A Review of the Book "Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church" by Michael Adam Beck & Tyler Kleeberger

Title: Fresh Expressions of the Rural Church

Author: Michael Adam Beck & Tyler Kleeberger

Publisher: Abingdon Press

Year: 2022

135 pages

Summary on the back: The rural church was a community's centrepiece. The Place where people gathered to worship and hear a sermon, break bread together, and support each other through the joys and struggles of life with the land. In many ways, the rural church captured a central aspect of the church's mission: to be the guiding hand for the life of a place. Can rural communities flourish again? Can new Christian communities succeed in rural areas? Could healthy rural churches catalyze a better future for their declining communities? This book collects stories form diverse rural contexts across the United States. It lays out a fresh theology for rural life and offers principles for harnessing the potential of what some consider the forgotten spaces. Each chapter includes a helpful Field Exercise, questions for discussion, and suggested actions for leadership teams to work through together. Chapters conclude with a Field Story illustrating how the chapter's main ideas can work in a real church setting.

Personal Thoughts: From the website freshexpressions,com, "In 2004, Fresh Expressions emerged out of the Anglican and Methodist churches in England. Pastors and leaders started to recognize new, organically-forming trends of church as an opportunity to “proclaim the faith afresh to each generation,” as the Anglican Declaration of Ascent states. The Mission Shaped Church report called them “fresh expressions,” and their popularity exploded across many denominations. Over time, Fresh Expressions has become a vehicle to mesh the existing church culture with newly-inspired ways of reaching those who don’t go to church."

This book was written as a way to give a ""Fresh Expression" to rural ministry. By using stories from their own history being pastors in country parishes, as well as calling on others to give their story, Beck and Kleeberger try to bring life to a ministry that many people often forget about or dismiss as not important. I think they were pretty successful as you can't help but feel for these struggling parishes who found new hope with their pastors.

As well, there are some good ideas that could be taken into other rural contexts, and even some urban ones! There is no denial of suffering and desperation that is being felt in rural parishes. But there is also hope as new things are tried, like team ministry, locally-grown pastors, and letting things die so that something new can take its place.

Because it is written in short-essay form, "Fresh Expression of the Rural Church" is a quick and easy read. However, by taking the time to digest the stories and explore the "field assignments", maybe we can all start to bring some hope to those parishes who might be feeling a little bit of that desperation, whether they are rural or urban.

Paul's Appeals: A Sermon for the 3rd Week of Advent

Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

 

This week, we have come to the end of reading the first letter from Paul to the Thessalonians. And in this last section, Paul gives a set of general instructions concerning the maintenance of Christian fellowship.

 

Paul’s call is simple and direct: rejoice, pray, give thanks always and no matter what happens.

 

He asks for love, for acceptance of one another. He asks for joy, constancy in prayer and a thankful heart in their relationship with the Lord. Finally, he asks for the acceptance, exercise, and testing of the Word.

 

In total, there are seven appeals in this short passage, and all of them worthy of taking to heart. Let’s see how we can apply them to our lives today.

 

1.     Rejoice always

Joy is a mark of Christian life and a fruit of the Spirit. Christians can find reasons to be joyful in all seasons of life. In fact, Christians have the ultimate hope of being with Christ to be joyful about. Even in the darkest of times, we have the Light of Christ within us, a light that we can shine for others, to give hope to the world. We have be tasked to spread the Gospel that God is with us on Earth, and that is truly something to rejoice each and every day.

2.     Pray without ceasing

Praying is one of the most important things that a Christian is to be doing….and one of the hardest. We all know we should be doing it, and yet it feels hard and strange to do. People are unsure how to pray or what to pray for. Really, praying is just a conversation with God. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it’s just important that you do it. When we pray, we recognise how powerless we are but how powerful God is.  And Paul is telling us that we are to pray frequently and repeatedly. Jesus prayed all the time, so why shouldn’t we?

3.     Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you

Some days, it doesn’t feel like there is very much to be thankful for. Especially as we hear about all of the war and violence that is happening in the Middle East and in Russia and Ukraine. And it’s hard to be thankful when we are aware of the rates of unemployment and homelessness in Canada.

But Paul is asking us to be thankful anyway, stating that Christians are to be thankful in all circumstances. How can one give thanks in poor circumstances? We remember Christ who was in the poorest circumstance when he was going to the cross to die for our sins.

