It's official!

Rev. Ed Eubanks of Tennessee has accepted our call to become Pastor of Dove Mountain Church.  He will most likely visit the area again next month prior to the move for his family. 

Since prayer has been our mainstay through this search process, let me remind Dove Mountaineers not to stop praying yet. 

1.  for Marcie, his wife, and their children, as they prepare for and experience the emotional challenges of a cross-country relocation.
2.  for Pastor Ed and the elders as they seek God for the next steps for Dove Mountain Church.
3.  the the growth and financial provision that will be needed to support this new staff salary.

Meanwhile, we say "Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord!"  (Psalms 118:26)

Continuing to trust in God's leading

We elected a search committee and trusted God to lead them.

Following their wisdom, we invited a candidate, and voted to extend him a call. Then God sovereignly spoke when, after waiting several weeks for his reply, he turned down the call. The search committee went back to work, and prayer. We invited another candidate. We grilled him with tough questions. We had a long meeting in which many frank opinions were expressed - not just about the candidate, but about who we are as a congregation. We prayed for a week. We voted to extended a call, again.

We had to trust the congregation to elect the right search committee. We had to trust that the first candidate made the right decision when he turned us down. We had to trust the search commitee's next choice. We had to trust the testimonies of those who spent time with the new candidate. We had to trust in our own wisdom and discernment when we voted. We had to trust int he process outlined in the Book of Church Order.

All this trusting is not a stretch for those who trust in a Soverereign God. As we well know, the process is still not over. Now we need to trust God's guidance in his heart. Don't stop praying yet!

Pray for the vote!

       And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:4

 
 
Note to non-Dove Mountaineers:   This Sunday our congregation will be voting on a candidate for senior pastor.   In Presbyterian polity, this is a sacred responsibility.

Latest news from Jan Persons

Dear one and all -

The date for the dedication of the Lachixio Zapotec NT has been set for Nov 12, 2011. Town officials have put it on their calendar and now it's time to think and plan. If you have plans for attending please do let me know so we can be sure to have enough food!

As for how to get there . . . Continental airlines has a direct flight from Houston to Oaxaca City. I would urge you to book with them.. That way you can avoid the HUGE Mexico City airport.

I will send out more info once I have an idea how many are planning to be there. Pray for the myriad of details to be addressed.

Blessings!

Jan

STOP THE PRESSES!  LATE-BREAKING NEWS!

Jan jus tbecame a grandmother for the second time!    Son Andy's wife Sylvia gave birth to Nathan (their first) last Tuesday, August 2.  Congratulations!

Tales of the Resistance

 Last Saturday, July 30, fifteen of Tucson's choicest young people met at the Circle K on the corner of Hardy and Magee to  bless people with a free car wash in Jesus' name!  If course, it was hard to get people to believe it was really free -  just as people try to earn salvation, or wait until they are "good enough." 

The incomparable Steve Johnson made the observation that many school and church groups would be hard pressed to get 15 souls to wash cars on a Saturday AM in the summer, even if were to make money to consume upon their own pleasures! 

Not so the Resistance of Dove Mountain Church, however: 

Delighted to serve,
Delighted to be together, and
Delighted in the Lord!

Special thanks to Maddy Cooney for organizing the pool party afterwards - for those who were not wet enough!

Fruits of her labors

Our family first met Dave and Jan Persons in the early 1980's when they enrolled their children, Carlina and Andy, at Shiloh Christian School in Sierra Vista.  I has been our joy to follow their translation adventure ever since then.  At the time of David's unexpected death, Andy was living in our home in Sierra Vista while assting me with several projects at Shiloh School.

From the early years of life in the village, through the slow process of translating in Bisbee with a language helper, through the faith journey of raising financial suport, through the lonely "reassessment" of the project following David's passing, Jan has steadily persevered in order to hold this New Testament in Lachixio Zapotec in her hands.  This fall, the villages which speak this language will hold a special dedication celebration for the arrival of God's Word in their native tongue. 

Continue to pray for Jan as she sees this event through to completion and ties up the remaining loose ends in this process.  Jan, we rejoice with you in God's faithfulness, and thank Him for your perseverance!

