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The Presbyterian Outlook

The Presbyterian Outlook

Creating and curating trustworthy resources for the church, the Presbyterian Outlook connects disciples of Jesus Christ through compelling and committed conversation for the proclamation of the Gospel.

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Editorials

A new chapter: Believers behaving blessedly

Believers behaving badly. How many news items must we read to get the point that believers can behave really badly? From ministers' deviancies to treasurers' embezzlements; from denominations' internecine skirmishes to nations' religious persecutions; from cult groups' mass suicides for God to zealots' suicide bombings for Allah; the portrayal of faith on screen and in print has become ugly.        

No wonder "Christianity's image [is] taking a turn for the worse," according to the Barna Group and a story in the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 13, 2007). "A decade ago, an overwhelming majority of non-Christians, including people between the ages 16 and 29, were 'favorably' disposed toward Christianity's role in society. But today, just 16% of non-Christians in that age group had a 'good impression' of the religion ... "

No wonder that outspoken atheism is growing in popularity again.

Book Reviews

Calvin: The Necessity of Reforming the Church

 

The Necessity of Reforming the Church, in Calvin: Theological Treatises, edited by J. K. S. Reid. WJKP, 2000 (Reprint, The Westminster Press, 1954), pp. 183-216.  ISBN 9780664223670. Pb., 356 pp.  $39.95. 

 

There is a haunting, enigmatic characteristic to Calvin's writing. You rarely catch this at first. It all seems to be so didactic and straightforward. But as you spend more time with him, you begin to sense that there is more than meets the eye. And as this occurs, you cannot help but wonder why you assumed at first that you understood what he said.

Tight lipped when it came to self-disclosure, expository of the text in a pre-critical way, deeply layered from the earlier theologians he had absorbed, and, above all, persistent in his analysis of the human will, Calvin's own style seemed to wall off further penetration. Over the course of the years, however, I came to find that the structure of his texts, the choice of his themes, and the syntax of his writing began to yield more. Like many human fathers, our father in the Reformed faith was more complex than I had thought.

Uncategorized

Thoughtful Christian introduces studies reaching out to teens

In February, the Presbyterian Publishing Corp. plans to roll out a new series of studies from The Thoughtful Christian -- with these intended for use with teens (www.thethoughtfulchristian.com/main/home1.asp ).  

The launch of this new line, at the annual meeting of the Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators in San Diego Feb. 13-16, signals the hunger among Presbyterians for study materials on contemporary issues, according to David Maxwell, editor for The Thoughtful Christian. 

In focus groups conducted last summer with leaders at the Youth Triennium, the publishers were encouraged to prepare materials for juniors and seniors in high school who are getting ready to leave home and will have to decide, once they're on their own, what role faith will play in their lives. So the new lessons will hit on subjects such as consumerism or cheating, and "the pressure on kids now with all these pre-college classes," Maxwell said.

Book Reviews

Augustine, Teaching Christianity

 

Augustine, Teaching Christianity, intro., trans., notes by Edmund Hill, O.P. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. New City Press, 1996.  ISBN 1-5648-049-X.  Pb., 259 pp. $22.95

 

Teaching Christianity (De doctrina christiana) was written in two parts. The major portion was written (396) shortly after Augustine became bishop of Hippo Regius and shortly before he wrote the Confessions (397-401); the latter portion was composed about three decades later (427). To some degree the Confessions and Teaching Christianity interpret each other. The former describes the restless wandering of the human heart until it rests in God. The latter offers rules for finding in Scripture God's message to the wanderer. Augustine would have us see that Scripture guides and encourages the yearning rather than satisfying it. Faithful interpretation and communication of this divine address will engage the "unquiet" of the audience and urge it on.

Uncategorized

COGA discusses, seeks to model “discernment” decision-making

 

Based on a report by Sharon K. Youngs, OGA communications coordinator, and Jerry L. Van Marter, coordinator of Presbyterian News Service

 

LOUISVILLE -- The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) was directed -- and planners and moderators of other governing bodies were urged -- by the 217th General Assembly (2006) to "explore the use of alternate forms of discernment."

