Wednesday, June 30, 2004
A little Milhaud with your coffee? While MasterWorks festival is in town, several performances a day by students occur around the Village of Winona. Here a woodwind quintet plays a Milhaud piece Wednesday afternoon on the porch of the Clock Tower Bakery on Park Avenue. MasterWorks is a joint project of the Village at Winona, Grace College, and MasterWorks Festival.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Be Careful When Using Church Discipline
This recent "Sightings" column alerts us to some issues regarding privacy and church discipline.
Confidences
-- Duane R. Bidwell
A minister who is licensed by the state of Texas as a mental-health
professional cannot claim First Amendment protections for a breach of
confidentiality, a Texas appeals court has ruled.
The case alleges that Fort Worth minister C. L. "Buddy" Westbrook, a
licensed professional counselor and pastor of Crossland Community Bible
Church, broke confidence when he wrote a letter to his congregation
directing church members to avoid contact with a woman until "the time of
repentance and restoration." The action was necessary, he wrote, because
she was engaging "in a biblically inappropriate relationship" and seeking a
divorce.
Under the congregation's bylaws, church members can be disciplined for
behaviors the congregation considers inappropriate. But the woman, who had
resigned from the church prior to Westbrook's letter, says the information
he shared was obtained during a counseling relationship and is therefore
privileged.
A pastor's right to discipline church members -- even by revealing
confidential information -- seems a cornerstone of Westbrook's
defense. Earlier, a state district judge threw out the case because it
applied a secular standard to a church conflict. This implies that the
pastor's actions are protected by the First Amendment as "freedom of religion."
But last month the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ruled that the
lawsuit could move ahead because the pastor is a licensed professional
counselor and therefore accountable to professional standards for
confidentiality established by the Texas Professional Counselor Act.
The plaintiff, appeals court Judge Anne Gardner wrote, has a "viable claim
involving the pastor's alleged breach of duty in his secular counseling
role that does not implicate the propriety of the church's disciplinary
action."
The decision seems consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1990 ruling in
Employment Division vs. Smith that generally applicable laws, such as those
governing professional counselors, may be applied even if they restrict
religious freedom.
When Westbrook revealed private information obtained through a counseling
relationship, he violated Texas standards for licensed counselors --
standards he agreed to follow when he sought and received state licensure.
But licensed or not, he also flouted well-established ethical guidelines
for the practice of pastoral counseling and standards for professional
conduct established by many denominations and honored by most ministers.
The Code of Ethics of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors
(AAPC) specifically states:
"We do not disclose client confidences to anyone, except: as mandated by
law; to prevent a clear and immediate danger to someone; in the course of
civil, criminal or disciplinary action arising from the counseling where
the pastoral counselor is a defendant; for purposes of supervision or
consultation; or by previously obtained written permission."
Westbrook is not a certified pastoral counselor, an AAPC member, or a staff
member at an accredited pastoral counseling center. But even if he cannot
be held to the professional standards of the pastoral counseling community,
the policies of most Christian denominations would call his behavior into
question.
Confidentiality, of course, is not an absolute standard. Clergy and
mental-health practitioners have an ethical (and often legal)
responsibility to break confidentiality when children or the elderly are
being abused or when people are a danger to themselves or others. This
does not seem to have been a factor in Westbrook's decision to share
confidential information, however.
In allowing the lawsuit against Westbrook, the 2nd Court of Appeals has
made a decision consistent with state and federal law. More importantly,
the decision is consistent with our culture's broader consensus --
including the consensus of professional organizations and communities of
faith -- that a breach of confidentiality can often be an abuse of pastoral
power.
Rev. Duane R. Bidwell, Ph.D., is a certified pastoral counselor and
director of the Pastoral Care and Training Center, an AAPC-accredited
pastoral counseling center at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian
University. He is author of Short-Term Spiritual Guidance: A Contemporary
Approach to a Classic Discipline (Fortress Press, 2004).
----------
Sightings comes from the Martin Marty
Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Confidences
-- Duane R. Bidwell
A minister who is licensed by the state of Texas as a mental-health
professional cannot claim First Amendment protections for a breach of
confidentiality, a Texas appeals court has ruled.
The case alleges that Fort Worth minister C. L. "Buddy" Westbrook, a
licensed professional counselor and pastor of Crossland Community Bible
Church, broke confidence when he wrote a letter to his congregation
directing church members to avoid contact with a woman until "the time of
repentance and restoration." The action was necessary, he wrote, because
she was engaging "in a biblically inappropriate relationship" and seeking a
divorce.
Under the congregation's bylaws, church members can be disciplined for
behaviors the congregation considers inappropriate. But the woman, who had
resigned from the church prior to Westbrook's letter, says the information
he shared was obtained during a counseling relationship and is therefore
privileged.
A pastor's right to discipline church members -- even by revealing
confidential information -- seems a cornerstone of Westbrook's
defense. Earlier, a state district judge threw out the case because it
applied a secular standard to a church conflict. This implies that the
pastor's actions are protected by the First Amendment as "freedom of religion."
But last month the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth ruled that the
lawsuit could move ahead because the pastor is a licensed professional
counselor and therefore accountable to professional standards for
confidentiality established by the Texas Professional Counselor Act.
The plaintiff, appeals court Judge Anne Gardner wrote, has a "viable claim
involving the pastor's alleged breach of duty in his secular counseling
role that does not implicate the propriety of the church's disciplinary
action."
The decision seems consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1990 ruling in
Employment Division vs. Smith that generally applicable laws, such as those
governing professional counselors, may be applied even if they restrict
religious freedom.
When Westbrook revealed private information obtained through a counseling
relationship, he violated Texas standards for licensed counselors --
standards he agreed to follow when he sought and received state licensure.
But licensed or not, he also flouted well-established ethical guidelines
for the practice of pastoral counseling and standards for professional
conduct established by many denominations and honored by most ministers.
The Code of Ethics of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors
(AAPC) specifically states:
"We do not disclose client confidences to anyone, except: as mandated by
law; to prevent a clear and immediate danger to someone; in the course of
civil, criminal or disciplinary action arising from the counseling where
the pastoral counselor is a defendant; for purposes of supervision or
consultation; or by previously obtained written permission."
Westbrook is not a certified pastoral counselor, an AAPC member, or a staff
member at an accredited pastoral counseling center. But even if he cannot
be held to the professional standards of the pastoral counseling community,
the policies of most Christian denominations would call his behavior into
question.
Confidentiality, of course, is not an absolute standard. Clergy and
mental-health practitioners have an ethical (and often legal)
responsibility to break confidentiality when children or the elderly are
being abused or when people are a danger to themselves or others. This
does not seem to have been a factor in Westbrook's decision to share
confidential information, however.
In allowing the lawsuit against Westbrook, the 2nd Court of Appeals has
made a decision consistent with state and federal law. More importantly,
the decision is consistent with our culture's broader consensus --
including the consensus of professional organizations and communities of
faith -- that a breach of confidentiality can often be an abuse of pastoral
power.
Rev. Duane R. Bidwell, Ph.D., is a certified pastoral counselor and
director of the Pastoral Care and Training Center, an AAPC-accredited
pastoral counseling center at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian
University. He is author of Short-Term Spiritual Guidance: A Contemporary
Approach to a Classic Discipline (Fortress Press, 2004).
----------
Sightings comes from the Martin Marty
Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Monday, June 28, 2004
Dr. Randy Smith, pastor of the Sebring FL Grace Brethren Church, taught seminars in Winona Lake over the weekend and revealed plans by the Sebring Church to begin an intensive one-year Bible institute program in conjunction with the church and its ministry.
Sebring Church Plans Bible Institute
Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church, under the leadership of Associate Pastor Bruce Barlow, had a fun weekend hosting Dr. Randy Smith this past weekend.
Smith, who is well-known as a Bible teacher and expert in Israel (he lived there a number of years), taught sessions on the Gospels and did a two-hour seminar on Leviticus Sunday evening.
Smith, 42, has an undergraduate degree in biblical studies, an M.A. in Near East Archaeology, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion was done at a Hebrew university in Israel, where he trained in the rabbinic tradition and specialized in the historic relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
He is respected as one of the foremost Bible teachers in the Middle East and is in demand by both the Israeli and the Palestinian ministries of Tourism as a professor of biblical history for their certified guide courses.
One of Smith's more interesting accomplishments is the building of a Wilderness Tabernacle replica at Kibbutz Almog in the Judean Desert, near Jericho. The Tabernacle opened to visitors on October 13, 2000, and was the product of five years of research, planning, design and construction. It is a full-scale (1:1) walk-through replica of the moveable worship sanctuary built by the ancient Hebrews during their Exodus journey.
Smith, who is also pastor of the Grace Brethren Church in Sebring, Florida, over lunch Sunday also revealed plans to open a concentrated one-year Bible institute program entitled "Great Commission Bible Institute."
A ministry of the Sebring church, the institute will lead about 20-25 students each year through an intensive Bible study program, ministry linked to Urban Hope in Philadelphia, inclusion of a mission trip, and work in a local church, with the Sebring church being the first and primary platform for student ministry.
Smith said a businessman has donated a downtown Sebring hotel, built in 1927, for the purpose of housing the institute and its students, and the building is currently undergoing renovations.
Smith's Global Vision Outreach website at www.globalvisionoutreach.org is currently undergoing revision, but more information on his ministry is available on his Christian Travel Study Programs website.
Smith, who is well-known as a Bible teacher and expert in Israel (he lived there a number of years), taught sessions on the Gospels and did a two-hour seminar on Leviticus Sunday evening.
Smith, 42, has an undergraduate degree in biblical studies, an M.A. in Near East Archaeology, and his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion was done at a Hebrew university in Israel, where he trained in the rabbinic tradition and specialized in the historic relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
He is respected as one of the foremost Bible teachers in the Middle East and is in demand by both the Israeli and the Palestinian ministries of Tourism as a professor of biblical history for their certified guide courses.
One of Smith's more interesting accomplishments is the building of a Wilderness Tabernacle replica at Kibbutz Almog in the Judean Desert, near Jericho. The Tabernacle opened to visitors on October 13, 2000, and was the product of five years of research, planning, design and construction. It is a full-scale (1:1) walk-through replica of the moveable worship sanctuary built by the ancient Hebrews during their Exodus journey.
Smith, who is also pastor of the Grace Brethren Church in Sebring, Florida, over lunch Sunday also revealed plans to open a concentrated one-year Bible institute program entitled "Great Commission Bible Institute."
A ministry of the Sebring church, the institute will lead about 20-25 students each year through an intensive Bible study program, ministry linked to Urban Hope in Philadelphia, inclusion of a mission trip, and work in a local church, with the Sebring church being the first and primary platform for student ministry.
