Enchanted Community

BLOG. 2/13/13: CRUISING MINDLESSLY, THOUGH SINCERELY, THROUGH LENT

Ah, today is Ash Wednesday. Driving down the boulevard many churches are festooned with purple banners, or crosses draped with purple, heralding the Lenten season. I find myself wondering how many of the thousands driving down the same boulevard care, or even have a clue what that is all about other than it’s some weird thing that church people get into every year.

But the more pressing question to me is: How many of the folk inside the church even have a clue except that its something we do between Epiphany and Easter, and we’re supposed to be penitent and contrite, and give up something to indicate our self-denial and contrition?

Mindlessness is an omnipresent affliction in all too much of religious Christianity. We do things because, somehow, that’s what we do in church.

Maybe it’s because of my Scottish Presbyterian and Puritan roots in which Christmas and Easter were not special days, but that Christ’s incarnation, life, ministry, sufferings, death and resurrection were insistent upon us every time we gathered—every Sabbath is Christmas and every Sabbath is Easter. Of course, that all got lost somewhere along the way, but I am still influenced by that rich legacy.

Humility, self-denial, contrition, confession … those are always wholesome disciplines when they lead us to true freedom in Christ.

But there’s a bigger picture that is so tragically ignored in all too much of the church’s self-understanding: that picture has to do with the cosmic impact of what Christ came to be and to do. What is ignored so frequently is: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8).

Yes, there was a cosmic rebellion and the whole creation was defiled (and taken captive) and we are complicit in that treason. God’s design in Christ was to invade his own creation, expose Satan’s darkness, and to destroy his power and the effects of his rebellion at the cross. Jesus came to storm the gates of hell. Christmas and Easter only take on their awesome cosmic meaning in the light of that purpose. Paul, in Ephesians, is consumed with the very reality that in Christ “the mystery hidden for ages” is revealed in the unsearchable riches of who Christ is and what he did.

We only truly understand what is behind the scenes when Herod seeks to destroy this one in the massacre of the innocents. We only understand Satan’s motives as he seeks to tempt Jesus away from the cross in that early encounter and those temptations in the wilderness. Jesus’ ministry of healing and exorcisms take on significance when we see in them his undoing Satan’s destructive reign.

Should we be penitent? Should we be contrite? Should we confess our sins? Absolutely, but only as a healthy discipline of coming again into a dynamic relationship with God and with his beautiful purpose in creating us in his own image.

Lenten pageantry without this profound awareness of the cosmic redemption, that liberation from the dominion of darkness and the glorious liberty of the children of God that comes through faith in Jesus and his great deliverance …. is hollow. Jesus came to reconcile heaven and earth by his cross, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is our every day, every month, every season calling and joy. That is or faith and hour hope.

Think about it! I mean, really think about it. Don’t do Lent mindlessly. OK?

BLOG 2/11/13. ONE POPE … OR 1.2 BILLION CATHOLIC LAITY?

The news that has broken, and become worldwide headlines, is that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning because age and declining energy. Any of us that age can identify with the reality. But as the readers of my Blogs probably have discerned, I am one of those champions of the true ministry of the church (Roman Catholic, Protestant, etc.) which is the ministry of all of God’s people for the 150-160 hours a week that they are not in gatherings with other Christian folk, but in ministry to the stranger at the gate, to their fellow workers, to neighbors, students, social friends, patients, students, artists, etc.

It is in those hours and in those places that the church (or, all of God’s people) becomes the incarnation of “the radiant display of the divine nature”—or the glory of God—visible to the real persons at the grassroots of this world. Such a conception of, what I have called elsewhere: “the church on Thursday afternoon” … opens up the reality of every believer’s participation in what God is doing in the world.

So this news about the pope is, of course, interesting and will cause some interesting in-house politics within the Roman Church. But stop and think: there is one pope but there are something like 1.2 billion Roman Catholic communicants. There are about 120 cardinals who will meet in the Sistine Chapel, out of sight and communication, to choose the next pontiff.

But there are 1.2 billion (that’s billion with a b) across the world, who may be curious about the new pope, but whose lives and ministry day-by-day in their workplaces, families, and neighborhoods will be essentially untouched by what transpires in Rome.

