tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post5652216369437024123..comments2023-06-28T11:56:24.073-04:00Comments on The Lamb's War: Missional Quaker Faith: Following JesusMicah Baleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06849915973708989620noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post-816944082510230412010-10-28T08:31:31.411-04:002010-10-28T08:31:31.411-04:00Micah and Bill Samuel,
I read what you wrote with ...Micah and Bill Samuel,<br />I read what you wrote with great<br />interest. Obviously, Bill is reflecting his bad experience, some<br />years ago, in trying to promote<br />Christian life in Baltimore Y.M.<br />Because of his bad experience, he<br />clearly has a right to his opinion.<br /> But I have another opinion, also<br />based on my experience. I grew up in New York Yearly Meeting in the<br />Forties and Fifties. The two<br />yearly meetings were re-united in 1955. The Orthodox Friends, I<br />would say, were Christ-centered.<br />The FGC Friends were Light-centered. I think it was clear<br />to most of us that these phrases mean the same thing. Any Friend<br />who did not understand this right away would come to understand it<br />after a little explanation.<br /> My own meeting was Ridgewood meeting in northern New Jersey.<br />Delbert and Ruth Hinshaw Replogle,<br />evangelical Friends from Washington<br />state and Oregon, had founded it<br />in 1939. No Friends meeting had<br />ever existed in that area before.<br />We had Friends from every Quaker<br />background conceivable in the<br />meeting: FGC, Five Years Meeting,<br />Conservative, and evangelical We<br />also had a majority, I would say,<br />of convinced Friends. For more<br />than 20 years the meeting was a<br />spectacular success, though now<br />it is a small and struggling<br />meeting, for reasons having little<br />or nothing to do with its origins.<br />At any rate, lliterally hundreds<br />of people learned to be Friends<br />in that meeting, and a number are still Friends to this day.<br /> So I suggest that no one decide<br />ahead of time that a good united<br />"ecumenical" Friends meeting is<br />impossible. It is possible, and<br />I have seen it, in many places in<br />New York Yearly Meeting during the<br />Forties and Fifties. I agree that<br />such a project would be much harder now, because "liberal" Friends have become much more<br />intransigent. Unfortunately, every segment of the Religious <br />Society of Friends in North America<br />seems to have settled on notional<br />religion. But I see little good<br />future for Friends unless we don't<br />stop this, and preach and practice<br />spiritual religion in our entire<br />Society. Yes, this means preaching<br />and practicing the Light of Christ Within, by whatever name we call it. Without the Light Within, we<br />are lost; we are an incoherent<br />religion; we will not survive.<br /> So I urge you, Micah, not<br />to give up altogether, but to <br />consider continuing in the very<br />difficult task of preaching <br />Christ to secular Friends who<br />think that they have no need of<br />him any more.<br /> Jeremy MottJeremy Mottunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post-82392996991193701732010-10-25T17:01:27.661-04:002010-10-25T17:01:27.661-04:00@Raye Thanks for thy comment. It is sometimes hard...@Raye Thanks for thy comment. It is sometimes hard to articulate why Jesus must be at the center of our life as a community, but it is starkly clear when he is not!<br /><br />@Pat Thanks! :)<br /><br />@Bill I'm glad that my choice of further reading meshed well with your sense of the essay. Thomas Kelly's Testament of Devotion has certainly influenced me a great deal. <br /><br />I think you're right to point out that it is just as easy for ardently Christian groups to fail to put Jesus at the center as it is for groups that shy away from the historic tradition of Christianity. Jesus is a person, not a position, and we are all capable of neglecting Christ if we are not firmly rooted in our practice of waiting on him in everything.<br /><br />I agree with you that the DC area is blessed with many good people, seeking to know and follow God's will. I pray that Christ will continue to gather his people together, knitting us into a Body that will serve to make his love known to the world.Micah Baleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06849915973708989620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post-89381770252819876772010-10-23T19:35:51.682-04:002010-10-23T19:35:51.682-04:00Micah, what you say here is of critical importance...Micah, what you say here is of critical importance. As I was reading through it, I kept thinking of what Thomas Kelly wrote, and then I came to the end and found you cited him for further reading! Kelly does delve deeply into critical parts of what you are writing about.<br /><br />I have personally experienced the huge difference in the bonds in communities based on Jesus Christ, and those which are not. Those communities which really have Christ at the center are able to transcend many of the barriers that commonly exist between people, and reach deeper.<br /><br />Friends who seek to keep the center in Jesus Christ will have to face the reality that many bodies of Friends do not have that center. This is true both of bodies that are publicly ambivalent about Christ, and those that loudly proclaim their Christianity.<br /><br />There are so many ways to focus on something other than Christ. You can do it by openly denying the claims of Christ, by emphasizing doctrines about Christ rather than the living Christ, by being fixated on certain practices rather than on the spirit of Christ which ostensibly originally led Friends to them, by giving improper authority to human leaders, etc., etc.<br /><br />There are meetings/churches which are so focused on something else than Christ himself that it is probably pointless to work within them to make them missional Christian communities. There are others where there are different centers competing, and one of them is Christ, and some of them may be moved in that direction. There are still others which essentially grasp the missional call.<br /><br />If you feel the call, you should probably not commit to a community which is definitely committed to another center unless you have a very clear call from the Lord to do so. Micah, I note that you have located in an area with a number of Friends meetings and did not commit to any of them, but started a new group. This may have been well led, since none of the local meetings seems to me promising to become a missional Christian community, albeit they are full of good people trying to do good things.Bill Samuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00752443575410023776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post-29334052070951013592010-10-23T19:20:36.016-04:002010-10-23T19:20:36.016-04:00Preach it, brother!Preach it, brother!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37106751.post-26919445858553204812010-10-23T14:03:33.368-04:002010-10-23T14:03:33.368-04:00Micah,
The times that I have felt that my meeting...Micah,<br /><br />The times that I have felt that my meeting has missed it, when I have missed it, I can see that what was mainly missing was Jesus Christ. Arguments and positions have wasted our energy, as have apparently well-intentioned programs and projects. When Christ has been central, there indeed has been transformation and quickening, and the awareness of loving and being loved.<br /><br />In those latter conditions, the less easy things necessary to doing the Lord's work have been made manageable. Inner and outer resources have been provided.Rayenoreply@blogger.com