Blue Ribbon Panel Meets, Presents Findings

“Could there be a resurrection? … We are Christians, and the whole strength of the Christian faith is that we rise from the death, in whatever way we understand that. And yet, resurrection did not seem easy… Jesus was in the grave for quite a while before Sunday morning. It was dark in there. And it felt like that kind of darkness for the future of NBA. But people didn’t give up.” –Rev. Dr. Ben Bohren, Former NBA Director of Church Relations; Current Mission Specialist, NBA XPLOR, who served on the Blue Ribbon Panel 

With NBA in a time of transition, the NBA Board sought “discernment about the future of ministries of mercy and advocacy in the life of the church.” They recommended that a Blue Ribbon Panel be appointed, “a group of persons to represent the church from a position of independence in order to bring trust and confidence to the process and the results.”

The panel’s purpose statement: “Through prayer and study, dialogue and listening, we will open ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit: To welcome and engage a vision for benevolent caring through congregational, regional, and general ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), And to offer to the church a direction for this mission of care (including the future of the NBA) in response to Christ’s call to serve the continuing and emerging needs of ‘the least of these.'”

The panel looked to “discover whether the church desires to be involved in benevolent care ministries at the General level.” The analysis: “We heard a resounding yes.” Read the full analysis and recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel Report >>

“There was a lot of inspiration… Life that was to be, that is to be, that was to come out of that time, that we were not going to close the doors and go away, that there was still more life to be given, from NBA to the denomination and beyond.” –Rev. Belva Brown Jordan, Former NBA Board Chair

Hear more from Rev. Dr. Ben Bohren and Rev. Belva Brown Jordan in their video interviews about the Blue Ribbon Panel.