The
Servants of the Word Celebrate 45th
Anniversary
.
a report by Martin
Steinbereithner
Forty-five
years ago the Servants
of the Word began
when a few men made their
first commitment to live
single for the Lord.
Covenant community had just
begun among university
students in Michigan and
elsewhere, and while some
community members got
married, others felt
strongly called to live a
celibate life for God and
his people. Since those
beginnings the brotherhood
has grown to 130 men
(including affiliates)
living in 13 houses around
the world - in the
Philippines, England and
Northern Ireland, the US.A.,
Costa Rica and Mexico.
At the beginning of
September we had a
celebration at our
brotherhood center in
Michigan to mark our 45th
anniversary. Some 300
friends joined us for an
evening of prayer,
reminiscing, sharing, and
thanksgiving.
The following articles from
the recent Servants of the
Word Newsletter feature some
highlights and presentations
from Servants of the Word
brothers and guests.
The Servants of the Word
Newsletter is issued three
times a year. If you would
like to subscribe to the
free Newsletter, signup
online here.
Giving Thanks for Many
Blessings Over
Past 45 Years
by
Ken Noecker,
presiding
elder of
Servants of
the Word
Dear
Friends,
Filipinos have
a saying which
could roughly
be translated
as "He who
does not know
how to look to
where he has
come from will
never arrive
at where he is
going." The
idea is that
in order to
achieve our
aims we must
never cut
ourselves off
from our
origins. Or,
to put it
another way, a
tree cannot
survive, let
alone prosper,
if it is cut
from its
roots.
This year
marks the 45th
anniversary of
the Servants
of the Word.
As we
celebrate this
occasion, we
look back and
reflect on our
beginnings,
our early
years. We
remember the
people and
environments
that formed us
into what we
are today and
thus gain a
vision of what
God is calling
us to be in
the years to
come. We
reflect on and
give thanks
for the
Charismatic
Renewal that
touched the
mainline
churches in
the 1960s; its
spiritual
vitality
provided the
impetus for
our birth.
We call to
mind the
beginnings of
covenant
communities
and especially
of The Word of
God community
in Ann Arbor,
Michigan into
which we were
born and where
we grew. We
give thanks
for the Sword
of the Spirit,
the world-wide
community
movement which
provides the
current
context for
our life and
our mission.
We give thanks
for Steve
Clark, our
founder, and
for people
like Bruce
Yocum, Don
Schwager, and
Dick LaCroix
who were among
the first men
to make a
lifelong
commitment to
our rule of
life.
As we look
ahead to our
future we are
filled with
gratitude for
the young men
the Lord is
adding to our
life–those who
are taking
into their
hearts and
onto their
backs the life
and mission of
the Servants
of the Word.
This year we
witnessed four
men from four
different
nations making
lifelong
commitments to
the
brotherhood.
This addition
of men from
new nations
points to
where the Lord
is leading us
– to the ends
of the world
for the sake
of the
proclamation
of the Gospel
to all peoples
and languages.
We came to
birth 45 years
ago as a local
brotherhood
with
membership
coming
primarily from
Michigan. We
find ourselves
now with
brothers from
at least 18
nations, with
houses in six
countries and
with mission
that covers
dozens more.
Many countries
have a
Thanksgiving
Day or its
equivalent. We
in The
Servants of
the Word offer
our thanks to
the Lord for
the many
blessings he
has bestowed
upon us this
year and over
past
forty-five.
Sincerely,
Kenneth
Noecker
 Ken
Noecker is a
lifelong
committed
brother in The Servants of the Word,
currently
serving as the
Presiding
Elder. He
spent 25 years
(1986 to 2011)
as a member of
the Asian
Region of The
Servants of
the Word based
in Manila,
Philippines.
Ken was born
and raised in
Nebraska. He
completed his
university
studies in
Minnesota and
his graduate
studies in the
Philippines.
In addition to
his role in
The Servants
of the Word,
Ken is also
involved
extensively in
community
building
efforts in
Asia as a
missionary
coordinator of
The Sword of
the Spirit.
.
What Blessed Inefficiency
by Chris Larson Chris
Larson is a former affiliate, now living in
Cleveland with his wife and three children.
