Judy Beeman, ACR Chairperson
Judy Beeman, CFOer from up state New York, USA, shares some thoughts on Glenn Clark, The Bond of Faith, and The Camps Farthest Out. This is Part One in a series of reflections on The Bond of Faith, the guiding document of the CFO written by Glenn Clark in 1956.
What is CFO? I want us to explore not only what is CFO but what was CFO and then consider what CFO was is again, becoming what CFO is.
“I believe that the chief essential of life is to keep in touch with the Father, and let the Divinity that is within me manifest through me. I believe that the whole world about me is full of beauty, joy and power, even as it is full of God, and that I can share it and enjoy it if I attune myself to my Divine Plan and am inwardly open toward God and outwardly helpful toward people. I shall ask my heavenly Father and friend, who dwells within me and who has given me this vision of life, to give me His help in its realization and to help me share it with others that it may bring peace and happiness to many.” – Glenn Clark, from The Divine Plan
This takes us back a bit into history. Glenn Clark, a college English professor and athletic coach met regularly with a group of his students who were seeking inspiration and direction. They asked him to teach them how to pray. This question began a several years journey and culminated in a dream to teach not only his students but businessmen and others from all walks of life how to bring the teachings of Jesus into every aspect of their lives through daily and constant communication with Christ. His dream was to train them to balance their lives, to breathe God’s Spirit in and out during every part of their day. Thus CFO was born. Glenn Harding states in’ CFO The Journey’ that Glenn Clark launched the first CFO camp “as an instrument prepared of God for bringing the heavenly into manifestation in our every day lives.”
Glenn walked so closely with God by including God in everything he did that you could almost see Jesus when you looked into Glenn’s face. I remember sitting at his feet under a tree at CFO in 1954. I was too young to remember anything he said but I do remember clearly feeling something very special and close to God when being in Glenn’s presence.
It was about that time that some of the leadership in CFO began to be concerned for what would happen to CFO when Glenn was not longer on this earth. It was brought to Glenn’s attention that there needed to be a way to pass CFO on from Glenn to the rest of us. So, in 1955 Camps Farthest Out became a legal entity and Glenn wrote The Bond of Faith.
So where am I going with this history lesson? It’s a reminder of where our roots are and a challenge. Are we bringing the heavenly into manifestation in our every day lives? Another thing that Glenn Harding said is that we are at camp to “be prepared as instruments for greater purposes of the Lord”
For many campers camp is a warm fuzzy place where we go to feel better, get recharged and spend some dedicated time with the Lord. I’ve been there, and it sounds pretty self-centered to me. Glenn Harding also said that “it is easy to go no farther out when our own needs are met. We don’t feel the undercurrent of Holy Spirit moving us to go home and “do something”
I think many of us have gotten away from reading The Bond of Faith. For several years now, the thought has been out there that we don’t want to emphasis Glenn Clark and the Bond of Faith over our relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So we’ve let this gem of what CFO is all about fall by the wayside. But revisiting it helps us remember who we are and why we are The Camps Farthest Out.
Glenn Clark, The Council Ring at Lake Koronis
Here is where I bring what was back to what is. I share with you Section VII of The Bond of Faith.
“Finally we come to the specific means by which this Kingdom may be projected into the activities and lives of men. These may take the form of projects such as summer camps and winter retreats, establishing healing centers or institutes of prayer, planting of prayer groups and convening groups of business men or congressmen or ministers for inspiration or training for the larger work. We believe that these projects should be prayerfully visioned, carefully planned and then not committed to a committee to be committed to death, but to some individual in the group who is on fire with zeal and devotion regarding that particular project as a means of bringing the Kingdom into manifestation in that particular way upon this earth”
If we truly are engaging in The CFO way and want to be athletes of the Spirit, we will embrace this challenge and step out in faith… step way out… step farthest out, knowing God is the divine leader and the Holy Spirit will give us everything we need to live creatively and take CFO to people everywhere in a new, yet old, and exciting way.
If you enjoyed this blog post, would you please prayerfully consider supporting CFO International with a financial donation. Please ask the Holy Spirit what you are to give and then go to our website www.cfointernational.org and use your credit card to make a donation. You can also send us a check payable to CFO International, PO Box 4394, Peabody, MA 01961 USA