The missing piece is: that Paul in his letter to the Ephesians teaches that all of God’s people are to be formed into maturity, into the image of Christ, into self-reproducing persons, as they are equipped in four clearly stated dimensions by those possessors of specific gifts: 1) apostle, or the missionary gift, or missionary church-planter since every one’s home or dwelling place is to be a potential church plant (whee!); 2) prophet, or ability to discern the cultural and social setting of one’s life and incarnation, i.e., cultural analysis; 3) evangelist, the capacity to communicate effectively in conversation (or however) with those who are still outside of the family of God; and 4) by a teaching shepherd so that they are thoroughly conversant with the word of Christ so as to be formed by it and able to minister it to one another.

The tragedy is that whenever the church creates a form of church leadership (pope, clergy, etc.) that obfuscates this thrilling role of equipping every one of Christ’s people for the mission, then it misses its purpose. There is no Biblical mandate for a church hierarchy, Catholic or otherwise, but there are in the church’s history those who took this equipping priority seriously, and the church grew exponentially.

I gotta quit for the moment, but I’ll come back to this. And, by the way, my book in which I wrestle with this theme was released last week by Wipf and Stock Publishers under the title: The Church and the Relentless Darkness.

Peace!

BLOG 2/07/13 WHO ARE THE LABORERS WE ARE ASKED TO PRAY FOR?

There is a very familiar saying in the teachings of Jesus that goes like this: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest” (Matthew 9:17). It is my (Bob Henderson’s) personal opinion that this is a text that has been hijacked and misused tragically by missionary zealots. Let me explain.

I have been reading of a personal journey by a person into the Christian faith, and one of her very supportive friends in that journey heard that text quoted in a missionary conference, and concluded that to be a faithful laborer, one should go to seminary and become a church professional, and it all became very traumatic, if not disastrous, for that person. I was a victim of a similar “full-court press” into (so-called) full-time Christian service as an adolescent—and at this point am thankful, but with some reservations. The implication was that if you really wanted your life to be significant to God, then the route was to become an overseas missionary, or a church professional, or some such.

Please note right here that I am very aware of the vast need for messengers to go to the unreached people groups in the world. I’m enormously thankful for the great Urbana Missionary Conferences sponsored by Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, and the thousands of gifted young men and women confronted with the mission of God in the world.

But as one recent speaker at Urbana reminded his audience, that the initial object of our missionary efforts should be our next-door neighbor.

The harvest field is the real world around us. It is our home, our neighborhood, our workplace, our hangouts, our professional or occupational associates (even out churches?)—wherever. When the account in the Acts of the Apostles declares that “the word went everywhere,” and that day-by-day multitudes were being added to the church … it is the account of a contagious Christian community that couldn’t keep the thrilling news of Jesus a secret, or hide their new creation lives of faith, hope and love.

The laborers we are to pray for are, primarily, every member of the Christian community, and the focus of our gatherings is never to be detached from our calling to be the church scattered into the harvest field as laborers. If there is an obvious mandate for the teaching forum, or for the teaching-shepherd of a community, it is according the Ephesians 4 to equip God’s people for maturity and ministry as evangelists, church planters, and discerning of the cultural-social-economic-existential context of our daily lives.

And in this global society of the moment, it is to equip God’s people to know how to be the children of Light in their international business trips and conferences.

Pray to the Lord of the harvest for laborers? Absolutely. Who are they? Look in your mirror.

And then, and only then, if folk in our Christian community are obviously gifted as communicators of the gospel of the Kingdom, the rest of us might encourage them if they themselves sense God opening some door in another region of the world in need of Light in the darkness.

Meanwhile, missiologist are recognizing that Europe, Great Britain, and North America are major unreached (post-Christian) mission fields themselves.

We live in the midst of the whited-harvest field. We are the laborers. All of us, every baptized believer by virtue of his/her baptism is ordained to be God’s missionary people.

Go for it!

BLOG 2/4/13. A MEDITATION FOR DISCOURAGED MISSIONERS

A week ago, at the gathering of the Christian community, I had a brief conversation over coffee with a chap who was feeling a bit insignificant in the church’s mission since, as he stated it: he only was a truck driver for a delivery service. I have been reflecting on how sad it is that we glamorize the more public professional missionaries, and do not realize that all of God’s sons and daughters are called to be agents of Light wherever they live and operate. I want to share this meditation of mine, that came to me in a time of discouragement about a decade ago, partly provoked by a closing soliloquy of Ransom’s at the end of C. S. Lewis’ Perelandra.

