Emori's Food Box

We told you last week that our own Emori Sparkman was collecting food for families that were hurting because of the Howard Industry raid.  Dont forget that we will have the box in the back at Ekklesia next Sunday night.  For those of you that didn't get to see it, here is the local news coverage of Emori's food drive.

Fall Festival at Hawkins

Thanks again to all of you who helped out at the fall festival. It was a big success.  We have posted a few pictures in the photo album on the right side of this page.  You can click below to see all of the  pictures 

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Election day thoughts from Shane Claiborne

Here is a blog post I thought you might enjoy......

 

Voting as Damage Control

by Shane Claiborne 

Every day I am asked how I will be voting.

Principled Christian non-voters and secular anarchists have written
to urge a public statement on voting abstinence.  Good folks in both
parties and plenty of journalists are frustrated that we won’t answer
with a simple endorsement.  That just seems too easy.  Jesus was far
too slick to get boxed into any political camp.  

One of the ways the Religious Right went wrong was telling folks
what to do rather than stirring people to think for themselves.  Our
whole Jesus for President project has been about provoking imagination
and action.  The decision we make on November 4 is an important one —
perhaps no more important than how we live on November 3 and November 5
— but important nonetheless.   We have done all sorts of discussions
and studies to try and discern the most appropriate Christian witness
to the state (by the way, if I might recommend one book for this week,
it would be John Howard Yoder’s Christian Witness to the State).  Let me share a few of the things I will be considering as I choose the most faithful action on November 4.

As a follower of the enemy-loving God, it is difficult to vote for a
commander in chief of the largest military in the world, especially
when no candidate seems to be preaching “blessed are the peacemakers”
or creating a plan for turning swords into plows. 

If you are completely paralyzed by imperfect choices, writing in
“Jesus” is an option but should also come with grave responsibility. 
Just because you don’t vote doesn’t mean you can’t critique any more
than owning stock should be a prerequisite for decrying the patterns of
Wall Street. However, if we do not vote, we had better be spending
every day of our lives trying to create alternative solutions to the
questions of how 48 million folks can have health care, how we can live
without fuel, how we deal with violent people … and on and on.

No candidate or party fully embodies the values of God’s upside-down
kingdom.  It’s hard enough to find one politician that embodies a
consistent ethic of life when it comes to all issues (from abortion to
death penalty to war and poverty).  Perhaps a good answer when folks
ask if you are a Republican or Democrat is: “On what issue?”  I heard
one preacher say, “I’m not a Republican or a Democrat… I am a
Christocrat and it is Christ who forms my politics.”

It is not easy to make an imperfect decision.  It just doesn’t feel
right to say to the state, “Please kill less”… as it still holds an
imperative “Please kill.” However, ideals can keep us from working for
“better.”  We make imperfect decisions all the time.  For
instance, you may try to avoid the large corporate Home Depot and shop
at the local hardware store but then find out that the hardware store
owner beats his wife, thus further complicating things. We always need to make informed decisions, though we may not endorse things that are imperfect manifestations of kingdom values.

One way for people of so-called “privilege” to act in solidarity
with the poor and marginalized is to ask folks in poverty who we should
vote for.  Another experiment for white folks in this election might be
asking people of color who have suffered so much historically whether
we should vote or who we should vote for — and to honor their struggle
by submitting our voices with theirs. 

One way to look at voting is that it is damage control -– not so much voting for something
as it is voting against something worse.  We must do everything we can
to reduce the destruction done by the principalities and powers, and
voting may be one way to do that.  Being an agent of God’s kingdom,
transformation means calling out the best that the state can do, and
not expecting it to be our savior.

More important than endorsing candidates is urging them to endorse
the political manifesto of our commander in chief and to embrace the
values of the peculiar, upside-down kingdom that blesses the poor, not
just the middle class.  Our central allegiance is to God’s kingdom, and
we invite everything else in the world to align itself with the norms
of that upside-down kingdom. That is what we endorse, and we stand
behind everything and everyone that moves us closer to that — the
coming of God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” And we get in
the way of everything that contradicts and works against God’s kingdom
— interrupting injustice with grace.

So if you want to know what I do on November 4, ask me on
November 5. I wouldn’t want to limit your imagination by pretending
there is one faithful answer to this difficult but very important
decision.

Reading from this week

Here is a copy of the reading you heard this Sunday Night from Mario and Sharon.

If you would like more information on James Weldon Johnson you can click this link

THE CREATION

by: James Weldon Johnson
(1871-1938)

ND God stepped
out on space,

And He looked around and said,

"I'm lonely --

I'll make me a world."


 


And far as the eye of God could see

Darkness covered everything,

Blacker than a hundred midnights

Down in a cypress swamp.


 


Then God smiled,

And the light broke,

And the darkness rolled up on one side,

And the light stood shining on the other,

And God said, "That's good!"


 


Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,

And God rolled the light around in His hands

Until He made the sun;

And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.

And the light that was left from making the sun

God gathered it up in a shining ball

And flung it against the darkness,

Spangling the night with the moon and stars.

Then down between

The darkness and the light

He hurled the world;

And God said, "That's good!"


 


Then God himself stepped down --

And the sun was on His right hand,

And the moon was on His left;

The stars were clustered about His head,

And the earth was under His feet.

And God walked, and where He trod

His footsteps hollowed the valleys out

And bulged the mountains up.


 


Then He stopped and looked and saw

That the earth was hot and barren.

So God stepped over to the edge of the world

And He spat out the seven seas;

He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;

He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;

And the waters above the earth came down,

The cooling waters came down.


 


Then the green grass sprouted,

And the little red flowers blossomed,

The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,

And the oak spread out his arms,

The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,

And the rivers ran down to the sea;

And God smiled again,

And the rainbow appeared,

And curled itself around His shoulder.


 


Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand

Over the sea and over the land,

And He said, "Bring forth! Bring forth!"

And quicker than God could drop His hand.

Fishes and fowls

And beasts and birds

Swam the rivers and the seas,

Roamed the forests and the woods,

And split the air with their wings.

And God said, "That's good!"


 


Then God walked around,

And God looked around

On all that He had made.

He looked at His sun,

And He looked at His moon,

And He looked at His little stars;

He looked on His world

With all its living things,

And God said, "I'm lonely still."


 


Then God sat down

On the side of a hill where He could think;

By a deep, wide river He sat down;

With His head in His hands,

God thought and thought,

Till He thought, "I'll make me a man!"


 


Up from the bed of the river

God scooped the clay;

And by the bank of the river

He kneeled Him down;

And there the great God Almighty

Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,

Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,

Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;

This Great God,

Like a mammy bending over her baby,

Kneeled down in the dust

Toiling over a lump of clay

Till He shaped it in His own image;


 


Then into it He blew the breath of life,

And man became a living soul.

Amen. Amen.

"The Creation" is reprinted
from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed. James Weldon
Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922.

We are Preparing for Gustav

Many of us learned a couple of years ago that these pesky little hurricanes can put a serious crimp in your life.  One of the core principles of what we are attempting to live out in Ekklesia is the idea of really living life together as a family.  Part of being a family is being sure that everyone is taken care of in difficult times.  So we want to make sure all of our ducks are in a row for the hurricane that is potentially going to come our way.  If you can please take the time to read respond to the following:

1) We will meet this Sunday Night unless the hurricane arrives a day earlier than predicted.  It shouldn't be here until Monday, so plan on coming out on sunday Night

2) We would like you "ekklesiers" to let us know whether you will be in town as well as some other pivotal information.  PLEASE FILL IN THE FORM BELOW AND LET US KNOW WHAT YOUR PLANS ARE.  (if you have problem with this link just cut and paste the address below the hurricane preparedness guide at the bottom of the email)  You can also find this same form to fill out on our webpage

3) During hurricanes it is often easier to phone long distance than locally.  It is recommended that you have long distance contact that you can leave information with.  We have a ministry contact that has volunteered to be that contact person for Ekklesia.  This means that if the hurricane hits and local calls are difficult then anyone from Ekklesia who would like to let everyone know they are ok, or  that they have pressing needs can leave a message with the following contact. 
Mark Gallagher
Christian Student fellowship
Indiana State University (812)-232-6853

4) Here are some other links to material that might be helpful to you.  It will help to get you prepared if the hurricane comes this way.
MEMA's Gustav Preparation Letter
Hurricane Preparedness Guide

HERE IS THE FORM

Sign Up for Small Groups!

We will be starting a number of small groups in September for those of you that would like to connect on another level with the Ekklesia family.  If you have not had a chance to sign up before just fill in the form below and we will contact you with more details.

"Taking Care of God's Creation" by Colbey Sparkman

We finally retrieved the sermon that Colbey offered us a few weeks ago regarding our role in taking care of God's earth.  If you have not listened to it yet (or are not subscribed to the podcast feed through itunes) you can listen to the sermon here. 

We would like to hear from you about the subject.  If you have been finding new ways to include creation care into you spiritual life we would like hear about it.   Just use the comments link with this entry to let us know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what it has meant to you.