Vision for a Scriptural Fellowship of Believers - Past and Present - Leland Zehr

Good morning, and I too want to greet you in

the name of Jesus and welcome and thank you visitors

for joining us this morning. It's good to have have

you here. It's good to have Dad up here again.

Listen to him like the good old days. Yeah, appreciated

those thoughts. Unless the Lord build the house, we labor

in vain that build it. And that's kind of a

disappointing thought that that that could happen in the life

of a church, that all that would effort would be

in vain. So good reminders on keeping Christ the head

of the church. Few things here, Dad and I we

didn't talk about our messages here, but there's a little overlap,

but that's fine. Part of today's focus is on the

history of what has been already talked about, the tangent

and a night church hal see now. But the purpose

is more than just historical dates and names and facts.

It's a time to try to merge some of those

thoughts and principles into present us today and going forward.

The program of the title that I was given is

vision for a scriptural fellowship of believers past at present.

That's a long title, and yeah, I had a hard

time condensing this into my time slot here, but I

will try to do my best to cover enough to

make sense and keep moving to where we can let

out on time. Now this year we've done quite a

bit of I guess, reflecting, you could say, looking back,

studying the past in one way or another. It happens

to be the five hundred year anniversary of the Anabaptist History,

and so here at our church, and I think the

other churches have two has studied that book and we're

about done with it. We've heard it on sermons, we've

heard it at the fellowship meetings, we've heard it at

Bible schools. This theme coming through, and I've picked up

that some are ready to move on, and I am too.

Here shortly and we will. It'll be behind us real soon,

I believe. But I think that it is good to

some degree to look back. We're not here today to

pat ourselves on the back as a church, like Dad

was saying, or to glorify men that started Tangent Mennonite Church.

And either are we here to criticize the people that

they laughed at least That's not what I'm here to do. Hindsight,

As always, you have a good view. With that perspective,

in real time, it's harder to know what to do

and how to make right decisions. So we want to

reflect and honor and appreciate the right choices that were made,

and also hopefully learn from the mistakes of people of

the past as well. Ignoring history risks repeating its errors

and losing the wisdom of the past successes. All wise, people,

humble people, god fearing people will try to learn from history.

It's only the fools that disregard that the Bible itself

is largely a book of history. I want to read

a little bit out of Deuteronomy to kind of just

lay this groundwork for this thought. If you care to,

you can turn to Deuteronomy, chapter eight, and the first

eight chapters of this is Moses, God talking about different battles, victories,

reminding them of what they had went through, God punishing them,

God giving them victories in the wilderness, conquering different cities,

talks about the Promised Land, talks about the Ten Commandments.

And then you get to verse chapter eight, and here

we have It's talking about the good land that they

are about to go in. And what I want you

all to think about and especially young people. The connection

I'm trying to make here is God's heart here as

he talks about bringing these children, his children of Israel,

out of Egypt, the bondage, all those trials, tribulations, the desert,

the battle, the wilderness experiences, many people dying, and now

they're entering into a land that has been promised them,

a land flowing with milk and honey, land of many

good things. And so they're right there. But God gives

a warning with that. And I think about that and

in reference to you and me and us in light

of the history of this church, and I'll maybe have

more on that in a little bit. I think I'm

gonna jump in. I'll read verse two, and then I'm

gonna start at verse seven. Just for the sake of it.

Time here verse two Deuteronomy eight. And thou shalt remember

all the way which the Lord thy God led thee

these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, to

prove thee to know what was in thine heart, whether

thou wouldst keep his commandments or no. And will jump

down to verse seven. For the Lord thy God bringeth

thee into a good land, a land of brooks of waters,

of fountains, of depths that spring out of valleys and hills.

