The North Texas Area
The North Texas Area is part of the Southwest Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which has as its vision "to be a faithful, growing church that demonstrates true community, deep Christian spirituality and a passion for justice" (Micah 6:8). The North Texas Area exists to serve the Disciples of Christ congregations in the Texas counties of Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, and Rockwall. Click here for more information.
2012 Leader Event January 28 at East Dallas Will Focus on Worship
"Worship: What Are We Doing and Why?" is the theme for this year's NTA Leader Event. The keynote and 20 workshops will each look at some aspect of worship, or church life through the lens of worship. Beginning at 8:30 with registration and a brief Prayer Breakfast, the keynote by Dr. Tim Hessel-Robinson will begin at 9.
The first set of workshops will include "Praying at the Lord's Table", "The Use of Media in Worship", "The Role of Worship in Producing Community", "How to Use/Adapt Space for Worship" and "The Children's Sermon". The second set of workshops will include "A Theology of the Sacraments", "The Role of Worship in Discipleship", "A Fresh Look at VBS", "Church Leader Spirituality", and "Youth and Worship". After lunch (provided) the last set of workshops will include "How to Let the World Know about Your Worship", "Preaching as an Act of Worship", "Church Leader Spirituality (Part 2), "Safety and Security at Church", and "One to One Mentoring".
Five churches will also lead workshops about their specific worship services - Warren Avenue Christian Church, Casa View Christian Church, Grace Christian Church of Prosper, Destiny Worship Center, and "The Table" - an emergent worship service at East Dallas.
Click here for the schedule.
Click here for the pre-registration form.
Grace Christian Church in Prosper Ramps-up Worship
The next worship service for the new Grace Christian Church of Prosper takes place on Sunday, February 5 , at the Baker Elementary School in McKinney, just at the edge of Prosper. The church now begins worship every 2 weeks as they prepare for public launch, which will be scheduled when the momentum of the bi-monthly preview worship services makes it clear the time is right. The church is now ready to receive guests from other Disciples churches to hel them build momentum. Exciting times! Grace Christian Church celebrated Christmas with its first Christmas Eve service with great success.
This follows an Area Assembly for 2011 at First Christian Church of Plano, where Rev. Doug Kriz was the keynoter. The Assembly responded to the exciting challenge of new church planting with an offering of some $9000. Here is a link to a recording of the Keynote Address: http://plantinginprosper.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Area-Assembly-5.1.11.mp3.
Church Planter Doug Kriz would welcome you to join the prayer team for the new church plant in Prosper. Go to www.plantinginprosper.orgfor more details.
Tri Area Men's Retreat
Two well-known Texas Disciple leaders will be keynote speakers at the 65th Annual Tri Area Disciple Men’s Spring Retreat set for May 18-20 at the Disciples Crossing Retreat & Conference Center in Athens, Texas.
The registration form for the Tri Area men’s spring retreat can be found online at www.ccsw.org . The retreat is hosted by the North Texas, Northeast and Trinity-Brazos areas of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Doug Skinner, senior minister of Northway Christian Church in Dallas, and Feliberto Pereira, executive director of Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries in Los Fresnos, Texas, will speak to the retreat theme “The Church Has Left the Building: Now What?”
Retreat music will be provided by well-known “Musicianary” John Tracy of Community Christian Church in Aledo, Texas.
At the retreat, Disciple men will explore, and be equipped with, new ways for living out their Christian faith in these times of great change. You won’t want to miss this special retreat, so register now and plan to bring a friend. The cost is $85 per person.
A nationally-known Disciples minister, Doug was a keynote speaker at the 2008 General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis. Doug has served Texas congregations for 25 years. His passions have included work with the homeless, hospice care and Walk to Emmaus. He is a frequent presenter and writer of articles and is author of At The Lord’s Table (Chalice Press, 2009). Doug is a graduate of Pecos Benedictine Monastery’s School for Spiritual Directors.
Feliberto founded Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries in 1985 to assist asylum seekers from Central America and elsewhere. Working with Church World Service and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, SWGSM has helped thousands of asylum seekers obtain refugee status from the U.S. government. Feliberto is also pastor of Ebenezer Christian Church in Los Fresnos, TX. His story is told in his popular memoir, I was a stranger: hope for a hidden world (Brown Books, 2008).
A pre-retreat golf tournament has been scheduled for Friday, May 18.
Click here for registration form.
New Church Leader Videos Added
Two new church leader training videos have been added to our training library. This brings to a total of ten episodes available online with over twelve hours of multimedia training available to you.
The two new videos were recorded at the September 2011 Licensed Ministers Training session.
Click here for the library of available media.
2012 NTA Camp Schedule
Discovery Camp May 25-27
Grand Camp I June 1-3
ChiRho Camp June 18-23
CYF Conference June 25-30
JYF Camp I July 2-6
Eighters Camp July 8-14
JYF Camp II July 30-August 3
Grand Camp II August 31-September 2
2010 North Texas Area Assembly
Rev. Dr. Larry Ross, Area Minister of the North Texas Area of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the Southwest, delivered the message at the 2010 Area Assembly.
Looking for a Church to Visit?
The 80 churches of the North Texas Area cordially invite you to join us this Sunday. We can help you find a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), where doubting and believing can live together without judging, a kind of church where we respect God's Word and your mind.
Click here to go to the "Find God, Find Yourself" page.
Click here to search for churches in your area.
Click here to browse for churches by city.
The Engaging Church Seminar
Is On-Line at the NTA Website!
The North Texas Area of the Christian Church in the Southwest has launched an on-line video seminar for churches in the NTA. The NTA has licensed the "Engaging Church" seminar produced by Church Growth, Inc. The arrangement allows the NTA to present the complete video seminiar in its secure Member Portal for the clergy and laity of the North Texas Area.
The seminar discusses how to attract outsiders, connect visitors and integrate new members. The seminar is presented in high-quality Flash video in six sessions. In addition to all six full-length videos, the seminar workbook is provided, session summaries and an area-wide on-line discussion forum for talking about each session of the seminar. Also, Larry Ross, Area Minister and President of the North Texas Area is available to visit NTA churches in a follow-up capacity to help interpret and apply the principles of this seminar in a holistic way
Click here for more information.
News From Around Disciples
From Disciples.org
“Community ON Purpose, Community WITH Purpose”
by Rev. Dani Loving Cartwright, Regional Minister and President, Christian Church in the Southwest
Continuing the emphasis on the release of the Southwest Regional Guiding Vision for ongoing transformation, Southwest Regional Minister and President Rev. Dani Loving Cartwright delivered a heartfelt message to several hundred Disciples at the North Texas Area Assembly, Sunday May 3, 2009 at Northway Christian Church in Dallas.
Click here for the high-resolution video version (348 kbps).
Click here for the low-resolution video version (200 kbps).
Click here for the audio-only version (128 kbps).
Click here for the instructions for using this video in your website.
Recent Area News
11/05/2008 - Online Education Now Available!
11/02/2008 - Administrative Committee Hears Report On New Approach for General Assembly Action
11/01/2008 - New Disciples Video Posted Here
10/25/2008 - '09 General Assembly Preachers Include NTA Pastor
