By Cory Seibel

In a few short months I will turn 40. As this significant milestone approaches, I find myself reflecting on the experiences that have shaped me and contributed to who I am today. From my current vantage point, one thing stands out: how truly fortunate I am to have had so many seasoned Christians take the initiative to support my faith development throughout my childhood and adolescent years.

I have been following Jesus for many years now, and the journey of discipleship has taken me to many places. Nonetheless, the influence of these caring men and women remains with me. The adults that encouraged me, prayed for me and modeled faithfulness played a key role in helping me develop a vital, lasting faith that has “stuck” throughout the years. I am deeply grateful for the gift of time and attention that they invested in me.

Reflecting on these relationships, I quickly recognize that not all young people have access to the benefits of such adult attention. All too often, ministry to the youngest participants in our churches happens in virtual isolation from the life of the broader congregation.

Of course, in most churches there are Sunday school teachers, youth pastors and volunteers who commit their time and energy to invest in the lives of young people. These faithful servants make a tremendous difference. However, these ministries often are structured in ways that cause young people to miss out on the full spectrum of supportive relationships that interaction with adults in the church could provide.

Relationships help faith “stick”

Kara Powell, Fuller Youth Institute executive director, notes in a 2009 interview with Leadership Journal that recent research highlights the limits of this age-segmented approach of youth ministry. In reality, approaches to ministry that are more intergenerational in nature are more effective in helping young people nurture a faith that “sticks” beyond high school.

According to Powell, intergenerational relationships provide one powerful way that adults can impact the faith formation of young people. She says: “Traditional mentoring typically focuses on kids in whom we see some kind of potential, the best and brightest. The danger with focusing on the best and brightest is it’s not good for anyone, because it only reinforces an identity based on achievement and performance for the kids who are good at performing…. If adults in a church caught a vision that every kid needs to have their name known by five adults in the church, then an adult who’s interested in computers can connect with a teen who is interested in computers.”

College Community MB Church (CCMBC) in Clovis, Calif., is one congregation that recognizes the importance of providing intergenerational linkages for its youngest members. For many years, this congregation has modeled a commitment to provide a mentor beginning in the seventh grade for every teen under its care. These intentional mentoring relationships are meant to help support teens throughout their middle school and high school years.

CCMBC’s Children’s Education Commission begins the process of matching young people and mentors by asking the teens and their parents if there is someone who they would like to invite to serve in the mentoring role. For students who don’t already have mentors in mind, the commission takes the initiative to pair them with adults in the congregation.

Prospective mentors need to possess both the time and the willingness to enter into this commitment. Efforts are made to match youth with adults who share similar passions and experiences. “We assume that members of the congregation know that they may be asked and that they should be prayerfully open to this,” says Trent Voth, CCMBC youth pastor.

Mentoring part of larger process

After the new pairings have been made, part of a Sunday morning service is devoted to commissioning these newly formed relationships. This provides an opportunity to affirm that these mentoring relationships are part of a larger process. It also enables the congregation to express its support by affirming both the new pairs and existing ones.

As these mentoring relationships begin, the church sends a letter to mentors and mentees outlining suggestions about how to get started. In addition, the church’s youth ministry provides events once a quarter that mentors and mentees can participate in together. These activities include things like going to baseball games, bowling or participating in the annual white elephant exchange.

Between these events, mentors and mentees are encouraged to find ways to connect. This might involve studying a book together or meeting once or twice a month for lunch. The mentoring pairs are free to find what works for them in light of their interests and schedules. As a result, a variety of different patterns emerge.

The mentoring program has facilitated a broad sense of ownership within the church. Voth calls it “youth ministry on a congregational scale.” He says, “It provides more webbing in the congregation and church family. It helps prevent young people from falling through the cracks…. There are not enough fingers out there to catch everybody if it is just the youth pastor or just the parents.”

Parents appreciate the investment that adult mentors make in walking alongside their teens. As the parents of one teen explain, “We know our son will not tell us everything. We hope you will have a relationship with him where he feels comfortable sharing.”

According to Voth, this sums up the intent of the program nicely. “The mentoring relationships add more wisdom and perspective to the pot, so that when you have a kid that is facing a difficult situation, it is not just mom and dad’s voices that they are hearing,” says Voth. “This facilitates a deeper relationship among the members of the congregation and a strong sense of family relationship.”

Sharing care, wisdom

While CCMBC mentoring relationships are focused on students, the adults involved benefit in very important ways, as well. Mentoring partnerships provide a tie that gives them a reason to stay connected. This can be beneficial to older church members. Voth finds that churches have a tendency to say, “Thanks for your service. Now here’s a comfy seat to ride out the rest of your life.” The mentoring program provides individuals in more advanced stages of life with a chance to exercise care and to share their wisdom.

Though the mentoring process officially concludes with high school graduation, many of these relationships continue beyond high school. In one case, a young woman in her late 20s has continued to meet with her mentor on a monthly basis. Other mentors have concluded their service with a student at graduation and immediately started over by adopting a new mentee.

Recently, CCMBC saw two former mentees become mentors. These individuals, now in their late 20s, were among the first teens to participate in the program. This development is a source of encouragement to those who have been long-time mentors. It provides a tangible reminder of the difference they have made.

In the last several years, the church has added a “prayer pal” program for children younger than seventh grade. The aim is to see church members commit to pray for children over a long period of time. They also send cards on birthdays and find other ways to express care. As Voth notes, “This helps children to foster a sense of belonging to the congregation beyond merely being part of a particular family.”

As the experience of the CCMBC congregation illustrates, intergenerational connections can be a powerful resource in encouraging the faith development of today’s children and youth. Clearly, there are a variety of meaningful ways in which adults can offer support to the youngest participants in our churches.

It’s not a question of being qualified to serve as a mentor or whether older adults believe they have something to offer the emerging generation. What really matters is our willingness to invest our time and attention. The combined impact of these investments can make a significant difference in helping the members of the rising generation to develop what Kara Powell describes as “sticky faith.”

To this day, I still have a collection of notes and cards that church members sent me during my teen years. They bear testimony to the care that older Christians extended to me during a crucial period in my faith journey. The support they showed continues to encourage me and helps to sustain me even now.

Wouldn’t it be great if, two or three decades from now, a generation of men and women could reflect on the influence we’ve had in their lives in a similar light? Through the simple gift of ourselves, we can help encourage today’s children and youth to develop a faith that sticks.

Cory Seibel is assistant professor of pastoral ministries at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary.

by David Faber

Normally, it’s a good thing to have something named after you. It’s a sign of respect, an indication that you have done something significant. But there are some times when you want to avoid having things named after you—Custer’s Last Stand or Doubting Thomas.

Despite the negative connotations of “Doubting Thomas,” I identify with Thomas. I like evidence, and I want evidence for religious belief.

Our belief or lack of belief in Jesus as the risen Lord is the most important decision we will make. And you can’t make that decision on the basis of wishful thinking or mere sentimentality. I don’t want to put less thought into whether I entrust myself to Jesus than I do into what kind of car I buy. So I can identify with Thomas when he says, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25). I don’t usually have the courage to be as straightforward as Thomas, but I do identify with his feeling.

But I think that Thomas gets a bad rap. People seem to think that what Thomas did was a bad thing.

Evangelical biblical scholar Andreas Kostenberger says this: “Thus, paradoxically, it turns out that believing without seeing, far from being inferior, is actually superior. For it involves taking God at his word.” On this account, Thomas would have acquitted himself better if he had just accepted the report of the other 10 disciples. Instead he demanded more evidence. He took the inferior path.

The Doubting Thomas interpretation is familiar, but I think it’s mistaken. Jesus is not saying that believing without seeing is better than belief based on seeing. Thomas does not react any differently than anybody else in John 20 to the news of Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary Magdalene is the first witness. She tells Peter and another disciple. Do they just believe her? No, they run to the tomb and check on her story. John 20:8 says that “the other disciple…saw and believed.”

Mary Magdalene then has a conversation with the risen Jesus and afterward tells the disciples. Do they believe it? They certainly don’t act like they believe it. They hide in a locked room.

Contrast this behavior to the bold proclamation we see after the disciples are convinced of the resurrection. The first thing Jesus does after greeting them is to show them his hands and side. The disciples needed to see Jesus in order to believe.

Part of the reason for the traditional Doubting Thomas interpretation is the translation of John 20:29: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The phrase “and yet” is the translator’s interpretation. In Greek there is only one word, “kai,” which is normally simply translated “and.” Sometimes it is appropriate to translate “kai” as “and yet.” However, it is only appropriate when the context demands that interpretation.

In this case, the context does not demand that translation, and the verse makes perfect sense when “kai” is translated with the normal meaning of “and.” Jesus’ statement feels very different, then, when we read: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” There is no sense of criticism of Thomas.

Consider Jesus’ response in light of the narrator’s comment in verses 30 and 31:“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” In this context Jesus’ response to Thomas’s confession—“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed”—is a promise.

It is a promise that those who do not have the opportunity to see the body of the risen Jesus can have the same sort of peace that generated Thomas’s confession: “My Lord and my God.” Thomas’s quest for evidence was not a defect in faith. It was an appropriate human response to an extraordinary claim. It is natural for us to desire evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.

I would be pretty happy if I could get the kind of evidence that Thomas had. But Jesus recognizes that this kind of evidence is not going to be available to most people. The resurrected body of Jesus is not available to most people. But Jesus promises that they, too—that we, too—can believe. John’s gospel shows us that there are reliable witnesses to provide evidence that Jesus is the resurrected Son of God.

I think a fair-minded, patient assessment of the evidence supports belief in God and in the gospel accounts of Jesus. Obviously, we don’t have the space to assess all of the evidence here. But I am confident that there is enough evidence to warrant belief in the risen Jesus.

We need to acknowledge, however, that the evidence is not absolutely conclusive. British philosopher Basil Mitchell tells the following parable:

In time of war in an occupied country, a member of the resistance meets one night a stranger who deeply impresses him. They spend that night together in conversation. The Stranger tells the partisan that he himself is on the side of the resistance—indeed that he is in command of it, and urges the partisan to have faith in him no matter what happens. The partisan is utterly convinced at that meeting of the Stranger’s sincerity and constancy and undertakes to trust him.

They never meet in conditions of intimacy again. But sometimes the Stranger is seen helping members of the resistance, and the partisan is grateful and says to his friends, “He is on our side.”

Sometimes he is seen in the uniform of the police handing over patriots to the occupying power. On these occasions his friends murmur against him: but the partisan still says, “He is on our side.” He still believes that, in spite of appearances, the Stranger did not deceive him. Sometimes he asks the Stranger for help and receives it. He is then thankful. Sometimes he asks and does not receive it. Then he says, “The Stranger knows best.”

Sometimes his friends, in exasperation, say “Well, what would he have to do for you to admit that you were wrong and that he is not on our side?” But the partisan refuses to answer. He will not consent to put the Stranger to the test. And sometimes his friends complain, “Well, if that’s what you mean by his being on our side, the sooner he goes over to the other side the better.”

We are children of the partisan. We rely on the eye witness experience of the partisan to convince us of the Stranger’s goodness. Things happen that don’t make sense to us. But we rely on the evidence given us, and we believe. And like Thomas, we commit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus. When Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” he is making a promise, a promise to us.

It is a promise that those of us who demand evidence also have the opportunity to experience the peace and hope that characterize a world in which God reigns and evil is vanquished. With Thomas, we can say, “My Lord and my God.” Alleluia, Jesus is risen.

David Faber is professor of philosophy and director of the Carson Center for Global Education at Tabor College. He is a member of Ebenfeld MB Church.

By Jessica Klassen

Walking into the hospital room, I felt nervous and inadequate. While I had years of critical care expertise, this was my first opportunity to serve as the parish nurse of my new church home, offering spiritual care to a woman who had been a leader at this church longer than I had been alive. My nervousness turned to relief as she warmly welcomed me in among her family to listen, share and pray for healing.

It was less than a year earlier that God led our family to a new church, while at the same time opening my eyes to a new way to use my nursing skills for his kingdom. A hospital flyer introduced me to parish nursing, defined by the American Nurses Association as the “specialized practice of professional nursing that focuses on the intentional care of the spirit as part of the process of promoting wholistic health and preventing or minimizing illness in a faith community.”

Most of our churches are well prepared to strengthen our spiritual health. But not all churches are equipped to come alongside to help with physical health issues or to connect the relationship between our spiritual health and our physical health. That’s the passion of a parish nurse.

Think about your health goals for you and your family. You want to prevent illness and injury and to optimize your health and abilities. Now imagine someone in your congregation who shares these goals and works with you to achieve them.

Much like every church is different, a faith community nursing program will differ from church to church based on the needs of the congregation and the person filling the parish nursing role.

In my case, working in Critical Care,I often see people in “crisis mode,” facing seemingly impossible decisions for loved ones.Knowing that more than one-third of all people in this situation will suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms, I yearn to help ease these stressful times.

So I arranged to have experts show church members how to plan ahead for difficult decisions that come with aging. We’ve learned about dementia, medication management, senior resources, advanced health care directives and funeral planning.Workshops like this provide a chance for reflecting, preparing and sharing testimonies.

By starting these discussions, planning for difficult times is brought into the open, and families won’t have to guess what to do when placed in the position of making decisions in a crisis.

Planning workshops takes time and organization. However, a parish nursing program can also start with something very simple. I started by taking blood pressures once a month after Sunday services. Why blood pressures? After all, you can check your blood pressure at almost any grocery store.

But it's not just about blood pressure. Something about taking the time to sit down with a nurse while having your blood pressure checked leads to sharing health concerns and struggles. I've learned about upcoming surgeries, been approached when a doctor’s recommendation wasn’t understood and have been asked to explain medical terminology in everyday language.In other words, through those simple blood pressure checks, I learn about the health needs of the church family and start forming ideas for how to meet them.

There are two key elements to a successful parish nursing program.

1. Support from the church leadership. When I felt called into parish nursing, I made an appointment to meet with my pastor to discuss if this was an opportunity for our church. After a few weeks of prayer, we felt that we should proceed.

I've been blessed with the support of the pastor, Elder Board and Shepherding Committee of my church. Like any ministry area, it's important that the parish nursing program be an integrated part of the church.

As any pastor will tell you, hospital visits occur regularly. As a parish nurse, I'm able to help share in this vital visitation ministry. After my pastor learned of a church member’s need for emergency surgery, he rushed to the hospital to pray with her. Knowing I was working that night, he sent me a text message sharing the situation. I was able to arrange my workload so that I could take a break and be with her as she woke from anesthesia in the recovery room. Her face filled with joy when the first person she saw was a member of her church family. I visited her several times over the next few days and then checked on her progress when we'd meet at church functions.

2. Networking with other parish nurses. I was introduced to parish nursing through Health Ministries Network of Bellingham, Wash. They offer educational opportunities for those interested in pursuing parish nursing and monthly networking meetings. Each month at least 20 nurses encourage each other, share ideas and learn from a variety of speakers.

It's important that a parish nurse doesn't replicate a working system in the community but spends time and effort sharing what resources are available and appropriate for the church family.Many of the nurses within networks like this are eager to work together for the health of all of our congregations, and some have training or expertise that you or your church's parish nurse might not.

Some nurses might worry that they won’t have time to devote to a health ministry, especially if they work full-time or have young families. Or they worry that they have too narrow a focus in their specialty area.
I can tell you that every parish nurse ministry is unique to the time and abilities that each nurse has to offer. Every specialty brings a different view and focus. Ideally we can team together and share our knowledge with both our colleagues and our churches. I see continual examples of 1 Peter 4:10: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

Friends and family approach nurses for health advice. Are you being called to use your education and expertise within your church family in a more structured program? Do you know of nurses within your congregation that would be great in this role?

Parish nursing is a new idea for many nurses, pastors and congregations. I've seen firsthand what value it brings to our church. Whether you're a nurse, a pastor or an interested church member, I invite you to be in prayer about how a program like this might benefit your congregation and even your community outreach efforts.

Jessica Klassen, a full-time critical care nurse, partners with Pastor Tim Thiessen to provide holistic care to all attending Birch Bay Bible Community Church, Blaine, Wash.. She is the hospital liaison between Peace Health St. Joseph Medical Center and Health Ministries Network. Klassen is attending graduate school at Gonzaga University and anticipates becoming a family nurse practitioner in 2014. She and her husband, Mike, have been married 20 years and homeschool their two children.

If you have questions or are interested in talking with someone about starting or building a health ministry at your church, Klassen invites you to contact her at ParishNurse@birchbaychurch.com.

Photo of Jessica Klassen by Phil Davis

By Tim Bergdahl

I am writing letters to my 12- and 17-year-old daughters about things I want them to know as well as to celebrate milestones in their lives. I am doing this because it has been a year since my colon cancer was discovered to have metastasized to my liver. It seems prudent to prepare to share my love and thoughts with them on paper.

Lent may seem like a topic of lesser importance under the circumstances, but really it is not. How giving up something we love effects our focus and our relationship with God has been very much on all our minds.

What is Lent?
A short while ago we celebrated Christmas and the run-up to it called Advent—as well as the world’s run-up to Christmas that used to begin with Macy’s Christmas Parade and Black Friday, but now begins even earlier than that. I hope you remember how we anticipated the “reason for the season” as we were reminded that our hope, peace, joy and love come from Jesus Christ.

Easter is also a time for hope, peace, joy and love, but we realize the events of Easter time and all that Christ did and suffered so faithfully according to the will of the Father is due to our sin—our sin, his sacrifice. So we shouldn’t be surprised if the things we do to prepare for Easter remind us of our sin and the need for that sacrifice.

I have to confess that the church tradition in which I was raised focused on Passion Week—or at least Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday—and not on the time referred to as Lent. I think that is too bad, because preparation is always a good thing. Like studying for a test, practicing for a meet, or calming one’s spirit and turning off your cell phone before church starts—it’s always good to step into situations prepared.

Lent gets its name from the lengthening of days that begin after the shortest day of the year. It is 40 days long; the Sundays are not counted. For a very long time, Lent has been a period of fasting as well as a few other things I will mention later. Fasting is, however, what is most commonly associated with the time.

What would you give up?

Many of us have never fasted except in the involuntary sense when we skip a meal or two. The Bible refers to fasting many times, including brief instruction for when we fast. Jesus, Paul and so many others fasted.

Sometimes the fast was from all food. Sometimes it was from all food and drink. Sometimes the fast was from certain kinds of food and drink. Sometimes it was for a day, other times for 40 days and sometimes more or less, depending on the hoped-for results of the fast.

Fasting during Lent is different in that a person might give up food or drink, but they might give up something else instead. It should be something important and difficult to give up. I’ve overheard people joking about giving up something they wouldn’t miss anyway, like homework or chores. I’ve also heard of people giving up things they really shouldn’t be doing anyway, such as smoking, drinking to excess, gambling or arguing with a sibling.

Could you give up watching TV, stop going to the movies, cease surfing the Web, or merely avoid Facebook for 40 days—and nights too? Could you do without your cell phone, dating or taking the car everywhere you want to go? Could you give up red meat or sweets? It is your choice, but that choice needs to be a challenge. It shouldn’t be easy. It needs to be something you’ll miss and even yearn for.

Why? Most people who fast during Lent today practice it as penance for sin. It is a way for them to show they are sorry for what they have done and for the suffering they caused their Savior. Our tradition doesn’t think much of penance, because we insist that we shouldn’t try to owe what Jesus Christ has already paid.

Nevertheless I believe it is worthwhile to take some time and focus on the fact that we Christians should not sin, but when we sin—and we do—we have an advocate with the Father: his Son Jesus Christ.

The one who really matters

Although I have not been known for fasting, I have done so from time to time and it has helped me focus on those things that really matter, the one who really matters. Let me be frank. Even though I have been a Christian for a long time, a missionary for many years and a pastor, I still find it easy to not give God the attention he deserves. I have long wondered if anything would be left over for Caesar if God were given his due. I seem to have lived my life to paraphrase the hymn, “I surrender some.”

Fasting reminds me of what I can do without and of whom I cannot do without. It becomes all the more clear when I give up those created things most precious to me. During Lent it drives thoughts of other things—dare I say bunnies and eggs—so that I can anticipate what Christ’s sacrifice means and what God did through him for me.

I mention that there were other aspects of Lent besides fasting. The other two are prayer and care, many times called “charity.” The three together— prayer, fasting and caring—could be referred to as reaching up, reaching in and reaching out. I have spent more time on the fasting, the reaching in, because if done right it enhances both praying and caring. What I mean is that if you clear your heart and mind of competitors for Christ’s presence then you will be better able to pray according to God’s will and to act toward others according to his purposes.

Giving up something we love affects our focus and our relationship with God. Any time you fast from the created to focus on the Creator I think you will find it worth the sacrifice, just as Jesus Christ found us worth his sacrifice those many years ago.

Tim Bergdahl is the senior pastor at Madera Avenue Bible Church in Madera, Calif., husband of Janine and father of Kayleigh and Pradnya. Bergdahl blogs at likeashepherd.com

By Karen Neufeld

Does your church have a library for children? Is it an active and vibrant part of the ministry of your church?

Here are some thoughts congregations may find helpful if they have, or are planning to establish, a library for children.

Why have a church library for children?

Borrowing and sharing is good stewardship. A children’s church library provides quality books for families on tight budgets. Grandparents or members of the congregation need not purchase books desired for the occasional visits of young children. The library supplements home libraries with a rotating collection.

But today’s children have access to public libraries, school libraries and e-books. Why provide a church library? The church library should promote the most treasured and highest quality books that a congregation wants its children to read. Children are constantly bombarded by options. A children’s church library can say to children, “These are the books we want you to have easily available, because we cherish them as a congregation.”

A church library for children can also provide a resource for adults who work in the children’s programs of the church. The church depends on volunteers. Church workers need easily available, quality books that can be used as teaching resources.

What kinds of books should the children’s church library contain?

Illustrated Bible storybooks: Every church library should have a collection of beautifully illustrated Bible storybooks. Librarians should look for books based on stories from widely accepted translations of the Bible or retold in slightly simplified language. Be wary of books that distort the biblical text by embellishments or omissions.

