Listen to Steve Clark address the North American brothers in 2007 on “The Incarnation from its Beginning Point,” including subjects such as:

• How does Christmas relate to “Day Alpha” in Genesis?
• Three kinds of light.
• 2 Corinthians 4:6  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• Christmas as the celebration of the important step of God’s light shining into all creation.

Download the Audio file:
2007-12-25_SBC_TheIncarnationFromItsBeginningPoint.mp3
[Size: 8.51MB MP3, Duration: 0:25:42]

or Download the Audio file in zipped form:
2007-12-25_SBC_TheIncarnationFromItsBeginningPoint.zip [Size: 8.39MB ZIP]

It gives me great pleasure to wish you a blessed Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year on behalf of all the brothers of The Servants of the Word!

As I write this short note, the year 2011 is rapidly drawing to a close. At the moment, according to my high-tech watch, 341 days have passed and there are only 24 left in the year. We are in the 49^th of 52 weeks. No matter what I do I cannot slow down the march of time or change the inevitability of a new year being so soon upon us. Where has the year gone?

I recently completed a month-long trip to India. Upon my arrival back in the United States, I went directly to my parents’ home to join them and all of my siblings’ families for the Thanksgiving celebration – our first together in 26 years. When Thanksgiving Day arrived I was flat on my back with a viral infection I had picked up during my travels. Although physically in the same house I was not able to join the celebration. The day came and went. My siblings, their spouses, and my nieces and nephews came and went. I was there, but both my arrival and presence were non-factors for that day!

The realities we celebrate in this Christmas season are timeless and do not come and go! Jesus, whose birth we commemorate and celebrate, is a factor for this day and every day! He, the child born in a manger, is the Word of God made flesh. He came into this world over 2,000 years ago, yet was with God from the beginning of time and rules as King for all ages. He who would die on a cross lives eternally to give life to all who call upon his name! Let the year pass and a new one begin. Let seasons and celebrations come and go. Because of Jesus, we have in our lives him who is our life “yesterday, today, and forever!”

We hope and pray that you and your loved ones have a great Christmas celebration! We also ask that you pray for all of us in The Servants of the Word.

In Christ our Lord,
Ken Noecker
Presiding Elder, The Servants of the Word.

This feature will allow you to browse each brother’s profile according to our household locations. If you want to see who’s living in Belfast, you could click on Belfast. Each brother has a profile image and a short biography. Various links are indicated if a brother has written website articles, has a major article written about him, or he has a personal website.

We hope this feature will help keep you up-to-date on our mission and we invite you to pray for our brothers as you view their smiling faces.

Though many brothers may have changed locations or service positions this year, below are a few of the more notable changes:

Ken Noecker: Ken was recently installed as the new presiding elder of The Servants of the Word, following John Keating who served in that position for the past eight years. Ken spent the last twenty-five years based in the Philippines, where he served our brotherhood there and also served The Sword of the Spirit communities throughout Asia. In addition to his role as presiding elder, Ken will continue to be involved in community-building work in Asia, with a special emphasis on India.

John Keating: Having completed two four-year terms as the presiding elder of The Servants of the Word, John has recently moved to Manila in the Philippines, where he will serve as the regional elder for The Servants of the Word in Asia over the next several years. From Manila, he will continue to serve as the vice-president of The Sword of the Spirit. He will also assume some responsibilities in Ang Ligaya ng Panginoon (The Joy of the Lord) – the local community in Manila – and in the Asian region of The Sword of the Spirit.

John Keating, Bruce Yocum, Francisco Aguilar, Steve Clark, and Ken Noecker.

John Yocum: After serving seven years in the Philippines, John has returned to the United States. Having spent the past twenty-two years abroad, he is now living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he leads our international formation household and serves as a coordinator in The Word of Life community. In addition, John is teaching at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and will work part-time on the teaching team for The Sword of The Spirit.

