When's the last time you attended a presbytery meeting? I've attended about 30 in the past two years -- several for speaking engagements, several times to promote the Outlook. In the majority of cases, I've come away happily surprised.
The "feel" of such presbytery meetings has been more positive than I expected. Many of them exuded a spirit of collegiality and mutual support. For some, it has always been this way, but for others this is a new thing, a very new thing. What's going on?
Many a presbytery has transformed itself from a command-and-control regulatory body into a partnership-and-care missional body.
One mode of change has come as the role and, in some cases, the job title of the lead staff person was altered. After World War II, when churches were booming with growth, most presbyteries created the position of "Executive Presbyter," following the management model then used in corporations that also were booming. Recent decades have challenged the top-down model of corporate leadership, and presbyteries have been paying attention. The amended title, "General Presbyter", is now used in many presbyteries. Others have adopted more specific titles: "General missioner" (Tres Rios), "Teaching presbyter" (Lehigh), etc.
With or without the title change, many of these staff members are treating their role primarily as a calling to support ministers, elders, and churches entrusted to their care.
If it's not one pope, it's another.
Pope John XXIII's ecumenical initiatives shook my young faith to the core. Pope Benedict XVI's faith initiatives are shaking my adult ecumenism to the core.
Sister Catherina -- my beloved first grade teacher who, if she had told me my blue eyes were actually green, I would have believed her -- had warned us about Protestants. She said they don't go to the true church, and, she added with tears, they're all going to hell.
One year after hearing her say that, Pope John XXIII -- whose picture had been on the front wall, above the chalkboard, near the crucifix in Sister Catherina's classroom -- launched the Second Vatican Council. Three years into their work, the Council announced that those "infidel" Protestants now ought to be considered "separated brethren."
Congress did not produce new immigration legislation. What are we Christians to do now?
Now that the political points no longer need to be made, we do well to reconsider the facts on the ground. Toward that end, Barbie and I visited the Mexican border ourselves. We accepted the invitation of former GA moderators, John Fife and Rick Ufford-Chase, to explore the Tucson sector, a 60-mile, south-to-north area above a 240 miles-long stretch of the border.
Encountering migrants and the Christian volunteers seeking to serve them, we heard about the cycles of migration that have crossed the border for hundreds of years. Seasons of planting and harvest, periods of major construction and other rhythms of labor have driven breadwinners to seek employment wherever available, and family ties have drawn them back home as soon and as often as possible.
"I'd rather burn out than rust out."
"I've just accepted another interim pastorate. I'm flunking retirement."
"There's no such thing as retiring from the service of the Lord."
"Where do you find retirement in the Bible?"
Church leaders -- pastors, elders, educators, and others -- blurt such lines often. Some of their comments reflect a genuine love of ministry and the physical constitution to sustain it. Other times their words reveal a restless soul adrift on what, from their vantage point, looks like dead calm waters. The final questioning quote bespeaks the need to use a Bible concordance.
Advance apologies to the tall steeple ministers of Word and Sacrament. You're not my vocational heroes. You're not my role models. Many of you preach with a prophet's passion and a poet's touch. Many of you exercise your office with the highest professional deportment and with amazing programmatic innovation. Many of you are generating world outreach mission efforts, are feeding the hungry, and are winning unbelievers to the faith. But you're not my heroes.
My heroes and role models are the pastors and, even more, the commissioned lay pastors (CLPs) serving small churches, a/k/a "wee kirks."
In fact, though I have spoken at numerous conferences and attended many more, my favorites have been the Wee Kirk conferences. I especially enjoy meal times when my toss of a good leading question will give me time to munch on my food while a pastor or CLP tells me her story. Invariably, I come away from such conferences humbled to the point of tears.
What's the difference between Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton? Policy positions aside, two things come to my mind. Only Clinton finished his second term as president. And only Clinton had James Carville serving as a political consultant.
