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Friends United
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January/February 2007
The Living Christ Today
By Trish Edwards-Konic
Over 300 people gathered for the 7th Friends Ministers Conference in San Antonio, Texas, November 17-20, 2006. The theme, “The Living Christ Today: Expressed to and through Friends” was chosen by the two Quaker organizations sponsoring the conference, Friends United Meeting and Evangelical Friends International—North America.
The agenda was full and the fellowship was rich as Friends ministers spent time listening to Christ. Moss Murenga, from Kakamega, Kenya, led the “worship through music” periods several times a day. Learning songs in Swahili as well as new ones in English helped us to remember our brothers and sisters who are Friends ministers beyond the United States. Ernest Alexander, a magnifi cent singer, performed a “Concert of Praise” on Sunday evening. Discovery Groups and Workshops were also attended by many people for more practical application of the theme. Worship leaders were Marcile Leach Crandall and Richard Sartwell from Northwest Yearly Meeting.
The primary speaker was Leonard Sweet, currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew Theological School (Madison, NJ), and Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University (Portland, OR). He was steeped in the scriptures and the Journals of John Wesley and George Fox growing up and has a Quaker grounding in faith. Using the things learned in the past as he analyzes current culture makes what he has to say very relevant for Friends. (See page 10 for my interview on specific Friends understandings of faith.)
Sweet’s first message focused on the perfect storm engulfi ng Christians in a postmodern world and five ways to survive. A perfect storm occurs when several different kinds of storms converge in one place. Sweet believes that such a time as this is occurring in the United States culture, causing it to be a time of major transition.
First is the “Tsunami of Postmodernity.” Young adults in the postmodern culture have brains that are wired differently than older people’s. Linear learning of modernism has been transformed into videoites.
Second is the “Hurricane of Post Christianity.” More people recognize the McDonald’s golden arches than the cross of Christianity. People are not looking to become “churched” and there is increasing anti-Christian sentiment expressed.
Third is “Global Warming of Post Scale.” Bigger isn’t always better. There comes a point when to be bigger and scale up becomes detrimental to one’s self or culture. This is post scale.
All of these elements are converging in our culture and may seem overwhelming. But it doesn’t help to spend time complaining about the weather of this storm any more than complaining about the weather outside your window. Sweet uses the image of a boat to help us know how to deal with this perfect storm.
1. Lift anchor and launch into the deep. For a boat to survive when a huge storm is coming, it must leave the safety of the harbor and launch out into the deeper waters. If your idea of church is safety in the harbor, then you must change it to taking risks for God in deeper waters.
2. Steer into the storm. Our inclination is to try to outrun the storm rather than put our heads down and move into the storm. Jesus Christ is ahead of us ad pulling us into the future. He has already outstormed every storm!
3. Get rid of excess cargo. Throw excess cargo overboard and get back to the essentials.
4. Lash yourself to the mast. The mast represents the Master of our souls; we must so identify with God that we cannot be separated from Him.
5. Enjoy the ride of your life! When the disciples were in the boat and a storm came upon them, Jesus was asleep on a pillow. They couldn’t believe it and woke him up. As Jesus spoke the words to calm the sea, they were the fi rst to see the power he had, but they also failed the test—“you were in the boat with me. What harm could have come to you?”
Jesus speaks to Christians today in the midst of this perfect storm: “I’ll calm you in every storm. I’ll give you perfect peace in this perfect storm, so what do you have to fear?”
“Nobody gets out of life alive. There will always be the wave that is too big, but with Jesus in the boat, what do we have to fear? At the Pearly Gate, can you say, ‘What a ride?’”
Sweet’s second message focused on the MRI church where the normal state is change. Currently many churches are still in the modern era of the APC church. “A” is attractional which is measured by attendance. “P” is propositional which focuses on the building. “C” is colloquial and measures by cash flow.
The postmodern MRI is “M” for missional, “R” for relational and “I” for incarnational. The Missional foundation is the Great Commission —not people coming into the church but people going out into the world. The listening spirituality of Friends is a key element of evangelism (see interview).
Core values aren’t as important as core relationships in the Relational church. Truth is a person, Jesus, not a proposition. God sent a Savior who calls us into relationship and then into communities.
Incarnational centers on coming to Jesus, not coming to church. Our job is to go out, lift Christ up and let Jesus be the draw. God wants to work in your church and it will be unique.
The Saturday evening session was “Realizing a Vision for Friends” with speakers John Williams, EFI and John Muhanji, FUM/Africa.
John Williams shared from Matthew 9, then asked the question, “What kind of power does Jesus want to give us as people, as Friends?” He answered with seven points:
1. Validate faith by our trust in Him;
2. Have a completely clean human life;
3. Radically redirect our future;
4. Inclusion of outsiders;
5. Raise the dead, including the spiritually dead;
6. Reverse multi-year afflications such as the woman bleeding for years;
7. Liberate people from demonic domination of their souls.
John Mununji then spoke and reminded us of our name, “Friends of Jesus,” and asked, “Has Jesus been left behind?” Christ needs to be relevant in everything we do, in our worship, in our church, in our life, he said. Friends have been excellent do-ers but we need to communicate that the reason we are serving is because of Christ working within us. We also need to be aware there are Quaker counterfeits within the body and we need God to reveal to us who is real and who is counterfeit before we follow a leader.
The closing session speaker was Ron Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas and the author of several books. He offered four invitations from Jesus to become more mature Christians.
First, move from being good to being great. The rich young ruler asked how to possess eternal life and Jesus answered, “Give up everything and follow me.” It’s the difference between being a good Christian and a saint—relinquishing self to be more like Christ.
Second, be as compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate and be perfect as your father is perfect. Only Jesus does God really well; none of us are as qualified. In the Hebrew, perfection equates to compassion. Often we use the text where Jesus washes the feet of the disciples as a humility text but it shows that it is more important to be together. “Compassion trumps truth and calls us to be people of faith and compassion.”
Third, the invitation to turn water into wine is more than a hospitality text. To have no wine means there is a lack of zest and zeal. The creation of wine points Christians to come to the living water full of zest and zeal, Christ Jesus.
Fourth, to be steady with Jesus on the borders of Samaria. Today, we are on the borders of ethnicity and religiosity. Will religion stand on the edges as before or cluster to the safe interior? Only time will tell.
The promotional information stated this conference “would be a watershed event in the history of Friends.” Only time will tell if this is true.