In This Month's Issue:
STORIES
Home "School," then Sunday School
Member Mission at an Episcopal-Lutheran Church
Help Plant Member Mission in Tanzania
RESOURCES
The High Cost of Discount Culture
Member Mission Leadership Institute
FOR MEDITATION
Bill Moyers interviewed Leymah Gbowee
YouTube: Have You Seen?
Andrew: working with downsizing
Marthe: processes complaints against lawyers
Phil: mentors the next generation
He was a good son.
An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison.. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent:
I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over? I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.
Love, Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son.
Dear Pop:
Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.
Love, Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.
Dear Pop:
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
Love you, Vinnie
[Sentin by Peyton Craighill]
July-August 2009
Member Mission Newsletter #73
Many Ways to "Surf"
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This summer, continue to deepen friendship and family.
Home “School,” then Sunday School
Three home rituals that build the faith of all in the family and the children and youth, in particular, are: family meals, family scripture sharing and study, and family prayer. Such were the findings reported in a recent Review of Religious Research. Candid comments were: “It’s not always convenient and we’re not always perfect at it. It just requires effort and time.”; they didn’t always “quite work out the way we’d like them to”; they were always “worth the effort”; from a father, “We may not feel like we want to at the time, but once we’re finished we’re glad we did it”; from a 15-year-old daughter, “At first I feel it’s kind of like a hassle because that’s fifteen minutes out of my time to find everyone, to get it done. But after it happens I’m in a good mood about it and I feel better.” Is this a call to make reaching the home the real goal of Christian education with the Sunday school as the vehicle to get us there? [AWS]
That’s a 3-foot wave at Virginia Beach, VA – the best available that day. To body surf, swim at the right time so you are moving already as the wave picks you up. Being picked up and carried along is the thrill. Ride it with your head out of the water, arms at your side, and kicking to ride some extra distance. [And that’s me, your editor, AWS.]
Where is God at work here? In the wonder of the seas and the tides, the wind and the waves.
What is God doing to help? God gave a pre-teen some skill he didn’t know he had; and that skill has never left him or his desire to do it again as soon possible!
Cutchogue’s “Field of Dreams”
At the United Methodist Church of Cutchogue, NY on the eastern end of Long Island, Mary Helen Crump, the pastor, looked at the open field next door. The church owned the field so she wondered how to use it. She put it before the board: “What shall we do with this ‘field of dreams?’” The phrase seems to be catching on bit by bit. Next, she’ll begin to unpack the word “mission” by asking the members, “What are your fields of dreams?”
Contact: Rev. Mary Helen Crump; MHCrump@yahoo.com.
Member Mission at an Episcopal-Lutheran Church
After its Lenten study using Member Mission resources, the board of Messiah Trinity Church, Louisville, KY unanimously adopted this new mission statement.
The members of
Messiah Trinity Church
believe that:
We are called and commissioned
as God’s hands and feet in this world.
Through prayer and preparation,
we will support each other
in ministry and
will be with each other
in the joys and sorrows of our lives.
The Lenten program adapted the draft of the small group section of the coming guide book. Among the comments: “a greater understanding of our work as missionaries;” and “the dimension of God’s inclusive love that permeates our image of justice.” A member of the first Institute in October 2008, the priest reports that, for two baptisms, he used the preparation to emphasize the missionary aspect of all the baptized. He goes on: “Our goal was to grow in the 20 to 30 age group. We have received five new members so far this year. We presented a 24 year old graduate student for confirmation at the Easter Vigil. We have had two marriages of couples in that age group so far this year and a third is happening in October. We also now have a Facebook page for the congregation created by these new members. In short, the Institute’s workshop works! It helps people make a difference for others in our world. I have passed on some of the material to our ELCA bishop. The new catch phrase for the ELCA is ‘God's Work - Our Hands!’”
Contact: The Rev. John Allen; JGAFILE@aol.com
A Conflict Faced
Mark leads a family-size church (under 50 on a Sunday). Two extended families claimed membership but neither came to church nor gave to its support. One of them wanted a child baptized when a brother was there from out of state. When the priest suggested some instruction beforehand, he was met with, “Instruction? What’s that?” Since there were only three weeks to the brother’s visit, the instruction was planned to follow the baptism. A sister phoned saying she thought instruction was ridiculous and left the church. When calling to arrange the post-baptismal instruction, Mark was told they were not sure they would remain in the church so the instruction was “no longer necessary.” Next, the two families came to a vestry meeting asking the priest to resign. Those who were worshipers asked the priest to stay. While the two families have left, the priest reports an easing of tension in the worship services.
