Providing Christian resources from the YMCA past and present to nourish inclusive, equitable work in our diverse and global neighborhoods that build up healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS
How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?
Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.
From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.
by Erin Reuland, Director of Membership and Wellness, YMCA Metro Tampa Florida
We have all seen or experienced different kinds of caring love whether it is the protective care of a parent, the patient care of a friend, or the passionate care of a significant other.
God’s loving care for us shows up in these and many other ways.
Furthermore, he calls us to show our love for him in return by caring for others.
This is what Jesus did when he called the disciple Peter to a breakfast of fish on the beach at the sea of Tiberius.
During a visit to the Holy Land, I stood on that same beautiful shoreline, and I can imagine Jesus kneeling on that sand next to the fire he started, questioning Peter.
Jesus asks three times, “Do you love me?” and each time, Peter responds, “Of course.”
Jesus is asking if Peter loves him using a very specific word: agape.
So, in other words, “Do you love me unconditionally?” Do you care for me as I care for you?
Imagine caring for someone enough to forgive them after they pretended not to know you while being condemned to death.
And not only do you forgive them (without them explicitly apologizing, I might add), but you entrust them with the most important thing in the whole world to you.
For Jesus, the eternal Good Shepherd, the most important thing to him is his flock.
And he asks Peter to dedicate his life to caring for them; it won’t be easy and will end up costing him his life in the end.
Just like Peter, Jesus wants us to sacrificially tend to his flock, like a shepherd does for his lambs.
He wants to know how we love him.
The best way to show him is by caring for others, especially those who feel lost from the rest of the flock.
Caring for one another is easy when it’s convenient.
But agape looks different.
It requires us to reach beyond our comfort zone to those who are different and disagree with us.
It means offering forgiveness, especially when it is difficult.
Caring is not always convenient; caring is not always comfortable.
It requires sacrifice and expects nothing in return; like living stones, it is not normal.
But we are not called to be normal or to care when it’s convenient.
We are called to lead, care and serve like Jesus.
“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “
This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA
Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet
Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion
Join us for the 12 Day YMCA Devotion Series – LIVING STONES: LEAD, CARE AND SERVE LIKE JESUS
How can we be ‘like Living Stones’ used by God to strengthen the presence of Christ where we lead?
Recently, 24 YMCA leaders with the OnPrinciple program visited 12 places throughout the Holy Land where Jesus taught about how to live and lead in God’s kingdom.
From this experience comes 12 spiritual leadership principles – or Living Stones – (inspired by 1Peter 2:4-5) that Christ-followers can embody as we are being built up to lead, care and serve everyone, like Jesus.
by David Newman, Pastor of Antioch Church in Countryside YMCA
Deep within the human heart is the strong desire to feel “Respected” and to give “Respect”.
This word has become a core principle of the YMCA as we seek to build a culture where all can experience a sense of dignity and where “disrespect” is left at the door.
Perhaps, the greatest path to respect can be discovered within the foundational Bible verse of the YMCA, John 17:21
Those familiar with the history of the YMCA will know that this verse is carved in stone logos, printed on camp t-shirts, and painted on YMCA banners all over the world.
It is the prayer request of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Recently I was able to sit and pray in that garden where there is still an olive tree believed to have been planted around the time that Jesus was there.
Being in that garden, I reflected on the tender and tearful moment Jesus prayed for all of His future followers, “That they may all be one.”
Jesus prayed for unity, and it is within the soil of it that a harvest of Respect can grow.
Unity, however, is something that is often desired yet difficult to attain.
So how do we shape a culture where a diverse group of people experiences the type of unity that grows living stones of Respect?
Jesus’ prayer reveals part of the answer – a deep connection with Him as the source of this unity.
A.W. Tozier illustrates this through the example of how to tune the instruments of an orchestra: if each instrument tunes itself to one another, they will never be in tune.
However, when the conductor strikes one standard tuning fork, all the musicians will tune the instruments to that standard, and then all of the instruments will be in tune with each other.
If we learn to love, serve and care, with Jesus as our standard, there will be a profound unity that occurs.
As we grow in our connection with Jesus, He becomes the source and the model of our unity, and out of this soil of unity can grow a mighty harvest of Respect!
