I invite you to describe experiences of evangelism in whatever form (through the testimonies, through a direct Gospel presentation, verbally, nonverbally, relationally, through communications media...) - or crosspost items (when permitted) that seem to you to be examples of 'evangelism after the manner of Friends'.

Dear Johan, I appreciate your inquiry. You would not know me but I remember hearing you at our NWYM sessions and have appreciated your insights. Your topic is one I've thought about very much through the years and have had what for me have been many growing experiences.

By way of background I will submit a bit: I became a Christ follower at about nine years of age and prayerfully made the decision to follow that path while praying in the old outhouse of my family's farm. There have been many subsequent decisions involving turn arounds, commitment and recommitment as I faced new challenges.

Ultimately I learned to study hard, became a physician and had a private practice, taught in a medical school setting and now am primarily working as a Hospice Medical Director and periodically take trips with Northwest Medical Teams, the most recent ones being twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. I have great fun teaching a little Circle of Friends in SS - ages about 6 to 8. I am 72 years of age, am thankful for good health, and feel that I will never retire from my primary calling of following Christ.

One of the large privileges I began having early on in the practice of medicine, was that of being a wholistic helper, including their spiritual encourager. My early upbringing was fairly confrontational, though I had a most loving family. Hence as I started this path, I was feeling very responsible and had a high level of guilt if I seemed to have failed. I was familiar with such approaches as "The Four spiritual Laws" and out of this came some early stumblings. For one thing it seemed inappropriate to say, "And God has a wonderful plan for your life," to a dying person. (Even though I know such is true even at that time.) I felt like this approach just wasn't me. In time through many happenings and God's work in me, I came to some very real convincements:

1. God loves all people more intensely than I ever can.
2. God is already at work in their lives.
3. It doesn't all depend on me.
4. As we seek to stay close to God, He is faithful in giving us nudges.

These beliefs became realities in my life and have led to extremely happy adventures in telling what has become for me the "Good News of Christ." My life has been happy beyond any dreams as my approach to people became that of loving them and listening closely to the nudgings of God's Spirit.

I was early on impressed with God's faithfulness by events such as the following:

Standing by the bed of a man dying of myocardial infarction I knew by his shallow breathing and near-terminal cardiac monitor readings that he was near death's door. However, he abruptly sat up in bed and with open eyes said, "Tell my family that it's o.k. between me and God." He then lay back down and completed the dying process. Minutes later I was privileged to pass this word on to a grieving family.

I learned to ask people, when so nudged, questions like the following: "What is God teaching you lately?" or "What do you think has kept you alive?" At times I say, "Someday if you would like, I will tell you what has helped me in hard situations." Or I may say, "I just want to try to be with you as best I can through this time." These are only some of the gentle nudges that God uses to open doors.

I recall times when the nudges have been quite firm. One patient, an alcoholic, had been resuscitated after a cardiac arrest three different times. Always he was in a medical situation where this was possible. It recurred over several months. Finally I felt pushed to ask him, "What is keeping you alive." His response, "I had a mother who prayed for me." He turned around and became a Christ follower, though he ultimately died of his heart disease. I will see him again.

Allen had been a patient of mine for many years and was also a good friend. He loved to listen to the bay of hounds trailing a bear through the mountains just like myself. He moved away from my city but a few years later I got a call, "Ken I must talk with you. I have lung cancer." So we set a date a few days away. In the course of our talking he informed me that, "I have only a few months to live and I need to get right with God." I replied with God's nudging, "Allen, what would you like to tell God?" I wrote his prayer down and left a place for him to sign, which he did.

But then Allen went on to say, "But I have one one thing I can't yet get past." I didn't push him to tell me what it was but we made a time to talk again in a few days by phone.

When we next talked he said, "Me and God had a knock down fight, and God won."

In subsequent time he told me several times, "I wish I'd done this many years ago."

So Johan, this is just a little peek of the "evangelism" to which God has called me. Mostly it has been becoming aware of what He is already up to.

Sincerely, Ken Magee

Evangelism...sort of a funny term. Says a lot, but its vagueness has precipitated many interpretations. Being raised in a Quaker home, I listened to many vague discussions and diverse teachings on evangelism. I have contemplated my roots, evangelism, etc. over the years through the ups and downs of my life. I have contemplated my personal walk and my role within the Church and the Meeting.

