The New Church Newsletter. Hurstville Society May 2012

Transcription

1 The New Church Newsletter Hurstville Society May 2012 Contents Follow Me Shakespeare and Scripture Bishop Selection News Academy Journal Easter Return of the Smiths Trip to Perth Calendar Notes for May Birthdays From Rev Todd Beiswenger by Norman Heldon

2 Follow Me from Rev Todd Beiswenger Nearly every church in the western world is facing the same question: how do we spread our message? General Church and the New Church in Australia (NCIA) societies are no exception. In fact, this is a question that it seems the General Church has struggled with for a long time. Here we have these incredible teachings that can transform a person's life and alter their view of the world, but how do we get people to listen to them? How do we get them interested? The traditional way has been through the distribution of books. An outsider visits for a wedding or funeral, likes something they heard and we say Here, have a book! Often we give books away in the fear that $20 is too large a barrier for a seeker to overcome. This method of evangelisation has had its moments of success. Many if not all of us know of somebody who came into or heard about the church by stumbling across one of Swedenborg's books. This has led to us attracting mostly people who are of a more intellectual ilk. Their rational mind sees what they are reading is true, which is great. But what about normal people? What about people who don't consider reading 18 th century theological literature a fun past time? How do they find us? How do we react when they do? To start with I think we need to remember just how weird we can sound to somebody who is new to our church. We believe the Second Coming has already happened. Oh, and it occurred in the 1700s... this scientist, well, Swedish mystic, he was really a genius, had this meeting with God himself, and wrote all these books about 35, depending on your translation and they reveal our spiritual reality. The creation story? Not literal, neither was Noah and the Ark, but then just after the Tower of Babel story we believe things are historically accurate. But let me tell you about Swedenborg's flying machine... want a book? It can be a lot to swallow. Especially for a first timer. However, most of our evangelisation work has been focused on promoting the Writings of Swedenborg. In my view, this creates a large barrier to entry. Take a look at the New Testament and notice how Jesus called His disciples. How did He introduce himself? He had a similar situation. The Jewish church was the ruling authority, the Romans and Greeks had their influence, and then there was Jesus, a single man with a new message on a mission to save the world. He didn't go up to Matthew and say, Matthew, I want you to join me. You see, I am the promised Messiah. I'm not what you expected, because I didn't come to literally be a king to shake off the Romans. There's a deeper meaning to my purpose. But look at the prophecies in scripture see how I am fulfilling them? Listen to the answers I have for the Pharisees and Sadducees! My answers make sense! Don't worry about the letter of Law and Prophets, I'm giving you the New Testament! I need you to change your life s being a tax collector, give it all up, and commit yourself to me and it is going to be great.

3 Matthew would have likely thought Jesus a mad-man. Matthew knew God certainly wasn't somebody we could even be near, much less talk to face to face. So what did Jesus actually say? [Jesus] saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him (Matt 9:9) The call was Follow me. That's it! That is a very simple calling. There's no sales pitch, justification, explanation in that calling. Jesus doesn't sound anxious as to whether or not Matthew actually will follow. No lesson as to what Jesus' mission is. In fact, in the next verse Jesus is sitting down with Matthew and Matthew's friends having dinner. That is Jesus going where Matthew is comfortable. He's making the concession, Jesus is accommodating Matthew. I submit that this is a different approach than what is traditionally done in General Church congregations. Asking people to simply follow us and observe who we are as people, that is the first step. In doing so they will hear our teachings, and my experience is most people do like our theology. They're just usually not comfortable with how we present it. This is not to say I want us to s promoting the Writings, not at all. But I do think we need to promote the church and our message in more than just our traditional way. There's no reason why we cannot do both. Jesus gave us the model. Let's follow it. More to come... Let's Get Technical! It is easy to talk in vague terms about how we should promote our message and our church. While the Follow Me article gives you a primer in my thinking, at the society meeting on Sunday May 6 th I will be presenting some of the data behind the theory. We'll take a look at some marketing studies conducted by the General Church, as well as some marketing initiatives I have run for Ivyland New Church. You will get a chance to see some of the success and failures of these programs from a more technical point of view, but also get to see how it is we will bring our message to people outside our group.