And now for a little fun...and history



McLarty coat of arms

 As an addendum to the history of my Presbyterianism from the previous two days:

I recently joined Ancestry.com and have learned lots of fun things about my ancestry.  I won't go into all of it here, but one thing that was delightful to learn was that I have Scottish forebears on my maternal grandmother's side.  My great-grandmother was a McLarty!  

Ever since seeing marching bagpipes in sixth grade, I have wanted to be Scottish.  Askew, by the way, is English.  When I finally began researching my English ancestry, I learned that the Askews are from Yorkshire, in Northern England.  I took some solace in the fact the ancestral village, Aiskew, is near the Scottish border, anyway.

The emblem of the Church of Scotland:
St; Andrew's Cross
and the Burning Bush of Moses

I thought I might be in luck when, in college, I found out that my paternal grandmother was a McSwain.  But I was immediately informed that she was Irish (I had assumed that any name that started with "Mc" had to be Scottish).  I have since learned that both the McLarty line and the McSwain line are part of that great migration to the Carolinas in the early nineteenth century known as the "Scotch-Irish."  They seem to be Scots folk who had immigrated to Ireland a generation or two before making it to the new world.

Anyway, it is both an irony and a joy to me that I have "come home" to the Church of Scotland, which is the indisputable source of all American Presbyterians.  And in respect to my English forebears, I love the Book of Common Prayer.  And in light of the fact that I am now "Reformed enough" to sign the membership requirements for those Dutch Reformed schools I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I should mention that my maternal grandfather was a Kuykendall.  Although the Kuykendall's are clearly Dutch, the family line from which my mom is descended had already been Baptists for several generations when she was born.

A little more history

(Part two of "Why a Baptist boy became Presbyterian")

Where it all began for me  -
FIrst Baptist Church,
Cartersville, Georgia

The truth is...there were several other theological and ecclesiastical wanderings between the church of my youth and the church of my present. 



The post-Southern Baptist period actually began when I was drafted into the army.  Without going into the details here, I'll just say that for the first time in my heretofore parochial life, I met real Christians from a vast variety of denominational backgrounds.  I also met some not-so-impressive individuals claiming to be Baptists (or whatever).  It probably destroyed my categories forever.  During the next twenty or so years I wandered in and out of various faith groups, mostly non-denominational and charismatic.

As far as doctrine and Biblical interpetation went, these groups were still of the more or less "do-it-yourself" variety, just what I had been trained to expect and admire in my Southern Baptist upbringing.  Although sincere and Bible-believing, none of these groups put a lot of stock in "formal" study.  I remember hearing the phrase "systematic theology" a few times and wondering what it meant, but no one else seemed interested. 

Two peculiar incidents stand out among the myriad of spiritual experiences I had during those years.  The first was stumbling across the writings of Francis Schaeffer while I was in the army.  I knew he was "on to something" (Little did I realize at the time that he was a PCA member), but I could not find anyone else who was as much energized by his writings as I was.  Lacking anyone to discuss him with, I relegated him and his thinking to the "curiosity" category, and went on reading the "inspirational" writers that my leaders were promoting.


Sullivan Barracks Chapel,
Mannheim, Germany

The second peculiarity was a Bible study in our military chapel that did a bad job of exegeting certain Bible passages to support a conclusion that contradicts "perseverance of the saints."  Of course, I didn't know that phrase as point five of Calvinism at the time, but when Calvinism was finally explained to me many years later, I immediately dismissed any serious consideration because of that one night of bad teaching.

In the midst of busy and (mostly) pleasant church life during these years, there was always the sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind that I might be missing something.  So steeped was I in Baptist "Separatism" and charismatic "spiritual superiority," however,  that I was quite sure that if there were more to the thoughtful Christian life, it could not be found in one of those older denominations.  Those churches, we had resolutely written off as "dead" and beyond hope of resuscitation.

