Snow Hill News Blog

Congratulations Jonathan!

We received word here in the office that Jonathan passed his exams and is a "Fifth Year Med Student." Read "Final Year" medical student. You can read the story here.

The Kingdom of Downward Mobility

We found this quote from some online reading,

“…The society in which we live suggests in countless ways that the way to go is up. Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record - that's what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us the rewards of money and fame.  The way of Jesus is radically different. It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility. It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place! Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing? Because it is the way to the Kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life.” Henri Nouwen

(HT:ProdiganKiwi(s))

Update: Community of Hope Free Medical Clinic

We launched the Community of Hope Free Medical Clinic three weeks ago. We saw seven patients. Our volunteers - from our doctor all the way down to our "runners" - did an outstanding job.

Our next open date is set for next week, July 8, from 7-9 p.m. Over time we hope to add other doctors to enable us to provide for more appointment times.

Long Walks - Psalm 130

Walking is good for the heart. Keeping the heart rate up is the key to a good walk. Sometimes we add weights. Other times we walk uphill or downhill to push our bodies harder. At least once annually Jewish families would make the trek to Jerusalem. A series of songs were written for the long journey. Eugene Peterson titled his little book on these songs, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. One of the texts for this week is Psalm 130 - one of these "songs of ascent." Take the time to read Psalm 130 each day the rest of this week. Leave your thoughts in the comments.

More Than A Storm on a Lake

Why We Can't Take Others for Granted

 There are a number of reasons why we should not take others for granted. One obvious reason comes from our own disdain for the feelings this creates in us when we are passed over. Last year we adopted Jonathan and Kari Masson as missionaries. Our relationship is as non-conventional as is their particular path to missions.

You see we have a difficult time breaking out of our mental images that calcify and dictate our responses. So, imagine a young couple mixing vocational goals and an eagerness to live missionally in another country. By missional, we mean to live as missionary in whatever context, vocation and living arrangement a person chooses. It is like Caleb Crider has encouraged us to think, "we are all missionaries." Yet, outside our family structures, and maybe a few friends, we cannot see our way to think of them as "missionaries" in the same way we find it difficult to self-identify this way where we live.

Pastor Todd's Weekl Email

Here is Pastor Todd's weekly email. If you would like to receive his weekly email, send him a note at tlittleton@snowhill.org

I trust your week has been well. Until Tuesday I have been free from the Spring allergy season. I am now more than sympathetic, I am empathic by experience. When is the first freeze?

A friend responded to a comment I made this week by asking, "Do fish know when they are wet?" A curious reply to my statement I was thinking about how we sometimes miss the ways in which we are influenced by the culture in which we live - and occasionally rail against. Derrick's cute reply makes the point. Often we become so used to "things" we rarely see we have in fact adopted habits/practices we would otherwise eschew.

We do have this precarious existence. Jesus is praying in John 17; evidently overheard and recorded. In the midst of his praying Jesus points to the place of the disciples - in the world. He also notes the worldly opposition to the way of God. He concludes that he was not asking to take the disciples out of the world but that they would understand they had been sent into the world as He had been.

You could say we go through stages in Christian history. We wrestle with just what does in mean to be "in the world." On occasion the church/Church has chosen something of a reclusive posture emphasizing the need to be "unstained by the world." Other times the church/Church seems to be a mirror image of the very culture in which is located in time and space. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr wrote Christ and Culture offering five different approaches to living in the world for Christians. Today this discussion is getting a fair bit of attention again.

Jesus coming into the world altered the way the world works. Once and for all grace took human shape and form. Praying for the disciples and their "remaining in the world" signals a connection with the mission of Jesus. Rather than view the ascension as grace "leaving the world," Jesus bestows his mission on his followers who now are to live and grace in human form in the world. The world is not to be the same. Unfortunately we often pick up the habits and practices of a world we often despise. Our traits and character fail to exhibit the grace of Jesus and we miss living out the mission of God in the world.

Consider you ways; how you live. Could it be said you are living grace in the world?

What Is the Gospel?

We hosted Caleb and Lindsay Crider for our "Church As Missionary Conference." You may remember they are part of the team that comprises The Upstream Collective. Pastor Todd's support of their work resulted in the request he write for their website at The Upstream Collective Blog. This week Pastor Todd wrote an article offering an answer to the question, "What is the Gospel?" The context for the question centers around the matter of "cultural translation." Offering the Good News of Jesus in contexts outside of what we know in the United States, even the "southern United States," often takes a different expression in the hovels of South Africa or on Broadway. You may read the article here.

Snow Hill Radio No.2 - Interview with Brad Continued - Youth Culture

We continue our Snow Hill Radio interview with Brad. This edition considers some of the current features of youth culture and the give and take of using social networking tools to facilitate not replace relationships. Slamming youth culture comes easy for many. Yet, it is the air youth breathe and the ground they walk on. Are there ways to bridge the generational divide? See if you can hear Brad describe possibilities.


Snow Hill Radio #2

More on Forgiveness

I met Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan, a few years ago. He has been offering some thoughts on forgiveness. Here is something that hit the Inbox this morning,

Vengeance seems so logical, but it doesn’t really work: It doesn’t advance human history or us. The wonder of the resurrection stories in the Gospels is that Jesus has no punitive attitude toward the authorities or his cowardly followers; and the followers themselves never call for any kind of holy war against those who killed their leader. Something new has clearly transpired in history. This is not the common and expected story line. All Jesus does is breathe forgiveness (John 20:22).