Smith said a businessman has donated a downtown Sebring hotel, built in 1927, for the purpose of housing the institute and its students, and the building is currently undergoing renovations.
Smith's Global Vision Outreach website at www.globalvisionoutreach.org is currently undergoing revision, but more information on his ministry is available on his Christian Travel Study Programs website.
With My Cello on my Back . . .
Wow! What a blockbuster weekend in Winona Lake for history and music lovers!
Not only was this the Warsaw Sesquicentennial celebration weekend, but the MasterWorks orchestra, all 110 of them, played two concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings. The keystone work was the Brahms Second Symphony, which was played with great depth and precision. Conductor Andrew Sewell, a New Zealand native who now conducts at Wichita and Wisconsin, did an excellent job leading them in the Brahms, the concerti, and Verdi's La Forza del Destino Overture.
Friday night’s program included oboe and flute concertinas, and Saturday night’s “special” was the Korngold Violin Concerto, played by Roger Frisch, who is the assistant concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. He was spectacular, and then sat in with the students to play the Brahms.
Sunday night’s faculty recital included numbers on trumpet, cello, French horn, violin and harp, piano, and a Schubert string quintet. The quality of the music is outstanding, and it’s all free, although an offering is generally taken to help with student scholarships.
This week continues with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and then a Saturday evening patriotic concert with fireworks down on Tabernacle Field, the former site of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle on Park Avenue.
Friday’s Warsaw Times-Union newspaper carried a front-page article on MasterWorks and its founder/director, Patrick Kavanaugh, who recently moved here from Haymarket, Virginia, to establish permanent headquarters for MasterWorks and Christian Performing Arts Fellowship. The article mentions that Kavanaugh will also integrate with the Grace College music department as a faculty member, as well.
Afternoon masterclasses continue (Friday was legendary guitarist Christopher Parkening) and all around town there are little “chamber concerts” in gazebos, on the front porches of restaurants, and at venues such as the Westminster and Free Methodist Church. This Thursday night at Rodeheaver is a program of opera scenes, and then a full production of Don Giovanni will be held Thursday, July 8 and Saturday, July 10.
It's fun to visit with these kids (the three/four-week program is open to those ages 16 to mid-20s, but competition is quite intense for entrance) and to learn where they are from, what their goals are, etc. Daily they stream back and forth between the Grace campus and the downtown section, carrying their cellos and violins on their backs, wheeling along their string basses, etc. At each evening program one student is interviewed as to his/her Christian testimony, goals in life, and what they're learning from the MasterWorks festival.
Not only was this the Warsaw Sesquicentennial celebration weekend, but the MasterWorks orchestra, all 110 of them, played two concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings. The keystone work was the Brahms Second Symphony, which was played with great depth and precision. Conductor Andrew Sewell, a New Zealand native who now conducts at Wichita and Wisconsin, did an excellent job leading them in the Brahms, the concerti, and Verdi's La Forza del Destino Overture.
Friday night’s program included oboe and flute concertinas, and Saturday night’s “special” was the Korngold Violin Concerto, played by Roger Frisch, who is the assistant concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra. He was spectacular, and then sat in with the students to play the Brahms.
Sunday night’s faculty recital included numbers on trumpet, cello, French horn, violin and harp, piano, and a Schubert string quintet. The quality of the music is outstanding, and it’s all free, although an offering is generally taken to help with student scholarships.
This week continues with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and then a Saturday evening patriotic concert with fireworks down on Tabernacle Field, the former site of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle on Park Avenue.
Friday’s Warsaw Times-Union newspaper carried a front-page article on MasterWorks and its founder/director, Patrick Kavanaugh, who recently moved here from Haymarket, Virginia, to establish permanent headquarters for MasterWorks and Christian Performing Arts Fellowship. The article mentions that Kavanaugh will also integrate with the Grace College music department as a faculty member, as well.
Afternoon masterclasses continue (Friday was legendary guitarist Christopher Parkening) and all around town there are little “chamber concerts” in gazebos, on the front porches of restaurants, and at venues such as the Westminster and Free Methodist Church. This Thursday night at Rodeheaver is a program of opera scenes, and then a full production of Don Giovanni will be held Thursday, July 8 and Saturday, July 10.
It's fun to visit with these kids (the three/four-week program is open to those ages 16 to mid-20s, but competition is quite intense for entrance) and to learn where they are from, what their goals are, etc. Daily they stream back and forth between the Grace campus and the downtown section, carrying their cellos and violins on their backs, wheeling along their string basses, etc. At each evening program one student is interviewed as to his/her Christian testimony, goals in life, and what they're learning from the MasterWorks festival.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Dr. John Davis (left) autographs one of his books for visitors to the "Author's Autograph Party" during the Warsaw, IN Sesquicentennial celebrations Saturday afternoon, June 26. Davis' wife, Carolyn, is at right. Currently BMH Books is discussing with Davis several potential publishing projects, including the updating of his 1970s book on counterfeit religions and the occult.
An "Author's Autography Party" by numerous Warsaw/Winona Lake, IN area authors was held Saturday in the Warsaw Community Library as part of the town's Sesquicentennial celebration. BMH author Homer Kent, Jr. (seated right, along with his wife, Beverly) autographed copies of his many commentaries as part of the celebration. BMH Books will publish a newly-written, newly-expanded commentary on the Book of Mark by Dr. Kent later this year.
Friday, June 25, 2004
Emergent Church Featured in USA Today
Relevant Magazine and Relevant Books--the publisher of Kary Oberbrunner's new book (student ministries, Powell, OH, Grace Brethren Church)-- are the subject of a cover feature in the Life section of yesterday's USA Today.
The article offers a behind-the-scenes view of 28-year-old founder Cameron Strang and Relevant's approach to reach 20-somethings with the Gospel. "Sight, sound, experience--that's what my generation is about," Strang noted in the interview. "We don't get hung up on the trappings, the legalism, the stuff that worries fundamentalists."
The article can be viewed online at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-06-23-christian-mag_x.htm.
The article offers a behind-the-scenes view of 28-year-old founder Cameron Strang and Relevant's approach to reach 20-somethings with the Gospel. "Sight, sound, experience--that's what my generation is about," Strang noted in the interview. "We don't get hung up on the trappings, the legalism, the stuff that worries fundamentalists."
The article can be viewed online at: http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-06-23-christian-mag_x.htm.
After the sidewalk, landscaping updates are next for the BMH building on Kings Highway in Winona Lake. The building was built in 1956 when Arnold Kriegbaum was head of the Brethren Missionary Herald Co. Exterior and interior renovations have been under the direction of Ann Schwartz Myers, project manager for BMH.
"After it rains, he pours." When Friday morning's rain had blown through the town of Winona Lake, Indiana, work on exterior updates to the BMH building continued. A new sidewalk will make it easier for BMH and bookstore patrons to get from the parking area into the building.
Jennifer McCaman, Grace College sophomore daughter of Argentine missionaries Gary and Linda McCaman, translated S.A.L.T. sessions into Spanish from an adjacent room. Watching proceedings via closed circuit TV, she sent wireless transmissions into headsets in the seminar room which were worn by those who preferred to hear the sessions in Spanish.
Tom Julien of Grace Brethren International Missions led some 30 S.A.L.T. trainees through material this week at GBIM headquarters in Winona Lake. Participants came from around the U.S. (including Alaska) and five other countries.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Notes From a Global Prayer Meeting
Wednesday nights are really rich. That’s when our Global Prayer Group meets, and when we pray ‘round the world for Grace Brethren missionaries and mission spots.
Last night, because of the SALT (Strategic Alliance Leadership Training) course which Tom Julien is conducting this week here in Winona Lake, we had several guests with us to give firsthand reports.
Walter Testa, an Argentine who pastored in Argentina for a number of years before moving to Mexico City about four years ago, is a good example of those now being sent by the Argentine church. Grace Brethren have been in Argentina for more than 90 years, and Argentine churches are sending their own missionaries—some to Mexico, to Chile, to Brazil, and to Chad—as well as some 70-80 who are ministering in Argentine churches.
Walter told a thrilling story of how his four groups of believers—totalling about 90—is growing. He told a particularly gripping story about one Jose, who answered his door drunk when the missionaries came to his door for their regular Bible-reading session with him. Insisting that they enter anyway, Jose showed a real readiness to commit his life to Christ.
Not believing he was in sufficient shape to respond properly, Walter and his friend left after several hours. But Jose followed them in his car, to the house of the other missionary. Ultimately, Jose gave his heart to Christ that night…several weeks later his wife did also…now several of his children have…and he is growing and maturing in Christ, according to Testa.
Edit, a lovely young physics teacher from Porto, Portugal, reported on the national church there. They have a core group of about 20 believers, and are especially working to reach young adults—the 20s and 30s crowd. A public Bible reading program in Lisbon is attracting media attention, and is enabling the church in Porto to give out Bibles with much more effectiveness.
Another young Argentine, Eduardo, also reported on his work. He is also a teacher (chemistry) in addition to his pastoring and discipleship work. Our resident Hispanic, Dan Pacheco, translated for Walter and Eduardo, who spoke in Spanish.
These are among the 30 who have come from five countries to participate in the SALT training. Next week will be a SALT Summit, when leaders from all around the globe get together to assess effectiveness, to strategize, and to share encouragement and help.
God is working through Grace Brethren around the world and it is a special thrill to hear these first-hand reports of what God is doing. We often pray not knowing how our prayers are answered—what an encouragement to keep praying!
An encouraging note was the news that Jenny Kessler, who had been hospitalized with malaria in Kenya, is now out of the hospital and recovering. Apparently she contracted it on a recent trip to Uganda.
Gordon Austin, who led last night’s meeting, circulated photos of the biker short-term team that is currently motorcycling around Germany, seeking to build relationships and share the Gospel. One biker, according to reports this noon, is VERY near to yielding his heart to Christ.
Our members Tom and Donna Miller, who have been with Larry and Vicky DeArmey in Madrid on a special prayer team, are scheduled to return to the US this weekend. We look forward to hearing from them, as well as from Israel-specialist Randy Smith, from Sebring, Florida, who will be teaching Adult ABFs and giving a Sunday-evening seminar at Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church.
Last night, because of the SALT (Strategic Alliance Leadership Training) course which Tom Julien is conducting this week here in Winona Lake, we had several guests with us to give firsthand reports.
Walter Testa, an Argentine who pastored in Argentina for a number of years before moving to Mexico City about four years ago, is a good example of those now being sent by the Argentine church. Grace Brethren have been in Argentina for more than 90 years, and Argentine churches are sending their own missionaries—some to Mexico, to Chile, to Brazil, and to Chad—as well as some 70-80 who are ministering in Argentine churches.
