Grapevine
This is the archive page for these posts.
Words from Tom 5-3-14
Our oldest son’s family has recently purchased a new home. Well, it is a home that is new to them. It is a foreclosed home that needs extensive remodeling. It needs a new well, septic system, furnace, and many other features. But so did the first house they purchased since they moved to Michigan. With three children, they are looking…
Words from Tom 4-2-14
After 40 years of service to the faith community, Alban Institute is closing its doors. Various aspects of its work (consulting, publishing, educational, etc.) are being spun off to differing entities. Alban itself will no longer exist. In their announcement they recognize that the religious landscape has dramatically changed in the past 40 years. Much of the work they have…
Words from Tom 3-1-14
“Be present, O merciful God, and protect us during the silent hours of this night, so that we who are weary of the work and changes of this fleeting planet may cast ourselves upon your everlasting constancy. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, AMEN.” Several persons have commented on my last month’s Grapevine that, while they understand change…
Words from Tom 2-3-14
“We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, (and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by). Christian! So does our life…I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind…
Words from Tom 1-3-14
My most recent two-week sabbatical study focused on the re-emergence of Christian universalism. No, I didn’t read Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. Instead, I read two books by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland titled If Grace Is True and If God is Love, as well as The Evangelical Universalist by Gregory MacDonald. The first two volumes are more accessible to…
Words from Tom 12-3-13
Advent is about waiting. When we are young it is about waiting for Christmas Day to come so that we can open the presents that have been tempting us under the decorated Christmas tree. As we are older it is about waiting for school to dismiss for Christmas vacation. As we grow to appreciate the Christmas story in all its…
Words from Tom 11-2-13
On Oct. 14-16 Ohio Conference representatives once again attended the twice-yearly Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) meetings. Sherah-Leigh Gerber is part of the worship team this biennium that helps to lead these meetings of the 21 area conferences, agencies of Mennonite Church USA and the constituency groups of Mennonite Church USA. Here you see her as the worship team leads the…
Words from Tom 10-5-13
Nine years ago I was asked to share some thoughts about what it meant to be a conference minister with my peers. What follows is a portion of what I shared. As all of us walk the spiritual journey that goes [from orientation] through disorientation, no matter how effective our spiritual gyroscopes have been, we come through those experiences changed…
Words from Tom 8-31-13
Mid-States conference ministers and conference moderators met together in August. Pictured from left to right are Lois Johns Kaufmann, conference minister for Central District; Matthew Hickman, vice moderator for Illinois Conference; Emma Hartman, administrator for Central District (and secretary for the group); Ron Guengerich, president of Central District; Jane Stoltzfus Buller, moderator for Indiana-Michigan Conference; Tom Kauffman, conference minister for…
Words from Tom 8-3-13
As I near the conclusion of my second two-week sabbatical experience, I am beginning to see a common thread in the subject matter I’ve selected to study. In focusing on the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (the first two-week session), I was unaware that he was trained as a paleontologist as well as a Jesuit priest. He brought those…
Words from Tom 6-29-13
As we get ready to go to Phoenix for this year’s national convention, or as we abstain from going but perhaps follow its deliberations on the Web, it gives us opportunity to once more think about the importance of the institutional church. How important are these meetings and their discussions? There is considerable conversation about whether or not Christ established…
Words from Tom 6-1-13
When I was in seminary we studied the traditional understandings of prophet, priest, and king that were part of the Old Testament story of God’s chosen leaders. Part of what we were invited to do was to think about pastoral ministry in those categories, understanding that some of the time it was important to speak and act prophetically in our…
Words from Tom 5-3-13
Recently two separate occasions have reminded me of the need to be attentive to the present and my current surroundings. One was a recent sermon in my home congregation in which a congregational member (who teaches photography) identified that recognition is a key ingredient to taking good pictures. One has to be attentive to one’s surroundings, having the ability to…
Words from Tom 4-6-13
“He who does not envy the spiritually mature and is merciful to the wicked has attained an equal love for all.” — Thalassios the Libyan This early Christian leader in North Africa lived between 580 and 640 C.E. Love seems to have been a common theme of his writings. I have been thinking about that recently as I read how…
Words from Tom 3-2-13
My home congregation is following the denominational Lenten emphasis “Ashamed No More.” As part of that study we have been introduced to a wonderful TED talk by Brené Brown (which you can find at this link: http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html) that distinguishes between shame and guilt. Dr. Brown’s research is in the area of shame and (more recently) vulnerability. She differentiates between shame…