A land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig

trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey,

A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou

shalt not lack anything in it, A land whose stones

are iron, and out of those hills thou mayest dig brass.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt

bless the Lord thy God for the good land which

he hath given THEE. And he says, beware that thou

forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his

commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I have

commanded THEE this day. Lest when thou hast eaten and

art full, built goodly houses and dwelt therein. And when

thou thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver

and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast

is multiplied, then thine heart be lifted up. And thou

forget the Lord thy God, which brought THEE forth out

of the land of Egypt from the house of Bondage,

who led THEE through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein

were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought where there was

no water. Who brought thee forth water out of the

rock of flint, Who fed thee in the wilderness with

manna which thy fathers knew, not that he might humble thee,

that he might prove THEE to do THEE good. At

thy latter end, And thou say, in thine heart, my

power and the might of my hand hath gotten me

this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God,

for he for it is he that giveth THEE power

to get wealth, that he ye may establish his covenant

with he covenant which he swear unto thy fathers. As

it is this day, and it shall be if thou

do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk

after the gods, and serve them, and worship them, and testify.

I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish,

as the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face.

So shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient

unto the voice of the Lord your God. And that

is a He's talking to a second generation and maybe

a third generation of the people that started out coming

out of the Bondage of Egypt, and so there's that

same parallel with us almost every one of us today

here are second, third, maybe fourth generation when we're looking

back at the years of nineteen fifty when the Tangent

Church started, and in many ways we have not all

not without problems, but we have enjoyed many years of

good blessings. And he's talking about the earthly blessed blessings

and we have that as well that we're trying to

think about more the spiritual analogy of the things that

we have been handed that we had no part in,

maybe those battles that were fought. We know that if

you've been around much, you hear this warning, the same

warning that God gave on a lot of different different

levels in life, people in countries, people that have fought

for the freedom of their country, for religious freedom. It's

true in the principles of business, a man that's not

very well off, but he works hard and operates a

business and he scratches his way through life and he

gets a good business going. It is a way too

common of a cycle to watch the second and the

third generation not be able to handle the blessings the

abundance that has handed them that they did not fight for.

And it happens in churches as well. We can as

second generation and third generation people, we can easily get

the attitude of entitlement. We see that with our children

when we mean well and we spoil them, and the

more we buy in the big plastic toys and books

and everything that they accumulate, they don't get happier. They

get fussier. They get more complaining and want more and

demand more. And I don't know where that balance is,

but that analogy of is in our hearts. As adults

as well, we can become proud and unthankful like God

warned here. So I just say that as groundwork, I

guess for us all to intentionally try to remember that.

So to consider this title the vision for a Scriptural

Fellowship of Believers past and present. I plan to try

to divide this up into kind of two sections this morning,

look at the vision of the scriptural fellowship of Believers passed,

and then think about present as well. I was wondering here,

out of all that are here and any children that

can understand and are aware with what I'm saying, you

could participate as well. But I would like all of

you that at least attended regularly at the Tangent Mennonite

Church up in Tangent to stand. How many of you

were regulars there? Okay, good, and you may be seated,

And how many did not stand? We're not a regular there? Stand? Okay, good,

thank you. It's it's not quite fifty to fifty. But

I was thinking maybe that we would have at least

as many that had not attended there regularly. But for

being in this building only about thirteen years, there's almost

as many that did not attend at Tangent. And that's good,

and that's fine. I was just curious with the audience

here this last week. This subject was on my mind

and I was up through Tangent, so I drove back

there past the old church and looked at it. It's

a house now, and it just brought back a lot

of memories, people, events, vehicles, a lot of good memories.

It was where I grew up, where I got married.

And if you look, if you ever go there, they're

on the corner of Birdfoot Drive, an old church road

where you make that corner up by the stops and

there's still a little blue sign that says Tangent Minnnite Church.

They haven't taken it down. In fact, some year I

don't know, probably a year ago. I asked the city

there if I could have that little sign, and he

said he would check into it, and then I never

heard back from him. So just interesting thinking, just a

moment about vision. Dad talked about vision a little bit

here at our church earlier this year we had a

men's meeting and we asked and we shared a little

bit about to make us think, what is our vision?

What is your vision for the church? And it was

a blessing to hear that, and it was a good

exercise to think about. But vision is simply in this

way we're using it as thinking out ahead, thinking out

beyond what you can actually see the here and now.

