tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44110978677910014952012-01-31T04:17:29.283-05:00Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.comBlogger981100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-83048901657652207052010-10-05T21:47:00.007-04:002010-10-05T21:59:33.915-04:00

Another note from the Encourager! It must have been the Friday or Saturday of conference when Hillary called. We were only a few weeks from moving, and our house was filling with boxes, and she knew I wanted to wait, but couldn’t we get our Yorkie now? We’d been talking about for awhile. I didn’t mind, but I wasn’t about to do all those dog things

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I thought I'd share notes from our newsletter here in Epsilon, The Encourager. Enjoy!One month ago today boxes filled our home just outside Big Rapids. We’d started packing weeks before. First went the small things. Things we wouldn’t miss. After that went larger things, especially books and movies we liked to keep out but didn’t need. Finally came those last few days. Dishes. Towels. Toiletries.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-11180441762271135002010-08-19T20:19:00.002-04:002010-08-19T20:46:49.402-04:00

It's been a long five months since I last sat down to visit Bethel. My wife has lost her mother, and I have been re-appointed to a two point charge outside Petoskey, Michigan for the United Methodist Church. I don't know how I would describe the journey. At points prayer became very difficult.It wasn't that I didn't say the words everyone expected me to use, but the words came with more and more

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I love the life my wife shares with Jesus. It is vibrant, wild, and rumpus. There is nothing she has kept from him, but there is nothing she has taken for granted either. She loves him because she chooses to do so. It is not the faith of her parents, her church, or even her husband. It is her faith in our Jesus.And I am grateful for it.I don't know where she first heard about this Mike Yaconelli,

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-48089473616361362122010-03-20T20:12:00.003-04:002010-03-20T20:49:36.814-04:00

Spending some wonderful time with a Kempis, a spiritual master from the fifteenth century. His words have fed both Catholics and Protestants alike, a life given all to God. His spirituality isn't complicated. It isn't simply for the cloistered or pastor eager to score spiritual points. It is for everyone who knows things aren't right with the world, or themselves, who sense their own inner

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I have been unfaithful to this discipline. I hope it is something I can pick up again as we transition.Transition. Three syllables which envelop joy, grief, growth, and pain. It is relief and suffering. And it is where my wife and I find ourselves now.Hillary's mothers was diagnosed with brain cancer October 31, 2009. She was given four to six months to live. By God's grace she remains with us.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-48466295397896408142010-01-17T16:48:00.002-05:002010-01-17T17:48:32.762-05:00

I have spent some space here reflecting on what is often called the problem of evil. The problem of evil revolves around the following logic:God is all loving.God is all powerful.If God is both all loving and all powerful, there would be no suffering in the world.There is suffering in the world.Thus God must not be all loving or all powerful.This argument carries some force. It is among the

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-1601485054855937732009-12-11T13:57:00.003-05:002009-12-11T14:07:44.717-05:00

I just finished reading Freedom of Simplicity by Richard Foster and want to recommend it everyone.It has special resonance for those of us within the Free Methodist tradition. A holiness folk, we're married to this idea of pure, unhindered love for our Jesus. And this is how Foster really defines simplicity, a heart ruled by a single love. It is freedom from those things that keep our hearts from

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This isn't mine, but I wanted to share it. It comes from the desk of Laurie Haller, a district superintendent in the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church:Dear Friends, Jane insisted that the pastor visit her mother (not a member) in Hospice care every few days, even late into a Saturday night when the pastor’s sermon wasn’t yet done. Jane was extremely picky about the memorial

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-55924305608297353332009-11-14T11:25:00.004-05:002009-11-14T12:02:31.476-05:00

Recently I had a brief conversation with a colleague about the existence of hell. While not a universalist, he argued that in the end, "Love wins." All will be saved. I'd heard that phrase before. My wife told me a story about a Free Methodist youth conference. Apparently the lead speaker was asked to leave after arguing that, "Love trumps karma." In the end all are saved.Out blowing leaves today

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Today at First we celebrated All Saints Sunday. Not often celebrated in less sacramental circles, All Saints celebrates the great cloud of witnesses who have passed into glory and been the light of Christ for us. It is a special time in the church calendar year to remember those whose lives left an eternal difference on our own.This particular All Saints Rev. Dean asked us to write down the names

