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[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      July 2, 1999
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

213th Annual Conference 
Friday evening sermon, June 29, 1999

(Tonight's message is being delivered by Linetta Alley and Cindy
Laprade, co-winners of the 1998 National Youth Conference Speech
Contest. These texts were submitted prior to Friday's worship.)

Living in Community by Linetta Alley, a Bridgewater (Va.) College
     student.

The event took place in a room very similar to this one.  The walls
and floors were made out of concrete, and rows and rows of chairs
made rings around the room.  Most of those chairs were filled with
people, almost 1500 more than this evening.  Instead of all of the
gold chairs there in the middle, 1000 or so youth were sitting on
the pillows they had made themselves.  Oh, and yes, here I was,
standing at the microphone behind the podium!  

That morning last summer at NYC (National Youth Conference), when
Cindy and I had the opportunity to share some of our thoughts with
the over 4000 youth gathered there, is a special memory for me. 
Even more so, however, is that entire conference, and even more
than that is the way being at that conference felt.  It was so
amazing to come together with all of those people who had gathered
to praise and worship, learn and serve, and yes, HAVE FUN!  It was
amazing to feel as though all of those people were my brothers and
sisters, even when I didn't know close to 1/4 of them.  It was
amazing to feel a part of a community of faith so far away from my
home and church.  

I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised.  Especially after
all of the years that I had attended Annual Conference as part of
our family vacation each summer.  We were even here nine years ago,
and if we're remembering correctly, I spoke to you at that
Conference as well, as the narrator for the Saturday evening
children's program. I've always loved Annual Conference, and I
still do!  I love the singing!  I love the worship services!  I
love the exhibit hall!  I loved the childcare and children's
activities!  I loved the Jr. high and Sr. high programs!  And so
far this year I've loved the Young Adult activities!  Now I've
never sat through too many of the business sessions, but the
General Board Live Report is always great, and I can't imagine that
the meetings are TOO bad!  But the thing that I really love about
conference isn't the programs, it's the people.  More that anything
else I love meeting back up with the friends that I made in the
sandboxes of childcare, at workcamps, at district and national
activities, and at church camp.  Conference was, and is, the time
that I am able to see the church and feel surrounded by this
community of believers.

One of my closest friends is someone that a don't ever really
remember meeting.  She was just always there at Annual Conference,
just like me each summer.  We'd hang out together all week, bid our
tearful good-byes, and pick everything back up where we left off
the next summer.  In Jr. high and Sr. high we made it a point to
try to attend the same workcamps during the summer and at one of
those we talked about how being with that group of 20-30 people
just felt "right" and we wanted to stay there forever.

But is community, and more importantly Christian community, only a
feeling of acceptance, a sense of being with other like-minded
people, a hug at the door and a happy hello? I've come to believe
that true community is more than that. 

Besides attending Annual Conference, each summer also usually
included a week or two at church camp, mainly Brethren Woods in VA. 
It was being a part of those family groups that really was the
basis of my education in community.  I learned that it's hard to
get along with everybody and remember that they are just as
important as you.  And it's not easy trying to make everyone work
together when a job needs to get done.  Now that I have changed
roles and become a counselor at Brethren Woods I'm beginning to
realize that the community building process wasn't a coincidence. 
 It was a process that took time and energy from both the staff
leaders and the campers before the tight knit communities became a
reality. True community is an intentional process of transformation
which must be shaped and formed by leaders, us. 
     
As members of society we are surrounded by communities.  Each of us
lives in a housing community, is involved in a church community,
and for those of us who are students or teachers, we participate in
an educational community.  But what is Christian community, and
what sets it apart from those other communities we are a part of? 
Communities are people who are united by a common vision or focus,
something that pulls them together and centers their togetherness. 
For Christians that focus is not just the figure of Christ himself,
but it's the love that Christ has shown to us through his sacrifice
for us.  Christian community provides a place for us to honor and
glorify God by serving one another and sharing God's love with
others through the use of our God-given gifts.

