YAF Gathering in Richmond

As a result of my contacts with Friends in the wider Religious Society over the past few years, since attending the World Gathering of Young Friends in Lancaster, England, in 2005, I have found myself increasingly drawn into a movement of Young Adult Friends (YAFs). In February of 2007, we met together at Burlington, where the Spirit of God was powerfully felt among us, showing us that we were the People of God, the Children of the Light, and that God had a mission for us, together. Since that time, I have been working with a number of other YAF leaders to cooperate in the work of the Holy Spirit to draw together the disparate shards of our Religious Society, attempting to heed the voice of Christ within. It has become clear to me that God is raising up a new valiant generation of ministers qualified to preach the Gospel of Christ across North America, and the world. 

      Since late spring of 2007, I have been in regular meetings with other Young Adult Friends leaders from across the continent, attempting to discern with them the way in which God is leading us to move. At a meeting in Boston, in April, 2007, a small group of us met and came to unity that a North American organization for Young Adult Friends should be formed, to bring together Friends from across the theological and geographical spectrum of the North American continent. This sense was confirmed by a subsequent meeting of a larger number of young adults at Barnsville, Ohio, in June, 2007. Despite our sense of divine direction towards the ultimate goal of inaugurating a North American YAF organization, by late fall of 2007, it became clear that the energy of many young adult leaders was focused on organizing a YAF Conference. Bowing to where Friends’ energy seemed to be headed, I and other leaders have taken part in a process of planning a gathering for Young Adult Friends.

      The conference for Young Adult Friends, entitled Living as Friends, Listening Within, took place from May 23^rd to 26^th, 2008 on the campus of the Earlham School of Religion and Earlham College. Young Adult Friends from across the US and Canada, and with representation from all of the branches of North American Quakerism, gathered together for a time of intense fellowship, worship, workshops, and interest groups. During these days in Richmond, we were stretched, challenged to deepen our faith in the Spirit of Christ and our willingness to live out our faith in the world. We wrestled with the meaning of Paul’s words to the Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good, and acceptable, and perfect” (Romans 12:2). We were encouraged by many young adult ministers to listen within to the Inward Guide and to be faithful to that Voice, submitting ourselves to our God-given leadings under the care of our monthly meetings and spiritual elders. We were convicted of our own unwillingness to live into the radical message of Jesus and exhorted to let our lives be conformed to that Life. We were ministered to as one, and shown that we are the Body of Christ. At the same time, we were reminded that we as Young Adult Friends are only one small part of the Religious Society of Friends, and an even tinier part of the whole of the Body of Christ. Further, we were reminded of the brokenness of Christ’s Body and how far we as Friends have to go in being healed, both as individuals and as a religious community.

      As one of the organizers of this conference, it was a very different experience for me than if I had been solely a participant. I felt a strong sense of needing to ground the gathering, particularly the worship sessions, and worked with the pastoral care team to help spiritually anchor the gathered body, which at times had an energy that seemed to spiral out of control. The reality that I ultimately had no control was humbling, as I was once again brought to acknowledge that only Christ has lordship, and that all I can do is submit to being an instrument in the divine plan. The conference was a victory in the Lamb’s war, but the battle was won by the spiritual sword that proceeds from the mouth of Christ, and not from any outward force that we as organizers could have wielded. 

      As we move forward from this conference, I would ask for the continuing prayers of all Friends. I pray for the continuing guidance of the Spirit of Christ to be with all of us in the Religious Society of Friends, and in particular with those who are feeling a call to nurture the Young Adult Friends movement in North America. I pray for God’s guidance in revealing to us what next steps we are to take in this movement, that our spiritual offering to God might be good, and acceptable, and perfect. 

Further Reflections on Gospel Ministry

I continue to reflect on my role as evangelist in a world where the Gospel cannot be contained in any words or phrasing, either of my own or of my faith community. God is too big to have any sense that I, or Quakers, or even (mono)theists have a corner on that relationship. The response to my previous post has been helpful in aiding me thinking about my faith in relation to my beliefs and my mission as evangelist. When I sink down to the Seed and ask the question with sincerity to my Guide, the answer to my query is revealed: I, like the Old Friends, am called not to be an evangelist of ideas or notional statements, but instead a witness to the Power of God.

