Shannon Martin

Answering the Call to Worship

January 17, 2015January 13, 2016 Shannon MartinLeave a comment

Today I had the extreme pleasure of having lunch with three ladies that are MYF youth sponsors with me. This group of wonderful women have taken me under their collective wing and are mentoring me in the fine arts of leading an MYF group.

Each one is energetic and incredibly talented. They spread their time and talents between families, jobs, and church service roles. All to often they have found themselves wearing several hats in church roles simultaneously.

Yet this group has tread successfully through the waters I am currently treading in. Each one reached a point where it felt as if they were being pulled into to many directions at the same time and were able to recognize they weren’t being filled with joy as a result of being overwhelmed. Although sometimes it was painful, they have gracefully found ways to step back to reclaim the joy that comes from doing the work of the church to bring glory to God.

Today much of our conversations were focused on the current state of the Mennonite church and how the very concept of what it is to do church is changing. It amazed me how very similar the challenges that each person mentioned were to what we are currently experiencing at our church. Our collective group represents three separate small Mennonite congregations which are located relatively close to each other in Northeast Ohio.

It isn’t hard to find articles these days that are related to the current state of affairs of the Mennonite Church and MC USA. It has become a battle field of liberals verses conservatives. The conservatives think the liberals are moving too fast and taking the church in the wrong direction while the liberals think the conservatives are dragging their feet and hampering the mission of the new emerging church culture.

There is also a struggle going on between the older members of the church and the younger members. As the new millennial generation is growing up and going out on their own, we are finding that church is not a societal standard anymore. We as churches are trying to react to draw in this millennial generation to keep our churches from dying out.

However in doing so, the older generation isn’t always very willing to give up the traditions that are tried and true for them. They are hesitant and a little afraid to leave their comfort zones. As a result, we are missing out on reaching a new generation whose ideas of what it is to be church are changing.

Changing how we do church doesn’t change what we believe. The core values of our Confession of Faith remain intact. What looks different is how we express that faith and want to worship in a corporal sense as a body of believers.

We can see that all facets of life have changed drastically over the past 100 years. Some of the changes we see as good, others not so much. The times we are now living in are very fast paced and visual. Instant gratification abounds and it is hard to find a quiet space to tune out all of the noises of our lives.

Perhaps that is why we are finding it so hard to change the cultures in our churches. These buildings have become spaces of sanctuary where time is standing still and everything is familiar. We come to these places each week to seek refuge and to have a chance to hear those little whisperings that come to us in the silences.

But that is exactly why we NEED to change.

What was once safe and comfortable doesn’t look the same for the millennial generation. They are all working full-time jobs and starting families. Their support needs look vastly different from the needs of even just one generation ago. They need fellowship, both for themselves and their children. This new generation of church goers also need mentorship and support from the church family.

Most of all, I believe this group needs a safe place were they are allowed to ask questions. Questions about faith. Questions about life. Questions about the very nature of God. Questions about who they are as followers of God.

God is worthy of our thanksgiving and praise, and we as his children gather faithfully to worship him. He is a loving God who doesn’t stipulate how we worship him. All worship and praise is pleasing to him. Maybe it is okay after all to shake things up a little bit and find new ways to show our love and adoration to God most high.

We must pray for guidance. If we trust in the Holy Spirit, he will guide us into this new age. Let us rely on him, instead of our human instincts, to show us the way forward.

This new age of believers will find a way to do church and to be church. The great unknown in all of this is will our churches survive to continue to be church with this new age of believers? Or will they choose to sit down and not venture out of their safety zones to allow the emerging church to find homes in our sanctuaries?

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:23-24, NRSV)

Reflecting and Resolving

December 31, 2014January 13, 2016 Shannon Martin1 Comment

We have all heard the expressions that say things like “Time flies when you’re having fun!”, and “Don’t blink, it all goes by so fast!”. In my younger, more carefree days (i can pretend those days existed, right?) I would kind of scoff when people said those things to me. I just knew that they were crazy! How can time suddenly start moving faster? The earth continues to turn at the same rate of speed each year as it travels around the sun, right? I am willing to admit that I now owe all of these folks an apology! Sorry I ever doubted you because you are correct and this past year went by incredibly fast!

