In This Month's Issue:
DAILY MISSIONS
A home heating walk / run: "Power for the People"
RESOURCES
Heartbreaking stories of six overworked Americans
For parents in discussion groups or baptismal preparation for infants and children
FOR MEDITATION
Joining spirituality and activism
MM SHORTS
A circle of protection:
As budget and deficit
reduction debates continue
this year, the community
of faith will form a circle
of protection around poor
and vulnerable people
who have no one else to
speak for them. This is
part of our vocation as people of faith.
– Jim Wallis, Sojourners May 2011
Punster fun:
– Atheism is a non prophet
organization.
– A rubber band pistol
was confiscated from an
algebra class, because it
was a weapon of math
disruption.
– from Puns for Educated
Minds
If all the pictures do not
show up, click here
to view this email on your browser.
YouTube: Have You Seen?
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July / August 2011
Member Mission Newsletter #95
To refresh your missions...
(Click here for a printable version)
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A home heating walk / run: “Power for the People”
Leslie lives in a western state. During her workout on a bitterly cold December morning last year, she got to thinking about just how many people might be without heat at that very moment. She recalled the story of a church that came to life when it took on a community service project from 
which the church received no benefit itself. Her small church was looking to grow and thought a project like this would appeal to people in the church and be a great way to give back to the community. To be sure it received no benefit itself, the church chose to be a silent partner and allow the group putting on the race to use a different name – a name which made no reference to the church. Leslie, who had never done anything like this before, was heartened to find a host of ready helpers. Chief among them were the executive director of Race for the Cure and a YMCA leader. A local business donated a free website that would allow people, not only to register for the race, but to donate directly to the cause itself. Posters, a logo, insurance coverage for a million dollars, space for registration, and a parking area have been donated as well. Fundraising has begun to cover the costs of the race so that participants will know that all of their registration fees are going directly to the cause.
Leslie, do you see God at work in this process? If yes, where?
“God is bringing me partners from unexpected places and, now, people in the church are getting excited about the process.”
And, Leslie, do you believe God is helping you in any way. If yes, how?
“I am gaining new skills.”
A contractor’s missions
David has been in the contracting business – primarily masonry and excavating – for 35 years. His work in excavation, in particular, varies from foundations to driveways to tree removal to landscaping and seeding – public and private. He owns the various machines needed to meet the requirements of the job. While he works on his own most of the time, he has a number of people to call on as needed. Clients come his way by referral from contented users, other contractors, and friends.
David, what are some of the values that guide your work?
“Personality, craftsmanship, fair-market value for my work, and happy clients.”
Contact: membermission@aol.com
Heartbreaking stories of six overworked Americans – Sylvia, a warehouse loader in California; Martha, a hotel housekeeper in Indiana; David, a surgeon in Michigan; Susan, a fourth-grade teacher in Michigan; Sara, a mental health technician in Nevada; Heather, an adjunct college professor in Illinois; and Steven, an air-traffic controller in Florida. For discussion groups on current life in this recession, download this article from Mother Jones of July/August 2011 by clicking on http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/stories-overworked-americans?page=1.
For parents in discussion groups or baptismal preparation for infants and children – how faith-based social activist, actress Naomi Judd came to faith:
That relationship was kindled at a young age, she says, and reinforced in a nighttime conversation she had as a sixth grader with her mother, country music singer Naomi Judd. Overwhelmed by a misunderstanding with a friend, she turned to her mother for advice. "She posed a question,” Judd recalls. "She said, “Well, what's the Golden Rule?” And in that split second I couldn't remember it. I think I was so stunned by her question. And she gave me an enigmatic smile and said, “Oh, you do know it; and left me to figure it out for myself.” She pauses. “And sure enough, not long after she left the room, I reconnected internally with the Golden Rule.”
Sojourners, July 2011, p. 39
FOR MEDITATION
Joining spirituality and activism
Katharine Jefferts Schori (Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church), in good Anglican fashion, seeks a middle way in which contemplation and action are one movement in responding to God's vision of abundant life for all creation. She believes that the interplay of spirituality and social transformation are grounded in "finding the sacred in the middle of everything." While she does not give the reader explicit spiritual practices to follow, it is clear that Jefferts Schori sees all of life as a spiritual practice in which we can, like Jacob, awaken from a dream and assert that "God was in this place." This place, for Jefferts Schori, is everywhere, but most especially in the cries of creation, vulnerable children, marginalized people, and the earth itself. Social action is grounded in the vision of God's presence in the least of these and is, by definition, a spiritual practice, bounding on the mystical. Spirituality is opening our senses to experiencing God in unexpected places and then working to bring forth that holiness in others.
– From Bruce Epperly’s review of Jefferts Schori’s book, The Heartbeat of God, in Congregations, Volume 1, 2011.
YouTube Brings You Members on Mission
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For your church:
Encourage members to keep using the summer months to reflect on and to converse with others about issues of justice in both their public and private life.
To help them, make copies of Living the Gospel
available to individuals and small groups of members.
For such use, members can request a free copy at http://www.membermission.org/New-Website-Files/workbook.html
or go to Basic Tools 1-6 at
http://www.membermission.org/New-Website-Files/basic-tools.html.
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Tell us about your work with member mission at info@membermission.org or phone 802-482-7743 (to fax, phone first). 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.
To be dropped from the list tell us at membermission@aol.org.* * *
God is most interested in how we live from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday – all of church life – helps us to do it better.