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.
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.
Young adults (ages 22-30) are missing from many mainline congregations. Their absence is one reason those congregations' average age is passing 60.
In our opinion, congregations can be successful in reaching young adults. But doing so will require our understanding who they are and what they are going through.
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.
c. 2006 Synod of Living Waters.
Used by permission.
A Kentucky church gives free legal advice to explain complicated federal law and hear grievances that otherwise go unremedied. A Tennessee parish gives rides to the hospital and help with college preparation. An Alabama congregation offers Spanish-language worship and a sympathetic ear.
Slowly, the synod's churches are finding ways to put their stamp, and their values, on one of America's biggest controversies, an issue that stirs alarm, confusion and compassion.
An ESL class
The controversy is immigration, pressing the nation to fix a system that oversees the more than 30 million foreign-born workers -- about 11 percent of the U.S. population -- now living here legally or illegally.
Churches are stepping in to put a human face on a messy political debate about how (or whether) to grant legal status to more immigrants, acculturate them into American life, or increase deportations and secure the borders.
As the rain poured in
And the thunder cracked
It pounded my ears
And soaked my soul
Much like this journey has done
Hearing the echoes of many cries
And feeling drenched in their stories
My heart longs for calm
To be away from the misery
We are sojourners before you and are sojourning just as all our fathers (1 Chronicles 29:10, 15).
The capacity for the transformation of church and community requires deep, intentional remembering. Our core memories are essential to our common identity as Christians. Memories give power for spiritual energy and growth. In spite of many warnings from Scripture about the perils of forgetting, we do forget.
Frederick Weidmann is director of the Center for Church Life and Professor of Biblical Studies at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. In an article about the early church, he recalls a core memory, one that formed the identity of the Christian movement in the first and second century. Citing writings by early Christian leaders, he recalls how our identity was formed by our ancestors, the Israelites.
In the 1970s I came of age theologically in a Presbyterian Church (PCUS) that was facing two threats: the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America and the charismatic movement. Though the PCA decimated the PCUS in some areas, it was the charismatic movement that seemed to inspire more fear. Stories abounded of church members, or sometimes ministers, attending charismatic conferences and coming back to split their congregations. Everything connected with the Holy Spirit became suspect. Just mentioning the Spirit was the kiss of death for candidates being examined on the floor of presbytery. The specter of fanaticism and schism hung over anything deemed to be "spiritual."
I recently attended a Presbyterian event where the keynote speaker taught something that deeply grieved me: "Presbyterians are more concerned about the glory of God and the coming of God's reign than the salvation of souls." This was proposed as one of the five key tenets of Reformed Theology. The Reformed doctrines of Sola Fides, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura and question one from the Westminster Shorter Catechism were used as supporting statements in this supposition. The conclusion drawn was that "salvation is God's business," inferring that it was not ours as Presbyterian Christians. The statement "salvation is God's business" was then echoed by others in two small groups in which I participated.
Could this attitude, if prevalent throughout our denomination, be why we are decreasing in numbers while other denominations are flourishing?
Please bear with me for one history lesson -- so that we can go over it and go on with living in today.
Starting in 1964, membership in mainline denominations went into a long and steady decline. Much has been made of this decline. Church partisans have used it as a weapon to denounce whatever they didn't like. Look at what happens, they argued, when you open the door to new liturgies, women, gays, liberals, conservatives, renewal hymns -- take your pick.
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.
Louis Weeks, the retiring president of Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, describes the ordination of Stephen Nkansah this way: "I never saw so many cabs in a Presbyterian parking lot."
Nkansah says more than 600 people worship at his congregation in Woodbridge, Va., now -- cabdrivers, custodians, truck drivers, delivery people, nurses, "all kinds."
They worship at Ebenezer Church both in Twi, the language of their native Ghana, and in English. By worshipping this way, "you come from the bottom of the heart," Nkansah said. He compares what happens at his church to the multitude of languages the apostles heard filling the room, as described in Acts -- all voices, all tongues, all manners of expression. "That is the best way to preach the Bible and to teach, in your own native language," he said. "We are trying to be like the apostles."