Dan Keating: Dan has now moved to Lansing, Michigan, to lead our household there in the Work of Christ community. He will continue as the regional elder for The Servants of the Word in North America, and as an associate professor of theology at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. The “new” parts of Dan’s service – which he expects will stretch him – are teaching an online course for community leaders and serving on the teaching team for The Sword of the Spirit communities.

Please keep our brothers in your prayers as they adjust to their new roles and reestablish relationships with those serving alongside them in their new assignments.

This article is from our 2011 Fall Servants of the Word Newsletter [653KB PDF].

Our new site feature called, “The Brothers” will show you more info about where all our brothers live and what they are doing.

Franciso Aguilar

This past August The Servants of the Word celebrated the lifelong commitment of our Mexican brother, Francisco Aguilar, at the brotherhood center in Chelsea, Michigan. On the same day, Luis Arce (Costa Rica) renewed his full commitment. Also, renewing his full commitment June 18 in Northern Ireland but unable to attend the commitment ceremony in Michigan was our Bavarian brother, Michi Schöberl.

Making their first full commitments this year were Dale Arconado (Philippines), Noel Delgadillo (USA), and Joseph Fahd (Lebanon). God has blessed The Servants of the Word by adding to us men who are making fervent and wholehearted responses to his call. Adding greatly to the significance of this event is the fact that the six men who made these commitments hail from six different countries!

Some have asked, “How long does the discernment process take, and what does this process look like?” The lifelong commitment culminates what is typically an eight-year period of discernment that begins with the initial investigation and “trying out” of our life as an affiliate and is then followed by two years of being an affiliate in training. At that point, the brother comes to our international formation house in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a period of two years. Toward the end of these years of guidance and formation during which the brother matures in his understanding of our call, he discerns whether he desires to make a more significant commitment. That commitment is called the “full” commitment, meaning that the brother is fully a part of the life of The Servants of the Word. However, the full commitment is made for one year at a time for at least three more years, so that during this extended period the brother can gain experience in living out our life apart from the formation process. At the end of that time, the brother may request to make a lifelong commitment.

After having made his lifelong commitment, Francisco Aguilar, affectionately called “Panch,” now resides in Monterrey, México, where he is a member of the local Sword of the Spirit community, Jésed. He will continue his service working with university students in Monterrey.

Of his first full commitment, Noel Delgadillo said, “On the day of my full commitment I felt a deep sense of peace and at the same time an excitement that is hard to explain. If you’ve ever gone bridge jumping, you know there is this moment when the senses are heightened and you realize that you are fully alive. It can be exhilarating and dizzying all at once. I felt fully alive when I made my commitment to live with The Servants of the Word. I’m very grateful that the Lord has given me peace, joy, and grace to take this step in my life.”

This fall Luis Arce will travel with Luis Manuel Bravo to Honduras (four months), Costa Rica (four months) and Quito, Ecuador (four months) where they will run temporary households. Michi Schöberl will continue his work in Belfast leading the faith development work for Youth Initiatives, bookkeeping for The Servants of the Word, and leading the GAP program in Belfast.

An international grouping of brothers at our recent commitment ceremony at Chelsea, Michigan.

Of the three brothers who recently made their first full commitment, Dale Arconado will be handling bookkeeping duties and serving in our university outreach in Manila. Noel Delgadillo is living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and serving as the Grand Valley State University UCO chapter leader. Joseph Fahd has moved to London, where he is helping to start the Koinonia mission school and juggling various responsibilities in our brotherhood household there.

Our Servants of the Word Covenant states, “We believe that he has called us together to be a brotherhood where men of many Christian churches and of many races and nations can live and serve the Lord.”  Looking back over the past forty years, we see that God has certainly done this.

–Mike Kramer

This article is from our 2011 Fall Servants of the Word Newsletter [653KB PDF].

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

John Yocum (second from right) is leader of the 2011 Formation House.

Download the Audio file:
2011-10-08_JohnYocum_Humility.mp3 [Size: 6.16MB MP3, Duration: 0:17:56]
or
Download the Audio file in zipped form:
2011-10-08_JohnYocum_Humility.zip [Size: 6.08MB ZIP]

Cave exploring with a young Kiwi.

