Dead Poet Society
Wednesday Jan 27th
do any of you remember that movie The Dead Poet Society? Remember how Robin Williams’ character, the school teacher, shows his students how hard it is not to fall into step with the crowd? Remember how he entices them to think for themselves and to encourage dialogue about the classics? I hadn’t thought about this movie for a long time. But recently, believe it or not, it popped into a conversation with a woman who has just recently joined our church.
After just a few visits, this new friend, Maggie, was explaining why she joined. She had been wounded by a former church experience that had taught her never to question the leaders, never to think out Scripture for herself, never to step outside the boundaries the church laid out for her. She had always thought she was dirty, second-rate, tainted, because she couldn’t fall into perfect step with the leader’s wishes. She spent her time in that church feeling condemned. This kind of church would sound like a cult to us, but unfortunately for some Oaxacans, it is their only church model.
Maggie, after prayer in one of our Thursday night women’s prayer times, exclaimed to me, “You guys are really a Dead Poet Society!” After recovering from my surprise that this woman would even remember this American movie and think to apply it to a church, of all things, I tried to imagine what she meant. I think she might be referring to the way anyone can interrupt the speaker on Sunday morning to make a comment or ask a question. Maybe she was referring to the way we have a large group of people involved in teaching. Or maybe it’s the lack of rules posted on the walls or the lack of emphasis on the things people ought not to do. Maybe it’s the way a group of women can pray freely for each other from the heart.
Natan just said to us today, “This church is a jewel. It has so much to offer.” And my friend Gisela said, “Every time we meet, I come back so encouraged, so refreshed!” I know just what she means. But here’s the rub. We have a good thing going. But it is too easy for us to get comfortable with what we have and not reach out. We are a very social group: meeting, eating and socializing together at the drop of a hat. We are good at that. But we are not growing as we should, and we need to get out of our wonderful Dead Poet Society and take it to all the other Oaxacans who have nowhere to go.
Please thank God for us for His goodness to our church, our Dead Poet Society, our Resurrected Saviour Society. But ask Him to help us share this goodness with more and more of the Oaxacans around us. That is what we are all here for!
PS. Also thank God that my friend Yasli is going to be baptized in two weeks! Pray her husband Gerardo will join her in baptism. He struggles with alcoholism but wants to follow God, too. Pray as we counsel them as couple, and pray that they would take this step as a family.
Blessings, Anne and Robert Thiessen
Oaxaca, Mexico
Members Ardmore Moravian Church,
Winston-Salem, NC