Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 9 March 2, 1976

Ken begins this article about the Easy Yoke, which is an exposition of Matthew 11:28-30. This scripture is a promise by Jesus that the Christian life is easy. The problem we were experiencing in community is that we experienced much of the life as difficult and wearisome. I suppose that many Christians today would say the same thing about their Christian walk, so perhaps this is still a timely article.

Essentially Ken describes two kinds of difficulty; that of healing which brings pain, and a refusal to cooperate with God. He states that the first difficulty, healing, is unavoidable. God wants us to be whole and sometimes the process hurts. The second, Ken describes as an insubmissive spirit. Of course those of us who were a part of community find our ears perking up as we suspect a lecture on submission and authority. Yet Ken doesn't really go there. But the themes of God's "inner healing" and the reality of submission and authority were understood as basic within the church and community.

The article on Elder's Authority actually begins on the previous page and ends on the next page. Ken describes this authority so nicely; the elders were meant to help people hear from God -- not to make decisions for the people. The people were also free to listen or not to listen. The problem was that the people -- and the elders themselves -- didn't always operate that way. Sometimes the people really gave the elders to much authority, and sometimes the elders assumed too much authority. When this happened, people felt used and abused.

McFoone shows his agreement with Ken's exposition on the Authority of Elders. Tim Pagaard has since changed his opinion, as have many in the community at that time. As one of the elders, I can say that I struggled with this issue at the time. Currently, I think that this authority as Ken described it was OK, but in practice it can really cause problems. I know that we really moved away from this after I became pastor.

Clay in this article on Evangelism which ends on the next page, puts his finger on another issue that faced the community in the mid to latter 70s; was our focus on winning people to Jesus or moving into the deeper things of the Christian life. Of course in looking back, there is room for both, but this wasn't really happening. When community started, evangelism was front and center. There seemed to be always room for one more in the household. Then we began to deal with the deep emotional, mental problems with people and we couldn't upset them by bringing new people in. Evangelism began to suffer. New people bring life. I believe that this was one of the issues that started us on the downward spiral.

This was a nice little letter from Dale Funkhouser. Dale was the son of Charles Funkhouser who was a leader in the church until just recently. Charles was a finance person. He kept the church financially solvent for many years. He like all of us is getting old -- and he suffers from Parkinson's disease and is no longer in charge of the finances of the church. Like all financial people, he didn't make us happy all the time, but he did a great job.

This is one of the songs  by the most prolific Brian Gire. He was very active in the music ministry for several years. My understanding is that he is still active in music and living in northern California. Of course the illustration is by Abbagraphics.

Larry as usual brings an affirming word. I think that many of us in the 70s felt that we were never able to live up to expectations. Larry (and God's word) tells us that we don't have to.

This is another example of the activity of FBCCV throughout the country and even elsewhere. A lot of people went to a lot of places. At that time, I was one of the stay at homes. I thought I would never be asked to go anywhere. How wrong I was.