Spring 2008

The Free Methodist Church in Canada |Spring 2008 – Volume 5 Issue 2

Reflecting the diversity of ministry expression within the Free Methodist family.

COVER Freedom is a choice

by Bishop Keith Elford

PAGE 2 Editor’s Desk Free Indeed!

by Jared Siebert

PAGE 3 Values Exercise what are we reflecting?

by Kim Henderson Family Camp Schedule

PAGE 4-5 God’s Call To Be “Free” Christ-Followers

by John Vlainic

PAGE 6 Passages Recovering Financial Freedom Joanne Bell

PAGE 7 Student Ministries: A Fresh Reality for Old Freedoms

by Paul Millar

PAGE 8 An Interview with Debbie Hogebbom

by Dan Sheffield

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General Conference in Review DID YOU KNOW? The MOSAIC is produced using environmentally responsible processes. The paper is acid-free, contains 10% post-consumer waste material, and is treated with a non-chlorine whitening process.

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MOSAIC is a publication of The Free Methodist Church in Canada 4315 Village Centre Court Mississauga, Ontario L4Z 1S2 T. 905.848.2600 F. 905.848.2603 E. mosaic@fmc-canada.org www.fmc-canada.org For submissions: mosaic@fmc-canada.org Dan Sheffield, Editor-in-Chief Lisa Howden, Managing Editor and Production

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n every age of the church there is a new war that needs to be waged on an old enemy. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood – it’s not a battle that happens at the level of human will primarily (though there is the human dimension to it); it’s a battle for the soul, and in the nineteenth century the courageous Christians that formed The Free Methodist Church saw this reality clearly and fought for freedoms that were essential then and are still essential today. The surface issues change in the different eras of time, but the core remains the same.

So where do we begin if we talk about this issue’s theme “Recovering Freedom”? While we are glad for the teaching, preaching and living out of the faith of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and the bravery of Benjamin Titus Roberts, the first bishop of The Free Methodist Church, the heart of freedom is found in what the Lord Jesus did by coming, living among us, offering his life for all on the cross and then breaking through the power of sin, Satan and the grave and coming forth in resurrection victory. And that’s not the end of it! He continues to intercede on behalf of broken humanity at the right hand of the Father and he has promised that, at the right time, he will return and fulfill all prophecies concerning his final triumph over evil. And he will!

So in the meantime, whatever our circumstances, we must let the roots of our soul sink down into this deeper reality that there is a freedom, a deep freedom that comes from being centred, rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ.

Selwyn Hughes takes us to the core of this when he writes, “God cannot do for us anything greater than that which He has already done in Christ. When we were dead in our sins His Spirit moved into our lives, cut into our sinful nature, and now continually seeks to render inoperative the energy of sin. Does this mean that it is not possible to sin again? No, but it is possible not to sin. God has made us alive with Christ, and when His life pulses through our soul then freedom from sin is possible.” Would you agree that if individual believers and congregations of Christ followers are pre-occupied with this in their personal experience, and passionate about proclaiming this reality, the theme of life is freedom?

In New Testament times, the Christ followers in Galatia, having been set free in wonderful conversion experiences in response to the gospel of Christ started to lose their focus and got all bound up in “stuff”. (This was also true of the other churches in the New Testament and it’s been true in every era since. The “stuff” varies from culture to culture and generation to generation, but the “stuff” has the same effect, it chokes out freedom.) This is what is behind Paul’s plan when he writes, (and I don’t know if he is crying with brokenness or tense with godly rage) “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1) The Free Methodist founders saw the heavy yoke that the church of their day had taken on – probably through gradual drift rather than through specific, intentional decisions. The church V I S I T

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had given up the central focus on Christ that I wrote about above, and had given their hearts to humanity’s favourite idol (Life is for me and mine). As a consequence, they were virtually blind to the brokenness around them – the spiritual anemia in the church and the social injustice in their neighbourhoods.

The battle back to freedom was tough, specific and intentional and freedom was their clear goal. Free Methodist histories usually focus on re-telling several of the same issues: Pews were not to be rented; they were to be free. Humans must not be enslaved; they are to be free. Worship is not to be manipulated; God’s Spirit must be free to move. Participation in the decision making life of the church is not to be hindered by secret pacts and promises made to others; each person should prayerfully seek the mind of God on issues.

Women were not to be barred from participation in the leadership of the church; they were to be free to exercise their gifts. Though

these are the common themes in the writings of those who tell the story of the founding of Free Methodism, I think that there was much more going on – especially when one sees the rapid growth of The Free Methodist Church in its early days. These people had been set free in Christ and they went everywhere they could to get the message to others. Bishop Marston wrote in the 1960s, “Puzzled as are many today to understand the significance of the name Free Methodist, there was no question about its relevance a century ago.

The issues of the church’s founding included so many freedoms that it would have been difficult to attach to it any other name.”

As we come to the 2008 General Conference, I have been thinking a lot about our theme – “You’ve been treated generously, so live generously. That’s so like Jesus.” (Matt. 10:8) A person who is generous in spirit experiences the freedom modeled by Christ as he lived among us and then gave himself for the world on the cross, because of the joy that was set before him. (Hebrews 12:2) In Gethsemane he battled the same enemy of the spirit of generosity that we contend with: Entitlement. (The lyrics to its song begins, “Because of who I am I deserve…) Think through the issues of The Free Methodist Church’s founding. It was there too.

It’s with us now and it’s only held at bay by being centred in the generosity (a.k.a. grace) of Christ and living so generously that self-giving sacrifice is no stranger to us.

Rev. Keith Elford is Bishop of The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

< < W W W . F M C - C A N A D A . O R G > >

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Some thoughts on recovering personal freedom The key to a person’s success in recovery is to first admit that there is a problem – ask anyone who has gone through the 12-step program. The second and third steps are also vital: believing that God (a greater Power than ourselves) can restore us and that a decision must be made to turn our will and lives over to His care.

Does this sound at all familiar to anyone? Our acknowledgement that we cannot do it by ourselves – we have failed. We admit our shortcomings and run to Him, the only real Source of help. Is this not a snapshot of our connection with the Father?

Maybe we all need to acknowledge that we are in recovery . . ?

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

So, in light of this scripture, perhaps we can say that we are recovering freedom? Some may ask, “What exactly does that mean?” Well, I believe it will mean different things to each of us. The “yoke of slavery” that may be an issue for me may not be a problem for others (and vice versa). But in essence, I believe it is freeing ourselves from those things that would try to lure us away from the real freedom that Christ provides for us.

