September 2011

The Political Incorrectness of Church Discipline

For the last two days I have been sitting on this next post, trying to decide which topic should come first: the legitimacy of Christian denominations or what one might do when/if one’s own denomination detaches from its roots. I am not procrastinating on these questions, but think we need to do a little more work from within Paul’s letters to gain some guidance: The apostle Paul did not live in an environment of denominations as we know them; the church, from his point of view, was still unified in a loose association and he was one of its most […]

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Paul’s Priority of Sound Doctrine

The apostle Paul dramatically encountered the Risen Christ on his way to round up “illegal” Christians in Damascus. A zealous Pharisee and a Roman citizen from Tarsus, this convert understood the Law and claimed to have lived it to the letter. His world was rocked, however, when Jesus himself confronted Paul with the question, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Just as Jesus had addressed Peter personally with a Key Question, now in Acts 9 Jesus personally addresses this one misguided and angry enforcer with the grace and truth of the gospel. A career change was in Paul’s future, and it

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What Jesus Considered the Essential Tenet

In light of the interesting comments and conversation resulting from yesterday’s post, I have elected to spend one more day on Jesus before moving on to Paul, regarding doctrinal expectations. The gospels give us no evidence that Jesus was insistent upon a particular “system” of doctrine. The Pharisees had a very punctilious system of doctrine, but there was something seriously wrong with them spiritually, and Jesus called them out about it all the time. Things could be distilled into a far less complicated framework of belief. For Jesus, there were two main core beliefs around which everything else would fall

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The Quest for Doctrinal Purity

In the current climate of the PCUSA, sadly, some conservative church members approach their pastors with the news that they are leaving for someplace where they can feel more at home theologically. They may not put it in quite those words, but they express dismay over the church’s apparent departure from biblical norms (referring to the outcomes of adoption of Amendment 10-A, the new Form of Government, and the August judicial commission ruling confirming changes in ordination standards). Their resolution of the personal, internal dissonance these actions cause is to search for a church home that is untainted by questionable

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The Seeds of “Church” that Jesus Planted

The PCUSA, and particularly the evangelical wing of the church, is pondering the meaning of its existence and its future. Though I am certainly not the first to raise questions designed to get us back to our roots, it is timely to ask what Jesus had in mind, if anything, for a church, the Church, or his followers as a group. To that end, I have compiled a list of Scriptures relevant to such an inquiry and welcome your input if you think I have forgotten something. For simplicity, the terms “believers” and “Christians” refer to individuals who have trusted

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Denominations and the Prospect of Doctrinal Purity

Presbyterian pastors are feeling some pressure while the evangelical wing undergoes its process of evaluation, discernment, and decision-making. Every time the denomination takes some controversial action, pastors endure the painful visits of parishioners who express their intention to leave the PCUSA.  Today I would like to explore where this pain leads, and follow up this week pondering the meaning of “church” and maybe even “denomination.” One of our Historic Principles of Church Order affirms the voluntary nature of one’s participation in the Presbyterian/Reformed wing of Protestantism. We have gone on record saying that one does not need to be a

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The Plight of the Unattached Pastor

For one group of Presbyterians, the waters are not churning white-water but the going-nowhere stillness of the doldrums. Or, to use another analogy, this group is stuck in the gridlock of a traffic jam, either unable to move from one place to another or thwarted from getting into the flow of traffic at all. I am speaking of “unattached pastors,” those ordained teaching elders (Ministers of Word and Sacrament) who, for one reason or another, cannot find or take a call in a local congregation. As the PCUSA reorganizes itself, along the lines proposed by the Fellowship of Presbyterians, the

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From Straggler to Pace-Setter

I had no idea bicycle racing was a team sport until the Tour de France captured the America’s imagination in 1999. The U.S. Postal Service team enabled Lance Armstrong to win the race six times under its sponsorship. The team has two sections: the support team and the cycling team. The support team includes people responsible for the equipment, cyclists’ medical care, coaching, local arrangements, and marketing. The cycling team includes the captain and specialists in climbing, sprinting, time trials, and defensive strategy. The general idea is for all the team members to unite their efforts to support the captain’s

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From Dirt Kicker to Fruit Picker

Lloyd Ogilvie, in a family camp talk delivered at Mount Hermon decades ago, employed a vivid image my husband and I still use to identify a critical skeptic.  A grave digger toiled on a hot, muggy day to fashion a perfect, sharp-cornered grave. Before the casket arrived to receive its earthly embrace, a sour chap sidled up to the edge of the pit and kicked some dirt into it.  “There,” he groused to the grave-digger, “you missed some.”  Ogilvie likened this “dirt-kicker” to those in the church who can never affirm or be satisfied with the ministry efforts of others.

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From Passivity to Proactivity

The second shift that evangelicals must make in order to manage the PCUSA transition is a movement from passivity to proactivity. Yesterday, the idea of “waiting on God” was presented as the alternative to waiting on (other) people to do something. But, to elaborate today, waiting on God is an active and alert attendance to the things God would have us do right now. An excellent waiter in a four-star restaurant is alert to the customer’s raised eyebrows, glances around the table, or the empty cup long before service is even beckoned. The waiter is actively attentive to the surroundings

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