There is reportedly a minister shortage throughout the country. As a seminary president, a week doesn't go by without an inquiry from a church to recommend the good pastor for their congregation. Who is that good pastor and how do we recognize that person when we are searching?
The results of a new survey of Presbyterian Outlook readers support the view that the deeper division in the church is primarily about whether the Bible is authoritative. Also, while most wish there were less conflict in the PC(USA), still more are willing to tolerate different viewpoints, even if it results in conflict.
One of the first casualties of war is the truth. Sadly, the theological divisions within our denomination have apparently developed into full-scale war because attempts at reporting the truth have declined. The Presbyterian Layman has chosen to ignore all journalistic standards and displayed complete disregard for the lives of the people whom they have chosen to attack.
By Philip Jenkins
Oxford. 2002. 270 pp. Pb. $28.00. 
ISBN 0-19-514616-6
— reviewed by Ben Lacy Rose, Richmond, Va.
The thesis of this book is that, contrary to much that is being written and heard today, Christianity is alive and well in the world, and will continue in good health into the foreseeable future. The "God is dead" movement is dead, but God is still very much alive.
If something new and wonderful is to happen at the 214th General Assembly it will certainly involve repentance — lots of it — a commodity that has been in very short supply for a very long time in our church.
Repentance involves sincere confession and a turning around — a turning from ourselves and our own interests to God and God’s interests.
In a recent editorial in this journal, Robert Bullock observed, "As a result of the overwhelming resources devoted to sexuality matters, it..
This space has been devoted in recent weeks to the shape of a new church which is arising in our midst as a consequence of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is the active agent in everything that happens in the church — indeed, in the world.
Our eyes are accustomed to seeing things as they have always been — or, at least, have been within our span of memory — and it is so difficult to perceive and to understand new shapes and forms of divine activity that are right in front of our face.
Have you ever wondered what the Presbyterian Church believes about the future? It seems that so many people today have clear-cut views about the specifics of the future. One bumper sticker declares confidently, "In case of rapture, this car will be uninhabited." The approach of the millennium will be the occasion of increasing discussion about the future of the world. Do Presbyterians have anything to say?
I read books for many purposes. To amuse and to entertain me (I am an avid fan of the detective story). To inform me (I try to keep up with recent biblical scholarship) but, also, to enrich my spirit. As I seek a closer sense of God's intimate presence, I have been helped from several very different sources.
If we as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are to become what God wants us to be, then we will have to alter radically our way of thinking about ourselves as a denomination and the way we conduct our business.
First, we will focus on our own particular congregation, and pour tremendous energy into its mission and, even more important, the mission of each member in the world.
For those with a lot of Scotch in their bloodstream January 25, the birthday of Caledonia's poet -- Robert Burns -- is the highest of holy days. All over the globe the wandered Scots gather for a rare evening of amity devoted to St. Andrew, St. Haggis, and St. Robert. At least once in a lifetime every Presbyterian should elect (Presbyterian elect -- get it?) to attend a Burns Supper.
Two things define us as Presbyterians, beyond the fact that we are a church governed by elders, gathered in an ascending series of governing bodies: we are a confessional (or at least aspire to be!) church and a connectional church.
Two weeks ago this column was devoted to discussing the perplexities of being a confessional church in a time of widespread biblical and theological illiteracy.
By Rosmary Radford Reuther and Herman J. Reuther
Fortress. 2002. (2nd ed.) 320 pp. Pb. $18.00. ISBN 0-8006-3479-9
—reviewed by Daniel Durway, Raleigh, N.C.
Most Americans know what is going on in the Middle East, but few Americans know why it is going on. Indeed, according to Rosemary Radford Ruether and Herman J. Ruether, theologian and political scientist, respectively, "Much of the world does not know the actual history" (p. iv).
Jerry Andrews, co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, has made it clear that "the Coalition itself is not committed to the confessing church movement." This is so because the PC(USA) "is a confessing movement -- it has not watered down its confession."
Milan Opocensky, professor emeritus of Christian social ethics at Charles University in Prague, is the MacKay Professor of World Christianity at Princeton Seminary for the 2000-2001 academic year. From 1989 to 2000 he served as general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), which represents 215 Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational and United churches and links 75 million Christians in 106 countries.
This interview with Eberhard Busch, professor of Reformed theology, University of Göttingen, Germany, was conducted and translated for The Outlook by Darrell Guder of Columbia Seminary. It is the first in a series of Outlook interviews with leading figures on the topic of the Reformed confessional tradition.
A self-proclaimed "confessing church movement" has been endorsed recently in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by dozens of sessions and several interest groups that are deeply disappointed over the demise of Amendment O and the Dirk Ficca affair.
By John Leith, Charles E. Raynal,ed.
Geneva. 2001. 363 pp. Pb. $29.95. ISBN 0-664-50151-6
— reviewed by Richard A. Ray, Bristol, Tenn.
In 1949, John Leith included these words in a sermon on race relations preached in Nashville:
"It is hard to be a Christian. But after all, it is about time that we should get into our thinking that this business of being Christian is and always will be an arduous and dangerous business. It is not made for cowards and for the weak."
Following up last week’s editorial suggesting that forces in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that have devoted themselves in the last quarter-century to either holding on to or taking over control of the denomination need to move toward demobilization, the first question that must be asked is: How much theological cohesion does a Presbyterian body need to hold together?
By Joan M. Martin.
WJKP. 2000. 190 pp. Pb. $24.95. ISBN 0-664-2580-0
— reviewed by Portia Turner Williamson, Durham, N.C.
What a well-crafted volume, significantly advancing the discussion concerning slavery in America! Joan Martin is a theological ethicist who employs womanist methodology to discover the meaning of work in this context.
"Discovery" is a technique that renders the internal as external. By means of this method, she examines the social, theological and political aspects of blackwomen’s antebellum work.
Demobilization, the reduction in armed forces following a war, is a model that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) may find useful.
We’ve been involved in a war about human sexuality for the past 25 years that seems to be over; while discussion will continue, the terms of engagement have changed. It’s fairly inconceivable that the church will entertain a constitutional change of any magnitude in ordination standards in the foreseeable future.
DECATUR, Ga. — PC(USA) Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick has called for a "culture of respect" for the church's Constitution and the revamping of that document to support "a missionary church in the 21st century."
He made his proposals Friday, April 26, during a one-day conference co-sponsored by the Office of the General Assembly and Columbia Seminary and attended by more than 150 persons.
By Edwin S. Gaustad.
Eerdmans. 1996. 246 pp. Pb. $18.00 ISBN 0-8028-0156-0
—reviewed by Herbert Meza Jacksonville, Fla.
No one, with the possible exception of James Madison, had a greater influence on the founding of the United States than Thomas Jefferson. Unlike many of the founding fathers, Jefferson’s name has not faded. The Declaration of Independence stands as an enduring witness to Jefferson’s religious, moral and political views.
For a very long time John 3:16 has been read as a summary of the gospel, which indeed it is. This well-known verse tells of God, the world, love, the Son, giving, sending, believing, eternal life and salvation. Paul gives an even shorter summary when he says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." But John and Paul do not provide the only summaries.
Ten is a good round number. There are lots of lists of 10. After spending more than 40 years in the field of Christian education in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I would like to share 10 things I have learned about Christian educators.
Who are the educators? They are the DCEs, pastors, certified educators, graduates with majors in Christian education, part-time staff and volunteers. They are the ones who see Christian education as a high calling of service, to equip the saints for ministry, to build up the body of Christ.
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