The one aspect that is common to us all is our need for help. We need divine help and we need the help from a “support group” – the church community.

Firstly, we must stay connected to the source of our freedom in order to remain free. Without a complete dependence on God, entrusting him with our lives, failure will be inevitable.

We also need a strong support group – the church.

No one who is successful attends just one “AA” meeting. They go constantly . . . anytime they feel they are losing control. They surround themselves with like-minded individuals. People who understand what it is like to struggle – they share their stories and gain strength from each other.

There is a lot for us to learn here – success lies in continuing to nurture and develop our relationship with Christ and aligning ourselves with His purposes.

But it also is partly dependent on our connection to the body of Christ – a community that reflects Christ, a place of welcome, where individuals can be “cheered on,” where help can be sought out, where growth and maturity take place and when needed, when failures can be confessed.

If you have ever spoken to someone in a 12-step program, you know that this becomes more than just a chapter in their lives . . . it becomes a way of life and many of the members who join a local support group keep attending. This strengthens the idea that we, as followers of Jesus are all interdependent – in need of both God’s grace and each other in order to be truly free.

So the challenge for us all is to really celebrate and live fully in the freedom that Christ has provided for us in our private lives as well as in community.

Lisa Howden Managing Editor

Free Indeed!

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ohn 8:36 records Jesus as saying “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (NIV). Why “free indeed”? Why modify a perfectly powerful word like “free” with “indeed”? Why not just stop at “the Son sets you free”? I believe that Jesus was trying to separate His “free” offer from cheap imitations. The kind of freedom He has in mind is rare. The kind of freedom He has in mind is fuller than most of us would dare imagine. He had to add “indeed” so that we would stop and think.

Maybe our definitions are lacking?

Here’s what I mean. One definition of “free” means to be free from rules. This is a pretty common idea. In fact, all kinds of folks outside the church feel free when they compare themselves to churchgoers.

After all, are they not free to do what they want when they want? Aren’t they free from God, preachers and a book telling them what they can and can’t do? On the surface that can sound like true freedom. In fact, it would be true freedom if we didn’t live in a world where human desires are so badly broken. Humans routinely desire harmful and short-sighted things.

Our desires have been known to rise up and rule over us. Even when we know better – after all, some oncologists smoke and some nutritionists eat chips.

Human desire can be an awful master. Any alcoholic

than freedom to do what you want, freedom from sin, and freedom to live the blessed life. Not only were we purchased out of the hands of a cruel master.

Not only were we brought into a blessed life as sons and daughters in a wholesome family. We have been set free to take our place within the family business.

What’s the family business? The family business is to destroy slavery in all its forms. We are set “free indeed” to become “freers” ourselves! It is only in carrying out the family business that our freedom from sin and our freedom to live the blessed life find their true meaning. Slavery not only has no claim to us, it must retreat from us! To be free indeed is to be taken from slavery’s grasp and turned into its worst nightmare.

Jesus does not want us as Free Methodists to be satisfied with any lesser form of “free”. He wants us to be “free indeed”. Recovering “freedom indeed” in our churches means working for freedom in our world.

Being “free indeed” means to bring shalom to all the brokenness in human relationships: our relationship to creation, our relationships with each other, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with God. Too many times in our history “Free Methodist” became synonymous with one of the lesser kinds of freedom. Legalism limited our “free” to merely

The Christian life is more than a sin management system.

It is abundant life. will tell you the slavery that can result from always getting your own way. Doing what you want is not necessarily the definition of free. It can actually be the opposite. It can become slavery.

Others hold to a definition of “free” that means no longer sinning. The story goes something like this.

Jesus purchased us from a terrible satanic slave owner.

Under his control we were abused and forced into life-destroying service earning our death wages. Jesus’ blood pays for emancipation from our former lives.

The problem with this definition is that it is only part of the story: emancipation. The Christian life is more than a sin management system. It is abundant life.

Still others define “free” as living a blessed life.

These folks know that not only were we set free from sin we were also set free to a new way of life. The Son sets us free to enjoy the fullness of life in His family.

The rules we once feared have now become what the puritans called “covered promises”. They saw the Ten Commandments this way. God will be enough. We won’t need other gods. God’s way will lead to a “free life” where we will feel safe and secure. We won’t need to murder. God’s way will lead to a “free life” where there will always be enough. We won’t have to steal to get by. God’s way will lead to a “free life” where we are content with what we have. We won’t need to covet.

God’s way will lead to a “free life” where our families will be whole. We would have nothing to disrespect our parents over. Now this sounds pretty incredible.

How can this be a cheap imitation? Well, again, it’s only because Jesus’ “free indeed” means so much more!

If you can believe it “free indeed” means more

sin management. Pandering to the current Seeker Sensitive movement boils the good news down to living a blessed life.

So how do we unleash the freeing force of “free indeed”? Well we don’t have space to go into a full exploration of that but here are a few places to start: 1. Practicing Christian accountability from the perspective of engagement rather than avoidance.

After all greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Our lot in life is not to stumble around living in the fear that sin may one day overwhelm us. We have been set free indeed. We are first called to victory over sin. We are then called to cause sin to retreat wherever it is found.

2. Seeing Discipleship (and by extension Christian experience) as not completed until the Christian is released to full time ministry in their individual context. Whether at work or in the hockey rink Jesus’ shalom is fully present and operating.

3. Finding the presence of God not only in church, Christian fellowship, devotions, or bible study but also behind the eyes of “the least of these”. We can become fully immersed in the presence of God (24/7) if we can also find him at work in the everyday lives of everyday people; especially those outside the kingdom.

Jared Siebert is the Director of Growth Ministries for The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

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MOSAIC

Values Exercise –

what are we reflecting?

Value - noun. The regard that something is held to deserve; importance or worth. Principles or standards of behaviour.

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’ve been pondering the phrase ‘recovering freedom’ for the last few weeks – what that means and how it relates to leadership development. I went back to the basics and revisited the five ‘frees’. I won’t review them all here as Bishop Keith has addressed them in his article. If, however, you turned to this page first when you received your copy of the Mosaic (hey – a girl can dream!), then please do read Bishop Keith’s piece.

As I studied the ‘frees’, I began to think of them as principles, standards or ideals: in other words, values. We all have values, the things or people in our lives that we regard as important, as useful and as having worth. These five ‘frees’, these values, became part of who we were as Free Methodists. They were part of our identity. That brought me to a question: Is that true of us today?