At its recent meeting, members of COGA not only discussed the assembly's directive and its implications for future assemblies, they sought to live it out in their own decision-making. They learned that the discernment model is a prayerful approach to decision-making that takes focus, good listening skills, and time.

 

Book Reviews

The Almighty’s Dollar: Money and American Protestantism

 

In Pursuit of the Almighty's Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism, by James Hudnut-Beumler. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807830798. Hb., 288 pp. $29.95.

 

Early in the American Protestant experience a decisive shift took place. The forms of Christianity that had been conceived of and supported as public goods in the European context came to be regarded as private goods in this new setting. James Hudnut-Beumler's account of that historical turn and the ensuing story is an important volume for any concerned about issues of money in the life of American churches.

Uncategorized

Islamic scholars write Christian leaders to seek common ground

Geneva -- More than 130 Muslim scholars have said in a letter to Christian leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI and the head of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, that world peace depends on cooperation between Christianity and Islam.

"Our common future is at stake. The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake," the 138 signatories state in the letter made public on October 11.

The letter is also addressed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I and other Orthodox church leaders, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the leaders of world groupings of Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Reformed Christians.

Uncategorized

New Hampshire church splits over New Wineskins

 

A vote to depart the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is leading to a split in a "quintessential New England white church on the town common," Londonderry (N.H.) Church, acknowledged clerk of Session, Lee Carvill.

The majority has chosen to affiliate with the New Wineskins Presbytery of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (NWP-EPC). A group wishing to remain loyal to the PC(USA) claims that they have been locked out of their church facilities.

The congregation, the second largest church in the Synod of the Northeast, voted to leave the PC(USA) on Sept. 30. The recommendation to disaffiliate was supported by 208 voters with 86 voting against, a margin of 71% to 29%. Given a total membership of 446, the plans to leave have been officially supported by 47% of the members.

According to the constitutional policy of the PC(USA), the proposal to leave now is to be taken up by the Presbytery of Northern New England (PNNE) for action at their next meeting.

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Voices

Share Power

 

Ever wonder why church members seem to complain all the time?

I think it's because they feel powerless in at least part of their lives, and church is a safe place to deal with that powerlessness. If your boss is a brute, then complain about something at church. Pass along the aggravation.

Uncategorized

Niebuhr, re-issue: Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)

 

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr (popularly remembered as "Reine") remains one of America's leading theologians and ethicists. He deserves a note on this anniversary of his first notable volume, Moral Man and Immoral Society, just re-published by Westminster John Knox Press.

His book deserves another look.

Niebuhr (1892-1971) was born in Wright City, Mo., to Gustav and Lydia Hosto Niebuhr. Gustav was a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, highly intelligent and pious. Their daughter Hulda taught at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Ill., and their son Richard became a professor at Yale University Divinity School.

Voices

Finding truth on the page and on the stage

 

c. 2007 Religion News Service

 

Before I was a journalist, I was an actor.

Briefly, a semester or so ahead of my debut in the pages of the Wheaton College student newspaper, I became a member of its theater company, a group known simply as "Workout."

The company performed in the Arena Theater, a simple black box that was transformed miraculously into imaginative sets for various productions. Long since I walked its stage, that theater remains a sacred space for me. I was transformed inside its walls, touched by grace and the hand of God in a way I've rarely felt elsewhere.

What happened in Workout was wonderfully creative and deeply spiritual, no matter what material we were working with. I learned as much about faith and doubt, forgiveness and trust, holiness and wounded wholeness from a raucous production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" as I did from a magical adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's novel "A Wrinkle in Time."

Voices

Uncovering the origins of Christianity in Ethiopia

 

Ethiopia shall stretch forth

its hands to God.

Psalm 68:31

 

Why does this Ethiopian come among us?

Ethiopian Moses, 3

 

References about Ethiopia and Ethiopians, like the ones above, are sprinkled throughout biblical and extra-biblical writings. Most of us are familiar with Luke's story of the Ethiopian eunuch (a treasurer of a queen of Meroë) who confessed his faith and was baptized after his encounter with the evangelist Philip (Acts 8:26-40). New Testament interpreters generally view this passage as a fulfillment of Acts 1:8, which declares Christianity is to extend to the ends of the world. Yet after the dramatic conversion experience of the Ethiopian, we hear nothing more from him, the Queen whom he represented, or the other people who may have witnessed this encounter. And though the biblical text says Christianity is to extend to the ends of the world, we who teach and research the New Testament have no readily available (or accessible) path to the world of the Ethiopians.