Walter told a thrilling story of how his four groups of believers—totalling about 90—is growing. He told a particularly gripping story about one Jose, who answered his door drunk when the missionaries came to his door for their regular Bible-reading session with him. Insisting that they enter anyway, Jose showed a real readiness to commit his life to Christ.
Not believing he was in sufficient shape to respond properly, Walter and his friend left after several hours. But Jose followed them in his car, to the house of the other missionary. Ultimately, Jose gave his heart to Christ that night…several weeks later his wife did also…now several of his children have…and he is growing and maturing in Christ, according to Testa.
Edit, a lovely young physics teacher from Porto, Portugal, reported on the national church there. They have a core group of about 20 believers, and are especially working to reach young adults—the 20s and 30s crowd. A public Bible reading program in Lisbon is attracting media attention, and is enabling the church in Porto to give out Bibles with much more effectiveness.
Another young Argentine, Eduardo, also reported on his work. He is also a teacher (chemistry) in addition to his pastoring and discipleship work. Our resident Hispanic, Dan Pacheco, translated for Walter and Eduardo, who spoke in Spanish.
These are among the 30 who have come from five countries to participate in the SALT training. Next week will be a SALT Summit, when leaders from all around the globe get together to assess effectiveness, to strategize, and to share encouragement and help.
God is working through Grace Brethren around the world and it is a special thrill to hear these first-hand reports of what God is doing. We often pray not knowing how our prayers are answered—what an encouragement to keep praying!
An encouraging note was the news that Jenny Kessler, who had been hospitalized with malaria in Kenya, is now out of the hospital and recovering. Apparently she contracted it on a recent trip to Uganda.
Gordon Austin, who led last night’s meeting, circulated photos of the biker short-term team that is currently motorcycling around Germany, seeking to build relationships and share the Gospel. One biker, according to reports this noon, is VERY near to yielding his heart to Christ.
Our members Tom and Donna Miller, who have been with Larry and Vicky DeArmey in Madrid on a special prayer team, are scheduled to return to the US this weekend. We look forward to hearing from them, as well as from Israel-specialist Randy Smith, from Sebring, Florida, who will be teaching Adult ABFs and giving a Sunday-evening seminar at Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
SMM Transfers to Women of Grace
Women of Grace USA is pleased to announce that the organization has accepted responsibility for overseeing the SMM program. SMM (Serving My Master) is a long-standing ministry of Grace Brethren churches in which women train girls to live godly lives.
Women of Grace acknowledges with deepest gratitude the unparalleled contribution CE National has made to SMM. For 30 years they have provided the guidance, strong leadership, resources and generous support needed to develop and maintain the program.
Women of Grace is now in the process of evaluating the direction and structure of SMM and determining how it can best meet the needs of girls today, focusing on elementary through high-school-age girls. Viki Rife will continue to serve as Director of Girls’ Ministries.
Orders for SMM materials should still be placed with CE National, which will continue to serve as a distribution center. Any other questions regarding SMM can be addressed to Viki Rife, (574) 257-4252—or e-mail Viki at deere@kconline.com.
Women of Grace acknowledges with deepest gratitude the unparalleled contribution CE National has made to SMM. For 30 years they have provided the guidance, strong leadership, resources and generous support needed to develop and maintain the program.
Women of Grace is now in the process of evaluating the direction and structure of SMM and determining how it can best meet the needs of girls today, focusing on elementary through high-school-age girls. Viki Rife will continue to serve as Director of Girls’ Ministries.
Orders for SMM materials should still be placed with CE National, which will continue to serve as a distribution center. Any other questions regarding SMM can be addressed to Viki Rife, (574) 257-4252—or e-mail Viki at deere@kconline.com.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Enjoying the Brethren Flow-Through
One of the advantages of living in Winona Lake, Indiana, is seeing so many Grace Brethren-connected people flow through this town, which houses most of the Grace Brethren national organizations.
This week, for example, we saw Linda Mensinger in church. She’s on her way to the Northwest to care for her parents, leaving Eddie—for the present—teaching back in the Central African Republic.
Then one noontime Keith Shearer wandered by for a brief conversation. Pastor of the New Beginnings Grace Brethren Church of Myerstown, Pennsylvania, Keith will be moderator of the National Conference year after next. He’s in town teaching a D.Min. course at Grace Seminary on Implementing Change and Conflict Management in the Local Church.
One of the students in that class, Greg Howell, also stopped in for a chat. Greg, whom we just saw at the Northwest Focus Retreat, is the longtime pastor at Community Grace Brethren Church in Goldendale, Washington, and is the “go-to” person for churches seeking a pastor or pastors looking for a place of ministry. He keeps active lists of both, and has a good system for linking churches with potential pastors.
A happy surprise this week was a quick visit from Bill and Mary Elsa Schaffer, who were enroute to their home in Homestead, Florida, from visiting with one of their children in Wisconsin. Bill, who taught music at Grace and now represents Rodgers Organs in south Florida, was the son of my former pastor, the legendary William H. Schaffer, who helped found Grace Seminary and the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches.
Forming a Grace Brethren Navy?
We’ve been giving Larry Chamberlain, executive director of Grace Brethren North American Missions, a hard time this week. Signs have sprouted up all over Winona Lake encouraging people to donate boats to GBNAM. When we asked whether he was forming a Grace Brethren Navy to protect our waterways, he quickly informed us it was a fund raising venture for Urban Encounter, the inner-city ministry in Chicago. Clive Craigen up there is using a boat auction to raise money and, since they do not have separate not-for-profit status, chose to put GBNAM’s name on the signs. That clears up the confusion.
Larry, by the way, is the author of an article entitled “The Discipline of Creative Leadership: Reflections on Creativity and Innovation in Christian Ministry," which appears on page 29 of the “Christian Management Report” June 2004 issue. The publication is the June 2004 edition of the magazine of the Christian Management Association. Chamberlain is a third-year doctoral student in Regent University’s School of Leadership Studies.
Tom and Donna Miller were missing from our Wednesday-night Global Prayer Group this week because they’re in Madrid with missionaries Larry and Vicky DeArmey. The Millers are part of a prayer group that is seeking to encourage and fortify with prayer the Grace Brethren ministry in Spain and other parts of Europe.
Tom and Doris Julien left the Prayer Group early to pick up an incoming conferee for the SALT Training that will occur in Winona Lake next week. About 30 missionaries and church leaders from all over the world will be here to participate in the training, which uses an agricultural analogy (laws of the sower, the seed, the soil, etc.) to give practical training in whole-life Christian discipleship and church-planting.
Issue #4 of FGBCWorld went to the printer today. It should arrive in homes and churches around July 1. The front-page feature articles include a summary of the upcoming adult and youth conferences and a feature on the Bayaka Pygmy goal to plant 50 churches along the route of the trek taken earlier this year by the three Pygmy pastors, missionary Barb Wooler, and their group.
Right next door to our BMH building is Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church, which is in Vacation Bible School this week. Nearly 500 children and workers are participating each morning—today was “salvation day” when each attending child was to receive an explanation of the Gospel and would be presented with an opportunity to receive Christ as Savior. We await the good news as to how God worked.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Time Magazine Meets Joe Blog
The current issue of Time Magazine is featuring an article on the popularity and growth of blogs. Here are just a couple paragraphs to whet your appetite:
Meet Joe Blog
Why are more and more people getting their news from amateur websites called blogs? Because they're fast, funny and totally biased
By LEV GROSSMAN; ANITA HAMILTON
A few years ago, Mathew Gross, 32, was a free-lance writer living in tiny Moab, Utah. Rob Malda, 28, was an underperforming undergraduate at a small Christian college in Michigan. Denis Dutton, 60, was a professor of philosophy in faraway Christchurch, New Zealand. Today they are some of the most influential media personalities in the world. You can be one too.
Gross, Malda and Dutton aren't rich or famous or even conspicuously good-looking. What they have in common is that they all edit blogs: amateur websites that provide news, information and, above all, opinions to rapidly growing and devoted audiences drawn by nothing more than a shared interest or two and the sheer magnetism of the editor's personality. Over the past five years, blogs have gone from an obscure and, frankly, somewhat nerdy fad to a genuine alternative to mainstream news outlets, a shadow media empire that is rivaling networks and newspapers in power and influence. Which raises the question: Who are these folks anyway? And what exactly are they doing to the established pantheon of American media?
Not that long ago, blogs were one of those annoying buzz words that you could safely get away with ignoring. The word blog — it works as both noun and verb — is short for Web log. It was coined in 1997 to describe a website where you could post daily scribblings, journal-style, about whatever you like — mostly critiquing and linking to other articles online that may have sparked your thinking. Unlike a big media outlet, bloggers focus their efforts on narrow topics . . .
Meet Joe Blog
Why are more and more people getting their news from amateur websites called blogs? Because they're fast, funny and totally biased
By LEV GROSSMAN; ANITA HAMILTON
A few years ago, Mathew Gross, 32, was a free-lance writer living in tiny Moab, Utah. Rob Malda, 28, was an underperforming undergraduate at a small Christian college in Michigan. Denis Dutton, 60, was a professor of philosophy in faraway Christchurch, New Zealand. Today they are some of the most influential media personalities in the world. You can be one too.
Gross, Malda and Dutton aren't rich or famous or even conspicuously good-looking. What they have in common is that they all edit blogs: amateur websites that provide news, information and, above all, opinions to rapidly growing and devoted audiences drawn by nothing more than a shared interest or two and the sheer magnetism of the editor's personality. Over the past five years, blogs have gone from an obscure and, frankly, somewhat nerdy fad to a genuine alternative to mainstream news outlets, a shadow media empire that is rivaling networks and newspapers in power and influence. Which raises the question: Who are these folks anyway? And what exactly are they doing to the established pantheon of American media?
Not that long ago, blogs were one of those annoying buzz words that you could safely get away with ignoring. The word blog — it works as both noun and verb — is short for Web log. It was coined in 1997 to describe a website where you could post daily scribblings, journal-style, about whatever you like — mostly critiquing and linking to other articles online that may have sparked your thinking. Unlike a big media outlet, bloggers focus their efforts on narrow topics . . .
Monday, June 14, 2004
Celebrating Sunday on Saturday
What a great weekend this was in Winona Lake, Indiana!
It was the annual "Billy Sunday Festival" when the town celebrates one of its most famous former residents--evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935). It is estimated that the former professional baseball player preached to over 100 million people and had over one million converts to Christ in his meetings.
Saturday's visitors strolled through the restored historic Village at Winona and enjoyed carriage rides, Billy Sunday memorabilia and postcard collections, free tours of the Billy Sunday Home, displays and films at the Billy Sunday Museum, displays on Homer Rodeheaver and Rodeheaver-Hall-Mack Music Company at the Reneker Museum of Winona History, live music (bluegrass, banjo, strolling musicians), autograph-signing by authors who have written books on Billy Sunday, and a vintage Base Ball tourney using rules and customs from the 1860s.
