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June 25, 2006   Last and longest love letter
January 29, 2006  The Spirit is a movin’ at Plow Creek
January 1, 2006  Looking forward to joy in Plow Creek in 2006
Letters from 2005
Letters from 2004
Letters from 2003
Letters from 2002

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Last and longest love letter       June 25, 2006

Dear folks,

When I arrived at Plow Creek in 1977 I was a man with a broken body and a broken spirit.

As I wrap-up 25 years of serving as a pastoral elder for the church I’ve been reflecting on the wonder of my life at Plow Creek. When Sarah and I moved here in 1977 I was 25, had gone through eight surgeries for rheumatoid arthritis in the previous few years and still carried deep wounds from God not healing me and from feeling like I no longer fit with my beloved Pentecostal people.

Plow Creek became a place of deep healing for me. Three years after we joined I began sharing in our sharing group the trauma of becoming disabled. I told the whole story in a way I never had before. The sharing group listened to me and loved me. That was healing.

During the spring of 1981 as I had been sharing in sharing group I wrote in my journal, “Lord, I want to know that you loved me right at the time I became disabled and right at the time you didn’t heal me.”

That same spring I became an elder during a visitation. Earlier that year, we affirmed Mitch Kingsley and family moving to Reba while Mitch went to law school.  He and Conrad Wetzel were the two elders. When the visitation started the visitors pointed out that it might be a good idea to talk about selecting another elder. I hadn’t thought about Plow Creek needing to select another elder with Mitch going to Reba.

A conflict arose in that members meeting--I can’t remember what about. The next night we met again and agreed to call two more elders. At the end of that meeting each of us wrote down the names of two people who we thought should be elders and agreed to have another members meeting the next night.

The next night the visiting team asked to meet with me a few minutes before the members meeting. They told me that, except for one person, every member had written my name down and they wanted to propose that night the members meeting affirm me.

In the meeting I was affirmed as an elder. Two nights before I hadn’t even considered Plow Creek calling another elder and bang, I was called to be one. I remember clinging to Sarah in bed that night, feeling this wild combination of scared and exhilarated.

About that time Anne Stewart, who was in our sharing group, suggested a couple of people meet with me for a prayer session--resting in the Spirit, she called it. On a Sunday afternoon in April Anne Stewart, Mitch Kingsley, and I met to pray.  One of them opened with prayer and then we waited to see what the Spirit would do. Eventually I began to think of telling God that I was not to blame for becoming disabled. So I did.

We waited more. Then Anne said that she sensed the Lord saying, “Richard, do you love me?”

I began to cry. I didn’t know if I could say, “Jesus, I love you.” Then Anne went and got a Bible and read the story of the fish breakfast where Jesus took aside Peter, the disciple who had denied him three times. Every time Jesus said, “Peter, do you love me?” I cried hard.

When Anne had finished reading we were silent. Then I forced myself and said weakly, “Jesus, I love you.”

I forced myself again, “Jesus, I love you.”

Then suddenly a phrase came into my head that I knew was utterly true. I said it emphatically, “Jesus, you know I love you more than life and health.”

We waited more and Anne said the Lord was giving her the word preserve. She felt it was a word from the Lord that he would preserve me. Then she read Psalm 91, a psalm about being kept safe amidst much calamity.

Then the resting in the Spirit time ended. I told Anne and Mitch that I felt like I had come to the end of a wild roller coaster ride and I didn’t quite know what had happened.

“The Lord will probably make it clear to you in a few days,” Anne said.

A few days later I was writing in my journal when I realized that God had shown incredible love to me when he had given me those words, “Jesus, you know I love you more than life and health.”

Suddenly I knew that he had heard my request written in my journal a few weeks earlier, “Lord, I want to know that you loved me right at the time I became disabled and right at the time you didn’t heal me.”

He did love me right at the moment I became disabled and right at the moment he didn’t heal me and I loved him more that life and health. You could say we were passionate about one another.

In the story Anne read, each time Peter said he loved Jesus, Jesus responded with “feed my lambs” or “feed my sheep.” Members meeting, a couple weeks earlier had affirmed me as an elder. During worship on the Sunday morning of my prayer time with Anne and Mitch, the congregation had laid hands on me and prayed for me to become an elder.

Through the timing of the laying on of hands of the congregation in the morning and the resting in the Spirit in the afternoon the Lord powerfully confirmed his call to “feed my lambs” and “feed my sheep” at Plow Creek.

It has been a deep joy to nurture each one of you and build you up in your walk with the Lord. Somehow the Lord’s deep love for me through my trials of becoming disabled gave me a deep and endless well of love for each of you and the many people who have come and gone from Plow Creek in the last 25 years.

