The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Back to Reproduction

From a friend of a friend who is an ob/gyn in Des Moines:

For those of us doing OBGyn, "reproduction" does snag our attention. I see reproduction as the replacement of the extant by new products who are remarkably like ourselves--warts and all. Reproduction may be intentional or mindless, an improvement over the original(s) or not. I wonder if this church thing is more about recognition/affirmation of the Christ in every person. We don't have to (we can't, even--it's God-given) reproduce that in any way. All we have to do is to connect with it in someone else. It is deceptively simple, that recognition that others have worth, are to be respected, nurtured, loved (eek! the L word!) Once made, that connection does not allow us to dismiss
others of any stripe nearly so easily. One of Plymouth's successes (e pluribus unum!) is its members'
willingness and ability to recognize that bit of Christ. The place seems to be hoppin'. Methinks that is why.

New From He Qi

He Qi is back in China, designing a seminary building, teaching a class and drawing new sketches for our Bible Song Sunday School. The soon-to-be Rev. Siri Dale of Trinity Lutheran in Stillwater has moved in with Yu Hua and Song Yang at the Melheim residence to help them out - plus to have some free rent until we return and until she can find a place of her own. Siri is the grand-daughter of some of our most wonderful folks in our Owatonna parish, Frank & Sofie Anderson. I wrote five of my six musical comedies at their cabin on Lake Francis before we built our own.

Here are some samples of what He Qi is working on.

Can you name the texts?

rich

Donut Decisions

How do kids make the choice of what church they will attend? Is it usually on the basis of the theological stance of the denomination? Is it the liturgy? The quality of the preaching or choirs?

We've been church hopping and shopping, trying to decide where we would best fit this year. We've been to the Lutherans on high and low liturgy Sundays. We've been to a mission Episcopal church meeting in a strip mall. We've been to the hopping Evangelical Presbyterian church where "all the kids go" in town. We've even enjoyed a Great Commission Network church meeting in a school gym.

The final decision is forthcoming in the next couple weeks, but Joseph has made it pretty clear.

The church with the best donuts will be his choice.

D-o-h!

Rich

By the way, here's a photo of our young friend Alex Lynch with mother and brother. He still can use your prayers.

Case Study: Beaten Revolutionaries

Today's entry is a piece from a young man who wandered into our offices last summer and was excited to get started with a family ministry in his new church. It's a case study for anyone full of zeal who meets up with resistence from old systems and gets beaten down.

Please put "Denny" on your prayer list. Also, I'd enjoy getting your take on what you would advise a young systems change agent/revolutionary for Christ.

Rich

Dear Rich,

Sorry it's been so long getting back to you. The youth ministry battle has been thick. Life is going great because God is in control. But my job isn't going so well. Since we meet & you filled my head with all those crazy ideas, I've been wrestling around with those ideas, God, & myself. I was struggling with what my action should be based upon my new ideas & beliefs. The last 3 or 4 months have been a learning time for me. God has really taught me that what you are saying is really true, even for the church of Christ. Especially the part about parents being the main faith inkubators for their children. Also it has been great watching God show me that all the programs we are doing are really band aids because people are not becoming healthy in all the other "churches". As a matter of fact, I'm not sure they are aware they even need to put forth the effort.

So I talked to one of my elders about all that God has been working in me (not a good idea). When I told him I thought that I was just a hired gun asked to do what the parents should be doing, he told me "that's my job". Then I told him my dream of creating a church where we encourage parents to take the reins of their children's spiritual development. I suggested that we come up with a plan to quit doing it the same old way, quit enabling parents to settle for less He got really upset & told me "maybe you should go somewhere else". Since then I've paid attention to the other elders & the church as a whole & there is no way, outside of literal miracle, that this church will become anything but mediocre. Any move I make to help my students become a church of the heart has been met with opposition. I've been censored in my material for classes, lessons, & activities.

During this time I've also been locked in a spiritual battle. Satan has been hard on me & I've been wrestling a spirit of depression & self doubt. This blinded me to what God has called me to do. But praise God! He is faithful & my hope, passion, & determination to help the body of Christ live an abundant life are firing on all 8 cylinders.

Now what? We'll, my wife & I have committed to walk out on faith, leave our church & pay check to start a grand experiment in faith, community, "church" & following God. We are just waiting for God to light our path. I am scared to death because I only have an associates degree & don't now how that is going to help me earn enough money to support my family. Niki has said that she will follow me anywhere & she does truly support me. My 3 kids are young enough that this will not affect them negatively. It's nerve racking because I've done nothing, professionally but youth ministry. I've no idea what I'll do to make a living. So we'll rest in our Father. Let Him show the way and have fun while we do it!

Rich, I am sooooo excited. I'm excited about being able to worship with those that pursue God (as opposed to those that pursue church). I am pumped about helping people to "get it". Please don't take what I'm saying as negative towards my current church. They are nice people & I know they love our family. But God has called my family to not settle for "nice" faith. He has called my family to be salt & light to those who need Him and I just don't see the mainline church doing that in the best way possible.

Would you please pray for us. Ask everyone you know & meet to pray for us. Do you have any advice or wisdom because I need some. THANK YOU! Thank you for getting your message out there. Thank you for destroying my comfortable life. Seriously. Your entrance into my life has restored my hope that there is more out there. That I'm not some solitary freak with goofy ideas about how church should be done.

OUT THERE!,

Denny

A Product of Two

Back to the Reproduction Theme today. This, from Debbie Streicher of Burke, VA:

1. The end result of human reproduction is always the product of two. The two not only have a vested interest , but are actually part of "the body".
They feel like they own a piece of it. Nine months to incubate............you shouldn't have less or there can be complications. A full nine
months of reshaping a body to reproduce a body. A full term baby is the healthiest. Number of years it takes to raise a baby could vary.