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Saturday I attended a training event put together by the Heartland District of the West Michigan Conference in Cadillac. Dr. Mark Beeson from Granger United Methodist in Indiana spoke about a variety of leadership dynamics and church growth, but one thing stood out more than anything else.He asked us if we were willing to risk it all, even our ministry.We worship a lot of things in this life. We

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Tonight I was invited to sit and wait with a Christian brother nearing death. I have known him only a little above a year and sat with him only a handful of times. But he loves our Jesus. Not in the Sunday school, everybody loves Jesus kind of way. In the depths of his soul he knows and loves his master-friend. I was honored to sit and pray with him.Driving home, I kept trying to identify what I

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-53477844650558132022009-10-07T22:29:00.006-04:002009-10-07T23:04:03.151-04:00

Today I spent some time with Eugene Peterson and Annie Lennox. Peterson's Contemplative Pastor is required reading for my upcoming course on spiritual direction; Annie, well, she's just a good friend for a quiet afternoon in prayer and thought.I came across Annie wholly by accident. She sings Into the West. It concludes Peter Jackson's Return of the King, as Frodo Baggins joins Gandalf in a

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-14641782964831398962009-09-28T21:47:00.002-04:002009-09-28T21:57:22.360-04:00

Just finished reading Barbara Dent's My Only Friend is Darkness. It is a lucid distillation of John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul. Whether familiar with this classic or not, Dent presents a gospel of holiness, of holy abandonment to the love of our Jesus. For what were we born? For this!

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-31549318638988374862009-09-24T10:18:00.003-04:002009-09-24T15:18:00.280-04:00

Thank you, Hillary, for reminding all of us why we do what we do.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-63034144495647342732009-08-31T22:07:00.004-04:002009-08-31T22:23:19.210-04:00

So I just finished reading my Light & Life. It's a monthly magazine published by the Free Methodist Church. And I came across an article titled "A Casual Place for a Serious Faith". It's the story of a small Free Methodist Church in New York state which had been told by a consultant they were perfectly positioned for the 1950's. Unfortunately that was 2005. As years went by nothing changed, until

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I just finished a marvelous rereading of The Hobbit. I was in the fourth grade when I first read an old tattered copy my father generously lent his son. Since then I have read it several times, but I have enjoyed this reading more than most.This edition, put together by Douglas A. Anderson, not only includes extensive notes alongside the text (Read it and find out what Baggins means!) but all of

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I can't remember the first time I heard the word, but I remember pulling my mother's purse in the toy aisle. "I want that. I want it." What it was didn't matter. I'd probably seen "it" on one of my Saturday morning cartoons, the latest Star Wars movie (NOT THE PREQUELS), or a well placed commercial. Maybe it was a smurf, an ewok, or Lego building blocks. Whatever it was, I just knew my life

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Friday morning we left Big Rapids for Manton where we found ourselves in the presence of the Holy.It wasn't like we hadn't been there before. I began serving in the North Michigan Conference in 2003. Annual Conference is the simply the way of things. We gather; elect servants leaders; and see to the business of the church. This year we saw to that business, and that business was with our Jesus.I

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Preparing for a paper on the sacramental life, I came across this video by Rich Mullins, titled The Color Green. I love the song, and after watching it I remembered just what an amazing gift he'd received to bring God alive in song. It is a grace I am not entirely certain we see often in this world:

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Today provided some real Sabbath rest. I woke up late; didn't change out of my pajamas until after dinner; and didn't go anywhere. I tidied the house, checked e-mail, played some Wii, and hung out with my wife.We run so fast. We never think there is enough time. The fact is an eternity wouldn't be long enough for the efficiency of American culture. We are what we do; and what we do is only what

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-46696395080435157412009-06-12T17:23:00.003-04:002009-07-02T11:23:06.118-04:00

Finally received my grade for the January term. I got an "A". Yippee! My final project was an exploration of the Shema Prayer.If that's something that interests you, you may find it here.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-85692853229760438272009-06-11T15:39:00.004-04:002009-06-12T17:28:35.967-04:00

So, I have been enjoying reading POPULIST SAINTS: B.T. & ELLEN ROBERTS & THE FIRST FREE METHODISTS. Written by Howard Snyder, it traces the Roberts' lives since their birth through their death. Wonderful stories!One particular note of interest is that each chapter begins with a quotation from one of them. I'd like to share some of those here:The Bible is a radical book. It never proposes half-way