As I think back over this past year I am greeted with some good memories and fun times as well as some periods of confusion and feeling overwhelmed. All in all, it wasn’t a bad year in my life and God has showered me and my family with abundant blessings. Here are some of the highlights:

Took Max on the trip of his dreams in November when we went to Walt Disney World
Started a blog and published 22 posts
Learned that I am a people pleaser, which is part of what allows me to make commitments that leave me overwhelmed and have begun to work on not doing more than I can handle and to say “No” every now and again
Max started Middle School
Husband, an avid deer hunter, bagged three deer and filled the freezer
Lost 20 pounds

Looking forward to the new year, i feel obligated to create a rather large and ambitious list of resolutions that sound incredibly awesome! Whether or not my resolve will last past this weekend I don’t know, but with God all things are possible. So here they are in all of their over achieving splendour:

Eat supper at the table at least 5 nights out of 7
Exercise at least 5 days out of 7
Submit one article per month for publication in a magazine
Write and publish at least one blog post each week
Establish a new family budget and actually stick to it
Begin following the “SOAK” method of Bible Study, and also begin Bible coloring using the GMG Coloring chart found here: GMG – Studying the Bible Using the SOAK Method, Coloring Chart and Meditation
Focus on writing by committing time each Saturday to sit down and complete Compel training offered through Proverbs 31 Ministries found here: Probverbs 31 Ministries’ Compel – Words That Move People
Continue to learn through extensive reading

Whether I achieve these goals in 2015 or not, I know that I am a loved child of God and perfect in his sight exactly as I am right here and now. Here’s to hoping that next year’s family picture has me looking a little less like Pooh Bear and a little more like Tigger, stripes and all!

Wishing you many blessings and great things in 2015!

The Lord bless and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26, NRSV)

hundredacrewoods2014

An Ode to Joseph

December 23, 2014December 5, 2019 Shannon MartinLeave a comment

In this day and age of dysfunctional, fractured, and splintered families we mourn for the stability of the family unit of days gone by.

We lament on the number of children who have to adjust to living lives with extra adults who aren’t their biological parents. These children struggle to find security and their places in families where the lines have become blurry.

We as Christians have been given the image of what family should be and that love of God begins in the home. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that while we (or at least I) have the impression that the Bible idea of family is a cohesive unit of father, mother, and children, the family trees in the Bible are actually just as gnarly and twisted as our modern family trees.

The very first family, in fact, is a prime example of a family that splintered quickly. Adam and Eve had to deal with a family fall out when Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain then became estranged from the rest of his family.

Abraham has issues with Sarah and Hagar. Isaac and Rebekah’s marital discord comes from favoring different sons. Jacob’s life was a disaster zone in the family department! Moses had a birth family and an adoptive family.

Then there is David.

Slayer of the giant and king of Israel. He had a weakness when it came to women. Rather than just choosing one wife, David chose many. So many that there isn’t an accurate count of them available. Can you envision all of those women living in such close proximity to each other, competing with each other for the king’s attention as well as trying to get his favor for their children?

But God uses all of this for good and for his ultimate purpose. Whether we can understand it or not.

So is it any surprise that with the birth of Jesus there is another blended family? But just as Jesus tempered law with love, God chooses for Jesus’ foster father a man who embraces his role in this unusual family and leaves us with the legacy of a man to look up to and try to emulate in our homes. He gives us one shining example with the very first family in the New Testament to dispel with all of the chaotic family notions of the Old Testament.

Other than he is a descendant of David, we don’t know much about Joseph except that he is a carpenter. The New Testament only mentions him a handful of times, and we know nothing of when or how he dies. But what these few mentions in scripture do tell us is that he is a compassionate man:

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

(Matthew 1:18-19, NRSV)

An angel steps in and assures Joseph that Mary’s story is the truth. Joseph still has a choice though. He could easily choose to still quietly dismiss Mary. He is well with in his rights to do so under Jewish law. However, Joseph chooses to take on the responsibility of providing for and protecting the baby Jesus.

