Over on the Evangelical side of Friends is “Simple Churches”:www.simplechurches.net, a movement of “organic” church planting. It’s a project of Harold and Wendy Behr, recorded by Northwest Yearly Meeting and now working with Evangelical Friends Church Southwest. The core values are ones I could certainly sign off on: Leadership over Location, Ministry over Money, Converts over Christians, Disciples over Decisions, People over Property, Spirit over Self, His Kingdom over Ours. I particularly like their site’s disclaimer:
bq. As your peruse the links from this site please recognize that the Truth reflected in essays are often written with a “prophetic edge”, that is sharp, non compromising and sometimes radical perspective. We believe Truth can be received without “cursing the darkness” and encourage you to reflect upon finding the “candle” to light, personally, as you apply what you hear the Lord speaking to you. In Body life, often the most powerful opponent of the “best” is the “good”.
They’re leading a conference next month in Richmond, Indiana, with members of Friends United Meeting. How tempting is this?
h3. See also:
* “Emergent Church Movement: The Younger Evangelicals and Quaker Renewal”:/Quaker/emerging_church.php
This item improved my mood, which has been impacted by the Iraq prisoner-abuse scandal. I enjoyed getting to know the Behrs during the years that they and I overlapped in Northwest YM. But what first impressed me about Harold Behr is his contacting Friends United Meeting back at the very beginning of his “New Works” ministry to see what we were doing with evangelism. Unlike too many in capital‑E Evangelical Friends’ world, he didn’t assume that FUM would have nothing useful to say.
This is in response to the lead article “Quaker Leap…” I am an Anglican though I was baptized a Catholic and experienced the exact opposite of what you were talking. Here everyone was told exactly what to believe in and how to believe in what and this lead to false chatter about God and the inability to think or pray with any honesty for oneself to one’s Lord. Everyone FELT they should be a Christian, but no one really wanted to admit that they had no experience of Christ, just rules to follow. The other week I went to a Unitarian church and found just the opposite. I’d been looking for Quakers, but couldn’t find any so went there. They can’t even pray because they’re so liberal there might not be a God to pray too. One of them said, “I experience a Quaker meeting. It was creepy… all they did was sit there.”
I have not yet read the article subject by mr. Harold.But from the comments I found my brehrens have written on the web,I believe is a prior time for the quakers allover the world to use their monthly meetings to conduct world fire meetings for the purpose of electrifying the church by use of youthful people,to pray and becommitted to God so that they be given the power to run effective a five fold ministry that our choosen brother George fox used to have and we stop sleeping on chairs.Time has come for the churches all over the world to install new Techonological equipments and to restore full worship of Jesus Christ in order to achieve blessings of miraclor power from the Lord.We need to proctect our followers by giving them chance to express the love of christ so that they should not be possed by false prophets
Thanks for the kind notes friends. Wendy & I are currently find ourselves in Klamath Falls Oregon working for a wonderful company (N.E.W. Corp as a manager of several hy=undred Cyustoemer Support folks. Our ministry has expanded to a daily oportunity to lead many to the light of Christ. I have decided that working with evangelical friends was more of a liability then not in reaching those whom are hurting the most. Way too much time was wasted within stirring up hornet’s nests of resentment and the like in even considering ministry as we are led to knopw as genuine and even genuine Quaker. I am thinking of writing some more and communicating amongst like minded folks who are freed to “be the Church in the world”, wherever they find themselves planted. We share many pleasant memories working within YMs but have never felt as close to God and one another as now. Blessings from our home to yours in Christ.
Harold & Wendy Behr
please i have known about quakers for many years but it seems you dont exist in africa. i am interested in your faith and belief. please come here to ivory coastto plant one for us .i will gladly give you an invitation to visit ivory coast.
Evangelical Friends Church Southwest is Quaker in name alone. If you read their website, you quickly realize that they’ve adopted a modified Nicene Creed as their “Affirmation of Beliefs.” They also have disparaging comments about other Friends on their website, which I find to be rather un-Quakerly: “One branch, the Hicksites followed the teachings of Elias Hicks, a New York farmer/preacher who espoused false doctrines.” In addition, they are
I have trouble seeing how they are different than any other evangelical Christian group?
There’s that advice Jesus gives to not worry so much about the dust in the other guy’s eye and focus instead on what’s blocking our own sight. I could name all sorts of Quaker bodies across the Quaker spectrum that are “Quaker in name alone.” Pick up anything by Margaret Fell and you’ll see it’s not necessarily un-Quakerly to call others on what you perceive as their theological errors.
Sure, Evangelical Friends Church Southwest doesn’t have much of the Quaker DNA in evidence. One of the comments below is from Harold Behr reporting back that he had left its service after concluding that working with the yearly meeting was “more of a liability than not” and that “way too much time was wasted within stirring up hornet’s nests of resentment.” But that’s true everywhere (this is where I have to remind readers that my own work is outside of both my yearly meeting, Philadelphia, and its larger denominational body, Friends General Conference).
We need to be open to being surprised about what shows up where. The heart of our message is Christ’s love and we shouldn’t make an idol of that silly name “Quaker.” The “Simple Churches” model of the Behr’s seems quite compatible with Friends, more so than some of the programmatic outreach efforts among liberal Friends. I pray that Friends testifying to the power and love of the direct experience of the Living Christ will someday feel more welcome throughout our religious society.