Center Letter Blog
November 30, 2011
by Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove
Posted by Inagrace Dietterich
(This is fourth and last in a series of talks given by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove at the Convocation in Chicago earlier this year).
 (This is first in a series of blog posts on lectures by Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove given at the 2011 Convocation in Chicago on the theme: The Simple Life: God's Quiet Revolution of Love, Forgiveness, and Unity).
Central to any community's decision making process is the practice of discernment. We know the life we're made for and see the road ahead as we listen to the Spirit. But how do we learn to hear God in community? Who tells our story? Whose needs are heard? God's quiet revolution calls for the posture of obedience that gets people and congregations in touch with those things that touch the heart of God.
Another Way is Possible. I am sitting in the lobby of a small hotel in Baghdad, listening to an American grandmother who has spent her last six months in Iraq. She is a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), a literal reserves for foot soldiers in the army of the Lord. Since 1986, CPT has made it their mission to "get in the way" of violence by practicing direct action nonviolence in conflict zones. I grew up singing camp songs about being in "the Lord's army," but never imagined the call of duty would lead me here. Read More...
Divine Obedience. The witness of Christian Peacemaking Teams, strange as it may seem, has a long precedent among God's people. When Moses declared to Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" he had no power to liberate the Hebrew children from slavery. But Moses had met the living God in a burning bush and was filled with holy boldness to declare that God could make a way out of no way. Read More...
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On a recent evening I visited with the church council of my congregation in Arlington Heights, IL. We had gone through a long pastoral interim period, and a new senior pastor has been on board now for 2 years. We had not engaged in a focused vision process for eight years. Over the last several years, culminating in intensive discernment in the last six months, the congregation moved toward resolution about clergy in "same gender relationship" that has been raised in recent years across the ELCA. The time now seemed right to be asking, "where do we go from here as a congregation?" 
Keynote Speaker: Debra Dean Murphy