My early exposures to evangelism or what I thought was conceived as evangelism were a confusing lot of thoughts: revival meetings, four spiritual laws, knocking on neighborhood doors, vacation bible school, systems of bible studies and home meetings to bring in the unbelieving, circles of concern, etc.
Yet in all of that, i felt a bit betrayed in that the systems seemed only as systems. Felt it was the "Ford Motor style" production of spiritual numbers.

George Fox, founder of the Quakers, was concerned about the spiritual approach of his life and the church as a whole. He was called to pursue what he felt was the truth and an intense following of that. The early church also was called to a similar truth and to its numbers were added daily.

As I evaluate evangelism, I am called to the 5's. Matthew 5 and 25.

Matthew 5:13-16 says, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Matthew 25:31-40 says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

From these scriptures and the summation of the scriptures as a whole, my perception of evangelism is that it is a life style not hidden. It is a life style called to reaching out to people and the meeting of their needs in the same manner that we would reach out to Christ.

As we contemplate any return to Quakerdom and its roots, we embrace a corporate and personal calling to follow Christ with a life style of following the truths of the scripture. As we embrace Quakerdom we are called to live the life Christ asks of us and by which we will be judged - not passing by the hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick or imprisoned. It is through this that we will be the salt of the earth, a city on the hill, and a light not under a bowl.

It is important to not only question "what do we say", but also "what do we do". It is here that lies my perceptions to having clarity regarding effective evangelism.

Further to your request about our recent Outreach and evangelism work in Samburu,our main aim during the planning of this mission was evangelism but the social witness such as education and health services have come as a result of community demands. It is very difficult to evangelise to a suffering sick, and ignorant society.

There are many common diseases which make people suffer and die which may need simple treatment to cure them. This led us to start dispensaries at our mission centers. These dispensaries also act as evangelising centers where we preach the word of God to the patients and letting them know that we treat but God cures.

There is a very high degree of illitracy and ignorance in the community which has led us to start Nursery and Primary schools so that the children can grow up into learned and educated people who can read the bible for themselves. They can compete in job opportunities, in trade and commerce and in proper methods of farming. This will create a new culture and pre occupy the people and keep them bussy in productive activities instead of their traditional cattle rustling as a way of life.

Thus social concerns have been planned as a community demand and priorities.

From A .S Waudo.

Thanks for Diana and John Lampen for drawing my attention to a remarkable passage in Dervla Murphy's A Place Apart, about her travels by bicycle in many parts of troubled Northern Ireland in the 1970's. I first present a bit from her autobiographical first chapter, from the section where she describes her own agnosticism. Then I quote the place referred to by the Lampens.

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13-14 At a stage in human development when so many people elsewhere are making alternative ethical and/or spiritual arrangements, it is hard to see orthodox Christianity becoming a civilising factor in Irish society. To me, as to many others, the inability of the Churches to exercise the slightest restraint on Northern excesses is their death-knell. The mess is too nasty to be cleaned off the ecclesiastical carpets. They will have to be thrown away. And their replacements will have to be woven by Irish men and women of every sort working together on the loom of forgiveness.

103-104 Towards the end of my time in Northern Ireland I had a strange little experience. I had been invited to stay with a family of whom I knew nothing, in a town I had not visited before, and the surname was to my ears 'theologically' neutral. When I telephoned to announce my time of arrival an elderly man spoke to me and during our brief conversation I got an impression of unusual gentleness and warmth. At dusk I found the neat little bungalow and immediately realised that this was not a Catholic home - but neither was it Northern Irish Protestant. I felt sure of that because of the family's demeanour ('aura' would be a better word but it makes people laugh). Yet everybody had a marked Northern accent and the whole thing was quite baffling.

As we talked I found myself communicating without any constraint, as I would have done among old friends. 'Atmosphere' is something that has fascinated me in many parts of the world; it is so definite and yet so indefinable. In that atmosphere I was aware of relaxing completely, as I had not done for what seemed like a long time. The familiar Northern tension was not there and I felt no need to be careful lest I give offence. Then, after a few hours, the mystery was solved by a chance remark. I was among Quakers.

Hello!

I'm Joyce White. I a member of Meridian Friends Church and I attend a small worship meeting. Working with youth and seeking to understand human cognition are two of my hobbies; something the former informs the latter. I hope these personal accounts of evangelism help

I was saved at a Billy Graham Meeting and again at an evangelistic meeting and again in Sunday School.

