PCUSA

Essential Identity

Leave a Comment / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

The social situations of Thanksgiving week, not to mention the daily high-quality conversations with rotating home helpers, have caused me once again to reflect on some of the assumptions we make in life.  In particular this week, the question is How do I see myself, my essential identity, in light of what has been happening lately? The references to “my friend with cancer,” “she’s a fellow cancer victim,” and other designations that define me (or others) by our ailment have been bothering me a bit. I think I newly appreciate one of the sensitivities my husband has demonstrated for years. […]

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To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain!

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, The Pastoral Call, Theological Reflection / By /

The news of the Rev. Dr. Henry Greene’s death has silenced me in shock and awe. My dear friend and colleague in renewal work within the PC(USA) died suddenly on Monday, while doing what he loved, hiking in Yosemite National Park. Henry was the real deal, a genuine to-the-core Christian who lived for Christ in all he did. I could devote this entire post as a tribute to him (and may still at a later date), but he would be embarrassed by that and would find a way to shift the focus onto his Lord. So that is what I

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This Is Going to Hurt

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

One of my all-time favorite movies is Hook, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts and Maggie Smith. There’s this great scene where Captain Hook (Hoffman) is stealing the affections of the kidnapped children of grown up Peter Pan (Williams). Hook is making more progress with the already alienated son Jack than the younger daughter Maggie. Soon we see Jack dressed up as a miniature Captain Hook, but one thing more is needed to complete the costume: a pierced ear to accommodate a big gold ear ring. As Hook holds up his arm hook, the tool of choice for ear-piercing,

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The Supportive Community

Leave a Comment / ECO (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians), Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Peace Unity & Purity, Personal, The Missional Church / By /

The days getting ready for my cancer treatments have been amazingly busy. Because I will be undergoing both radiation and chemotherapy, I am engaged in two tracks of testing and preparation. Today, for instance, I will go in for a dress rehearsal of my custom-designed radiation treatment. During this procedure the technicians, the physicist, and the doctor all sign off on the mapping of high-energy x-rays that will converge on the Beast. Yesterday it was a bone-marrow biopsy to set a baseline for measuring side effects of chemotherapy. Another kind of preparation is happening at home. Because the disease itself

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The Down-side of Playing It by the Numbers

Leave a Comment / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, The Property Clause, Theological Reflection / By /

I have had my diagnosis of lung cancer for just one week now, though I was strongly suspicious for a week or two prior to that: enough time to start getting my head and heart around the possibilities. In those weeks, my cough and an antibiotic were making it hard for me to sleep, so there were so many hours and such a big world-wide-web to awaken my curiosity. Bad idea. I saw just one number (the average 5-year survival rate for lung cancer) and made a decision right then and there: I’m not going to do this by the

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On Assignment: A New Perspective on “Call”

Leave a Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Romans 8, Theological Reflection / By /

Presbyterians use the term “discerning one’s call” to refer to the process of figuring out one’s vocation. In the Presbyterian/Reformed Tradition, that call is sensed not only by the ministerial candidate personally but by the Presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry and ultimately by a congregation that desires to call a candidate into pastoral service. It was a Christian community’s process over years’ time that solidified my sense of call to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. That call, exercised as a pastor-teacher, has shaped my identity and brought structure to my life since 1987. The last seven years “without

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My Life Under Scrutiny

Leave a Comment / Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, Romans 8, Theological Reflection / By /

Today every inch of my body will be scanned; a PET scan first (neck downward), then a brain MRI (head only)…checking to see if the beast has gotten out of its cage. I welcome the scrutiny, because my cure is heavily invested in finding what ails me. Without that specific diagnosis and knowledge of the stage of the disease, it cannot be slain. Gone are any pretenses of privacy or the sovereignty of my own opinion. I mean, really, what good would it do for me to say, “Y’all, my insides are none of your business. There’s nothing wrong with

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Still Waiting? Try “Waiting on the Lord”

Leave a Comment / PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Missional Church / By /

Yesterday I suggested that “waiting for” sets the church up for spiritual temptation, either to divert from The Main Thing or to give up altogether. I suppose congregations that are in an interim period between pastors face these temptations, and that is why it is a good thing to be led by a skilled interim pastor during such a phase. But churches waiting for the wheels of Presbytery Process to grind are also challenged to keep going in the meantime, but how? We often ask the question, “What are we waiting for?” but perhaps the better query would be “What

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Assigned to the Waiting Room

Leave a Comment / ECO (Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians), PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Missional Church, Theological Reflection / By /

A Personal Note: Today is All Saints’ Day, and the 26th anniversary of my ordination to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the PC(USA). Woo-hoo!! At its September meeting, San Francisco Presbytery authorized the congregation of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church to meet this Sunday, November 3, to discern its readiness for dismissal. However, last week, the Presbytery Engagement Team (PET) called off the congregational meeting while issues related to the terms of dismissal are re-opened and resolved. The congregation must wait for something else to develop before they can move on in their process of dismissal to ECO. I

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How Much Money Is Enough for Fruitful Ministry?

Leave a Comment / Kenya & Uganda, PCUSA, The Missional Church, Theological Reflection, Uncategorized / By /

 In our American economy and within our church tradition, money in support of Christ’s mission is typically disbursed for personnel, facilities, program, and mission. A new church plant starts commonly with a designated pastor whose financial support is provided to give him or her time to invest in gathering people. There is usually some investment in facilities, a place the church can call home (although this is changing out here in the West, where many church plants rent commercial or educational space and keep their “stuff” in trailers during the week). Program costs typically start with what happens on Sunday

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