It is giving forethought. It is realizing that my actions

or my inactions today and choices today will impact not

only my direction and my destiny in the future, but

the destiny of others, my children and others. Vision provides

some unity and direction if everybody is headed in the

same direction. Vision guides decision making and priorities. Yeah, depending

on where you're going, helps you sort life out there's

decisions that you make based on that. And we know

the saying common saying that says you can pick your

path or you can pick your destiny, but you can't

pick both. Proverbs twenty nine eighteen says where there is

no vision, that people perish, and another version of that says,

where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint.

And I think that is true. When there is no

real vision, we as humans just kind of wander through

life being guided by the path of least resistance, often

our emotions, what we feel in the moment, and just

wonder through life without no vision beyond what I can

see and feel today my comforts of today. The tangent

men of Night Church started because there were some men

and women that had a vision, a vision to hold

on to scriptural practices. And it's hard for me to

know how much to give here in this portion the

pass part, but most of my information and if I

make mistakes, Jason, and they're bad enough, you can just

speak up or you can say later. But I got

most of my information out of the book that Jason

compiled length in the Chord, Strength and the Stakes, and

there's a whole bunch of them back there, and it's

interesting to read through some of that book again. And

I don't know if I don't know that i'd ever

read it fully, but reading it and paging through it,

it was good for me to read, especially the start

and the history of that. There's a few facts I'm

not real clear on and they probably don't matter. This afternoon,

there'll be some talks that maybe some of this will

get more detail to. But around in the nineteen forties

and the nineteen fifties, a lot of the Mennonite churches,

as I understand it, were part of the Pacific Coast Conference,

a bigger conference, and the Fairview Mennonite Church was a

part of that conference as well, all which is what

Tangent came out of. During that time that period, there

were changes, I guess, coming into different other churches that

were concerning to some and what if understood right, the

Fairview Mennonite Church did not have a written standard of

faith and practice. Is that right? But the conference would

have in some form, So the bigger conference would have

had some kind of standard. I guess I don't know

what that was. But the Fairview Church, the local church,

didn't have an actual written guidelines to govern the church,

and maybe something to you some of you that sounds appealing.

I think it would have me at one point, But

where I stand today, it looks like a nightmare to

try to operate from that standpoint, because what that did

and what that does is the burden of what is

allowed and not allowed, and if and when discipline is

applied and exercising the church falls heavily on the ministry.

Did he desern all of that? And I can just

imagine the can of worms that would get opened up

in consistencies and when and how and who? And so

a written standard is not personal. It's a group that

decides on a line and positions and practices, and then

they still course take work to maintain. But so that

was one big thing at that time, and so with

no written position, the current ministry had to try to

navigate this. And as time went on, practices were coming

into the church, they were changing, things were coming in

that it used to be. Some were progressive, some were not,

and so the ministry grappled with that. And at that time,

or at nineteen fifty was I guess three in the

ministry as I understand it, Henry Garrig Garrig, Melvin Schock,

Jason's dad, and Nick Burkey. Nick was the bishop and

the other two. And then, as the book says, Henry

would have had a little bit more of the progressive mindset,

Melvin Schock would have had the conservative and Nick Burkey

was in the middle trying to kind of keep people

happy and pull things together. Nick was a I'm not

here to talk about man, just trying to paint the picture.