I am standing here as a representative of the
ongoing and prolific failure of the Servants of
the Word as an organization. I was at one point,
like many men in this room, an “affiliate,” a
novice, if you will, someone who fell into the
orbit of the brothers for a time. I lived with
them, considered their life, yet ultimately made
a different choice in life.
Please bear with me as I highlight the
inefficiency with which this brotherhood
attracts and retains men. All my numbers are
just estimates, but they still make my point. In
North America alone around 200 men were once
affiliates like myself, but are no longer. On
average one in seven of them makes a lifelong
commitment—that is a 15% conversion rate. Over
four years of formation, they spend
approximately 1800 hours of training, which
costs about $23,000 per brother per year. So
over the past 45 years the cost of training has
exceeded $5.2 million, and with an attrition
rate of 85% this means that you wasted $4.4
million of unrecoverable cost. From any
meaningful human capital metric the world would
use, you guys are a disaster, a spectacularly
wasteful failure.
And yet, lest you think I am here to bad-mouth
my brothers, the metrics of the creator of the
universe are others, he measures success
differently than our world does. Or to quote
another famously inefficient saint, Theresa of
Calcutta, “We are called not to be successful,
but to be faithful.”
I had the great privilege of living, over the
course of seven years, with men in Belfast,
London, East Lansing and Ann Arbor: men like Dan
Keating and Andy Pettman formed me, became
lifelong friends, and through them I even met my
wife (that’s a story for another time). Each
house I lived in was a hub for young people: the
brothers were the center of activity, rooted in
prayer, in a common life and in faithfulness to
their calling. Like a thousand electrons
swirling around a nucleus, these young people
found community, joy and solace from a crazy and
confusing world, simply because of the acts of
love, humility and death to self of our
brothers.
It is precisely your blessed inefficiency, your
wasteful generosity, your limitless
selflessness, your profligate service to others
with no regard for reciprocity that have
impacted not just hundreds of men, but thousands
of lives. The people you have touched now try to
live the very faithfulness and obedience which
you model, in their families, jobs, churches and
communities across the world. The standard you
have set in following the Lord has inspired many
of us to do the same, in our own vocations.
Thank God for your wastefulness, thank you for
your inefficiency. From all of our hearts, thank
you for all you are and do. We love and thank
God for you!
.
Malaquias
Garcia, Miguel Vargas, Rodrigo Sett, and
Tadhg Lunch
Four
Brothers Make Lifelong Commitments
On 1st September
of this year, four brothers made their lifelong
commitments to the Servants of the Word. For the
occasion, all the brothers from the U.S.A.
gathered in Detroit, Michigan together with family
and a few other guests.
The four men are Tadhg Lynch from Ireland, Rodrigo
Sett from Guatemala, Malaquias Garcia from Mexico,
and Miguel Vargas from Costa Rica. Each of these
four men spent four years in formation before
making their first full commitment. After living
for at least three years as committed brothers
they were invited to make a solemn, lifelong
commitment.
Miguel serves in San Jose, Costa Rica as a teacher
and youth worker. Rodrigo lives in the same house
and works in university evangelism. Malaquias does
the same thing, but is based from our house in
Monterrey, Mexico; Tadhg lives in Belfast and
works with university-age people both locally and
for the European and Middle East.
For the last three years we have invited the
fathers and brothers to join us for the
commitments of their family members. This time all
the dads were able to come as well as Miguel’s
brother and Tadhg’s two younger brothers. We are
very conscious of the fact that if a man makes a
radical decision to follow the Lord, a foundation
of character has been laid by their parents. The
formal commitment ceremony was followed by
fellowship, a festive meal and the yearly
entertainment by Stu Ferguson, one of our
brothers.
Please join us in praying for these men as they
begin their lifelong membership in the Servants of
the Word. And please pray for God’s ongoing work
in calling men to our life.
Dr. Martin
Steinbereithner is a
lifelong brother of the Servants
of the Word.
He is the director of
Communications and
Development for the
Servants of the Word.
Previously he worked
for twenty years in
campus ministry in
North America, Lebanon
and England and for
over the last ten
years with Christian
communities in the
Middle East, Poland,
Russia, Belgium,
Germany, Austria,
France, the UK and
Africa.
The
Servants of the Word Newsletter
is issued three times a year. If
you would like to subscribe to
the free Newsletter, signup
online here.
|
