Jean Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche homes, where persons with developmental disabilities live in community with those of us who are disabled in other ways. Vanier’s book “Community and Growth” is one of the wisest and most profound meditations upon authentic life in community that has ever been written. “Community and Growth” offers countless lesson to rural church leaders, more of which will be shared in this space.
At one point in the book Vanier shares the following quotation from a letter written by Little Sister Madeleine, founder of the Little Sisters of Jesus:
The November edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education includes a fascinating profile by Scott Carlson of new President G.T. “Buck” Smith’s efforts to lead a turnaround of tiny, debt-ridden Davis & Elkins College in West Virginia.
Tuesday night is “Family Night” at the local Chick-Fil-A near my daughter’s preschool in Burlington. On a recent Tuesday night when my wife has to work late, I pick up Ada from school, and, with no plan for dinner (nor the skill to cook anything worth eating beyond “Spaghettios”), we make a beeline for chicken strips and waffle fries. Ada squeals in delighted expectation.
Hanging out in the pastor's office after preaching at our partner Thriving Rural Congregation at Hayesville First UMC, I noticed a football sitting on the shelf among all of the other church paraphernalia. "What's the story of the football?," I asked.
The National Public Radio program "All Things Considered" aired a story today about pastor Dick Witherow, who has opened a church and created a community in rural Palm Beach County, Florida, for a group of people whom he calls "modern day lepers": convicted sex offenders.
The church is located out in the wilderness in more ways than one. And yet the name of the isolated community where it is found is "Miracle Park."
(One of our TRC Partner Churches, Tyro UMC in Lexington, will be holding a special event called “Journey to Bethlehem” over the next two nights. The description found below recently appeared in “The Dispatch” of Lexington.)
Let's take a trip. No need to pack a bag and pay those inflated charges at the airport to check your luggage. No need to find a sitter for your pet. No need to stop your mail or paper delivery for a few days.
"They asked him, 'Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. . . . ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.'” -Luke 21: 7-8, 20-36
We human beings are not too good at reading the signs.