Today, Christians have ultimate hope in the glory that we will share with Christ. We can be thankful for the technology to still be in touch with one another. We can be thankful for scientists continuing to work on the long-term effects of COVID. We can be thankful for all that we have, and we can be thankful for a God who watches over us, even in the darkest of times.

4.     Do not quench the Spirit

On the day of Pentecost, we celebrate the early Christians receiving the Holy Spirit and thus bringing to light the meaning of the Gospel of Christ. Apart from the Holy Spirit causing us to believe in the Gospel, the Gospel would have meant nothing for us. The Holy Spirit is our helper and is the one who helps us live lives that are pleasing to God.

Paul is pleading with us not to let that spirit go out, to not extinguish it. We need to recognise the Spirit is working in our lives and we should not reject that help in any way. Keeping the light of the Spirit alive in our hearts will help bring us hope, love, and joy. These are things that are desperately needed as we come to the end of some very difficult years.

5.     Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything

I grew up in a church that didn’t allow for questioning. Each Sunday, we heard the Word and we were taught to accept it as it was and to not question, because to question the prophets (the writers of the Bible, the priests) was to question God. And how dare we question God.

What I admire about this particular exhortation is that Paul is actually asking us to question. He is saying that we should be open to the disclosure of God’s will through fellow Christians exercising the gift of prophecy, but that it is okay if we question what we are hearing. In fact, it is more than okay. Paul tells us to test everything and not assume that the speaker’s or writer’s claims are automatically true.

When we bring this plea into our lives, we are told to read the Bible knowing that it is good to have questions, to want clarification, and to seek out revelation.

6.     Hold fast what is good

This is a plea for gratitude if I ever saw one. Paul is asking us to cling to what is good in our lives, even to seek good in our enemies.

One day, a friend of mine posted that she was having a rough day and rather than stew in the feeling, she decided to write some statements of gratitude. She said that doing so really helped her to get out of the funk that she was in.

Although we are told we are on the other side of the pandemic, the seemingly never-ending days of the pandemic bring out fear, anger, and anxiety in everyone. Sometimes all we can do is grasp onto the good we find in each day – a ray of sunshine on a December morning, the cuddle of a cat in your lap, a good book – any small amount of good can change the whole outlook on your day.

7.     Abstain from every form of evil

While we are seeking out the good in our days, we need to reject the evil. Romans 12:9 uses some pretty strong language about how we should feel about evil, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

 

Evil is a difficult and complicated topic. Simply put, evil is the absence of good. So these final two appeals should work together. Finding the good in your life should, in theory, push the evil out. Pushing the evil out should, in theory, bring the good in. It is an interdependent relationship that can be difficult for many of us to manage in our lives.

 

Paul’s appeal to us is simple and direct; rejoice, pray, give thanks always and no matter what happens.

 

He asks for love, for acceptance of one another. He asks for joy, constancy in prayer and a thankful heart in their relationship with the Lord. Finally, he asks for the acceptance, exercise, and testing of the Word.

 

Paul’s appeals to the Thessalonians guides us to the type of Christian fellowship that will help sustain us in our lives.

 

My prayer for you is that you are able to take Paul’s exhortations to heart so that they can help carry you through every season of your life. And as Paul says, “May the God of peace sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Amen.

A Review of the Book "God's Country" by Brad Roth

Title: God's Country

Author: Brad Roth

Publisher: Herald Press

Year: 2017

219 pages

Summary on the back: Rural places are often seen as insular and declining, all pickup trucks and gas stations with no gas. The young folks have moved, and pastors preach to graying saints. Last one to leave, turn out the lights. That's not the full story, but neither is the nostalgic vision of amber waves of grain, quaint streets, and the bucolic family farm. Neither story meets rural communities and congregations on their own terms, and neither recognizes that God inhabits and redeems rural places.

Personal Thoughts: As it says above, rural communities are more than just what people imagine them to be. In fact, they are the sum of their parts. People look out for one another and they work together to make life good for themselves and each other. Historically, pastors were sent out into the wilderness on their first call to learn how to be a priest before being called back into the city. The thought of working your way into the city as a kind of promotion in the ranks of clergy is unfair to everyone. As pastors, we need to ensure we aren't going into a rural call thinking that we're going to "fix things". There's nothing to fix! Roth explains in this book that rather than fixers, rural communities need friends. They are often neglected and considered junior to urban centres. However, us city folk could learn a thing or two from our rural counterparts, like growing our own food, being grateful for the land, and caring for our neighbour.

