Oboedire "Nonviolence: A Way of Focus: by J. Steven Harper for Monday, 31 October 2016

Oboedire   "Nonviolence: A Way of Focus: by J. Steven Harper for Monday, 31 October 2016
We move beyond the core principle of love in nonviolence to draw the crucial distinction between nonviolent resistance and anarchy. Nonviolence and anarchy are two very different things. Anarchy is an act which seeks the destruction of the total system, and views that as a good thing. It is not rooted in agapé (hesed, shalom) as nonviolence is.
There have been times in history when something was so pervasively evil that it had to go--root and branch. The problem, however, has often been that the extremist nature of anarchy only ended up removing one totalitarian entity and replacing it with another one. This is because anarchists most often only know how to reproduce their seminal values.
Conversely, nonviolence is the disobedience of a particular law, not the rejection of a complete system. Because of love, nonviolence retains the ability to recognize the good and affirm it, while working for change in a particular area where love is absent. Anarchy is destructive while nonviolence is discerning. Anarchy annihilates while nonviolence amends. The difference revolves around vision.
Nonviolence is defined and directed by two key elements of vision: the oneness of the human family, and the call to build the Beloved Community. This vision establishes the spirit (persistent endurance) and creates the strategy (civil disobedience) to move current reality to a better place.
The oneness of the human family is a perennial value, but not one always acknowledged or practiced. This is particularly true when power-grabbing partisanship (egoic greed) prevails over love. Nonviolence is a time-honored means to restore love as the controlling value--a love which sees the oneness of humanity based on the imago dei.
Jean Vanier has written extensively about this in his book, 'Becoming Human.' He sees the disunity and conflict in humanity stemming from a soul-level loneliness (aloneness) seen in the Old Testament when Cain answered "No" to his own question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" and became a wanderer in the land of wandering, Nod. Whenever we refuse to see our oneness with all other human beings, we dwell in the land of Nod.
Instead of that, Vanier calls us to become human through attitudes and actions which foster belonging, inclusion, freedom, and forgiveness. Becoming human is the radical action of building bridges, not walls--creating connections, not insulated communities.
And all this because our vision is one of Beloved Community. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis use this phrase often in their writings, but it is as old as 'shalom' in the Hebrew Scriptures and 'the Kingdom of God' in the Christian New Testament. Taken together these two concepts create a vision of abundant life and generate the motivation to move all of the world toward it.
Nonviolence is one action which seeks to remove walls that divide--brick by brick--and build the Highway of Holiness where the two great commandments define the enterprise and the fruit of the Spirit displays it.
Martin Luther King's "I have a dream!" speech was his high-water mark for the oneness of the human family in the Beloved Community. It was a vision that connected him with nonviolence--a vision which sustained him through dark days of defeat--and a vision that reignited in him the night before he was assassinated when he exclaimed, "I have been to the mountain top."
This is it! The vision which nonviolence affirms and enacts--no turning back, no turning back!
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J. Steven Harper

Monday, October 31, 2016

Categories: Nonviolence

URL: http://wp.me/p101na-1Gg
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Alban Weekly from The Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, United States "PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS: "Nadia Bolz-Weber: Entering the stream of the faithful--INNOVATING WITH INTEGRITY REQUIRES BEING DEEPLY ROOTED IN TRADITION" for Monday, 31 October 2016

Alban Weekly from The Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, United States "PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS: "Nadia Bolz-Weber: Entering the stream of the faithful--INNOVATING WITH INTEGRITY REQUIRES BEING DEEPLY ROOTED IN TRADITION" for Monday, 31 October 2016

Nadia Bolz-Weber: Entering the Stream of the Faithful
INNOVATING WITH INTEGRITY REQUIRES BEING DEEPLY ROOTED IN TRADITION

Faith & Leadership

CONGREGATIONS

Nadia Bolz-Weber: Entering the stream of the faithful

You have to be really deeply rooted in tradition in order to innovate with integrity, says the founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints.

