FIRST, HERE'S THE STORY, as reported in the MSM (Mainstream Media):
In opening arms to gays, Woodside Church cast from state Baptist group
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
By George Jaksagjaksa@flintjournal.com
Woodside Church banished
A 10-county Baptist group has voted to sever ties with Woodside Church over its acceptance of gays.
If the ouster sticks, Woodside would be the first American Baptist Church USA in Michigan disaffiliated over homosexuality.
FLINT - Woodside Church has become the first Baptist church in the state to be disaffiliated with area Baptists because of its stand on homosexuality.
By a vote of 18-3, churches in a 10-county area that are members of the American Baptist Churches USA have elected to sever all ties with Woodside, Flint's oldest Baptist church.
The action will be presented to American Baptist USA churches in Michigan on Sept. 9 for affirmation.
The Rev. Ray A. Strawser II, treasurer of the North Area Executive Committee, said member churches voted to "dis-fellowship" Woodside after five Flint-area Baptist churches objected to Woodside's open stand toward homosexuality and the congregation's decision in May to join the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists.
"We are American Baptists who believe homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching," said Strawser, pastor of First Baptist Church in Owosso.
The action did not come as a surprise to the 275-member congregation of Woodside, 1508 E. Court St.
"We anticipated that this would happen," said the Rev. Deborah Kohler, pastor of Woodside.
Kohler said the decision won't affect the church's Baptist foundation, even though it might be forced to seek affiliation with a Baptist group in another state if the Michigan church bans it.
"There is nothing they can do to keep us from being Baptists," said Kohler. "We can find other churches to connect with."
Woodside also is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
Woodside's view toward homosexuals is well-known. About five years ago, it took a formal stand of openness to all without regard to sexual orientation.
"We believe Jesus, as we know him and understand him through the Gospels, teaches us to love everyone just as they are without judgment," Kohler said.
Strawser said that even if Woodside is kicked out of the American Baptist Church at the September regional meeting, it can still affiliate with other Baptist groups in the U.S.
He said churches in California have affiliated with churches in Wisconsin, and one in Ohio joined a Rochester, N.Y., association.
Woodside also could appeal the state decision to the U.S. American Baptist Church, he said.
Jack LeSage, an openly gay Woodside member, said he was disappointed with the decision that came after a series of meetings, including one with Woodside members.
"Woodside has been a very positive, supportive and welcoming and affirming congregation," LeSage said.
Miriam Schaefer, a Woodside member who has been a Baptist for all of her 88 years, also supports the church's position on homosexuals.
"I don't think Jesus would kick them out," Schaefer said. "They are our brothers and sisters. If they want to be members of our church and support us, we shouldn't say no to them."
Strawser said that in the 1940s, a church was kicked out of American Baptist Churches USA for a different reason, but Woodside would be the first over the homosexual issue.
American Baptist Churches USA has 1.5 million members with 5,800 churches in America.
OK, now here's the $64 question. In the current environment, with the PSW debacle as a fresh wound, will Valley Forge continue the insane attack on local accountibility to associations and regions by allowing Woodside to find a home with say ABC of WI, or will they respect the action of the association? Watch this story carefully. My guess is they will continue to trash local accountibility based on precedence and an arrogance that will not be restrained by the puny action of what they view as Michigander yokels. Michigan! Ohio! West Virginia! Indiana! Take notice! The Empire will strike back!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Mainline Churches: an Old Man's Game
Variations on this story have appeared over the last few years. Again, note that mainline denominations, including the ABC, are always cited. Where's the data on the SBC, the Assemblies of God, the Vineyard, Calvary Chapel and the rising tide of non-aligned megachurches? I suspect the data would be strikingly different. This is more evidence that the "mainlines" are being sidelined.
Churches hunger for young clergy
Ministerial ranks thin on leaders under age 35
By MARK DAVISThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 08/28/06
She was visiting a Zambian nursery filled with children whose parents had died of AIDS when the Rev. Katie Givens Kime had time to talk with the 18-year-old woman who had come with her, all the way from Atlanta.
Did she like being a minister? the teen asked. How had she become one?
The Rev. Ben Anthony, 28, an associate pastor at St Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, is an exception in the ranks of a graying clergy.
Kime considered her answers, and the questioner. The young woman, who was on a church mission trip with Kime, was bound for college; what the minster told her, Kime knew, could help the young woman answer some of life's questions later on.
Ministers, answered Kime, are important. They touch lives. They make a difference.
"What might happen, is that [she] will remember that conversation — remember it forever," said Kime, an associate pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. "And maybe [she] might ... choose the ministry."
Believers can only pray that she might. At 27, Kime is a relative rarity in the ranks of Protestant ministers — a young pastor.
Concerned about the dwindling numbers of clergy under the age of 35, an Atlanta nonprofit organization is about to launch Calling Congregations, a nationwide effort to help churches identify and educate young ministers within their ranks. The Fund for Theological Education, which will oversee the initiative, hopes it will recruit 500 churches to find young clergy by 2009.
Established in 1954, FTE is an ecumenical organization that stresses theological training and scholarship with fellowships, workshops and other programs. Its president, Ann Svennungsen, thinks Calling Congregations could help fill a growing gap in pulpits across the country.
With increasing numbers of baby boomer ministers eyeing retirement within the next few years, churches need to move fast to find their replacements, she said. The best place to look, she said, is among "communities of disciples" — congregations.
Funded by a $6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, Calling Congregations will focus first on churches in and around Chicago. Early next year, it will begin contacting churches in the Atlanta area and elsewhere in the Southeast. The ecumenical program will focus on Methodist, American Baptist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations, among others.
The program will link participating congregations with each other, provide technical support and offer advice to churches searching their pews for new ministers. Most important, it will offer up to $5,000 in matching funds to help defray the costs of educating young pastors, Svennungsen said.
The need for young blood is acute, agreed the Rev. Ed Tomlinson, executive assistant to Bishop G. Lindsey Davis of the North Georgia United Methodist Conference. The organization, the largest Methodist congregation in the nation, represents about 342,000 Methodists attending more than 900 churches.
Tomlinson calls young pastors the "hen's teeth" of the church — rare. "We need to get young men and young women who are capable [ministers] coming out of our churches," he said.
A study conducted by the Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington underscores how pervasive the shortage is.
The seminary, which trains Methodist ministers, focused the recruitment of ministers within its own ranks from 1985 to 2005. It also surveyed American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Nazarene and Presbyterian Church in the USA organizations.
Bottom line: Ministers born after 1971 are hard to come by.
The survey found:
• Ministers under 35 comprised about 7 percent of the denominations' supply of pastors.
• Ministers ages 35-54 represented the largest number of pastors — 52 percent.
• Ministers 55 and older comprised 41 percent of the active pastors.
Despite those findings, said Svennungsen, denominations have been slow to recruit young people. "If the lawyers [association] faced this [shortage of young practitioners], they'd be up in arms," she said.
So why won't they come?
Ask a church official why more young people aren't coming to the ministry and the answers will vary. Some will cite the pay — starting salaries may hover around $30,000.
Others, such as Kime, think the career has lost some of its prestige. Some people are liable to think ministers are just following orders from an earthly hierarchy.
"Pastors aren't seen as individual thinkers," she said.
Still others are likely to echo the Rev. Carter McInnis, a 29-year-old Methodist minister who last year started a church at a Lawrenceville elementary school.
"I think we're missing out in college," he said. "Sometimes, that's where the church loses its touch."
Churches also lose touch, said the Rev. Jeri Parris Perkins, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Hartsville, S.C. She's worked with the FTE in the past and has pledged the support of her 600-member church in Calling Congregations. The organization plans to enlist that church, plus others in the Southeast, beginning in January.
Churches, Perkins said, need to nurture promising youngsters, giving them roles — in choirs, Sunday school, youngsters' worship services. In time, they may decide the pastorate is a life they want, she said.
The shortage of young ministers, she acknowledges, is real: In 2001, her church began looking for a young associate minister to work with the church's youth. It searched for a year before hiring a 31-year-old pastor.
She is confident the program may make future searches easier.
"The FTE has been wise in understanding that people most often hear calls to the ministry through the church," she said.
The Rev. Ben Anthony is one. An associate pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta, he's 28.
Anthony became interested in spiritual matters while taking religion courses in college but wasn't satisfied with what he learned in the classroom. He had to know more and found it in church. In 2003, he got his master's in divinity degree from Emory University.
Anthony, like Kime and McInnis, knows he is the exception, not the rule, in religious life. "I've had to redefine what a peer is," he said.
He also hopes that he won't always be the anomaly, that his peers are waiting to be discovered in congregations all over the country.
They are waiting, Anthony thinks, for the word — from above, certainly, but also from within the walls where they worship.
Churches hunger for young clergy
Ministerial ranks thin on leaders under age 35
By MARK DAVISThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 08/28/06
She was visiting a Zambian nursery filled with children whose parents had died of AIDS when the Rev. Katie Givens Kime had time to talk with the 18-year-old woman who had come with her, all the way from Atlanta.
