There is no place that is not already sacred because there is no place where God does not already await us.
future
always just beyond what
have been refined again and again to focus on peace as our
foundational, and essential purpose as the body of Christ.
A free fall lecture series from the Community of Christ
Sites Foundation has a global flavor.
Like Lazarus, Jesus is calling for us to “come out!” and invite others into our community.
There is no place that is not already sacred because there is no place where God does not already await us.
The Sierra Pacific Mission Center covenant focuses on compassionate ministry and courageous action. It is a guide to the community amidst uncertainty, change, and wild transformation.
36 Know God God wants to walk a new path with us, and that path often leads to a way of knowing God that we haven’t experienced before.
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From the First Presidency:
Susan D. Sloan, World Church secretary and First Presidency office director, will retire from full-time employment on December 31. She has had these roles since 2012, and her retirement concludes more than 42 years of dedicated service to the church.
We are deeply grateful for Sue Sloan’s commitment to the mission of the church and its people. We look forward to her continued ministry in retirement.
Susan K. Naylor has been appointed World Church secretary and First Presidency office director effective January 1, 2022. She brings a wealth of experience and skills that will be a blessing to the church. A transition period has begun to provide for mentoring and preparation.
In a video message, Community of Christ President Steve Veazey addresses the process of returning to in-person church. Veazey reminds congregations, however, of the blessings of the Holy Spirit through connections made in online services and urges continuation of those efforts.
“I hope we will embrace equally in-person experiences and digital participation where technology allows. It is important to extend our fellowship by providing fresh and meaningful ways to form Christcentered communities. Groups that place equal value on in-person and online participation will lead us toward the Holy Spirit’s goal for us.”
The video is available at www.youtube.com/user/CofChrist
The First Presidency invites members and friends worldwide to hold June 9-11, 2022 for an online event to prepare for the 2023 World Conference. Members and friends participating in the June 2022 online event will worship together, learn about resolutions and other topics to be considered at the 2023 World Conference, and continue exploration of WCR 1319—Nonviolence.
Planners are working to determine when and how to best gather online, knowing that participation will span the world’s time zones.
As details become available, updates will be provided. Watch for more information on the church’s website, by email, and on social media.
Picture your sacred space. This reflective statement often arises when someone is helping guide you toward finding a connection with God. Many of us have places that are special because of previous Spiritfilled experiences we had there. Sacred spaces are created in sacred moments.
I remember as a youth looking forward to the camp worship experience at a place called Inspiration Point at Camp Woodland Hills in Missouri. Some called it Perspiration Point because you had to hike down a hill to a river and then climb up a steep pathway, avoiding copperhead snakes and poison ivy. It seemed like it took forever to get there, and the first few times I made the trek I wondered if it was really worth it. It was. Inspiration Point was a sacred space where I found Christ’s peace deepening my relationship with God and the faith community while growing as a disciple.
In my early discipleship formation, I felt like God was only available in sacred places. Now I understand that God is always available for sacred moments. The key is for me to be awake and looking.
When Moses saw the burning bush, he was told that he was standing on holy ground (Exodus 3:5). He didn’t go to a sacred space to find God. Instead, when he opened his awareness to the presence of God and listened, the space where he was standing became sacred.
In the Jerusalem temple, there was the Holy of Holies. This was a sacred space in
the inner chamber reserved for God’s presence. Only the high priest could enter and only on specific days. This idea pushes against our understanding today of God’s omnipresence in the world. But at the time, many believed they were not worthy to have a personal connection with the Divine.
The Apostle Paul tried to break down the idea that access to God was limited to only a few. He explained to the Corinthians that God was with them. He also dared to say that God wasn’t just in a building. Paul reframed God’s relationship with the temple by describing that God was in the temple of our being: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
IN MY EARLY DISCIPLESHIP FORMATION, I FELT LIKE GOD WAS ONLY AVAILABLE IN SACRED PLACES. NOW I UNDERSTAND THAT GOD IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE FOR SACRED MOMENTS.
Perhaps a sacred place is anywhere you find yourself moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One.
God, where does your Spirit lead today?
T his question led a group of people in Chatham, Ontario, Canada to attempt a new expression of Com munity of Christ in early 2018. We sensed that God was calling us to more than Sunday worship; we were called to mission as well. We called our group Sharing Love in Mission.
We met in homes and attempted to sense where the Spirit was leading us in our community. We began to support neighbors who were suffering due to house fires or other tragedies, responding with financial help as needed.
In early 2020, the group became an official congrega tion. We established a budget focused on mission, with “outreach” as the largest line item. We paid minimal rent for meeting space so most of our resources could be used in the community.
SLIM became involved in the local Pride parade and community fair. We invited people to paint rocks for joy, hope, love, and peace at our booth. A member got permission from the city to establish a peace rock garden along a path near their home. It has become a neighborhood highlight, and people often add more rocks.
T he group also connected with other faiths. In 2019, SLIM hosted an interfaith sharing event on September 21, UN International Day of Peace. Six faith groups shared their beliefs and culture. It was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we hope it will become an annual gathering. Other faith organizations already have stated that they want to help financially to sup port the event.
As the pandemic grew worse, SLIM wanted to support essential workers. We could not offer physical presence, so we wrote and
drew. Over five hundred cards and banners were posted on hospital walls and on entrances to nursing homes.
Recently, SLIM con nected with the Black history museum in Chatham (one of the end points of the Underground Railroad) and discovered a need for financial help to restore the museum. The group has also collected money for a Canadian organization that is working to tell a truth ful story of the residential school system where First Nations children died.
Where is God calling our community today? It is up to us to discern what our response will be. The con gregation is forging a new path with no predetermined templates to follow. We focus on sharing God’s love and touching the lives of everyone we encounter.
—Shone Carson, Paula Tite, and Donald Robb; Sharing Love in Mission pastor team
Lost in the enjoyment of being together and engaged in a recycling and fundraising venture, young members of the McKinney, Texas, USA congregation stomped aluminum cans into space-saving sizes. Once crushed, the cans are bagged and loaded into the car of a member who lives near a recycling center. Depending on the market, the center pays 15-30 cents per pound for the cans. The youth group earned close to $60 in their first six months of work! The group’s goal is to reduce the number of cans heading to a landfill, and members are sending proceeds to World Church. Members of the group are inspired by the Enduring Principles of Sacredness of Creation, Responsible Choices, and Blessings of Community.
—Elsie Kornman and Katie Barber, McKinney, Texas, USA
As followers of Jesus, our whole-life commitment is in response to God’s wonderful generosity. Being generous is about aligning our priorities with God’s priorities, aligning our hearts with God’s heart.
Reaching out to the neighborhood is important to members of the Indianola, Iowa, USA congregation. Over the years, the congregation has completed many projects, but the Little Free Library added in July 2019 had an effect no one could foresee.
Little Free Library is a network of boxes set up around the world by volunteers hoping to build community and inspire reading. The Indianola church building is near an elementary school, so the congregation stocked the library with a blend of books for children and adults. For months, there was only moderate borrowing and restocking. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, it no longer seemed wise to have uncontrolled sharing of hard-to-clean books.
The needs of the neighborhood changed as food insecurity and a need for virus protection grew, so the library became a Little Free Pantry. Church members donated nonperishable food, personal care items, and hand sanitizer. Keri Crowley, Ruth Lewis, and Judy Philbrook sewed masks, and more than five hundred fabric masks were given away in twelve months.
As Judy makes her daily checks of the pantry, she finds that neighbors are adding even more items. Generosity is contagious! Who knows what this little ministry will become next?
—Claudia Schooler, Carlisle, Iowa, USA
Fabric face masks and nonperishable food fill the Indianola congregation’s Little Free Pantry.
We are called to be Christ’s hands and feet, reaching out through compassionate ministries that serve the poor and hungry and stop conditions that diminish the worth of persons.
The future is always just beyond what we can see, but Jesus is our constant companion on the journey.
By Jan Hill, New Brighton, Minnesota, USAOnce I sat in the center of the Temple in Independence, Missouri, USA and looked into the interior of the spire. Upward and upward I looked, trying to see the top and tracing its inside circumference around and around. Every round went higher and higher until I could see no further, and I knew I still had not glimpsed the top. It was impossible to see from where I was sitting.
It made me think of this journey we’re on. We keep to the upward path, following it through our various experiences in life. Sometimes we find that we’ve already been ’round this way before, but the future is still just beyond us. At some point, we realize that it’s the journey that matters.
Our congregation, and maybe many others like us, are on one of these go-rounds. We’ve been here before, trying to determine what our mission is and should be, and how and where we should go. But we realize that we are in a different place this time. The circumstances are different. The scenery has changed.
We’ve been apart for over a year, and the distances between us might have widened, and other relationships might have formed. For congregations, the most difficult part of the pandemic still might be ahead as we try to determine how and whether to be a physically gathered community again. What will that look like in this new day and age?
We long to know what’s ahead, so we keep our eyes on the horizon as we move around and upward, nearer to the peace of Jesus Christ. But Jesus is not just up there somewhere around the curve that we cannot see. Jesus moves with us in all the circumstances of our journey.
Jan Hill lives in New Brighton, Minnesota, USA. She serves in the Minneapolis congregation as an elder, musician, and worship coordinator. She enjoys gardening and homemaking.