I have worked through a values activity with high school students, most recently in September. Each student was presented with 52 cards. Each card had a word on it that represented something good worth valuing: competence, honesty, integrity, leisure, athletics, cooperation, family, relationship with God – with Scriptural support. They had to do a quick sort of the 52 cards into 3 categories: Very important to me, Somewhat important to me and Not Important to Me at All. The only other stipulation was there could only be eight cards in their ‘very important to me’ pile. When they finished that – and for most it was not an easy task – they had to take those top eight and rank them from most to least important.

That in itself is an interesting activity. I’ve done it and it’s not easy. As I picked my top 8, I realized how some of mine were very different from a typical high school student simply because I was at a very different stage in time. Our season of life can affect what we value.

That brings me to my question. Are the five values still true for us or has that changed because of our season(s) of life? That query is followed by another one: How would we know?

I asked the high school group the same question. Together we agreed that in order for us to truly value something, there needs to be evidence of it in our lives. It has to be reflected in our behaviour. If I say I value physical fitness yet eat a high-fat, high-salt diet and never exercise, then it’s not a value. If I say I value risk-taking and never take a chance on anything, then it’s not a value. A look at our behaviour will reveal what it is that we value and two really good indicators are how we spend our time and where we spend our money. We spent some time as a group seeing if we could identify people by using the lists of eight values, based on how well we knew their behaviours. That was an interesting activity as well!

As I look at our five values, I’m impressed by two in particular as they relate to us as Christ-followers and as leaders. The first is we can be ‘free from the domination of sin’ through the renewing activity of the Holy Spirit and the faithful adherence to spiritual disciplines. As I connect this value to behaviours, then disciplines such as prayer, fasting, meditation on Scripture and Sabbath rest should be evident in our walk. I don’t know

if the original Free Methodists observed Sabbath rest as a spiritual discipline, but God has expressed His opinion on it, as a commandment(Exodus 20: 8-11). Observing a regular time for rest and worship demonstrates how much we value God and allows us to be refreshed in body and spirit. God makes provision for our spiritual and physical health in His word, and also provides protection for us; protection against exhaustion, nasty attitudes, illness or burnout. It’s there for us to put into action in our lives, for in His protection and provision there is freedom for us.

“

In order for us to truly value something, there needs to be evidence of it in our lives.

It has to be reflected in our behaviour.

The second value is that we can be free from secret societies so that our loyalty isn’t divided. As I connect that value to behaviour, I see that displayed as openness, honesty and transparency so that it’s evident where our loyalties are. No masks. There is freedom to be who we are created to be in Christ; fear of failure or fear of rejection no longer need to guide our choices or behaviours. We can let down our masks and discover that people will still love us – they might even still like us! One way that we demonstrate that value is by having an accountability partner who will ask the important and perhaps tough questions, encourage us and be willing to hold our feet to the fire as needed. In mutual accountability, we also need to be ready to ask the important questions and if we’re holding someone’s feet to the fire, be prepared to get warm hands! To learn to drop the mask is to learn to value transparency and to experience freedom in being who God created us to be: healthy, whole people designed in His image.

As Christ-followers and leaders we can claim these two ideals to be true values for us by living them out. That answers my second question of ‘how would we know?’ We know because our lives bear the fruit of those values for all to see. As for my first question, whether these values reflect a season of life…I don’t believe they do. I do believe that for healthy churches and healthy leaders, they should be our lifestyle - in or out of season!

Rev. Kim Henderson is Director of Leadership Development for The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

Family camp schedule

Maple Grove Christian Retreat Centre July 5 to July 13, 2008

Visiting one of our affiliate camps is a great way to spend a week with your family this summer. Please contact the camps directly for information about their special family events and speakers.

PO Box 69 Thamesford, ON N0M 2M0 Ron Ashton, Interim Executive Director 519.285.3334 maplegrovechristianretreat@bellnet.ca www.maplegroveretreat.com

Arlington Beach Camp July 20-27, 2008

PO Box 15, Cymric, SK S0G 0Z0 306.484.4460/tel 306.484.2117/fax contactus@arlingtonbeachcamp.com www.arlingtonbeachcamp.com

Echo Lake Camp Youth Camp August 17-24

RR 1 - Newburgh, ON K0K 2S0 Location: Godfrey, ON 1-613-374-5727 www.echolakecamp.org

Severn Bridge Camp Family Camp: July 18-27, 2008

PO Box 27008, Barrie, ON L4M 6K4 Location: 1023 Severn River Road Severn Bridge, ON P0E 1NO 705.689.6568 - camp site 705.458-4541 - off season 705.737.2057/fax sbc@bfmc.org or severnbridge@ bfmc.org

Pine Orchard Camp August 8 to August 17, 2008

PO Box 184, 11B -1100 Gorham Street Newmarket, ON L3Y 7V1 Location: 4088 Vivian Sideroad, Cedar Valley Neal Nelles, Camp Manager 905.473.5660 - camp site info@pineorchardcamp.com www.pineorchardcamp.com Wesley Acres Family Camp 1, June 28 - July 6 Family Camp 2, July 26 - August 3

PO Box 330 Bloomfield, ON K0K 1G0 Elaine Young, Director 613.393.3159/tel 613.393.1720/fax wesley@reach.net www.wesleyacres.com

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For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. [Galatians 5:13 NRSV] INTRODUCTION . . .

In the New Testament we learn of a faith community (the churches in Galatia) where Christ-followers were slipping into religious bondage. They needed to experience a life in Christ that was free.

Paul wastes no time identifying the issue. Even before we get into the body of the letter to the Galatians we hear that the issue is going to be “freedom.”

To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen. [1:2b-5 NRSV]

As the body of the letter begins (1:6), we learn of desertion from that grace gospel to “another” understanding of what God had been doing. The remainder of what we call “chapter one” deals with Paul’s authority to speak for Christ (which must surely have been called into question by his opponents).

As chapter two opens, Paul continues to explain his own credibility and authority. He goes on to cite a situation when it had been necessary for him to correct the eminent Christian leader from Jerusalem, Peter (“Cephas”), about how Jewish “law” related to life in Christ. Then, in 2:15-21 he sets up the argument he will unpack in the rest of the letter.

FREEDOM FROM . . .

First, (vv. 15-16) he lays out the things he and the Jewish Christians who oppose him agree on. He starts with common ground.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Here we have, in brief summary, Paul’s case against “legalism” (the notion that a person becomes acceptable to God by keeping the law). Here we need to be aware of what some are calling a “new perspective” on Paul. Like most things, there are pluses and minuses in this somewhat newer approach. In the older view, “works of the law” were understood as human acts of righteousness performed in order to gain credit before God. In the newer, “works of the law” are seen as elements of Jewish law that accentuate Jewish privilege and mark out Israel from other nations. There is both truth and distortion in these newer views. See the survey article from Christianity Today by Simon Gathercole, “What Did Paul Really Mean?” at <http://www.christianitytoday. com/ct/2007/august/13.22.html>.

