Rick Ufford-Chase, executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is being awarded the 2007 Dignitas Humana Award by St. John's School of Theology-Seminary.
St. John's, in Collegeville, Minn., grants the award annually to recognize...
Your presbytery will soon be voting on proposed amendments to the Constitution. You face an important question: How WELL will your elders and ministers vote? That is, how well will they understand what's being asked of them? Will they be well informed?
October is Pastor Appreciation Month: time to tip our hats to the pastors who shepherd us. Time also to tip our hats to the pastor who has shepherded the denomination these past nearly 12 years. Thank you, Clifton Kirkpatrick, for your service as Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Cliff Kirkpatrick is an authentic Christian churchman. The bureaucratic experience has dissipated the faith of many a godly person, but not so for Cliff. He believes, he preaches, he passionately promotes the Gospel. And when he shakes your hand, whether you be a world leader or a child in church school, you feel the embrace of a person of sincerity, tenderness, and godliness.
Clifton Kirkpatrick -- tall, ecumenically-minded, a nimble public speaker, and sometime lightening rod for controversy -- has decided not to seek a fourth term as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Kirkpatrick's term of service will be completed at the close of the General Assembly meeting in San Jose in June 2008. His departure leaves the field open for a new leader of the Office of the General Assembly -- the chief constitutional officer of the denomination and its representative in meeting with religious leaders from around the world.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It has been an incredible blessing to be able to serve as Stated Clerk of the General Assembly for now going on twelve years, and to serve in leadership in the General Assembly and its mission for over twenty-six years. I give thanks to God for you who have been my partners in this journey, for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and for this unique opportunity to share in the service of Christ through this great church. This has been the best job I have ever had and a wonderful way to live out my call to ministry.
LOUISVILLE -- "We are between eras."
Or: "Are you willing to let Christ change your life?"
Those could be bumper stickers for the discussion Presbyterian leaders held Sept. 18-19 in Louisville, a joint gathering of presbytery and synod executives and members of the General Assembly Council.
These church leaders are looking for a way forward during a time of tremendous change -- changes in leadership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in technology, in the way Americans think about religion, in the way Christians in the U.S. relate to the rest of the world. The list could go on and on.
Sam Roberson, general presbyter of Charlotte Presbytery, was the guy who said "we are between eras" -- but he was just one person describing what's happening. Others suggested bumper stickers or text messages for the PC(USA) including "Presbyterian Church Finally Figures Out that God Really is In Charge."
The Board of Directors of The Presbyterian Outlook Foundation meeting in Richmond, Va., September 6-7 voted to reorganize the staff and eliminate the position of publisher. Publisher Robert P. Baskin ended his service with the Outlook effective September 30 in order to pursue other business ventures.
It would be presumptuous of me to think that I could speak on behalf of the millions of Presbyterian Christians in this country. Still, from the window of being a member of the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network and a pastor for almost forty years, I would like to offer a word of thanks to the ordained ministers of the Presbyterian churches across this country. For the past eight years, this network has been trying to offer support and encouragement to pastors in the exercise of their demanding profession. Both as a pastor myself and from the perspective of that board, I would like to say thank you to those of you who are hard at work in your congregations.
Presbyterians have a history of generosity toward their pastors. Some of that generosity has worked its way into constitutional mandates. The Book of Order stipulates that all installed pastors shall receive an adequate salary, in accordance with local presbytery guidelines, plus a month of vacation and two weeks of study leave each year. Those of us who serve as the church's pastors are genuinely grateful for these bottom-line requirements. All too easily, however, minimum standards become the finish line rather than the starting point.
A similar thing happens with church member pledging. We are asked to pledge in advance our guaranteed minimum we'll give to the church, and this becomes our giving goal for the year. I have discovered in my own giving that my pledge, which should be the beginning point of my giving to the church, all too easily becomes my finishing point.
Do you ever think, "I've got to write this"? But other times, "I get to write this!" Sometimes duty takes over: Sunday's sermon, pastor's column deadline, insistent e-mails. How can we move through got to into get to?
During a writing funk, two things occurred to me. First, if I find bits of grace in the grit of duty, then obligation morphs into invitation. Second, even if my words get rejected, what matters is whether or not I've written myself an inch closer home to my true self and God.
Writing can help us appreciate ministry. Preaching, teaching, and soul tending extend an invitation to pen our way home and out into the world's need.
The death of the Rev. Bryan Clinton Childress of Willis, Va., on December 19, 2006, was not a surprise. He was, after all, 85 years old, and had been in poor health for some time. His pastoral life, spent entirely in Appalachia, was not remarkable in terms of great achievements, but it was a sincere witness to Christ and the meaning of a life dedicated to him.
I met Bryan nearly 50 years ago in Pendleton County, West Virginia. I was the summer student minister of a field of six preaching points in the area of Circleville and Seneca Rocks. My work was under the supervision of the Rev. Dale Jones, who gave devoted service to those churches and chapels before he returned to teaching the deaf at the school in Staunton, Va. Bryan came to conduct a revival at the Seneca Rocks Church, and I was present for several of the evenings he held forth in that beautiful stone church. I was sophisticated in those days, and wondered about this rather rough-hewn mountain man, who came with his accordion and uncultured voice to proclaim the Lord's message to the gathered folks.
A brief note to preachers: Read this book. And an accompanying note to elders and other church leaders: Give this book to your preacher(s), and encourage them to read it.
Mike Graves has written a dynamic book about preaching, but not the sort you might expect. This is not an introductory text for beginning students, nor an offering in the latest in homiletical theory.
Instead, it's a text that suggests that lively, faithful preaching is born out of a dynamic encounter between the biblical text and a "fully alive preacher." To renew preaching in the life of the church, Graves proposes that we need to renew the life of the preacher. What he poses is a resource for those pastors whose lives have been full to overflowing for some time with meetings to attend, phone calls to make, bulletins to produce, hospitals to visit, letters to write, unhappy parishioners to counsel -- and who suffer from what some have called the "relentless return of the Sabbath."
Here are three guaranteed ways to discourage lay ministers:
1. Give them an assignment, and then take it back because they aren't doing it your way or because you are anxious.
2. Ignore their work as if it were trivial.
3. Allow leaders to become buried in "background noise" from those who natter, gossip, and complain.
The first is easy to correct. As the saying goes: Don't ask the question if you can't stand the answer. Don't give people work to do if you cannot trust them to follow through.
LOUISVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217th General Assembly in 2006 in Birmingham, AL, is now accepting applications for the position of General Assembly stated clerk, the top ecclesiastical post in the 2.3-million-member denomination.
Next summer's 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, will elect the successor to the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, who announced last month that he will not seek a fourth three-year term.
LOUISVILLE -- There has been a lot of talk in recent days about the shift in mission work, with the center of gravity moving to the congregations and presbyteries.
And now there's beginning to be more discussion of what works and doesn't work so well when local people get involved in international mission work. How can the enthusiasm of so many Presbyterians for making a difference around the world be linked to tried-and-true strategies for working in partnership?
Will Browne, the former associate director of Worldwide Ministries for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), led a panel discussion on that, before more than 600 people at the World Mission '07 "Celebration of Grace" convocation, which met in Louisville Oct. 2-5. Browne said Presbyterians from the U.S. "come to mission with a little bit of danger of hubris, danger of pride that we are people who have something to offer to the rest of the world. In some ways I think that is very true.
LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell, the new director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), calls this a crossroads time for Presbyterians -- with the health and vitality of the denomination at stake.
"I believe we in the Presbyterian church are at a crossroads, a kairos moment, a time when we're going to have to choose which direction in which to go," said Hunter Farrell, director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Farrell was speaking to more than 600 people who gathered in Louisville Oct. 2-5 for the World Mission '07 "Celebration of Grace" convocation -- an effort by the denomination to jump-start enthusiasm for international mission and to build closer connections between the national staff and Presbyterians involved in world mission at the local level.