Illustrations should represent outstanding art and avoid misrepresentations of biblical characters as all light-skinned, in clean, brightly colored robes. Some outstanding illustrators in the religious market include Paul Maier and Tim Ladwig, but librarians shouldn’t look only in Christian bookstores. The secular market also publishes illustrated Bible stories including books by award-winning artists such as Tomie dePaola, Brian Wildsmith and Peter Spier. Jerry Pinkney’s Noah’s Ark was recognized in the secular market as a Caldecott honor book in 2003.

Poetry: Poetry books can provide magical read-aloud moments at home or church. Librarians should look for illustrated editions of biblical poetry such as the love passage from Corinthians, the Beatitudes, the seasons’ passage from Ecclesiastes, the Lord’s Prayer and passages from Psalms. Church libraries should also include illustrated poetry of hymns such as Amazing Grace, Morning Has Broken and Silent Night.

Poetic prayers and blessings can be part of the poetry section as well as collections that celebrate nature or explore emotions. Mattie Stepanek lived only 14 years but wrote poetry from his heart as a child of God, peace activist and a prominent voice for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Nonfiction books: Nonfiction books can support Bible teaching. The children’s church library should have reference materials such as an illustrated Bible atlas and Bible dictionary. It should have books about ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. Books about Bible lands and archeology can put Bible stories in the context of their time and provide photos or illustrations of actual biblical sites.

Nonfiction can also help young readers understand children in different parts of the world. Ann Morris, Jan Reynolds and Maya Ajmera are authors of nonfiction books with lots of photos and child-friendly text about the world’s children. Books like If the World Were a Village by David J. Small can help develop empathy for a world of injustice. UNICEF and National Geographic publish quality books for young readers about children and places of the world.

Nonfiction books about amazing animals, plant life, the earth and universe can be part of children’s early faith journey. Books by authors and illustrators such as Ruth Heller and Steve Jenkins are popular with young readers.

Biography is an important nonfiction category of books. True stories of people such as Joni Eareckson, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Marian Anderson provide role models for young readers. Stories about the lives of children might include The Story of Ruby Bridges, Sadako and the Thousand Cranes, The Diary of Anne Frank, or Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman.

Each faith tradition should include biographies and stories important to the denomination and the history of the church. Within the Mennonite faith tradition this would include biographies of Menno Simons such as The Fugitive by Menno Augsburger and histories of Mennonite settlers such as The King of Prussia and a Peanut Butter Sandwich by Alice Fleming or On the Zwieback Trail by Lisa Weaver.

Fiction: Perhaps the greatest challenge for the church librarian is the building of a unique fiction collection for the church library. Librarians should look for options from their own denominational publishers but not neglect options available from other religious and secular publishers.

Theme and purpose are important considerations when selecting fiction books for the church library. Possible themes include compassion (Oma’s Quilt and Elizabiti’s Doll), resolving conflict (Shiloh and Just Grace) or selfless acts (Mama Panya’s Pancakes and One Thousand Tracings). Eve Bunting writes children’s fiction with themes such as adoption, homelessness, aging and illiteracy.

Fiction should provide windows of understanding into the lives of others and mirrors of reflection into a child’s own experience. For example, an only child should be able to find books that help her value and understand herself, as well as books about large families that help her value and understand the lives of others.

Books should provide windows into lives of children of different ethnicities, cultures and class. Four Feet and Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and A Storyteller’s Beads by Jane Kurtz offer windows into the lives of refugee children. Patricia Polacco writes realistic stories with multicultural American family and neighborhood settings.

The fiction section should include fables and allegories for thinking about generosity and selfishness, wisdom and folly, kindness and cruelty as well as other themes that are sometimes easier to talk about with a fantasy tale rather than a realistic story. A collection of Aesop’s fables as well as tales by modern authors such as Arnold Lobel, Dr. Seuss, Max Lucado or Leo Lionni can illustrate principles of moral living. For older readers the library might include the C.S. Lewis Narnia series or John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or the Kingdom Tales by John and Karen Mains.

Historic fiction is an important category of books for the fiction section of a church library. The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare provides a look at Jesus’ times from the perspective of a teen in Galilee. Crispin by Avi provides a look at how a young man would understand his world in pre-reformation Europe. Night Preacher by Louise Vernon gives a fictionalized account of Menno Simons’ life from the perspective of a son. Henry’s Red Sea tells the story of a World War II Russian Mennonite refugee.

How does a church encourage the use of the children’s books in its library?

Church librarians should regularly feature book promotions in Sunday bulletin inserts or newsletters. Such promotions keep the library in the minds of the congregation and encourage trips to the library to check out books.

Sunday school programs can include a monthly story and library time. A library time acquaints children with book options and provides time to check out books.

A book cart at coffee breaks or fellowship meals can make books more visible to the congregation and make checking out books more convenient. The book cart can highlight seasonal books or books that fit with a sermon theme.

Reading campaigns can encourage library use. Churches should choose campaigns that build cooperation and teach the value of doing something for others rather than competitions that offer prizes only to winners.

At my church the library budget was used one year to reward children’s reading points with school books for children in Kinshasa. Another year the children’s reading points earned instruments for the children’s music program of the church. Still another year, children read “Around the World,” filling a map with stars showing the settings for the books they read.

How can a church build a quality children’s library on limited funds?

A church might encourage members of the congregation to buy a book for the church library for Christmas. Librarians could also encourage the gift of a book to the church library when a new baby is born or to celebrate a child’s birthday. Librarians should provide a “wish list” to help guide gift choices.

A carefully selective librarian may find great books at used bookstores, thrift stores or flea markets. As children outgrow books from their home collections, they should be encouraged to donate them to the church. The librarian should make clear, however, that a donation of a book does not assure its presence on the shelves of a church library. Donated books that are duplicates or that do not fit the purpose of the church library can be donated to a thrift store or Mennonite Relief Sale.

An active and vibrant children’s church library is possible as an asset to the ministry of the church.

Karen Neufeld has recently retired from her position as professor of children’s literature and director of the Liberal Studies at Fresno Pacific University. She is the librarian and a member of the congregation at College Community Church Mennonite Brethren in Clovis, Calif. To receive a bibliography of books in the CCCMB library or to become part of an online network of church librarians contact the author at kneufeld@fresno.edu.

Photo by Bob Friesen: Karen Nefeuld and children from College Community Church enjoy reading together in the church library.

Known for books that tackle thorny issues such as pain, prayer and spiritual disappointment, bestselling author Phillip Yancey has established himself as a credible ally of the Christian pilgrim. As a veteran journalist, he is an insightful observer of American evangelicalism. Prior to a recent speaking engagement at Tabor College, Yancey shared some of his insights and observations with former

CL: You have said, “My books are a process of exploration and investigation of things I wonder about and worry about.” So, what’s on your mind these days as you look at the landscape?

PY: I don’t have a title yet for the book I’m working on, but the subtitle is, “Communicating faith to a culture running away from it.” It’s the whole issue of the post-Christian society and the really bad reputation Christians have within that society. Is it deserved? Should we be worried about it? What can we do about it?

CL: Why is it that the gospel doesn’t sound like good news?

PY: There are parts of the world where the gospel is actively transforming society. We know that. But we don’t talk about post-Muslim societies; we talk about post-Christian societies. I’m asking, if the gospel is true, why doesn’t it work over the long term?

CL: Have you found some answers to your questions?

PY: I think the reason the gospel works for a time but not forever is what I call God’s greatest gamble. As I understand the Bible, in the Old Testament you see God reluctant to intervene, occasionally intervening and always there were body bags and scorch marks.

Then God descended and became a human being, became powerless and was crucified—and there’s all the theology behind that. But that wasn’t the end of the story. The story really begins with Ascension and Pentecost, where God says, “OK, it’s yours now. Here it is, go out and do it.” And God really turned it over.

We can’t imagine what anything is like for God, but you have to wonder what that must be like, knowing and seeing the mess we’ve made. It’s like Jesus looking out over Jerusalem and saying, “If only I could gather you under my wings.” But God tied his hands in a sense and said, “This is my goal: I don’t need to prove anything, but I want my followers to show the world what I’m like.”

We do that pretty poorly, but that was his goal and the risk he took.

CL: So what should Christians be pursuing if they seek to truly represent God before a world that seems to be walking away from him?

PY: Miroslav Volf, a Croatian theologian who grew up in the Balkans during the war and now teaches at Yale Divinity School, has said in a pluralistic society the best way to reach people used to be directly through the head. So Billy Graham would say, “You must repent. If you repent, come forward and your life will be changed.”

That worked for a while. It doesn’t really work now. Volf said to start with the hands; that affects the heart and then the head. So what we ought to be doing is exactly what MCC does—demonstrate what God cares about by the people we care about and by the causes and values we believe in. The people who receive those acts of mercy will be touched. Then, finally, you can say, “Here’s why I do that.”

CL: Most evangelicals would agree the United States is in a moral decline; some would say the U.S. already is a post-Christian society. What’s your view?

PY: Part of me says let’s be realistic, we’re headed the way of Europe. We have a prosperous, self-indulgent society and a rotten celebrity-oriented culture. But another part of me says nobody was predicting the Jesus movement, nobody was predicting the Calvary Chapel movement. Again and again, Jesus said the Spirit blows like the wind; you never know where it will show up.

I’d have to say the culture of the United States is a culture that’s offensive to God. Sometimes I say the only reason God puts up with it is because we bankroll a lot of good stuff for him around the world—a lot of bad stuff, too, but first of all a lot of good stuff.

If we really underwent another deep Depression, which is a possibility, it could be the best thing for the church.

CL: We’ve just come through a bitter presidential election with some interesting dynamics among evangelicals. What do we need to understand about our participation in the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven?

PY: The old Augustine division of “City of God” and “City of Man” is biblical. To me the big divide is not a good society or a bad society. The big divide is how do we get the society we want? Do we get it from the top down, or do we get it from the bottom up?

Frankly, I am very nervous as Christians get higher and higher in politics because they tend to rely on that to accomplish the kingdom of God—and that never works. It usually produces the opposite.

We need to make sure our politics don’t determine which values are most important to us. If you ask the average person what are the political issues that are most important to evangelicals today, secular people would say, “The ones I hear about all the time are abortion and homosexuality.”

Here are two issues that are important, that were clearly sins in far more egregious forms in the day of Jesus and Paul, and yet Jesus didn’t say a word about them and Paul maybe two verses about homosexuality. So we’re defining ourselves by those things?

Jesus talked a lot about the poor, the danger of money and those things. So we’re missing the boat. We’re not following Jesus if our values are that skewed.

CL: Do you have a final word to Mennonites, as you’ve observed them?

YP: I would like to be encouraging of Mennonites on some levels and challenging on others. The encouragement is there are a lot of people who grow up Mennonite and then step out into the wider, wilder world and find out, “Hmm, I don’t have to be like that.” So I would say, claim your identity proudly. Being defined as an outsider is not all bad. The great temptation is to let the culture determine your values.

It’s pretty clear everybody knows some things are wrong. We know murder is wrong; we know adultery is wrong. But we don’t know pride is wrong. We need to be convicted of that. We don’t know that not caring about the poor is wrong. That’s the challenge. We need to go back to Jesus for those things—the things he emphasizes, which are so different than what the world around us emphasizes and also what the church emphasizes.

Stay radical, Mennonites. But be radical about the things Jesus was radical about.

By Jared Burkholder

As we study the Christmas story there are hundreds of interpretive questions that come to mind. I call them “I-wish-we-knews.”

Why don’t Joseph and Mary wait until Jesus is born to travel to Bethlehem? I wish we knew if Caesar Augustus’ decree creates a sense of urgency by setting a deadline? Is Mary and Joseph’s only plan to stay in Bethlehem’s inn and deliver Mary’s first baby themselves?

I spent most of my adult life searching for answers and solutions to the many questions I have about the accounts of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke. My quest has convinced me that we need to take a fresh, new look at this old, old story. The “real” Christmas story should be a narrative that is solidly rooted in the biblical text, consistent with common sense and up front about what historically we do and do not know with certainty. It should be a narrative that reflects first century, Middle Eastern values and culture and a story that is supported by archeology, geography and linguistics.

One does not have to probe too deeply to discover the difficulty 20th century Western civilization has understanding the power of community and hospitality, obsessed as it is by individualism and pulling one’s self up by his or her own bootstraps. First century Middle Eastern hospitality was a badge of honor, and that part of the world became renowned for its depth of commitment to welcoming guests. Hospitality was an act of kindness that involved a commitment to house, feed and protect family, friends and strangers.

Hospitality is the value that prompted someone in Bethlehem to open his or her home to Mary and Joseph. So who is this family? We can’t discover their names, but what about their identity by category? Were they relatives or non-relative residents?

Since hospitality in general and staying with relatives in particular were first century cultural norms in the Middle East, it is reasonable to conclude that Mary and Joseph plan to stay with relatives once they get to Bethlehem.

After all, Bethlehem is the hometown of those from “the house and line of David”—Joseph’s lineage (Luke 2:4). Joseph undoubtedly has plenty of relatives with whom he and Mary can stay while in Bethlehem. It seems reasonable to conclude that Joseph knows his extended family in Bethlehem and is confident that he and Mary will be well attended to by family in Bethlehem.

To ignore the high value Middle Eastern culture places on family and hospitality makes Mary and Joseph and their families appear shortsighted, incompetent and rather foolish for not thinking through the implications of sending pregnant Mary and Joseph off to Bethlehem by themselves to have their first child.

The fact that the traditional Christmas story replaces this Middle Eastern commitment to family and hospitality with Western individualism and isolationism illustrates how far the Christmas tradition has strayed from reality.

Though the text does not explicitly mention the involvement of relatives, first century readers would assume their involvement. Jesus’ birth in the home of a relative assisted by a midwife fits harmoniously with both the culture and the text as the story unfolds.

While the Bible does not mention who hosted Mary and Joseph, it does tell us some things about the place where Jesus is born. “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6-7).

Over the years, Bible interpreters have concluded that it is reasonable to assume that because Mary places Jesus in a feed trough, she and Joseph are homeless and have sought out the protection of a stable because they have no other place to stay—the inn is sold out. But a closer look at these verses supports the idea that the couple is staying with family.

The Greek word “kataluma” is translated as “inn” here in Luke. This word appears two other times in the New Testament (Mark 14:13-15; Luke 22:8-12) and both are translated as “guest room” in most English translations. So it seems that a better translation in Luke 2 would be guest room.

If the translation “guest room” is used, we are then more apt to conclude that Joseph and Mary’s plan is to find lodging in the guest room of a private home, probably that of a relative. When the baby is born, however, Mary and Joseph are not in the privacy of the guest room as one would have expected, and the text tells us why. It is because the guest room is occupied.

Although I have never seen a Christmas pageant that has a group of people already visiting Joseph and Mary when the shepherds arrive, that is exactly the picture Luke paints for the reader in Luke 2:16-20. After the shepherds tell their incredible story, Luke adds, “and all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary…”(Luke 2:18-19, KJV). So instead of Mary and Joseph being isolated and all alone, they are literally surrounded by family and friends.

Another reason we often picture Jesus as born in an isolated stable instead of in the home of relatives is because Mary places her newborn in a manger, and we assume feed troughs are only found in stables.
However, not all but many houses in the Middle East were designed with a small, lower level for the animals at one end. About 80 percent of the single room is a raised terrace, often about four feet higher than the level for the animals. The two levels are connected by a short set of stairs. Feed troughs are built into the floor of the raised terrace where the animals eat. The family cooks, eats and lives on the raised terrace. Nearly one hundred photographs have been taken and scale drawings made of a variety of such peasant homes.

So by (1) understanding the cultural expectation that Joseph and Mary would stay with family while in Bethlehem, (2) changing the translation of “kataluma” from “inn” to “guest room,” (3) knowing that homes at the time of Jesus’ birth included a place for animals (4) remembering that feed troughs can be in a house, not just in stables and (5) observing that there were others with Mary and Joseph when the shepherds tell their story, we come at least a giant step closer to the real Christmas story.

Reevaluating the Christmas story, however, is more than some kind of biology lab experiment to be dissected and analyzed intellectually like a “pickled” frog. Bible study is about life change. Bible study calls us to respond, challenging us to integrate faith and life. To paraphrase I Corinthians 13, if I have all knowledge and understand the Christmas story better now than I ever have before, but do not demonstrate God’s sacrificial, gave-his-one-and-only Son kind of love, then I am no more than a beautifully wrapped Christmas present with nothing inside.

The gift of family is one point at which this new reading of the biblical account of Jesus’ birth challenges us to live out God’s great love. Just as God places his son Jesus in a family, God, in his sovereignty, has placed us in families that bless us and shape us through both positive and negative experiences. How will you celebrate God’s gift of family this Christmas season?

Consider thoughtfully preparing an individualized blessing for your spouse and each of your children and/or grandchildren. Capture in figurative language qualities in their lives that you believe God has given them to be a blessing to others. Be intentional about giving this gift: pronounce the blessing upon each one in a family setting.

On the brink of divorce this Christmas? Finding it difficult to forgive someone in your family or to give someone a second chance? Ask God to help you unconditionally love others the way he loves you. Wait patiently for God to do what only he can do.

Thank God this Christmas for your biological parents, as well as, perhaps, your adoptive or foster parents. Joseph, Jesus’ non-biological father, profoundly influenced him.

Thank God for your relatives. Proudly represent your family name. Ask God to help you continue, or perhaps by his grace begin, a godly legacy for future generations.

Jared Burkholder is the author of Closer to the Real Christmas Story, from which this article is adapted. Burkholder was pastor of Parkview MB Church in Hillsboro, Kan., for nine years and was a college professor and administrator at Grace University, Omaha, Neb., for 20 years. Closer to the Real Christmas Story was published in 2012 by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., of Pittsburgh, Pa. Heather Marx illustrated the book, intended as a discipleship tool for families, small group leaders and Sunday school teachers.

By Jim Aiken

“Do you drive a horse and buggy?” a co-worker asked when I told her I had joined a Mennonite Brethren church. This was the first of many confused and curious responses I have received when I tell people I am a Mennonite.

We don’t always know how to answer when asked, “What is a Mennonite?” But it is an important question, and how we answer reflects our confidence, pride and knowledge of our spiritual heritage.

My story
Let me begin by reviewing my journey to faith and my decision to become Mennonite Brethren. I grew up in Fresno, Calif., and religious faith was not part of my home life. I went to Sunday school as a child out of family tradition, yet it made little spiritual impact. During my high school years, I became a Christian through the ministry of Campus Life and then served in a junior high ministry with Youth for Christ for three years.

After two years of college I wanted to pursue full-time ministry. A friend told me there was a small Christian college in town called Pacific College, now Fresno Pacific University. After graduating from Pacific College, I attended Gordon-Conwell Seminary in New England. With an enrollment of 600-plus students from 40 different denominations, it was an eye-opening experience. I soon decided that I needed to be part of a church denomination with beliefs strongly based on Scripture.

At this point I was faced with a dilemma. The two denominations I knew best were Foursquare Gospel and Mennonite Brethren. I went back to the Anabaptist theology books I had studied at Pacific College. After months of study and prayer, I chose to become Mennonite Brethren.

I made this decision because of our distinctive theology:
· We are Christ-centered.
· We believe Jesus is God.
· We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
· We practice radical discipleship and follow the Sermon on the Mount.
· We practice nonviolence.

I am proud of our distinctives and theology. They are why I am Mennonite Brethren.

Challenges we face
I believe one challenge we face, as churches and as a denomination, is explaining to other people who we are as Mennonites and doing so in a positive manner that makes a person want to pursue spiritual issues from an Anabaptist perspective.

One challenge to telling our story is the misconceptions people have of us.

According to two surveys commissioned by Mennonite Board of Mission, an agency of Mennonite Church USA, 82 percent of those who have heard of Mennonites have a distorted perception. Most associate Mennonites with beards, buggies and old-fashioned clothes. Some people focus on misrepresentations of Mennonites and never see our distinctive. As a result, they never see Jesus!

Another challenge is the tendency to equate Mennonite Brethren with a certain ethnicity. Now there’s nothing wrong with ethnicity. That’s how God created us. But associating a denomination with certain ethnicities or religious traditions can hurt our ministry. “The stronger the ethnic culture, the more difficult it is to fulfill the Great Commission,” cautions Lyle Schaller, author and church consultant.

The reason is simple. If an ethnicity is equated with church and you’re not of that ethnicity, two things go through your mind: Maybe I don’t belong here. Maybe their beliefs don’t apply to me. Both thoughts can lead to the sad conclusion that this church is irrelevant.

While the spiritual forebearers of the Mennonite Brethren Church are German-speaking Russians, today the Mennonite Brethren Church is a global fellowship. While there are 30,000 Mennonite Brethren in the U.S., and 40,000 in Canada, there are 100,000 in Congo and 200,000 in India. Mennonite Brethren churches can be found in Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and Europe as well as North America.

Claiming our history
We also must admit that sometimes we want to hide our spiritual heritage. Some prefer that we downplay our Anabaptist distinctive so that we will blend in with other evangelicals. Some will say, “We’re just like the Baptists,” which is not true or wise. When we do this, we lose our distinctive.

Over the years I have found that being familiar with our historical origins is helpful when I explain who I am as a Mennonite Brethren. If someone is open to a serious conversation, I take three or four minutes to briefly tell our story. My version goes something like this:

In the early 1500s a Roman Catholic priest named Martin Luther came to a new understanding of salvation. He realized a relationship with God was experienced by grace, through faith and not religious church traditions. This transformed Luther’s life and thinking, prompted him to attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and led to a religious movement known as the Reformation. When the Catholic Church resisted Luther’s efforts, other believers joined Luther to protest for change, and they were labeled “Protestants.”

There was a group of believers who felt Luther didn’t go far enough, especially in regards to baptism. After studying Scripture, these believers concluded that baptism was only for people who had decided to believe in Jesus. They promoted “believer’s baptism” and rejected infant baptism.

To reject infant baptism in the 1500’s was very radical. Catholics and Luther equated infant baptism with salvation, thinking that original sin is cleansed in baptism. Luther saw believer’s baptism as heretical and argued that Scripture did not support it. Catholics saw it as criminal, insisting that it broke the law.