Paul’s experience of Christ rules out trying to couple faith in Christ and life in Christ with any religious “system.”

What we can be clear on is the fact that Judaism as a whole did not simply teach salvation by works (salvation as essentially something humans do to earn divine acceptance). Salvation is the gift of the God who comes and calls people in love and offers them his saving covenant. However, as in Christendom, varying emphases which sound almost opposite can be found.

So keeping the commandments won’t save them; it will help them live out their saved life in ways that are good for them and pleasing to God. My own understanding of Paul in Galatians is that he is not simply opposing “legalism” (which both he and the so-called “Judaizers” reject). He is more interested in opposing the imposition of the whole Mosaic religious system on Christ-followers.

It is the imposition of that “religion” and all its requirements (admittedly in a way that ends up “legalistic”) that Paul sees as destructive bondage. He believes that all of them were given as preparation for (and are now superseded by) the relationship of being “in Christ.” He argues the same way in Colossians 2:16-17: So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Thus the problem Paul is addressing in Galatians is not simply works-righteousness.

I like Gathercole’s suggestion that much of the traditional Protestant reading of Paul in this regard is “anxiety about Roman Catholic works-righteousness crouching at the door.” The problem is not really a belief in salvation by human effort, but rather the attempt to impose a religious system which was seen as having authority and importance like that of faith in Christ.

Thus, as Galatians chapter 2 ends and chapter 3 opens, we read: I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?--if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

[2:21-3:5]

The opponents are not so much opposing Paul’s basic message of salvation by grace; they are insisting on “supplementing” his teaching by adding the demand for acceptance of at least the basic requirements of the Mosaic law as a way of giving substance to their faith and helping them mature. They were probably saying that it is OK to start with the faith in Christ which Paul taught. But they add that the only way to mature is to follow the “religious” system of Judaism. Paul’s words in 3:2-4 (here from The Message) seem to imply that he is responding to such a view: Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

So the “yoke of slavery” from which Paul wants his readers to find liberty is the belief and practice whereby converts are being told that in addition to their faith in Jesus, they must live out their Christian lives in strict compliance with a religious “system” – in this case the Mosaic system of laws and traditions.

The phrase “works of the law” (which Paul had opposed in 2:16) probably refers to a whole network of legalistic ideas having to do with winning God’s favour and/or going on to maturity by keeping the laws of Judaism. But Paul’s experience of Christ rules out trying to couple faith in Christ and life in Christ with any religious “system” (as though both were crucial).

But that was only one side of the problem in Galatia. It seems that many of those who had followed Paul in rejecting the combination of life in Christ and Jewish lawkeeping had concluded that freedom from Jewish law-keeping meant a libertine life in which “anything goes.” Thus we read (5:1):

The fact that Judaism is not at heart a religion of salvation through human performance is perhaps most easily recognized by noting the way in which the ten commandments are introduced in Exodus 20.

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

We are not told, “I am God. If you do these things (well enough!?) I will save you and you will be my people.” Instead we read:

While the form of slavery he first describes is the one we have already outlined (see the references and allusions to circumcision in 5:2-12), Paul has in mind an equally destructive slavery in the churches. He goes on:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me . . . . [Exodus 20:2ff.]

We are told that God has already saved the people to whom he now gives his law!

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor

5 as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. [5:13-15]

If the first form of slavery that Paul outlines is religious practice seen as central along with faith in Christ, or seen as the way to connect with God, the second (equally a denial of the gospel of Christ) is what we might call loveless libertinism, a self-absorbed “I can do anything I want” stance.

But Paul knows that Christian freedom leads immediately to love slavery to one another, NOT selfindulgence.

FREEDOM FOR . . .

Thus we come to the realization that the widespread default “feeling” people have about what it means to be “free” is false. While liberty in Christ is indeed a freedom “from,” Christian freedom is more fully a freedom “for.”

Victor Shepherd illustrates this well: The difference between a proper understanding of freedom and the popular confusion of freedom with licence is illustrated by everyday objects, like swimming pool filters. A swimming pool filter is designed to filter water and thereby promote safe, enjoyable swimming. Purifying water is the nature of the filter. Now imagine that the filter has become clogged, for any reason at all. We say that the filter doesn’t work. Do we mean it doesn’t hum quietly?

We mean it doesn’t do what a filter is meant to do.

Someone unclogs the filter. We say that the filter has been freed. If a bystander says, “Freed, did you say?

Is it truly freed? Is it free to make peanut butter?”

The proper response is that a filter which is perfectly free will never make peanut butter just because it isn’t a filter’s nature to make peanut butter. It’s a filter’s nature to filter water. Freedom doesn’t mean doing anything at all; freedom means acting in accord with one’s true nature. God isn’t free because there’s nothing he can’t do; God is free because he can do what it’s his nature to do. [http://www. victorshepherd.on.ca/sermons/freedom.htm]

Paul wants his readers to grasp the fact that freedom is essentially related to purpose and design. Having outlined a two-fold slavery that Christ frees us FROM (a legalistic/religious approach to the Christian life, and a libertine approach which assumes “I can do whatever I want”), he then outlines a two-fold purpose for Christian liberty – what Christian freedom is FOR: serving one another in love, and living by the Spirit. As we shall see, the former is rooted in and made possible by the latter.

While some are telling the church that they must hold carefully to a religious system portrayed as equal in importance to faith in Christ, many in the church are claiming freedom from such things (Paul agrees), but using that freedom to live with no regard for others (Paul can think of no greater denial of the Christ they say they trust). So he laments the fact that they are using their “freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence [literally ‘the flesh’]” instead of through love becoming slaves of one another (5:13).

without God’s help) in contrast to what God has done for us and does in us. “Flesh” is almost code for “what I can do by myself, apart from you, God.” Often Paul uses it to refer to the kinds of things that result from living on our own, without God’s transforming power to help us deal with impulses that can take us in the wrong direction.

This explains why Paul can be so adamant about the fact that the law cannot help us deal with this captivity to a “fleshly” way of life. Yes, the law had a usefulness before faith came (cf. 3:19-25), but when we come to Christ in faith, a law-based spirituality would only compound the problem of “fleshly” living!!

