S2S Sisters: “Little Embassies of Heaven” by Tania Taylor

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Good afternoon, ladies, and welcome to Strength to Strength Sisters. The vision of Strength to Strength Sisters is to encourage women to be catalysts in advancing the Kingdom through biblical teaching, testimonies of faithful women, and thought-provoking discussion.

We are so happy for each one of you that have joined today, and if any of you were listening to Michelle, um, she was mentioning that it's springtime in Australia, and I was just getting ready to say, um, hello to all of you on this beautiful fall day in Massachusetts. So I guess wherever you are and whatever it's doing outside, um, we can all worship the King of Kings and have our hearts open to Him today. And I am just so looking forward to what we're going to hear today. And in America, this talk is, um, chosen for a reason for this month.

And so, um, we are just going to open our hearts, and, and, and we're also going to pray for Tanya here in just a minute too, that the Lord is just going to pour out His Spirit on her.

Before we do that, though, I want to introduce Tanya. I have, um, had the privilege of visiting with her, um, several times, and it's been such a blessing. And I'm going to go ahead here and read over her talk description and her bio. Just, it's so interesting, and it'll give you all a little background for, um, our speaker and for the talk today.

Getting the bigger picture of our calling as sisters to further Christ's Kingdom through the local body is, is our theme for today. One of the biggest threats to the Church in any given age or place is that of nationalism. How easily we can become sidelined and distracted by the transient problems and interests of our earthly parent country, entangling ourselves with all manner of political causes and ideals that have absolutely nothing to do with our calling to be pilgrims and strangers in this life. When this happens, we ultimately experience confusion and impotence. Where does our allegiance lie? We, as Christians, have a distinct calling to represent the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Our calling to represent Christ's Kingdom is best promoted through the everyday expression of local church life.

When we get this bigger picture, we can invest ourselves in our local churches with abandon, and in the process, fulfill our divine calling as sisters to help represent little embassies of Heaven, Christ's Kingdom displayed on Earth, just as it is in Heaven.

And, and I quote Tanya here, "I've been married to Dean Taylor for 35 years. We have six children. Three are married. They have three grandchildren, all boys. Two years ago, Dean and Tanya brought their 86-year-old mom there to live with them in their home in Sugar Creek, Ohio.

Two of their children still live at home. One of their married sons and his family live in a little house in their basement. Their baby is 19 and just started the two-year apprentice program at Faith Builders in Guys Mills, Pennsylvania.

Dean and Tanya are members of Cross Point Mennonite Church in Baltic, Ohio, where Dean serves on the ministry team. They have been working in a ministry to refugees on Lesbos Island, Greece, since 2017, and in cooperation with Mine Road Mennonite Church in Cam since 2018. Most recently, Dean has taken on a new role as president of Zolican Institute in Sugar Creek.

Zolican is a college and trade school dedicated to serving the needs of the Anabaptist community. Tanya was born in Texas and raised in the Assemblies of God Church. She met her husband, Dean, in high school, and they were married in 1987. They then served together in the U.S. Army in Germany, where where they eventually came under conviction about their role as Christians in the Army.

Their whole lives changed when they began to ask themselves the life-changing question, "What if Jesus really meant every word He said?" That encounter with Jesus resulted in their leaving the Army as conscientious objectors. Since then, they've been on a journey to follow Christ and embrace the Anabaptist community to help further Christ's Kingdom on Earth.

Tanya is passionate about serving the needs of her family and the people around her, encouraging others in their faith journeys, and helping to build meaningful connections between all the wonderful people she meets. Tanya thinks 2 Timothy 2:22 best sums up her passion to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Beautiful. Oh, thank you, Doreen. Well, let me, let me say a prayer for you, Tanya, and then after that, you can just feel free to go ahead. And I want to say yet to our listeners that after the talk, there will be a question and answer session where you can, um, ask Tanya the things you would like to ask or make comments. Uh, please turn your video on if you're comfortable doing so, and if not, you may, um, submit your questions into the chat box.

