Virtually Learning Christ
With Gathering 2007 more than a month behind us, it
may feel like our common energy around
Congregational Formation has begun to dissipate a
bit. Not so! Instead, it has migrated to our website,
where bLogos and Pastors Porch and our Forums
continue to focus on learning Christ together. I've been
challenged recently by Deb Murphy's reflections on why and how it is good
for worship to be boring, by Tobias' Winwright's juxtaposition of the bombing of
Nagasaki and the martyrdom of Franz Jaggerstatter
on August 9, by Mike Bowling's invitation to the church to live in Jesus' peace
rather than in our fears, and by Brian Volck's juxtaposition of the modern gnosticism of online
gaming with the Christian embodiedness of the
L'Arche communities. I invite you to read what's
being posted and join the conversation. You'll be
amazed at how long such short articles stick with you.
Long enough, we hope, to help us all keep
learning Christ for the long haul.
Speaking of our Gathering title, we continue to try to
upload various Gathering materials to our website.
We recognize that this is taking a long time, but
please bear with us. We hope to have both
documents and videos very soon. Unfortunately,
because of copyright law the videos will lack the
musical portions of our worship service. And it
appears that the videos will be a very slow load.
Meet the EP
Chanon Ross, a recent endorser of EP,
is a living example of the challenges and
opportunities of being a disciple of Jesus
Christ on two continents. He spends part of
the year in Illinois, where he directs a
youth group at Knox Presbyterian Church in
Naperville and studies in the Ph.D. program
at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.
Because he normally spends the month of July
in Brazil, at the South American Theological
Seminary, this year's EP gathering was the
first he was able to attend. He is
interested in furthering the discussion about
formation, especially as it pertains to youth
ministry, and has spoken and written about
youth issues in numerous contexts, including
the Duke Youth Academy for Christian
Formation and The
Christian Century. He looks forward to
continuing to
explore these important subjects within the
context of Christian friendship at EP.
Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear
The most recent volume of the Ekklesia
Project's Christian Practices of Everyday
Life book series is now available.
We are bombarded daily with messages of fear.
Wall Street, Madison Avenue, Hollywood and
the White House seem intent on bombarding us
with messages that provoke and manipulate our
anxiety. Scott Bader-Saye's Following
Jesus in a Culture of Fear offers the
Christian community the alternatives of
generosity, hospitality, and peacemaking in
place of fear. Bader-Saye encourages the
Church to reject an 'ethic of safety' for an
'ethic of risk.'
Divided into three sections (Diagnosis,
Antidote, and Recovery), this work draws
insights about fear from Thomas Aquinas.
Furthermore, Bader-Saye stresses the
importance of sharing our fears in ecclesial
communities, where we can develop courage.
Most important, the author notes that a
reclaiming of God's sovereignty will help us
reframe our lives; the doctrine of providence
not only assures us that the fragments of our
lives will cohere into a narrative unity but
also demonstrates that God is our Provider.
Financial Results from Gathering '07
Every year, the most significant economic
activity of the EP is the Summer Gathering.
The hope is to break even; the income from
registrations and offerings will equal our
expenses. If we end up with a surplus, it is
used to offset the cost of other activities
like our website, pamphlets and books series
and the work of our coordinator. This year,
many intended and unintended situations came
together in such a way which produced a
healthy surplus. After all the bills are paid
and all our registrations and offerings are
recorded, we will be over $6000 in the black.
Now for the bad news! This surplus was a
result of three or four factors which most
likely will not be repeated in future years.
In other words, we probably will not be able
to reduce registration fees for future
Gatherings.
Please continue to honor your commitment as
an endorser by contributing periodically to
our modest work together at EP. We have a
mere $30,000 in all accounts, which will get
us through the year. The EP Board is forming
a finance team which will assemble an annual
budget and begin to look at how we are going
to pay for future plans. As their work
progresses, we will make it available to you,
our co-laborers, via this newsletter.
Michael Bowling
EP Treasurer
Notes from the Editor
Many thanks to Brent Laytham for posting so
many wonderful pictures from Gathering '07 in our
last newsletter: my only fear was
that our readers might come to expect such a
"slick" issue each month! We return to our
accustomed format this month, centered in
brief pieces that our endorsers and friends
can read in a minute or two. As always, we
encourage you to visit the EP website to post
your thoughts or to read those of your
friends. Speaking of which, Charlie Pardue
offers a perspective on our Gathering, along
with a link that will allow you to listen to
the insightful sermon Sharon Huey preached on
Monday evening, here.
John McFadden,editor
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