Devotional
“Gospel ministry is service whose goal is to encourage, support, push or invite people to seek and respond to the guidance, teaching and activity of that Light and Life at work in all, right now.” (Brian Drayton On Living with a Concern for Gospel Ministry, xvii, 2006)
This idea of Gospel Ministry among Friends, the notion of living a listening life close to the Center, flies in the face of the kind of logic our cultures have instilled in us. Called to this service, actions are neither measured nor evaluated on results, but on faithfulness.
Listening to that “still small voice” takes risk, takes patience, takes submission. It is a great mystery with a great solution. Following God’s call is a singular act of strength of will and, at the same time, an act of conscious surrender to the Divine. It is, in our beloved Society, both a deeply individual act and one profoundly based in community, because in our understanding, calls from God are tested and made authenticate in the community they spring from. It is striking out on a narrow path by yourself—seeking and finding, and being planted in a pasture—growing deep roots and blossoms in your meeting’s soil.
Requests
“Gospel ministry is service whose goal is to encourage, support, push or invite people to seek and respond to the guidance, teaching and activity of that Light and Life at work in all, right now.” (Brian Drayton On Living with a Concern for Gospel Ministry, xvii, 2006)
This idea of Gospel Ministry among Friends, the notion of living a listening life close to the Center, flies in the face of the kind of logic our cultures have instilled in us. Called to this service, actions are neither measured nor evaluated on results, but on faithfulness.
Listening to that “still small voice” takes risk, takes patience, takes submission. It is a great mystery with a great solution. Following God’s call is a singular act of strength of will and, at the same time, an act of conscious surrender to the Divine. It is, in our beloved Society, both a deeply individual act and one profoundly based in community, because in our understanding, calls from God are tested and made authenticate in the community they spring from. It is striking out on a narrow path by yourself—seeking and finding, and being planted in a pasture—growing deep roots and blossoms in your meeting’s soil.
Requests
- Remember in your prayers the 94 graduates of Ramallah Friends School who received their high school diplomas on June 3. Pray for their happiness as they transition into adulthood, all attending wonderful colleges and universities in Palestine and abroad. Pray that they work hard as students but also as activists for peace and justice in their country.
- Pray for comfort for Betsy, whose husband Stuart was recently relieved of his suffering and transitioned into the next life.
- Pray for Amy England, daughter of Harold and Evelyn Smuck, former missionaries to Kenya. Amy’s brother Vernon passed away recently in Indianapolis, Indiana.
- Pray for the transition in leadership on the FUM staff that God will raise up a new editor to fill this role and provide that person with vision and energy for the work ahead.
- Pray for the selection process for an Education Secretary for the Friends Schools in Kenya, a new joint appointment of FUM and Friends Church Kenya. Pray God will speak into the heart of the person He has anointed to this ministry and that the Search Committee will be attentive to God’s direction.