A special highlight was a professional touring program, entitled "Sunday in Manhattan." There were three performances of this one-man musical retrospective of Sunday's life. The creator/performer was Brent Grosvenor, a delightful young Assemblies of God musician and actor who was raised on an Indian reservation in Idaho, the product of an alcoholic and broken home.
At intermission of the "Sunday in Manhattan" program, retired Grace College music professor Don Ogden and former Rodeheaver composer/arranger Roland Felts led a short program of some of Rodeheaver's best-known gospel songs.
Next year's Billy Sunday Festival will be Saturday, August 6, 2005. Here are some photos of this year's event.
It was the annual "Billy Sunday Festival" when the town celebrates one of its most famous former residents--evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935). It is estimated that the former professional baseball player preached to over 100 million people and had over one million converts to Christ in his meetings.
Saturday's visitors strolled through the restored historic Village at Winona and enjoyed carriage rides, Billy Sunday memorabilia and postcard collections, free tours of the Billy Sunday Home, displays and films at the Billy Sunday Museum, displays on Homer Rodeheaver and Rodeheaver-Hall-Mack Music Company at the Reneker Museum of Winona History, live music (bluegrass, banjo, strolling musicians), autograph-signing by authors who have written books on Billy Sunday, and a vintage Base Ball tourney using rules and customs from the 1860s.
A special highlight was a professional touring program, entitled "Sunday in Manhattan." There were three performances of this one-man musical retrospective of Sunday's life. The creator/performer was Brent Grosvenor, a delightful young Assemblies of God musician and actor who was raised on an Indian reservation in Idaho, the product of an alcoholic and broken home.
At intermission of the "Sunday in Manhattan" program, retired Grace College music professor Don Ogden and former Rodeheaver composer/arranger Roland Felts led a short program of some of Rodeheaver's best-known gospel songs.
Next year's Billy Sunday Festival will be Saturday, August 6, 2005. Here are some photos of this year's event.
"Ma Is In the House" Mrs. Helen "Ma" Sunday, as portrayed by Kathy Allison of the Grace Brethren North American Mission staff, welcomed visitors to the restored Billy Sunday home during Saturday's Billy Sunday Festival. Entitled Mount Hood, the Sunday home (which perches atop Evangel Hill above the Rodeheaver Auditorium in Winona Lake, Indiana) was open without charge to visitors. Many of the original furnishings and personal belongings of the Sunday family are still in place.
Care for a carriage ride? Available for hire, the elegant horse-drawn carriage took tourists out around MacDonald Island and back down Park Avenue (pictured here, in front of Rodeheaver Auditorium) as part of Saturday's Billy Sunday Festival.
The "Blue Laws" team from Winona Lake beat a Warsaw team 16-7 in this game played Saturday on Tabernacle Field in Winona Lake. Uniforms, rules and procedures are quaint replicas of the games played in the 1860s. Huzzah!
Strolling musicians playing familiar American melodies on traditional folk instruments were part of Saturday's Billy Sunday Festival in Winona Lake. These musicians strolled among the spectators for the 1860s-style baseball game on Tabernacle Field, the former site of the Billy Sunday Tabernacle.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
The Guy Who Sang 'Amazing Grace'
I've heard nobody in the commentary of the Reagan funeral say much about Ronan Tynan, the tenor who sang at the National Cathedral service. Most news reports only say that President Reagan "wanted an operatic singer" to perform at his funeral.
In fact, Tynan has an amazing story. Here it is:
Tenor Ronan Tynan hails from Kilkenny, Ireland. His story is an example of dogged perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Ronan, a twin, whose brother died at the age of 11 months, was afflicted with lower leg problems in his early years until the decision was made to amputate his lower limbs after an accident at the age of 20. While this would be enough to wreck most people’s lives, it created in Ronan a tremendous desire to prove himself.
Within 12 months Ronan began winning medals at disabled games. Between 1981 and 1990, he amassed 18 gold medals and 14 world records in international track and field events. He then went on to become the first disabled person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education in Limerick. That was followed by training in medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, leading to his current position as a doctor of sports medicine.
When Ronan turned 30, he started taking voice lessons and, again, his natural talent shone through. In 1992 he won the John McCormack Cup for Tenor Voice which helped lead to master classes with the famous Italian tenor, Ugo Benelli, in Genoa.
While studying as a medical student in 1994, he shot to stardom after winning the BBC talent competition for "Go For It," securing maximum points from the judging panel in the final. In 1996, Ronan won the prestigious "Marmande" singing competition in France and was invited to be part of the famous Pavarotti School.
His rapid rise to prominence led to Sony Music offering him a recording deal.Ronan has appeared on numerous television shows, including a tribute to the American singer Mario Lanza. He has been the subject of a recent ABC News 20/20 segment, as well as an Irish documentary entitled Dr. Courageous. His first Album, My Life Belongs to You, was released in August 1998 and jumped straight into the charts at number five and was certified gold.
Ronan has added to his list of achievements by authoring his first book. In January 2002 Simon & Schuster released his memoir, Halfway Home: My Life ‘Til Now. Though hampered by disability early in life, the remarkable story of Ronan Tynan is an inspiration to all. Few artists are so worthy of the success they receive. Ronan is one who deserves all this and more.
In fact, Tynan has an amazing story. Here it is:
Tenor Ronan Tynan hails from Kilkenny, Ireland. His story is an example of dogged perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Ronan, a twin, whose brother died at the age of 11 months, was afflicted with lower leg problems in his early years until the decision was made to amputate his lower limbs after an accident at the age of 20. While this would be enough to wreck most people’s lives, it created in Ronan a tremendous desire to prove himself.
Within 12 months Ronan began winning medals at disabled games. Between 1981 and 1990, he amassed 18 gold medals and 14 world records in international track and field events. He then went on to become the first disabled person ever admitted to the National College of Physical Education in Limerick. That was followed by training in medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, leading to his current position as a doctor of sports medicine.
When Ronan turned 30, he started taking voice lessons and, again, his natural talent shone through. In 1992 he won the John McCormack Cup for Tenor Voice which helped lead to master classes with the famous Italian tenor, Ugo Benelli, in Genoa.
While studying as a medical student in 1994, he shot to stardom after winning the BBC talent competition for "Go For It," securing maximum points from the judging panel in the final. In 1996, Ronan won the prestigious "Marmande" singing competition in France and was invited to be part of the famous Pavarotti School.
His rapid rise to prominence led to Sony Music offering him a recording deal.Ronan has appeared on numerous television shows, including a tribute to the American singer Mario Lanza. He has been the subject of a recent ABC News 20/20 segment, as well as an Irish documentary entitled Dr. Courageous. His first Album, My Life Belongs to You, was released in August 1998 and jumped straight into the charts at number five and was certified gold.
Ronan has added to his list of achievements by authoring his first book. In January 2002 Simon & Schuster released his memoir, Halfway Home: My Life ‘Til Now. Though hampered by disability early in life, the remarkable story of Ronan Tynan is an inspiration to all. Few artists are so worthy of the success they receive. Ronan is one who deserves all this and more.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Grace Brethren Chaplain Asks for Prayers
Kathy Allison of Grace Brethren North American Missions forwards this letter from Grace Brethren Chaplain James Schaefer and asks that Grace Brethren remember to pray for James and other chaplains who serve so gallantly and fearlessly in dangerous situations. Here, as relayed by FGBC Chaplains Endorsing Agent John Schumacher, is a slightly-edited version of James' letter from Afghanistan:
I just finished a Critical Incident Debrief for one company of my infantry. They saw the death of their soldier and my chaplain assistant (SD), CPL David Fraise. We have had over 11 die of wounds, several of which I have had to open their bags and identify. It hurts so much...to see my friend taken home, yet to know he is taken Home to his reward.
We are in the middle of combat operations and I have been out to visit and counsel four times (I travel every three weeks to minister). Some of the places we have received fire and had to use evasive techniques. I have been in APCs, up armored HUMWWVs and on foot. My assistants are tense, but praying and trusting the Lord. The Lord has given me nine great UMTs, from SOF to Nat'l Guard. They all love the Lord and risk their lives to see Soldiers.
I have been able to see hundreds of Soldiers every Sunday at the beautiful chapel they constructed. We will have a baptism for 20+ candidates who have recently asked Christ into their lives! We also had a Memorial Day Prayer Breakfast with 330+ who came to remember and hear the Word. My COL Pedersen, a Christian man, and I, spoke. I have also witnessed to our Afghan brothers and the Mullahs...I had a forum of 12 and shared my faith when they asked. One was murdered four days after I met him; all for his support of a stable Afghanistan.
The nature of sin and salvation is clear here. Many are risking their lives for temporary things and the Lord is saying that He has an eternal plan, if we will only listen. Many have seen the death of a Soldier and stay to themselves. Some give their lives to Jesus, knowing that His Love is the true Eternal thing they can gain!
Pray for my preaching of the Word--solid, attractive and straight from HIM! Pray for the decisions about life and death and the ministry to those facing it. Pray for our safety as I have sent out the UMTs 27 times in three months with no incidents. Pray for my bride, as she is sending off all our kids [to college soon – edit.], having just lost her Mom in May, somewhat all alone, except for the Lord and our friends.
I love your commitment for the Good Fight...I am enjoying it and consumed by it. God bless you!
James E. Schaefer
CTF Bronco Brigade Chaplain
I just finished a Critical Incident Debrief for one company of my infantry. They saw the death of their soldier and my chaplain assistant (SD), CPL David Fraise. We have had over 11 die of wounds, several of which I have had to open their bags and identify. It hurts so much...to see my friend taken home, yet to know he is taken Home to his reward.
We are in the middle of combat operations and I have been out to visit and counsel four times (I travel every three weeks to minister). Some of the places we have received fire and had to use evasive techniques. I have been in APCs, up armored HUMWWVs and on foot. My assistants are tense, but praying and trusting the Lord. The Lord has given me nine great UMTs, from SOF to Nat'l Guard. They all love the Lord and risk their lives to see Soldiers.
I have been able to see hundreds of Soldiers every Sunday at the beautiful chapel they constructed. We will have a baptism for 20+ candidates who have recently asked Christ into their lives! We also had a Memorial Day Prayer Breakfast with 330+ who came to remember and hear the Word. My COL Pedersen, a Christian man, and I, spoke. I have also witnessed to our Afghan brothers and the Mullahs...I had a forum of 12 and shared my faith when they asked. One was murdered four days after I met him; all for his support of a stable Afghanistan.