Would another descendant of David have been as willing to go along with this plan? Surely Joseph is as favored as Mary in being chosen to be the protector of the Messiah. Like Mary’s life is turned upside down when she agrees to be the Lord’s hand maiden, Joseph’s world will also become crazy.

He doesn’t hesitate to leave behind the life that he has built for himself and his family when he is told by an angel to flee to Egypt for the child’s safety. Joseph once again leaves behind whatever security he has been able to find for his small family in Egypt when he is told to return to the land of Israel.

Did Joseph ever grumble about all of the upheavals that came with the advent of the Messiah and Mary into his life? I am sure that he did. He was after all only human. It is his willingness to heed God’s call on his life and go when he is told that makes him stand out.

Being the appointed guardian and protector of the Christ child is his claim to fame, but Joseph’s compassion, empathy, and protection of a child that was not his own should also be remembered. He is a true example of Godly fatherhood in a broken world.

Click here to watch Joseph’s Lullaby by Mercy Me

What Happened To Love?

December 20, 2014January 13, 2016 Shannon MartinLeave a comment

Our world is hurting. This season of hope is filled with pain, anguish and suffering for far too many. Hurt is running rampant. Many live in fear. Fear of men. Fear of their neighbors.

Christians are being exterminated in some parts of the world by extremists who are killing men, women, and children — young and old alike. All because they cling firmly to their faith and refuse to renounce their God.

Looters are doing damage to property and stealing because they feel that justice hasn’t been served. In response they are protesting by destroying the homes and businesses of people who had no control over the verdicts.

Mothers are crying for their babies that will never again hug them in this life.

Police officers are no longer safe in their own cars.

Our world is in utter chaos. It isn’t just happening in some distant part of the world. It is right here in our own streets.

How can we ever heal all of the pain? The answer is simple. We can’t. All we can do is be there for the lost, the hurt, and the wounded. Love them. Comfort them if we can. And pray. Always pray.

“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sister, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matthew 5:43-47, NRSV)

But this season we are celebrating by continuing to place our faith and hope for humanity in the small hands of the baby that was born over two thousand years ago. A baby changes everything, according to a Christmas song recorded by Faith Hill. As a mother I can say that is definitely true. However the baby born to Mary and Joseph changed more the just the sleeping habits of Mary and Joseph. This baby brought love and reconciliation to a cold, dark world.

The wee babe would grow up into a man who didn’t resemble the Messiah the people were expecting. He was, however, the Savior they needed. The same Saviour we look to and still need today. Jesus. A man who reached out to the poor, the marginalized, the sick, women, and the outcasts or down trodden. Who corrected the educated in the temple and did not seek out the company of the wealthy.

This rebel Messiah led a revolution of love. He was the son of an unwed mother and the step son of a poor carpenter. The most unlikely person to become a powerful savior who would take on the Roman Empire. Let us be the unlikely people in our time who live out that same message in a broken, hurting world.

The ancient people of Israel missed the lessons of love and forgiveness Jesus brought. They were more concerned with being citizens of this world and getting the revenge they thought their enemies and persecutors deserved rather than focusing on becoming citizens of heaven and extending a hand of forgiveness. They were more concerned with removing their oppressors. So busy in fact that they missed the love and ever lasting joy being offered to them by the longed for Messiah.

Let us strive to remember the message and live in the way the Great Deliverer taught us. Even as our Lord Jesus hung from the cross, in the utmost anguish, completely innocent of any crimes, he still asked his father to forgive his enemies. Defiled, humiliated, beaten, and tortured, Jesus still begged forgiveness for the ones who knew not what they did. He asked for nothing for himself. He freely forgave his enemies and put their eternal welfare before his own frail human condition.

Love was the guiding principle Jesus taught. Forgiveness his sovereign decree. A baby changed everything.

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord. (Zechariah 8:16-17 – NRSV)

Encouraging Who?

December 16, 2014January 13, 2016 Shannon MartinLeave a comment

The pictures that played in my head as I decided that the nudges I had been feeling (and continue to feel) where wonderful visions with happy endings straight out of a Hallmark Channel movie. I envisioned my words bringing comfort to others struggling on their journeys. God wants ME to share what is in my heart and my experiences with others to encourage them! Show others that with God all things are possible and we can overcome anything. Just look at me!

