Finale

The last two days went really well. In the morning, the clerk did an excellent job dealing with a situation that came out of some leadings from some of the areas. There was a proposal from the Administrative Committee that was unclear in many minds, so he sent off those interested to reword it. They brought it back on Thursday and it was a well crafted policy. It will be visible in the Proposal for Area Church Minutes in the Minutes that will be posted on the http://www.nwfriends.org website. Also on Wednesday the representative from Evangelical Friends Mission really touched off a bit of a firestorm with some harsh seeming remarks to some people who were being persecuted in Bangladesh. A group of us were led to draft a minute of support and I posted it below.


July 25, 2007

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Bangladesh,

We have heard of your faithfulness and stand with you in the dangers you are facing. We affirm our love for you and also our material support through EFM. While we know you may suffer for your faithfulness, we also believe your witness to Christ, in submission to God, could further His Kingdom in ways beyond our knowing. We have been challenged to be willing to suffer for Christ, if required by the truth, because of your courage and example. May God be glorified in your witness and faithfulness; we stand with you in your time of trial.

As one body we offer first our loving prayers. Though great distance separates us, we are close, even one, through Jesus. You are not alone! We commit our voices, alongside yours, to our Lord Jesus.

Secondly, we would like to encourage you to live Christ’s teaching to love your enemies and do good to those who are persecuting you. (Matthew 5:44) We will continue to pray for you and your persecutors. Our prayers are that your Christlike example will convict the hearts of your persecutors and that Christ’s peace will rest upon you regardless of your current trials. We would also like to remind you of the faithfulness of Jesus to restore us even when we fall, and know that we are praying for your brothers and sisters who have fallen away through this persecution.

As a final word of encouragement, “May the Lord make your love overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His Holy Ones.” I Thessalonians 3:12-13

With Love and Hope,

Your Brothers and Sisters in Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends

200 N. Meridian Street, Newberg, OR 97132 USA

That was an awesome collaborative effort. We who worked on it felt the Spirit guiding us with words of comfort.

The finale on Thursday was the celebration banquet. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and were encouraged by the Superintendent's closing address. I enjoyed getting to meet folks, and am already looking forward to next year.

Days 2 and 3

I was going to post last night, but got in way too late.
Day 2 was the first day of business meetings. I appreciated the time to worship that was included. There was a bit of a Taize element to it, which I am not entirely in to, but it was deal able with. We had some visitors from Canada Yearly Meeting, Philly Yearly Meeting, Pacific Yearly Meeting and the Friends World Committee on Consultation. I was pretty happy to see visitors from Unprogrammed Friends, it is good that we rebuild some of the relationships that have for whatever reason lapsed. After the introductions we spent some time centering using a combination of silence, music, and readings. Personally, I have been so opened to silence recently that I would have actually preferred an absence of the music and readings. It is amazing how much I have grown in this area.
In the meeting we talked about about the incredibly dull yet important budget and the new staffing ideas for better focus on our leadings in ministry.
What was really exciting and took place over the rest of the day's session and most of the following, were presentations by the new boards about their ministry plans and priorities. It was good to see some excitement being raised about doing work and an eagerness to go try the plans out.
I attended a couple of workshops in the afternoon on Monday, one about using RSS feeds, and another to meet and hear from the Board of Local Outreach, It combines parts of the old Boards of Evangalism and the Board of Peace and Social concerns) the idea behind these Boards being combined is that we need to minister to both the spiritual and temporal, and that the one cannot be healthily divorced from the other.
On Tuesday afternoon, I met with Colin Saxton, our Yearly Meeting Superintendent, to talk about how I was doing in my pastorship and how I was holding up. We had a great conversation that helped me clarify my sense of call. I also met with the Board of Leadership Development about my Recording Process. I came into the meeting a bit frustrated with the process, and I think the meeting started out a bit on the wrong foot. I kind of feel sorry for the Board as they are having to reinvent the process a bit. I think that we ended the time well, with a greater understanding of the process. I am still dealing with residual frustration from the past communication issues, but that is normal, frustrations take time to work themselves out and I am looking forward to partnering with the new board as we move forward with what I hope will be a nurturing and learning time for us. I genuinely see that the folks I met with want to equip me to the best of their ability to lead a church after the manner of Friends.
So if any of you read this, know that while I may be a little frustrated with the process, I do see and appreciate the effort that you are putting in to help all of us in the recording process grow.
The business meetings have been an awesome view into the way God can work through his people when their minds and hearts are open to him.

Yearly Meeting Day One

Day one of the yearly meeting sessions was interesting. Things were a bit less organized then I had expected them to be. The registration tables were closed between 3:30 and 8:30, so I was on my own a bit for figuring out what was going on. With the help of a nice guy from Friendsview Manor, I found where I was supposed to go.

The Representative’s pre-meeting was a preview of what was to come. There are some issues that should cause sparks to fly. There seems to be some language ambiguities that could lead to undue centralization of power. That will cause some lively discussion.

The other big event was the keynote speech by Colin Saxton, the yearly meeting Superintendent. The speech was translated into Spanish, as some of our Spanish congregations were represented this year. It was a little clumsy, but well meaning and I think that our Latino brothers and sisters were honored. The main thrust of the speech was that the planning for change was ending and that the implementation began after this. He then talked a lot about fear, and reminded everyone of all those scriptures that say fear not. I think that Colin got his point across, but I don’t know if everybody was in synch with change as a good thing.

After the speech I finally got registered so I am ready to face the sessions tomorrow. The ice cream social was enjoyable. Ice cream is good when it is 80 degrees and humid. I finally met the other Gil George, and we enjoyed a good discussion about the ribbing we had received.

All told it was a good day. See you all tomorrow,

Is this what it is like to try to sleep in Baghdad?

Sorry for the distance between posts, it has been a very rough time for my wife and I, so many things had to be laid aside so that we could begin to recover from our losses. My wife's older sister was killed in a car wreck, and two good friends of ours from the L'Arche community passed away, in addition to that there have been some other losses to us. The essay below came to me tonight, and I had to share it.

As I lay in my bed trying to sleep through the overwhelming din of fireworks, I wonder to myself if this is what it is like in Baghdad every night?

I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to consider this question. In obedience I did and the explosions that I heard took on a different feeling and meaning, every boom and pop possibly meaning another person dying. What a fearful thing it must be to hear the loud crumps and rapid pops and wonder if your house will be hit next. As I hear a series of pops across the street I flinch from the images my imagination provides me. My heart is deeply saddened as I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit rise within me as I lay listening and wishing I could close my ears. As my neighbors let off their screamer rockets, I hear in my mind the screams of the dying and my conscience is pricked and my heart is broken. What is an inconvenience for me before a workday has become a leading and conviction from Jesus. This is what it is like to try to sleep in Baghdad!

Dear God, what have we wrought? I don’t know what I can do to end this madness, but as I lay and hear the pounding sounds that don’t seem to end I know that doing nothing is no longer an option. I cannot let this continue without raising my voice. I can no longer stay silent while others live fear-filled lives waiting for violent death to come to them.

God forgive me, for I have been silent when I should have spoken.