Nadia Bolz-Weber(link is external) likes to have both tradition and innovation happening at the same time in House for All Sinners and Saints(link is external), a mission church she founded in Denver, Colo., that’s part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Her church follows the ancient liturgy of the church, yet during Easter Vigil, for example, members are asked to tell the resurrection story in teams. People have made films, written original pieces of choral music and acted out scenes with Barbie dolls.
“We’ll call that ancient/future church and different stuff like that, but I find that’s what people are drawn to,” said Bolz-Weber, who earned a master of divinity degree from Iliff School of Theology.
She has become a leading voice of the emerging church after a hard-drinking life as a stand-up comedian and restaurant worker, and has been described as a “6-foot-1 Christian billboard” for her tattoo-covered arms.
Bolz-Weber spoke with Jesse James DeConto for Faith & Leadership about communicating a historic doctrine in today’s culture and holding on to something old in an identifiably Christian way. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: For those clergy who want to be doing what you’re doing, what do they need to know?That they should figure out who their people are and try to be their pastor.
Older folks from the church will say, “What do young adults want? What do they want so that we can do it?” I’m like, “I’ve never had to ask myself that question.”
I get to be in ministry in a context I’m native to, so I’ve never had to second-guess, “Will they like this?” or, “Will they get this joke?” or, “Would they enjoy doing X, Y or Z?”
There’s something about doing ministry as the person you are that ends up making a big difference, and who you are is going to be different than who I am.
I know a lot of pastors, if you ask them, “Do you feel like you can really be here in your work?” they’d say no. I think that ends up being really key.
Q: How do you see your ministry as part of a new Reformation -- the Great Emergence or the Fourth Great Awakening that Phyllis Tickle and Diana Butler Bass have talked about?The Holy Spirit is subversive, and one of the things the Spirit does is blur lines that we’re comfortable maintaining. My experience has been that we like to have these lines of liberal and conservative -- theologically and socially. I think that people, especially the younger generation, have experienced those lines becoming real blurry and are fine with that. I know that’s true for myself.
I’m at the point in my life where I don’t want to be a part of fundamentalism of the left or the right, mostly because it lacks two things that I can’t do without in my life anymore -- which is joy and humility.
I don’t see a lot of joy and humility in these extreme stances that people take on either side. So I feel like the Spirit moves in the blurring of those distinctions that we all like to have. Every time you meet somebody who’s in a category of conservative or hateful or narrow-minded or fill-in-the-blank, there’s some sort of connection that’s made, and then you have to rethink the category. That’s the work of the Spirit.
I think it’s interesting people dismiss the being “spiritual but not religious” thing. My business card for the church says, “We’re religious but not spiritual.” That yearning that people have is for something that’s more than 20 minutes old. I think people want to be connected to something that’s more than a whim.
There’s very little in our visual field, generally in our lives, that’s more than 50 years old. And so to be connected to something that’s ancient speaks something to us, because everything around us is new. Since the age of progress, new is better, right?
Now we go, “Wait a minute -- that’s not always true.” When new is always better, we’re not tethered to anything. I think I see a longing in people to be tethered to something, and I like to say that you have to be really deeply rooted in tradition in order to innovate with integrity.
I really like to have those two things going on at the same time all the time -- tradition and innovation. We’ll call that ancient/future church and different stuff like that, but I find that’s what people are drawn to.
Q: How do you hold on to something old in an identifiably Christian way?I reject the premise I often hear in progressive Christianity that in order to be down with multiculturalism or with peace and social justice you have to jettison the Bible and Jesus. I think those are the only two things we have going for us.
Having said that, I feel there’s something about the Bible and orthodox Christian teachings -- the creeds, the Bible, the liturgy and, most certainly and importantly, the gospel -- that even the church can’t [mess] up. We’ve tried, and we’ve done a lot of damage, but there’s a resiliency to it.
So I think some of the questions we ask end up not being necessary, because the thing that we’ve been given to caretake is so much more resilient than our errors are. The Bible will still be here long after every book on Oprah’s list has faded into memory. It’s not going to die; it will not return empty.
I find comfort in that. That’s something that’s rooted in reality. It’s not about me coming up with the next clever thing or me trying to be as relevant as I can possibly be or any of those things, because it has its own integrity. You can’t deconstruct the truth.
The reason the Bible is important is because it bears Christ into the world; it’s the cradle that holds Christ. As a confessing Christian, the central message of the Bible for me is the revelation of how God chose to reveal God’s self.
Therefore, since we know what the central message is, the gospel itself is at the center. It’s not one thing; it’s like concentric circles.
David J. Lose has this great book, “Making Sense of Scripture.” He writes there is one view where everything in Scripture is a link -- one of them can’t be weak, so they all have to be together and they’re all equal and they’re all equally strong, and if you doubt that, everything will pull apart.
The view I’m talking about is where the gospel is in the middle, and the farther away something in the Bible gets from that, it has less and less authority.
Q: How do you communicate a historic doctrine in today’s culture?First of all, people should read Martin Luther’s “On the Bondage of the Will” and “The Freedom of a Christian.”
I also think, if given the opportunity, people can actually see [that] the way in which they live can’t live up to even their own values.
At the end of the day, whether you’re a conservative or a liberal, there is something you didn’t recycle that day. There is something you bought that was not fair trade. There’s some thought you had that was lustful. There is no way to escape the fact that no matter what your values are, you cannot live up to them. It is impossible. That’s what we call being convicted by the law. The law is anything that convicts the conscious.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden and they heard the rustling of the leaves, they freaked out. Do you know what the rustling of the leaves was? The law. They’re convicted by the fact that there’s always something within them that is sin.
In that way, a newborn baby is full of sin. It has no thought for God or neighbor. I still don’t have a thought for God or neighbor. It’s so completely clear to me that that is who I am, but then when I hear about and experience who God is for me, when I return again to my identity that I have in my baptism, it’s corrective to that sclerotic posture that I end up always having.
Q: How does this affect you and your work?It’s something I need. I need to receive the Eucharist. I need to hear the gospel again and again and again, because I forget all of that. I think that’s what we do in Christian communities. We gather. We remind each other of who we are. We remind each other of God’s promises, and that’s what we proclaim.
I think people, especially liberals, conflate sin with low self-esteem. They’re like, “I don’t want to talk about sin anymore,” because [they’ve been told] sin is immorality. They’re like, “I’m tired of having someone tell me I’m immoral when I’m not.”
There’s very little to do with morality. Sometimes it intersects with morality -- absolutely, no question. Being curved in on self can cause some really immoral things.
If you could actually manage to be a completely ethical and moral person, you would still be sinful. It doesn’t mean you’re bad. It just means that God is God and you are not, and that’s actually good news.
I once visited this woman who had a 6-month-old baby die. I spent the day with her. She had a pack of cigarettes next to her bed, and she didn’t have custody of her other four kids, and she was a drug addict. She spent the whole time going, “You know, this all happened because of this cop or this social worker who had it out for me.”
She had this totally external locus of control. I was so sad after I left, and it wasn’t because of the situation, which was sad; I was sad because I felt like she was never going to experience the exquisiteness of God’s grace, because she can’t confess. She needs it, but she can’t get to that place. She’s not going to have the freedom that comes from that, because she keeps going, “No, it’s this, it’s that.” Total denial.
My church always has a confession and absolution at the beginning of our liturgy. A lot of church planters want to jettison the confession, because they don’t want people to feel bad. I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s central to who we are.”
Q: How do you conceive of what you’re doing as a laboratory working for the wider church?That’s a good question, because we’re taking the essential parts of the liturgy and the theology in the history of the church and enculturating them in our context and then saying, “Oh, look at what we did” -- and then get quoted like, “That’s identifiably Lutheran, but it looks totally different.”
I wasn’t raised Lutheran, and in the end, I feel like part of my work is to re-catechize cradle Lutherans. I’m like an evangelist saying to the Lutherans, “You have no idea what you’re sitting on. You can’t even see it.” To have a theological system based on paradox -- that’s what the Lutheran theological system is based on, a paradox, and it couldn’t be more perfect for postmodern people.
The way we view Scripture, law and gospel -- the tension of living between law and gospel simultaneously sinner and saint, living in the now and the not yet, all of that -- Lutherans aren’t afraid to play the mystery card.
We don’t have to explain everything. We don’t claim to have the answers. We have some great descriptions. I took those essentials and I said, “Well, look at what it looks like.”
I think the church in general has to be open to the way in which they need to be reintroduced to their own stuff by people who have chosen it as adults.
Q: What was your process of choosing it?Of course, it doesn’t feel like I chose it. I didn’t go to church for 10 years. I was violently de-churched. I hated Christianity and Christians for 10 years, and then I met my husband.
He introduced me to it. I’d been clean for four years at that time. [The Lutheran church] was the only place that didn’t feel like a self-improvement program. The Lutherans said, “Nobody’s climbing the spiritual ladder. There’s no spiritual self-improvement program here, and God’s continuously rescuing us, continually coming to us, always interrupting our lives. This is the direction.”
I went, “That is what I’ve experienced.” I fell in love with the liturgy, too, which I’d never experienced. It felt like a beautiful gift that we have that we’ve been given by our ancestors to caretake for the next generation. It’s this gorgeous thing, like entering the stream of the faithful.
It’s been flowing for a while, and you get to enter it and carry it, and then the next generation comes and carries it along.
Read more from the interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber »
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IDEAS THAT IMPACT: TRADITION & INNOVATION
Teaching the tradition
It is more important than ever that we know and share our tradition. The risen Christ is actually present in the telling of the Christian story. It is essential that we tell the story -- not talk about the story, not give directives based on the story, not modify or abridge the story -- but tell the story.Christian discipleship began with vocation, with the “call” of Jesus to some fishermen. Jesus’s call was a call to relationship: “Come, follow me.” Whether among first-generation Jewish followers of the Way, third-generation Gentile Christians in Asia Minor, or twenty-first-century Western church folk, discipleship is grounded in the calling to relationship with God through Jesus.
In the summer following second grade I had a consuming crush on a boy named Bruce. While I barely registered on the status meter of elementary-school social hierarchy, Bruce was quite popular, and try as I might I could not get him to return my affections. On warm afternoons I would hike down by the cool creek that ran beside our yard, thinking about Bruce. One day I picked a daisy and began plucking the petals, reciting, “He loves me. He loves me not.” I convinced myself that if I ended on “He loves me,” Bruce would magically return my ardor. Plucking the final petal, I shivered with excitement, “He loves me!” and yet, his sentiments didn’t change.
Magic cannot create relationship. In fact, magical thinking impedes relationship. Whenever we participate in activities designed to induce another to act, think, or feel a certain way, we are engaging in magic, precluding relationship by turning the other into an “it” rather than a “who.” Yet it is surprising how easily magic creeps into Christianity.
When I find myself feeling disillusioned about Sunday mornings I often wonder when worship as celebration became “going to church” as an act of obedience that appeases God. If we approach worship, Bible reading, participation in rituals, financial donation, or other “religious activities” as attempts to win God’s favor, they become magic, every bit as much as dancing around a fire chanting incantations on moonlit nights. If, on the other hand, we approach these practices as ways to spend time with God, then we are involved in relationship.
Relationships are powerful. I recall a friend who had been all “prickles and burrs” in seminary. His anger was notorious among the students, and his hostility frequently erupted in tirades against professors. He didn’t just have anger—he was an angry person. I developed a friendship with this man when we worked on a project together. I learned that he had had a damaging upbringing and had recently experienced a difficult ending to an incompatible marriage. These relationships had left him in a perpetual state of defensiveness. I wondered at graduation time how he would fare in ministry or, more pointedly, how a church would fare in his hands. A decade later I was leading a seminar when I noticed my old angry friend among the participants. The face was familiar, but I saw differences beyond those made by the passage of years. At break time I connected with my prickly friend. Only he wasn’t prickly anymore. He radiated a gracious, gentle spirit and laughed easily, in a way that seemed to celebrate sheer joy in life. As we were speaking, some people joined us, and he introduced me to a small entourage from his church. These people obviously adored him. His final introduction was of a gentle-faced woman with whom he exchanged looks of obvious devotion. “This is my wife,” he said, beaming. The cause of the difference was clear. This man’s relationships with his church members and with his wife had created a safe place within which he could reclaim his inner kindness and joy. Relationships with others have the power to change us.
The power of human relationships offers a mere glimpse of the capacity of relationship with God in Jesus to transform us. Jesus promised us “an Advocate, the Spirit of truth,” who abides with us and in us (John 14:15–17). This indwelling Spirit makes possible a transformation of self that affects all of our other relationships. Our primary vocation to be in relationship with God, which was redeemed for us by Jesus, makes possible restoration and renewal.
As most of us know from experience, this oneness of self is neither a static state nor one fully achieved in earthly life. Unkind people, challenging circumstances, and habitual self-denigration all conspire to rob us of the relationship with ourselves made possible through God’s grace. Again and again we need the Spirit to remind us who we are and to empower us to grow toward what the second-generation Pauline communities called “the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
Discipleship is grounded in the primary vocation of redeemed relationship with God through Jesus. A foundational question for discipleship formation then is this: How do we teach vocation?
Education is an invitational endeavor. We cannot compel, manipulate, or otherwise coerce people to enter into relationship with any subject matter. As relationship with God is the primary vocation of discipleship, the principal experience for discipleship formation is encounter with God through Jesus.
When I was a pastor I was blessed to serve in a community that had a remarkable ecumenical ethos. One summer night we gathered as several denominations in the Presbyterian fellowship hall for an evangelistic event for older children and teens from the community. The evening began with a group of bodybuilders giving testimonies and continued with the guests breaking up into discussion groups. Since I wasn’t assigned to a group, I spent my time helping with snacks and visiting rooms to see if anyone needed anything. As I approached one doorway, I heard a young woman pleading, “Even if you don’t believe it’s true, just do me a favor and say the prayer with me. If it’s not true, you haven’t lost anything. It if turns out to be true, then you’ll be saved, and when you die you will go to heaven.” This was the first time, but not the last, that I heard this shocking approach to “evangelism.”
Reducing Christianity to a matter of final destination is manipulative, of course, but this approach also suggests that how we live out the faith in our earthly lives is of secondary importance. Most readers would likely agree that the practice of repeating particular words—irrespective of belief and regardless of desire for relationship with God—as a guarantee of going to heaven is pure magic. The question for those of us who reject this and other magical approaches is, what do we do instead? How do we encourage and nurture the primary vocation of discipleship, which is relationship with God through Jesus? The enterprise is complicated by the fact that Jesus is not physically present to us, at least not in the ways that we typically understand physical presence. We need to identify, therefore, the ways in which Jesus is present and invite people to an encounter with Jesus through those venues.
Although they described the experience in a variety of ways, the earliest Christian communities were formed around the very presence of Jesus. Jesus was present through his Spirit, who gave believers the power, discernment, and skills necessary to live out Christian community. He was present in the gathered community as master teacher and guide. His presence was evidenced in the love that members shared with one another, the ongoing ministry of his followers to the world, and the traditions that were taught as the gospel was proclaimed.
For us today, teaching the tradition makes Jesus present and provides opportunity for encounter with him. By nature discipleship is dynamic. We were created for relationship with God, we become disciples through Jesus, and we continue to evolve in discipleship through the practices of transformed relationships. To become fully the disciples we are designed to be, we need to practice the vocations of discipleship through which we develop intimacy with God and move toward “the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
It is more important than ever that we know and share our tradition. The risen Christ is actually present in the telling of the Christian story. It is essential that we tell the story—not talk about the story, not give directives based on the story, not modify or abridge the story—but tell the story. We need to tell the story with our words, through our relationships, and in our actions, and to trust its power as a vehicle of Christ’s presence.
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Adapted from Learning the Way: Reclaiming Wisdom from the Earliest Christian Communities by Cassandra D. Carkuff Williams, copyright © 2009 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved.
Read more from Cassandra Carkuff Williams »
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The false choice between tradition and innovation