The Old Friends were witnesses to the Truth, speaking directly to the Seed of Christ that they encountered in all people. George Fox had a vision of how he "was to bring the people out of all the religions of the world and into the True Christianity." This True Christianity, I am convinced, is not a system of belief, but instead an inward submission to God's guiding, loving, life-giving Spirit. I as evangelist am called to transmit not ideas, but instead to serve as a witness to the testimony of God in the hearts of all people.

And I see that I have striven to create fellowship, to be the agent that brings together church communities. But I recognize now that I myself am incapable of convening any fellowship of God. "We do not [create fellowship]; that is the Lord's work." It is the testimony of the Truth inside of me that reaches out to that same testimony in the other which creates the bond of fellowship. God will gather God's people, God establishes the Church - not me.

Perhaps my role as evangelist is to be receptive to the ministry of the Spirit amongst us and within my heart, to be obedient to that. Perhaps through my obedience to God I might be a light shining in the darkness, pointing towards Truth for those who are seeking it. Reading the book of Acts, it seems clear to me that the early Church grew because of the obviousness with which God was working among them. When others in the area saw the joy, peace, and self-sacrificial love of the church fellowship, many were certainly moved to turn their lives around and hearken to the inward voice of Truth in their hearts. The life of the early Church "so shone before others that they saw their good works and glorified our Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

By staying low to the ground and humbly hearkening to the ministry of Love in my heart, perhaps my life might be a testimony that draws others into fellowship. I see now that perhaps I have been looking at things wrongly for quite some time now. I have in my mind somewhat separated evangelism from the rest of the life of the Church, as if it were something separate or distinct. But I see now that any fellowship that is living up to its calling will be a "missional" fellowship, because the testimony of the Seed, shining in the life of that gathered community, will draw others in, inviting them into the Body of Christ.

But, if we are not being the Body of Christ, if our fellowship is in a holding pattern, waiting for a more "opportune time," we will not be capable of being missional, even if that is a stated aspiration of our community. If we as a congregation, if I as an individual, if we as families, if we as Christian universities, if we as friends and neighbors are not living a life that reveals the Truth and Life of Christ, no mission statement that we outwardly proclaim will be of any use. We will be "professing that which we are not possessing."

I want to commit myself to living a life that will display the marks of Christ in my person, in my speech, in my lifestyle, and in my love for my neighbors and even my enemies. I want to commit to living a life of radical obedience to God that might reveal the life of Christ in my own flesh. If I can commit myself to seeking the Spirit of unconditional love, if I can dedicate my life to living the incarnation, if I can accept the very real possibility of bearing the sufferings of Christ in my own body - that, by the grace of God, will speak to the world. My life could be an invitation to Christ's table. Am I ready for the consequences of real evangelism?

In Search of the Gospel

My trip to Ciudad Victoria and Mexico City for Earlham School of Religion’s Theology in Context course has proved extremely challenging for me on a personal level. It was not a difficult trip, not a hard experience at the time. I did not feel unduly challenged while I was in Mexico, beyond getting fatigued at interpreting at one point and getting a little sick in Mexico City. The truth is that this excursion felt closer in flavor to a ministry trip rather than a theology course. It felt almost like an extension of my supervised ministry, which involves a great deal of traveling ministry among Friends. I enjoyed very much our time with Friends in Ciudad Victoria, as well as our few days of adventure in Mexico City, and it was not this experience per se which was difficult. Instead, it was the ramifications for me, as one who feels called to evangelism, of the required reading for the course, Models of Contextual Theology, by Stephen Bevans and the reflection that this book demanded of me in order to attempt an answer to the question, “what is the kernel of the Gospel?” My wrestling with this question, along with at the same time observing various strains of Christianity in Mexico and interacting with an American Buddhist friend (via internet), has deeply challenged my own sense of what the core of my faith is, what is essential in my own life of faith and what is merely cultural, and what it is that I am called to communicate.

