Something there is that doesn’t love a tag line – that phrase you put on your letterhead just under the name of your church or school. “First Presbyterian Church: A Friendly Congregation.” Tag lines tend to over-simplify, often representing some parts of the institution better than others. Some of them can be a little braggadocio and – worst case scenario – trite. However, they are part of 21st century life. These days all kinds of church-related institutions are finding the pithy snap shots useful if not profoundly revealing.
Those are the kind of things I was thinking during a recent meeting at San Francisco Theological Seminary. As the consultants pitched their best ideas for a new tag line via conference call, I squirmed. “San Francisco Theological Seminary,” boomed the voice across the speakerphone, then after a big wait-for-it pause, “The Best in the West.” My stomach dropped. “Good grief,” I thought. We could do better than that. What about “San Francisco Theological Seminary: Earthquake-Free Since 1989”? Or even, given the lovely castle-like buildings that make up our campus, “SFTS: Hogwarts for Calvinist Muggles?” Those are the irreverent kind of things I was thinking, but I kept my face straight and so did our new president, Jim McDonald. There was another long pause and finally Jim spoke. “No,” he said. “San Francisco Theological Seminary: In Christ, period. A new creation, period.” “Yes!” I thought.
We are proud to say the name of Jesus Christ at SFTS, of course. That’s part of why I liked the president’s idea. And we are very, very focused on the new creation these days. While we are not alone in having an avid interest in all the questions about the future of the church, the ante is upped for us as we are the only PC(USA) seminary on the west coast – where members of mainline denominations comprise less than 5 percent of the population.
In our quest to help the church plan for the future and train its leaders, all of us who work at seminaries think a good deal about the new creation. At my school we find ourselves peering down the freeway in the general direction of Silicon Valley, seeking to better understand the new world technology is bringing about. We study creativity and pray for inspiration, bleeding out our imaginations and trying not to wear out the word “innovation.”
Some days we are taken by the excitement of the new forms of ministry springing up around us. Other days even our best creative efforts seem like patch jobs. Those days make me think of the Hindi word Jugaad – a word that is translated “innovative fix.” A big word in India, I have heard, where frugal fixes are prized. Jugaad. The Kenyan bike riders who charge their cell phones while pedaling are examples. So is the “Litre of Light” innovation in the Philippines that combines bleach and water in a plastic bottle to generate 55 watts of power. Some days it seems like a spiritual Jugaad is the best we can do for the church.
But that is patently not what God thinks. Even a quick look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 makes it clear. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” Whether we feel like it or not, whether we deserve it not, whether we see it or not, whether we find it plausible or not… it is clear. We already are a new creation.
I, for one, am glad Paul was in one of his more rhapsodic moods when he got to this part of the letter. Anything less than this booming prose would make this too-good-to-be-true truth hard to hold onto.
Or, of course, we could put it in a tag line.
JANA CHILDERS is dean, vice president for academic affairs and professor of homiletics and speech communication at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California.