Paul talks extensively in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians
about the Body of Christ and how it is made up of many members.  In
tonight's scripture, he reminds us that "If a man's gift is
prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.  If it is
serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is
encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs
of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him do
it diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." 
Here Paul outlines some of the many tasks which need to be a part
of Christian community, tasks which involve different skills, and
although he chooses to use the masculine, jobs which both men and
women can work at accomplishing.  

In the more familiar passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul discusses the
danger of one body part fishing that they were another and finding
their place unimportant in relation to some of the others.  It
seemed to me for many years that Paul was saying that without all
of the body members the body would be unable to function and fall
apart.  However, do we not see people everyday who are unable to
use one of their senses or a body part?  These people are able to
compensate for their non-functioning body part by using other parts
of the body for the same task.  Those who are blind use their sense
of feeling and hearing to "see", hearing impaired persons depend
more heavily on their eyes and the use of sign language to
communicate, and those who are unable to walk use their hands to
push themselves in wheelchairs.  Even with their apparent handicaps
or disabilities, they are able to live meaningful lives.

But in the Body of Christ it doesn't always work out so well.  If
several members of the body stop contributing or even leave the
body it's not that the whole body stops functioning.  Instead,
other parts of the body, as in the illustration, have to pick up
their jobs too, working harder for the body to continue at its
usual capacity.  However, with added responsibilities taking up
their time and energy, they can no longer perform their original
role to the fullest.  For example, if the pastor is also required
to teach Sunday School, direct the choir, and plan youth group
activities, he or she will probably not be able to prepare as well
for worship, nor have as much time for visitation and other
pastoral responsibilities.  If a Sunday School teacher also had to
plan fellowship meals, class activities, and take care of the class
treasury, he may not be able to plan as well for using his gift of
teaching on Sunday morning.  The reason that Paul highlights the
importance of each part of the body is not solely because each job
needs to get done, but because by each part doing their job to the
fullest, it allows those other parts of the body to accomplish
their roles.  By all of us effectively performing our role, we
allow others to be able to focus on their job, thus allowing the
body, the community, to function in the best possible way.

Most of us have been familiar with Paul's illustration of the
church as a body since we were young, and we understand the
importance of living as a Body of Christ, yet we continue to see
members of our home church communities who stop participating, or
even attending, eventually dropping their membership.  Each time
that happens the God-given gifts that those persons have to
contribute are lost.  Are we as a church willing for that to
happen?  Are we willing to lose someone's gift of music because
they prefer a different style than the church is used to?  Are we
willing to lose someone's gift of service because we don't support
the need they see?  Are we willing to deny someone's message from
God because it's not what we want to hear?  The church needs to
decide, here and now, whether it can withstand losing the gifts of
thousands of children, youth, young adults, middle-aged adults, and
older adults because their gifts don't fit our program.  It is
essential that we as a Christian community appreciate and support
the gifts of the members and allow them to be used so that God's
work may be accomplished here on earth.  And it is the
responsibility of the individual members to respond willingly when
God calls us to action through the church.

So what is a leader's role, our role, in the Body of Christ?  A
leader needs to acknowledge that he or she is a member of the
community, not the focus of it.  Leaders need to work at their role
of leading, directing and focusing the group,  and allow the other
community members to step up to work at their roles.  Unlike the
common assumption that leaders need to do everything, true
leadership is a matter of acknowledging that one person can not,
and should not, do it all. God has distributed gifts throughout the
church so that many can share in his work. Above all, the
overbearing, bossy, superior attitudes of many world and church
leaders is not the way of those who truly follow Christ.  As Luke
22:25-26 reads: "Jesus said to them (the disciples), 'The kings of
the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority
over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like
that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest,
and the one who rules like the one who serves.'" Jesus calls us to
servant leadership in which all the members of the community are
servants to each other, where we use our gifts to build up the body
and aid the others around us.  True Christian community is
accomplished when we understand that we are here to serve God by
serving each other.  And the leader's role is to model this by
attempting to understand how the various gifts and parts of the
body work together, by calling out the gifts of the members, and by
creating an environment where those gifts can be used.
     