Paul has, in effect, given us a helpful “template” for looking at life, and for evaluating what is good or important: “flesh” or “Spirit.” Under the heading “life in the flesh, life trusting only in our own resources,

Paul’s use of the word “flesh” has sometimes been the subject of misunderstanding. One false nuance has been that there is something wrong with physicality. All the commentators give considerable attention to clarifying what Paul does and does not mean by “the flesh.” The simplest way to put it may be to say that “the flesh” here refers to the things we do in our own strength (and

thereby taking believers back to some primordial state. Rather, what God has done “in Christ” and by “the Spirit” is to effect a “new creation.” Therefore, “all that matters” for the Christian is the fact of being “a new creation,” with that newness of creation reflected externally in culturally relevant lives of worship and service.

The good news is that Paul ends not with some new “religious” call to “do” our religion with more commitment, but with the offer of divine resources for living a new life in a new creation!

WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR US TODAY?

Surely we need to ask how we can address the same kind of spiritual issues today. How can we discern when we are facing an issue of spiritual bondage?

Most observers of our culture marvel at the degree to which we (including Christ-followers) are chained by “affluenza” and the need to acquire and impress. bondage” he tells us to put:  “religious system” when seen as “right up there with” faith in Christ (first part of the letter),  biting and devouring one another (5:13),  fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (5:19-21),  conceit, competition, envy (5:26),  a harsh, unredemptive spirit toward the fallen (6:1),  pride (6:3), Under the heading freedom in Christ and in the Spirit, Paul tells us to put:  become slaves to one another (5:13),  love your neighbour as yourself (5:15),  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22-23),  gentle restoring love for those who have messed up (6:1),  bearing one another’s burdens (6:2);  generosity (6:6),  persistence in doing good (6:9-10), and finally, the reality that underlies and animates all of the others,  having nothing that rivals Christ and his saving death in functional importance in our lives (6:14).

BUT HOW?

We still have a problem. Fallen humans who hear the message, “Don’t do these things; instead do these” immediately see on the screens of our minds and feelings a kind of “legalism.” It certainly doesn’t sound like “gospel” (“good news”)! We see another “task” we’ve got to do on our own. But the realities on the ledger under “life in Christ, life in the Spirit, freedom” are not merely a new, improved law or “duty.” A living dynamic is at their centre!

Thus it should not surprise us that the last thing in the body of a letter which begins with a call for life that is “free” is a word about the ultimacy of “a new creation” (6:15). This builds on Paul’s references to the cruciality of the work of the Spirit (e.g. 3:4, 4:6) and to the Christian walk as a life in the Spirit (chapter 5). It also reflects his conviction that life in Jesus compared to life in religion is like the difference between being a child or a slave (4:57).

Because he recapitulates the matter here so well, let me share Longenecker’s summary (Commentary 296):

Too many of the things we get our knickers in a knot over are on the wrong side of his ledger!

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It is simply this: that all external expressions of the Christian faith are to be understood as culturally relevant but not spiritually necessitated, for all that really matters is that the Christian be “a new creation” and that he or she express that new work of God in ways reflective of being “in Christ” and directed by “the Spirit.” Paul is not against external expressions of one’s faith per se, nor against all cultic rituals. One’s spiritual life cannot be simply internal; it must also be expressed externally in acts of worship to God and service on behalf of God to people. But Paul is against the Judaizers’ attempt to make Gentile believers conform to Jewish laws. For while maintaining continuity with his redemptive activity for his people Israel, God has done a new thing through the work of Christ. For life now “in Christ” is to be lived not in the context of laws but in the context of “the Spirit.” It is not just “re-creation” that God effects “in Christ” and by “the Spirit,”

There are obvious parallels in our life together as Christ’s people. Most observers of our culture marvel at the degree to which we (including Christfollowers) are chained by “affluenza” and the need to acquire and impress. In every community (family, small group, church) there can be the bondage of unwritten, unexpressed rules regarding how you can be “accepted.”

Some of the “spiritualities” that are taught focus slavishly on the external and not on the heart. And it’s not hard to find places where we eat our own wounded (clearly a problem in Galatia).

Those more “corporate” matters are very important, and we know that corporate and personal cannot be separated. However, I want to focus here on our need for personal freedom.

If you had a relative or old friend in Galatia who was heavily involved in their church, you would probably soon get tired of hearing about “circumcision” or “uncircumcision.” You’d quickly see that there must be some kind of debilitating preoccupation with the issue of Jewish law.

Sometimes we learn that some issue is tearing a family or a small group or a church apart. At other times, those who know us realize that they can’t have a conversation with us without hearing about __________. These phenomena are almost always danger signals. I believe Paul’s Galatian letter can help us.

Here is a suggestion. Next time you are involved in tension or disagreement that threatens to tear apart your relationship or family or church, or next time you have someone who loves you enough to say, “Do you realize that every time we’re in touch, all you can fuss about is _______?” ask yourself where that preoccupation fits on Paul’s grid. “Is this on the “flesh”—self-absorbed— enslaved side of the ledger, or the “Spirit”—love— serving—free-in-Jesus side?”

It saddens me to hear again and again of Christians and churches and pastors/people torn apart by matters that really don’t matter very much (if Paul is right). Too many of the things we get our knickers in a knot over are on the wrong side of his ledger! What’s more, it frightens me to realize that the people whose big concerns Paul enters under “flesh”—self-absorbed—enslaved are the most religious people in those churches!

I suggest that whenever something in our life (apart from love for Christ) is gradually becoming what we might call “a really big deal” – as circumcision and being religiously “Jewish” were for the Judaizers – we can be sure that we need a fresh experience of the freedom in Christ that Galatians is all about.

Finally, lest a reader think I am trying to take “obligation” out of our vision for the Christian walk, let me explain that Paul knows that to be human is to live under obligation. This arises out of who we are, made in God’s image for love. Galatians does not do away with [continued on page 6, “Free”]

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PASSAGES APPOINTMENTS

Recovering Financial Freedom

John-Mark Cockram – Associate Pastor, Barrie FMC,

Barrie, ON, effective May 1, 2008

Wing Kong (Felix) Chow – Assistant Pastor, Malvern Chinese FMC, effective March 28, 2008 Thomas Eng – Assistant Pastor, Uxbridge FMC, Uxbridge, ON, effective April 18, 2008

RECOVERING FINANCIAL FREEDOM

Mike Hogeboom – Intentional Interim Pastor, Prince

Edward County FMC, Picton, ON, effective Feb. 13, 08 Shantikumar Kantharatnam – Pastor, Wesley Chapel Tamil Church, Toronto, effective April 18, 2008 David Moran – Intentional Interim Pastor, Polson Park