“My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
This YMCA devotion series brought to you by onPrinciple – click here to learn more about it – a new leadership development program to strengthen the presence of Christ in the YMCA
Click here for the entire devotion series as a downloadable PDF booklet
Click here to access entire devotion series on YouVersion
“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”
It’s a week where we are reflecting on the devastating impact of 9/11 on America and the world, and a sentiment that arises is the remembrance of unity that emerged from the chaos.
That moment of unity was costly, but the experience of it lingers in our national memory, the yearning still clings to our conscience.
Many of us ask the question in some form: how can we be united like that again, but without the destructive evil to prompt it?
For Christians in the USA who reflect on those moments of unity as our country came together, many of us thought of the call Christ Jesus placed upon his disciples.
The unity that America experienced for a few moments after 9/11 is a kind of unity that Jesus prays for – in particular for all who will believe in him throughout each generation in every nation.
Christians yearn for unity among one another in our local congregations, city churches, national denominations, historic branches across the globe.
Jesus prays for unity, “that they may all be one” – and it seems like we are still waiting for this prayer to get answered.
This yearning for Christian unity was desired greatly in the 1840’s during which the YMCA was formed by George Williams and his eleven friends.
The Paris Basis of the 1855 World YMCA Alliance is a practical statement striving to embody this prayer of Jesus for local YMCA’s that desire to be in harmonious relations with Y’s across their countries and the world.
This prayer of Jesus, for awhile, was included in the 1896 logo of the Y, the reference of it – John 17:21 – was printed upon an open Bible, in the middle of a triangle, behind which was a double circle and the Chi Rho symbol.
The current bylaws of many US YMCAs includes explicit commitment to the inclusive and uniting principles of Christ, with an expectation that it would not only shape individual personalities to imitate Jesus’ style of fellowship, but it would influence whole societies.
The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being in its essential genius a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society.
The present mission of the Y masterfully condenses the soul of Jesus’ prayer, the heart of the Paris Basis, and the essence of the bylaws in their mission statement: to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.
In the life of the Y these days there are crucial conversations around the relevance and connection of “Christian principles” to being “for all” in our mission.
For complex and sometimes ambiguous reasons there is resistance or confusion to the meaning of “Christian principles” in our mission; and others have a similar uncertain take on being “for all.”
It seems to me like it’s worth remembering honestly where we came from, to tell those stories responsibly, to respect those that made it possible in the past for the Y to be here today, and to care enough to pass it on to the next generation even better than when we came into it – that can be a helpful to build up healthy connections between “Christian principles” and being “for all.”
Again, for complex reasons, the “C” in our name has been downplayed in many of our official YMCA branding and historical accounts, a form of interpretation about our context.
Based on observation, it does seem like there is an awkwardness and uncomfortableness publicly talking about the “C” in the YMCA in our movement, which is shaped in various ways by our pluralistic, secular, multi-cultural, multi-faith communities.
And, with the division that has exponentially increased between Christians in the past 200 years, it complicates communication between them in the Y – thus if they talk past each other, or down to those who are different in their following of Christ, how can they speak with united confidence among those who don’t believe in Jesus like them?
One of the elephants in the YMCA room is the uncomfortableness Christians have talking about their own faith – especially with other Christians who believe differently.
If you don’t believe the Y is a safe place to talk about what you believe, then the Y squelches most kinds of Christianity and by default let’s a vague version emerge that might be “safe” but also barely meaningful.
What’s your take on Christians who believe differently than you?
Imagine how Jesus feels when he looks around the world at all the different Christians… is he clicking his tongue, slapping his forehead, rolling his eyes at the diversity of his disciples?
No.
When you read this part of Jesus’ prayer for disciples in the generations to come, there is nothing narrow-minded or small-hearted about it:
My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
It’s a beautiful, bold, compelling, visionary prayer that, to be frank, we are yearning still for Jesus to fulfill.
This prayer of Jesus was a fueling element for the posture of the YMCA towards different kinds of Christian men they let join and lead in the Y.
For anyone who wants a stronger “C” in the YMCA, it includes ecumenical acceptance of the diverse “C” that’s always been true of us – the fruit of this being God’s love for the world being made known.