Brothers and sisters, Christian community does not come easily.  It
takes time and energy to develop a vision and a focus, and to spend
time in shared experiences.  However, the rewards of our work in
the formation of a place where we can use our gifts and talents
within the body of Christ, where we can call out and support the
gifts of others, and where we can continue to serve God by serving
those around us, are well worth the cost.  

So let's keep the conferences and camps going, let's keep on
passing out hugs and hellos, and let's continue to build community
using the gifts and talents that Christ has given, remembering that
each community we are a part of is really only one piece of a much
wider community that is being shaped and molded by Christ himself.

------------------------------------------------------

Staying Reconciled by Cindy Laprade, student at Franklin County
     (Va.) High School

A much-loved minister once carried a secret burden of long-past sin
buried deep in his heart.  He had committed the sin many years
before during his seminary training.  No one knew what he had done,
but they did know he had repented.  Even so, he had suffered years
of remorse over the incident without any sense of God's
forgiveness.

A woman in his church deeply loved God and claimed to have visions
in which Jesus Christ spoke to her.  The minister, skeptical of her
claims, asked of her, "The next time you speak to the Lord, would
you please ask Him what sin your minister committed while he was in
seminary."  The woman agreed. 

When she came to the church a few days later, the minister asked,
"Did He visit you?" She said, "Yes." 

"And did you ask Him what sin I committed in seminary?" 

"Yes, I asked Him," she replied. 

"Well, what did He say?" 

"He said, "I don't remember." 

This is the essence of reconciliation.  This is the reconcilation
of the sinner with God through the Savior Jesus Christ. This story
is how it is with each of us.  Our sins are forgotten; our slates
wiped clean.  No matter what our past may be, our futures are
spotless.  Yet we have a problem reconciling our own differences
between one another within our community of faith.  And sometimes
we have a problem reconciling ourselves or leading others to
reconciliation with God.   But if we follow the teachings and
examples of Jesus, reconciliation will not be a problem.  After
all, what better example to follow than that of Jesus Christ.  He
was the greatest leader of all time.  Even after 2000 years we are
still following his lead.  And his path was the path of
reconciliation.  In 2 Corinthians 5:18, it says, "All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation."  Jesus was the great reconciler. 
He reconciled all of the lowly sinners of this world, yes even you
and me, with our Father in heaven.  Through his blood we shall
enjoy pardon for our sin and everlasting life with our Lord.  But
if you remember the end  of the scripture that I just read, it says
that he has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  That means
that we have a responsibility to keep the candle of reconciliation
burning.  It means that he has given each and every one of us the
power to bring others to our Christian community through the death
of Jesus.  It means that we have the power and the obligation to
not only reconcile our sins with God, but also with each other.  We
also have the power to lead through the ministry of reconcilation. 
To lead others to peace, love, and harmony with each other, and
with God. 

Linetta just spoke to you about building a community of faith.  God
also shows us how to keep that community together.  Reconciliation
is going to be the glue that holds us all together.  It is what
will keep our community at peace and steadfast in the way of the
Lord.  It is reconciliation that has brought us here in the first
place.  Jesus has reconciled us to God and expects us to stay
reconciled with both God and with fellow man.  Romans 12:9-13 lays
out the actions we need to take in order to stay reconciled with
God and others. "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast
to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one
another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit,
serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering,
persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend
hospitality to strangers."  Let's see if we can break this lesson
down in order to apply all of these commands to our everyday lives
and keep ourselves continuing the reconcilation of Christ.  

The apostle Paul sets up the steps that we need to take as leaders
in the church community and on the whole to stay reconciled and to
restore peace, love and harmony with each other and with God when
those relationships become strained.

