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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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Voices

A thought experiment

Does our church have a shared sense of Christian faithfulness? Or has the celebration of personal freedom rendered us incapable of agreeing on what a "manner of life [that is] a demonstration of the Christian gospel" looks like?

 

Predictably, response to the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church has focused on the effect its recommendations might have on the contested issue of the ordination and installation of "self-affirming, practicing homosexual persons." Many conservatives in the church distrust recommendation 5, seeing in it a back door opening to "local option." Many liberals in the church are distressed by recommendation 6, seeing it as a failure of nerve that maintains an unjust prohibition.

The Task Force's mandate was far broader than the ordination controversy, of course. It was asked to lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A .) "in spiritual discernment of our Christian identity," and to address specific issues of disagreement and conflict: biblical authority and interpretation, Christology, ordination standards, and power. Over a period of four years, Task Force members have worked faithfully and well on the full range of matters before them, but it was inevitable that the issue of ordination standards would push the church's consideration of the others into the far background.  Christological controversy receded in the wake of the General Assembly's overwhelming affirmation of "Hope in the Lord Jesus Christ." Scriptural authority and interpretation remains an issue in the church, and is unresolved by Task Force members' general agreement that Scripture is authoritative for them.  

Voices

Doubt, imagination, and truth: The domain of the church-related liberal arts college

This article is based on a presentation made September 8, 2005 at the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities executive committee meeting in Presbyterian Center, Louisville, Ky.

 

2005 happens to be the 125th anniversary of the founding of Presbyterian College and the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's miracle year. The connection between the two was set for me when a member of our faculty shared a contemporary epistle -- a letter from one of the young saints -- a graduate of the class of 2003.

I took your advice and thought about what my four years at PC meant to me as the bagpipes started playing that glorious, blue-sky Carolina Saturday that we graduated. ... I may never be famous or powerful, but I do have something that no one can ever take from me. I have something that will follow me to the grave. That something is a type of understanding that I received from the college that goes beyond a normal education. I know why PC is so very special now ... PC teaches you not just facts but how and why you should thirst for knowledge. PC teaches you not only to understand why Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge;" but PC also teaches you to love to imagine yourself. PC teaches you not only how the American justice system has changed in the last century, but PC also teaches you to strive for justice yourself. PC not only teaches you that God exists, but it also challenges you to examine God in your own life ...

Editorials

Minister Shortage?

I heard the story of a particular presbytery meeting hot on the heels of four glorious September days in "graduation exercises" with the second Cohort of the Company of New Pastors. (The Company of New Pastors -- formerly Excellence from the Start -- is the Lilly Endowment program out of Theology and Worship that involves pairs of Pastors mentoring new seminary graduates who are in their first called positions.)

The four days were a "debriefing" on more than three years of semi-annual meetings for worship and study, reading books related to ministry and delivering papers in our small groups.  The assumption is that community is formed and mutual professional support occurs -- not out of therapy or skill development -- but when it is grounded in theological reflection on the practice of ministry. At "graduation" we were privileged also to reflect with Eugene Peterson, author and pastor, on the life and work of a pastor.

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GAC considers structure, funding systems changes; Task Forces report

SACRAMENTO  - Amazingly, some people suspect there may be better ways of doing things in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

So the General Assembly Council is thinking through some new models of funding the church's work and structuring the council itself -- brainstorming to see if alternate approaches might bring better communication, more efficient decision-making, a better relationship between the national structures and the church at the grassroots.

Several task forces have been meeting to consider this -- including one on funding and one on "governance" that's been considering such questions as how big the council should be, how its members should be selected, how often it should meet, and so forth.

Leaders of both say their efforts now are still "works-in-progress" -- nothing has been decided for sure, lots may still change. But the governance task force plans to come back with a recommendation at the council's next meeting, in February, and perhaps to suggest structural changes to the 2006 General Assembly. If those changes were approved, the shape of the council might start to change in 2008.

