The National Anthem's lyrics gained fresh meaning five years ago when the United States attacked and invaded Iraq. On TV we saw Baghdad aflame with bombs exploding and tracer bullets lighting the night sky. With apologies to Francis Scott Key for revising his lyrics, "The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was firmly planted in Baghdad." For maybe 100 years, say John McCain.
Why did our nation invade Iraq?
President George W. Bush, soon after occupying the White House, boldly announced he "had a clear vision of where I want to lead America." Sometimes he fumbled syntax and mispronounced words. The late arch-critic Molly Ivins, who rarely came to his rescue, told mocking pundits, "You can usually tell what he meant to say."
Many Protestant congregations have gotten trapped in a "culture of smallness."
They don't value growth, they resist change, and they look askance at megachurches. True virtue, they want to believe, lies in the small, in face-to-face intimacy, in the pastor who knows every story well. Some of this attitude is defensive, of course. Their churches aren't growing, so they develop an ideology of non-growth.
No institution exercises greater impact upon the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s retired church professionals than the Presbyterian Board of Pensions. Outlook editor Jack Haberer sat down to talk about that with BOP President and CEO Robert Maggs.
JH: Rob, when it comes to retirement, the first thing that comes to mind for most of us is, "How am I going to survive?" That puts a lot of weight and responsibility upon the administrators like yourself for pension programs. Tell me about that.
RM: I think that first thing we have to do is to get people thinking about retirement early on. I like to say, "Start thinking about it the first day you have your first job." So our job is really to educate people, especially our plan members, from the time they're in seminary right through their career until they have filed that application to receive a pension. The pension is going to be a good pension. Someone said this is the best pension plan in America. That was a "Jeopardy" question, I think. But the pension alone doesn't do it. So our job is to explain to people all the risks and rewards and joys and concerns that can happen during their life, how it's going affect their financial future and what they should be doing to hedge those risks, if you will. That includes savings through a retirement savings plan. It includes good financial planning. It includes programs that help people take care of their mental health, their physical health, as well as their financial health so that they can have productive careers.
We all know that it's important to care for our health and finances as part of retirement planning. However, we often neglect more obvious, but no less significant, issues, such as where we will live and what we will do with our time. As one Board of Pensions seminar asks, "If you are what you do, who are you when you don't?"
Entering this new stage of life can be a challenge, especially if you don't start thinking about it until you're already retired. Consider this example from Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners' book Don't Retire, REWIRE!
[Bill] had come to realize that a traditional retirement like his father's was not for him. He wanted to do something productive -- but he didn't know what. He just knew that he didn't want anything as demanding as the 24/7 existence he had been living for the past three years (xi).1
The Board of Pensions of
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
www.pensions.org
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
www.pcusa.org
Presbyterian Association of Homes
and Services for the Aging:
www.pahsa.org
Presbyterians across the church have had July 2009 marked on their calendars for years, in eager anticipation of the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. Or perhaps not.
Lutherans adore Martin Luther. Methodist hearts are strangely warmed by John Wesley. Anglicans even have a sardonic fondness for Henry VIII. But Presbyterians are uncertain at best about John Calvin and his legacy. Calvin is not a Reformed idol.
Our reluctance to venerate John Calvin would have pleased him. Calvin did not want the reverence of future generations. Among other safeguards against idolization, he specified that he be buried in Geneva's common cemetery in an unmarked grave. Although there is a Rue Calvin in Geneva today, his house no longer stands, and no one knows quite where it was.
Introduction
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) experienced a reunion in 1983 of what are commonly referred to as the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches. This article gives a brief account of what has happened in ecumenical relations in the PC(USA) since its reunion in Atlanta, Ga., June 1983.
The common designation of the previous churches as "southern" and "northern" is an inaccuracy. The northern Church, UPCUSA, was a national church with congregations and presbyteries spanning the USA territory. One can surmise that this designation began at the time of the separation of these churches in the 1860's over issues relating to the holding of Negro slaves, a subject of great interest, though this article is not intending to address it.