Before arriving in Ciudad Victoria, as I read Bevans’ book, I felt fairly confident that I had a basic idea of what the gospel kernel was: An essential Quaker vision of a loving and just God that speaks to us today in our hearts and who revealed Godself in the person of Jesus Christ. It was from this kernel that I felt any culture – religious or otherwise – could be judged helpful or harmful, correct or incorrect, true or false – or somewhere in between. In my interactions with Friends in Ciudad Victoria, I got to think a great deal about the interaction between "essential Quakerism" and the culture in which that Quakerism is expressed. Leaving Ciudad Victoria, I wondered very much, “is Quakerism a cultural phenomenon without any ultimate, universal value for all of humanity?”

As we arrived in Mexico City, I was very much struggling with the question of what the core of Quakerism was and whether that Quaker core was the same as the gospel kernel. At first, I believed that I had found both, and that they were one and the same. I wrote in my journal on 11, 1^st month, 2008: “For me the most interesting and fecund part of our conversation [that afternoon, in Chapultepec Park] was discussing whether the Quaker expression of Christianity was universal, or whether it was not essential. That is to say, is the Quaker bare minimum (in my mind, sense-of-the-meeting decision-making, waiting worship, and a witness to the presence of Christ guiding and teaching us today) the universal Gospel, or is it a cultural “husk” that is not essentially true for all peoples, times and places? If it’s not core, then I as evangelist need to let go of proclaiming a Quaker vision and instead ‘know nothing but Christ and him crucified.’ If, however, the core of Quaker experience and testimony and practice is the everlasting Gospel – if Quakers’ experience of how God relates to communities is true for all people at all times – then I have a responsibility as evangelist to proclaim those core Quaker experiences and practices.

Of course, these core experiential-practices might look extremely different in different cultural contexts. For example, in an African cultural setting waiting worship might take place in a drum circle with those moved to give ministry shouting or singing out of the drumbeat, instead of out of the silence. Meeting for business might look much the same way. And Christ might be understood in ways that would seem very foreign to North American Friends. But those cores, the way the Friends experience God’s covenant with humanity, would be an essential reality of the Gospel: sense-of-the-meeting decision-making, waiting (not necessarily ‘silent’) worship, and the testimony that Christ has come to teach his people himself.” This very basic mix of orthodoxy (or “ortho-testimony”) and orthopraxy seemed to be the core not only of the Quaker faith, but also of the Christian Gospel, more broadly conceived. But this was not to be the end of the story. Though it was not a part of the course, I was not going to stay within the Christian, or even a theistic conception of Truth. With all of these questions still percolating inside of me, my engagement with my Buddhist friend from Boston was heating up.

The fact that the Light is shining in my non-theistic Buddhist friend in Boston made it impossible for me to restrict my search for the gospel kernel to the monotheistic faith tradition. It was the certainty with which I felt that I perceived in my friend the Seed of Christ - not as imprisoned Truth crying out for liberation, but as a sprouting branch of God testifying to Truth - which forced me to engage non-theistic Buddhism as a place where Christ is alive, at work, and proclaiming the Gospel even in the absence of any mention of God or Divine Intention. As I returned from Mexico City to Kansas and prepared to make a ministry trip to visit Friends at Hominy Friends Meeting in Osage country, I experienced a crisis of faith. I was unable to justify why Jesus – or even a conception of a God with intention – was essential to the universal Gospel. Any assertion I would make about the centrality of Christ or the importance of God as Lord and not as “emptiness,” would be easily dismissed by my friend, who seemed to be speaking from Truth, but simply had no use for the words I was using, nor for the concepts I was employing.

I am still wrestling with the question: What is the kernel of the everlasting and universal Gospel if even the concept of a God with intention is unnecessary for salvation/enlightenment/liberation? I feel deep inside of me that there is a Divine Center that is beyond words and forms and theologies. Is there nothing that can be uttered that can be universal for all humans? While the Gospel is universal, are all words ultimately limited and, to some extent, futile? What does the Religious Society of Friends have to say to the world if the Gospel is beyond all words? More specifically, what is my mission as evangelist if the evangel is beyond any human expression or conception? Is there any meaning to proclamation of the gospel if the gospel is unutterable?