It will remain a challenge to accept this call while remaining pastor of Second church, Richmond, Va. The search committee and I debated and prayed together about how this might work. My call as pastor is not yet finished, yet the need of the magazine for editorial and theological direction is urgent. We finally agreed that I would serve part time, and that my primary responsibilities as outlined in the board announcement are now priorities for this magazine to go forward.
Further we all realized that such an arrangement would not be possible without the work of The Outlook staff, which has given exceptionally faithful service since Robert’s retirement last year. The magazine has come out on schedule, and has more than held its own through their hard work and devotion. They also deserve the church’s gratitude — and ours.
Finally, after many conversations back and forth with the search committee, I realized that whatever other qualifications I bring, what stands out is my “insider’s knowledge” of The Outlook. The past three editors have been my treasured friends and colleagues since I moved to Richmond. I have laughed and groaned with them, and worked side by side with them. Aubrey and I served on the Outlook Foundation board together; George and Robert were close associates and remain friends. I intend to guide the magazine through this time of crisis in the national church until the next editor is called. I love The Outlook and am convinced that its present and future usefulness to the PC(USA), to the Reformed and Presbyterian family, and to the holy, catholic church remains not only viable, but is most urgently needed.
I invite readers, board members and supporters of The Outlook far and near, to join me in this prayer, liberally adapted from John Baillie’s A Diary of Private Prayer (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, p. 25):
O Holy One, who was, and is, and is to come, we thank you that the Christian way upon which we walk is no uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets and martyrs. We thank you for the finger-posts and danger-signals with which it is marked at every turn, and which may be known to us through the study of scripture, the confessions of our church, of all history, and of the great literature of the world. Even more we give you thanks for the great gift of Jesus Christ, the Pioneer of our faith. We praise you that you have caused us to be born in an age and in a land which have known his name, and that we are not called upon to face any temptation or trial he did not first endure.
Forbid it, Holy Lord, that we should fail to profit from the wisdom and endurance of ages past, or fail the Holy Spirit’s summons to faithfulness in the time you have given to us.
Amen. Let it be so.
Posted Feb. 23, 2004 
O. Benjamin Sparks is interim editor of The Outlook and pastor, Second church, Richmond, Va.
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