In the mid 80′s when many congregations were going through conflict with the church and many formed Independent Branches, we stayed intact even though many people from our congregation would not stomach the church direction any more and left. Since then we have 80-100 attending and as more changes take place we continue to grow. Personally my family and most of those who attend do so because we know this is The Church of God restored. The Holy Spirit has not ‘moved us’ to fellowship elsewhere even though we have attended other congregations and branches. We have not been ‘forced’ to fellowship elsewhere and the Lord has blessed us with the ability to worship as we do within the body, so we continue to do so, waiting upon the Lord and His strange act to be made manifest. All these things that are happening within the church are known to God and in His time He will correct any unrighteous actions and honor any acts of righteousness.

I know of your struggles, but you must listen to the Spirit of God and allow it to guide and direct your actions. Do not let fear or anger remove your family from a field of fellowship where you have been placed if that is the will of God for you to be where you are.

Zion will be my friend.
Jeff

This is a prayer offered by the priesthood for those of the congregation who are about to partake. Just as the ancient Priests went into the Holy of Holies to offer sacrafices for the people, the prayers of blessing are similar. The prayers are calling the people the THEY and THEM’s to reflect upon what they are about to do. These prayers are prayers of rememberance and challange to the people of God who have taken upon them His name and they are calling the people to remember what this means and the sacrafice of the Son for their behalf because; if Christ is ours, then we are His.

As individuals there is too much focus on I and ME already. I believe that if the focus was more on THEY and THEM then we would be more successful in outreach. I think the prayers are fine.

However, given this current document will mean significant changes to policy, it is good that they are giving time to pray and reflect.

We all have the time, why not set aside our opinions and seek God’s will?

I hope the day conference is a great experience for you. I know Dave Anderson quite well as he was our mission center president before being assigned to Europe. Richard James visited me as well. I’m looking forward to his ministry as an apostle.

Thanks for your post.

I hope you’ll find blogs such as this another source of continued connection.

Amsterdam is easier for me to reach. I only need to take one train and there are three trams which go past the street where the Quakers meet or I can even take a cab since I’m at the main station in Amsterdam. Rotterdam, where the CofC meets, only has a local train station (it’s out in the suburbs) and there are only cabs waiting if there’s a football match.

I remember running across a volume, I think in Restoration Studies, in which one of our historians made the point that the division of the church had been materially worsened because the church HAD allowed separate congregations for women to be ordained, but NOT allowed situations like Iola described above.

The First Presidency’s response, also written in the same volume, was to question the man’s qualifications, not theologically, but as a professional historian. Big mistake, because the man had better qualifications as an historain outside the small world of Mormon studies than most. He STILL has those qualifications as a historian, but no longer is involved in the church.

It does not follow from the fact that the church has a mission that people within its current membership should sacrifice their personal missions — let alone their personal identity, let alone their lives — for that corporate mission. Doing so makes of the church an idol in the place of Christ, and applies whether we’re talking about GLBT Saints in the West or poverty-suffering Saints in the third world.

Justice may mean letting people be where they serve Cjhrist best, not where they serve US best.