As I listened to John Bell’s sermon (link) I thought I was being ushered back into the remembered richness of the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition that nourished my beginnings as a pastor, a tradition that the Outlook has maintained fearlessly over many decades. That emerging tradition was patiently replacing a spurious ecclesiology that supported social injustice. The Outlook was courageous in that enterprise, and was willing, for the gospel and the church’s sake, to “be shown the door” if necessary, to speak the truth about church and society.
Ernest Trice Thompson and Aubrey Brown, the first two editors of this paper, in teaching, preaching, and writing, helped to establish in the warp and woof of the church the overturning of the noxious doctrine of the “spirituality of the church” that had become the confessional stance of the PCUS (Southern Church) when we broke away from the national body. As we formed the new denomination in 1861 at Augusta, Ga., we declared that the church’s vocation was not to be concerned with the outward condition of human beings, but with their souls only — which were destined for salvation or damnation. That “faith statement” set the church on a course separating not only charity from justice, but even of separating charity from evangelism. And it was a long, hard road on which to return to the whole gospel for the whole church, and officially to repudiate (in the 1930s) that separation.
I mention that history as I express gratitude to God for the privilege of walking along that same road for several months as interim editor, and to recall that tradition, to celebrate it, and to pray that its influence will never be lost to The Presbyterian Outlook. It is nothing less than providential that John Bell’s excellent exposition of Luke 4 fell into my hands to inspire this editorial. “Dr. E.T.” and Aubrey were not afraid of “being shown the door” if need be for the integrity of the gospel and the church. They had friends in “high places” in all major branches of American Presbyterianism, yet they never failed to tell the truth, even to or about those friends, if the good of the church or fidelity to the gospel was at stake.
Although the theological concerns and emphases have shifted (more along the prophetic claims of Bell’s sermon) the vocation of this independent paper has not altered one jot or tittle. And the board of The Presbyterian Outlook Foundation has chosen in Jack Haberer another fearless editor, who has already proven himself unafraid of being shown the door, if need be, for the good of the whole church and the gospel.
In this last editorial I would be remiss not to express gratitude to a fine staff: Bob Baskin, Martha Skelton, Stann Bailey, Pat Gresham, George Whipple, Gillian Kunkel, and Leslie Scanlon for their support, prayers, patience, and encouragement as I juggled week after week the sometimes conflicting demands of Minister of Word and Sacrament and part-time editor.
Finally, the Outlook‘s board is one of the finest gatherings of faithful churchmen and women with which I have ever been associated. I could not have survived what have been very difficult months for the Outlook without their crucial leadership, their honest theological engagement, and their fiscally responsible management.
As this paper moves into God’s future, may its prophetic foundations nourish its mission for the whole gospel in a national church, and may it never lose its ability to be “shown the door,” if need be, for the glory of God.
“O Thou who wast, and art, and art to come, I thank Thee that this Christian way whereon [we] walk is no untried or uncharted road, but a road beaten hard by the footsteps of saints, apostles, prophets, and martyrs. I thank Thee for the finger-posts and danger-signals with which it is marked at every turning, and which may be known to [us] by the study of the Bible, and of history. … (Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer, p. 25)
And let the readers say, Amen!
