Monthly Archives: August 2010

In Search of a New Framework for Evangelism and Mission

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corntastic

One of the things I have become fascinated with over the course of the last decade falls broadly under the umbrella known as missiology, or the study of Christian missions. I like many of you have a history with big ‘E’ Evangelicalism where mission is generally understood as “winning souls for Christ.” Evangelism and mission under this rubric is really focused primarily on quantity of people who will give a public profession of Jesus usually represented in going forward for an alter call, saying a special prayer, and getting people to come to your church’s Sunday morning worship.

In the marketplace of churches there is great competition nowadays to get people to profess the Christ of one particular church or another, here professing Christ is more or less synonymous with coming to worship on Sunday morning. After all, if your soul was won for Christ what better way to prove that then to show up on a Sunday morning. Thus the word “church” itself has become synonymous with the worship service and the building. To make Christians is to get them to join the Sunday activities, to enter the building, the sit in the seat, to accept the do’s and the don’ts, and to fall in line with the acceptable categories laid out for Christians.

This way of thinking believes that Christianity is first and foremost getting people to agree with your particular arguments, and “facts” about what it means to be a Christian. Once someone agrees, this is usually symbolized by the altar or a prayer, and begining to come on Sunday morning, their soul is more or less “won.” Discipleship in this context is again based in ideas, learning the doctrines, believing correctly, knowing what the proper questions are and not asking the wrong ones. Continue reading →

But Will It Make You Happy?

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Jason Minnix, a friend and Quaker pastor, emailed this article to the NWYM pastor’s email list. I think it’s a good article worth discussion around the coffee table this week.

She had so much.Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people.Yet Tammy Strobel wasnt happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.” So one day she stepped off. Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number.

via but-will-it-make-you-happy?.

When discussing happiness and wealth, what is it that makes us truly happy? Where does the testimony of plainness come into play in our lives? Do we know when we have enough?

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage 2010 Epistle

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Micah Bales, one of the leaders of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage, just posted their Epistle from the trip on his blog. Here’s one section that particularly stands out to me, especially after my recent post on the subject.

As a gathered youth, we are empowered to speak of one final, lasting concern. Throughout the pilgrimage we were reminded of the saddening truth that we are not a complete gathering of Friends. We will not be a complete gathering until there is a fair representation of all sections of the Religious Society of Friends. In this pilgrimage there was only one youth from a pastoral background. Overall, there were four Friends—out of the thirty-two total—that consider themselves evangelical or conservative Friends. For those members of the community, it was difficult at times to feel safe in expressing their beliefs. With this in mind, we as Quakers call for a greater commitment to improving the diversity of this pilgrimage. While we cannot deny the power of the Spirit’s presence in the group, it is important to realize that a greater learning experience could have been achieved from a more representative community.

via Valiant for the Truth: Quaker Youth Pilgrimage 2010 Epistle.

A Blessing and a Benediction – Margaret Fell

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I’ve been reading “Undaunted Zeal: The Letters of Margaret Fell” for school the last week or so and have found many gems in her writing. Margaret Fell is an early force within Quakerism often called the mother of Quakerism and the mother of feminism. One of the things I really love about what she writes is how thoroughly worshipful it is. Here are two that are worth sharing.

Here is a blessing she opens a letter to her children with (I have modernized the spelling):

“…that you may be kept and preserved by the arm of his power and the dear love and life and unity of the eternal spirit in which you are baptized, that there you may put on Jesus Christ the Righteousness and live in him and unto him and unto his praise forever, whose goodness reach unto you and shine upon you as the Morning light. The God of life and glory bless, preserve and keep you, and his blessing rest upon you, and the light of his Countenance shin upon you forever” (311). Continue reading →

Those It Is Acceptable to Hate

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This summer some of us from our church meet every other week to discuss a query dealing with some issue related to things happening around the world. A few weeks back we talked about a query dealing with the oil spill and how it is or is not affecting us, and our larger society. We kind of think of our group as the world problem solving small group, of course we say this with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Our last meeting we discussed the Arizona Immigration law, our thoughts on it and what is it about now made that law possible. I felt we had a really helpful and meaningful conversation. We had a small group of people there but a spectrum of ages were represented, and we actually had a woman who is an immigrant from Germany there, and another woman who was in a bi-racial marriage, has children from that marriage and is half Hispanic herself. She was able to talk about racial profiling in a very real way.

