Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 44, November 18, 1075

Ken continues his series on "Things that make for Peace." This issue is on Trusting God. He expounds on this theme as found in the book of Philippians. His thesis is that we only really have peace when we can really entrust our lives to a loving and caring God.
The interrobang brought a number of comments on Facebook. Although many of us (me included) assumed that it was dead -- a fad, evidently it is alive and well even though seldom used.
This is a great testimony by Ron Alsop. Wow, God's grace in action. I also assume that Ron did a good job of piloting the aircraft. I remember this well. It was a poignant time for the church and quite traumatic for Ron's wife Judy who had been married to Jim Thomas, our youth director, who was also an amateur pilot who died in a crash in 1972.
Ron Alsop's wife Judy presents a delightful story of God's grace as He lead her into peace. It was this peace that sustained her when Ron crashed just two days later.
This is a nice letter from one of our young men, Robbie Corley. He was active in our music ministry. I believe that he still lives in Oregon.

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 43, November 11, 1975

Ken continues his series on "Things that make for Peace." In this article he expounds on the need for agreement; primarily agreement with Jesus Christ and His call and purpose for one's life. When we are in disagreement with God and his purpose, we can't ever be really at peace. Ken really calls for a radical agreement with God; how can we get upset when things don't go our way, if we are really in agreement with God? Why would we get upset when others get what we want, if we are really in agreement with God? Of course, all of these articles in this series get at what Ken sees as the heart of community living.
Bud, Chrys, and Heidi Miller along with Mike Sandez and Josie Rogadio are on another of our missions to other churches. The Millers were an important part of our community. Bud was on the paid staff of the church. I used to work as an assistant to him in his duties as Guest Master (the one who assigned guests to households). I have lost track of them, but believe that they still live in the Temecula area. I have discussed Mike Sandez before, he is currently a Law Professor at Liberty University. Josie Rogadio is now Josie Pagaard; married to Steve, the second son of Ken and Mona. They currently live in the state of Washington.
I am amazed at the number 170! There were these many people serving somewhere in our ministry of Christian Education! Children were very important to us, but general education at all levels was very important in the life of the community and the life of the church. A large percentage of our young people in community went on to obtain college degrees. I wasn't one of the young people, but I was encouraged to return to Seminary and obtain my MDiv. 170 people was over 35% of the people in the church. I find that truly awesome.
This is of course another example of the artwork from Abbacraft. It also reminds me of a song that we used to sing, "His Banner Over Me is Love."
Cheri Ford was and is a wonderful evangelist. Of course, she is married to Clay who is also a great evangelist. This is just a fresh testimony from a very young woman speaking of God's grace. I will be seeing Clay and Cheri in a week as we minister together at the Conference on the Holy Spirit in Green Lake WI.

The little poem by Dawn Schmid is very nice. Dawn ministered actively in the Hospital Ministry. She also contributed a lot of small things in various issues of OLT.

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 42, November 4, 1975

Ken continues his articles on things that make for peace. In this article he emphasizes commitment. His definition of commitment really fits in with other teaches about purpose, such as Rick Warren's "The Purpose Driven Life." When we are committed to someone (Jesus) or something (the community), that is the one thing; all else can be excluded. During those years, commitment was a big issue. People who left or who turned back were seen as not committed. Another facet of this article is that it demonstrated how we really saw ourselves as counter-cultural. "Go and sell all . . . ," said Jesus. We were those who obeyed the hard commands of Jesus. We gave our all in order to be good disciples. Certainly those really were days of internal peace; we knew that we were doing the will of God and nothing else mattered.
Bobby Dyal brings up the issue of brokenness which was discussed a lot at FBCCV.
Clay wrote a touching article about Barry, "Barry we love you." When this was posted on FB, there were a number of comments on this. Evidently Barry was loved within the household. I don't really remember him, but the article reflects a real truth about our living situation. We really did love one another. We comment a lot about submission and authority, but the glue that held the households together was love. I have written about the fact that we needed to learn to let go when someone left. Many thought that we created a feeling of guilt in the heart of anyone who left. Although there is some truth to that allegation, it is really more than that. When someone left, it was something like a divorce. My family grieved when we moved out of Westby Household. The people there were not "like" family, they were family. Whenever I see or talk with one of the people that we lived with, it is like family reunion. This needs to be understood when discussing our life together.
A nice illustration of my last paragraph.
Larry expresses another facet of our life together at that time. We really did not want to become embittered people; we wanted to live in joy and blessing. We also blessed those who were opposed to us. He sums it up with this sentence, "Lord, continue to give us hearts that bless our enemies and lips that prise You as we face the challenge of the days before us."

I remember Cherie MacArthur so well. When I got out of the Navy, she was still a petty officer on active duty. She was having a problem with her boss (a CPO) and I used to get up every morning a pray with her before work.
I have vague memories of this letter written by Kathy Yoder, but I don't specifically remember her. This is a real neat letter in support of the community. I know that this letter is written from the "inside", but there was a lot of support from "outside" even here in Chula Vista.

