Barb Mann writes of her "thinning year" in this morning's Fruit of the Vine: "I . . . broke my foot, had a rollover car accident with my young son in the car, and my purse was stolen at church." Barb adds that she was in a new job and "under so much stress I couldn't eat without feeling sick." It was a year in which Barb experienced "the soil of my life being loosened by the removal of confidence, security, and comfort."
I wonder how many of us have experienced times in which everything that can go wrong does. I wonder how many of us have experienced a "thinning year." Or years.
Last week, working through old files, I came across a staff photo from 1968. I posted it to our Facebook page. Harlow Ankeny is standing, leaning against the mantel. Dan McCracken, seated on the hearth (second from left), is only a year over half my age in that photo.
I can't help but note how much smaller our current staff is now. And older.
Maybe you've had a similar noticing. Results from the National Congregations Study (2015) show that the median size of a local church declined from 80 people in 1998 to 70 people in 2012, while the average age of its congregants increased.
That doesn't seem like good news. But Barb reminds us that there is still room for hope. During that "thinning year," God taught Barb "that I cannot make everyone like me. He helped me to guard and value my time by saying 'no' more often. . . . God helped me grow more into the person he created me to be."
When God loosens the soil of our lives, it can feel like we're losing ground. Barb suggests that we learn to pray, "God, when life gets disturbed remind me that you are the gardener helping me to grow and thrive."
Eric Muhr
Where we might be invited
Dan Cammack writes in this year's EFM Easter Offering materials that "we've been sending missionaries to the Republic of Ireland for about two decades," but "in terms of evangelical Friends churches planted," we have very little to show for that investment. So what are we doing in Ireland? In his letter, Dan lists four parts to that answer, one of which is the lessons Ireland can teach us about planting churches in North America "because we, too, live and minister in an environment that is increasingly post-Christian."
Barclay Press is a long-term partner with Evangelical Friends Mission - designing and helping to disseminate materials for Easter and summer offerings that tell the story of how God is using EFM around the world. This year's focus - To Ireland with Love - is on the work of Kathi Perry, the Howell family, and Molly Morton.
Kathy writes beautifully of her learning, over the years, that her job "is to be in a position where I'll be invited into the lives, conversations, joys and sorrows of people around me.... Whether I am teaching a Bible class or washing baby spit out of toys and duvets, it's important to do whatever I do with joy." Because "sometimes, loving people takes a long time." David and Tricia Howell recount how the events of the Easter Uprising, when Ireland claimed its independence, have shaped "these amazing people" who, "time after time, . . . have faced heartbreak." In response, David and Tricia find their hearts breaking for their Irish friends. Molly writes of her work, bringing teams of students from Azusa Pacific University to partner in ministry with Dundalk Community Church and to join "in service with the staff at The Birches Alzheimer Care Centre in the same town."
These Easter Offering materials won't start to show up in local churches until next month, but you can find them online and learn more about the ongoing work in Ireland, not to mention what we're learning from that work - how to join in service with others, the importance of letting the heartbroken break our own hearts, and what it might mean for us - long term - to become a people who put ourselves in positions where we might "be invited into the lives, conversations, joys and sorrows of people" around us.
Eric Muhr
To better love one another
Luke Ankeny is the pastor at Homedale Friends Community Church in Homedale, Idaho. He also coaches basketball and track at Homedale High School. In this morning's Fruit of the Vine, Luke offers a reflection on John 3:16 and Matthew 22:37-40, in which he considers what these scriptures look like lived out: "My job as a coach is to love my players or athletes, and their job as teammates is to love each other." It makes a difference. Luke writes that one benefit of coaching this way is winning, but the real impact comes from "the emphasis on relationships and the importance of team unity."
Today, I'm thinking about that word, "unity," and what it might mean for us as Christ-centered Friends to be unified - in relationship, in purpose, in the way we live out Christ's love for us together. "God's love for us is so intense ... [destroying] our sins on the cross," Luke writes, and in response, we "return the favor by loving God with every ounce of our being." The miracle of unity, Luke suggests, happens when God's love for us and our love for God "overflow to those around us."
This word - unity - and these words from Luke give me hope today. In addition, Luke leaves us with a query to consider in our actions and our interactions: "How does God's love overflow from us to others?" One place of hope for me has been emails like a recent message from Adam Monaghan, pastor at Crossroads Friends Church in Wichita, Kansas, asking us to send five copies of Fruit of the Vine. He wrote that these copies "will allow several of our families to try it out, many of us (including me) for the first time ever." I am encouraged because I believe that our increasing connectedness helps us to better love one another. In unity.
Eric Muhr