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What can your denomination do for you?

LOUISVILLE -- In a denomination that is losing members and cutting budgets, what does it mean to be a "connectional church?" Why does being part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) matter?

For Carolyn Crawford, congregational life pastor at Bel Air Church in Los Angeles, that's sometimes hard to answer. Hers is a fast-growing congregation -- with about 100 folks showing up for new-member classes four times a year.

"I can count it on one hand, if that," the number of people who say they've come to Bel Air specifically because it's Presbyterian, Crawford said at the national Moderator's Conference Nov. 17.

"What would you tell me to tell those new members, or people in the pews" about why being Presbyterian matters, she asked.

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Southern California Pastor Tom Taylor tapped to lead PC(USA) mission programs

LOUISVILLE -- The Rev. Tom Taylor, a Southern California pastor, touted by colleagues as a bridge-builder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), has been named deputy executive director for mission by General Assembly Council (GAC) Executive Director Linda Valentine.

His appointment needed confirmation by the GAC's executive committee at its meeting Dec. 7; his expected date to begin work was Jan. 8.

Taylor, currently pastor of the 1,400-member Glenkirk Church in Glendora, Calif., will oversee all of the GAC's mission activities including supervision of six program directors who were to be named after Taylor to manage the council's six restructured program areas.

Outlook Features

Canons of convenience: Churches face choices for worship on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day

 

Last year, some megachurches got tongues flapping fast when they decided to cancel worship services on Christmas Day -- which happened to be Sunday morning.

This year, churches face another Christmas "what to do" decision, because Dec. 24 lands on a Sunday. So congregations big and small must decide whether to offer both Sunday morning worship and a full lineup of Christmas Eve services -- or whether that's just too much.

Some people want a traditional late-night Christmas Eve service, with a choir and communion and candlelight.

Editorials

All I Want

 

We say that the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of giving. That's all well and good--noble, to be sure! But the children know otherwise. It's about receiving. Christmas is all about making your list, checking it twice, and looking to see if Santa is naughty or nice.

The Christian story of Christmas is all about receiving. The holiday proclaims the good news that God has given the gift of Immanuel, the incarnate Son of God, who has come to be our Savior. What's more, in his teaching ministry, that Savior kept offering us additional gifts. He even pleaded with his followers to ask, to seek, and to knock, promising that they would receive, find, and discover doors open to them.

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Mixing faith and politics

Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

 

We know how the story goes: Unmarried pregnant teenager; no room at the inn; baby born in a manger; Emmanuel, God-with-us. It's so familiar -- prompting one little boy to ask his pastor with that blunt, no-holds-barred, child-like honesty: "Do we have to hear that same story again?"

Over-familiarity is challenging for preachers, too, an occupational hazard for those whose job is to listen to ancient texts and proclaim a fresh message from God. It takes commitment. But it also takes courage. Presbyterian pastor James Lowry warns: "Any preacher who can sleep soundly on Saturday nights. ... Any preacher who has no form of gastrointestinal distress on Sunday mornings" -- or on Christmas Eve! -- "has not dealt with the texts ... and is not to be heeded."  

Book Reviews

The Leaven of Laughter for Advent and Christmas

 

In the darkness of Christmas morn

 

by James E. Atwood. Victoria, B.C., Canada: Trafford. ISBN 1-4251-0004-X. Pb., 120 pp., $13.95.

 

Last summer, my brother gave me a book of church humor filled with lame stories every pastor has heard before: the children's sermon that involves describing a small animal ("It sounds like a squirrel, but I know you're going to tell us it's Jesus."); the man stranded on his roof during a flood who waved away the life boat and the helicopter believing "God would save him" only to be chastised at heaven's gate for refusing God's practical assistance.

You know the kinds of stories I'm talking about. Corny, schmaltzy stories with shaky theology and dated metaphors. This is not that book.

Voices

How are visitors greeted in your congregation on Christmas Eve?