___________

A MEDITATION

I am not some other real or imagined saint, …

I am myself in Christ, unique child of my Father,

Not somehow, somewhere,

Not when or if,

Not there and then …

But here and now,

these circumstances,

these persons,

this place and this moment.

This is when and where

I am to be the very glory of God,

God’s enchanted, truly human person.

This, then, is a sacred time and place,

This moment, in which I find myself.

It will never return. Life is today.

Come, Holy Spirit!

Hallowed be Thy Name.

– © Robert Thornton Henderson. 1/16/05 –

________

Nobody else has the daily encounters, opportunities, engagements and personal conversations that you and I do. These are all unique in the mission of God.

“In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” Go for it!

Peace.

BLOG 1/30/13. MISSIONS AS ENTERTAINMENT?

In my (long) lifetime I have watched the emergence of annual missions conferences in church communities as a significant point in a community’s calendar. It was good and exciting to bring in an array of folk who were doing fruitful work in exotic places, and among those who had never heard the gospel, and to hear their stories. Nothing wrong with that. Thank God for faithful missioners.

But then I became close friends with several folk who totally converted me into seeing missions from a much more immediate perspective … like in the daily lives and workplace of all of God’s people. Advocates of this perspective such Bob Slocum, Howard Blake, and Pete Hammond all became my friends. Howard even arranged a pilgrimage in which a number of us were guests of the Vatican to be in dialogue with members of the Curia about the work of Vatican II on implementing the ministry of the laity. Then Pete Hammond, in evaluating the large Urbana Missionary Convention of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, noted that of the many thousands of young men and women who attended these conventions, only a very small percentage committed themselves to overseas mission … while the rest (as Pete put it) returned to one the major mission fields in the world, namely, the North American workplace, yet feeling a bit guilty that they were not going overseas.

With that in mind he put together some Marketplace Ministry consultations to engage folk who had a vision for their presence in the workplace as God’s place of mission for them with older mentors who could assist them in this journey. The enthusiasm went off the chart.

Meanwhile, here comes Lesslie Newbigin back from a lifetime of work as a missionary in south India, to find that it was much more difficult to preach the gospel in Manchester, England, than it was in south India, and so initiated conversations on the missional dimension of each congregation. God’s people spend only a couple of hours a week as the church gathered, but they spend over 150 hours as the church scattered. How does the church equip them for those 150 hours and how is it that those hours the scene of each believer’s missionary incarnation?

Such radical rethinking of the the missional essence of the church can be somewhat at odds with the church providing an annual missionary conference to entertain the folk with the missionary obedience of someone else. Call if vicarious missionary obedience, if you will. Give a few bucks to support a good brother or sister in Bangladesh and assume that I have obeyed my missionary calling.

OK, but what those who study missions now understand is that North America, along with Europe and Great Britain are some of the most unreached mission fields in the world, they are post-Christian. That means that every one of us lives in an unreached missionary context. The real people and the social-cultural-economic-ethical realities of each of our lives is where God places us in the mission of God. This makes my daily presence important. Whether I drive a UPS truck, or am a skilled neurosurgeon, or a clerk in a huge organization, or wherever … there you and I are to be children of light, contagious sons and daughters of our Redeemer God, commissioned by our baptism to be his agents of the Great Commission.

This makes our neighborhood and our workplace sacred. Missionary conferences are only valid if they assist you and me in this calling … otherwise they are a liability.

We are all to be disciple-makers. If we are not … then the church itself becomes the mission field!

Peace.

BLOG 1/28/13. HOW ABOUT OUR MISSION TO THE EMERGING GENERATION?

In many church traditions the season of Epiphany is also the time when the church revisits its priority on missions, this because of the encounter of the Middle Eastern astronomers/wise men with the infant Jesus. That encounter has become a link with the other religions and regions of the world far beyond the realm of Judaism, and reminds us that the Christian faith is for every people group/nation/ethne in the world. And, to be sure, the Christian faith does now have a communal presence in a large number of these nations.

Forgive me if I insert here, however, a question that gets too often overlooked: Why is it that the church doesn’t look missiologically at its own emerging generation, and especially as that generation emerges within the Christian community … and then forsakes it all in adulthood? What is it that these younger persons see, or fail to see, in the older generation that sends them, so often, looking elsewhere for their hope and meaning and relationships.