Voices

Violence finds refuge in falsehood

The Readings: Psalm 5:1-12; Isa. 59:1-15; Rom. 6:3-4

Today I want to lift up a biblical theme that has not received the attention it deserves. It is the powerful theme that violence finds refuge in falsehood. I myself first became aware of it through Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian novelist. In accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972, Solzhenitsyn included these words:

Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history. What is more, it is not simply crude power that triumphs abroad, but its exultant justification. The world is being inundated by the brazen conviction that power can do anything, justice nothing. ...

But let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose falsehood as his PRINCIPLE. At its birth violence acts openly and even with pride. But no sooner does it become strong, firmly established, than it senses the rarefaction of the air around it and it cannot continue to exist without descending into a fog of lies, clothing them in sweet talk. It does not always, not necessarily, openly throttle the throat, more often it demands from its subjects only an oath of allegiance to falsehood, only complicity in falsehood.

This connection was undoubtedly one that Solzhenitsyn learned to make from bitter experience. But since he is a Christian, he would also have learned it from Holy Scripture. Today we saw it ourselves in Psalm 5: You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. ... For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts are destruction; their throats are open graves; they flatter with their tongues. (Psalm 5:6, 9).

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Foundation sets up Committee; interface with MRTI questioned

SACRAMENTO -- A potential difference of views is percolating between the Presbyterian Foundation and the Mission Responsibility Through Investment program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- a situation with implications for the PC(USA)'s controversial plan to consider divesting in some companies doing business in Israel.

The discussion involves the question of who actually owns the investments of the church that are managed through the Foundation and its trust company -- and who has the authority to negotiate with companies if divestment is being considered and to decide what divestment actions to pursue.

In the past, that kind of negotiation has been conducted by MRTI, although the General Assembly has to approve any recommendation MRTI makes to divest. If the assembly agrees with the MRTI proposal, it passes a resolution urging the investing agencies -- the Foundation or its trust company or the Board of Pensions of the PC(USA)-- to divest, which so far the Foundation always has done.

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How do we know the will of God for our congregations?”

This question makes three presuppositions:

"¢ there really is a being called God;

"¢ God wills good things for us;

"¢ we can know what this will is.

 

Without the knowledge of God's will it is difficult, if not impossible, to run a church successfully or powerfully. We may have the best administrative principles in place, be purpose-driven, have excellent preaching and full parking lots, but without knowing God's will and doing it, we will always have less than the full church of Christ.

Book Reviews

Preaching the Gospel Without Blaming the Jews: A Lectionary Commentary

by Ronald J. Allen and Clark M. Williamson. Louisville: WJKP, 2004. ISBN 0-664-22763-5. Hb, 261 pp., $24.95.

I welcome and celebrate this new commentary as a much-needed resource for my own preaching and teaching, and let me tell you why.

In recent years, the congregation where I serve (the Fifth Avenue Church in New York City) has entered into an ever-deepening relationship with a Reform Jewish synagogue (Central Synagogue), located just a few blocks east of us in midtown Manhattan. While the relationship initially grew out of a friendship shared between our senior pastor and the senior rabbi of the synagogue, it has significantly expanded in recent years to embrace a much larger congregation and staff. In 1998 when the synagogue tragically suffered a major fire, our congregation was among the first to offer our facilities to our Jewish brothers and sisters while their own house of worship was being rebuilt. In 2003-04, when our own building was undergoing major expansion and renovation, the synagogue reciprocated, and for 40 Sundays we Christians held our weekly worship services in the incredibly beautiful and holy space of Central Synagogue's sanctuary.

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GAC in Sacramento: Acting now for the PC(USA) of the future

SACRAMENTO -- There's been a lot of talk this week in California, as the General Assembly Council starts its fall meeting, about the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) being on the verge of some kind of big, exciting change -- about this being perhaps a "tipping point" for the church, as General Assembly moderator Rick Ufford-Chase put it.

What do they mean?

