Letter: Annotated Bibliography Cover Letter — Jun 3, 2016

Annotated Bibliography on Same-Sex Relationships and Gay Marriage — Spring 2016 rev. (1)

 

 

 

by Tamara Thompson

On any given Sunday morning, you can see a Bering member grab a songbook, open the front cover, and extract a 3-by-5 card from what looks like an old-fashioned library card pocket. The member scrawls a name on one side of the card and then flips it over to write a message of encouragement.

In a time when social media enables people to send messages instantly to others, Bering’s little missives of encouragement continue to uplift church family members and those they care about via snail mail.

It’s a simple concept that has stood the test of time for 30 years.

The brainchild of Samira Fitts, the Encouragement Ministry at Bering Drive Church of Christ began in 1985, after Samira read a book entitled Strengthening Your Grip, by Charles Swindoll. One of the book’s chapters discussed the importance of encouragement and how a church in Oregon had used cards to spread encouragement among the congregation.

Known for sending her own cards of encouragement, Samira recognized how imparting uplifting words is a God-given ministry. “We are never more Christlike as when we are encouraging others,” Samira says. “God can use us as a vessel of encouragement, and the work of the Holy Spirit can flow through us to those who need encouragement.”

Samira says she had been “praying to do something at Bering,” and starting an encouragement ministry seemed like an answer to that prayer. So at a mid-week visit to the church office, she discussed the idea with Bill Love, Bering’s minister at the time.

“He wanted to start it the next Sunday!” Samira recalls, her whispery voice crescendoing to a near-shout. Samira first had to present the idea to the elders, who quickly approved it. Cards had to be printed and a system and budget worked out. Gerald Robinson, a Bering member who had a printing business, printed a supply of cards that Pat Schrader designed. Samira would address the cards to be sent with postage from the church office.

Samira felt then, as she still does, that during communion was the best time to set aside for writing cards. During that time of reflection, “we concentrate on what the Lord has done to encourage us,” Samira says. “It’s not so much about people being encouraging as it is being vessels through which God can encourage others.”

From the very first Sunday the cards were introduced in March 1985, the Encouragement Ministry succeeded. In a short time, a few hundred cards were being mailed each week, and by 1988, the ministry was sending out an average of over 1,000 cards a month.

Writing encouragement cards is now an integral part of the worship service. Each week Bering members write messages to encourage the sick, the lonely, the hurting, and the incarcerated. Members send cards to celebrate someone’s birthday, anniversary, birth of a baby, a new house, a new job, retirement, or an honor.

The list of reasons to write a card is endless. The purpose in writing one is scriptural: to build up one another (I Thes. 5:11).

Although hundreds of Bering members have sent thousands of cards in the past three decades, only God knows the impact the encouraging messages have had on the recipients. We have heard stories:

A widow said the cards she received following her husband’s death filled a garbage bag—and it did not go into the trash. She read every card. Now remarried, she still has the bag more than 25 years later.

• A man whose mother was not a believer said he was surprised to find the cards posted all over her hospital room during a particularly difficult illness.
• A young man on the prayer list received stacks of cards each week. Overwhelmed by the number of people who actually cared about him, he told the congregation how the encouragement cards reminded him of God’s loving kindness, and he decided to invite God back into his life.
• Samira remembers that years ago when Bill Love felt discouraged, he would sit down and read the messages the congregation wrote. He said reading the cards assured him of the many ways God is at work in the lives of the Bering family.

No doubt there are many more stories that have been or could be told.*

As one of the stories above illustrates, often people remember someone who has never set foot in the church building. “The words of encouragement bless many beyond the walls of our church, as well as our family at Bering,” Samira says.

The Encouragement Ministry has gone beyond the church walls in another way. Visitors who observe the practice at Bering have taken the idea to their home congregations and called for guidance on how to set up an encouragement ministry. It is not known how many churches today have adopted similar ministries.

It is clear that Bering has this ministry well oiled. After years of doing all the ministry mechanics, Samira now has a team of 10 women who sort the cards, address them, and stamp the envelopes. In 2014 they mailed approximately 7,600 cards. Samira still oversees the ministry, making sure that a team member is assigned each week and that the cards are available in the pockets of the church hymnals.

Because next Sunday, just like every other Sunday for the past 30 years, Bering members will write more encouraging words to bless others.

 

(The audio version of this story is available here at our podcast:

Of if you prefer to read the story, here is the transcript.)

Welcome to “Five Minutes Alone,” the weekly podcast of the Bering Drive Church of Christ. I’m your host, Jeff Christian, preacher at Bering. This is episode 10 of the second season, “Naming the Thin Places.”

Thin places with God don’t happen when we want them to happen. We try to manufacture them with spotlights and smoke machines, but most of the time God shows up in more unexpected places. And for a few of us who went to listen to Nadia Bolz-Weber last Saturday, one of those thin places with God showed up when we least expected. More on that in a moment.