The psalmist prays: “Even when I am old and grey do not forsake me, O God, ‘til I declare Your power to the next generation: Your might to all who are to come.” – Psalm 71:18 –

Again: “Let this be recorded for a generation yet to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.” – Psalm 102:18 –

Or perhaps: “The righteous flourish like the palm tree … They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.” – Psalm 92:12-14 –

After all, I’m an old guy! I hope I will always be one of those sappy, green, growing entities, who brings forth fruit in these octogenarian years of mine.

The fact is that kids need, not only teachers, not only wisdom figures, but also mentors and models of vital, excited, knowledgeable, and transforming faith in Christ. They need to see older disciples of Jesus Christ who are excited about the faith, who are episodes of love, who are still curious about life, and alive to the culture and to life’s questions, who can handle life’s doubts.

But for such an encounter between generations to take place there has to be intention, there has to be conversation, there has to be humor, and there absolutely must be something so authentic in the lives of these older and more mature believers in Christ that will cause the younger generation to ask what is their secret. I’ve watched this happening from time to time. I’ve seen kids who move toward a kind of contagious older man or woman, and who love to be near them. Who needs dull, consumer church members, who attend all the church meetings but are annoyed with the unpredictability of youth, and with their often impetuousness?

I have watched some younger adolescent friends of mine plop down next to their own father in true love, and engage in conversation. I have seen them, likewise, seek out the company of other adults who loved them and delighted in engaging in conversation about their daily lives, and visited them in some of their activities. I have high hopes for that kind of engagement with the emerging generation. But it is all too rare.

The church is always one generation away from extinction. Come Holy Spirit; anoint your older faithful for this priority mission to the generation now emerging. Cause this new generation to see in us contagious models of faith and love and hope.

Happy Epiphany!

BLOG 1/24/13. WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE?

Last Sunday in Christian gatherings all over this country folk prayed: “ … Thy kingdom [literally] be coming, Thy will be being done on earth as it is in heaven.” Then on Monday the nation celebrated two national events: one honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the other the inauguration of the president of the United States. Then, next Sunday Christian folk will be praying again: “ … Thy kingdom be coming, Thy will be being done on earth …”

Question: In our own time and space, in this civitas, in this body politic, in these United States, what would it look like for God’s kingdom, God’s New Creation in Christ, to be made visible, to take on flesh and blood reality?

When Jesus initiated his public ministry in Palestine (and the Roman Empire), he quoted from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then, he announced: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

What would such a manifestation actually look like?

With that introduction he began to go about preaching the good news of the kingdom of God.

OK?

At the end of his life he made another public statement to the effect that when he, the Son of Man, returns at the end of the age, he will gather all peoples before him … and judge them on the basis of whether or not they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, took the homeless poor into their homes, and visited the debtor-prisoners. “Inasmuch as you have done/not done this unto the least of these my brethren, you have/have not done it unto me.”

The dimensions of kingdom priorities and manifestations become clearer, don’t they?

What would that look like in present day incarnation?

At the heart of Jesus teaching is his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew) or Sermon on the Plain (Luke), which spells out in some detail the visible manifestations and the ethical dimensions of the kingdom Jesus was inaugurating. It began with a list of visible manifestations of kingdom presence in the lives of God’s kingdom people that make them to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world—visible kingdom presence. The blessings are upon those who are poor (Luke), or identify with the poor (Matthew), the merciful, the peacemakers, those eager to do what is right, those who mourn over the victims of the tragic, and those who are willing to be persecuted for righteousness, those of pure intent, and those willing to take the verbal abuse that so often assails God’s folk.

So, then, in this civitas, which we call the United States of America, when we pray for the dynamic coming of God’s kingdom … what so we anticipate that it would look like?

What is the agenda of the kingdom of God here and now?

Unless you really do a radical spin job on these New Testament teachings, or are really dense, the coming of God’s kingdom into this scene would have (in the presence of those of us who are primarily citizens of the kingdom of God but incarnate in this present body politic) all of the flavor of these kingdom descriptions.

When you pray the Lord’s prayer on next Sunday, be aware that you are praying a prayer with radical political implications.

Peace!