We are dancing in a circle, Arms stretched wide as far as they can go, Heads thrown back and laughter bubbling, Rainbow colors splashing through.
The morn is fresh.
Our feet cannot be still.
We are walking by the water, Bare feet making imprints on the sand. Salty mist sweeps past our faces, Leaving teardrops on our cheeks.
The fog is gray.
Our eyes cannot see through.
We are climbing on the mountain, Fingers grasping for a place to hold, Canyons deep yawn all about us, Echoing our labored breath.
The rocks are hard.
Our hands cannot hold tight.
We are singing by the firelight, Voices softly blending in the dark. Ancient stars hang from black velvet, Calling outward and beyond. The fire is bright.
Our hearts cannot be cold.
We are dancing in a circle, Moving to life’s ever-changing beat. We are dancing all together, Coming back to where we’ve been.
Jesus always dances with us, Moving with us as we circle ’round, Lifting upward, always higher, Spiral to the heart of God.
Jan Hill
An online Taizé worship is planned October 2 to highlight the International Day of Non-Violence, a United Nations observance.
This reflective, music-centered worship offers an opportunity to consider Community of Christ’s calling to create a world of peace and justice for all people. This experience will be streamed and later available as a resource to watch online. More details will be available through the Community of Christ website and social media.
LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND FIX THEM ON THE PLACE BEYOND THE HORIZON TO WHICH YOU ARE SENT. JOURNEY IN TRUST, ASSURED THAT THE GREAT AND MARVELOUS WORK IS FOR THIS TIME AND FOR ALL TIME.
— DOCTRINE & COVENANTS 161:1A
Although not widely published, this hymn challenges us to learn from Jesus’ ministry among the marginalized and excluded.
By Jane M. Gardner Presiding evangelistCarl P. Daw Jr., author of “Friend of the Streetwalker,” was executive director of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada from 1996 to 2009. In 2001, Carl directed the society’s annual summer conference at Community of Christ’s International Headquarters in Independence, Missouri, USA. Under Carl’s leadership, over 300 society members sang, worshipped, participated in the Daily Prayer for Peace, and heard the amazing sounds of the Auditorium and Temple organs.
Carl has been a friend and valued colleague to those of us representing Community of Christ within the hymn society. He is a hymnwriter, Episcopal priest, and recently retired as curator of Hymnological Collections and adjunct professor of hymnology at Boston University School of Theology.
There are nineteen texts by Carl P. Daw Jr. in Community of Christ Sings. Of these, one of the most provocative is “Friend of the Streetwalker” (also known as “Friend of the Streetwalker, Beggar, and Child”). First printed by Hope Publishing in 1996 in a small collection entitled New Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, it had not been included in hymnals since.
At The Hymn Society’s 2012 conference, I attended a presentation by Carl focused on his many texts and the associated experiences he had while writing hymns. When asked why “Friend of the Streetwalker” had not been published in any hymnals, he said, “As you will see, it is not a very warm fuzzy thing, so it hasn’t made it into any hymnals yet. …It will be interesting to see whether the Community of Christ people actually include it.”
At that moment, the hymnal steering team was in the final throes of editing Community of Christ Sings. I hurried back to my room to check the hymnal manuscript and there it was—number 289! The inclusion of this justice-seeking text had been decided by the team months before based on how it so wonderfully aligned with the church’s identity, message, mission, and beliefs. In particular, the text upholds our belief in the Worth of All Persons, Unity in Diversity, and the foundational community of God, Christ, and Holy Spirit.
This ongoing Herald series explores the history and context of hymns from Community of Christ Sings. These words and melodies connect us to one another and to our identity. Is there a hymn you would like to know more about? Let us know at Herald @CofChrist.org.
With its initial publication in 1996, Carl wrote, “This text grapples with the disparity between our human impulse to exclude those who are different from us and the clear witness of scripture and tradition that God’s nature is to embrace and welcome them.” Regarding Sstanza four, he noted, “The triune nature of God means that the image of God in human beings is most clearly revealed in community rather than in individuality” (New Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs).
You would not be alone if your initial reaction to “Friend of the Streetwalker” was discomfort. A current search of Hymnary.org confirms that Community of Christ Sings is still the only hymnal to include this text. However, I have found that uneasiness often creates just the opening the Spirit needs to help us go deeper. As we sing this hymn, we are naming a real aspect of Jesus’ ministry on Earth among the marginalized and excluded. This is the embodiment of our mission, as echoed in the final stanza:
Three-personed Mystery, multiple One, joined by diversity never undone: may we more truly your image reveal, coming together to make your love real.
Carl P. Daw Jr. © 1996 Hope Publishing CompanyJane Gardner has served in various roles within church leadership, most recently as presiding evangelist. Her ministry includes an emphasis in worship, music, art, Temple ministries, and the sacraments. Jane served as team leader for the Hymnal Steering Team from 2008 to 2013, culminating in the production of Community of Christ Sings
Explore vegan baking and dig into church history with these selections from Tiona Horning’s collection.
ISA DOES IT: AMAZINGLY EASY, WILDLY DELICIOUS VEGAN RECIPES FOR EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK BY ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ
“This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I don’t usually like following recipes, but I always make an exception for the Puffy Pillow Pancakes in this cookbook. There are pictures to go with all the recipes, so I often look through this book for inspiration.” Amazon and other book retailers.
“When I first started baking, my great aunt often recommended recipes from this cookbook. I’ve made muffins using the Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf recipe for potluck many times.” Amazon and other book retailers.
JOSEPH SMITH FOR PRESIDENT: THE PROPHET, THE ASSASSINS, AND THE FIGHT FOR AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BY SPENCER MCBRIDE
“I’m a bit of a church history geek, especially the Nauvoo era. This book is about Joseph Smith, his presidential campaign, and why he chose to run. As my parents and older sister can confirm, I tend to blurt out random quotes and fun facts when I’m reading a particularly good nonfiction book. That definitely happened a lot with this one!” Amazon and other book retailers.
BY DAVID J. HOWLETT, BARBARA B. WALDEN, AND JOHN C. HAMER
“This book is really awesome. I’ve read through it too many times to count because the maps and pictures are great. Even though I often tell people that I’m too old for picture books, this one is still definitely a favorite.” Herald House.
GET TO KNOW
Pronouns: they/them
15
Congregation: Raytown, Missouri, USA
School Subjects: Geometry and Biology
If you shop through Amazon, don’t forget to choose Community of Christ as the recipient of funds from AmazonSmile. Go to smile.amazon.com, click “get started,” and search for “Community of Christ Independence MO.” Once selected as your charitable organization, 0.5% of your eligible purchases through AmazonSmile will be donated to Community of Christ.
Through reports, online events, and study guides, the Peace and Justice Team provides tools for discussions about nonviolence.
By Rick Sarre Peace and Justice Team leadWorld Conference in April 2019 gave Community of Christ a significant challenge for the future. It is found in World Church Resolution 1319, which ends with:
Resolved, that the position of Community of Christ on nonviolence be referred to the First Presidency for a report and/or statement to be presented to the 2022 World Conference.
The conference has shifted to April 2023, but the challenge for the church remains solidly in frame and time is of the essence. In the first part of 2020, the Peace and Justice Team wrote a position paper on nonviolence that was sent to the eight other World Church teams for responses. Each team was asked to provide a written response that discussed—from the perspective of that team—the role nonviolence plays in the life and mission of the church. After all eight responses were received, the Peace and Justice Team produced a final version that is now with the World Church Leadership Council and the Council of Twelve for further reflection and development.
This has been a long and comprehensive process precisely because the task is an important one. Indeed, it was Joseph Smith III who said that “peace is eminently our mission.” Although the current version of the position paper cannot yet be shared with a wider audience, I can say that it strives to link our quest for peace to human rights, the ecology of the Earth, and the inclusivity of all societies by highlighting the importance of justice, reconciliation, well-being, wholeness, the inalienable worth of all persons, and the sacredness of creation.
The quest for peace, we affirm, includes challenging “cultural, political, and religious trends that are contrary to the reconciling and restoring purposes of God” (Doctrine & Covenants 163:3b). Importantly, the document addresses the need for our advocacy for the protection of those who are vulnerable to violence. In essence, we say, the challenge for peacemakers is to bring about right relationships on and for the Earth.
Although we had to cancel the in-person 2020 European Peace Colloquy, the event morphed into a much larger international online event with over 400 registrations. Attendance ranged from 110 to 270 per session. From July to October 2020, nine speakers covered seven dimensions of
end to the violence, but tensions between the warring parties are still high and wrought with deep-rooted conflict.
In addition to a statement from the First Presidency, the Peace and Justice Team issued a statement and call to action in response to the ongoing conflict, including important resources for those interested in further reading on the subject. This statement can be found on the Peace and Justice Team page (www.CofChrist.org/ world-church-peace-and-justice-team).
Additionally, the first European Peace Award was given to an inspiring peacemaker, Keith Hebden.
The attacks by Israeli forces and Hamas in Gaza in MayJune 2021 affected hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Israeli men, women, and children of various faiths and heritages. This violence resulted in the deaths of at least 337, including 68 children. The ceasefire brought an important
Lastly, Peace and Justice Team members produced “Four Approaches to Violence,” a study guide available for download at www.HeraldHouse.org/collections/ member-created-nonviolence. The authors reviewed various Christian approaches to violence and nonviolence, and the authors hope the church will understand different perspectives fairly and share respectfully in their discernment. This resource is useful as the church prepares for World Conference 2023.
