Joe Gatlin, a member of Hope Fellowship in Waco, Texas, wrote this piece for the Shalom Mission Communities newsletter in October, 2021. Just as the newsletter was published, Virgil Vogt, and elder and leader for Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois, passed away after a long bout of Parkinson’s. Virgil visited and ministered to many Christian communities for some 50 years. He served as a mentor to Joe and many others.
“The realm of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the realm of God is among you.” Luke 17: 20-21
Virgilisms lodge in the recesses of my memory and regularly surface just when needed. How to loosen a spiritual knot, how to provide a little bit of guidance for someone who feels lost, how to relieve bewilderment or discouragement when there seem to be no good choices, how to pursue the call of Jesus. Often there is a virgilism that can be applied. Here is a sampling of just a few:
1. You can’t lead anyone anywhere unless they first know that you love them.
2. The call to give up everything and enter into a common treasury can’t be based on a horizontal trust in each other or it will fail. It needs to be found in a vertical trust in God.
3. Starting new things is the way of the Holy Spirit. In the kingdom of God it is the old things that need to justify their existence, not the new.
4. Rather than the Spanish Bible study coming to worship, you could take worship to the Spanish Bible study.
5. You know, Joe, I just show up for duty each morning.
You may ask, what is a ‘virgilism’? Well, it’s a synecdoche. And then the next question, what in the world is a synecdoche? A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole, and in turn, the whole can represent the part. And how do you pronounce synecdoche? You better look it up.
The particular part of this synecdoche is the little bits of wisdom Virgil Vogt from Reba Place has shared over the last 35 years. Below are the specific contexts of each of the above five virgilisms (and as you can easily imagine, each one of these through succeeding years has proved handy in many other situations).
1. Once when I was on the phone with Virgil, maybe in 1990, I complained about my difficulty in leading Reconcilers Fellowship, a community in Waco that predated Hope Fellowship. We were stuck in a morass of conflict and leadership struggles, and I was trying to figure out if I needed to be more assertive in my leadership. Oh! I thought when Virgil pointed me toward love. It was a light bulb moment. All of this, I thought, is simply about the way of Jesus.
2. The love of Jesus was not a magic wand for Reconcilers, but rather the lack of love in the community proved to be its Golgotha. By 1993, Reconcilers along with our common treasury household was rapidly disintegrating. During that time Nancy and I entered conversation with another couple about living together and sharing finances. We invited Virgil and Hilda Carper to come help guide us in discernment in a weekend retreat. As we sat in a circle talking about what each of us needed from each other, Virgil pointed us toward the foundational truth of Christian community: it is built on trust in God, not trust in each other. His statement was the germination of the seed that became Hope Community.
3. A year later Virgil returned to Waco to meet with Hope Community as we deliberated about inviting neighbors in for worship and starting Hope Fellowship as a church. Some friends had counseled us that Waco did not need another church. Virgil, though, was excited and shared his insight about the Holy Spirit’s priorities, the birth of new things. Once again he had turned conventional wisdom on its head. Hope Fellowship’s initial meeting was held in our living room a few months later.
4. A couple of years later Hope Fellowship huddled in our living room with Virgil and discussed several things in our collective life. Top of mind was our disappointment that the women of Nancy’s Tuesday night, neighborhood Spanish Bible study were understandably reluctant to join us for worship on Sunday morning. Virgil suggested we ask the Bible study if we could join them on a Tuesday night for some worship time. They said yes, and it worked. Cristina and Norma started coming to worship and eventually became members.
5. And then a number of years later Virgil and I sat at our dining table in Waco. I was aware that Reba Place was going through transitions that involved Virgil’s leadership and expressed some concern for him. He just smiled and said with perfect equanimity, “You know Joe, I just show up for duty each morning.” The simplicity of his faith and the submissiveness of his spirit, both so palpable in that brief statement more than 20 years ago, have inspired me through several major transitions and this recent pandemic.
To be a synecdoche there has to be a whole. The whole of virgilisms is the sustaining presence, wisdom, and blessing that brothers, sisters, and siblings of Shalom Mission Communities have been in the founding, growth, and everyday life of Hope Fellowship. Memorable statements, gestures, and insights from many have provided encouragement, sometimes helping us discover a needed shift in direction, sometimes renewing our joy, and often shedding light on the workings of God’s great economy. Oh, we will say, this really is about the love of Jesus.
It’s risky to name a few of these saints when space won’t allow me to name all. But with no names, “others” seems like just a vague generality. So here are some of the other “virgilizers.” Sojourners: John, Judy, Tim, Zoe, Renata, Debbie, Dale, Dawn, Lin. Plow Creek: Wes, Rick, Lynn, Louise, Rich. Reba: Barb, David H., David J., Sally, Orwin, Joanne, Joan, Ronn, Nina, Celina, Julius, Peggy, Hilda, Char, Bob, Tatiana, Chico, Anne, Ann, Penny, Dave, Jeanne, Allan, Jim, Heather, Greg, Adam, Stefanie, Vicki, Megan, Vera. Jubilee: Don, Carolyn, Robin, Robbie, Chou, Blake, Sue, Christina, Brenda, Russ, Al. Valle Nuevo: Rosa, Pastor, Tomasa, Margarita, Heydi, Ana Lopez, Jessica, Juana, Salomé, Felipa, Angelina, Pedro, Fausto, Segunda, Chunga, Morena.
Collectively, from a human point of view, we (the people of Shalom Mission Communities) are no doubt just an average slice of humanity. We’re not smarter or stronger, we’re no more handsome or beautiful or artistic or clever, than any other microdot of the earth’s 7 billion plus people. What we are is a handful of people who have placed our lives in the hands of Jesus. As such, by the power of the Holy Spirit we speak truth and hope to each other. May all of our interactions be filled with God’s grace and love.
Joe Gatlin