Unity Through Simplicity
I stumbled upon the New Wineskins website the other day, and what should I find but an article (actually a sermon) on unity by Chuck Monan, the preacher at my home church, Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, Arkansas. Go Chuck! The name of the sermon is 'Unity Through Simplicity: A Future of Peace,' and in fact the current issue in Wineskins is all about unity. The only other article I've had a chance to read is Gary Holloway's on Barton Stone's spiritual model of unity. You might want to check these and others out.
Chuck in his article mentions the life work of Brother Roger Schutz, who with a passion for unity began the Taize community in France. I found a link to the Taize community's website at the bottom of Chuck's article and looked it over last night. The Taize style of worship is very contemplative, including scripture readings, prayer, and extended periods of silence. You can read about the aspects of their worship, including the importance of silence, in the 'Prayer and Song' section of the site and you can find daily Bible readings and meditations in the 'To the Sources of Faith' section.
It is interesting that all of these sources emphasize the importance of the Holy Spirit and of cultivating a Christ-like attitude of love as the only means to unity. I'll wrap this up with an excerpt from the end of Chuck's sermon...
For 65 years, Brother Roger tried to love God; tried to love his fellow man; tried to sing; tried to pray. He didn’t waste a lot of time finding fault with people. He spent a lot of time trying to point people to Christ, and to God’s love. There’s just got to be a lesson in that for us.
Chuck in his article mentions the life work of Brother Roger Schutz, who with a passion for unity began the Taize community in France. I found a link to the Taize community's website at the bottom of Chuck's article and looked it over last night. The Taize style of worship is very contemplative, including scripture readings, prayer, and extended periods of silence. You can read about the aspects of their worship, including the importance of silence, in the 'Prayer and Song' section of the site and you can find daily Bible readings and meditations in the 'To the Sources of Faith' section.
It is interesting that all of these sources emphasize the importance of the Holy Spirit and of cultivating a Christ-like attitude of love as the only means to unity. I'll wrap this up with an excerpt from the end of Chuck's sermon...
For 65 years, Brother Roger tried to love God; tried to love his fellow man; tried to sing; tried to pray. He didn’t waste a lot of time finding fault with people. He spent a lot of time trying to point people to Christ, and to God’s love. There’s just got to be a lesson in that for us.
posted by mitch | 9:36 AM
1 Comments:
I think that society has been remiss in our responsibility to teach how to stop and know that we have a need to wait on God and his answer's to our prayer's, and also to be still and know that he is God. I know that I always thought that for me to be still for a 2-minute pray was all that God was requiring for me to know him. Or to wait a few day's for an answer to my prayer's. Now I know that to know Him, I must wait patiently( all the while reading, praying, communing w/other's & Him) for him to reveal himself to me and to other's when it is his "Good Will".
Thanks for all of your tireless work on "all" the blog's you keep up with and doing God's will each day.
Post a Comment
<< Home