This got me thinking about today, and the history of those who are for one reason or another stuck on the outside, and are seen as “abnormal” or “alien” by another group (often those in power). The Arizona law is the symptom of something that runs through the course of human history. We continually find ways to make hate acceptable. Continue reading →

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage Stops by Camas

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This past weekend 29 youth and 3 adult leaders who have been traveling on a month long spiritual pilgrimage through the Pacific Northwest took a (planned) detour through Camas Washington and spent a few days with those of us at Camas Friends. They all slept and ate in our meeting house, and joined us for worship on Sunday morning. There was only one programmed friend in the bunch and he is from Northwest Yearly Meeting. The rest were unprogrammed and mostly from the US and from around the UK and Europe. There was one “token” Canadian as they called him. For most of the friends on this trip their worshipping with us on Sunday was the first time they’ve been to a programmed Friends meeting and I could tell it was a stretch for many as well. But they were gracious, curious, and took it all in. After worship we had planned a BBQ potluck complete with four grills and tons of food. People in our meeting stayed and ate and struck up conversations with these young people and it was really great to see how many of the pilgrims mixed in with our people who they didn’t know while they ate.

One of my favorite conversation was with a couple of pilgrims who came up to me while I was flipping burgers and said, “We’d like to do a programmed worship service during our trip, but we don’t know how to do one. Can you show us?” I scratched my head a little and said, “Well, I guess I never really thought about it before, but sure!” We had a great time coming up with some ideas for them.

Then we split up and some went for a hike in LaCamas Park while others of us went swimming at the Sandy Swimming Hole. While the water was only 69 degrees and a little to chilly for my own taste it seemed like the pilgrims enjoyed being out in the natural and beautiful surroundings.   Continue reading →

And We're Back!

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Some of you may have noticed that over the last week this blog had a little bit of trouble. It got attacked by malware and was trying to spread that to anyone who visited the site. Fortunately enough, I don’t know of any serious problems it caused other than for me trying to figure out how to undo all of that. I’m keeping a close eye on things and am going to try and take a few more preventative measures so that doesn’t happen again. If you notice anything weird, other than the normally weird things that go on here, please let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Wess

State of the Meeting Reports (Not Just Yet)

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I decided I wanted to jump start a new tradition at Camas Friends today so I took the initiative and ran with it. I’ve been working on a state of the meeting report with the elders for a couple months and I’ve really been wanting to present it to the meeting and it seemed like the Sunday following Yearly Meeting was the appropriate time for it. I initially got the idea of doing a state of the church/meeting report from Freedom Friends, and then in reading more about queries for my recent sermon on the subject I learned that many Quaker meetings used to do this. It seems to me to be a great practice that should be revamped if it really has fallen into general disuse.

I wrote the open letter in the third person, included the transition from previous pastor, Caryl Menkhus, and some other details to help bring the minute up to date. It really covers about two years or so, but the core part centers on the last 14 months. In the spring I met with the elders for a weekend retreat and we talked about what our values are as a meeting. I used those values as a guideline for the things I was looking for, are we doing them, how well, etc? I also tried to cover our bases, births, deaths, marriages, memberships, visitors, etc. It really was a fantastic process to work on it and then present it this morning. I think there something really lovely about reading a document that is meant to uplift the work of God in a community. And this is exactly what I tried to keep as the main focus. After reading the minute we went into open worship with the query: Continue reading →