Roth writes an easy-to-read book that gets you caring about those who live outside the perimeter of your urban city, reminding you where you food comes from, reminding you what it truly means to leave the neighbour, and reminding you what it means to be a family - whether through blood or choice.

If you are wondering what it's like to live out faithful life in a rural community, reading this book is an excellent start.

A Review of the Book "Country Preacher's Notebook" by Joyce Sasse

Title: Country Preacher's Notebook

Author: Joyce Sasse

Publisher: Wood Lake Books Inc

Year: 1990

144 pages

One of my current projects is to better understand what it means to be part of a rural church community. As a born and raised city boy, I know nothing about what it's like to take care of a farm, to depend on weather for my livelihood. or to know every person in town. I barely knew every person on my block growing up!

Of course, my favorite way to learn new things is to read about them. The first book I picked up was this lovely gathering of stories by Joyce Sasse. Joyce is an ordained United Church minister who served many small Canadian prairie communities over a 25 year span.

From the back of the book, "In the 25 years since she was ordained, Joyce Sasse has served pastoral charges all over the Canadian prairies. She has suffered with her people when crops fail, when towns shrivel and die, when old ways become closed ways; she has celebrated with them the maturity of ripe age, the crafting of a communion table in a country kitchen, the togetherness of shared work."

In this book, which is actually the first of two, Sasse has gathered many, many anecdotes from her time during her ministry. Stories of love and friendship, happiness and joy, wins and losses, and so much more. In her words, you can feel the connection she made with these communities and how every seemed to be "one of the family."

It was an excellent introduction into what rural ministry was at one time, especially if the priest lives directly in town. While it might not be as common anymore, there is an honoured tradition of what the relationship between pastor and people is expected to be, in particular for rural communities.

The Risk of Fear: A Sermon for the 25th Week After Pentecost

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Grace, mercy, and peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

Over the last few weeks, we have been reading through Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. I’ve mentioned that it’s believed to be the first of Paul’s pastoral letters to one of the earliest Christian communities. And we’ve talked about how two pastoral issues that have come up so far are the beginning of being persecuted, and the death of followers before the second coming of the Messiah. The letter continues into more encouragement of building each other up and supporting each other in life. He encourages them to stand firm during times of intense opposition and to maintain love for each other.

 

In fact, according to the Pulpit Fiction podcast, the entirety of this letter can be summed up like this, “You all are suffering. It is getting difficult to remain a follower of Christ. Society makes it difficult. Our own expectations have made it difficult. We all thought that Jesus would be back by now. So now what? What should we do? Hold on strong. We’re all going to be okay. God is still with us, even if God isn’t here like we thought, God is still here. In the meantime, build each other up. Support each other. Be the Church together. Don’t worry about how long you have to do it. As long we do it together, we’ll be fine. You’re all so worried about when Christ will come again. Let’s just act as if he is here now!”

 

Paul is trying to tell this community of Christians in Thessalonica that they need to stop sitting around waiting for something to happen. Earlier in the letter he tells them to not quit their day jobs even though the end of the world is just around the corner. Paul is telling them that as disciples of Christ, they need to be active during this period of waiting, not idle. To not let their gifts be wasted. Especially when it is fear that is freezing them up from being an active community.

 

A similar statement is being made in today’s gospel reading.

 

A man who is going away on a journey leaves his servants with a certain amount of money, each according to his ability. To the first he gave 5 talents, to the second, 2 talents and to the third servant, 1 talent. The servants are entrusted with something special and they each need to decide what to do with what they have been given.

 

The first servant takes his talent, his portion, his gift, and invests it; and through smart management, sees the talent start to grow. In fact, he is able to double the master’s original amount. The second servant does the same thing. He takes his two talents, and is able to double what he has been given.

 

Now the interesting thing about both of these servants, is that they were able to take what the master had given them, and they were able to recognize that what they had been given by the master was meant to be used.  Only in that conscious decision to risk using what they had been entrusted with, were they able to multiply that gift.

