Another Great Junior High Camp

I had a great time as a a Junior High Camp counselor at Quaker Haven last week. As you can see, the setting on Dewart Lake is terrific. (And we had great weather to enjoy the lake)

We had 79 girls and 35 boys. Here they are waiting to get into the dining hall to enjoy the outstanding food. (The good news - I only gained two pounds)

Group worship times were loud and meaningful. Cabin worship times were quiet and meaningful.

I observed some very creative water balloon activity. This basketball size one set a record.

And of course the Camp Directors are always trying out new games. This last picture is one they called "Thrive." It was a combination of capture-the-flag, a water balloon fight, and a watermelon hunt. (I don't think we ever found the watermelons)

A lot of junior high kids met Jesus last week in a lot of different ways. And it sure feels good to be part of that.

Bill

My Other Blog

Counsel to the Christian-Traveller: also Meditations & Experiences
by William Shewen is a new book from Inner Light Books.

William Shewen was a first generation Quaker, a pin maker and his house was one of the first meeting places of Friends south of the Thames River in London.

“Meditations and Experiences” is the largest part of the book. Shewen presents 70 short thoughts, possibly shorter versions of messages given in worship, that describe the Quaker faith as he experienced it. He invites the reader to enter into the same experience and know the satisfaction and fulfillment that he has enjoyed.

I was struck by his directness, his intensity, and the way the Bible is infused in his writing.

I have started blogging his "Meditations & Experiences" at It Is A Precious Thing.

Music Pick of the Week

While I'm working, I often have one of my Pandora stations going and I get to hear music I never would have come across otherwise. One morning Pandora started playing "Mercy Seat" by Anonymous 4. I was stopped dead in my tracks by one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. "Mercy Seat" is a traditional Sacred Harp song that is very moving by itself (watch this video). Anonymous 4 makes it transcendent.

Here's a sample of Mercy-Seat by Anonymous 4 courtesy of Amazon.com

 

Picture Of The Week

Our lives are complete. We have done something very few Hoosiers have done. On our way to visit my brother in Ohio, we made a side trip north of Richmond and climbed to the top of Hoosier Hill, the highest point in Indiana. (Actually, "climbed" may be too strong a word. We "walked" thirty feet from the dirt road.)


I recorded our accomplishment in the official logbook. Later that day we drove near the Ohio highpoint, but we were running late and will save that adventure for another day.

One of These Things is not like the other. . .

Is there a disconnect?

Do Without

On the afternoon of the 2008 Olympic opening ceremonies, our television died.  It died of old age.  It was 15 years old and had gone through three moves.  The tuner has been fried for 10 years (somebody spilled a liquid that dripped into the back).

We decided we would save up for a new television.  Not another 27 inch heavyweight hulk, but a really BIG flat-panel High Def Wonder.  We figured we could get one by Christmas.

We went to a nephew's wedding in North Carolina in September, the car needed major front-end work in November, and we have a hefty tax payment coming up.  The High Def Wonder got put on the back burner.

And then, about a month ago, I began to think the unthinkable -- Since we've gone six months without a television, maybe we don't need one.  I tried to think about anything that I felt I missed out on in those six months and realized that even if there was something I might have wanted to watch, I didn't miss it.  There are many better ways to keep up on current events than watching television.  And a lot of my interests are the kinds of things that get ignored by television.

What finally pushed me over the edge was "Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without," a blog post by Russell Arben Fox.  He writes,

You want to be environmentally conscious and help conserve what resources we have left? Well, then quit buying all that expensive crap that gets shoveled out at us by the Powers That Be, crap that’ll have to thrown away as soon as you’re lured in by the next model car/range oven/purse/sneakers/lifestyle renovation/electronic gizmo. Resist change, cut back, slow down! Wear that sports jacket for another year! Exercise at home! Garden and eat your own food! Not everyone can do all of this; indeed, given how pervasively the habits of acquisition, competition, and consumption are threaded through most of our daily routines, most of us can’t do most of it. But here and there, we can and should make a stand, however wired our professions or home lives may be.