When then-president Richard Nixon was accused of participating in unethical and illegal activities and a cover-up, he took cover under a cone of silence. He would not dignify his critics with an answer.
When Bill Clinton was accused of unethical and illegal activities and a cover-up, he unleashed the voice of his chief political consultant. Carville, the "Ragin' Cajun," believed that unanswered accusations will lead a skeptical populace to interpret that silence as an admission of guilt. Not only did he respond. He did so with force, often with counter-attacks, and almost always before the next news cycle.
The rest is history.
The problem with General Assembly task forces is that they always seem to try to do more than we originally asked them to do.
Example: The attempt by a task force to study ordination foundered when it tried to define new language for God to save us from "him/her." The rather useful suggestions by that group that could have helped us move forward were lost because they tried to go beyond their mandate.
Now the Form of Government Task Force has gone beyond its mandate.
Assigned the task of simplifying the Constitution that has mushroomed into a voluminous, clumsy collection of detailed, statutory laws, they have gone the extra, unneeded mile. They added a "Foundation" document, which simply attempts to write another confession of faith. If we had intended to form a task force to write a new confession I doubt these worthy folk would have been included. Their gifts and experience are in the area of administration and polity, and for that purpose they were selected. Regrettably they have stepped beyond their mandate.
So what's really gone on since the last General Assembly? What is the state of the PC(USA) today?
If ever there were an uncertain sound, yet a cacophony of competing interpretations, it is today. Some reassure while others remonstrate. Some warn of impending disasters, while many are enjoying sunny skies. Some fear we'll drop off the right edge of the planet. Others worry that we're falling off the left edge. How's a person to know?
This edition of the Outlook has been prepared to provide accurate and insightful reporting so informed leaders can really lead the church well in this season between the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly and the 2008 San Jose GA.
So where are we now?
A sea change has been reshaping our national office. The restructure of the General Assembly Council and the election of Linda Valentine as GAC executive director have drawn an influx of fresh eyes and voices into the mission agencies of the church (read article). A new vigor is flowing through those ministries.
"The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing," a report received by the 217th General Assembly, has sparked considerable discussion. I find this encouraging. When a church is eager to engage in vigorous conversation about a core Christian doctrine, it signals to all its members: theology really does matter.
The primary aim of this report is to help our church renew its faith in the triune God by "reclaiming the doctrine of the Trinity in theology, worship, and life" (66-67). Trinitarian doctrine contains good and joyful news. It identifies the God of the gospel as "the triune God who in loving freedom seeks and saves us, reconciles and renews us, and draw us into loving relationships that reflect the eternal oneness of God" (79-80). Far from offering either a novel or an exhaustive exposition of Trinitarian doctrine, the report focuses on the good news that this doctrine enshrines and, most decidedly, on its practical significance.
The Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Jack Haberer recently met to discuss "some of the pressing issues" facing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). During their hour-long conversation, Kirkpatrick stated, "Some of the conflict we've had -- I know it's not the only issue -- things like [concerns about] the Trinity paper are really based on a misunderstanding of what the General Assembly did. So we're seeking to reach out that way." (The Presbyterian Outlook issue of 4/9/07. Cf also issues 4/16/07 and 4/30/07).
If these concerns truly are the result of simple misunderstanding, then clarifying the issue should be an effortless task and easily dismissed. However, the 217th General Assembly, while receiving, "The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing" without approving it, commended it to the church for study and use in worship. Additionally, the Rev. Charles Wiley of the Office of Theology and Worship has admitted that the triad "Mother, Child, and Womb" fails the paper's own criteria and is gravely flawed in two respects. (Letters, The Laymen Online 2/14/2007). First, as he explains, it has a weak scriptural foundation. Secondly, mixing the two "personal" images, mother and child, with the "functional" womb is fatal to good Trinitarian theology.