I can sympathize with Nick in that position, actually, but

he tried to. He tried to make it work and

bring peace and to the congregation. But it just seems

like as time went on, the variation and the congregation

got whiter, and some of the things that were happening

that were of concern were some of these wearing of gold, jewelry,

cut hair for women, im modesty, neckties, irreverence during church services,

use of tobacco, sports involvement. And Nick was not a

strong disciplinarian. He tried to teach and encourage and so

one of the key men or components of the startup

tangent was Melvin Trock, one of the ministry, and there

was meetings, there was conversations there was efforts to try

to resolve and bring these differences together, but there was

also an ordination then that happened, and that around that

time frame that was questioned handled questionably by some that

seemed to be kind of the final I don't know, Straw,

you could say of the division some other things over

that era. I don't know if any of these directly,

but leaders were coming out of seminary, so there was

a little bit of that modern influence that was coming

in that was concerning to some. But after some effort

had been made and failed, Melvin Trock finally asked to

be released from the ministry from his ministerial duties there,

which the church did grant. When Melvin left Fairview, his

intention was not to go start another church. I don't

think he knew what he was going to do. He

had several invitations to other conference churches that he could

come to, but there had already been unrest with other

families in the Fairview Church and they were starting to

meet and have prayer meeting. They didn't have a regular

prayer meeting, so this group had been meeting praying and

over those months first months of the nineteen fifties, this

group that was meeting through a course of prayer and

talked eventually decided to start a new church. Of course,

I'm skipping over many details. And on August, in August

of nineteen fifty they held their church organization meeting and

officially became the Tangent men A Nite Church. And so

that is seventy five years ago this last August. When

they started, there was twenty five charter members. I think

if I counted her, I ate eight couples and then

the rest would have been singles I believe. And then

two of the couples that would be connected here more

directly to us today was Jason's mom and dad, Melvin Shocks,

and Leonard's parents Marvin Sharks with some others. So Melvin

was the only local ordained man or minister of that

congregation at that time. But then they ask from up

at Sheridan to be their bishop, which he did, and

he drove down I think monthly, and eventually he moved

down into the area here. When this new church started,

they too joined or were a part of the Pacific

Coast Conference. It wasn't until about ten years later, after

they had formulated and organized and were having church that

they felt like that just the conference in general continued

to go in the direction that they were not comfortable with,

and so in nineteen sixty they officially pulled out of

the conference. Porter pulled out about the same time. Just

a few things about this group in the early years

interesting to me for whatever it was. But when they

first started, they were not particularly a real conservative in practice.

Everything the devotional covering was not worn consistently by some

or at all times. Only a few wore a plane

suit or the cape dress. Women girls were used in

leading songs and having children's meeting and reading essays in

the evening services. And I can all I think I

can remember. I'm not sure if it's a picture remember

some of that, either Violet or someone the children's meeting,

but I'm a little foggy on that. But that was

part of their practice. But over the years their vision

and convictions developed and their practices gradually changed. And as

I understand, it wasn't so much of a make a

standard everybody can form, but it was more of a

gradual process of conviction building that the congregation gradually moved

in the direction that they did. They had their share

of problems they had struggles along the way to work

out themselves when they once they left the conference, there

was a concern to who they would fellowship with, who

their children would marry. They were a small group and

so they felt a little bit isolated, and so the

pursuit of fellowship it was a question. They had a

strong emphasis on reaching out to the community around them.

That was one thing that they did. They had summer

Bible school, passed out literature, they had other methods. And

one little detail, if I have it right, on how

Tangent originally began preaching in the evenings. I was wondering

where that came from. But there was Sunday school classes

being given and outreaches, and I think that some that

would go to those Sunday school classes in the mornings

and were missing the services asked for a sermon in

the evening so that when they could come back that

they could they could have a sermon. And so then

that carried on for years to come. One story I'll

just tell you, children can listen to this out of

that out of that book that was of interest to me.

In this reaching out, they there was multiple local families

around the Tangent and up in that area that that

were saved and came to the church and joined the church,

and and so there was there was that, But there

was this one story of an older man, I don't

know if I'm saying his name correctly, mister Hensley. He

was an older man that didn't have good hearing, and

he attended the Mennonite church. He said he could hear

there and he couldn't hear at other churches. So he

was coming to that church, and he wasn't familiar with

the Mennonite teachings and people. He didn't have that background.

He was a community man. One Sunday, they were having

communion and he was looking around and the members were

standing and the bishop was passing out communion. And so

when the communion emblems were being served and came by,

mister Hensley stood up and he wanted to partake. Who's

watching everyone else? But the bishop refused. Damon said no.

