The Presbyterian Outlook

News and Articles from the The Presbyterian Outlook

Top Search/Contact Area

The in-between time: Interim ministry as sacred space

by Leave a Comment

The tension in the congregation is high after the pastor announces a change in call. Questions abound: Can’t we just elect a pastor nominating committee and start searching for our next pastor? Why do we need an interim pastor anyway? Isn’t an interim pastor just a space holder? This is when I take a deep breath, count to 10, and begin the hard – but important – explanation of interim ministry. In the Presbytery of Scioto Valley (serving parts of Ohio), the Committee on Ministry is divided into two commissions: the Commission for Church Professionals and the Commission for Congregational Life. I serve as the chair of the Commission for Congregational Life, which provides support for the congregations in the presbytery — including assisting churches in transition. This season of transition is the in-between time. It is a sacred space and one of our tasks is to guide and support congregations as they discern what God has in store for them next. I have walked with congregations many … [Read more...]

Tagged With: transitional ministry

Forgiveness and reconciliation: A visit to Rwanda

by Leave a Comment

Guest commentary by Sarah Craven As we stood in the midst of a genocide memorial where over 50,000 people were buried and bones from the victims were displayed in room after room, I was reminded of Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones. “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel’s response was “O Lord God, you know.” How do you come back from the violence and trauma that Rwanda experienced years ago? How do you forgive and reconcile neighbors and friends when you’ve faced the devastation of over a million people dying in about three months? Can you find hope and a future in the midst of such heartbreak? In the middle of Lent, I joined the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program on a travel seminar to Rwanda to study and learn more about the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the forgiveness and reconciliation process in the 25 years since. Since serving as a Young Adult Volunteer in Belfast, Northern Ireland, I have been interested in how the church helps foster healing and reconciliation in … [Read more...]

7th Sunday of Easter — June 2, 2019

by Leave a Comment

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 Easter 7C This week, we are grateful to guest contributor John Wurster for writing this week's lectionary reflection.     Persistent grace. By definition, subscribers to this list are interested in the lectionary. For many of us, I suspect it could be said that we are committed to the lectionary or perhaps even devoted to it. I appreciate how this calendar of biblical readings moves us through the Bible in a systematic way, helping us to hear more of the Bible than if the preacher simply made his or her own choices from week to week. While the lectionary moves us through a lot of the Bible, it doesn’t move us through the whole Bible, and some of the selected passages are edited a bit. Occasionally, a verse is left out here and there. The difficult or the weird sections within a passage are sometimes dropped so that the passage might be read a bit more smoothly. So it is in the lesson from Revelation 22. The … [Read more...]

Burying White Privilege: Resurrecting a Badass Christianity

by Leave a Comment

Miguel A. De La Torre Eerdmans, 168 pages Reviewed by D. Mark Davis Miguel A. De La Torre’s book, “Burying White Privilege,” gives name to a problem in American society and points us toward the solution. The problem is generally “whiteness,” and specifically “white Christianity,” which De La Torre argues has been coopted historically into a legitimation theory for activities as heinous as the genocide of Native Americans, buying and selling slaves, dehumanizing African-Americans during the Jim Crow era and exploiting Chinese railroad workers as well as Hispanic farm workers. Any solution, De La Torre says, begins with crucifying “white Christianity” in order for new life to emerge. This book is a tough reading assignment. The language is intentionally and effectively provocative, rather than a clinical diagnosis with objective language and a clear protocol for addressing the disease. The book has no intention of offering either a happy ending or a how-to guide. Instead, it is a … [Read more...]

The National Council of Churches (70 years ago)

by Leave a Comment

70 years ago — May 23, 1949 “The week of November 28 through December 2, 1950, bids fair to stand as one of the signal weeks in the history of American Protestantism. At that time, in some city yet to be announced, the most far-reaching merger of interdenominational agencies will be effected which has yet been seen. Then will the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. be a fact. Then will be provided more nearly than we have ever known the kind of interdenominational structure that we would have from the beginning, if we were starting all over.” Each denomination remains independent, but with this new body it affords greater cooperation including the educational and mission programs from the “Federal Council of Churches, and almost certainly, the United Council of Church Women. …. The National Council presupposes complete mutual respect for differences in faith and order while it seeks to develop the most efficient channels possible for cooperation in Christian … [Read more...]

CONTACT US: