"Trust in the Lord" is a scriptural admonition, as Sierra Neiman points out in this week's Illuminate study of Psalm 37. But "it can feel so trite." Especially when "everything appears hopeless, when time is running out, or when we've lost what has held our joy." And it is hard. Trust requires us to "be still" and to "wait patiently" because, according to Sierra, "God's response might unfold slowly" and God's work is "like a seed growing underground, silently and out of sight."
Barclay Press, like much of the Friends Church, has been through a long period of waiting patiently. Much of this waiting has looked like decline. And even though this week's study focuses on the individual's responsibility to trust, I think this scripture might also be a source of hope for us at Barclay Press and for the larger evangelical Friends movement. What if God has planted and is planting seeds of hope? What if, in this time of waiting, God is preparing us, together, for a time when hope will flower, a time in which we might "delight ... in abundant prosperity," a time when it will be hard to remember why it was so hard to trust?
How We Work: Although our primary products at Barclay Press are the Fruit of the Vine devotional guides and the quarterly Illuminate curriculum, we also publish and sell books. Our busiest bookselling day for all of 2015 was the Tuesday of Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends Church yearly meeting sessions at George Fox University. And our most popular book was the recently released Making of a Quaker College from Milo C. Ross. Ross served as president of George Fox from 1954 until 1969, and the book presents his reflections on the challenges faced, decisions made, relationships forged, and growth experienced during a time in which it wasn't yet clear whether the university could survive. It's another story in which we can see - looking back - the fruit of God's work, quietly planting seeds of hope.
Eric Muhr
Does our work in the world make a difference?
Does our work in the world make a difference? It's a question that gets at the heart of our identity as followers of Jesus: "Who are we? Why are we here?" And it's a question that has shaped the stories Nancy Thomas brings in this week's Fruit of the Vine devotionals. Each morning, Nancy is sharing anecdotes from Friends whose lives have been changed - Manuel Coronado in Guatemala, Elena Rivera in El Salvador, Mario and Celia Choque in Bolivia - by an encounter with Christ. This morning, I read about Bernabe Sanchez of Honduras who found a New Testament on the road "and began leafing through it ... He wondered how come, if Protestants were evil, their Bible could speak of God." I won't spoil the story, but I will offer this: scripture, the written word of God, has power to reveal the present and living Word, that is Jesus. And the result of that encounter is a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, new life.
Here at Barclay Press, we've closed out 2015, and as I look over the books, I find evidence of concern in a slow but continuing decline in subscriptions from local congregations. But I also see signs of hope - a trickle of new subscriptions from individuals around the world, a handful of new writers, a slight uptick in book sales, a new book project, continuing partnerships with Christian camps and Evangelical Friends Mission, and just over $1,000 in unrestricted gifts over the last two months. Some of you have also written me in the last three weeks, generous letters of support, of encouragement, of your sense that this work we do together through Barclay Press should continue.
Eric Muhr
Just as God is with us
January 25, 2016
In the introduction to yesterday's Illuminate study on Psalm 73, Julie Anderson reminds us that "there is nothing like suffering to bring up doubts about God's sovereignty." Just as the psalmist is concerned that "arrogant and wicked people are often spared suffering," I find myself wondering - especially in the face of hardship - whether God plays fair. I'm not the only one.
Julie, for instance, knows about suffering. She is part of a teaching team that works with middle school students at her home church, an age group that is uniquely attuned to how hostile the world can be, an age group that includes some of the loneliest people I know. These students want to know if God sees them, if God cares about them. And even when we assure middle school youth that God loves them, they wonder, "But does he like me?"
Julie doesn't find an answer to suffering in this psalm, but she does offer a way forward, noting that as the psalmist "worships God, he rests in the fact that relationship with God" is what matters. That God does like him. That God is with him in his suffering. Just as God is with us.
Back in November 2008, the EFC-NA Christian Education Commission met in Canton, Ohio, to discuss - among other things - the possibility for creating "non-dated group study materials" to be used alongside or potentially to replace the Adult Friend quarterly. A year later, the commission agreed at a meeting in Canby, Oregon, that Barclay Press should move forward with this curriculum as a Bible centered replacement of the older quarterly: "We also approved the name change to Illuminate with Dan [McCracken] having the final decision on the name, based on research." Today, the Illuminate guidebooks offer an entry point for Bible study to nearly 3,000 groups and individuals almost every single week.
Eric Muhr