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Holy Week resources and reflections
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WCC: Opinion and observations

A council of churches, of course, is not what we need. This is admitted implicitly in all the talk about "the ecumenical movement" when supporters of the World Council of Churches (WCC) congregate for a conference, or a symposium, or -- once every seven years or so -- a WCC assembly. What we really need is neither a council of churches nor any manner of super-church, but a movement of disciples capable of following Jesus without continually tripping over one another.

But a council of churches is what we have. The World Council was created during the first half of the twentieth century by members of an array of prior movements: the Student Christian Movement, the student volunteer movement for missions, the Faith and Order movement (concerned over theological differences), the Life and Work movement (for social action and diaconal ministries), a movement for international peace through friendship among the churches, as well as assorted educational networks descended from the Sunday School movement. The WCC regularly updates its historical "river map" showing how these streams mingled over the decades, one confluence followed by another joining of tributaries, combining into -- of all things -- a council of churches.

WCC: Like it or not

Like it or not, the stated clerk is the Presbyterian Church's lead ecumenical officer.

Like it or not, the present stated clerk is a self-avowed ecumaniac. He works hard for Christianity-wide unity.  

Like it or not, the World Council of Churches, on whose executive committee Stated Clerk Cliff Kirkpatrick has just completed a six-year term, provides the PC(USA) its most expansive network of ecumenical relationships.

Like it or not, the recently concluded meeting of the WCC presented a picture of great unity. And it provided a platform for others to cry out their contempt for American Christians.  

Like it or not, we need to deal with that.

Managing differing convictions: How Presbyterians dealt with conflict in the past

Also featured in the Outlook forum this issue: Deep problems by Barry Ensign-George

 

More than fifty years ago, historian Lefferts Loetscher in his classic The Broadening Church (1954) argued that American Presbyterianism contained two elements: one stressing "precise theological formulation" and "orderly and authoritarian church government," the other placing "more emphasis upon spontaneity, vital impulse, and adaptability." "It has been the good fortune and the hardship of the Presbyterian Church," Loetscher noted wryly, "to have had ... these two elements in dialectical tension within itself from the beginning."

The tension was apparent as American Presbyterians cobbled themselves together first in a presbytery (1706) and then a synod (1716). Initially these bodies had no official creed, but by the 1720s, some were calling for mandatory subscription to the Westminster Confession. "Now a church without a confession, what is it like?" asked one proponent of subscription, and he replied that such a church was "in a very defenseless condition, as a city without walls" liable to infiltration by heresy and error. By contrast, opponents feared that required subscription was "a bold invasion of Christ's royal power" and noted the "glaring contradiction" of requiring ministers to adhere to a document which itself declared: "God alone is the Lord of the conscience."

Managing differing convictions: Deep problems

Also featured in the Outlook forum this issue: How Presbyterians dealt with conflict in the past by James H. Moorhead

Due to space constraints the original version of this essay was shortened for the print version of the Outlook. The following is the complete, full-length version. --Editor

 

The long-awaited Report of the Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity (TFPUP) is in hand.  Thanks and assessments have been offered.  We've invested a great deal in this effort: good people who were called in recognition of their capacity for such work, thousands of dollars gathering them and broadcasting their work, precious time for their work.  Clearly they have had a powerful experience, calling us now to follow the principles that guided them, seeking similar experiences for ourselves.

Of course, the TFPUP Report does more.  It proposes actual changes to the structure of our life together.  And it is here that incisive questions need to be asked.  The Report includes some deep problems. Specifically, the Report's recommendations 1) do not recover historic Presbyterian practices, 2) propose a form of local option without explaining how we'll deal with the implications, 3) propose a major change to our life together without putting that change before the presbyteries.  It is important that these problems be recognized and addressed.  In what follows I will consider these three key problems in the Report's proposals, particularly in its Recommendation 5 (Rec. 5 for short).  Other problems have been identified by others among us.  They also bear careful consideration.

Presbyterians and the “40 Days of Purpose”

Editors Note:  In its ongoing effort to support effective local church ministry and mission, the Outlook invites its readers to consider alternative models of church ministry being developed in sister churches around the denomination.  This analysis of the 40 Days of Purpose combines with two other articles, A new Reformation? and Purpose-Driven and Presbyterian: One new paradigm at work, to provide analysis of the purpose-driven church paradigm

 

In the spring of 2004, Covenant Church in San Antonio, Texas, joined the international throng of congregations to employ Rick Warren's "40 Days of Purpose" campaign. Our session read and discussed Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Life, and formed the steering committee for our campaign. After paying the licensing fee, we received all the necessary resources and materials required to conduct a campaign for our congregation according to Warren's protocol.

The campaign, which invites the participation of every church member, consists of a variety of interrelated events and experiences. The most important is the reading of The Purpose-Driven Life, which is organized into 40 daily readings. Other elements include: weekly small group discussions of the readings, large group "catalytic" events such as kick-off celebrations, templates for coordination of worship services and sermons, a mission and ministry fair, and a closing celebration.