FMC, Kingston, ON, effective March 3, 2008

Scott Sanders - Associate Pastor-Community Ministries, Queensway FMC, Niagara Falls, ON, effective March 31, 2008 John-Peter {JP} Smits, Assistant Pastor, Blue Mountain

Community Church, Thornbury, ON, effective May 1, 08

Andrew Suttar – Pastor, Church on the Hill, Orillia,

ON, effective February 1, 2008

Sherry Thomas – Pastor, Charlemont FMC,

Wallaceburg, ON, effective April 28, 2008

Matt Turvey – Church Planter, FM.com, Simcoe, ON, effective April 4, 2008 Gerry Zak – Pastor, Lakeland Community Church,

Spiritwood, SK, effective January 24, 2008

Bruce Zantingh – Church Planter, FM.com, Simcoe,

ON, effective April 4, 2008

APPROVED AS MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES John-Mark Cockram [Barrie, ON] Thomas Eng [Uxbridge, ON] Cameron Montgomery [Thunder Bay, ON] Scott Sanders [Queensway, Niagara Falls, ON] John-Peter (JP) Smits [Blue Mountain, Thornbury, ON] Bruce Zantingh [church planter-FM.com, Simcoe, ON] APPROVED FOR ORDINATION

Keitha Slack – June 1, 2008 at Valleview Community

Church, Blezard Valley, ON)

NETWORK LEADER CHANGES

Jennifer Anderson (replaces Kim Henderson), effective

February 1, 2008

Garry Castle, new Church Start-up Network, effective

February 1, 2008 Darryl Dozlaw (replaces Rob Van Norman), effective March 1, 2008 Bruce Kellar, new Church Start-up Network, effective February 1, 2008 Ken Roth, new Church Start-up Network, effective February 1, 2008 Nathan Umazekabiri (replaces Dan Sheffield), effective February 1, 2008

CHANGE OF STATUS Paul Shaw - “Released for service beyond the denomination – Pastor, Mount Zion Presbyterian Church in Ridgetown, ON, effective February 22, 2008 Joan Stonehouse – Located at The FreeWay, effective February 29, 2008 Dean Angell – transfer to Southern Michigan Conference, effective summer 2008 Brian Hartley – transfer to Gateway Conference, effective January 28, 2008 Robert Munshaw – Leave of Absence – Attending School, July 31, 2008 CHURCHES IN TRANSITION Campbell’s Bay FMC, Campbell’s Bay, QC Dunnville FMC, Dunnville, ON Eyebrow FMC, Eyebrow, SK Frankford Community Church, Frankford, ON Kingston West FMC, Kingston, ON Lakeview FMC, Saskatoon, SK Marmora FMC, Marmora, ON Pineview FMC, Cloyne, ON Polson Park FMC, Kingston, ON Prince Edward County FMC, Picton, ON Rice Road Community Church, Welland, ON Saskatoon FMC, Saskatoon, SK Verona FMC, Verona, ON West Springs FMC, Calgary, AB Westdale Park FMC, Napanee, ON Wyevale FMC, ON PASTORS IN TRANSITION Glenn Dixon Harold Fox Dale Hawley Jason Johnson John Kurish Jim Peetoom Brandon Shillington Dale Vinkle CONGREGATIONS LEAVING THE FMCIC House of ROC, Moose Jaw, SK – Withdrawn Grandview FMC, Grandview, MB - Closed Housechurch.ca, Mississauga, ON – Withdrawn

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ecovering freedom. That phrase in and of it itself assumes we were once free and now we are not. When I think about this concept from a financial stewardship point of view, I believe that many of us in Canada would have to look back a long way in our lives to find a time when we were free from some kind of bondage to our money and possessions.

Many of us have been taught to view money and possessions in an unhealthy way which has resulted in bondage. We are enslaved because of our debt load. We are enslaved because of the time and energy required to look after all the stuff we’ve bought.

One of the goals of our stewardship ministry is to help people get to the point of being financially free. By this we mean – free to serve God. Free to go where He leads, to serve whom He brings to us, to give what He asks of us. This kind of “financial freedom” requires both a change of perspective as well as a change of behavior.

The average Canadian Household spent 112% of it’s income in 2005.

We are spending more than we make and consumer debt is on the rise.

Change of Perspective

To recover financial freedom we need to change our perspective on ownership. For many of us we have come to believe that we are the owners of all we have. Scripture is very clear on this issue – God is the owner of everything and our role is simply to be faithful stewards.

Stewards are people who manage assets for the owner’s benefit. They carry no sense of entitlement to the assets they manage and they understand that their job is to find out what the owner wants done with the assets and then carry out his will.

Many of us have come to believe that as long as we give our 10% then we can do as we please with the other 90%.

But since God is the owner of everything, this is not a valid perspective. We need to transfer ownership of 100% of all that we have back to God. Once we do this, the rest of the steps to recovering financial freedom will begin to fall into place.

Change of Behavior

The road to financial freedom also requires a change in many of our behaviors. When we change our perspective, God will help us change our behavior. He can be trusted to help us make better choices. One of the first actions we need to take is to include God in how we apportion of finances – giving, saving, and spending.

God is very generous to us in so many ways. Giving back to God financially acknowledges His provision to us – it is an act of worship, thanking Him and giving Him the glory for his generosity to us. In determining your giving, seek God’s direction for both how much to give and where to give. As you are obedient to him in this area of your life, you will be blessed. And don’t be surprised if God directs you to give more than makes sense on paper. He does that to stretch us – to help to develop our faith and to remind us that He is in control.

Savings and investments are crucial to achieving financial freedom. It is important to have both short term savings – savings that can be used for emergencies or large purchases rather than relying on debt – and long term savings for retirement. Be diligent in putting away some money from every pay cheque into long term savings. As this money grows both from the principle you invest and the interest that is generated, you become less dependent on employment income and closer to financial freedom.

The area of spending is most likely where we need to change our behaviors the most. The average Canadian

Household spent 112% of it’s income in 2005. We are spending more than we make and consumer debt is on the rise. It’s nearly impossible to be giving and saving the way God wants us to when we are spending so much on ourselves.

The most effective way to change our spending habits is to develop a spending plan. This is a written plan of all the ways you spend your money. Create categories for your spending and then put them in order of importance. Things like rent, mortgage, food, and clothing are more important than entertainment and recreation.

Take a look at your spending plan and see where you can make some changes to redirect money into giving and savings. If you have debt – either consumer debt like credit cards, car loans or mortgage debt – commit to paying it off as soon as possible. When you become debt free, you will feel such a weight lifted off your shoulders!

