Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 19 May 18, 1976

This issue starts with another piece of beautiful art work illustrating one of my favorite scripture verses. This particular verse has meant a lot to me since high school. However this scripture really helped me at a Labor Day Family Camp in 1971. Linda and I had planned on attending the camp, but things changed when I was scheduled for surgery the week before camp. I went through the surgery and was feeling pretty good. Initially, I was to stay in the hospital for the weekend. Then, on Friday afternoon, the doctor announced that since I was doing so well, I could go home for the weekend, providing I took it easy, and return to the hospital on Tuesday. Wow, we got to go to Family Camp! When we got there, a group of the men (remember particularly Wallie Gray) hiked down to the falls -- it was easy. There was one problem; when a person hikes down, they have to hike back up. All of a sudden I understood the doctor's word about taking things easy. I was weak and really didn't think I was going to be able to get back to the camp. Wallie walked behind me and kept repeating that verse over and over -- and of course, I made it. An important scripture to me.

Ken's article is about the command of God that we should bless those around us. This article is still applicable. He not only provides the biblical commands to bless, but describes what blessing is and what it does. Greg Boyd a pastor in Minnesota (ex professor of Theology) spoke a couple of years ago at the Holy Spirit Conference at Green Lake WI. One of the things he described was how he finally realized that God had called him to be a "blessing machine."

A blessing to me was reading the letter from David Bishop. David was the rector of the Anglican Church in Oxford, England. He and his wife, Elizabeth, spent about six months with us. They lived at Westby House, so I got to know David very well. He was, and still is, a good man. He is now retired and lives in England. He was with us during some of the tough times. I am tempted to give some David Bishop anecdotes (he was a colorful person) but I will restrain myself.

McFoone learns to deal with doubt.

Clay follows this with an exhortation for us to stop being self satisfied. We need to repent, look at ourselves (reality check) and press on. This is a very typical word -- Clay was always pushing us on. He was good at it and we needed it. I am glad to be a part of the Holy Spirit Renewal Ministry (HSRM) of which Clay is the national chair; he is still good at this kind of exhortation.

There was a real attempt on the part of the households to be a vital part of the neighborhood. It actually worked. In spite of the uproar with the city and with some of her citizens, we really were good neighbors. I remember our children attending "Good News Clubs." Baptisms were also a regular part of our ministry.

Next comes a two page artwork illustration "The Weight of Glory" by C.S. Lewis. If you have been following this blog, you have already seen that Lewis was "big" at FBCCV in the 70s.

Larry Clark gives a nice little review of the "Singer" by Calvin Miller. Miller was a fairly prolific author. I had the opportunity to meet him in the 80s while I was attending a ministers retreat at 1000 Pines; an interesting man. On another note, many of the people in community were doing a lot of reading. A high percentage of the young people were attending college. Our people were really not the "dregs of society."

Larry's wife Joyce was the church secretary. She wrote quite a lot for OLT, usually short little articles about the gentleness of the Lord in dealing with us. 

I forgot to mention that on the last page there was a thank you from Brian and Pam Gire for the support of the community at their marriage. Marriages were big events in community. Everyone came, rejoiced, ate and shared what they had to make things work.

On the current page is more of the performances of "If My People."

We believed that the Lord spoke "prophecy" through our people. We didn't put too many of them into print, but this is an example of one. Judy Alsop was one of our leading ladies. She currently lives with her husband in the LA area.


I won't go over the "In the Family Section," but if your were in community in the 70s or know some people who were, this is the section to read for news about individuals.


We also included little articles from other churches such as the "contemporary" paraphrase of 1 Cor. 13 -- not very contemporary now.

In addition to the conclusion of the article and a short review of another book, we have the announcement of the marriage of Mike Secor and Carolyn Dietz. They are still married and live locally.

Prophecy from outside the church was very unusual for OLT -- but here one is. This is the conclusion of this issue.

Our Life Together Vol. 4 Nr. 18, May 11, 1976

This certainly looks like 1976; the "wooden" frame and the drawing of the city set on a hill. This drawing shows up a number of times in Our Life Together as well as in other words from Abba Craft.

The article, "The Evangelistic Lifestyle" by Ken Pagard, starts with a report from one of our men's retreats. It is still amazing to me that we had these retreats with 90 to 100 men; this was a significant proportion of our congregation. They were very rich times.

Ken starts with a description of the retreat. We sang together; worshiping the Lord. Then we divided into small groups to discuss an issue seeking to discern God's word to us. This was a pretty standard procedure for our men's retreats. It was also our procedure for Elders retreats except that the elders usually didn't divide into small groups. Doing evangelism was a very common area for discussion in the church. One of the main purposes for the community was that of evangelism, but we didn't like the idea of formal evangelistic programs. As stated in the article, "When our lives are full of Jesus, what springs forth naturally is evangelism." 

One of our editors and leaders of Abba Craft, Jerry Jamison, inserts an exhortation for all readers to be writers for OLT. If we are all experiencing our life together, then we should report our experiences to Our Life Together so that we can all share.

Ken continues his article to expound on the areas that we should be concerned with when we think of evangelism; our neighborhood and our place of employment. He says that this seems like the easiest form of evangelism since it isn't some kind of formal program. Yet, this kind of evangelism requires us to always reflect the life of Christ within us. In other words, we are always of stage; that city set upon a hill.

Clay Ford continues his "Call to Revolution" by giving a short history of the Great Awakening. This page is a good synopsis of that period in our country's history.

Clay continues by demonstrating how the Great Awakening helped to shape the Christian underpinnings of the people in the colonies as they entered into the revolt against Great Britain. He does also report that all of the leaders weren't Christians, but does state that the heart of the revolution was a people wanting to serve God. Then he goes on to state that in this Bicentennial Year (remember this is 1976) that we should renew our focus on God and pray for the Spirit to descend again upon us and bring renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Clay and Cheri Ford announce a new column reporting on how God is working in the lives of our people. There is also an announcement of an upcoming Baptism. This was such a regular occurrence. What a great time. Oh how I would love to see this at Bay View Baptist in this day (This is the church I currently serve.)

As always, McFoone speaks for himself.

Looking at the "In the Family" section always brings back memories as I look at the names. We really were a family. Gary and Georgia did have a wonderful wedding. More importantly they are still together and still serving the Lord. Finally notice the dates of our Summer Program for children! By the 80s when I was pastor, a week or two was a major undertaking. In my present church, a week is impossible. We did the whole Summer. What a time!

Elders notes were my only regular writing assignments in this day. A big issue: the kids were coming in and eating all the food before the adults could get any.