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Grace and peace, brothers and sisters. It has been far too long since I regularly blogged here at Bethel’s Cloister, at least too long for me. Over the past year I have been adjusting to a new job, suffering two family medical emergencies, and starting work on my doctorate of ministry at Asbury Theological Seminary. Yet the grace of our Jesus continually calls me back to quiet places where a

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Just received my copy of the Pastor's and Church Leader's Manual from the Wesleyan Publishing House. I haven't read through it quite yet, but I have to say it looks quite interesting, much more resource-full than the old Free Methodist Pastor's Handbook. There are sections on the the doctrinal emphasis of Free Methodism, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Wesley's Way of Salvation, perspectives on

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In the brief five and a half years of marriage, my wife and I have endured a great deal of personal trials. Whether the death of her grandmother or a long year spent in conflict with the congregation my wife and I were sent to serve. This week I received two phone calls. The first from my wife. She went with her family to her mother's oncologist, who told them that her cancner has progressed so

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-59069992361162205682009-02-15T17:50:00.003-05:002009-02-15T18:10:05.319-05:00

Working as a pastor I receive many invitations to what is terms ecumenical events. For our purposes "ecumenical" refers to gatherings of Christians across denominational lines. There is popular pressure to participate. We all want to appear accepting and loving of all God's children. When we refuse, we are questioned, and verbal terrorists use the "I" word- intolerant. But what constitutes a

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I discoverd this article on a blog for emergent Nazarenes. It outlines a hypothesis that in the future the Church of the Nazarene will need to adapt, to move from North American leadership to global leadership that reflects the nature of the church today. More importantly it argues that apart from this change, the Nazarene Church will no longer exist as a viable church. Reading it, I have to

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It's 5:50 P.M. I've been surfing the net for about an hour waiting for something to stick, something interesting I'd want to reflect on here. Some of things I came across:1. The Confessing Movement of the United Methodist Church: The Confessing Movement is a national organization committed to the spiritual renewal of the United Methodist Church. They describe themselves this way: We are United

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-65209036891303808392008-12-05T23:21:00.005-05:002009-01-05T18:55:35.864-05:00

"You can't make me! I'm grown up!"I don't have kids yet, but I imagine we'll hear something like this at some point.We spend so many of our early years learning what it means to grow up, and more often than not we imagine that means independence, self-determination, and making up my own mind. We imagine it means doing what we want to do when we want to it.As I get closer to thirty-five than

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So yesterday I was reading the Grand Rapids Press. Every Saturday they run a religion section I snag from my in-law's. This partiuclar Saturday I came across this second page article: Christianity with a twist in Northern Ireland. Matt Vande Bunte shares the story of Ikon, an emergent church led by author Peter Rollins. Here is a taste of what I read:That's why the spiritual community he founded

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I love story. I love how stories draw us in and somehow embody ideas prose can't desribe without exhausting them of all power and life. I especially love stories of faith, stories of my grandparents, my baptism, the very story I live now with my Jesus. But I especially love the stories of my Jesus, whether it is the a story of the four friends, the walk to Emmaus, that awful nigth in the Garden.

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My prayer for the presence of my Abba:The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou

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You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? (NIV, Jeremiah 12:1)Tonight my mother-in-law lays in a hospital bed in Grand Rapids. After finding masses in her brain she has been diagnosed with a "very serious" brain cancer. She is fifty-seven, a woman

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-16489338512262306922008-10-27T22:37:00.002-04:002008-10-27T22:57:07.254-04:00

So I was on retreat this past week at Manton Christian Camp in Manton, Michigan. It was cold, but a wonderful time to spend with my Ferris family, the Holy Spirit, and Reg Johnson. Our retreatants deserve t-shirts: I Survived the Rain & Cold, Ferris Wesley House 2008.Anyways, it was, well, cold and rainy, and I happened into the bath house. There on the stall wall someone had scrawled in black, "

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It's official! I just received my letter of acceptance from Asbury Theological Seminary:It is with great pleasure I write to inform you of Asbury Theological Seminary Admissions Committee's decision to grant you admission into the Doctor of Ministry program commencing with the 2009 January session. . . .We are excited about having you as a part of our student body and pray you will continually

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Encouragement for McPalin supporters across the nation.For the past one or two weeks the media has inundated our televisions, magazines, and newspapers with stories assuming an Obama administration. It is now accepted among the dinosaur media that McCain has already lost this election to a younger, faster, more open minded, Democratic candidate. Small problem with that. Gallup's latest daily

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I don't know how the media will spin this debate, but from my perspective Mac is back! The happy go lucky warrior expressed that passion for America that first drew me to his campaign. Let's ride this train to election day!

