Let the Children Come

From Jennifer Perez:

One of the things I really enjoy about the Thanksgiving service, and something I've been thinking about more lately as I've visited a few other churches over the past 5 months, is having the kids with us in the service.

I have loved when my boys were (are) infants and it is “socially acceptable” to bring them into the service with me. I find that even when I'm sitting/standing next to my husband and/or friends in a worship service, I tend to become very "me and God" focused, and the community sort of fades from my consciousness. Which defeats the purpose of worshipping in community, doesn't it? Anyway, when my kids are with me, or even when other kids are in the room making noise and moving around, that becomes impossible. I am forced to become aware of those around me. As distracting as it sometimes is, I'm not so sure that's a bad thing. At the very least, it reminds me that church is community.

The church I grew up in usually used the format of having elementary-age kids in the service up until the sermon was about to start, and then we would exit to children's church. I had kind of forgotten about that, as it's been over 15 years now since I've been in a church that did that, but it seems to be a trend that's coming back, and I am so glad. Not only am I more community-focused when the kids are participating, but I think the kids feel themselves to be a part of the worshipping community when they participate in “big church.” Of lesser ultimate significance but still important to me, being in the worship service exposes kids to church music. I think this would be especially valuable at NFC where church music tradition is honored and valued and a variety of styles is employed.

Last fall my family visited one of the Mars Hill congregations up in Seattle, and one of the things that caught me off guard at the time but that I really appreciate in hindsight was the way they included children in the worship service. It is the only congregation I have ever seen that asked parents to go pick up their kids from their classes immediately after the sermon, during a time of extended musical worship. I liked it from a logistical standpoint, both because I was able to check my kids into their classes and see where they were and who they were with--which was important to me as a visitor--and also because it allowed children of all ages, from the nursery on up, to participate in the service. Also, because the currently popular worship music style tends to particularly lend itself to that "me and God" thing, it was very helpful to me to have the children join us at exactly that point in the service when I would be most tempted to turn my focus inward.

I think every single member of the congregation would benefit from including our children in our worship gatherings on a regular basis. What do you think?

Recommendation: Reboot

From Phil Smith:

Every once in a while I 'restart' or 'reboot' my computer. Computer experts tell me it's a good thing to do, because computers don't fully close applications when we 'quit' them. If I don't reboot my computer, it gradually works slower and slower because of all the shadow programs lurking in the background. When I reboot, all the shadow programs are cleaned away and the main processor can have a fresh start.

The next steps task force at NFC would like to propose something like a 'reboot' for our church. The goals of our church remain the same: we seek to be a growing community, listening to Christ, changing in the Spirit, and living out love. The question is: how do we pursue these goals?

Now, don't get carried away with the 'reboot' metaphor. NFC includes a great variety of ministries; the next steps task force is not suggesting that that we stop sending kids to camp or cancel Sunday School, etc. But we have identified two things that we think need greater attention at our church. First, we think NFC needs to find new ways to reach out with God's love into population around us. Second, we think the church would benefit by finding a time and place to allow greater mixing and fellowship for Sunday morning attenders.

In regard to the first need: we worry that people who might be attracted to God and the message of our church might feel out of place and uncomfortable at NFC. They feel like outsiders when they visit us, and they don't come back. Or they expect to feel like outsiders and never visit in the first place.

In regard to the second need: we are impressed by delight people take in those special Sundays, such as Thanksgiving, we all three of our congregations meet in one place. In particular, people report that they love the fellowship time‹sharing coffee and a donut and conversation with other NFCers. Our physical plant and our practice of three services on Sunday morning greatly limit this kind of interaction most of the year. So the next steps task force recommends that NFC consider carefully ways to enable that sort of fellowship.

What say you?

Doing Church & Being Church

It’s been very interesting to think so much about church, and what it means to me and to others I know. I am struck how different each of us are—we come to worship with different church backgrounds (or not), needs, comfort zones, expectations (or not), levels of interest, abilities and desires to socialize (or not), hopes, and dreams. So based on all of these variables, what is it that makes church “work” for people? For some, it is working fine and there is no reason to change anything. For others, it doesn’t work and they either go elsewhere, or they complain each week, or they don’t attend often, or they work to make the changes they want. So how do we meet everyone’s desires and still reach beyond ourselves?