I became an evangelist while still in kindergarten. After taking quite an interest in a religious sect predominant in the area, I tried to convert a schoolmate by sitting her down and saying "Now this is the way it really is. . . ." She was unyielding in her belief, and her mother never let her play at my house again. Personal evangelism didn't seem to work.

Somewhere during elementary school, I picked up how important it was to invite people to church. My grandparents took neighborhood children to church and always talked with their neighbors about God's kindness and love. My parents took my brother, sister and I to church, Sunday School, prayer meeting, and Wednesday night service (and attended themselves). I enjoyed being with my friends, fellowship time and correcting the way my teacher would tell the Bible story I already knew. All of those things and experiences were great, but none of them really moved me to invite people to church.

I think it was the radio preachers that finally got to me, but I can't be sure. Our church might have been putting on a "bring-a-friend" Sunday or maybe I was getting points in youth group for bringing a friend (even more than bringing my Bible). Whatever it was, I felt very strongly that I ought to invite my two next-door neighbors to church. It needs to be mentioned that I did not feel that I should talk with them about God or ask them what they believed. Church was the answer.

Finally, to my amazement, both came with me to youth group one Wednesday evening. One friend didn't like the people and for whatever other reasons, she never came with me to any church-like event again, although I didn't stop asking until her mother said they'd let me know if she wanted to come. The other friend came a few more times to youth group. My mother got her younger siblings to come to Vacation Bible School that next year. But that was it. Church evangelism was out too!

I became more and more convinced that the eternal salvation of these two next-door neighbors somehow depended upon my willingness to confront them about their lack of salvation. So, instead of trying again with personal, friendship evangelism, I wrote them both anonymous letters. In the type-written letters, I explained my concern for them to know God, and what else I'm not sure. One figured out that I had written her letter - it was probably because I wasn't yet proficient in my use of white-out and I'd tried to cover-up rather incriminating evidence.

During this same time, I befriended an outcast in middle school. Vanel sat and ate alone at a table in the cafeteria. I sat with her. My other friends wouldn't join us, but I felt like I was doing the right thing, being Jesus to her. Vanel started doing things fill the void in her life. At the time I saw her as a bad influence and didn't realize that what she needed was Hope. We parted ways.

In high school, I read how as a high schooler, one of my favorite singers, Margret Becker, used to go early to school and greet her fellow classmates as they came into the high school building. That was something I couldn't stop thinking about. At the time I had retreated from mainstream high school culture into Honors and AP classes, and I avoided to masses as much as possible. To take time to get to know even the students I had classes with filled me with excitement and FEAR. I decided it was too risky: I might get hurt, I might be made fun of.

My focus up to this point was, and often still is, on me.

Two things happened in the next years to change the way I approach evangelism:

1. I had good mentors/ models in youthwork who asked the youth questions, listened to them, payed attention and played enthusiastically. I learned that paying attention to people is important.

2. I became less concerned about living a perfect life, and more convinced of God's love and work in every person's life (saved or pre-saved). God is already at work.

At a recent high school camp, one of the girls in my cabin told me that she did not believe in God. I asked questions, I listened to what she said, I shared my own experience and then I stepped back. I trusted God to lead me to say something if need be, but also to continue to work in her life just as God had been doing. Later, she told me that she has regained her belief in God and is following God. But I can't take any credit.

In working with youth at church youth group, outreach events and camps, my goals are to provide 1. an opportunity (as free from distraction as possible) for youth to pay attention to what God might be communicating to them and 2. myself as someone who pays attention. In outreach events, we usually have lots and lots of playing and then a short devotional thought. The adults are the ones who make contacts with the youth at school events and other gatherings, and as God draws these youth to God's self, the adults are there for youth to ask questions. At camps and youth group, I believe it is important to include time for youth to respond to God or questions God. This takes various shapes but has included journalling, silent worship, open worship, drawing and responsive art and praying the scriptures.