First, several task forces are due to report this week on new ways of doing things. A governance task force is considering some kind of streamlined structure for the council itself -- considering different ways of selecting council members and organizing their work. A mission funding task force will discuss how the denomination gets the money to fund what it does -- what works in that funding system and what doesn't, and what needs to be done differently in a denomination that's losing members by the tens of thousands every year and in which there have been distinct shifts in the way that Presbyterians give their money.

Second, council executive director John Detterick, who's in his last year with the PC(USA), urged the council members during their opening session Sept. 21 to dream "bold dreams" and not to be afraid to take risks. But he also warned that more budget cuts likely are coming soon, along with more job cuts for the denomination's national staff in Louisville. Detterick met Sept. 16 with the staff to warn them of what lies ahead.

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COGA report recommends closing Montreat historical facility

SACRAMENTO -- A feasibility study considering the future of the Presbyterian Historical Society has concluded that it's unlikely enough money could be raised to create a new center to study Presbyterian history in Montreat, N.C.

So the plan now is to consider creating such a center at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. -- it would be less expensive there -- and to close down the Presbyterian Historical Society office in Montreat, which some Presbyterians have fought passionately to save over the last year.

A report to the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA) states that those recommending that the Montreat historical society office be closed "appreciate the deep disappointment many people connected to Montreat will feel if these recommendations are adopted," but it also contends that the changes will "benefit the whole church."

The recommendations came from COGA members Cathy Ulrich and Steve Grace, who had been appointed to help develop a plan for the historical society's future.

Voices

“Beleaguered but Unvanquished”

Text: II Corinthians 4:8-9; Romans 8:28-39

Editor's Note: the following eyewitness report to Presbyterian constituents in Mississippi helps all of us understand better the challenges and ongoing needs of the Gulf Coast. See elsewhere on this Web site for information on how to contact Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and support New Orleans-Gulf Coast recovery efforts.

Beleaguered but unvanquished--two of William Faulkner's favorite words. They describe the people of God who are called according to His purpose; people like you who have risen to the occasion, to bring light to the darkness, hope in the midst of despair, food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to those who only have the clothes they're wearing, encouragement to those who have lost it all.

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PC(USA) asked to support help for minister’s sexual abuse victims

SACRAMENTO -- He was a Presbyterian minister. He was, for many boys from Chinese immigrant families, a sort of surrogate father figure. He was charismatic, he was powerful -- and he is said to have sexually abused dozens of young boys over 30 years at the Cameron House ministry program in San Francisco.

His name is Dick Wichman and he is now in his 90s, living in a retirement home in Oregon. In the late 1980s, faced with allegations of sexual abuse pending in San Francisco presbytery, Wichman denied the charges and renounced his ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) rather than face the action the presbytery was preparing to bring against him.

But that has not stopped the survivors of the abuse from speaking out plainly of how the betrayal of trust perpetrated by one minister has fractured their self-esteem, their ability to form close, caring relationships as adults and in some cases has driven them far from the church and any sense of God's caring.

Voices

Heaven

Editor's note: The following homily was preached at the funeral of the Reverend George McMaster at Druid Hills Church in Atlanta, Ga., by Dr. Patrick D. Miller, Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. It contains great comfort for the church and is a welcome testimony to the gospel in these troubled, dangerous times.

Not long ago, when Mary Ann and I were visiting with her mother, she asked me what I thought about heaven. I was taken aback at the time because my mind was, as usual, on more mundane things. I don't recall what response I made at the time, except that it was not very helpful. But the question was a serious one from this 90-year-old woman whose husband had died some years before. It has stuck with me ever since and in these few minutes I would like to take it up again with a bit more reflection.

Heaven really has two connotations in Christian faith. One is spatial -- up there -- and one is temporal -- beyond death. In the first instance, heaven is a symbol for God's reality and God's rule. It is a pointer to transcendence, to the fact that what we mean by God is one who is above and beyond all that we are even if among us.

Heaven is a biblical and Christian way of speaking about the abode of God. Some of you are old enough to remember when the Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev scoffed at the notion of God and heaven when he noted that the Russian astronauts had not seen God or heaven when they went into space. His mockery reflects a widespread tendency to literalize the notion of heaven, when in fact it is a symbol and not a literal reality, at least as described in the Bible. As a symbol, however, it points to something real, but something we can only think of in images and pictures because it is beyond us, and we do not have direct experience of it.