Faith & Leadership

INNOVATION

The false choice between tradition and innovation

The challenges congregations and institutions face require thinking that can hold together seemingly conflicting ideas or strategies to find generative “third ways” forward.

Have you seen the movie “Chef”?
In case you haven’t, the movie is worth the time of any Christian congregational or institutional leader, especially its first 30 minutes. While the language can be a bit salty, the opening scenes perfectly depict one of the enduring challenges of Christian leadership.
The chef (Jon Favreau(link is external)) has heard that one of the country’s foremost restaurant reviewers and food bloggers is coming that evening to review his Los Angeles restaurant. In honor of the occasion, he has designed an experimental menu, blending flavors in innovative and provocative ways. The owner of the restaurant (Dustin Hoffman), however, dismisses the thought of serving any menu to the critic other than the one that has made the restaurant famous -- an egg with caviar, steak and molten chocolate cake. After an argument, the chef finally relents and agrees to serve the menu preferred by the owner, only to receive a scathing review likening the menu to a desperate relative offering you $5 to come for a visit.
There ensues a bawdy exchange over Twitter between chef and critic that culminates in the chef’s inviting the critic to return to the restaurant the next night to try the innovative menu that he had originally planned. Once again, however, the owner of the restaurant steps in, refusing to allow the chef to serve anything other than the menu that had built the restaurant’s reputation. It does not spoil the plot to say that the chef refuses and is terminated. The critic doesn’t know that the chef has been terminated and so returns to the restaurant the next evening only to be served the exact menu he had panned the day before.
For Christian congregational and institutional leaders, it is not the fight between chef and critic that is most instructive (that said, the way that that relationship plays out across the movie offers more than one sermon illustration).
It is the disagreement between the chef and the owner that is particularly instructive. On the one hand, we have the chef who wants to innovate and experiment, to try new and bold things. On the other, we have the owner who wants to celebrate what has built success and is reliably good.
This tension should sound familiar. It is the tension between young (and not just chronologically young, but young-in-the-profession) clergy and their longer-tenured colleagues. It is the tension between the entrepreneurial and creative faculty and their more restrained, pragmatic peers. It is the fight that takes place between the newcomers who become parish leaders and the somewhat-chastened stalwarts. It is the false choice between innovation and tradition.
What is perfectly captured in the movie is the way that these disagreements often and quickly become zero-sum, with both sides increasingly persuaded by the importance and righteousness of their cause and entrenching further as the fight goes on. It is telling that neither chef nor owner suggests joining the amuse-bouche from one menu with the entrée from another and creating a new dessert together. It is either an entirely new menu or the existing menu unchanged. That may sound familiar, too.
At Leadership Education, we are indebted to the work of Roger Martin around the ideas of integrative thinking and the opposable mind, two ways of talking about how leaders can hold together seemingly conflicting ideas or strategies to find generative “third ways” forward.
Increasingly the challenges that congregations and institutions face require these kinds of integrative strategies, and yet, too many of the present conversations still sound like a shouting match between chef and owner. And if culture is the critic, it will find other places to be fed.
Read more from Nathan Kirkpatrick »
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Tradition is a living thing

Faith & Leadership

RECONCILIATION, COMMUNITY, CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

Margaret Pfeil: Tradition is a living thing

For Margaret Pfeil, an assistant professor of theology at Notre Dame and a member of a Catholic Worker community in South Bend, Dorothy Day is an exemplar of leadership.

