In This Month's Issue:
STORIES
Help Member Mission Bloom in Tanzania
Overeaters Anonymous and the Higher Power
RESOURCES
Member Mission Workshops on Site
Covenant Groups and Member Mission
FOR MEDITATION
Christian Realism and the Wider World
YouTube: Have You Seen?
Clare: A Labor Organizer and Negotiator
MMShorts
“out of the box”
To help laity in their daily living:
help them to be specific about what they actually face and do in each part of daily life.
From a granddaughter:
“Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you are not willing to move your feet.”
Another higher power
Teacher to class: “We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But there is a higher power. Can anybody tell me what it is?” One child blurted out, “Aces!”
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. Click here for directions on how to join and the amount given is tax deductible.
Keep Member Mission Around!
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.
February 2010
Member Mission Newsletter #79
For Lent – in Tanzania too, Find Your Daily Missions
(Click here for a printable version)
(Click here to view this email in your browser)
Help Member Mission Bloom in Tanzania!
In June, two trainers will lead workshops for over 75 from many communions in Dar es Salaam and for the students at Msalato Theological College in Dodoma. An initial budget comes to $15-17,000. Add to the three offerings – including a most generous one from our Episcopal Presiding Bishop – that have come in already. Send tax-deductible gifts to Member Mission Network, Inc., 10 Jubert Lane, Plattsburgh, NY, 12901. Click here for information on how to donate.
Free Income Tax Help
A mission in the community: One of about 50 volunteers, Bruce gives 10 hours a week preparing client tax returns. He had 30 hours of instruction in January and was required to pass a competency test before becoming eligible. In Plattsburgh, NY, the tax return preparation is located in the Senior Center – one of many AARP locations throughout the USA – and features electronic filing of returns. It is also free. All returns are double checked. Refunds take about two weeks by direct deposit and about three weeks if a check is desired.
Where do you see God at work in what you do?
"God had told me, 'Bruce, I’ve been good to you. It’s time for you to let other people benefit from what I’ve done for you.'"
How does God help you do it?
"God blesses me with good health, a comfortable living situation, a loving and thoughtful wife, and two loving and thoughtful children."
Overeaters Anonymous and the Higher Power
A mission in spirituality: Mary (not her real name) belongs to Overeaters Anonymous, a twelve step group. She especially likes the spiritual depth of Step Five, "Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." She emphasizes how confessing leads on to receiving – receiving love! You receive love from those to whom you confess your overeating and, most importantly, you find yourself reassured of God’s love. Mary has lost 120 pounds!
Where do you see God at work in what you do?
"God gave me health and I have more compassionate relationships with other people."
How does God help you do it?
"God helps me to follow the twelve steps. At Step 10: I pray each day; I look at myself; and I make amends for what I have done wrong. It gives me a new way of living."
To find your local or nearby OA group visit www.oa.org. For the twelve steps click here.
Member Mission Workshops on Site! – We can start member mission activities in your church – and other churches near you including churches of other communions – with a Friday night and Saturday workshop. We cover: the key role of each member as an agent of Jesus' mission; how to discern your specific missions in each area of daily life; identifying your gifts for mission; and finding a teammate. The participating church or churches bear the negotiable travel, room, meals, and honorarium for the leader. Call Member Mission at 518-561-1184 or email Member Mission at membermission@aol.com.
Covenant Groups and Member Mission – Google “Look, Book, Took” and you will find a number of resources designed to be used for small group meetings called Covenant Groups. Susan Champion at Christ the Lord Episcopal Church in Pinole, CA often adapts the three stages using the member mission vision. For example: she shapes “Look” around a close look at what is happening or various challenges in one of the mission fields; “Book” is the Gospel or another lesson for that week with a short Bible study; “Took” is what you will do on the basis of the what is studied in "Look" and “Book.” In the “Took” area, many of the questions focus on what you will do in one of the mission areas. Each of the three stages has a series of questions to guide the group’s thinking and reflection. Usually the questions are her own; sometimes they are drawn from other resources. Four groups of 5-8 each have covenanted to meet weekly at times and places chosen by the group. After two years, Susan finds these groups the most significant innovation she has made. The Look, Book, Took of the week is always posted on the church website at www.ctlpinole.org and Susan has other Look, Book, Tooks available.
Contact: The Rev. Susan Champion; vicarsusan@hotmail.com; 510-724-9141.
FOR MEDITATION
The Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr for considering our missions in the wider world
"It’s the obligation of human beings to try to bring justice to a sinful world. It acknowledges human failure. It acknowledges that Utopias cannot be built on this earth, but it asserts that human beings have the capacity to make things better, and that human beings have to make choices – some of them very, very difficult."
(E. J. Dionne, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, 1/7/10)
YouTube Brings You Members on Mission
Watch our newest Member Mission Presents video:
Click the link above to watch this story and learn more about the personal impact of Member Mission.
Watch Member Mission Presents on YouTube!
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.
* * *
God is most interested in how we live from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday – all of church life – helps us to do it better.