Okay, let's pray.

Glory be to Your name, Heavenly Father, for Your kindness to us. And Lord, we come to You today as Your daughters, and we are so grateful that You have allowed us to be this. Lord, we want to come and acknowledge Your Lordship and Your sovereignty today, Father. And we are just excited, Lord, about this truth of being citizens of a heavenly country. Oh, God, some we, we don't always know exactly how this should all look and what, what, in what ways this should be worked out in our lives, and we want to learn more about this, Lord.

Please help us to become less and less entangled with the world, more and more caught up and pursuing the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and its growth in our hearts, Father, and in the people whose lives we touch. Oh, God, our country is in so much turmoil.

You are the Prince of Peace. Thank You for calling us. Help us to be good stewards of this message, Father. And now I ask that You will pour out Your Holy Spirit on Tanya this afternoon. Father, I pray that she would have a heart of, of humility, Father, and that she would present with truth and love.

May Your Kingdom grow through this talk this afternoon, and, and each time, Father, that it's accessed and listened to on the platform as well. Please bless us, Father. Our cups are turned up to You, and we ask You to fill them. And may You receive glory from our lives, Father, at each moment.

And we ask all these things, Lord, with thanksgiving in the worthy name of Jesus. Amen.

Well, thank you again for the amazing prayer, Doreen, and thank you all for being here today. And I truly pray that the Lord can use something from my talk to encourage each one of you. When Christina first contacted me about doing the session, she asked if I'd be willing to speak on something relating to God's Kingdom or being part of another Kingdom, and said on the side note, it could have something to do with citizenship and sisters. So, excuse me, I hope I won't have to clear my throat too much here. As I thought about that, I decided it might be most helpful to use an illustration my husband often uses, uh, when he's talking about what our lives should look like as Christians here on this earth.

So, as you heard, my title today is Little Embassies of Heaven, and I gave myself a little subtitle, Getting the Bigger Picture of Our Calling as Sisters to Help Further Christ's Kingdom through the Local Church Body. And I don't know if some of you may have seen, oh, of course, we just heard the little blurb that where we talk about one of the biggest problems it seems like we face. It doesn't matter what age we're living in or what country, but maybe it's harder for a wealthy nation. I think sometimes the poor seem like the poor nations may be a little protected from this because they long for something more. But particularly us as Americans, the problem that we as Christians face is that temptation to confuse our godly, heavenly Kingdom with our earthly Kingdom and the problem of nationalism, especially around election season.

So we can so easily, like I said in the little preview, become sidelined and distracted by those things. We start listening to things, and before you know it, it gets murky and muddy, and we forget that we are to be an allegiance only to our King, who wants every bit of us. He doesn't want us to fight on the cause of America and fight for Him. He actually is jealous to have us completely on His side, doing His work, which is so very different than the world, especially if you were ever in the military. It is in direct opposition to what Jesus would have us do.

So we, as Christians, have a distinct calling to represent the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. And here's the absolute heart of my talk, as I truly believe that our calling as sisters to represent Christ's Kingdom is best promoted through the common, everyday expression of church life. I feel like as we live out our Christian lives, excuse me, through our local churches, we really do become those lights on a lampstand that Jesus talked about. And when we get that bigger picture, we really can invest ourselves in our local churches, knowing that we are making a difference, even though sometimes it seems like, oh, I was just bringing meatballs on Sunday, or maybe I just went and cleaned someone's house or helped someone move.

But you're actually a lampstand because the rest of the world doesn't work that way. In fact, most people live very, very lonely, separated lives, and they don't have someone to eat with on Sunday, much less have them come help you move or help you clean your house. And so when we do that as sisters, we help fulfill that divine calling as being representing the little embassies of Heaven.

