In This Month's Issue:
STORIES
Seminarians Connect Faith and Daily Life
RESOURCES
A Jump-Start for Lenten Planning
FOR MEDITATION
YouTube: Have You Seen?
Wayne: what expected; what received
Bulletin Typo:
“For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.”
Be an author . . .
You just recalled that member mission workshop, so you want to rewrite this sentence: “The occasion missed in every sermon is the life of the body of Christ, the community sitting in front of the preacher.” You want it to say what is really missed the most. You try: “The occasion most missed in every sermon is the daily life of each person sitting in front of the preacher. What might help him / her live more lovingly and more justly on Monday?”
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December 2009
Member Mission Newsletter #77
Missions for Christmas and the New Year
(Click here for a printable version)
(Click here to view this email in your browser)
STORIES
To Keep Christmas
Overcome gift saturation: only one gift per child/teen with a share-check of $25 for the child/teen to fill in “Pay to the order of:” with the charity they are passionate about. One requirement: tell the parents what was done with the money. It’ll spread to grandchildren (from Networking of 11/09).
On Christmas night: only the Christmas tree is lit; each shares “a special moment or experience where Christ touched our heart and soul and mind in a very real way, helping us to grow in faith and love for the Lord. I learned things about my kids I didn’t know." (Bill Love, Bishop of Albany).
Invite a single who lives alone to your Christmas dinner.
Decide where to send .07% of your income to meet your favorite Millennium Development Goal (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) or your communion’s list of MDGs.
“How do you do this (what we’ve just talked about) outside?” asks the Nursery through Sixth Grade leader. Her students are in the church with the whole 10:30 am congregation at the Plattsburgh, NY United Methodist Church. They are finishing their five minutes of “children’s time” in the middle of the service before they leave for their classes. Doesn’t that word “outside” just say it for the member mission vision!
Seminarians Connect Faith and Daily Life
Barbara Mosley, a middler and a UMC pastor in northeastern Alabama, part of the workshop.
A workshop on “Connecting Evangelism and Conversion with Ministry in Daily Life” met Friday night through Sunday afternoon (November 13-15, 2009) at The School of Theology of The University of the South, Sewanee, TN. Thirteen class hours led participants into: listing how they saw evangelism and conversion and ecclesiology, the purpose of the church; exploring who were the most effective agents of Jesus’ mission today – the activities of the congregation or the members in their daily living; discerning one of their own daily missions; finding a teammate to help; and anticipating how to integrate this approach into congregational life. The climax was a Sunday morning interview with a parishioner on “Where in your daily life are you called to action by God?” and reflection on it that afternoon.
A closing assignment to amend their ecclesiologies of Friday night in light of the workshop drew comments such as:
– “to teach others about the missions they are already doing individually to bring love and justice;”
– “to help individuals to live concretely into their baptismal covenant;” and
– “the discovery of God away from the church.”
The last question of “How will you answer your professors on Tuesday when they ask about the weekend?” drew, among the answers:
– “You should’a been there!” (Barbara Mosley above); and
– “Our purpose is to support Monday to Saturday living” (Wayne Farrell, a middler and a former contractor in construction; view his comments on YouTube).
The participation of nine of the eleven members was required as part of the “Evangelism and Conversion” class of Professors Robert D. Hughes III and Guy F. Lytle III. A team of three, Demi Prentiss, Andrew Tudor, and Wayne Schwab, drew on the resources of “member mission” – see www.membermission.org – to lead the experiential learning of the weekend.
RESOURCES
A Jump-Start for Lenten Planning
After the New Year, leaders will start to wonder about Lent. Keep this option for reference: small groups of five or six working through Living the Gospel: For Small Groups (draft copies $11 at membermission@aol.com). For the five sessions, use Activity 1 and the first four worksheets of Activity 2 – home, work, local community, and wider world. If the groups find it rewarding – they usually do! – offer another six weeks after Easter for: three sessions on the last three worksheets on leisure, spiritual health, and church life and its outreach; one on Activities 3 and 4 – the glance chart and road map for each person which will cement their awareness of seven daily mission fields; one on Activity 5 – identifying my gifts for my missions; and one on Activity 6 – finding teammates. These last two leave all on a high!
Sermon: “Filled With Grace”
Gloria Young; St. John’s Church, Clayton, CA; Pentecost 23, November 8, 2009; Ruth 3:1-5, Mark 12:28-44; 4:13-17 (RCL); Consecration Sunday at St. John’s.
FOR MEDITATION
Self-assessment is a huge part of spirituality. The old way was analysis of one’s errors, short-comings, and needs for improvement. It used to be the way to prepare for communion with communion being the place of forgiveness and restoration of relationship with God. It centered on the past.
Now, make your self-assessment by seeing where, in each area of our daily lives, we can join what God is already doing. We join God’s mission in each of these places to make them more loving and more just. We center on the future and communion becomes the place to offer each of our daily missions and to receive afresh the guidance and power of God to help us. And, we write down what we will do to reinforce our commitment. [See Basic Tools 3, 3A and 3C, and 3D, in addition to 3B.]
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!
Get On Facebook Too
On your Facebook 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.
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God is most interested in how we live from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday – all of church life – helps us to do it better.