by Sandy » Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:16 pm
Timothy, you will appreciate this. I was taking a continuing ed course a few summers back offered by American University in Washington, but which used a classroom on the campus of Wesley Seminary next door (I believe both schools are affiliated with the UMC). They have a Cokesbury book store on campus, and a book title caught my eye, "If the Church Were Christian," by Phillip Gulley who is a Quaker minister in Indiana. I read the book, which of course, reflected the author's Quaker faith and interpretations in addressing the issues related to the title, and were right on target from a Biblical perspective. My wife and I were struggling with our role in our local church at the time, and were open to considering different options. I was talking with one of our school board members about this and he invited us to visit his Friends church, which only met on Sunday evening. On that Sunday morning, we went to a church called Crossfire, where one of my wife's first grade student's families attended, a very high energy, very much contemporary aimed at millenials that was United Methodist. We went to the Friends church that evening, and have been there ever since. Gulley's book helped and I guess, in an indirect way, the Methodists are responsible for us winding up in a Friends congregation.
The whole "church culture" of Quakers is different. It would take several pages just to describe the effect of the value of "Simplicity" and its implications for the church. Of course, we initially looked at the experience the same way we would if we were just visiting churches to find one, and the differences led to a conclusion not to go back. But there were things that resonated with both of us, and my wife picked up and read Gulley's book, and we were back. For her, it has been more about how inclusive and open the congregation has been, for me, it's about the core values. It will take a long time to get used to the differences, and develop the convictions, but in this congregation, that doesn't matter, and about half the members there came from other backgrounds and are still in the process of adapting, learning and practicing the values.