IN THIS ISSUE 
What Does it Mean to Move for Wholeness?
Moving Forward: Facilitating Congregational Life
Search for GMP Moves Forward
Our Actions and Inactions Always Have Consequences
Finding Our People
News From Disciples Women
Justice for Children
Moving Forward Putting Mission First!
You Are Invited to Pre-Event National Convocation
Moving for Wholeness in the DHM Virtual 5k
Moving Forward in Education
You Are Invited to Missionworks!
Summer 2016
 
Moving Forward
The Summer issue of The Disciples' Advocate is now available on the Disciples Home Missions website. "Moving Forward" is the theme for this issue. In the red column at the left you will see under "In This Issue" just a sampling of what is included in this issue. 

A Word or Two From Ron
Rev. Ron Degges
I have been thinking about that passage from Exodus 16 lately and of our church's need to keep Moving Forward, the theme for this issue of The Disciples' Advocate. Hear the words of the text:

"The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread: for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." [Exodus 16:2,3]

Whenever I think of this passage, I think of the heremitic monk living alone in the desert, speaking only three phrases in sixty years. Every twenty years the Bishop would come by for a visit and ask how things are going. Twenty years into his ministry, the hermit said to the bishop, "Bed hard." Twenty years later, the hermit said, "Food Bad." After another twenty years the hermit replied, "I quit." It is rumored that the Bishop responded to the hermits third response: "I've known you for sixty years and all you've done is gripe, gripe, gripe!"

Do you know someone whom you will never ask the question, "How are you doing today?" If you ask you know that you will get a two hour run down on every sore joint and medical malady. My ninety-four year old grandmother, Freda, a life-long Disciple, asked her doctor, "Doc, tell me the truth. I want to know why my neck hurts so bad?" After thinking it over, the doctor replied, "Freda, I think there's no doubt about it: you've had a mid-air collision with a B-52 bomber." Grandmother Freda responded, "Now doctor, I'm very serious about this."

Let me be serious about this, too: Complaining about our stake in life; singing the blues; longing for the good, old days, that were probably not all that good or all that long ago; looking backwards to re-walk those imagined primrose paths of serenity and tranquility; and, expressing our dissatisfaction with who we are and what we have not been able to accomplish, is not unique to our generation but is as old a story line as that of the Hebrew people.

According to all accounts, between the exodus from Egypt and settlement in the land of Canaan, Israel wandered in the wilderness for some forty years. Not only did Israel wander, Israel griped. The scene played out in Exodus 16 will recur over and over again all the way from Egypt to Sinai, and then from Sinai to the banks of the promised land. The people persistently complain and the Lord continually does what God does best - understands, provides gracious care, and preserves the people.

I am so glad that God is a God big enough to take all we have to dish out, and then more. Complaints are lodged at God throughout the biblical narrative. Jonah complained and ran. Then he complained again, pouting underneath the disappearing gourd. Job, on an ash heap, goes round and round with God, as well as his so called friends and comforters. In more than fifty Psalms there is recorded both individual and corporate lamentations.

I am not so much concerned with the griping that goes on as I am with the discontent it breeds. We live in an age still waiting to be named. But if I were to name it for you today, I would call it the age of discontent. Our satisfaction quotient is so low that we are not satisfied with anything. Recent polls of voters indicate that discontent with the status quo is driving us to poor decision making. Discontent is only useful if it leads us to a time of contentment. Left all by itself, discontent just breeds more discontent.

In church lingo, there is much discontent to go around: discontent with the direction your congregation or denomination is moving; discontent with your Pastor and his/her leadership style; discontent with all those new people coming through your doors; discontent with children running through the halls; discontent with babies crying in worship; discontent that the church does not seem like the same church you joined thirty or more years ago; discontent that we are growing older and grayer and do not know what to do to turn things around; and/or, that we do know what to do but refuse to do it.

It is no accident that the first name given to those who followed Jesus was that they were followers of 'the way' or 'the road." They probably had just as many complaints as the Israelites and as we do. But when they found the way and the road, it became for them their hope. It is what moved them forward. As my colleague, friend, and retired church executive, Don Sarton would say, it is what moved them 'onward."

I love that great story about the Mission Board Executive who was talking to the great Livingstone, of Stanley and Livingstone greatness, who were missionaries to the continent of Africa. The Executive said, "Dr. Livingstone, is there a good road to where you are? If so, we have a couple of men who would like to come and help you." David Livingstone replied: "If they need a good road, don't send them. I need men who can come, road or no road." I often think that our women would have not thought twice as to whether there was a road or not. By the way, Disciples Women did just go. They helped give rise to our Disciples missionary movement!

If we are to move forward as a church it is imperative that we stop looking through the rear view mirror of what has been and start looking through the front windshield of what is yet to be. Kierkegaard would challenge us to take a 'leap of faith' into the future. Cicero would call us to gaze to that 'somewhere beyond the stars.' And it is our faith that calls us to walk forward into uncertainties of all kinds with the surety that God is with us always, even to the end [Matthew 28:19,20].

We know what kind of church we have been.  We also know what kind of church we are. The question is: What kind of church is God calling us to become? We can only discover this as we move forward into God's future. I do hope you enjoy this issue of The Disciples' Advocate and articles about all the ways our church is moving forward to glorify God, serve humanity, and replace the discontentment of this age with a hope that is eternal.
Sincerely,

Moving forwardly yours,

Ron

Rev. Ron Degges, President
Disciples Home Missions
www.discipleshomemission.org
(317) 713-2684
[email protected]