Sometimes you lead by accident and other times by unwavering conviction. Dorothy Day did both, said Margaret Pfeil, an assistant professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

Pfeil specializes in Catholic social thought and the development of moral doctrine and also is a founder and resident of the St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker House in South Bend, Ind.
Catholic Worker houses were founded by Day (1897-1980) and seek to foster practice of the church’s traditional corporal works of mercy (to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit and ransom the captives, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and bury the dead) and spiritual works of mercy (to admonish sinners, instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the sorrowful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive all injuries and pray for the living and the dead). Catholic Worker houses also advocate for social justice in their local communities and beyond.
Pfeil spoke in June 2009 with Faith & Leadership’s Jason Byassee about the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day, and an “anarchist” vision of leadership. At the time, she was teaching at Duke Divinity School’s Summer Institute: “Shaping the Beloved Community.”(link is external)
Q: How did the Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality get started?It began during the Depression in New York. Day’s visionary partner Peter Maurin envisioned combining the works of mercy with scholarship. He and Day started a newspaper, which still sells today for a penny per copy. Day had been a journalist previously, and he came to appreciate her journalistic skills. And at first he wanted to run the paper. He envisioned Dorothy just doing the menial tasks involved in publishing. But she made it clear that this is going to be a joint effort. They wrote together about the making of a new society within the shell of the old.
Maurin wanted to light the fuse he saw leading to the dynamite of the social teachings of the church. We have these wonderful teachings, Maurin said, but who's actually practicing them? What about within the life of the institution of the church itself? Are we falling short? Aren't we called to something much more radical? The name, Catholic Worker, was a takeoff on the Communist newspaper, the Daily Worker. Maurin and Day would stand in Union Square and sell it. And they'd stand next to the Communists reading the Daily Worker and announce, “Well, read the Catholic Worker daily.”
Then, unexpectedly, workers started coming to the door where they published, saying, “This sounds great: hospitality, agronomic universities. Where do I find it?” Day said, “We put on a pot of coffee, opened the doors and have kept them open since.”
The houses of hospitality grew organically, in response to a need, through the mass communication of Day’s and Maurin’s ideas, which grew from their commitments of faith. That was a crucial moment. If Dorothy and Peter had said, “We're just writing this newspaper. That's all we're called to. We think these ideas are great, but that's as far as it goes,” there wouldn't be a Catholic Worker Movement today.
Q: You speak of the Catholic Worker house you live in as trying to institutionalize patterns of virtue rather than vice. How do you do that?It has to happen at the level of relationship. At the Catholic Worker we try to welcome people as they are, without necessarily giving them a spiel about who Dorothy Day was. We try to live in a way that makes guests feel comfortable and welcomed. We want them to understand that we intend to be a house of hospitality (I’m sure we do this imperfectly, by the way). Hopefully after awhile people begin to feel comfortable and will start asking questions, “What is this all about? Why are you doing this? Who is this Dorothy Day?”
Q: You argue that, for Dorothy Day, Christians need to be doing the works of mercy and creating faithful institutions. What does that look like?Dorothy was a Christian anarchist. By that she meant that we Christians tend to foist upon the state things that we need to take responsibility for at the personal level and as Christian communities.
Dorothy was envisioning something like what Bethel New Life does in Chicago under Mary Nelson -- gathering groups of people at the local level and meeting needs in a relational way. It's not meant to grow into a multi-billion-dollar corporation. It's just meant for the people who actually live in that area.
Maurin meant something similar with his idea of “agronomic universities.” They wanted to connect each Catholic Worker house with a communal agricultural setting where people who would never come into contact with the dirt can come to know creation in that way. All people then can leave the city and be recreated in their spirits through the land and with one another and get to know God more deeply. For people from very privileged backgrounds to engage in manual labor and get their hands dirty creates a sense of community where gradually the alienating effects of the Industrial Revolution can be healed.
For Dorothy, the Eucharist was key. She didn't mandate that everybody go to daily Mass, but she did herself. She invited people to join her, and then explained how important it was for her as the culmination of everything else. It didn’t have merely instrumental value. She didn't go to Mass to work more effectively. It was to go deeper.
Q: How could a Christian anarchist also be a pious Catholic? Didn’t she need also to submit to the authority of the church’s hierarchy?Someone once asked her, “What would happen if the cardinal said to close the houses of hospitality tomorrow?” And she said, “Oh, I would obey that, but then I would also refer all requests for the 1,000 people we serve on the soup line, and the 200 people we house, and all the vegetables grown and requested on our farm, I would refer all that to the cardinal's office for him to deal with.”
Robert Ellsberg, the editor of Orbis Books now and editor of much of Dorothy’s work, was first shown he had gifts as an editor by Day herself. He was no more than 20 when Dorothy said, “I think you should edit the Catholic Worker newspaper.” When he first met her he wanted to ask her a good question. So he went up to her and asked, “Miss Day, how do you reconcile your Catholicism with your anarchism?” And she looked at him and said, “Well, it's never been a problem for me.” And that was it. He didn't know what else to say. That was the end of the conversation.
Q: How did she resolve the similar tension between being an “anarchist” and being faithful to Catholic tradition?Tradition was a living thing for Dorothy, not a dead thing. Tradition did not mean for her that you grip things past in such a rigid way that they can’t be life-giving today. She looked back to the early church and said, “Why are we not doing this?” In the early church there was no usury, for example. In the early church we shared everything in common. In the early church Christians were pacifists. And so she modeled the Worker on this.
But Catholic Worker did this in the living church of today, as a prophetic witness, not in defiance against others. It wasn’t oppositional, though sometimes some perceived it that way. She absolutely understood herself to be within the tradition of the church, offering this witness in a very humble way.
When she insisted on pacifism even during World War II, and spoke on behalf of Catholic conscientious objectors to that war, she received a lot of criticism from members of the hierarchy in the Catholic Church. Her pacifism was taken as a personal affront by some in the hierarchy. They confronted her and said, “Who are you, a laywoman, to speak on behalf of this, on behalf of Catholic CO's?” And she said, “I'm speaking on behalf of laypeople. We're the ones who do the fighting.”
Forty years later, in “The Challenge of Peace,” the U.S. bishops named her personally as a witness of nonviolence in our times. That was a sea change, brought about partly because she remained faithful to that vision her whole life. That's her gift to the church.
The fact that subsequent generations keep adding to tradition is what makes it a living thing. She knew that in her bones. It was not merely an intellectual commitment. It was an incarnate commitment for her.
Q: You speak of your friend Neris Gonzalez(link is external) as an exemplary leader. Who is she?She is an advocate in El Salvador for popular education. She was working as a lay catechist, teaching peasants basic literacy skills, in hopes that they could then agitate for better prices for their crops. Those who opposed that work kidnapped and tortured her, and she lost her 8-month old unborn baby because of it.
Yet she continued through that country’s civil war to offer education. She sought asylum in the U.S. in the ’90s after further threats, and since then she has developed a new initiative in Chicago called Ecovida. This is a project designed to help inner city kids connect with the earth through sustainable agriculture in a way that would heal both them and the earth and the broken structures of their society.
A couple of years ago she did a 30-day retreat and used that as a time to imagine the next steps in her life. She decided it was time to learn English because she wanted to tell her own story. She's done a lot of interviews all over the world, all through translators, but her own voice is powerful. So she went to Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia to study English, and she's learning little by little and telling to tell more of her story herself.
That's a model for me. There's always something else on the horizon. She doesn't stay still. And she's willing to listen and to take into account new information, new ideas, new people, new possibilities and stoke her vision.
Q: Some of your students at Notre Dame will live a similar kind of radical commitment to communal living that you do at the Catholic Worker house. But most will not. What's your hope for students at Notre Dame who will become leaders in more conventional settings?I would hope that they'd be true to themselves before God. I hope they will allow themselves to keep discerning how God is calling them because within these various institutional settings there is plenty of room for greater personal sacrifice and greater risk-taking in relationship with those who are the outcasts in our society.
I hope my students who grow into positions of leadership at institutions would gradually imagine better ways of participating in their institutions, pressing their boundaries and challenging them in order to transform them. Such institutions can help heal the divisions of race, class and gender that sunder our society and our churches. I want them to act out of faith.
Read more from the interview with Margaret Pfeil »

FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY

Church Mergers: A Guidebook for Missional Change by Thomas G. Bandy and Page M. Brooks
Church Mergers offers churches of all sizes and traditions practical advice on how to merge successfully. Authors Thomas G. Bandy and Page M. Brooks draw on decades of experience to illustrate why and how missional mergers are possible.
Church Mergers guides congregational leaders and regional planners through the process of successful mergers. It shares the stories of four churches in the merger process, explaining the steps to assess their situations, build trust, and discern vision. The book offers guidance to assess the potential for merger, explore contextual relevancy and lifestyle compatibility, overcome internal and external obstacles, define strategic priorities, create new boards, build leadership teams, combine assets, and more.
Church Mergers shows that a faithful, healthy, missional merger is possible, and it illustrates that the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts.
Learn more and order the book »

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Teaching the Tradition

Teaching the Tradition

October Monthly Peace from The Global Immersion Project of San Diego, California, United States "Welcome to the Global Immersion monthly newsletter" for Monday, 31 October 2016

October Monthly Peace from The Global Immersion Project of San Diego, California, United States "Welcome to the Global Immersion monthly newsletter" for Monday, 31 October 2016
The Monthly Peace
There is a growing movement of Jesus followers throughout the US who are taking seriously their call to care for the “stranger” in their midst. Despite the hostile rhetoric and policies toward our sisters and brothers coming to our border fleeing violence or economic injustice, the Church is showing up with open arms in exchange for hardened hearts. We have been honored to contribute to this movement of peace through our Immigrants’ Journey Learning Lab here on the US/Mexico border. A couple weeks ago, we had a sacred evening with our Mexican partners in Tijuana sharing a meal and telling stories of transformation in individuals, churches and universities across the US as a result of their partnership with Global Immersion. We believe there are no better instructors for the hard work of peace than those who are living it out in the midst of conflict. Our Mexican friends are doing just that. When we, the US Church, listen and learn from minority voices in the majority world, we quickly realize we aren't the heroes, but the students.

Global Immersion Events
It is time to amplify the voices of peace, especially among women who seek to lead and live a legacy that has significance and purpose. Amplify: A Women's Peacemaking Pilgrimage will strategically guide women into deeper narratives on topics such as Identity, Conflict Transformation, Racial and Cultural Reconciliation and living as Everyday Peacemakers.
For more information on our exciting new opportunity, please visit us here. 
Amplify: A Women's Peacemaking Pilgrimage
The Global Immersion Project > Amplify: A Women’s Peacemaking Pilgrimage

In partnership with Lisa Jernigan of Central Christian Church, AZ, The Global Immersion Project has developed this long-term initiative and we invite you to join other voices of peacemakers around the globe as together we seek to bring transformative peacemaking.
Our strategic training equips women with a robust theology for peace and a tangible set of peacemaking practices that translate into your homes, neighborhoods, city, nation and world. Through comprehensive and interactive learning, we seek to activate women and amplify their voices as Instruments of Peace.
You will be shoulder to shoulder with women from all over the country who are ready for an adventure layered in complexity and conflict, one in which you will emerge as an Everyday Peacemaker. It is not for the faint of heart but it is for those seeking passion, purpose and their true identity. It doesn’t matter from where you come or how you enter into this transformative pathway of everyday peacemaking.
Activate women as instruments of peace. Select “Amplify” from the drop down menu.

