Message from the Moderator

This is a very special, historic Annual Conference, as we
gather to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of the Brethren movement.
I look forward to how the Lord will work among us. I am
so very grateful for the brotherly/sisterly love and prayer support
I have experienced from across the spectrum of the Brethren, and
I pray that we will continue to work at discerning how we can all
follow Jesus together. Surrendering to God as individuals and as a church will
be required so that Christ can transform us to become what God needs us to be and that the
Holy Spirit may fully launch us to faithfully follow Jesus into our fourth century as a Body
of Christ.

Day1 Saturday July 12

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God Bless America

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Graduates Chelsie, Cheryl and Eli were recognized in the Sunday worship service on June 22nd.  Your church family wishes you the best as you pursue your future studies and careers!

“I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”  John 13:16-17 (NIV) 

While preparing a morning devotional for the Disaster Response team in Chalmette, Louisiana recently, I came across a message by Pastor Eric Ritz.  He entitled his message “Please Use the Servants’ Entrance”. 

He shared that a popular tourist destination in England is Blenheim Palace, where Sir Winston Churchill was born and where his ancestors lived for years.  “You enter this magnificent palace through doors so large that a special lock is required to close and secure them.  The key alone is about 12 inches long.  It does something for you self esteem just to walk through such a pretentious portal.  But there are also normal-sized doors into Blenheim Palace.  Theses were the doors the servants used and they lead to the servants’ quarters.” 

I am reminded by the gospel account of the last supper as recorded in John 13, that Jesus would feel comfortable entering Blenheim Palace by the servant’s door.  “This God in sandals was asking his disciples to do something unimaginable.  He was asking them to use the servants’ entrance.  Not the way of power and might but the way of piety, charity and humility.” 

The ‘Servant’s Door’ is entered whenever we labor for Jesus.  He teaches a lesson in servant hood in his call for us to stoop and wash our sister’s or brother’s feet.  The Brethren call this service the ‘Love Feast’ which then calls for us to use this lesson in our every day life.

At that first ‘Love Feast’ service there appeared to be no servant present - except Jesus.  The disciples certainly were not going to wash one another’s feet.  To do so would have lowered their position and prestige in the group. 

Then Pastor Ritz repeated the story of how we are sometimes more like a flock of chickens. 

“Take ten chickens,” he says, “any ten.  Put them in a pen together and spread a little chicken feed.  In short order you will witness an amazing phenomenon.  In a matter of minutes the chickens - previously strangers - will vie for a hierarchy based on dominance, or in everyday language, they will establish a Pecking Order.  Instinctively, they will determine through a series of skirmishes who the Number One Chicken will be; then the Number Two; the Number Three, all the way down to the unlucky Number Ten Chicken.” 

 “Much is at stake in the dance of dominance.  Chicken Number One pecks at - and intimidates - chicken Number Two, without experiencing any kind of retribution from Chicken Number Two.  Chicken Number Two will take it from Chicken Number One, but will turn around and peck away at Chicken Number Three, who will, in turn, take out its frustration on Chicken Number Four.  The Pecking Order continues all the way down the Chicken Number Ten, who needless to say, has a pretty miserable life: pecked, but no one to peck.” 

Those of us working in Chalmette recently liked the story on ‘pecking order’ as there was a hen that visited our worksite every day.  She made sure we that we knew that she was number ‘one’.  The rest of us were not sure where we fell, but we did know that as servants of the living Christ, it didn’t really matter.  “It is a miserable life - being on the bottom of the pecking order - unless it is a choice you have made out of love.” 

Blessings and Love