The wild card in this saga of "protectionism" against historic Christianity was the fact that I was engaged in Christian education throughout these years.  While most of the Christian schooling world's thought and ethos during the seventies and eighties was guided by Baptist thinking and principles, there were lots of co-belligerants from other theological backgrounds (even we charismatics had to be careful around the strictest Baptist educators to avoid being stigmatized).  After all, we had plenty of common enemies - the World Council of Churches, political and religious liberals, Biblical modernists, etc.  In fact, with all this in common we generally got along quite well - we charismatics, Nazarenes, Baptists, Assemblies of God types, and non-denominational Bible churchers.

 At some point during this period of time I encountered those "Dutch Reformed" schools who were members of Christian Schools International.  I remember thinking it was peculiar that members of that association had to sign a statement of faith that was slightly different from the standard "evangelical" statement of faith that most Christian schools, missionary groups, and para-church ministries always use to position themselves theologically.  The CSI statement of faith actually used the word "Calvinism" in its requirements, something I regarded as quite odd as a basis or test of doctrinal orthodoxy.  And because of the prior army experience, I believed it was something I couldn't agree to.   So I just put it (and their schools) out of my mind.

Enter the classical Christian education movement.  In 1991, while a graduate student at University of Arizona, I was reading every book on education that I could find.  Somewhere I got hold of the recently published Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson.  When I was about halfway through the book, I looked up at my wife Linda and said, "Because of this book, I will never teach the same again!"  At the end of the book was the statement, "For more information and materials about classical Christian education, call this number."

I rushed to dial the number on the last page of the book, and imagine my surprise when the voice at the other end of the line said, "This is Doug Wilson."  "Well," I said, "I just finished your book and I'm calling for more information and materials."  After a chuckle at the other end, I figured out that I may have been the first one to call.  "When we put that statement in there," Wilson explained, "We were thinking way off in the future."  We don't really have anything to offer you right now..." he went on.  Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, "...except maybe a subscription to our church magazine.  How about that?"   "Sure,"  I replied without much enthusiasm - or expectation.  Little did I know how much this would change my life.

After the first three issues, I came to several conclusions about the magazine, Credenda Agenda, and the church, Community Evangelical Fellowship of Moscow, Idaho (now known as Christ Church).

1. These people were not "stealth Calvinists," or "Cradle Calvinists;" they were "cage stage" Calvinists with an agenda!

2.  These people had read all the authors I had thought about, but never read.

3.  These people spoke about theology in a manner that made it really matter - and I felt terribly inadequate.

The arrival of each issue provoked a "love/hate" response in me.  On the one side, one is always tempted to feel that anyone who knows more than you do must, of necessity, be arrogant.  But I knew better.  There was not an ounce of condescension in what they wrote.  Well, maybe some well-deserved ridicule of evangelical silliness, when appropriate.  But not nearly the kind of condescension I found daily in the charismatic groups toward those poor souls who were not "walking in the fulness of the spirit."

But I was steadily drawn in by the sound reasoning, the fearless approach to topics I had never heard discussed in Christian circles, and the broad references to a whole host of books I now realized I needed to know more about.  I decided I needed help at this point.

Knowing I couldn't turn to the leaders of my own church and expect them to actually look at and evaluate reading matter that wasn't "Spriit-filled," I turned to two close colleagues in Christian education, Wade and Brad.  Both were Christian school principals of schools sponsored by charismatic churches, just like me.  Two other things we had in common - we liked to read, and none of us had any formal Bible or theology education.  We lived in Safford, Sierra Vista, and Yuma, so most of our visiting had to be by phone. 

The arrival of each issue prompted a flurry of phone calls.  The issue that (not so well from our point of view) critiqued the charismatic movement came under particular scrutiny by us.  But after months of puzzling, railing, and helping each other understand what we were reading, I remember the day when one of us said, "You know, I'm starting to buy into this."  The other two were immediately relieved, because they, too, had been thinking the same way.  Down the road, we three took several trips to Moscow.  Now Wade owns a house there, his children were baptised at Christ Church, and Brad and I are both PCA elders.  All from one magazine!

How did the magazine do that to me?  Here are a few observations:

1.  I read the foot notes.  They led me to sources like Calvin's Institutes, the Spurgeon archives, Martin Luther's writings, the Westminster Catechism, and contemporary authors like Sproul and Piper.