Learn more at www.CofChrist.org/ world-church-peace-and-justice-team.
This is the second article in a series of resources developed in response to the guiding question: Are we moving toward Jesus, the Peaceful One? Church members are invited to consider these resources as we journey toward World Conference 2023.
We have been refined again and again to focus on peace as our basic, foundational, and essential purpose as the body of Christ.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me … —Jeremiah 18:1-5
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
—Acts 2:42-47
Peace ought to be Christianity’s fundamental principle. But history shows us that we have not always lived up to our primary calling to share the peace of Jesus Christ. Peace runs throughout Community of Christ’s Mission Initiatives and Enduring Principles. Peace is explicit in our Mission Initiative to Pursue Peace on (and for the) Earth and in our Enduring Principle of Pursuit of Peace (Shalom). The case can be made that it is implicit in the other Mission Initiatives and Enduring Principles. They guide us in embodying the peace of Jesus Christ as individuals, in communities, and throughout the Earth.
The early Saints had hopes like those we have today. Zion was their mission: a community of Christ with “no poor among them” (Doctrine and Covenants 36:2h-i).
We should recognize that their vision and efforts provide a foundation for our current mission and identity. We must also understand how they were products of their time, and that they framed and lived out their mission in ways that frustrated their own hopes for peace.
If we were to spell out the mission initiatives of the 1830s church, they might look like this.
We will establish Zion by:
Restoring Christianity to the first-century Christian experience
• Gathering continually at the Temple
• Receiving apostolic and revelatory gifts
• Sharing all things in common to overcome poverty, and
• Equipping for Christ’s mission through a Pentecostal endowment of the Spirit (Luke 24:48-53, Acts 2:42-47)
Inviting people to Christ
• Sharing the one and only true church
Supporting the gathering of
• T he Jews to Jerusalem, and
• T he Saints to the New Jerusalem
Although Zion involved personal and communal peace, the Saints were mostly invested in millennial peace. Like many Christians—going back to the first century—the Saints expected Jesus to return soon and that his Second Coming would renew and restore the Earth to a peaceful paradise.
The early Saints, while having some peculiarities, were not all that different from many of their neighbors in their views on the millennium, an American New Jerusalem, and the need for restoring the church to purity.
As grandchildren of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, the Restoration Movement inherited its three traditions: getting back to basics, seeking a new golden age, and daring to challenge dominant Christianity. A century before Joseph Smith Jr., Methodists laid groundwork for the Restoration in claiming that Christianity had become misguided, and that the solution was for the common person to be empowered and filled with God’s holiness to transform communities. We are probably most indebted to the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement. It is noncreedal and focuses on overcoming sectarianism by restoring first-century Christianity in preparation for Jesus’ return. In 1827, a founding member of the Stone-Campbell Movement explained the Ancient Gospel as “faith, repentance, [noninfant] baptism, remission of sins, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life.” Latter Day Saints would copy this exact formula, taking in both ideas and members. Sidney Rigdon—a Campbellite itinerant minister who ended up converting to our church—helped bring hundreds from his flocks into our fold. Sheep-stealing caused conflicts, contributing to the tarring and feathering of Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon in 1832. Later, we also drew ideas from the Social Gospel (1870-1920), a movement that applied Christian principles to social issues. Christians operated orphanages and hospitals, reformed prisons, advocated for abolishing slavery, and germinated women’s rights and suffrage. We adopted many of these reforms in our Zion-building efforts. One “Zionic institution” from our history can be found in this inspired counsel from Joseph Smith III (Mark A. Scherer, “Beyond Nauvoo: Discovering the Reorganized Church Story Again for the First Time,” JWHA Journal Vol. 31.2):
It is the will of the Lord that a sanitarium, a place of refuge and help for the sick and afflicted, be established by the church, at Independence, Missouri…
—Doctrine and Covenants 127:1a
With this context of our historic mission, we might evaluate how effective the early Saints were at creating peace. Their mission gave them focus. Countless people, who felt without a home in any other church, found the peace of Christ through the Restoration Movement. Their gatherings created sacred community.
By contrast, how they engaged in mission isolated them. Their exceptionalism came across as arrogant. They shunned and ignored other Christians, calling them apostates. The Saints went into great debt building the Kirtland Temple out of a sense of urgency and entitlement. Those that gathered often had limited resources, so poverty and scarcity created problems. Conflicts with neighbors abounded when large numbers of Saints quickly
As gatherings failed to achieve Zion, the Saints knew firsthand they were not experiencing peace. Instead of honestly assessing why their gatherings failed, early Saints began defining themselves in opposition to others and later began fighting back.
In 1834, Joseph Smith Jr. organized an army called Zion’s Camp to march from Kirtland, Ohio to Missouri to restore properties lost because of mobs. This group was following instructions in Doctrine and Covenants 95:6-7, but peacekeeping by military force is a paradox. On the banks of Fishing River, when it was clear that engaging the mobs would mean an outright bloodbath and defeat, Joseph received a revelation calling on the church to “Sue for peace” (Doctrine and Covenants 102:11).
Proclaiming peace on the banks of Fishing River was Joseph’s parting-of-the-Red-Sea moment (Doctrine and Covenants 8:1c-2b). With an army bearing down on them, peace was Joseph’s inspired path forward to guide his people to salvation.
This revelatory moment is pivotal for Community of Christ today, but unfortunately Joseph lost sight of it. In the 1840s he turned to a militia for protection. The state of Illinois had formed this militia, but Joseph and others enthusiastically joined—to the terror of their neighbors.
Under the leadership of Joseph Smith Jr., peace was always a means to some other end or an intended byproduct of mission.
Because it was never the central purpose of the mission, peace was fleeting. A hoped-for millennial kingdom did not arise with Christ forcing peace on the world. Militarism among the Saints and clashes with neighbors contributed to the killing of Joseph in 1844.
Our second prophet-president, Joseph Smith III, wanted us to become the people in his father’s Fishing River revelation who “lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation for peace unto the ends of the earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 102:11b). Joseph Smith III identified the peace gene in our
movement and made it foundational (Lachlan Mackay, “A Peace Gene Isolated: Joseph Smith III,” JWHA Journal Vol. 35.1).
Joseph Smith III removed elements from the Restoration that were not peaceful. He did not mix church with civic government like his father had, and he pushed to remove militarism from the church. He was hesitant about a gathered community in Lamoni, Iowa because he had lived through the struggles of church gathering throughout his formative years. (Joseph Smith III was born in the church’s first gathering place in Kirtland, Ohio, and moved with his family to a new gathering place in Far West, Missouri when he was seven. Shortly thereafter, he moved with his family to another gathered church community in Nauvoo, Illinois, where he lived until his thirties.) He urged the Saints to gather differently than in the past. He saw neighbors as a crucial part of Zion and urged the Saints to respect the “feelings of the people under the laws existing in the places where such settlements are to be made” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:5-8).
Joseph Smith III’s revisioning of the movement reminds me of a scripture. In the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet was told to “go down to the potter’s house” to hear God’s message. Jeremiah went, and he saw the potter “working at his wheel.” The clay was not shaping up to what the potter hoped it would be and could be. “He reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him” (Jeremiah 18:1-5).
In the Reorganization the clay was being reworked and is still being reworked now in Community of Christ. With each reshaping, peace becomes more and more defined as our basic, foundational, and essential purpose as the body of Christ. We are learning that peace must be fundamental. It cannot be a byproduct of the mission or a means to some other end. It must be the beginning, middle, and end.
Peace does not mean ignoring or hiding problems. True peace requires justice, and justice is not easy. How could we be pushovers if we are following Jesus, the radical outlaw?
Pursing peace may be the hardest calling to accept.
Some may question if it is fitting or accurate to define Community of Christ as a peace church. The history of Community of Christ shows that peace is in our genes and that we have been refined again and again to focus on peace.
Recent counsel invites us to place peace at the center of who we are: “The rise of Zion the beautiful, the peaceful reign of Christ, awaits your whole-hearted response to the call to make and steadfastly hold to God’s covenant of
We are called to restore Christ’s covenant of peace, even the Zion of our hopes. The hope of Zion will become reality when we live Christ’s peace and generously share his peace with others.
(continued from page 17)
peace in Jesus Christ” (Doctrine and Covenants 164:9b). Community of Christ is realizing that identity as our own form of a peace church.
Seth Bryant, former director of the Kirtland Temple Historic Site, lives in northeast Ohio. He holds graduate degrees in religion from Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida.
In April 2019, the World Conference passed Resolution 1319, which says in part that “Community of Christ members and leaders discuss the role nonviolence plays in the pursuit of ‘peace on and for the Earth’ (Doctrine and Covenants 165:1d) and in the life and mission of the church.”
President Stephen M. Veazey began this discussion during his closing message to the 2019 World Conference: “Scripture testifies that all creation waits ‘with eager longing’ (Romans 8:19) for peaceful humanity to appear on the world stage to turn the tide of hate, agony, and destruction... Are we moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Or are we retreating from Jesus by reverting to our old humanity and its destructive ways of interacting with others and creation?”
