Do You Not See?
Stories
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Contents
A Story to Live By: "Do You Not See?"
Sharing Visions: "My Beloved" by Judie M. Jacobson
Good Stories: "Summer Rain" by Stan Purdum
Scrap Pile: "Establishing Goals in Ministry" by Bill Dow
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Dear StoryShare Friends,
Congratulations to Stan Purdum on his new book New Mercies I See, and a big thank you for sharing his powerful story "Summer Rain" in this week's StoryShare. Stan's book is full of touching stories that are a preacher's delight and also make good meeting starters or devotional reading. Our thanks to Bill Dow for sharing his experience as a trainer in the quality improvement process for a Fortune 500 company in this week's Scrap Pile.
A Story to Live By
Do You Not See?
"Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?"
Mark 7:18b
Ann Landers tells about a woman who was stark naked and just about to step in the shower when the doorbell rang. She hollered, "Who is it?" He shouted back, "It's the blind man." She figured it was safe, so she opened the door. He looked at her in shock and asked, "Where do you want these blinds, lady?"
The loss of eyesight is difficult to bear, but there are other kinds of blindness that are far more devastating. Rachel Naomi Remen writes, "What we believe about ourselves can hold us hostage. We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are."
Have you ever been cured of blindness? Was there a time in your life when you saw some truth about yourself and said, "How could I have been so blind?"
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Sharing Visions
My Beloved
by Judie M. Jacobson
The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.
Song of Solomon 2:8
Beth and David are a young couple in my congregation who have a wonderful relationship and a tremendous heart for people. One day while I was working at my desk, I received a phone call from Beth. It turned out to be a rare moment where I was given the opportunity to share my mystical, yet very "real," relationship with God, whom I call "My Beloved."
The night before, Beth and Dave were coming home from a special event that had given them both great joy, and they were sharing their joy with each other. It occurred to them that when I went home, I had no one with whom to share my joy. They were concerned for me as a single woman. Beth called to express this concern.
But I told her, "I do! I have God!" She continued by saying that was all well and good, but what did I do when everything seemed to go wrong and what I really needed was a hug -- and there was no one there. Again, I said, "But I do have someone there! I have God!
"Let me explain. Many times when I sit quietly in my early morning devotion time, I feel God brush hands down over my hair and kiss my upturned face or the top of my head. When I come home after a long day's work, I never feel that I come into an empty house. God's loving presence is always there to welcome me. When you go to bed at night with a broken heart or a heavy spirit, you curl up next to your husband and feel comforted. When I go to bed at night, I curl up next to God and feel comforted. I feel arms around me and am surrounded by a strong presence of love! The experience is as 'real' as any human partner's presence could provide."
"Plus," I joked with her, "God knows all my shortcomings and is more patient and understanding than any earthly partner I have ever known. There is no need for you and Dave to be concerned that I may be alone and uncared for. I have My Beloved, and it is more than enough!"
Judie M. Jacobson is a pastor, retreat leader, poet, writer, quilter, gourmet cook, and watercolor artist. She is a naturalist who loves tent camping, canoeing, and hiking. Judie has two grown children and two grandsons who are pure "joy." She serves in the Mineral County Parish in Superior, Montana. Write to her at P.O. Box 609, Superior MT 59872 or e-mail her at jmj@jefnet.com . Judie's story appears in Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles , edited by John E. Sumwalt (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, 2002).
Love
you are simply my best time.
you are my sweetest laughter.
you are my most peaceful sleep ...
and still!
you find new ways to love me.
always
you will have my hand to hold.
always ...
These "heartfelt words that express your deepest feelings about your beloved" are from the poet-artist Mary Anne M.B.L. Rademacher. Look for them on a print in "Rooms," a Marshall Field's Direct catalog (Autumn 2003), item # 511164, accented with paper and glitter, framed in metal under Plexiglas ...
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Good Stories
Summer Rain
by Stan Purdum
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
James 1:17
All in all, Thornberry was a pretty quiet place, where big news usually referred to something like a change in menu for the annual ox roast. Yet one of my first funerals was for a young man who'd been shot to death as an innocent bystander in someone else's quarrel. He had grown up in the church and was loved and respected by the congregation. At the time of his death, he was just 21 and newly married.
