Latest Posts

Presby-Twi ministry shows immigrant outreach potential

Louis Weeks, the retiring president of Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, describes the ordination of Stephen Nkansah this way: "I never saw so many cabs in a Presbyterian parking lot."

Nkansah says more than 600 people worship at his congregation in Woodbridge, Va., now -- cabdrivers, custodians, truck drivers, delivery people, nurses, "all kinds."

They worship at Ebenezer Church both in Twi, the language of their native Ghana, and in English. By worshipping this way, "you come from the bottom of the heart," Nkansah said. He compares what happens at his church to the multitude of languages the apostles heard filling the room, as described in Acts -- all voices, all tongues, all manners of expression. "That is the best way to preach the Bible and to teach, in your own native language," he said. "We are trying to be like the apostles."

This is a story of one man -- two, actually, Nkansah and his friend and colleague, Mark Frimpong -- who have come far from home, made new homes, and planted new churches that are growing faster than many established congregations. It's a story too of struggle, of finding a way to connect with the predominantly white Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has been both welcoming and unsure of what to do with these people who come with their own customs and music and food and language, wanting to worship God in their own way.

Space has been made, but it has sometimes been painful.

Foreigners by the shipload

While Christians nationwide wrestle to find ways to help settle immigrants coming across our national borders, a handful of Presbyterians in Texas carry out a little noticed outreach to short-term foreign workers. Seafarers, those sailors who transport cargo and fuel from country to country, are greeted by Ben Stewart and David Wells, Presbyterian pastors who serve as chaplains at the Howard T. Tellepsen Seafarers Center in Houston. The Seafarers Center, sponsored by the Presbytery of New Covenant, is the only ministry of its kind in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

At the border of church and immigration

 c. 2006 Synod of Living Waters.

Used by permission.

A Kentucky church gives free legal advice to explain complicated federal law and hear grievances that otherwise go unremedied. A Tennessee parish gives rides to the hospital and help with college preparation. An Alabama congregation offers Spanish-language worship and a sympathetic ear.

Slowly, the synod's churches are finding ways to put their stamp, and their values, on one of America's biggest controversies, an issue that stirs alarm, confusion and compassion.

An ESL class

The controversy is immigration, pressing the nation to fix a system that oversees the more than 30 million foreign-born workers -- about 11 percent of the U.S. population -- now living here legally or illegally.

Churches are stepping in to put a human face on a messy political debate  about how (or whether) to grant legal status to more immigrants, acculturate them into American life, or increase deportations and secure the borders.

Guatemalan rain

As the rain poured in

And the thunder cracked

It pounded my ears

And soaked my soul

Much like this journey has done

Hearing the echoes of many cries

And feeling drenched in their stories

My heart longs for calm

To be away from the misery

The Forgetful Sojourners

We are sojourners before you and are sojourning just as all our fathers (1 Chronicles 29:10, 15).

The capacity for the transformation of church and community requires deep, intentional remembering. Our core memories are essential to our common identity as Christians. Memories give power for spiritual energy and growth. In spite of many warnings from Scripture about the perils of forgetting, we do forget.  

Frederick Weidmann is director of the Center for Church Life and Professor of Biblical Studies at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. In an article about the early church, he recalls a core memory, one that formed the identity of the Christian movement in the first and second century. Citing writings by early Christian leaders, he recalls how our identity was formed by our ancestors, the Israelites.

Come Holy Spirit?

In the 1970s I came of age theologically in a Presbyterian Church (PCUS) that was facing two threats: the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America and the charismatic movement. Though the PCA decimated the PCUS in some areas, it was the charismatic movement that seemed to inspire more fear.  Stories abounded of church members, or sometimes ministers, attending charismatic conferences and coming back to split their congregations.  Everything connected with the Holy Spirit became suspect. Just mentioning the Spirit was the kiss of death for candidates being examined on the floor of presbytery. The specter of fanaticism and schism hung over anything deemed to be "spiritual." 

Our call to proclaim

I recently attended a Presbyterian event where the keynote speaker taught something that deeply grieved me:  "Presbyterians are more concerned about the glory of God and the coming of God's reign than the salvation of souls." This was proposed as one of the five key tenets of Reformed Theology. The Reformed doctrines of Sola Fides, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura and question one from the Westminster Shorter Catechism were used as supporting statements in this supposition. The conclusion drawn was that "salvation is God's business," inferring that it was not ours as Presbyterian Christians. The statement "salvation is God's business" was then echoed by others in two small groups in which I participated. 

Could this attitude, if prevalent throughout our denomination, be why we are decreasing in numbers while other denominations are flourishing? 

A history lesson

Please bear with me for one history lesson -- so that we can go over it and go on with living in today.

Starting in 1964, membership in mainline denominations went into a long and steady decline. Much has been made of this decline. Church partisans have used it as a weapon to denounce whatever they didn't like. Look at what happens, they argued, when you open the door to new liturgies, women, gays, liberals, conservatives, renewal hymns -- take your pick.

A New Sense of Church

In the midst of our heartache and loss, we have been absolutely overwhelmed too with a new sense of church.  

Seminary to dedicate housing to John and Nancy Anderson

For decades, John Anderson, as a seminary student, chaplain, pastor, and denominational servant, served Presbyterian work in the United States. Now his alma mater, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas, is honoring him by providing new housing for its students.

John Anderson grew up in Dallas, Texas, in the 1930s, graduated from Highland Park High School in 1937. First Church, Dallas contributed greatly to his early formation. He received a BA from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he was president of the student body before graduating in 1944. After two years as a U.S. Navy chaplain in WWII, Anderson began 38 years of service to churches in Texas and Florida, with nearly half of those years in two separate calls to his boyhood church. In 1953, while serving as senior pastor and head of staff at First Church, Dallas, Anderson earned the Master of Theology degree from Austin Seminary. He has served as an ordained minister for more than 60 years.

Renewing theological education in Mexico today

You might be surprised to learn there may be more Presbyterians in Mexico than in the United States of America.  Even though I could get no solid membership figures from the Office of the General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, the total membership is around two million -- with thirteen synods and sixty-two presbyteries.

There has been a Presbyterian/Reformed presence in Mexico since 1865. It was a courageous Mississippi schoolteacher ("a transplanted Yankee") who set up a small primary school, largely on her own, in Monterrey in that year. By 1872 a presbytery had been organized. Missionaries from four denominations have shared in a Presbyterian/ Reformed mission presence in Mexico over the years: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church, US, the Reformed Church in America, and the Associate Reformed Church. These mission boards have invested countless mission dollars and hundreds of years of missionary service in one of the most responsive fields for the growth of Reformed Christianity in the last century.