The nature of sin and salvation is clear here. Many are risking their lives for temporary things and the Lord is saying that He has an eternal plan, if we will only listen. Many have seen the death of a Soldier and stay to themselves. Some give their lives to Jesus, knowing that His Love is the true Eternal thing they can gain!
Pray for my preaching of the Word--solid, attractive and straight from HIM! Pray for the decisions about life and death and the ministry to those facing it. Pray for our safety as I have sent out the UMTs 27 times in three months with no incidents. Pray for my bride, as she is sending off all our kids [to college soon – edit.], having just lost her Mom in May, somewhat all alone, except for the Lord and our friends.
I love your commitment for the Good Fight...I am enjoying it and consumed by it. God bless you!
James E. Schaefer
CTF Bronco Brigade Chaplain
Alzheimer's, my Father and Stem Cell Research
Only those of us who have had a close-up encounter with Alzheimer's Disease can understand the poignancy of what Nancy Reagan has been going through for a decade.
My father--a brilliant, godly and wise leader in his community and in the Kittanning, PA Grace Brethren Church--recently died at age 94 after a 10-year decline with Alzheimer's. My mother bore the main burden for his care and suffered through the drip-drip-grind of seeing pieces of his personality recede into darkness week afer week after week for nearly a decade.
As believers, we know God honors life and it is not biblically permitted to take the life of embryos to harvest stem cells for research. Laura Bush just yesterday on national TV reiterated the current President's point that there is still plenty of research and progress to be made using adult stem cells, without taking the lives of innocent embryos.
I thought this piece by Doug Grow in this morning's Minneapolis Star-Tribune says it about as eloquently as I've ever seen. Grow captures some of the confused and conflicting emotions of those who care for Alzheimer's patients.
I thank God for my father's life and the legacy he left. But I have great sadness in the memories of the shell-of-a-person he became in his latter years. The prospect of having our minds renewed and receiving glorified bodies when we enter the presence of Christ looks ever more attractive.
Here is Doug Grow's column:
Reagan put a face on Alzheimer's
Doug Grow, Star Tribune
June 10, 2004
Friday is a national day of mourning. But for those who love people who have Alzheimer's disease, the term "mourning" doesn't really fit.
Perhaps a day of celebration would be more appropriate. Or at least a day of relief.
The fact is, death is the only escape from Alzheimer's.
The family of Ronald Reagan acknowledged the gift of death in one of its initial statements to the public.
"There's definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and has gone to a better place," Joanne Drake, a family spokeswoman, said following the former president's death.
One of the most confounding emotional issues surrounding Alzheimer's is grieving. It doesn't seem quite right to say, "Thank God," when the body of a loved one finally gives out years after the mind has gone.
But how can there be tears after seeing a person lose everything from memory to dignity?
Rita Teresi, a legal nurse consultant for a law firm and volunteer with the Alzheimer's Association of Minnesota, cared for her mother for the final three years of her 10-year Alzheimer's battering.
Mary Teresi, once an elegant ballroom dancer, a delightful hostess, a great cook, died last August, a child dependent on her daughter. Her Alzheimer's journey paralleled that of Reagan.
At those times in recent years when Nancy Reagan would make a public appearance, "I could look at her and know exactly what she was going through," Teresi said.
Laughing, Teresi admitted there were times that her empathy for Nancy Reagan was tinged with a little envy. For example, when Teresi was up in the middle of the night, caring for her mother, who no longer understood the difference between night and day, she suspected Nancy Reagan had professional help for such exhausting circumstances.
But Teresi said she believes there are powerful bonds among all Alzheimer's caretakers. One of the most powerful commonalities is the guilt-laden feelings about death.
"I would be in a support group and someone would say, 'I wish this journey would end,' " said Teresi. "Everyone in the group understood, but we all knew that it's something we couldn't say outside the group because it wouldn't be understood."
She learned to accept the inevitability of the course of the disease by holding on to precious moments that would pop up amid the ugliness.
"I'll never forget some of those moments when my mother would look at me with childlike innocence," Teresi said.
Barbara Koffel, a bereavement counselor with Hospice of the Twin Cities, understands those precious moments. Her mother is in her 16th year of Alzheimer's.
Koffel cherishes periods of "20 or 30 seconds" where she can catch glimpses of her mother.
But the reality is this, said Koffel: "The dementia has left me with a person who looks like my mother but doesn't act like my mother or talk like my mother. That's the conflict. The loved one is there, but she's gone."
Her words are simple. But the concept is incredibly difficult to grasp.
Ted Bowman, a Twin Cities grief counselor who has written books on grieving, put it this way: "What's different with Alzheimer's is the death already occurred a long time ago."
For nearly a week, newspapers and TV networks have been overflowing with largely complimentary stories about the life and times of Ronald Reagan. These accounts all suggest Reagan died Saturday.
But the Reagan of these reports died years ago.
We need to understand the Reagan who was left behind. For this Reagan, eyes vacant, perhaps diapered, could be the creator of a mighty, bipartisan legacy.
"He put a face on Alzheimer's like there's never been before," said Mary Birchard, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association. "He had a profound impact by going public in 1994."
He went public with a poetic letter: ". . .I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."
Since that letter, Birchard said, "we have learned 95 percent of what we know about the disease. The amount of research has been tremendous."
Some political ideology also may evolve from the reality that even the First Family was not safe from Alzheimer's.
For example, President Ronald Reagan almost certainly would have opposed stem cell research. But now Nancy Reagan, wife of a man battered by a horrible disease, has become a proponent of the research.
Given the destructive power of Alzheimer's, perhaps the best thing we could do to honor Reagan's memory is to call Friday a national day of understanding.
My father--a brilliant, godly and wise leader in his community and in the Kittanning, PA Grace Brethren Church--recently died at age 94 after a 10-year decline with Alzheimer's. My mother bore the main burden for his care and suffered through the drip-drip-grind of seeing pieces of his personality recede into darkness week afer week after week for nearly a decade.
As believers, we know God honors life and it is not biblically permitted to take the life of embryos to harvest stem cells for research. Laura Bush just yesterday on national TV reiterated the current President's point that there is still plenty of research and progress to be made using adult stem cells, without taking the lives of innocent embryos.
I thought this piece by Doug Grow in this morning's Minneapolis Star-Tribune says it about as eloquently as I've ever seen. Grow captures some of the confused and conflicting emotions of those who care for Alzheimer's patients.
I thank God for my father's life and the legacy he left. But I have great sadness in the memories of the shell-of-a-person he became in his latter years. The prospect of having our minds renewed and receiving glorified bodies when we enter the presence of Christ looks ever more attractive.
Here is Doug Grow's column:
Reagan put a face on Alzheimer's
Doug Grow, Star Tribune
June 10, 2004
Friday is a national day of mourning. But for those who love people who have Alzheimer's disease, the term "mourning" doesn't really fit.
Perhaps a day of celebration would be more appropriate. Or at least a day of relief.
The fact is, death is the only escape from Alzheimer's.
The family of Ronald Reagan acknowledged the gift of death in one of its initial statements to the public.
"There's definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and has gone to a better place," Joanne Drake, a family spokeswoman, said following the former president's death.
One of the most confounding emotional issues surrounding Alzheimer's is grieving. It doesn't seem quite right to say, "Thank God," when the body of a loved one finally gives out years after the mind has gone.
But how can there be tears after seeing a person lose everything from memory to dignity?
Rita Teresi, a legal nurse consultant for a law firm and volunteer with the Alzheimer's Association of Minnesota, cared for her mother for the final three years of her 10-year Alzheimer's battering.
Mary Teresi, once an elegant ballroom dancer, a delightful hostess, a great cook, died last August, a child dependent on her daughter. Her Alzheimer's journey paralleled that of Reagan.
At those times in recent years when Nancy Reagan would make a public appearance, "I could look at her and know exactly what she was going through," Teresi said.
Laughing, Teresi admitted there were times that her empathy for Nancy Reagan was tinged with a little envy. For example, when Teresi was up in the middle of the night, caring for her mother, who no longer understood the difference between night and day, she suspected Nancy Reagan had professional help for such exhausting circumstances.
But Teresi said she believes there are powerful bonds among all Alzheimer's caretakers. One of the most powerful commonalities is the guilt-laden feelings about death.
"I would be in a support group and someone would say, 'I wish this journey would end,' " said Teresi. "Everyone in the group understood, but we all knew that it's something we couldn't say outside the group because it wouldn't be understood."
She learned to accept the inevitability of the course of the disease by holding on to precious moments that would pop up amid the ugliness.
"I'll never forget some of those moments when my mother would look at me with childlike innocence," Teresi said.
Barbara Koffel, a bereavement counselor with Hospice of the Twin Cities, understands those precious moments. Her mother is in her 16th year of Alzheimer's.
Koffel cherishes periods of "20 or 30 seconds" where she can catch glimpses of her mother.
But the reality is this, said Koffel: "The dementia has left me with a person who looks like my mother but doesn't act like my mother or talk like my mother. That's the conflict. The loved one is there, but she's gone."
Her words are simple. But the concept is incredibly difficult to grasp.
Ted Bowman, a Twin Cities grief counselor who has written books on grieving, put it this way: "What's different with Alzheimer's is the death already occurred a long time ago."
For nearly a week, newspapers and TV networks have been overflowing with largely complimentary stories about the life and times of Ronald Reagan. These accounts all suggest Reagan died Saturday.
But the Reagan of these reports died years ago.
We need to understand the Reagan who was left behind. For this Reagan, eyes vacant, perhaps diapered, could be the creator of a mighty, bipartisan legacy.
"He put a face on Alzheimer's like there's never been before," said Mary Birchard, executive director of the Alzheimer's Association. "He had a profound impact by going public in 1994."
He went public with a poetic letter: ". . .I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life."
Since that letter, Birchard said, "we have learned 95 percent of what we know about the disease. The amount of research has been tremendous."
Some political ideology also may evolve from the reality that even the First Family was not safe from Alzheimer's.
For example, President Ronald Reagan almost certainly would have opposed stem cell research. But now Nancy Reagan, wife of a man battered by a horrible disease, has become a proponent of the research.
Given the destructive power of Alzheimer's, perhaps the best thing we could do to honor Reagan's memory is to call Friday a national day of understanding.
Thomas Hamill "Laid it in God's Hands"
Here's a piece of the Thomas Hamill hostage story I hadn't heard before. This is a short excerpt from a piece by Stefan Bos as distributed by the ASSIST News Service.
Hamill made clear that at the end God is in control. "I've been a Christian all my life, but it's hard to say exactly if you can put everything in God's hands unless it just comes down to that fact," former hostage Hamill, 44, told Baptist Press (BP) news agency. "That's what happened to me on the deal with being captured. I didn't have anybody else to put it in, and I laid it in God's hands."