 

For both of these servants, it was a leap of faith, to risk perhaps losing the money, or if we are talking about a real talent, or spiritual gift, to risk making some mistakes. But they did it, and because of that ability to take real chances, to step out in faith, they were able to do mighty things and to give a wonderful report to the master when he returned.

 

The third servant, however, wasn’t able to take the same risk. He took his portion of the money, and he buried it in the ground. On some level, we could say that maybe he was protecting the master’s money.  Maybe he was keeping it safe.  But this servant wasn’t able to take that leap of faith to try to use what he had been given. He was afraid of being punished.

 

Sometimes we find ourselves in similar situations – where we are given opportunities to use our talents, our time, our energy, our spiritual gifts – we see an opportunity, but are afraid that we might mess up, or we might use them in the wrong way.  We might see a chance to do something special, something that we know we have the ability to do, and we have the resources, but we lack the courage to step out in faith and use what God has given us.

 

Maybe we are like the third servant, and we see God as an angry and harsh God, waiting to hit us over the head with a lightning bolt when we mess up. If that’s the case, then there is no way we can risk anything – there’s no way we will ever be able to step out in faith to use what God has given us. If we are afraid of consequences, if we are motivated by fear, then we’ll never be able to do great things and our gifts will never grow.

 

Would God punish us if we don’t use our gifts to our fullest extent?

 

I don’t think that’s the case at all. But sometimes it’s hard to get outside our head, cast aside our fear, and feel fully blessed. Sometimes we feel God’s distance. There are even times God may feel like the enemy. We enjoy times of intimacy as graced moments, but we fail to realize that even in times of distance and estrangement God offers us God’s life.

 

We serve a God who has blessed us with gifts beyond our wildest imagination and the only risk involved is in not using those gifts at all. Over and over, Jesus emphasizes that faithful Christian discipleship expresses itself through active and ready engagement. As disciples of Christ, we possess an influence that makes us capable of ensuring the well-being of the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who long to experience the refreshment of a full dose of righteousness.

 

The parable of the talents – whether money or actual talents – tells us that the stakes are high and our involvement is essential. It’s up to each of us to recognize the specific occasions we have to shape communities in accordance with the good news. The parable urges us to regard our work and the witness of the whole church as nothing less than rising to the moment when good-news-centered leadership is absolutely needed.

 

All of this is hard work, especially when we are tired, burdened, and lonely. Fortunately, none of us labors alone. None of us influences others all on our own. It is our talent to announce and embody a society brought together in Jesus Christ. It is our talent to hold leaders accountable for just policies and to advocate for those who have been silenced. It is our talent to fight for doctors, nurses, and teachers who are struggling and on the edge of burn-out.

 

When we act out of fear, we hide, maintain, and are reluctant to risk anything. Following Christ, doing Kingdom work, takes some risk. It means taking some chances, and not just hoarding the resources we cling to. All of our resources are a gift.

 

As disciples of Christ, knowing that God’s faith, trust, and love for us will never waver whether or not we use our talents, knowing that all we have to do is take that first step, that the only risk is to sit idly by and do nothing…what have you got to lose?

 

Amen.

Resources:

pulpitfiction.com

A Review of the Book "Christine" by Stephen King

Title: Christine

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Penguin Books Canada Limited

Year: 1983

503 pages

I had seen the movie Christine a long time ago so I thought that reading a book where I should be familiar with the story would be a great way to get started on my path into Stephen King's world. Let me tell you, though! I don't remember the movie being even half as good as this book. Maybe I need to re-watch the movie?

As seen on the back of the book:

"Christine is no lady, but 17-year-old Arnie Cunningham loves her enough to do anything to possess her. Arnie's best friend Dennis distrusts her at first sight. Arnie's teen-queen girlfriend Leigh fears her the moment she sense her power. Arnie's parents, teachers, and enemies soon learn what happen when you cross her. Christine is no lady. She is Stephen King's ultimate blackly evil vehicle of horror..."

My imagination isn't usually good enough to let books scare me, but King has a way of writing stories that drags you right down into the characters and what's going on around them. There was a lot of creep factor and chapters that hung on cliffhangers. I almost couldn't put it down, except that it creeped me out so I needed breaks.

I very much enjoyed it and can't wait for my next Stephen King adventure!

There is Hope in Death: A Sermon for the 24th Week After Pentecost

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour. Amen.

