Christmas Good News

The BAD news is Christmas 2008 finds us sliding deeper into the recession I predicted eight years ago. I don’t claim any gift of foretelling but it is true that I complained that the policies behind George Bush would lead to something similar to the Hoover depression.

Many writers now say we are seeing the trickle-down political economics of recent years unravel after unleashing carnal greed and economic conquest, supported by divisive politics that squeeze the living life out of those most vulnerable.

America did not have a system of political party’s until Thomas Jefferson enlisted James Madison and campaigned on an anti-federalist politic. He cherished the rights of a colony above and beyond anything on a federalist level.

Neither Washington nor Adams were party men. Yet, America could not have become the great nation it has without developing federal powers. And we still fiercely contend for one side or the other, and give far more attention to maintaining power than to achieving the common good.

That is just one more reason that I celebrate the birth of Jesus in this Christ-mas season. He cared very little for personal power, but he cared a great deal about people and the common good. The time he lived in the first century was not unlike our own. Life was cheap. Suffering was epidemic. Poverty and slavery were everywhere, unless you happened to belong to the ranks of the privileged.

However, JESUS WAS BORN! He came in the humblest of forms, the total dependence of a newly born. Obviously, he was not much of a politician, otherwise he need not have died. Yet, in his weakness he exhibited a strength that forever changed the world--enough that we mark time by his birth--before and after.

It is that strength--the power of love--that we need today, neither worldly wisdom nor wealth. Wielding the power of love, he changed the course of human events and forever transforming the lives of millions who worship him as the Christ of Christmas.

Other religions dominate in other places of the world, but they do not allow the personal freedoms, the human rights, et al, that we enjoy in America. That does not mean America is a “Christian nation,” it is not. In spite of much of America’s sinfulness, it remains the one place in the world where “Christian values” transform socio-political values into the common good for the most people.

Both Washington and Adams were deeply religious men. Jefferson challenged traditional teachings about Jesus, but he acknowledged the values of Jesus. In fact, we owe it to Jefferson for putting principles of Jesus into the Bill of Rights, as related to human rights and the common good of all men.

So, while we’re celebrating this Advent Season, let us celebrate the gifts that Jesus would share with us, like love, joy, peace on earth among men of good will, with equity and social justice for all--not just the privileged.

Harold Kushner described his house painting grandfather eking out a modest living in Lithuania. In addition to his grandfather having the public image of a painter, he also had a secret identity; he was one of God’s agents on earth, maintaining literacy in a sea of ignorance and kindness in a world of cruelty.

His every act, every day became important, because he believed it mattered to God what he ate, how he earned and spent his money, how he respected his wife and treated his children. That sense of having to live up to God‘s standards, wrote Kushner (Who Needs God/77-78),redeemed his grandfather’s life from anonymity and insignificance.

The GOOD NEWS is that is what Jesus does best for each of us.
Wayne

From Scars To Stars

Am packing; completing last minute details before leaving for Christmas. Two friends went home in recent days, but Christmas correspondence has been a real joy, sharing with so many, and catching up in our lives. I’ll spend Christmas weekend with family and then work a week or two in the print shop at Reformation Publishers, before returning north.

With that, let me add a few details about a high school sophomore who experienced a life-changing encounter with himself and later transitioned from his scars to stars. It begins in 1978, twenty-two years before he and I became significant friends.

One Friday, while walking off the football field, this lad invited his friend to stay over night. When the friend said no, his question demanded “Why?”’

The simple answer explained that the boy’s parents were afraid “of what kind of trouble he might get into staying all night with me.” That Sophomore heard a new sound that day in the mountains of southeast Kentucky, a voice he came to recognize as “the voice of God.”

It was not an audible voice, but I recognized “Him-- convicting; a piercing voice that spoke to my very soul!” The question was, “Is that what you want in life?”