Asked how the members were doing now and how they felt towards those who had left, Mark answered: "There is always the hope that they will return. However the diocese has told us that we need to work with who we have and move on. A former rector came and spoke to the vestry about the same: putting the Gospel first and moving on. One of the persons who left died and the parish came together and worked with those who had left to put on the funeral luncheon. Average Sunday attendance dropped about 10 people. It is interesting that we have picked up a number of people since then which has cushioned the loss."
Contact: Anonymous
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RESOURCES
The High Cost of Discount Culture, by Ellen Ruppel Shell; The Pilgrim Press. Mass produced shrimp – like cows, pigs, and chickens – are cheap but sicken easily. Price tags are low on basics like toothpaste and lettuce but clothing and appliances can be higher in big discount stores. Low prices can be low at the expense of underpaid workers who, then, without health insurance go to costly emergency rooms. Low prices inhibit innovation says Harvard economist Robert Lawrence.
The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright; Little, Brown & Company. The “resources” are these comments, I hope. For Christians, one of Wright’s errors is a lack of any sense of revelation – that God reveals God’s nature to us in the midst of life experiences. So, he writes about God. Further, he lacks biblical scholarship and so treats all of the biblical stories as equals. He has no sense of progressive revelation – that the at times vindictive, at times forgiving God of the Hebrew scripture finally makes clear in the Gospels that forgiveness is God’s real nature. Even Wikipedia has a section on progressive revelation. At the end of a 7/17/09 interview with Bill Moyers – as in the book, as well, he acknowledges his own confidence in a “moral direction” or “moral truth” or “moral axis of the universe” that he calls “transcendent.” Wright needs to acknowledge a generic definition of religion as belief in something beyond yourself that you pattern your life around. You cannot prove its existence but you “bet” your life on it. This reader hopes Wright finds his way into a Christian seminary course on biblical scholarship. [AWS]
The Kingdom of God – build your thinking about our daily missions around Jesus’ talk of the kingdom of God. Jesus begins his ministry announcing, "The kingdom of God has come near (Mark 1:15).” In the Hebrew thought forms of the day, he is announcing that the rule – kingdom – of God is here and at work. The rule of God is the power of God to overcome with love and justice all that resists God's will. The risen Jesus commissions the eleven to continue his work. "As the Father has sent me, I send you." And he gives them the power to do what he and the Father want, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-22).” Jesus guides us to discover our missions and, then, gives us the power to carry them out. Have you noticed a recent book of the popular Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything? That truth is the kingdom of God.
Christians Living Like Christians?
Member Mission Leadership Institute
Are we trying to be funny? Actually, no. We surely do lack for more Christians visibly and audibly working to make the world more loving and more just. Is there a way to help each other to move toward making the world better – visibly and audibly? There is!
Member Mission continues to help church members to do just that – and do it with their churches’ support! Receive and practice the resources of member mission that work at the Member Mission Leadership Institute. Click here for more information.
Come to the Member Mission Leadership Institute.
Dinner, Sunday, October 11 through breakfast, Friday, October 16, 2009. La Casa de Maria Retreat and Conference Center, 800 El Bosque Road, Santa Barbara, CA. Registration: per person $350; $300 in teams of two or three $350; up to 50% travel reimbursement provided. Deadline: September 15, 2009
Reserve your space today! Member Mission Network, Inc., Wayne Schwab, Coordinator, membermission@aol.com, 518-561-1184.
FOR MEDITATION
Bill Moyers interviewed Leymah Gbowee on 6/19/09. A Liberian, she led the women of Liberia who risked their lives to bring peace to their country. Leymah went to Boston recently to accept the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library. The prize honors people of conscience and courage in public life. When she accepted it she said:
“If you're hungry, keep walking. If you are thirsty, keep walking. If you want a taste of freedom, keep walking. For us, women of Liberia, this award is a call that we will keep walking until peace, justice and the rights of women is not a dream, but is a thing of the present. Thank you very much.”
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