Today, Tuesday, March 25, 2014, is a Christian holiday called the Annunciation of the Lord. It celebrates the day when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that the savior of the world was soon to come through her. Talk about unexpected!

Add to that the story of the Samaritan Woman* in John 4 that many of us preached this past Sunday. She was in every way “different” than the acceptable proclaimers of her time. She was a woman, divorced, and a non-Jew/non-Gentile reject. And yet she was the first preacher of Jesus. Go figure.

I had already written my sermon on the Samaritan Woman by the time last Saturday rolled around when a number of us from Bering went to hear Nadia Bolz-Weber. If you do not already know her, she is often described as the pastor in Denver who is six feet tall and covered in tattoos.

And it’s not that Nadia reminds me of the Samaritan Woman, but considering the Christian heritage that Nadia and I share in traditional Churches of Christ, let’s just say that she doesn’t fit the mold of what a preacher looks like.

But to me as one Church of Christ preacher who at least used to fit the mold of what you are “supposed to look like,” I thought it was important to say something to Nadia Bolz-Weber publicly.

Now, I didn’t ask for anyone’s permission; I just felt compelled to do this. But in an act of bold defiance, I spoke on behalf of the entirety of the Churches of Christ.

So here’s how I want to set up the rest of the story:

When Mary received the news from Gabriel that Jesus was on the way, her response was basically to say, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.”

When the Samaritan Woman in all of her brokenness began to proclaim the salvation of Jesus, she was the first preacher who was certain that the story was bigger than her, and in many ways also said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.”

And as we sat on Saturday and listened to Nadia Bolz-Weber tell her story that was so much bigger than her story, every turn, every self-disclosure, and every joy was seasoned with those who came before her who taught her to say, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.”

And that made me sad. I was sad because this six-foot-tall, tattooed, female preacher was not allowed a voice in the tradition we both share. So during a question and answer period, surrounded by about twenty of my fellow Church-of-Christers and a whole lot of Lutherans, I raised my hand.

At first, she called on someone else, and I rehearsed in my mind what I felt compelled to say.

Finally, she pointed at me, looked me in the eye, and said, “You, in the glasses.”

“I am a preacher…” I began, at which point everyone laughed because Nadia had just spent a few minutes commenting on the odd little world we preachers live in.

I continued, “… at the Bering Drive Church of Christ.” More laughter, followed by Nadia’s bright eyes making a few comments about her growing up in Churches of Christ to make the connection.

And that’s when the thin place hit her, me, and many others in the room. I took a deep breath, and said, “I just want to say on behalf of all Churches of Christ that I am sorry you were not allowed a voice in our tradition.”

Total silence. Nadia’s eyes filled with tears, as did many of us who knew why she reacted that way. People started clapping, and even cheering. And with breaking voice she said, “Thank you. No one has ever said that to me. Let’s end the session there.”

And that’s when Twitter lit up. Apparently someone running the show that day at the Lutheran Church put up a blurb on Twitter—or I think the proper term is “Tweeted”—that someone from the Church of Christ just apologized to Nadia. The response of people asking to hear more of the story is what led to this podcast, so there you go.

But there’s a little more to the story. After lunch, I talked to Nadia for a minute, which was great. But what meant even more to me personally was getting to sit next to my 14-year-old daughter during the second session while Nadia further described God, ministry, church, and redemption.

And in some ways at that moment, we all became the Samaritan Woman proclaiming the redemption through Jesus that none of us could possibly grasp as a result of our credentials. Instead, we all join the tradition of unlikely preachers who could do little better than to stand before God with open hearts. A few of us even try to resist God at times, God’s little misfit children that keep coming back with stubborn gratitude. But because of an undeniable salvation that God keeps offering to cracked pots like me and Nadia and probably you, we say, even with a little trepidation, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.”

Go to beringfamily.org for more information on our church, and come see us this Sunday if you are in Houston. Follow us on Twitter @BeringDrive and like us on facebook at facebook.com/beringfamily.org. Let us go tell the story with our life and with our words.

 

* The sermon about the Samaritan Woman can be found at the Bering website at this link: https://beringfamily.org/multimedia-archive/the-first-preacher/

This past Sunday at Bering was “Gratitude Sunday” devoted to giving thanks for just about everything. For example, we take people for granted like welders and elevator mechanics, people who make a huge difference in our daily lives that we rarely think about as we go through our daily activities. But this week, as we give thanks to God and to one another, we do so knowing that so many people around us make our lives better each day. Here are a few things to watch and read this week as we give thanks:

Gratitude Film from Jeff’s Sermon

JEN’S HANDOUT from Sunday morning class

Ten things that will make you happier