{"id":4599,"date":"2018-05-03T18:06:19","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T18:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=4599"},"modified":"2018-09-26T18:09:22","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T18:09:22","slug":"gathering-prays-for-future-of-church-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/gathering-prays-for-future-of-church-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Gathering prays for future direction of the Church of the Brethren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nMay\u00a03,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Walt Wiltschek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Walt Wiltschek<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks for coming to do something new, something different,\u201d said Grover Duling, chair of the West Marva District board, to\u00a0nearly 400 people at the \u201cBrethren Prayer and Worship Summit\u201d April 20-21 in Harrisonburg, Va. People came to the event from 14 of the 24 Church of the Brethren districts.<\/p>\n

The event followed an Aug. 2017 meeting in Moorefield, W.Va.,\u00a0that expressed concern about the denomination\u2019s direction. Leaders from the \u201cMoorefield gathering,\u201d most of them connected to the Brethren Revival Fellowship (BRF), felt it was important to spend time immersed in prayer and Bible study before taking any further steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have been too prayer-less,\u201d BRF leader Jim Myer of Manheim, Pa., said at the summit. \u201cI have to wonder if instead of having 200-plus Annual Conferences in our record books we had 200-plus prayer summits, how would things be different? I think this is long overdue…. I really believe God has some things for us to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That work did not include any votes or official agenda. Organizers wanted prayer and worship to be the sole focus. The event featured three main sessions, pulling together praise music led by Danville Church of the Brethren worship team \u201cGrains of Sand\u201d and soloist Abe Evans along with devotions, keynote messages, and guided discussion and prayer times.<\/p>\n

Delivering the keynote messages were Julian Rittenhouse, a free ministry pastor in West Virginia; recently retired pastor Stafford Frederick of Roanoke, Va.; and Joel Billi, president of Ekklesiyar Yan\u2019uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Each drew on 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV): \u201cIf my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rittenhouse, focusing on repentance and confession, said the church is in decline \u201cbecause we’ve separated ourselves from the living vine.\u201d The denomination has a \u201cwonderful heritage,\u201d he said, but, \u201cwe\u2019ve lost our song. We\u2019ve lost our connection to Christ.\u201d Rittenhouse held out hope. \u201cI believe the best days of the Church of the Brethren can still be ahead for people who humble themselves,\u201d he said, calling the church to seek forgiveness and \u201cbe with Jesus\u201d more fully.<\/p>\n

BRF chair Craig Alan Myers later echoed that feeling of hope in a devotional time. \u201cThere is hope for the Church of the Brethren,\u201d he said. \u201cIs this the start of a split? I say no. There\u2019s lots to complain about, but I look around the church and say it\u2019s a great church. Who would have imagined 20 years ago that we would be planting churches in Europe once again? Or in Venezuela or the Great Lakes of Africa?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Walt Wiltschek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frederick picked up on the theme of forgiveness, saying, \u201cIn God\u2019s forgiveness and freedom there need not be fear.\u201d He said the church needs to learn to ask for forgiveness and then \u201cmove on\u201d instead of dwelling on the same issues. \u201cJesus has a way of solving all the problems that we get hung up on as the church,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Billi said EYN is praying for the Church of the Brethren and appreciates its close connection with the US church. Addressing the prayer summit was \u201cthe peak of my calling,\u201d he said. He talked about some of the challenges that EYN has faced with terrorism and attacks on its churches, but said that faith had given them hope. \u201cSo long as we call upon the name of the living God, God will surely answer our prayers,\u201d Billi said. \u201cGod is on top of our problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event had the feel of an old-style revival, but with a different set-up. Participants–including Church of the Brethren general secretary David Steele; Annual Conference moderator-elect Donita Keister; and Mission and Ministry Board chair Connie Davis and chair-elect Patrick Starkey–sat at round tables of up to seven people to facilitate the discussion and prayer times that followed each keynote. Those tables filled up half of the exhibit hall at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds, while dining and fellowship areas and exhibits occupied the other half.<\/p>\n

Offerings plus gifts given in advance totaled more than $16,500 to cover expenses. Organizers said any surplus will be evenly divided between the Nigeria Crisis Fund, the Haiti Clean Water Project, the new Venezuela mission project, and the Brethren Mission Fund.<\/p>\n

Several speakers referred to the current work to develop a \u201ccompelling vision\u201d for the church as key to future direction. Organizers will consider whether further gatherings are needed depending on the feedback from this event and outcomes of Annual Conference in July.<\/p>\n

— Walt Wiltschek is pastor of Easton (Md.) Church of the Brethren and serves on the editorial team for \u201cMessenger,\u201d the Church of the Brethren magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThanks for coming to do something new, something different,\u201d said Grover Duling, chair of the West Marva District board, to the close to 400 people at the \u201cBrethren Prayer and Worship Summit\u201d April 20-21 in Harrisonburg, Va. People came to the event from 14 of the 24 Church of the Brethren districts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-4599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4599\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4599"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}