While we did not utilize all of the components of the campaign, most notably the sermon notes and outlines, we did add some distinctively Presbyterian flavors to our version of "40 Days of Purpose." For our adult Sunday church school classes, we adapted lessons from the curriculum resource The Great Ends of the Church by Joseph Small [©1997 Congregational Ministries Publishing, Presbyterian Church (USA), Louisville Ky.] It corresponds to the five purposes of The Purpose-Driven Life. The language and order are different, however, so we ordered the Great Ends according to the order of the purposes:

Worship -- The Maintenance Of Divine Worship

Fellowship -- The Shelter, Nurture, and Spiritual Fellowship of the Children of God

Discipleship -- The Preservation of the truth

Ministry -- The Promotion of Social Righteousness

Evangelism -- The Proclamation of the Gospel for the Salvation of Humankind

A new Reformation?

Editors Note:  In its ongoing effort to support effective local church ministry and mission, the Outlook invites its readers to consider alternative models of church ministry being developed in sister churches around the denomination.  This editorial combines with two other articles, Presbyterians and the "40 Days of Purpose" and Purpose-Driven and Presbyterian: One new paradigm at work, to provide analysis of the purpose-driven church paradigm

 

Many Reformed Christians shook their heads in dismay when Robert Schuller's book, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (Word Books, 1982), made its way into print.

How could he possibly think that attaining a good self-concept could replace the gospel's drama of sin ... forgiveness ... redemption, they wondered.

How could categories drawn from pop psychology supplant terms used in holy Scripture, they protested.  

The reformation he helped launch has been one not of theology but of methodology. That reformation commenced when he formed a church by visiting hundreds of Garden Grove, Calif., homes, asking folks, "Do you go to church?" and "If not, why not?" Based upon their responses, he shaped his drive-in church's liturgy around people's expressed desires rather than adhere to some of the classical traditions of the Reformed churches. In the process he jettisoned the language of Zion and replaced it with terms whose meanings were self-evident to secular people. He shortened or eliminated parts of worship perceived to be boring. In the process, communication effectiveness took precedence over confessional precision and biblical exposition.

Theological Task Force: Unity and purity


Also featured in the Outlook forum this issue: The challenge of true compassion by Tim Filston

 

For my first Homiletics sermon at Westminster Theological Seminary my text was Paul's challenge to the elders of the church, in Acts 20:28-31: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he has bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, grievous wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number persons will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!

At the time I preached that sermon, I was sure that the current meaning of "wolves" was "Protestant Liberals," who had explained away much of the text of Holy Scripture. After decades of historical research, I have not changed that opinion. However, I have learned that religious wolves come in many shapes and sizes. Left to ourselves, acting without the restraining or inspiring grace of God's Spirit, any of us can tear and divide the flock. A great hymn, "The Church's One Foundation," describes it:

Though with a scornful wonder
This world sees her oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed ...

When Luther wrote his first commentary on Galatians (1519), he was concerned to confront both heresy and schism. He knew that the leadership of the church was riddled by sexual antinomianism and other deadly sins, and that it was involved in theological heresy that had corrupted its center in Rome.

Theological Task Force: The challenge of true compassion


Also featured in the Outlook forum this issue: Unity and Purity by Richard Lovelace

 

Mae West said, "I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." 

Isn't that the way we usually make compromises--we just drift a bit? We make an assumption that just seems right and worry about consequences later. Here's one: My private pursuit of happiness is no one's business. Many Americans believe that as long as we stay out of each other's lane and obey the traffic laws, then what happens inside my car should not concern you. Yet, on the contrary, what happens inside the car affects how we relate to traffic. Still, the prevailing assumption is that private freedom trumps common values. Many within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been chasing this trend.

This drift towards the priority of the private has been gradual but steady.  And like the frog in the kettle that cannot detect the temperature rising, our common doctrinal values are slowly getting cooked. There is such confusion about doctrine that many people in the church deflect time-tested, biblical truth, thinking that they are being more Presbyterian by doing so. Some think that exchanging our confessional point of reference for the Spirit of the Age is what it means to be the "church reformed and always reforming." 

As Evangelicals, It’s Time We Focus on Our Own Sins

c. 2006 Religion News Service

 

When I attended the 'The Hand of God in U.S. Politics' seminar recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the attendees seemed alarmed about the power of 'the religious right.' As the panelists and attendees voiced their concern, I sat quietly wondering, 'How is it that when the world thinks of American evangelicals, it thinks primarily of political issues instead of our love for others or our loyalty to Jesus?'

It occurred to me that the misconception may be our own fault. Could it be that we have gone 'off message'? It seems that the only message many people associate with the church is a message of condemnation. After 9-11, some church leaders began pointing their fingers in blame at national social sins as the reason for what

They seemed to believe was God's judgment. Again, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we heard some Christians suggesting it was God's judgment.

But could it be that God is less concerned about the sin of the world than he is about the sin within the church?

Suffering and rejoicing together

If one member suffers, all suffer together ... (I Cor. 12:26.)

        

There are certainly many parts of the church hurting at this time. I am particularly aware of the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) and its facility in Montreat. I served as the moderator of the task forced charged with the responsibility of exploring the future direction for the PHS operations.

My first trip to Montreat was in 1970, one of the first Youth Conferences. Several members of our youth group approached the session to ask permission to raise money in order to attend the youth conference in Montreat. This was highly unusual in a PCUS church that strictly adhered to a unified budget. Our youth director took me to the PHS facility because our session had sent its records there that summer to be copied. She showed me the minutes where my name had been recorded. I was impressed that our church's records could be found in Montreat. But I was more impressed with Lookout Mountain, and the coffee house (this was the 70's) in Upper Anderson Auditorium, and the worship services. Even so, I caught a glimpse of our connectional church.

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