At that time, the church and government worked closely together. For example, when a baby was baptized, the family paid taxes to the government. To not baptize a baby was seen as a refusal to pay taxes. Luther and the Catholics gave this group of heretics a nickname — Anabaptists, meaning “re-baptizers.”

In every religious movement, there are extremists. Anabaptist extremists existed in the German town of Muenster. Zealous for the second coming of Christ, they forced people to be rebaptized, killing those who refused. After a yearlong siege, soldiers killed everyone in the town. Authorities believed violence was the only way to control Anabaptists, and 200,000 Anabaptists were killed over the next 50 years.

A third option
During this time, a Catholic priest in the Netherlands was shocked that people would die for their view of baptism. So he carefully studied Scriptures and as a result, he became an Anabaptist himself. He began writing pamphlets supporting Anabaptist teaching and nonviolence. People began following this former priest whose name was Menno Simons (pictured left). His opponents nicknamed his followers “Mennonites,” a term used to ridicule them.

Mennonites were not part of the Catholic Church, and they were different from other Protestants. They became a third option for believers and were known as the Radical Reformation. In some ways, they were the “emerging church” of the 1500’s, seeking to return to biblical standards of beliefs and lifestyles instead of just following the religious status quo.

In the 1500’s, people were willing to die for believer’s baptism, salvation through Christ alone, the Bible as the final authority for belief, discipleship, separation of church and state and nonviolence and peacemaking. We can be proud of this heritage.

When people hear the word “Mennonite,” do they think of a cultural distortion or a true and biblical distinctive? At one time, “Mennonite” meant a radical follower of Jesus. Do people think that today? I think our goal should be a return to that far-reaching discipleship. We can be confident and proud of our spiritual heritage. Are we willing to live out a radical faith? I believe doing so would please Jesus.

Jim Aiken is lead pastor of Dinuba (Calif.) MB Church.

By D. Merrill Ewert

Editor’s Note: Nearly every Monday morning that Merrill Ewert served as president of Fresno Pacific University, he sent an email message to the faculty, staff and trustees of the university called “Merrill’s Monday Morning Memo.” While his final note was intended for the FPU community, Ewert’s words challenge all of us involved in Christian higher education and who support these institutions.

In 10 years of Merrill’s Monday Morning Memos, I’ve written nearly 2,000 pages and more than a million words. Although there’s probably very little left unsaid, I leave you with some final thoughts:

Cling to Jesus. While rebranding Fresno Pacific several years ago, we added the following words (drawn from I Corinthians 3:11) to the university logo: Founded on Christ.

Another Christian university once used the same words on its logo. Then it hired a president who brought renewed energy, sharpened the institution’s vision and increased its academic reputation. Excited about the appointment, people overlooked the fact she was also Jewish. Quietly and without fanfare, the words, Founded on Christ, disappeared from the logo. Two decades later, there’s barely a trace of the university’s founding faith tradition on its website.

People often talked with me about the “slippery slope” on which some evangelical institutions lost their “Christian” moorings. I believe three things can prevent this. First, it doesn’t happen when the board remains thoroughly, completely and committedly Christian. Second, presidents with a deep faith, an abiding commitment to Jesus and a view of higher education as ministry help institutions retain their Christian identity. Third, when faculty and staff clearly demonstrate a deep and personal relationship with Jesus, universities remain Christ-centered.

I pray this will ever be so at Fresno Pacific!

Be agents of shalom. C.S. Lewis calls Christians to recapture society, culture and all creation for Jesus Christ. Today as the culture wars tear our society apart, someone must demonstrate another way. The Hebrew concept of shalom is an integral part of FPU.

Scriptural shalom reflects a transcendent wholeness that includes health, welfare, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest and harmony. The Bible calls us to bring shalom to the community, reconcile warring peoples to each other, promote justice and inspire hope.

Individually and institutionally, God calls us to bring redemptive love into our relationships, our work and our communities. Unfortunately, some of the angriest people I know are Christians. I’m embarrassed at the words and actions of some who claim to be followers of Jesus. Too many speak and act with little regard to the consequences; they tear down and destroy without feeling any obligation to replace it with something else.

I pray Fresno Pacific will always live as the people of shalom, especially when the cultural warriors would divide us.

Courageously speak into the culture. At FPU, we often discuss the university’s prophetic role as laid out in the Fresno Pacific Idea. Being prophetic means transforming society.

Christians once occupied the center of intellectual life in this nation. Over the past 200 years, however, we’ve marginalized ourselves, Mark Noll argues in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. We haven’t participated fully in the hard intellectual work of the academy. Rather than helping create new knowledge, he suggests, many Christians have chosen the easier path—focusing on the application of our disciplines and service to humankind. The latter are important, but engaging in scholarship can help shape the nature and direction of our fields of study.

Our society needs more Christian scholars who speak out boldly. I was a young professor when Nobel Laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gave his famous Harvard commencement address in which he said, “The Western world has lost its civil courage….” His call for moral leadership, grounded in a deep and abiding commitment to our Lord, remains equally urgent today. That speech infuriated many in higher education but became required reading for my classes.

I pray Fresno Pacific will always be known for outstanding Christian scholars who examine the big issues and courageously speak into the culture.

Remember that it’s God’s work. Over the past decade, Fresno Pacific trustees have often reminded each other of Psalm 127:1 (NIV): “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”

Several years ago, I received an email from a former doctoral student who had become a professor on the East Coast. I was startled by the subject line: Follower of Jesus!!!!

She had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Asia when several MCC workers convinced her to pursue graduate training at Cornell where they knew this “Mennonite professor.” Life was tough for this young, single mom. My Christian graduate students and I walked with her through separation, divorce and the pressures of life. Before finishing her Ph.D., she began attending a “mainline” church and calling herself a “Christian” because, she told me, she now attended church regularly. She also wasn’t a Muslim (like her ex-husband) and believed in the values of community, peace and justice about which she heard in church.

Now in her email, she explained that her heart was overflowing with joy because she had found Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior. “I now pray for my graduate students just as you used to pray for us!”A few days later, she flew across the country just to tell Priscilla and me how God had transformed her life. She now understood what she had seen in those MCCers, heard in my office and experienced in our home.

I pray Fresno Pacific will faithfully tell the good news but understand that God gives the increase.

Aspire to greatness. I titled my FPU inaugural address, “Called to Excellence!” I noted that when God created the earth and everything in it, he didn’t say, “That’s good enough.” Nor did he suggest, “Not bad for a Thursday.”Rather, at every step, the Lord labeled his creative work “good.” He set the bar high; so should we. God gave us enormous capacity to learn, grow and use our knowledge and skills for the kingdom. He calls us to excellence.

Author Jim Collins famously suggested that “the good” is the biggest enemy of “the great.” Settling for “good enough” keeps us from becoming “great.”Great athletic teams have a burning desire to win; world-class musicians aspire to be the best. If we demand excellence of ourselves, we’ll also get it from our students.

Research shows that when students choose a college, the most important factor in that decision is how they perceive an institution’s academic quality. We seek to demonstrate a culture of excellence to attract and retain the best students, but we also do it to realize our full, God-given potential. We strive for excellence to honor the God who created that capacity within us.

I pray Fresno Pacific will always aspire to greatness!

A blessing. As Priscilla and I leave Fresno Pacific, I challenge us all to cling to Jesus, the center of our faith. Be the agents of shalom in a world that is torn by conflict and in desperate need of reconciliation. Drawing on your scholarship, speak courageously into a culture that is looking for meaning, purpose, direction and hope. Aspire to greatness, but remember that we’re doing God’s work.

We treasure the many friendships we formed in Fresno. We will remember the many kindnesses, words of encouragement and prayers on our behalf. We’ve been blessed and shaped by our time at Fresno Pacific. Thank you! And now, we leave you with the words of that ancient Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be ever at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hallow of his hand.

With love,
Merrill and Priscilla Ewert

Merrill and Priscilla Ewert served Fresno Pacific University for 10 years. They are currently living in Washington, D.C., where Merrill is working on a project with several higher education associations.

U.S. Mennonite Brethren are invited to gather Jan. 24-26 in Phoenix, Ariz., to study, pray and talk together about Articles 12 (Society and State) and 13 (Love and Nonresistance) of the MB Confession of Faith.

In preparation for this event, Christian Leader editor Connie Faber hosted a telephone conversation with three USMB leaders about our Confession of Faith and the circumstances that prompted this study conference.

Ed Boschman (left) is the USMB executive director and a member of the national Board of Faith and Life (BFL). Larry Nikkel (center), President Emeritus of Tabor College and former president and CEO of Mennonite Health Services, chairs the BFL. Lynn Jost (right), Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary dean, chaired the General Conference of MB Churches (U.S. and Canada) BFL and its Confession of Faith Task Force when the Confession of Faith was last revised in 1999. Jost also served on the International Community of Mennonite Brethren task force that published an international Confession of Faith in 2003.

CL: Let’s begin with a basic question: Why do we need a Confession of Faith?

LN: Our Confession of Faith reminds us and others of the doctrinal beliefs we hold.

EB: The Confession guards our orthodoxy as a family of faith. It helps us with two strategically important core values as a family. One of those is clarity and the other is cohesion. Who we are is closely related to what we believe together. If we know what we are committed to together, we have a much better chance to be one and to have the authority and witness of the spirit of Christ and his mission.

LJ: We also need a confession because we need a bridge from the Bible to our lives. The Bible doesn’t change but the context does. Our context determines what issues we’re going to include in the Confession.
It also means that we’re confessing both the things we have in common with other evangelical believers and some things that are distinctive within the Christian community. Both are appropriate in a Confession.

Also, I think a confession includes both doctrine and discipleship. We believe that right behaving has a place right alongside right believing.

CL: So then what role does the Confession of Faith play for U.S. Mennonite Brethren? What role should it play?

LN: I like the way Lynn talks about needing a bridge from the Bible to daily living. That really starts to answer this question. I think our Confession should guide us in our preaching, teaching and living. How well we’re doing at that, I guess, is part of what the study conference is about.

EB: This question speaks to an ongoing discussion that we have. The introduction to our Confession of Faith tries to answer whether this document is prescriptive or descriptive. I believe it plays a role both to guide us and to provide boundaries for us as we live in our local church realities and beyond that.

LJ: I think Ed is right. There is an appropriate place for boundaries and for freedom from boundaries and figuring out which is which is what we wrestle with. We need both boundaries and a center towards which we go.

CL: Why is this study conference focusing on Articles 12 and 13?

LN: We’ve known for a long time that we do not have a consensus around Article 13 (Peace and Nonresistance) and because we don’t have consensus we don’t really have unity. We’ve probably never had the sense of unity on this issue that some may think that we’ve had. Two years ago the Board of Faith and Life began looking at where we are on this issue, and we are all over the map.

EB: From a pastoral point of view, these variations among us sometimes create tensions and have the potential to be divisive. We have a reality that needs to be talked through so that we can move to a place (of agreement) that will give us the kind of authenticity that is important to us.

LJ: We’re a historic peace church, confessing that allegiance to Jesus trumps national allegiance and that Jesus teaches us to live in peace. And yet we’ve always had differences of opinion. Now our leaders have called us together to understand what the Bible says and to encourage us to live out our convictions.

CL: How did these differences on come about?

LN: Part of what has happened—and I’ve personally been a part of it—is that when we started new churches and tried to reach out to our communities, we were just delighted that people from different persuasions wanted to be a part of our congregations. I remember this so well.

EB: As we have reached out to our neighbors and the people in our communities, some of them have come to faith and joined our churches. Among them are police officers and military personnel.

LN: In most of our churches we didn’t hide this element of our Confession, but as we welcomed people from different theological backgrounds we did not force them to support our Confession of Faith in its totality.

The same thing applied to our pastors. I don’t know how hard we’ve all worked to call pastors who were Anabaptist in their orientation. But I think there weren’t always enough to go around and in some cases I think we were more interested in pastors of the evangelical stripe.

LJ: My sense is that our differences are a product of inadequate leadership and I think that I’m old enough to say that since I’ve been in leadership for a while. It’s an inadequate system of orientation and accountability. What I remember saying to new church members and especially to new pastors is that you don’t have to agree with the Confession but you agree not to teach against it and to be open to learning because this is what our church believes.

On the positive side, the current BFL is working very hard to reverse the trend of inadequate orientation and accountability and that’s what I applaud. One of the things that makes us healthy is that there really is a center towards which we want to teach.

EB: I would agree with Lynn’s assessment. There certainly was not a stringent expectation through the process of credentialing for incoming staff that said you must clearly commit yourself to every nuance of our Confession of Faith.

CL: What is your greatest hope for the study conference?

LJ: What I really want is for people to come away with a strong commitment that Jesus is the Prince of Peace and to leave with a growing recognition that reconciliation is at the heart of what God wants to see happen; it’s not a tangent. I’d like to see that kind of commitment. I think that very well could happen.

LN: I absolutely support that. My hope is more of a process thing than anything else. What I really want is for people to come with a soft heart. To come with as much commitment to understanding as there is a commitment to being understood.

Some one has said that to a hammer everything looks like a nail. And I hope we don’t have hammers. We need open hearts and open ears and a real commitment to understanding another person’s point of view whether we agree with it or not. And so I’m hoping that people leave feeling that they were understood and that we have a greater sense of trust and understanding.

Most people will come already knowing what they believe and why. My fear is that people will come trying to win the day for their viewpoint instead of really listening hard to others’ viewpoints. My fear is that some people will come with a spirit of winning people to their viewpoint so that there will be winners and losers.

EB: My greatest hope is that we still stay absolutely committed to what the Bible says and that we will allow the Bible to speak its truth to us with open hearts and minds.

My second hope is that we recognize that clearly committed Bible students and followers of Jesus have various views about how a commitment to peace works itself out in the real world. We don’t renegotiate whether we are followers of Jesus and whether he has called us to be peacemakers; I totally agree with Lynn. But there are application issues we have to talk about.

CL: Are significant differences of opinion on an article in our Confession of Faith an indication that we are a healthy denomination or an unhealthy one?

LN: Differing opinions are not indicative of health or sickness. An indicator of denominational health is what we do with these differences. That’s, I think, why we’re doing this study conference. We have said that if we are going to be a family we have to talk. I hope that we can do this in a way that demonstrates strength and health and commitment to hearing and understanding each other.

EB: I view this as an incisive question. It gets to whether this one specific topic of discussion is the absolute non-negotiable core of what it means to follow Jesus or not. Are there some articles in our Confession of Faith about which we will not allow divergence or significant difference of opinion and others where we would? That discussion is not simple.

CL: It has been said that it is helpful to think about various positions on peace and nonresistance as a continuum; that there are points along the line on which we all agree. Do you agree with that picture of a continuum? If you agree, where do you see that point of disagreement emerging?

LJ: My seminary colleague, Tim Geddert, asks a question in one of his classes something like this: At what point do you believe that the use of force is consistent with faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus? If the continuum model works, we all have a point at which we’d exercise force—but maybe not violent force.

LN: I believe in the continuum idea. During the Vietnam War, a lot of people thought the war was immoral but they drew the line at different spots along that continuum. Some people registered as combatants, some as noncombatants and some didn’t register at all. Some withheld a portion of their taxes and some drew the line at paying taxes at all.

We’ve focused on the contentious point of taking up arms to the point that we’ve done a poor job of teaching, preaching and living the rest of it. One of the things I hope comes out of this study conference is that we bring into clear focus the whole continuum of what it means to be lovers and seekers of peace.

CL: What happens after the study conference?

LN: This is not a decision-making meeting. I think the BFL will take into consideration all that they see, hear and feel during the study conference in discerning whatever follow-up there is. We will want and need to have conversations with churches or groups of churches within our constituency at some point. Any proposed changes—if there are any—will come to the 2014 convention for the delegates to approve.

CL: Who is invited to the study conference?

LN: We’ve talked about this quite a bit. On the one hand we’ve said this a family discussion—a chance to get together to talk. We want every pastor to be there. Furthermore we would like church leaders to come so that we have a broad representation from our church family.

EB: I cannot imagine doing this without having all district BFL members in full attendance. It seems to me that this is the kind of thing where we need full partnership.

LN: There is also a lot of interest in this topic in the broader Mennonite family. So we’ve invited Ron Byler as a representative of Mennonite Church USA to come as a participant/observer. We’ve invited the Canadian MB Conference executive director and their Board of Faith and Life, David Wiebe from the International Community of Mennonite Brethren and Cesar Garcia of Mennonite World Conference.

We want everyone to come and especially those we’ve listed. If you’re interested in this, we’re interested in you coming.

Registration information is available online at www.usmb.org/2013-study-conference. Registration and hotel reservations are due Jan. 11, 2013

By Jon C. Wiebe

"Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best." Proverbs 3:9

Bill and Mary along with their young son, Jack, have settled down to worship the Lord on Sunday morning at their church. When the offering plate is passed by, Bill hastily grabs two $20s out of his billfold and throws them in, while Mary scrambles to find a few quarters or a dollar bill to give Jack for his offering. What values did Bill and Mary just reinforce, or begin to shape, in the life of young Jack?

Generosity. Is it a way of life, a certain dollar amount or an income percentage one gives to church? Are we born to be generous, or is it a trait that can be learned? A recent issue of the Christian Leader referenced a Barna Group 2011 study showing that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, six out of 10 twenty-somethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years. Editor Connie Faber went on to say that, “while we parents are the primary influencers in the spiritual lives of our children, most of us are not actively involved in passing on the faith.”

This is also true when it comes to the intersection of our faith and our finances. Some new studies have found that social factors make a difference in whether people become spenders or savers. Chief among them: the role of parents. I wonder what that says about how we pass along values of giving, tithing and generosity? What are we teaching our kids about giving?

Many of us try to model giving and trust that our children catch on. But I would suggest it takes much more than that. Teaching generosity involves words and action, practice and engagement. Perhaps a fresh way to teach generosity to our children is to dust off the ancient practice of firstfruits and engage our children in practicing and understanding what it truly means to be generous, firstfruits style.

Early in their development, the people of God received instructions from God, delivered by Moses, to practice firstfruits giving. “Firstfruits” means that we give to God from the first and the very best of what we receive. God’s people were asked to bring the first and best offspring of their cattle and flocks and of their crops of vegetables, fruits and grains as an act of worship. Firstfruits giving recognizes that God is the giver of all good gifts.

The potential impact of this concept on the local family and the church is off the charts. According to Proverbs 3:9, firstfruits living has three components that if taught to our children would be transformational.

Worship. The biblical concept of firstfruits is rooted in the concept of worship. A generous heart is not about filling some duty or obligation handed down by our parents, church or elders. It isn’t a “commandment” that must be complied with in order to gain entrance into heaven. In Proverbs 3:9 we find the most commonly quoted Scripture about firstfruits, “Honor the Lord with your wealth; the firstfruits of all your crops.” To honor the Lord is to ascribe glory and majesty—to worship. Giving generously is first and foremost about worship.

Priorities. The world system is built on get, get, get. Greed, greed, greed. In contrast, the first instruction in Proverbs 3:9 isn’t about how much to give or what to give. It is about an attitude we should have and the right priorities for living. “Honor the Lord with your wealth.” Or as it is translated in the NLT, “Honor God with everything you own.”

This perspective of worshiping the Lord with every financial blessing, everything that we own, is completely contrary to the way of the world. But it gets our priorities in order. Instead of a “get-get mentality,” it helps us develop a perspective on the eternal. Teaching our children to live generous lives that flow from an attitude of worship is a game-changer and it gets our priorities straight. As individuals, firstfruits giving means that the first check we write each month or each week is to go to God’s mission through the church.

Generosity. “Give Him the first and best” (Prov. 3:9b NLT). Of the many methods people use to honor God with their money, firstfruits giving provides the best motivation for a lifetime of giving. We are to give to God of our first and best and manage all the rest in ways that bring glory to him. Our giving should be an act of worship.

Being generous toward God is the most powerful way of using money to bring honor to God. And we give to him of our first and best, not from our leftovers or from our excess. We are to worship God with everything we own. Not with just a fraction of our income. This is not a business transaction. Generosity is an act of love. It is an act of worship.

So what are we parents supposed to do? Deuteronomy 11:18-20 might be useful to give us some insights. Verse 18 says we are to “fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” Before we can teach and influence others, we must be committing the same principles to our own hearts, minds, hands and foreheads.

For me this means we need to believe it, commit to it and practice it. Are you practicing a firstfruits lifestyle? Are your gifts to God made in an attitude of worship, reflecting a priority on eternity and demonstrating a generous spirit? If not, it will be difficult to teach firstfruits to your children.

So start here. Pray for a new commitment to firstfruits. Evaluate how your income is allocated. Who or what gets your first and best share? How might you change your giving, to make it a firstfruits gift?

Verse 19 encourages us to “teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Teaching our children to practice a firstfruits lifestyle will require modeling, instruction, reinforcement and as I stated earlier, practicing what we preach!

Firstfruits may be reinforced on Sunday morning, at the store, when spending decisions are made, as we plan our vacations, at Christmas and when allowances are doled out. Pretty much any time our lives intersect with money, we have the opportunity to reinforce the principles of worship, priorities and generosity (i.e. firstfruits living).

Finally, Deuteronomy 11:20 says to “write them down on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Firstfruits is more than a gift, it is a lifestyle. Making a commitment to teaching your children firstfruits will impact every area of your life. It’s a whole-life commitment because it affects our whole life!

Chip Ingram has said that “if you never teach about stewardship and generosity, not just the giving part, but money in general…people will never mature. They’ll never grow. God will never use them.” Let’s help our children grow and mature to be used fully by God.

Teaching our children to live a firstfruits lifestyle teaches them to live a life of worship. It teaches them to have their priorities straight and to properly reflect those priorities in their finances. Lastly, it teaches them to live a generous lifestyle. Honestly, which one of us wouldn’t want our children to learn those values?

Jon C. Wiebe, president and CEO of MB Foundation, considers himself to be a stewardship evangelist. MB Foundation is the USMB stewardship ministry.

Visit MB Foundation's web site to access firstfruits resources: http://www.mbfoundation.com/firstfruits

By Cory Anderson

Are Mormons Christians? This question is relevant today.

• As we approach the presidential election there are questions over presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. Some wonder if Mormonism is just another Christian denomination.