I also remember well when Ken was sick with his equilibrium problems. I relate to this because for the last couple of weeks, this has afflicted me also. I also relate to Ken's reflections on the frailty of life since I have had a heart attack and a stroke, yet still going strong.
Abbacraft in Elementary Schools illustrates the principle that we really wanted to be of service within the community. We weren't doing it to gain political clout or really to curry favor with the people. This was just the way that we understood that we were to serve Jesus.

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 41, October 21, 1975

Ken always had a good way of putting things. Here he not only discusses "ways of the world" that seek the illusion of peace, but also false ways that the church peace. He states that it is only by being right with God that we really experience peace.
Once again, we hear the theme of unity. This is not only a big theme in the Bible, it was a real thing for us in community also. Of course we were criticized from outside because people thought that we enforcing some kind of rigid conformity on people.

Years later I had the thrill of leading this psalm (Hiney ma tov -- Behold how good . . .) while riding the bus into Jerusalem.
Clay continues alongside the same track as Ken from last week's issue. We not only expect opposition, but we meet that opposition with love and grace.

I don't know what happened with Harry Orgovan. He was a young man in the community. I didn't know him well, but did play golf with Harry and Tom McCulloch which brought about stories about any Tom, Dick and Harry.
Rudyard Kipling really wasn't a regular contributor to OLT. This is a delightful poem. I think it illustrates the fact that our community was made up of a lot of well read people. Education was a high priority within the community. I think it is borne out by the fact of how many people hold college degrees (now) and many advanced degrees. No, I don't know the actual number, but I can mentally count many. There are probably many more that I don't know about.
As I read this article by Ken, I was saying, "I just read that." Actually part of his thoughts here a played out in a later issue that I just uploaded to Facebook a little while ago. He paints a good picture of finding the ideal by just being who we are rather than seeking the ideal. Of course I like his quoting of Bonhoeffer.
Two things that I am reminded of on this page, 1) we were a patriotic lot who believed in the general belief that our forefathers had in God and 2) we weren't afraid to celebrate Halloween. Over the years, I had a lot of people complain that we couldn't celebrate Halloween in the church (I do understand their complaint), but here we were in the midst of our community, boldly using the word Halloween.
Once again, I believe that this is one of Brenda's pictures.

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 40, October 14, 1975 Part 2

Ken begins to describe the irony as on one hand he receives the Humanitarian of the Year award -- given by the City Council -- the same City Council that would later present him with a "city nuisance" award -- for the same actions! What a crazy world!
I think that most of us resonated with Ken's thoughts that "we must be doing something right." There are many instances in the New Testament and the words of Jesus that we would face persecution in this world. Having some understanding of this was a lot of comfort to us. Many of us were used to being looked up to. Now we were getting used to being looked down on. Our principle enemies were non-religious who were frightened of us (hippy communes in our city), cult watchers who equated us with such groups as "The Children of God" and "normal" churches, even those of our own denomination. We were actually picketed by one of our churches in this area. Nasty times. I worked with Bud Miller as guest master (the person(s) who placed new people in the community) and another irony is the number of times that pastors who disapproved of us, called us when they had a person that they couldn't handle. Interesting.

This is an actual report of the banquet honoring Ken and Mona. I assume that it was written by Larry Clark. I think that the involvement by both Ken and Mona in civic life is eye opening. We were so maligned as being some kind of counter cultural group! Certainly we were, but we weren't disengaged with the cultural norms either.

I have mentioned before that the Church of The Redeemer in Houston TX was like a mentor church to us. Here Ken is going to speak to them. Then he and Dale Hunter go to Bogota, Columbia to minister. Once again, the world-wide ministry that Ken had.
I really don't know anything about where this little piece came from.
Larry's last paragraph says it all: "We have passed the point where we can be either too elated by man's recognition, nor too cast down by man's disapproval."

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 40, October 14, 1975 Part 1

This is one of Ken's controversial articles. I don't argue with his point, that unity is perhaps the main purpose within the Body of Christ; the church. He defends this point well. We were meant to be one as Jesus and the Father were one. I think my only argument was that Ken began to develop the theory that the way that we lived, this kind of community was the only way to successfully live the Christian Life. Later, Ken was to say that no one who doesn't live in residential community can really understand the New Testament. I certainly don't agree with that, but community does help us along in the quest for unity. Ken's position was the stance of most of us in community at the time. One of our strengths and, perhaps, one of our weaknesses. How could this be a weakness? It made us blind to any other options. As community fell apart, we really had no where to go -- and we were like the characters on the TV show "Lost", knowing there was a deeper purpose, but not knowing how to find it.
This article by Clay is a little gem. He defends living an authentic life. We don't try to offend people, but we are authentically who we are wherever we are and with whoever we are in association.
Here Ken begins an article that sets forth the irony of the selection of Mona and Ken as Humanitarians of the Year in the context of some pretty bitter opposition. I will discuss this more in the next posting.

Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 39, October 7, 1975

This is an interesting article on love. Love was a very important issue in the life of the community and the church. This wasn't just because it was the 70s, love is one of the most important values in the New Testament; certainly in the life of Jesus. On a practical level, community could only exist where people loved one another. Stating this also demands and explanation -- this was the 70s. Read Ken's article closely. He is not discussing sexual immorality. He is talking about genuine, life giving, self giving love. This kind of love is at the heart of relationships. Personal relationships remained at the center of our lives at FBCCV (probably to the present day) certainly until my retirement in 2005. My last sermon was titled, "When all is said and done, all the matters is our relationships."
I assume this delightful picture is by Brenda Gire (now Smith). She was a master at portraying the sweetness of children and animals. Bobby Dyal was an older gentleman who was with us off and on. Maybe someone else could update us on him. I don't know whether he is still alive or not.
The letter from the Hadfields , missionaries in Indonesia once again points out the influence of Ken's ministry. I suppose that they are retired by now, I lost touch with them. They were on our prayer list of missionaries for many years.

More will be said in later issues about the selection of Ken and Mona as Humanitarians of the Year.
The pictures of the baptisms brings back memories. Tom Scott is performing them. Tom is a layman who was head of one of our non-residential households. Professionally he was/is a painter. He and his wife still live in Chula Vista and, as far as I know, still serve the Lord. I remember the Macagnos and Belle Farry. Belle is the grandmother of Brenda who's artwork appears a few pages back. I don't remember Ronnie Smith.

Larry Clark could always be counted on for interesting articles. He rightly points to the fact that the Charismatic Renewal brought about a flood of new music. This lead to our need to get rid of our hymnbooks. It isn't that the hymns were bad, it is just that there were new songs appearing all of the time. Now with the modern projection equipment, updates are quite easy -- not so at that time.
Several people are mentioned in "All in the Family." Of note are the Wiseman Sisters -- I have mentioned them before. I remember when Sven Boysen visited.
Happy Birthday Phil Woodend -- a young Phil. Phil is one of my friends on Facebook. He was an elder for years and a good friend. He now lives in Corona with his wife -- still serving the Lord.

Our Life Together Vol. 3, Nr. 38, September 23, 1975

This is one of the "heavy" calls to radical commitment that came periodically from Ken. I didn't disagree and still don't, Jesus calls us to radical commitment. In this article Ken discusses enemies of the cross who are Christians and a part of the church. The problem that makes them enemies of the cross is that they have not suffered the cross in their own lives. They are still culturally part of the secular world even though they make all the proper professions of faith.
This is a beautiful piece by Larry Clark about an intimate time with God. Larry was (is?) a great writer. He tells of this experience in such a way that I almost feel like I am there with him. It certainly makes me hunger for an experience like this. Even though this is a personal experience and not a "how to" article, his discussion of speaking in tongues puts the use of this gift into proper perspective. Of course many of us have had wonderful experiences like this, but I appreciate Larry sharing this one with us.
Children were always important to the church and the community. God blessed us with a lot of them. The "School for Young Children" was an important ministry in the church and still is. The school was a commercial enterprise (non-profit) that operated within all of the governmental regulations. It was professional and still is, but that was never the motivation. The motivation was to minister to our children. In doing so, many of our adults were trained in this ministry and were able to make a living. It was a great win-win ministry.

Last week, my wife's sister died. This week one of my young members' mother died. Death is a reality. Ruth Jamison wrote a beautiful little piece. I assume that she also placed the little devotional article with it. This is still helpful 35 years later.
I remember Joyce Carter very well although it is probably 30 years since I have seen her. This is another touching little article. It illustrates how seriously our people really took the responsibility to me ministers wherever they were. I think that most of us really saw our secular jobs as ministries. That was one of the very beneficial side effects of the community.
Here is a delightful little picture. Once again you see the emphasis on children. I think that we not only loved the children, but we took seriously the words of Jesus, "Unless you become as children you cannot enter the Kingdom of God." (I probably shouldn't have used quotes --the are unchecked and are by memory.)

Our Life Together Vol. 3, Nr. 37, September 16, 1975 -- Part 2

This is an unusual graphic from our artists. A reminder that we need to take in the blessings of God so that we don't crash.
Of course the little article that interests me most is the one about my apprenticeship. Actually I developed the apprenticeship program. The VA and State of California were most helpful in the process. I served in this program for two years and upon graduation received a certificate signed by Governor Deukmajian. I had to report monthly my hours in each of about 10 categories (I don't remember them all); custodial, administrative, teaching, directing choir, etc. Once my apprenticeship was completed (now I was a journeyman ministerial assistant) the church was listed by the state as qualified to train ministerial assistants under this apprenticeship program. Thereafter, all through the 70s and 80s, every year the state would ask if we had any applicants for the program. It was actually a good program. I think we were on to something. It sure helped me.
Of course, all during this time, we were struggling with our status concerning the city and the community. This is a scriptural encouragement that our struggle was nothing new.