Blessings on your research!
Joyce White

A few years his graduation, one of my former hight school students called me from Washington, DC, where he was working for a Congressman. He wanted to discuss some things about my faith and its relationship to politics/ethics/life in general. We had a good talk for more than an hour. Later, when he came home to visit his parents, he and his wife came to visit Wanda and me. (I remember that he asked if he could smoke and I asked him not to.) We talked about politics and social concerns for awhile, and of course related it to faith. He grew up in a Lutheran Church, but his faith had pretty much lapsed. Near the end of our conversation he and his wife both accepted Jesus as their personal savior. It may not have been the first or only time this happened, but I believe it was decisive. Later his Congressman decided to return to his home state and run for governor. My friend moved there with him, managed his successful campaign, and became his chief of staff. My friend is now deeply involved as a leader in the Friends Meeting in that town, and as an avocation has become a volunteer in the local prison, doing great work. My friend is politically liberal and centered on Jesus. He is a wonderful example of the close relationship between trust in Jesus and doing good work for others, including through government.

A second story, my own: I was raised in a conservative Friends church and accepted Jesus early. My life has been focused on Him. However, I faced something of a crisis during the 1960's. I was aware that evangelical Christians (some Friends, more-so in other denominations) tended to be rather strongly against the civil rights movement. Then, in the mid-sixties, I was appalled that most evangelicals were absolutists in their endorsement of military responses to the Cold War against communism, and supported the Vietnam War wholeheartedly. It isn't that I was tempted to forget Jesus. He was/is too important to me to ever do that. But my study of history and of Jesus convinced me that most evangelicals have given up their first love, that is, the Jesus of the Bible and of the early church. They have traded Him in for the nationalistic, militaristic, anti-semitic Christianity of the
post Constantinian years.

I came from an atheist background, but contradictions between Christianity and the world as it presented itself to me was nevertheless crucial to my conversion. Here's how I described what happened to me at a Pendle Hill conference on the war in Viet Nam:

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On January 7, 1968, I wrote in my diary, “The more I read newsmagazines and listen to news on the radio, the more I become convinced that (1) the Vietnam conflict is necessary; (2) President Johnson is a fairly good president.” Later that spring, my thoughts were in support of Johnson and Humphrey, and against Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. I was sure that the April 26, 1968, “International Strike” of students was a cynical communist plot and felt glad when the participation of my own Evanston IL Township High School student body was low. I was happy to hear official statements on how great the American position in South Viet Nam was.

Meanwhile, at home, on July 6, 1968, at age 13, my sister ran away from home for the first time in a long series that resulted in hospital and jail time, a foster home, institutionalization at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, and ultimately her death at the hands of a drug dealer on March 28, 1970.

Back to 1968. When August came around, bringing with it the Democratic National Convention in nearby Chicago, I got my first chance to hear the efforts of the “doves” to express their views, and I was impressed by their logic. Nevertheless, I thought that righteousness was on the side of Humphrey and the supporters of a continued war, and I was happy to hear that he won the nomination for President. Part of my continuing doubt about what seemed like left-wing alternatives was caused by the spectacle, during those very same days, of the Soviets cynically crushing the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, and trying to install their puppets in place of Alexander Dubcek and his team.

My diary recalls my delight on October 30, when I read an item in US News and World Report stating that the communists were on the brink of defeat in South Viet Nam. On January 2, 1969, I wrote, “There was another Paris peace-talks session, nothing gained. The communists seem to have taken a stand in Paris that is out of proportion to their military position.”

When did the first real doubts enter my mind? Back on April 4, 1968, I wrote that this day, when Martin Luther King was murdered, was a “day of shame for the US.” Two days later, I recorded my distress at the outright racism expressed by my mother, who abused the memory of Martin King and scolded me viciously for defending him as one of my heroes. Then on January 15, 1969, I participated in a school assembly, and a walkout and march downtown in Martin King's memory. There were anti-war protesters involved with the march – I remember some of them sitting on a truck bed with Viet Cong flags, looking like Che Guevara look-alike contestants. I ignored them disdainfully.

However, in noting President Nixon's Midway withdrawal announcement in my diary on June 8, 1969, I remember thinking that it was something of a token withdrawal (25,000 men out of a total of over 500,000). By June 14, I was ready to write in my diary that I didn't “want to ever kill anyone for any reason.” In further entries about hostilities in Viet Nam, I seemed to have adopted a practice of putting the word “enemy” in quotation marks. On September 2, 1969, I noted the sobering news of a 15-year-old boy shooting himself on the steps of the Capitol in protest against the war. Two weeks later, I wrote, “I feel myself pushed more and more into the ranks of the ‘non-violent revolutionaries.’”

