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Voices

The law enforcement-friendly congregation

Law enforcement officers and their families make great church members. Police officers are passionate volunteers, generous with their time and money when they see a need, and genuinely care about people with problems. And, what church wouldn't want a law enforcement officer on their property committee to advise the church about security issues? Police officers have many gifts to offer local churches.

The problem is too many congregations don't understand the law enforcement culture enough to be welcoming of this special segment of society. Officers often report they don't feel welcome in many congregations. Small insensitivity issues are enough to keep officers away. One officer was asked to leave his gun at home, so he quit attending. Another couldn't face the glares of a church member he had arrested for domestic violence months before. Pastors who bash the government from the pulpit drive officers away.

Sessions cannot tailor the church to fit each member, but for prospective law enforcement officer/members, sensitivity issues can be overcome with a little education and willingness for the congregation to learn about the law enforcement culture.

Book Reviews

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

I have been a huge fan of Jimmy Carter for a long time and believe that he has set the gold standard for being a former president. Who else in recent generations can match his stewardship of the prestige that accompanies that position? Rather than retiring into a private world where he could lick the wounds he collected during his administration or going on the lucrative speaking circuit, Carter immediately threw himself into building homes for the poor and serving as an international ambassador for causes of peace and justice. He is widely respected for the moral authority he has earned over the last twenty-five years since leaving office. Like others, I just adore this man.

Over the last fifteen years, I have accompanied numerous church groups on pilgrimages to Palestine to visit the "living stones" of the church who are struggling for their very existence. We have helped to build homes, church facilities, ministries, and most of all, hope. Along the way, the Palestinian Christians found a very tender and abiding place in my heart.

Voices

Test & Measure

I use the term "metrics" to describe the seventh key factor of Church Wellness.

I could as easily use words like "measurements" or "statistics" or "numbers." The point isn't the label, but the "test & measure" principles behind it:

"¢        we need to try out reasonably promising ideas 

"¢        we need to measure the outcomes of what we do

"¢        we need to be guided by those outcomes, making our next decisions on the basis of what worked or didn't work.

 

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Christian Reformed Church to study kids and Communion

(RNS) "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them," Jesus told his disciples. But should that include taking Communion?

A lot of people in the Christian Reformed Church think so, but a lot don't. So now a committee will help the church decide. The Faith Formation Committee has five years to come up with a statement on when youths should take Communion. At issue: whether children first must make a profession of faith, as now required, or whether being baptized is sufficient.

"This is an issue that gets to people deeper than who can serve in office, because it gets to the heart of the sacraments," said the Rev. Tyler Wagenmaker, of Hudsonville, Mich.

In a survey of CRC pastors, 25 percent said their churches' children take Communion before a public profession of faith. Children begin taking it anywhere from ages 5 to 18, said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

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Church group makes environmental tour to mining-scarred mountains

EOLIA, Ky. -- Sam Gilbert made his living mining coal from the mountains of eastern Kentucky -- that's how he fed his family and paid his bills. He lives in the hills along Rocky Branch on Black Mountain and loves this piece of heaven.

He also sees what's happening at the top.

Before he retired, Gilbert was a strip miner. Now, in the push to dig the coal out faster, driven in part by consumers' incessant push for "cheap" energy, the coal companies have speeded up the process by blowing off the tops of mountains to get at the coal seams. It's a technique, aided by big machinery, known as mountaintop removal. It is transforming the landscape in these hills.

On an overcast Friday afternoon, Gilbert -- tall and lean in his blue jeans -- stood in his neighbors' front yard, leaning against a tree, telling visitors from Yale University and from Crescent Hill Church in Louisville about his efforts to take on the coal company and protect his property. This spring, Gilbert and his wife, Evelyn, pushed elected officials from Letcher Fiscal Court to block Cumberland River Coal Company from dumping debris from the top of Black Mountain down the creek behind their house, and also into another nearby creek.

The Gilberts and their allies from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (www.kftc.org), a grassroots group working on justice issues, prevailed this time -- but stopped the dumping of mining debris into these two creeks only. The debris will be diverted to places where the coal company had already been at work.

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Methodist Task Force Issues divestment recommendations

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts -- The New England Conference of The United Methodist Church has issued its Divestment Task Force report, including recommendations for divestment from twenty companies identified as supporting the Israeli occupation in Palestine.

Based on the research and findings of the Conference's Divestment Task Force, the report outlines the process and the recommendations for divestment. The company listing with details on each company and the reasons for the divestment recommendation can be found at www.neumc.org/divest. The Web site also includes the original resolution, a full copy of the report and recommendations of the Divestment Task Force, and additional supporting documentation and resources, including statements from Jewish organizations in support of divestment.

The Divestment Task Force was created to implement Resolution 204, which was passed during the 2005 New England Annual Conference session (RS-204: Resolution on Divesting from Companies that are Supporting in a Significant Way the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories).  This resolution followed on the heels of Resolution 312, which was passed at the 2004 General Conference of The United Methodist Church.

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California church youth killed in fatal crash

An adult and three teenagers from Upland, California, congregations, including First Church in Upland, died June 23 in a church van -- pickup truck collision west of Barstow, Calif.

Rebecca Vetterani, 28, a seminarian intern at First Church, died in the three-vehicle accident that shut down U.S. 395 west of Barstow for hours, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Her husband, youth director Tom Vetterani, was severely burned and in critical condition following the crash.

Voices

How effective is your church’s Web site?

An effective Web site is the heart of Communications Strategy.

To see how your church's Web site stacks up, try this simple method:

Open a search engine, type in the name of a church you admire, and open its Web site. Bookmark it. Find six or more, including your church's likely competition. Open your church's Web site.

Now click from one to the next. Scan it for five seconds -- the amount of time the normal Web user will give to a site's home page -- and then click to another.

Make note of your immediate reaction. First impressions are everything on the Web.

Voices

A proposal to make meetings more Christ-centered and Spirit-filled

I  Introduction
A. As a Church, our whole focus is to serve God by becoming the Body of Christ that reveals the kingdom of God that is among us (Luke 17: 21). As members of the Body, we are to find ways to maintain unity while integrating the different gifts of the Spirit in our individual and communal ministries (I Cor. 12: 12-31). 

B. The reality is that while many in the Church are Christ-centered in their faith, human pride and sin lead all of us still to become self-centered. This self-centered pride often leads us to strive for power and control within the church. The battle for power can spread division throughout the church as the desire of certain individuals and groups to wield and maintain that power and influence within the Body becomes a stronger motivation than the desire to seek the will of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

C. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has adopted Robert's Rules of Order as its standard guide to practice in conducting its meetings. Robert's Rules of Order, while an effective program for conducting business and political meetings, is a wholly secular program. It is not a program that seeks to discern God's will. It was created by a military general as a way creating a standard procedure for debate in order to conduct meetings in a more effective and efficient manner. It is rooted in the desire to channel the human tendency to fight, rather than in the spiritual yearning and to seek God's truth and will.

D. The purpose of the following guide to discerning God's will as the Body of Christ is to offer a way of conducting meetings within the church -- within the Body -- that emphasizes seeking the will of God rather than the will of the people (as Robert's Rules of Order does); that emphasizes pastors and elders exercising spiritual leadership rather than temporal leadership; and that emphasizes discernment over debate. 

Voices

Creating a Robert’s Rules of Discernment

After reading the final report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity (PUP) of the Church, I was astounded. I never imagined that they would offer our heady, theology-obsessed denomination an emphasis on humble and prayerful discernment of God's will. 

Those of us Presbyterians steeped in the Christian mystical, spiritual tradition have long recognized the glaring absence of an approach to church polity emphasizing humble, communal discernment. Our denomination has been trapped in a cycle of continual debate and disagreement over issues such as the definition of "Reformed," what the essential tenets of the church are, worship styles, ordination requirements, and scriptural interpretation. What has been missing is a willingness of people on both sides of the debates to sit down with their theological adversaries, and to humbly ask together what Christ is calling us all to do, and what the Spirit is leading us to do. 

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Synod courts hand down mixed messages on ordination standards

LOUISVILLE -- A church court has concluded that Pittsburgh Presbytery cannot "elevate" language from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution to make compliance with ordination standards "essential" and that it must apply the guidelines to ministerial candidates on an individual basis.

The May 16 ruling by the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Synod of the Trinity followed a two-day hearing in Camp Hill, Pa., regarding a resolution that Pittsburgh Presbytery adopted on Oct. 12, 2006.

The presbytery's resolution called compliance with the PC(USA)'s ordination standards from the Book of Order, which require chastity in singleness or fidelity in heterosexual marriage, an "essential of Reformed polity." It stated that no exceptions would be permitted within the jurisdiction of Pittsburgh Presbytery.

This ruling runs contrary to one handed down March 20 by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of Alaska-Northwest. 

