|
A PLACE APART |
|
a teaching community where all types of people can come for a time to break from the world and rediscover the new way of living introduced by Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. |
|
A Place Apart is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Putney, Vermont. © 2008 A Place Apart, Inc. |
|
An open letter to the Church of the Brethren from A Place Apart THE LETTING GO Throughout the next decade, the Church of the Brethren will have to learn how to responsibly release its grip on survival as we have known it. This releasing of our grip on what we have known will also become a primary calling for each of us. Individually we are called now to be agents of change. Corporately, the Church of the Brethren is being called in a similar way with respect to the world church. The Church of the Brethren is being called to be an example and model for other denominations and the world. Letting go of the shore will be frightening; yet holding on will only serve to further damage our souls. Releasing our grip on all that we have held on to for so long and allowing our bodies; individual and corporate to flow out into the swiftly flowing river of change makes new life possible. This letting go and allowing ourselves to be pulled into the current of possibility is not to be confused with simply drifting about in stagnant water. We live within a culture drifting without a sense of cost or purpose. This letting go actually ultimately will provide a greater sense of purpose and meaning. The letting go does not make life all right again, it only begin the process of making it possible. THE EXPERIENCE What might we expect to experience in the letting go? As we individually release, into the flow, we look around and see that we are not alone. Many of our friends are with us, and not just "church friends", many of our neighbors, people from our town, our state, our country, our world are flowing with us. More and more people are realizing that clinging to the old life, the old kingdoms, the old religious structures, the old economic structures, the old political structures, the old educational structures is not fulfilling the deepest recesses of our souls and in fact is destroying our lives. More and more are recognizing the new life possible in letting go. When we look around in the swiftly flowing river there are Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, New Agers. There are Americans, Europeans, Africans, Asians, Middle-Easterners, Central and South Americans, peoples of every color, women and men of all ages, families and single people. We recognize all are in this current of unknown destination together. Many are coming to believe that this turbulent river, within whose waters there is little on to which one can hold, actually creates an environment for hope. |