So Jesus prayed, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." I think that's just really profound when you think about that. Like He wants His Kingdom to be manifested right now, in this very moment, on earth, just like it is in Heaven. So now on to my story a little bit. As some of you may know, about 30-something years ago, my husband and I were soldiers in the U.S. Army. We were stationed in Germany, and the U.S. Army banned. And even though our MOS, our military occupational specialty, was to be Army bandsmen, we always were reminded, "You are soldiers first." And we knew we were soldiers first, and our MOS was a secondary aspect of our commission.

As a U.S. soldier, I was a believer at the time, um, and I thought I was doing all the right things. But then something happened where God got a hold of my heart in a deeper way, and I came to face to face in a peculiar way with the teachings of Jesus. And it was very life-changing. It was alarming because I hear I was in the Army. I had sworn in to preserve and protect my country, to be willing to kill for my country. And at the time, I fully believed I was doing the right thing. But when I saw Jesus's teachings saying not to return evil for evil and to give to whom He, Him who asks of you, and, and to, um, you know, just lay your life down for your brother, and it just, it certainly says we should not kill.

I just, I couldn't make peace with that, and I found myself in a crisis. And though I'd been raised in the church, and to this moment, I'm so grateful for the wonderful, good foundation I received growing up in the Assemblies of God. I'm so, so grateful for that.

And yet there was a piece missing that I feel like, um, really affected my, um, crisis at the time. And that is that I'd really never understood anything about Jesus's teachings needing to be really thought about or practically lived out in this life. And so, yeah, that critical missing piece was, yeah, not being able to understand the reality of the two kingdoms, if you will.

So, and I found myself thinking, well, I know I'd heard things like, yeah, the, the Jesus is going to someday reign from, you know, rising of the sun till it's going down in heaven. He's going to reign supreme. And, but, you know, we didn't really think about commandments or about Jesus wanting anything more than just our love and admiration and worship. And, and those were good things. Those were good, I think, beginning things. But I think not understanding that part on a deeper level that if, if He's our King and we should follow Him, it should affect our lives and being able to join the military and things like that. So, or to get wrapped up in politics and things like that.

So I thought it might be good to talk about what I mean when I say two kingdoms. For a lot of us, we hear that so often. It's just like, you know, we don't think anything of it. We know pretty clearly what that means. But in a nutshell, for some of you who might tune in and maybe you've never heard that term, the two kingdoms. Well, what are the two kingdoms? Basically, I think a neat way to think about it is if you would take your Bible and read from cover to cover, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and you will find an overarching theme of the people of God and how they're to be set apart from all the other nations and all the other people around them and how God is jealous over them.

He wants to bless them. He wants to write His name on them, and He wants to make them His own peculiar possession and make them a blessing to the whole earth. In the Old Testament, this was just the Jews, but in the New Testament, we were all given the privilege to be granted access and be grafted into this great kingdom and get to serve as people of God together under this great King, Jesus Christ.

So, in direct opposition to this good kingdom, the kingdom of God, is the kingdom of this world. And as we know, that we're told the devil or Satan is the father of the world and versus our God being a father over us as Christians.

So, by far, the most important theme from the Old Testament to the New is that our Messiah is ushered in. And once He is, He declares boldly of Himself that He is a mighty King and a ruler and that He shall have a great kingdom. And this is just such an exciting and amazing concept. Once you get the idea that what our entire Bible is about is it's about Him. And it's so exciting to think of the ushering in of our King Jesus and His kingdom and that we, as His church, we're His servants and we get to be His ministers and we are His subjects in His kingdom.

And in His kingdom, He has laws. And I know we don't like that word anymore. We're scared of it, especially in our in a Baptist background. We're scared of the word laws because of maybe misapplication or maybe not understanding things. Maybe we've seen some abuses. But Jesus came with laws because He has big dreams for us. He's a protector and He's a great benefactor and He wants to bless us. The laws are for our good. One of the most profound ways He blesses us and as His subjects is by providing good laws and good governance. And it's mentioned in Isaiah in many places of Him coming to be a governor. He's not only a good King, but He's by far the best King there ever was or there ever will be.

Unlike all the earthly kingdoms before Him or any who will follow, His laws and ordinances are holy and they're full of righteousness and justice. And He is a righteous judge and King. So while my childhood church would have had a basic concept of all these thoughts about our Lord and they love Him, we never really took it to the next level practically, or at least I never perceived that we did. We were told that Jesus's teachings were not for our current era. I was told they were for a different time or a different dispensation.

I'd even heard the explanation that Jesus's teachings were meant to be lived out in heaven. But my husband often brings out that this is sort of an absurd kind of reasoning. Like he often begs the question, well, how hard is it to love your enemies in heaven? And you know, if the lion's going to be laying down with the lamb, you know, we know heaven is going to be so different. Why would we need instruction to try to love our enemies? And it's clear when you read the writings of the early church and you hear from the pen of those who would have walked and talked with the apostles, when they saw Jesus's teachings very plainly, like a child, if it said, "Love your enemies," you should love your enemies.

And that means you can't also kill them for the sake of some earthly kingdom. You just, you cannot. So God, Jesus's commandments were Christian non-negotiables meant to be lived out by the power of the Holy Spirit now for all the world to see. So when Jesus walked this earth, He left us with a sermon. And again, I say this for some of the those who may tune in, maybe they've never heard this before. It's called the Sermon on the Mount, which can be found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says some hard things, and you might hear it referred to as the hard sayings of Christ or maybe the difficult teachings of Jesus or something like that.

And they may feel like hard teachings sometimes. I admit they are. But the fact is, Jesus's teachings are profound and revolutionary and life-giving. My husband often refers to them as the blueprint for humanity. And I love that because it simplifies all those directives or commandments into a basic little roadmap for our good that will lead us to life if we choose to follow it. Jesus also taught us how we ought to pray, saying, "Our Father," even including us as His brethren, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." You could add now, just as it is in heaven.

I believe that was the heart of Christ. We should pray this prayer daily that His kingdom would come now and that His will would be done now, not in some other age or dispensation. He said when He was here, "The kingdom of heaven is among you now," like the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what that meant. So what does that mean for us today as sisters in God's kingdom?

How can we fulfill our divine calling as sisters to help represent the little embassy, excuse me, the little embassies of heaven we're called to be? I thought it might be nice to take a look at my husband's inspiration for our churches being embassies of heaven. It all stemmed from a unique experience that we had when we were soldiers in the army.

We were newlyweds living in Germany as American soldiers, and we were American through and through. We spoke American English, ate American food, read American literature, watched American media, had American friends, and even voted in American elections and paid American taxes.

Perhaps most significantly, though, we were willing to fight to defend American causes. Yet, in spite of our clear identity of America as Americans, we thoroughly enjoyed our getting to know the German neighbors and their culture. We enjoyed trying to learn the German language. Eating German food was our favorite part. Meeting, yeah, like shopping in German stores whenever we could and learning more German history. However, through our entire time until the very end, we never once questioned until God did something strange in our hearts. Never once questioned for a moment our citizenship in another country. Like, sadly, most of the time we had no idea who the burgermeister of German or who our little town of K-town or Kaiserslautern was.

The burgermeister would be your local mayor. We didn't know who they were. We certainly had no intention of voting in German elections. We just knew very clearly who we were and why we were there. We certainly just didn't think we were going to get wrapped up in German politics or vote in German elections. So I think that serves as a perfect example of how we need to be in this world as Christians. It's just too confusing to try to mix the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. They don't mix. It will never work. And it's sad to try and Christianize. I mean, it's good to be Christian, but our allegiance is solely to our King.

And anywhere we have to break His rules to serve another kingdom, we are falling short of what our calling is. So 2 Timothy 2:3-5 provides a powerful metaphor, I think, really helps us remember who we are as Christians and why we are here.

It helps us remember what the battle plan is from our general and what our marching orders are because they are different from the world around us. So it says this, "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules." Our goal, as Paul states, is to please him who enlisted us as a soldier. This means glorifying God and advancing His kingdom first and foremost, period. The analogy here is twofold. First, there's a strong warning that if we're not careful, we could become too distracted by unimportant things that will not count in the end. And if we're not careful, we'll be distracted and lose the race and we'll lose the battle.

Second, it implies that if we're not just that we're not just about avoiding the world, but we're to be actively involved in another army, another kingdom. So when I was in Germany, simply being non-German was not the point. Our purpose was to defend and advance the interest of America.

Similarly, we as Christians are called to be actively involved in God's army and society. Our mission is to please the one who enlisted us. So we should advance the interests of our heavenly country. My husband often compares a local church body to a country's embassy.

Have you ever visited a U.S. embassy in a foreign country? It's actually a really interesting experience. And my poor husband has had the unfortunate opportunity to do it more than once in different countries due to losing passports or cell phones or some other sad tragedy. It's actually a fascinating experience, though. So the embassy represents its home nation within the host country, operating under its own particular laws and customs while respecting the local customs and regulations of a host nation. So, as my husband would like to say, he'll say this in his sermons, like you walk into an American embassy and you hear everybody speaking perfect English, and there's a guy named Frank greeting you at the counter, and they're sitting around eating chili dogs and playing American pop music in the background.

So for just a moment, you actually feel like you've just stepped into America. In the same way, the local church should function as an embassy of heaven. When people enter our churches, they should experience a taste of God's kingdom on earth, His love, His grace, His mercy, His beautiful order and transformative power. And just as an embassy serves its citizens abroad and represents its nation's interests, our churches should serve believers and non-believers needs alike, as it seeks to further Christ's interests in our local communities.

The church should also serve as a model of our home country, heaven. The local church should be a small example of our heavenly home, reflecting its values and its customs. So when we do this, we literally get the opportunity to live out the heart of the Lord's prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We instinctively know that to represent heaven is to represent something beautiful. We've all heard sayings such as, "That would be heaven on earth," or we might describe something as being heavenly. The fact is, when we live out Jesus's teachings to this dying world around us, we truly do become like heaven on earth. Jesus said, "When we follow Him, we will shine as bright lights to the world around us."

In contrast, we know that the world is full of darkness and all manner of evil. So, in direct opposition to the kingdom of heaven, where Christ is the ruler of His subjects, we know that this earth is called by Jesus the kingdom of this world. We also know the devil is the ruler of that. And there's a battle going on every day between this kingdom of God and this kingdom of the world. And they are in direct opposition to one another.

1 John 2:15-17 gives us a sobering yet clear distinction between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. It's very clear that the kingdom of this world is against God and His plan for humanity. It says, "Do not love the world nor the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world is passing away and the lust thereof. But he who does the will of God abides forever."

I think we all know there is indeed a battle going on, but the lines can just start to feel so blurry sometimes. Sometimes the battle can almost make our quest to find true community feel so hard or so bewildering that we're tempted to lose heart or, worse yet, lose our faith in the search. I think it can be especially difficult for those who were not raised with the concept of living out Jesus's teachings in real and tangible ways. For those coming into the church as newborn babes, adapting to this concept as a new way of life can be incredibly difficult. Old habits die hard, and they can prove hard to break. And sometimes we still don't know what this new life should even look like.

So this involves more than just understanding new concepts. It means we've got to, it requires us to be able to embody them in our everyday lives. And this can be just so hard. I know from experience, it often means we're reevaluating all our formerly held, long-held beliefs and traditions. It involves a shift in our mindset and behavior, trying to align ourselves more closely with the values of God's kingdom. But we know that we have Christ on our side to help us. We have His word to guide us. We have His Spirit to quicken us so that we are fully equipped to continue our journey by faith, knowing that He's going to help us. He's going to help us be able to serve Him better.

Despite the incredible difficulties we may face while trying to enter the kingdom of heaven, this journey of faith is profoundly rewarding, and I'm speaking from experience. It allows us to grow deeper in our faith and become more like Christ in the process. As we strive to live as citizens of heaven, we become living testimonies of the transformative power of God's love and grace.

As a woman, a wife, and particularly as a mother, I've come to understand that there are multiple layers of challenges that can make living out our faith incredibly difficult. Dean and I have witnessed countless families begin their journeys with so many joyful, noble ideas and lofty visions and aspirations, but only to find themselves shipwrecked when attempting to apply biblical principles in the messy realities of everyday life, and in particular when it comes to everyday human relationships.

This transition from theory to practice can feel absolutely overwhelming and even devastating at times. Sometimes in my journey, I seriously wondered if I was the leopard who just couldn't change her spots. I just felt so discouraged. What seemed so clear and straightforward in my mind often became so cloudy and nuanced and really, really complex when I actually tried to apply it in everyday life. It just felt like I kept failing. And sometimes I still very much still fail. And that can be discouraging. This is especially true when we're attempting to live as citizens of God's kingdom while still navigating the realities of this very fallen world, and not to mention that our very own fallen flesh.

But by faith, we know we are not to stay there, but we are being redeemed day by day. We believe that by faith, we are being transformed into Christ's image. We have to choose to believe that by faith. So if we're committed to being true soldiers in God's army, we must recognize that these challenges are part of the calling.

There is a reason why keeping the faith is called a fight, as Paul admonishes in 1 Timothy 6:12. Fight the good fight of faith. We need to approach these difficulties not as obstacles to avoid, but as opportunities for growth and refinement. They are making a difference.

It's through these struggles that we learn to rely more fully on God's grace and to develop resilience necessary for long-term faithfulness. We're learning how to walk in the Spirit after having spent years of our former lives walking after the flesh. So we really need to give ourselves time and room to grow. As I mentioned earlier, church life can be incredibly hard and particularly challenging for those coming from a completely different cultural background. There's so much to learn, and there are so many opportunities for offense. It can feel so daunting and extremely draining at times. But just when we feel our strength is almost gone, we need to call to mind that Jesus never intended us to carry this burden alone.

In fact, He not only wants to carry it for us, He wants us to lean on what He calls His body, the fellowship of our fellow Christian believers. You know, I want to add something here. Feeling wiped out when you're trying to keep the faith is probably a good indication that you're trying to do it in your own strength. Jesus himself said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." And He also said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest." I have found that is so true.

We must recall these scriptures again and again by faith. Learning to die to ourselves and live to Christ is a process, and it does not happen overnight. As we continue in our journey by faith and press on in Him and in His strength, we will grow new spiritual muscles. And we're promised to grow in both wisdom and grace. And I can testify this grace is a real thing. I've discovered that Jesus really can change my spots over time and make me a new creation in Him.

But admittedly, it can feel risky to give your whole heart and trust to a local church body, especially if you've experienced what might have felt like harsh treatment or injustice in your past. However, while it may sometimes feel easier to just do it alone, the fact is we were never called to be individualists. We really need to be aware of any doctrine that says, "It's just me and my Jesus" or "Just me and my Bible." And while there may be some little tiny element of truth to that, and there may be rare circumstances where you are called to walk alone in this life, overall, this idea of doing Christianity alone is, I feel, an erroneous way of thinking.

And I'm afraid it's a doctrine born more out of human reasoning than of godly biblical application. It's just not in alignment with God's word. And I think, and you get in this kind of thinking, it causes division because it promotes the lie that we're sufficient to do it on our own. This lie becomes really dangerous because if you don't really feel the need to be a part of a local body, then why on earth would you ever go through the painstaking effort that it can take to try and be a part of one? It does take death to self. It does take purposeful effort before you discover that new life, before your eyes are opened.

