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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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The Sharing of the Light: A Second Chance at America

It began with a wrong turn in a familiar city, and the daily privilege I have in dropping my children off to school every morning.

The "it" to which I am referring is the progression of my thinking about the role of church-related higher education in America, particularly church-related higher education in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Many may not know the history of our denomination in America; a history that is long and committed to easing the burden of "the least of these" in our country and in our world. We focused on two specific forms of outreach: healthcare and education. With the exception of the many congregation-related community clinics in places like the Eastminster Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., or the weekly foot care clinic for seniors at the Queen Anne Church in Seattle, Wash., much of our church-related healthcare ministry has been subsumed by larger corporate entities. The name may still remain the same as is best exemplified by the plethora of Presbyterian hospitals that exist across the country, but the economics are much more complicated and the mission is understandably different. Quality healthcare is expensive, bureaucratic, requires a great deal of research and investment and, with but a few remarkable exceptions, is now an industry that has outgrown one denomination's ability to provide those services well.

Rules, responsibility, respect

Editor's Note: This article is based on President William P. Robinson's fall 2007 convocation address at Whitworth University.

I would like to comment on three aspects of community life at Whitworth -- rules, responsibility, and respect. I didn't alliterate these characteristics on purpose, although I can see where you might think that someone coming from a family of Bonnie, Bill, Brenna, Ben, and Bailley is into alliterations. Not true. My motto is Always Avoid Alliterations.

Rules. Rules are necessary and good. We can't live without them. Whether we are talking about the laws of nature or the laws of community, we suffer when we disobey them. However, rules are not as smart as values. For that reason, the most effective organizations and the most satisfying communities are driven by shared values, not by rules. Good judgment and faithfulness to community values will lead ....

Church leaders fear another war in south of Sudan

Nairobi, 25 October (ENI)--Sudanese church leaders seeking a peaceful settlement of tensions between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army and the country's governing National Congress Party, fear another war could erupt in the south of Africa's biggest country.

'We hope they will find a peaceful solution to the problem. Another war is hard to imagine. The region is tired of war. The people don't want war,' the Rev. Anthony Bagoye, the general secretary of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Conference told Ecumenical News International in Nairobi on 24 October.

Lilly awards $1.4 million to PC(USA) Research Services

LOUISVILLE -- The Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis has awarded $1,470,555 to the Research Services office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s General Assembly Council (GAC) to expand the U.S. Congregational Life Survey.

The original survey conducted in April 2001, was also funded by Lilly, as well as the Louisville Institute and the PC(USA). It's the largest study in history of American congregations and their worshipers.

It generated new information and resources for increasing congregational effectiveness, by compiling responses from more than 300,000 worshipers in 2,234 congregations of all sizes, representing all 50 states and more than 50 denominations and faith groups.

Presbyterian Center domain name changes: @ctr.pcusa.org is now @pcusa.org

LOUISVILLE -- The domain name for all email addresses of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) national staff members has changed from @ctr.pcusa.org to @pcusa.org.

Also, the individual inbox protocol has been changed from first initial-last name (e.g., jvanmart) to first name.last name (e.g., jerry.vanmarter).

General Assembly Council Executive Director Linda Valentine said, "We want to make it easier for constituents to contact us, so we are moving to a simpler firstname/lastname address, and the simpler pcusa.org format."

After the fire: Malibu Presbyterian Church living the resurrection

LOS ANGELES -- The Rev. Greg Hughes, pastor of Malibu Presbyterian Church in Pacific Presbytery, which burned to the ground Sunday -- has been in the news, testifying to our faith.

He can be seen and heard in a video interview on the Fox News Web site. In the interview he responds: "Well, you know, we're an Easter Faith people, so you know on Friday, it looked like things were bleak for Jesus, but we saw that Jesus rose again. And our church is a resurrection church. We'll gather again. We're going to regroup again."

‘Values voters’ are as split over issues as they are on candidates

Picking a candidate has been hard enough, evangelical political activists say. But it's gotten harder because their big unifying issues -- abortion and gay marriage -- are competing with bread-and-butter issues like the economy, education and immigration.

"When evangelicals get up in the morning, they have the same concerns that everybody else has," said Randy Brinson, 50, chairman of Redeem the Vote, an Alabama-based organization that aims to motivate young evangelical voters.

Growing rich-poor gap is new ‘slavery,’ say Protestant leaders

PORT OF SPAIN -- Leaders of the world's biggest grouping of Reformed churches have compared the effects of economic globalization to the transatlantic slave trade, and said that Christians need to combat this modern form of "enslavement."

"As a matter of the integrity of our faith, we must say 'No' to slavery in all of its forms," said the president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick. He was speaking at an Oct. 18-28 meeting in Trinidad of Reformed leaders from around the world.