2.  I realized the necessity of systematic theology.  All the "odd" passages of scripture that I had previously written off as "difficult," now had a context in which to fit.  The Confessions of the Reformation have stood the test of time and intense scrutiny.   

3.  I realized the centrality of the sovereignty of God.  Non-Reformed evangelicals may think they believe God is sovereign, but they are not consistent.  When I came to understand God's sovereignty, all my philosophical questions fell into place.

4.  I wanted to be connected to church history.  Reading the documents of the Reformation, and the history that produced them, gave me a "place" in history and a grasp of the "big picture." 

5.  I found the fellowship of kindred minds.  Whereas I had previously felt oddly disconnected among many evangelicals, I had now found the people who loved Francis Schaeffer (for example), and weren't shy to talk about his writings.

Remember my concern about Bible studies in which we pooled our ignorance?  Now I can (as one Reformed pastor puts it) wake up in the morning remembering what I believe!

So there's your answer, brother Rags.  Next question?

A little history

A few weeks ago in WorldMovers Sunday School class, Rags Ragland asked, "How come you switched from Baptist to Presbyterian?"  Like a lot of Dove Mountaineers, Rags is a member of our church by virtue of his confession of faith in Christ, not an adherence to things Presbyterian.  And like a lot of the great questions Rags asks, I told him it does not have a short answer, and I promised to save it for another time.

Statue of Peter Waldo, founder of the
Waldensian "Poor Preachers," at the
Reformation Monument in Worms.

Before I even begin to tackle the personal side of this question, let me clarify some of the terms we use around here.  As I stated in the paragraph above, what it takes to be a member of Dove Mountain Church, is a confession of faith in Christ alone as our source of salvation, through grace alone and by no works of our own.  There are no test questions on the Westminster Confession, Presbyterian polity, Calvinism, or the Five Solas.

However, there is an affirmation of those ancient formulae required of those who become officers.  This past Sunday you saw the ordination of two new elders and five new deacons.  As one of those men, I am affirming the tenets of those documents listed above...and much more as well.

In this blog I want to particularly explain one of the more subtle things that I am affirming, something different from what I believed as a Baptist.  As I do this, remember that this is not a position to which members must agree, but it is part of what responsible Presbyterian leaders embrace as the heritage of our faith.

Baptist and Presbyterians are not both Protestants.  I'll give you a second for that to sink in. 

As an inquistive young person growing up in a Baptist church, I had many curious questions about church history.  Baptists of that day and age were great about publishing literature for both morning classes (Sunday School) and evening classes (Training Union).  These Bible-based curriculum guides (referred to as "quarterlies" in the vernacular, since we got new ones every thirteen weeks, year round) covered a wide range of topics.  The morning quarterlies were strictly Bible exposition, and we moved steadily through the scriptures from Old Testament to New, rarely leaving out a single verse.  The evening quarterlies covered a variety of aspects of the Christian life - from missionary stories to moral character development, from inspirational topics such as forgiveness, prayer, and faith to an occasional word or two about church history.  Our dedicated lay adult leaders were often not much more informed on the topics than we were, so we studied the quarterlies together, seldom wandering much outside of what the quarterly had to tell us.  If a question were deemed important enough, we could be referred to the pastor.  Rarely did anyone's curiosity propel them to that extreme.

I can't resist an aside here about some of the peculiar topics taught in those evening training sessions.  Using scriptural supports, I was drilled in Baptist "distinctives" which I assumed were either held by all Christians or defined other Christians as being in "error" if they did not hold to them.  Among these distinctives were:  the necessity of total abstinence from beverage alcohol, an extreme view of separation of church and state (which to this days often puts Baptists on the side with atheists in certain court cases), and the Baptist interpretation of "priesthood of the believer."  The outworking of this latter principle was that no one could ever really tell a Baptist, with any authority, what any scripture means.  The individual believer (regardless of age or education) was said to be perfectly competent to teach himself.  It also meant that Bible studies usually consisted of "this is what it means to me," with no wrong answers - ever.  By the time I was in college, I labelled this practice "pooling our ignorance."