The movement started with boundaries, like all must; but the Y kept expanding it through the decades – in London, through the British Isles, then Europe and eventually five more continents.
Eventually they let all the Protestant into the Y, despite some internal protesting; then they let in the Catholics and Orthodox – this ought not to be assumed as natural, but rather a striving based on rigorous efforts and prayer.
This same posture led the Y to take the momentous step of letting in their Jewish and Muslim friends, and eventually they would drop all religious requirements for membership and leadership.
When someone joins the Y, whatever kind of Christian they might be, whatever kind of religious conviction you may or may not hold, there is no denying the truth of the ground and roots which nourish the global YMCA movement.
It is inauthentic of the Y to downplay the religious history of the Y, to shy away from the explicit Christian heart of the Y – it makes our movement less interesting, less compelling, less transformative.
It’s okay to honestly say that it is more complicated now, that there is uncertainty on what to do with religions in the Y, and Christianity in particular.
In light of the religious upheavals we are experiencing globally, no surprise that the Y is also caught up in it.
And the violence that is done in the name of religion is reprehensible. Always.
The solution, though, is not to squelch religion, to ban it or ignore it as a way to stem violence.
People are violent.
Religion can be used as a wise and healing tool in the face of violence, or it can be wielded to destroy with it.
If the goal is to find ways to transform violent people into peacemakers, and if those people are religious, we ought to seek ways to use their religious traditions to fuel ways of reconciliation instead of killing each other.
The YMCA sought to do this in its first hundred years, embodied among many leaders, in particular through the life’s work of John Mott, who is considered the Ecumenical Statesman of the 20th century, and who won a Nobel Peace prize for his war relief work.
With a religious YMCA legacy like that, we have an opportunity now to learn from and draw on this part of our history to foment religious reconciliation as part of our peacemaking, of forging just mercy in our violent communities.
Jesus’ prayer is our prayer, for those that believe in him, which is what then shapes our posture towards one another and the world.
When Christians seek oneness with one another, through Jesus, we end up demonstrating a healing and resonant love for the world.
Within the Orthodox Christian community, which John Mott highly respected, is the word “theosis” to describe the oneness in Jesus’ prayer.
Jesus prays that we would be one with each other and with God like Jesus himself is: this is theosis – a kind of healing communion where we experience the transforming joy of God’s reconciling presence in spirit, mind and body.
Thanks to the rigorous studies by Christian missionaries, we now realize that so much of the Christian division in the world is largely due to complex cultural differences, generational differences (often tied to immigrant communities), and sometimes violent socio-economic differences.
Of course the divisive Seven Deadly Sins are always at work, like entropy, pulling people apart in spirit, mind and body – and these must honestly and care-fully be confronted in a community, no matter what they are going through.
But to miss the larger forces at work is to misattribute to individuals what is happening on a massive scale to millions of individuals- thus being blind to trends which we can learn from, and then miss out on ways to give people more wisdom and truth on how to overcome cultural, generational and social-economic differences with grace.
When reflecting on how expansive, how inclusive, how global, how radical is the mercy of God, of how patient and kind Jesus is in answering his prayer these past twenty centuries, we can exclaim like St. Paul:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
The unity that Christians yearn and strive for is a vision of the future which God is mysteriously and faithfully fulfilling in the world as it really is.
It becomes a matter of faith, of trust, that God is the source, the means, and the purpose of unity, that it is marked by mercy, faithfulness, wisdom, mystery, and glory.
Did Jesus know when he prayed for unity in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal that twenty centuries later we’d still be missing the mark?
Whatever Jesus knew, he wasn’t naive, nor a quitter – rather, motivated by a sacrificial love, an enduring joy, and a glorious hope that God will someday, someway answer his prayer for unity.
This prayer of Jesus, this desire for theosis, this yearning for transforming unity with God and others – past, present, future – it’s part of why the Y was formed, and in part why it has endured, adapted, matured, and kept moving forward, even if it has stumbled along the way.
“For all” is a key part of our YMCA mission, and for Christians in the Y we can do our part as the welcoming hands and hospitable heart of Jesus, motivated to do our part in our decades to be ones who unite – and be part of the transformative answer to Christ’s prayer “that they may all be one.”