Hamill, who works for the Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR, was among seven U.S. contractors who disappeared after an attack on their fuel convoy on April 9. The bodies of four others were later found. Two military men in the group also vanished; one was later found dead, and the other, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, remains missing.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Hamill spent 23 days in captivity, enduring surgery by Iraqis with only local anesthesia on his wounded arm. The truck driver from Macon, Miss., then escaped after days of prayers on May 2, and was eventually rescued by U.S. troops. "I prayed to Him daily. I never did have any pain with my arm. That was one thing that amazed me because I prayed He'd ease up as much pain as He could," Hamill said. "I could stand a lot if I needed to, but I prayed He'd just do what He could to ease up the pain. The whole time I was there I never did have any pain with it," he told BP.
After a previous failed attempt and being moved several times after that incident, he looked out one day and saw U.S. humvees moving along with soldiers on foot. After breaking free, he ran to meet them and was safe at last. Psalm 23:4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil," is the verse Hamill clung to while captive, and it calmed his fears, he said.
"I prayed that every day," BP quoted him as saying. "I knew I was in a situation where anyone could be afraid, and for some reason I never was afraid. I knew He was there with me and I knew He was going to be there to protect me. I looked back on the Book of Job. He told Satan he could do whatever he wanted to with [Job] to try to change his faith, but He said he couldn't kill him. I think that's kind of what my situation was. The devil had me, but He wasn't going to let him kill me. He got me through this situation and brought me home."
Hamill made clear that at the end God is in control. "I've been a Christian all my life, but it's hard to say exactly if you can put everything in God's hands unless it just comes down to that fact," former hostage Hamill, 44, told Baptist Press (BP) news agency. "That's what happened to me on the deal with being captured. I didn't have anybody else to put it in, and I laid it in God's hands."
Hamill, who works for the Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR, was among seven U.S. contractors who disappeared after an attack on their fuel convoy on April 9. The bodies of four others were later found. Two military men in the group also vanished; one was later found dead, and the other, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, remains missing.
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Hamill spent 23 days in captivity, enduring surgery by Iraqis with only local anesthesia on his wounded arm. The truck driver from Macon, Miss., then escaped after days of prayers on May 2, and was eventually rescued by U.S. troops. "I prayed to Him daily. I never did have any pain with my arm. That was one thing that amazed me because I prayed He'd ease up as much pain as He could," Hamill said. "I could stand a lot if I needed to, but I prayed He'd just do what He could to ease up the pain. The whole time I was there I never did have any pain with it," he told BP.
After a previous failed attempt and being moved several times after that incident, he looked out one day and saw U.S. humvees moving along with soldiers on foot. After breaking free, he ran to meet them and was safe at last. Psalm 23:4, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil," is the verse Hamill clung to while captive, and it calmed his fears, he said.
"I prayed that every day," BP quoted him as saying. "I knew I was in a situation where anyone could be afraid, and for some reason I never was afraid. I knew He was there with me and I knew He was going to be there to protect me. I looked back on the Book of Job. He told Satan he could do whatever he wanted to with [Job] to try to change his faith, but He said he couldn't kill him. I think that's kind of what my situation was. The devil had me, but He wasn't going to let him kill me. He got me through this situation and brought me home."
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
A Personal Remembrance of Ronald Reagan
Among the many tributes to President Reagan that have flowed through the BMH office since the weekend was this one by a personal friend and former colleague, Pat Nolan. Pat (who once rode as Tommy Trojan at USC) is a former Republican leader of the California state assembly, and is now the president of Justice Fellowship in Washington, DC. His Justice e-report, a free e-mail report on constructive and restorative justice issues is available. Here is his remembrance:
Reagan: A Kind and Good Man
Reflections on a Pre-president Reagan
By Pat Nolan
June 7, 2004
In the summer of 1968, between my high school graduation and my freshman year at USC, I was a volunteer in the Reagan for President campaign at the Republican National Convention in Miami. Two years earlier I had worked very hard to elect Ronald Reagan as California’s Governor, heading up the Burbank Youth for Reagan. And now I was excited that his upbeat conservative message would resonate across the other states as well, and lead him to the White House.
The convention hummed with excitement for Reagan. As our bus pulled up at each delegation’s hotel, the Reagan rallies were packed. Long before he would make his dramatic entrance chants of “Rea-gan, Rea-gan” thundered and echoed throughout each venue. Then you could hear the applause start near the door, and wild whoops would erupt as Ronald Reagan slowly worked his way forward, shaking hands and patting delegates on the back as he approached the podium. His smile seemed to light up the room as he confidently strode across the stage, tanned and trim.
He electrified the audiences as he delivered his message of belief in America’s basic goodness; that our best years were ahead of us.
After the rallies we would mingle with the delegates while Reagan met with the leaders from that state. A disturbing refrain met us at each stop. Many of the delegates told me how much they admired Reagan and wanted to vote for him, but they were bound by previous commitments to other candidates. Some even shook their heads and cried as they told me how disappointed they were that they couldn’t cast their ballot for the man they thought would be the best nominee. A post-convention article in Time Magazine summed it up well, “Their heads were with Richard Nixon, but their hearts were with Ronald Reagan.”
The night of the nomination, I sat in the convention arena with three other Reagan youth volunteers; two were Reagan Girls from the Miami area and the third was a young law student from Indiana, the son of the Dean of Notre Dame’s Law School. We kept tally as the states cast their votes for Nixon, Rockefeller, Scranton, Romney and Reagan. For a while it looked like no candidate would receive a majority, necessitating a second ballot. That is exactly what they Reagan troops wanted. On a second ballot the delegates who had been pledged to Nixon would be free to vote their conscience, and we knew Reagan would sweep the convention.
Alas, it was not to be so. Nixon inched his way over the top and won the nomination. It was a crushing blow to all of us Reagan kids. We were stunned and stood in silence for several minutes. Then we began making our way to the exit, stepping over burst balloons, discarded signs and mounds of confetti.
As we stepped into the hot and humid night, it was raining lightly. We stopped to get our bearings so we could head back to the headquarters hotel. The letters on our hand-painted Reagan signs were starting to run as the rain came down, and the girls’ mascara was doing the same due to their tears. A white Lincoln Continental pulled out of the fenced area surrounding the press trucks, and drove past us. As the car went by, I saw the lone figure in the back seat reach forward and tap the driver on his shoulder. The car stopped, and backed up to where we were. The rear window slid down. It was our hero, Ronald Reagan. “I want you to know how proud I am that you young people would support me,” Reagan said as he reached out and shook our hands. “Don’t be discouraged. I promise you, you’ll have another chance to work for me. Our day will come. We’re not finished yet.”
It was a gesture typical of Ronald Reagan: thoughtful, encouraging and forward-looking. At that moment of defeat, he took the time to stop and make sure four young volunteers weren’t discouraged. And from that very moment of defeat, he had steeled himself for the task of running again for the presidency. He kept his promise, and I had the opportunity to volunteer for him again. It took him two more times, but he became the 40th President of the United States. As he told us so often in his speeches, America had a “rendezvous with destiny” to lead us toward the “shining city on a hill.” (end of Nolan piece)
Was President Reagan a Believer?
Dr. D. James Kennedy, of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, answers that question in this way:
"In 1980 I and several other evangelical leaders met with him when
he was running for president. 'Governor,' I said, 'I would like to ask you a
very important spiritual question and that is: If something were to happen
to you and you were to die and stand before God, and God Almighty said to
you, "Why should I let you into my Heaven?" What would you say?'
"He was silent for a long time. Finally, after about 30 seconds he answered
in somber tones that I shall never forget, 'I don't deserve to go to Heaven.
The only thing that I could say would be, "For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life"' (John 3:16).
"Now this great man has discovered the truth of those words of Christ. He
has 'slipped the surly bonds of earth,' and now gazes in the face of God.
"My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Nancy and his family as they
remember this wonderful man and mourn his passing."
Reagan: A Kind and Good Man
Reflections on a Pre-president Reagan
By Pat Nolan
June 7, 2004
In the summer of 1968, between my high school graduation and my freshman year at USC, I was a volunteer in the Reagan for President campaign at the Republican National Convention in Miami. Two years earlier I had worked very hard to elect Ronald Reagan as California’s Governor, heading up the Burbank Youth for Reagan. And now I was excited that his upbeat conservative message would resonate across the other states as well, and lead him to the White House.
The convention hummed with excitement for Reagan. As our bus pulled up at each delegation’s hotel, the Reagan rallies were packed. Long before he would make his dramatic entrance chants of “Rea-gan, Rea-gan” thundered and echoed throughout each venue. Then you could hear the applause start near the door, and wild whoops would erupt as Ronald Reagan slowly worked his way forward, shaking hands and patting delegates on the back as he approached the podium. His smile seemed to light up the room as he confidently strode across the stage, tanned and trim.
He electrified the audiences as he delivered his message of belief in America’s basic goodness; that our best years were ahead of us.
After the rallies we would mingle with the delegates while Reagan met with the leaders from that state. A disturbing refrain met us at each stop. Many of the delegates told me how much they admired Reagan and wanted to vote for him, but they were bound by previous commitments to other candidates. Some even shook their heads and cried as they told me how disappointed they were that they couldn’t cast their ballot for the man they thought would be the best nominee. A post-convention article in Time Magazine summed it up well, “Their heads were with Richard Nixon, but their hearts were with Ronald Reagan.”
The night of the nomination, I sat in the convention arena with three other Reagan youth volunteers; two were Reagan Girls from the Miami area and the third was a young law student from Indiana, the son of the Dean of Notre Dame’s Law School. We kept tally as the states cast their votes for Nixon, Rockefeller, Scranton, Romney and Reagan. For a while it looked like no candidate would receive a majority, necessitating a second ballot. That is exactly what they Reagan troops wanted. On a second ballot the delegates who had been pledged to Nixon would be free to vote their conscience, and we knew Reagan would sweep the convention.
Alas, it was not to be so. Nixon inched his way over the top and won the nomination. It was a crushing blow to all of us Reagan kids. We were stunned and stood in silence for several minutes. Then we began making our way to the exit, stepping over burst balloons, discarded signs and mounds of confetti.
As we stepped into the hot and humid night, it was raining lightly. We stopped to get our bearings so we could head back to the headquarters hotel. The letters on our hand-painted Reagan signs were starting to run as the rain came down, and the girls’ mascara was doing the same due to their tears. A white Lincoln Continental pulled out of the fenced area surrounding the press trucks, and drove past us. As the car went by, I saw the lone figure in the back seat reach forward and tap the driver on his shoulder. The car stopped, and backed up to where we were. The rear window slid down. It was our hero, Ronald Reagan. “I want you to know how proud I am that you young people would support me,” Reagan said as he reached out and shook our hands. “Don’t be discouraged. I promise you, you’ll have another chance to work for me. Our day will come. We’re not finished yet.”