This guiding question has led us on a continuing journey to understand Jesus, the Peaceful One and to lay down our preconceived notions of who Jesus should be. The question helps us realign our attitudes, behaviors, and actions with the identity, mission, message, and beliefs of Community of Christ. The role of nonviolence in the world is complex and is influenced by many cultural, theological, and personal perspectives.
As the First Presidency has faithfully engaged in the assignment given in WCR 1319, it has become clear that adequate time is needed for the church to diligently explore this topic. The presidency anticipates that the next World Conference (April 21-29, 2023) will be a time for further discussion and collaboration toward the creation of a statement on nonviolence. A future World Conference will have the responsibility of acting on a final statement, but only after sufficient consensus has been developed.
Materials for study and discussion are posted at www. CofChrist.org/guiding-question. Additionally, a place for membercreated resources on nonviolence has been created: www. HeraldHouse.org/collections/member-created-nonviolence.
Your voice is an important part of this process. If you have suggestions for what should be included in a statement on nonviolence, email FP@CofChrist.org. The First Presidency reviews everything received as they discern responses to their task from the 2019 World Conference.
By Elaine Garrison, Communications team
Afree fall lecture series from the Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation has a global flavor.
• John-Charles Duffy will serve as host for the opening panel discussion
• A ndrew Bolton and Phil Caswell: “Life and Legacy of Apostle Kisuke Sekine”
• Chrystal Vanel: church history in France
At the time of the Herald’s publication, Barbara Walden, executive director of the Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation, encouraged interested readers to find the latest details about the series at www.HistoricSitesFoundation.org
“An Evening of Church History” with Richard Howard interviewed by Andrea Read-Davis
Richard Howard discussed his experience preserving the past as church historian for Community of Christ from 1966-1994.
“Storm Clouds on the Horizon: The Competing Theological Visions of Elbert A. Smith and Roy Cheville” with Tony Chvala-Smith
Elbert A. Smith and Roy Cheville were towering figures in the life of the mid-twentieth century Reorganization. Both served as presiding evangelist, Cheville after Smith. Both were beloved by church members for the authenticity and credibility of their ministries. However, in hindsight we can see that Smith and Cheville represented contrasting, even opposing, visions of the church.
“Carl Mesle: Pastor in a Time of Turmoil” with Sherry Mesle-Morain
The Stone Church in Independence, Missouri, USA, frequently was referred to in RLDS history as the “mother church.” Carl Mesle was assigned pastor during a time of internal turmoil as the church changed its focus, a time of unrest in the surrounding neighborhood, and a time when the building itself needed major attention.
Speakers from around the world will share online Thursdays, October 7 through November 18:
• R ichard James: church history in Wales
• Eva Erickson and Kerstin Jeske: late twentiethcentury church history in Germany
• Ben Smith: church history in Australia
• Pete Gaffney: church history in Great Britain
The previous season’s lectures were recorded and can be found on the organization’s website. They’re free and available to all at www.HistoricSitesFoundation.org/spring -2021-lecture-series.html
“From Militarized Mission to Radical Resistance: Post-Colonial Reflections on Charles D. Neff’s Legacy” with Matthew Bolton
From humble beginnings as an American farm boy, Charles Neff participated in the fundamental transformation of the Community of Christ from a small provincial sect centered in the Midwestern plain to a worldwide church spanning 50 nations.
“When Will the Little Woman Come Out of the House? The Life and Legacy of Alice Smith Edwards” with Paul Edwards Alice Smith Edwards played the somewhat reluctant role as hostess to the royal family, as a professor of English Literature, and the mother of three wayward children. In each of these roles, this delightful woman was both influenced and influential, leaving a significant mark.
“William T. Blue: A Lonely Spokesman for Black Saints” with Bill Russell and Gwendolyn Hawks-Blue
Explore the life and legacy of William Taft Blue, a leading African-American minister of the Reorganization during the 20th century. “Bill” Blue was ordained a priest in 1947 and later named pastor of the Belmont Street Mission in Pensacola, Florida, USA. While enduring church segregation and racism in the southern United States, Bill transformed his pain into an affirmative testimony.
Like Lazarus, Jesus is calling for us to “come out!” and invite others into our community.
Stench is defined as a strong, foul odor and it can come from many sources. That scent is mentioned in the Gospel of John describing the raising of Lazarus:
Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”
—John 11:38-39, The Message
In referring to the odor, Martha communicates her perceived finality of Lazarus’ death. Scent, along with the other four human senses, are powerful guides as we navigate the world and relate to one another. In congregations the smells, sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings we experience evoke a desire to experience the flesh and blood of interpersonal opportunities.
What are these smells, sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings?
The soothing sound of a caring word comforts us.
It is the physical awareness of what may be occurring in the life of another by the way they stand and walk. We can feel and see the stress, the pain, the anxiety, the joy, or the well-being.
It is the sound of an assembly of baptized congregants kneeling together to remember by tasting the bread and wine. Groans and sighs rise from those kneeling and bowing—young muscles and bones alongside aging muscles and arthritic bones!
It is the specific scent of the church building. The walls hold the smell of countless potlucks and the cleaning products used on floors, walls, pews, and chairs. Breathing in these familiar smells brings a sense of comfort and assurance as we gather in this sacred space.
It is the sound of children giggling and laughing joyously right in the middle of sacred worship! Or the sound of the child expressing displeasure so that all can hear. (Some years ago, I read that sound might be God’s way of communicating that what I think are wonderful words might not be so wonderful!)
We are called to share the peace of Jesus Christ with those who are waiting to hear the redeeming words of the gospel.
It is the smell of perfume and the scent of freshly laundered clothing on those assembled in the church building. It is seeing perspiration on their brows resulting from the summer heat. We not only meet face-to-face, but body-to-body with hand clasps, hugs, and the pats on the arm or shoulder.
It is the sound of individuals singing as a congregational chorus—many of us off-key and struggling to keep tempo with the piano or organ, yet bringing a joyful sound!
I have worshiped in congregations that—due to their history, circumstances, and understandings—gather for worship in an attitude of quiet reverence with music offered in muted tones. They have come to know a God that moves in a similar way, so they enter the sanctuary with
this at the heart of their worship. In this environment, these good folk experience fellowship.
Other congregations experience the presence of God with worship that requires rhythm. Swaying music is accompanied by clapping hands, upraised arms, and joyful “amens” and “hallelujahs.” In this environment, these good folk experience fellowship.
Nearly everyone is hoping that we are close to entering the post-pandemic world. More than likely, it will be a gradual movement toward whatever the future “normal” world may become.
Zoom, online ministries, and other related terms are part of the everyday language accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic. Predictions are now being made about how this may affect the church in temporary or permanent ways. But these predictions are written in pencil not ink.
Like Lazarus, Jesus is calling for us to arise and “come out!” (John 11:43). How will our community look and be experienced in the post-pandemic world? With trepidation and anticipation, I look forward to undergoing whatever may be needed so that all can experience the senses of fellowship.
Recent scripture reminds us of our ongoing responsibility as trustees of the call to be and become Community of Christ:
When your willingness to live in sacred community as Christ’s new creation exceeds your natural fear of spiritual and relational transformation, you will become who you are called to be.
—Doctrine & Covenants 164:9b
As we move toward Jesus, the peaceful One, how will we invite others to experience the senses of fellowship?
Alex Kahtava (he/him) lives in Blue Springs, Missouri, USA and attends the Colonial Hills congregation. He ministers as an evangelist and is a former member of the Council of Twelve Apostles.
There is no place that is not already sacred because there is no place where God does not already await us.
For many of us, the footprint of our daily lives shrunk during the COVID19 pandemic. We were advised to stay home and leave only for essential reasons. Our normal rhythms were disrupted, and in-person church activities were cancelled. We struggled as spaces for work, play, socialization, and contemplation were compiled into the same area. Where is sacred space to be found when we can’t go to the places where we normally find solace?
But we were also given time—time to slow down, time to recognize fleeting sacred moments, and time to pursue a more Spirit-aware life. Some were renewed by spending extra hours in nature. Some simplified or reorganized their living space. Some practiced a new hobby. Some relished the ability to connect online. Some carved out time to read and explore other perspectives.
Hopefully, we’ve become more aware that God is waiting in every moment for us to connect, listen, and respond. The Spirit isn’t confined to a sanctuary, just as Jesus’ call isn’t limited to a past context. In our journey toward Jesus, the peaceful One, new sacred spaces are emerging within ourselves and our communities. There is always more to explore. In this section, five authors describe their own encounters with the sacred.
“Opportunities abound in your daily lives if you choose to see them.” —Doctrine and Covenants 165:1c
—Emma Gray Pitt Communications team God“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it...” —Psalm 24:1
P
reparing for childbirth, I was invited to imagine a peaceful, calming space. The image came swiftly. Despite the beautiful places and diverse geographies around the globe that I have been privileged to witness, my mind always returns to one specific location when I need to reconnect with a deeper source of peace and calm. It’s an old wooden dock perched aside a small lake at Glenn Wood Hills Campground in Derby, Indiana, USA.
In my imagination, I lay across wooden planks as I did when I was a teenager, and I listen to the water gently lap against the shore as mist hovers and swirls above the water’s surface. I haven’t been back to that place in ten years, but the image is embedded in my soul.