 

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

        In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

 

I’m sure that’s a poem that everyone here has heard before. Perhaps you can even recite it. It is a poem that is read at almost every Remembrance Day service in the country. Did anyone attend any services yesterday?

 

I remember my days in air cadets and attending Remembrance Day services. We were in a big building that echoed so I could barely hear what was going on. And for some reason they put us kids in the back rows so we couldn’t see what was going on. Which means these services always seemed so long and boring. As I grew up, I understood more what was behind Remembrance Day and was proud to be there, but as a young cadet, I didn’t really know why we had to stand there for all those hours listening to speeches, bag pipes, and a trumpet.

 

We are coming to a generation of kids who know nothing the world wars and the beginnings of Remembrance Day services. Kids whose parents had nothing to do with those wars. So, it feels like Remembrance Day is beginning to lose a lot of its meaning. I am no longer involved in the cadet program, but I wonder what they think of these services now. These services that are meant to remind us of war, sacrifice, and death. To remind us of those who served their country and gave their lives.

 

It's not like war no longer exists in the world. It just doesn’t feel as personal anymore. It’s too easy to see death and destruction on TV and simply change the channel or turn it off. Ukraine. Russia. Israel. Palestine. Sudan. Afghanistan. And many more. The amount of death that has occurred because of war is astronomical.

 

Although Remembrance Day is specific to the military, death also happens outside of military skirmishes and international or civil wars. Death happens by accident, old age, illness and any number of other ways. We can’t escape it. We will all die eventually. And it’s something no one likes talking about.

 

But that is exactly what Paul wants to talk about with the Thessalonian community in this piece from his letter that we heard today.

 

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, when we heard the opening of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, Christians in Paul’s time fully expected to experience the return of the Messiah in their lifetime. So, when people in the community started to die before the second coming, there was a big concern that the faithful who died during this period of waiting would not share in the glory of the resurrected Jesus. They were pretty worried their friends and family wouldn’t be joining them in the eternal afterlife. So how does Paul address these concerns? He not only attends to the fate of those who died, but also envisions the encounter between the coming Lord and those who were still alive.

 

Paul bases his answer to the Thessalonians on the resurrection of Jesus. He uses the analogy of sleep for death, implying that death was not an end, but a transitional state. The Christian dead lay "asleep" in their tombs, just like Jesus did for three days. According to Paul, we have been joined to Christ in his death and resurrection at baptism. From that point on, the life and future of the Christian was interwoven with that of the Savior.

 

Paul insists that those who have already died will miss nothing of the blessing of Jesus’ return but will fully participate in it. In fact, Paul says that they will participate first in the glorious event, with those who are alive joining them only moment later. In trying to console the Thessalonian community, Paul proclaims the apostolic witness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, rather than focusing on what might happen in the future.

 

It is through this witness that Paul addresses one of humanity’s greatest fears – to be abandoned by loved ones. Death ends the lives of Christians. Death hurts Christians who lose those whom they love. Death separates, relationships are broken, and hopes are dashed. But for those of us who claim Jesus as Savior and Lord, our deaths are opportunities for the love and power of God to break into the natural order in a new and restorative way.

 

God, through Jesus, has promised that as we die with him, we will be raised from the dead in the same way that Jesus was raised from the dead. As resurrection people, we are promised something “beyond resurrection”. As resurrection people, we have faith, we have hope, that death is not the end. We find hope in the resurrection, aware that things will die but knowing that something new will be born from that death. We, as Christians, have a future narrative that includes reunion with those who are loved but lost. The hope of this reunion allows us to face both life and death. And it is the love of God that fills us with this hope that allows us to deal with the pain and atrocities that we bear each day.

 

The words of Flanders Field encourage us to Take the torch – hold it high, and not break faith with those who have died. As people of faith, we are encouraged to stand firm in our faith, to not give up when the world around us appears to be falling apart. We are encouraged to have hope. And it is this hope that gives us the strength to know that death is a temporary separation, that there is more after death, and that the grief we experience today will be more than made up in reunion together in heaven.

 

So let us listen to Paul’s words, “Therefore encourage one another with these words.” May we stand firm together in the midst of fear and anxiety, with hope in the power of God, and the knowledge of the promise that we will have eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

Resources:

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

sermoncentral.com

word-sunday.com