By Kaylee Deardorff, 2020 Ministry Summer Service intern

In the early spring, I was debating what to do for the summer before my junior year of college. The head of the chemistry department had encouraged me to apply to an amazing research opportunity in France. I also had been feeling a tug toward ministry, but I was so unsure of what that would mean for me, a pre-med student. My pastor encouraged me to consider Ministry Summer Service, but I was unsure if that was something I should do. It would be hard to pass up doing research abroad if it came time to choose, but I decided to apply for MSS anyway and see where God would lead me.

The day before I heard back about the research opportunity, a feeling of peace washed over me as I thought about doing MSS and resolved to turn down the research offer if I was accepted. Turns out I didn’t get the research position, and I wouldn’t have been able to go abroad anyway due to the pandemic, so it was just as well—funny how the Spirit works sometimes.

MSS shifted to a virtual format, which in many ways was a blessing in disguise. Our weekly Zoom calls were fascinating sessions, including subjects like theology, work styles, and worship/preaching, with some additional sessions by people we would not ordinarily have heard from if we were in-person.

Our diverse group of interns made for especially engaging conversations, and when we collectively decided we needed to have an additional conversation set aside for race and the church, we did so. It was perhaps the most memorable of the calls for me. That conversation emphasized the importance of engaging in conversations with our siblings in Christ, even when the subject is uncomfortable or challenging. Additionally, we discussed the church as a whole and the need to empower members of marginalized groups through the unconditional love and compassion we’re called to share. It’s that conversation and ongoing reflection that bring up new thoughts and actions that continue to encourage personal and collective growth.

Of course, I missed getting an in-person placement, but I’m grateful that I got to be involved in my home congregation, Peace Covenant Church of the Brethren [in Durham, N.C.]. I worked with pastor Dana Cassell on outreach ideas, preaching during online worship one Sunday, and worked on a project to create a digital collection of devotionals and online resources for the congregation.

Along with MSS, my summer included taking an online class, working with my campus ministry to plan for the fall semester, and working with patients in nursing homes and hospice facilities as a home care provider. It was this combined experience that made me realize that part-time ministry—a reality for so many—is possible for me too. And ministry can look like so many things, including preaching a sermon, leading a Bible study, and providing care for patients in their last days. I don’t necessarily have to choose between a call to medicine or to ministry.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in MSS and that the denomination provides such an experience to young adults for this kind of discernment. After this summer, irrespective of its unexpected twists and turns due to the pandemic, I realize that ministry will be a part of the life I live, no matter what, and I look forward to seeing where God continues to lead me.

Ministry Summer Service is a leadership development program for college students in the Church of the Brethren, sponsored by the Youth and Young Adult Ministry and the Office of Ministry. Learn more about this ministry at www.brethren.org/mss or support its work today at www.brethren.org/giveyya.

This reflection was originally featured in the October issue of Messenger magazine.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

By Traci Rabenstein, director of Mission Advancement

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
-Matthew 4:1

During my junior and senior years in high school, I joined speech club. We would select readings (whether original pieces or stories, published articles, or famous poetry) to present for a panel of judges who would critique our delivery. Competitions were placed in categories, and the one I fell in love with, and participated in the most, was poetry reading.

While in speech club, I found Robert Frost. He had a few poems published in the US in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, but it wasn’t until his family moved to England that he wrote and published two books of poetry that were successful immediately. In 1915, he returned to New England and continued to write. He won four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry and became the Poet Laureate Consultant for Poetry for the Library of Congress from 1958-59. He recited his poem “The Gift Outright” at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. Out of all his work, my favorite was (and still is) “The Road Not Taken.”

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
 
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
 
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
 
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

In the September 2015 issue of the Paris Review online magazine, David Orr wrote a review of the poem in which he said, “Most readers consider ‘The Road Not Taken’ to be a paean to triumphant self-assertion… but the literal meaning of the poem’s speaker tells us … the road he will later call less traveled is actually the road equally traveled. The two roads are interchangeable.”