The geographies that form us are significant. They are more than backgrounds. It is easy to forget that we are creation , kindred creatures of this planet, and our very breath and being is dependent upon the physical places we inhabit. There is an intimacy with space that extends beyond good memories. We are formed physically, psychologically, and spiritually by the landscapes of our lives.
Though the old wooden dock beside the lake is a foundational image in my spiritual life, I do not believe it is more sacred than other places. Earth is earth, and the “earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). Every space we enter already is charged with the presence of the sacred. There is no place that is not already sacred, because there is no place we can go where God is not already present. I can honor my relationship with an important place in my life while remaining open to the sacredness of all other places.
The austere spirituality of the desert bears witness to the radical notion that God is present even in seemingly empty and barren places. Even here, the desert mystics proclaim, God can be found. Sometimes it takes a new landscape to discover God in a new way. Ask anyone who has moved from one region to another—differences in seasons throw off our rhythms. Changes in topography and terrain can disorient or delight. It takes time to settle into new birdcalls and trees. We don’t realize how integrally the spaces that hold our lives become part of the very marrow of our identity.
It is profound to me that the physical spaces and geographies we encounter speak to our souls so powerfully of home or distance, of presence or absence, of comfort or challenge. The geography of a place can tell us a lot about the condition of our own souls, and we often use landscape language to attempt to articulate our inner realities.
Joan Sauro writes that “we share not only a vast outer world but also a precious inner one that is its reflection. If you will look to this inner world of yours, gently and without haste, you too will discover widths and depths remarkably like the outer, natural earth. …This is your inner earth, its slopes and plateaus, its reds, greens, pinks, deep down browns, and greys. You are jagged and smooth to touch, filled with lights and shadows, life and death. You are vast, complicated, unfinished, and changing” (Joan Sauro, C.S.J., “The Whole Earth Meditation,” Weavings, VI:6).
The scriptures are plentiful with images of the natural world articulating the realities of the inner world, such as Psalm 63:1: “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
The author of Jeremiah uses connection to the land to describe a spiritual life rooted deeply in God: “They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).
Sacredness of creation is an inner and outer reality. It is a profound realization. Everywhere we go, the Spirit is already present and our souls are part of that sacred creation too. When I pause long enough to consider the “vast, complicated, unfinished, and changing” nature of my own inner terrain, I am moved to curiosity about the inner landscapes of others as well. We are all walking around this sacred world with worlds within us, depths and heights unexplored. How do our interactions with one another change when we realize that there is much more to each person than our perceptions and assumptions?
When we awaken to the beauty, the sacredness,
the more-ness of a person or place, the impulse to care increases. “When we realize something other than ourselves is really real, that it suffers like we do and sings out its name like we do, compassion and justice naturally arise” (Wendy Farley, Beguiled by Beauty: Cultivating a Life of Contemplation and Compassion, page 56).
Moments of spiritual awakening are often fleeting rather than sustained. My prayer is often a plea for the kind of life I want to live: “Help me stay awake a little longer!” Each moment of truly seeing the sacredness around and within ourselves forms us and stretches our perception. We cultivate a capacity to see again and to act with compassion and justice toward what we see.
The sacred spaces in our lives are an important part of awakening to the presence of God in all places and in every iota of creation. They are more than backgrounds. God became more real to me as I laid on my belly on the wooden dock and watched the mist. The mist swirling above the waters around me stirred awareness of the Spirit hovering within me. But the divine presence was not contained there. It was the beginning of a way of seeing that has accompanied me ever since. Every place, every person is already filled with the presence of God.
While such experiences can come unbidden into our lives, I also appreciate the opportunity to worship together in sacred places such as our former campgrounds at Koonjewarre and our chapel in Brisbane. The planning and thought that goes into creating sacred space is something I deeply appreciate and value. In response I contributed to the management of Koonjewarre and volunteered at church and community activities there.
The Brisbane church community’s worship and outreach activities have been another avenue of service. I have found many members and friends of the church who share the same values and who sustain me in our mutual quest for extending the blessings of sacred space to others.
—Peter Lawson Brookfield, Queensland, Australia
This article originally was published to the Daily Bread blog on November 10, 2020.
The labyrinth at the Southridge Congregation in Ridgefield, Washington, USA has been a gift to me for the past year.
I was a member of the first cohort of the Spiritual Formation and Companioning Program, sponsored by Community of Christ. I enjoyed three years of delightful fellowship, meaningful connection, and spiritual growth. When we were given our assignment to propose a final project, I did not deliberate long. I envisioned the building of a labyrinth!
A labyrinth offers a purposeful, meaningful prayer walk and provides sacred space for meditation, reflection, and personal peace. I envisioned an outdoor labyrinth accessible to everyone. Invitational by nature, it would encourage personal meditation time to nurture a spirit of peace.
My dreams included making the labyrinth accessible to all, regardless of physical limitations. The path is easily navigated. The circuits are wide to accommodate walkers and wheelchairs.
Our community includes many people who are spiritual but not religious. A labyrinth provides hospitality and invitation to those spiritual seekers. A labyrinth connects those of traditional faith and those who practice spirituality in more independent ways.
When I go to walk, I often am accompanied or met by a member of the community or a deer from the nearby forest. God is in this place.
As I walk the labyrinth in these days of COVID19, I know my prayers are heard. I feel my spirit strengthened. With each step, I pray for wellness and healing in our world. I am grateful for this sacred space, where I can quiet my anxious thoughts and speak prayers of my heart.
The Spirit of God is always waiting to embrace us— especially during times of isolation, worry, and fear. The labyrinth walk can reassure us and give us focus for where we are called to be. This walk can answer our questions and give us time to just be with our God away from worry and fear. God is in this place.
—Fae Eliason Jackson Vancouver, Washington, USAThis adapted testimony originally appeared in the Crumb Donors newsletter, a ministry of Community of Christ in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
At the Chattanooga Community of Christ, we don’t have any “perfect” people. In fact, you will hear our pastors say, “This is the church for the unwelcomed, the bruised, the broken-hearted, the guilty, the no-goods, the labeled, those going through stuff, and those wanting to get in on Jesus’ mission.” If you are looking for a church to show off your goodness and your smarts, this isn’t it. But if you are looking for a church that will always have your back, hold you accountable with Godly compassion, and remind you that you are priceless, then this is the place for you.
My younger sister died from a drug overdose. After her death I went looking for her supplier with a vengeance. I looked for him for several nights, but he was arrested before I could find him.
Later, I was invited to the Chattanooga Community of Christ. At the time, I was going though depression, anger, and addiction. God brought me to the congregation to give my life direction and hope. I can’t remember how many times I sat in our care group talking about my need to forgive the drug dealers who got my sister hooked.
After a meeting, one of my pastors pulled me aside. He said, “If you are not serious about wanting to forgive, stop saying it. God is hearing you, and God doesn’t play games. If you want the chance to forgive, God will give it to you, and then you are going to be left with no excuse.” He was right.
One Sunday, Clint, the man arrested for supplying my sister’s drugs, walked into the Chattanooga congregation with his family. He spent seven years in prison and showed up in my church when he was released. Once he noticed me, I saw him get up and leave. I don’t believe anyone else knew that he was the man I had been struggling to forgive.
We are called to equip adults and children to be true and living expressions of the life, ministry, and continuing presence of Christ in the world.
My thoughts raced: Is his leaving the best thing for the mission of the church? Is he really going to be welcomed here? And if he is welcome, will the terms of his welcome be more probationary than others?
I asked one of my pastors to go with me outside, and they followed me. Walking up to Clint, I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and I don’t remember much. But soon enough, I was standing next to him and his family singing “I’m Trading My Sorrows.” I don’t think it was a coincidence that we sang this song. Singing “Yes, Lord, Yes, Lord” was God’s way of getting me to commit to welcome all into God’s house. God didn’t give me time to overthink. God put the wheels in motion.
Later that year, Clint and his fiancée were baptized and confirmed. After their confirmation, our pastor invited the congregation to walk up to them individually and welcome them into the church. Everybody did, including me and my family. Guess what? We really meant it. Clint is welcome. While we still have our struggles, Jesus wants us on his mission together in the same congregation for now. Clint is a member of the Community of Christ, just as I am. Together, we will figure out why God reunited us.
In this town, it seems like there are two church buildings on every block. There is no way this is just a coincidence. God made this happen. Now, all my brother Clint and I can say is “Yes, Lord!”
—Kevin Chattanooga, Tennessee, USApopular trails in the area. It remains a secret quiet spot for locals. This walking trail has become a sacred space for me during our lockdown.
As life started slowing down in response to COVID-19 restrictions, I was no longer on autopilot throughout the week with my daughter’s activities. I noticed that I began thinking about things I wouldn’t normally have had the time to think about.
In the beginning I thought this was a bad thing. Painful memories I had been ignoring finally had the chance to surface, and thankfully I was ready to face them. I also began thinking deeper, questioning things I wouldn’t normally question. I knew I needed a quiet space, a space not just for quick, short prayers but a place to have long conversations with God without interruption.