It was a gesture typical of Ronald Reagan: thoughtful, encouraging and forward-looking. At that moment of defeat, he took the time to stop and make sure four young volunteers weren’t discouraged. And from that very moment of defeat, he had steeled himself for the task of running again for the presidency. He kept his promise, and I had the opportunity to volunteer for him again. It took him two more times, but he became the 40th President of the United States. As he told us so often in his speeches, America had a “rendezvous with destiny” to lead us toward the “shining city on a hill.” (end of Nolan piece)
Was President Reagan a Believer?
Dr. D. James Kennedy, of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, answers that question in this way:
"In 1980 I and several other evangelical leaders met with him when
he was running for president. 'Governor,' I said, 'I would like to ask you a
very important spiritual question and that is: If something were to happen
to you and you were to die and stand before God, and God Almighty said to
you, "Why should I let you into my Heaven?" What would you say?'
"He was silent for a long time. Finally, after about 30 seconds he answered
in somber tones that I shall never forget, 'I don't deserve to go to Heaven.
The only thing that I could say would be, "For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life"' (John 3:16).
"Now this great man has discovered the truth of those words of Christ. He
has 'slipped the surly bonds of earth,' and now gazes in the face of God.
"My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Nancy and his family as they
remember this wonderful man and mourn his passing."
Monday, June 07, 2004
Missionaries, nationals, and selected individuals from various Grace Brethren national organizations participated in the GBIM-sponsored Microenterprise Development Summit this past week. (Jay Hocking photo)
Friday, June 04, 2004
Discussing Microenterprise Development As Mission
What a great gathering Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM) has been having this week! Missionary businesspeople from all over the world have gathered for a Microenterprise Development Conference, which is being convened by Stuart Hake, the CFO of GBIM.
I'll reproduce here an article on the conference that has been prepared for the July, 2004 issue of FGBC World. I've been attending parts of the conference, and have found the presentations from the fields to be especially challenging. The complexity of doing business in these other cultures is sometimes staggering--but the advantanges are great. The businesses are providing jobs, helping the poor, providing a witness, and much more. I particularly appreciated hearing the emphasis on business AS mission, rather than business FOR mission, or business WITH mission, etc. Here is the article:
Mission Leaders Strategize Microenterprise Development
An innovative “Microenterprise Development Conference” was held in Winona Lake, Indiana, June 1-5. Some 35 missionary businesspersons from all over the world gathered for five days of sharing, challenge, and instruction.
Convened by Stuart Hake, CFO of Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM), the conference consisted of three parts: instruction on the basics of business in missions, case studies, and small-group projects.
The lead speaker, who challenged participants each morning, was David R. Befus, Ph.D., president of Latin America Mission. Befus, who grew up in the Latin world as a missionary kid, has more than 30 years of promoting economic activity linked with missionary work. He has served with Opportunity International, World Relief, and World Vision as a consultant for economic development. He is the author of Kingdom Business: The Ministry of Promoting Economic Activity, which was used as a text for the conference.
Each afternoon, Grace Brethren business developers, church leaders and missionaries from around the world shared their unique stories of how God was using them in manufacturing, commerce, teaching computer skills, the making of small-business loans, and more. Presenters were from a predominantly Muslim country, Africa, Central Asia, and Argentina.
In the third component, a small-group project activity, participants met in groups of four to define projects, articulate biblical foundations and to do environmental analysis and develop numerical projections and to begin making business plans. Public presentations of the projects were made on Saturday, the final day of the conference.
The three goals of the conference were: (1) to develop a Christian theology of poverty including biblical teaching on the poor, poverty, and work as well as causes and misconceptions of poverty; (2) to explore strategies for creating income streams for local churches and Christian workers (assisting national churches and leaders to become financially self sufficient and not dependent); and (3) to understand the power of an authentic witness in a local community through Kingdom businesses (what it means to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom in the 21st century).
Dave Guiles, Executive Director of GBIM, commenting on the four-fifths of the world’s population that lives below the American poverty line, said, “Unemployment and poverty are detrimental to people’s ability to survive.” He further said, “GBIM is taking seriously the need to explore poverty alleviation through micro-enterprise development.”
Reports, and further developmental steps will be reported in GBIM’s publications and on its website at www.gbim.org.
I'll reproduce here an article on the conference that has been prepared for the July, 2004 issue of FGBC World. I've been attending parts of the conference, and have found the presentations from the fields to be especially challenging. The complexity of doing business in these other cultures is sometimes staggering--but the advantanges are great. The businesses are providing jobs, helping the poor, providing a witness, and much more. I particularly appreciated hearing the emphasis on business AS mission, rather than business FOR mission, or business WITH mission, etc. Here is the article:
Mission Leaders Strategize Microenterprise Development
An innovative “Microenterprise Development Conference” was held in Winona Lake, Indiana, June 1-5. Some 35 missionary businesspersons from all over the world gathered for five days of sharing, challenge, and instruction.
Convened by Stuart Hake, CFO of Grace Brethren International Missions (GBIM), the conference consisted of three parts: instruction on the basics of business in missions, case studies, and small-group projects.
The lead speaker, who challenged participants each morning, was David R. Befus, Ph.D., president of Latin America Mission. Befus, who grew up in the Latin world as a missionary kid, has more than 30 years of promoting economic activity linked with missionary work. He has served with Opportunity International, World Relief, and World Vision as a consultant for economic development. He is the author of Kingdom Business: The Ministry of Promoting Economic Activity, which was used as a text for the conference.
Each afternoon, Grace Brethren business developers, church leaders and missionaries from around the world shared their unique stories of how God was using them in manufacturing, commerce, teaching computer skills, the making of small-business loans, and more. Presenters were from a predominantly Muslim country, Africa, Central Asia, and Argentina.
In the third component, a small-group project activity, participants met in groups of four to define projects, articulate biblical foundations and to do environmental analysis and develop numerical projections and to begin making business plans. Public presentations of the projects were made on Saturday, the final day of the conference.
The three goals of the conference were: (1) to develop a Christian theology of poverty including biblical teaching on the poor, poverty, and work as well as causes and misconceptions of poverty; (2) to explore strategies for creating income streams for local churches and Christian workers (assisting national churches and leaders to become financially self sufficient and not dependent); and (3) to understand the power of an authentic witness in a local community through Kingdom businesses (what it means to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom in the 21st century).
Dave Guiles, Executive Director of GBIM, commenting on the four-fifths of the world’s population that lives below the American poverty line, said, “Unemployment and poverty are detrimental to people’s ability to survive.” He further said, “GBIM is taking seriously the need to explore poverty alleviation through micro-enterprise development.”
Reports, and further developmental steps will be reported in GBIM’s publications and on its website at www.gbim.org.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Grace Brethren Pastor Neil Cole Featured in Charisma Magazine
'Coffeehouse Ministry' Thrives Outside Traditional Settings
Neil Cole traded his pulpit for a patio table at a trendy California coffee shop -- and started the first of his unusual churches. In 1999, Cole jettisoned his traditional pastoral ministry in Alta Loma to launch Awakening Chapel -- founding it literally in the smoking section of The Coffee Tavern (TCT) in Long Beach, an urban beach town southwest of Los Angeles.
In a little more than four years, the crew he gleaned from the smokers' ranks on the patio at TCT has ballooned into a movement of 400 churches in 16 states and 12 countries.
Almost four new congregations started up each week in 2003 under Church Multiplication Associates -- the umbrella organization Cole leads and started simultaneously with Awakening Chapel.
The initial brainstorm of Cole, 42, was to birth a coffee shop -- à la the Jesus Movement -- in a storefront he had rented. He said God had told him: "'Why don't you just go to the coffeehouse where the lost people are already?'"
"Instead of trying to convert them from the coffeehouse they really love to our coffeehouse so that we could then convert them to Christ, we just went and hung out at the coffeehouse where they were already at," Cole recounted to "Charisma" magazine in the May issue, out now. The full article on Cole can be found in the magazine.
This taking-church-to-where-life-happens approach has been a cornerstone of the movement since a group of about a dozen people started meeting at the coffee shop, as well as in Cole's living room and in the storefront, to worship, read the Bible, pray and fellowship.
Not all the churches -- which seldom grow to more than a few dozen members -- meet at coffeehouses. One came together on the lawn of the art building at California State University in Long Beach, another in a parking lot in east Los Angeles and another on a local beach. Many meet in homes, but Cole shuns the classification term "house church" and doesn't apply it to those groups.
"The church is not a building, whether it has a steeple or a chimney. It is the people," he says. Nor are these groups defined as "cell churches" -- because the term implies that the smaller, or cell, church is part of a larger organism.
The core of Awakening Chapel and the associated churches is called the Life Transformation Group. Usually only two or three strong, these same-gender units meet weekly for Bible study, prayer and confidential discussion of shortcomings. There is a major emphasis placed on new believers reaching out to the people in their circles of influence.
Cole comes from a Grace Brethren denominational background, but churches in his movement are aligned with many denominations. Pastors are called shepherds. They include people from a variety of backgrounds -- a former grocery produce manager, a truck driver, an ex-party girl.
"The goal is to always see leaders come from the harvest," Cole said.
Reprinted with permission from CharismaNOW, June 1, 2004 edition. Copyright Strang Communications Co., USA. All rights reserved.
Neil Cole traded his pulpit for a patio table at a trendy California coffee shop -- and started the first of his unusual churches. In 1999, Cole jettisoned his traditional pastoral ministry in Alta Loma to launch Awakening Chapel -- founding it literally in the smoking section of The Coffee Tavern (TCT) in Long Beach, an urban beach town southwest of Los Angeles.
In a little more than four years, the crew he gleaned from the smokers' ranks on the patio at TCT has ballooned into a movement of 400 churches in 16 states and 12 countries.
Almost four new congregations started up each week in 2003 under Church Multiplication Associates -- the umbrella organization Cole leads and started simultaneously with Awakening Chapel.
The initial brainstorm of Cole, 42, was to birth a coffee shop -- à la the Jesus Movement -- in a storefront he had rented. He said God had told him: "'Why don't you just go to the coffeehouse where the lost people are already?'"
"Instead of trying to convert them from the coffeehouse they really love to our coffeehouse so that we could then convert them to Christ, we just went and hung out at the coffeehouse where they were already at," Cole recounted to "Charisma" magazine in the May issue, out now. The full article on Cole can be found in the magazine.
This taking-church-to-where-life-happens approach has been a cornerstone of the movement since a group of about a dozen people started meeting at the coffee shop, as well as in Cole's living room and in the storefront, to worship, read the Bible, pray and fellowship.