In December 1969, my parents and remaining sister went to Germany, leaving me at home alone. (My run-away sister was at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute.) For some reason, I had been told not to go to school, so I had a lot of time on my hands to think.

The December 1969 issue of Reader's Digest gave me much to think about, which I duly recorded. The editorial was entitled “Patience” and counseled that the US simply needed “courage, unity and above all patience.” I wrote that it didn't take much courage for a small circle of leaders in a huge superpower to send young men to kill others in a relatively small country far away. But the very act of doing so provoked irreconcilable conflicts and prevented unity.

The patience called for by the editorial was based on Joseph Alsop's article in the same issue, entitled “The Vietcong is Losing its Grip.” It was the patience to wait it out while the US military machine ground up generations of gun-bearing communists. As Alsop pointed out, “... Only about 125,000 able-bodied youths annually reach military age” in North Viet Nam; yet, “to provide manpower for the Tet offensive and its two sequels, Hanoi in truth sent southward in that one year [1968] just under 350,000 men...” – according to Alsop. Already, previous to that year, 400,000 men had been sent to the war. Alsop equated this to about 10,000,000 Americans. As I wrote, “His optimism is based on statistics that prove to me what a horrible carnage we are involved in.” Both articles struck me almost physically with their “blood-red cynicism,” and “seem[ed] to me [a nonbeliever at the time] to be an indication of how far we have slipped from the religious ideals we pay, many of us, fat lip service to every Sunday.” This was, after all, the Christmas issue of Reader's Digest!

Once I became a pacifist, I went into it passionately – it became not just an intellectual conviction but a personal self-identification, a way of belonging to a community. I became an evangelist for pacifism. Early in 1970, I walked into Evanston Public Library and saw a book on the new books display with the word WAR in big letters on the cover. It turned out to be the American Anthropological Association's new book War: The Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression. This quotation is a good sample of the book and demonstrates its eye-opening quality for a budding pacifist: in one of the articles, “The Uniqueness of Aggression to Humans,” Ralph L. Holloway wrote, “Human evolution has been the evolution of a paradox. The evolution of the brain and social structure and symbol systems has also meant an increase in frustration and aggression. The meaning of symbols in an adaptive evolutionary sense is at least twofold: They aid in cognitive optimisation and also they mediate the social controls necessary to stem what arises out of the human condition – frustration and aggression. The same symbolism that enhances sentimental bonds between kinsmen and symbolically define groups outside the biological relationships – that is, clan, tribe, state, nation, ideology, bring in their wake its antithesis – extra-group aggressional tendencies. Role differentiation and intra-group commitments generate frustration and power allocation. Man [sic] is up against himself. He is up against social structure. He is up against culture. These are his costs as well as his gains. The structures, social and symbolic, which permit his adaptations and executions of shared tasks also insure frustration, pain and conflict.”

These many years later, I found this quotation in a syllabus I had prepared for a high school unit I taught (in our unique student-participation classes at Evanston Township High School) in war, and is an example of how I tried to convert all my fellow students to the anti-war position! Later, I included that syllabus in my Selective Service application for co status, trying to prove that I had made public expressions of my beliefs.

The more I became convinced of the immorality of the Viet Nam war, the harder it became to read the papers and listen to the news. The My Lai massacre showed up in my diary as an example of the horrors that seemed to me to be an inevitable part of the chaos of war. But all around me, life seemed to be going on as if no war was happening. Every day on this same little planet, our tax money and our tacit societal permission was being used to end the lives of soldiers and civilians, to injure others and render them homeless, and to blight their land ... but for those at home, unlike World War II for my parents and their families, no significant sacrifice, no galvanizing national movement, no threat to our way of life (justified or not) was being experienced. Aside from my little bits of exposure to the rather cultish anti-war circles of Evanston, people were living their lives as if reality didn't include the losses and agonies with which we were directly involved in Viet Nam. Something in me felt that this was as bad as the war itself – that we could be so casual and safe. Was there in fact a WAR going on?

