Month: October 2026

This post is comprised of two separate offerings of ministry given during the hour of worship at Seekers’ Haven Worship Group[1] on October 25, 2026. Evan Knappenberger spoke first, and approximately 30 minutes later, I spoke. Both offerings addressed the distinction between true and false ministry. The ministry that Evan gave begins here:

I have been struggling with conceiving the ministry lately, for some time. The text that comes is from Jeremiah [23], who struggled with these same issues quite a bit. It is easy for a person to say “the Lord says” or “thus sayeth the Lord,” but how are we to be able to distinguish between a true and a false message?

Jeremiah answers by asking those he sees as false prophets a question: Have you stood in the council of the Lord? Have you heard his words or are you just stealing each other’s dreams? The true answer comes in a form of wordplay: Jeremiah uses the word “oracle,” which in the Hebrew is the same as the word “burden.”

A prophesy or an oracle is a burden. Those who misunderstand the ministry fail to see that it is a burden; it is also a fire, says Jeremiah, and one cannot hold onto a fire or one will be burned. A true prophecy is not a light and easy thing. False prophecy seeks to comfort those who are already comfortable. False oracles serve to make the stubborn more stubborn. True prophecy is an affliction of the comfortable, and only a comfort to the widows and the orphans.

The world is built on comfort: a lack of trust in the Lord but a trust in the things of the world, a comfort at others’ expense. This is not of the Lord, and false prophecy upholds it. It must be from the council of the Lord and not from this other.

Ministry given by Patricia follows:

The problems in the faith community are the same in every age. In the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had doctrines that were seemingly the same as the words that Jesus spoke, and his response to that was, do as they say and not as they do.[2]

Always there is a tendency to learn from the tradition and take those words to heart, because they have been judged to be true. It is easier to take the words than to find the Spirit. But the letter is not Life, and what we are about is Life in Christ, which is where true ministry finds its source.

There are advantages to being pharisaical, but it is not what the Quaker of the 17th century knew. The question has been asked this morning: “Do we know the Spirit?” because that is the essential thing: not the words that we can formulate from our tradition, from our minds, from our desires. No, there is a difference, and it is the essential difference between faith in Christ and faith in self.

Can we see and honor the difference, because there is no grace in simply repeating the words that have been spoken before, repeating the ideas that we are all comfortable with. This is not an impossible task for us to find Christ, but it isn’t an easy one. Where does it come from, this knowledge? It comes from discomfort! that deep, deep thing in the center of being that says, “This isn’t enough,” and to remain with it in that painful awareness. That is faith in life before Life is given.

To use the old words we have heard a hundred times is not Life; it is spiritual death. We are human beings who are called to Life in Christ. And our honesty will protect our souls until grace is given and we receive it and truly become the sons and daughters of God, and not of the religious tradition. The difference is real, and all hinges upon it. Unity is found within it; peace, grace, beauty—all within the Spirit, not the flesh. Thanks be to God!

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[1] If you wish to visit Seekers’ Haven Worship Group for worship, please contact Conrad Lindes at (yourfriendinchrist.net) for a Zoom link. We meet for an hour each Sunday, beginning worship at 10:30 Eastern Standard Time, with discussion following. Please note that we move from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time on November 1st (next Sunday), which is to say, we move the clock back one hour.

[2] These words paraphrase the passage in Matthew 23:2—3 [NEB]: “The doctors of the law and the Pharisees sit in the chair of Moses; therefore do what they tell you; pay attention to their words. But do not follow their practice; for they say one thing and do another.”

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt 1630, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

Following this introductory paragraph is a transcript of vocal ministry that I gave at Seekers’ Haven Worship Group this past Sunday, October 11, 2026 (clindes@yourfriendinchrist.net). Several Friends already had offered ministry on the subject of unity prior to my speaking. I understood that one of the meetings participating as a group in these Zoom gatherings is experiencing some difficulty, though I am not privy to the particulars. This may be just as well, as traveling ministers among earlier generations of Friends sometimes avoided learning the details of meeting conflicts, so that their ministry would not be shaped by them, nor be suspected of arising from them. What follows is a record of ministry drawn from the spiritual reality that informs gospel order:

When Jesus was facing the crucifixion, his disciples tried to persuade him that it was not necessary. He responded by saying “the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” [Jn 18:11] One may wonder why he was given such an onerous task to complete. He had taught, but the words weren’t reaching the witness within, for the most part. He needed to act: not just know the words of the tradition [nor solely preach the Word]. And he needed to act in a way that was contrary to what he would have wanted, had he followed his own will.

That is the example that we have. That is the requirement for unity. Genuine unity. For our God is One. And to set aside all the circumstances that draw us into willful action is the requirement, is the cross. For when these are set aside, then the way will open for God’s will to prevail. When God’s will prevails in one or two or three, those few will be in unity.  We pray that His “will be done in earth as it is in heaven” [Matt 6:10]. Let us act within ourselves to ensure that that is a true request. 

The Crucifixion, 1627, Francisco de Zurbaran, The Art Institute of Chicago