MEMBER MISSION NEWSLETTER
#104 – In the Spirit
May 2012
This month’s features:
Member mission’s breakthrough FEATURE STORY ABOUT MISSIONS
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RESOURCES
Growing a member mission Network in Tanzania A bank teller on mission •
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“The Hunger Games” Social Media FOR MEDITATION
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MEMBER MISSION PRESENTS
Diverse voices with a common concern •
Mickey helps children visit parents in prison Hint – Seminarians’ prep for workshop and your own Prof. Bob Hughes’ Evangelism and Conversion class at Sewanee prepared for their workshop on “Living the Gospel:
Connecting Faith and Daily Life,” March 3-4, 2012 by interviewing a church member on “What have you done in the
last few weeks to make any area of your daily life more loving and more just?” The member chose an area and
described what was done answering (as the class member made notes):
– What was happening there?
– What did you see or believe was needed?
– What did you do or say?
– What was the result?
– Do you see or believe God was at work in any way during this experience? If yes, how was God at work?
– How do you feel about being asked all these questions?
All fourteen class members came to the first session already clued in to what the workshop was about. Enthusiasm
was high and remained high to the end on the next day.
Why not adapt this idea for your church’s next member mission group?
For a Day of Pentecost hint: see last page.
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org
DAILY MISSIONS Growing a member mission Network in Tanzania
Raymond M. Mulegi was one of almost 100
trainees at our Member Mission Workshop
June 2010 at the Canaan Spiritual Centre in
Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Since then, he has
drawn in a local pastor who has asked for
multiple copies of the Swahili version of the
workbook; trained the nearby leader of a
Pentecostal denomination who has requested
further training for his leaders; and has
traveled to Mwanza to orient and train leaders
there. Meanwhile,
Charles
Mwihambi,
Academic Dean at Msalato Theological
College n Dodoma, includes member mission
ideas in his courses in Ethics, Pastoral
Ministry, and Old Testament; and has
preached about member mission practices in
15 parishes including preaching twice at the
Anglican Cathedral in Dodoma.
Contacts: [email protected] (Raymond); [email protected]
A bank teller on mission “Good morning. How are you today? What can I do for
you?” and “Have a good day” were standard for all tellers
at Anna’s bank. Anna took the further step of responding to
customers who seemed to be under stress: “Are you
upset?” Hearing yes, Anna locked her cash box and invited
the customer to a quiet corner to hear his or her story such
as “My mother’s health is deteriorating rapidly.” Tears
dried, the customers left relieved.
Later, applying for part-time work at another bank, the
manager asked how she felt about selling the bank’s
products such as checking accounts and wealth
management to customers at her teller’s window. She
answered, “I have no problem with that so long as I feel
that the customer can benefit from the product.”
Anna, knowing that the tellers had to make goals and quotas that would determine their “incentive pay” and that
of the manager, she went on, “I am not going to sell a product when I don’t think the customer can benefit from
it. I will sense whether the customer has trouble with figures and could not use the product effectively.” She
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org
was thinking, “Hire me based on my principles of integrity or don’t hire me at all.” She did not get the job. She
did apply to another bank and was accepted.
Did you see God at work in your decision to risk being honest during the interview?
“To me, the prayer about God as the one in whom ‘we live, and move, and have our being’ told me to put
getting a job in God’s hands. It’s hard. I want to be in control. Yet, God has always provided for me so why
should I worry.”
How did God give you the courage to take this risk?
“I was raised with a sense of integrity.”
Contact: [email protected]
RESOURCES – For home, church, and wider world missions “The Hunger Games”(a mission for the wider world) – more than an adventure story? This movie and the triology of
books behind it attract so much teen and young adult interest that it has become a cultural event we cannot
escape. Use the following references for your own thinking and work with all age
groups.