My obedient world of certainties began cracking open with that Reader's Digest article, became shakier with these meditations on my family's WWII experiences in contrast to the guns-and-butter coziness of middle-class Evanston, and then fell apart completely with the murder of my sister Ellen on March 28, 1970. I date the beginning of my Christian conversion to these events. As I’ve looked back on it in recent years, and in speeches to various Friends bodies, I have said that the next step was reading the biographies of pacifists through the ages, realizing that many of them were Christian, and then going on to read the Bible for myself. However, in rereading my diaries for this conference, something jumped out at me: during those years of high school, I listened almost every Sunday to the radio broadcasts of Chicago's First Church of Deliverance, pastored by Rev. Clarence H. Cobbs. This was part of my secret life, as were my diaries, for that matter. My parents would not have approved of me listening to a church, never mind a black church; religion was a taboo topic in our household. I remember how I'd eagerly look forward to hearing the intercessory prayer “for the sick, the shut-ins, and all those who love the Lord” – somehow I mysteriously felt included in the prayer. Jim Wallis says that, in his rebellious youth, it was the black church that kept him in Christianity. I’m only now realizing that maybe for me it was a black church that helped bring me to Christianity!

Ultimately, several years later, after I’d left home involuntarily, graduated from high school, worked for a year in a factory in Pennsylvania, and moved to Canada to be near my father's relatives there, God finished the job. I finally gave my heart to Jesus Christ when I was re-reading the Sermon on the Mount one night in 1974 in my dorm room at Carleton University in Ottawa. As I read the words, “Love your enemies,” the sense of immediacy and certainty and trust and presence and aliveness that hit me at that moment was in fact the turning point in my life. I knew it was Jesus himself talking to me. I knew his word was alive and trustworthy, and what is important for this story is that I knew he was telling me that all the competing claims – to kill our enemies, to give our obedience to those who tell us to kill, to follow the world's violent ways unquestioningly – were wrong!

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from “Was there a War Going On?” in Friends and the Vietnam War: Papers and Presentations from a Gathering for Recollection, Reappraisal and Looking Ahead. Chuck Fager, Editor. Wallingford, PA, Pendle Hill, 1998

(response to Pamela Calvert's paper, "Reflections on Quaker Mestizaje," at the Quaker Theological Discussion Group's panel on "Cross-Cultural Aspects of Quaker Outreach," Newberg, Oregon, June 25, 2004)

The Voice of Friends Has Many Accents
Kenneth E. Comfort

Recently the question was asked in a seminary class, “What is the future of Friends or what influences will bring change to the Friends Church in the near future?” The discussion focused only on the current social trends of our own white, middle class, American culture. The conversation was oblivious to the influences that Friends around the world bring to our faith. If just numbers dictated what ethnic language Friends spoke, it would not be the language of the white Euro-American members who are far outnumbered by the African and Latin American membership. Because there is such a vast ethnic diversity among Friends around the world, no longer can we talk about what is orthodox Quaker worship. Still, there are core beliefs about the Lordship of Christ and the equality of all believers that are timeless and that span cultural understandings.

Pamela Calvert brings up a wonderful topic which those of us who have worked overseas are more than willing to discuss. The aim of this response is to expand on Pamela’s main argument by including examples of how Latin American Friends express their core beliefs in ways that are true to the doctrines of the early Friends movement, though their manifestations vary from culture to culture. The impact of Christ-centered cultural diversity among Friends will inevitably emphasize Quaker forms of worship in new ways. It would be exciting to expand this dialogue to include African and Asian perspectives of how Friends doctrine is lived out in their contexts as well. We can all learn from our brothers and sisters of other countries as we seek Christ corporately.
The blending of theology with culture is always interesting. Is it more important that Quakers worship in the same way all over the world or that people from other ethnic groups be granted the freedom to express the Friends faith as it relates to them culturally? Are Friends from other countries given the freedom to contextualize Friends faith and practice to emphasize their own cultural strengths? Quakers around the world share core beliefs that do not necessarily follow a prescribed practice from culture to culture.

Quakers still see themselves as a movement that reaches out to those of whatever gender, race, culture or creed who are open to hearing about “the living and present Christ who is here to teach His people Himself.” Friends continue to see themselves as reaching out in Christ’s name to those who yearn to be valued as equals especially where there is a need for justice. Still, by and large, the sending culture has isolated itself from the target audience. There is a strong defense of Friends practices. It is not uncommon to hear, “They are not really Friends because they worship differently than true Friends do.”

Premeditated or not, many North Americans think that we are the only people that God can use to spread the message of hope. We go out to be the teachers of truth yet we miss the fact that we are called to be listeners and learners as well. I remember a discussion with a representative of a Friends organization where I questioned why they didn’t have people from other countries overseeing the different facets of their international work. I was told, “We send people out. We never bring people back.”