I remember the day, as an eighth grader, that I discovered that the church had a library!  In those pre-internet days, this was a great boon to my inquiring mind.  Since I often spent long hours at the church on Wednesday afternoons while my mother was working in the kitchen as Church Hostess, the library became my refuge - a great source of information to me.  At last I could get some answers beyond the rudimentary information provided in our age-group classes.

It was then and there that I discovered that Baptists are not Protestants.  At least, not according to some leaders.  [Remember that priesthood thing?  No one ever has to agree on anything.]  This view, called Baptist Successionism, essentially holds that there is an unbroken line of non-conforming Christians from the apostolic times in the first century after Christ all the way to the present.  The historical basis for this assertion centers around some little known groups, such as the Albigensians of southern France and the Waldensians of northern Italy.  The Albigensians claimed their heritage went all the way back to the first century, but there are no actual historic evidences of their movement prior to the eleventh century.  The Waldensians can be proved to have appeared around the eighth century, although they also claim an earlier origin.  Both groups were anti-sacerdoctal and were never a part of the Catholic Church.  In fact, both groups were persecuted extensively by the Church over several centuries.  The Albigensians, or Cathars, eventually died out in the fourteenth century, but the Wandensians persisted, many being absorbed into other non-Catholic groups.  A Waldensian Evangelical Church exists in Italy in the present day.  

 

Back to Baptist Successionism:  to those holding this belief, it is important that there is an unbroken line of non-Catholic Christians going back to the time of Christ, who were never part of the Catholic Church (which many of them still consider to be the Whore of Babylon).  Therefore, those holding this belief consistently distinguish themselves from historic Protestants - those who protested the abuses of the medieval Catholic Church (which was their church at the time) and set about to reform the practices deemed to be non-Scriptural.  To Baptist Successionists, their hands are "clean" - they never were part of the "whore."       

Other than a few overlapping beliefs, particularly adult baptism (as opposed to paedobaptism), there is no clear or indisputable evidence that either the Anabaptists of Reformation times or present day Baptists have any direct connection to the Albigensians or Waldensians.  In light of several unbiblical beliefs of each of the two groups, Baptists should wish and hope there is no connection.  But many Baptists have held to this connection, including renowned preacher Charles Spurgeon, who wrote:

"We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents."  

So to finish up this part of the story, as someone who as a child was better informed (thanks to the church library) than most adult adherents about Baptist origins and history, it was kind of a big deal when I accepted ordination on Sunday as an elder in an historically "Protesting" denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America.  It means that I am accepting the laying on of hands by presbyters whose tradition and succession go back to the Church of Rome.  While it is true that the Roman Church declared those Protestants to be just as heretical as the Albigensians and Waldensians (and therefore just as separate and condemned), there are some holdovers that betray our heritage as Protesting Catholics:  paedobaptism, liturgical practices in our worship, communion as a sacrament, and a respect for the seasons of the liturgical calendar, among others. 

 

 Why that no longer bothers me is the subject of the next blog.

Easter sights from Dove Mountain

It was a glorious Easter for Dove Mountaineers. Here are my two favorite photos from Annette Johnson's extensive album (you can see all 62 photos if you are her friend on Facebook - and why aren't you?).

Above:  a bevy of Dovemountaineer beauties radiating Easter joy

Below:  Hannah Johnson makes friends with the Steve's "lamb" from the children's message.

Recovering our Sense of Parish, Part 3

One very practical means of "Blooming where we are planted" is to continue the well-designed canvassing survey of the environs of Pusch Ridge.  This will take several more Saturdays to complete.  The men pictured here were the "test batch," three weeks ago, and all returned not only unscathed, but pleasantly energized.   Consider joining us for Round Two this Saturday morning at the Pusch Ridge library at 9:00 AM.  Whether we are in our final locaiton geographically or not, this is a "parish-building" activity relationally, and is helping us to build a better sense of our defined community among those of us who participate. 