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Korean Presbyterians shave their heads to protest school law

 

SEOUL, South Korea -- At least 365 ministers, elders and missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) have shaved off their hair to protest a controversial revision to South Korea's law regulating private schools.

Joan S. Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), learned of the ongoing outcry surrounding the reform bill during a recent visit here. The PCK and other private school owners have staged campaigns to stop the measure while threatening to close down schools.

The revised law requires private schools from elementary to university level to fill 25 percent of their boards of directors with outsiders who are unrelated to the institutions.

The aim, supporters say, is to produce more transparency in management and reduce corruption among those who control the schools.

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MRTI facing ‘legitimate issues’ after 2006 GA divestment action

©2007. Used by permission.

 

LOUISVILLE -- Conversations are under way with three of the five multinational companies targeted by the denomination's Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee -- three years after a decision by the 216th General Assembly to use shareholder pressure to reform corporate behavior that supports the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Basically, the Assembly acknowledged there are legitimate issues here," said Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, who staffs MRTI's work, referring to actions taken by the 2006 Assembly that modified language in the original action, calling for investment in "peaceful pursuits" and specifically expanded its mandate to study corporate involvement in Gaza, historically Palestinian East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel.

The original language called for a process of phased, selective divestment of companies who profit from Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Voices

An interview with Linda Valentine

 

Editor's Note: Linda Valentine was elected executive director of the General Assembly Council at the 217th General Assembly, held in Birmingham, Ala., in June 2006. Outlook Editor Jack Haberer recently sat down with her to reflect on her first year in this leadership role.

 

JH: You're coming up on your first anniversary in the role of executive director of the GAC. First the easy question: What have you enjoyed most about this new calling?

LV: The people. Just meeting people all around the church. Seeing the breadth and depth of mission activity that we're engaged in. Truly you sense that this is bigger than any one congregation or any one presbytery.   

 

JH: The obvious second question:  What has been difficult or disappointing?

LV: There's so much to do. There's so much opportunity. Choosing the right ones to pursue. I continue to be disappointed, as so many of us are, with the ... contentiousness in the denomination that is distracting. Some of it is important. But there's so much positive going on that giving equal or more attention to that is a continual challenge.

 

Voices

Presbyteries respond differently after 2006 GA, TTFPUP report

 

When the General Assembly closed up shop in Birmingham last summer, there was a whole lot of shaking going on -- mostly from folks not too happy about the report on the Trinity or another from the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

But now, a year later, the quaking seems to have subsided, at least in some spots on the map. Some presbyteries are reporting relatively little tumult related to the theological task force report, with none of their congregations having initiated steps to leave the PC(USA).

While that may be true, there certainly have been some high-profile cases of churches heading off for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) -- among them, Kirk of the Hills in Tulsa; Signal Mountain (Tenn.) Church; and most recently, the Memorial Church in Pittsburgh. A June 3 congregational meeting produced a vote of 951 to 93, to join other New Wineskins churches in a transitional non-geographic presbytery, in anticipation of ultimate affiliation with the EPC.

Voices

Questions about gay ordination: Answers can be complicated

 

Can practicing homosexuals now be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?

The short answer is "No." The more complicated answer is "Maybe."

 

What has been the Presbyterian Church's rule about ordaining practicing homosexuals?

The current law of the PC(USA) says:

Those who are called to this office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the Confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

This is section G [for Government] 6.0106b of the Book of Order, part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This section, sometimes called Amendment B by its opponents, was adopted by the General Assembly and a majority of presbyteries in 1997. For a decade it has withstood repeated challenges.  

Editorials

“The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing:” An overview

 

"The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing," a report received by the 217th General Assembly, has sparked considerable discussion. I find this encouraging. When a church is eager to engage in vigorous conversation about a core Christian doctrine, it signals to all its members: theology really does matter.                    

The primary aim of this report is to help our church renew its faith in the triune God by "reclaiming the doctrine of the Trinity in theology, worship, and life" (66-67). Trinitarian doctrine contains good and joyful news. It identifies the God of the gospel as "the triune God who in loving freedom seeks and saves us, reconciles and renews us, and draw us into loving relationships that reflect the eternal oneness of God" (79-80). Far from offering either a novel or an exhaustive exposition of Trinitarian doctrine, the report focuses on the good news that this doctrine enshrines and, most decidedly, on its practical significance.   

Editorials

Are Trinity Paper concerns based on a misunderstanding?