The fact is the Spirit of Christ continues to teach His people Himself regardless of ethnicity. Christ continues to call men and women to be the ministers He intended them to be regardless of education or social standing. We say we believe in the equal calling of all people. We teach that the Spirit gifts each person uniquely yet we do not always practice what we preach. We must see that as the seed of truth starts to germinate that of God in everyone is awoken and people of all races flourish into the men and women who speak truth into their own cultural contexts.

Friends faith and practice clearly speaks to the heart of cultures other than our own in new and interesting ways. Examining the worship of Friends from other ethnicities reinforces the multifaceted values of our faith and it allows those of us from this culture to rediscover primitive Biblical Christianity. The way these cultures interpret Friends worship style may not look like the form that early Friends originated but they do help us define better the latitude of how Christ is teaching His people Himself. We can learn much from our foreign Friends.

Among Latin American Friends there are many cultures represented. It is impossible to say that all Spanish-speaking Friends are homogenous. There are stereotypical similarities for the whole group, yet there are vast differences in worldview between each culture represented, even between geographic areas of the same country.

I am focusing on the positive aspects of the Latin American cultures for this response. I acknowledge that the Aymara, the Quechua and the other Latin cultures also have their challenges and their own need for the gospel. I am well aware of the negative aspects of these cultures as my last term in Peru dealt with many instances of holding people accountable to Peru Yearly Meeting. The sin of prideful ego works its way into every heart.

There is a paradox in Latin American cultures in that individualism is often first characteristic of their personality traits. This “me first” attitude comes to them as an inheritance from Spain and is evidenced in machismo, traffic in any Latin American city, and a certain inability to work as part of a team. Motives are always questioned because what is said or done is not always sincere. Still, Latin Americans constantly work to cultivate their relationships with each other because “La Familia” and “La Communidad” are held in high value as a way to get ahead. Survival of the fittest is made possible only through survival of the group. The Aymara people of Bolivia and Peru are harsh with each other and anthropologists have also identified their "communal individualism." They strive for the survival of the group so belittling of people is commonplace as people aspire to rise above the rest. There is constant tension within family groups, social organizations, neighborhoods and communities. Sadly, this explains a lot of the infighting, church splits, and criticizing of people who begin to rise in leadership in the church or community.

The core of who Friends are has to do with worship. While Anglo-European Quakers tend to prefer contemplative silence, people from Central and South America prefer participatory modes of worship in which community is enhanced. Important decisions are made only after all of the facets of an issue are considered and everyone has a chance to speak. Even in voting there is dialogue about the decision that was just made. It is not uncommon to consider further concerns to accommodate the needs of the group after it seems that a decision was already reached. Voting becomes a stepping-stone in the process of reaching consensus for the group.

Some have said that the Aymara is a male dominated culture. On the surface it appears that the men make all of the decisions. In a secular community meetings the men stand in a circle where they debate their ideas and concerns while the women sit on the ground outside of the circle. These meetings always last a minimum of two days. At night the men hear from the women what they heard while they sat silently listening to the whole discussion of the day. The following morning the men speak from the context of what their wives heard. Some even repeat what they are told to say. That practice has carried over into the church. Today Friends women are taking on more visible leadership roles in the church. Friends in Bolivia and Peru recognize and record women ministers as they realize that the advice given in private is really a message meant for the whole group.

Ministry has tremendous responsibilities. Holding an office in the work of the Lord is considered with the gravity that is due it. Spiritual gifts are highly valued as given to a specific person for a specific purpose. People submit to the spiritual authority as individuals exercise their gifts but these same people are held highly accountable to use their gifts in ways that are beneficial to the group as a whole and not to their own advantage. This accountability is open and honest to the point that it is sometimes aggressively confrontive. In the Quechua communities of Peru and Bolivia the thought of total equality between people makes it hard for a person to be named a leader because a person named to fill a position of leadership is then seen as superior to the rest.

There is more freedom to express God’s truth in the Latin community. It is accepted that religion will question and challenge the culture and not vice versa. The Bible is seen as authoritative and the bearers of truth (pastors and elders) who have proven themselves with integrity are listened to because they are recognized as speaking God’s word. People do not worry about being politically correct when there is an opportunity to share God’s message with an individual or a group that needs to hear. Every meeting for worship has an evangelistic component. Latin American Friends call for a decision and a response to be made about the message that was just given. Latin Friends take seriously the doctrine that the day of visitation is limited and every chance is given for people to come into fellowship with Christ.