Recovering our Sense of Parish, Part 2

"....we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos.  The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail.  After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed to Syria.  We landed at Tyre..."   Acts 21:1-4

When Elder Dave Bowen preached on this passage two weeks ago, he made the comment that such geographical details in the New Testament serve an important function. They point out that the Acts of God (including the Acts of the Apostles) have taken place on a real planet with real locations that still exist. In the maps above, we see that the cities of ancient Phoenicia that are mentioned in the scriptures, such as Tyre, still exist. The languages on the present day map of Lebanon give graphic testimony of the changes that have taken place in the ensuring two thousands years: Greek and Turkish control, Arabic conquest, and a brief French occupation between the world wars. Through it all, Tyre has remained Tyre, a real place on this globe, which was also real in the time of the apostles.

Back to Dave's comment... It is profound and necessary that we understand that the infinite God of all time and all space has chosen to interact with us who are temporally and spatially bound. God knows where we are (spatially) right now (temporally). That should be a great comfort to us, not only when we gather together to worship in our "tabernacle" on the Lord's Day, but throughout the week, as well.

Much Dove Mountain energy has been spent on wondering about a spatial point on Tangerine Road where we may at some temporal point have a "permanent" house of worship. That possibility has caused some to wonder about the relevance of geography and who should be a part of our body, or even targets for the same.

While geography is important, just as it was in Paul's time in the book of Acts, and just as it has been in historic Christendom through the life and work of localized parishes, it is even more important to live our fullest and best expression of Christian fellowship right now, while we still dwell in tents. For compared to the New Heaven and the New Earth, all of our "permanent" dwellings are tents.

Our recently departed sister Jan Wintz came to Dove Mountain during its time of greatest change, just a week after Pastor Allen had announced his departure. While many were leaving what they considered to be an "unstable" situation to go back to a particular church they feel to be "more permanent," sister Jan moved in exactly the opposite direction. Knowing she was near the end of her earthly life, she said, "I don't wat to die without the support of a church." She felt comforted that she had found such a place among us.

Tomorrow: Part 3.

Time to give thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

During these days when many are asking themselves if there is, in fact, any distinctive identity in being a Dove Mountaineer - worth the new sacrifices that many of us are having to make - I can tell you one example of why I am thankful to be a Dove Mountaineer.  A chance remark to a fellow Dove Mountaineer while standing in the serving line at the Love and Joy Cafe on Sunday about the fact that Linda is visiting our grandchildren in Colorado this week led to a phone call that afternoon from a different Dove Mountaineer inviting my son and me to their Thanksgiving table today.  I don't know that this sensitive generosity would happen just anywhere.  I am so thankful to be a Dove Mountaineer!

Introducing David Benjamin!

Like no place on earth

Like most Dove Mountaineers, I have been a member of other churches before this, and some of them pretty good ones. But I submit that NOWHERE ON EARTH can one choose from as rich a palette of identities as those available to members our church.




Welcome to Dove Mountain Church, where one can be:

a thread in the Tapestry
a brother in the Band
a Resistor
a Conspirator
a Groover
a minute in the Happy Hour
a Barleyman
a Traveler
a WorldMover (of course!)
a Dove Mountaineer (above all!)

and the latest option: a Sister of the Water Buffalo!

Small World Tapestry

Congratulations to the leadership of Tapestry for collecting such a large gathering for their Spring Brunch and Quilt Show! I showed up just as it was breaking up so as to chat with the speaker, Victoria Robinson of Sierra Vista, and we had a great reunion! Victoria and I taught together at Shiloh Christian School in Sierra Vista in the late '90's before we both moved away. I had not seen her since she and her chaplain husband moved back a couple of years ago.

Several of my Dovemountaineer friends told me both on Saturday and Sunday how much they were blessed by Victoria's talk on Women Mentoring Women. If any of them would like to share their thoughts in the comments section of this blog, it would be greatly edifying to the rest of us! I can say that it was always a privilege to listen to Victoria, both in the classroom and at chapel, when we were at Shiloh. Some people are gifted communicators, and others have Biblical wisdom - Victoria combines both attributes wonderfully!

