I don't really know how often Ken preached on this theme, but it stuck in my mind. Even after the days of community, I realized that for the Christian witness to be effective, the Christian life must be lived. When community started, even though the households took care of human need, there was a strong emphasis on evangelism. Invite people to the household. Let them see how we live. They can see for the first time, life lived totally for Jesus. These were the rallying cries at the time. As the 70s continued, we lost this edge. We became more involved in healing those in need. We stopped inviting strangers in; sad.
David Upp was a young man very active in the church. I knew him well because he was in the choir and, later, in a small group (the Hallelujah Chorus) which was formed for ministry. David was also a part of the Timotheons (young men being trained for eldership). I remember this testimony vividly. It was a real faith builder for people seeking to follow the Lord. David still lives locally and is a facebook friend.
The week of renewal was an indication that we believed that evangelism wasn't just for non-Christians; Christians need to be led into a deeper life also. We periodically had times of renewal for the church. Another emphasis in the little paragraph at the end of the page is that of worldwide hunger. I remember our Friday evening fast nights. It was a great time. We didn't actually go without food. We just went on basic subsistence. Helen Fast used to make wonderful little bread loaves and we would have honey with them; tasted good.
I won't say much about this article by Larry. It does really illustrate how active things were at the church in those days. There were a lot of things going on. In the midst of this, we were worshiping the Lord and our children were being cared for. 
Another testimony of our ministry in England. Today, actually May 10, I wished Helen a happy birthday and wrote a note to Jacque who is headed home from here. Both Helen and Jacque live in Bend, Oregon.
I have written many times about the American Baptist Charismatic Fellowship. This is one of the ministries that Ken Pagaard started that is still going strong today under the leadership of Clay Ford. The little testimony from one of our men, a sailor on the USS Kitty Hawk, reminds me that our ministry at FBCCV has always included a lot of navy men. This is not just something of the past, it is still true.
The trip to Whiskey Town Lake was a great undertaking. There were 20 plus people living in the house. We had the Westby van -- a dodge 15 passenger van, a couple of cars, another van pulling a boat trailer. We tried to keep together -- this was actually quite a feat as we traveled through the streets of San Francisco. I had the job of assigning seats. Ken wanted us to fellowship with each other (not just in our favorite cliques). Every morning I would take our name tags and place them in a seat in one of the vans or cars. People weren't always happy with my choices. We went up the coast stopping at Santa Barbara and Arcata and . . . I remember stopping at a fast food restaurant outside of San Francisco and ordering food for 30 people or so -- we overloaded them. It was an interesting experience. It was always interesting when people would find out that we all lived together.
No comments:
Post a Comment