In This Month's Issue:
STORIES
A Truly Mutual Ministry Review – A Church Mission.
An Energy Neutral Home Mission
Teens on Mission in Ireland – A Church Mission of Outreach
RESOURCES
Member-mission-centered Proposal for Performing a Baptism
Webinar: “Faith and Everyday Leadership”
For your calling cards, handouts, etc.
Member Mission Leadership Institute
FOR MEDITATION
Jon P. Gunnemann, emeritus professor of social ethics at Emory University on the mortgage implosion
Watch Member Mission Presents on YouTube!
YouTube: Have You Seen?
Andrew: working with downsizing
Phil: mentors the next generation
One way to insure the future of Member Mission
In your will, put this bequest for a specific sum:
I give the sum of (insert dollar amount) to the Member Mission Network, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation organized under the laws of the State of New York, now having its principal place of business at 10
Jubert Lane, Plattsburgh, NY 12901.
September 2009
Member Mission Newsletter #74
“Color” Your Daily Mission Fields this Fall!
(Click here for a printable version)
(Click here to view this email in your browser)
STORIES
A Truly Mutual Ministry Review – A Church Mission.
In 2006, the Rev. Susan LeSueur at the Church of the Transfiguration, Derry, NH (Sunday congregations average 48) did not want to repeat the usual result of the triennial ministry review – all about only what the clergy person is doing. She proposed member mission as the way to a genuine mutual ministry review and the diocese agreed. The vestry, with Sue as one of the group, completed and shared: (a) what each was doing to make each area of their daily lives more loving and /or more just; and (b) the worksheets to discern each of one’s current daily missions.
The same worksheets were given to all at a congregational meeting. The results were collected and tabulated. As she and the vestry expected, they did not get 100% response from the congregation but enough to work with. Viewing their own and the congregation’s responses, the vestry came up with a goal for the coming year of parish-wide education about what mutual ministry really is. An immediate result was vestry members who could say what their baptismal vows are and what it means to try to fulfill them in each of their daily mission fields.
Contact: The Rev. Susan LeSueur, slesueur@comcast.net, 603-432-2120
When interest rates went down, Dan and Mary O. Benedict refinanced their home in Hawaii to come up with enough money to achieve a long-desired goal of becoming more energy efficient. First, they installed compact fluorescent lightbulbs throughout their house. This past summer they installed solar water panels on their roof to heat their water and a photovoltaic system to produce electricity.
Now they put excess power into the grid during the day and take it out at night. Their energy bill dropped from $80-$100 a month to $27 for the current month. They have also replaced their gas powered lawn mower with a battery mower. Additionally, they are working for an electric car system for the state. They invite you to share with them your ways to get off dirty, non-renewable energy sources.
Contact: Dan and Mary O. Benedict, stlukebysea@yahoo.com (or contact them on Facebook)
Teens on Mission in Ireland – A Church Mission of Outreach
In early July, 18 teens with 6 adults from the Episcopal Diocese of Albany boarded a plane for Belfast. They spent 4 days of orientation in workshops and worship; 5 days on a service project to clean up the day care center and garden of Urban Soul, a community service group; and 2 days sight-seeing in Dublin. They then returned to Belfast for the flight home.
One of the missionaries, Rebecca Belton, a junior, from Trinity Church, Plattsburgh, NY had raised her share of the expenses by sponsoring an ice cream social during the church's Sunday coffee hour. Rebecca found the most rewarding part of the trip was the worship; so many youth had come together to worship God!
How did you see God at work there?
“Get Connected was the theme and much of the teaching was about letting God into your life. To see God was in my life to help me was a depth I had not known before.”
How did you see God helping you?
“I became closer to God than I had been before. Now, that sense of being close to God is always there.”
Contact: info@membermission.org
Proof-reading?
“The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.”
Champion Member Mission!
For Member Mission to last beyond 2013, it needs to be in the wills of its advocates. Click here for three ways to put a bequest in your will.
Shop iGive to Donate to Member Mission
Shop online at your favorite stores through iGive and up to 26% of the purchase price of each purchase will be donated to Member Mission Network, Inc. and it can be tax deductible if you choose. Click here for directions on how to join.
RESOURCES
Member-Mission-based baptismal preparation for a seven-year-old has just been added to the web site – its theme: baptism is joining Jesus’ mission. It includes a background paper, “About baptism – some reading and thinking;” a session with parents and godparents; a session with the parents, the godparents, the seven-year-old and her older brother and sister; and the practice or rehearsal for the baptism. All of the sessions are experiential.
Webinar: “Faith and Everyday Leadership” – Alban Education Program Manager Wayne Whitson Floyd teaches about faith and everyday leadership. This webinar lifts up and celebrates the best practices of everyday leaders – at work, at home, in civic life, and in congregations. Our goal is to discover a renewed connection between the practices and experiences that build and sustain faith and people’s leadership roles at work, in community service, and in our households. The webinar takes place on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 1 p.m. EDT, and is scheduled to last one hour. Click here to register or for more information.
For your calling cards, handouts, etc.
Our problem: We do not have the power to cope with evil, sin, and death all by ourselves.
The Good News: Through Jesus Christ, God shares with us the power of the Holy spirit, so that we can, with Jesus' help to love and to be just, begin to overcome evil, sin, and death; and, with Jesus' people at Jesus' table, we find the guidance and the power to live this way. God forgives us; God loves us; and God gives us the guidance and the power we need.
Last Call
Member Mission Leadership Institute
Christians living like Christians? 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:
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 extended: October 1, 2009
Reserve your space today! Member Mission Network, Inc., Wayne Schwab, Coordinator, info@membermission.org, 518-561-1184.
FOR MEDITATION
“The mortgage implosion may have been the catalyst for the economic implosion, but the real cause was and is the under-lying rot in our economy, which can be summed up as the triumph of making money (and of consumption as an indication of economic well-being) at the expense of attention to the production of the goods people really need and to the care of people, communities, and the natural gifts of creation. The challenge for us as Christians is to use this crisis to move the economy toward what Wendell Berry calls ‘good work:’ work that honors God, the neighbor and creation. And the corner-stone of such an economy is trust.”
Jon P. Gunnemann, emeritus professor of social ethics at Emory University
Christian Century, July 28, 2009, p. 23.
YouTube: Now Showing!
Click the links above to watch these stories and learn more about the personal impact of Member Mission.
Watch Member Mission Presents on YouTube!
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On your home page, in the Search box at the upper right, type in Member Mission Network. Join me in sharing fresh insights arising from the member mission vision – all of the baptized on mission wherever they are. Join in on the discussion boards or start your own.
Tell us about your work with member mission at info@membermission.org or phone / fax 518-561-1184. You continue on this list because of past interest and / or work together with the Member Mission vision. If you missed or lost any past newsletters, you will find them on the website under Newsletter > Archive.