In the past, being in my garden had always been a sacred space for me, a peaceful place where I could connect to the Earth and myself. However, this quiet sacred space became a place for supervising kids’ activities and working on noisy outdoor projects. By accident I discovered a trail behind our neighborhood. It isn’t as busy as the more
In these crazy times, this walk has become a daily ritual for me—one I hope to keep once restrictions lift. It isn’t a place to listen to music and podcasts, but it is a place for quietness, reflection, prayer, and decision making.
With thoughts running through my head that I did not feel equipped to deal with on my own, I also learned that I needed to reach out to my church community.
I have been finding safe, sacred spaces within friendships, asking for help with difficult questions, exploring deep thoughts as part of a group, and feeling comfortable asking for advice. It’s strange that it took a global pandemic and physical distancing for me to learn how to listen to my emotional and spiritual needs. I’ve rekindled friendships, and I’ve never felt more blessed to be a part of an extended church community.
—Emma Ghazarian Somerville, Victoria, AustraliaThe Sierra Pacific Mission Center covenant focuses on compassionate ministry and courageous action. In this story you will find words from the covenant woven throughout. It has been, and continues to be, a guide to the community amidst uncertainty, change, and wild transformation.
By Shandra Newcom Sierra Pacific USA Mission Center President
With Laura Bolton, Ila June Brunner, Marla Faszholz, Paul Harding, Ron Harmon, Kris Judd, Gail Ronneberg, Dave Seagraves, Ruth Seagraves, Elaine Turner, and Linda Walsh
Everything changed on March 13, 2020.
As the world was shutting down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and congregational buildings were closing in an effort to keep folks safe and healthy, something else was stirring within us—the members and friends of the Sierra Pacific USA Mission Center.
God was calling us to explore who we were becoming, even amid uncertainty and a great deal of fear. God didn’t stop God’s work in the world. God was moving within, among, and ahead of us. Even though we knew at that time that big changes were coming, we had no idea how the next sixteen months would transform us as a community; no idea that our response to Christ’s call to justice and peace would take us on a covenant journey that has become more and more embedded in our identity as God’s beloveds.
We are called to contribute to God’s dream of shalom for all of creation.
Like most of you, it was difficult to make the shift from the usual and comforting congregational path of meeting in person in our buildings once a week for fellowship and worship. The decision to close buildings due to COVID-19 was painful, but we began to offer a variety of online experiences, always inviting the entire mission center to participate in what was becoming an unfolding community.
The most important decision probably was to hold mission center-wide worship each Sunday morning. Pastors were asked to consider not holding separate Sundaymorning online worships so that we could consistently gather as a broader community. We began meeting online each Sunday and grew closer as followers of Christ.
Before we knew it, we were creating an emerging online congregation.
I love being part of a mission center-wide Sunday congregation, and that sense of community has grown. For me, there was a letting go phase, a learning a new way and troubleshooting phase, and finally a settling in to the “barefoot church” rhythm.
—Ruth SeagravesA covenant is a relationship of commitment between God and God’s people.
During the summer of 2020 and in response to a broadening understanding of systemic injustice, mission center staff, pastors, and others began to explore what it might look like to become a community planted deep in justice and growing in peace. Could we covenant with one another to do the work of Jesus and do it while dedicating ourselves to love for each other and the world?
In the fall, I felt the nudge of the Spirit as mission center president to take a three-day discernment sabbatical as I explored this question: How is the Sierra Pacific Mission Center being called to walk with Christ and one another on a journey of awakening, risking, and blessing—even during this challenging time? At the same time, I asked pastors, staff, and the SPMC online congregation as a whole to be prayerful and consider the question as well.
What emerged was the beginning of some thoughts around what it means to be a community with a covenant. Using the Enduring Principles as a foundation, threads of ideas were created that—after prayerful consideration— turned into our covenant. (Read the full covenant at www.cofchrist-spmc.org/our-covenant).
It has been important to us to engage with the words of the covenant over the past year. We sing them, read them, and use them in worship. All ministries being offered in the mission center flow from the covenant. We declare ourselves to be Christ-centered community, and we have dedicated ourselves to being that community, not for just ourselves, but for the whole of creation.
We are an intentional, openhearted, Christ-centered covenant community that invites people into living authentic and loving lives of justice, peace, joy, love, and hope.
This experience of covenant has been broadening, deepening, enriching. Our journey has been inspiring and hopeful. We love the breadth and depth of the covenant language; it really gives “arms and legs” to the Enduring Principles.
One of the most vital expressions of community we have created is a weekly pastor call. At first pastors were invited to meet each week as a way of sharing announcements and to stay connected during the chaos at the beginning of the pandemic.
But something else became primary as many of our pastors continued each week to Zoom as a team. We began to see clearly that our pastor calls were becoming support during times of grief or expressions of joy and laughter as we shared during times of openness and vulnerability. In many ways, covenant was birthed in this group, and dedication to God’s plan keeps us meeting every week as we dream of what radical love can do for our community of faith.
Our pastor team has been nurturing, and I’ve experienced a deepening of relationships and of my spiritual journey.
—Elaine TurnerWe listen deeply to one another, honoring the sacredness of each life story.
Two people have specifically served as support through this journey. Apostle Ron Harmon gives encouragement and shows up for us as we move for God. He has made it a point to meet regularly with me and to bring covenant-based ministry to our Sunday morning worships. Ron brings a heart for justice and always challenges us to awaken to God, risk something new, and become a blessing.
What I see emerging is a tangible expression of President Veazey’s challenge to “birth, nurture, and multiply spiritually formed communities of compassionate ministry and action.” I see covenant communities forming around various aspects of Christ’s transformative mission. I see new opportunities for invitation where spiritual explorers can encounter meaning beyond the self and connection with others who want to be co-creators of a more just and peaceful world.
At the beginning of our experimentation as covenant community, I invited evangelist Kris Judd to walk with us as spiritual companion. Kris and I began to meet every week, and my creativity was sparked as we talked about what was possible with SPMC. She comes to our pastor meetings, she comes to worship, and she loves our people.
As an evangelist and spiritual companion, I was invited to walk with Shandra and the members of this mission center on their journey in becoming covenant community. I have been given the gifts of worship and conversations that are spirit-full, friendship and authentic concern for my well-being, as well as a place of safety and inclusion. I believe these qualities stem not only from the good people themselves but the nature of the covenant under which they are choosing to live together. Speaking of, praying with, remembering, and affirming our common values and purpose as we come together each time centers us in how we will be with one another and what we can expect during our time together. The
—Marla Faszholz and Ila June Brunner
While this covenant is expressed many ways, it always supports the mission, message, and love of Jesus Christ. This means we value social justice in a world hungry for transformative peace.
written document outlining our reason for existence and way of being offers a common grounding as well as accountability. All are welcomed and invited to be a part of this sacred community; yet there is also the acknowledgement of purpose, priorities, and responsibilities to the community.
The choice to belong is made by those invited, but there are grace-filled expectations underlying the choice. We are responsible to and for one another’s wellbeing and focused on the mission of Christ in our own contexts and communities. While we may have different political, cultural and theological perspectives, the covenant provides a common path and focus, allowing there to be diversity even while we are experiencing a sense of unity. After such a time of disagreement and disunity in our culture, this community is a breath of fresh air and has been a balm to my soul.
We participate in creating a space of radical hospitality and belonging, inviting all to experience the grace of God in community.
Of course, there are always challenges that come with change. An online community can never replace in-person relationships. We had to make difficult decisions to have online youth camps and family reunions for two summers. For some people, online worships and activities just didn’t provide the experiences with the faith community they were looking for, and they self-selected out of our ministry offerings.
We were also challenged by folks who asked questions about the covenant itself and tried to integrate it into their faith journey. These were good “growing pain” questions as they helped focus the conversation and changed some of the language we were using.
We work to stay vulnerable with one another, to be fully present, to stay curious, and remain open to transformation through God’s call to be a sacred community.
Sometimes I joke around that my job as youth minister is really that of an event planner. That joke was put to the test during the pandemic when my job was no longer about events and all about keeping our youth connected and together during a time when they couldn’t be. This task was monumental, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to manage it. We started exploring covenant community when we needed it most, and it created a way for our community to stick together with a common mission and ideology. The covenant itself wasn’t designed specifically for kids, but when a whole community embraces something, it makes its way into every part of that community. The covenant created a way forward for our whole community and kept our youth engaged and active. I think we as a mission center would look and feel a lot different if we had had to weather COVID-19 without our covenant community.
—Laura Bolton, youth ministerThere were surprises all along our way as we reimagined what it meant to be community. People joined our Sunday ministries as well as experiences we offered throughout the week. Suddenly people throughout the mission center and around the world who had never met were telling one another about their lives—about joys and grief, about and family and faith. We were getting to know one another in a way we never could have before the pandemic. Amid sorrow, there was also joy.
As we continued to gather online, many chose to be a part of a deepening spiritual journey beyond our Sunday offerings. Some connected in small groups to consider the movement of the Spirit. Many joined as we offered online spaces for grief and memory sharing, explorations of images of God, candlelight vigils before important events in our country, and weekly devotion groups. All of these turned our hearts toward the One who created us to be together.
We made the choice to have a common thread in our Sunday online events through monthly themes and
—Kris Judd
We especially set as a priority our children and youth, and we value intergenerational ministry.
scriptures. Some of our themes have been Life-Light, Spiritually Forming, and Belonging. Our next theme is Adventure—a word that describes our journey into what’s next. These themes help us deepen into God’s continuing thread of creativity and love.