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BLOG 1/21/13: THE TOO-OFTEN SILENCE OF THE CHURCH WHEN IT SHOULD BE PROPHETIC

Today is a day full of drama with the inauguration of our president, and of remembering the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today it is acceptable to celebrate Dr. King. Yesterday in many churches there was reference made to Dr. King’s heroic contribution of racial justice. But it was not always so, and many of the churches where there was positive mention of him on yesterday were strangely silent those 50+ years ago. It is so much easier to affirm the prophets after it becomes safe to do so.

You see, Martin Luther King, Jr. was only a year younger than I, and so I lived through those same tumultuous civil rights days. He and I both grew up in the solidly segregated South, but on opposite sides of the racial divide. I was the son of a white separate-but-equal set of parents, when segregation was the norm, and was hardly ever discussed. I went to an all white high school, an all white men’s college, and an all white seminary. I had no significant contact with any black persons until I was ordained, campus pastor at North Carolina State College (which was still all white), and was about 26 years old. What went on in the black community didn’t get much press in my all-white world.

Dr. King, conversely, was a son of privilege: the son and grandson of a distinguished black family in Atlanta, and the son and grandson of prominent pastors. He went to the elite black college: Morehouse. He did his graduate work and received his doctorate from Boston University in Massachusetts, and so would have had significant interaction with his fellow white students there.

Within the black church there was the inescapable daily reality of the racial injustice with which the members lived, but even there it was a bit dicey going too public with that because there were dangerous consequences of challenging the white establishment.

Dr. King could have become the trophy pastor of a significant black church in Montgomery, Alabama…. except for the emergence of a bold and prophetic lady by the name of Rosa Parks, whose courageous act of defiance of the system precipitated the Montgomery bus boycott, and Dr. King was called out of his comfort zone to become the prophetic and eloquent voice for a movement. But even they were not the pioneers. Others in even more hopeless times had sounded the prophetic word: Fannie Lou Hamer, Asa Philip Randolph, and many others.

There were prophetic voices in the white church, but, again, it was not safe to challenge the prevailing white supremacy of that mid-twentieth century culture. Church leaders who did voice support for racial justice were subject to unpleasant repercussions. Pastors who spoke out were often harassed out of pulpits, or suffered breakdowns. It was not safe to be a public advocate of civil rights. There were strong prophetic voices from within the white community but they were reviled as radicals or “communists.” One thinks of P. D. East and his Petal Papers, or Will Campbell, or Clarence Jordan.

But all too much of the white church was silent through it all. Its leaders waited until it was safe to testify to their support of King and the movement.

One might compare that day to ours as being like one who today is leader of a church full of investment bankers, or folk whose income came from investments, touting his or her support of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, and its protest against economic injustice!

Being prophetic is our Kingdom calling, but it is never safe.

Peace!

BLOG 1/17/13. DIALOGUE: STRAIGHT CHRISTIANS AND GAY CHRISTIANS

Let’s begin with the fact that I’m a “straight” Christian guy, and am formed by my orthodox upbringing in Biblical teachings (with maybe a dash of Puritan thrown in). But then, I am currently more consumed with my calling to be a voice for what I choose to call missional ecclesiology, i.e., how the church understands and forms itself to accomplish that for which Christ calls it.

But a significant dimension of that has to do with understanding (or exegeting) the cultural setting in which the church finds itself, and the very real people to whom God longs to make known his grace and love. And the moment you say that you have to stop in your tracks and realize that all such people are those who are in various ways broken and in need of knowing that very grace and love—and that’s all of us, every one of us, no exceptions. (Earl Palmer once commented that the doctrine of original sin was the great democratizing principle in scripture—the great leveler, because it puts us all on the same ground.)

But back to where I started: the cultural, social, demographic context in which I live involves a very large community of “gay” (GLBT) folk, among whom I live, and who are my neighbors, and whom I love and appreciate. And I have to acknowledge that there has been a lot of ugliness in the relationships (or lack thereof) between the gay and straight communities all too often.

So that it was enormously helpful for me to receive the November-December issue of PRISM Magazine under the theme: “Beyond Labels, Finding our Identity in Christ,” which deals with this very issue. It is a refreshing approach. It is an issue of the magazine that deals, not with debates but with story telling, and listening, and coming to understand one another.

On the one hand we live in a morally ambiguous culture where “whatever” simply blows off any need to understand our behavior, and to relate such to God’s design. But such ambiguity doesn’t help with the real pain, the misunderstandings, and all that accompanies so many of us in understanding our sexual identity.