That prompted him to visit a local church. He attended five straight Sundays. He liked what he heard, saw, felt, and learned. On the fifth Sunday--October 8, 1978--he went forward and gave his life to Christ. Pastor Dennis Creech took him under his wing and involved him in the growing youth group. Eventually, Steve heard a call to preach. That brought a further commitment--1979.

When someone introduced him to the church magazine Vital Christianity, that led to his participation in a special church campaign to increase subscriptions. His parents subscribed and he eventually read the centennial issue that reviewed the history of the first 100 years of the Church.

He read it cover to cover. Like a magnet, the pictures and articles so excited him that the following June--1980--he and a friend packed their camper and drove to the Church’s Centennial Convention in Indiana (He returned in 1981 and has not missed since).

The two young men spent all their money on books. As he tells it, they enjoyed the delicacies of green bologna and dirty socks in the back of the truck under the camper.

When his first order to the church publishing house brought Russell Byrum’s Christian Theology and The Responsible Pulpit by Dr. James Earl Massey, they excited him and became the direction in which God seemed to lead his life.

There, in the basement of his home, he read his books avidly. As his book corner grew, and his collection expanded, becoming a full shelf, then another. A friend dubbed the growing book nook-- “Warner’s Corner” after the founder of the Church and Publishing House.

Already a teenage Volunteer fire fighter, he wanted to attend University and become a professional firefighter. After feeling led to consider a preaching career, he made that commitment at Youth Camp--1980.

His first attempt to preach produced a five-minute failure--he thought. From it, he prayerfully discovered that if he ever succeeded it would be because God enabled him. He accepted that and enrolled at Anderson University. By 1988, he completed Seminary.

Steve pastored nine years at Springfield Northside, then moved to a second pastorate. There, his marriage totally collapsed. He moved home, heart-sick and depressed--a failure--divorced. In mid-1998, he agreed to be a guest speaker at a nearby church - really hard, but they liked him.

In December of 2000, the church asked him to be their interim pastor. Later, they asked him to stay on. He became good friends with a member of the Pulpit Committee--both divorced--and in time they became Pastor Steve and Martha (Wells) Williams.

This talented couple is now highly regarded in southeast Kentucky for their civic and religious work. Martha is a specialized medical educator. Dr. Steve is a bi-vocational pastor-printer--a reprint specialist via Williams Printing and Reformation Publishers.

Together, they enjoy an expanding circle of friends and loyal supporters. Martha works for the Kentucky Vo-Ed system and Steve prints-publishes books, school yearbooks, out of print Church of God classics, and local printing needs.

I’m headed there shortly, God willing, and winter storms don’t hinder. Following Christmas, I‘ll go for a week or two in the RP print shop. Say a prayer for Steve and RP. Big companies are hubbing it hard and Reformation Publishers is no exception.

Steve faces difficult days ahead. He works long hours, shorthanded, and struggles to stay abreast. He needs our support--churches, pastors, and interested others. He provides the church a much-needed service, working with our national agencies, servicing a growing number of east Kentucky schools, and meeting other area printing needs (his church ministries are not self-supporting).

Since I’ve been volunteering for about nine years, should you call the toll free number one day, don’t be surprised if I answer the phone--1-800-765-2464.

Meantime Steve, congratulations on your ten years with the church at Prestonsburg, KY and for the many services you‘ve provided to the Church of God. You’ve turned your scars into stars … God is still making a difference in people’s lives ...
Wayne

Terrorism, Religion, and Christmas

The following story caught my attention and I have excerpted a quote from it. It comes from Assist News Service (ANS).

DHAKA, BANGLADESH (ANS) -- Buddhist clerics and local council officials are holding 13 newly converted Christians captive in a pagoda in a southeastern mountainous district of Bangladesh in an attempt to forcibly return them to Buddhism.

A spokesman for the Parbatta Adivasi (Hill Tract) Christian Church told Compass Direct News on condition of anonymity that "the plight of the Christians is horrifying."

According to Compass, local government council officials in Jorachuri sub-district in Rangamati district, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Dhaka, are helping the Buddhist monks to hold the Christians against their will, he said.