This past January, I had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand to lead a short-term summer household of young men ages 15–25 from The Lamb of God Community. In the land of “down under,” their summer is during our winter in Lansing, Michigan, so the timing for me could not have been better.

Many New Zealand youth are facing a severe loss of faith. One study suggests that religion there will die out within this generation. This is what was on my mind as I asked the Lord how I could serve the young men living there. I decided that the opportunity to take such a trip was a total gift from God, but I knew I’d need to receive more from him in order to be a servant down under.

After the long travel and a mandatory session with my host family where we covered the rules of cricket and rugby (you have to get over jet-lag somehow!), I was ready to see some young people. My main purpose of the trip was to lead a household of young men in the city of Christchurch. Household move-in was Saturday, and we were immediately thrown into a big event together called “Summer Oasis” on Sunday. Can you imagine being thrown in to lead a group of eight young guys from four New Zealand cities, without ever having met any of them? Questions hit me, like, “Where’s the grocery store?” “Have they even heard of Jesus?” “Are these guys going to be bored?” I prayed, “Lord Jesus, I need your help!”

Brian and one of the young men look over valleys near Mount Arthur in the Nelson area.

By the grace of God, I was able to deliver some meaningful material to the 75 youth at the Oasis event. One presentation was on the Christian martyrs. To introduce these heroes from history, I used some multimedia profiles that I helped make for a previous youth conference. Not only did the students learn what a martyr is, but each student learned about a particular figure through a creative activity. Each group had to use only newspapers, tape, and sticky notes to transform a group member into a famous martyr of old. The best costume was one of a martyr from the Boxer Rebellion in China. Of course, according to local custom, that team was rewarded with a big bag of “lollies.” (From what I can tell, all candy isn’t “candy” there, but “lollies.”) The Summer Oasis for me overall? It “went off a treat!” as they say.

New Zealand Youth dressed as martyrs during an activity for the "Summer Oasis" retreat.

My personal highlight of the whole trip was the second-to-last day in our household. I gave the men the story of the prodigal son along with a frank discussion about sin. We considered James 5:16: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” We did just that, taking a time of confession and prayer for one another. For most of the men, it was the first time they’d ever opened up like that. Later that night, we visited two fathers in the community, Darren Humphries and Mark Challies, both of whom had spent time living with us in The Servants of the Word. We did an evening of “ask anything,” and the young men received some great advice for living out a Christ-centered life. That was “Sweet as!” (Everything is “something-as” down there, so I always asked them, “Sweet-as what?” “Funny-as what?”)

Sadly, after I left New Zealand, a devastating earthquake hit Christchurch in February. Another Servants of the Word brother, Bruce Yocum, arrived in New Zealand the day I left and was there during the quake. He described the experience:

On Tuesday 22 February at 1pm we were in the midst of a planning meeting when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Christchurch area. This earthquake was not as strong on the Richter scale as the September earthquake, but was far more violent and far more devastating. The September earthquake caused no loss of life, in part because it hit in the very early hours of the morning when people were at home. This time many people were on the streets or at work in the city center, and there were many deaths and injuries as a result. But also the nature of this earthquake made it far more destructive than the first.

Thanks be to God none of the brothers and sisters in The Lamb of God Community were harmed in the quake. A number of them were at work in the center of the city, where several large buildings collapsed, and a number of children were at school in the center, but all returned home safely. We quickly made a round of the cluster area to see how the brothers and sisters were doing. (There was no availability of mobile phone or internet communication at that moment, and only some land-line contact.) All were safe, but several of the homes have had to be abandoned as unsafe, and a few families are now camping out in temporary locations: by my reckoning at least seven homes are uninhabitable. The community center is badly damaged and probably unusable. Normal life will not resume for quite some time. In addition, there is the great uncertainty that results from the nature of this earthquake activity, including almost 5,000 aftershocks.

