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Commercial Christmas greed in 2005; is there a new holiday mindset?

Simplicity.

That's a cut-against-the-grain word in this season of so much everything -- so many parties and too many cookies, herds of lit-up reindeer marching across the lawns, lines of frantic shoppers hunting Xbox game systems or one more package of anything to put on the mound.

We do it, but in many hearts there's also a whisper -- maybe even a shout -- of "too much," a longing for a sacred silent night.

And so some people are deliberately, consciously, intentionally choosing less. Less Christmas shopping. Fewer decorations to put up and then haul back down, fewer plastic bins into which to cram it all.

Those who cultivate simplicity say they want more time, more peace, more care for the world -- not just at Christmas, but for the rest of the year as well, as a deliberate statement of their faith in God. Some are asking hard questions. How do the choices we make -- what we buy, what we eat, what we drive, what we invest in -- affect the world? What impact do our choices have on the earth and those who produce the goods we buy?

The simple-living movement is about more than saying "too much" to a consumer-driven Christmas, however. It ties together elements of environmental stewardship, of global economics, of socially-responsible investing, of caring for the least in a world in which many Americans have so much while the vast majority of the world's people live in poverty.

Moderator’s Conference explores PC(USA) demographics, future

LOUISVILLE -- "How do we understand our little tribe of God's folks?" asked Eileen Lindner, a Presbyterian minister who works gathering and analyzing statistics for the National Council of Churches in Christ.

In other words, what do the numbers say about the health of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the challenges it faces?

First, and perhaps most obvious, is the continuing decline in membership for the PC(USA) and other mainline Protestant denominations -- a combined loss of millions of members in recent decades. But that's in part due to demographics. "We were big winners in the post-World War II sweepstakes," the baby boom, and now that high birth rate has leveled off, Lindner told a national gathering of presbytery and synod moderators, convened in Louisville on Nov. 11 by Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the 216th General Assembly.

The membership losses the mainline denominations are experiencing should have been expected, projecting ahead the death rates based on those birth patterns, said Lindner, who edits the annual Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches.

"It's not so much what we did wrong," to cause people to leave, "as what we didn't initiate" to bring people in once high birthrates stopped driving growth, Lindner said.

Holiday 2005 movies

Login to see an overview of movies playing this 2005 holiday season.

How your session can change Presbyterian policy

In the October 3, 2005 issue of The Presbyterian Outlook, the question "How Do We Change the Book of Order?" was answered by reviewing steps and deadlines that must be followed to change our constitution.

Coalition encourages rejecting TF report; prepares booklet on church’s future

ORLANDO -- The Presbyterian Coalition, not content to wait, started months before a major task force report was due out to prepare its own statement of where it thinks the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ought to be going -- a paper that is not shy of proclaiming theological truth.

The paper -- "Given and Sent in One Love: The True Church of Jesus Christ" -- concludes in an afterward that the church should reject the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Two pastors wrote "Given and Sent in One Love" -- Gerrit S. Dawson of Baton Rouge, La. and Mark R. Patterson of Ventura, Calif. -- and it was published as a book with help from the Presbyterian Lay Committee, Dawson said.

The Coalition released the paper, based on the prayer that Jesus prays in the 17^th chapter of John, on Nov. 7 at the start of its national gathering at First Church in Orlando.

TF report draws fire, possible competing document as Coalition reacts to TF

ORLANDO -- How much do many evangelicals dislike the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?

Listen to some of what's been said at the national gathering of the Presbyterian Coalition, held Nov. 7-9 at First Church in Orlando.

Jim Berkley, interim director of Presbyterian Action for Faith and Freedom, the Presbyterian arm of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, called the task force report "an indigestible sausage" that "would permit behavior that would have scandalized Jesus himself."

Michael Walker, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal, has praised some sections of the task force report. But he described the task force's fifth recommendation as 'damaging to the church,' and said it could with one General Assembly vote 'effectively do an end run around three decades of discernment by the whole church.'