"The 13 tribal Christians were taken forcefully to a pagoda on Dec. 10 to accept Buddhism against their will," he said. "They will be kept in a pagoda for 10 days to perform the rituals to be Buddhists -- their heads were shaved, and they were given yellow saffron robes to dress in."

I’ve been reading about Hindu terrorism in areas like Orissa (The picture shows a church vandalized by Hindu terrorists). One story reported Hindu terrorists putting a price on the heads of Christian pastors. Again and again, Hindu’s charge Christian evangelists with forcing people to convert. Of course, we are already well aware of Islamic Militants of several varieties, creating 9-1-1, Mumbai, et al.

As we approach Christmas week, I find it interesting that

1) so much of the world terrorism is involved in religious differences,
2) charges against Christians are often those tactics most used by non-Christian devotees, and
3) only in America, with its strongly Protestant Christian influence--I didn’t say nation--can people of differing religious faiths live side by side in relative peace.

Buddhists, Hindus, and Islamics (and some Christians) all find it difficult to tolerate each other. Non-Christians terrorize Christians in many parts of the world. CHRISTMAS reminds us again of the birth of the babe in Bethlehem. It was a night when the angels sang peace on earth among men of good will. It launched a life that died 33 years later at Golgotha (Calvary) rather than deny God’s purpose. However, according to Easter, God refused to let the light of that life be extinguished.

His purpose was revealed in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). Or, as the Apostle Paul declared, “His purpose was to create in himself one new man … thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15-16).

He did not say it would be easy, but Christians are at their best when restoring peace, loving all of God’s created, and extending the grace of the Lord Jesus.
Peace . . . Wayne

Christmas and THE BOOK OF NOAH

I'm having a problem mastering placement of my pictures, but I just received one of those occasional phone calls from Dale Stultz in Anderson and I want to share with some of you.

Dale is one of those rare people, always blowing in a breath of fresh air, bringing words of optimism, sharing acts of joy. Since meeting Dale, we have become fast friends, each of us fascinated by varying aspects of our Church of God heritage. Today’s chat informed me he had just sent me three pictures he is using as he shares Christmas in Anderson with individuals and small groups interested in our early history.

Using the above pictures as living graphics, Dale reads the story of young Noah Byrum’s first Christmas away from his Hoosier home, and his mother. He is with his older brother Enoch, and living in the bleak austerity of the Trumpet Home, seen in the panoramic view of Grand Junction (bottom picture).

He is working with those earliest Gospel Trumpet volunteers at Grand Junction, MI. His story is found on pages 45-47 in The Book of Noah, Memoirs From Our Past). He arrived earlier in the year as a 15-year-old teenager--away from his mother and home for the first time.

Struggling with “Christmas Eve depression,” he heard the train pass by en route to South Haven. Minutes later, he heard the door open softly, but ignored it. Then, “I realized someone was standing in the doorway," he wrote, but I kept on with my reading; "I glanced up and my heart almost skipped a beat. There stood my mother, her face all smiles. I was soon in her open arms, and a happier boy could not have been found. . .” (12-24-1887). The picture at top center shows the Byrum farm in an Indiana winter scene.

Mother Lucinda spent Christmas week with Noah, watched and worked around the Trumpet Home for the week, and returned home to Indiana, happy that her sons were busy in God’s work. Noah spent many more happy Christmases, holidays, and other gatherings in Grand Junction and at the nearby Joseph Smith farm--and meeting house, where the Saints often worshipped--as seen at the upper left. Also, you read Noah's handwritten comments.

I haven't mastered placing these pictures yet. Hopefully, I will learn to place them where I want them. Meantime, I will return to Kentucky Christmas week, spend Christmas with our daughter and soon-to-be Irish Cherokee of 62 years (1947-2009), as well as another week or so at Reformation Publishers. I will then leave her there for the cold weather and return to the wonders of Michigan’s winterland_
Wayne

Financial Crunch at CHOG MINISTRIES

Blogger friend, Lloyd Moritz, excerpted the following from a letter from Dr. Ron Duncan of Church of God Ministries, informing pastors and leaders of budgetary cuts.

