| May 22, 2013 | |
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CONTENTS
The Brethren effect
Early AC registration
Of math and grace |
Christy Crouse and new friends made at Christian Citizenship Seminar this year.
Fond memories of church potlucks at Antioch Church of the Brethren. 
Sharing a cacao pod in the
Dominican Republic.
Photos courtesy of Christy Crouse | The Brethren effectThis reflection by Christy Crouse is in honor of all the Brethren students who celebrate graduation this spring. Congratulations! May your next steps be ever guided by Jesus, and may you never lose your “Brethren effect.”
Regardless of where I’ve called home throughout my life, the Church of the Brethren has had an influential presence. When I was very young, my parents intentionally located our family in communities that fostered Brethren ideals. Now, as a young adult heading off to college, I realize how much those communities influenced who I have become.
We lived in Rocky Mount, Va., until I was four, and I have few memories of that place apart from Antioch Church of the Brethren. I think of church-wide potluck dinners, swinging with my best friend Beatrice, and visiting church members’ houses to fellowship and watch Veggie Tales. Rocky Mount was where I learned the joy that comes with generosity, and that togetherness is paramount.
My parents became missionaries in the Dominican Republic when I was five. I didn’t speak a word of Spanish, and the children at school treated me like an outsider—but the church was different. The people there were the most hospitable I had ever encountered, sharing what little they had with our family whenever possible. The simplicity of the Dominican people was profound, and taught me that a life focused on people, not possessions, is the will of God.
After four years in the DR, we moved to Missouri and found a home at Warrensburg Church of the Brethren. There I was taught by the examples of my congregation, and encouraged to be an advocate for peace. The Warrensburg church taught me the value of peacefully resolving conflict, and there I developed a passion for maintaining God’s creation.
I graduated from high school last week, and will be attending Truman State University in the fall. My new home is located in the rural town of Kirksville, Mo., and is over 100 miles away from the nearest Brethren church. But I am confident that what I have learned from my Church of the Brethren family over the past 18 years will not leave me. I believe that the lessons I’ve learned will continue to influence my decisions. And I know that I can use the principles I’ve been taught to preach another way of living in my new community—a way of peace, simplicity, and togetherness.
It’s not too late to attend Young Adult Conference onMay 25! Visit www.brethren.org/yac to register. Support the youth and young adult ministries of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org/give .
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If you can't make it to Charlotte this year, participate in Annual Conference via webcast. Check out the live streaming atwww.brethren.org/webcasts .
Photo by Regina Holmes
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Early registration is ending!
Early registration for Annual Conference ends June 4. Be sure to visit www.brethren.org/ac before then to register, sign up for age group activities, and purchase meal tickets and choir packets.
After you pack your bags for Conference, consider packing an extra backpack full of school supplies to donate to Classroom Central as part of our Witness to the Host City this year.
And don't forget to prepare your heart for the Day of Spiritual Renewal on Sunday, June 30, with speakers Philip Yancey and Mark Yaconelli.
Visit www.brethren.org/ac for more information about all this and more, or e-mailannualconference@brethren.org with any questions.
See you in Charlotte, June 29-July 3!
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Ken Morse during his tenure at Messengermagazine from 1950 through 1978.
Photo courtesy of Messenger magazine
The cover of a special edition ofMessenger magazine that celebrated Ken Morse's 28 years as editor.
Ken Morse may be best known for his musical compositions, including the Brethren favorite, "Move in our Midst."
Photo by Matt DeBall | Of math and graceBy Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
We know Ken Morse as the author of “Move in Our Midst,” the hymn that provides the theme for Annual Conference this year. But Morse also was a poet, author of worship resources, writer of Sunday school curriculum, and editor and associate editor ofMessenger magazine for 28 years.
During the turbulent 1960s, Morse wrote an editorial responding to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., lifting up King as a prophetic dreamer. Letters poured in of two kinds: either shocking expressions of racism, bigotry, and hatred, or very supportive of King’s work and thankful for Morse’s editorial. So on June 20, 1968, Morse wrote a follow-up editorial expressing his conviction of the Gospel call to care for the poor. It was titled, “A Little Careless about Mathematics.” The following is an excerpt:
"Jesus said the strangest things. His words were just about as unconventional as the things he did. Either he was impractical—apparently lacking in sound business judgment—or his standards were of a different order from those that prevailed in his time—and in ours also. Or maybe he was just a little careless about mathematics.
"The most puzzling of all his parables is the one in which Jesus propounded some odd ideas about wages and hours of working. A householder went out early one morning to round up workers for his vineyard. The rate of pay was about 20 cents. But he needed additional help and therefore he hired others as the day went on. At the end of the day, each worker received his 20 cents, the eleventh hour employee as well as the early risers. Naturally the fellows who put in longer hours were unhappy; but the householder insisted that he had kept his bargain. If he wanted to treat the last as well as the first, what was that to them?
"Jesus insist(s) that the rewards of God’s kingdom are not to be distributed on the basis of a man’s merit but rather on the basis of God’s grace. According to Jesus, God is the kind of employer who cares little about arithmetic but cares tremendously about people—no matter what time they arrive.
"The amazing thing about God’s grace is that it forgets about merits and emphasizes instead the spendthrift nature of divine love. God is not a stern accountant keeping books of every man’s indebtedness but a loving Father who is concerned about individuals of every shape and size, of every custom and color, of every race and nation. [This] is the good news of the gospel of the grace of God—a grace so marvelous that it puts Jesus on the side of the poor, a love so forgiving that it cannot tolerate war-making, and a gospel so universal that it binds man to man (all races included) as well as man to God."
Click here to read Ken Morse's editorial in full atwww.brethren.org/news .
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www.brethren.org/messenger
| "We Brethren are 'bound together and finely woven' not by our family connections or the church camp we attended or the color of our skin or the flavor of our politics. We are bound together by the hand of God, woven together by the love of Jesus, and we are effective together through the power of the Spirit."
--Annual Conference moderator Bob Krouse in the May edition of Messenger magazine. |
 | Do you have a story about how you or your congregation practice stewardship? E-mail it to mgarcia@brethren.org !
eBrethren: stories of Brethren stewards, is produced every other week by the Church of the Brethren's donor communications team. Send feedback to mgarcia@brethren.org
or call 847-742-5100 ext. 361.
Thanks for reading!
Watch for our next issue on June 5, 2013! |
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