Our brothers and sisters in Christ living in and around Christchurch remain in my prayers. My personal connection with them has continued and so, when I heard of the quake, I built a website to connect our network of Christians here in North America with those in Christchurch. If you’d like to read more about their reactions to this earthquake, visit http://christchurchquake.posterous.com.

–Brian LaLonde

This article is from our 2011 Easter Servants of the Word Newsletter [1.1MB PDF].

Mark has been teaching history courses to undergraduate students at EMU since 2005, in addition to his role in our brotherhood life in Detroit, Michigan. Mark had this to say about the award, “I’m humbled by the award and grateful to the many faculty members who put forward recommendations.”

Mark during a winter walk. Christmas Retreat 2010.

EMU’s article on Mark mentions how his life in the brotherhood effects his teaching:

That he does some of his best work in a community setting should come as no surprise. Whitters is himself a member of a religious community, an ecumenical brotherhood called Servants of the Word. The group focuses on living a simple, communal, celibate life and serving God by serving others.

“I think (community is) something the system leaves out,” he said. “We’re so focused on goals and consumption and achievement and being on the fast track that we’re totally consumed with the system. There’s a need to humanize our lives. Relationships are important to me.”

Read the whole article at the location of the original news feature at Focus EMU Online: http://www.emich.edu/focus_emu/041211/whitterslecturer.html

Or read the original article in this PDF capture of the news item: [PDF 131 KB]

At first glance, Ted comes across as an impressive, efficient, and cheerful fellow. He is the do-everything vice-president of strategy and special operations at Service Brands International, a franchising company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan; he is the unflappable household steward of our Ann Arbor-based formation house and student outreach center; and he even arranges the paper clips on his desk to near perfection.

The brothers in the house have dubbed Ted the “master of intelligent living.” This is because Ted will periodically point out the “intelligent” way to park the cars, or to pass the food, or to record financial transactions, etc. It’s not clear to me that all of the brothers actually adopt these intelligent ways of living and acting, but those who know him are struck with Ted’s wisdom and knowledge. He is an engineer to the core.

But when you get to know Ted better, all these things at the surface are deepened by his love for God and his desire to take all his gifts and put them at the generous service of others. Ted enjoys mentoring younger men and passing along practical skills in living Servants of the Word life well. He is constantly going here and there in the evening to help someone in need, often to sort out a computer problem. He loves to be of service to people. He is also known in our circles for being a gifted worship-songwriter and musician.

Moreover, Ted has also been a model for all of us in care for his family. Since the death of his father some years ago, Ted has been impressively steady in care for his mother. But he also looks out actively for his brothers and sisters, and shows special concern for his nieces and nephews. I can testify that their spiritual and material welfare is constantly in his prayers and thoughts.

Some years back he started a small check-printing company for the sole purpose of having a vehicle for teaching his nieces and nephews how to work in a real business. The company is doing quite well, actually, but more important to Ted are the beneficial effects on his younger family members.

Ted doesn’t give many talks and lectures, but when he does speak the impact is significant. He likes to call the younger brothers onwards and upwards, to give everything they have, to hold nothing back, to “make it all count” for Jesus Christ. What makes these simple words so powerful is that Ted lives them so deeply and simply. He is a man of many outstanding gifts, yet he carries them humbly and delights in seeing them used for the Lord and others. And at the venerable age of 60 he is still going strong.

As I prepare to move to another household, I look back with great gratitude for the years of living and serving side-by-side with Ted Kennedy. He is not only a master of intelligent living; he is a true-hearted servant of Christ and a great brother.

–Dan Keating

This article is from our 2011 Easter Servants of the Word Newsletter [1.1MB PDF].

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” - John 12:24

All the North American brothers at the 2011 Easter Celebration.

Download the Audio file:
2011-04-24_JHK_ChristTheSeedOfTheKingdom_Easter2011.mp3 [Size: 4.6MB MP3, Duration: 0:13:26]

Download the Zipped audio file:
2011-04-24_JHK_ChristTheSeedOfTheKingdom_Easter2011.zip [Size: 4.5MB ZIP]