He said, I'll explain this to you later, and he, respectfully,

I guess, accepted that mister Hensley had things in his

life that were not right. We're not scriptural. He was

in an adulterous relationship in a divorced and remarried state

he was a smoker who just so the next day, Monday,

after that communion service, the bishop, I guess his brother

Wolfer went to visit mister Henley and explained to him

the church's position and why on communion, and that why

he couldn't he couldn't give him communion. Mister Hensley said

he understood, he accepted it fine. And I don't know

how long that conversation was, but it says that through

that conversation that he actually repented and gave his life

to the Lord and he gave up smoking. And I

don't know how soon this was. It doesn't give the timeline,

but he decided he needed to change his relationship with

his adulterous relationship with his wife, and so he couldn't

move out right away for arrangements, and so he said

he decided that in the meantime, until he could move out,

he would to be clear with the Lord. He was

going to move his bed out of the bedroom of

his wife and out into the living room, just to

be right with God. And it says as he was

moving his bed to the living room, he fell over

dead and died. And it's just an interesting story. It's

neat in the fact that he was maybe God knew

the tests that were ahead for him, and that he

was faithful, his heart was right with God. We don't

know what all of it. That was one story that

was in that book. A few other things just about

the church and the history there. There was an e

and along with the effort of reaching out, there was

the concern for their own fellowship, as I said, and

a strength thing their own families and their own people.

And so that is I think the birth of Bible

Conference in there, where they would have visiting ministers come

and teach, to try to just teach practical doctrine to

the church. That was the history of that. In nineteen

fifty seven, Lake Creek School started and Harrisburg invited Tangent

to that school. Youth there wasn't near the Bible school

options back then as there are now, but Messiah Bible School.

Some of the youth went to that. And I believe

that our church, Tangent and Harrisburg shared youth groups for

many years because their youth group was smaller. So there

was that fellowship. Eventually the Western Fellowship churches were formed,

and then we become closer to where we were today.

During the nineteen eighties and the two thousands, what kind

of gets into the era of a lot of you

that can remember is there was quite a bit of

growth in the church. The church grew in number over

that time. There was outreach churches as well, and the

first one started during around nineteen eighty nine to nineteen

nineties up in Washington State. There was some people interested

and so I remember that as a boy traveling up

with Dad and others to go up and preach to

people up in Washington, and so that was the ministry

would take turns going up there. Eventually some families were

chosen to move up there. Some of them were Clayton, Evelis,

Dan Dani Hertzler's, Daniel Shrock, Daniel and Barb, Tim Eveleth,

and Jeff Shrocks. I don't know if I'm missing any,

but those are ones that helped start which is now

known as the Pine Grove Mennonite Church. And then in

two thousand and seven the church was fairly full and

so more there was another outreach where Dad went in

Milton Freewater. I think that was around two thousand and seven,

and then about ten years later again the outreach to

Palisades happened, and here we are today twenty twenty five,

just a few things memories or things that I appreciate,

did and do still. Maybe, like Dad said, we're just

absorbed subconsciously. I hope into my values along the way.

But this verse that the book was titled, lengthen the

chords and strengthen the stakes, in my view as a

fitting phrase for what the Tangent Church endeavored to do

and be not to say they did it correctly all

the time, But those verses come out of Isaiah fifty

four to two and three. It says, enlarge the place

of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains

of thy inhabitations. Spare not lengthen thy chords and strengthen

thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right

hand and on the left. And I see each'll inherit

the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

And Tangent had a lot of problems. But one thing

that Tangent never was in my memory was a biological

if this is a proper term, biological family church, where

there was a dominant families of the most of the congregation.

It had a lot of diversity of background and people

from different places. There seemed to be a heart of

heart and attitude of welcome to all that were willing

to come and from all different backgrounds and upbringings, and

we're willing to fit in to the group's values and practices.

And there was an effort, it seemed like a generosity

to lengthen the chords and stretch out the tents and

make more room for people that were coming in. There

was an openness in that way, non Mennonite background, young

people coming in from back East, adoption into homes, patients

with people with difficult personalities. I could, I guess safely

name my grandpa Oliver's there, though he wasn't a member

there all the time. But there was a patience with people,

maybe to a fault, some would say. But there was

also the side of the strengthening the stakes. There were

lines that were held, and it wasn't just a free

for all, for that whoever came from any background could

bring all their ways of doing them and push them

onto the church. They were expected to fit into the church.

So there was that flexibility to lengthen and yet there

were there were boundaries and practices. There was order and

there was some expectation brought stability to the church. In

most of my memory, and I remember different of the

ordained men, but in that what i'd call the core

of my growing up years. As I think about the

Tangent ministry, it was Victor, Dad and Jason were the

ones that just in the in the bulk of my ears.

And I was just a boy trying to stay fly

Beulow the radar and not get into trouble at that time,

so I wasn't probably the most observant in church life.