• TV pastor and author Joel Osteen, who wields significant influence among some Christians, has stated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Mormons like Mitt Romney are Christians because they sincerely claim to be Christians (CNN interview, April 24, 2012.)

• Richard Mouw, former president of Fuller Theological Seminary, writes that Mormonism should not be referred to as a cult (Christianity Today, July 25, 2012.)

For these reasons, understanding what Mormons believe is important. Before we delve further into the topic, there are two things to consider.

While the LDS Church uses the title Christian and shares other similar words and phrases with evangelicals, Mormons define these words and phrases differently than we do. Just because someone claims to be Christian and uses Christian terms does not make them Christian.

It is also essential to treat every LDS member individually and to not make assumptions about what they believe. We should never assume the average LDS member knows, understands and believes everything its church officially teaches. However, even though a person does not believe in official LDS doctrine, it does not mean they get the gospel correct and can be classified as a Christian.

With these considerations in mind, I offer three reasons why Mormons are not Christians.

Reason 1: The LDS Church has a false view of the Godhead. The LDS Church believes in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but rejects the doctrine of the Trinity for a belief known as Tritheism (the belief in three separate gods).

This belief is based upon the alleged First Vision of Joseph Smith who claimed to see the Father and Son as two separate personages. While Mormons claim to believe in the Godhead and speak of God being one, they believe the Godhead is one in purpose or function but not in being. In contrast, the Bible teaches that there is one God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10-11) who eternally exists in three persons (Father, Son and Spirit). These persons are called God (John. 20:28; Acts 5:1-5; 2 Pet. 1:17), are spoken of as co-eternal (Ps. 90:3; Jn. 8:58), co-existent (Matt. 3:16-17) and co-equal (John. 5:18; Phil. 2:6).

In addition to their rejection of the Trinity, the LDS Church believes that the Father was once a man who was later exalted to become God. Lorenzo Snow, the fifth president and prophet of the church, coined this popular couplet: “As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become.”

For the LDS Church, God did not exist from all eternity as God; he was once a man who became God. God is an exalted man who according to Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 still has “a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.” Based upon this couplet, if a man is worthy, he also may become a god, just like his Heavenly Father did.

Reason 2: The LDS Church has a false view of Jesus. While the LDS Church makes much of its belief in Jesus, the real issue is what they believe about Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 11:4 the Apostle Paul makes it clear that there are some who believe in a different Jesus than the one he preached.

So what does the LDS Church teach about Jesus? As we have seen, they do not believe Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. They also believe the Father is Elohim (God) and Jesus is Jehovah (LORD) of the Old Testament. So the LDS Church clearly believes in polytheism even though the Bible makes it clear that there is only one God (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10-11).

Third, the LDS Church believes that Jesus is literally the “firstborn” son of heavenly parents. Heavenly Father and heavenly Mother, exalted human beings who still retain their physical bodies, procreated to create Jesus as their literal firstborn son. Millions of other spirit children were born after Jesus, including Lucifer who later turned against Heavenly Father.

Finally, the LDS Church believes that Jesus is also the “only begotten according to the flesh,” which means that Heavenly Father had some sort of intimate relations with Mary so that Jesus is literally begotten by Heavenly Father and Mary.

What do we make of these LDS doctrines concerning Jesus? While the Bible speaks of Jesus being the firstborn (Col. 1:15), the context indicates that Jesus is not created but is the creator and preeminent one over all creation (Col. 1:15-18).

In a similar manner, the New Testament speaks of Jesus as the “only begotten,” but he is never said to be the only begotten according to the flesh. The words “only begotten” are better understood as a reference to Jesus being the unique or one and only son, as in the case of Isaac (Heb. 11:17-18) and David (Ps. 89:27), who were not literally the only begotten or the firstborn sons, yet they were given the status and rights of only begotten and firstborn.

The LDS Church has taken New Testament language concerning Jesus and twisted it by redefining the meaning of words (2 Pet. 3:14-16). The result is belief in a false Jesus who cannot save.

Reason 3: The LDS Church has a false view of the gospel. In order to be a Christian, one must have a clear understanding of the gospel (Gal.1:6-9). So what does the LDS Church teach about the gospel? Two statements from the LDS Church help to explain their view.

First, Article 4 in the LDS Articles of Faith states: “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Clearly, the LDS Church believes in baptismal regeneration. In contrast, both Jesus and the Apostle Paul made a distinction between the gospel and baptism (Luke 23:43; 1 Cor. 1:17; 15:1-7).

Second, in the LDS Articles of Faith, Article 3 states: “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” In making such a statement, the LDS Church declares that the atonement of Christ is not sufficient in itself. For the LDS Church salvation is not based purely on works, it also includes faith and grace as 2 Nephi 25:23 in the Book of Mormon says: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” While the LDS Church believes in grace and faith, they also believe that we need to do all we can do to be saved.

The problem with this view is that Scripture teaches we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone (John 3:16; Acts 15:1-11; Rom. 4:1-12; Gal. 2:15-16; Eph. 2:8-10; Titus 3:4-7). When we come to Christ for salvation the result of conversion is a life of works, but works cannot save (Eph. 2:10). To add any works to the gospel is to distort the gospel resulting in God’s judgment (Gal. 1:6-9).

In conclusion, Mormons are not Christians given that the LDS Church has a different God, Jesus and gospel than that which is taught in the Word of God. As Christians, our dialogues with our LDS neighbors and friends should be full of grace and truth (John. 1:14; Eph. 4:15), while at the same time asking them for clarification about their beliefs. Let us never assume they believe the same as we do just because some of their language sounds Christian. As believers we have a mission to reach every Mormon with the true gospel and pray that they might experience salvation in Jesus Christ alone.

Cory Anderson is lead pastor at Shadow Mountain Church in West Jordan, Utah

By J.L. Martin, Ken Ediger and Jenny Wall

The best method of transferring faith to the next generation is parents or significant adults in the lives of kids who are teaching and modeling what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ. One way to turn your hearts and the hearts of your children to God is through family devotions. Resources listed.

We have a problem: Young people are leaving the church after high school graduation—and many don’t come back. Researcher George Barna reports that 61 percent of today’s young adults had been churched at one point during their teen years, but now they are spiritually disengaged. Josh McDowell says that some denominational leaders report as many as 94 percent leave the church after high school. LifeWay Publications reports that more than two-thirds of young adults who attended church for at least a year in high school will stop attending church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.

There is a desire among families and churches to change theses outcomes. Parents and grandparents are rediscovering the great impact they can have spiritually on their families. The Significant Religious Influences Survey reveals the number one reason why kids have faith is Mom and the number two reason why kids have faith is Dad. Surprised? Mom and Dad are two to three times more influential than any church program.

The best method of transferring faith to the next generation is not a new method but a very old one prescribed in Scripture. It is parents or significant adults in the lives of kids who are teaching and modeling what it means to be a faithful follower of Christ.

Laying the biblical foundation

The story of the Bible guides our understanding of how God intends a family to be the primary place of spiritual nurture.

Foundation #1 God’s story of purpose: The story of the Bible is a story about God more than it is about people. Rather than isolated stories of how God loves people, the main point of the Bible is that God is to be loved with heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30). It is a single prolonged story of God transforming people into a vast community of worshipers who fully love him (Rev. 5, 7). God’s purpose necessarily spans time and generations. Thus he is deeply committed to the continuation of his purpose generation after generation (Ps. 145:3-4).

Foundation #2 Incarnation: God communicates most fully through incarnation (Heb. 1:1-3). Incarnation literally means “enfleshment.” God became a flesh and blood human being to reveal himself to us in a way written words cannot. The God of Christianity is someone we “have seen with our eyes” and “whom our hands have handled” (I John 1:1-2).

No matter how creatively the Word of God is proclaimed, people are more likely to believe an experience of faith lived out in front of them. Incarnation is more powerful than proclamation. And in the case of children, this is also true as they tend to do as parents do, not as they say. In order to grasp truth for themselves, children need to see, touch and experience faith lived out in front of them.

Foundation #3 Marriage: God created marriage so that we will reflect his image (Gen. 1:26-27), become more like Christ (Eph. 5:24-25), experience the blessing of two lives and hearts becoming one (Gen. 2:21-25) and take part in God’s plan to fill the earth with worshippers through having and raising faithful children (Gen. 1:28, Mal. 2:15). Marriage is a “discipleship relationship” designed to help each person grow in every area of life. A strong marriage helps children understand God and the gospel.

Foundation #4 Family: God created the institution of marriage and family as the foundation for human life, society and the faith community (Gen. 1). The family was created by God to be an active and powerful spiritual discipleship center (Gen. 18:18, Deut. 6:5-7, Eph. 6:4).

Understanding the plan
Two key Bible passages provide the picture of faith formation through family from generation to generation:

1) Deuteronomy 6:4-9 pictures the home and family as the primary context of spiritual formation. Set in the understanding of the tendency of spiritual vitality to decline from generation to generation, this passage emphasizes the nature of faith as a personal relationship with God.

At its core, faith is about “loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” That same love for God is to be “impressed” (v. 7) on the hearts of children through the natural ebb and flow of life in the home, much like one learns to love another person by their constant welcomed presence.

2) Ephesians 6:1-4 outlines the divine pattern for parents, especially fathers, not to relinquish their role as the primary teachers and shapers of their children’s mind and heart—not even to the church. The biblical pattern is for parents to impart to their children a God-centered, Bible-saturated vision for all of life. Wired for relationship, God intends flesh and blood relationships of home and family to be the primary context for faith formation.

Being the parents God calls us to be
If parents are not sure where to start, start with your heart. Capture God’s vision for your family and turn your heart to your children. The final words of the Old Testament call parents to turn their hearts to their children, and the first words of revelation in the New Testament say the same thing (Mal. 4:4-6, Luke 1:17).

One way parents can do this is by having family worship or family devotions in the home. What is family worship? Rob Reinow, in the introduction to his Family Worship Guides, states that, “When a family gathers together at home for prayer, Bible reading and turning their hearts to the Lord—that is family worship.”

Reinow says, “God calls us to family worship for many reasons. Family worship deepens and strengthens family relationships. Family worship provides an opportunity for parents to take the lead in passing faith to their children. Families that worship at home bring that spirit of worship into the church.”

If you have never practiced family worship, it’s not too late to begin with teenagers, school-aged children or grandchildren. It’s OK to start slowly. Bible reading and prayer are the most important elements. Activities, singing and discussions can also be included.

Transitions are good times to impact your children as well. Use times such as riding in the car, at breakfast or when going to bed to play worship CDs, go over memory verses, ask questions about devotions or Bible lessons, read from the Bible or have family worship. Some resources to help you get started are listed at the end of this article.

Don’t get discouraged if you try family worship and things don’t go well at first. Based on Deuteronomy 6, the most powerful spiritual experience in the life of a child or teen is when a parent or grandparent leads outside of the four walls of the church. The enemy would love to keep it from happening. Let’s restore and reclaim the biblical culture of family discipleship.

J.L. Martin is pastor of children and family at Hesston (Kan.) MB Church. Ken Ediger is senior pastor at North Oak MB Church, Hays, Kan. Jenny Wall is director of kids ministry at First MB Church, Wichita, Kan. The authors will be presenting a workshop at Conection 2012, the USMB delegate convention to be held in July, that will offer a theology of family ministry as well as practical steps that churches are taking to challenge parents to pass on their faith at home.

Resources:
The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers) Originally published in 1935, this beloved Bible storybook is still a favorite with children, parents and teachers. More than 200 stories from the Old and New Testaments are retold in simple language appropriate for 4- to 12-year-olds, while remaining faithful to Scripture. Colorful illustrations enhance the text.

The Big Picture Bible by David R. Helm (Crossway Books, 2004)
Rather than simply retelling portions of the Bible, this book presents the big picture-the unified story running through the Old and New Testaments. Twenty-six stories together form parts of this big picture. Simply written and beautifully illustrated, this book teaches children the Bible's whole story so they can begin to appreciate the fulfillment of God's promise to his people.

The Family Reading Bible NIV (Zondervan)
The NIV Family Reading Bible provides a roadmap through Scripture designed for Christian parents looking for a way to read and explore the Bible with their kids. With three easy-to-use reading tracks to accommodate children of any age and insightful questions and fun facts to keep kids engaged, The NIV Family Reading Bible will nurture a family's interest in God’s Word.

The Legacy Path by Brian Haynes (Randall House Publications, 2011)
Brian Haynes wants to take parents down the path of intentional spiritual parenting. This book is meant to change the culture by equipping parents to move their children and grandchildren toward life God’s way instead of life portrayed as right in the eyes of the world. The reader will find many practical steps explained allowing the destination to be reached.

Seeds Family Worship Scripture song CD volumes 1-5
This CD series combines songs that use Scripture for lyrics with strongly produced music that is varied in style to create a sound the whole family will love. Each song helps a child (and any adults in the vicinity) memorize one or more Bible verses from the NIV.

www.faithbeginsathome.org: This Web site from Mark Holmen, a national and international consultant and speaker for the "Faith At Home" movement, offers resources designed to equip congregations to make the home the primary place where faith is nurtured.

http://visionaryfam.com: The goal of Visionary Family Ministries is to build the church through global reformation of family discipleship. The Web site offers resources to parents, couples, empty nesters and church leaders.

www.famtime.com: Created by individuals experienced in ministry, marriage, parenting and youth and children’s ministry, Family Time Training exists to equip and encourage parents to do spiritual training in the home with fun and effective Bible activities.

By Don Morris

Over the next 10 years, USMB intends to plant 60 new churches. Achieving this goal will require finding and training skilled church planters. Mission USA Director Don Morris is soliciting your help in the search.

Effective church planters are like artists. When you gaze on a painting that explodes with color and detail, you know a gifted artist is the creator. While the truly great artists like Monet and Van Gogh are rare indeed, there are plenty of extraordinary artists whose works amaze and bring joy. In a sea of aspiring artists, only a few capture the eye with their startling compositions.

So what does a good artist have in common with a good church planter? They share quite a lot actually. Both are uniquely gifted. Both are skilled at creating something that didn’t exist before—for the artist a painting, for the planter a church.

Both can envision what the final product will look like even before they start their work on the “canvas.” Both spend hours thinking, dreaming and planning before they dare begin. Both are good at mixing things. The artist works with colors on a palette, and the planter looks for the right mix of team volunteers. Both feel a sense of calling to what they do and are drawn to it.

Searching for the hard to find
Artists and church planters—the really good ones, the ones who create great works—are not easy to find. Some artists are “discovered” at art fairs or in online galleries by patrons looking for outstanding artwork. Other artists display their work in shops that cater to local talent, often in communities that are popular vacation sites. There are a lot of venues available for locating a gifted artist. But that doesn’t make finding a talented artist all that easy. One still has to search intently.

As director of Mission USA, I enjoy my task of looking for great church planters. Our vision is to help plant, in partnership with our districts, six new USMB churches every year for the next 10 years. If that goal is to be realized, we need to find a lot of gifted church planters. And it’s going to take a united effort from many dedicated people all across the U.S. to help us discover those gifted by God for church planting.

I believe the main task God has set before us is introducing people to Jesus Christ. We know that church planting is the most effective means we have of acquainting others with the transformation that only Jesus Christ can bring. And so finding gifted church planters is imperative.

Some of these planters will be skilled at beginning a new church, perhaps as a daughter church of an existing Mennonite Brethren church. Some may work better as a campus pastor of a multisite church planting movement. God will help us determine a planter’s best fit.

Since we need a multitude of gifted planters, I’m asking for a collective effort from people from all USMB churches to be on the lookout for people who may have the necessary gifts to plant churches. And I’m asking the Lord to help us discern these gifted leaders. Jesus said, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24).

The Lord can use all of us to be a part of this discernment process and to help fulfill the mission God has given us. All of us can pray. Many of us can take the next step and tap the shoulders of gifted people. Some of us may be among those tapped to be church planters.

What to look for

Specifically, I invite you to join me in the search for skilled church planters. It is difficult to look at a leader and determine whether their God-given gift mix is conducive to being a church planter. We don’t know what to look for. So think of what follows as a summary of Finding Church Planters 101.

Those of us involved in USMB church planting find Charles Ridley’s research to be very helpful in identifying people with the necessary skills to plant churches. Ridley, a professor at Texas A&M University, has developed a well-known list of 13 church planter requirements. The top six of his 13 requirements are known as the “knock-out list.” In other words, if a leader does not have these six characteristics, then they will likely fail as a church planter.Visioning capacity: believing in God for the impossible, a vision-caster

• Intrinsically motivated: a self-starter, high energy, persistent, can build from scratch
• Creates ownership of ministry: helps people buy-in, creates commitment and teams
• Relates well with the unchurched: breaks through barriers, transparent, personable
• Spousal cooperation: spouse is fully committed to planting, family remains a priority
• Effectively builds relationships: displays compassion, burden for the lost, evangelist

Now you know what to look for: A gifted leader who has the ability to cast the vision God has given so that others can grasp it. Someone who has a lot of energy, isn’t afraid of hard work and can build something from scratch. One who helps others that are a part of the church plant to develop ownership for themselves. Someone who knows how to talk with the average person and isn’t afraid to talk openly about faith. It’s a leader who has the full commitment of his spouse, while remembering that his family remains his most important mission.

And, a leader who doesn’t just talk a good game but builds relationships well, especially with those who don’t know Jesus yet.

So, will you help us discern gifted planters? Will you pray for this huge vision of planting 60 MB churches in the next 10 years? Can you imagine the impact we will have on 60 communities in the name of Jesus? Can you envision people standing before the throne of God in eternity, knowing that they are there because we dared to dream God-sized dreams? Thank you for searching.

Don Morris is the director of Mission USA, the USMB church planting and renewal ministry.

Interview by Andy Johnson

Stuart Murray Williams, author of The Naked Anabaptist, is well-versed in mission and evangelism in post-Christiandom culture and is regarded as one of the world’s leading advocates for and scholars on contemporary Anabaptism. In this interview, Williams talks about contemporary Anabaptism and the challenges of evangelism and church planting in post-Christendom.

Stuart Murray Williams, author of The Naked Anabaptist, was an urban church planter in East London for more than 10 years and is well-versed in mission and evangelism in post-Christiandom culture. Murray Williams, chair of the Anabaptist Network with a doctorate in Anabaptist hermeneutics, is also regarded as one of the world’s leading advocates for and scholars on contemporary Anabaptism. So when the CL learned that Murray Williams was slated to teach a five-day course at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary, we asked Andy Johnson, director of seminary admissions and a freelance writer, to talk with the British strategist and consultant while he was in Fresno, Calif. When Murray Williams, who is from Bristol, England, was denied entry into the U.S. due to visa complications, the interview was conducted via video conferencing.—the editors

Read the entire interview or read portions related to these topics:

• Experience with North American Mennonite Brethren

• Post-Christendom and Christianity

• Evangelism and Church Planting

• Denominations, Anabaptism and The Naked Anabaptist
  

CL: What is your experience with North American Mennonite Brethren?

SMW: I have worked with MB people several times: previously teaching in Fresno at the seminary, seven years before that in Canada and also through interacting with MB people at various events that have including people of different denominational backgrounds.

My perception has been that the people who have invited me to do things with the Mennonite Brethren have wanted me, as a self-confessed Anabaptist, to highlight some of the reasons why re-engaging the Anabaptist vision may be worthwhile.

CL: What are some of those reasons?

SM: I start with the historical reminder of Anabaptism in the 16th century. Historically the tradition represents a strongly missional, evangelistic, radical position that was deeply rooted in Scripture, that was determined to get back to Christianity and to challenge reformers not to be less biblical, but more biblical. In many issues they thought that reformers were being influenced by church tradition, or by political convenience, and were actually pushing for more radical biblicism.

In terms of contemporary Anabaptism, there is a degree to which the Anabaptist tradition appeals to many different people across the theological spectrum. I personally appreciate the openness and willingness to question and critique that I find within the Anabaptist tradition rather than simply settling for traditional interpretations. I think that is actually authentic Christian discipleship.

CL: You have written extensively about the end of Christendom and the move into post-Christendom. How do you define that shift?

SMW: Post-Christendom is the culture that emerges as the Christian faith loses coherence within a society that has been definitively shaped by the Christian story. The institutions that have been developed to express Christian convictions decline in influence as well.

CL: How would you encourage Mennonite Brethren people—who might not see Christendom ending in their world – of the value of Anabaptism for embracing post-Christendom?

SM: I’m not sure there is an easy way to communicate post-Christendom to people who don’t see it in their world. It may be possible for them to see that things are changing elsewhere—in Europe, in Canada and in other parts of western culture. The difficulty is beginning to understand and interpret what that might mean for their future.

What I’ve found in the last 10 years in the UK, (is that) the kind of teaching I’ve done on post-Christendom has made sense with very little difficulty. What I’ve often done is to provide people with a framework to interpret what they’ve already experienced. The frequent response I get is, "Yes, we recognize it, and we’re talking about numbers and language to describe it to ourselves and to others." I don’t yet find that always the case in the U.S. People in the U.S. can hear it and say, "Okay, that’s what’s happening over there," but I’m not sure it really makes sense yet.

CL: How can we think of the move from Christendom to post-Christendom, using the Anabaptist perspective, as an opportunity?

SM: I often talk about the opportunities in the post-Christendom world and of disconnecting from wealth, status, power and violence that have really characterized the Christendom period of Christianity. Yes, there were some good things in Christendom, and it is a sense of loss that it’s going, but there was an awful lot of collusion and compromise. Do we really want to continue with that? Can we imagine and envisage a way of being Christian that is more authentic, is more radical, is more faithful and that doesn’t involve the compromises over the centuries?

The vast majority of those that are being drawn to the Anabaptist tradition are Christians, but they are Christians in the throes of the transitions that post-Christendom represents, looking for resources with fresh perspectives. I think what attracts them is the discovery of a tradition that is not rooted in the Christendom framework. The historical traditions, the historical denominations, certainly in our context, seem to be so immersed in the Christendom structure, assumptions and expectations that they are really struggling to adjust and to adapt to a post-Christendom world.