Since our committee was encouraged to attend some other growing churches and read books related to church, I’ve done both. It’s been very helpful to me. I’ve been particularly changed in my thinking by reading the book The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. While I find NFC works for me pretty well, I’m finding myself leaning toward a desire that we be more missional in our intentions. The word “missional” can have lots of meanings and I don’t even know what they all are. But for me, it means that we reach out more to those in our community for whom church does not work. As the authors of this book say, “It’s about living out the gospel within its cultural context instead of perpetuating an institutional commitment apart from its cultural context (p. x).” The culture is changing and we can’t always bring people in to the Kingdom by inviting them to church. For whatever reason, many don’t want to come. But they may be open to us being the church instead of them going to church.

As we discuss various models, structures, and ways of doing church, I keep thinking about something Frost and Hirsch say that makes me uncomfortable. They recommend planting new, culturally diverse, missional communities. But they say few established churches can pull this off. Churches that have been around awhile tend to try and “revitalize” or “reinvent” church, and in the process they just tweak the current mode or change the Sunday morning service, thinking that will help church “work” for more people. Frost and Hirsch say that instead of doing that, we should focus on mission instead of how we want church to look or sound or feel for ourselves. Jesus said “Go into all the world…(that may even include a pub). He didn’t say, invite or wait for people to come to you (p. 16).” Focus on the “outsiders” instead of the “insiders.” It’s about “them” and not about “us.” Note: the authors remind us that even though it is a huge paradigm shift, it is always Biblical.

So what does that look like for NFC? What if the church invited people to start house churches that met 2-3 Sunday mornings in homes and on the 4^th Sunday came to the NFC worship service for accountability and community? What if the church blessed efforts to have church at the park or a coffee shop (instead of go to NFC on Sunday mornings)? What if a group of people met regularly on Saturday nights (instead of Sunday morning) to play games and share what was going on in their lives? Could those forms of meeting be missional? Could they be blessed and supported by NFC? Would it be okay if some folks met away from the church building and everyone wasn’t in the worship service every Sunday morning? Could we still all be a part of NFC and its mission? Would it support our vision statement? Would it be Biblical? Would it be what Jesus would do?

Ginny Birky

Creating Space

So it seems folks at NFC like to be together...After each occasion where there is a chance to gather together, be it the November Bauman service, the coffee time on the front lawn to kick start the fall semester, Kaleidoscope meals or the Labor day/ Memorial day picnics, people comment on how much they enjoy being together to eat, socialize, connect and BE. In fact, after these all church occasions, it has been striking the number of brainstorming conversations regarding how we could pull off similar events on a more regular basis. Can we serve coffee on the front lawn every week and when it starts to rain and get chilly, erect a tent and bring in some heaters? Can we go to Bauman more than once a year so we can be together as a body in one worship gathering as well as be together for fellowship in the lobby? We can figure out a way to enlarge the coffee fellowship area so the entrance from the sanctuary into the library feels less like a "cattle chute" (not a term I coined but one that seems descriptively accurate) and more like a space that could host more of the congregation?
These brainstorms on how to create more opportunities for fellowship highlight the value we place on being the community of Christ to one another. It is not just that we enjoy socializing with one another or we crave coffee in a newly improved eco-friendly biodegradable styrofoam cup. But we are actually spiritually wired to connect with one another; to share our lives with one another. Our relationships with friends and neighbors actually feed our relationship with our Savior as we give and receive from one another. This value for community and fellowship was expressed in the surveys that were gathered a year ago and it is a value of our congregation that has shaped the discussions among the next steps task force members.

After Gregg's sermon several weeks ago on communion, I was even more convicted on our need for space, both literally and relationally, that can provide opportunities to participate in communion in the manner of Friends. We offer the life of Christ to one another as we connect with one another, share vulnerably and encourage one another. Folks at NFC are good at this. How can we create space and increase the opportunities to allow more and more of this to happen?

A Gelatin Kind of Worship

What comes to your mind when you think of worship?

• Putting on clothes that are fairly uncomfortable
• Yowling at the family to get to church on time because we're going to enjoy service, dang it!
• Paper: bulletins, directories, offering cards that can be turned into airplanes
• The smells of bad coffee
• Songs, some old and some new, meaning at some point somebody has a happy face and somebody has a cranky face
• Sermons, a.k.a. time to stare at the pastor's tie
• Offering plates that feel oh so slippery and wanting to hit the floor

Some variation of the above list is fairly typical images or components of worship.

But you know what I think of? Seven layer Jello salad. Really, that's what first comes to mind. See, I grew up at Boise Friends Church, and we potlucked: oh, how we potlucked. One of my friend's moms often made this jello salad which was so pretty and tasty and fun to take apart, and I was always wondered how she did it (fortunately, the wonders of the internet revealed her kitchen magic).

Now, a salad made out of gelatin may not seem to be a critical element of worship for you. But for me it represents a time of fellowship: my favorite part of worship.

