I have been looking over some of my early Quaker stuff in anticipation of Cherice’s Wednesday evening discussions and it has struck me how much I appreciate the strong preaching of George Fox and his contemporaries.  A quick glance at era’s during which Friends’ ministry was powerful seems to point to a correlation to times during which the vocal ministry was powerful.

This train of thought brought me to wonder about the role of vocal ministry in programmed meetings. 

When I visited Friends in Ireland (unprogrammed AND evangelical) I noticed a pronounced vitality in their meetings and a strong prophetic (and evangelistic) spirit in the meetings I visited.  (just two meetings on two different Sundays)  In both cases I learned that a few ”weighty Friends” in each meeting would come with a message on their hearts over which they had prayed and studied (a bit like my own preparation for a sermon).  In the silence of worship they would seek the Spirit’s guidance in deciding whether to stand and vocalize that message.  Quite often only one or sometimes none of the prepared Friends would actually speak.

I think we give lip service to a similar dynamic in our meetings.  Certainly we encourage people to stand and give voice to what they believe is a message God has given them for this community of faith on this given Sunday.  I like that practice.

In practicality, however, it is problematic when one’s message eclipses the programmed part of worship.  Sometimes the community becomes anxious when one’s message begins to encroach the space usually taken by the sermon.  In such cases it almost seems we are at odds with our own tradition.

Roy Gathercoal and I have been in an ongoing conversation about this topic, more specifically - the role of prophetic voice in programmed meetings like ours.  The following questions seem important to address.  It would be good to include more of you in the conversations.

Some questions occur to me at this point:

1.  What does it me to prepare for worship in programmed meeting? 

2.  Should several of us prepare messages and then wait for the Spirit’s leading?

3.  Sine we can’t be both programmed and unprogrammed at the same time, how do we accomodate the person who feels nudged to vocalize a message?

4.  What kind of oversight should we provide for worship in terms of the spoken ministry?

5.  What do you do in preparation for worship?  Does it occur to you that perhaps you might be the message bearer on any given Sunday?

6.  Should we leave the time usually taken by a prepared message by a pastor open once a month for others to speak?

7.  Should we add 15 minutes to our meetings to give more time for vocal ministry by others?

8.  Should we provide other venues for people to clear themselves of the messages God puts on their hearts?

I’d like to hear what you think would be best for North Valley as we go forward.

One of the things that gives me life lately is blogging, and reading other blogs. Blogging helps me process what I’m thinking about and learning, and it’s helpful to have it commented upon by people who may or may not share my perspective. In this way my opinions are challenged, and I am connected with like-minded people who I wouldn’t otherwise ever know.

Right now there’s a pretty healthy community of Quaker bloggers out there in the “blogosphere,” and the best way to find out about them is to go to quakerquaker.org, which lists many of the best/most consistent Quaker blogs. It’s fun to read what other Quakers are thinking about, and how Quakerism is practiced around the world (at least the English-speaking world).

Reading Quaker blogs are a fun way to be part of the “online conversation” that happens in our culture. Among Quaker bloggers there is an almost automatic sense of community because we’re all Friends. Right now there’s a movement some are calling “Convergent Friends,” where each blogger is thinking about what it means to be a Friend and being drawn together in the process. This conversation about identity would be different if we had it only with others from North Valley, or only people from Northwest Yearly Meeting. Instead, in this online venue, it can be a conversation where people with all different opinions can share their voice.

Obviously the blogosphere isn’t the best place for communal discernment or for making definitive decisions about what it means to be a Friend, but it’s an interesting conversation that connects us with the culture through asking about our relevence to the world and to one another as branches of Friends.

Check out quakerquaker.org for many Quaker blogs. My blog site is quakeroatslive.blogspot.com. If any of you at North Valley have blogs you want listed on the website let me know and I’ll add your link!