“…The manner in which we collectively view these reductions will affect the future of our movement. Some may view these reductions as failure. I certainly have reflected on this point of view. There is an element of these reductions that certainly feels like failure…”

“…failure of our congregational system of polity to support and fund the decisions of the General Assembly,
failure of Church of God Ministries to adequately challenge and provide the necessary motivation to inspire support for the budget,
failure of our leaders and congregations to deal with the gravity of the situation, and

failure on my part to provide the leadership necessary for success…”

Duncan rightly suggests that "throughout the Church of God’s 127 years, finding the financial support for the congregational, state, and national ministries has been a constant challenge.” I believe we have not yet satisfactorily resolved the question of how to live and teach New Testament principles of stewardship.

D. S. Warner, our founding father, began with a message of holiness and unity. He proclaimed and penned that message via “The Gospel Trumpet.” He and a growing number of flying messengers (itinerant preachers) sacrificed heavily to propagate that message through messengers, missionaries, and written publications. Their efforts produced a people now known as the Church of God (Reformation Movement) and a publishing house.

The development of local congregations encouraged permanent pastors, as opposed to traveling evangelists. Self-supporting congregations obviously took from available funding for “spreading the message” (in the sense of national ministries and world evangelism).

For what it is worth,
1. I do not accept this situation as our failure, or of Dr. Duncan’s failure as a national leader. Nor is it the fault of our national leadership team. It may not be all, but it is partially a result of our nation’s economic reassessment and financial adjustment from Wall Street to Main Street.

2. It does reflect our conflicted understandings of New Testament stewardship. Core to “NT” teaching is the principle of the church as the Body of Christ, every minute part working in harmony for the health of the whole body. This has been a central focus of the Church of God movement from Warner until today.

Although we deny being a “denomination,” we do assert that we are a “body” with ears, eyes, hands, and feet. Paul taught that God arranged the parts of the body as He wanted them. We are not different denominations; we are the body of Christ.

As part of God’s Church, the Church of God is not a loose collection of independent congregations. Nor are we ministers simply Lone Ranger’s riding about independently. We are all part of the Body of Christ. We have obligations to each other and to the larger “body.”

Jeannette Flynn is also right in observing that “over the last four to five decades, there has been a serious breakdown in our society and culture of genuine, authentic community” (cf “Communion” Jan-Feb 2008)

I suggest that local, state, and national ministries all have their rightful place in the Body of Christ. Our conflicted tension between independent messengers (local autonomy) and cooperative agencies (working together), reflects the dysfunctional society that is too much in the church.

Congregations have obligation to one another and to our cooperative programs. Ministers have obligations to each other, to their congregations, and to the cooperative programs. We are one body, with one mission, and the church is dysfunctional to the extent that individuals and congregations try to function outside of the cooperating body.

Measuring our worth by the size and success of our institutions, or to conclude that we “failed” because we find it necessary to reduce “national programming” may also send the wrong message and measure by the wrong yardstick.

The Church is us and we are more than an institution. We are a koinonia (community). We are an ecclesia (called out body). We are the laos (people) of God.

Read the story of the sons of Eli the priest in I Samuel 2. Hophni and Phineas lived off the best of the people’s Temple sacrifices with Eli’s passive approval. God called Samuel and brought retribution upon Hophni and Phineas, as well as Eli (vs. 22).

Ralph Clough was en route home the day Air Florida, Flight 90, struck the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. in 1982. Having just crossed the bridge, Ralph quickly parked his car. The 67-year-old retired Foreign Service Officer (my brother in law) quickly joined the human chain of people rescuing victims from the frigid waters of the Potomac River.

However you philosophize and theologize about individual autonomy and cooperating together, the Church remains a human chain linked together for one purpose--rescuing victims.

That demands our service. And that service, concluded Martin Luther King, is the rent we pay for the space we occupy__
Wayne