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Is There Any Hope for the PCUSA?

9 Comments / PCUSA, Theological Reflection / By /

“The whole creation has been groaning as we wait eagerly for our adoption and the redemption of our bodies”  (Romans 8:22). Lew Smedes, in My God and I (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003): “…As I have grown old, my feelings about God have tapered down to gratitude and hope. Gratitude is the pleasure of hope come true. Hope is the pain of gratitude postponed. . . .. Hope comes harder, sometimes with our backs against the wall, laden with doubts that what we hope for will ever come. . . . Hope can feel unbearable; when we passionately long for what […]

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On Cynicism

2 Comments / PCUSA, Personal / By /

Yesterday, offline, I received a caution from a ministry colleague about the tone of my last post, “How to Preserve an Institution,” exhorting me to share my insights around PCUSA concerns without adding to the cynicism prevalent among us Presbyterians and more widely in American culture. The brother who wrote could not have been kinder or more patient with me while raising some important questions, and for this I rejoice as a part of a supportive and discerning faith community. To some of my readers I may be considered a thought-leader. Maybe. But at the very least I hope that

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How to Preserve an Institution

5 Comments / Fellowship of Presbyterians, PCUSA / By /

As anticipation mounts for the “Orlando Meeting” of the Fellowship of Presbyterians, some interesting pressure points are turning up. A remark made by a ministry colleague got me thinking about how “institutionalist” Presbyterians may try to undermine Orlando’s agenda. What sort of strategy might be employed to derail the efforts to establish either a New Reformed Body or some back-porch waiting room for those who need to differentiate from their presbyteries? Here are some scenarios, some based on “deep background” information, others purely speculative. If I were a person committed to preserving the structure and institution of the PCUSA: 1.

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A Name-Changer

1 Comment / PCUSA, Theological Reflection / By /

Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, I preached on Isaiah 61:11–62:3, “That Is a Name-Changer!” After a brief “State of the World” message—to demonstrate some parallels between beat-up Israel in Isaiah’s time and the current day—I reflected on the role Christians have to play both waiting for and anticipating the Second Coming of Christ. [You can find the audio of this sermon at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church’s website.] In this passage, the idea of being given a new name is beautifully introduced: Is. 62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until

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A New Job, and Renewed Vision

7 Comments / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), Parnell v. San Francisco, PCUSA, Personal, The Missional Church / By /

As you may have heard by now, the Presbyterian Coalition has appointed me its new “Renewal Director” effective January 1, 2012. You can read more about the Coalition and its purpose on its website.  I am delighted with this appointment on many levels and feel that God orchestrated the various factors to bring about this result. I have previously served on the Board, and one year as a Co-Moderator, so the Coalition family is familiar and dear to me. It will be a privilege to serve with this organization, for Kingdom purposes in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). My vision for

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Responding to Joe Small—4: What Could We Have Done Better?

1 Comment / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, PCUSA / By /

Back in the day, when the controversy was over subscription to the five doctrinal Fundamentals (divine inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, substitutionary atonement, the historical reality of Christ’s miracles, the virgin birth, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus), the Presbyterian Church duked it out at Princeton Seminary. The Fundamentalist/Modernist debate, represented by Harry Emerson Fosdick (the liberal) and Gresham Machen (the conservative), resulted in Princeton realigning its theological faculty toward the modernist view. Consequently, Machen’s group founded Westminster Seminary in 1929 to preserve the conservative view. In the 1930s, the divide particularly over the view of Scripture resulted in the

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Responding to Joe Small—3: Getting to the Root of Our Divisions

6 Comments / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, PCUSA / By /

Finishing this three-part reflection on Joe Small’s “Open Letter,” the third topic of note requires an historical perspective. Joe writes, “I believe that the current differentiation and likely separation is a tragedy. Could it have been avoided? Maybe . . . but only if decades ago we had found more faithful ways of expressing and living out our differences in conviction.” As I have explored the arguments and counterarguments for change in the PCUSA (especially in ordination standards), a few historical references repeatedly come up. They link to each other like a daisy-chain, with implications that a radical change of

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Responding to Joe Small—2: Essential Tenets

6 Comments / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, PCUSA, Teaching, Theological Reflection / By /

Continuing in respectful dialogue with friend and colleague Joe Small, in response to his “Open Letter,” the second topic of note is essential tenets of Reformed faith. The Fellowship of Presbyterians has decided to embrace the current Book of Confessions as its theological basis. When asked my opinion, before the document was released, I signed off on this approach as the best way to keep continuity, since all of us elders had already agreed to hold these confessions and catechisms as instructive and guiding to our life together. It is, frankly, an easy way to make the transition, though I

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Responding to Joe Small: On Bitter Schism

5 Comments / Fellowship of Presbyterians, PCUSA / By /

In the interest of constructive dialogue, I would like to respond to the “Open Letter” written by Joseph D. Small and published yesterday in The Presbyterian Outlook. First, a little background and an affirmation: I have been acquainted with Joe for many years most especially through our participation in a Reformed dialogue on the Sacraments in Geneva in the late 1990s. I last spoke to him at breakfast in Minneapolis during the August Gathering of Presbyterians. The grief he expressed then and now about the divide in the PCUSA is based on a grounded orthodox understanding of our faith and

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An Advent Meditation: Lights

Leave a Comment / PCUSA, Sermon on the Mount / By /

The one job I do not look forward to in December is stringing the lights on the fresh Christmas tree. I complained once too often a few years ago about wires showing, and the task became mine in perpetuity as a result. There are several aspects of the process that bring discomfort: the tree stays outside until the lights are on, for ease of access all the way around the tree, so it’s a cold job (if you can call 45° cold, which we do here in sunny California). One must hold one’s arms high for what seems an interminable

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