On Sundays my family would drive a ways across town, attend worship in the sanctuary before scuttling off to children's church and then Sunday School. While it was enjoyable sing ingthe songs and having Bible stories told to us on felt boards, the real fun was to be had after service during the fellowship time. People would hang out and talk for what seemed to be forever. The kids would run around crazylike hopped up on sugar cookies and red Kool Aid, and my folks would chat and laugh and really enjoy themselves. If we weren't having a potluck, my friends and I would run back and forth between parents convincing them that we needed to go out to lunch: usually we wore them down pretty fast - anything to let them continue having adult conversation (which, as a parent, I now completely understand the need for).

Hearing the people laughing. Running around with friends. Contributing to the canned food tubs. Bringing in love loaves Enjoying each others' company and hearing each others' stories. To me, that is fellowship, but the deeper connecting bond is worship.

So, what comes to your mind when you hear the word "worship"?

Crossposted.

NFC Taskforce Principles on Worship

As we considered the Bible and Friends documents our groups collectively came up with the following principles. Though we did not take the time to synthesize these lists into one conglomerate list you will see that there is much synergy of the groups' responses. I invite you to consider these principles and make a list of principles that are important to you. Feel free to post your lists or ask questions about any of these lists.

Mark Ankeny

Most Important Worship Principles—group synthesis.

Group 1

• Worship calls us to God and calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Receiving God’s love—Giving God’s love
• There is a freedom of worship that comes from the spirit that leads to transformation.
• Worship is a privilege. God calls us by His grace. God desires our admiration.
• The community of believers benefits from worshipping together.
• Community members use their spiritual gifts to benefit others and the worshipping experience
• Authentic worship is consistent with the worship principles found in the scriptures.

Group 2

• God is present and active. God speaks—we can hear.
• It’s all about God and giving Him adoration.
• Worship is authentic—stories of change; redemption; faith; God in the past, present, and future.
• Worship brings personal and corporate renewal that results in obedience and action.
• Worship is relevant.

Group 3

• God is accessible—hope of glory; saving power; present teacher; God speaks we can listen.
• Adoration—living God.
• Leads to transformation, openness, honesty.
• Unity in the Spirit—gifts; age group diversity; corporate worship.
• Community/generational—cultures: age group, geographical, denomination, cultual

Group 4

• Worship is the adoring response of the heart and mind to the Spirit of the God—both individually and corporately.
• Our response to God is our whole-hearted obedience to God through Jesus which involves sacrifice and service.
• Out of our response and obedience to God we are changed to live holy lives to be rightly connected to God and others.
• At out NFC gatherings there is the affirmation and space for our value that God is present and accessible.
• As we gather we want to enhance and create space for the biblical freedom to worship, available to all, not dependent on knowing the rules.

Group 5

• What is the scope of the taskforce?
• What is the place of teaching in worship?
• What are the elements of worship? Does teaching belong?.
• In freedom: are there parameters and limits?
• What are the issues that we haven’t explicitly named—things that may be underlying the discussion?

NWYM Statements on Worship

In September 2007 the Next Steps Taskforce examined several Friends documents and the Bible to cause us to think about the worship principles that we should be following at NFC. Below are statements that come from the NWYM Faith and Practice.

Mark Ankeny

NWYM Statements on Worship

Worship

Worship is the adoring response of heart and mind to the Spirit of God. The meeting for worship brings a personal and corporate renewal, an edification and communion of believers, and a witness of the Gospel to the unconverted. We recognize the value of silence to center our thoughts upon God. We believe the Spirit speaks to worshipers through persons He has prepared and selected, whose message may be given in various modes by men or women, children or adults. We believe God calls some persons to a special preaching ministry, which the church should respectfully receive. Friends observe the first day of the week for corporate worship and for rest.

NWYM Faith and Practice, “Faith Expressed as Doctrine,” www.nwfriends.org

The Worship and Work of the Church

We believe all Christians receive certain gifts from the Spirit for use in and for the church. Some may preach, others evangelize, teach, heal, administer, counsel, bear burdens, or help in a variety of ways to fulfill the Great Commission. The church seeks to encourage and rightly order the exercise of these gifts for the sake of the Kingdom. Gifts in the ministry often warrant official recognition and financial support by the church.

Friends worship on the basis of obedience to the Holy Spirit. Our communion with the Lord is unbroken by outward rite or ceremony. In the covenant of the promised Holy Spirit, Christ leads us both in worship and in the business of the church. In our meetings we provide opportunity not only for preaching but also for praise, silent and vocal prayer, song, testimony, exhortation, and the sharing of concerns for the furtherance of the Gospel.