Book Reviews

Honor: A History

 

Honor: A History, by James Bowman. New York: Encounter Books, 2007. ISBN 1594031983. Pb., 265 pp. $18.95. 

 

Every good playground has its own hierarchy. James Bowman does not dismiss this as mere childishness. He sees human history modeled in the playground hierarchy and writ large. "Dominant nations and their leaders are expected to give demonstrations of their dominance so as to avoid the necessity of having to establish it by fighting. When such demonstrations are ambiguous or unconvincing, fighting and all that implies of heartbreak and misery ensues."

Book Reviews

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade

 

Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade -- And How We Can Fight It, by David Batstone. HarperSanFrancisco, 2007. ISBN 0061206717. Pb., 320 pp. $14.95.*

 

Reading David Batstone's Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade -- and How We Can Fight It reminds me of the speech that William Wilberforce delivered to Parliament on May 12, 1789. Wilberforce had introduced the first bill abolishing the British slave trade and after a lengthy and impassioned speech before Parliament, he concluded by saying: "The circumstances of this [Slave] Trade are now laid open to us. We can no longer plead ignorance, we cannot evade it, it is now an object placed before us, we cannot pass it [by]. We may spurn it, we may kick it out of the way, but we cannot turn aside so as to avoid seeing it."

 

Book Reviews

Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose

 

Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose by Kirk Byron Jones. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007. ISBN 0787984523. Pb., 188 pp., $21.95.

 

She had been dead for perhaps two decades when I became their pastor, but the people of the church in rural Southside Virginia where she had taught Sunday school for some forty years still quoted Mrs. Cowie: "A Christian is not supposed to have fun!" Kirk Byron Jones dares to disagree. In Holy Play: the Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose Jones asserts not only that life is to be enjoyed but that having fun is living faithfully and that our passions and joys are means through which we discover divine purpose for our lives. To use Jones's words, "This book will teach you how to stop waiting for God to tell you what to do and start confidently doing what God has been inspiring you to do all along" (xiv). 

 

Voices

Basics on church giving

Many congregations emphasize giving in the fall months and during the holidays. Here are some factors to consider when your church talks about finances, budgets, and contributions. 

·         Giving follows membership. A decline in membership will be followed one to two years later by a decline in pledging. An increase in membership will lead to an increase in giving. The best stewardship program is a major commitment to membership development.

·         People give for many reasons, some discernible, some not known even to the giver.

Voices

Essay winner: PC(USA)-related college equipped me for service

Editor's Note: This essay won the 2007 Outlook Church-College Partnership Award open to graduating seniors invited to write on the topic, "How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has equipped me for significant service and leadership." The winner received a $1,000 prize. Information for the 2008 contest is available on page 32.

 

... and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God (Micah 6:8).

 

Such are the words chiseled into the lintel of the Lyon Business and Economics Building at Lyon College, the college where I invested myself -- my time, my money, my heart -- these past four years. This simple yet powerful passage was the first thing I read on the Lyon campus as an entering freshman, and will be one of the last things I read when I depart as a graduated alumna. I have had many memories at Lyon and shared in its many famous traditions -- our rich Scottish heritage, our Spring Break mission trips, our close ties to the surrounding community. I have danced the Scottish fling, floated the Buffalo, taken class after class after class, and yet as I prepare to don my graduation regalia, spending what little time I have left reflecting on what four years at this institution have meant, this passage from Micah keeps entering my mind. I consider this passage the fullness of what it means to attend a PC(USA)-related college, what it means to attend Lyon College, and to go forth as a servant-leader walking humbly with our God.

Voices

Servant leadership at Eckerd College: A student’s experiences

Editor's Note: This essay was first runner-up in the 2007 Outlook Church-College Partnership Award open to graduating seniors invited to write on the topic, "How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has equipped me for significant service and leadership." The writer received a $200 award. Information for the 2008 contest is available on page 32.