I see parallels of this in my own journey. There are times when I stand before two decisions, two roads, and have to determine which one to take. Sometimes, after making a decision and heading down one pathway, I wonder what might have been if I had made the opposite decision. Would it have been easier to travel on the other road?

Over the past several months, we have found ourselves on a road not traveled often. One where we have had to shelter-in-place, wear masks when we are in public places, and learn how to stay connected in new, virtual ways as families and congregations. For some, this has been a season of slowing down and reflecting, taking time to identify what is most important. Some of us have been taking measures to slow down after realizing that the pace we had been living pre-pandemic was not the road we necessarily wanted to be on.

I’ve also been thinking about the road Christ journeyed. In the 40 days after Jesus’ baptism, he traveled into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. Matthew and Luke provide examples of how Satan tried to entice Jesus into revealing himself as God’s son before the appointed time. I marvel at the willpower he had as someone who had been fasting and wandering alone in such a solitary place. Satan tried to divert him to another path, but he stayed the course of preparing for what was to come and taking the road “less traveled.”

In our own lives, when the hardships of humanity seem to hold us back, pressuring us to take “the other (road), as just as fair / And having perhaps the better claim / Because it was grassy and wanted wear,” we can look to the temptation of Jesus. From him we find how to address the stresses of life, face daily temptations, and find solace.  By following the path of Christ, we remain near to God and find strength and hope to stay in tune with his will and recognize his movements in our lives. This is the road, the “one less traveled by,” that makes all the difference.

The Office of Mission Advancement works to cultivate passion for the missions and ministries of the Church of the Brethren.  If you have any questions or if there is any way they can support you in this season, please reach out to MA@brethren.org.

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

By Nathan Hosler, director of the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy

The Office of Peacebuilding and Policy, a witness of the Church of the Brethren, represents, organizes, and educates as a part of the historic and living commitment to embodying Christ’s peace in the world. We do this as part of denominational staff in support of and in partnership with congregations and individuals. As participants in the broader body, we contributed to and are now living into the compelling vision. Though the process of Annual Conference consideration of the compelling vision has been postponed a year, we are reflecting on how our ministry fits within it. The vision statement reads,

Together, as the Church of the Brethren, we will passionately live and share the radical transformation and holistic peace of Jesus Christ through relationship-based neighborhood engagement. To move us forward, we will develop a culture of calling and equipping disciples who are innovative, adaptable, and fearless.

As with any vision statement, we are challenged and invited to explore how the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy is already living this but also how we may need to modify our work. For example, there is sometimes tension between radical transformation and holistic peace and our work. Our work typically is slow, building over long periods, and growing with smaller steps. This often includes efforts to simply limit harm. An example of this is our work to fulfill the 2013 Annual Conference resolution on drone warfare. Through the faith-based working group we helped start, we have worked to reduce civilian casualties and to have these deaths accounted for and documented. These aims feel quite far from the transformation and holistic peace to which we aspire. They may feel like merely tinkering with (rather than transforming) violence; however, our office helped adopt a statement that is significant. This was one of the first official statements from a church raising these concerns.

This statement and these years of work are part of the broader ecumenical and interfaith community. These relationships and partnerships across church and religious lines are a form of the relationship-based neighborhood engagement called for in the compelling vision. As such, our work is both in regard to calling and equipping disciples within the Church of the Brethren and in service to the broader church. It also bears witness to the peace of Christ in the face of our nation’s tendency toward war and is part of efforts to support peacemaking globally.

Whether we are working with Intercultural Ministries to address racism,  Brethren Disaster Ministries to address the pandemic, or the National Council of Churches, or preaching at a local congregation, we aim to equip (and be equipped) as disciples who are innovative, adaptable, and fearless for the glory of God and for our neighbor’s good. Together, we embody the peace of Christ in the world.

Learn more about the Office Peacebuilding and Policy of the Church of the Brethren at www.brethren.org/peacebuilding or support its ministry today at www.brethren.org/giveopp .

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)

(Read this issue of eBrethren.)