Whereas I think the attraction of Anabaptism is that for 500 years we have said that Christendom wasn’t a very good idea, so we have been exploring alternative ways of thinking not only about church and state, but also church and society and theological and ethical issues that are no longer aligned with imperial Christianity. So this is a bit of breath of fresh air for people that Christianity doesn’t have to be associated with Christendom.

One of more intriguing things in the European context is that in several European languages, the words "Christianity" and "Christendon" are identical, so the level of intersection are so huge that it becomes difficult to tease them apart. I experienced that teaching a group of Danish and Swedish students – in both those languages, 'Christianity" is "Christendom When I was effusing about the opportunity at the end of Christendom, they became quite concerned. For me, that just illustrates the problem that for 1500 years in Europe and in western society we have assumed that the only way of embedding Christianity into society is through the Christendom framework. And one of the things that I think attracts people to Anabaptism is that it’s an alternative perspective that says that you can be followers of Jesus without being wed to this Christendom structure.

One example of someone from outside of the Christian faith who has found Anabaptism attractive comes from a phone call I had four or five months ago from someone I didn’t know who had attempted to contact me through the Anabaptist Network website. He described himself as an agnostic. He simply wanted to let me know that he’d been reading the Naked Anabaptist on a bus and he found himself crying in public. He wasn’t sure why, but it was something about the values, something about the way in which Anabaptism made sense to him that really resonated with him. He was quite embarrassed, I think, but he really wants to make contact with me.

So we are beginning to beginning to encounter a few people like him, who have no real knowledge of the Christian faith or experience of church, but somehow Anabaptism is making sense to them.

CL: What are the implications on evangelism in a post-Christendom culture?

SM: It takes time; it’s a process. If people are now to tell their own story of conversion, then they talk about process, they talk about journey, they talk about a number of encounters or occasions. That seems to be something we need to listen to carefully if we are to encourage people to have authentic experiences rather than the ones that fit nicely into our theology.

It’s also important to recognize that in post-Christendom people start a lot further back than they used to in Christendom in terms of their knowledge base. That has implications for our evangelistic expectations and strategies; it has implications for our church planting, because it is just going to take people longer to work out what they believe.

The issue on that for many of us is, "How do find a way of telling the Jesus story that actually communicates it." I believe we need to find a different way to communicate theology. It’s not about watering down the gospel, it is about finding the right communication points. It’s contextualizing, which is what cross-cultural missions has always done. What we are doing is applying basic mission principles to a post-Christendom culture.

I think also that the perhaps the concern that some of us from the Anabaptist perspective have is that there is too often a separation between conversion and discipleship. The emphasis is so strongly on the evangelistic moment, the conversion experience, rather than seeing whatever that is as set within the context of a journey of discipleship.

CL: What does discipleship look like in an Anabaptist, post-Christendom context?

SM: I think there are two aspects to this. First, Anabaptists have emphasized discipleship strongly—so strongly that at times legalism results, and they were accused by their 16th century contemporaries of returning to "works-righteousness." However, at its best, the Anabaptist tradition understands discipleship as "following Jesus" (nachfolge), which is relational rather than legalistic, and as something we do together rather than as isolated individuals—hence "the rule of Christ" (Matt 18) is an important process for helping us live as disciples.

Second, in post-Christendom there are fewer cultural supports for faith so we need to develop more resources for discipleship. We need to recognize that we live in a disciple-making culture, catechizing us into individualism, consumerism, etc, so our churches need to be communities of discernment and resistance. Congregational activities may be insufficient—we may need to introduce more intentional practices, such as mentoring, spiritual directors, accountability groups and practices drawn from monasticism.

CL: How do post-Christendom and an Anabaptist perspective intersect in church planting?

SM: I think we need to look at a 10 year time frame rather anything shorter. Which I think means we have to move to a different model where we are not talking about fully funding church planters at all, we are looking increasingly to bi-vocational ministry, or church planting the way in which Urban Expressions does it, which is through volunteers. That is inevitably going to be slower, because there isn’t as much time to put into church planting, but it gives us a chance to plant churches into the kinds of communities where the old model is never going to work.

CL: What are some ways that you would define success in a 10 year church planting model where the church is planted in a post-Christendom context?

SM: I think that is a key issue. I think we need to re-define what we mean by "success." I don’t think it means for church planters to become non-accountable. It is important that church planters remain accountable to denomination leaders, funders, mission agencies and other invested people.

Many pioneers indicate that they are being assessed by the wrong criteria, that they are being asked the wrong questions. It’s less about number of people attending meetings and more about the kinds of relationships, the depth of relationships, with people in the community. Perhaps better questions are: How are those relationships developing? What level of trust and friendship do you have in the community? What opportunities are there for sharing the gospel? It’s much more relational than programmatic.

I think it’s also important to ask: To what extent are you going to contextualize the gospel?  To what extent are you discovering the words, images, the critical connecting points that enable you to share the gospel in ways that really communicate to people?

The image of kingdom, rather than church, is an important one. Many pioneers are much more comfortable looking for signs of the kingdom rather than the old Christendom measurable models of church. And, if church sustainability is to be measured, then we should ask questions such as, "To what extent are indigenous people taking responsibility?" So rather than simply everything being done by the team—and that may be more efficient and may produce quicker measurable growth—it may be better to go slower and help indigenous people to take on responsibility. So, I do think it’s a different set of questions and criteria. But, by comparison to the mega-church model it looks extremely slow.

CL: How do you see the intersection between denominationalism and Anabaptism, both in terms of challenges and benefits?

SMW: In the UK context, Anabaptism is not seen as denominational. It’s seen as a set of values, ideas, perspectives. The disadvantage for us, then, is that Anabaptism here can become something quite ethereal and idealized if it is not worked out sufficiently in faith communities. That is beginning to change.

One of the things that I appreciate when I come across to North America, or when I go across to other parts of Europe, is that there are congregations or denominations that have been around for decades, or much longer, where Anabaptism has been worked out through the ordinary ups and downs of community life.

I suppose that one thing that surprised me when I first started coming to the States to work with Mennonites was how little members of Mennonite congregations seemed to be interested in their own history. They might be interested in the history of their own congregation—Mennonites are strong on that—but there was little awareness of 16th century Anabaptism as the radical roots of their tradition. I find myself in a strange position as a Neo-Anabaptist trying to encourage Mennonites to become more Anabaptist. That’s been a consistent experience over the last 15 years or so.

One of the reasons of calling the book The Naked Anabaptist was to try to differentiate between the kind of perceptions of the Anabaptist tradition and the cultural clothing that so often may be difficult to see. But, I’ve said to North American Anabaptists consistently, "The book wasn’t written for you; it was written for British Christians." It seems to have connected to people who live the story of Anabaptism in American denominations as well. For some of them, particularly younger ones whom I’ve heard from through email, it helped them to pare back the layers of their own tradition to something they actually quite like and find radical.

I’m not in any way arguing for a disembodied Anabaptism. In fact, one of the valid criticisms of the title is that there is no such thing as a naked Anabaptist. And I fully agree. In fact, a friend said that before I wrote the book, and I said, "Yes, I agree with you. But, two things: First of all I think it’s a great title and I’m not going to give it up even if it isn’t true, and secondly, I still think the image is helpful because what’s it’s trying to communicate is that, yes, we may always clothe the Anabaptist tradition in cultural clothing, but there are different cultures, but we can tease out the differences between the cultural clothing and the core values."

By Kurt Willems

When you are small, the wonder of an Easter egg hunt is exiting. But as you grow older, the awe of theexperience begins to fade. I remember a particular Easter when I had to make a choice: Would I listen to my older cousin or would I do what was right.

It was Easter and I was six. All of the grandkids were sent upstairs into the bedroom while the adults went outside to hide eggs. The problem was that the bedroom window faced the main part of the yard. What my cousin saw as an opportunity, my gut told me was an obstruction of justice, a desecration of the wonderful art of hide and seek, the surprise of finding Easter eggs.

Inevitably, I followed his lead and that day we were like the spies sent into Jericho. We watched from that upstairs window as the adults hid the eggs. Rather than experiencing the wonder of actually discovering eggs, we knew exactly where to look. The whole experience was sanitized.

John’s resurrection account
There is a one-in-four chance that on Easter Sunday your church community will reflect on John 20: an account of the greatest event in history—the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is the most beautiful thing that the church has to offer the world. Nevertheless, each year it becomes the “old familiar story” instead of the fresh account of God transforming all of reality. It is as though the resurrection loses its shock value, that it has become sanitized.

It is interesting to see how the author of John’s gospel tells his story. There are some striking themes that can very easily be missed if we are not careful. Notice how this good news of Jesus begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1.1-3).

The first line of this historical story should jump out and scream of familiarity. For a 1st century Jew this spoke volumes. Whenever we read the New Testament it is a good to remember what the original readers had in the back of their minds. Or as one author has put it, we need to remember the Bible Jesus read.

John’s story of creation
What I am talking about is the “principle of first mention.” We need to ask ourselves: Where else in the Bible does it say something similar? In this case we would say, “Oh I know. Genesis 1.” So we ought to read whatever John is writing with the original “in the beginning” story in mind.

John’s gospel has something to communicate about humanity and the whole cosmos. This is a story about creation. John wants us to understand that Jesus was with God before the creation of the world and then chose to become part of God’s earth as a human being. Jesus’ life not only enters into cosmic history, but somehow affects all of creation itself. It is very important to keep this in mind as we return to John 20.

Chapter 20 begins with an interesting detail that gives us the exact day that Jesus rose from the dead and also a clue into something deeper. The writer states: “Early on the first day of the week” (John 20:1, emphasis mine).
Now what does this have to do with anything? Couldn’t the author just as easily have said “on Sunday”?

It seems that John is emphasizing something quite specific. This minor detail is so important that later in this same chapter he says again: “On the evening of that first day of the week…” (John 20:19, emphasis mine).

A new kind of week
What is John getting at? Remember the start of his book? John makes sure that we have the Genesis creation stories in the back of our minds as we read the rest of his gospel. It is important to John that we see clearly the flow of the passion narrative. Jesus dies on the sixth day of the week (the same day in which humanity was created in Genesis), rests in the ground on the seventh day (just as God rested) and then is resurrected on the first day of a new week. Or to say it another way, Jesus’ resurrection happens on the eighth day or the first day of a new kind of week.

N.T. Wright describes it this way in his book Surprised By Hope: “John 20 stresses twice (in verses one and 19) that Easter is the first day of the new week. John has so ordered his gospel that the sequence of seven signs, climaxing in the cross of Jesus on the sixth day of the week and his resting in the tomb on the seventh, functions as the week of the old creation; and now Easter functions as the beginning of the new creation. The Word through whom all things were made is now the Word though whom all things are remade…. Jesus’ resurrection is to be seen as the beginning of the new world, the first day of the new week, the unveiling of the prototype of what God is now going to accomplish in the rest of the world.”

John is trying to help the reader understand that Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of a process of God recreating the world. Jesus is re-created first and then someday the rest of humanity who are in relationship to God will be re-created along with the rest of the created order. When Jesus walks out of the tomb on that first Easter morning, hope for something more invades reality. God in Christ begins a whole new creation in the midst of this world’s brokenness!

Our new world
In Revelation 21 and 22 John describes in great detail what the world will be like when the new week that Jesus inaugurates through his resurrection comes to its completion. We read that the heavenly New Jerusalem will come down to this earth—not a destroyed planet that God has given up on but to this one. Although the word “new” gives English readers the sense that the “new heaven and new earth” will be brand new, the Greek word “kainos” literally means “new in nature or quality.” It is a categorical mistake to believe that God will give up on this world and replace it with a brand new one.

According to John, eternity in God’s restored earth will be the completion of creation, the beautiful union of heaven and earth. “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21.4). Poverty, pain, sickness, injustice, violence and even death will all cease for eternity as God consummates the fullness of the kingdom of God!

Article 18 of the Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith says it this way: “All God’s children will be united with Christ when he appears, and they will reign with him in glory. Pain, sorrow and death will be abolished, and the redeemed will be gathered into the new heaven and new earth where together with the angels they will worship God forever. God will make all things new, and God will be all in all. This is the blessed hope of all believers.”

Paul reminds us of this hope in Romans 8, stating that this will be a day when “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” For now, we have the Holy Spirit who “groans” within us in the midst of the brokenness of our current reality and invites us to do something about it.

We are empowered to partner with God to remind our world that it isn’t always going to be like this. We, the people of God, are invited to live as though tomorrow’s new creation has already begun. Because according to John 20, indeed it already has!

A new gardener
Mary Madeline stands outside of the tomb weeping when the gardener shows up. This seems a bit familiar as well. Back to the original creation story we go. Adam was placed in a garden as its overseeing gardener and given a green thumb to nurture it, to make creation flourish. Now a new gardener has arrived.

Mary doesn’t realize it at first, but this gardener is everything Adam and humanity failed to be: God’s untainted image-bearer. Jesus is the beginning of a new humanity and has called us to not weep as though we have no hope but to live in light of the new week of creation that he inaugurates.

As we move towards Easter Sunday, my hope is that the resurrection fills us with a sense of wonder. Christ’s resurrection should be more like the surprise of a child stumbling across an egg in the yard and less like viewing things from an upstairs window. We can continue to let the “old story” be redundant and sanitized, or we can realize that Easter is about God doing something fresh in the world.

“Christ is risen” means that a whole new creation has been born in the midst of this old one! May our culture see glimpses of the resurrection through our churches as we live as conduits of the new week of creation.

Kurt Willems is a final year Master of Divinity student at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif. He is a freelance writer for various print and online publications, including his personal blog hosted by the religion website Patheos.com.

By Velma Goertzen as told to Connie Faber

Twenty-six years ago this Easter my 21-year-old daughter and I sang Handel’s “Messiah” with the Hutchinson (Kan.) Oratorio Society. Two weeks later a drunk driver killed my loving Beth. When I remember that day, the pain of her loss is as fresh as it was then.

My husband, Stan, died suddenly of a heart attack when Beth was 10 and her brother, Kerry, was 8. My children and I became a close-knit team. Beth was my confidant and friend. She never sat still and was a good athlete who loved sports. She loved music and cats. She was loyal to her family and interested in family history. Beth was a good listener and looked out for those who weren’t popular, were struggling or needed a friend.

After graduating from high school, Beth attended Grace College in Winona Lake, Ind., for one year. There she met Rick Battis, and they were married on her daddy’s birthday—July 23, 1983. That was Beth’s way of having her daddy at her wedding.

After they were married, Beth and Rick worked in Hutchinson, Kan., but lived in nearby Buhler, right across from Buhler MB Church. They were youth sponsors and hosted their Sunday school class in their home because there wasn’t room in the church.

Beth and Rick loved working with teenagers and felt God calling them to fulltime ministry in Christian camping. So in the spring of 1985 they were preparing to move to Wisconsin where they would spend one year as interns at Camp Forest Springs.

Beth was seeing a doctor in Wichita, Kan., for help with her food allergies. Her last appointment with Dr. Hugh Riordan was the evening of April 18, 1985. As he told Beth goodbye, Dr. Riordan said, “Go and have a good life.” A half-hour later as Rick and Beth were traveling on an elevated stretch of I-35 in Wichita, their car was hit head-on by a young man driving the wrong way up the off ramp. One instant she was talking, making plans and going on with life and the next minute Beth was in heaven.

After the accident, I lived in a fog for a month or so. As I was coming out of that daze a friend said to me, “I don’t know how you can ever forgive him.” I was so overwhelmed with grief and loss that the thought of forgiving the man who killed Beth hadn’t even crossed my mind. Beth was gone—that’s all that mattered.

When I lost Beth I had to redefine my faith. Do I really believe all the things I’ve said about God? How could the accident really be God’s will for Beth? I finally concluded that I could accept that God allowed Beth to die, but it may not have been his perfect will for her.

As I came out of that deep grief four or five months later, I wanted to know about the guy that killed my Beth. I visited the Sedgwick County Courthouse and the office of the judge assigned to the case. I learned that on the day Beth was killed the driver had been stopped three or four times that morning for drunk driving, and he kept driving. Between the date she was killed and his first court date the driver had three more DUIs.

I was angry. “Why haven’t you picked him up?” I asked. “He killed my daughter.”

I was told a warrant was out for his arrest and that the police knew where he lived. “We’ll get to him someday,” they said. This made me very angry. I haunted that judge’s office. Finally they suggested I visit a mediation service run by the General Conference Mennonite Church (now Mennonite Church USA). I think they were afraid of what I would do. Evidently my anger was pretty bad.

Then one Monday morning when Rick and I went to the judge’s office we learned that the driver was in the midst of his court hearing. Today they would tell the victim’s family about a hearing, but they didn’t do that then. God had us there at just the right moment.

That morning I looked into the face of the man who killed my daughter and listened to him defiantly say, “I didn’t do it. I don’t remember doing this.” I was overwhelmed. How could I forgive him? How could I forgive when he doesn’t acknowledge what he did?

This started my battle of forgiving and taking it back; forgiving and taking it back. Two verses became very meaningful to me. Colossians 3:13 says to “forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Romans 12:19 says, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

I had to forgive the young man who drove drunk so that God could heal me and I could move on. But I struggled a long, long time. I withdrew from people because they were trying to move me along and I wasn’t ready. It was a lonely, painfully long journey.

Finally I gave the fight to God and asked him to show me how to forgive. “You know how hard I struggle to forgive,” I told God, “but it’s in your hands.” I wrote a prayer that I repeated often as I struggled to forgive:
“Lord, I can’t do this on my own. The decision to forgive is a daily struggle. Sometimes my blame and anger fuel me, and I keep fanning the flames with more and more negative thoughts. Right now, I surrender my thoughts to you. Please take these angry, bitter feelings of blame and teach me to replace them with your Word, with prayer, with time spent helping others and with remembrances of your forgiveness. I choose to trust you to guide me through this process. Amen.”

One of the most powerful lessons I learned during this time was that you know you’ve truly forgiven when you begin to pray for someone and wish him well. So I began to pray for the driver. My prayers were pretty feeble at first. But I did pray for him, and I still pray for him.

I have had no contact with the driver. I’ve never heard an “I’m sorry.” I have wished for a letter or some acknowledgement, but I don’t expect that anymore. The driver served a total of maybe two years in prison. Today he would have been given a tougher sentence. The “impact statement” that family members can make now wasn’t available to us then. Was justice done? No, but it is out of my hands.

One of the things that helped me heal was joining The Compassionate Friends, an organization that provides grief support after the death of a child. Going through this grief with other families—mostly Christian families—was very important to my healing.

The Compassionate Friends is not a Christian organization, and I thought for many years that local churches need a grief support ministry. Three years ago we started GriefShare, a Christian grief recovery support group, in our church. We don’t know why God asks us to endure hard things. But as a GriefShare leader I’m doing something with my grief other than just living with it. I can help someone walk this road.

I’ve learned a lot about grief and forgiving. I’m still learning. I always use the words, “You find a new normal.” I’ve learned that there is no such thing as getting over the death of someone you love. You can’t get over that love. You can’t forget it.

I know now that forgiveness is not a one-time thing, and I continue to forgive the man who murdered my daughter by his choice to drink and drive. I praise God for being so good. He has healed my heart and my family’s heart.

Velma Goertzen lives in Inman, Kan., and attends Buhler (Kan.) MB Church. She is a registered nurse and recently retired after working 20 years for Health-E-Quip, a home medical equipment service company in Hutchinson, Kan. She has served as a Medicare advocate, making numerous trips to Washington, D.C.

By Ruth Neufeldt

It was the afternoon before my husband’s funeral. The family was gathered to view Emerson’s worn-out “tent,” as Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2,4.

And there it was. In the corner of Emerson’s casket was a sheet of red, slightly crumpled construction paper, folded in half.

“I hope you don’t mind,” said my daughter-in-law Sherrie. “Hollyn made Papa a card and wanted him to have it. Was it all right for her to put it in there?” Sherrie asked, motioning toward the casket.

“Of course,” I assured her.

I reached out and picked up the card.

“May I read it, Hollyn?” I asked.

“No, Grandma Ruth,” she said. “It’s for Papa to read, not you!”

“Okay. Okay,” I said, hastily placing the red card next to what used to be Emerson and was now just the empty shell he left behind.

The morning of Emerson’s memorial service the family and extended family gathered in the sanctuary for the “reading of the flower cards.” That done, the mortician suggested we move around and say our last good-byes before the casket was closed.

No one moved. Everyone was waiting for someone else to go first. I stood and picked up the red card.

“Hollyn made Papa a card,” I explained, holding it up for all to see. “But I don’t have permission to open it because it’s for Papa to read.”

It took only a couple of seconds for Hollyn to slip off the pew and join me.

“It’s okay, Grandma Ruth. You can open it.”

Hollyn had changed her mind.

It seemed like Hollyn had used a whole stick of glue to secure the contents of the card from unauthorized eyes.

 With much patience, I peeled the card open without too much damage.

What were those two circles and squiggly marker lines?

Hollyn’s mom, Sherrie, explained: “It’s a sink.”

I was puzzled. “A sink?”

Hollyn cleared up my confusion.

“It’s so Papa can wash before he goes to see Jesus. Dead people have to be washed and clean.” (Small children can get by with being blunt and honest.)

So that was it: The two circles were a double sink. The squiggly lines were the pipes that drained the sink.
“Yes, Hollyn, we all have to be washed and clean before we see Jesus.”

Papa Emerson was washed in the blood of Jesus when he was 13 years old. He was ready to meet Jesus. Hallelujah! 

Are you washed and ready?

Ruth Enns Neufeldt and her husband, Emerson, were married for 59 years and lived in Buhler, Kan., where Ruth continues to reside. She is a member of Buhler MB Church. Her granddaughter was 4 and one-half years old when she made this special card for her grandfather.

Emerson Neufeldt devoted himself to supporting the evangelism efforts of others—around the world, on U.S. college campuses and in his home community. If there were any chance that someone would be born into God’s family, Emerson would throw his support behind that outreach effort. With her simple drawing, Emerson’s granddaughter continues his legacy of pointing others to Jesus.

By Chris Eidse

Walk with me on this warm, sunny morning up a narrow road named Church Street. We can hear the street’s namesake almost before we see it. The front door of the church is open and pouring out is the sound of clapping, exuberant vocals, wailing guitar solos and a driving bass guitar and drum beat.