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-83904178675021881622008-10-09T23:18:00.000-04:002008-10-09T23:21:16.751-04:00

Found this googling, and it is something wonderful.

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It seems contrary that I would reflect on reading less, and then turn around and recommend a book to you, but that is what I am doing this afternoon. It is a slim volume published by the Institute of Carmelite studies titled Lectio Divina: And the Teresian Practice of Prayer. Many of you will be familiar with this ancient practice of reading Scripture. In describing it to others I say that it is

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I have committed myself to a new spiritual discipline: reading less.That's right. I am reading less in order to tend the holy love of God in my life.Reading has played an important part in my life- intellectual, vocational, and spiritual. In the first or second grace I remember going to the library to borrow stacks of biographies, histories, and mysteries. By the fourth grade I was reading The

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I generally don't do politics here in the Bethel's Cloister, but I am a McCain-Palin freak. I was one of those pesky Michigan voters who manged to deliver him a win in the Wolverine State. Glad he lived long enough to win the nomination :-) .Anyways, follow the link below to one of my favorite McCain-Palin ads. It just tickles my funny bone. Don't know if you will find more here , but at least

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-87363336821144312122008-09-03T08:22:00.003-04:002008-09-03T09:30:33.065-04:00

This morning I recommend The Holiness Manifesto to anyone interested in the Wesleyan-Holiness Movement in America. This is the first time I have recommended any book here at the Bethel's Cloister, and, while there are many other books I might recommend, this stands out for all us who practice ministry in the tradition of John Wesley, Phoebe Palmer, or B.T. Roberts.The book's authors include Dr.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-62006761878369655432008-08-27T18:36:00.010-04:002008-08-27T20:04:50.179-04:00

I am a child of the Cross and Flame. Many of my earliest memories are of those Sunday mornings spent worshiping at Saint Paul's United Methodist. Hopefully I didn't burn out too many of the nursery workers. After that we attended Friendship United Methodist in Athens, Alabama, where I really grew up spiritually. Even today I keep out on my desk my Methodist certificate of baptism. The very simple

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As a Free Methodist now serving in a United Methodist context, I am often asked the question, "What is a Free Methodist?" I never knew we were so exotic a creature as to demand the curiosity of so many! But it is simply fact that while most have a sense of United Methodism in West Michigan, very few are even aware there is such a church as our own. I've known people who, despite our name, assume

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-46024515088748426052008-08-23T21:20:00.003-04:002008-08-23T21:51:57.241-04:00

As this evening nears an end, August Rush in nearing its own end as well. The story of an orphaned child alive to the music that surrounds every movement of our life, he follows the music to find his home, his lost parents. The story unfolds a gift so profound that this every child finds himself not simply listening but composing, even directing an orchastra.Watching the movie, I am reminded of

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-53913005822716809412008-08-16T19:08:00.004-04:002008-08-16T19:41:51.667-04:00

I am a child of the '80's. I remember watching the first shuttle launch into space (Yah. Everyone watched.); I remember the original Transformers cartoon (Who do these new animators think they are fooling? And who dreamed Bumblebee could be anything but a VW Bug?). The fall of the Berlin Wall, the re-lighting of Lady Liberty, the Challenger explosion. And, most importantly, the Smurfs. From 1980

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-46772824992526645392008-08-10T17:27:00.010-04:002008-08-11T23:09:37.214-04:00

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.So writes James, the brother of Jesus, pastor to the persecuted and exiled. These words he sows into hard and broken places. No simplistic platitudes. No naive optimism. Very simply a Christian hope born in an incarnational faith.Sitting down to read with them last week,the words felt

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-54234731164814338662008-07-20T14:51:00.003-04:002008-07-20T15:22:28.808-04:00

