I motored my way from my home in Annandale, Va. out to the congregation I’d soon be serving part-time in Poolesville, Md. I had an 11 a.m. meeting scheduled with the clerk of session of the wee kirk there, to sign my first contract and talk about how things at Poolesville Presbyterian work.
It is not news that the Emergent Church Movement has been shaking up American Christians who identify themselves as evangelical.
Normally mature Christians do not wonder much in the new year if they kept the faith minimally enough in the past 12 months to get by. More likely, they feel guilty that they have failed to serve Christ with consistent commitment and worry more about the things left undone than what they did that offended God.
IN AN EARLIER COLUMN (4/10/11) I pointed out our denomination’s shocking lack of available pastoral calls, in comparison to the large numbers of pastors seeking calls. The column’s conclusion was a series of encouragements for entrepreneurial strategies to address the call shortage.
As a teaching elder, long in tooth and at the risk of being branded a heretic, I feel compelled to comment on what I perceive in reading, listening and generally observing the actions and rhetoric surrounding present activities within the PC(USA).
Maryland is thinking about letting gays and lesbians get married.
I blew it. Here I was up to my eyeballs co-editing two different letters of outreach to many of my disaffected friends in the PC(USA), promising to “sow seeds of grace, kindness, respect and cooperation in every possible way — all toward the end of us all serving as agents of reconciliation before the watching world, as Scripture requires of us.”
A century ago, the geographic center of Christianity was in Europe and North America.
First, a disclaimer: I am happily married to a person whose vocation is sociology of religion.
NOVEMBER 2008, GREEN ZONE,
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
Every day when my chaplain assistant and I drove around the Green Zone, we went by the 215 towers.
I just received a year-end greeting from a Web service that I tried briefly last summer and then forgot about. And while I was writing that sentence, another arrived from a service that I stopped using over a year ago.
I was fortunate to spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Switzerland, visiting a dear friend who, sadly, has had her cancer return with a vengeance. A pastor in Zurich, Denise and I met years ago at a Reformed theology conference sponsored by the Office of Theology and Worship. Later her daughter became our exchange student here in the States, and a big sister to our only child. Our families have stayed close.
Correction:
In the story, “In Pakistan, an island of clarity amid a sea of mixed messages” (pub. Jan 26), David Stoner was identified as former interim director of the General Assembly Council. He actually was the executive director. Also, Christy Munir did not teach at Gordon College but was chair of the chemistry department of Qaid-I Azim University. He was selected to become chairman of the board for Gordon College if the PC(USA) finally takes back the school.
Check the Amazon.com listings of recent books about Pakistan and you will perceive a theme: “The Unraveling …, ” “Descent into Chaos,” “ … the World’s Most Frightening State,” “Deadly Embrace …, ” “ … the Hard Country.”
LAHORE, Pakistan
If the road to recovery begins with confessing your sins, then the future of Pakistan should brighten.
With Living Waters for the World’s vacation bible school (VBS) curriculum, “Clean Water for All God’s Children!,” attendees will not go on safari or to the rain forest or on a sea cruise or have a space adventure. What they will do is learn about the miracle of clean water. And have the opportunity to provide clean water for some of God’s children.
Where should announcements about church and community be placed in a Presbyterian (Reformed) service of worship? This question needs to be asked since, although they provide essential information about the mission of the church, they may also seriously disrupt the flow of the worship of God by injecting the trivial into contemplation of the eternal.
There we were, Mark, Barbara and I, our arms stuck out a second-story window, trying to tie knots in ropes to secure a newly printed AIDS awareness banner to our church building so people passing by could see it.
Here I stand; I can do no other.” I’ve heard those words more times than I can recall — mostly from pastors who were drawing a line in the sand and separating themselves either from a rival faction in the congregation or from their denomination of affiliation or both. However, many of those pastors ultimately sounded a different refrain: “If only I’d known what would have resulted, I never would have started this.”
Martin Luther’s footsteps are all over Germany — where he preached, prayed and inspired people to think about God in a new way.
Travel in Germany and the phrase “in former times” becomes almost a refrain. It can mean, depending on the context, during World War II, during the Communist era that divided the country for more than 40 years, during the Nazi regime which so scarred the country, or during an even longer stretch of history leading back to medieval times.
Once upon a time, in the 1600s, Martin Luther was a best-selling author in Europe. And his rise in popularity was connected to a technological revolution of the time: Johannes Gutenberg’s development of the printing press.
A pastor whom I admire recently scoffed at technology. A not-for-profit agency director did the same, saying especially that she was determined to avoid Facebook.
© Copyright 2026 The Presbyterian Outlook. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement. Website by Web Publisher PRO