LOUISVILLE -- It was a moment of pure celebration: the commissioning, during an evening worship service, of 48 missionaries as they embark on a month of itinerating, telling Presbyterians in churches around the country of the impact that Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) international mission efforts are making.
These missionaries -- who serve from Asia to Africa to South America -- teach in seminaries and heal the sick and work with church partners around the world to provide jobs and education and justice to the suffering.
They were sent off for what's being called Mission Challenge '07, a month of "telling the story," sent off with blessing from a national gathering of Presbyterians who are dedicated to supporting mission around the world -- and to doing it right, in an atmosphere of partnership and mutual respect.
This one will break your heart. Over and over. Cesar Ramos is Jorge, a thug-in-training in Juarez, Mexico. He's learned just enough English to be able to approach American tourists. He's looking for the men who are by themselves, so he can show them pictures of naked young girls, and promises that one of them is available just around the corner. If his 'mark' falls for it, he follows Jorge into a back alley, where he is threatened, robbed, ridiculed, and, if necessary for cooperation, beaten. The victims won't dare tell the police, because then they'd have to admit why they were in that back alley. And besides, chances are, they couldn't identify anybody, anyway, and don't even speak the language. Stupid gringos.
New York, 1 October (ENI)--A group of North American Episcopal (Anglican) bishops has joined in a partnership to usher in an 'Anglican union' they hope will serve as a formal ecclesiastical alternative to the US Episcopal Church.
'We declare clearly that we are taking this as a first step in the formation of the separate ecclesiastical structure in North America,'the bishops declared in a statement following four days of meetings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL, is now accepting applications for the position of Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Who would have guessed that a children's book that's fundamentally about death would have one of the largest publishing runs of any book in history -- garnering 3.7 million pre-orders (that's pre-orders, before the actual sales began) from Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com? I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Those sorts of sales would be amazing enough in a single volume, but this is number seven -- of seven -- Harry Potter books. Each one of the previous volumes has been a blockbuster best-seller, as well.
...America is at war.
Its volunteer army is easily recognizable here in southern Mississippi.
It is revealed in tapping sounds from inside a house
that most outsiders wouldn't see
as worth the effort to rebuild (but it has a family and stories!).
It gives itself away in ragged formations of matching T-shirts and
unmatched ages,
seen everywhere along the coast....
In the December 31, 1972 issue you wrote about "St. George of Big Bay" -- the story of an elderly man in Upper Michigan and his faithful service to a small town and its Presbyterian Church. The article ended: "He is a tiny man, giving life to a dying church, in a forgotten town. This is St. George of Big Bay." The church cut out the article and framed it, placing it on the wall of pictures of their history. I found it when I candidated to be their first installed pastor in their 75 years of existence.
Decatur, GA--October 22 is the application deadline for a unique spiritual renewal experience offered for mid-career pastors by Columbia Theological Seminary's Center for Lifelong Learning. Journey of Faith: A Pilgrimage of Discernment for Ministry includes a two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land and two short retreats--one before and one after the pilgrimage. Participant costs for travel, accommodations, meals, and materials for the pilgrimage will be paid through a grant from the CF Foundation, through its Holy Land Pastoral Renewal Program. The only cost for those selected to participate will be a registration fee of $250.
Three major Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) news reports fill the pages of this week's Outlook: the first ever national elders conference, the first ever national evangelism conference, and the resignation of Elenora Giddings Ivory.
Of course, we held an elders' conference! "Presbyter" means "elder" in biblical Greek, so it only stands to reason that elders would come together to learn how to "eld" better. It's just that we haven't gotten around to organizing such a conference for the past couple hundred years. In the meantime we have presented hundreds and hundreds of conferences for the ministers of Word and Sacrament. And we believe in parity?
We claim that those two offices have equal status. Don't kid yourself.
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