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Session at Hollywood Pres. asks ministers to resign

The difficulties continue at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, a large and well-known California congregation that's been locked in recent months in a painful internal struggle.

On Sept. 29, the session of Hollywood church asked for the resignations of pastor Alan Meenan and associate pastor David Manock, and called for a congregational meeting to discuss the matter on October 9.

That followed months of controversy within the congregation. Last May, the Presbytery of the Pacific appointed an administrative commission to oversee the church and put Meenan and Manock on paid administrative leave.

Book Reviews

The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love: A Biblical Case for Religious Diversity

The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love: A Biblical Case for Religious Diversity, by W. Eugene March.  Louisville: WJKP, 2005.  ISBN 0-664-22708-2.  Pb., 139 pp.  $14.95.

In his new book, The Wide, Wide Circle of Divine Love, W. Eugene March lays out a reasoned and compelling case for people of all faiths to communicate with and appreciate people of other faiths.  He traces his long-time interest in interfaith relations to his days as a graduate student when he was under the direction of Jewish professors and working alongside Jewish students.  "They were every bit as committed to the service of God as I was . . . If one could only know the 'Father' through Jesus Christ, how could I understand the clear reflection of God's way 'enfleshed' by these people?" (ix) 

Today's world, even today's United States, is a far more pluralistic society than March encountered in New York forty years ago.  We knowingly share the world with Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Confucianists, Animists, Jews, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, and those of many more faith traditions.  As a nation we have experienced the dire effects of militant extremism, practiced by those who "deny the right of any others to exist and... [are] willing to exercise any measure of terror...toward the eradication of all they judge to be their enemies"(xi).  In our modern world, March maintains that it is more imperative than ever that we who profess faith in Jesus Christ realize that God's love is far wider than any human limits.  The "Bible itself...clearly contradicts the narrow, supersessionist interpretation that God is concerned only with the chosen people, whether Jews or Christians"(118-119).  After pointing out that we who are Christians also have been guilty of encouraging and at times actively supporting "terrible things in the name of faithfulness to God"(5), March lifts up texts from throughout the canon to support his argument that God's love is not intended for only a fraction of the human community; he also pushes his readers to consider biblical texts in context, asserting that there is room for more than one true religion.

Book Reviews

In the Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an Age of Diminished Christianity

In the Ruins of the Church: Sustaining Faith in an Age of Diminished Christianity, by R. R. Reno.  Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002.  Pb., 208 pp.  ISBN 1-58743-033-9.  $15.99.

Editor's Note: This book review was written before the release of the recommendations from the PC(USA) Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity.

 

The General Assembly of 2001 met in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Presbyterian Center, our denomination's national offices. With the strong encouragement of national officers, the General Assembly authorized a Theological Task Force to deliberate and then to report on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Though appointing a committee to address an issue is ordinary and uneventful, indeed unimaginative and uninspiring; and though the constant comparisons to the Commission of 1925 were insulting to evangelicals; and though the appointments themselves were more than a little disappointing to evangelicals, and the commission given was at least a bit ambiguous, needing re-visitation by a later General Assembly; and though as the Task Force deliberated over the next four years, more and more of it was done secluded from the witness of the Church; as a commissioner to that General Assembly, I found one decision noteworthy - the General Assembly admitted we are a divided fellowship.

This was and is a difficult but, I believe, necessary admission. We are unhappy. This is not the common life for which Christ prayed and we hope. It hurts; we hurt. To recognize and attend to this is right.

Little else in the General Assembly actions was as right.

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Heartbreak and hope: Presbyterians face life after Hurricane Katrina

For Presbyterians whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina, the next few months will bring -- who knows what?

Homes are gone, sanctuaries soaked, records destroyed, jobs lost, connections broken. Churches where people gathered Sunday after Sunday to praise God are dark. Decisions are being made, family by family, person by person, whether to come back and rebuild or start over somewhere else.

