June 26, 2022 Network Gathering

Call to Worship

Singing With Communion

Songs

Jesus Messiah

Be the Centre

Make Room

Communion

Passover: celebration of deliverance from death and slavery.

Jesus with his disciples: I want to eat this meal with you before I suffer.

Understand my sacrifice (I am the lamb) in the depth of meaning of this meal - there is coming a deliverance from a deeper slavery of all humanity to the power of sin and death.

I will soon confront and defeat the powers that hurt, destroy, kill (resurrection)

Paul - this meal is communion, fellowship, participation in the risen Christ.

Acts 2:42–46 NIV

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

For most of church history, the table was the center, the focal point of worship.

TODAY Jesus is hosting us. He is communing with us with his presence.

Through this meal, Christ makes us participants in his nature and character.

His presence feeds us.

• It is food for this life; kingdom life.

• It is a taste of what is to come.

Because the Lord himself communes with us in this bread and wine, we too are to commune with one another.

In that communion, we allow Jesus to speak to our need for restoration to the Father, to one another because of sin - attitudes and actions that have damaged ourselves and one another and respond - acknowledge it, seek forgiveness, offer forgiveness. Begin the process of repenting.

SPEND THE NEXT FEW MOMENTS LISTENING AND RESPONDING.

Responsive Prayer

SLIDE:

To You, all our hearts are laid open. We come as we are when we sing. From You, no secrets are hidden. In worship, we'll bring you EVERYTHING.

SLIDE:

We thank You, Father, for Your Son who knows us. You made it possible for us to know Him.

SLIDE:

You created all things for Your purposes, giving us all we need for life together as Your people; and we thank You.

SLIDE:

Leader: The Lord is here.

All: His Spirit is with us.

Leader: Lift up your hearts.

All: We lift them up to the Lord.

SLIDE:

When we went our own way, You did not reject us. You came to meet us in Your Son.

SLIDE:

You embraced us as your children and welcomed us to sit and eat with You.

SLIDE:

In Christ, You shared our life that we might live in Him and He in us.

SLIDE:

He opened His arms of love on the cross, sacrificing Himself to erase sin that keeps us distant from the Father.

Bread

Jack: Last Supper Bread

On the night he was betrayed, at supper with his friends he took bread, and gave thanks; he broke it and gave it to them, saying: Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.

SLIDE:

All: Father, we do this in remembrance of Him: His body is the bread of life.

[EAT THE BREAD]

Cup

At the end of supper, taking the cup of wine, he gave thanks, and said: Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins; do this in remembrance of me.

SLIDE:

All: Father, we do this in remembrance of Him; His blood is shed for all.

[DRINK THE CUP]

SLIDE:

All: Father, make us one in Christ, our risen Lord. Amen.

Finish Make Room

Elder Appointment

Appointment - Dave

To The Elders

Do you affirm your trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God eternally existing in three persons, the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

I do.

Do you trust the scripture consisting of both Old and New Testaments, to be the Word of God, inspired of the Holy Spirit, fully authoritative for life, the church and the mission she has been given?

I do.

Do you align yourselves the VMV and beliefs of the Ypsilanti Friends Network and the EFCER Faith and Practice?

I do.

Will you fulfill your calling and responsibilities as and elder/overseer in obedience to Jesus Christ, being continually guided by the Holy Spirit in your life and conduct?

I will, with God’s help.

Do you promise to be mutually submissive to, support and love your fellow Elders.

I do.

Do you promise to be humble and faithful in promoting the Kingdom of God and its gospel, devote yourselves to listening to Jesus as you serve the body of elders and their HC’s and those God is calling you to love in your community?

I do, with God’s help.

To The Network

Do you, the members of The Friends Network, acknowledge and publicly receive Gail, Sandy and Jeremy as overseers and gifts from God to your House churches and HC leaders to lead in the way of Jesus Christ?

We do.

Will you love them and pray for them and work together with them humbly and cheerfully, so that by the grace of God you may together serve Jesus and his mission?

We will.

Prayer

Yearly Meeting Delegate Appointment - Dave

Introduce Josh

Affirmation

Donor Update

Bylaws

Section 1 - Eligibility for Friends Network membership: Membership shall consist of the members of the board, the body of elders and current Ypsilanti Friends Church (YFC) members in good standing.

Current Ypsilanti Friends Church members in good standing will be grandfathered into Ypsilanti Friends Network membership until the time the Evangelical Friends Church Eastern Region establishes a new status appropriate for a micro church network.

Finances

May: 7k over expenses.

Almost all utility budget used due to increased prices.

