This is a quick check in since I am on my sister-in-law's phone line connection.


Last week I had a wonderful time at the Inn at Honey Run down near Millersburg, Ohio in Amish country. It was the planning for my new peer support group which will be together for three years. We are the first group through the Akron Area Association of Churches Lily Endowment grant. We have $60,000 to share in learning and growing experiences. It is a group of 9 of us with a good mix of traditions and backgrounds.


Now I am in another of my "next to heaven" settings...my in-law's home on Linger Lake north of Crossville, Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau. The weather is wonderful. My daughters and I have been fishing. Every night we take a ride around the lake on their pontoon boat. A good breeze and beautiful sunsets and I am getting a lot of reading and exercising done.


Here is my most recent "Periodic Discipling at Fairlawn-West" email:


Periodic Discipling at Fairlawn-West


One of the assumptions about church in the US by many these days is that they
have joined an organization that will serve them, like a country club. There
is an assumption of some level of charity that we will give to others, but
still there is the expectation that this is "our" church, and that in light
of the "money" (rather than offerings to God) we give, we can expect at the
least to have our family weddings and funerals through the church as well as
visits from the pastor when we are sick and entertaining fellowship.


There is no foundation for that assumption in the Biblical nor the historical
nature of the Church. That is a 20th Century US notion of church as an
organization.


Church is always being part of a mission to share the Good News of Jesus
Christ that has been given to us with others who are searching for an
everlasting joy. This joy is given to us in the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. It isn't a short-term joy that makes us feel good for a
segment of time. It is the foundation of our life. A confidence that we
cannot give ourselves. As one person has said, those in the Church are dead
and buried. If you study the scriptural sequences about baptism, that's what
they are saying. We are buried with Christ and we have risen with Christ.
It is no longer about us...if we are in Christ. It is about the mission
Jesus gives us as disciples to reach the others.


But much of the church has become engrossed in taking care of people who are
focused on receiving the services or priveleges who see it as "our" church.
In truth, it is "our's", but not a Church. It is our club, our organization,
our community, but not the body of Christ where we have lost ourselves and
Christ has risen in us.


Jesus said that many people could not accept his mission. He has a sequence
where someone says they need to go home and bury their father first, and
another says he needs to get married first and another says he needs to
harvest his crops first. All are legitimate excuses, right? But Jesus says
as long as we keep having legit excuses, we aren't ready to follow him with
our life. And that is probably truth for a great percentage of people in the
US church today. They want to belong and receive the benefits and give some
charity, but they aren't ready to follow Jesus. That is why so many churches
are struggling. Because there are a host of organizations in our society who
can do the same kinds of things the church has been reduced down to. So why
do we need the church anyway? And younger folks are finding that they can
know God and serve God outside that kind of organization. I saw a quote two
days ago that said only 20% of those in church are Christians, willing to
give their life to follow and serve Christ. (that percentage is probably an
arbitrary figure, but it points us to see that not everyone who "belongs" is
a disciple.) I have also heard that God may be more active outside of the
organized church these days than inside it since the organized church has
become so focused on keeping itself alive and making sure the members are
taken care of first. (how can an organization worried about dying proclaim
the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the world!) These are the exact kinds of
issues that the Apostle Paul confronts in the early church as it struggled to
be more in and of the spirit than of the world. The world will come as a
wolf in sheep's clothing to make us think we are doing church "right".


Jesus, Peter, Paul and the other leaders of the Church were always in dutch
around this very concern. The mission of the Church is not to go help other
people in need or to take special offerings to help them. The Mission of the
Church is to always be sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. It has no
other purpose. But if those who are part of the Church are taking up most of
the attention of the mission of the Church with the concerns and demands of
their life, who will go to share? When you are up to your rear in
alligators, who is going to drain the swamp? That is the predicament of the
organizational, membership style church that predominates in the US these
days. There are too many members with expectations than disciples who are
going to serve. God sees this and like water that is dammed up continaully
seeking new paths, will continue to seek settings where the true mission is
fulfilled.

David Loar


Nothing is Small for God
Mother Teresa

If you are discouraged it is a sign of pride,
because it shows you trust in your own powers.
Never bother about other people's opinions. Be
humble and you will never be disturbed.
Remember St. Aloysius, who said he would
continue to play billiards even if he knew he was
going to die. Do you play well? Sleep well? Eat
well? These are duties. Nothing is small for
God.



from "Discipleship" by Heinrich Arnold

Jesus calls each of us to be humble. If a person seeks human greatness,
Christian community is not the place for him. Any one of us might be tempted
by ambition, but we must take an attitude against such temptation.


From a letter: It is good to be weak. Our human weakness is no hindrance to
the kingdom of God, as long as we do not use it as an excuse for our sins.
Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, where Paul writes that the Lord will show himself
in the most glorious way through our weakness. Certainly this is not the most
important passage for the church as a whole, but it is perhaps the most
important passage in the Gospel as regards personal discipleship.


“Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of
self-exaltation. To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its
reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than
anything else in the universe.”

Dag Hammarskjld

From a letter: In reading the Gospel of Mark, I have been struck by how
Jesus emphasizes our need for humility. He did not come to be served but "to
serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." This must be our way too,
even though we know we fall very short of fulfilling it.


The Beatitudes do not call for great saints who shine in the world, but for
lowly people.

From a letter: If you know you are sometimes critical and lack humility,
then seek humility. Humility is a virtue that one can decide for. It softens
the heart and makes a person open for God. Criticism is not necessarily
wrong; it can be positive. But it can also be very destructive.

We should not think too much about our small hearts or our weak characters.
No one is pure and good except Jesus. His is the only really healthy
character, and in his unending mercy, he can purify our hearts for his
purpose. Let us give ourselves to him so he can lead us and use us as he
will. Let us turn our back on the temptation of Cain, who envied his
brother's closeness to God. Let us be joyful in simply belonging to Jesus,
and willing to let him place us where we can bear the most fruit to the glory
of God.

From a letter: If we accept the weakness and smallness of our lives in a way
that leads us to humility before God, we will recognize that our only help
lies in complete surrender to him and dependence on him. It might be a very
painful recognition, but the victory will be life!

Paul says, "There must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you."
He does not only mean the vanity of wanting to look beautiful - which is also
unchristian - but the religious vanity of people who want to shine among men
and be honored by them. There should be no room for such vanity among us. He
continues, "You must humbly reckon others better than yourselves." That is
the opposite of wanting to outshine one's brother or sister. If we want to
follow Jesus, how can we want to make ourselves great or important? Jesus
"humbled himself, and in obedience accepted even death - death on a cross."