And that is exactly what I am doing today. Looking at myself. Humbling myself. Unfortunately I don’t think I qualify for the role of encourager of others. I am not even an encouragement to myself. So maybe as usual I confused the messages I was getting. I am not supposed to be a light to you, but have you walk with me as I continue to flounder trying to figure out this thing called life.

Have you ever felt like you are caught in the middle of a perfect storm and the winds aren’t letting up? That is me. After years of being married, with both of us working full-time jobs, we still struggle just to get by. There are no savings accounts or investments, very rarely do we splurge on expensive extras (like a massage or new bath towels), and we do not live the American dream in a home that we own.

In fact it is the very opposite. We are renters living in a tiny trailer that is older than both of us. That is what the fruits of our hard labors have afforded us. Fortunately we seem to be able to pay our regular monthly bills on time these days (in the past that hasn’t been the case), but there are definitely no extras of any kind. My student loan debts, taken on under the delusion that my schooling would result in a better tax bracket for us, are constantly looming over our heads.

Drowning in my sorrows sometimes can overshadow me for a couple of days at a time. I wouldn’t say that I am depressed and can’t cope, just down trodden and struggling to find the hidden blessings because I am too busy desperately trying to find a light at the end of this never-ending tunnel.

It never fails. Just when I believe we are on the cusp of gaining at least a piece of security I am swallowed in the storm clouds again. Once upon a time we owned a home, but a six month period of unemployment caused us to lose everything in bankruptcy and we have spent the past ten years trying to recover from that. Last week it seemed like dreams of owning a well-built, comfortable home might soon be a possibility for us again with the help of the Rural Housing program through the USDA. This week that dream is once again threatened. I found out that the portion of my student loans that have been in voluntary forbearance are once again going to go into repayment, and the monthly payment amount is more than the amount of what the mortgage payment would be on the little house we had set our sights on. What’s more, I have exhausted my forbearance, and going forward the loans are no longer eligible for voluntary forbearance.

Granted, in the grand scheme of things, my troubles are small. I am fortunate to live in a country with religious freedom where I am not persecuted and can provide food, clothing, and shelter to my child. I do give thanks for all of the blessings I have received in my life. I really do have a lot to be thankful for and remind myself often. However, in the midst of fighting to survive pay check to pay check I am swept away and overwhelmed. To paraphrase from Anne of Green Gables, I am drowning in the depths of despair. I need a Marilla in my life to remind me that to despair is to turn my back on God, so therefore I should not indulge myself in sulking.

Today I read as part of my morning routine the daily devotion emailed to me by Proverbs 31 Ministries. It was written by Lysa TerKeurst and entitled If You Ever Feel Lonely, Read This. I must admit that I could identify whole heartedly and see myself in this post. I often feel alone, and sometimes even lost in a crowd, especially when I am struggling with the latest saga in trying to find a secure financial path for us. Whether it is a family gathering, a work event, or a church function I can feel oblivious and totally without friends in a room filled with people. Below is the link for this devotion if you are in need of it today as well.

Proverbs 31 Ministries Daily Devotion – If You Ever Feel Lonely, Read This by Lysa TerKeurst

Perhaps what most grabbed me, besides being able to identify with these feelings, was the verse Lysa chose to begin her post with (below from a different translation) that I had never really noticed before. I ache with the Psalmist, seeking the same relief from my own inner turmoil. All these ages later, that cry is the cry of my heart today. I am seeking comfort from the ultimate Comforter and grasping to cling to hope and stand strong in my faith as my world seems to be in chaos again.

So perhaps what is on my heart for you today, my dear friends, is to let you know that you are not alone in your struggles. We are all going through our own set of troubles. In the midst of these storms of life, I am here, praying for you as you row through the crashing waves. Sometimes we just need to know someone is thinking about us to help us press onward, and remember that God never leaves us. We are never truly alone if we live our lives with the help of our Father’s guiding hands. He will captain our ships as we sail through each storm and find calm waters.

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of distress. (Psalms 25: 16-17 – NRSV)