Words from Tom 2-1-13
Sometimes an experience occurs that alters our thinking and some of our presuppositions. Such an event happened in the life of Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who had a near-death experience in 2008. For those who are interested in reading about it or hearing about it, his experience was reported in the Oct. 15, 2012, issue of Newsweek. “Here & Now”…
Words from Tom 1-5-13
The first Sunday of the New Year is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany is about “light” and “illumination.” Two dictionary definitions define it as 1) “a Christian festival, observed on Jan. 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi” and 2) ”a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of…
Words from Tom 12-2-12
While at the annual gathering of conference ministers from Mennonite Church USA and area ministers from Mennonite Church Canada, I have been reflecting on the future of our respective churches. Nancy Kauffmann and Karen Martens Zimmerly (respective denominational ministers for MC USA and MC Canada) are pictured here leading one of our discussion times. It is clear that our…
Words from Tom 10-30-12
During Oct. 22-24, 2012, the fall meeting of the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) took place in Wichita Kan. We met at a Catholic retreat center during wonderfully mild Kansas fall days and nights. CLC is the twice-annual meeting of representatives from all 21 of the area conferences of Mennonite Church USA, as well as representatives from the four constituency groups…
Words from Tom 10-5-12
As I plan another meeting with my counterparts in the Church of the Brethren district organization in Ohio, I have been reminded of the variety of ways that church planting can happen. This current conversation was precipitated because the Church of the Brethren as a higher concentration of existing congregations along the southern portion of the I-75 corridor in western…
Words from Tom 9-7-12
Gerald May writes in Addiction and Grace these words: “God refuses to be an object for attachment because God desires full love, not addiction. Love born of true freedom, love free from attachment, requires that we search for a deepening awareness of God, just as God freely reaches out to us. In addition, full love for God means we must…
Words from Tom 7-28-12
In my first pastorate I happened across a book about the Franciscan experience that attempted to Christianize Japan. This fictionalized history is written from the perspective of a Japanese Catholic. The book, titled Silence, is by Shusaku Endo. In the book an idealistic priest sets off to Japan to find his mentor, who is supposed to have abandoned his…
Words from Tom 7-13-12
“Working for a spirit of unity while maintaining the unity of the Spirit.” This is a phrase that my peer in Illinois Conference, Chuck Neufeld, uses as he ministers as the conference minister in that setting. All of us recognize that we have different beginning points for many of our decision-making efforts. We also have differing experiences that influence our…
Words from Tom 6-9-12
One of the myths that those of us who have been labeled “baby boomers” must acknowledge and release is the myth that we will never grow old. Sure, the Rolling Stones continue to perform rock and roll music 50 years later, but both the sights and the sounds of that band are showing their age. And so are those of…
Words from Tom 5-9-12
It must be a function of my age and who I know, but it seems as if I always have someone that I am following on a CaringBridge site. At one point I had three persons whose healing process I was following simultaneously. (For those of you who are not aware, CaringBridge is an electronic site on which someone who…
Words from Tom 4-3-12
Recently I’ve had occasion to think again about what I believe to be one of the primary pastoral tasks. As I’ve thought about it more deeply, I believe it may be something that all Christians who are eager to share their faith might consider. I believe this pastoral task is that it is more important to bless others than it…
Words from Tom 3-4-12
Recently I was talking with the manager of a retail store. He was noting that he attempted to convey the importance of the seasonal nature of his business and the need to “get ready for harvest time.” But none of the new workers had any farm background. They had no understanding of the need to put forth extra energy and…
Words from Tom 2-3-12
This January’s Pastors Week at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary focused on the book of Revelation. Professor Loren Johns reminded us that a primary emphasis of this book is worship. A central text for our study was Rev 8:1: “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” It seems that an…
Words from Tom 1-6-12
What do the Republican presidential candidates, the heavenly body Pluto, and you and I have in common? If you are reading this, you probably are a Mennonite and also living in the USA, where the presidential campaign has officially been inaugurated with the first caucus in Iowa. That begins the official process of selecting the person who will run…
Words from Tom 12-5-11
In The Unsettling Season by Donald Shelby, he writes from the perspective of having experienced Advent before. As such, he suggests that in our goings this year we meet Christ in his coming so that “we would see what we have never seen before, accept what we have refused to think, and hear what we need to understand.” Even…