And it's not clear whether some churches will ever recover -- especially those that were small and vulnerable to begin with.   

John Spaulding, a retired minister, has served in recent years as supply pastor for two Louisiana congregations -- Carolyn Park in Arabi and Gheens church, a French-speaking Cajun congregation of about 50 in Lafourche parish.

Speaking from a hotel room near Dallas, where he's been staying since he evacuated right ahead of Katrina, Spaulding said Carolyn Park is in St. Bernard parish, "which was really devastated. I have not been able to make contact with those people at all."

Many in the church were elderly, Spaulding said. The congregation had declined from 200 to about 40, and "we've been trying to turn the corner on that and we have, very slowly. We were moving in that direction . . . We had such great plans before the hurricane."

But what lies ahead now, he doesn't know. There's no weekly collection and the budget was shaky before the storm. Spaulding wants to be a spiritual support for his people, but he can't find them.

Editorials

Abandoned people, principles

Last week in New Orleans ... nobody took control. ... The rich escaped while the poor were abandoned. ... Partisans squabbled while the nation was ashamed. The first rule of the social fabric -- that in times of crisis you protect the vulnerable -- was trampled.

I have pondered these words by David Brooks on the Sunday (9/4) New York Times Op-Ed page almost relentlessly. After 23 years as pastor of a downtown church, I know the names of Richmond's vulnerable too well for comfort. Our congregation, together with more than 100 churches and synagogues in the city, has ministered to them, sometimes with opposition from the city and the powerful. We have served them lunches, listened to their woes, celebrated their joys, seen the plight of their circumstances in adult homes, and directed them to medical care or emergency assistance. We have preached their funerals. We have sheltered them and visited them, and with many agencies, have tried to keep them from homelessness. Their faces are the faces of those multitudes abandoned by the authorities in New Orleans. 

Voices

A wealth of faith

It was easy to feel sorry for them. The poor, displaced, battered citizens of New Orleans confronted us with the disparity of economic life in America.

But as the days turned to weeks, another subtext began to surface, showing an even greater disparity. A surprising number of the poor were, in fact, rich in spirit. Despite having little, they showed an enormous depth of spiritual understanding and a remarkable display of extravagant faith.

An elderly woman, finally pulled from her house after days of waiting, seemed surprisingly peaceful as television crews filmed her rescue. When a reporter asked if she was glad the rescuers had finally arrived she said, "Yes, I'm glad to see them. But I had the Lord with me whether anyone else showed up or not."

Unlike many of us whose wealth obscures our spiritual sight, this woman gave contemporary meaning to the Bible verse written by the Apostle Paul: "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Philippians 4:12)

Book Reviews

Awakened to a Calling: Reflections on the Vocation of Ministry

edited by Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005. 84 pages

 

Much has been written and spoken about creating a culture of call in the life of the church. It has been said that the once-fertile soil of homes, congregations, camps and colleges that nurtured faith and produced a harvest of talented ministers of Word and Sacrament has grown thin, worn out and eroded away. Family priorities have changed. Overcommitted youth are engaged in a myriad of activities and have little time for worship and little interest in church school. I heard an elder in a congregation say that the pastoral ministry was a dead end job and she certainly hoped her child was thinking about some other profession than pastoral ministry. Church camps are replaced with camps that offer flashier facilities and more upscale activities; church-related colleges drop their requirements in Bible and theology.

Yet, this is only part of the picture. After years of declining attention to the culture of call, fresh interest is being given to how we can help a new generation of young adults hear the call to serve God through their vocations. The concern is not only about helping young adults discern a call to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, but to see their daily lives, loves and labors as their vocation, their calling to serve and glorify God. Certainly, the Lilly Endowment, the Fund for Theological Education, and other organizations have worked with congregations, colleges and seminaries to help them become fertile soil for discerning call. Congregations are waking up to their role in helping young people identify their call; church-related colleges are beginning new efforts to awaken students to their life's vocation; seminaries are reaching college students and even high school students with fresh, creative opportunities to explore vocational questions through special programs in theology, the arts, Bible study and service. 

