"But those involved in oversight in the church are asking themselves why the local review board in Philadelphia and the auditors did not know about so many accused priests still in ministry. Did the church staff in Philadelphia fail to show them the files? Were the files scrubbed?"
This special issue of Western Friend focuses on lifting up the written ministry of Quaker bloggers in the West! As such, almost all of the content of this issue is available online.
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“How could we take advantage of our tradition of equipping all people for ministry? I suggest that we remember our past as pioneers in the house Church movement. We have a whole system designed to…
To me, it’s more feasible to see a sharp distinction between inexperienced speakers and speakers who break the unwritten codes of unprogrammed worship. I have known many experienced speakers, if…
As a young person who travels in the ministry, I found it was easy for me to get traveling minutes, and not very difficult to get money, but it was harder to find spiritual nurture. So I decided to…
I don’t think it’s an accident that I am frequently called to ministry between the branches of Friends. As someone who grew up in an evangelical culture but now worships with liberal Friends, I feel…
In part of which he and Faith comes to visit us (yea!):
The last month has been full of work and blessings, and there is much to report. After being able to spend some weeks at home in DC, travel has reemerged as a signature feature of my life and work. In the months ahead, my schedule looks to grow only more intense as I work to strengthen Friends throughout my region and in North America as a whole.
As I understand it, the goal of our work and our life together as Friends is twofold: first, to empower each of us to follow the way or the will of the Divine (as we understand it, to the best of our…
And it is in the silence that the community who hears such vocal ministry will come to bear witness to that person’s transformation and healing. We will help hold the Friend prayerfully as she, or he, sinks down into the Seed and begins to share the story.
"I’ll leave them to their theology. I’m out to save souls. I have more friends among doctors than among ministers."
I wish I could say that this simple form of worship never leads to conflict, but I must be honest and admit that people in Meeting sometimes get upset about the vocal ministry. When you allow people…
Convergent Friends flyer, 9/13/09:
Martin Kelley is a South Jersey Friend with a lov eof outreacha nd ministry and a passion for looking afresh at Friends’ testimonies, language and practices. Before becoming an independent web developer, Martin Kelley worked for Friends General Conference and Friends Journal. He is the publisher of www.quakerquaker.org, a community site for the Convergent Friends movement. He thinks the Quaker message is more relevant than ever but worries we’re not being bold enough to gather George Fox’s and Isaiah’s “great People.”
Evangelical Friend AJ Schwanz writes about a new book from Mike King called Presence-centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation:
In my history of being part of faith communities I realized that those who are “group”-oriented seem more clubish, more “come in, be one of us”, more fractured, more self-interested. Those that were “ministry”-0riented thought of the bigger picture, had more awareness of the each other, practiced more over-arching hospitality. And in my faith gathering we have many ministries, but not a lot of groups … but the places where there are groups, we seem to have more lack of communication and conflict with each other.
Martin Commentary: On her post I asked AJ to tease out this distinction between “groups” that separate youth and “ministry” that keeps them in the church body.
I wonder if there’s some lesson for liberal Friends in this and not just for youth ministry. It seems like we have a tendency to compartimentalize our activities. Every purpose needs its own committee and we spend a lot of time starting and laying down committees. Why is “peace and concerns” separated from “earthcare” separated from “outreach” separated from “racial justice”? They’re all loving our neighbors.
My impression is that earlier generations of Friends did most things through two “committees”: ministers and elders. By divorcing our good deeds from ministry, we often secularlize them. How might we pull these functions together? Have any liberal Friends read out there Mike King’s work? Here’s the Amazon description:
How many programs does it take to change a youth group?
That question has bothered youth workers for decades, and the cracks in its logic are beginning to show. In place of the contrived, artificial mechanisms employed so widely in modern youth outreach and discipleship, Mike King proposes a ministry centered in the presence of God.
Young people encounter Christ not in the flash and pop of arena ministry, but in the sacred shadow of his presence. They learn what it is to love and follow Christ by observing others loving and following Christ—letting Christ shape their worldviews, their habits, their virtues. Presence-Centered Youth Ministry gives shape to such ministry through the classic disciplines and potent symbols and practices that have sustained the church over the centuries.
The sound and fury that has characterized youth ministry for so long has left too many youth workers tired and too many young people disillusioned. Come explore the deeper terrain; your students are sure to follow.
Quote: “I’ve likely mentioned before that I am often astounded by the fact that someone else at Meeting will speak what is in my head and heart. This was kind of like that, except magnified 100 times. No question that there was change…two different Meetings nearly 700 miles apart. But there was also continuity…one week later the same thread.”
The Claremont (CA) School of Theology recently hosted a gathering of leaders from thirty Protestant denominations, who looked at the downward trends in the “Mainline” Protestant churches.
Friends aren’t generally considered part of the “Mainline” churches, but the term itself comes from Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Main Line” suburbs became the address-of-choice for Protestant elites and feature the historically Quaker institutions of Haverford and Bryn Mawr. There’s been a lot of cross-over style with certain types of Friends and an overlap of issues.
Claremont professor Philip Clayton attended the recent meeting and compiled the stories into nine challenges Mainline Protestant churches face. Follow the link for more in-depth descriptions of each point:
