The Newsletter of
SOMA USA

March 2001     Volume 16, Number 1

Listen First, Then Act        by the Rev. Tom Herrick
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The clergy and spouses of the diocese worship during the retreat.

I experienced a wonderful short course recently in what it means to discern the leading of God's Spirit. At the end of November, I was a member of a SOMA team which led a four-day retreat for the bishop, clergy and lay leaders of the Diocese of Uruguay. Our topic was "Passion for Mission."
As the team prepared for the trip and prayed together for God's leading, we found that God was asking us to simply go and listen to His people there before planning the specifics of what we would do. On one hand, this made sense, as it follows the model Jesus himself employed and taught to his disciples (Lk 9:1-6 and 10:1-9). On the other hand, we felt extremely uncomfortable going so far away from home without a solid plan in place. Yet, the more we prayed, the clearer the message that we were to go and trust that the Holy Spirit would go before us and would be working in advance of our arrival. Our preparation as a team was to get to know each other, begin to develop trust, and get comfortable sharing what we heard God saying to us in the "still, small voice." We agreed to meet together every morning to pray and listen together, then plan the day's activities. We agreed to meet afterwards to debrief before going to our separate hosts for the night. This method of planning places a real premium on listening, trusting and acting in faith based on what we would hear. By the end of the first day, the wisdom of this became obvious.
When we arrived, we found a very dedicated, but very discouraged and fatigued, group of people. To attempt to "pump them up" without speaking to the source of their discouragement would have missed the point entirely. So, we focused on Jesus' ministry and the model he employed.
We began with God in prayer, asking to be fed and to receive the vision of what God wants to do, assembled a team and built community around that vision, and then go out to the world to carry out that vision together. The discouragement they were experiencing came from feeling very alone in their separate corners of God's vineyard. Rather than going in God's strength, they were going in their own. It wasn't long before that was gone, with nothing remaining. What we shared came from our own experience in our covenant to listen first, then act.
We experienced several things as the days unfolded. First, we ourselves followed Jesus' model, thus teaching by example. Second, by listening first to God, then to those we were sent to serve, and finally to each other, what we were to do at any given time became very obvious. By surrendering our own agendas, God's desires rose easily to the top. Third, there was plenty of time to prepare our teachings and activities. We found that God had prepared us ahead of time. We were not starting from scratch. By committing ourselves to doing this God's way, we surrendered our anxieties and simply did what was at hand to do. For three recovering perfectionists, this was a wonderful revelation. Rather than spending untold hours preparing teachings, we simply decided on the plan and did it in the strength that God supplied.
Overall, this mission was very exciting. Perhaps the most exciting part was discovering that God not only wants to work through us to accomplish His purposes, but also that whatever this requires, we can do all things through the power of His Spirit who strengthens us to do them.

Team list: Rev. Tom Herrick, team leader, Christ the Redeemer, Centreville, VA; Mrs. Desiree Barker, All Saints', Woodbridge, VA; Mrs. Ketlen Solak, Church of the Apostles, Fairfax, VA.

Community Transformation Consultation
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Towards the end of 2000, SOMA hosted a Consultation for 210 Christian leaders from 30 nations. While most of them were Anglicans, there was a strong ecumenical representation. They came to study and examine a remarkable and rapidly spreading move of God that is touching every continent. This move is not only revitalizing and growing churches - that has happened before - but is transforming the social, political, educational and economic structures of the cities and towns where it is occurring. In a number of cases, transformation has even occurred in the physical land.

The Consultation listened carefully to people who are living and working on the front lines in some of these transformed cities, as well as others whose careful research has put these stories on the world stage.

The participants gathered in regional groups representing the West, Southern Africa, East Africa, West and Central Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and a bishops group. They asked the same question as the bystanders at Pentecost: "What does this mean?" They grappled with questions such as:

How can God use me as an instrument for His purpose?
How can such transformation flow into my life, my family, my church, my city, and my nation?
How can the wineskin of our church heritage contain this new wine?
Since community transformation normally occurs when local churches are closely united in vision and purpose, how can we join hands with believers from different traditions from our own?

Here is what we heard:
VISION Our vision has been too narrow, often to our local church or diocese. God is asking us to seek Him for a vision for the transformation of our cities and nations.
PERSPECTIVE We heard God challenging us about how we see reality, and to develop a world-view which will provide the foundation for Him to move in power.
HOLINESS God cannot work through unclean and unsubmitted vessels. We heard His call to examine ourselves, to seek His cleansing, and to walk before Him in holiness of life.
HUMILITY The key to seeing God move is humility, through which we recognize our complete dependence on Him for everything. God is asking us to increase our hunger and thirst for Him and to grow into true humility.
PRAYER and INTERCESSION Informed and fervent prayer is a key to achieving powerful results. God is calling us to become more committed and passionate in our individual praying. He is asking us to pray informed prayers based on researching our communities, and to raise up an army of intercessors in our churches and cities to pray for spiritual breakthroughs.

Delegates received anointing for greater ministry when they returned to their countries.