In our chat after the meeting, Victoria shared a story with me about one of our former Shiloh students. One of her speaking engagements was to address a Valentine's Day dinner in Savannah, Georgia, for two hundred ladies whose husbands were currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Victoria said it was apparent that many of these ladies were probably not regular churchgoers, and they were greatly blessed (and somewhat amazed) to be served dinner by pastors and elders from the sponsoring churches. It was one of those magical evenings in God's appointment book, made all the more special because she was introduced at the platform that evening by one of our former Shiloh young ladies who is now married and living in Georgia. Victoria's favorite comment was by one of the sponsoring pastors: "We called off church tonight for this event - so we could be the church!" It made me think of Kim Ritt's military ministry and other kinds of outreaches we do here at Dove Mountain!

In that same vein, it was a blessing to see Mike Jones and Keith Long humbly working to pack up the event. Do more DMC men need to be involved in this next time? Let us know, ladies!

Meet Kim!

Dove Mountain Church's first employee, after Pastor Allen, was Kim Ritt. Kim has been the office administrator since nearly the beginning of DMC. She's the lovely voice you get on the phone when you call the church, and the unseen hands behind the bulletin, the inserts, the announcements,and much, much more!

Like many others, Kim and Bob Ritt were attracted to Arizona by the warm weather. Both are native Michiganders, and actually met when Bob lived two doors down from Kim's parents' cabin. Shortly after Kim's daughter, Katie, became a westerner - first at Biola University in La Mirada, CA, and now in Colorado Springs, where she works for mission agency HCJB - Bob and Kim decided to forsake the "interminable gray skies" and snow for the sunny southern Arizona. Having been here since 2005, Kim loves to take advantage of the climate and scenery to hike and enjoy the animal and bird watching along the way.

In regard to her job as church administrator, Kim says "I love being a part of the ministry – of being able to serve the Lord in full-time work using my gift of administration. Allen always says that we are operating on the “gift/gap theory” at Dove Mtn. – we all have gifts and we all have gaps. This plays out constantly in the job and I never cease to be amazed and humbled by God’s generous provision through the gifts and talents of His people. Just when I am feeling stressed by one of my “gaps”, along comes a Dove Mountaineer with a specific gift that fits the gap. It’s been exciting, and sometimes difficult, being a part of a new church plant, but the benefit of being on staff from the beginning is the opportunity to watch the church grow and mature."

Kim says that Dove Mountaineers can assist her by attempting to take care of church business during her morning working hours at the church office [those not familiar with the office location and contact numbers can get them here]. "Because I’m isolated in my work, the need to be a plain old Dove Mountaineer on Sundays, and not Kim the Office Administrator, is really necessary for my sanity. Sunday is a day to worship and fellowship with my fellow Dove Mountaineers, and I really look forward to that time of connection."

At home Kim likes to read and do crosswords. Her current reading includes M. Beatty's Co-Dependent No More.

Our lovely office administrator first trusted Christ at age six and was baptized at age twelve. Her favorite scripture is Philippians 3:10, “That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”

Thank you for your service to the Lord, Kim!

Praying for our Nation

Certainly the state of the nation has been much on our hearts and minds recently. A ministry that I only recently became aware of can be very helpful in guiding our prayers for the United States of America. Dove Mountaineer Jim Bolthouse is on the staff, and you can read their web site here.

Every Member a Minister

I love the idea that Pastor Allen has promoted from the founding of Dove Mountain Church: every member a minister. We had a dramatic chance to see this in print this past Sunday at the Town Hall meeting when the current listing of contacts were passed out. In case you missed it, here are the "point persons" for ministries currently active thrugh Dove Mountain Church: (If I left out any, please let me know!)

Arabian Oasis..........Shirley Cooney
Baby Church..........Julie Oglebay
Band of Brothers..........Dave Dalton
Children's Church..........Steve Johnson
Communion..........Gain Von Fabrice and Jan Markland
The Conspiracy..........Steve Johnson
Creation Fellowship..........Dave Young
Exodus..........Chuck Strothman
Gospel Rescue Mission meals..........Judy Walters
Greeters..........Carmella Calcagno
Groove..........Josh Remer
Hospitality..........Shirley Cooney
International Justice Mission..........Steve Johnson
Letter Writers..........Marian Bush
Manhattan Declaration..........Allen Cooney
Marriage Discipleship..........Ross and Mandy Newman
Mercy Ministry..........Cindy Vos
Missions..........Jack Hauschildt
Peru Dental trips..........Amy Hauschildt
Prayer Chain..........Dale and Melissa Hamilton
Refugee Ministry..........Jill Hauschildt
The Resistance..........Steve Johnson
Set up/Tear down..........Rich Vos and Wade Remer
Small Groups..........Dave and Donna Dalton
Spiritual Enrichment classes..........Dave Bowen
Tapestry..........Mandy Newman
The Travelers..........Allen Cooney
Troops..........Kim Ritt
Welcome desk..........Wynn Mancini
Widows..........Shirley Cooney
Women's Prayer Fellowship..........Donna Dalton
Wycliffe..........Wade and Joy Remer