Voices

How Do We Change The Book of Order?

The Book of Order is a compendium of Presbyterian experience based on nearly three hundred years of practice, prayer and study of Scripture. Occasionally church officers get the mistaken opinion that it is a static document, forever fixed by someone in the presbytery or General Assembly.

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New beginning at Forman, new challenge for a family

Summer 2005 was a time of finishing work commitments, selling the house, family visits, packing--and looking ahead to three years in Lahore, Pakistan, for Marianne Vermeer, Robert Johnson and their two sons, Nathan, 12, and Peter, 7.

They are newly-named mission co-workers with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for three years working at Forman Christian College in Lahore.  Marianne will be an executive assistant to the principal (president) of Forman, Dr. Peter Armacost. Robert will be teaching at Forman and working with the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan in their seminary.

How does a couple decide to follow such an undertaking, such a calling?

Both Marianne and Robert were mature believers open to different possibilities for their work. She has an M.A. in business and higher education and had experience  in administration on an executive level, operating until recently her own consulting firm. Robert  recently completed Ph.D. work in history and theology at Union Theological Seminary-PSCE in Richmond. "Our skills were suited to Forman," she says.

Voices

The Good Pastor

  

Excerpts from an address at the Louisville Seminary Luncheon, 216th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Richmond, Va, June 30, 2004 and published in the fall 2004 issue of The Mosaic of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

 

For more than 150 years, this precious schoolhouse of the church has specialized in training good pastors for the church -- good pastors who have been called to live and hope as expectant servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. ... Reverently and expectantly, I want our first conversation as family to focus on a vision about the good pastors we hope to continue to train in our community of the Word at Louisville Seminary.

First, I believe the good pastor is a passionate/compassionate believer of the Christian gospel. Our people in the pews long for pastors who passionately/ compassionately believe what they preach and teach. Indeed, from a parishioner's viewpoint, one of the most priceless affirmations a preacher can receive is: "I can tell you really believe what you preach." That is, our congregations deeply yearn to call good pastors who will articulate with passion the belief that Jesus Christ is incomparably the most significant event in the history of the human race; that Jesus is God's own heart of flesh who crawled into the cradle of Bethlehem and who climbed onto the cross of Golgotha; that Jesus, in the words of Joseph Sittler, "comes to us in the world where we are, where we have been, and where we are going...."; that Jesus is the risen Lord and Savior of all times and all places; that to know God now in Jesus Christ is to know God forever.

Voices

Good news is no news

  

I was sitting in my office in mid-May, writing thank you letters to donors, when the phone rang.

"This is Jordana Hochman from Morning Edition. I was referred to you by the Association of Theological Schools."

"Well, what can I do for you?"

"I have a question. Depending on your answer, I may want to interview you."

"So?"

The essence of her question: "Well, since the mainstream churches are dying--declining, at least-- and not hiring new clergy, what are your graduates going to do?"

"First, our graduates will do what they have always done--the great majority will go and serve and lead as pastors, educators, and scholars for local churches, many of which by the way are thriving. God's Word and God's work are being faithfully proclaimed and engaged, just as in every generation since the resurrection of Jesus."

"Is there a disconnect between congregations and seminaries? Isn't your enrollment declining?" she asked.

"No. On both counts. Our faculty members are all deeply involved in local church life. Members of the faculty ordained as pastors who have joined us since 1994 when I arrived have an average of nine years of experience leading local congregations. That is more experience on average than when I was a student here in the mid-sixties!

"We will have 104 degrees received--that's more than average for the last score of years at least. I understand several of our partner seminaries in the Presbyterian Church have increased enrollments and graduations now, too."

I proceeded to tell her about some of the recent graduates and some of the congregations they serve. I spoke of the heavy requirements in this and many other Presbyterian seminaries--both Hebrew and Greek language, lots of Bible, theology, history, ethics, worship, mission, and focus on skills for ministry such as teaching, evangelism, leading worship, and giving pastoral care.

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