"While we acknowledge this year the 200th anniversary of the passing of the transatlantic slave trade act by the British Parliament, we are painfully aware that slavery is still with us," said Kirkpatrick -- who is also General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- in his Oct. 20 presidential report to WARC's main governing body, its executive committee.

Religious panel dialogues with Iran’s Ahmadinejad

NEW YORK -- Three Presbyterians were among a delegation of more than 100 religious leaders who met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran Sept. 26 during his visit to the United States.

The two-hour dialogue, held at the Church Center for the United Nations here, was the second in a series of conversations focused on establishing a dialogue between people of faith in the United States and the people and government of Iran.

Niles-McCrary named PC(USA) associate

Rose Niles-McCrary has been called as the associate for theological education and seminary relations for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) in the Theology, Worship, and Education program area. She was pastor of First Church of Mount Vernon, New York, and doctor of ministry faculty for New York Theological Seminary of Manhattan, N.Y.

Kirkpatrick urges PC(USA) to keep ecumenical commitment

LOUISVILLE -- General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick told ecumenical leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Sept. 28 that maintaining the church's historic leadership in ecumenism "will require a major reorientation and recommitment" to the world ecumenical movement.

Speaking to the first major consultation on the PC(USA)'s ecumenical stance since its formation in 1983, Kirkpatrick said, "We need to recapture a passionate vision in the PC(USA) for the unity of the church, which now seems to recede into the background."

A pastor in Utah: Universal lessons from a unique experience

Â©2007 John A. Lindquist II. Used by permission.

Ask this New Jersey born, east coast educated minister how he feels about life in the predominantly Mormon town of Ogden, Utah, and he'll tell you he is right where he is supposed to be. The Rev. Dr. Richard Paul Minnich is pastor of First Church, a congregation of more than 400 members. The gold brick building of First Church, nestled against the western bench of the Rocky Mountains, has been his home for 15-plus years.

His theological training and earlier pastorates were in the eastern states. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity, he completed his Doctor of Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1992. His first calling was assistant pastor of youth ministry at Westminster Church in Upper St. Clair, Pa. Five years later he was pastor to the Elizabeth, Pa.'s Round Hill Church.

A tribute to a friend

I stayed at the home of friends the night before Brent's funeral, in the hills on the north side of Pittsburgh, above the Ohio River. Unable to sleep, I listened to the lonely wail of trains on the tracks down below. Trains heading east slow down in this section, before heading over the trestle and into the city, their cars bumping into one another as the brakes are applied. Trains heading west pick up speed and their engines strain as they cut through the night, whistling at each crossing.

In the middle of the night in a strange bed, I recalled sitting in Brent's living room late one evening. He had invited three of us over for dinner. Afterwards, we sat around the fireplace and talked late into the evening, catching up on each other's lives. Hours later, the conversation paused. Then a train came by, quieter than the others. "That's the Capitol Limited," Brent noted, "Chicago bound. You can tell by the sound, you don't have the clanging of the cars." Every time a train came through that night, I thought of Brent.

Transformation, not perfection

Among the "tapes" we learn in childhood and need to unlearn as adults is a belief that God expects perfection and that the goal of religious life is to attain perfection.

In teaching the classic spiritual disciplines -- prayer, worship, confession -- we need to convey another message, namely, that God wants transformation of life, not a finished state called perfection. Faith is a journey, not an arrival and then a stopping.

In teaching prayer, for example, we teach people how to talk with God, how to open themselves to the holy, and how to sit in silence before God. The aim of prayer is an awareness of God's presence, not perfect wording, posture, or attitude.

December Boys

Anybody who's ever had a 'coming of age' summer will identify with this one. There's an inherent sadness here, though, that assaults the viewer from the very first scene, as the Australian orphan boys are lined up, from oldest to youngest, looking so hopeful, and the prospective adoptive parents proceed slowly down the line, until they arrive at....a cute young one. The rest of the boys, like losers in a beauty contest, are forced to feign gladness for the one who was chosen over the rest of them. He is whisked off to his happily ever after, and they are left...with the nuns in the desolate Outback.

Conservatives launch alternative to Episcopal Church

(RNS) As many as six Episcopal bishops and more than 200 Episcopal congregations have taken a first step toward forming a new alternative to the Episcopal Church that will unite conservatives irked by the church's liberal drift.

Meeting in Pittsburgh Sept. 25-28, the Common Cause Council of Bishops brought together nine North American splinter groups to lay the groundwork for a conservative counterpart to the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Rendition: mere movie or, maybe, more?

Rendition. What have we come to?

Ours is a nation long proud of its freedoms, its democratic values, its rule of law, its human rights. And now, in the post 9-11 era, we are being accused around the world of the very opposite.