Takes a lifetime, the baby goes from childhood to adulthood and never stops growing.

2. The end result of making disciples is always the product of two or more (in His name). Those involved not only have a vested interest, but actually are
part of "the body". Each disciple owns a piece (they all identify their spiritual gifts). Nine months to incubate................some churches want members and hurry
the process. This could cause complications. Number of months to grow a life-long disciple varies, but healthiest at full term.

Takes a lifetime, a disciple never stops growing!

Steak, Eggs, Guests & Revolutionaries

I hosted a little FINKtank for the FITZ Family here Thursday and Friday to help their board envision their ministry after the last of the kids have grown and gone.

Last night Happy Fun Time had a pina colada in the hot tub after spending the day at Focus on the Family and the Navigator's Glen Eirie. They're hoping to connect with Group magazine while here. They also are trying to plan their future. Right now Wes and Nika are editing Augsburg Fortress videos on my dining room table. I'm cooking them steak and eggs on the grill to warm up the drizzly morning. (Yeah, that's right. Augsburg Fortress videos and I'm still feeding them...)

Angie Witmer is working on the UCC version of FINK. Dan and Gene and Thad are working on the Wisconsin Synod version. Robert Haseltine is working on the Presbyterian version. Fr. Nathan Humphrey and his new bride Anne are working on the Episcopal version.

It's fun to listen in on all these good folks and what they want to do for Jesus and the future of the church. (Or just for Jesus)

Here's a thought for a Tuesday morning for all you ecclesiastical change agents who want good to happen and don't find sitting under the broom tree waiting for Ninevah (or Chicago, or St. Louis, or Louisville) to die particularly edifying:

You're either part of the solution or part of the problem. If you want to be part of the solution and be used by God to resurrect your church:

1. Find the best ten future-minded minds in your church body - respected writers, seminary profs, colleges, national office (or retired national office) circle of friends.
2. Begin to day to engage them them in a conversation on reproduction and the future.
3. After starting the dialogue, begin an ongoing "e-lationship" (I just coined that phrase right here and now... unless of course someone else already did and I don't know it) that will one day allow you to convene your own FINKtank with them on the issue.
4. Grow them into advisers for your doctorate, and you will become one of the prophets for God's new church.
5. Be prepared to get stoned. (That's what prophets do!)

Blessings on the day.

Rich

Dreams Deferred

Here's a little something via Mike Blackwell in Buffalo

It is by Langston Hughes and is called "Dream Deferred." It goes like this:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore
And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Reproductive Passion

This morning I'm thinking about passion and reproduction. Here's something from our friend Angie W in Plymouth:

"Wow, buddy. You hit a home run by posing the reproduction question. Lots of passion around that issue…isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Passionate, I mean? I very much appreciated Mike’s response and posted a comment. The loss of passion, the clinical and scientific approach we’ve taking to insure we “carry on the family name”, all of that kind of thinking makes me sad both for myself and my kids but for the family I belong to. Fortunately, we can change all that. I truly believe that we are in the midst of a Reformation. Very cool." Angie

I don't know all things, but it seems to me without passion we are just going through the motions.

When Arlyce and I spent 60 months at the Mayo Fertility clinic trying to bring Kathryn Elizabeth into the world back in the last millenium, we learned the science and all the mechanics and timing of trying to make a baby. We did the surgeries, drug treatments, lazer treatments. Everything.

But in all the focus and frustration, the joy was lost to the mechanics for us, and it almost destroyed our marriage. Making love, which should be such a wonderful, joyful, spontaneous, bonding thing became a mechanical thing, a scheduled thing, and finally a joyless thing. "It's that time of the month. Just do it!"

Oh, that really put me in the mood.

Is that the problem with the church? All the mechanics but no passion for the gospel? No passion for the lost? (or no belief that there are any lost?) No desire? The joy is lost, the hope is lost, and the things that lead to reproduction just don't happen.

We are supposed to be the bride of Christ, but we're so busy with everything BUT reproduction that we're too tired to even go through the motions. At the end of the day, we don't have any energy left for the one thing that matters.

One can learn the mechanics, but how can one rekindle the desire?

So, for the future of the church, I ask you two questions, this Lord's day:

1. On the female side, what causes one to lose the spark? The desire? Is it that we are just to old and dried up that we don't want to go through the trouble? Are we afraid of conceiving at our age? What causes one to say, "Not tonight. I'm just too tired," then "Maybe tomorrow" and eventually "not ever!"

2. On the male side, what causes one to look at every other love or distraction but the one that matters? What causes one to turn a cold and angry face to the wall night after night? Maybe this is too graphic for a Sunday morning, but what causes one to go limp and stop sending blood to the right places?

Any ideas?

Artificial Insemination

And from Mike Blackwell in DePew, NY...

Following up on Angie's thoughts on reproduction:
It seems to me that mainline churches haven't really been intrested in reproduction in the traditional sense that she was talking about. They have been dependent on cloning more members to look just like those who are already around. Since the cloning hasn't been working very well, they have now thrown their efforts into artificial insemination--trying to get some of the reproductive stuff from the "growing churches" (non-denominational mega-churches), figuring the their "church-lite" version will at least get people in the door, and maybe we can rub some Lutheraninsm or Presbyterianism or Methodism off on them while they are there. Don't know how that fits the mix of what is in yor brain, but use it for what it is worth. Blessings and a good recovery to Dad.
Mike