First, you have to walk in obedience, and then the light comes, and it's no longer a difficulty, but a joy. If we're fostering a sense of contentment in being alone, I feel like we're missing the heart of Christ's beautiful mandate to demonstrate His will to the world around us. We cannot display the beauty of Christ's kingdom to its fullest potential if we're content to function as individuals rather than churches. We cannot fulfill the ultimate kingdom directive to be embassies of heaven if we're either too scared or maybe even too lazy or too proud or too doubtful and unbelieving to find and commit to a local church body.

And if we forsake the coming together in a local body, we not only miss our opportunity to fulfill that mandate that the Lord gave us for His church, but we also risk jeopardizing our own spiritual health. We miss out on being a part of the family of God. It's amazing. The Lord knew we would need each other in order to enter His kingdom.

He wanted to give us the gift of the family of God. We're called a body for a reason. We need all the parts of the body to function, and we're incomplete if we try to go it alone. God's word gives us many word pictures that we're also to be like an army of God. And just like any worldly army, we're stronger when we're united together. We've all heard the saying. We've all heard the saying, "United we stand, divided we fall." We're especially empowered when our hearts are knit together in perfect unity.

After all, this was one of the last things Jesus prayed before His ascension into heaven, that His church would be one. And this was obviously one of the greatest longings of His heart.

In the army, the resources are divided out like one-third going to the infantry, and then the other two-thirds go to maintaining a good support system in operations. You know, the church can learn a lot from that. In order to see that its goals are implemented, the army issues a basic training manual to every recruit, and then much time is given to ensure that every soldier learns this manual backward and forward and inside and out. And then there's the endless drill so that all the directives can be executed with excellence and, in many cases, by heart.

This was a high priority in our training so that we'd all know what the mission was and how it was to be carried out well. We drilled and we drilled and we drilled again. It was very important. I think this also serves as a good analogy for us. Of course, the Bible is our basic training manual. Only our manual far surpasses this earthly army manual because it was not written just as an instruction manual, but as a loving letter from a caring father to his sons and daughters.

When our mission gets clouded by the clamor of too many opposing voices or the cares of this life, I think it's good to go back and just ponder the heart of Jesus when He prayed this prayer to our shared heavenly Father before His ascension. Jesus said in John 17:20 and 21, I'm sorry, 23:23, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the Lord, sorry, then the world will know that you sent me and have loved me even as you have loved. You have loved them even as you have loved me." So obviously, Jesus had great passion and desire that we should all be brought to perfect unity. And I think we all long for that day. We long for that perfect unity deep inside. And sometimes I know we can hardly wait until that unity is fully realized.

But sometimes doesn't it feel like we're so far from this prayer being answered? And yet by faith, we know, we all know to strive for it while we wait patiently, but expectingly, expectantly, knowing Jesus's prayer will be answered in due season.

In the meantime, I think it's very important to recognize that this prayer is most pertinent to us personally at a local level. So while we know this unity should eventually encompass the entire earth, I believe our primary calling is to work this out in everyday lives at a local level.

Nurturing a local congregation into a beautiful, healthy, vibrant city in God's kingdom requires significant effort. As women, much of that health and vibrancy is going to stem from the often hidden, humble service and sacrifice of busy wives and mothers, or maybe single sisters who have the burden of providing their own living.

However, despite our individual trials and limitations, we as sisters are a vital part of helping to build this beautiful city. Now, every kingdom appoints leaders of some kind, and it's crucial to recognize that every group, regardless of their claims, will have some kind of leadership in place. Furthermore, these leaders are responsible to see that their laws and ordinances are carried out.

Romans 13:1-3 says, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil."

Early on in our journey, Dean and I joined with a group that strongly asserted they had no extra biblical standards. And for newcomers, this sounded extremely appealing. However, though they were unwritten, we soon realized that there were actually multiple layers of unspoken expectations, and many of them couldn't actually be tied to a chapter or verse in the Bible. Unfortunately, we witnessed many friends stumble over this reality and often with very tragic consequences. The truth is, any community of people will inevitably develop certain expectations from one another. These might be written or unwritten, but honestly, from our experience, when it comes to the church, it seems like the clearer the expectations are, the better. Transparency in these things can really help prevent misunderstandings and potential stumbling blocks in the future, and particularly for new members.