But all of those years until later, church problems, whiffs

of trouble were just non existent. It was a secure, peaceful,

calm place that was just nice to be. There was stability,

and I think that is a testimony of you know,

I think about that. It's the troubles that get highlighted

and people know, but when you have decades of hard

work of getting along that has just taken for grant

in it not noticed. It's normal. But that takes effort,

that takes work, that takes giving and taking, and I

think Dad, Victor and Jason tried to do that. Victor

was quiet, steady, but even as a young man. I

didn't fear him, and yet I respected him, and it

was just I think good as a young person. The

ministry didn't micro manage church members weren't always jumping on

everything that happened immediately. They gave youth and others some

time to sort life out without a lot of high pressure.

But then there was accountability and lines and things that

were brought to bear as well, and people had to

make choices. In my memories, Dad mentioned a little bit

of this, but there'd always been, There's always been in

those years. Colorful. I guess you could just say that

colorful personalities in the tangent church. I think that's good

as long as there is Christian love and unity in

that color one evangelists, I think I'm quoting this right.

I remember years ago still Dad repeating it. But evangelists

from out of the area was here and he is

visiting how they do. And he told Dad on the

way up to the revival meetings that evening that you

have a three ring circus here. And I don't think

he was being negative. It was just like it was

not orthodox, it was not typical in some ways. So

now we are here and it is our time. It

is you and me. It's twenty twenty five. The vision

for a scriptural fellowship of believers present. One of the

things as we try to merge history with present and future,

that I think is a very important thing to not

fall into is that we cannot carbon copy the things

always of the past and make them fit for today.

There's principles that we can, there's values and all of that.

The stories of the Bible, Moses, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, and

you can go down the line Daniel and all the

way up through. They were all godly men, but they

all have their own story, their own unique challenges. Daniel

couldn't do what Noah did, and Noah couldn't do what

Adam did. But they could all rely on God, and

they could all have a faith, and they could all

try to hear his voice and be obedient. And so

as we think about history and what Tangent faced in

those years to Halsey, now, each generation, each memory needs

to have a living relationship with God. And sometimes the

easy way is to just try to copy and just

create a statue or a monument that we can just

be indefinitely, but that that might be positive in the

sense that it's not going worldly, but there's no life,

it's it's dead. And so an example of this, I

would say, of just a difference of the early church

seventy five years ago in our church now is simply

this fact of the word fellowship. And it's in our title.

I'll mention that in the early days they were a

small group. They left a conference, There wasn't a lot

of fellowship. Where were they going to find it? Who

were they going to associate with? Travel was more cumbersome

and slower and expensive. Probably in those days. Communication through

technology was much less advanced, no cell phones, and so

one of the are their challenges was finding common scriptural

fellowship to sustain them. Today it's different. Today, we are

a bigger church. We're part of a Western Fellowship of

lots of churches. Not only that, there are many other

churches outside of the Western Fellowship that we find fellowship

with as well. There's Bethel, There's Pilgrim, There's many many

others that we associate with and have friends with. Travel

is much more affordable and available. You can jump on

a plane, you can fly to your family reunion, weddings, funerals,

fellowship meetings, the mission field, there's cam open House, there's

many para church groups that are available for fellowship. And

if you don't like to travel, you can pick up

your cell phone, you can FaceTime, you can text, you

can send pictures, you can interact, not to mention the

endless sermons and podcasts online. So unlike nineteen fifty, one

of our challenges is knowing how to prioritize all this fellowship,

just this fire hose of fellowship that is available, and

so we need to sort that out, try to regulate

and prioritize, and sometimes that takes being intentional, being intentional

with your own home church. Because I think about think past.

We could ask the question, you know, did Melvin in

that group do the right thing in nineteen fifty should

have they left? Should have they waited? Should have they

tried harder? You know, there's a lot of there was

people saying they needed to stay to help help the

core church there. You know, honestly, I'm standing in twenty

twenty five. I have a different perspective. I appreciate and

I'm thankful for the faithfulness of the men of the

past and the hard choices that they made. It took courage,

to leave and to start a new group and all

that they went through. But I'm kind of conflicted as

well today because it seems to me that people are

leaving churches all the time over anything. And I don't know.