The tragedy of Eddie's death was compounded by irony. Years before, his mom and dad had moved their family to our quiet little farm community to escape the violence of the neighborhood in Cleveland where they'd been living. One cost of the move was Ed senior's daily drive. His job was still in the city, and each workday he drove more than 100 miles round trip to work, a sacrifice he willingly made for his family's well-being.
Moving from an urban life to a rural area must have been unsettling for the family as well. Fortunately, they were warmly welcomed in our church, and by the time I was appointed there, Eddie's family was well established in the congregation.
As Eddie and his brother Randy, a year younger, reached their teenage years, they went to work for farmers in the community, helping with the summer chores and the fall harvests. They were both hard workers and much appreciated by those who employed them.
But at 20, Eddie married a young woman from the city and moved back there where steady work was easier to find. Within six months, he returned to our hamlet in a coffin.
The midsummer day of the funeral dawned bright and sunny. We held the service in the funeral home and then traveled in procession to the cemetery. There, the casket bearing Eddie's body was placed on the lowering rig that had been set up over the gaping grave. The group of us, perhaps 60 strong, gathered around it while I spoke the traditional words of committal:
Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God to call unto himself the soul of our departed brother Edward, we tenderly commit his body to the ground in the blessed hope that as he has borne the image of the earthly, so may he also bear the image of the heavenly. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Throughout the time at the cemetery, Randy, Eddie's brother, had been quietly weeping. But as I brought the graveside service to a close, his emotion overflowed, and he began sobbing loudly. Suddenly he jumped up and threw himself across his brother's coffin, clutching it tightly and crying, "No, no, no."
For a moment we all stood there, not quite sure what to do. Then his mother and father came to him and tried to get him to leave the casket. But Randy was lost in his grief and held on fiercely. Others of us tried to comfort the young man too, but none of us could break through.
Unnoticed during all of this, the sky had been changing. In a matter of minutes it shifted from bright blue to dark gray, and without preamble, heavy rain began pelting us, a furious summer storm. The downpour accomplished what the rest of us could not. Randy, still shaking with emotion, finally loosened his grip on the casket and allowed himself to be led to a waiting car.
I suppose some might say the sudden and unexpected rain was a fortunate coincidence. But I suspect it was Providence, a gift of mercy for a family that had lost too much.
Stan Purdum is the pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Waynesburg, Ohio, but he makes his living as a freelance writer and editor, including serving as editor of the preaching journal Emphasis. Long an avid bicycle tourist, Stan has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including a cross-nation ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on the length of U.S. Route 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. This story is included in Stan's latest book, New Mercies I See, a short-story collection that shows how the persistent grace of God is never far from any one of us. The book is available from CSS through their web site (www.csspub.com) or by calling 1-800-241-4056. New Mercies I See is also available at Cokesbury, Family Christian Stores, or many local Christian bookstores.
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Scrap Pile
Establishing Goals in Ministry
by Bill Dow
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they look like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act -- they will be blessed in their doing.
James 1:22-25
I'm getting ready to go to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary this summer to continue my course of study. It's a very intense time that also includes a significant amount of pre-work. I'll share one of the assignments. "Prepare a comprehensive plan that a local church could use to establish goals in ministry for the next program year." There was one directive on how the assignment should be approached. It was: Be Specific!
At my former job, the company I worked for used a process called Performance Management Process(r). As a participant in this system, I was required each year to enter into a process that ultimately produced what were called "Key Result Areas." My annual review (and my salary) was largely based upon measured performance in key result areas.
This assignment for my course of study has kind of a familiar ring to it. I started with the attitude that I was just going to do it, do it well, and get a good grade. But as I put the final touches on the plan, I can't help but wonder how the church would respond to the idea of creating an annual plan of ministry along with establishing goals. How would our church react to being measured against those goals? I can tell you this, when I first started participating in the Performance Management Process(r) it was not by choice, and I DID NOT LIKE IT!
