Emergent Brethren

It’s getting close to Christmas 2010. For many, their thoughts are focusing more on family and how the holy day will be spent. Pastors and church leaders are also getting more concerned about Christmas Eve services. For many, is this as far as their Christmas thinking gets?

Last night, I watched the movie about the lost boys of Sudan in, God Grew Tired of Us. This movie was made in 2006 and was a Sundance Film Festival award winner. It is a documentary about the history of Sudan, its violence in recent decades, the thousands of young boys who left their families behind in trying to “live” by migrating first to Ethiopia and later Kenya, and for some, to America.

Their story is more incredible than I previously knew! At one time, 27,000 children were traveling and living together. They were the only family that they had. The group divided themselves up into smaller units that were led by the older boys, 11-13 years old. How they survived their incredible journey to Kenya is unbelievable!

Of the hundreds of boys accepted into the U.S., the film focuses on three: Panther, Daniel and John. It shows their departure preparation, travel, initial introduction to America, and follow-ups for three years. When they first arrive, you can see how big their eyes get to experiencing how to use electricity, running water, toilets, refrigerators, supermarkets, and Christmas trees.

One of the boys questions, “Why do we have Christmas trees? Are they in the Bible? Is Santa Claus in the Bible?”. They are very respectful of the culture of this country, even when they can’t hardly fathom it.

At this point, it made me rethink the meaning of Christmas. It is one thing to say, “It’s all about Jesus’ birth!”. Yet, how do we bury that thought by all the preparation of things that are not about Jesus’ birth? How would a Christmas celebration here be experienced if it were planned and led by the “lost boys”? Would our faith and joy be increased?

The movie ends by telling how some of the boys reunite with family members whom they thought were dead. Some travel back, some send money to the refugee camp in Kenya, and some continue to work 3 jobs in order to raise as much as possible to help those left behind.

I can’t help but think, “Did our nation do them a favor by helping them migrate here?” The culture shock they went through is obviously HUGE! But in addition to learning about the items listed above, the boys were spread-out into 23 states and separated into small groups of 3 or 4, instead of the larger groups they had grown-up in. The movie points out how they lost “community” by being split-up and working so hard to make ends meet. Because of their work, they were not even seeing those whom they lived with. Could our nation’s money had made a bigger impact by improving the refugee camp’s conditions vs. bringing hundreds of them to America? Will our nation do more to secure peace between the North and Southern parts of Sudan?

My mind is filled with questions. But I’m grateful for this — my mind is also expanded to think of others around the world at this Christmas season, who experience life very differently than we in this nation. May God bless them with peace and joy! May God bless us with a deeper understanding of the real meaning of Christmas.

I have long hated altar calls… since a boy in growing up in church… they seem so manipulative. And frankly, I don’t think they work anymore these days. In fact, let me say that stronger… they DON’T work!

Here’s why I say that so strongly… three weeks ago on Feb 22, I offered an altar call in both of our worship gatherings… NO response. None… Nada… Zip! Then the very next Sunday – March 1, I introduced a response card in each bulletin. I got 7 responses that day from people wanting to commit their lives to Christ, be baptized, and/or join the church. The very next week, I got 3 responses.

Go figure!

I think the day of the altar call in USAmerica is over!

Thoughts?

Aloha friends,

The Church of the Brethren will no longer financially support the hosting of this website. But, I have found a way to keep it going.

I want to again thank everyone who has posted or read the material here. I think there’s some really good stuff here that should be kept available for the future.

Also, if there is someone who would like to start writing for EmergentBrethren, please send me an email. You can find my email address under the tab: Contact Us. I would love to chat about the offer.

Blessings to you,
Jeff

Administrator

Today, I read in Newsline (see below) that Art Gish was killed in a farming accident at the age of 70. What a saint and prophet we’ve lost! I first got to know Art at NYC in 1971. He was one of the speakers. I thought he was nuts! I didn’t understand what it meant to be a radical Christian at the time. As NYC ended, he gave me a ride to Pennsylvania. Over several hours, we got to talk and I realized that he’s just a normal person with a lot of passion.

A few years later, Bethany Seminary flew me from La Verne College to be on campus to check the seminary out for a few days. Art and Peggy invited me and the other La Verne students over for lunch. I was really hungry and was disappointed when I learned they were serving soup. Until this time, I had only had the “Campbells” variety. By the time I finished my soup, I was stuffed! It was fantastic, with all the fresh vegetables and other ingredients that Peggy put in.

Art and I haven’t had much contact over the years since then. But knowing how he loved Jesus, and how his faith moved him towards “radicalism”, I’ve been touched and inspired!

Thanks, God, for saints like, Art!

Jeff

ART GISH (1939-2010) REMEMBERED AS A PROPHET FOR PEACE

Church of the Brethren peacemaker and activist Arthur G. (Art) Gish, 70, died in a farming accident yesterday morning when his tractor rolled while he was working on his farm in Athens County, Ohio.

Gish and his wife, Peggy, have been organic farmers, life-long workers for peace, and members of the New Covenant Fellowship in Athens, Ohio, a communal church affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. Peggy Gish currently is serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Iraq.

“We have lost a person important to the Church of the Brethren who has been a visible witness to Christ’s peace around the world,” said Stan Noffsinger, the church’s general secretary, remembering Gish’s strong witness for active Christian peacemaking. “It is a true loss to the church and the thousands of people he served…. We mourn this loss.”

“He has been a formative influence for so many people,” said Bob Gross, executive director of On Earth Peace. Gross and his family were part of the New Covenant community along with the Gish family for some years beginning in the 1970s.

Gish is remembered for his participation in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the protest movement against war in the 1970s, and for his work for peace in the Middle East in more recent decades. He was a speaker, preacher, and writer with “incisive and frequently controversial views,” as characterized in an interview with “Messenger” magazine published on Aug. 13, 1970. Up until recently he had worked in the Middle East for periods of time with Christian Peacemaker Teams, beginning in 1995, often as a part of the CPT teams in the West Bank city of Hebron and in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani.

I’m sitting in a Doctor of Ministry class today on the topic of “Theological Epistemology”. The class is being taught by Dr. Thorsten Moritz, from Bethel Seminary. He is challenging us to think about:

What is your epistemology? How do you approach knowledge and understanding what knowledge is?

What is your methodology in approaching the Biblical text? Where does that methodology come from? Does it bring-out the true meaning of the text, or does it reveal what you want it to say?

How do you know what is truth? Because of the Enlightenment, the professor is saying that we use prescribed methods or steps to understanding the Bible that might actually block the true meaning of the text.

One classmate shared that, “If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” If we only have one methodology for approaching the text, then will all of our understandings of the text start to look like a “nail” (i.e. fit our preconceived notions)?

What scholars to you listen to in your Bible Study prep? Do you know what tradition they are come from? Is there an epistemology above your or your favorite interpreter’s understanding of knowledge?

These are just a few of the questions that we’re reflecting on today. Dr. Moritz is trying to impress upon us that there is a problem on how pastors approach the Bible and teach their congregations the message(s) of the Bible.

How do YOU do theology and approach the Bible?

Jeff