(no subject)
Hey, Hey!
Hope that everyone is doing well. Things here in Blackhall are going good. I have my friend Jessi Brewster here from Minnesota, visiting me for a week. We are having a really good time. She’s gotten the chance to see some of the fun and exciting things that I do on a regular basis, tons of tv and movie watching with a bit of work. The next few days should be the best though as Linda and Colin are taking us to Raby Castle and Durham Cathedral tomorrow. We are also going to do some gardening at Hesleden Primary and go to Newcastle on Thursday. Jessi’s final day here we are going to be helping out at a few coffee mornings and probably going to bed early as we have to get Jessi to the airport for 6:55 am on Saturday. We’ll do alright I’m sure. I should try and get some work done on Saturday though because my time here in Blackhall is really starting to come to a close.
I have 8 weeks of this year left and it’s crazy to think that I have already been here for 8 months. God really has done some amazing things in this short time. Looking back I know I have learned so much and made some really good friends. I hope to come back to Durham University for a semester either in the Spring of my junior or Fall of my Senior year. It should be good fun as my friends Laura and Graeme are getting married on 07/07/07…. aren’t they clever. It should be good fun and I hope I’ll be invited to the wedding, especially after all the stuff I have had to put up with from the two of them!
In the next few weeks I have to do so much stuff to help prepare for the next TFGer that will hopefully take my place. I’m sure I’ll get it done thou. I work better under pressure anyway. One thing that has been bugging me a lot lately is the older members of Blackhall in particular. These people have constantly been making comments about some of the stuff I have done or are directly involved with and not said it to me. I have only heard about it through other people. I don’t think that is right and would wish that these people would just come and talk to me. I know that may not be in their nature, but they need to change if they have hope of surviving as a congregation. My father wrote this article that just completely sums up my feeling on the situation and hopefully if I share this with some people it will be the solution to my problem. Here it is….
ANXIETY
Can a church get sick? Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in “Life Together”: “An element of sickness gets into the body, perhaps nobody knows where it comes from or in what member it is lodged, but the body is infected.”
The apostle Paul made many references to infections in the early church: “grumblers, malcontents … loudmouthed boasters” (Jude 16), people who “bite and devour one another” (Galatians 5:15), groups unbending in their contentiousness (1 Corinthians 1:10-17). Saint Paul also warns against slander, gossip, selfishness, and quarreling.
In the Old Testament the Israelites “murmured against the Lord” (Exodus 16:7). Even the Lord asks: “How long must I tolerate the complaints of this wicked community?”
Two New Testament writers, Luke and John, use the Greek verb goggizo (to grumble, murmur, speak complainingly, against someone, speak secretly or in whisper) on several occasions. And the Pharisees and the Scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, “Do you take offense at this …?” (John 6:61) Grumbling is apparently endemic to human beings and, among some, epidemic.
In relationships, if murmuring is encouraged, anxiety flares up, and reactive behaviors take hold. The community stops responding to need and begins to react in ways contrary to Christian faith and hope. When we are anxious, we are imprecise, vague, covert, and less transparent. We operate in darkness. How can a congregation be healthy if it lives in darkness?
In the New Testament three prominent situations address anxious reactivity in the Christian community: the Matthean sayings (Matthew 5: 21-26; 6: 25-34; 7:1-5; 18:15-22); the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15); and the chaos at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4). Each situation calls for personalizing the conflict, face-to-face meetings, and sunlight for disinfecting the disease.
Peter Steinke in his book “Healthy Congregations” writes: “Secrets support immaturity. Underground murmurers in a community are usually insecure, dependent, and childish people. Whenever leaders protect their immature behaviors through silence, they enable it. If the leaders of a congregation refuse to address clandestine activity, they express their own anxiety. Ineffective leadership and gossipers, whisperers, and hidden complainers go together. They tie up the system in anxious knots. They promote the disease processes.”
The Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes: “Every act of self-control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship. Every member serves the whole body, either to its health or to its destruction.” When someone initiates the murmuring or enables it, they contribute to the destructive side.
The antidote is self-control and the light of day. We all do best when we respond and not react. Prayer is a powerful response to anxiety. The response found in Matthew 18 is effective as well as Acts 15. Blessings and God’s richest blessings. Pr. Dan
Blessings and good wishes to all my friends and Family,Take care and I will see ya’ll very soon!
Cheerio!
David De Block
TFG/ELCA/YAGM
P.S. If you think that what I am doing and learning here in Blackhall Rocks, England is ubber cool check out this website to see if you are qualified to become a YAGM just like me!
www.elca.org/globalserve/youngadults