As we continue with our membership campaign, the Membership Committee asked Marti to tell us a little about John from her perspective, and why what we are doing is so important.

When it comes to truth, John is fearless, compelling us in our virtual community to think beyond ourselves and our established radius of responsibility, to consider how we can affect the world at our doorstep.

When it comes to life, John is not so fearless.

On any given day in John’s life you will find him scratching the folds between his temples. He thrives on living at a level of complexity on one hand, and, on the other hand, he can get overwhelmed in the details when chatting with the mail carrier. John is the guarded communicator of profound Christian truth. His job is very difficult and sometimes challenging, considering the conditions of his own character and those surrounding him.

John does not evangelize, he listens (where I evangelize and often forget to listen). John does not seek to impose a point of view, he seeks to understand what each of our views are so that we might find common ground on which we can build a shared faith.

John is the captain of my ship and each day he challenges me to look beyond my self-interest to people with whom I have no interest, to places where I have no presence, and to conflicts in which I have no personal stake. He loathes indifference and celebrates those who are unafraid to challenge the status quo for the sake of the truth. In this, John is very brave.

John has learned to live with ambiguity. I have not. John finds more grace in the search for understanding than I do in my quest for certainty.  He finds more value in questions than absolutes.

What you see (or read) is who John is. He shows all his cards (I prefer you see my best side). John is very compassionate. We’ve learned to laugh and sometimes cry with him and to accept that, “God is good, life is tough.” Nevertheless, he speaks to us to take up our gifts and make them into a life unto God.

John continually captivates us with his compassionate and determined view of a world that is essentially made up of those that serve themselves and those that serve others and all of us in between. When listening to his theology of living, we come to understand that there are no burning bushes, only people who give themselves so completely to God and to others that they are filled with a level of spirituality that attracts people to their way of life. A person’s actions, not his intentions, motivate others to do the right thing.

We are bonded – John, you and me – by a deep connection that comes when you experience compassion. Though invisible to each other, we kneel, we walk, we hold one another up. In the eye of eternity we know we will live forever in each other’s hearts.

As for eternity, John looks forward to death (I do not) and calls it good because it puts a limit on the number of days we have to accomplish our goals (I need a lot more time). If we are listening to John we know that our days are numbered, which should motivate us to strive to make the most of the time we have.

So think about your cyber minister today and his cyber “congregation,” recognizing that in any community, whether it be in a family, church, town or online, we weather any storm by our own selfless interest in one another. In doing so, we understand what it means to feel good about being human. This is John’s legacy that he has spent his entire ministry pursuing, and nothing — not money, not me or you, and not even circumstances will ever extinguish this light. Through his life of vulnerability he is telling us that we have really only one choice in life to either “light a candle or curse the dark.”

And you, to whom he has chosen to be accountable – you have become the kind of friend a friend would like to have.

John has made you and me want to stay close to him and live our lives a little more recklessly and a little more deeply, and while you may not see eye-to-eye with him all of the time (I certainly do not), I know he can hear you when you scream like I do sometimes, at the top of your lungs: “John Fischer, you made me do this!”