I heard Tom Skinner preach twice. He preached a soul-stirring sermon at a 1972 Madison Square Garden "Jesus Joy" concert. He preached another soul-stirring sermon several months later at an evangelistic crusade in East Lansing. However, the second was an exact repeat of the first, leaving me wondering if he was a one-note-Tommy. Nevertheless, the preaching double play left in me a memorable vision for the church.
Skinner invited both audiences to wonder how the church should interface with the world. Should we aspire to positions of secular influence? He warned that the secular probably would influence us more than the reverse. Should we withdraw from the culture? The culture would withdraw from faith and justice. Instead, he cast a vision for the city on the hill, the church that would model the reign of God for others to desire and emulate.
God is at work. The devil is in the details.
"The world is littered with statistics, and the average person is bombarded with five statistics a day," says the BBC Web site. They footnote that claim with, "This is an example of a made-up statistic."
It was in that spirit that Mark Twain popularized that great quote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."
We at the Outlook have been combing through studies of the Church -- Presbyterian and beyond--asking what statistics might we publish that would rise above that cynical analysis, and would, in fact, help our readers better serve the greater purposes of God?
The answer: lots. Studies upon studies. Page limitations forced us to leave out many other reports we wanted to include.
What the world needs now ... yes, is love, sweet love.
But what the world also needs now ... is some Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking.
What IS Presbyterian, intelligent, paradoxical, ambivalent, nuanced thinking?
Let's start by contracting that into an acrostic: PIPAN. PIPAN thinking is the ability to see issues in multifaceted ways without losing one's mind in the process. It can hold together affirmations that at least appear to be contradictory and yet are true only if each affirmation is retained.
For example, PIPAN thinking affirms that God is one, and that God is three.
PIPAN thinking affirms that Jesus is fully human, and that Jesus is fully divine.
It proclaims that God is totally sovereign, and that humans are held responsible for their thoughts, words, and deeds.
Denominational loyalty. Virtue? Or vice?
Like national patriotism, denominational loyalty can engender sacrificial service and arm-in-arm teamwork.
Like national patriotism, denominational loyalty can blind us to our own ignorance, to our glaring mistakes, and especially, to the value and needs of those outside our circle.
On the other hand, denominational disaffection can launch outside-the-box missional creativity. And it can unleash a scorched-earth destruction of vital ministries and of tenderfoot believers.
Funny, but I don't remember our Savior calling for us to be denominational loyalists. But he did seem to promote loyalty of another kind.
One for all and all for one.
Welcome to the season of experimentation. Like medical researchers desperately searching for a cure, some Presbyterians are kicking around innovative ideas, sending up trial balloons, and contemplating taking strides ranging from baby steps to giant leaps. They are proposing new kinds of connectionalism.
The backlash to actions of the recent General Assembly continues unabated. The initial outcry against the GA's responses to the reports of two theological task forces--one proposing steps for peace, unity, and purity of the church, and the other using some unfamiliar terms to lift up Trinitarian theology--has led to discussions and proposals for everything from redirecting funds, to operating as a shadow denomination, even to dividing the PC(USA) house.
How shall this faith community organize itself at such a time as this?
In the letter to the editor (link to "Asking the Tough Questions" and comment printed this issue), Outlook reader John Sheldon seems to be raising the possibility that the recent General Assembly has broken covenant. What does it look like to break covenant with God?
In the context of marriage we catch a glimpse of covenant breaking. One spouse engages in an extramarital affair, thereby violating the covenant. If the violator apologizes, and if the violated forgives, then the covenant is restored. If either partner for any reason does not enact such restorative acts, then the covenant breaks.
At times like these the words of conservative icon Harry Hassall come back to mind. I first heard them after the Wichita General Assembly (1994) voted overwhelmingly to declare, in its response to the Re-Imagining God controversy, that "Theology Matters." We were headed out to dinner to celebrate the joy we felt over the vote. Harry suppressed his glee for a moment to express words that cooled our shared giddiness. He said:
"I have come to realize that, in Presbyterian Church politics, when things look really, really good, they're not as good as you had hoped, and when things look really, really bad, they're not as bad as you feared."
Many folks attending this year's General Assembly at Birmingham spoke in apocalyptic terms about "the end of Presbyterianism as we know it."
Other folks popped corks in celebration of "the end of injustice as we know it."
Well, the apocalyptic end of times was followed by a sunrise; the reports of the falling sky had grown out of inaccurate meteorological reports of last night's sunset.