More than once over the past several weeks I've found myself in conversation surrounding grace, that free gift of God, who is himself. Each time the question comes there seems an assumption built into the theological argument: that faith in belief is somehow distinct and superior to faith in action.It is as if there were two expressions of faith, the first an ascent to the truth declared to us

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John of the Cross writes in his work Sayings of Light and Love,The Father spoke one Word, which was his Son, and this Word he speaks always in eternal silence, and in silence it must be heard by the soul.Silence can be difficult for me. It's not because I am a loud person. On the contrary, most wish I were just a bit louder. But there are many different kinds of noise. Mine is busyness. There is

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In the last letter we now have record of, John of the Cross writes these words:. . . Have great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love. God so acts with us, for he loves us that we might love by means of the very love he bears towards us.The words reflect the love I know lives in Christ, who is Christ. The burn all the more

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-64620520789154644302008-06-09T16:52:00.002-04:002008-06-09T17:04:19.578-04:00

You have to understand first that I am one of the strongest supporters of women in leadership in our conference. I married an ordained woman; I joined Christians for Biblical Equality; and I have made the case women again and again. Given all of this, you have no idea how surprised I was in my meeting today.I am transitioning into a campus ministry position with the Wesley House. One of my first

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-92034829204383177272008-06-07T17:33:00.003-04:002008-07-14T12:16:18.675-04:00

Many Americans are celebrating the first African-American candidate for president. It is being hailed as a breakthrough in racial relationships and political history. As delighted as I am that America has expressed its own colorblindness, I can't help but think we just a little racist.Barak H. Obama is biracial. He isn't white; he isn't black; he's biracial. The media and culture define him as

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-46037790140005070292008-06-07T17:21:00.001-04:002008-06-07T17:32:51.838-04:00

June twenty-second I say my final good-byes to the people of Millbrook Free Methodist Church.I began serving as their pastor in the July of 2006 as they grieved the loss of a pastor they had known and loved for many years. Personally, I had just experienced my most difficult year in ministry to date. I'm not certain either of us really knew what to feel about the other. I cam to love these people

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-44239853567771759982008-05-31T10:11:00.003-04:002008-05-31T11:00:34.113-04:00

Searching for a graphic some Sunday's ago, I kept finding myself going back to these lovers. While entirely inappropriate for our church bulletin, it ignited some sacred space within my soul. Naked the beloved falls into the arms of her lover, who loves her in embrace.The beloved rests naked in the arms of her lover. She hides nothing. Everything she is, she is before the one she loves. And

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It seems the time to confess. Over the past two years at least three movements within the Christian faith have each published their own public manifesto. Each expresses their own approach to the life we share with our brother Jesus.The first is the Evangelical Manifesto. Dated May 7, 2008, it is an open declaration of who Evangelicals are and what they stand for. It has been drafted and

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Only my love for the Song of Solomon matches my love for these words. Four weeks over the Easter season I shared the letters of Second and Third John with those God gave me to love.For the Elder to live is Christ. It is a kind of living we share in the common life of our Jesus. Third John is a portrait of one who embraced that life and another who embraced his own.As before, you will need to

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For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a human being. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (TNIV, First Corinthians 15:21-22) When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-11260600609722019992008-05-03T19:13:00.003-04:002008-05-03T20:24:45.828-04:00

Ransom theory is most likely our oldest understanding of the passion, held even by the earliest of believers. And, more importantly, it is how my wife best expresses her life with Jesus.C.S. Lewis tells the story best in Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe when the Witch comes to lay claim to the life of Edmund, who has betrayed not only his brother and sisters but Aslan as well:"You have a traitor

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-35863049147822819372008-04-16T14:51:00.007-04:002008-04-16T15:07:20.409-04:00

Soteriology, or the theology of redemption, isn’t something we often think about. Like most –ologies’, it’s left in some far corner of our minds where we leave movie trivia, old girlfriends, and algebra. We prefer to deal in the practicalities of holy living in everyday life in a real world. But shouldn’t our understanding of redemption shape life with Christ and each other? Doesn’t belief

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-41316853393422938502008-04-11T11:08:00.015-04:002008-04-11T11:48:17.545-04:00