An appreciation of the late Professor Bruce Metzger in the March 12 Outlook included an anecdote recounting how a North Carolina pastor had, in the pulpit, used a blowtorch to burn a copy of the then-new Revised Standard Version of the Bible, with the ashes eventually being bestowed upon Dr. Metzger when he became chair of the RSV committee.
It's possible that the only thing that could get some Presbyterians more "fired up" than a new translation of the Bible is a new version of the Form of Government. So perhaps we, as co-moderators of the Form of Government Task Force, should brace ourselves for some ashes to come our way from those who want to take a blowtorch, either literally or figuratively, to what the Task Force will present to the church in September.
Ottati. Falwell. The twain did meet -- so to speak -- in their departing.
How strange to be honoring Doug Ottati upon his departure from Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education to head to Davidson College as other Virginians were bidding farewell to Jerry Falwell on his journey to the Promised Land. In the minds of its alums, Davidson does resemble the heavenly estate, but that's beside the point.
A symposium honoring the legacy of an icon of liberal theology seemed oddly juxtaposed to the reactions to Falwell's unexpected death, with countless supporters and critics reminiscing or railing over the legacy of an icon of religious conservatism.
Presbyterians give Falwell mixed marks. Some appreciated his strong stands on conservative values. Many shuddered over what they saw as narrow-minded, reactionary fundamentalism. We could fill a few months' magazines with commentaries on those mixed reactions. Little would be gained for such efforts.
The immigration problem in America is puzzling. As many voices are saying ...
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders threatens the job market for American citizens. Labor unions cry foul. Trained farm workers can't compete for jobs against folks willing to be compensated below the minimum wage--and without benefits or taxes.
But that's not the point.
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders raises the specter of hoodlums, drug dealers, and terrorists destroying our peace. True, so far, no terrorists have been interdicted on the Mexican border, but the drug trafficking alone is destructive. Plus, if we should let down our guard, terrorist organizations surely will take advantage.
But that's not the point.
What a boost my ministry gained through the D.Min. program I took two decades ago. The lectures were superior, the reading deep, and the discussions insightful.
One of the most valuable and lasting lessons came in the opening orientation.
That academic program, offered jointly by Columbia Theological Seminary and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, would hold us students to certain standards of performance, we were told. No surprise there. However, I bristled when we heard that one of those standards was the demand that we use inclusive language in all our written work. "You will be marked down if your choices of pronouns are gender exclusive," we heard. I wanted to react, but the professor's explanation was winsome. "It's basically about loving your neighbors as yourself," he said.
As a white male who had enjoyed many status advantages, my conscience couldn't argue his point.
Why preach?
Among all the different methods available for teaching, the lecture format may be the least effective. Brainstorming, research-and-report, experimentation-and-analysis, and other pedagogical methods promote more vivid impact than only the spoken word.
Among the different media available for communicating, the hotter media of television, movies, and the Web all provide multi-sensory data that instruct via the multiple intelligences, thereby increasing students' retention tenfold, twentyfold or better, over simply listening to a leader's monologue.
Anger is to humanity what nuclear energy is to electricity. Powerful and creative. Volatile and dangerous.
God created anger, and for good reason. Anger stirs social workers to rescue abused children from violent parents. Anger provokes prophets to expose exploiting power brokers. Anger compels the courageous to break chains of injustice. Anger confronts religious hypocrites and drives moneychangers out of temples.
Then again, evil hijacks anger for destructive purposes. It batters spouses and children. It unleashes the privileged against the powerless--and vice versa. It propagates hatred. It murders innocents. It morphs into resentment, escalates into bitterness, depresses into isolation, and explodes into carnage.
We have witnessed what happens when anger goes nuclear. 9-11. Columbine. Ted Bundy. The recent shooting rampage at Virginia Tech provided its own commentary in the form of a video made by the shooter. It showcased rage's demonic darkness.
Few of us will ever descend into the pit of wickedness as did that student, but every one of us experiences anger.
