In previous years this magazine has sponsored what I thought was a wearying debate between those who took a rather relaxed view of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those who insisted that belief in the resurrection of the body was essential. Without it we were all doomed to the theological and moral wasteland of Christian thought.
Nancy Ammerman recognizes Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church when she sees it — the congregation where the families have all been there for generations, where everybody knows everybody and there’s no question at all about which hymns will be sung or what food will show up at the potluck: tuna noodle casserole and Jell-O with fruit. Every time.
The United States has always been a religiously pluralistic place — now, more so than ever, said Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion.
In a recent lecture series, Ammerman described how she sees things lining up — saying the United Stattes now has eight major streams of religious leanings, what she referred to as eight points on the compass.
Alex Metherell, the elder and physician/engineer from Laguna Beach, Calif., who tried to get the 214th General Assembly recalled last year to address the issue of constitutional defiance, has announced that he will be a candidate for General Assembly stated clerk.
I am new at this business, unaccustomed to writing each week for the whole church. A valued friend reacted quickly to last week’s editorial. He thought it was a little too far on the wild side; he was especially critical of my sweeping, dogmatic claims about validated ministries. Yet he admitted that the editorial opened up an ongoing discussion. Thus doth provocation produce dialogue.
RICHMOND — The Mid-Atlantic Synod, meeting here in special session Saturday, voted 19-15 to review the policies, procedures and actions of Baltimore Presbytery with regard to admitting new minister members and the validation of ministries and oversight of ministers.
You probably won’t get a crowd up on their feet screaming if you shout out, "Authoritative interpretation!" On the other hand, those two words have the power to get some Presbyterians mighty riled up.
This year’s General Assembly will be asked, once again, to consider removing from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution the requirement that those being ordained practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — language that some contend follows centuries of Christian teaching, and that some others say unfairly excludes gays and lesbians in committed partnerships from serving in leadership in the church.
The question of what to do about Donald Stroud — the Presbyterian minister from Baltimore who has said publicly he cannot comply with the part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Constitution that limits ordination to those who practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they are single — is taking yet another twist.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We have been at war in Iraq for a year now. Close to 11,000 Iraqis have been killed. Nearly 600 United States servicemen and women have died in the hostilities; another 3,000 have been injured. We ask you to join us in continued prayers for those who are impacted by war, those who are serving in the military, and those in positions of authority.
My next few editorials will respond to recent news stories and guest viewpoints that have received no editorial treatment.
This week I will address the Jan. 31 meeting of Western North Carolina Presbyterian at which the ministry of Parker Williamson was not revalidated. This was reported in the Feb. 23 issue of The Outlook and the February issue of the Layman. I want also to respond to reader reaction to the Jan. 26 Outlook editorial, "Ministry of Fear."
I read with great interest the article by James Goodloe ("Righteous Judgment") and the endorsing letter by Eddie Soto. Though the term is never used, I assume that both are being critical of "Lectionary Preaching."
Both are correct when they say that lectio continua (preaching through a book of the Bible "in course," chapter by chapter) was used back to the earliest days of the church, and that the reformers, especially the Genevan reformers, urged pastors to preach through books of the Bible.
Parker T. Williamson has won some time. The Permanent Judicial Commission of the Mid-Atlantic Synod has granted a stay of enforcement of a decision by Western North Carolina Presbytery involving Williamson.
What’s at dispute in the case is whether and on what terms Williamson can remain a member of Western North Carolina Presbytery.
have been a member of the Outlook Foundation Board of Directors almost longer than I can remember. It came with the territory; it came very soon after I moved to Richmond in 1982 to become pastor of Second church. I think it was assumed that I would serve on the board because of The Outlook’s long history with this congregation. One of our predecessor journals was brought to Richmond in 1856 by the first pastor of this church, Moses Drury Hoge, and most of the ministers of Second church since 1938 had served on the board as well.
In some parts of the country we have endured a long, cold winter and the blizzards are still coming (after several weeks of sub-zero weather). Many people are sick of it and feel like they are caught in a frozen trap.