More than once visitors from the contemplative silent persuasion of Friends felt that silent worship was lacking in Peruvian Friends churches. Their attempts to introduce silent worship in the local context were unconvincing perhaps because they were not clear enough about the role of the Holy Spirit in the silence. These visitors over emphasized the form of the silence over the power of God, which Peruvian Friends already understand. The Latin Friends were gracious to their visitors but they wondered how one could express what God is doing in their life by sitting in silence. Bible school students wondered, “If it were just us, silence would be appropriate. But what about people who come into the meeting off the street?” One pastor pondered, “Will those who still do not know the Shepherd’s voice miss the opportunity to hear the message of hope because we have kept silent? For me to keep silent is to hoard the message of Christ’s universal salvation for myself.” The strong sense of duty to evangelize urges people to invest the gift that has been freely given to make a profit for the Kingdom. Our Friends from Central and South America sense an urgency to communicate God’s love for their community so that all would share equally in God’s blessing. Their numbers are growing because of it.

It would be wrong to conclude that the Peruvian Friends are unfamiliar with meditative worship. Worship happens all the time. People worship as they travel, as they work, and as they play. People constantly meditate and listen to hear God’s will. Prayer and devotional time are spent with family and visitors each morning when they wake up and each evening as they retire. God is constantly on their mind. There is peace about having a personal conversant relationship with the Almighty Creator of the universe in contrast to fearfully attempting to appease all of the gods of their former belief. Friends beam with a visual expression of a changed life. Christians are happier and more at peace with their world than are non-Christians. This is not to say that their life is easy, but to live with the assurance that they follow the one who gives life brings hope to every struggle.

Our Latin brothers and sisters live with a holy expectation that God will intervene in situations where God’s will is asked for. Life is seen as a struggle of the physical world with all of its hardships and injustices. Life is also seen as a battle in the spiritual realm. Spiritual warfare is a reality where humans are asked to take their place in the Lamb’s War. Prayer for the sick or the troubled is offered often with miraculous results. God’s name is praised and people are brought into the Kingdom of Light.

Music is important and is very expressive. It is not uncommon to see tears during the singing of hymns or choruses. Music and prayer are the keys to the worshiper’s heart. Prayer is out loud with everyone speaking simultaneously. It is very common to see whole congregations on their knees thanking God for leading them in the paths of righteousness. Prayer is the very expression of corporate worship and communion. It is both an individual expression of the heart and a corporate expression of unity before God.

Intervisitation to encourage each other in the faith is valued by Latin American Friends in every country including the United States. Visiting between churches has kept this community connected as a body. They strongly identify with who they are regardless of what country they are from. There is an unspoken camaraderie that is felt because of a shared faith regardless if one is from Cuba, Mexico, or Honduras.

The Quarterly Meeting system is alive and well in Latin America whereas it is languishing in the USA. The Quarterly Meeting system speaks to their need for accountability and mutual support. Just as an individual cannot survive on his or her own, a church that isolates itself from the rest of the universal body of Christ will also wither and die. Quarterly Meetings are for the most part joyous affairs that have taken the place of the fiesta in secular society. It is very common at Quarterly Meetings to have business meetings where situations in churches are discussed openly by all. Clearness is sought and advice is given for the benefit of everyone represented. The power of God is over all and Christ’s wisdom triumphs, even in the most isolated communities where there is little communication from the outside world.

On the surface Friends from other cultures may not appear to be faithful to the distinctives that many Friends in our culture hold dear, but in truth they are true Friends as they listen to God speaking to their heart in their own cultural context and seek to obey. There is a common denominator that lights the heart of Friends from around the world as we gather. It is the fact that we are called Friends and we do what Christ has commanded us to do. Rather than use the negative term “Mestizo” (which means “half breed)” for our Hispanic Friends, let us take our place with them as brothers and sisters together, and consider the place that our Spanish speaking Friends from North, Central and South American descent have at the supper of the Lamb. All people come with honor into the banquet hall. No one is considered lesser or greater than anyone else. All people, from every tribe and nation, all sit together and all partake equally of the blessings that Christ offers because Christ called each of us to himself by name.