It was truly uplifting to our church to celebrate Dennis and Armand for their 10+ years of music leadership. As our sanctuary filled last Sunday, the atmosphere was joy and love. Those two deserved all the love we poured on them and more. It was good to have Doran McCarty and Don Musser help us pour it on. Dr. Musser gave a humorous and heartfelt tribute to our two amazing musicians. He and Dr. McCarty were interim pastors who worked side by side with Dennis and Armand to give caring leadership to New Hope when the church was hurting and vulnerable. Thanks again to Leesa Holloway for organizing this event; praise God for the opportunity to honor our musicians.
I have had cell phone and computer experiences today that cause me to thank God for the gifts of modern technology. While I was on a golf course, I got a call from Armand about a Boston Pops Orchestra event coming to Daytona in March that our youth may be able to attend. Then on about the next hole, my daughter Lydia called from Los Angeles about getting some information she needs sent from her dentist in DeLand to her new dentist. One other call came from the wife of a good friend telling me, “I thought you would want to know that Bryan is in the hospital in ICU.”
Those conversations took place as I played my usual Monday nine holes of golf. I went to the hospital to see my friend. When I got home, my son called. John Marc helped me set up a program called Skype on my computer. With Skype, Fleda and I were able to see our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, and they could see us. Just two days before I learned how to use Skype, I along with Bill Batchelor of our church heard a missionary to Southeast Asia tell of communicating with her family in America by means of Skype. I didn’t know at the time: she meant she could see her family and they could see her from half way around the world. There are many ways God takes care of us human beings.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow: a singer-choir leader named Dennis, a violinist-keyboard player named Armand, cell phones, computers, and Skype.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Growth, Change, and Caring
You may have noticed that our church is experiencing some growth in worship attendance. Last Sunday’s count was 106. Our tables were full for the Wednesday evening meal, too. Here is what I have been thinking: As New Hope changes, we must grow in caring. We have great opportunities and a clear call from God to care for one another.
We join a church to be surrounded by people who care about us. If I am sick, someone will know about it and pray for me to recover. When I have had some success or triumph, someone will celebrate with me. When I have suffered a loss, someone will weep with me and try to comfort me.
We all need people around us who will say in words and actions, “What happens to you matters to me.” So here at New Hope we have ordained a group of people to lead us in caring for one another. We call them deacons. There service is letting church members know that they are known and cared for in both good times and bad. Each of our deacons is assigned a small group of members. Their job is to stay in touch with that little family within our church family and do the work of caring. Betty Myers, Ruth Bradley, Vernon Buchanan, Bill Batchelor, Don Roberts, Erma Dreas, Dorothy Rollins, and Lois Cox are our leaders in caring.
Henri Nouwen wrote in Bread for the Journey, “Care is something other than cure. Cure means ‘change.’” In order for change to be healthy it must grow out of care. “Care is being with, crying with, suffering with, feeling with. Care is compassion. It is claiming the truth that the other person is my brother or sister, human, mortal, vulnerable like I am.”
Our first priority here at New Hope is caring. I can’t think of anything more important for us to do than to care. “When care is our first concern,” wrote Nouwen, “cure (change) can be received as a gift.”
I am grateful to “be with, cry with, suffer with,” and celebrate with you, my brothers and sisters of New Hope. What is more, I know that care is being given every day by deacons who stand shoulder to shoulder with me in caring.
We join a church to be surrounded by people who care about us. If I am sick, someone will know about it and pray for me to recover. When I have had some success or triumph, someone will celebrate with me. When I have suffered a loss, someone will weep with me and try to comfort me.
We all need people around us who will say in words and actions, “What happens to you matters to me.” So here at New Hope we have ordained a group of people to lead us in caring for one another. We call them deacons. There service is letting church members know that they are known and cared for in both good times and bad. Each of our deacons is assigned a small group of members. Their job is to stay in touch with that little family within our church family and do the work of caring. Betty Myers, Ruth Bradley, Vernon Buchanan, Bill Batchelor, Don Roberts, Erma Dreas, Dorothy Rollins, and Lois Cox are our leaders in caring.
Henri Nouwen wrote in Bread for the Journey, “Care is something other than cure. Cure means ‘change.’” In order for change to be healthy it must grow out of care. “Care is being with, crying with, suffering with, feeling with. Care is compassion. It is claiming the truth that the other person is my brother or sister, human, mortal, vulnerable like I am.”