4 Shakespeare and Scripture by Norman Heldon Returning to my favourite writer, William Shakespeare, I was pleasantly surprised to find passages that show that he had a good knowledge of the Scriptures and of the Church teachings. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was deeply distressed to see that soon after the death of his father the king, his mother married the late king's brother, Hamlet's uncle. In a state of despair he cries, O that this too sullied flesh would melt, thaw and resolve itself into a dew (Act 1, Sc 2). He added, Or that the Everlasting [God?] had not fixed His canon against self slaughter. That however, was a decree of the Church, not from scripture. Well, to quote from the Spiritual Diary (#1783), When anyone is such [from despair] it is better that he should be permitted to perish as to the body than as to the soul... unless the person perished as to the body in this manner through insanity and suicide, he or she could not but perish to eternity. Horatio and Marcellus, sentries tell Hamlet that they have seen his father's ghost. Hamlet cries, For God's sake let me hear! That night he goes to the roof of the castle, and sees the ghost, that beckons to him to follow. Despite Horatio's effort to dissuade him, Hamlet does follow the ghost, declaring, I do not set my life at a pin's fee. And for my soul, what can it do to that, being a thing immortal as itself (Act 1, Sc 5). Turning to Act 5, Scene 1, we find the King speaking to Laertes, brother of Ophelia, Hamlet's beloved, KING: O, he is mad, Laertes. QUEEN adds: For love of God, forbear him. (In other words, be patient!) HAMLET: Not a whit, we defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. We think of Luke 12:6 where we read, Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. In Act 5, Scene 2, Hamlet dies, and Horatio says, Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight sweet Prince. And flight of angels sing thee to thy rest. Shakespeare did ponder on death quite often and the possibility of life after death, for instance in that famous soliloquy of Hamlet's that begins, To be or not to be, that is the question. It is a fine piece of writing, though Hamlet, or rather Shakespeare, does not solve that problem.

5 Finally, Shakespeare, to my mind, was always on the side of good against evil. I like to think that he is now in heaven and having been introduced to the wonderful truths of the New Revelation he will be writing even greater poems and plays. Bishop Selection As some of you may know, Bishop Tom Kline is due to retire July 1 st Believe it or not, the process of replacing him has already begun. Nominations for his successor have closed, and have produced a list of eight ministers who were nominated by at least two people, and subsequently accepted the nomination. The next step is the list of eight will be considered by the General Church clergy as well as the General Church board. The clergy will select their final nominee at the clergy meetings in June, and that person's name and information will be sent to the board which will (hopefully) affirm the nomination. Once affirmed the bishop-to-be will be announced around July 1 st this year, and prepared to assume office July For the first year they will work within the existing administration in order to facilitate a smooth transition. Academy Journal Please note the Academy Journal has been published. You can view the Journal which has been posted on: Easter For our Easter service we had a great turnout and enjoyed seeing some of our extended Hurstville family. We got to see Karen Evans and her husband Mike who are currently holidaying on Hamilton Island while their apartment is being renovated. We also saw many children go on a search for sugar in the garden. Thanks to Murray for hiding all the sweets, and thanks to the Walshes, Johnsons, Smiths, and Huiling for bringing all the children. And this word to the parents of those children: believe it or not, we were happy to see you too!

6 Return of the Smiths Garrett and Lauren Smith spent about ten days at Baringa as they have been working their way around Australia. Many of us have met them at church, and some of you had an opportunity to go sight-seeing with them. Angela Heldon guided them and us Beiswengers down to the Royal National Park for an afternoon. The Smith's visit of Australia has been more work and less play though. For the most part they have been farm hands around the country earning their keep, quite literally. After a brief stint at Picton south west of Sydney they are back for a few more days at Hurstville before moving on yet again to another farm with their trusty handbook WWOOF (Willing Workers On Organic Farms). For the record Garrett is the brother of Rev Brian Smith who visited Hurstville as a theolog and helped us out in 2009 performing the role of fill in pastor. Trip to Perth On April 12 th the Beiswengers headed on a plane out to Perth for 5 days. It was a nice trip, and we got the chance to meet some wonderful people. While there a class was conducted on the ic of How We Become Who We Are, and a meeting with some of the younger folks of Perth who were interested in making the teachings of the church relevant in their lives. In addition we had a worship service titled, God Can Use You With Your Limitations, followed by an opportunity to take the Holy Supper. All told about 27 people attended the service, which felt like an excellent turnout to me. In the end we had a great time, and are very grateful for the kind hospitality shown us. Calendar for May In May two events will reduce the pastor s availability. Rev Todd Beiswenger has been invited to attend the NCIA ministers meetings from Monday May 7 th to Wednesday 9 th May. He and his family will also be visiting New Zealand for almost two weeks from May 14 th to 25 th. Society Meeting on Sunday May 6 th after church. Theta Alpha Guild Meeting Friday May 11 th at am. All ladies are welcome. Please bring something to share for morning tea. No Classes in May due to the pastor being away. The next class/discussion group will be on Monday June 4 th and will be preceded with a dinner.

7 Birthdays Happy Birthday to John Sandow (18 th ), Naomi Heldon (20 th ), Daniel Walsh (27 th ) and Brian Walsh (31 st )