 

The Rev. Cliff Kirkpatrick and the Rev. Jack Haberer recently met to discuss "some of the pressing issues" facing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). During their hour-long conversation, Kirkpatrick stated, "Some of the conflict we've had -- I know it's not the only issue -- things like [concerns about] the Trinity paper are really based on a misunderstanding of what the General Assembly did. So we're seeking to reach out that way." (The Presbyterian Outlook issue of 4/9/07. Cf also issues 4/16/07 and 4/30/07).

If these concerns truly are the result of simple misunderstanding, then clarifying the issue should be an effortless task and easily dismissed. However, the 217th General Assembly, while receiving, "The Trinity: God's Love Overflowing" without approving it, commended it to the church for study and use in worship. Additionally, the Rev. Charles Wiley of the Office of Theology and Worship has admitted that the triad "Mother, Child, and Womb" fails the paper's own criteria and is gravely flawed in two respects. (Letters, The Laymen Online 2/14/2007). First, as he explains, it has a weak scriptural foundation. Secondly, mixing the two "personal" images, mother and child, with the "functional" womb is fatal to good Trinitarian theology.

Voices

FOG Task Force, others, preparing answers to report questions

Recognizing that it's something of a hard sell to convince folks that it's a terrific idea to rewrite the denomination's constitution, the Form of Government Task Force of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is planning its strategy for communicating to a broader audience the gist of its complicated work.

Questions people are asking include: "Who formed the task force?" and "Why do we need a new Book of Order? Doesn't the PC(USA) have more important issues" to deal with, said task force co-moderator Sharon Davison, who's an elder from New York City.

A draft introduction to the Revised Form of Government the task force is proposing states that "we have asked two core questions throughout this work: Who does God call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be (the identity of the church)? and What does God call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do (the polity of the church)?"

Editorials

The Form of Government Task Force: Co-Moderators speak

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.

 

Editorials

FOG: Overreaching, Underperforming

 

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.

Editorials

Half the way to San Jose

So what's really gone on since the last General Assembly? What is the state of the PC(USA) today?

If ever there were an uncertain sound, yet a cacophony of competing interpretations, it is today. Some reassure while others remonstrate. Some warn of impending disasters, while many are enjoying sunny skies. Some fear we'll drop off the right edge of the planet. Others worry that we're falling off the left edge. How's a person to know?

This edition of the Outlook has been prepared to provide accurate and insightful reporting so informed leaders can really lead the church well in this season between the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly and the 2008 San Jose GA.

So where are we now?  

A sea change has been reshaping our national office. The restructure of the General Assembly Council and the election of Linda Valentine as GAC executive director have drawn an influx of fresh eyes and voices into the mission agencies of the church (read article). A new vigor is flowing through those ministries.

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LCWE hosts Church leaders to plan 2010 meeting in Capetown

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY -- More than 360 Christian leaders from 60+ countries participated in the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) Bi-Annual International Leadership Meeting, a week-long planning session that ended here June 22. The meeting was an opportunity for leaders to pray, plan, and work together toward Lausanne III: Cape Town 2010, the Third International Congress on World Evangelization to be held October 16-25, 2010.

The Budapest meeting of global Lausanne leadership discussed the potential barriers and opportunities of global evangelization, and how the Church can share the hope of the Gospel to every nation on earth. The Rev. S. Douglas (Doug) Birdsall, LCWE Executive Chair, urged the leaders to work together for the cause of Christ, "Because there is so much at stake. The task is bigger and the urgency more obvious."

Uncategorized

Simple Way Community Center destroyed by fire

The Simple Way, an inner city Philadelphia community center, was destroyed by fire early in the morning of June 20. The seven-alarm fire consumed an abandoned warehouse in the Kensington neighborhood, the Simple Way Community Center on Potter Street, as well as at least eight nearby homes. More than 100 people were evacuated.

There were no casualties; all affected residents reached safety.

Eight families are now homeless, many having lost their automobiles as well.  Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution:  Living as an Ordinary Radical, a resident and leader of the community center, lost all his possessions to the fire. 

For further information, as well as information for making donations, go to www.thesimpleway.org.
 
 

Uncategorized

Browns recall Ruth, Bell family

National and international tributes to Ruth Bell Graham since her death June 14 include the remembrances of a retired Presbyterian couple in Stone Mountain, Ga., G. Thompson "Tommy" Brown and his wife, Mardia Hooper Brown. "We knew and loved her. She was always cheerful," he says.

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