You might picture this as a young church with a praise band playing Hillsong United or David Crowder. But no top 40 Christian contemporary songs are heard on Church Street. Instead, it's songs by Donnie McClurkin, Mahalia Jackson and Hezekiah Walker that fill the air.

If you are familiar with these artists then you might assume that this congregation belongs to one of the renowned African-American denominations—maybe an African Methodist Episcopal or an African-American Baptist church. Yet, here in the heart of Boone, NC, is a vibrant Mennonite Brethren church that is the only historically black church in the county.

This historic congregation—Boone MB Church—that has stood for almost 100 years is a symbol of missions that got it right. It is filled with the rich culture and music of its surrounding community and is also founded on the solid theology of the Mennonites. How did something like this happen? How did two different cultures combine to form this unique church in the Appalachian Mountains?

This history has been documented in several publications but Black History Month gives us another opportunity to highlight this great story, shining a spotlight on this rare hybrid of culture and faith.

The challenge
When I was in Bible school studying contemporary missiological issues, one of the hot topics was that of missionaries transferring their culture along with their theology. We studied examples of missionaries coercing tribal Africans to wear “Christian” clothing and forcing Native Americans to get “Christian” haircuts and speak the “godly” language of English. I left that course with a real understanding of how difficult it is to teach the way of Jesus without destroying the good and unique cultural expressions of the community.

I also realized that there are parts of cultures that may be unbiblical and unhealthy and need to be brought under the truth of the Bible. If we could only share Jesus, keep the good cultural traditions and guide people away from the bad ones. This difficult balancing act is at the heart of missions and is much more difficult than it sounds.

The Mennonite missionaries that came to North Carolina really seemed to get a lot of the balancing act right.

Achieving balance
Henry and Elizabeth Wiebe served in North Carolina from 1900 to 1908; Joseph and Katherine Tschetter from 1903 to 1925; and Peter and Katherine Siemens from 1925 to 1956. They all responded to the call, moved to the South and did all that they could to teach and live the love of Jesus among the small African-American population deep in the mountains.

The missionaries began their work in Elk Park, a city that today has a “mixed race” population of just 1 percent. The city of Boone, home of the oldest Mennonite Brethren church, has an African-American population of 3.2 percent and Watauga County has an African America population of only 1.7 percent. These statistics indicate how hard it must have been when this ministry to the African-American community was established.

The missionaries managed to run a school, build an orphanage and start churches in a very difficulttime. They stood up to the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) and truly believed that all human beings are created in the image of God. When the missionaries left, the churches continued on with a rich cultural expression that was intact and vibrant. Local leadership took over and the congregation in Boone thrived in the years following the Mennonite missionaries.

How did these missionaries do it? How did they get it right? In reading through the historical accounts, four things stand out.

They enabled local leaders to lead. Handing over the reins is a difficult job for a lot of leaders but a church’s days are numbered if this cannot be done successfully. These missionaries were able to hand over the ministry to great leaders like Ronda "Rondo" Horton and Rockford Hatton. Rev. Horton and Rev. Hatton are renowned in Boone and were an integral part of the African-American community. The Mennonite missionaries identified key leaders, let them do what they were gifted to do and then passed the leadership baton.

They left cultural expression intact. It is no secret that Mennonite churches are not historically known for their charismatic and energetic worship practices. Drums and electric guitars have become commonplace in recent decades, but there is rarely dancing in the aisles and regular shouts of spirited praise.

The sincerity and spirituality of the African-American population was an inspiration to the early missionaries. The missionaries spoke highly of the sincere worship and song. From reading their accounts, these missionaries didn't bring God to the godless. Rather, they found where God was already at work and partnered with him in his work. This was an important factor with a lasting impact. This African-American cultural expression in worship is still alive and well in the North Carolina MB churches.

They were bold and courageous in their mission. The missionaries boldly went against the cultural grain of racism that plagued the South. They received death threats saying, “Your time is up today.” The Klan showed up at church with robes and weapons, and the missionaries stood their ground and urged the white-hooded members to come back to church to hear the truth of their preaching. One of the missionaries even knelt down to accept death at the hands of racist residents but was spared.

With all the hardships, not only did these missionaries endure, they even prospered, expanding their impact and their ministry. When no other teachers would come to teach the African-American children, the Mennonites responded. When needy children showed up at their doors, they built facilities to house them. When people had nowhere to worship, churches were constructed. When asked what they would do if the Klan ran them out of town, Peter Siemens replied, “If they send us on the train we’ll be back on the next train, but if you send us in coffins we cannot come back.”

They were centered on prayer. When the Klan showed up, the ministers prayed. When one of the ministers was on his knees facing death, he prayed for his accusers only to look up from his prayer to see that they had gone. When the trials became larger, their prayers became more fervent. Their prayers were anything but passive. These prayers became peaceful and creative solutions to violent threats. On several occasions their prayers literally disarmed their accusers.

In a time where it's easy to point fingers at the many mistakes people have made under the umbrella of Christianity, it's good to point out the success stories. The story of the multiracial Mennonite Brethren churches of North Carolina is a testament to the harmony that grows when cultures come together.

Today six congregations comprise the North Carolina MB Conference: Boone MB Church in Boone, Darby MB Church in Ferguson, The Life Center in Lenoir, Laytown MB Church in Laytown, West End MB Church in Lenoir and Beech Bottom MB Church in Newland. These strong churches stand as a lasting legacy of people who were ahead of their time. People who desegregated before it was mandated because the love of Jesus compelled them to love their neighbor as themselves.

As we observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January and Black History Month now in February, let us remember the many Christians that got things right.

Chris Eidse is currently the pastor of the multi-ethnic Boone (NC) MB Church. For the previous six years, Eidse, his wife, Rebecca, and their two daughters have served the North Carolina District Conference as the district youth pastor and part-time as the associate pastor at Bushtown MB Church in Lenoir. The Boone congregation is currently partnering with Mission USA to enhance their community outreach. Visit them online at www.boonechurch.com, www.facebook.com/boonechurch.

By J. Matthew Hildebrand

What a world we live in. So small that we daily intersect with people and are afforded a glimpse into their lives. What we choose to do with these encounters bears witness to the God we serve.

“What I do is live. How I pray is breathe,” writes Thomas Merton in his article “Day of a Stranger.” As a Christian, prayer is the lifeblood of my relationships, work, play and ministry. Sometimes my life does not afford time for prayer in solitude, so I integrate prayer into my daily routines.

The word “prayer” brings attention to the reliance we have on God to live. The term “walking” highlights that we are not static but rather moving. Combining these two endeavors creates a spiritual discipline.

Prayer walking encourages people to pray as they meander through their neighborhoods on an evening stroll, as they walk down the corridors at work, as they pace the hallways in the hospital, as they run along the road or as they race down the terminal to make their impending flight. Prayer walking is essential to the Christian life and integral to our daily existence.

Paying attention
A book I read encouraged me to combine the practice of “beholding” whenever I go on prayer walks. In the book, Right Here Right Now: Everyday Mission For Everyday People, Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford define beholding as: “sincere and undivided attention that encapsulates the object of attention into the mind and complete consideration of the viewer.” In other words, being attentive to the people and environment around me.

I appreciate the emphasis that Hirsch and Ford give toward Jesus being our primary example. They model prayer walking after the pattern set forth by Jesus, as articulated in Mark 10:21a (KJV): “Then Jesus beholding him loved him” (emphasis mine).

Driving and praying
I recently made a two-day trip from my home in Fresno, Calif., to San Jose that helped me to better understand prayer. The original purpose of the excursion was to purchase a vehicle; yet it seems God had other plans in mind.

Not wanting to go it alone, I invited a good friend along for the journey. We planned to stop off on a Saturday night to meet with the vendor in Santa Cruz. Barring any unforeseen problems from the vehicle inspection, the following morning I would walk away the proud owner of a “new” car.

My buddy for the trip was eager to talk about our Christian faith and pray together during our long drive from Fresno to San Jose, as well as during our stay overnight in the Silicon Valley. We prayed together and separately, out loud and silently. We prayed for God’s peace to come to the land. We prayed on behalf of many people, that they might come to know God. We prayed passionately for God’s kingdom to come, and we prayed for God’s good purposes to unveil themselves soon! We were constantly praying.

When we arrived late Saturday night in the 10th largest city in the U.S., San Jose was alive with the sound of music. The Sharks had just defeated the Phoenix Coyotes (formerly Winnipeg Jets) 1-0 during the NHL preseason at home. Naturally there were many people in their hockey jerseys roaming the streets.

The hustle and bustle from the hockey game contrasted starkly with the hopelessness that we encountered in the streets. We passed by many people sleeping on the concrete sidewalk or begging for money. Similar to Fresno, San Jose has its social justice concerns, some of which include poverty, drug addictions, unemployment and the like.

The next morning I awoke at sunrise and went for my customary short distance run, this time through the San Jose downtown district. I ran past the Cathedral Basilica St Josephs and along the Guadalupe River Trail. Being a hockey fan myself, I made sure to include the HP Pavilion on my route. There was no noise this early in the morning, save for a few street workers and a couple other runners who politely acknowledged my presence as I ran by.

Along the trail at the underside of the freeways and interchange ramps, I came across many homeless people who were trying to stay warm in their makeshift homes built from cardboard and newspapers. The more I ran, the more sick I felt that the previous night I was enjoying my stay in luxury at the four-star Fairmont Hotel while others were wandering the streets looking for a morsel to eat or a safe place to lay their heads.

Questions
The trip did not prove to be very beneficial as far as vehicle purchases go. The seller, Danny (not his real name), was not willing to negotiate his purchase price despite the fact that his vehicle had some glaring mechanical issues (oil leaking from the engine), the least of which was a nonfunctioning radio antenna. 

He shared with me about his recent job loss and his need for cash. The vehicle Danny drove had many complications that could easily be fixed with the sale of his recently deceased sister’s SUV that I was looking to acquire. As a result, I did not end up buying Danny’s vehicle. I was out the money for a night’s accommodations, the vehicle inspection, smog test, not to mention the food and gas it cost for the trip for two.

The weekend’s intersections left me asking many questions. Do I practice prayerfully beholding others in my daily affairs? Did I seek to behold Danny’s struggles, despite the fact that he was an eccentric individual? Did I pray for the “unseen” homeless people who did not have food, as I enjoyed calamari and listened to live music at the Gordon Biersch Restaurant Saturday night? Did I pray for my travel companion, his family and his life amidst all that was a busy weekend?

Yes, perhaps I did some of those things. As we walked the streets Saturday night my friend and I prayed. We prayed for the downtown community and the man who yelled curses at the corner of San Fernando and South 3rd Street. We prayed for the buskers, the musicians, the waiters and waitresses working late shifts. But certainly I was not as faithful as I might have been to assume in and through Christ a posture of beholding others in prayer.

Heavenly Father, please help us to behold those around us, just like Jesus did. Please encourage us to faithfully pray for the people we meet, the places we go and above all, the coming of your kingdom. Even so, Lord Jesus, come!

J. Matthew Hildebrand anticipates graduating this spring with a Masters in Divinity from Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. He served in various ministry capacities at Bethany MB Church in Fresno while completing his graduate studies. Some of the inspiration for this article came from a seminary class taught by Professor Cory Seibel, Urban Ministry: Into the Neighborhood. Hildebrand has moved back home to Winnipeg, Man., where he eagerly looks to engage in ministry and spread a passion for Jesus.

by Jan Johnson

The sleek businessman bolted across the street against the traffic signal. He barely made it, accidentally shoving my friend, Delsinore, and me as we stood at the curb. He looked at me and said, "I'm sorry—excuse me." He said nothing to Delsinore, probably because she's a bag lady.

After a minute, I tapped the man on the shoulder, smiled and said, "You bumped her too. Please apologize to her."

Eyebrows went up around me as the man mumbled an apology. I was thrilled to have requested a small token of courtesy for Dels, but I also winced at the snickers of those around me and imagined their thoughts: What's this white Lady Bountiful doing with a black woman pushing a shopping cart?

Knowing Delsinore is reinforcing what I already know. Every society has its hierarchy of worthiness, and people like Delsinore are among the lowest on the ladder. Seeing how people treat her reminds me of how all of us tend to withhold respect, concern and even justice from those lower on the ladder than ourselves. When we do this, we render these people voiceless.

The silence of voiceless people grows out of their power-down positions in society: residents of lower class neighborhoods, the poorly paid, the handicapped, the aging, the less intelligent, unskilled laborers and even children when they're routinely talked down to. We don't take them seriously because they don't have the status, money, age or know-how to command our respect. God regards them differently.

God: Guardian of the needy
Many of those who are voiceless match the biblical categories of the needy: the widow, the fatherless and the alien (or "sojourner" or "stranger"). God doesn't speak of giving them "equality" and "fair treatment." Instead, he recognizes the human tendency to treat them unequally and unfairly and declares himself their guardian: "’Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,’ says the Lord. ‘I will protect them from those who malign them’" (Ps. 12:5).

God mounted attacks against those who cheated the needy and commissioned Israel to become modern-day public defenders, so to speak, defending the causes of the needy and pleading their cases (Prov. 23:10-11; Ps. 82:3; Isa. 1:17).

Some of us respond by sponsoring children overseas and donating clothes to downtown street missions. Participating in these worthwhile efforts satisfies our uneasiness—until we walk past a homeless family living in their car or get frustrated trying to buy gum from someone who can't speak our language or watch the house or car next door become shabby when a father walks out on a family.

We battle within ourselves: Sure we need more homeless shelters, but not on my street. Let people immigrate, but don't let their limited English slow me down as I run errands. It's a shame couples break up, but it makes the neighborhood look bad when weeds take over their yard.

Suddenly the faces of the voiceless look more familiar. We find that giving away money and old clothing is much easier than becoming a guardian, rescuer and defender of people who may cramp our style.

So we experiment. We may make phone calls to find shelters for families and direct that family in the car to a shelter. We may expect to have to work to understand the broken English of the woman selling us gum. We may offer to mow the lawn for the family whose father just left.

Respect and solidarity
In the Gospels, Jesus treats the people his culture called "losers" with respect. Christ took women and children seriously in an age when they were unimportant. He singled out the sick, the demon-possessed and the poor in spirit and treated them with respect. He never talked down to such people.

My relationship with Delsinore is teaching me that kind of respect. When I first met her, I offered to take her to a shelter, but she told me she liked the streets better. I gave her bags of oranges whenever I saw her, but then I found out she gave them away because her teeth were too loose to eat them.

In many conversations with God, I offered these frustrations to him: I want to be effective; I want her to appreciate my help; I question how deserving she is. I'm finally realizing that my "charity" isn't about her, but is about my need to feel like "a good Christian."

One day sitting on the bench at a bus stop together, I asked her, "What is the most helpful thing I could do for you?"

"Sit here and talk to me," Delsinore said. "Nobody talks to me. People look right through me."

Her words were like a whack on the head. Of course! Christ sat and dined and talked. He operated his own divine medical clinic and food pantry (feeding 5,000 at a time). He respected people and asked them questions. To look into someone's eyes and ask them what they need instead of foisting our own blessings on them places the voiceless in the power-up position for once. They talk and we listen.

Christ also stayed out of that pious power-up position by identifying closely with voiceless people: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and the imprisoned], you did for me" (Matt. 25:40). He lived in solidarity with the voiceless so that their hunger became his hunger and their imprisonment became his imprisonment.

Giving a voice to the voiceless isn't always a tidy, neat little command easily obeyed. More often, it's messy and open-ended. We may cry over injustice one day and gloss over it the next. God doesn't ask us to reform the world, but to show respect and concern to each person he's put in our path, going the extra mile with those our society overlooks. It's a struggle, but in the best moments we see Christ's face on the faces of voiceless people, and we offer him respect and concern. In moments when we don't, we express our regret to a Father who never renders us voiceless and we find comfort there.

Jan Johnson is a speaker and the author of Growing Compassionate Kids and Living a Purpose-Full Life. For more information, see her website: www.janjohnson.org.

A tiny fist gripped my pinky over 16 years ago, and I was soon wrapped around her finger. Eighteen months later there was a new fist, but the experience was the same. From the day our daughters were born, we dreamed about their futures—their hopes, their dreams and their contributions to the world.

While we dreamed about the great things our daughters might do when they were older, could we have missed all the greatness that was in front of us already? All I needed to know about God’s great love, the greatness of his majesty and the miracle of life lay wrapped in a tiny baby.

As we enter into Advent and move toward Christmas, we revisit this reality again. In the baby Jesus all the fullness of the Deity was pleased to dwell. It wasn’t about who Jesus would become. It was all about who Jesus was in the form of a servant babe in the manger. And that is how God seems to work most often, not just at Christmas. It pleases the Lord to take the small and seemingly inconsequential and to do big things. He doesn’t necessarily make the small into something great. He rather lets the small thing remain small and does something incredible in the smallness.

“Too little”
Consider the promise the Lord made to Bethlehem, the home of David who slew the great giant when he was a youth and grew to be the archetype of the kings of Israel. When Judah was threatened with certain destruction, the Lord promised through Micah that he would rescue the nation. If this promise raised the nation’s hope, the place their leader would come from raised their eyebrows.

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2, ESV, emphasis added).

Bethlehem was backwoods. It did not rate a dot on the map, a zip code or a sentence in the travel guide. The Lord declared the village was so small it did not rate its own entry in the clan listing of the nation. Yet from this city would come the one to lead his people, a promise declared from old about one who lived before the world was born.

We know from the Gospels that the baby Jesus was born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of this promise and would grow to be Messiah. We know he would make the supreme sacrifice through his death and give us supreme hope through his resurrection. Yet, his existence as a baby was great in and of itself. A handful of people understood this from the beginning. Foreign seers adored him, a threatened king tried to kill him and two wise and faithful seniors saw in the baby all the hope their nation was seeking.

“The day of small things”
Micah was not the only prophet to proclaim the message that small was great to God. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah had their hands full motivating the newly returned exiles to build the temple and to not give up under the pressure of their enemies. The people thought it was not a good time to build the temple. Though they laid its foundation, what they started seemed insignificant to them. Certainly they could use their time more wisely than rebuilding something that would be less glorious than it used to be.

Haggai pushes a few buttons. “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it as nothing in your eyes?” (Haggai 2:3, ESV, emphasis added). The Lord promised to take their effort of rebuilding and “fill this house with glory” (Haggai 2:7, ESV). The Lord was going to use something seemingly paltry to do great things for his name’s sake.

Zechariah echoed that theme when the Lord told him that Zerubbabel laid the foundation of the temple and his hands would complete it. As a word of caution, the Lord told Zechariah, “For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel” (Zech. 4:7, ESV, emphasis added). Though the people looked at the temple and thought it was so small—not worth the effort to rebuild it—the Lord surprised them. He took their effort and filled it with his glory. Something great was going to be packaged in something small.

It pleases God to package greatness in small things and to bring greatness out of tiny places. To what does Jesus compare the kingdom of God? He points to a mustard seed barely visible on the tip of his finger. He talks about a little yeast making lots of flour ready for baking. He uses a small boy’s lunch to feed thousands.

Great things from our midst
He still brings great things out of the small places in our midst.

My friend Steve grew up in the Carson MB Church of Delft, Minn. This church no longer gathers for worship, but from its place off the beaten path that congregation impacted the world for God’s kingdom by sending out around 200 full-time Christian workers as pastors and missionaries. Carson MB, though you were small among the churches of the Brethren, from you came people who made a kingdom difference in Minnesota, North America and the world.

Hannah served in Central Asia on a short-term mission. She told me how small she felt in that land. How could she make a difference in such a short time? On their last night, Hannah’s team met with a group of girls with whom they had spent time living and laughing. One of these girls said that this small team HAD to come back because they showed these girls true love. If they did not come back, they all needed to go somewhere in the world and show the same love to someone else. Hannah, though you and your team were small with little language skills and little time, from you came love and peace and the message of the kingdom to Central Asia. We have yet to see what all will come from it. From what you shared, your small gift carried greatness in it.

My then-elementary school daughter wanted to learn how to play guitar for worship. Soon, four other kids wanted to join in. The group grew to include 25 elementary, middle school and high school students learning together. They are all still young, yet they are using their gifts and skills now. Almost all of them lead worship in their various church youth groups or have been integrated into their Sunday morning worship teams. A group of siblings formed a band that sings Christian music at two pizza parlors in their city. Both of my daughters now lead other students in worship and prayer on their high school campus. You students, though you are young and are still learning and growing, even now praise and witness comes from you and will bring comfort, peace and joy to others as you use your gifts to spread the good news of Christ in the world.

Society awaits the next big thing. We long for breakthroughs that are life-altering. Even at Christmas, we wonder what can top last year’s festivities. Could it be that, this year, something small will top them all? By all means, rejoice and be glad with all your heart and soul. The Good Word has taken on flesh and moved in next door.

 May this be a year of small things that take our breath away. May it be so because we see the great gifts God has wrapped in the small things around us, and we have made our eyes able to see them revealed.

Mike Spinelli is a 1995 graduate of MB Biblical Seminary, now Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary, and pastored in San Jose, Calif., and Eugene, Ore., and is currently the choir director at Bethany MB Church, Fresno, Calif. Some of the inspiration for this article came from conversations with members of the North Fresno MB Church family, where the Spinelli family had been attending.

What “small greatness” story—times when you have seen great things come from something small—do you have to share? 

Waiting is not a popular concept in our high-speed, express lane culture. Between McDonald’s and Macy’s we expect to get what we want when we want, and that usually means now. But perhaps there is something to be learned in the waiting. Could it be that God is growing something within us during the seasons in which we are called to simply wait?

Advent is a time of expectant waiting for the coming celebration of Jesus' birth. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and is observed as not only a way of entering more fully into the Christmas story but also of anticipating Christ’s glorious return.

As I think about this time of waiting, my thoughts drift back to the first of all Advents: the waiting months for Mary in between the angel’s visit and that quiet, incomprehensible night in a stable. How did Mary fill those waiting days? I wonder if she saw those nine months as a gift: a time for her to prepare her heart, her life, for the unknown adventure ahead. Did she busy herself with work and preparation? Did she have days of quiet and stillness as she felt life growing inside her? How did she experience God in the waiting, and did she believe that he was moving and working far beyond her wildest dreams?