Friends observe the first day of the week for worship and rest. They also encourage daily private and family worship.

The Bestowment of Gifts

[Revised in 1982 and 1987] Friends believe that spiritual gifts are bestowed by the Holy Spirit for the propagation of the Gospel, for the perfection of believers, and for the edifying of the church in faith and power. In seeking the baptism with the Holy Spirit, Friends have sought not so much to receive a particular gift as to be controlled by the Giver of the gifts.
Even so, it is recognized that the Spirit gives different gifts to different members of the body of Christ (Romans 12). The exercise of these gifts brings Christ's truth to personal consciousness in varied ways appropriate to need. Accordingly, sharp distinctions between different types of ministry should not be attempted. Persons may have multiple gifts, exercised at different times, both through ordinary abilities sanctified to divine use and through extraordinary sensitivities and actions.

Friends believe that gifts are for God's glory and that enduement of power must be subordinate to purity. Friends also believe that the baptism with the Holy Spirit brings heart cleansing and conformity to the image of Christ (Acts 15:8). In Hebrews 12:14 (NIV) we are asked to "make every effort to live in peace with all men and be holy: without holiness no one shall see the Lord." For evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit Friends are exhorted to look to inner transformation. This transformation empowers the believer to live in victory over willful sin and produces a condition of love, shown outwardly by the fruit of the Spirit and Christian graces.

Friends worship is characterized by simplicity and the freedom of the Holy Spirit to minister to the worshipers gathered. Similarly, service and ministry, both channels for Truth, are characterized by obedience to God and single devotion to His will. A local church in gospel order will foster the right use of gifts, whether in worship or as witness in the world.

There is a gift of speaking to the states and needs of individuals, to congregations, and to the orders of society. This prophetic ministry is characterized by its spiritual vision, its penetrating application of biblical truth, the self-evidence of its message, and its timeliness. Such discerning ministry often arises out of open, silent worship, as Christ lays His message upon a ready messenger. Such ministry reaches to the understanding as well as to the emotions, for it bears the mark of divine unction whether spoken by a minister or by another. It should not be confused with praise or testimony, although these have their place in worship. Prophetic speaking or writing may occur also within ordinary channels of human activity, as Friends declare the word of the Lord. Such prophetic words may be intensely personal and private or pertinent to public life. As a movement Friends have aimed at faithfulness to Christ as Truth without fear or compromise. They have aimed at the high gift of prophetic ministry as admonished by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:1.

There is a gift for the ministry of instruction and exposition for teaching the truth. Those who possess this gift are enabled to contribute in different degrees toward establishing the membership and expanding the conception of divine things. This ministry of teaching requires a balanced, trained, and well-stored mind and the consecration of that mind to the service of Him who is the Truth.

There is the gift of exhortation, which is an ability for making an appeal to the hearts of men, stirring them to a sense of God's love and His purposes for them; it is the power of moving and convincing souls. Those who possess this gift are peculiarly fitted for evangelistic work.

There is also the pastoral gift, which consists especially of ability to do personal work with individuals or with families. This gift enables the possessor to comfort those who mourn, to lead the members into a deeper religious life, to arouse in the young an interest in the things of the Spirit, and to impress others with a sense of the scope and reality of the spiritual life. It is the gift of shepherding and feeding the flock.

The church does not make or appoint ministers; it only recognizes gifts where they exist and properly provides for their exercise and development as a sacred bestowal of the Head of the Church.

In addition to those for the ministry of the Word, other gifts are set forth in the Scriptures. Friends should prayerfully await and receive the divine leading and should be open to the movings of the Spirit. The gift of tongues (languages) is not considered the evidence of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This view is supported in 1 Corinthians 12:30, where the question "Do you all speak in tongues?" is answered with an implied "no."
According to the belief of Friends, Scripture teaches that any gift of the Holy Spirit is to be exercised in a setting and manner edifying to the Church (1 Corinthians 14:26-33). Any practice in worship or other Christian gathering is to be a spiritual help to the body of Christ and to the individuals involved.

NWYM Faith and Practice, “Fundamental Truths,” www.nwfriends.org

Transformation of American Quakerism

The Next Steps Taskforce started in September 2007 by examining principles from Friends documents and the Bible. I invite you to read and think about the excerpt about Friends in the Americas during the 19th century. This was a time of rapid change in Friends churches as these paragraphs show. I am intrigued by how quickly these changes were made. We used this as a backdrop as to what God might be leading us in the 21st century.

