| November 7, 2013 | |
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CONTENTS
Speak: Give voice to the promise
What is a ministry pioneer?
Live the peace |
 " It is in the quiet of carols being heard... that we rediscover the story alive in us."Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
| Speak: Give voice to the promiseBy Erin Matteson
"He could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak"(Luke 1:22).
How many of us take intentional time to be quiet each day? It is not something most people tend to do. Apparently it had to be forced on Zechariah, the New Testament priest and father of John the Baptist. But even though it wasn’t something he sought, it was a blessing. Even if it felt like a punishment, it took him to an incredible place.
The irony of this gospel story is that it is Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, who is literally pregnant, but Zechariah ends up with something growing in him as well. As Elizabeth becomes pregnant, Zechariah begins a gestation period that brings the Good News to life again in him, culminating in the birth of a new song of hope and promise, possibility, and peace. The good news for us in that, is that in our barren places where hope may seem lost, or we can no longer see or know God’s promise of a better day, God will come to us, and plant or grow a new song, within us.
An important part of this story is the partnership or means of silence. Just as John is the forerunner to Jesus, silence, grounded-ness in prayer, going inward, seems to be the forerunner to rediscovering our voice, discovering a new song. Think of the Christmas season and we rediscover this ancient truth.
This is so opposite of the world. Everyone is running around crazy, shopping, worrying about gifts, noisy. But it is when we all stop, and spend simple time with family, or make time to be quiet, listen to one another. Listen, to and for God. It is in the quiet of carols being heard, or the Christmas story being told once more, that we can rediscover the story alive in us, that we can remember the power that comes from love in our midst, and be remembered, in that remembering. Stopping, to be a little more quiet, if not silent, cracks open enough space in our living for something special to be heard for the first time—or again. Something new grows in us and we discover new energy, new possibility, hope, joy, love, peace, a fresh song of life.
The preparation for Christmas—The Good News—to be born in us as it was in Zechariah, is for us to be countercultural. It is for us to stop more, speak less, go inward, allow our senses to heighten, be surprised as something fresh and new rises within us until we can’t help but let it burst forth.
It is for us to see ourselves in this day, as active participants in Christ being proclaimed and born into the world, just as Christ was, long ago! It is for us as Brethren, to rediscover our voice, a voice for peace and made manifest in the action of service.
—Erin Matteson is a team pastor at the Modesto Church of the Brethren in California. She wrote this and several other resources for this year’s Advent Offering, available at www.brethren.org/adventoffering . To participate in the offering now, visit www.brethren.org/give .
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www.brethren.org/webcasts |
What is a ministry pioneer?
A pioneer minister is someone (ordained or lay) who has the vision and gifts to be a missionary entrepreneur with the capacity to form and and lead fresh expressions and new forms of church appropriate to a particular culture.
Three free webinars on this subject will be
hosted by Church of the Brethren
Congregational Life Ministries and
Anabaptist Network in the United Kingdom.
November 7: Juliet Kilpin, a coordinator of Urban Expression in Britain, will discuss converting models of church or mission from one context to another.
November 14: Steve Finamore, principal of Bristol Baptist College, will present on working with God to serve people in the margins—“outside the camp.”
December 11, David Kerrigan, general director of BMS (Baptist Missionary Society) World Service, will lead a conversation about historical pioneers and serving in global contexts.
All webinars will be held 2:30-4:00 p.m. ET. Volunteers in Europe should be sure to tune in
7:30-9:00 p.m. WET.
To register or learn more, visitwww.brethren.org/webcasts , or e-mail
Stan Dueck at sdueck@brethren.org .
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Nate Hosler running the Brethren
Benefit Trust fitness challenge
at Annual Conference.
Photo by Eric Thompson
Heather Gentry, Amanda McLearn-Montz, and Jacob Crouse of the 2013
Youth Peace Travel Team.Photo by Marie Benner-Rhoades
The Going to the Garden Initiative is partly funded through the Global Food Crisis Fund , which you can support atwww.brethren.org/gfcf .
| Live the peaceBy Nate Hosler
This morning I went for a run. Heading down a path by the river, I could see my breath in the cold air, and in the early light I caught glimpses of steam coming off the Anacostia River. I felt a calmness that is not always characteristic of my urban life, often punctuated by violence and unrest.
In the Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., we seek to “live the peace of Jesus publicly.” Sometimes this witness is firsthand, but other times we support from the sidelines. This summer I had the joy of supporting two Church of the Brethren ministries that daily live the peace of Jesus.
The first was the Youth Peace Travel Team, a group of college-aged young adults who spend the summer traveling to church camps, teaching about the biblical basis and practice of peacemaking. The other was theGoing to the Garden Initiative, a program co-sponsored by the Global Food Crisis Fund that gives grants to congregations to begin or expand community gardens.
Here in D.C., Brethren Volunteer Service worker Bryan Hangerand I will do our best to bear witness to the peace of Jesus in a city tense with political upheaval. But I will always rejoice in taking a break from that profound absence of peace to visit friends who are teaching peace in wooded camps. I will smile at pictures of Brethren sharing love and vegetables. I will thank God for stories of your congregations bearing witness to the gospel through your whole manner of living. This is the way our Brethren voice is spoken into neighborhoods, and how the Christ light is carried into the world.
Thank you for your ministry, for loving others in Jesus’ name by sharing peace, love, joy—maybe even vegetables. Thank you for serving, and for participating in Church of the Brethren ministries, and for praying for others who bear witness on our behalf all over the world. Thank you for financially supporting these ministries, investing in their future growth. Thank you for believing in these ministries, and for continuing the work of Jesus through them.
The Office of Public Witness, the Youth Peace Travel Team, and Brethren Volunteer Service are core ministries of the Church of the Brethren. Visitwww.brethren.org to learn more about them, and all the other life-changing ministries of the church.
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“If we will live in covenant with God and live according to the plan of God, which is based on justice, mercy, and peace, we will experience all the blessings of God’s love. That is not to say that we will never suffer or that we will never experience conflict. We are prone to make many mistakes and life is finite. But to the extent that we can experience the peace God intended for the world, we, like the Bible, must reject violence, injustice, and hatred.”
—From the Call of Conscience curriculum produced by the Office of Public Witness.
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 | Do you have a story about how you and 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 November 20, 2013. |
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