I could hardly believe my ears when a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor blurted a few years ago, "We need to rethink the whole topic of women's ordination." I was stunned because those words were coming from a woman.
"Why of all things do we need that?" I reacted. "Women's ordination is an established policy in the denomination."
"But too many people support it for the wrong reasons," she responded. She then explained how many of her colleagues had sensed a deep calling to Christian vocation, including the proclamation of the Word. But they also knew that the Bible singles them out to keep silent in church. Recognizing the disparity between God's call to them and God's Word to all, they simply chose to dismiss the Word -- at least those specific, exclusionary texts -- as pre-modern expressions of male chauvinism and patriarchy.
They didn't set out to make a statement. They simply were looking for a new president.
Their schools, er, uh, school -- Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education -- shares a storied history and a legacy for academic excellence in educator training and minister formation.
A year ago President Louis Weeks announced his retirement plans. Board Chair Art Ross commissioned the search committee, led by John Kuykendall, to find a gifted leader to succeed him.
I think that all of us this week have felt like we have been living inside a Wizard of Oz storybook. Midweek..
This week a college student coolly, cruelly and deliberately murdered thirty-two fellow students and professors at Virginia Tech University. Scores of others..
Mom always stopped the car whenever she scouted an open parking space near Joe Gatta's on Main Street. His little deli -- the size of a one-car garage -- provided the freshest fruit and vegetables, delivered there right from the farm.
Today Joe Gatta's is no more. In a supermarket world, only a few delicatessens still survive. We Americans enjoy the wide array of choices and the wide range of prices -- from store brand staples to exotic imports -- now provided by the superstores that dot the landscape.
That culture change has depressed many a Main Street. It also has hurt many a Church Street. Many small and medium size churches have suffered through an era of diminishing returns, as supermarket churches have boomed.
Divorce is hell. Amicable divorce is an oxymoron. When a church divorces its denomination, it can be just as painful as a marital dissolution. Sometimes it's worse.
You know how divorce happens. The aggrieved party looks back over recent history, shudders over the hurtful things the spouse has done, and remembers all the unrequited steps he or she took to try to bring reconciliation. The aggrieved party transitions from trying to save the marriage to building a compelling case to justify ending it.
In the process, the accused party reacts and does things that are really, really stupid, reinforcing the anger of the aggrieved. Soon each party can't stand the sight of the other.
I've been participant in or immediate observer of a dozen congregational splits and denominational separations. Every one of them has followed that divorcing pattern.
We can do better.
Whether it be spouted by the Jesus Seminar scholars, the Da Vinci Code author or The Lost Tomb of Jesus producer, this is the season when magazines give undeserved attention to Jesus' detractors. In spite of their allegedly formidable arguments, confident Christians worldwide will gather in huge numbers on Easter morning chanting, "He is risen. He is risen. He is risen indeed."
Such affirmations continue undeterred, because the arguments supporting the resurrection and the legacy of Christ-changed lives far overwhelm lame claims about some Passover Plot.
If you were going to invent a religion, what would you include?
Probably you'd begin with devotion: we humans have a need to worship, pray, and maybe offer expressions of sacrifice to the deity.
Probably you would add some kind of divine revelation. A seer, sage, or prophet can speak on behalf of the deity, offering words of wisdom to address the human condition.
No doubt you would incorporate teachings about morals and ethics. Any decent religion requires its adherents to love one another, to promote justice for all, and to live their lives in the light of high standards embodied by the deity.
Would you also include the notion of the deity becoming human? Most religionists would think it outlandish to profane the life of the spirit like that.
Here are your instructions. Take out two pens, one red and the other blue. Read through this edition of The Outlook, underlining everything you like with the blue pen and everything you don't like with the red. Then compare the blue-marked words with the red-marked, asking yourself, 1) "Why do I like or dislike this?" and 2) "Why do other Christians of sincere conviction like or dislike this?"
Before taking on that assignment, do finish reading this editorial.
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