That blinding sunrise stunned hung-over revelers into the reality that yesterday's injustices had not been eradicated in a single stroke.
Editor's Note: While serving as a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church (TTFPUP), I avoided commenting on it in the pages of The Outlook. Now that its report has been adopted by the 217th General Assembly and now that the Task Force has been dismissed from its work, I weigh in.
Three votes. Three stunning votes. A fourth stunning vote, too.
After months of relentlessly intensifying drumbeats pounding the threat of an impending split about to befall the PC(USA), 91% of this GA's commissioners voted to stay together.
A concise summary of this analysis is still available for purchase, formatted on 1/2 sheet to share with your congregation. Click here for more details.
What does it mean to be a connectional church in the 21st century? Well, we have met the metaphor and the metaphor is us, er uh, we. Actually it goes under the name of Les.
Les is the handy-dandy, internet-intranet computer system utilized at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham. Les was developed for all the right reasons: a chance to provide constantly current communications to commissioners, delegates and observers--and to save a few thousand trees' worth of paper. Who wouldn't like that?
Well, as you can infer, most everybody could dislike it. Not only did it function on-and-off; it slowed to a crawl at times; people could not figure out how to find the right folders; the system crashed; and a bunch of other technical aggravations arose. It also provided just the entertainment (how many versions of solitaire do you know?) to occupy minds with off-the-subject diversions. What a great way to enhance our communications!
The good news is that its name isn't Hal.
Last time in this space a discussion of the need for the rebuilding of community in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — at every level of corporate existence — was begun. As pointed out, the fabric of our community has been severely frayed by a combination of external and internal developments. If we are to be faithful to God’s call in the future, we must self-consciously begin to pray in earnest that the Holy Spirit will reconnect the sinews of our body, and we must take steps to support that work.
What purposes might we anticipate from the GA forming an authoritative interpretation making such giving obligatory? Baltimore Presbytery's overture 23 would fund the larger church's service without causing undue hardship to the presbyteries in the process. They are expected to send 100% of all per capita assessments for all their member churches, and, says the overture, that obligation should be met by the churches themselves. What else might we anticipate from such a ruling? Well, just the opposite is likely to happen.
So now comes the biennial (formerly annual) convention of the deer in the headlights. If past patterns hold, then 80% of the General Assembly commissioners and 95% of advisory delegates will be serving for the very first time. They will have tried to wade through enough reading to earn a graduate degree. They will feel the weight of a highly conflicted denomination. When asked upon their Birmingham arrival, "How do you feel?" the most common responses will be "bewildered," "befuddled" and "overwhelmed."
Another leader taking leave? In recent weeks we have said sad farewells to church giants who have joined the church triumphant. This time we bid farewell to one who heads to a blissful retirement at 7,000 feet in New Mexico's mountains. As he comes to the end of his second four-year term as executive director of the General Assembly Council, John Detterick took a few moments to reflect on his tenure.
Let's get clear what's at stake. What's at stake is not clear.
We love our Jewish neighbors. Any lack of love any of us harbors toward any of them is sin. Our faith is rooted in Hebrew soil. Given the long history of Christian mistreatment of Jews, we bear the primary responsibility to rebuild trust between our communities.
We support the right of the nation of Israel to live in freedom with safe borders.
We love our Palestinian neighbors. Any lack of love any of us harbors toward any of them is sin. We feel a special affection for our ecumenical partners, the Palestinian Christians. Given that an international concern for justice led the United Nations to grant a homeland to the Israeli people, we bear a corresponding responsibility to promote justice for the Palestinians displaced from much of that land.
We support the rights of the Palestinians to live in freedom with safe borders.
The GAC's formal recognition that the divestment issue has created deep divisions among us is welcome. Their suggestion to establish a small work group on the issue is wise and pastoral. In effect, the GAC recommends setting up a process that should have been employed prior to any vote on divestment in 2004.
Editor's Note: This article is based on the text of a roundtable presentation at a meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia on April 23, 2006. Used by permission.
"As a means of pursuing peace and the common good of Israelis and Palestinians, the 2004 General Assembly adopted a seven-part resolution that affirmed its longstanding opposition to the Israeli occupation and took action to demonstrate the depth of its conviction, instructing Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) to start a process of 'phased selective divestment' consistent with General Assembly policy on responsible investing."
--PC(USA) Web site
Four basic issues arise when deciding the moral appropriateness of an action like divestment.