1. Begin with the comments of the author, Suzanne Collins, at the end of the Audible
Books e-book version (www.audible.com). She cites being inspired by the Theseus
stories, Spartacus, and the oppressive Roman empire that pacified its people with
gladiatorial combat. She concludes with questions she hopes it raises with readers:
what will you do about hunger; and what will you do to build a more just world.
2. Then, read Ann Duncan and Amy Langford’s article (The Christian Century, 4/4/12,
pp. 12-13) who see the three books as a hero story for teens and young adults who
value heroic action to change the world. They see it expressing the virtues of sacrifice,
love, and resistance to oppression which are central for Christians. They also draw
biblical parallels. See http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-03/teen-hero?print.
3. Find the brutality of the film discussed in a Christian Century blog, “The Hunger
Games contradiction” by Janet Potter. She concentrates on the adventure and violence
of the movie without the in-depth treatment of Duncan and Langford. You can judge
how helpful she is. See http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2012-03/hungergames-contradiction?print
Social Media (a mission at church) – is a way the church can interact with non-members as well as members. It can:
open channels to shut-ins unable to go to church; and enhance bulletins and newsletters from your church. Further,
social media sites can enable a church to create a web site with its own identity. A committee can create a site to fit a
church’s “personality” to enable everyone – members and well as non members – to get times of services, directions
to the church, inspirational workshops, pot lucks for the local community and other related activities. Among the wide
variety of resources:
1. Search Google.com or YouTube.com using The Church and Social Media.
2. See www.facebook.com/digitalformation
3. See http://www.ctepiscopal.org/images/customer-files//SocialMediaGuidelines.pdf
4. For all denominations (the content is not as specific as the title), see “Social Media and the Episcopal Church: A
New Way to Tell a 2,000-Year-Old Story” with its six best practices. See
http://gaepiscopal.org/docs/Social_Media_and_the_Episcopal_Church.pdf
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org
5. See http://digitalformation.eventbrite.com/ for a webinar June 11 on “Skype and Spiritual Formation.”
FOR MEDITATION Diverse voices with a common concern
From the Prophet Muhammad:
“Whosoever of you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with
his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart.”
(NY Times 5/5/12, p. A19)
From the late John R. W. Stott, an evangelical leader, :
“My hope is that in the future, evangelical leaders will ensure that their social agenda includes such vital but
controversial topics as halting climate change, eradicating poverty, abolishing armories of mass destruction,
responding adequately to the AIDS pandemic, and asserting the human rights of women and children in all
cultures. I hope our agenda does not remain too narrow.”
(The Living Church, 8/28/11, p. 26)
MEMBER MISSION PRESENTS YouTube Brings You Members on Mission
Mickey helps children visit parents in prison
MM SHORTS
Street Pastors
wearing collars wait outside the pubs in Bristol, England to see that heavy drinkers get home safely.
For discussion/debate:
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org
“A Christian’s primary job is to make every part of his/her daily life more loving and more just with God’s help.”
What are its values? What does it lack?
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* * * For the day of Pentecost, if you teach or preach, describe Baptism as joining Jesus' mission; we are called to move beyond coming to church for personal support to being agents of Jesus' mission to make each area of our daily lives more loving and more just. Whenever you teach about baptism, talk about member mission as "living out your baptism in your daily life." [Pentecost season and the summer could be just the time for a pilot group using the workbook, Living the Gospel; see pp. 11‐12 of the workbook (order Living the Gospel by clicking here) for ideas for doing it in 5, 8, or 12 sessions.] * * * Tell us about your work with member mission at [email protected] or phone 802-482-7743. You
continue on this list because of past interest and / or work together with the Member Mission vision. If you
missed or lost any past newsletters, you will find them on the website under Newsletter > Archive.
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PO Box 628
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Phone 802-482-7743
and add this email
[email protected]
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org
Contact Information:
A. Wayne Schwab and the Member Mission Network
Address: PO Box 628, Hinesburg, VT 05461 Phone: 802-482-7743
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.membermission.org