MAY 2001 VOL 150 NO.4 WWW.BRETHREN.ORG Editor: Fletcher Farrar Publisher: Wendy McFadden News: Walt Wiltschek Advertising: Russ Matteson Subscriptions: Verneda Cole Design: Cedar House Group 12 Featuring the future We can't know what is ahead for us. But we know that God's Spirit will lead the church into the broken places of the world, writes Nadine Pence Frantz, theology professor at Bethany Theological Seminary. 14 Living into the future The mother of Jesus didn't know what she was getting into, and her future was out of her control. But she accepted what God had in store without fear. We need her courage, writes Sharon Nearhoof May, pastor of Phoenix First. 16 In the future, a church alive Paul Grout, moderator-elect, cites many reasons why the church has stopped being alive. A list of specific remedies is offered. 20 50 years into the future ONTHECOVER Julie and Michael Hostetter, both ministers, take a lighthearted and hopeful look at what Paul Stocksdale, M ESSENGER'S graphic designer, the church will be like in the year 2051. writes: For a creative solution to illustrate this month's cover, I did not need to look very far. The 24 A son's prayer for his mother background is a scan of the inside of my TV's broken remote control. That remote control seems a fitting It has been two years since the author's metaphor for the pervasiveness of technology in our mother, experiencing advanced world. What does the Church of the Brethren have to Alzheimer's disease, has spoken his name. say to a world where even remote controls are not so "I want her to know me again. I want to be simple? And where does the gospel fit into this world her child again." that is so rapidly changing? s e ('.) ro Q_" DEPARTMENTS 2 From the Publisher 3 In Touch 6 News 27 Opinion 28 In Memoriam 29 Letters 31 Turning Points 32 Editorial How to reach us MESSENGER 1451 Dundee Avenue Elgin, IL 60120 Subscriptions: FROM THE PUBLISHER [email protected] Phone: 847-742-5100 Fax: 847-742-6103 ately my mother has begun reminiscing. I never knew much about her Display advertising: parents, who died before she married, so I'm eagerly absorbing these stories. [email protected] Amazingly, she remembers the end of World War I. Just two years old then, Phone: 800-323-8039 L Fax: 847-742-1407 she recalls the military band playing at the train depot across the street from her house in Lawrence, Kan. She remembers that her father, a second-generation Editorial: German, demonstrated his loyalties by being extra-patriotic and flying the flag with [email protected] more gusto than anyone else. Phone: 217-525-9083 I learn that her grandfather was so proud of his Model T that he kept it on Fax: 217-525-9269 blocks (to keep the tires clean, apparently) and her grandmother had to ride in the old truck. I learn about the child-size furniture that her father made her for Subscription rates: Christmas and which still sits in her living room. $16.50 individual rate She brings out "Betty," her mother's rag doll, which we calculate had to have $13 .50 church group plan $13.50 gift subscriptions been stitched together by her mother's mother well before 1900. We videotape some of these stories, and agree to continue during my next visit. There's the promise of If you move, clip address label opening an old black trunk in the basement. and send with new address to I sense that my mother has some new desire to pass these stories on. And I MESSENGER Subscriptions, at feel a heightened urgency to receive the stories, to be the caretaker of this the above address. Allow at least family history. five weeks for address change. It's my family history, even though I don't have a drop of German blood. It's my Connect electronically: adopted family history, and somehow it's shaping me even when I don't know it. For a free subscription to Most of the time I feel very different from my parents, but sometimes I recognize Newsline, the Church what I have inherited. of the Brethren e-mail news It's a little like becoming Brethren. Perhaps it's a bit strange for us "convinced" report, write [email protected]. Brethren to reminisce about our roots in Schwarzenau or pay attention to anniversaries and other moments from the Brethren past. But all of us, whether new To view the official Church of or old Brethren, are the caretakers of this inheritance. All of us, whether new or old the Brethren website, go to Christians, are the caretakers of the story of our faith. http://www.brethren.org. I don't know what the church of the future is going to look like. Some days I worry about whether there will even be one. But we inherit more than DNA. The stories of our parents in the faith are part of our story today and will help us write the future. In fact, to mother or to father is to make a statement of hope about the future. Because the Bible tells us that God cares for us like a father and nurtures us like a mother, I know that I can live in that hope. MESSENGER is the official publication or the Chu rch or the Brethren. Entered as periodical postage matter Au g. 20, 19 18, under Act or Congress of Oct. I 7, 19 17. Filing date, Nov. 1, 1984. Member of the Assoc iated Church Press. Subscriber to Rel igion News Service & Ecumen ical Press Service. Biblical quotations, unle ss otherwise ind icated, arc from the New Revised Standard Version. MESSENGER is published 11 times a year by Brethren Press, Ch urch or the Brethren General Boa rd. Period ical postage paid at Elgin, 11 1. , and at additional ma iling office, May 200 I. Copyright 200 1, Church of the Brethren General Board. ISSN 0026-0355. Postmaster: Send address changes to MESSE NGER, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgi n, IL 60120. @ Printed on recycled paper • Messenger May 2001 IN TOUCH McPherson church sends 22 to Puerto Rico Spiritual growth, fulfillment at seeing what their labor produced, and cama­ raderie between participants were highlights of a 12-day work trip by 22 people from the McPherson (Kan.) Church of the Brethren to Puerto Rico. The group worked with the Christian Community Center of Caimito (affiliated with the Church of the Brethren). It has a church, feeds poor resi­ Ashlee Riner and her dents daily, and provides free social services, medical, and dental care. collection of cans. Construction was the focus, with some emphasis on medical care. Con­ struction coordinators Al Wagoner, Bruce Wagoner, and Mike Goering Collecting cans for found they had a lot to learn. One Great Hour One project was familiar-sheetrocking, wiring, installing flooring, and painting at the center; another involved clearing a lot to build concrete Ashlee Riner, age seven, piers to support a building. That building will house a community center, began turning in her family's church, "soup kitchen," and an apartment for volunteers who will help aluminum cans to a local rebuild houses destroyed in hurricanes. recycling center in 1998 to Other participants were Paul and Marla Ullom-Minnich, Sarah, Rebecca, donate the proceeds to One and Jessica Ullom-Minnich, Gary Vancil, Paul and Mary Wagoner, Jan Diaz, Great Hour of Sharing. Her Adam Wagoner, Anna Wagoner, Elizabeth Wagoner, Belle Whittaker, Connie congregation, Pleasant View McCue, Dave and Bonnie Fruth, Ed and Kathy Hackleman, and Amy Hoffman. Church of the Brethren in Group members recommend this kind of experience to others. Partici­ Fayetteville, W.Va., got wind pants must be open to learning, eating different foods, living in close of her efforts and began col­ The McPherson quarters with persons they don't know well (although they quickly get to lecting the cans from its church "bucket know them well), working hard, and being without many comforts of monthly fellowship dinners. brigade" at work home. But participants believe their lives are forever changed for the better With these cans added, her in Puerto Rico. through this experience.-Kathy Hackleman collection totaled 29 pounds. Ka thy Hackleman INTOUCH Educators give to eral Board staff, spoke tributed funds for the Education is dear to a school in Nigeria of her extensive expe- construction of a two- the hearts of the Dul­ riences with the classroom unit at the ings. They both spent On March 8 the Oak Nigerian people- as a school. Carol had a their entire careers as Dale congregation of child, a teacher, and number of slides that teachers and adminis­ Scherr, W.Va., was the last summer as a showed the school and trators at the site of a program of workcamper. some of the students secondary and college fellowship and infor- The evening focused who attend there. She levels in West Virginia. mation about on the Comprehensive spoke of the need for With their generous Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Secondary School basic educational gift their influence will Nigeria, the Church of near Mubi. Galen and materials and aids. be felt among the the Brethren in Nige- Florena Duling, mem- Textbooks are in short people of Nigeria too. ria. Carol Bowman, a bers of the Oak Dale supply and somewhat For some time the member of the Gen- church, have con- outdated. Dulings have been considering an appro­ Kansas trio ..