Being able to connect in the mission center for Sunday school and other youth activities has been wonderful. It has helped our daughter connect to the church in a way that has been meaningful to her, and it is something she looks forward to. She also enjoys getting to see adults in our services that she wouldn’t normally see on a regular basis. She enjoys sharing with them things that are important to her. Their interest in what she has to say means a lot to her, and to us.
—Paul Harding, mission center financial officerWe recognize that each person is on a spiritual journey, and we commit to supporting one another with a call to be grounded in justice and focused on being a prophetic people.
As we stop and reflect on the past sixteen months there is so much we have learned as a community. First, we learned that connection and relationship are possible on Zoom. We learned to be flexible. Always grounded in the message of Christ, we continually sought to reflect on what we were learning as we went along. Our actions as a community emerged from those reflections.
We also learned that, as a community, responding to the needs we saw before us in the world is very important. Throughout the pandemic there were many times the brokenness of the world broke our hearts; we stopped as a community and were present with what we saw before us.
This flexibility allowed us to feel like we were a part of the broader story and gave us space to experience God’s call and our response as a community.
This journey has been life-giving and nourishing. We think our journey has been one of personal awakening and also increased community awareness to the reality of others’ lives. Our hope is that we continue on this path that creates our “now” with intentionality and discernment and that is open to what comes next— letting it unfold and emerge. We have hope in our ability to increase our individual and collective awakening through education, sharing experiences, by deepening relationships, by becoming more comfortable with vulnerability, by trusting more fully in the good Spirit, by being more open to change.
—Linda Walsh and Dave SeagravesWe believe Christ’s mission is our mission. Jesus came to give good news to the poor, to release the captive, to give sight to the blind—to set us free. We covenant with one another to do this same work.
We are called to become congregations that are the true and living expressions of Jesus Christ, woven together by the Spirit, and sent into the world as evangelistic witnesses, compassionate ministers, and justice and peacemakers.
Looking forward to what is emerging for us, we have seen that we are called to radical missional realignment. We continue to ask the essential questions, and we are excited to experiment with new ways of being Sierra Pacific Covenant Community. For our congregations, we will continue the weekly pastor call. There will be support for pastors and congregations with encouragement for them to stay connected to the Covenant Community congregation. The relationships that have been built are primary.
Grounded in Christ’s invitation to compassionate ministry, our congregations will play a vital role in our large picture ministry.
As we return to in-person worship and communitybuilding experiences, there will be a variety of offerings— many of them are new and emerge from our covenant. Each of these experiences will have an online component. We have worked hard to make sure all feel welcome and like they belong. A continuing focus on the importance of different types of connecting will hopefully maintain relationships and provide opportunity for greater participation.
As mission center president, my job will be changing significantly. The ways I connect with congregations and folks in the mission center will shift. For example, I will maintain my deep connection to our online Sunday morning ministries, which means I won’t be traveling to visit congregations every Sunday. I will be moving to a model that brings people together in new ways.
—Shandra NewcomOne of our new ministries will be day events. These day experiences will focus on learning how to do community ministry as a mission center. This fall, we will share an experience that will focus on hunger issues in the world. Through Bread For the World, we will participate in letter-writing campaigns to our members of Congress. While these day events will be created with the covenant in mind, they will be expansive
to include response to our call to be “courageous and visionary.” Each day will include an honest and practical conversation about how we can be co-creators with God to bring about change to our world through action.
There are a number of other ministries we will continue moving forward. Our anti-racism reading circle will meet again in the fall. We will be working with Harmony to become a welcoming and affirming mission center. Our communities will continue to hear the call to be not only “covenant community” but also “prophetic people.”
Our intention is to continue our work with the covenant. It is not a static document but, rather, words that need to create space for the Spirit to breathe. During the fall, we will host conversations online about how to take the current words and respond to how we feel we are being called as community. This likely will mean that some of the covenant language will change.
We will also be creating a children and youth version of the covenant so our kids can better understand our call to deepen our spiritual journey and act for justice.
Prior to the pandemic, we were—many of us—just “playing church.” Refocusing our energies on finding ways to connect has changed my perspective on what church can and should be.
—Gail RonnebergWhat does it mean to you to be a part of an authentic and loving Christ-centered community?
Our answer to that has been grounded in love, action, and Christ’s call. This has been quite an adventure. We are excited to see what happens next!
BE PATIENT WITH ONE ANOTHER, FOR CREATING SACRED COMMUNITY IS ARDUOUS AND EVEN PAINFUL. BUT IT IS TO LOVING COMMUNITY SUCH AS THIS THAT EACH IS CALLED. BE COURAGEOUS AND VISIONARY, BELIEVING IN THE POWER OF JUST A FEW VIBRANT WITNESSES TO TRANSFORM
This text is adapted from a sermon originally offered March 21, 2021, during Toronto Centre Place’s Beyond the Walls online worship.
Have you ever forgotten how to pray?
Maybe “forgotten” isn’t quite the right word. Maybe it’s best described as still having the desire to relate to God, but all the words and forms and patterns you’ve used before in prayer somehow feel completely inadequate.
It’s a strange and daunting feeling. It’s knowing that there has been beauty in the ways you’ve walked with God before but that you can’t keep walking that same way anymore. Something has to change because somehow, you’ve changed. You can’t quite put your finger on it, can’t quite name it, but one day you wake up, try to pray, and you just can’t
About ten years ago, I forgot how to pray. Since then I’ve learned that other people have had similar experiences, usually because of something really traumatic they went through. But my world wasn’t crumbling around me. In fact, most things were pretty normal. There wasn’t a struggle, a slide, or a crisis. One day I knew how to pray, and the next day I didn’t. My world had changed. I had changed.
The Israelite people knew how to worship God. They had pretty clear instructions for what was needed. They had a temple built by a great king where they could focus. They had stories about commandments chiseled into stone that guided them to be in right relationship with God. They were safe and secure in a land they felt had been promised to their ancestors and would be promised to their descendants. One day their world was stable and predictable, and their relationship with God was, too. The next day, everything changed. They were conquered, and flags of a new empire were raised all over the land. The great temple was torn down. Many of the people, their leaders especially, were uprooted and swept off into exile hundreds of miles from home. The entire structure of their faith was shaken.
I can imagine that they felt their entire relationship with God had changed overnight. On the long, harsh, depressing road through the wilderness on their way to exile, what do you think was going through their heads?
What questions did they ask into the silence of the night? They were supposed to be a covenant people—a people with a special relationship and responsibility with God. What happened? What had gone wrong? Why had everything felt so adequate one day in Israel and so completely inadequate the next day on the road to Babylon and exile? Why did it feel like they had suddenly forgotten how to pray?
Some days I like to presume that I have figured out how to know God. My temptation is to approach a journey into the unknown wilderness with confidence that I know what things will look like on the other side. Perhaps I do not fear the journey because I do not think I will be changed by it. God has met me in certain ways and in certain spaces before, I reason, so it makes sense that if I just keep to the same schedule and do the same things then I can know God in the same way and be happy, right?
But then the world changes, and I’m left asking into the starless night, “Can I ever know God again?”
We can get paralyzed by the question. It’s really scary when the world turns upside down. When something as tried and true as prayer feels like it’s been snatched away from us, the last thing we want to do is move forward. More likely, we want to curl up in a ball and eat an entire carton of ice cream.
Several months went by where I could not find my way to prayer. Nothing seemed to work. My attempts felt half-hearted and shallow. No matter how hard I tried or
God doesn’t want us to retrace our steps. God wants to walk a new path with us, and that path often leads to a way of knowing God that we haven’t experienced before.
how deeply I wanted it, I just couldn’t. When Jesus said to leave it all behind and follow him, I didn’t think this was what he meant!
Fortunately, I did not enter the wilderness alone. I went wrapped in community. I chose to be vulnerable and shared about my struggle with people in the church who I knew cared enough about me to not give simple, shallow solutions. They walked with me. They asked deep questions and sat in deeper silence.
One day, one of them suggested that I try a spiritual practice called Holding in the Light. I wouldn’t need words for this kind of prayer. They told me to picture in my mind who or what I wanted to lift before God, picture myself holding that person or concern in my hands, and then imagine the light of God’s love covering all of it like warm sunshine. “Try it, and see what happens,” they said.
So I did, and I learned to know God in a whole new way. I could sit holding an image up to God for five, ten, or twenty minutes and feel my own love and light joining God’s. When words failed, the Spirit would groan on
behalf of the longings in my heart, and I would feel an intimacy with God that transcends language.
When I could set aside my expectations of what should be and step into what was, I could know and be known by God in a way I couldn’t have imagined the day before I forgot how to pray. God upheld the promise to be a living God—a God who would be present no matter where my journey took me. This practice of Holding in the Light asked me to risk something new. It asked me to dare to believe that God could be known in a different way. It asked me to open myself to new understandings and trust that God would meet me in the silence.