Our television seems a good place to take a stand.  Media is the engine of consumerism in our society.  The television culture turns everything and everybody into a commodity (but that's another post).

"We will do without a television."  There, I said it.  Let's see how it goes.

Unresolved Issues:
Colin Firth - Kathy really enjoys the five hour BBC Pride and Prejudice that features Colin Firth as the best D'arcy of all time.  Is there some way we can still have Colin Firth in our lives?

DVDs and Videotapes - we have a lot of them.  Do we invite ourselves over to the neighbor's house to watch our classic Fred Astaire movies?

Still working it out,
Bill

Silence and Listening

I was able to go to the  Monterey Jazz Festival for several years in the early 1970s.  It was a great opportunity to hear amazing jazz artists, wonderful vocalists and up-and-coming performers.  There were five shows spread out over 3 days, winding up with the blues show on Sunday afternoon.

I was relaxing and watching television on the Monday evening following the Jazz Festival and realized that I was not listening to the words in what I was watching -- I was only tuned in to the music.  Three days of listening to great music had changed the way I was hearing things! 

I recalled this experience during the time of quiet waiting in the Friends in Fellowship worship group last Sunday evening.  Brent had raised the question of whether the group should continue.  Some people responded to the question and then we shifted into a time of quiet.

I came to realize that I was there for the silence.  Extended silence changes the way I hear things, in the same way that three days of world-class jazz changed the way I heard things. One of the ways quiet waiting transforms us is that it changes the way we listen.

And to extend the idea--
The significance of any form of worship is in the way it changes the way we hear and see and experience things when we leave that time of worship.  I am blessed by our worship on Sunday mornings, with hymns, a choir, prayers and preaching.  My Quaker understanding is that those outward elements of worship are there to help me discover my relationship to Jesus Christ in new and fresh ways, not as ends in themselves.  Otherwise it is only music and words. 

In the same way silence is not an end in itself, but another opportunity to explore my relationship to Jesus.  I hear the words shared in the silence within a larger context that includes the group, the world and the living presence of Jesus.  And the way I listen is changed.

Bill

A Season for Meeting Jesus

The season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter week, began on February 25. For this Lent and Easter season my them is “Meeting Jesus.” This is what the “Meeting” in Plainfield Friends Meeting is all about. It is a verb – an action word. We gather together to meet Jesus.

What happens when people meet Jesus?

When we read the Gospels we discover that things change when people meet Jesus. Some people get healed, others get angry. Fishermen and tax collectors begin gathering in people rather than fish or money. Some are puzzled and confused when they meet Jesus. Thousands are fed and others are made aware of their emptiness. Nothing stays the same.

The Gospel of Mark begins very abruptly telling us about Jesus. He is “the Son of God” (1:1). John the Baptist declares that he is “more powerful than I. . . . I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you the Holy Spirit”(1:7,8). The voice form heaven declares: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”(1:11)

And then, after all this introduction, Jesus introduces himself: “The time has come,” he said, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (1:15)

We are almost too familiar with these words. We don’t take seriously what Jesus is saying as he greets the world – and us.

“The time has come” – There is a purpose and significance to our time on earth. Life isn’t just “one thing after another.”

“The kingdom of God is near” – Jesus invites us to live in a different place, even while we live in this world. We don’t have to settle for the status quo and business as usual. God is within our reach, if we would only recognize it. And the things we consider so important in the realm we live in lose their significance.

“Repent and believe the good news!” – Jesus caused reactions in people because he calls us to reorient our lives around something besides ourselves. It’s a hard and uncomfortable thing to do. And it changes us.

Look for ways to meet Jesus this Easter season.

pastor Bill

A Failure of Trust

The news stories about the current financial crisis suggest that part of the problem is a failure of trust. The world of credit is built on trust. Letters of Credit, Loans and Mortgages are all built on a trust relationship. On the most basic level the bank says to the borrower “I trust you to pay me back”. And then some manipulated that trust, preyed on others and distorted that system of trust. And the system broke.