Last summer my wife and I spent the weekend in Chicago. Early Sunday afternoon, before beginning the long drive home, we enjoyed a bot of Broadway- Wicked. The musical turns our beloved Wizard of Oz on its head, retelling the story from the perspective of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.Without spoiling any of the plot lines and plot twists, I can only say that Elphaba -born an unimaginable

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-27270530497666076012008-04-11T09:56:00.002-04:002008-04-11T10:34:20.519-04:00

Walking over to the shop next door I found these words below the skull and cross bones: Dead Men Tell No Tales.Dead men tell no tales. Distraction, self, and the dying their lives gather leave them empty, devoid of the life which might otherwise fill them. While their stories leave some of us with envy -journeys across the sea, adventure, release from daily routine- they leave their tellers

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-42046988595448330822008-03-30T17:32:00.020-04:002008-04-05T17:45:51.237-04:00

The Spirit finds us in strange places. She found me this afternoon vacationing in Saint Peterburg's, Florida. We'd gotten ice cream and walked up and down the boardwalk. Found a neat shop set atop Kilwin's. Before cramming ourselves into Chelsey's Mustang we walked into Life is Good. The small t-shirt store sold long and short sleeved tees of all stripes and kinds, each sporting its own words of

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-49130351215404788542008-03-26T08:57:00.003-04:002008-03-26T21:20:00.503-04:00

Speaking of First John, John Wesley says, "How plain, how full, and how deep a compendium of genuine Christianity!" The words of the Elder communicate the spirit of Christ, Christian community, faith, and holy love. In five brief chapters he, or she, takes us to the beating heart of life in our Jesus. Few pieces of Scripture have shaped my life as profoundly as these. They were my last words to

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-83767596004320026172008-03-22T12:27:00.006-04:002008-03-24T21:07:27.995-04:00

March 9 our local ministerial candidate, Dar Howard, delivered a Lenten sermon on Matthew 24:14-28, the final two verse of which read, “27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.” It was his reflection on verse twenty-eight that gave me fresh insight into the

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-64164092161719496212008-03-18T18:51:00.005-04:002008-03-24T21:08:21.667-04:00

So I was listening to an Emergent Village podcast with Scott McKnight, Diana Butler Bass, and Tony Jones. Their panel discussion turned to the character the emerging church and the seeming inability of modern orthodoxies to facilitate conversation. Their simple observation was that institutions, whether conservative or liberal, have tended punish questions in the belief that this created

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For all my friends in the North Michigan Conference. Radar takes Captain Ron on-line . ;-)

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Coupled with Emergent Village I included a graphic link to Emerging Women. It includes as its stated purpose:This blog is a space for women involved in the emerging church conversation to use their voice. This is a space to voice your thoughts, express your opinions, and practice your theology. This is a safe community where we can complain, deconstruct, brainstorm, network, dream, and encourage

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Those of you that visit this blog often will have noticed a few changes, including a graphic link to Emergent Village. Why Emergent? Because I want to love more fully than know more fully, and because as a group American Evangelicals have banned mystery in the work of theology. I understand whatever I say here is public record, especially since I am now linked to our conference website. I don't

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-66881284674727729912008-03-11T16:07:00.011-04:002008-03-20T20:15:18.667-04:00

So we've been reading Mike Yaconelli's Dangerous Wonder in our Sunday morning small group. It essentially proposes that twentieth century Christians have stripped YHWH of the wonder that ignites our heart to passion. We have so well managed our orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the unpredictable mystery of Holy Other has been lost. More than that it has been buried by those who consider doubt and mystery

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With Barak Obama's ongoing electoral success there's been growing questions about words and the real power they possess. Many argue that they are nothing more than superficial window dressing. Beautiful, articulate, and empty. Words, they say, are meaningless apart from the will to make them real. And perhaps they have a point here. Apart from the will to make words real, they become hollow, more

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Preparing for Sunday last week I found myself remembering a conversation with Reverend Ed Hamlett. At the time I worked with his wife as a camp counselor and must confess I’d grown slightly wary of what I imagined to be their liberal leaning theology. I don’t remember know if I meant to test him or genuinely examine the faith I’d come to practice and believe. I do remember my question, “What do