Establishing meaningful and measurable goals is painstaking, gut-wrenching work. The whole time you're doing it, you're wondering if you're not carving some kind of stick that is going to be used to whack you when things don't go according to plan. It's much easier without measurable goals. Without goals, you can weasel around issues and "butter up" the boss -- maybe buy some time when things aren't going so well or you just dropped the ball.
In the private sector, the costs are too high and the competition is too fierce to fool around. The executives that chose Performance Management didn't change the division over because they thought PMP would contribute a nice, glossy picture and some tables in the annual report to stockholders.
The first year, I rolled my eyes over my key result areas. They were pretty lame. I had done a pretty good job of campaigning, stonewalling, and whining during the goal-setting process. The second year, I could feel my boss twist the vise a little. My key result areas were a little more defined and related a little more to budget items. I made all my goals that year, but I had to pay attention. Every now and then I pulled out the PMP binder to double-check what those key result areas actually were. In the third year, goal-setting sessions got serious. There was a lot of discussion about mission, about resources, about quality, and about interdependency of departments. The binder came out pretty regularly during the year. It became a discussion item in my department meetings. The emerging philosophy was "if it doesn't contribute to a key result area, why are we doing it?"
An interesting result came of this. We got better at what we did. At the time of my call to ministry, my replacement and I spent a lot of time discussing key result areas. The company had just purchased another product line and we were bringing the production operations to our facility. The plan was to do this with the existing production staff of about 150. The "buzzword" was (and still is) lean manufacturing.
Well, all of those people that were working then are still working today -- no layoffs. Word got out in the market that the new hand valve line was one of the best deals on the planet (literally) and production extended into the third shift, providing three more people with a pretty good opportunity. And while it doesn't look anything like the boom times of the '90s, it's still a better looking future (everyone working) because the organization got serious about establishing, refining, and managing the organization with measurable goals.
As I finish my assignment, I will continue to wonder how the church would respond to the idea of creating an annual plan of ministry, establishing goals within that stated ministry, and then being measured against those goals.
Bill Dow is a Licensed Local Pastor serving the Amherst and Buena Vista United Methodist Churches near Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He worked for many years as a trainer in the quality improvement process for a Fortune 500 company. This article appeared in his church newsletter and is shared with his permission. Write to Bill at W3008 49th Street, Mauston, WI 53948 or e-mail him at bandrdow@mwt.net.
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New Book Released
We are happy to report that the second volume in the vision series, Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences , is now available from CSS Publishing Company. You can see what the book looks like by going to the home page of the CSS website http://www.csspub.com. Then click on the cover of the book to get more information.
Special Pricing for StoryShare Subscribers
Sharing Visions retails for $19.95. CSS has graciously agreed to make the book available to StoryShare subscribers for just $11.97 (plus shipping & handling). To take advantage of this special pricing, you must use the special code SS40SV. Simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.
Practical Ministry Tool
I found the first volume of Vision Stories to be a great tool for ministry. I give a copy to each family after a funeral, and to each couple after a wedding. I give copies to people who come in for counseling and are searching for God's presence, seeking comfort or assurance. And I have given the book to many people who have visions and have wondered if they dared to tell anyone. I also make the books available to the congregation at my cost.
I am willing to come to your community to do a book signing, tell vision stories, or do a vision seminar if you will take a free will offering to cover travel expenses.
Collecting Personal Stories of "Holy Moments"
We are collecting personal stories for a third volume in the vision series, to be released in 2004. The working title is Holy Moments: Life-Changing Visions and Other Signs of God's Presence. If you have any stories to share of your personal experience of the holy, please send them to jsumwalt@naspa.net
Praise For Sharing Visions
Bishop Richard Wilke, creator of the Disciple Bible Study series, writes: "I am rejoicing as I read the testimonies in Sharing Visions . What an inspiration! I recall my father, an unemotional man, telling me that his mother (who had died some years before) appeared to him in a dream and gave him counsel on a difficult decision he was wrestling with."
To learn more about John and Jo Sumwalt, visit their church website: http://www.waumc.org Click on "staff" for bios and photos.
StoryShare, August 31, 2003, issue.
Copyright 2003 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