This is a story of one man -- two, actually, Nkansah and his friend and colleague, Mark Frimpong -- who have come far from home, made new homes, and planted new churches that are growing faster than many established congregations. It's a story too of struggle, of finding a way to connect with the predominantly white Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has been both welcoming and unsure of what to do with these people who come with their own customs and music and food and language, wanting to worship God in their own way.
Space has been made, but it has sometimes been painful.
While Christians nationwide wrestle to find ways to help settle immigrants coming across our national borders, a handful of Presbyterians in Texas carry out a little noticed outreach to short-term foreign workers. Seafarers, those sailors who transport cargo and fuel from country to country, are greeted by Ben Stewart and David Wells, Presbyterian pastors who serve as chaplains at the Howard T. Tellepsen Seafarers Center in Houston. The Seafarers Center, sponsored by the Presbytery of New Covenant, is the only ministry of its kind in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
In the midst of our heartache and loss, we have been absolutely overwhelmed too with a new sense of church.
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.
For decades, John Anderson, as a seminary student, chaplain, pastor, and denominational servant, served Presbyterian work in the United States. Now his alma mater, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas, is honoring him by providing new housing for its students.
John Anderson grew up in Dallas, Texas, in the 1930s, graduated from Highland Park High School in 1937. First Church, Dallas contributed greatly to his early formation. He received a BA from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he was president of the student body before graduating in 1944. After two years as a U.S. Navy chaplain in WWII, Anderson began 38 years of service to churches in Texas and Florida, with nearly half of those years in two separate calls to his boyhood church. In 1953, while serving as senior pastor and head of staff at First Church, Dallas, Anderson earned the Master of Theology degree from Austin Seminary. He has served as an ordained minister for more than 60 years.
You might be surprised to learn there may be more Presbyterians in Mexico than in the United States of America. Even though I could get no solid membership figures from the Office of the General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, the total membership is around two million -- with thirteen synods and sixty-two presbyteries.
There has been a Presbyterian/Reformed presence in Mexico since 1865. It was a courageous Mississippi schoolteacher ("a transplanted Yankee") who set up a small primary school, largely on her own, in Monterrey in that year. By 1872 a presbytery had been organized. Missionaries from four denominations have shared in a Presbyterian/ Reformed mission presence in Mexico over the years: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church, US, the Reformed Church in America, and the Associate Reformed Church. These mission boards have invested countless mission dollars and hundreds of years of missionary service in one of the most responsive fields for the growth of Reformed Christianity in the last century.
The 2007 Sprunt Lectures at Union-PSCE in Richmond, Va., were notable for a number of reasons: a timing change from winter to spring, the marking of a presidential transition, a thematic emphasis upon worship and Scripture and a marvelous address by Katherine Paterson. Paterson, a distinguished writer of children's stories, spoke to a capacity crowd on May 3 at the annual PSCE alumni dinner. She was honored along with nine classmates as members of the Class of 1957. Dr. Freda Gardner, past moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), introduced her former PSCE roommate.
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born in Quinn Jingo, China. She is a graduate of King College and holds masters degrees from both the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She lived and worked for four years in Japan. The Patersons now live in Barre, Vt., where her husband, Dr. John Paterson recently retired as pastor of the First Church. They are the parents of four grown children and four grandchildren.
Editor's Note: Union Seminary-PSCE dedicated a portrait to James H. Smylie on May 3. Dr. Smylie is a frequent contributor to the Outlook in addition to being professor emeritus of church history at Union/PSCE. We happily share the following excerpts from the dedication tribute offered by Dean Thompson, president and professor of ministry at Louisville Theological Seminary. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation under the supervision of James Smylie.
The purpose of this event is to celebrate the fruitful ministry of James Hutchinson Smylie, teacher and scholar for the church in the field of church history. Specializing in American church history and American Presbyterianism, James Smylie has served God for one-half century by serving ministerial students, pastors, local congregations, his denomination and his academic guild with remarkable effectiveness and energy.
He was born in 1925 in Huntington, W. Va., where his father was pastor of Second Church. He was educated at Washington University, St. Louis, B.A., 1946; and at Princeton Theological Seminary, B.D., 1949, Th.M., 1950, and Ph.D., 1958. He served as assistant minister, First Church, St. Louis, 1950-1952, where he met Elizabeth Roblee in the summer of 1950. They were married in that church in November 1951. Then they moved to Princeton Theological Seminary where Jim taught during and beyond his years of doctoral study, 1952-1962.
