Old Embers, Fresh Fires
Old embers, even ones that might look grey and lifeless on the outside, can sometimes spring into fresh, fiery life when the Spirit blows upon them. It seems to me that's what's been happening here lately in all kinds of ways. Above you see our newly installed deacons (Thron and Tyler) with our newly installed treasurer (Jenny) and a friend from a local recovery ministry all baking communion bread together for a recent service. The four of them were following an old recipe handed on for generations by Brethren in this area. New leaders making an old recipe. Fresh fires breathed into being from old embers.
Another striking example of this dynamic from recent days...
While cleaning out the church attic we found a long-neglected congregational Bible. Its binding had fallen apart and its pages were yellowed and tattered. At the same time, thanks to a donation from our local landscaper, we were preparing to plant two new flowering dogwoods on either side of the main path to our east-facing doors. Our head steward (Guy) suggested we take the pages of the Old Testament and plant them under one of the trees and take the pages of the New Testament and plant them under the other. The trees arrived as the sun was setting one night early this spring and Adam, one of our newly installed stewards, set to work. Now that old copy of the word of God, long forgotten in our attic, will nourish the growth of these two living trees as they greet the rising sun outside our building for years to come. Old embers, fresh fires.
And this is really what God accomplished in our midst this January as the East Dayton Fellowship finished the legal process of merging our two constituent churches via the creation of a newly incorporated congregation under the authority of both the Brethren in Christ and Church of the Brethren denominations. We are a church born anew from the marriage of a decade-old church plant and a century-old congregation with multiple new or newly growing ministries being shepherded by freshly appointed leaders.
For instance, our partnership with the Christian recovery ministry - Whole Truth - has grown. They now offer intensive outpatient drug counseling to groups and individuals in our church Monday through Friday in addition to the weekly program meetings they continue to hold here. Our Friday ministry (distributing pantry items, running a clothing closet, and partnering with the Food for the Journey Project to serve between 300 and 400 lunches to neighbors who need them) keeps growing and we are now actively seeking funding to expand food service to a second day each week.
That expansion may be some months or even a year away, but on April 22nd we'll be a host site for a city-wide neighborhood clean-up. We'd love for you to come help us clean up our neighborhood. You can register at this link. It's free and at the end of the process you can select our site from a dropdown menu to help us plan to accommodate all our volunteers. We'll begin gathering at 8:30am that day and will serve a lunch for all volunteers at 12:00pm to wrap up our time together.
All of this is exciting, but we believe that more important than these programs and events is the work of the Holy Spirit which is evident within and among the persons whom God has gathered here. It the human embers and personal fires that matter most!
For instance, there's nine-year-old Kyedel who - after months of faithfully attending our church and weeks of focused spiritual preparation and study was baptized on Easter day before a congregation that included more than a dozen of his family members (most of whom attended for the first time to witness this momentous occasion in his young life).
There's also a couple, George and Charlotte, who have long volunteered here on Fridays. Long time Jesus-followers, they had stayed away from church for the last several decades after a terrible experience with another congregation. The embers of congregational worship looked dormant in their lives even as the fire of loving service still burned brightly in their hearts. They came regularly to bless others in our midst and Charlotte quickly became one of our lead volunteers. We invited her and George to come to worship on various occasions and, when the time was ripe, the Spirit moved, and they came to worship one Sunday not quite two months ago. They have not missed since.
After our most recent communion service - at which they both partook of the spiritual feast at Jesus' table - Charlotte approached me with tears in her eyes. Through a voice heavy with emotion she said, "Thank you." It was her first time at the Lord's Table in thirty years and she had experienced God's welcome and his love at the table that morning. This couple, who so regularly helps to feed and clothe others, now get to be fed spiritually by God and robed in his glorious love every Sunday amongst their brothers and sisters here. Praise God for them and all the other holy fires he has set burning in our midst!
If you'd like to see a glimpse of our Friday set up (from the 'slow' period before we really open up to the public) and a tiny bit from our Easter baptism service, click on this link.
If you can support us in any of the following ways, we'd very much appreciate it.
1) Pray for us.
2) Come volunteer on April 22nd in the morning.
3) Donate your used clothing to needy folks here. Call us at 937-234-7028 to arrange a drop off, or come any Friday between 10:30am and 1:30pm to do so.
3) Give financially to enable our ministry. We have big needs in this area, including just meeting our budget. All such giving will now be handled under our new account and can be arranged safely online here.
Finally, I want to leave you with a poem written by our head steward, Guy, based on his experiences living and ministering here. This poem won second place at a local poetry competition. In it, guy dreams of a different sort of place. I would add that he is helping God make this neighborhood different in all the ways he dreams about. May God continue to use his people, here and everywhere, to transform the cruel geographies of this world into gracious places full of his Spirit.
Not Like This Place
Sometimes I dream of a place not like this place.
I dream of a place where young men don’t pick at bugs nobody else can see.
I dream of a place where I don’t feed the hungry and cold bent from the weight of the street.
My kid calls me the boogey man he says to me.
I know I’m an addict but it’s my own kid he says.
He cries and the pain washes over us both.
He cries for how he makes his money to take the drugs
that make the bugs
that are killing him.
Her open sores and skeletal frame are haunting me.
I invite her to a safe place on E 3rd St.
But I’m gay and trans she says.
I see her in the late stages of her addiction
and I offer her the safe place again. Some food. Some games in the church yard.
But she has trouble understanding how a white guy looking clean like me
could ever reach out to her.
I ask her the riddle and then give her the answer.
Yes, you are a child of God I say.
I don’t think anybody else ever told her.
Ragged faces and homemade bicycle trailers and grocery carts
carrying todays load to the scrap yard
to get one more day.
Yellow police tape and cops who’ve seen all the bad here.
I dream they could see some good here too.
Sometimes I dream of a place where the walls aren’t so high.
Where the people with nothing aren’t so separated from the people with more.
I watch the kids growing up here hoping for them to see something else.
Sometimes I dream of a place not like this place.
--> By Guy Spidel