Wow! What a Lineup! What a church!

Time for truth

Way back on September 29, 2009, I first introduced Dove Mountaineers to an important resource called "Truthorfiction.com". Rather than repeat the detailed explanation I gave then, you could just read it for yourself here.

In yesterday's Manhattan Declaration Sunday School class, a discussion came up about euthanasia, and I interposed that I had read an e mail which alleges several governmental actions that would legitimate and enforce (if not force!) euthanasia are embedded in the text of the current Health Care bill. I offered to post that e mail here on the blog for all who are interested.

This morning I remembered to take my own advice, and before posting said e mail, I checked it out on Truthorfiction.com. Like many such e mails, it turned out to be composed of snippets of older e mails (although it purports to convey a very recent letter). The point by point analysis of the items it alleges against the Health Care bill are a mixture of truth and fiction. Rather than send the original e mail (as I had offered to do), it would be more instructive for you to read the breakdown straight from Truth or Fiction here.

I appreciate the zeal with which the folks at Truth or Fiction attempt to authenticate every detail of every e mail. As you can see from the link posted above, many specific proposals in the Health Care bill have not yet been fully researched by the Truth or Fiction staff. However, there is enough truth to rouse the concerns of those who take the Manhattan Declaration seriously.

For one thing, the euphemism (remember Pastor Allen talked about this term in his sermon yesterday?) "end-of-life" is introduced, to cover not only natural death, but "advance planning," as well. There is no doubt, especially in light of the economy and the potential shortfall in Social Security when my generation (Baby Boom) crosses the 65 mark (just two years away), that enormous pressure will be exerted on terminating lives which are not deemed to be "of quality."

We didn't get to the point of discussing any potential solutions to the problem of public acceptance of euthanasia in our class yesterday, but I would like to offer a few here.

One thing we did agree on is that the will and intent of the patient himself or herself should be paramount (as Mike Jones brought up). For those of us who agree with the Manhattan Declaration, we would add "short of intentional suicide." Secondly, we acknowledged the primary role of the immediate family, not just in making decisions like "pulling the plug," but in being involved in the final stages of care. One area we didn't go into, however, is the role of the church.

When we look back a few generations, we can see a time when every little church (this is primarily true in the East, where I grew up) had its own graveyard out back. A relatively new church I know of back in Tennessee recently took adavantage of a law that is still on the books allowing for this, and set aside a hillside in back of the church just for this purpose. The dedication of this plot was just in time for a young couple, friends of mine, to bury their stillborn infant there. It was a comfort to them that this peaceful garden exists right behind the place where they worship.

Implicit in the presence of these cemeteries was the primacy of the church in matters of life and death. Christians regarded marrying and burying, not to mention christening and/or baptism, as essentially spiritual events, outside of the interests and purview of government. But today's mobile population, consumer based church-hopping, and strip mall church facililites have not fostered a strong sense of community which would see us nurtured cradle to grave by a consistent and caring Christian congregation.

If we were to reclaim this territory for the church, then it would also make sense for the church family to come alongside the family who is losing a loved one, to help bear the details and burdens of those last days and weeks. Not doubt this is still happening in many healthy congregations, but I hope we can pass on this expectation to the generation coming after us, who have more likely been made to expect government and secular agencies to be resources during this time. If that is the case, then shame on us (the church)! I especially pray that here at Dove Mountain we can build the bonds that would make us want to be just that much invested in each other's lives and welfare.