Some of this normal depression will pass, of course, when spring comes; when we get rid of the ice, the heavy coats and gloves, the constant aggravation of getting into a freezing car. Then we will feel better again.
By James M. Gustafson
Augsburg Fortress. 2004. 128 pp. $15.
— Review by Ralph D. Bucy, Harrisonburg, Va.
From the cowardice that dares not face new truth
From the laziness that is contented with half-truth
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth
Good Lord, deliver us. (p. vii)
James S. Brown Sr., 91, former publisher of The Outlook and general manager of the Outlook Book Service, died Wednesday, March 10, in Richmond, Va. A memorial service was held Saturday, March 13, at Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church in Richmond.
A Texas native, Brown came to The Outlook in 1947 to assist his brother, the late Outlook editor Aubrey Brown, by managing the business side of the operation. Prior to that, James Brown had been working with a Texas City oil refinery and narrowly escaped death in the disastrous explosion of 1947.
This is the magic of the Alpha evangelization program: a guy like John Goodwin, a management consultant from Vancouver, Canada, says, "I came to the Lord through Alpha, and had no intention of doing such a thing." Goodwin, a 65-year-old management consultant, had not gone to church for 35 years when, in 1998, he decided to give an Alpha course a try — in large part because a woman he was dating (and who is now his wife) was involved in the church and asked him to go.
John Zimmerman, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor from Washington state, saw firsthand how Alpha can transform a congregation when he served as an interim pastor about two years ago of a historic downtown church in Vancouver, B.C. That church, a Baptist congregation, had a long-term pastor who retired, and attendance dropped off by about 180 within a few months after he left. But then the Alpha programs the church had been offering took off — and Zimmerman was amazed at what happened next.
Marcia Mount Shoop, an associate pastor at a big church in the Chicago suburbs, likes the idea of having an evangelistic outreach for people who are seeking to know more about God and Christianity. But when she went to an Alpha conference, "I had some theological problems with some of the curriculum — some of the content I felt was not appropriate for the Reformed tradition, it doesn’t reflect what we believe," Mount Shoop said.
I am both humbled and daunted by the confidence the search committee and board of the Presbyterian Outlook Foundation has shown by naming me editor. Standing on the shoulders of Aubrey Brown (1943-1978) George Hunt (1978-1988) and Robert Bullock (1988–2003) reminds me of the awesome responsibility that attaches to this position. The PC(USA), the denominations that birthed and nourished us into existence, the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches in the United States, and even the holy universal church owe these past three editors an immense debt of gratitude, as do our readers.
In response to declining membership, a strategy report of a major presbytery several years ago emphasized new church development. Although anticipated, it was still rather disconcerting. How many commercial enterprises would respond to falling sales by opening new franchises? Instead, if they hoped to survive, they would concentrate on product improvement.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
— Exodus 20:4–6 (ESV)
DALLAS – Yes, they finally started talking about ordination.
No, they didn’t answer the big essay question: should the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordain gays and lesbians (although there are no shortage of folks willing to volunteer the answer on that one.) That kind of discussion – what the PC(USA) should do about its disagreements over theology and ordination – is expected to be on the table when the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the PC(USA) meets again in August. And, after more than two years of work, some of them seem eager to get to it.
DALLAS – What are the qualifications for being a church leader?
The third and fifth chapters of 1 Timothy provide what New Testament scholar Frances Taylor Gench described as "a catalog of virtues" expected of such people – written with the recognition that the world is watching, that for some, how church leaders behave is one of the standards they use to judge whether the faith is real.
Meeting in Richmond on Feb. 10-11, the board of directors of the Presbyterian Outlook Foundation elected O. Benjamin Sparks its interim editor effective Feb. 20.
Sparks will serve in a part-time, limited capacity and without compensation while he remains pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Va. During his tenure as editor he will give overall direction to The Outlook in theological, editorial and ecclesiastical matters, setting the tone and direction of the paper.
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