Many say we have been imprisoning citizens without trial -- arresting people for conversations they may have had -- exporting such suspects to prisons run by foreign totalitarian regimes for interrogation (hence the euphemism, "rendition") -- of using torture to force confessions -- all being done in ways that diminish our most fundamental values.

Are they crazy? This is America. We would never countenance such actions. Or would we? Might we? Are we?

Episcopal Bishops say no to gay blessings

(RNS) NEW ORLEANS -- Expressing their "passionate desire" to remain a full partner in the worldwide Anglican Communion, U.S. Episcopal bishops on Sept. 25 said they remain committed to not allowing more gay bishops and pledged not to authorize public blessings of same-sex unions.

The bishops, facing a Sept. 30 deadline from angry sister Anglican churches, said they had answered the demands made of them, but conservatives remain skeptical that the bishops' statement has much staying power.

The bishops condemned a move by African bishops to provide outside leadership for parishes that no longer accept the U.S. hierarchy. They endorsed a plan to appoint "Episcopal visitors" from within the church instead. "We call for an immediate end to diocesan incursions by uninvited bishops," the bishops said. "Such incursions imperil common prayer and long-established ecclesial principles of our Communion."

Video Report: Malibu Presbyterian Church engulfed in flames

OCTOBER 23, 2007 (AP) - Santa Ana winds sweep brush fires up to Malibu Presbyterian Church, engulfing the building early Sunday morning.

https://www.breitbart.tv/?p=7012

Interview With Amir Bar-Lev, Director of My Kid Could Paint, in theatres Oct. 19

What makes it a compelling mystery is that almost no way you add it up makes total sense, either if you assume she's a prodigy or the whole thing is a scam. What's been interesting to me is that in the screenings, and the Q and A after wards, the audience has been divided about it, which makes for an interesting Q and A...I was attracted to this story because of the lack of standards in Modern Art. Some 4-year-old is a prodigy? According to who (m)? But just because there are no objective standards doesn't mean you can't develop your own opinion. So you have to engage in these paintings either way, which gives people an opportunity.

Council reviews provisions of draft governance task force report

LOUISVILLE -- In what could be a preview of what to expect at next summer's General Assembly, the General Assembly Council heard a summary of the recommendations of the Form of Government Task Force during its meeting Sept. 18-21. And, not surprisingly, the council members had both praise for the task force's hard work -- and some questions and concerns.

The Form of Government Task Force has been meeting for a little more than a year with a gargantuan task: to rewrite the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to make it more concise, more flexible, more theologically grounded.

The task force is posting its work online (www.pcusa.org/formofgovernment /), asking for comments and suggestions from Presbyterians while there's still time to make revisions. And it's offering video clips of task force members responding to frequently-asked questions.

Council moves to create separate disaster assistance corporation

LOUISVILLE -- Acknowledging the need to adapt to new patterns of charitable giving in the United States, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s General Assembly Council voted in September to separately incorporate Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA).

A "very limited, related and dependent" PDA corporation will be able to accept employer matching funds for employee gifts, as well as government and foundation grants, many of which are currently not available to church agencies.

The incorporation would also give PDA higher visibility, as it would be included on published lists of non-profit charities that exclude church groups.

Help! I am a youth advisor!

Whether you are a new or a veteran youth fellowship advisor, you might benefit from considering a fresh perspective on ministry with teenagers ages 11 through 18.

Pray for the youth and their leaders

Several years ago when the church I served needed youth fellowship advisors, I asked renowned youth ministry expert and Columbia Theological Seminary associate professor Rodger Nishioka, "How do you recruit youth advisors?" I expected him to give a complex formula for training and nurturing advisors. Instead, he answered simply, "You pray for them."

Emergent churches seek new ways to worship, serve

Emergent worship folks in the Presbyterian church are trying to figure out where to go from here -- along the way taking the temperature of people interested in the emergent life, and planning more conversations.

A new book -- An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, including some essays written by Presbyterians -- attempts to lay out aspects of emergent thinking. There's ongoing conversation about where and how missional and emergent approaches converge and diverge.

And a tantalizing question asked at a July emergent gathering in San Francisco, according to Karen Sloan, a Presbyterian who's the author of Flirting with Monasticism: Finding God on Ancient Paths and who's been helping to organize some of these events, was: "What is presbymergent's agenda?" and does it intend to change the church?

Youth, trust and prayer

Do teenagers pray? Absolutely. But will they talk about prayer? Will they pray together in public? If not, what can youth workers do to encourage meaningful group prayers?

Trying to do effective events with prayer is one of the great challenges of youth ministry. We have had some success breaking down the Lord's Prayer and having the youths re-write it, segment by segment, in their own words. Some young people have shared, years later, how meaningful an activity this was. But this was, more or less, an intellectual exercise. What about the spiritual side of prayer?

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