John "Mike" Loudon, an evangelical pastor from Lakeland, Fla., who's one of the 20 task force members, was invited to answer questions about the report. But Berkley, not Loudon, got to describe and analyze what the task force had done -- and the first question Loudon was asked was about what tradeoffs the task force had made to achieve a unanimous vote.

Loudon was gracious, saying he sees the report as a way for the PC(USA) to stay together, keeping its national ordination standards but allowing them to be applied locally. "Nowhere does it say to remove those national standards," Loudon said. "In fact, I fought long and hard to maintain those national standards."

Coalition reviews options; TF report OK could trigger further action;
Wineskins sets meeting right after GA

ORLANDO -- The preachers talked a lot about trust in a sovereign God, even in difficult times, even when surrounded by "slippery theology," as pastor David Swanson put it. Don't lose hope. Don't give up. Don't lose sight of the truth.

But the political discussions at the Presbyterian Coalition's national meeting Nov. 7-9 were mostly about how to keep bad things from happening at next summer's General Assembly -- and what to do if something terrible does happen, such as (from the Coalition's point of view) the assembly approving the report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

If that does happen, some contended, certain evangelical churches will be ready to leave the PC(USA).

There was also another theme subtly drifting through the conversations at the Coalition meeting, held at First Church in Orlando. Don't just look at what's wrong with the other side, evangelicals were told -- take a look at yourselves too.

Andrew Purves, professor of pastoral theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, preached during closing worship about the need for both truth and love -- saying that a church with "shining orthodoxy" but without love "is no longer the church."

Swanson, senior pastor of  First Presbyterian in Orlando, did not stint on criticism of the PC(USA)'s misguided directions during his opening sermon, citing examples such as a declining number of missionaries, a Washington office that supports political causes, sessions or presbyteries that ordain lesbians and gays.

Rocking the cradle

Scripture text: Psalm 89

Finding Psalm 89 among the texts for Advent 4 begs this question: Should Advent be a season of emotional de-crescendo and rest, as the church approaches with certainty the time of God with us; and/or should it be a time of emotional crescendo and dismay as we fly through yet another year of "how long, O Lord" (Psalm 89:46) with no certainty of the Messiah's imminent return?

Appearing elsewhere in the lectionary cycle at the end of Lent, on Maundy Thursday, Psalm 89 speaks to a time of crisis, as hope in the Lord appears betrayed and headed toward certain death. Therefore, the appearance of Psalm 89 again, here, leads me to this conclusion: Although the church tends to advocate emotional de-crescendo as Advent progresses, "but now" (v. 38), the church should be entertaining an emotional crescendo of lament that the Lord has NOT come as promised; that the disconnect between promise and reality is almost unbearable yet again. Only then is the joy of Christmas a true expression of God's in-breaking hope in the midst of seeming impossibility and dismay.

Concluding Book III of the Psalter, Psalm 89 is a royal psalm, swinging the faith of Israel between assertive confidence in God's steadfast love, faithfulness, and promise to all generations (v. 1-4), and at the other extreme, Israel's protest and disappointment in God's apparent breach of covenant in abandoning the anointed one during the exile (v. 38-51).  

“Four presbyters and a church”

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a series of stories entitled: "What is a Presbyterian Elder?"  (link to 'For Church Officers' articles)

The word "elder" in the Greek New Testament is presbuteros (for the biblical background see Part 1 in the April 25, 2005 issue). And the question is this: How many different kinds of presbyters are there in the PC(USA)?

The answer "one" is correct from an initial perspective. All elders are called by Jesus Christ and are united in one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. They serve one worldwide church. What is more, anyone who is ordained an elder remains so for life unless he or she requests release from office by the session (G-14.0211), joins another denomination, or is temporarily or permanently removed from office for an offense (D-12.0000).

In another sense there are two different kinds because there are elders in every congregation who serve various functions. Elders who are currently on the session are what used to be called "ruling" elders, but all other ordained elders in the congregation are still able to serve the Lord's Supper, and be commissioners, committee members, or officers of higher governing bodies (G-10.0102 p; 14.0203).