Just a Ramble at Random

Comment

Comment by Cindy Skillman on March 11, 2010 at 9:51pm

Hi, Jay and Marleett

Where are you guys?

Comment by Ryan Huling on March 2, 2010 at 5:14pm

Hi Nigel and welcome to the site. I just may check that book out. Never heard of it, but sounds interesting and relevant. I believe that we need each other in the body to facilitate growth and really to become who God intends us to be. Calling and gifting is a part of that I think. Something small but real , ahhh yes I here ya on that one. You will find that people believe differently on the great commission and things. There are those on the "missional" side of things that are very intentional on evangelism. On the other side you have those that see it as something that should happen naturally as a body comes together organically. I lean towards the latter myself. But I don't yet belong to a church so I can't say much on the subject.

Comment by Nigel Fareed Mohammed on March 2, 2010 at 4:33pm

Hi Ryan, I have just joined this Organic church online. Yeah i hear ya about the 'virtual friends' and how it does'nt really provide the flesh and blood connection we so deeply need. I guess it's the only available resource in a place of exile in between the traditional church and feeling like a displaced spiritual refugee longing for a home to settle and engage our gifting to advance the Kingdom in our sphere of influence. How does Organic Church engage both the Creation Mandate and Great Commission? Have you heard of a book called 'Stages of Faith' by James W. Fowler? I would thoroughly recommend it as i feel it may help to clarify some things in terms of where you and your family are at. For example Stage 3 is a Synthetic Conventional Faith which relates to the Traditional Institutional Church but Stage 4 is an Individuative-Reflective Faith which helps to clarify the more complex grey areas of this in-between place of different expressions of Church. It has to be about genuine connections and relationships but i think it's important to facilitate each other into our callings don't you. Would be good to start a conversation. I have been in a place of displaced exile for so long i don't really know any different. Traditional Church is history for me cos it's spiritual death. So I am looking for something small but real and that is has the Epic Story we are caught up into as integral. mohammednigel@yahoo.co.uk Cheers. Nigel

Comment by Ryan Huling on February 26, 2010 at 4:57pm

Hi Jim. My wife and kids and I were taking the time to meet together and read and pray and worship and talk about spiritual things. We got out of the habit of doing that. I think we need to get back to doing that. I'm gonna talk to my wife about that and see if we can get back to at least doing that. I like the idea of volunteering at a homeless shelter. With our kids being young that really doesn't work for us at present. I would like to do more of that kinda thing in the future as my kids get old enough participate. I'd be open to about anyone if I had the opportunity to invite someone. We have had some leads in that area but nothing has materialized. I posted a group on meetup and had some people join my group on there. I did meet with one man, but he was more interested in pushing his agenda than anything else. In the town I live in there really isn't any homeless shelters. Those are 45 minutes away in other cities. That's a big part of the problem I think,that we live in such a small town. The thing that gets me though is the fact that the churches around here average 20 people or less. There are not too many churches here that are doing that well. The population is about 6000 and we have around 30 churches Im guessing. The churches that do have bigger numbers and nicer buildings are ones that I wouldn't go to if I would go. My point in mentioning that is that from that I would think that there would be more people in Dowagiac looking for more authenticity in their church experience. I digress.

Comment by Ryan Huling on February 26, 2010 at 9:54am

Thanks, William. I needed that. Great poem! Would you mind if I shared that on my fb page?

Comment by Cindy Skillman on February 25, 2010 at 5:53pm

William, we've been working through the exercises in the back of Finding Organic Church and it's been a real blessing to us. Maybe you guys would like to pray about that, too. I know we floundered around a lot trying to find something that would work for us. Frank says the things he suggests are for laying a foundation, not any kind of "blueprint" for gatherings. But they fill the need to get to know one another very, very well.

Just a suggestion to maybe help. Pray about it.

Love, Cindy

Comment by William Boland on February 25, 2010 at 5:40pm

You are welcome to visit with us as well; although, we too are struggling to find that organic expression. There are presently five of us who gather, but it seems to me there is still a lot of IC detoxing to do. Recently, I have had some discussion with some friends from Central Illinois and elsewhere from another discussion board I’m on and it seems all of us are finding it difficult. The thought of returning to a traditional church even crossed my mind, but like you I just can’t bear the idea. While praying about this issue I had another brother in the Lord who recently left the same IC as we did comment to me in an email “You've allowed thoughts to discourage you, because you’re on your own timeline, but Jesus timeline is different than yours!” So, I just keep hanging in there, and remind myself of something the Lord showed my last summer and that was this little poem I found while doing my everyday job.

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must but don’t quit

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you can never tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst, that you must not quit

So be encouraged brother and rest assure you are on the right path.

Comment by Ryan Huling on February 25, 2010 at 1:58pm

Thanks for the invite Cindy. Not lookin like we'll be able to make it this weekend unless God works some kinda miracle. We'll see on that.

Comment by Cindy Skillman on February 25, 2010 at 12:20pm

You are welcome to visit out here anytime you like, Ryan. We'd love to have you. I know it must be hard. We were only out for a year before finding others, but during that time I felt God was saying to me, "Do not search; do not attempt to build; do not fret. I have a place and brothers and sisters for you and I'll show you when I'm ready." So I didn't, and He did. Of course, that's my story and yours will be different. My husband was getting antsy, wanting something--even a return to traditional church--but he survived.

Just an invite . . . no pressure . . . but if you can drop the kids off and come out here this weekend, I'll sneak you in the back door for the conference and we''ll find you a hotel room somewhere. You will meet lots of like-minded people, make some contacts, and it would be a time of refreshing for you. Probably you won't meet anyone from your area, but ask God. Maybe He has something for you here.

Love you, Cindy