I don’t know exactly what waiting looked like for Mary—perhaps there were moments of stress and doubt, perhaps there were times of confusion, surely of disbelief. But when I think of Mary’s words in response to the angel, "I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38)." I get the impression that Mary had been waiting for something her whole life: something big, something God-breathed, God-dreamed.

I recently had a conversation with a good friend about waiting. We both have and continue to journey through long waiting-on-God seasons in our lives. And the older I get the more I see how often we are called to wait. But waiting is hard. Living in a culture where everything is now and fast and right when we want it, to wait—even patiently and hopefully—is seen as something akin to suffering.

But I believe God does some of his most gracious and loving work in the wait. The times when you and I believe nothing is happening, no growth, no life, it is then that he is lovingly making all things new and working in a way we often do not see, feel or imagine.

In his book The Path of Waiting, Henri Nouwen writes that "to wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. So, too, is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control."

Mary's openness and willingness to receive led her to a place "far beyond her imaginings." Much of this Christian life is a daily surrender of control, a surrender of worries and fears and certainly of expectations. I have come to realize this only too well. Perhaps so have you.

In this world where so much seems to be wrong and broken, it can be difficult to believe a story of redemption is being written. But it is. Paul writes in Romans 8:19, "That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens" (The Message).

Often times waiting has been burdensome and painful for me, not so much the joyful anticipation that Paul writes of. I have found myself waiting on God in different seasons of my life: healing for borken hearts from my parents’ divorce, waiting on the decision if our family should move and hwen to go, needing to find a home when I was eight (yes, eight!) months pregnant, a desperate plea for my husband’s healing, crying out for a friends salvation.

What I have found to be true is that a part of me is always waiting. Not for easy answers but for perfect and complete relationships, not for bandaid solutions but for freedom from suffering and pain. Could it be that what I am most deeply waiting for is the return of a Savior? Paul writes of everything in creation being held back, and there are times I feel it.

There are times when the waiting for Christ's coming and the deep sense of certainty that I was made for more feels like it will burst in my chest. When the mere idea of “yonder breaking into a new and glorious morn” is enough to bring me to tears. And I wonder if it would all be the same way if it were not for the waiting. Would I be the same if it weren't for the long wait?

And so as Advent approaches, we have the opportunity to enter into a season of expectant waiting. We get to experience a season where the joyful anticipation of a Savior deepens and grows in our hearts. But this too is hard. The Christmas story has become so commercialized and stressful that it takes a fair amount of work to focus on the deeper, true meaning of Christmas.

Somewhere between the angel and the stockings hung by the fireplace our hearts have ceased waiting. Or perhaps our hearts are still waiting, hoping, dreaming, but we are often too busy and too absorbed in the Christmas season (quite different than the Christmas story) to notice or to really care.

As we enter into this Advent season, ask yourself: What is it that I am waiting for? Is it presents, food, time with friends and family, time off of work? Or is it something bigger. Could you stop for a moment, enter into the story of Christmas and discover you are really waiting for something glorious, something life changing, something new? What if you could look through Mary’s eyes and really behold the quiet wonder, the awe of it all?

Can you hear it? The silver bells ringing, being moved by the words of an old Christmas hymn, wishing a stranger Merry Christmas. Can you see? The stillness of falling snow, the reminder in nativity scenes and the joy of children. The Christmas story is in the person ringing the Salvation Army bell in the freezing cold, it is in sacrificing some so that others have something, it is looking people in the eye and telling them you love them or that you are listening or that you care.

Advent is a season to practice waiting with anticipation and hope and to hold this hope out to the hurting world around us. To let what we see and hear this Christmas stir our hearts in new ways as we wait for the celebration.
Can you hear it? Can you see? Christ is coming.

Amy Walker is a wife, mom to two girls and keeper of the home, where the practice of waiting is easier said than done. She is passionate about writing, teaching and meeting with women. She attends Trailhead Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Centennial, Colo.

For the past several years I’ve prayed that God would bring friends into my life that aren’t “churched.” That God would move me beyond the bubble of the church so that I can interact with folks from various walks of life. And then 18 months ago I struck up a conversation with a guy named David as I was sitting in a Starbucks.

David has attended a major California university and indentifies as a spiritual agnostic. I tried to avoid revealing that I’m in ministry—it can be an instant non-Christian friendship blocker—but then David asked about my job. In spite of learning about my occupation, David agreed to hang out the next week to talk about life and politics.

The following week as I sipped on my iced grande nonfat white mocha, the conversation quickly turned toward Christianity in America. I think David was attempting to shock me into showing my true colors when he said this about evangelicalism: “When you mix religion, nationalism, imperialism and fear—people do really bad things.” I had his full attention when I told him I couldn’t agree more and talked about the Jesus of Anabaptism.

Changing my views
When I was a teenager and into my early 20s, David’s statement would have offended me. At that time my conviction was that America is a Christian nation and that the purposes of Jesus and our country often go hand in hand. This core conviction included the belief that the role of the church—among other important issues like evangelism and discipleship—was to support the most “Christian” country on the earth. Essentially, I believed that American nationalism reflects a God-honoring worldview and that although violence and war is terrible, they ought to be supported. These two issues summarize David’s critique of his perception of evangelical Christianity.

Four years ago something began to change. As I read the New Testament with fresh eyes, I realized that the early church found herself in the midst of the great Roman Empire. In this empire, nationalism and religion also went hand in hand. Except instead of using a Deist version of the Christian God, the emperors were worshipped as gods. In fact, we have evidence that Caesar Augustus was referred to as “son of god,” “savior,” bringer of “peace” and “salvation,” and the full embodiment of the “good news” for society. What was good for the empire’s agenda was good for the incarnate deity king—and therefore good for worshipping peasants who believed that appeasing the gods would lead to prosperity.

Connecting nationalistic zeal with religious practice created a climate in which the Caesars could continue to order the world in oppressive ways that marginalized the poor and powerless. With the threat of violence always looming and with the warmongering nature of imperialistic Rome, people didn’t rise up against the empire. The easiest way to demonstrate allegiance was by participating in the religion of the nation. Otherwise one could be viewed as a revolutionary and everyone knew such people ended up hung on a cross.

What belongs to God?
This climate is significant when we read Luke’s gospel, especially the birth narrative of chapter two and the question of paying taxes in chapter 20. Luke intentionally subverts the philosophy of nationalism and pax romana (peace through strength) by demonstrating that the true King of the world was born in a manger. And when asked about paying taxes, Jesus says that we give to Caesar what is his and to God what is his.

This begs the question: What exactly is God’s? Just as Caesar’s image is on a coin, God’s image is on humanity. We give God our whole selves and that makes a greater impact in the world than any coins we’d want to refuse to pay to the kingdoms of this world. As I began to understand the political situation of Jesus and the early church, I started to ask new questions. And my particular questions led me to embracing Anabaptism.
I grew up Mennonite Brethren but it took me 23 years to fully agree with our Confession of Faith and to cherish it.

Article 12 of our Confession of Faith reminds us that “the primary allegiance of all Christians is to Christ’s kingdom” and that “Christians are called to resist the idolatrous temptation to give to the state the devotion that is owed to God.” We therefore are called to “…cooperate with others in society to defend the weak, care for the poor, and promote justice, righteousness, and truth” while maintaining our distinctness.

Article 13 complements the former by making clear that “violence in its many different forms (is) contradictory to the new nature of the Christian” because “the evil and inhumane nature of violence is contrary to the gospel of love and peace.” Not only so, but during times of war, “we believe we are called to give alternative service” and in so doing, we “alleviate suffering, reduce strife and promote justice….”

Questions and crossroads
Historically, Mennonite Brethren communities opposed both nationalism and violence with the hope of living as a counter-cultural kingdom of God community. Today we Mennonite Brethren find ourselves at a crossroad. The next generation asks similar questions to David’s. Most Christian mission experts agree that our urban centers are becoming less Christianized in their ethos. In other words, the days of the institutional church being the dominant influence in society is quickly fading.

In these situations, the only bit of Christianity that many people know is the caricatures they see in the media. Non-Christians associate Christianity with power, violence, nationalistic agendas and scandal. But we Anabaptists have a better story to tell! When we embrace the fullness of what it means to be Anabaptist in these areas we are no longer part of the typical evangelical stereotype.

During our first full-length conversation, David intended to shock me with his disdain for the way American Christianity and America’s nationalism often go together. Instead, he was surprised to hear about a Jesus who calls us to radical ways of living—promoting justice for the oppressed, speaking truth to power, forsaking violence and giving our full allegiance to the kingdom of God. I shared with David my frustrations with the bad press that Christianity gets and how the Jesus I follow invites me to join in his mission to bring peaceful restoration to all creation. David was nearly speechless. By the end of the conversation he said, “I think that we were supposed to meet…like it was meant to be or something.”

David is not a Christian at this point—I certainly hope that he will become a follower of Jesus one day—but we have a mutually beneficial friendship that continues to grow. When we visit over coffee and attempt to solve the world’s problems, David wants to hear my “different kind of Christian” ideas. In this case, my Anabaptist heritage is not something to shy away from but an entry point into someone’s life.

I’m convinced that countless numbers of “David’s” exist in our changing culture. Anabaptists in general, and the Mennonite Brethren in particular, have a story to tell that beautifully defies the logic of nationalism and violence. Jesus-shaped-logic, the folly of enemy love modeled to us in the non-retaliation of the cross, invites us to show the world a better way. May we who come from the Anabaptist stream of faith choose to embrace the richness of our tradition as we ourselves continue moving into the mission of God. Our impact on tomorrow’s culture may depend on being true today to who we are.

Kurt Willems is a final year Master of Divinity student at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary in Fresno, Calif. He is a freelance writer for various print and online publications, including his personal blog hosted by the religion Web site Patheos.com.

If you like stories, this article is for you. But don’t let the title fool you. These are not tall tales. They are true.

The source of the first one is Scripture. The second one dates back to the beginning of the Mennonite Brethren movement. And the third one, well, you will know that person. What weaves this cast of characters together? They are all rich.

Rich person #1
The first rich person is most commonly known as “the rich young ruler.” In Mark 10:17-31 he is described as merely “a man.” Though you may know the story, read it afresh today.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Peter said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Why recount this story? I think it is one of the most misunderstood passages in Scripture. For about 18 centuries, scholars almost unanimously have taught that the rich man missed the kingdom on account of his riches. Interestingly, the text does not say that.

Just prior to this time, around the year A.D. 200, Clement of Alexandria looked at this text in his treatise: “Who is the Rich Man Who Will be Saved?” He urged: “Do not judge who is worthy and unworthy” because you may be mistaken and called readers to “accommodate rather than criticize” the rich man. If Jesus looked at him and loved him, we should not be so quick to condemn the guy.

Consider next the response of the rich man after Jesus invites him to go, sell, give, come and follow. I think you may see what Clement saw and what I recently discovered. It reads: “At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Commentators, I believe, have mistaken his sadness as rejection.

This Greek word for “sad” is found two other times in the book of Mark. Sad first appears in Mark 6:26 when Herodias danced before Herod. In appreciation he offers her any wish up to half his kingdom. Her wish was the head of John the Baptist. What was Herod’s response in 6:26? He was sad. Same root word. Did he do what he said he would do? Unfortunately, yes.

The other occurrence of this word is found in Mark 14:32-34 when in Gethsemane Jesus asks his disciples to wait while he prays. Jesus was “overwhelmed with sorrow.” He was really sad. Same root word. But even with the hard road ahead of him, did he go to the cross for us? Thankfully, yes!

Now let’s return to Mark 10:21-23. The text says the rich young ruler’s response to Jesus invitation to go, sell, give, come and follow was that “he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” I think he left sad not because he rejected the gospel, but because he knew he had work to do. Hard work. This notion is affirmed by Jesus’ response: “How hard it will be…”

Jesus does not condemn the rich man. He’s sympathetic. He knows how hard it is for those who have riches to lay them aside because he laid aside the riches of heaven to come to earth to give his life for us.

Rich Person #2
Menno Simons was born in the Netherlands in humble circumstances in 1496. In 1524, he became a Catholic priest and served in that capacity for 12 years. Ironically, in that era priests knew a lot about church traditions but almost nothing about the Bible.

So what made him rich? When wrestling with spiritual questions during the Reformation, Menno studied the Scriptures. This made him rich, spiritually rich.

Menno’s story is inspirational because he found true wealth in a time when people were spiritual bankrupt. And, rather than hoard his heavenly riches he shared them freely regardless of the personal or financial cost.
In his book, 17 Injunctions, Menno writes, "True evangelical faith cannot lie dormant. It clothes the naked, it feeds the hungry, it comforts the sorrowful, it shelters the destitute, it serves those that harm it, it binds up that which is wounded, it has become all things to all people."

Despite intense religious persecution, Menno dedicated his life to following the teachings of Jesus as recorded in Scripture and encouraged others to do the same. Many joined him and became known as the Mennonites.

Rich Person #3
You and I represent the third rich person. We are rich.

Statistics show that if you make $25,000 a year, your salary ranks in the 90th percentile of the richest people in the world. If you make $50,000 a year you are in the 99th percentile. See how your salary ranks compared to the rest of the world at www.globalrichlist.com. From a global perspective, you and I are financially rich.

We are spiritually rich too. We have what rich person #1 was seeking. We’ve got Jesus. And, we are not alone in following him. Thanks to rich person #2 we are a part of a spiritually rich Mennonite Brethren community of faith.

Blessed with both material and spiritual wealth, what should we do from here? Let’s revisit verse 21 one more time, and I think we’ll find a three-part answer: “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’”

First, we need to remember Jesus sees us and loves us. This amazing truth is intended to provide us with the peace we long for but often miss because we make the mistake of seeking security in earthly treasures.

Second, I believe we need to get to work. To heed the command to “Go, sell everything and give to the poor,” is to let go of that stuff which can’t save us, give us security or satisfy us, and instead share it, like Menno, with broken and hurting people around us.

Third, to “come and follow” is simply an invitation from Jesus to practice Christian generosity. What’s this look like? I am not asking you to make a year-end gift to your church. I am asking you to join my family and me in being the gift.

Where can we start? My family has decided to stop storing up treasures on earth, and instead pour them into the needy around us in the name of Jesus. We ask God daily to fill our cups so we have enough to give to him, to meet our needs and to share with others following the Spirit’s leading.

It’s hard. It’s costing us everything, and we are not done because there are still so many things we hold on to. In this journey, we are thankful that Jesus is loving and gracious toward us.

Menno got it, and I tend to think the rich young man did too, because as some scholars have posited, I think the rich young man may have actually been Mark himself, the writer of the Gospel. How else would he have been able to testify about the love extended to him?

I can’t finish this tale of three rich people without you. My prayer is that you will join my family and me on the journey of practicing Christian generosity; in so doing, you will experience and share the love of Jesus like never before.

Gary Hoag attends Trailhead Church, a Mennonite Brethren church plant in Centennial, Colo, with his wife, Jenni, and two children, Sammy and Sophie. Hoag is completing his PhD in New Testament at Trinity College in Bristol, England. Hoag recently co-authored The Sower: Redefining the Ministry of Raising Kingdom Resources; contributed a chapter to Revolution in Generosity; and served as a content reviewer for the NIV Stewardship Study Bible. To read his daily meditations on Christian generosity visit: www.generositymonk.com.

It has been said that retirement is when you stop making a living and start making a life. I encourage and challenge you to consider a route that will be the highlight of your retirement years. This is the path of volunteering. Based on my experiences, I guarantee you will never be the same.

When my wife and I retired 20 years ago we examined opportunities for volunteering our time in worthwhile causes where our efforts would impact our fellow man and us. During our two decades of volunteering we have learned the importance of commitment and the value of being alert to God’s nudges. In sharing our story I also want to offer suggestions to help others become volunteers.

Be committed
Make the commitment to serve. Don’t spend too much energy fretting about what to do. Wait to see the exciting opportunities God puts in front of you as you move out in faith. But it takes that first step of commitment to get moving.

Currently my wife and I are between volunteer assignments. We do not know at this point what is next. We feel drawn in several different directions, but I don’t believe God will prod us one way over the others until we make the commitment to be involved.

Develop a plan
Once you’ve committed yourself to serving, decide what skills you want to use. Do you want to build on what you already know or develop new skills? Even though previous work experience lends a clue for deciding what to do, most organizations that use volunteers will train as necessary.

Consider your other priorities. What other considerations need to be included in your volunteer plan?
My wife and I were both government workers in our “other life.” I had limited building skills, but I did enjoy being a fix-it type of person. We both agreed that we wanted to travel and live in our fifth-wheel trailer.

Now look for organizations that fit your goals. You may choose to volunteer with a secular or Christian organization. With the proper attitude either can become an avenue of expressing one’s belief. Serving with a faith-based organization can be a double blessing because you are expressing your walk of faith and helping the Christian organization. One Web site to visit on the Internet is Senior Opportunities for Older People (SOOP), a Mennonite Mission Network component.

My wife and I follow five steps in selecting an organization to volunteer with. We collect information about the ministry, identify needs and define our opportunities to serve. We complete the application process and explore the details of the assignment. When all five fall into place, we believe God is affirming the plan.

Modify plans
Mobile Missionary Assistance Program (MMAP) is the first organization we worked with. Volunteers with MMAP serve three weeks at a time, working six-hour days, four days a week in construction-related work building churches, Christian campgrounds, homes for handicapped, etc. We were assured that we would work with experienced people. That was enough for us.

While volunteering with MMAP we worked in more than 70 locations throughout the United States in 12 years. Later we joined Servants On Wheels, Ever Ready (SOWERS), a similar organization that offered comparable work. Working with these two organizations we were able to pursue our love of traveling and to go places we had never heard about. We spent our days off exploring the area where we were working. We met new people and developed lifelong friends by working together in a common endeavor.

In our volunteer faith journey we discovered that Habitat for Humanity has an RV component so we did some work with them. Then we felt God nudge us to work for Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) and we modified our volunteer activity plan again. Our administrative skills came in handy when MDS asked us to direct work projects in various locations. We were truly the hands and feet of Jesus in helping needy persons.

Be open to new paths
We often talk about God leading us. I find that God leads me through awareness, nudges and concerns. Responding to these prods has opened avenues of service.

Soon after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the southern states we were wintering in Arizona. Even though we were enjoying time off from volunteering I could not get the many people affected by this disaster out of my mind. Looking back I can see that this concern was the nudge of God to get involved again. Discussing this with my wife I learned she felt the same way.

Leadership is always needed at a disaster location. That winter it occurred to me that with my experience I could volunteer as a crew leader or construction foreman. I had passed the three-quarter century mark and a 40 to 45 hour workweek would have been a little too strenuous. But crew leading would be different. When I talked to MDS they asked me to be the project director and my wife to be the office manager in Point Aux Chenes, La. We accepted the challenge and God was with us through many “opportunities”—some would call them problems.

While in Point Aux Chenes, God led us with another nudge. Many retired folk have recreational vehicles and would work on an MDS project but by choice or age limitations cannot work the 40 to 45 hours weekly in an MDS camp setting. So we suggested that MDS develop a RV component and MDS asked us to set up and direct the first MDS RV camp. We recommended a four-day workweek, six hours daily and four-week minimum commitment and wrote the RV manual for leaders.

We started the first MDS RV project near Mobile, Ala., and later directed one in Hackberry, La. God blessed and the two pilot projects led to a full program with MDS. We recommend this program to anyone with a self-contained recreational vehicle.

We continued to respond to God’s leading, enjoying time between each assignment to reflect on the blessings of God and to wait for the next nudge. The summer of 2007 we served as tour guides at MennoHof Interpretative Center in Shipshewana, Ind. We lived in a furnished apartment and in three months saw 10,000 folks from all over the world come through the center.

Our next nudge took us to Southern California to build a house destroyed in the wildfires. Then we volunteered near our Fresno, Calif., home for a Mennonite medical facility in Atwater, Calif., that was rebuilding their facility.

Volumes have been written on planning for retirement and choosing how to spend one’s time during this phase of life. I believe that our retirement years can become the best years of our lives when these years involve God’s service. Life takes on a new interest when we invest in the lives of others.

Don Buller lives in Fresno, Calif., with his wife Marilyn attend Bethany MB Church in Fresno, Calif. They were elected the RVer's of the Year for 2010 by the Good Sam RV Club, a national organization, for their work in starting the RV program for MDS. They also serve on the California MDS Board. When at home they enjoy their three children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

By Lynn Jost

I recently asked a group of Mennonite Brethren pastors whether they describe themselves as biblical preachers. Except for one who demurred because he prefers the moniker “teacher” to “preacher,” every one of the dozen or so respondents said they are or at least want to be a biblical preacher.

When asked to define “biblical preaching,” several pastors stated what we might think to be obvious—biblical preaching starts with choosing a biblical text. Some emphasized that biblical preaching must yield transformed lives. A leading preacher (and teacher of preaching) said that biblical preaching expounds, proclaims and applies a biblical text. He added that it is preaching aligned with the overall biblical message.

Another responded that the biblical preacher “seeks to sit under the authority and direction of the Scriptures, articulating as best she/he can what the text meant to the original reader/listener and then seeking to take that meaning and build a bridge to the local context in a way that accurately reflects what the original scriptures meant and how they are to inform, transform and direct our present life.” He added, “A message should be consistent not only with the text itself but the overall canon of Scripture.”

That’s what preachers say about preaching. How do we actually preach? To start answering that question, I asked MB Biblical Seminary alumnus Matthew Insley and MBBS student Amy Stone to review the bulletin archives of six U.S. MB churches to see what we could learn about preaching from their bulletins. Three churches were from the Pacific District Conference, two from the Southern District Conference and one from the Central District Conference. The results were presented at the Renewing Identity and Mission consultation at the Celebrate 2010 convention in July 2010. Here’s a snapshot of what we learned.

Who is preaching?
Bulletins report that the senior pastor is preaching less than he used to, down from 80 percent in the 1950s to 63 percent in the 2000s. Visiting preachers have consistently preached about one-fifth of the Sundays. Staff pastors preached more than 10 percent of the sermons in the 1980s and 1990s, but that number has declined to 6 percent in the 2000s. Preaching by women comprises less than .5 percent of all preaching in the churches surveyed, with a very slight increase from the 1970s to the present.