In my current days of age, I have come to believe that there is another aspect of learning, and worshipping.
It is the presence of motion, and the use of the body in praise. I call this Christian sign language. Oh, you say, "This fellow is off on a Pentecostal kick!" Perhaps there is a suspicion brewing that I have sold out to ecclesiastical "rock and roll".
(PNS) LOUISVILLE -- This is a good year for Easter to come early!
The date of Easter this year, March 23, is the earliest it has been for almost 200 years. With all of the pain and suffering in the world, the conflict in our church, and the deep yearning for the good news that can only be answered by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, an early Easter is just what the world needs.
In 2003, Robert Jenson and Carl Braaten edited a little book entitled, In One Body Through the Cross, challenging churches in North America to discover their unity in Christ. In that book, Jenson and Braaten note that congregational life in the United States "often proceeds with little sense of contradiction between division from others and life as a realization of one church of Christ."1 We are no longer offended by denominational differences and indeed regard such variations as normal, i.e., as "the natural expression of a Christian marketplace with churches representing different options for a variety of spiritual tastes."
As one fascinated by the future and its possibilities, I find scenario planning -- creating stories of possible futures, and watching for signs as to how the future is unfolding -- to be a stimulating framework for observation. Peter Schwartz, in The Art of the Long View, and his consulting firm, GBN Global Business Network, popularized this planning technique that is used in for-profit as well as non-profit and governmental organizations. I like to think that my passion for scenario planning both honors and invokes the tradition of the Bible's visionaries and dreamers, whose own scenarios of what God's future would hold were awakened by the touch of the Spirit in their respective contexts and cultures.
Cleopas asks Jesus, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? (v.18). But Cleopas himself appears to be uninformed about the transformation that took place among the multitude at the Cross.
The popular mind thinks that there was a murderous mob around the Cross crying, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" But such was not the case. The city of Jerusalem was and is relatively small with limited public space. Pilate's judgment hall could not have held more than a few dozen people. The High Priest and his supporters were naturally present for the political trial of Jesus. There is no hint that the supporters of Jesus were allowed into the room. On that occasion the High Priest's men (in the hall) responded to Pilate with the cry, "Crucify him." But on the street it was a different matter.
To worship is to be open to mystery,
The unexpected,
The soul before unknown,
The darkness of the light, and
The lightness of the dark
To receive what can only be given,
never taken, never controlled,
For good or ill.
If ministers have the fortitude to greet arriving and departing worshipers on Sunday, they will find themselves whipsawed between conflicting needs.
Longtime members want the pastor's attention and believe, quite justifiably, that they deserve it. Visitors, new members and those not yet incorporated into church life need the pastor's attention, too.
On a recent Sunday, I talked with a needy member at the front door and watched helplessly as a dozen newcomers left church without any connection. We didn't get their names or e-mail addresses, or say a word of welcome, or convey a desire to embrace.
If I had focused on the newcomers, of course, it would have been the member who left feeling ignored.
As an advocate for overcoming disciple-making mediocrity by adapting the purpose-driven approach to ministry, I recognize that some leaders question whether this innovative strategy can indeed reflect non-negotiable Presbyterian beliefs and values. And some leaders wonder whether the Missional and Emerging Church movements have supplanted the purpose-driven approach as the best way to re-tool a congregation for life-changing ministry.
To some observers, the phrase "purpose-driven Presbyterian" is simply an oxymoron, since the concept was developed by Pastor Rick Warren at Saddleback Community Church, a Southern Baptist congregation! Yet the six Great Ends of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) i.e. (G-1.0200) mirror Warren's premise that Christ's church exists in order to cultivate worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission. (Two of the six "Great Ends" concern "mission," expressing our Reformed conviction that salvation is holistic, involving both the "proclamation of the Gospel" and the "promotion of social righteousness.")
It is clear that Jesus carefully planned the first part of the Triumphal Entry. He chose a village where he had friends. One of those friends was alerted to ready a colt and tie it in front of the house at a specified time. Its owner was waiting and watching. The disciples were told where to find the colt and both parties memorized passwords.
It is also clear that Jesus engaged in similar planning for the Last Supper. A man who could recognize the disciples was waiting with a water pot to lead them to a house where the owner had already offered his large, furnished upper room to Jesus. Those involved used passwords again. Meticulous planning clearly surfaces in both of these occasions during holy week. I would suggest a third: the Triumphal Entry itself.
Congregations should offer regular instruction on each spiritual discipline (prayer, study, fasting, service, giving, worship, confession, and silence), to show possible outlets for practice and examples from life.
In addition, congregations should offer opportunities to act, such as mission work and prayer vigils. Doing and learning need to go hand in hand. Otherwise, the doing loses its foundation, or the learning becomes sterile and precious.
The point isn't to promote a single way, but several ways that work together to promote spiritual well-being.
Was there a Weary Wednesday led into Maundy Thursday? A day when all that went before the palm branches and plotting, all..
Cleopas asks Jesus, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? (v.18). But Cleopas himself appears to be uninformed about the transformation that took place among the multitude at the Cross.
The popular mind thinks that there was a murderous mob around the Cross crying, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" But such was not the case. The city of Jerusalem was and is relatively small with limited public space. Pilate's judgment hall could not have held more than a few dozen people. The High Priest and his supporters were naturally present for the political trial of Jesus. There is no hint that the supporters of Jesus were allowed into the room. On that occasion the High Priest's men (in the hall) responded to Pilate with the cry, "Crucify him." But on the street it was a different matter.
I propose that the Presbyterian Church designate that a Good Friday service from noon until 3 p.m. be included in all Good Friday worship services.
I am a regular church member who believes that the Bible is the word of God. I start with the fact that the foundations of the Christian Church are the birth of Christ, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. The Bible tells us the place where these events took place and the days of the week of the crucifixion and resurrection. The Bible tells us Christ was born in Bethlehem and was crucified in Jerusalem at a place called Golgotha.
Just twenty-five years ago, the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA) reunited at a meeting of their General Assemblies in Atlanta, Ga. -- to the joy of many! We should remember and celebrate this occasion. We should use it also to recall our Presbyterian past of divisions and unions over the centuries.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of that June 1983 day in Atlanta when the northern UPCUSA and southern PCUS became the reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a time, not of nostalgic indulgence in a past that once was, but a time to engage in honest reflection on how far we have come in fulfilling the dream that brought us together and see how far we have yet to go in becoming a new Church.
First, denominational reunion would never have taken place in 1983 had it not been for the creation and existence of eighteen union presbyteries between 1970-1983, once called "the most unique phenomenon in North American Presbyterianism." The constitutional changes that made their creation possible were achieved under the win-lose polity of majority rule with close majority votes.
I was born into the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), went to one of its six colleges, and was ordained after graduating from its only seminary, Pittsburgh-Xenia. In a sense, the uniting of the Presbyterian family in the United States became one of the hallmarks of my 50 years in the ministry.
In May 1950, our stated clerk received from the Presbyterian Church U.S. (PCUS) and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA) "an invitation to unite with them in their program of acquaintance and cooperation and in the plan of union which they were jointly developing."
I begin this story with an apologia. If I write as though my associates and I played the starring role in the drama of reunion, be assured that I know better! Thousands of people were involved, many of them in important ways. But my friend, the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook, asked me to tell my story, and I have done my best.
My involvement began in 1971 when, at the urging of my longtime Mississippi friend, Andrew A. Jumper, then pastor of Central Church in Clayton, Mo., I became a member of the Board of the Covenant Fellowship of Presbyterians (CFP).
On October 31, 1986, then D.Min. candidate Mary Naegeli interviewed J. Randolph Taylor regarding his journey through the reunion of 1983. Taylor was president of San Francisco Theological Seminary at the time. The Outlook publishes never-before-excerpts of their conversation as part of this 25th anniversary look back. The Outlook is grateful to Mary Naegeli, now member at large of San Francisco presbytery, for sharing this transcript with our readers.
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