 

The answer to this question will vary in Presbyterian churches, and the way in which we respond reflects our most fundamental attitude toward outreach and evangelism. Almost every congregation desires church growth and sets it as a primary long-range goal, but sometimes our behavior prevents the very thing we say we seek.

I have a vivid memory from a Christmas Eve service when I was a boy in my home church. The pastor welcomed the congregation with words something like, "I want to wish many of you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a joyous Easter, a pleasant Fourth of July, and a Happy Thanksgiving because I know that I will not be seeing most of you for another year!" Maybe, in Daniel Powter's words, he "had a bad day." However, even as a child I knew this attitude was unfeeling and insensitive, and as a pastor I have never even thought, much less said, such a thing during any service I have led.

Voices

Cop cars and coffee: Being a police chaplain

Wahoo-oo! Barreling through the streets of Pasadena, lights flashing, sirens blaring, the cop driving the patrol car at full alert, radio crackling. Oh, it's go-o-ood! Hey, that's police chaplaincy.

We-e-ell, sometimes. Every now and then. Maybe. Kinda.

Police chaplaincy can be exciting, true. It can also be boring, dirty, disgusting, sometimes even dangerous.

Voices

Presbyterian mission in a flat world

History is not the story of those who "sense" there is a problem. We all sense that there are problems in governments, societies, and churches. Everyone knows it and everyone complains about it. History is marked by those who have the clarity to see when it is time to act, those who understand why we must act, and those who can then communicate how to act.

Very few Presbyterians are pleased with our denomination's involvement in global mission at present. Very few people are pleased to know that at one time we had more than 2,000 full-time missionaries serving in the world (1959) and now we have fewer than 240. This is not a matter of theology or ideology. This is a general frustration with the present missional and cultural context in which we find our churches and ourselves. The world's needs and the Gospel imperative both point to the obligation to move forward with greater innovation, participation, and creativity. This is not the time for a single prophetic leader to come forward and say, "This is the way." This is the time when all men and women of goodwill, committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, hold hands and say, "Come, let's all move forward together. Step in the river and let's go to the promised land of mission."

Movie Reviews

Déjà Vu

'Déjà Vu':  The problem with time-travel movies is that the logic always breaks down somewhere.  So it is here.  We want to root for Denzel Washington, the likable detective, and his impossible romance with Paula Patton, the once-and-future victim, but the time-warp theory gets, well, warped.

'The Pursuit Of Happyness':  We've also seen the Dad-struggles-to-raise-his-son-by-himself movie.  Because this one is based on a true story, and because Will Smith is playing the primary character with his real-life son, Jaden, this one has a very authentic feel to it.  But the screenplay is a slow spiral downward for two hours, followed by a few moments of triumphalism at the end.  Yes, we get to walk out relieved, but most of the experience is, well, not one of 'happyness.'

Movie Reviews

‘Apocalypto’ & ‘Breaking and Entering’

One is set in modern-day England, the other among the ancient Mayans, just prior to the time the Spaniards arrived.  Both are about 'nice' people who encounter outlaws.  In both, the characters' ordeal is such that nothing will be the same for them afterwards.  In both, a startling revelation alters the whole paradigm.  In both, at the end, the main characters are desperately clinging to a love fiercely tested.

Movie Reviews

The Good German

What was it like in Berlin, in the summer of 1945?  In "The Good German," we get a surreal glimpse, and the picture isn't pretty.

There's rubble everywhere.  Bombed-out buildings are part of the landscape, as are the gaunt faces, the food lines, and the palpable smell of despair.  The Allies have already partitioned the defeated city, and the rifts between them are already swelling to the surface, even as the Potsdam Conference decides how the victors will divide the spoils.

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Covenant Network celebrates women’s ordination strides, looks to further challenges

COLUMBUS -- It's been 50 years since Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstadt showed up for Margaret Towner's ordination service in Syracuse, N.Y.