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Last Saturday I began exploring one aspect of soul care- freeing ourselves from the clutter our lives gather which prevent the Spirit from finding her resting place. Beyond the obvious disciplines many of us imagine –worship, prayer, and the reading of Scripture- there is another ancient discipline often marginalized by our American faith: silence. John of the Cross in Sayings of Light and Love

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I know a great many Evangelicals who take a certain amount of pride in professing a literal, word-for-word belief in Scripture. Just last year there was a move by twenty-seven pastors in our Southern Michigan Conference to demand each ordained elder profess a belief that chapters forty through sixty-six of Isaiah were written by the same prophet who wrote chapters one through thirty-nine, that

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-36580075497088282912008-02-23T20:20:00.004-05:002008-03-20T20:12:04.355-04:00

So yesterday my friend and I went on a road trip to Indianapolis. Indianapolis obliged us with true Michigan snow and ice! Anyways, on our way back I slipped in They Might be Giants. . . . I’m you’re only friend. I’m not your only friend, but I’m a little glowing friend. But really I’m not actually your friend, but I am. Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch who watches over you.

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There are a great many things I have chosen. I have chosen to receive the love of my Jesus; I have chosen service to his people within the Church; I have chosen love for my bride. These are each and every one a covenant that fundamentally shapes my life. They each some how change me. And, while we might argue God loves and calls us first, it is only so that we may respond to him freely, without

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Now for something completely different!It isn't theology. It isn't politics. It is even criticism, constructive or otherwise.This YouTube clip belongs to my long time friend John Ross coin, pastor of Anchor Baptist Church. It is a preview for his soon premiering film Murder Most Unkind. Watch, giggle, and enjoy.

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Let me say first I possess an unequivocal love for the Free Methodist Church. I joined shortly before my marriage to Hillary, then serving as an associate pastor in Evart, Michigan. I had taken a course in their history and polity, as well as read through their Discipline. I now serve as an elder in the same. This afternoon, though, I find myself disappointed. Some months ago our national web

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NOTE: THE NAMES OF BOTH THE CHURCH AND PASTOR HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT . . . AND THE STRANGE. Twelve stones. Twelve very satisfying lies. I downloaded the picture from First Baptist Mars, Milky Way Galaxy. Beside it is written: The current facility was purchased and first services were held in the gym on January 14, 2007. As we began with a new location and a new name, we

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It is so hard describing what it means to be a pastor to those who do not share in my vocation. I can describe what I do –study, prepare, preach, teach, visit, administrate-, but it these fail to capture its glory and its sorrow. Sunday morning I went to worship with a sense of expectation. Before setting foot in the sanctuary I felt God preparing me. Sunday school came and went as it does

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I have voted for Republicans since my eighteenth birthday. Many have won: President George W. Bush, Governor John Engler, Senator Spence Abraham, Congressman Peter Hoekstra, Congressman Dave Camp. Others have not been so lucky: Senator Bob Dole, Ronna Romney, Michael Bouchard, Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski, even Senator John McCain (2000 and 2008). The fact is that I always considered myself an

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So, I have spent the last several weeks reading through Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness. I picked it up on my visit to Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Chicago, where I am being considered for doctoral work in the field of spirituality. While a long, and sometimes challenging, read, it lives up to its promise as a “classic text, and . . . the

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If you have been around me at all, you know how much I have come to love the words of Saint John of the Cross. I keep his collected works within easy reach most of the time and find myself referencing him throughout the year. His passion not simply for what passes as the spiritual but the truly spiritual, an all consuming love for Christ ignites my soul. As I read through many of the classics

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We are in one of my favorite seasons. I don’t mean winter, though it possesses a beauty all its own. I mean that time when our airwaves, radio waves, telephones, and even mailboxes are saturated with political advertisement. Some may say it’s a little sadist, even incredulous of me. But every four years I look forward to the debates, the personalities, and finally my vote. I don’t believe in an

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It was never my intention that I should reflect on Scripture here. There are untold numbers of on-line devotionals, commentaries, lectionaries, and, yes, even blogs given this purpose. To these we might add the noise of televangelists, radio preachers, and ubiquitous pod casts. I believe, though, there is a certain glory hidden in the words of this Markan passage that plead hearing. Jesus has