I worry that trust is getting harder and harder to come by in our world. And a lack of trust in society has deep consequences. Trust is a relationship word. It is a basic building block of relationships between individuals and communities of people.

Trust is at the heart of who we are as followers of Jesus. In the Bible “Faith” is a word that in almost every case would be better translated as “trust.” The word “faith” is often used to designate a set of beliefs, as in “What faith are you?” It suggests something set and static. Our set of beliefs is important, but faith is something we do, not something we are. That’s why the word “trust” is better. It carries with it the idea that we are acting on that faith. Trust is how we live out our faith.

As followers of Jesus I believe we are called to help a broken world relearn how to trust. Trust is a relationship word and a community word. It goes against the grain in a culture that is so focused on individual happiness and personal self-realization.

Psalm 37 touches on the question of how to live in a world that is broken, where those who do wrong seem to get rewarded while those who do good are forgotten. Trust is the answer:

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret--it leads only to evil.
Psalm 37:3-8 (NIV)

“I do trust. Help me get past my inability to trust.” Mark 9:24

Bill

Wild About Horses Bible ?????

When Bible marketing goes off the rails . . . .


(HT to Between Two Worlds)

"The Gluttony of Time

Bob Hyatt on "The Gluttony of Time"

Is busyness an evidence of unhealthy appetites?

Why do we say yes to so much? Is it because we are guilt-ridden,
co-dependent angst monkeys who lack the willpower to say no? No. We say
no to a million things a day. Usually to things that are good for us,
but still...when we want to, we know how to say no just fine, thank you.

Is it because we have a drive towards self justification that works
itself out in our work and an ever-increasing load of commitments
through which we seek to earn the favor of others and God? In part,
yes...

Picture of the Week

What is a Half Way Baptist?

Make up your own punchline and submit it as a comment.


Actually, a Half Way Baptist is a resident of Halfway, MO who attends this particular church.

We go by this church whenever we visit my wife's family in Missouri.

How did Half Way, MO get its name?

It's simple - Halfway is halfway between Buffalo and Bolivar on Highway 32!

MAP

A "Taste" of Theology

What would Calvinism taste like? 

What about Quakerism?  Of course it would have to be Cadbury's. . .



Bill

Dealing With Disaster

It was a political, social and economic disaster. The country had been invaded. The government was gone. Large numbers of people were forced to relocate to a strange country.

A prophetic voice is raised up in the face of this disaster:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."
Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NIV)

This is not our usual idea of “disaster response.” When disaster happens, we want to get things back to the status quo. Jeremiah was addressing Israelites whose concern would be returning to Jerusalem, their houses and farms, and their familiar life in Judah.

God’s suggestion for disaster response is to “build houses and settle down” in this new place they have found themselves. The point the prophet is making is that God’s priority is not saving Jerusalem but saving people. “Settle down,” God says, “Seek the peace and prosperity of whatever place you find yourselves in.” God is not concerned with restoring their past – God wants them to build their future.

Jeremiah again:
This is what the Lord says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,"
Jeremiah 29:10-14

Our world faces an uncertain economic future. We hear voices of doom and voices of hope trying to make sense of the credit and debt hole we seem to have dug. Some call it a disaster.

How do we respond? Jeremiah says we are to “seek the peace and prosperity” of the place where we find yourselves. God’s priority is saving people, not economic or political systems.

God’s “status” is not “quo:” “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future

Call upon God. Pray to God. And God will listen. When we seek God we will find God, even in the middle of disaster. That’s a promise.

Bill

New Book: Christless Christianity

I came across a review by Tim Challies of Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church by Michael Horton and have added it to my reading list.

The book appears to address the concern that, for many churches (including Friends churches and meetings), Jesus has become optional. The prevailing theology for many Christians in our culture is "moralistic therapeutic deism," which can be served up with or without Jesus.

