CONFLICT BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN TINY RURAL ARKANSAS CHURCH LOCATED IN THE HEART OF THE BIBLE BELT
Submitted by Susie Mosly from Christ Church, Mena, Arkansas
Our tiny mission church in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas is experiencing an awakening. Since Sept. 3 eleven individuals have joined our little church.
THE brief recent history:
Over the summer of 2006 eight members left to form a conservative Episcopal church in our town. They took their story to the statewide newspaper which ran a front page story which included quotes from several Arkansas dissidents including Mena. Before the exit, we had 40 on the roles with the average Sunday attendance of 15. After the exit, we all made a commitment to each other and the church. Individuals stepped forward to do the everyday chores of a church. Individuals renewed their efforts as lay readers and the reading of sermons on Sundays. We did not gossip or say hateful things. We were just very sad. We were making it but...
THE story:
Why are we experiencing this awakening?
For the first time in decades we have a missionary priest. His name is Father Jos Tharakan. He comes to Mena twice a week from his isolated farm 110 miles north of Mena. His biography is fascinating: born a Catholic in southern India, became a Franciscan monk at 16, worked as a priest with lepers for Mother Teresa for three years, came to America and was assigned as a priest to Arkansas, decided priests should be married, left the Catholic church, became a hospital chaplain, met and married an ordained American Baptist minister, had a child, was called to be an Episcopal priest, and his first Episcopal church is Christ Church--Mena, Arkansas.
Father Jos is a very special person!
.
THE rub:
We are desperate to keep Father Jos. Why? We are being spiritually fed. It is as if an angel has been placed in our lives. There are so many in our area who are in need of a spiritual family. We are poor financially. The people of Ouachita Mountains are poor. Our tiny congregation has pledged $6,000 more than last year for a total of $24,000. We are pledged out and are now trying to find ways to pay for Father Jos and his family to be fulltime in Mena. It will take $72,000 according to the salary and benefits required by the Diocese of Arkansas. The irony is our little church for years has given 18% to the diocese which is above what is requested by the diocese. We are a sister church for an Episcopal mission on an Indian reservation in the Dakotas. We now have special needs of our own.
THE question:
We are willing to do what we can to fulfill the Great Commission. Do you have any suggestions or ideas?
Susie Mosley (smosley1@allegiance.tv )
Submitted by Susie Mosly from Christ Church, Mena, Arkansas
Our tiny mission church in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas is experiencing an awakening. Since Sept. 3 eleven individuals have joined our little church.
THE brief recent history:
Over the summer of 2006 eight members left to form a conservative Episcopal church in our town. They took their story to the statewide newspaper which ran a front page story which included quotes from several Arkansas dissidents including Mena. Before the exit, we had 40 on the roles with the average Sunday attendance of 15. After the exit, we all made a commitment to each other and the church. Individuals stepped forward to do the everyday chores of a church. Individuals renewed their efforts as lay readers and the reading of sermons on Sundays. We did not gossip or say hateful things. We were just very sad. We were making it but...
THE story:
Why are we experiencing this awakening?
For the first time in decades we have a missionary priest. His name is Father Jos Tharakan. He comes to Mena twice a week from his isolated farm 110 miles north of Mena. His biography is fascinating: born a Catholic in southern India, became a Franciscan monk at 16, worked as a priest with lepers for Mother Teresa for three years, came to America and was assigned as a priest to Arkansas, decided priests should be married, left the Catholic church, became a hospital chaplain, met and married an ordained American Baptist minister, had a child, was called to be an Episcopal priest, and his first Episcopal church is Christ Church--Mena, Arkansas.
Father Jos is a very special person!
.
THE rub:
We are desperate to keep Father Jos. Why? We are being spiritually fed. It is as if an angel has been placed in our lives. There are so many in our area who are in need of a spiritual family. We are poor financially. The people of Ouachita Mountains are poor. Our tiny congregation has pledged $6,000 more than last year for a total of $24,000. We are pledged out and are now trying to find ways to pay for Father Jos and his family to be fulltime in Mena. It will take $72,000 according to the salary and benefits required by the Diocese of Arkansas. The irony is our little church for years has given 18% to the diocese which is above what is requested by the diocese. We are a sister church for an Episcopal mission on an Indian reservation in the Dakotas. We now have special needs of our own.
THE question:
We are willing to do what we can to fulfill the Great Commission. Do you have any suggestions or ideas?
Susie Mosley (smosley1@allegiance.tv )
2 comments:
I'd like to offer a few comments before this entry disappears from the front page and into archival oblivion.
First, I wonder whether your congregation is a part of a cluster ministry and, if not, whether y'all have considered forming one with two or more nearby congregations. Member congregations of the cluster could combine resources in order to pay Fr. Jos the salary that the diocese requires and then share him among themselves.
The salary requirement seems quite high for rural Arkansas, in my view, but I've only visited your state. I wonder whether Fr. Jos and his family could live on less than $72,000.
Finally, because Fr. Jos has to drive 110 miles to come to your church, I wonder how well he can sustain this commute in the long term. His ministry might work better if he moved closer to Mena, and I would consider requiring that he do so.
A cluster ministry is something like what my small mission parish experienced a few years ago; we "yoked" with another even smaller, full-parish-status church that had 6 to 12 regular congregants. We had around 40-60 and felt rather smug about it, because our vicar was a dynamic preacher and new people kept coming. However, she had to move on, and we were rather foolhardy in believing we had the funds to call another vicar, but we did. We tried to make it work, but in the end, there were problems, and that vicar reluctantly had to move on too, recognizing that he'd already "lost" the people in the "parish," who were very inflexible and unable to come to a decision.
However, he did plant some seeds amongst us - that we needed to offer a radical welcome, and throw wide the doors and go out into the world, and that we were capable of being leaders and not just sheep.
The other, "yoked" parish came into an unbelievable legacy from a long-ill former parishioner who hadn't been there in years, and that was that: they didn't need us, because they had the money to continue just as they were, dwindling away. So we entered into a more intentional partnership with yet another nearby mission parish, one with which we had both more and less in common than the first one.
The difference has been that this time we have actually succeeded in combining as one community. We recognized that one of us would have to close a building. That was too hard for some, but many of us chose to merge, and now there's more energy and more ability to support our clergy and sustain ourselves and do some actual work for others in a small way.
The difference has been that we have realized this time that we are the leaders, rather than the led, although our current vicar is most definitely an able guy who encourages us to step up. If you believe in Jos' ability, then by all means find a way to share his salary with other congregations so that he might have a small "circuit" that makes sense for his "commute." Gas prices are too high to expect that he'll be able to afford to come to you indefinitely.
Choose carefully if you decide to go this route; there are a lot of pitfalls, and sometimes you really have to tread carefully.
At the very least, there's something attracting new people; you're doing something right. It's more what you can do for others that attracts them to you - what needs do they have that you can fulfill? This is something we're working on.
Brainstorm, get some ideas flowing. Where's the energy in your congregation? We're focusing on the hungry in our area, in a small way, by offering a little food pantry during the evening twice a month,and soon we hope to start a "prayer blanket" ministry. What can you do?
Good luck!
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