CONTRIBUTE

The CALLING/PROJECT

The OPPORTUNITY & COST

The INVITATION

Are you tired of the headlines pointing to the conflict and violence around us? Do you desire to see the way of Jesus in the here and now? Then you understand why it is time to amplify the voices of peace, especially among women who seek to lead and live a legacy that has significance and purpose.
Amplify Peacemaking will strategically guide women into deeper narratives on topics such as Identity, Conflict Transformation, Racial and Cultural Reconciliation and living as Everyday Peacemakers.
Here’s what you can anticipate:
A five-month Everyday Peacemaking Training that equips and activates women into long-term engagement as part of building a movement of women peacemakers.
The first phase (5 weeks) of training is spent in interactive engagement in an online classroom designed to accommodate busy schedules and at the same time integrate TGIP’s peacemaking framework within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It can be done at your own pace and location.
The training continues into the second phase, which is positioned as a “learning lab,” that is an 8-day immersive experience in Israel/Palestine. This is where women will engage with Middle Eastern peacemakers through encounters designed to:

• Focus on the historical places of women in Scripture
• Highlight local, modern-day women working for peace in the region
• Coach participants into lives that reflect the peacemaking way of Jesus in their own context back home
• The journey isn’t over when the trip concludes. In many ways, this third phase is only the beginning! Women will be given opportunities to connect, debrief, process and find encouragement to begin living as Everyday Peacemakers incorporating the practices and experiences they have just learned and lived.
• Once women are unleashed into this narrative of living as Everyday Peacemakers, the world will not be the same! Think of all the possibilities that await.

Give now. Select “Amplify” from the drop down menu.

Give Now!

Oct. 28-30: Immigrants' Journey Learning Lab: We just led another group of participants through Tijuana and San Diego in the culmination of a three-month formational journey that immerses us into the human story of immigration.
Dec. 3: Cultivate: Cultivate is a one-day intensive designed to practically shift peacemaking from esoteric theory and aspiring value to costly, embodied reality. We are thrilled to partner with Central Christian Church in Phoenix for this event.

Recommended Resources:
1) eCourse: As the election season culminates, our churches will be filled with opinions, preferences, and dreams that will span the spectrum. Our 5-week eCourse, Developing Uncommon Friendships, is designed to equip you, your staff, your small group, and your church to move beyond relational obstacles and toward authentic relationships. Throughout this five-week course, you will go on a journey that will equip you to See, Immerse, and Contend with and for those whom you disagree with, have disregarded, or have been disrespected by. Ultimately, you will learn to develop collaborative relationships that lead to tangible restoration. It's a self-paced eCourse, so take it on your own timing for as long as you need (with lifetime access).
2) LISTEN: Recently Jon Huckins joined the Brilliance podcast to talk about peacemaking, immigrants, Islamophobia, Jihad, Pope Francis and engaging with people that we adamantly disagree with. Listen here and check out the Brilliance here.
3) READ: Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level in this story of hope and reconciliation.
4) WATCH: Greg Boyd teaches about the difference between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of God. During this election cycle, we need to be reminded to give our primary allegiance to Jesus alone and not the rulers of this world. Listen to the sermon here.

Focus on Peacemaking Partner
Global Immersion is honored to partner with our Mexican colleagues in the peacemaking legacy of Casa del Migrante. A home for men, women, and children on the move, Tijuana’s Casa has provided space for over 200,000 migrants over the past twenty years. Where as a decade ago, their work was focused on migration from the south toward the United States, today, it has shifted to primarily resourcing those who are migrating south from the US because of deportation. Regardless of the direction of movement, Casa has provided unprecedented hospitality to those on their way, becoming a place where restoration springs to life in unlikely and unpredictable ways. Today, Mexicans and international volunteers serve Mexican, Central American, Syrian, and Haitian migrants and refugees as they seek a flourishing future. Learn more about Casa del Migrante and follow their work here. Join us in an upcoming Immigrants’ Journey Learning Lab and walk with us into this sacred space and the lives of Everyday Peacemakers who serve there.
Everyday Peacemaking Practices: IMMERSE. In the same way that God humbly entered into the radical center of our conflict-riddled story in the Person of Jesus, Everyday Peacemakers step off the road of comfort and into reality seeking to understand rather than to be understood.
In an election season that can lead to unhealthy conflict around our holiday dinner tables, what is one way you can IMMERSE into the story of someone you disagree with seeking to understand rather than be understood?

We are thrilled to introduce our newest Global Immersion team member, Hailey Mitsui-Davis! She is our Director of Communications and Development and brings vast experience and energy to refine and expand the mission of Global Immersion.
Hailey was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She credits her love of Birkenstocks, coffee, independent music and all things weird to her Northwestern upbringing.
Hailey has been in the nonprofit world for seven years. She spent five of those years at Invisible Children working on raising awareness about the use of child soldiers by the Lord's Resistance Army in Central Africa and fundraising for the organization's lifesaving programs. Some highlights from her time at Invisible Children include: leading a march of 10,000 people to surround the White House, working with students to activate their communities for change, and learning a lot of choreographed dances (because you have to learn how to maintain joy in the midst of working with difficult issues).
Hailey is excited to be bringing her fundraising and storytelling experience to the Global Immersion team and she's looking forward to learning from you as well! If you have any stories of how you've been impacted by Global Immersion's work, she'd love to hear them. You can reach her at hailey@globalimmerse.org

Support Our Work

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Our mailing address is:
The Global Immersion Project
2801 B Street #22

San Diego, California 92102, United States
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The Daily Devotionals of The Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church of Wichita, Kansas, United States for Monday, 31 October 2016

The Daily Devotionals of The Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church of Wichita, Kansas, United States for Monday, 31 October 2016
Today, Please pray for:

Shane Britt sbritt@greatplainsumc.org Abilene Emmanuel UMC Salina District

Hyeayoun Kim hyeayounkim@greatplainsumc.org Alida UMC Enterprise UMC Salina District