Consultation Statement jointly written by:
The Rev. David Harper, Chairman, SOMA International
The Rev. Trevor Pearce, Deputy Chairman, SOMA International

What do we do with our conclusions, with the things that we each learned and were challenged with? Follow-up consultations will occur in several parts of the globe as leaders share this exciting phenomenon with folks in their area of the world, and SOMA USA is planning to sponsor such a meeting in the U.S. We will produce a magazine-format publication to share SOMA's excitement about community transformation.

SOMA is also committed to sharing the message of community transformation whenever we are on mission. Immediately following the Consultation, teams went to nine dioceses in Southern Africa. On the next page, read about SOMA USA's participation in three of those visits: the Dioceses of Natal and Pretoria in South Africa, and the Diocese of Lebombos in Mozambique.

   Our team of five reflected the Body of Christ. The Rev. Ernest Victor, from India and serving in Oman; Mrs. Lucy Kambo, a Pentecostal pastor's wife from Kenya; and the Rev. Steve Capper, Mrs. Carol Updike and Mrs. Edwina Thomas, all from the USA, were warmly welcomed in the Diocese of Natal, South Africa. We shared with the Diakonia Council of Churches in Durban; encouraged several hundred area intercessors from numerous denominations; taught the Anglican leaders of Pietermaritzburg; and spent a day with denominational leaders from the coastal region south of Durban. In an address to several hundred pastors gathered at City Hall at the invitation of the Mayor of Durban, we knelt and asked for prayer for Anglicans, as we begin to understand the principles of transformation that many other Christians are already "living."

Mozambique: "Those who stayed home missed out."
By Ms. Fran Boyle

  Those words were shouted into the community by a lady who attended an afternoon of SOMA teaching in the hot sun outside a remote village in Mozambique. We were amazed at the number of people who came to learn and their hunger for things of the Lord.

    Our multinational team of four traveled to minister in several towns in Mozambique following the Consultation in Cape Town in November 2000. Each place we went, people were eager to hear our teaching and receive our ministry and prayer. In this depressed land ravaged by floods less than a year before, many are suffering from poverty, brokeness and abuse. We taught on praise as spiritual warfare and encouraged these faithful servants to take their community for Jesus.

Team list: Ms. Fran Boyle, team leader, Truro, Fairfax, VA; the Rev. Pam Berning, Bryanston, South Africa; the Rev. Miquel Uchoa and Mrs. Roberta Fontes, Recife, Brazil.

Pretoria: 2X2

A team of two, Mr. Scott Field, SOMA USA, and the Rev. Elizabeth Kamau, Nairobi, Kenya, traveled to Pretoria Diocese, South Africa, to share about community transformation. Although both are Anglicans, a white layman and an ordained African woman teamed together stretched the minds of the participants a bit. The team shared on the principles of intercession and healing of the land. The week of ministry concluded by the participants praying for their clergy and lay leaders, and "cleansing" the church and grounds.

Uganda: Renewal Days

Bishop Henry Orombi, and Jennifer Leber, pray a blessing upon the children following a day of renewal in Nebbi Diocese. The team also visited and ministered in two other dioceses in Uganda-Lango and Mbale.

Team list: Mrs. Edwina Thomas, team leader, SOMA USA; Mrs. Betty Mallory, All Saints', Woodbridge, VA; Mr. Phil and Mrs. Jennifer Leber, U.S. missionaries in Kampala, Uganda

Edwina Thomas, Director

   SOMA's office staff recently spent two hours with an International Outreach Committee member from a supporting church, a man who personally knew very little about SOMA. Although I did the majority of talking, my heart leapt when each staff member appropriately spoke of some vital "core value" and explained it well. These are the principles that our SOMA USA staff embraces as we go about His work:

Grace-"We operate by grace, not law," meaning that we trust each other's motivations and assure the offer of grace and forgiveness when we fail.
Obedience-We believe that it is the only measure of success. Did we follow the leading of the Spirit?
Consensus-All can hear God clearly and forward His word and ideas. More God-tuned ears are better.
Teamwork-Our work is accomplished through a wide variety of skills and giftings. We need each other.
Relationships-How we live and work together speaks volumes. We are a living sermon.
Humility-We do not measure our place/growth/status against others but against the glory of God.
Tree of Life-We seek with our words and actions to call others into life by blessing them and to refrain from speaking negatively. (Romans 14:10)
Intercession-We believe history is made through intercession.
Authority-We willingly place ourselves under the spiritual authority of others as may be appropriate.
Honor-We seek to understand and honor persons and cultures different from our own. We also recognize that no culture, including ours, completely reflects the Kingdom of God.
Creativity-We are always open to creative ideas because they might be from God.
Risk-taking-We are willing to be pioneers.
Giving-We make efforts to freely give what God has given us. For example, we have trained many non-SOMA mission teams, and last year we gave away 10% of our income for the use of others.
Cooperation-We seek active support of and interaction with other organizations and mission agencies.
Flexibility-We are open to being "led of the Spirit" to deviate from the plan.
Assumptions-We try not to assume what another will "answer," but offer them the opportunity to respond themselves.

My colleagues are a tremendous gift and blessing to me and the body of Christ. I love working this way.