A group of men were sitting around a fire one night while on a backpacking trek. They were all in recovery from alcoholism. They reflected on what are some of the qualities of a truly spiritually evolving person. Here's some of the list they comprised:

• Ability to live comfortably with unresolved situations
• Vision to see the long-term consequences of our immediate behavior
• Humility to neither maximize our faults nor minimize our virtues
• Capacity to love with unconditional positive regard for another
• Willingness to first examine our own role when something goes wrong
• Understanding that each phase of life demands the shedding of old ways
• Openness to the mystery of how acceptance and surrender can be empowering
• Awareness that life-long learning is essential for a healthy mind
• Recognition that spiritual growth requires the help of others
• Discernment to still accept other people even while disapproving of their behavior
• Mastery of the spiritual arts of tolerance, forgiveness and selflessness
• Contented acceptance of our limits, boundaries, powerlessness and tribulations
• Belief that the pursuit of spiritual growth enhances effectiveness in the real world of family, work and pleasure

I think their list is pretty profound! What would you add to it? How are you growing in your spirituality? Summer time is a season of growth in more ways than one.

Over the last few weeks at First Presbyterian Church, Fargo, we have begun a lot of discussion about worship: what kind of worship do we provide-formal, traditional or casual, contemporary and the times we offer it. We are a multi-generational congregation with diverse expressions of faith. We live in a world where the style of worship in 1950 is not as appealing as in 2009. And yet, I wonder if style and times are the only thing we need to be reflecting upon.

This week I received an e-mail from The Alban Institute about congregational life. It is an excerpt from the book Pathways to Renewal: Practical Steps for Congregations by Daniel Smith and Mary Sellon. Even though it is about congregational health, I think its ideas are important to consider for our discernment.

The authors say,
"Congregational health is a function of how people in the congregation relate to one another, to God, and to their community... A congregation that is truly being church brings people into a loving, life-giving relationship with God and others that is transformational. This is the nature of the kin-dom of God, where covenant relationships model the best aspects of family. People find hope. They experience belonging; they extend and receive forgiveness. They discover a sense of purpose and direction. They learn to live with appreciation and joy no matter what the circumstances... Practicing loving, life-giving relationships transforms congregation members. Witnessing such benefits draws others who want something similar for themselves and their families..."

The article goes on to talk about how a congregation helps people connect to the community around them. How does our worship as it is or may be help people outside our walls connect with God and others and find some hope and life? Often we think we need gimmicks and programs to attract people. The authors advocate that people need worship that helps them experience God, discover a loving community and connect with the community. The authors say, "Without this sense of mission to keep the congregation focused beyond the doors of the church, the congregation turns inward and loses connection with its community."

How does our worship of God connect us with God, with each other and with those outside our church community? How we answer that question will shape when we have worship and what styles we offer.

To End All Wars, is an autobiographical account by Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer captured by the Japanese during World War II. You may remember the old movie, "Bridge over the River Kwai." It's a movie featuring the heroism of captured allied soldiers who were forced into virtual slave labor by the Japanese to build a rail line through the jungles of Burma. Gordon, who later became Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University , was one of the officers in that hellish labor camp. He tells another side of the story, no less heroic, but in a very different way.

Each day Gordon joined a work detail of prisoners in the low-lying swampland. If a prisoner appeared to lag, a Japanese guard would beat him to death or decapitate him. Many more men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease. Ultimately, 80,000 prisoners died.

For most of the war, the prison camp had served as a laboratory of the survival of the fittest, every man for himself. They lived like animals, and for a long time hatred toward their captors was the main motivation to stay alive.
Gordon, like many others, could feel himself gradually wasting away from a combination of beriberi, worms, malaria, dysentery, typhoid, and diphtheria. Paralyzed and unable to eat, he asked to be laid in the Death House. That's where the sick were sent to die by their fellow prisoners amid filth and flies.