Rentals up

Lease with a church plant

More rentals

Mission

Volunteer Staff

Miranda: Training

Katie: Coaching and Communication Media

Bekah Malick: Custodial Coordinator

Heidi: Network Support, Facilities and Events Coordinator

Jennifer: Operations and bookkeeper

HC Sharing

Message

Matthew 6:25–29 NRSV

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

Worry

Merimnaō (‘to be anxious’) refers essentially to a state of mind (‘be overconcerned about’, AB). This will no doubt be revealed in frenzied activity,

Gk use - to be concerned, anxious; to be intent on or strive after; to be anxiously expectant; to brood, speculate.

Hover between fear and hope

Plural - used for the care of life that disrupts sleep, from which refuge is sought in love or substances.

Gray Zones

In between moments where the normal rules don’t apply.

What gave us a sense of place and direction don’t operate. THIS CREATES ANXIETY.

Not talking about a clinical diagnosis but the personal and collective anxiety that comes with being in-between.

What are we in between?

Two eras.

Eras are shaped around the governing of an empire or group of people that establishes an overarching big story or narrative communicated by those in power to justify their rule.

They create institutions for that purpose.

The bible calls the strongholds. Places of safety, refuge, security, safety. Comfort zones.

They are built on the assumption that we live in a stable environment.

We lose sight of what it actually means to depend on God.

Eras also contain a defined set of rules and promoted patterns of life. Those rules are given names like democracy, republic, etc.

They are dominated by influential individuals who shape its thinking, determine its direction, movements that embody its longings, and artists who capture its mood (music, TV, movies, poets, etc.)

Gray zones: confusing. Bridge between two eras.

Institutions/strongholds have lost their legitimacy and we are losing our sense of identity they provided.

The pandemic woke us up to the reality that we have been in-between.

We may have missed it or denied it by clinging to the way of life of the era before.

The structure of gray zones is different than the structure of an era (Global, networked) and creates a social anxiousness that can be paralyzing.

It grows as we are overwhelmed with how fast things are changing.

And it has. Significantly.

When we are anxious, we want safety and prosperity in this wildly unpredictable and chaotic society. Where do we look? Strongholds.

They are seductive.

Christian nationalism

Political parties

Causes

Myself

It’s Been Happening For a While

Post WW2, the Rand Corp.

the world is a complex, connected network with power moving away from the center outward (decentralized).

Some have seen it.

Others have denied or ignored it.

A more connected world is a more conflicted and anxious world.

Chronic anxiety is systemic - anxiety gone viral. It is something that can consume us and actually connect people around anxiety.

No Christian bubble (stronghold to hide).

As anxiety flows virally through social networks we seek comfort zones.

CZ’s prevents the activation of spiritual growth.

The challenge of our time activates it.

Gray zones are wilderness experiences; the place of testing, spiritual growth where God seeks and forms people after his own heart to set apart for his purposes. It's where we encounter God's love for us.

Disciples in A Gray Zone

Also recorded in Luke 12.

Disciples in a gray zone: The kingdom of God is here and the narrative of the Empire of Rome is being challenged and beginning to loosen.

Wilderness, testing, being formed after God’s heart, set apart, encountering the love of God in person.

Puts them in new, disconcerting experiences which brings on anxiety.

Their focus: the objects of their anxiety: food, clothing.

What are the objects of our anxiety?

But Jesus’ focus is primarily on the mental attitude and priorities.

The objects of our anxiety [here: food and clothing] are less important than the life and body they support.

Doesn’t rule out being responsible for securing material needs or working.

God provides them - not by dropping them in our laps. They are available to be found. Point: we must find them.

V. 33 - turn to the positive. What is the new attitude of a disciple of Jesus that frees us from anxiety?

Seek consistently - continually toward his kingdom and the kind of life God calls us to in the present age (righteousness).

Concentrate on, all that the kingdom involves, its priorities, values, work. FIRST THINGS FIRST.

Undistracted pursuit of this goal where other legitimate concerns become secondary. FIRST THINGS FIRST.

This is no guarantee of life without problems. This is the way of Jesus in the midst of them. The ones that happen and the ones that happen as a result of following Jesus into the wilderness.

Anxiety is opposite of a practical reliance on the care and power of the Father, Son, Spirit.

He will handle the rest often in ways different than we might expect.

Freedom from anxiousness can happens when surrendering it; trusting God with it not because he gives us everything we ask for but because in talking with him about these things (prayer) reorients us to his priorities; kingdom priorities; the priority of living life as he intends for us.

Invitation: Introduce your anxiety to Jesus.

Singing

Sending

from Brother Lawrence (1611 - 1691)

My God, you are always close to me. In obedience to you, I must now apply myself to outward things. Yet, as I do so, I pray that you will give me the grace of your presence. And to this end I ask that you will assist my work, receive its fruits as an offering to you, and all the while direct all my affections to you. Amen.