Bringing the Word to Life

The Essentials: A Simple Faith Is Enough

6 Comments / PCUSA, Sermon on the Mount, Theological Reflection / By /

The Word of God dominating my thoughts these days is Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus’ “sermon on the mount.” Two eager groups meet— one on Tuesday night and one on Wednesday morning— to discuss the text one week and report back the following week on how that Word was integrated into real life. It is a challenge to write a blog post between those two class sessions; and yet, this week, the topic of the Beatitudes is full of inspiration and relevance for PCUSA application.  Dallas Willard, in chapter 4 of The Divine Conspiracy, has a most interesting discussion of […]

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One Last Time: It’s the Essentials, Stupid!

5 Comments / Parnell v. San Francisco, PCUSA, The Missional Church, Theological Reflection / By /

There are a lot of issues to distract Presbyterians right now. The white noise comes from all quarters, as various subgroups of the denomination try to get the attention of people in the pew. Interpretations of past events and actions fly, as in a Louisville staffer commenting in a webinar about the Mexican church’s alienation from the PCUSA: “Amendment 10-A did not really have to do with sexuality, it was about a person submitting in all aspects of his life to the Lordship of Christ!”[1] The smoke and mirrors, the denial, even the incredulity some of my presbytery colleagues show

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The Courage of the Minority

6 Comments / Parnell v. San Francisco, PCUSA / By /

Evangelical Presbyterians, depending on their context, feel their strength or weakness relative to those with whom they serve. One might feel comfortable and strengthened by being part of a majority in a presbytery or congregation; another feels beat up and discouraged at being the minority in a different presbytery or congregation. One purpose for this blog is to encourage the theologically conservative of the PCUSA, to identify with their dilemmas, and to support them in their efforts. The fact that there are several different efforts underway, during this sea-change we are experiencing in the denomination, is the reason why one

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The Synod PJC Said What . . .?

15 Comments / Parnell v. San Francisco, PCUSA / By /

The occasion for beginning this blog was the completion of the Appeal Hearing before the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) in the matter of Parnell et al v. San Francisco Presbytery. The GAPJC rendered its Decision and Order on August 2, 2011, and the response of the Complainants’ legal team followed. By way of review, what the GAPJC did was to dismiss all allegations of error that applied the previously encoded standard for church officers, the requirement “to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness” (the former

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On the Other Hand: Reasons for Leaving the PCUSA

12 Comments / PCUSA, The Missional Church / By /

Considering the missional implications of Staying or Leaving the PCUSA, outlined this week have been some reasons why Staying can be seen as missional. More will be said on that topic in the days to come. But today, to keep some balance in the discussion, let us consider the merits of Leaving. The following ideas have been mentioned or implied in some of the social network traffic this week: 1.  The PCUSA itself has left the true church.  If the church through its councils and judicial commissions has departed from the beliefs that originally defined it, then the church has

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Is It Possible to Be Kingdom Focused While Remaining in the PCUSA?

5 Comments / PCUSA, The Missional Church / By /

I commend to my readers the comments that appeared in response to yesterday’s post. They represent both sides of the Stay or Leave the PCUSA debate and are really quite helpful for understanding and empathizing with both liberal and conservative points of view. If that reading exercise does not totally exhaust you, then I offer just a short thought for today. Yesterday I spilled the beans about my intent to stay with the PCUSA for now, and I am going to continue to explore why this track has merit in the days to come. My purpose for doing so is

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Stay or Leave: Strangers in a Strange Land

12 Comments / Fellowship of Presbyterians, PCUSA / By /

Over the last two weeks, I have been trying to unpack the very difficult situation evangelicals experience as conservatives within a liberal Protestant denomination, the PCUSA. My intent has not been to whine nor to accuse, but to sort out the dilemmas individuals face when they realize they do not belong in a church they feel has left them. Facebook and this blog (among many others) have given people a platform in which to express their feelings and thoughts on the matter. In those forums, it seems the available options are laid out in rather black and white terms: if

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To Leave or Not to Leave: That Is the Question

7 Comments / PCUSA, Theological Reflection / By /

The “organized church” of the twenty-first century is a far cry from the fledgling association evident a few decades after Christ’s Ascension. The Christian Church has seen the East/West split between Catholic and Orthodox in 1054, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, and the continued delineation of Christian tribes by theological emphasis since then. Does the existence of these denominations indicate that the Church of Jesus Christ has failed or that it exists in a perpetual less-than-God-glorifying state? This is an important point to ponder. If the answer is “Yes,” then any consideration of breaking from the PCUSA—with the

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The Political Incorrectness of Church Discipline

8 Comments / PCUSA, Theological Reflection / By /

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

1 Comment / PCUSA, Teaching, Theological Reflection / By /

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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