Energy will follow need and interest. So even though, from a practical standpoint, you could start anywhere and build toward a balanced program, your most pressing needs will be a reasonable starting point.
Many congregations, for example, are concerned about declining membership. Mainline Protestant denominations have been losing members steadily since 1964, when Baby Boomers began to graduate from high school. Partisans have used that decline as a weapon against whatever they didn't like. In fact, growth had come too easily in the two decades after World War II, and we just weren't geared up to retain current members and to recruit new members.
The Rev. Dr. Leonora (Nora) Tubbs Tisdale joined the Yale University Divinity School faculty in 2006 as the Clement-Muehl Professor of Homiletics. Before going to YDS, Dr. Tisdale served for four years as Consulting Theologian at the Fifth Avenue Church in New York City. She also served as Adjunct Faculty at Union Theological Seminary. Prior to that she taught Preaching and Worship at Princeton Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in Virginia (now Union-PSCE). She began her ministry as co-pastor with her husband of an ecumenical parish of four churches in central Virginia. Dr. Tisdale is married to the Rev. Dr. W. Alfred Tisdale Jr., a Presbyterian minister. Outlook Editor Jack Haberer recently talked with her about the subject of preaching.
Editor's note: "Preaching is what God does, and we have to learn and re-learn that" (William Willimon). Chris Brown, a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, covered a three-part lecture series delivered by William Willimon at PTS on April 27 with the theme, "God's Activity in Preaching." The lectures, titled "The Miracle of Preaching: Preaching as God's Word," were presented as a part of the seminary's annual J. Hubert Henderson Conference on Church and Ministry. Willimon, who is bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church and author of nearly 60 books, spoke with natural humility and humor to the pastors, alumni, and seminarians in attendance. His message, however, contained a powerful challenge to preachers: "In order to be a preacher, you have to keep practicing miracle."
c. 2007 Religion News Service
c. 2007 Religion News Service
Big Sky, Mont. -- Go outside.
Sometime today, walk out into the fresh air and just be for a few minutes.
And look up. There, hopefully, you will find sky.
Sky is good and natural and sometimes, even on a cloudy, grouchy day, even if you catch just a peek of it between skyscrapers or by craning your neck from the bathroom window that faces the alley, really quite beautiful.
Marveling at creation is easy to do when you're sitting where I am now, in an Adirondack chair on the porch of a cabin in the mountains of Montana, listening to the rush of a spring-swollen river. I can hear the occasional cry of two hawks that have been chasing a smaller bird around the hills all afternoon. I'm in place called Big Sky, and it is aptly named. They filmed "A River Runs Through It" here. This is perhaps the most beautiful place on earth, or at least as much of it as I've seen thus far. All of western Montana is like God showing off: "Look what I can do! Look what I can do!"
Sometime today, walk out into the fresh air and just be for a few minutes.
And look up. There, hopefully, you will find sky.
Sky is good and natural and sometimes, even on a cloudy, grouchy day, even if you catch just a peek of it between skyscrapers or by craning your neck from the bathroom window that faces the alley, really quite beautiful.
Marveling at creation is easy to do when you're sitting where I am now, in an Adirondack chair on the porch of a cabin in the mountains of Montana, listening to the rush of a spring-swollen river. I can hear the occasional cry of two hawks that have been chasing a smaller bird around the hills all afternoon. I'm in place called Big Sky, and it is aptly named. They filmed "A River Runs Through It" here. This is perhaps the most beautiful place on earth, or at least as much of it as I've seen thus far. All of western Montana is like God showing off: "Look what I can do! Look what I can do!"
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.
c. 2007 Religion News Service
I call our Church Wellness Project a "best practices guide to nurturing a healthy faith community."
The concept of "best practices" is widely accepted in many fields, but often is resisted in churches.
Briefly, the concept means that some methods and processes are better -- more effective, more productive, more likely to achieve desired ends -- than others.
In medicine, for example, complicated surgical procedures tend to follow widely accepted best practices. In sales, best practices include prompt response to inquiries, consistent follow-through on commitments, and tracking interactions with prospects and customers.
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