for Further Reflection and Discussion
- Apostle Stassi Cramm leads her story with a quote from the preface of Section 164. It deals with the power to “birth a new creation” in a divided world. What role do you see the worldwide church taking in this action? What about individuals or congregations?
- Cramm discusses the powerful impact camps and reunions had on her while she was growing up. What vivid experiences do you recall from your own history at camps and reunions?
- Camps and reunions strongly reflect several Enduring Principles. Discuss how these events advance blessings of community, unity in diversity, and the pursuit of peace.
- In what ways, if any, do camping and reunion experiences change the witness you take into the world?
- Cramm gives us a challenge. She asks that we resist the easy solution of living divided. What are three ways your congregation can meet this challenge beyond its walls? How can individuals do this in relationships?
- The article closes with a statement about another Enduring Principle: continuing revelation. It says, “The answers we seek and the blessings we need will be found as we move forward.” Discuss the role faith plays in this. Is it any different now than during the time of Christ? Joseph Smith III? If so, how?
—Greg Clark
Herald Team
Witnesses
of Hope
by Stassi Cramm, apostle
While I studied this passage [Galatians 3:27–29], the Spirit helped me see much broader dimensions of God’s grace working through Christ to transform human relationships in a divided world. As a result, I have an even-greater testimony than before of the power of the gospel of Christ to birth a new creation among those who dare to live its message in sacred community.”—preface of Doctrine and Covenants 164
These words remind me of our call to proclaim oneness in Christ to a divided world and to invite people into communities that reflect Christ’s vision of shalom.
I grew up in Community of Christ; I attended church regularly; but more importantly I can’t remember a summer without reunion and camping experiences. Even before I was old enough to be a camper, I attended with my parents, who often served as staff members. These sacred experiences formed much of the foundation of my faith and understanding as a disciple.
These experiences are sacred for me because something miraculous always happens at camps and reunions. People of various backgrounds, opinions, social groups, and other divisive categories, come together. We form a community centered on our shared commitment to Christ and our wish to go deeper in that commitment. Even when we debate nuances of theology, we still find our oneness through each other’s wish to live as faithful disciples.
The miracle is that zionic formation at camps is as predictable as the sun coming up. No matter which campgrounds, what age group, or how diverse the group, a oneness always happens at least for a moment. In that moment we experience what Paul was trying to tell the Galatians: There are no divisions for humans based on race, class, gender, or any other anthropological identifier when we allow ourselves to be one in Christ.
In these moments, I always sense a new creation trying to be birthed because we are trying, though temporarily, to live the gospel message in sacred community. And I always am awestruck by the Holy Spirit’s ability to create unity in diversity when we submit to its transformative presence.
In my past, the end of camps and reunions always came with tears and sadness. I didn’t want the sacred community to end. I wanted the experience of oneness in Christ to continue.
As if the ministers knew we would want to stay, they gave closing sermons on sending us back into the world to share the good news and to live the zionic principles we had practiced that week. I remember countless commitment testimonies about making changes in daily life to stay grounded in the gospel message and to be seeds of God’s new creation (or Zion). These testimonies focused on seeking to break into new life with the growth of grace, love, hope, and peace in a world of judgment, hate, despair, and fear.
I always sensed the urgency in the closing sermon and the sincerity in the commitment testimonies. With those words ringing in my ears, I went home with an increased hope and desire for God’s new creation to break forth around me. I just knew if the world could experience what we had just experienced, everyone would want to be a part of it.
Despite these strong feelings, shortly after I arrived home, demands for my time and focus would replace the expectation and hope of a transformed world. Often, I would experience a deep sadness.
I remember friends asking why I went to camp if I was going to be so depressed when I got back. I would try to explain how the depression came not because of the camping experience, but because the experience ended. I struggled to explain my disappointment because I couldn’t recreate the experience in my daily life.
No words could express how amazing the community experience had been and why the absence of that community created such a hole in my heart.
As I have grown older and hopefully deeper in my discipleship, I continue to ponder the miracle that occurs time and again at Community of Christ camping experiences. I also continue to be awestruck every time it happens.
Now I often am the preacher sharing that sending-forth sermon with great urgency. Like President Steve Veazey, my testimony grows ever stronger on the nature of what we have to share with a divided world about sacred community.
The Holy Spirit, working at camps and reunions, releases our inhibitions to live boldly as disciples. We act and speak differently when we are campers or reunion attendees. We are more faithful in expressing the gospel through our words and actions.
Everything about our experience together changes somehow during the week. We set aside the routine and traditions of life at home for the opportunity to birth a new creation together. We come expectant, and we come willing to engage differently with one another and God. And God always blesses us.
In practical terms, we come valuing community over individuality. The camp schedule is the priority of the week for everyone and sets the rhythm of being together. Other competing needs for our time do not distract us. We are not rushed, so we are fully available and fully present for one another.
We attentively listen to each other’s stories. We pray for each other’s concerns. We study our scriptures together and become renewed through worship. We play, and eat, and sing, and simply enjoy being with one another. We look past each other’s annoying habits. We consider each other’s different viewpoints. We generously share all that we are and all that we have with one another. And through this sharing, the best of whom we are as children of God blends together.
In these moments we are made spiritually more whole as a community, and our improved spiritual condition allows us to experience God’s new creation being born. This is our glimpse of the kingdom. Paul had such glimpses and tried, with great passion, to share with the Galatians what was possible.
We are blessed to be firsthand participants, if even for a short time. With this experience fresh in our mind, God calls us from our isolated camping community and sends us into the world to share what we have seen, heard, and experienced. We are sent as witnesses of the Hope of Zion.
President Veazey’s experience with Paul’s instructions to the Galatians and his resulting deepening testimony come as an invitation for us all to consider our own testimony about “the power of the gospel of Christ to birth a new creation among those who dare to live its message in sacred community.”
Our ability to serve as God’s restoring presence in the world depends on our capacity to embody the gospel message, allowing it to change us individually and collectively. Like the Galatians, we live in a divided world. Even within our congregations, mission centers, and the World Church, we face issues that have the potential of dividing us.
The problem is that as we start to divide, the issues become more pressing and difficult to resolve. It is only as we pull together, daring to cling to one another, that we are open to the transforming and guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. It is in our collective transformation that our individual ideas and solutions give sway to God’s plan.
So how do we pull together? We remember the community-building skills that we practice each time we gather at camps and in reunions. We adjust our schedules to make time to be with God and each other. We remove distractions in our lives that do not help us faithfully live our discipleship. We generously share all that we are and all that we have in pursuing the mission of the church.
And through it all, we trust in the power of the gospel to birth a new creation in us to be witnesses of the Hope of Zion in the world.
In his April 11 message to the World Conference, President Veazey challenged us to respond to our call:
I believe the church is being fashioned to make an important contribution to the healing of communities that are ripping apart because of people’s disagreements over moral, theological, and political issues.
He went on to remind us that
continuing revelation provides a compass for navigating the swirling currents before us. The answers we seek and the blessings we need will be found as we move forward.
As we go deeper in our understanding and response to Doctrine and Covenants 164, may we resist the easy solution of living divided. May we do the hard work of daring to live in sacred community. And may we allow the power of Christ’s gospel to birth new creations in us as a signal community that proclaims Jesus Christ to the world and invites others to experience the Hope of Zion.