What are our favorite biblical texts?
Bulletins do not always report which text is to be preached. The text is reported in the bulletin 73 to 84 percent of the time in the Midwest churches studied and 40 to 55 percent of the time in the California churches studied. The epistles were the most popular biblical texts, with the Gospels running a close second. Seventy-three percent of the sermons come from the New Testament, 36 percent from the epistles, 30 percent from the Gospels and 5 percent from the book of Acts.

Old Testament historical books account for 13 percent of recorded sermon texts, Old Testament prophets nearly 7 percent, Psalms 4 percent, apocalyptic texts nearly 3 percent and Pentateuch and wisdom literature about 1 percent each. The dominance of the epistles (which comprise only about 8 percent of the pages in the Bible) was most pronounced in the decades of the 1970s and the 1990s when they comprised over 40 percent of all recorded sermon texts. In the decade of the 2000s the gospels exceed the epistles, about 40 percent and 30 percent respectively. When the Acts of the Apostles are included with the Gospels, they accounted for more than 45 percent of all sermon texts in the 2000s.

Church calendar
The researchers analyzed use of the liturgical calendar. Bulletins unfailingly reference Christmas and Palm Sunday and Easter—and Thanksgiving. There is a shift over time to increased attention to the church year: first Advent and later and less universally, Lent. Increasingly, Pentecost is noted as the day’s theme. The “Hallmark” holidays receive attention, notably Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day. The Fourth of July and Memorial Day are celebrated in at least one congregation.

Conclusions
What does this mean? How can we learn from these findings?

1. We need to preach the whole counsel of God. Biblical preaching should include every part of the Bible, particularly the Gospels and the Old Testament. The recent trend to emphasize the Gospels is healthy.
Preaching primarily from any single genre tends to distort our understanding of God’s design. Neglecting the Old Testament truncates our understanding of God’s design as well as the saving work of Jesus. One way to increase use of the whole canon is to read the Bible as a story in six acts (creation/fall, God’s work in redeeming a people, exile, Jesus, the church, which is the part of the story in which we live, and consummation). As is true of stories generally, this story needs every one of the acts to give the full story. I would encourage preaching from each of these acts more than once each year.

The International Community of Mennonite Brethren Confession of Faith may also provide a model for text selection. This confession is composed of a narrative and of a series of five statements about the church—people of the Bible, of a new way of life, of reconciliation, of covenant community and of hope. Using these categories could help us to balance the preaching.

We can also benefit from an explicitly biblical theology like the one articulated by Elmer Martens in God’s Design (deliverance, covenant community, knowledge of God and abundant life). Biblical theology includes the teaching of Jesus, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandments.

2. Sharing the pulpit is positive. Balancing the preaching of the pastor, other local preachers and guest preachers is good for congregants and for pastors. The growing number of voices reinforces the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers. The move portends an act of self-care that will protect the mental and spiritual health of the pastor. An important discipling ministry of the local pastor could include gathering a group of prospective preachers for guidance in preparing, delivering and evaluating sermons.

3. I grieve the paucity of preaching by women and believe it needs to change. Scripture seems quite clear in indicating that, when women have adequate preparation, they speak prophetic words and teach.

4. Giving attention to the church year, particularly Lent and Advent, is encouraged. Recognition of pagan and national holidays seems to open the way to idolatrous syncretism.

5. Biblical preaching includes but goes beyond starting with a biblical text. Biblical preaching brings the preacher under the authority of the Bible. Biblical preaching, while proclaiming a single text, must be consistent with a thoroughly biblical theology. Biblical preaching creates a new imagination of the community that God is creating through Jesus.

Lynn Jost is dean of Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary and vice president at Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, Calif. This article is adapted from Jost’s presentation at the Renewing Identity and Mission Conference (RIM) held last summer as part of the 150th anniversary of the Mennonite Brethren Church. All papers presented at RIM are being published by Kindred Productions in the book Renewing Identity and Mission: Mennonite Brethren Reflections After 150 Years, to be released in October 2011.

By James Bergen

Editor's Note: The on-line version of this article includes some sections not included in the print version. 

There is no easy way to navigate grief. In our heads we know death is a natural part of life. However, when loss and grief invade our lives it seems anything but natural. Our life comes to an awkward standstill while everyone and everything else just keeps moving on.

We grieve as individuals, but we rarely grieve alone. Death is part of being and doing church together. How can the church come together to be a helpful and healing place for individuals, families and the whole congregation to experience and navigate the journey through loss and grief?

Here are some of the things I am learning through the successes and failures of shepherding individuals, families and a congregation. I have solicited much feedback from those who have walked this road. Their feedback has been especially candid and insightful. As a church family these are some of the things we have experienced, some of the things we are learning, and how we have grown and changed through experiencing God in the midst of difficult times.

Phase 1: Preparing for loss and grief

Playing together
One of the best ways to walk through grief is to have a depth of relationship before death or loss comes your way. A congregation that spends time together, likes being together and worships, fellowships, eats and plays together is setting itself up well to successfully grieve.

Living ready
Loss of a loved one often starts well before they are gone. Some die suddenly and without any advanced warning, but many are given a diagnosis and wrestle with illness for weeks, months or even years. Anticipatory grief or pre-grieving often happens during this time.

Support for the ill and the family is important during this time. Prayers, cards, conversations and practical help are all welcome. I know some friends who came over and planted favorite flowers for one woman who was in the last weeks of hospice care in her home.

A couple of years ago members of our church responded to what seemed like a growing number of people diagnosed with chronic or terminal illness by forming Assurance, a support group for individuals with these illnesses, family members and also survivors. It has been a vibrant and life-giving place within our faith community. It has been a place of witness and outreach as some from the surrounding community have joined. However, the reality of the fragile nature of the group is always present. One of the founding members has already passed, and the group has said farewell to others too.

Creating a culture where the church body cares for itself rather than leaving it to the pastor or trained caregiver is a helpful aspect of being the church. This should be a natural outflow of being Christian, but structuring the ministry can also be helpful.

Members of our church have developed a Congregational Care Team which prays regularly for all those who are ill, follows up on those who cannot attend services, goes to hospitals to pray with people before and after surgery and visits those in care homes. Some churches have deacons who fulfill this ministry. A blend of organic and structured caregiving is helpful, and even then I still find some people’s needs going unnoticed. It takes an attentive and responsive congregation to really be in tune with each other’s needs and follow up accordingly.

Our congregation has been hit hard recently with unexpected deaths, a number of them at age 50 and under. This has been a wake-up call for many to have their end-of-life issues taken care of: practical things like life insurance and a will or living trust. Physical things too—many that haven’t been to the doctor in years have gone in for a checkup. There are relational and spiritual implications as well—am I in right relationship with God and with others? Am I living with any regrets? Is there anything I can do to restore relationships?

Do your ‘theologizing’ beforehand
Having your theology on death and dying in place before you are personally surrounded by it is very helpful. Scripture has much to say on the topic. God’s Word is very meaningful in the midst of grief. 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us that as followers of Jesus we are people who grieve, but not as those who do not have hope.

The reality of that verse is very true and helpful as a community experiences and encounters grief. However, we may not always feel hopeful in the midst of our grief. The last thing we need is someone telling us we should. Expecting those who are grieving to feel or think a certain way is not realistic or fair. Maybe it is at that point where the body exercises her role in doing the hoping, believing, praying and trusting on behalf of those who presently cannot.

Phase 2: When death strikes

The “week from hell”
Most death to burial timelines happen in about one week, give or take. That week is one of the worst weeks someone can experience. It is not necessarily that the grief is more intense—though it could be for some—but that a person is in shock, emotions are raw, 100 decisions need to be made, sleep is little, people are everywhere, family dynamics are magnified, they are overwhelmed and often it seems like there is virtually no time or space to grieve because of everything else going on.

Practical help is especially meaningful during this week. Make a meal for the family. Bring goodies and finger foods for the many people who may be visiting during that week. Pick children up from school or help with childcare issues. Wash a load of shirts or blouses and do the ironing. Loan a car to be used by family from out of town. People need to be encouraged to help however they feel led.Genuine expressions of compassion do more good than harm.Money might be an issue. Contributing to the funeral expenses may be a huge blessing. It is helpful if some of these details (like meals and finances) are organized through the church.

Cards and other remembrances acknowledging the loss are also meaningful. They allow others to connect in some way and for the family to know they are being thought of and prayed for. The power of a praying church is especially important during this time and possibly the single most important tool we have to help during grief.

A pastor or skilled caregiver being present at the funeral home and helping make decisions about the memorial service and other relevant end-of-life decisions is also often helpful. While living, some people write down some of their thoughts of what they would want in their service. This is very helpful for the family and the officiating pastor. The memorial service really is for those who are living, but usually the family feels best if they know they are honoring the desires and character of the one who has passed.

The ministry of presence
It is hard to know how to respond and what to say to someone who has just lost a loved one. Many who gave feedback about their personal experience say they have been wounded by the words of others during this time. Interestingly, it has been pastors, “experts” and conference leaders who topped the list as least helpful in a verbal sense. I think that is because we feel we have to say something profound or helpful at that moment.

Often being present is the most significant ministry, more than the words you speak. Be present, offer condolences, give a hug, pray. Attend the memorial service. Visit their home and only for a brief time. While potentially awkward, acknowledging the loss is important. However, offering commentary, answers or glib remarks about hope or afterlife ring hollow and can sting. Avoid the temptation of using your words to make things better. Your presence and your shared grief are best at this point of the process.

The gift of story
One of the best gifts a family and a congregation can share during this time is that of story. Telling stories creates a shared experience. Many family members are extremely touched by hearing how their loved one impacted the life of someone else. Sometimes the memorial service or reception offer open mic times where these stories can be shared verbally. Regardless, writing the story down and sharing it with the family is extremely valuable.

Sharing your grief, without dumping it on them, can also be helpful. However, don’t show concern for someone else and then use the conversation to process your own grief. One of our members who recently lost his spouse said, “I received the blessing that my grief and loss of my wife was also being experienced byNFC. That shared grief has been great comfort to me.”

Phase 3: Moving beyond loss and grief

Give time
There may be some wrong ways to grieve (e.g. self-medicating to relieve the pain) but there is no one right way. Individuals are different. Give people space to walk through their grief. Putting a timeline on someone else’s grief is not helpful or right. And just because you have experienced loss yourself does not mean someone else will experience it in the same way.

Minister out of your experience but don’t project it on them. Avoid judging another family if they lost their child five years ago and are still struggling in the grief process. Poll five people and you will probably get five different opinions on the right amount of time before someone can remarry. A helpful and healing community is one that offers each other time and space to move through the many aspects of grief with much grace and by being present to support. There are usually many good and bad days over the months and maybe even years after the loss occurs.

Give space, but stay connected
Staying connected without smothering the individual or family is important. Often coming back to worship services is extremely difficult. The music and environment are often very raw and evoke much emotion. People also feel very conspicuous because of the recent public awareness of the events in their family. They may wish to be more ‘anonymous’ at first—coming in late and leaving early.

This is also a critical time for some, especially those on the margins of the congregation. If too much time goes by without connection with the church they can easily fall away from the faith community. Be on the lookout for these individuals while being careful of the weekly “Where were you last Sunday?” phone calls. Some find continuing to serve in a place of ministry a very positive aspect of walking through their grief. Contributing to and investing in someone else can be a very good outlet and therapy for grief.

The person is more than their loss
The loss is a significant part of the person’s experience but is not all there is to that person. Knowing the other aspects of someone’s life and relating to them on personal, professional and relational aspects is welcome. The ongoing “How are you doing?” question is not helpful. It continues to focus on that one aspect of the person’s life and is difficult if not impossible to answer. Don’t pretend the loss didn’t happen, but also don’t let it become the only focus of attention and interest in that person’s life.

There is much to learn in this whole area of walking through grief together. Depth of relationship before crisis hits, practical support during the crisis and long-term support afterward are all helpful. We are learning from our “successes” and “failures” in this area. Sometimes we learn that no one called, made meals or followed up. That hurts.

Ask people in your congregation: “What has the church done that has been helpful in your grief process? What hasn’t been helpful?” Their answers can make for a very eye-opening and empowering conversation. Hopefully they will have some encouraging things to say about how they have experienced God through their church community. And hopefully we can learn from our failures in becoming a more helpful and healing community.

James Bergen is the senior pastor at North Fresno MB Church, Fresno, Calif. The congregation provided much foeedback in forming this article.

By Wilfred Martens

When Moses conversed with God next to a burning bush in the desert (Exod. 3), God asked him to deliver a message to the Israelites. Moses anticipated a challenge: The people will demand to know the name of the one who sends the message. “They will ask me, ‘What is his name?’”

God gave a strange response to Moses, words that may have initially confused him. God declared his name: I AM WHO I AM. This answer seems an odd way for God to respond as a means of identification. In reference to the grammar, “I” is the subject and “am” is the predicate verb, a sentence with a simple syntax but a profound meaning.

In a novel that was popular a few years ago, The Shack by William P. Young, an Asian woman named Sarayu, who is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, says to Mack, “I will take a verb over a noun anytime…. I am a verb, I am that I am. I will be who I will be. I am a verb! I am alive, dynamic, ever active and moving. I am a being verb.”

The expression, “I am a verb,” is also used by philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller in one of his poems:
Here is God’s purpose
for God to me, it seems,
is a verb
not a noun . . .
Yes, God is a verb,
the most active,
connoting the vast harmonic
reordering of the universe
from unleashed chaos of energy.

A grammatical analysis can often unlock meaning from a sentence. What does it mean to describe God as a verb, and what is the meaning of God’s response to Moses, I AM? Why did God choose this unusual and ambiguous expression as a means of identification?

Obviously, the conversation between God and Moses was not in English. The I AM is a translation of the ancient texts. Though English grammar is quite different from Hebrew and the ancient texts, it is amazing—a miracle—that God’s word transcends and survives translations, so that an analysis of a translation can still draw the reader to the meaning of the text.

The traditional English grammar system with its many prescriptive rules was inherited from the ancient Greeks. Aristotle suggested that a sentence has two parts, a subject followed by a predicate. The subject is ordinarily a noun or pronoun, and the predicate includes a verb. Scholars declared that the verb is the most noble part of the sentence; it is the core, for without a verb, a group of words is only a fragment instead of a complete sentence. Even if a sentence contains only one word, that word must be a verb (for example, Run! Wait!).

God’s sentence of response, I AM, begins with a first-person singular pronoun. Throughout the conversation with Moses, and the entire Pentateuch, God uses the same subject: I have, I am, I will, I know, and so forth. It was a reminder to the Israelites who were intrigued by the numerous gods of other cultures and nations that there is only one true God. Moses understands the meaning of the singular subject when he declares, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4, RSV).”

By using the word “AM” God is using a form of the verb “to be.” In English this verb is unique; it is different from other verbs. Others have the typical three or four forms (for example, walk(s), walked, walking). But “to be” has eight: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being. To recognize “AM” as different from all other verbs is to acknowledge God as a distinctive and unique being. In this spirit, Moses reminds Pharaoh “that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God” (Exod. 8:10, NASB). A number of times he reminds the Israelites “that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Deut. 4:39, RSV).

Another characteristic of the verb “AM” is its “present-ness.” By using the present tense God emphasizes timelessness. We humans are bound by time, and it is impossible for us to fully comprehend a God who is timeless. Because we are unable to break out of our concept of time, we often refer to God with language of past-present-future.

But C.S. Lewis cautions us about this practice. In Letters to Malcolm he comments on our prayer habits: “Our prayers are heard—don’t say ‘have been heard’ or you are putting God into time—not only before we make them but before we are made ourselves.” The Psalmist also notes this “present-ness”: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1, RSV). And God reminds Malachi, “For I the Lord do not change” (Mal. 3:6, RSV).

We live in an age that relegates God to the past tense and in which Christians and the church are tempted by multiple “ism” gods—nationalism, materialism, hedonism, militarism and so forth. God’s revelation as “I AM” is a reminder that God is one, and that God exists and is omnipresent. The two-word name, so simple and compact, yet so profound and full of meaning, has significance for a world characterized by violence, poverty, greed and suffering. As Sarayu says to Mack, “Unless ‘I am,’ there are no verbs, and verbs are what makes the universe alive…. My words are alive and dynamic—full of life and possibility.”

Wilfred Martens is professor emeritus of English at Fresno Pacific University where he retired in 2000 after 35 years of teaching. He and his wife, Erma, are active members of College Community Church MB in Clovis, Calif.

By Geoff and Lori Taylor

Twelve years ago our two families—Geoff and his two girls and Lori and her son and daughter—became one. We married in 1998 while our children were in elementary school, and now all four kids are in college.

Our stepfamily’s journey has been exciting and tumultuous, filled with unexpected pleasures and pain. It is a story shared by many families in our churches. Some, like Geoff, have a blended family because of the death of a spouse, while others, like Lori, start over because of divorce.

Lori’s Story
When I married my high school sweetheart in 1987 I thought I knew everything there was to know about living “happily ever after.” Although my parents and mentors at church saw red flags in our relationship, I felt confident that we could overcome them.

We lived our married life with one foot in the church, the other in the world. When I became pregnant with our son in 1989, I realized I had to make a choice. I chose Christ and began to devote time and attention to reading the Word and seeking peer/mentor groups at my church. Sadly, my husband did not.

Our daughter followed in 1992. As I stayed home with our two young children, my husband struggled with the growing pressure he felt to be a father and to provide financially for our family. It’s a long, heartbreaking story, but suffice it to say that his alcohol abuse escalated to the point of self-destruction. Our divorce was finalized in 1995. He passed away last year at the age of 47.

Although I was devastated by my divorce and felt safe in my relationship with God, I prayed that God would lead me to the right man if God wanted me to remarry. I met Geoff on a blind date and soon felt confident that he was the man I had been praying for.

Geoff’s Story
My first wife, Elisabeth, and I married in 1986, and our first daughter was born in 1989. We bought a small home after our second daughter was born in 1992, and Elisabeth stayed home with the girls during their preschool years.

Elisabeth was born with heart deformities; her first heart surgery was as a preschooler. Rheumatic fever in her teens led to Mitral Stenosis in adult life. No one was prepared for the trauma of her death in August 1997 during mitral valve replacement surgery. I became a widower at 35 with two young children.

My new life consisted of work, laundry, dishes, homework and loneliness. The pressure was intense. Ironically, one of the things God used to change my perspective was the movie Titanic. Watching innocent people suffer loss helped me to accept the fact that I was not alone on my journey—other people suffer too. And God began to heal my brokenness.

Soon a neighbor introduced me to Lori. After hearing her story, I felt she would be a great wife and mom. I realized a remarriage with stepchildren would be a challenge, but she was willing to join me in this venture. In October 1998, we had a beautiful outdoor wedding with our four young children participating.

Challenges
When we remarried, we were not ready for what lay ahead. No one is prepared for the new levels of complexity that arise in remarriage, many of which come from outside the new marriage. We spent time and energy helping other family members understand that we were all a family now, encouraging them to embrace all four children and not only their biological children. We also spent years in court with Lori’s ex-husband, which took a tremendous emotional and financial toll.

We struggled to find others in our church that could help us but realized remarriage ministry was not widely accepted. We felt very alone and isolated from others who did not understand our step-issues.

Although we moved forward confidently in God’s love for our new family, we had much to learn. We were encouraged by the hope found in Colossians 1:17: “In him all things hold together.” We held tight to the knowledge that Jesus was and is with us every step of the way. We reached out to other stepfamilies in our church and started a blended family Sunday school class. Sharing with other people who were in similar situations brought great comfort. We took advantage of the many great books and Web sites available to help us grow in Christ and to grow in our family.

If your new family is a complicated web of relationships, we feel your pain. If your children are hurt and have lost hope, we have been there and grieve with you. Reflecting on our experiences and those of other families, we offer these encouragements.

1. Focus on the marriage. When joining two families with separate cultures, histories and traditions, much energy is spent finding a “new normal.” When custody, ex-relationship and financial issues dominate the home environment, the marriage tends to weaken under this stress. Marriage is not necessarily easier the second time. Marriage is like algebra. Remarriage is like calculus! The children’s security comes from knowing your marriage is stable—even if it’s not what they had hoped for.

2. Recognize and accept loss. Remarriage cannot repair the damage that brought you here. The best response is to offer forgiveness and repentance to all involved. In our case, Geoff even had to forgive God. It is important to model forgiveness and reconciliation to your children. Children carry a lot of pain from whatever circumstances caused them to be in this stepfamily, something they never asked for.

3. Practice the spirit of adoption. Practice adoptive love toward your stepchildren, and free them from false expectations. Rather than trying to replace their natural parent, offer love, support and encouragement as though you adopted them into your life. Be sensitive when discussing their “other family.”

4. Do not compare your new family to original families. Our family struggled with normal developmental issues as well as step issues. It’s easy to feel like you’re failing your spouse, children or yourself. Find other stepfamilies and encourage each other.

5. Create new traditions. Find compromise through new ideas with birthdays, holidays and vacations. As time goes by, new traditions will build on each other and over the years you will have many great memories. No child or family member will return to the innocent state of your previous life, but you can help them adjust to their new world. Listen to their feelings.

6. Enforce equality and protectiveness. Treat each child in the family with the same standards. Do not divide your family with favoritism. Write down and apply chores, disciplines and rewards equally as appropriate across the board. Your home needs to be protected from other family members who refuse to exercise equality. “Good intentions” will split your marriage along the step line. Everything that comes to the kids from outside relationships should be filtered through your marriage first.

We are a nation of remarried people, and our children are largely being raised in remarried or non-married families. While it’s sad that the church is not exempt from this, we Christians have something in our lives that other families are missing: the presence of God and the encouragement of one another.

If we as a people of God come together in prayer and mutual support, God can heal the wounds of our past and bring hope for family restoration. God strengthened and supported us in our remarried journey, and he will do the same for you if you choose to put him first.

Geoff and Lori Taylor have lived in Bakersfield, Calif., for 10 years and attend Heritage Bible Church. They have three children in college and one recent graduate. They share a passion in offering hope to marriages and families, especially stepfamilies.