Not all the churches -- which seldom grow to more than a few dozen members -- meet at coffeehouses. One came together on the lawn of the art building at California State University in Long Beach, another in a parking lot in east Los Angeles and another on a local beach. Many meet in homes, but Cole shuns the classification term "house church" and doesn't apply it to those groups.
"The church is not a building, whether it has a steeple or a chimney. It is the people," he says. Nor are these groups defined as "cell churches" -- because the term implies that the smaller, or cell, church is part of a larger organism.
The core of Awakening Chapel and the associated churches is called the Life Transformation Group. Usually only two or three strong, these same-gender units meet weekly for Bible study, prayer and confidential discussion of shortcomings. There is a major emphasis placed on new believers reaching out to the people in their circles of influence.
Cole comes from a Grace Brethren denominational background, but churches in his movement are aligned with many denominations. Pastors are called shepherds. They include people from a variety of backgrounds -- a former grocery produce manager, a truck driver, an ex-party girl.
"The goal is to always see leaders come from the harvest," Cole said.
Reprinted with permission from CharismaNOW, June 1, 2004 edition. Copyright Strang Communications Co., USA. All rights reserved.
Pastor Charles Ashman (standing, right) was honored Tuesday morning, June 1, 2004 for reaching his 80th birthday. Several dozen friends and Grace Brethren national organization staff people gathered in the lobby of the GBNAM building. Ashman's wife, Frances, is seated at right (white blouse). Sandy Barrett of the FGBC Coordinator's office (standing, at left) helped coordinate refreshments and arrangements for the surprise event.
Before You Pray--Consider Privacy Issues
Oh goody. Here's something else we can be concerned about!
According to several reports I've read recently, pastors and church leaders must be much more careful about praying for people in public--you can't reveal too much about their situation, even in praying for their welfare, because of the recent HIPAA act.
University of Chicago's Martin Marty has written a good, succinct piece on this issue -- here he gives us some things to think about:
Sightings 6/1/04
Prayer Accountability-- Martin E. Marty
Those of us who find intercession ("prayer for others") to be a high point
in worship have something new about which to be concerned. Lifting up the
names of service people in danger, collegians away from home, and people
traveling is an act that usually culminates with mention of the seriously
ill. But regular worshipers may have recently noticed that the prayer
leader is now less likely to inform God or the people as to the nature of
the prayed-for's affliction. And if divulged, the permission of the person
named must be sought first and caution taken about details given out in
public. Worshippers may also have noticed similar discretion in parish
newsletters and the "Sunday bulletin." Why?
Blame or credit HIPAA, the newest acronym to keep clergy and their
associates on edge and their lawyers busy. The Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act is certainly well intentioned. Many
people lose their jobs, suffer stigma, are set back in their recovery, or
have their well-guarded sense of privacy invaded when news of their illness
spreads, whether in secular settings or in synagogue and church
communities. What used to be a hazard in respect to taste now brings a
legal risk. Handle with care! HIPAA has even been interpreted as a
barrier for clergy and lay prayer- and care-givers who would like to call
on members in clinics and hospitals.
Bill Broadway, a religion writer for The Washington Post National Weekly
Edition (May 10-16), does such givers a service (and now Sightings readers)
by calling attention to the United Methodist Church's website, which applies HIPAA to a local church context for the benefit of the curious or frightened. Richard Hammar, who publishes
Church Law and Tax Report in his capacity
as counsel for the Assemblies of God, offers more. Just in time.
Broadway features the story of a church organist in Cleveland who was
"greeted" in a parish newsletter. Unfortunately, the news-bringing
overstepped by describing the organist's setback as "bi-polar illness" and
depression. No-go. Happy as the welcomers were, the organist had to be
unhappy. He sued and settled out of court, but lost his job and, he said,
his self-respect, his image, and the relishing of his recovery. Worst of
all, the church's web-site posting meant that the organist's name and
diagnoses now belong eternally to cyberspace and those who cruise in it.
Here, as is so often the case, we recognize how, in the age of information,
the ease of communication gets complicated and causes the need for more
communication. Instruments meant to enhance the experience of community in
religion can also disrupt it. We also recognize that laws of the state can
overrule laws or practices of the churches, that the lines of "separation
of church and state" are ever more wavy, that some illnesses still occasion
stigmatizing, that good intentions do not always serve the religious well,
and that you can't be too careful nowadays.
Someone's ill? Pray in secret and don't tell anyone may be the next counsel.
THE DAY AFTER MEMORIAL DAY
With the beginning of June, all sorts of interesting things are happening. Arnold Kriegbaum--previously mentioned for prayer--is much better and he and Laura have now moved to Indianapolis.
Pastor Charles Ashman's 80th birthday celebration is this morning over at GBNAM--what a wonderful example and inspiration his ministry through the years has been! He continues to use his wisdom in his "Paraclete" ministry, counseling churches who are in conflict or are going through changes.
We hosted a discouraged and embattled pastor and his family at our house this past week. It was a joy just to listen, to pray with them, and to marvel at how some of God's saints can be so cantankerous and can cause their pastors so much heartache. Is there a pastor ANYWHERE who hasn't had some heartaches and real rough spots in ministry? I hope this man of God survives--we pray daily for him and others who do God's work under difficult circumstances.
We had a wonderful privilege last night as our Global Prayer Group hosted a young man who is now ministering to Muslims in a country in north Africa. The only believer in his family, he is a remarkable testimony and burns brightly for Christ in a very dark context. He's in town for the Micro Enterprise Development seminar which Grace Brethren International Missions is sponsoring this week. About 40 from all over the world are expected--they'll be discussing ways to use small businesses as a means to gain a foothold for the Gospel.
Speaking of saints--I have just learned of the death of Jack Eckard, who died at 91 in Florida on May 19. A delightfully crusty old curmudgeon, Eckard did a lot of good for the Gospel with his fortune and his influence. He was on the board of Prison Fellowship Ministries some of the time I served there, and it was my privilege to give him rides to and from the airport on occasion. I praise God for business achievers who are willing to put their fortunes and their influence to work in advancing the Gospel.
Here at BMH, the main work for this week is getting issue #4 of FGBC World off to press. The lead story will be the push to found 50 churches among the Bayaka pygmies--what a great missionary pioneering story that is!
According to several reports I've read recently, pastors and church leaders must be much more careful about praying for people in public--you can't reveal too much about their situation, even in praying for their welfare, because of the recent HIPAA act.
University of Chicago's Martin Marty has written a good, succinct piece on this issue -- here he gives us some things to think about:
Sightings 6/1/04
Prayer Accountability-- Martin E. Marty
Those of us who find intercession ("prayer for others") to be a high point
in worship have something new about which to be concerned. Lifting up the
names of service people in danger, collegians away from home, and people
traveling is an act that usually culminates with mention of the seriously
ill. But regular worshipers may have recently noticed that the prayer
leader is now less likely to inform God or the people as to the nature of
the prayed-for's affliction. And if divulged, the permission of the person
named must be sought first and caution taken about details given out in
public. Worshippers may also have noticed similar discretion in parish
newsletters and the "Sunday bulletin." Why?
Blame or credit HIPAA, the newest acronym to keep clergy and their
associates on edge and their lawyers busy. The Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act is certainly well intentioned. Many
people lose their jobs, suffer stigma, are set back in their recovery, or
have their well-guarded sense of privacy invaded when news of their illness
spreads, whether in secular settings or in synagogue and church
communities. What used to be a hazard in respect to taste now brings a
legal risk. Handle with care! HIPAA has even been interpreted as a
barrier for clergy and lay prayer- and care-givers who would like to call
on members in clinics and hospitals.
Bill Broadway, a religion writer for The Washington Post National Weekly
Edition (May 10-16), does such givers a service (and now Sightings readers)
by calling attention to the United Methodist Church's website, which applies HIPAA to a local church context for the benefit of the curious or frightened. Richard Hammar, who publishes
Church Law and Tax Report in his capacity
as counsel for the Assemblies of God, offers more. Just in time.
Broadway features the story of a church organist in Cleveland who was
"greeted" in a parish newsletter. Unfortunately, the news-bringing
overstepped by describing the organist's setback as "bi-polar illness" and
depression. No-go. Happy as the welcomers were, the organist had to be
unhappy. He sued and settled out of court, but lost his job and, he said,
his self-respect, his image, and the relishing of his recovery. Worst of
all, the church's web-site posting meant that the organist's name and
diagnoses now belong eternally to cyberspace and those who cruise in it.
Here, as is so often the case, we recognize how, in the age of information,
the ease of communication gets complicated and causes the need for more
communication. Instruments meant to enhance the experience of community in
religion can also disrupt it. We also recognize that laws of the state can
overrule laws or practices of the churches, that the lines of "separation
of church and state" are ever more wavy, that some illnesses still occasion
stigmatizing, that good intentions do not always serve the religious well,
and that you can't be too careful nowadays.
Someone's ill? Pray in secret and don't tell anyone may be the next counsel.
THE DAY AFTER MEMORIAL DAY
With the beginning of June, all sorts of interesting things are happening. Arnold Kriegbaum--previously mentioned for prayer--is much better and he and Laura have now moved to Indianapolis.
Pastor Charles Ashman's 80th birthday celebration is this morning over at GBNAM--what a wonderful example and inspiration his ministry through the years has been! He continues to use his wisdom in his "Paraclete" ministry, counseling churches who are in conflict or are going through changes.
We hosted a discouraged and embattled pastor and his family at our house this past week. It was a joy just to listen, to pray with them, and to marvel at how some of God's saints can be so cantankerous and can cause their pastors so much heartache. Is there a pastor ANYWHERE who hasn't had some heartaches and real rough spots in ministry? I hope this man of God survives--we pray daily for him and others who do God's work under difficult circumstances.
We had a wonderful privilege last night as our Global Prayer Group hosted a young man who is now ministering to Muslims in a country in north Africa. The only believer in his family, he is a remarkable testimony and burns brightly for Christ in a very dark context. He's in town for the Micro Enterprise Development seminar which Grace Brethren International Missions is sponsoring this week. About 40 from all over the world are expected--they'll be discussing ways to use small businesses as a means to gain a foothold for the Gospel.
Speaking of saints--I have just learned of the death of Jack Eckard, who died at 91 in Florida on May 19. A delightfully crusty old curmudgeon, Eckard did a lot of good for the Gospel with his fortune and his influence. He was on the board of Prison Fellowship Ministries some of the time I served there, and it was my privilege to give him rides to and from the airport on occasion. I praise God for business achievers who are willing to put their fortunes and their influence to work in advancing the Gospel.
Here at BMH, the main work for this week is getting issue #4 of FGBC World off to press. The lead story will be the push to found 50 churches among the Bayaka pygmies--what a great missionary pioneering story that is!
