John Tyson
john.tyson@emu.edu

Soon it will be four months since I left my summer Ministry Inquiry Program experience in the Midwest. Before I left last May, I was never so positive, so sure about a decision in my life. The pegs fit perfectly in the holes, both squares. It was a done deal, and I was about to have the benefit of spending my summer days working in an invigorating setting.

The experience wasn’t easy for me, though. I was a circular peg and I didn’t fit the square hole. I often hear of people who struggle with doubts and feelings of anger towards God after difficult or episodic experiences. I think that’s reasonable and healthy. In my case, how I invoke or call upon God is evolving. But what I am realizing is that my experience this summer will forever impact my images of God and the church.

While working with the church this summer, I realized that I like liturgy. It’s beautiful how the Eucharist blurs our economic inequalities by letting us share together without reserve. But we mess it up when we believe that what results from liturgy and worship forms is a God that we can use on our own terms to control our own reality or even to control the community itself. If we’re not careful, our forms of worship become formulaic and thus we expect God to respond accordingly. We think we have our God made in the right traditions, the right words, rightly done ritual.

I find myself believing in and worshiping a God who surprises us. Maybe more than we are comfortable with at times. After all, God does have a sense of humor, God does laugh. So why wouldn’t God surprise us? Is it not surprising that South Philadelphia is home to our conferences fastest growing congregations? This summer I was moved by listening to a student stumble through the words of a text of the Old Testament Prophets. It was the surprise of hearing a young person’s voice that shattered my images of perfect worship and opened space for God to move.

By invoking God in hopes of surprise and mystery and diversity, we make space for God to lead us into places we otherwise might not journey. We don’t need to have a flawless worship service and attempt to invoke God by doing everything “the right way.” It becomes less about what we’re doing and more about what God’s doing, and what God is doing is going to surprise us in mysterious ways.

My suspicion is that invoking the God of surprise will ultimately lead us to unity, not uniformity. I think we are on the right path. My hope is that we can continue to walk that path and that the path begins overflowing with the people journeying alongside us, the gifts God continues to surprise us with.

John Tyson is a junior at Eastern Mennonite Universityand a graduate of Christopher Dock Mennonite High School. He attends Souderton Mennonite Church and is looking forward to his spring semester cross-cultural study experience in the Middle East.

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Andrew Liemon
anl5045@psu.edu

My typical summer days usually began at 10 AM, thinking ahead of time when I will be home after spending ‘8 hours’ of work. My mom and I talked about how the working hours at church should go by easily. I expected to be playing ping-pong, surfing the internet, opening and closing the church building as it is used a lot during the day. I was looking forward to traveling (going to San Jose 2007, particularly) With no surprise, that’s how I came to the conclusion to take part of Ministry Inquiry Program Summer 2007 without knowing a single clue of what was really ahead, not even a glimpse.

The very first task I did was accompanying Mr. Freddy for a post-surgery visit at Jefferson Hospital at 9 o’clock in the morning. I got up assuming that I ‘d get to leave an hour early, since I started the day earlier. For the next several weeks, I tried to keep count of my working hours. I was always calculating everything and weighing all the things necessary to accomplish the assignments for that day and to reach my 440 hours for the end of the summer.

As we got further into the summer, we started doing more things around church and that included staying longer in order to finish the to-do-list for that day. I got frustrated with the effort of keeping track of my working hours while still trying to keep up with my errands. Until one day I began asking myself…

I am only required to work for 40 hours a week, yet it seems that there’s never enough time in our daily schedule. I thought that I decided to do his is only to spend a relaxing summer time and getting paid at the same time. Pretty good deal, I thought. But looking back the last couple weeks, it didn’t go as I had in mind. Not even close. During those times, God spoke vividly to me of how Jesus never counts the time he has spent with us.

Can you imagine how much we owe if God would’ve counted the time?
Can you imagine if we could ever repay?
Can you imagine our lists of complaints to God?
Yet, can you think of how much time we spend for God’s kingdom?

I stopped counting the hours after that moment. Though I still looked forward for any break or a nap, working in God’s kingdom became more rewarding when we gave back our time to Christ. There’s no such thing as a long and tiring day. There’s always something to look forward to in the next day. And since then, I am just grateful I don’t have the haunting task of tallying my working hours as service to God

Andrew Liemon attends Philadelphia Praise Center in South Philadelphia and is a student at Penn State Delaware County. He served in the Ministry Inquiry Program this summer through a grant from Eastern Mennonite University.

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