I recall one of Dean's early visits to a church in Pennsylvania. At the time, we wore simple wedding bands, and we were just moving into this church. And after the service, during a dinner with some of the church leaders, one of the older brothers candidly advised Dean he might want to consider removing his wedding ring. This caught Dean by surprise as he wasn't aware of any such rule, especially since we thought this group claimed they didn't have written standards. However, this caring brother knew it would likely become an issue, and he loved us enough to inform us. These kinds of situations that can, these are the kind of things that could actually sometimes derail people in their spiritual journeys if they're not handled with loving care and clarity, and especially upfront.

It's important to note that this is not unique to Anabaptist or kingdom-focused communities. As I mentioned earlier, any society or group of human beings living together inevitably will develop expectations and norms. I have a quote I'd love to share from G.K. Chesterton. It's rather profound. This quote was taken from his book, Heretics. He says, "What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the liberty to make laws? The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people. And what is the good of telling a man or a philosopher that he has every liberty except the liberty to make generalizations? Making generalizations is what makes him a man."

I just feel like that's a good insight and a good reminder for us as we try to find the formation of shared communal expectations. And it's inevitable, but it can also be a healthy expression of a community's shared values and identity. I think it's also a good reminder that it's a privilege to be able to make practical applications and guidelines in everyday life matters. After all, at the end of the day, the bottom line is, I don't care who you are or where you are fellowshipping. We all draw our lines somewhere. The key lies in how these expectations are communicated, how they're implemented, and whether they're balanced with grace and understanding and humility, especially for those who may be coming in from outside the community.

Understanding who our people are and choosing to submit ourselves willingly to a brotherhood and sisterhood can be life-giving. One thing that's brought Dean and I a lot of comfort in our journey is learning to identify who our people are. Throughout our Anabaptist kingdom journey, we've been part of several radical groups. And in some of these groups, especially in our earlier stages, we sadly often thought quite highly of ourselves. I'm ashamed to say. Of course, time has a way of humbling even the greatest of movements, and it seems like we both always have to learn everything the hard way, and we're still learning. But I can say that being able to admit and recognize that we're part of a much larger community has helped us navigate through some very challenging and confusing times.

For us, pretty early on, we felt the group we most passionately related to personally were the Anabaptists. While knowing who our immediate people are is fundamental, we've come to see that it's also important to connect with others, though, who may be outside our community, and they may think slightly differently. When we do this, we will often discover they have maybe a lot more experience on some things and maybe a lot more wisdom in certain areas than we do, and maybe they can provide needed and valuable insight where we're lacking.

For an illustration on that, I'd love to draw from my army experience. I trained at the U.S. Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, Virginia. And what was unique about this training center was that even though I was in the army, we trained right alongside the Navy and the Marine Corps.

Naturally, there was a little bit of healthy and sometimes unhealthy rivalry between the different branches, and each of us believed our group was the best. And this sometimes led to less than ideal interactions. However, despite our differences, at the end of the day, we all recognized that we were fighting for the same cause for our country, America.

Extending this analogy further, as American soldiers, we also knew we had allies because they, but just because they were our allies, sorry, countries like England and Italy and Austria, they were our close allies, not enemies. But just because they were allies didn't mean we considered ourselves to be fighting on the same team. We knew the distinctions, and honestly, there was something healthy about that. Well, I think this is also an excellent analogy for church life.

In another similar way, Dean and I have found it helpful to understand that these kinds of distinctions are good within the church. So our local church is our, like you could say, our local church is our fundamental platoon. And then we might see a group like maybe the charity churches or the Beachy Amish churches as representing entirely different branches of service. And yet they're still very much our allies in league to help support and encourage each other in our faith. In this analogy, excuse me, I think you could call them a part of the greater Anabaptist kingdom people, and they are our overall country. And then I think we could say the evangelicals and others maybe would be some of our allies.