Jeremiah 31:31 begins with the phrase, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord.” The Hebrew people are worn out. They’ve been through so much, waited for so long, and lost more than they could have imagined. When we’re in the middle of the night, the light of day can feel so far away. But there is hope on the horizon! The night won’t last. God’s promise is to be a living God—a God of possibility and hope and presence and new days. Notice that God doesn’t promise that yesterday will come back but promises that tomorrow the people will know God in a way they couldn’t have imagined before.
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
31:31-34
Pay attention! God says, We haven’t walked this way before, but I’m so excited to walk it with you! You can almost hear the giddiness in God’s voice, like a child waiting for you to unwrap the present they made and wrapped just for you. Here’s the new thing we’re going to do together: I’m going to put my law in you, write it directly upon your hearts, and we are going to be as one.
The covenant God is making with them in their wilderness places won’t be the same as the one God made before. It’ll be different than the covenant God made with their ancestors in Egypt and their ancestors who received the law at the mountain. God’s vision for the world won’t have to be taught any more. It won’t have to be constrained by words. It will be known right in the core of each and every person, closer than our breath and more life-giving than the sun upon our face.
The covenant God extends is to the people. God will be known by and in and through a covenant people. This isn’t an individualistic thing, but something done in community. We know God best when we share in the rhythms of community. When the world changes, when we forget how to pray, when we find ourselves in the wilderness, it’s community that holds us to the light.
When our routine patterns and rhythms and places don’t make sense anymore, it’s in community that we discern together. In community, we can hear the promise of God: The days are surely coming! In community, we discuss new ways we’re coming to know God. In community, we strengthen one another through our sharing.
But it’s hard, isn’t it? It doesn’t feel good when we forget how to pray. It doesn’t feel good when the comforts we’ve known before disappear. It doesn’t feel good to wander in the wilderness.
We want to know God in familiar ways. We want to encounter God in the ways that we’re used to, the ways that have worked for us before. We want to meet God in the places, sights, sounds, feelings, and descriptions that have made sense to us. We want to go back to those places and those times where God has been met before because we long to hold on to the God who makes us feel secure.
But God doesn’t want us to retrace our steps. God wants to walk a new path with us, and that path often leads into the wilderness, into the unfamiliar, and into a way of knowing God that we haven’t experienced before.
When Jeremiah calls to the people, he celebrates the gifts of the past. The ways their ancestors had met God at the mountain and in the temple were beautiful and meaningful. They weren’t wrong or less significant. But you, God says, you know me in this moment, in this place, in the unfamiliar where I am already at work.
There’s a thought that seems so simple that we often forget: to follow God into unfamiliar places, we have to leave much that is familiar behind.
But the good news of the gospel is that the One who makes these promises is faithful. The same Spirit that calls us also accompanies us. Though all else may crumble and
change, God is dependable. God will not abandon us. The good news is that God chooses to know and be known by us no matter where we find ourselves.
I eventually found the words to pray again, but I don’t pray the same way as I did before. How could I? I can never go back to before, and I’m so grateful for that. Because challenging as it is, I don’t want to know God in the confines of yesterday. I want to know God in the light of this moment, and I think that’s how God wants to know us, too. God is looking forward.
God is constantly working to bring about restoration, healing, and new possibility in the world. It’s a movement of love, emanating from the heartbeat of the universe—a pulse, a dance, a song that literally changes everything. To know God is to be swept up in this movement. To know God is to set aside the songs of fear and division we’re so good at singing and take up a new chorus of reconciliation and healing of the spirit. To know God is to join the dance guided not by laws chiseled in stone but by principles and values that move our feet into new paths. To know God is to let the Divine heart of peace beat within us as our own.
The world changes. We change. The ways we relate to God and God relates to us change. We forget how to pray. We step into the wilderness. But God still meets us, holds us in light, and says, Let’s get to know one another in new ways today. That is good news, indeed.
Dan Gregory (he/him) lives in Edina, Minnesota, USA and works for an interfaith nonprofit advancing affordable housing. He holds a Master of Arts in religion from Community of Christ Seminary and ministers as a seventy in the Twin Cities area.
By Abigail Garcia, Woodburn, Oregon, USA
All my life, I’ve had to make decisions alone. Sometimes they were simple, like what to have for breakfast, but other times they were difficult, like whether I should move away from the town in which I had been raised. These decisions were ultimately my own, but I often found myself wishing I had someone to make them for me.
Being baptized in 2019 was undoubtedly my own choice, and it is one of the only decisions I can wholeheartedly say I wouldn’t change one bit. Even though my flip-flop floated off mid-service and my family was unable to attend, the moment was perfect to me.
My first experience with Community of Christ was two years earlier at Camp Remote in Myrtle Point, Oregon, USA, but I didn’t really want to go. As I was brainstorming excuses, I realized my anxiety was exactly the reason I needed to get away. Running from the situation I was in at the time felt like cowardice, but the distance gave me the strength to again find faith in myself and—more importantly—in God. The people I met at camp were life-changing for me, and they’re still some of my closest friends.
Because a difficult decision was waiting for me at home, I spent one of my last nights at camp awake in my bunk. I didn’t want anyone to make the decision for me, but I wished for someone to guide me in the right direction to make it for myself. This was my turning point and a moment I look back on when I need strength. That night I had faith that everything was going to be all right, because whatever path God led me to would be the right one.
I continued to participate in Community of Christ events throughout the year, wanting to strengthen my faith and my connection with the church community I came to love. At International Youth Forum and Spectacular, I met people so
different from myself and bonded with them on a level that I was only beginning to understand. This strengthened my desire to continue to worship God.
The first question everyone asked after my baptism was: “Well, do you feel any different?” While initially I didn’t feel anything but joy, throughout the day I realized I felt lighter. Coming out of the water, the first thing I saw was the sun shining through the trees, and it seemed brighter.
Because I didn’t grow up in Community of Christ, I wondered if people around me would question my decision to be baptized, but they were just as happy as I was. While people shared testimonies after my confirmation, it hit me just how caring this community was and just how much its members loved me. Little things like a smile and congratulations after the service or big things like a family clearing space in the forest for the baptism were all ways that I believe God showed his love through Community of Christ.
Seeing people come together with their various talents for a girl they had only known for three short years made me feel confident that I would never be alone after my baptism. I am accompanied by this wonderful new family and God.
Pronouns: she/her Age: 18
Congregation: Salem, Oregon, USA
Favorite Campfire Song:
Favorite Camp
The people I’ve met through Community of Christ have helped me rediscover faith in myself and in God.
• Denny and Inez Osborne of the Grand Valley congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary February 16.
• Ron and Marilyn Richea of the Calgary, Alberta, Canada congregation celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary June 30.
• Claire Patton and Henry Knight of the Troy Oaks congregation in Troy, Michigan, USA celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary June 30.
• A lmer and Roberta Dieterman of the Union Avenue congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary July 27.
• Ma ry Campbell of the Chapel for Peace congregation in Springfield, Missouri, USA celebrated her 90th birthday January 18.
• Henry Knight of the Troy Oaks congregation in Troy, Michigan, USA celebrated his 90th birthday March 24.
• A rlene Granberg of the Chapel for Peace congregation in Springfield, Missouri, USA celebrated her 95th birthday May 1.
• Iris Spencer of the Beloit-Janesville congregation in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA celebrated her 100th birthday on July 26.
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Jesus wore a mask to check in senior high campers at Guthrie Grove Retreat Center in Guthrie Center, Iowa, USA.
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Blessedly, moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One is a continual journey, not a destination. My formative years in the USA during the Cold War and Vietnam War drew me to serving and protecting others, and I spent 26 years as a federal agent. For me, Jesus’ message was not about an absence of conflict or surrendering to opposition, but confronting them with compassion, resolution, and conviction.
My understanding of the peaceful One is most likely atypical within the Community of Christ. Consequently, within the last several years I struggled and questioned whether there was a place for me within this faith family because my spiritual concepts did not exactly conform to the norm. In “Can the Church Be a Safe Place for Spiritual Growth?” Katie HarmonMcLaughlin noted disciples struggling along the edges of their faith are still walking a spiritual path because the
Holy Spirit continually calls us into transformation (Herald, July/August 2019). I am one of those disciples.
While providing God the space to influence my heart, mind, and journey, I continue to serve to the best of my ability. In the midst of our wrestling, God offers me opportunities for ministry and spiritual growth. God dynamically demonstrates to me that his plan is broader than our plans.
As long as we willingly say yes, our journeys will involve opportunities, challenges, and growth. In each decision—even when we secretly think the Divine must be crazy—it is ultimately our choice to step forward in faith or retreat in fear.
Because I try to say yes to God more often than I say no at this point in my journey, I am currently serving as a volunteer mission center co-president during a worldwide pandemic. My co-president and I still shake our heads in bewilderment
while striving to create community and develop disciples to serve using online tools and honoring socialdistancing guidance. Despite the challenges, we are eternally grateful for our fellow disciples who are walking this path with us.
As the journey toward the peaceful One continues, my wife and I are on the cusp of a new chapter in our thirty-five year discipleship trek together. We continue to seek guidance, wisdom, and courage to say yes to the challenges God offers us. We don’t know where we are headed next, but we know it will be a marvelous adventure.
Tim Dodson attends the Laurel, Maryland, USA congregation. Tim is a high priest and serves as volunteer co-president for the Chesapeake Bay USA Mission Center. He and his wife Angela have been together almost 40 years.