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When did we make ourselves the measure of all things?Wandering the web I discovered the theological concept of soul competency. Wikipedia defines the term this way:The basic concept of individual soul liberty, as Baptists refer to soul competency, is that, in matters of religion, each person has the liberty to choose what his/her conscience or soul dictates is right, and is responsible to no one

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-5503724679733496912007-12-05T09:58:00.001-05:002008-03-20T19:56:18.301-04:00

I have served as pastor of Millbrook Free Methodist Church for eighteen months now. Since arriving I have reshaped our administrative structure and defended our shared Discipline in barring the vote of non-members in society meetings. I have met with people in their homes to bear to God again and again their reservations that I am leading people away from their Spirit past. Whether it is my

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I remember feeling so incredibly sorry for the people who would receive bitter Asburians (Asbury seminarians) as their pastors. They were United Methodist from across the United States who had fought against their ecclesiastical leadership for so long they knew how to do little else. With the least interest they would pull out a catalog of grievances, theological, administrative, experiential.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-74108190908661503172007-10-27T14:34:00.001-04:002008-03-20T19:52:12.427-04:00

This week I began digging for economical -free- personality tests. As those I serve explore their own vocation, I want them to get to know themselves. I want them to understand who they are within and so better discern the movements of their own soul. Motivation. Desire. Perception. It is all poured through the complex of our inner self, our personality. Personality shapes how we live, relate to

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-33453036081982166272007-10-16T14:50:00.002-04:002008-03-20T19:48:11.694-04:00

Now I become myself. It's takenTime, many years and places;I have been dissolved and shaken,Worn other people's faces. . .~May Sarton, Now I Become Myself~Vocation. It is the prayer God speaks into us at our birth. A way of living and dying that is ours to live with him. It is the song we lift up to our Abba here and into eternity for love of him. Vocation doesn't belong simply to the ordained.

Rev. Vaughn W. Thurston-Coxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17738656976017221780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4411097867791001495.post-21707071917933833682007-10-06T08:47:00.001-04:002008-03-20T19:47:13.318-04:00

Catholic. Derived from the Greek καθολικην roughly meaning "universal" or "general". Also an incendiary device among Evangelicals who possess a certain pride in the war cry: Sola Scriptura! Sola Fide! By Scripture alone! By faith alone! Catholic.Last year I made the decision to lead the people in celebration of Baptism of our Lord Sunday. The feast is held the first Sunday of Epiphany, about the

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The Crucifixion.I discovered this master piece within the Art Institute of Chicago. Completed in 1627 by Francisco de Zurbaran, the Institute noted that the mammoth work so stirred the citizens of Seville they pleaded for the artist to move himself there with them. Roughly thirty feet tall by thirteen feet wide, it hung above the altar of San Pablo el Reale.I must have spent thirty minutes

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As a college student I spent one semester studying in the land of Brave Heart. The days were terrificly short, and I did manage to catch almost every cold wandering the University of Aberdeen. But I also walked the fields of Culloden; I climbed the slopes of Ben Vrackie; I dipped my toes in a frigid North Sea. That last week, though, I spent on the holy island of Iona.Iona is scarcely three and

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I have been blessed with parents who both shared their love of reading. Among my best childhood memories are the nights I spent reading The Hardy Boys or Lord of the Rings with my father. Words have shaped my life from an early age. Below you will find a series of those words. I am most certainly being unfair to some work or another. There are many that could included. I entered the religious

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Professor Reg Johnson of Asbury Theological Seminary once said that there are times in our spiritual life when the God pulls back the curtain, if only for a moment. They are times when we see ourselves for who we are and the often hidden work of grace among us. It is a thin place, where the Light pierces the veil. Emmaus was such a place for me. I was not an enthusiastic Emmaus pilgrim. It isn’t

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As an elder in the Free Methodist Church I have had approximately four hundred eight Sabbaths to break open the Scriptures among God’s people. It is among the most important of my pastoral acts. It is, at its best, less an act of rhetorical manufacture than theological delivery. Where the written word plants itself within us, the holy Word conceives a spoken word for his people. To articulate a

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In a recent visit to Baker's Book House I came across Alan Jones' Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality. Dr. Jones draws a parallel between the ancient practices of desert monastics and contemporary methods of psycoanalysts, especially as it relates to self-knowledge and integration. It is the title, though, that speaks to me.Dr. Jones writes in his introduction, "This is a book about how

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