  Paul begins this text by talking about love, evil, and good. 
What Paul is saying with respect to reconciliation and community is
that evil within the community is reconciled to God through the
genuine love of those who stand strong in the goodness of the Lord. 
First of all, Paul says we must be geniune.  Hypocrites tear down
the community of Christ.  Jesus repeatedly denounced those who
acted with a parade of insincerity everywhere they went.  Hypocrisy
is not the experience of the true love of God.  It is the working
of the devil within a man's heart.  The devil is all around us.  We
are surrounded by evil.  Paul says to hate what is evil.  I think
this a challenge in and of itself.  We are called to draw the line
and stand by what is good.  Too many times leaders in the church do
not stand up to the evil actions of others for fear of stepping on
someone's toes.  This is almost a condoning action and we are
called to hate evil, not to condone it.  We shy away from
challenging people to walk a true life with God because it might
offend them.  This only hurts everyone involved.  We are to hold on
to what is good, to the things that build us and others up, even
when everything seems to be going wrong.  When we truly hold on to
what is good, we must challenge the evil surrounding us; we must
confront what is tearing us down by building each other up. 
Everyone's sin must be reconciled with God and if we refuse to
confront one of his children about the evil they have surrounded
themselves with so that they might reconcile themselves with God
through Christ, are we truly showing them a deep and genuine love? 
When we allow them to continue down a destructive path and do not
lead them back to the love of God, are we truly being Christ-like? 
Is it love when we would rather let someone die to avoid offending
them, than challenge them to a better way of life?    

Let me give you an example.  I have a few friends who I care very
deeply about.  One day they came to me in confidence and admitted
to me that they had been indulging in various pleasures of the
world.  I know that they came to me to help ease their conscience,
and that they probably chose me because a small part of them looked
up to me as a Christian example.  After all, they are Christians
too, only at a different point in their faith journey.  This looks
like a perfect opportunity for me to challenge my friends to a
better way of living.  It looks like a time for me to help
reconcile these friends with God.  They are open to and asking for
my opinion.  I missed my opportunity.  Instead of telling them that
they crossed a line that I whole-heartedly believe is wrong and
that the consequences for their actions have the potential to be
devastating, I did not speak my mind.  I eased their consciences by
telling them what they wanted to hear, so as not to offend them or
to make them not like or trust me.  I could say that I was just
trying to not be judgemental, but that is just not true.  I failed
to be true to myself, to my friends and to my
God.  

Number one, I did not act in love or in their best interest because
I did not try to challenge the evil and reconcile the sinner.  
Number two, I condoned evil.  And number three I also let down the
whole community by not using the ministry of reconciliation because
these people also call themselves Christians yet their actions do
not reflect the will of Christ.  By not helping them in their time
of need I opened the door for others in the community to follow
their lead down an unrighteous path and use the comforting words of
a Christian to ease their heavy hearts.  I did not love genuinly;
I did not hate evil; and I did not hold fast to what is good.   May
we all learn not only from our own mistakes but also from the
mistakes of others.  Evil within a community is reconciled to God
and between humans through the genuine love of those who stand
strong in the goodness of the Lord.  

There are other specific things that we can do in our churches and
our everyday lives that promote a peaceful, reconciled community. 
If we first think about those evils that would tear down our
community, we can then think of things that we can all do to help
promote reconciliation.  Many things can cause or lead to conflict. 
Some of the most common are strong emotions, misperceptions,
stereotypes, poor or miscommunications, differing values, opinions
or ways of life, competition, and unequal power or authority.  
What we all must remember is that the key to resolving these
conflicts and keeping them resolved is to practice good
reconciliation techniques when there is a conflict but more
importantly when there is not a specific conflict.  The following
techniques come from a booklet called "Mediating Interpersonal
Conflict."  It was put together by Bob Gross and Gary Zimmerman
through Education for Conflict Resolution, Inc. 