Some of you have left churches, and I maybe would

have left if I was in your shoes. I'm not

condemning you, and I think there's a place and a

time to leave, But often it seems like, or maybe

I could ask it, could it be that there is

a general lack of commitment and loyalty as well, to

be considered, people leave over offenses, carnal desires. You know,

it's hard to trust and fellowship and bond when a

commitment is really shallow. When when when if you get

under my skin, I'm just gonna leave. It's it creates

a it's hard to go deep on a level where

there's not much commitment. You know, it takes courage sometimes

to leave, and sometimes it takes courage and strength to stay.

And this thing of the reasons not, you know, being scriptural,

I think that's a definite core thing. But I just

have to say it out loud because it's real that many,

many of the the divisions the starting over of groups.

I don't know, it's a big stretch to say it's scriptural.

Every with that buddy, from the Amish, Mennonites, Anabaptist to

the Baptists all agree that we need scriptural fellowship and

that the Word of God is what we finally determines.

And yet I think there is the the maybe just

the practical side, that the values can two walk together

unless they be agreed. Those are real things that everybody

needs to sort out. And I'd like to say, as

I think about that question, I'm not trying to even

answer that question. It's not the most important, but did

they do the right thing? I think probably looking back, yes,

they did. And we need to remember here at Halsey

in twenty twenty five that the poll of the world

and the pressure on the Church of Jesus Christ is

always there. It is a constant it is. It is

just always pushing, pulling, trying to get an in its

foot in the door of the church. And you know,

we can mock the dumb little things that we're trying

to hold a line over and have conflict over, and

there's small issues and people throw around apostasy, But on

the other hand. We need to remember it's a real thing.

It happens, and it is constant. And remember that the

devil is in the details. Might not like details, but

that is where it starts, somewhere in the details, little

by little, and so we need to think about that today.

The Pacific Coast Conference, if you had to just stayed

on there and rode that thing all the way to today.

It's now part of Menna Night Church, USA. I don't

know a lot about them, but it's a far cry

different than what they were in nineteen fifty. So I

give those two conflicting thoughts. Have we fallen into another faults?

I guess of uncommitment and quick to divide, although at

times it isn't necessary something for you, I guess, and

me to all analyze. What is fellowship? We've been talking

about fellowship. How can we foster Christian fellowship? Well, if

you look up that word, most of the time in

the New Testament, it's the coynania. It's a partnership, it's

a close interaction, it's a communion. Is that word. And

Christian fellowship is a key theme in the New Testament

that God has woven through the church through his word

of unity, love, and of mutual supporting one another. God

created us as social human beings. We need social interaction.

It meets emotional needs, spiritual needs, physical needs. And so

the question is who and what are we going to

fellowship with. I want to read three verses here just

to consider. And you know these verses two Corinthians six fourteen,

be not unequally ooke together with unbelievers, or for what

fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light

with darkness? And then in First Corinthians five fifteen thirty three,

be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners and Ephesians

five eleven, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works

of darkness, but rather reprove them. And I just want

to say that fellowship matters. Who our friends are, who

we associate with, who we go to Bible school with,

who we marry makes a tremendous difference in the lives

of course, you as a person marrying and the community

and people around you. The Pharisees criticize Jesus when he

eight with republicans and sinners. Jesus cared for the lost.

He was there to lead them out of bondage and

to God. And I would just say this idea of

reaching out and fellowship, sometimes that gets stirred and blurred,

and I'm not sure where that all is. It's a

fine line between fellowshipping close communion versus reaching out and

trying to help someone in a right direction. But especially

when we are relating to people that profess to be Christians,

maybe they're friends relatives that have left scriptural practices. And

let's just not be deceived. As that verse says before

that the one who is likely being influenced in the

relationship is probably not them. They have intentionally made a

choice in the direction that they want to go away

from you. And I'm not saying we be mean, we

be rude, saying be not deceived. Evil communications, corrupt good manners.

They have an impact on us. So be careful in

this fellowship and reaching out. We need both. When we

think about searching for scriptural fellowship, I suppose our minds

go to thinking about other people and who I can

fellowship with and what kind of friends I can have.

