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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker Life Passing on the Faith
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| Valiant for Truth | Contents |
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By Patricia Edwards-Konic The headline shouted, “More Britons Believe in Ghosts than God.” Of those polled, 68% believed in the existence of ghosts and 55% said they believed in the existence of God (4% believed in the Loch Ness Monster). Obviously, there is overlap between the groups where some people believe in both God and ghosts. Meanwhile, back in the United States, a new study from Samford University concludes that fewer Americans attend church than the 40% Gallup reported. They used actual attendance numbers and concluded that only about 20% of the population attends church. Both studies show that Christians are not passing on the faith very well. Friendship evangelism programs and a new book by Stephen W. Sorenson reviewed in this issue all point to the same thing—Christians must move out of their comfortable church community and into their neighborhoods. We must be willing to do the hard work of rousing our children and teens and taking them to church; we must be willing to live out our faith in such a way that our children want to share the same faith we have. We must be open to the divine appointments God gives us each day and be ready to give an answer to that which we believe at a moment’s notice. Last December in Capernaum, I was sitting in the synagogue that was built over the one of Jesus’ day, very near to Peter’s house where Jesus often stayed. Staring off to the Sea of Galilee, I hadn’t even noticed the girl until she started to talk. She asked me if I could tell her about this place because in her country, France, when there is shouting and things are confused, they call it “Capernaum.” She was puzzled how this ancient place could be source for the phrase she had heard all her life. I told her some stories of Jesus and the synagogue and Peter’s house which we could easily see from where we were sitting. I shared the story of Jesus healing the man with an evil spirit in the Capernaum synagogue. While Jesus was teaching, a man interrupted and “cried out at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’” Here was the shouting part of her phrase. “‘Be quiet!’ Jesus said sternly. ‘Come out of him!’ Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.”(Luke 4:33-35) Here was the confusion part of her phrase. It was amazing to be sitting in Jesus’ synagogue and telling someone about him who was not a Christian (she was Jewish). That must have been the way it happened all those years ago—people witnessing about something that happened and then telling others on the street or marketplace. God gives us divine appointments to share our faith, even in unexpected places. Let’s be ready to pass on our faith when opportunities arise. ______________________________________ On the Cover People must travel up to 20 kms every day to retrieve water for themselves and their goats. Pastor John Moru said that the highest priority right now is to put a bore-hole in the Katapakori area. It is children who carry water, and when they have to go 20 kms each way, they spend all day on the task, and therefore never have the opportunity to go to school. So in this context, water equals education. |
Watch for links to become available... 8 Convergent
Friends: 10 Quaker Culture or Quaker Faith— It’s Time
to Choose 11 A Matter of
Simple Obedience 12 Quakers: Not Just for Breakfast Anymore 13 Not in My Church 14 Teaching the Way 15 Nobody Likes a Know-It-All _______________________________ 4 News from Friends United Meeting 7 FUM Staff/Contact
Information 16 Salt and Light 17 News 22 Reviews 24 Passages 28 Classifieds 33 Friends
United Meeting 34 Viewpoints
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