Did she like being a minister? the teen asked. How had she become one?
The Rev. Ben Anthony, 28, an associate pastor at St Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, is an exception in the ranks of a graying clergy.
Kime considered her answers, and the questioner. The young woman, who was on a church mission trip with Kime, was bound for college; what the minster told her, Kime knew, could help the young woman answer some of life's questions later on.
Ministers, answered Kime, are important. They touch lives. They make a difference.
"What might happen, is that [she] will remember that conversation — remember it forever," said Kime, an associate pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. "And maybe [she] might ... choose the ministry."
Believers can only pray that she might. At 27, Kime is a relative rarity in the ranks of Protestant ministers — a young pastor.
Concerned about the dwindling numbers of clergy under the age of 35, an Atlanta nonprofit organization is about to launch Calling Congregations, a nationwide effort to help churches identify and educate young ministers within their ranks. The Fund for Theological Education, which will oversee the initiative, hopes it will recruit 500 churches to find young clergy by 2009.
Established in 1954, FTE is an ecumenical organization that stresses theological training and scholarship with fellowships, workshops and other programs. Its president, Ann Svennungsen, thinks Calling Congregations could help fill a growing gap in pulpits across the country.
With increasing numbers of baby boomer ministers eyeing retirement within the next few years, churches need to move fast to find their replacements, she said. The best place to look, she said, is among "communities of disciples" — congregations.
Funded by a $6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis, Calling Congregations will focus first on churches in and around Chicago. Early next year, it will begin contacting churches in the Atlanta area and elsewhere in the Southeast. The ecumenical program will focus on Methodist, American Baptist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations, among others.
The program will link participating congregations with each other, provide technical support and offer advice to churches searching their pews for new ministers. Most important, it will offer up to $5,000 in matching funds to help defray the costs of educating young pastors, Svennungsen said.
The need for young blood is acute, agreed the Rev. Ed Tomlinson, executive assistant to Bishop G. Lindsey Davis of the North Georgia United Methodist Conference. The organization, the largest Methodist congregation in the nation, represents about 342,000 Methodists attending more than 900 churches.
Tomlinson calls young pastors the "hen's teeth" of the church — rare. "We need to get young men and young women who are capable [ministers] coming out of our churches," he said.
A study conducted by the Wesley Theological Seminary of Washington underscores how pervasive the shortage is.
The seminary, which trains Methodist ministers, focused the recruitment of ministers within its own ranks from 1985 to 2005. It also surveyed American Baptists, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Nazarene and Presbyterian Church in the USA organizations.
Bottom line: Ministers born after 1971 are hard to come by.
The survey found:
• Ministers under 35 comprised about 7 percent of the denominations' supply of pastors.
• Ministers ages 35-54 represented the largest number of pastors — 52 percent.
• Ministers 55 and older comprised 41 percent of the active pastors.
Despite those findings, said Svennungsen, denominations have been slow to recruit young people. "If the lawyers [association] faced this [shortage of young practitioners], they'd be up in arms," she said.
So why won't they come?
Ask a church official why more young people aren't coming to the ministry and the answers will vary. Some will cite the pay — starting salaries may hover around $30,000.
Others, such as Kime, think the career has lost some of its prestige. Some people are liable to think ministers are just following orders from an earthly hierarchy.
"Pastors aren't seen as individual thinkers," she said.
Still others are likely to echo the Rev. Carter McInnis, a 29-year-old Methodist minister who last year started a church at a Lawrenceville elementary school.
"I think we're missing out in college," he said. "Sometimes, that's where the church loses its touch."
Churches also lose touch, said the Rev. Jeri Parris Perkins, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Hartsville, S.C. She's worked with the FTE in the past and has pledged the support of her 600-member church in Calling Congregations. The organization plans to enlist that church, plus others in the Southeast, beginning in January.
Churches, Perkins said, need to nurture promising youngsters, giving them roles — in choirs, Sunday school, youngsters' worship services. In time, they may decide the pastorate is a life they want, she said.
The shortage of young ministers, she acknowledges, is real: In 2001, her church began looking for a young associate minister to work with the church's youth. It searched for a year before hiring a 31-year-old pastor.
She is confident the program may make future searches easier.
"The FTE has been wise in understanding that people most often hear calls to the ministry through the church," she said.
The Rev. Ben Anthony is one. An associate pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in downtown Atlanta, he's 28.
Anthony became interested in spiritual matters while taking religion courses in college but wasn't satisfied with what he learned in the classroom. He had to know more and found it in church. In 2003, he got his master's in divinity degree from Emory University.
