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Ask questions about questions

Last week in Indianapolis, I spoke at Christian Theological Seminary -- "Church Outside the Box," was the title they chose -- and engaged in dialog with three panelists.

We had a grand time up front. I spoke with passion and the panelists responded in spirited debate. But then the moderator invited the audience to ask their questions. Surprise! Their questions went directions we hadn't anticipated.

Go deeper, said one person. We're already beyond denominational woes. What lies ahead?

How do we address a dangerous world situation? asked another.

What specifically should we be doing? Asked one of several people who arrived ready to move on and now wanted guidance.

A new Dream

My husband and I recently celebrated our 25th anniversary. At a small and packed popular restaurant in New York City, they brought out our dessert with Proseco on the house and a chocolate inscription around the plate that gave away our celebration to all the tables around us, opening the door of conversation. Because the couple right next to us was from Oklahoma, my husband felt compelled to tell them that I was from Iran, figuring they probably didn't run into many Iranians in their circle. He apologized later in the cab but I knew instantly why he did this. I have spent my 29 years in America playing the role of ambassador from Iran. And it has been a rocky three decades beginning with the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis in my college freshman year in D.C. to the present day of Iran as the face of evil.

The couple from Oklahoma nodded their heads approvingly at my story and the man declared very proudly that I am "living the American Dream."  This did not sit well with me. Like most Iranians who ended up as what I like to call "accidental immigrants," I came to America from a life of privilege. I told our new friends that I grew up in boarding school in England. And I told them something that everyone is always shocked to hear: My parents still live in Iran. Really? How is it for them? Why don't they leave?

“The Simple Way” followers live faith in Philadelphia neighborhood

Editor's Note: This article is based on material in Shane Claiborne's book, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical and information on the Web site of "The Simple Way," (www.thesimpleway.org ).

"Most good things have been said far too many times and just need to be lived." So says Shane Claiborne at the beginning of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, his book on his ongoing quest to discover what that "living" might actually look like. Claiborne and six others are the founders of The Simple Way, a community in Kensington, one of Philadelphia's most challenging neighborhoods.

Claiborne is clear to note that The Simple Way is not a "church plant" or an attempt at creating a model of "radical Christianity" that is theirs alone. "We have never considered ourselves a church plant," says Claiborne, adding, "I'm not sure we need more churches" (pp. 144-45). It does, however, represent a way of being in the world, a way that is intentionally and self-consciously Christian.

Those in more established church traditions might want to pay attention.

Sundays and the Sabbath

I'm a fan of Sheldon Sorge, and I affirm his article on ways that congregations can support their pastors in keeping their callings vital. However, I've been forced to conclude, after too many years of study, that there is little evidence from New Testament and pre-Constantinian historical sources to justify a Gentile Sabbath ethic. Sheldon says of himself (and all us pastors) and of members, "I needed not just an equivalent of their Saturday, a day to mow the yard, change the oil, fix the bicycle, etc. -- but also of their Sunday."

Many American Presbyterians remember blue laws and other external constraints on Sunday activity. Those constraints are gone, and "their Sunday" enjoys no practical consensus. Are Sundays for naps? NFL football? Movies and museums? Golf? Shopping? Youth sports? The whole day in acts of corporate and/or personal worship? Lacking a consensus, many pastors and authors are treating Sabbath as a personal spiritual practice, loosely defining it as "rest." Such an approach requires a good bit of work to justify itself as sufficiently grounded in Scripture, confessions, and theological reflection.

Paying attention to Sheldon's situation (and every minister's) can help. 

A tale of two Congregations

Standing on the corner of Santa Ana Blvd. and Main Street, in downtown Santa Ana, Calif., you experience the sights, sounds, and faces of a microcosm of the American urban story. 

On one side of Main Street sits First Church of Santa Ana, a downtown church celebrating this year its 125th anniversary. Considering it is in California, it is actually quite old. Once overflowing with members, more recently it is struggling to adapt to the city's changing demographics. Across Main Street, not a half block away, is the building that formerly housed Trinity United Church, the first United Presbyterian Church west of the Mississippi when it was founded in 1876. 

In 1958, Trinity Church, like many downtown Presbyterian churches, left the city to move out of downtown, now in the midst of a sprawling suburbia. First Church remained.

Now, some 50 years later, the two churches are coming together in a partnership that may give hope to other struggling urban churches, and inspiration to their often resource-rich suburban counterparts.

What is the public witness role of the assembly’s stated clerk?

Most of our church members know that the stated clerk is not just a guy with an eyeshade reviewing reports, though that part of the job was and is important. What makes the position so important is its leadership role, and that relates to the way the Clerk embodies and implements the Church's public witness. So we must look first at a definition of public witness, and then look at what current and past stated clerks have been doing.

By definition, public witness is a larger category than social witness and includes at least four main categories:

1.      Influencing public opinion by presenting persuasive, credible, ethically-grounded stances;

2.      Appealing to the faith and values of individuals, particularly in their church life;

3.      Effecting specific policies, involving informed constituencies;

4.      Exemplifying viable alternative visions grounded in the Gospel that contrast with the models of secular society, business, and government.

The Office of the General Assembly, focused in the elective office of the stated clerk, represents the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) internally and externally through a range of official and personal roles. Thus it relates to all four of the categories above. By virtue of its "church-wide," or General Assembly-based, election, the Clerk may be legitimately considered the highest elected continuing representative of the Church, carrying administrative duties well beyond those of Moderator, whose role is almost entirely symbolic.

The clock is ticking …

"The clock is running out very, very quickly. I am more pessimistic on the question of time running out than I've ever been."

-- U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt,), while on a visit to Jerusalem with Rep. Peter Welch (D.-Vt.)

I agree with the assessment of our Congressional leaders and applaud them for going to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank. Reflecting on my three-week visit to the West Bank in May, I too discerned a sense of despairing hopelessness and apathy. Regretfully the delegation could not meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in person. But we saw the visible devastation caused by the Wall as it snakes its way mostly on Palestinian lands, cutting Palestinians off from Palestinians, creating apartheid-like Bantustans. As Shulamit Aloni, former member of Israel's Knesset, said recently, "Forty years of occupation has turned every Palestinian village into a detention camp. We are exercising apartheid." 

Forty years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories was recently marked. In 36 of those years I have witnessed what occupation is, having conducted annual alternative pilgrimage tours, done fellowship study, and been involved in humanitarian projects in hospitals, clinics, and schools. I have seen the strangulation of Palestinian cultural, political, economic, religious and social life, and educational opportunity. Each year it gets worse. Remember, Palestinians are the occupied, not the occupiers; yet they are being punished. Their land is being confiscated for Israeli settlements and an intricate system of roads for settlers only (all contrary to Geneva Conventions).

Personal needs require personal response

Of all institutions, the church has both the opening and the obligation to make a personal response to people's needs. People endure anonymous and mechanical responses from other institutions. They expect more from a faith community. 

With some exceptions, most church members will grant their church access to their lives. They will respond to personal visits, telephone calls, e-mail, and letters. In a need situation, they probably won't respond to a broadside invitation, such as, "If anyone needs a personal visit, call the church office."

Clergy need to develop the habit of making pastoral calls other than hospital emergencies.