least suffering illnesses. Jesus spent an inordinate amount of time on the edges of town where demoniacs hid (e.g. Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, and Luke 8:26-39) or by the entrance gate or in the middle of the city’s marketplace where those who were ill, injured, or those just sick and tired of being poor gathered (e.g. Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 3:3-12, Luke 6:17-19).
I’ve spent my life trying be a disciple of this vibrant and transformative Jesus of the gospels. I’ve also sought tirelessly to help the church of my faith, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), continue to shape and reform its mission and ministry around Jesus Christ, whether as the local, regional, or general church.
Last month, I had the wonderful opportunity of witnessing the general church try to become just a bit more like Jesus. The General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada met in Memphis, Tennessee, July 12–16. The Christian Church in Ohio had a wonderful and diverse representation at the Assembly (see accompanying article for more details.).
I have been attending General Assemblies since 1979 when I was 17 years old. The 2025 Assembly felt like the first time the gathering as a whole felt comfortable seeking to model itself after the words and ways of Jesus Christ. Or maybe it was the first time *I* felt relaxed in witnessing all of the deep, systemic, and wondrous ways our faith tradition has become less worried about size and stature in the world and more completely focused on following Jesus Christ. This was revealed to me in so many different ways throughout the four days in Tennessee.
Often one of the most boring parts of any meeting, for the first time I felt like almost every single report of a General Ministry of the church took seriously the call to not only be the good news of Jesus Christ, but also what it meant to be an active agent of transformation in the world. Many General Ministry leaders concluded their official reports early in order to speak directly to this moment in history and offer tangible ways for us to fulfill Jesus’ call to “love our neighbor as our self.” Whether it was Rev. Chris Dorsey, President of Disciples Home Missions discussing how to reenergize prophetic service and witness in local congregations through the new https://disciplesmissionhub.org/, or Rev. Todd Adams, President of the Pension Fund, describing how several of their new programs intentionally seek to center historically underrepresented communities, or Rev. Dr. Paul Tche’ pointedly noting those international ecumenical representatives who were invited to join us but who’s travel visas were denied, we witnessed Jesus calling out the haughty and self-righteous of the world and aligning itself with “the widow, the orphan, the poor, the alien” (to use oft-repeated biblical language.)
The sense of the assembly resolutions, including three “emergency resolutions,” spoke truth to power, advocated for the least of these, widened the table, and were resounding affirmed by the delegates gathered. The discussion on the floor of the assembly hall was reasonable, engaging, interesting, and respectful. I especially appreciated that no one was apologetic for helping the larger church become more like Jesus. From the resolution encouraging congregations to become a “Silver Chalice Congregation” working to honor and serve those who are older in our congregations, to the resolution opposing Project 2025 and how it seeks to hurt the very people Jesus spent the most time helping, to the resolution supporting our Palestinian neighbors, which echoed Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan, the work of the church witnessed time and time again to the Jesus I had come to know and love in scripture as a youth and throughout my life.
Worship at the assembly was vibrant and full, and offered a rich variety of formats to inspire and nurture the spiritual needs of almost anyone present. From a prophetic preacher grounded in the civil rights movement whose words pounded in our soul as much as the Tongan drums did, to a thoughtful leader in one of our General Ministries connecting rich diversity to healthy community pared with a Chinese tea ceremony, to the challenging words of a seminary president about how our tables need to represent The Table more and a butterfly being painted before our eyes, to a conversation amongst our living General Ministers and Presidents about the unique mission and place in our world for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the liturgy and preaching reflected the best of what Jesus would want from us.
I also observed the human variety of those gathered who were delegates, visitors, and friends who were wonderfully and wildly diverse in age, race, family arrangements, gender identity, physical ability, and sexual orientation. This reflected the kind of communities Jesus gathered around him. I witnessed this diversity in Memphis more than I have felt in almost any Assembly I’ve ever attended.
I certainly would not say the 2025 General Assembly was perfect, for Jesus warned us about thinking any one of us was perfect. Even so, I do feel we were intentionally endeavoring to model ourselves more closely to the same Jesus I learned about as a young person when I gave my life to him and was baptized. It truly felt like we were trying to be Disciples of Christ not just in word or intentions, but in deeds and actions.
We can all be assured that the direction our church is headed, while perhaps not popular, is solidly in the way of Jesus.
Faithfully Yours,
Allen