Challies quotes from the last chapter:

"What is called for in these days, as in any other time, is a church
that is a genuine covenantal community defined by the gospel rather
than a service provider defined by laws of the market, political
ideologies, ethnic distinctives, or other alternatives to the catholic
community that the Father is creating by his Spirit in his Son. For
this, we need nothing less than a new Christian where the only
demographic that matters is in Christ."

What are you reading?

Bill

Candle Lighting

One of our Sunday School classes has been using some material on Quaker leadership developed by Jennie Isbell at the Earlham School of Religion.

Lesson five has this statement from Fred Rogers (better know as the "Mister Rogers" of PBS): "All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me."

It struck me that this statement is what ministry is all about, expressed in about as simple and direct a way as possible.

We spend a lot of time making it complicated--

As I prepared for ministry, I was directed to develop a "philosophy of ministry." This was to be a kind of road map of how I saw ministry in my life and in the church. I gained a lot from doing this . . . and then by philosophy of ministry met the real world of ministry. Was I headed in the right direction? Am I doing this in the right way? What comes next? I needed to remind myself: "All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me."

Life pulls us in lots of different directions. We devote ourselves to the important tasks like family, work and doing good. And it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture when we are working through all the details. We need to remind ourselves: "All I know to do is to light the candle that has been give to me."

We make ourselves important. Sometimes we begin to think that it won't come out right unless we take care of it. And when things don't go right we get frustrated, burned out or angry. It's time to remember: "All I know to do is to light the candle that has been given to me."

Bringing light into the world is what God has called us to do:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Mt 5:14-16

Let's go light some candles.

Bill

Turning the Quaker Family Tree on its Side

Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism by Carole Dean Spencer argues that the heart of Quakerism is a robust holiness theology. The author presents evidence that Quakerism needs to be understood as a movement that combined existing elements of Christian holiness theology in a radical and innovative way. Spencer identifies eight characteristic elements of Quaker holiness and looks at how these elements of holiness theology were expressed,adapted, and reinterpreted through three centuries of Quaker history. Those eight elements of holiness theology are:
-Scripture
-Eschatology
-Conversion
-Charisma
-Evangelism
-Mysticism
-Suffering, and
-Perfection

The story is told through the lives and writings of individuals who have had impact on the development of Quakerism. For instance, the story of the Quietist Quakers of the eighteenth century is told through the writing of Anthony Benezet and Stephen Grellet. The divisions of the nineteenth century are described in the experiences of Elias Hicks, Job Scott, Joseph John Gurney and John Wilbur. The holiness revival is seen through Joel Bean, Walter Robson and Hannah Whitall Smith.

The chapter on "Holiness and Quakerism in the Twentieth Century" seems especially helpful in understanding the various streams of mystical, evangelical and liberal Quakerism in relation to holiness theology.

Sure to provoke controversy, the study suggests a "Re-mapping of Quakerism." The author presents the case that the fullest expression of that original Quaker holiness is found in contemporary evangelical Quakerism.

The study also reinforces an argument that I have occasionally made - that first generation Quakers were not establishing new forms of worship and structure, but were expressing a faith independent of forms. As Carole Dean Spencer says, "Forms are occasional and particular historical expressions of holiness" (p. 239).

The book is adapted from a doctoral dissertation, so it is a moderately challenging read, but this is also its strength. The documentation and annotations will help the discussion that is sure to follow this study. The three appendices on sources of Quaker mysticism, the connections between Quakers and other early holiness movements, and the connections between Quakers and Methodists in the eighteenth century are almost worth the price of the book by themselves.

Read it and let me know what you think.

Bill

The Labor Day picnic at the parsonage was a lot of fun.

We had a lot of fun swapping stories and hearing about Kerry's showdown with the surgeon's knife. Kerry won.

We had a lot of fun watching younger people with a lot more energy play badminton.

We had a lot of fun eating hot dogs and hamburgers. Cliff says he ate four hot dogs, but I was too busy cooking to count.

True, it was a little warm. We just kept moving as the shade moved. And others stayed comfortable inside.

Thank you for all those delicious side dishes and desserts. There was something for everybody.

Let's do it again next year.

pastor Bill