I will no longer be loving you from the position of church elder. Neil and Louise, and many other elders in the decades to come, will carry on nurturing you and building you up in the knowledge and power of God’s love. His love for Plow Creek flows as endlessly as the flow of Bureau Creek. Jesus will always be calling people to “feed my lambs” and “feed my sheep”.

The artesian well of God’s love is still flowing in me. I’ll be sharing that love with folks in the fellowship and I am sure the Lord has interesting, creative, and non-elder ways for me to share his love with y’all.

Blessings,

Rich
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The Spirit is a movin’ at Plow Creek     January 29, 2006

Dear folks,


In the summer of 1997 Lynn Reha, sitting across from me at a picnic table after a Sunday lunch, said, “Richard, I will never forget the summer of 1997 because it’s the summer Plow Creek turned the corner.”

All of us who were here that summer sensed a new spirit at Plow Creek and within the next year or so Plow Creek, after a several year slide, doubled in size.

When I look back three things stand out for me as leading up to the renewal--self examination, structural change, and prayer.

In the early 90’s one of our founders revealed a secret history of sexual misconduct. I can’t speak for others but, even though I was not aware of the misconduct while it was going on, I felt a deep need for self-examination. “Lord, examine me and show me my part,” knowing the misconduct that had been going on for years was somehow made possible by the way Plow Creek operated and how I operated as a fellow leader at Plow Creek. The Lord answered my prayer and I made a significant course correction in how I led at Plow Creek.

The second part of self-examination was listening to the cries and frustrations of members who had been injured over the years by our communal decision-making, decisions governed by a myriad of rules.

Our group self-examination led us to make a series of structural changes in 1995. We separated Plow Creek Fellowship and Plow Creek Mennonite Church, making them two distinct organizations. The Fellowship also made changes in decision-making, eliminating many rules and encouraging individuals and families and PCF to operate in trust and openness.

I believe the self-examination and the structural changes were an important part of the renewal. But you will notice that we made the structural changes in 1995 and yet we didn’t experience the move of the Spirit until 1997.

Prayer was also part of the renewal. Mark and Louise Stahnke and Wesley and Elsie Mast met regularly on Sunday evenings to pray for renewal at Plow Creek. Later I thought, “Perhaps that prayer time was the most important act leading up to the renewal of 1997.”

So you can understand how excited I was when I heard that Kevin and Lorie Behrens, Mark and Louise, Erin, et. al.. are meeting at 9:00 on Friday nights to pray for renewal.

As I sit writing this the pine outside the East House is bowing in the wind, a reminder that life at Plow Creek is like the wind -- you cannot tell where the Spirit is moving but you can hear it and feel it.

Blessings,

Rich
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Looking forward to joy in Plow Creek in 2006     January 1, 2006

Dear folks,

Last night after Neil finished leading our New Year’s Eve worship Louise approached him and said something like, “I didn’t know you had been hiding a worship leader within yourself.”

It was a joy to have Neil leading us in worship.

As you will remember in October at the end of our consultation (visitation) Greg Clark and Lois Hoschstetler recommended that Plow Creek Mennonite Church and Plow Creek Fellowship have separate leadership. In the meeting where they made their recommendation, I said that I would like to focus on my original call--Plow Creek Fellowship--and let others lead PCMC.

Later I realized that I really needed to go to the Lord rather than just assume that I should stop being an elder for the church. And, I realized, that I need to submit any change in my leadership roles to PCMC and PCF.

I’ve done the first part--gone to the Lord. On my retreat this past week the Lord gave me a verse that touched me deeply, giving me a clear sense that I can entrust the leading of PCMC to others. Here’s the verse and then the conversation with the Lord that I wrote in my journal while on retreat:

Here’s one of the quotes and dialogues:

I myself feel confident about you, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and able to instruct one another. Rom. 15: 14

            Richard, your call is deep confidence in my people, in their goodness, knowledge and ability to teach one another. Richard, let this be the verse that lets you turn over leadership of PCMC to others. I have given my church at Plow Creek all it needs in terms of goodness and knowledge to instruct one another in how to thrive as a church. Your call at Plow Creek is confidence as you turn church leadership to others. Your confidence is in the goodness and knowledge of my people in their ability to instruct one another.

            Wow, Jesus, that’s s good word.

            Yes, Richard, it’s a good word for you as you let go and a good word to my people as they accept new responsibilities for my church at Plow Creek.

Of course, I will really believe this is a word from the Lord when Neil and Louise the rest of my brothers and sisters in PCMC confirm that I should bow out of being a PCMC elder.

I look forward with joy to our conversations in 2006 because I feel confident about you, “my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge” and able to instruct me and one another.

Blessings,
Rich
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