Many people feel like spending plans (okay so it’s really a budget) are restrictive. How can I be talking about budgets in an article about recovering freedom? Let’s look at a couple verses of scripture to help explain my perspective.

“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” — but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 Freedom to do whatever we want sounds great. We want to be free from consequences as well. But that’s not possible.

Every action we take has a consequence – for me and for others. So while everything is permissible, it’s not always beneficial. God wants us to be free from self indulgence and free to serve others. It is within this context that we will experience true freedom.

So as you develop your spending plan and make choices, remember it’s not always about making a choice between something good or something bad – it’s often about making the wisest choice for your situation. Include God as you seek to recover financial freedom – it’s amazing how helpful His input really is.

For more help on your journey to recovering financial freedom, check out the following websites: www.generoussteward.org, www.crowncanada.ca and www.crown.org Joanne Bell is the Stewardship Development Director for The Free Methodist Church in Canada.

Free

[continued from page 5]

obligation. But Paul does tell us that in Christ, “have to and yet can’t” (=in the flesh) becomes “get to – and can” (=in the Spirit). That is the nature of Christian freedom!

ONE LAST THING

I suggest that you now read the Letter to the Galatians again. I am confident that you will see new connections and nuances, many of which I have not yet seen. I predict you’ll feel more at home in that letter, and more challenged and encouraged too. As a friend is known to say, “More power to you!”

NOTES FOR PEOPLE WHO APPRECIATE JOHN WESLEY’S INFLUENCE

It isn’t hard to see that having newness of life (which evidences itself supremely in serving, giving love) as our one great passion is in fact the heart of the Wesleyan message. So too is the Wesleyan impulse to major on matters of Christology (Christ) and soteriology (his

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Student Ministries

A FRESH REALITY FOR OLD FREEDOMS

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f we are going to reach a younger generation we must embrace and celebrate the “Freeness” of our denomination.

Denominations are falling out of fashion. I am not saying that this is a good thing.

I am just stating what I see happening. We find ourselves in a culture where identifying yourself as a Christian leaves most people silent. To state your denomination is to leave them dumb-founded.

sociological problem. To the poor this is the empty savings account and the empty fridge, it’s everything. We, as Free Methodists, cannot accept treating poverty as an interesting social problem. We must do as Jesus and our predecessors did and align ourselves with the poor. We must feel the rejection that they feel. We must sit with them in the back pews for it’s only from there can we passionately say “This is wrong!”

Freedom from Secret Societies

I have been on the pastoral staff at Arlington Woods FM (that’s Free Methodist) for six years. In the past, like most churches, we have ordered pens which bear our church name and address. Our pen supplier has sent us sample pens for years in hopes of a large re-order. The church name and denomination are too long for the one-line header on the sample pens. The company chooses to shorten the denomination name, leaving us with loads of free pens that say “Arlington Woods Free Meth” with our address and phone number.

Though this could be mis-construed as an outreach opportunity to the drug community this is not currently a “ministry” we can offer.

The heart of this freedom is the issue of divided loyalties. Though Free Masonry seemed to be the motivation back then, there is a greater issue for the church today. I am no Free Methodist historian, but I am quite sure that the heart of this freedom is that people in leadership had misplaced loyalties, not to the church, but to Christ. I as a Free Methodist pastor do not pledge my loyalty to my church, nor to my denomination. My loyalty is to Christ alone. It is in my denomination and in my church that my loyalty to Christ is lived out. Though a church may burn down and a denomination tear itself apart, Christ alone is our alpha and our omega, our beginning and end. It is to Him alone that we must pledge our entire loyalty.

So does being a Free Methodist have any traction in a post-modern culture? Or is it just one of the last fractures in a very fractured Christendom?

Freedom from the Domination of Sin

I believe strongly that Free Methodism has a profound importance in who we are as Christian community. That importance is not revealed in some Free Methodist flag that we wave, but instead is revealed as under-girding principles which we adhere to in bringing the good news and freedom found in Christ. In order to be a spiritual movement we must find our unity in our ethos, not in the similarity of our execution.

The unity of our movement is in our freedom. The five “free’s” of the Free Methodist Church are just as necessary today as they were 148 years ago. I believe that they can be as encouraging and challenging as they were back then.

Freedom from Slavery

In our FMCiC brochure it states that “They wanted a church ‘free’ for all to attend.” This was an important stance which should never have taken that long to be made. It is so obvious to us today that the practice of slavery is the most barbaric and hideous stain on North American history. It is a point of pride that our denominational forbearers were bold enough to take an unpopular stand. What will those in subsequent generations say of us?

We live in a global village in which we are so aware of horrific injustice and slavery. The call to set the captives free is not a thing of the past. We need to challenge ourselves anew that we, even if we are alone, will stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. May future generations look on our actions with pride that we stood for right in a world with so much wrong.

Freedom of Pews

I, as a leader in the church, need to ask myself, who is it today that is left on the fringes and forgotten? Who is it that is relegated to the back pews of our churches? The back of our minds? The back of our budgets? The back of our ministry plans? We have a plague of homelessness. We have a plague of absentee fathers. We have a plague of class separation.

There is a statement “The rich get rich and the poor get poorer.” To the rich this is an interesting

saving work for us and in us). The same can be said for an unwillingness to get bogged down on many “either/or” issues of faith and life, but to look for the broadest and deepest expressions of life in Christ. And Wesley’s tendency to both value and work through traditions and forms, and yet continually create new ones – in order to see Christ more fully formed in us and lost people reached – surely aligns with the spirit of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Papyrus 46 is one of the oldest New Testament manuscripts known to exist, with its ‘most probable [creation] date’ between 175-225. It contains “the last eight chapters of Romans; all of Hebrews; virtually all of 1–2 Corinthians; all of Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians; and two chapters of 1 Thessalonians.

In this connection I am intrigued by the ministry and writings of a present-day pastor from one of our sister denominations. As I listen and read, I see that he is alerting us to issues essentially the same as those found in the Letter to the Galatians. Of course, he would not equate his wisdom or authority with Paul’s, but I suspect many will find that beneath the obviously different “externals” of a different age, Bruxey Cavey’s The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus (see below) is wrestling with the same basic issues of freedom as Paul was. Cavey writes (p. 44), There is a difference, an important difference, between relating to God through systems of doctrine, codes of conduct, inherited traditions, or institutions of power, and relating to God directly, soul to soul, mind to mind, heart to heart. Jesus taught this distinction, lived this message, and was killed because of its implications.