Mark Ankeny

The Transformation of American Quakerism Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907

The Westfield of the 1840s and 1850s was a place of women in dove-colored “plain” bonnets and men in broad-brimmed beaver hats and drab shadbelly coats cut in peculiar styles. The inhabitants spoke of “thee” and “thine”; theirs was the language of seventeenth-century England. Their favorite reading was the diaries of deceased Friends. They worshipped in an utterly plain, barnlike building they called a meetinghouse. There the men and women sat separately, with the elders and “weighty” Friends facing them at the front, the silence broken by an impromptu discourse believed to be uttered under the direction of the Holy Spirit. “Testimonies” ruled their lives—testimonies against slavery, fighting, “light and profane” literature, “worldly diversions,” “music, a “hireling ministry”—in sum, against “the world.” Their lives were proscribed by “the discipline,” a “thin, dreary volume” that regulated every aspect of a good Friend’s existence, form the width of the hat brim to the height of the tombstone. Every regulation was enforced by three overseers, “holy bigots” whom Baldwin described as a strange cross between medieval inquisitors and modern detectives.

In the summer of 1861 a Union army officer training recruits in Richmond, Indiana, decided to indulge his curiosity by attending a Quaker meeting. For half an hour the nearly one thousand people present sat in silence “so still that you could hear the heart beat…the men with their hats on, and eyes on the floor, the women with their hands locked in each other…and eyes closed like they were asleep.” Then, as the army man reported to his wife, an old woman “popped up” and spoke for five minutes, followed by another woman for half an hour, then by still another Friend for about ten minutes. Soon afterward the two old men at the front shook hands and left their seats, ending the meeting. There were no familiar landmarks for the officer—no pulpit or pastor, no organ or hymns. It was a “sort” of religion, he concluded, so different from the rest of Protestantism that he could scarcely comprehend it.

Late in the summer of 1875 a Methodist minister decided to indulge his professional curiosity by attending the annual gathering of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in Richmond. Unlike his military brother fourteen years before, the Methodist minister felt completely at home. The devotional meeting opened with the singing of a familiar hymn. Then the presiding preacher called for testimonies. Within ninety minutes nearly three hundred people had spoken. Then an altar call was issued, and soon seekers after conversion and sanctification crowded around several mourners’ benches. To the Methodist it had a familiar feeling. “It resembled one of our best love feasts at a National Camp Meeting [more] than anything else to which I could liken it,” he told the leading interdenominational holiness journal.”

The Friends that Baldwin found when he returned in 1910…worshiped not in a meetinghouse but in a steepled church, that his Babbit-like guide informed him, for “style and comfort” rivaled any in the state. An organ for music and a pulpit filled by a sleek and elegant minister had replaced the grim old denizens of the facing benches. The plain language was a memory associated with long-dead grandparents; gone too were the shadbelly coats and plain bonnets. No one saw “the use of such any longer.” The Quakers of Westfield were no longer separate from the world—they had become part of it.

Hamm, Thomas D. The Transformation of American Quakerism Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988.

NFC Core Values

The Next Steps Taskforce started in September by examining principles from Friends documents and the Bible. I invite you to read and think about the NFC Core Values that are listed below.

Mark Ankeny

NFC Core Values (taken from NWYM Core Values)

Jesus Christ is Present
Jesus Christ is actively present with us as Savior, Teacher, Lord, Healer, and Friend. Christ is immediately accessible to all who believe in Him. Those who take time to listen to Christ can hear His voice and follow Him, individually and collectively.

Scripture calls us to account and helps us know God’s will
The Bible, as interpreted by the Holy Spirit, shows us what God requires of us and provides authoritative and unfailing spiritual guidance for our lives today.

God is the source of life, and all human life is sacred
All life has its origin in the creative work of God, and human life is to be regarded as a sacred gift from God. Because all persons have equal value and are created in the image of God, we must treat others with respect and dignity, regardless of human measures of merit or value.

The Holy Spirit transforms and empowers us
The Holy Spirit enlightens our paths and transforms our lives. As we yield our lives to God and become immersed in the life of the Spirit, things change. Despair gives way to hope, and weakness gives way to empowerment. All things indeed become new.

We are called to be and to make followers of Christ
Christ through His Spirit transforms us to be more like Himself. He enables us to live lives of integrity and righteousness and calls us to bring others into this relationship. We listen to Christ, we obey Him, and we teach others how to do the same.

We are called to live out Christ’s love
Jesus reveals the fullest measure of God’s love by His example in His death on the cross. As we become more Christ-like, we hope to display the same quality of love corporately and individually to those around us.

We are called to be agents of God’s peace and love to everyone
We are called to work for justice and to be agents of peace in a broken world. Whether situations of conflict and confusion be personal, national, or global - within the church or beyond it - we are called to be agents of the same healing and love we have received from God.