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Lectionary Readings:
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Sunday, 30 October 2016
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 119:137-144
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Luke 19:1-10
Scripture Text: Habakkuk 1:1 This is the prophecy which Havakuk the prophet saw:
2 Adonai, how long must I cry
without your hearing?
“Violence!” I cry to you,
but you don’t save.
3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing,
why do you permit oppression?
Pillage and cruelty confront me,
so that strife and discord prevail.
4 Therefore Torah is not followed;
justice never gets rendered,
because the wicked fence in the righteous.
This is why justice comes out perverted.
Habakkuk 2:1 I will stand at my watchpost;
I will station myself on the rampart.
I will look to see what [God] will say through me
and what I will answer when I am reproved.
2 Then Adonai answered me; he said,
“Write down the vision clearly on tablets,
so that even a runner can read it.
3 For the vision is meant for its appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and it does not lie.
It may take a while, but wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
4 “Look at the proud: he is inwardly not upright;
but the righteous will attain life through trusting faithfulness.
Psalm 119:צ (Tzadeh)
137 You are righteous, Adonai;
and your rulings are upright.
138 You have commanded your instructions
in righteousness and great faithfulness.
139 My zeal is destroying me,
because my foes have forgotten your words.
140 Your word is refined to complete purity,
and your servant loves it.
141 I may be small and despised,
but I do not forget your precepts.
142 Your righteousness is eternal righteousness,
and your Torah is truth.
143 Trouble and distress have overtaken me,
but your mitzvot are my delight.
144 Your instruction is righteous forever;
give me understanding, and I will live.
2 Thessalonians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, Sila and Timothy
To: The Messianic Community of the Thessalonians, united with God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah:
2 Grace to you and shalom from God the Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
3 We have to keep thanking God for you always, brothers, as is appropriate; because your trust continues to grow greater, and the love you each have for one another continues to increase. 4 Therefore, we boast about you in the congregations of God because of your perseverance and trust in all the persecutions and troubles you are going through.
11 With this in view, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill by his power every good purpose of yours and every action stemming from your trust. 12 In this way, the name of our Lord Yeshua will be glorified in you, and you in him, in accordance with the grace of our God and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
Luke 19:1 Yeshua entered Yericho and was passing through, 2 when a man named Zakkai appeared who was a chief tax-collector and a wealthy man. 3 He was trying to see who Yeshua was; but, being short, he couldn’t, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed a fig tree in order to see him, for Yeshua was about to pass that way. 5 When he came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zakkai! Hurry! Come down, because I have to stay at your house today!” 6 He climbed down as fast as he could and welcomed Yeshua joyfully. 7 Everyone who saw it began muttering, “He has gone to be the house-guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zakkai stood there and said to the Lord, “Here, Lord, I am giving half of all I own to the poor; and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.” 9 Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, inasmuch as this man too is a son of Avraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”
The John Wesley's Notes-Commentary: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Verse 1
[1] The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
The burden — The prophet seems to speak of these grievous things, as a burden which he himself groaned under.
Verse 4
[4] Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
Therefore — Because the wicked go on with impunity.
The law — The whole law, moral, ceremonial, and judicial.
Is slacked — Is slighted, and not observed.
Go forth — From magistrates, judges, and public officers.
Doth compass about — As it were besieges, with design to oppress and ruin.
Verse 1
[1] I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Upon my watch — I will stand as a watchman on my watch-tower.
He — The Lord.
Reproved — Called to give an account of the mysteriousness of providence; either to satisfy doubters, or to silence quarrellers.
Verse 2
[2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Upon tables — What was of publick concern, and therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a publick place to be read.
May run — That none may need to stop, but every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.
Verse 3
[3] For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
At the end — When the period appointed of God shall come.
Shall speak — Be accomplished, and not disappoint your expectation.
Verse 4
[4] Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Which is lifted up — That proudly contests with the justice and wisdom of the Divine Providence, and provides for his own safety by his own wit.
The just — The humble and upright one, who adores the depth of divine providence, and is persuaded of the truth of divine promises.
Shall live — Supports himself, by a firm expectation of the deliverance of Zion.
Psalm 119:137-144
Verse 140
[140] Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Pure — Without the least mixture of falsehood.
Verse 142
[142] Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Everlasting — The same in all ages and places.
Verse 143
[143] Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
Trouble — Outward troubles and anguish of spirit.
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Verse 3
[3] We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
It is highly observable, that the apostle wraps up his praise of men in praise to God; giving him the glory.
Your faith groweth — Probably he had heard from them since his sending the former letter.
Aboundeth — Like water that overflows its banks, and yet increaseth still.
Verse 4
[4] So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
Which ye endure — "That ye may be accounted worthy of the kingdom."
Verse 11
[11] Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
All the good pleasure of his goodness — Which is no less than perfect holiness.
Verse 12
[12] That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That the name — The love and power of our Lord may be glorified - Gloriously displayed in you.
Luke 19:1-10
Verse 2
[2] And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.
The chief of the publicans — What we would term, commissioner of the customs. A very honourable as well as profitable place.
Verse 4
[4] And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
And running before — With great earnestness.
He climbed up — Notwithstanding his quality: desire conquering honour and shame.
Verse 5
[5] And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.
Jesus said, Zaccheus, make haste and come down — What a strange mixture of passions must Zaccheus have now felt, hearing one speak, as knowing both his name and his heart!
Verse 7
[7] And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.
They all murmured — All who were near: though most of them rather out of surprise than indignation.
Verse 8
[8] And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Zaccheus stood — Showing by his posture, his deliberate, purpose and ready mind, and said, Behold, Lord, I give - I determine to do it immediately.
Verse 9
[9] And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
He also is a son of Abraham — A Jew born, and as such has a right to the first offer of salvation.
Verse 10
[10] For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Matthew 18:11.
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The Upper Room Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004, United States
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Today's Scripture:
John 5:24 Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life! 25 Yes, indeed! I tell you that there is coming a time — in fact, it’s already here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will come to life. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son life to have in himself.
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Link to GBOD Devotional
Contact Information:
Great Plains Episcopal Office
9440 East Boston, Suite 160
Wichita Kansas 67207, United States
316-686-0600
800-745-2350
info@greatplainsumc.org
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