METOLIUS FRIENDS CHURCH has been busy reaching out to their local community in a variety of ways. Pastor Ron Mulkey has been involved with an association of pastor from Madras, and has participated in meetings for prayer, planning, and fellowship. Recently Metolius Friends Church participated in a community wide service day which included many different kinds of activities and ministries that reached out to numerous folks in their community. It was a wonderful time of Christians serving their community together, and many new friendships were formed.
COFFEE WAITING TO HAPPEN
What you will see in the pictures connected to this TIDBIT is a coffee ministry in waiting. Pat and Mandy Schmidt of Redmond Oregon are continuing to inch forward towards launching a new ministry point in their community. Pat and Mandy, in a leap of faith, purchased all the equipment of a local coffee shop that was quitting their business.
Also, updates on The Springs, New Life, Vancouver, and Woodland Friends worship groups are included in this OCTOBER TIDBITS.
Our Faith and Practice calls churches to a regular practice of reading prayerfully, and pondering thoughtfully, the Queries. As adopted in 1987 there are twenty of them, grouped under the headings, “Personal Faith”, “The Individual and the Church”, “Marriage, Children, Home”, “Manner of Living”, and “Concerns for Society.” (They are to be featured in Connection over the next several months). What a great heritage is this covenanted practice of queries and advices! Are you being faithful to it? Three hundred years ago, 1708, the following advices were sent by London YM to Quakers world-wide.
We desire the godly care for the due education and safety of your children within the bounds and limits of truth in all respects, may be continued and increased among you; and that parents be exemplary to their children in keeping out of the vain fashions, customs, and pride of the world, by adorning themselves modestly and in plainness. (London Epistles, 1821, p. 97)
It’s still timely, isn’t it? Our Query 11 asks searchingly, “Are you teaching your children the ways of Friends? Do you encourage them to attend Friends schools?”
The world will crush our children into its mold unless we are careful, thoughtful, and prayerful! I’m thankful for NWYM programs, camps and schools that help parents guide their children “within the bounds and limits of truth,” It might be good for elders to guide us about what plainness and modesty mean in contemporary culture, and what constitutes worldly pride. Perhaps the blue jeans revolution in clothing is a good thing (unless exploited by grunge or glitz marketing). Perhaps simpler, less expensive, weddings would comport with that three hundred year old concern. How about resisting seductive pressures for conspicuous consumption and huge credit card debt?
In-group loyalty to our covenant community is a good way to answer that advice. We praise God that George Fox University remains true to its Christ centered mission! Helping our children, grandchildren, and others within local churches to attend our Friends schools, including George Fox University, is a faithful response to this ancient/contemporary concern. P.S. Our nation needs much prayer now. Pray that humility and civility will replace arrogance and rudeness, that peaceful cooperation will supplant imperialistic posturing internationally, that in our culture substance will prevail over image, that governance and economic structures will more fully be leavened by Kingdom ethics, and that in their thoughts and actions Americans increasingly will be illumined by Christ’s light.
Fall Area Gatherings will be mini-Yearly Meeting events for all ages.
These Area Gatherings will give a small taste of what Yearly Meeting Sessions are like, with three different YM Boards bringing workshops to us. The Board of Congregational Care is sponsoring a skills training session around spiritual discernment. The Boards of Local and Global Outreach are combining to provide challenge and instruction around ministering outside our walls. The event will begin with a coffeehouse fellowship time featuring displays from different YM and church ministries. Worship and a meal together will also be part of the day. Plan to join in the the all-ages fellowship and training.
Dates and Locations:
Inland Area – October 4, 11-4p.m. at Woodland
Southwest Washington – October 5, 3-7:30 at Cherry Grove
Southern Oregon – October 25, 10-3:00 at Talent
Puget Sound – October 26, 3:30-8:00 at Peninsula
Southern Idaho – October 26, 4-8:00 at Greenleaf
Portland – November 1, 9:30-3:15 at West Hills
Salem – November 15, 10-3 p.m. at Silverton
Newberg – November 22, 10-3:00 p.m. at Friends Center
Tentative Schedule: (not all gatherings will follow these templates. This is just an idea to help you set your expectations. Be sure to note the actual start times listed above.)
SATURDAY EVENT
10 a.m. Fellowship coffeehouse sponsored by Local Outreach
11 a.m. Worship as a group
11:20 Strengthening Our Ability to Hear and Obey God (Discernment)
12:45 Lunch
1:30 Going Glo-cal: Global and Local Outreach in NWYM and your meeting
3:00 Closing worship, prayer for your Area
SUNDAY EVENT:
3 p.m. Fellowship coffeehouse sponsored by Local Outreach
3:30 Worship as a group
3:45 Strengthening Our Ability to Hear and Obey God (Discernment)
5:00 Dinner
5:45 Going Glo-cal: Global and Local Outreach in NWYM and your meeting
7:00 Closing worship, prayer for your Area
Don’t miss out on the YAF “Bring Your Own Tent” camping event! It will take place by the Molalla River, October 3-5. It’s a total drop-in event. Come for what you can. See details at the YAF BYOT page
12.9 “Reverence and Awe” September 2008
I find the book of Hebrews instructive for delineating how the Old Covenant finds enhanced fulfillment in the New. Christ is a better creation rest than a ritual day. His blood speaks a better word than that of Abel—which a warring world needs to hear! And, yes, Christ is a better priest than Aaron, a better sacrifice than goats, a better prophet than Moses, a better revelation than Sinai, and his kingdom a better covenant community than Israel. The writer reminds us we “have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem”—humanity’s true homeland. If God’s voice at Sinai made Moses tremble, how much more reverently ought we to worship our Creator, who will, indeed, shake up the whole cosmos before the drama of redemption is completed! Ponder with me how to be faithful to this pointed admonition.Continue reading …