Her mother borrowed a pastor's robe and some women hemmed it up so she wouldn't trip over it.

Earlier, some of the male pastors from Cayuga-Syracuse presbytery, believing that it was time for the Presbyterian church to finally ordain a woman, had taken some of their skeptical colleagues out to play golf. They let the skeptics win. Then they started talking about the possibility of ordaining Towner.

She was ordained on October 24, 1956 -- to her amazement, the first woman to become a minister in the Presbyterian church.

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Living in a new place: Covenant Network discusses post-GA PC(USA)

COLUMBUS -- Joan Gray, a dedicated gardener and the moderator of the 217th General Assembly, calls this an "out of season time for the Presbyterian church."

It's not a definite time for sowing, for pruning, for reaping the fruit. It's an "out-of-season season," Gray said -- a time of uncertainty.

And the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which drew about 350 people to its recent national meeting, reflected that uncertainty -- much of it centering around how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) should respond to the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the PC(USA).

Here's the short version. Many evangelicals in the church are churned up about the task force report -- talking about withholding funds, making lists of essential tenets, possibly leaving the denomination. The task force report emphasizes that decisions about ordination are made at the local level -- and conservatives are pushing measures in many presbyteries to make it clear that sexually active gays and lesbians won't be ordained, at least not there.

Progressives, on the other hand, tend to be happier with the task force report -- but not with the PC(USA)'s constitution, which limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they're married or chastity if they're single.

So how hard do they push to try to change the constitution?

Movie Reviews

“The Nativity Story” is first feature film to premiere at the Vatican

Editor's Note: On November 26, the film, "The Nativity Story", will become the first feature film ever to premiere at the Vatican, in Vatican City (Rome), Italy, reports Religion News Service. It is scheduled for a December 1 release in the United States. The premiere will be held at the Vatican's Aulo Paolo VI (Pope Paul VI Hall) with 7,000 invited guests. The event is a benefit, with contributions going toward construction of a school in the village of Mughar, Israel, located approximately 40 kilometers from Nazareth, which has a diverse population of Christians, Muslims, and Druze.

Ron Salfen, Texas pastor and OUTLOOK film reviewer, had a chance to attend an advance showing of the film and interview the film's director, Catherine Hardwicke. His review is posted along with this report. Here is the interview:

  
Outlook:  First, let me be a non-typical critic, and tell you that I really liked your movie. I thought it was fantastic.

CH: Thanks very much.  You know, I grew up Presbyterian. ... I grew up in First Church in McAllen, Texas. Now my parents have moved to Bend, Ore., but they go to the First Presbyterian Church there, and my Dad still sings in the choir.

Outlook:  You've chosen to combine the accounts of Matthew and Luke, and at the end, the manger scene looked like a lot of Nativity sets, with all the characters huddled around the cradle.

CH:  Yes, that was our nod to popular imagination, and what we knew people would expect.

Movie Reviews

The Nativity Story

It's not easy to make a movie about the birth of Christ. If you're too literal, it feels like an awkward bathrobe play, and even the Gospels themselves contain commentary. Besides, what to do about the different ways the Bible itself presents the story, and how about the prophecies leading up to the birth of the Messiah?  Which to utilize?  And how about the background music?  Is it going to be "authentic indigenous," or Gregorian chant, or traditional hymnody, or contemporary "soft rock"?  And how about the biblical characters?  Are they going to be stentorian; stiff and awkward, and perhaps somewhat filled with a sense of self-importance? Or are they just going to be "ordinary people," and how do you manage that with a Hollywood cast?

Uncategorized

On roots and fruits

Advent 3: Luke 3:7-18

 

Commanding stages across the land, and even a few pulpits, including the chapel at our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) headquarters, the National Prayer Breakfast, and the Willow Creek Association, he laments the global wildfire of AIDS consuming 8,000 lives every day. One person every 10 seconds. Describing the horror of seeing African refugees "queuing up to die, three to a bed," he delivers a stinging rebuke: "We can get cold fizzy drinks to the farthest reaches of Africa, but we can't get lifesaving medicines to the people who need it" most? The lead singer of the rock band U2, Bono, confesses: "I don't have any letters after my name ... I don't even have a name after my name ... but I am determined to turn around this supertanker of indifference." 

It has long been the job description of prophets, including John, who came preaching a baptism of repentance. He, too, was intent upon turning around a supertanker of human indifference -- indifference to the Living God.

Uncategorized

Revolution from the bottom up

Advent 4: Luke 1:46-55

 

I didn't grow up in the church. As a teenager my faith was incubated in the Jesus movement of the early 70s, culminating in several trips down the aisle to follow Christ. It took me awhile to learn that the gospel is bigger than personal salvation. And yet if this passage is any indication, it is certainly not less. In the first stanza of the Magnificat Mary sings: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my Spirit rejoices in God my Savior ... all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me ..." The use of the first person singular pronoun indicates a very personal experience of salvation.

Entering a world remarkably like our own, marked by political upheaval, economic uncertainty, and religious conflict, the God who acts in Jesus Christ, notes Charles Talbert, "did not go to the top (to Caesar or Pilate) to get things changed; nor ... to the left (to the Zealots)," much less to the religious right (to the Pharisees, or the Sadducees). No, God made a beeline for the bottom. God went to the poor, to the oppressed, to the outcasts, beginning with a teenage peasant slave-girl from the boondocks of Nazareth, a nobody from Nowheresville we know simply as Mary. But Mary is also evidence that God goes to the center, straight to the heart, offering forgiveness and deliverance, and seeking to reign there as Savior and Lord. Blessed are you, Mary, and blessed are you and I, for responding personally. 

Book Reviews

Books for 2006 holiday reading and giving

 

Another sign of the holidays--the Outlook book editor compiles a sampling of books that make both good gifts for Christmas and good books to get and read for yourself. Here is the 2006 list:

 

Resources for Year C

Luke for Everyone, by Tom Wright.  WJKP, 2004. ISBN 0-664-22784-8. Pb., 320 pp. $14.95.

Wright's popular for Everyone series combines the diligence of his New Testament scholarship with his passion for preaching and teaching in the life of the church. Here Wright offers constructive expositions and useful illustrations for each section of Luke's Gospel, along with his own translation of each text.

 

New Proclamation Commentary on the Gospels, by Andrew Gregory, David Bartlett, Morna Hooker, and Henry Wansbrough. Fortress, 2006. ISBN 0-8006-3752-6. b., 320 pp. $35.

A one-volume commentary on the four Gospels as they are represented in the Revised Common Lectionary.  The authors represent Anglican, American Baptist, Methodist, and Roman Catholic traditions.

Editorials

The Big Deal

When one of our pastors, speaking at a denomination-sponsored peacemaking conference, asked the rhetorical question, "What's the big deal about Jesus?" shock waves vibrated around the church.

Dirk Ficca, the executive director of the Parliament of the World's Religions, wasn't intending to sound dismissive when he asked that question on July 29, 2000. He was pressing folks to see Jesus as a revelation of God's will for the world--downplaying the claim that Jesus is the only instrument of salvation--in the hope of building better interfaith relationships.

Ficca's proposal generated wide outcry. For good reason. Presbyterians cry foul when anyone minimizes Jesus' work of redemption. The next two meetings of the General Assembly Council wrestled over it. The following GA struggled clumsily with it. The one thing that GA did get right was to direct the Louisville Office of Theology and Worship to prepare a response for a subsequent GA to consider.

Voices

ACREC urges church to bear stronger witness for peace in the Middle East

 

Editor's note: As Presbyterians continue their quest to promote peace and justice in Israel-Palestine, we offer for our Outlook readers' reflections both this letter prepared by the Advisory Committee on Racial-Ethnic Concerns and the essay by John Wimberly that follows. The letter was sent to leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in mid-August when the Lebanon-Israel conflict of last summer was front-page news.