Our first priority here at New Hope is caring. I can’t think of anything more important for us to do than to care. “When care is our first concern,” wrote Nouwen, “cure (change) can be received as a gift.”
I am grateful to “be with, cry with, suffer with,” and celebrate with you, my brothers and sisters of New Hope. What is more, I know that care is being given every day by deacons who stand shoulder to shoulder with me in caring.
A Book I Wish All Baptists Would Read
Last week I read a book that kept me up until one in the morning: The Autobiography of Cecil Sherman: By My Own Reckoning. Dr. Sherman was the first Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. He was a Baptist pastor who lived through the conflict that tore at the fabric of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1979 until 1990. His book gives a clear and straightforward description of what happened. He saw it coming long before most of us did. Fundamentalists would take control of the SBC and shut out all who disagreed with their literal interpretation of the Bible.
He tried to work with them on The Southern Baptist Peace Committee. Moderates on that committee made proposals to divide up the seminaries so that three would teach the Fundamentalist literal approach to the Bible and three would teach the Moderate approach of interpreting the Bible in the light of modern scientific realities. As Dr. Sherman writes, the Fundamentalists never made one proposal that would allow Moderates to stay in the Southern Baptist Convention and have a voice in its direction.
I came away from reading By My Own Reckoning grateful for its honest reporting of how the Southern Baptist Convention as the organization that allowed for differences in approaches to the Bible could not be kept and how the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship became necessary. The voice I hear in this book is blunt, but not unkind. It tells me to feel less anxious about the fact that I can’t change people with whom I disagree. It gives me a deeper appreciation for the freedom of conscience and soul freedom Baptists have lived and died for. It hleps me to see how much I love the freedom we have as partners in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
But what moved me the most was Cecil Sherman’s love. He has loved his wife, cared about the churches he led as pastor, and gave himself to the organizations of Baptists that he served: The SBC until it came to marginalize those who cannot agree with the theology of Fundamentalism and the CBF to which he gave great leadership and worked to develop in its earliest days.
To love is to care about the wellbeing of another without expecting anything in return. Dr. Sherman devoted himself to his wife Dot as she succumbed to Alzheimer’s Disease. With humility and amazing honesty, he provides us with a model of being faithful to your promises. He promised to love and to cherish Dot until death. That is what he did. He promised to provide the best leadership he could to First Baptist Church of Asheville, NC and to Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, TX. He left them much stronger than when he came. He promised to give good leadership to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It grew stronger in those early days, because of his self-giving love for free and faithful Baptists.
He tried to work with them on The Southern Baptist Peace Committee. Moderates on that committee made proposals to divide up the seminaries so that three would teach the Fundamentalist literal approach to the Bible and three would teach the Moderate approach of interpreting the Bible in the light of modern scientific realities. As Dr. Sherman writes, the Fundamentalists never made one proposal that would allow Moderates to stay in the Southern Baptist Convention and have a voice in its direction.
I came away from reading By My Own Reckoning grateful for its honest reporting of how the Southern Baptist Convention as the organization that allowed for differences in approaches to the Bible could not be kept and how the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship became necessary. The voice I hear in this book is blunt, but not unkind. It tells me to feel less anxious about the fact that I can’t change people with whom I disagree. It gives me a deeper appreciation for the freedom of conscience and soul freedom Baptists have lived and died for. It hleps me to see how much I love the freedom we have as partners in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
But what moved me the most was Cecil Sherman’s love. He has loved his wife, cared about the churches he led as pastor, and gave himself to the organizations of Baptists that he served: The SBC until it came to marginalize those who cannot agree with the theology of Fundamentalism and the CBF to which he gave great leadership and worked to develop in its earliest days.
To love is to care about the wellbeing of another without expecting anything in return. Dr. Sherman devoted himself to his wife Dot as she succumbed to Alzheimer’s Disease. With humility and amazing honesty, he provides us with a model of being faithful to your promises. He promised to love and to cherish Dot until death. That is what he did. He promised to provide the best leadership he could to First Baptist Church of Asheville, NC and to Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, TX. He left them much stronger than when he came. He promised to give good leadership to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It grew stronger in those early days, because of his self-giving love for free and faithful Baptists.
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