First, good communication is the most important thing that keeps
people reconciled.  For starters, we should talk to one another. 
We should strive to be honest in everything that we say and what we
do.  We know that hypocrites tear down a community and are
denounced by Jesus so we must consciously strive not to be
hypocritical.  Plus, dishonesty breeds distrust, even if we were
trying to spare someones feelings by telling a little white lie. 
The second and probably most important part of good communication
is good listening.  We must strive to listen to everyone and really
hear and understand what they are saying to us.  I know that
especially when there is a conflict and I am in an argument, I tend
to listen just enough to be able to have a good comeback or the
last word.  However when I learn to listen for understanding and
with a genuine love, many potentially awful situations are avoided. 
This may be a hard thing for many of us, however listening is a
very practical way to practice the ministry of reconciliation
within our own lives on a daily basis.   

Second, we should all try to understand where other people are
coming from.  We should be sensitive to their situations,
backgrounds, and opinions.  People are a product of their
environment and that environment influences the perspective from
which they approach a situation.  Since not everyone comes from the
same environment we must look for ways to understand a person's
background reasoning for their perception of or opinion on a
certain situation.   A good way to practice that is again listening
for understanding but also by placing ourselves in the shoes of
whoever we are communicating with.  By not only looking at where
they are coming from, the basis of their opinions, and even by
looking at how we are coming across to them, we can avoid many
miscommunications, steroetypes and conflict itself.   

Here is a good example.  Year before last, the Virlina District
Youth Cabinet had some difficulties with communication and with
understanding one another.  This lead to some heavy tension and
even a few confrontations that did not help things.  We came
together one night for a mediated session to sort out our
differences, to express some emotion and hopefully to get the
Cabinet back on track.  Once we really began listening to one
another and understanding each other, a change came over the whole
cabinet.  We were able to better communicate with each other in the
future and that spared us any conflict this year and paved the way
for us to be come the closest knit group of friends I have ever
been a part of.  Not to mention all of the time and energy we were
able to use toward serving our Lord instead of fighting . 

Third, we also need to understand a few things about feelings and
emotions.  These understandings, if applied to our lives, can make
a huge difference in how we react towards others thus avoiding
conflict.  Feelings are real.  They should not be denied or
supressed no matter how much we do not wish to feel them or how
unfounded someone else's seem to us.  However, they are only
feelings and we should not be controlled by them.  Next, the
expression of feeling is different from the feeling itself. 
Release of emotion is a natural part of the reconciliation process. 
Anger is a secondary feeling that stems from a primary feeling such
as fear, hurt, embarressment, or frustration.  Finding that primary
feeling is helpful in resolving that anger.  And finally, we should
not take responsibility for someone else's feelings nor should we
blame others for the way we feel.  It is unfair to be put or to put
others in the situation where they feel guilty or like they should
change because of the involvement of emotions.  The underlying
conflict that is causing the emotion is what needs to be
reconciled, not the emotion itself.   

Lastly, we must all remember that we are all disciples of Christ no
matter where we are on our faith journey.  He has reconciled all of
us to himself through the death of his son and through our
commitment to Him.  We are all created in God's image and he sees
us all as his children, therefore what right do we have to say who
is better or worse in his eyes among us.  There is a song by the
Christian music group Sierra that I really think illustrates this
very well.  It is talking about a lady named Maggie who is living
a life of sin and the speaker knows that even though the world
condemns her now, that the Lord can reconcile her with him.  The
chorus goes like this, "I've got no stone to throw; No ax to grind;
I look at Maggie's life and I see mine; I see somebody searching
for something; A little love and understanding; And the longer I
know the Lord; The more I know I've got no stone to throw."  Our
job as Christians is not to condemn those who are not at the same
stage in their faith development but rather to lead them along to
where we are.  To help them as they make the journey, to lead them
towards reconciliation with our Father in heaven.   

All of these points that help to keep our community of faith
reconciled and serving the Lord have been actions.  The words in
the scripture have all been verbs such as, "hate what is evil, love
genuinely, and hold fast to what is good ."  We are not told in
this scripture what to say, but instead what to do.  As we carry
these skills back into our daily lives and into our own walks of
faith, let us remember to be people of action; actively serving,
reconciling, and leading.  Let our actions come straight from the
leading of God.  For it is He who has forgotten our sins through
Jesus' death and given us new life through the power of
reconciliation.