So it was marvelous to read of editor Kristyn Komarnicki forsaking her comfort zone and attending the annual conference of the Gay Christian Network, and having her eyes opened to the vital faith, the love and honesty of a beautiful group of Christian brothers and sisters who welcomed her, and affirmed her “straight” orientation, and appreciated her. It was the more marvelous that this provoked her, and Evangelicals for Social Action, to sponsor a retreat and conversation for a small mixed company of gay and straight Christians with no agenda, entitled: “Oriented to Love.” The November-December issue of PRISM contains the stories of a number of these participants, and it an incredible and eye-opening introduction to the grace of God at work in gifted persons of differing sexual orientation. It is available at: PRISMmagazine.org/orientedtolove. The whole issue of PRISM can be accessed as a PDF by Googling: beyond labels finding our identity in Christ. I commend it to my readers. The issue is also loaded with tons of good resource material.

Understanding this cultural reality and our mutual need of God’s grace is all significant in the mission of God.

Ron Sider, Evangelicals for Social Action, and PRISM Magazine have been a healthy prophetic voice for decades on such convulsive issue as racial justice, economic justice, war and peace, abortion, and so much more. They have done it again with this issue.

We’ll be coming back to this subject from time to time. We have much to learn from each other.

BLOG 1/14/13. BETTY HENDERSON: A MOST REMARKABLE EXAMPLE

Ninety years ago this month Betty Colburn was born in Kansas City, Kansas.

Sixty years ago she agreed to be my wife, and became Betty Colburn Henderson.

Fourteen months ago my Betty died, and I have now had time to reflect on the enormous impact she had on so many people, what with her quiet and authentic love for Jesus Christ. During this past year I have begun giving thought to a request, by many who are close to me, to write my memoirs (so they can figure out why I think as I do—or maybe why I am as weird as I am?). In the process of initiating this project I come back inescapably to the reality that Betty was the most dominant influence in my whole adult career, and yet was so wise and modest in her ministry to me. And our four children quite agree.

Wisdom and prayer may be the virtues that defined her the most. I depended upon her wisdom and her evaluations and her judgments far more than my own. But this evaluation is not mine alone. In these intervening months messages continue to come from a wide spectrum of her former young friends of what a transforming influence she was on them. She was to them a mentor, a wisdom figure, a mother-figure, a teacher, a model, and a prayer-partner … but always in her quiet self-effacing way.

I think it was Henri Nouwen who taught us to: “Seek littleness.” That was Betty. She eschewed anything that would bring attention to herself. But she loved people genuinely and quietly.

At the same time, she was part of some pretty impressive and influential councils on the larger church scene, but always doubting that she was having any influence on them. But that doubt was countered by those who have reported back to me that it was her quiet authenticity and wisdom that had huge influence on the rest.

She was always the prayer warrior at my back. She was always my champion, but she was also one who could guide me with her eye. A look from her could halt me in my tracks when she thought I was being hasty or unwise (which was frequently). She was thrifty with her complements about my teaching and my writings as a more public figure, but her contributions were all the more appreciated when she evaluated them because they were both affirming and substantive.

She was a woman of prayer. Ask her children! She was a mentor to numerous, primarily, young women (though she taught many groups of both men and women) both by her teaching them in small groups, or her one-on-one conversations. She prayed with them.  Sometimes when someone would ask Betty to pray for them, she would refuse only to offer to pray with them. Over coffee, over lunch, over the phone she quietly bore fruit right down to the day she died at eighty-eight years. At the reception after her memorial service the words of appreciation kept coming of how her quiet example and wisdom had transformed lives (that she even, unknowingly, kept one person from suicide). You would never have learned this from my Betty.

She was a giant. She was the most significant factor in my adult life and career. She is the one who deserves credit for whatever I may have accomplished.

My latest book (soon to be published by Wipf and Stock under the title: The Church and the Relentless Darkness) is dedicated to her, because literally her last spoken words were her prayers for the completion and fruitfulness of this book, and for my health to be able to finish it. It is dedicated to her.

I could not resist offering this tribute to this remarkable woman—partner, wisdom figure, lover, wife, mother, friend, and model of authentic Christian discipleship and love—on this blog.

May Jesus Christ give to his church a great host of such incarnations of his New Creation.