When all is said and done, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

This is a freedom that can find profound traction in our world today. In our heritage we understand this freedom as coming about in our adherence to spiritual disciplines and by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of their faith, or lack thereof, people see that evil and wrong exist both on a personal as well as a global scale. We as Free Methodists have a message that we need to shout to the world “Freedom is possible!” But freedom is not free, we need to fight for our freedom knowing that we do not fight alone. God’s Holy Spirit is fighting with us, fighting for our personal freedom and fighting with us to be freedom bringers to the world. The weapons in our fight are the core spiritual disciplines which too often are relegated to sidelines of personal faith.

Freedom of the Spirit in Worship

If we really mean this as a Free Methodist movement we will fully embrace the many and varied ways in which worship is expressed in our denomination. Furthermore, we will see that there are many more astounding ways in which the Spirit can and may move that we have not even dreamed possible. In acknowledging that the same Holy Spirit moves in the heart of an outcast woman struggling for survival in India as well as in the heart of man leading a Fortune 500 company, we are acknowledging that the Spirit is not limited in ways and means of vibrancy amongst very different people. May we embrace this freedom with faith that, in doing so, people of all ages will come to a personal faith in Christ.

This may not be a standard Youth Ministry article, but I truly believe that when we all as a body embrace a greater calling to freedom, we will see that regardless of age we will be a movement that could simply change the world.

Rev. Paul Millar is the Youth Pastor at Arlington Woods Free Methodist Church in Ottawa, Ont.

points us to this same crucial distinction, and warns us about the peril of not “getting” it!

FREEDOM FRAGMENTS (from Bauckham’s Epilogue – see below)      

The Christian Gospel is an offer of freedom which is often accused of being the opposite. Colin Gunton Genuine freedom is not subjective arbitrariness, but freedom from the motivation of the moment. Rudolf Bultmann The opposite of freedom is not necessity, but guilt. Søren Kierkegaard Human freedom is the God-given freedom to obey. Karl Barth Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows. R. H. Tawney Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. Nelson Mandella

RESOURCES

I have found the commentary of Richard Longenecker, Word Biblical Commentary: Galatians (Word Books, 1990) extremely helpful. The same has been the case with many other commentaries. I had not expected it, but it suddenly dawned on me while writing on Galatians that Bruxey Cavey’s The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus (NavPress, 2007) is addressing many of the same kinds of issues in today’s context. If you want a more philosophical/ theological work on Christian freedom try reading Richard Bauckham’s God and the Crisis of Freedom: Biblical and Contemporary Perspectives (Westminster John Knox, 2002).

Rev. John W. Vlainic is the Director, Pastoral Service at St. Peter’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario

An Interview with

Debbie Hogebbom

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any of us were confronted with the scenes of uprising in Kenya during the Christmas/New Year season. The reaction to the December elections sparked ethnic clashes that impacted the whole country.

Canadian Free Methodist crosscultural worker, Rev. Debbie Hogeboom, lives in Eldoret, Kenya and found herself in the midst of this hot spot. Debbie recently returned to Canada for a home assignment and we were able to get an update from her on the situation.

Debbie, we heard that Eldoret was one of the places where there was a lot of violence. Can you tell us what you heard and experienced during the first couple of weeks when things erupted in Eldoret?

The day it started I had planned to go to town to buy groceries. As I was getting ready the local pastor called and told me to stay at home because “town was bad”. I didn’t leave my neighborhood for three weeks and even then checked to make sure that it was “okay” in town. I always went in the early morning and was home by 10 since it took time for the protesters to organize and get to town.

Many in Canada were worried and praying for you during that time.

Can you describe what life was actually like for you during those days? Would you say that you were afraid for your life, or was your experience different than what we were seeing on our TV screens?

Actually the town of Eldoret itself was not so bad as the outlying areas, which is what was being broadcast by the media. (Everything within a 50km radius of Eldoret is called Eldoret.) At one time all the roads to Eldoret (town) were blocked by huge gangs (numbering over 300) of youth. Only twice in all the time did I hear shooting from my house, lasting about an hour -- the police were dispersing the demonstrators in town (a three minute drive from my house). It became difficult to buy basic food stuffs like bread and eggs and prices tripled, but it was worse for the Kenyans since they are accustomed to buying food on a daily basis. I was not fearful for my life -- the conflict was inter-tribal and not directed at foreigners. The biggest danger would be being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was cautioned to avoid traveling as much as possible to town or outside the immediate area.

Can you tell us where and how Free Methodist churches and pastors were affected by the political unrest?

Houses were burned, at least one pastoral family (and probably members of his congregation) has lived in an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp. One of our pastors stepped into a hole as she was fleeing from a gang of youths and had multiple fractures of her leg.

(The gang ran away when she started to scream and they thought there were many others with her!) Almost whole congregations and several pastors have moved back to their ancestral homes. Several women that I know were threatened with death or sexual abuse but were left when their tribe was identified as not being the one targeted.

The Bible School session for April has been canceled because it would be difficult to have it in Kericho where some people could be targeted. All have been affected by the economic and social repercussions. This is the time to plant but seed and fertilizer has tripled in price.

There is a lot of mistrust and fear.

Do you think the situation will continue to be problematic, or does it seem that differences have been resolved?

The news today [April 8] from Kenya is that while President Kibaki and the opposition leader (Raila Odinga) have agreed to power sharing they have not yet agreed on the cabinet ministers thus the government has been virtually paralyzed [this was announced April 14th]. Kenyans are losing patience and yesterday [April 7] demonstrations in Kibera (Nairobi and Kisumu) which started out peaceful were dispersed by the police force. The whole concept is very difficult to implement. They have a long way to go.

You are back in Canada for a while right now; can you tell us what you anticipate your ministry to be when you go back in the fall? Will things have changed in your ministry because of this upheaval?

I think it is too early to predict what new dimensions my ministry might take. But I think the biggest need will be for Christians to forgive and to be forgiven, so leaders need training to know how to engage in the ministry of reconciliation. The Christian response already has been recognizing the role of the church to preach peace and not to propagate a tribalistic mentality. This needs to be taught.

Debbie will return to Kenya, Lord willing, in the fall to continue her work as an educator and mentor to pastoral leaders.

Churches in Kericho, Shiru, Kibera sheltered those fleeing from their homes until a secure place could be found for them or they could return to their homes. The people of these churches which were not affected assisted with feeding the people until some assistance was found to help.

[above] Pastor Philip Kamau who has stayed in an IDP camp intermittently as security requres. His church building was destroyed. [left] Rev. Patrick Musigali standing in the rubble of destroyed homes just outside the Kericho FM Church compound (church is in background) Rev. Musigali had to move his family home because of threats to burn his house down and attack.