 

In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, Jesus serves his disciples by washing their feet. Afterwards, he commands them to wash one another's feet. This example of servant leadership was the subject of a Bible Study given recently by Eckerd College's Dean of Students. Jim Annarelli led a group of students in a foot-washing service to demonstrate the importance of serving others and allowing oneself to be served. This is just one of many examples of how Eckerd College has fostered my passion for service and desire to act as a servant leader. My experiences of service within the classroom, through extracurricular activities and Campus Ministries, have provided me with many opportunities to develop my leadership skills within the context of service.  

Voices

Reclaiming our North Carolina heritage in higher education

The most visible change in mission funding in recent years has been that of ministries in higher education. The shift from both national and regional agencies (read synods) to presbyteries and congregations has been nearly universal. One observer of a new thing happening among the presbyteries in North Carolina says, "You've just reinvented the old Synod of North Carolina!"

The five North Carolina presbyteries, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, New Hope, Salem, and Western North Carolina share a common history and a common theology for ministry in higher education. Campus Ministry has long been the passion of Presbyterians in North Carolina, a commitment that embraces both public and private institutions. In addition, the five presbyteries have covenants with nine Presbyterian related colleges and universities.

Editorials

On Unity: Changing our language… Matching our rhetoric with our real beliefs

Consider, if you will, the following scenario:

During Faith Presbyterian Church's stated monthly Session meeting, the clerk notes that a letter has been received from Trinity Community Church, requesting that Tom and June Wilson's membership be transferred to Trinity. Session members anxiously eye one another without saying a word.

Finally one elder speaks: "I deeply regret that Tom and June have left the faith. You all know what we must do. I move that we deny this request and that we write a letter to Trinity, informing it of this decision and inquiring as to why it is so busy proselytizing Presbyterians."

The motion passes unanimously.

Before you start throwing your Outlook or shooting at your computer monitor a la Elvis, I know just how ridiculous this scenario is.

Editorials

All truth: God’s truth

Speakers at scholar lecture events on many college campuses often are greeted by a sea of empty seats. Not so at Roberts Wesleyan College in 1976. Chapel attendance was mandatory four days each week, so guest scholar Arthur Holmes got to play to a packed house each day.

Then again, packed doesn't necessarily equal enthusiastic. Holmes was introduced as a philosophy professor from a rival college. Two strikes against him.

The dean introducing him also mentioned that he was a Presbyterian. Third strike. This bastion of hearts-strangely-warmed Wesleyans had honed their anti-Calvinism argumentation skills. We religion-and-philosophy majors specialized in crafting such debates. We listened with polite skepticism, at least at the beginning.

Editorials

On Unity: Jesus Christ, The Hope of the Church

 

We hear complaints these days decrying much that is wrong with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): ministers with questionable theology, regrettable statements from denominational officials, and misguided decisions by judicatories at all levels. One effect of these recitations surely is to leave under a cloud Presbyterians who profess continuing loyalty to the denomination. We who remain affiliated with the denomination are often portrayed by separation-minded colleagues as sell-outs, as compromisers, as "lukewarm Laodiceans" who have sacrificed theological and biblical integrity for the sake of unity-at-any-price.

We reject these portrayals and intend now to declare the biblical and confessional faith that leads us to keep faith with our brothers and sisters within the PC(USA). We contend that the decision to remain within the fellowship involves neither a softening of confessional commitments nor a sentimental minimizing of the problems afflicting the denomination. Rather, our commitment to hold firm in common life with our fellow Presbyterians is grounded in the recognition that the hope of the church lies nowhere else than in the saving Lordship of Jesus Christ its Head.

Uncategorized

New mission leader urges new missions direction

LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell, the new director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), calls this a crossroads time for Presbyterians -- with the health and vitality of the denomination at stake.

"I believe we in the Presbyterian church are at a crossroads, a kairos moment, a time when we're going to have to choose which direction to go," Farrell told more than 600 people who gathered in Louisville Oct. 2-5 for the World Mission '07 "Celebration of Grace" convocation -- an effort by the denomination to jump-start enthusiasm for international mission and to build closer connections between the national staff and Presbyterians involved in world mission at the local level.

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