But I'd like to give just a few closing thoughts

on turn that around, and how can you and I

be good fellowship to those around me in my own

church and to my friends. How here's just a few

ways briefly that we can cultivate good Christian fellowship or

that hinders Christian fellowship. Number one we already talked about.

But a high regard for the Bible and in the

scriptures and really mean that. I know I've said that that,

you know, everybody says that they and they do, but

I think we need to take that on a personal

level seriously, that we read the Bible and that we

respect it and we honor it. Common fellowship with God

brings common values. When we walk in the light as

He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

There's something when we walk in the light, when we

are trying to do what's right and others are doing

what right. There's a commonness that comes just with that

praying for and with each other. There's a blessing in

a bond that happens when a group prays together. And

I'll just put a word in for prayer meeting. It's

the one place that we formally pray together, and I

think there's a blessing in that breaking bread together. We

find that in act two forty six. It says they

broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad

and sincere hearts. And there's something about eating meals together

and food. And I know sometimes people complain about we

got so much food, and yeah we can, that's true.

But the food and fellowship are are biblical sharing resources generously.

That's in acts as well, and Glatians too. And bearing

burdens personal struggles, financial burdens, to sacrifice and to help

other people is a testimony beyond words. When the when

when the wallet goes there and there's sacrifice made, it

is love and action. Another one is reaching out and ministering.

When we when we reach out and there's a there's

a flow through our lives and we're not just receiving

and appreciating and holding and and trying to contain, but

we we share and we live and we reach out together.

That that brings a healthy fellowship together. Another one is

kind And I have a yeah, a lot I could

say about this, but I'll just say it carefully. In

all our effort to maintain to be stand for truth,

I have noticed that it seems like somehow in the

name of religion and in standing for truth. It somehow

gives us this twisted, perverted permission to just be unkind,

and we shouldn't do that. The Bible says be a

kind one to another, and we can stand for truth,

and we can hold a position, and we can be

kind all at the same time. And let's not let's

not be deceived that standing for the truth allows for evilness,

backbiting that destroys fellowship. Humility, listening opening up our hearts

to others, and it needs to be mutual. Listening is good.

But if I will never share anything with you, and

I'm gonna only just ask your information from you, it

hinders fellowship. Don't forget to love. I was going to

read out of this book and closing. Maybe I'll just

read at least some of it and I'll shut down

here then. But in this book, page one four, this

letter stood out to me, in all the all the

effort and trying to stand for truth and doctrine and

the early Anabaptist being born, that Michael Satler had a

burden for the church that I think he was acrid on.

He said, don't forget to love. Further, dear fellow members

in Christ, you should be admonished not to forget love,

without which is not possible that you be a Christian

congreg You know what love is through the testimony of

Paul or fellow brother. He says, love is patient, kind,

not jealous, not puffed up, not ambitious, seeks not its own,

thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, rejoices in the truth,

suffers everything, endures, everything, believes, everything, hopes everything. If you

understand this text, you will find the love of God

and of neighbor. If you love God, you will rejoice

in the truth, and will believe, hope, and endure everything

that comes from God. Thereby the shortcomings mentioned above can

be removed and avoided. But if you love the neighbor,

you will not scold or ban zealously, will not seek

your own, will not remember evil, will not be ambitious

or puffed up, but kind, righteous, generous in all gifts,

humble and sympathetic with the and imperfect. Some brothers I

know who they are, have fallen short of this love.

They have not wanted to build up one another in love,

but are puffed up and have become useless with vain

speculation and understanding of those things which God wants to

keep secret to himself. I do not admonish or reject

the grace and revelation of God, but the inflated use

of this revelation. What is the use? Says Paul? If

one speaks with all sorts of tongues, and of men

and of angels, and knows all mysteries and wisdom, and

has all faith, He says, what is all that worth?

If the one and only love is not exercised. You

have experienced what such puffed up speech and wisdom have

brought to birth. You still see daily their false fruits,

whether they have abandoned them, complete themselves completely to God. Reminder,

in all the effort, in all the taking a stand

which which is important, and all the discipline, and all

the contending for the faith, don't forget to love. I

think I'll stop there. God bless you. Turn the time

over to Dan m