 

The Rev. Joan Gray, Moderator of the 217th General Assembly
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk
The Rev. Allison Seed, Chairperson, General Assembly Council
Ms. Linda Valentine, Executive Director, General Assembly Council

 

Dear Friends and Colleagues in the Mission and Ministries of Christ's Church;

Sadly and painfully we are all very aware of the seemingly endless cycles of vengeance, violence, destruction and death among the peoples in the Middle East. Time and time again we have called ourselves in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) family to pray and work for the peace and justice of God-in-Christ among all peoples. We write to call for a stronger witness now for justice for all peoples in the Middle East, in the interest of long-term peace and the restoration of fairness and balance to U.S. foreign policy. We urge you as leaders of the Church to share the following letter with the full Council and the church as a whole as a contribution to that witness.

Voices

After divestment

The 2006 General Assembly has, hopefully, put the divestment argument to rest. It replaced the controversial divestment instructions passed by the 2004 General Assembly with instructions to our committees and staff to pursue a strategy of investing in those who work for peace in the Middle East. The GA affirmed the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) process, which has been so successful for decades, as one appropriate means to this end. Given that the Middle East has witnessed a new round of death and destruction in Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine, the GA resolution seems even more prophetic today than it did at the end of June.

I think the GA was able to reach a consensus resolution on divestment for a variety of reasons. First, both pro- and anti- divestment advocates have spent the past two years discussing/debating/dialoguing about the best strategy for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the Middle East. As a result, we were a much more informed denomination in 2006 than we were in 2004. Second, the GA acted with remarkable independence. Anyone who thinks that lobbyists for one party or another prevailed in Birmingham wasn't there. Third, the table for a balanced outcome in Birmingham was set by an excellent forum held on Israel/Palestine the day prior to the GA convening. The speakers were reasoned and reasonable. Denominational staff and committee members who created the forum deserve praise. 

Voices

Authoritative witnesses: Accept no substitutes

 

Editor's Note: As Presbyterians discuss and study church policies and the TTFPUP report, we offer for our Outlook readers' reflections both this article by Ted A. Smith, and the following article by Michael D. Bush and Christopher A. Yim.

 

Our Presbyterian system places great demands on the governing bodies of the church. We believe that presbyteries and sessions should examine officers in light of essential tenets of the Reformed faith. We also believe that governing bodies should apply all the standards set by the whole church, rather than requiring subscription to partial and local lists of essentials. And so we ask elders and ministers to know the Reformed tradition well enough to discern the movement of the Holy Spirit in individual cases. A range of groups -- most notably the Presbyteries of Santa Barbara and San Diego -- have put forward guidelines to help sessions and presbyteries in this demanding work. But while the texts of these guidelines profess fidelity to Scripture and confessions, the practice of using them promises to displace the very authorities they celebrate.

Voices

Freedom within certain bounds

(Editor's Note: This article is written in response to  "When departures relate to practice," a commentary by Douglas Nave in the Oct. 16 issue of The Presbyterian Outlook.)

 

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) may appropriately permit officers freedom of conscience while requiring compliance with the ordination standards in the Form of Government. The historical and judicial examples Douglas Nave offers to support his claim that such would be unchristian or unpresbyterian are either mistaken or irrelevant.

Consider Jesus. We read that Jesus did not "reject the sanctity of the Lord's Day."

While Lord's Day observance developed to honor his resurrection, after the fact, Jesus did honor the Sabbath, even as he transformed it in light of his own presence in the world. He worked this transformation, in part, by healing on the Sabbath. These healings were not ethical expressions of faith, as Mr. Nave suggests, but rather were acts through which Jesus taught. This is a different matter, unrelated to Mr. Nave's point.

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