What Did You Say? (S Hibben)

March 3, 2011

Scott Hibben

LDM for Evangelism & New Ministry

515.974.8926

What Did You Say?

We have a dog that sometimes talks in her sleep. I don’t mean so much Scooby Doo-like, “rel-ro” for “hell-o” (which some of us older folk realize is actually the way Astro in The Jetsons used to talk, too), but who kind of mutters annunciations of certain guttural inflections that certainly sounds like she is attempting to say something – especially at night, when her intonations wake you from a dead sleep. “Did my wife say something to me, or was that the dog?” For obvious and healthful reasons, then, I’ve learned to differentiate between their voices.

As churches are registering for the upcoming April “How to Develop Tippers into Tithers” I think it’s important for us to listen to and differentiate between the voices – answering some questions that have arisen along the way. Read more

Eric Guy

LDM for Young Adult & Generational Ministry

515.974.8944

Plans are underway to coordinate an Iowa Conference bus trip to this summer’s Youth 2011 event at Purdue University. The bus will be leaving the Cedar Rapids area on July 13 and will be returning on July 17. The cost is $85.00 per person. If a group from your church is planning to attend Youth 2011 and would like to reserve a spot on the bus, contact the Conference Youth Coordinator, Maria Wiblin, at maria.wiblin@gmail.com.

Naomi Sea Young Wittstruck

LDM for Social Justice & Mission

515.974.8908

The Ecology of the New Testament: Creation, ReCreation, and the Environment by Mark Bredin provides an in-depth examination of the New Testament as a source and resource for understanding and framing a global context of community, interconnection, stewardship, and generosity as it relates to the topic of caring for creation/environmental justice and how we are called as Christians to take action on these issues. Bredin notes in his book, “Jesus teaches that humans must live with a spirit of generosity and restraint; however, a spirit of meanness and greed dominates human culture and leaves nearly 1.3 billion people living on less than $1 a day. The politics of globalization based on principles of greed have resulted in the loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and a shortage of food and clean water. Jesus teaches that those who are generous are blessed and such generosity brings justice to all of creation. There cannot be God’s social justice without ecological sanity, and yet we tend to speak of social justice as though non-human creation doesn’t matter. God cares even for the flowers of the field, yet we show contempt for God in our careless plunder of creation. To love God is to love all that he has made, from our own families to the soil outside our homes.”

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