But something was astir in the prison camp, something that Gordon called the "miracle on the River Kwai." Amid the brutality and despair, some people began to exhibit another side of the human heart. One event in particular shook the prisoners. A Japanese guard discovered that a shovel was missing. When no one confessed to the theft, he screamed, "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to fire at the first man in the line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward and said, "I did it."

Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high in the air and brought the rifle butt down on the soldier's skull, killing him. That evening, when tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made: No shovel was missing.

One of the prisoners remembered the verse; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Attitudes in the camp began to shift. With no prompting, prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves.

Gordon sensed the change in a very personal way as two fellow Scotsmen, both followers of Jesus Christ, came by each day to the death house and cared for him. They dressed the ulcers on his legs and massaging the atrophied muscles. He gradually put on weight and, to his amazement, regained partial use of his legs. Through these men he was drawn into a community of Christians in the camp. By default, because he had studied some philosophy, he became an unofficial camp chaplain, even though he wasn't yet a believer.

A real Christian community began to form. They called it the "church without walls." It was formed around faith in the goodness and love of God and was expressed in acts of mercy and kindness toward others, even their enemies.

Gordon's book describes a transformation of this group of men within the camp so complete that when liberation finally came, they even treated their sadistic guards with goodness rather than revenge. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21)."

I heard the following story about speaker, Christian activist (in the best sense of the word), and writer Tony Campolo. He was headed to work along his usual route. It wasn't unusual for him to pass a number of homeless people. Occasionally, people would blurt out the usual requests for money. And generally he ignored them. But one day a particular bag lady, whom he had seen often before in his rush to get from place to place came shuffling by holding a steaming cup of coffee from a local donut shop. Their eyes met. He forced a smile. She stopped and put down her wrinkled coat and bags. "Hey, mister, would you like a sip of my coffee?"

How would you respond? I would have probably walked past, quickly, right? Well, he did or at least started to. Something inside stopped him on that frosty morning. Half a block down Tony turned around. "Hey lady! Yes, yes I would like a taste of your coffee." And she stuck out her dirtied hand to him, and he swallowed..... what had to be the most delicious coffee he had tasted in a long time. "Isn't it good?" she inquired.

"Yea, this IS good. And thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Hey lady.... why did you offer me your coffee?"

"Because it was so good. I thought someone might like to share it with me and enjoy it, too."

That morning, he experienced the fruit of the Spirit called kindness. She shared what little she had with someone whom she simply thought might enjoy the pleasure she was experiencing from her cup of coffee. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32)."

Behind that blank expression of the person at the coffee shop or the same look that has been on your spouse's face for days or the sad affect of a friend who is going through a difficult time, there is a person who could use an expression of kindness, of God's loving kindness.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience..." As we grow in faith and Discover the Spirit, we recognize that the character of Jesus Christ is becoming more and more part of our lives. As we open our life to God, then the fruit of the Spirit is produced more and more in our lives. Fruit is not something we make. It is not something we produce. Fruit is the natural result of a growing tree.

Dallas Willard, a writer and profound thinker about spiritual formation said, "It is called "fruit" because, like the fruit of trees or vines, it is an outgrowth of what we have become, not the result of a special effort to bear fruit. And we have become "fruitful" in this way because we have received the presence of Christ's Spirit.."

We become patient as we receive the presence of Christ's Spirit. How do I talk about patience? Corazon Aquino, the Philippine political leader and president (1986-1992) said, "Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather it is a spirit that bears things-with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope."

Patience is like a coin. It has two sides. One side of the coin of patience is passive. Waiting is that passive resignation part. The other side of the coin of patience is active and keeps going, persists, perseveres and does not lose hope. Someone said, "All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope.""Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience."

John Ortberg, Presbyterian pastor and author, asks:
"How do you respond when you don't get your way or you're frustrated? Are you able to wait gracefully? Would people describe you as a "peaceful, patient waiter?" How do you handle it when people aren't moving as quickly as you would like? How are you doing on Patience?"

As Christ takes root in the soil of your soul then patience begins to grow...