You barely have a chance to say farewell to Jim Andrews, and you have to say farewell to Bill Thompson, too. As the final stated clerks of the southern and northern streams, Jim and Bill together helped engineer the reunion--at the cost of one's continued ecclesiastical employment. Two decades later, their entry into the church triumphant just a few weeks apart assures that the former counterparts are both employed again, partnering in the promotion of God's reign through the cosmos.
Their legacies of leadership challenge their successors of today and tomorrow to excel
Acts 15: 1Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. ... 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. 5But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, "It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses."
Let's shift the issue before that body, ever so slightly. Let's focus, not on circumcision, but on another important issue for the Jews.
As the General Assembly receives the report of the PUP Task Force and starts to discuss it, one simple question ought to be on our minds: What are our alternatives?
One, the GA can approve the report. This could lead to pressure for schism and anger breaking out because now Presbyterians will essentially permit an action that by vote of presbyteries three times in the last twenty years we have refused to approve.
Conspiracy Theory. Loved the movie. Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts put on a show.
This year's conspiracy theory installment, The Da Vinci Code movie, based on the wildly popular book out for several years, promises to sell many more tickets than the Gibson-Roberts film.
Americans love conspiracy theories. Attributing the worst motives to "those other people"--especially if they represent the bureaucracy of government, law enforcement or the religious establishment--pulls readers and viewers into a web of juicy intrigue. It makes high entertainment.
But conspiracy theories prove less entertaining to those falsely accused of such conspiring.
Popular fascination with Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code continues unabated. The book has been on the bestseller list for more than 160 weeks with more than 10,000,000 (that's 10 million) copies sold. The May 19 release of the feature film based on this fast-paced adventure story and starring Tom Hanks as the handsome scholar Robert Langdon exposes Brown's provocative and disturbing ideas about Jesus Christ and early Christianity to an even larger audience. A directive from the Vatican urging Roman Catholics to boycott the movie will probably only increase the desire of some people to see the film.
c. 2006 Religion News Service
I'm not sure if I've ever seen such an explosion of public interest in Jesus -- from a variety of angles old and new (some would say odd). Whether this fascination simply means that Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has created a new industry, or whether it signals something deeper -- that's up for debate. As a pastor with 24 years of ministry experience in a nontraditional setting and as an author on related matters, I think it's a good measure of both.
Through this resurgence of interest in the known Gnostic gospels, through intrigue surrounding the newly discovered Gospel of Judas, as well as through interest in all things Da Vinci, Americans are expressing, I believe, a simultaneous spiritual disappointment and hope -- and each has live political ramifications.
Can a disintegrating organization of Christian believers find a way to reverse its downward spiral? Our national leadership needs our help to find a way.
That downward spiral strikes a distinct resemblance to the deterioration of Main Street in many an American town. That hub of the community's commerce, with its pharmacy, supermarket, clothing, and shoe stores faded when developers built the shopping mall or Wal-Mart on the highway just outside town.
The Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity (PUP) has made seven recommendations to the 217th General Assembly (2006) meeting in Birmingham in June. The report as a whole is brilliant, subtle and balanced, and deserves careful study by commissioners to the General Assembly and by the church at large. The vote of this Assembly on the recommendations will have a profound effect on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The heart of these recommendations is number 5, and this analysis and opinion will focus on it. Recommendation 5 proposes an Authoritative Interpretation of section G-6.0108 of the Book of Order. This section states the Church's understanding of our freedom of conscience within certain bounds. The authoritative interpretation reminds the Church of its Reformed tradition dating back to 1729 that establishes the principle of freedom of conscience within bounds and applies the test of adherence to essentials of Reformed faith and polity to those being examined for ordination as deacons, elders or ministers. In recent decades, the Church has applied the test of essentials primarily to matters of faith. The authoritative interpretation retrieves its use in matters of polity, meaning practice or behavior.
For years I have taught confirmands and officers-elect with some pride that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a constitutional form of government. The constitutional rule of law is one of our denomination's greatest gifts. It is also in serious danger of being undermined if recommendation five of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church is adopted as written.
On the whole, the report is a first-rate product. It provides the church with clear guidance on matters of Christology and biblical authority. The Task Force worked hard to model for the church how to resolve differences while building Christian community. Even regarding ordination standards, task force members wisely turned to the historic methods Presbyterians have used to resolve such disagreements, set forth in the Adopting Act of 1729 and the reports of the Swearingen Commission of 1925. For all these, they should be commended. However, in applying these historic methods to our current context, the Task Force both violates the original intent of the documents and sets a dangerous constitutional precedent.
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