Anthony, like Kime and McInnis, knows he is the exception, not the rule, in religious life. "I've had to redefine what a peer is," he said.
He also hopes that he won't always be the anomaly, that his peers are waiting to be discovered in congregations all over the country.
They are waiting, Anthony thinks, for the word — from above, certainly, but also from within the walls where they worship.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Pray for These Indonesians!
Last night, I met with some internationals in my church. By the end of September, we plan to have live interpretation of worship available in Mandarin, Spanish and Indonesian. You can imagine how the article below piqued my interest.
Execution 'Stayed Indefinitely' for 3 Indonesian Catholics
Art Toalston
WASHINGTON (BP) -- The execution of three ethnic Indonesian Christians has been “stayed indefinitely,” a spokesperson for International Christian Concern told Baptist Press Aug. 23.
The international civil rights organization nevertheless is continuing to urge Christians to contact the Indonesian embassies in Washington, Ottawa and London to press for “a wide-ranging investigation” into Christian-Muslim violence on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island in 2000 - “so that everyone who is guilty can be charged or amnestied.”
In other developments, Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal for a pardon of the three men, AsiaNews reported Aug. 23. (AsiaNews is a Catholic news service based in Rome).
AsiaNews reported that a defense attorney for the men said he will challenge the court’s ruling by contending that it only has authority to make a recommendation to the country’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, regarding the appeal for a pardon.
The three men, Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva, all Catholics, were convicted in 2001 for inciting Christian-Muslim violence that led to the killing of some 1,000 people in the Poso port region of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
AsiaNews also reported that the chief prosecutor for the region “lost his job” on Aug. 20, but the news service was unable to report further details.
The prosecutor is the one responsible for scheduling the execution under Indonesian law, AsiaNews reported.
The execution of the three men by firing squad had been scheduled Aug. 12 but was delayed at the last moment. Protests of the execution were waged not only by International Christian Concern but also by the Vatican and the European Union and townspeople in the Poso region, including an estimated 10,000 people on Aug. 18.
The nation’s police chief, Gen. Sutanto, as he is known, had said the executions would be carried out some time after Aug. 20, the Associated Press reported Aug. 11.
Heightening international attention over the fate of three Catholic men has been similar uncertainty over the scheduled execution of three Muslim militants for their convictions in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people in nation’s Bali resort area.
The militants’ Aug. 22 execution was delayed after they decided to move forward with a final appeal, according to news reports. In all, 33 people were convicted for the plot.
Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, had noted in an Aug. 11 news release that the Indonesian government “views the executions of these Christians as a way to balance justice –- very important in Indonesian society.”
“Overall concerns of justice or whether these men are the fall guys for thousands of other guilty individuals is secondary,” King stated.
The Poso conflict included attacks initiated by both Muslims and Christians. The turmoil also stirred an influx of Muslim fighters from the paramilitary Laskar Jihad movement, which TIME magazine reported as having “launched a campaign against Christian villages in Sulawesi ... to sweep all Christians out of the area.”
King noted in the Aug. 11 news release: “One of the most amazing aspects of this case is that in attacks from 1998 to 2003, there were approximately 10,000 Christians murdered, 1,000 churches burned down and 80,000 homes burned down. In that orgy of violence directed against Christians, the only individuals the government chose to convict were these three [Christian] men. This is quite alarming especially considering all the indications that local and regional government officials aided and abetted these attacks against Christians.”
In an Aug. 9 news release, International Christian Concern had stated, “While these men [Tibo, Riwu and da Silva] have admitted their involvement in the conflict, they were the only ones charged in a conflict in which massive numbers of Muslims participated... This is a glaring injustice and hints of massive coverup by the Indonesian government.”
Execution 'Stayed Indefinitely' for 3 Indonesian Catholics
Art Toalston
WASHINGTON (BP) -- The execution of three ethnic Indonesian Christians has been “stayed indefinitely,” a spokesperson for International Christian Concern told Baptist Press Aug. 23.
The international civil rights organization nevertheless is continuing to urge Christians to contact the Indonesian embassies in Washington, Ottawa and London to press for “a wide-ranging investigation” into Christian-Muslim violence on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island in 2000 - “so that everyone who is guilty can be charged or amnestied.”
In other developments, Indonesia’s Supreme Court has rejected a second appeal for a pardon of the three men, AsiaNews reported Aug. 23. (AsiaNews is a Catholic news service based in Rome).
AsiaNews reported that a defense attorney for the men said he will challenge the court’s ruling by contending that it only has authority to make a recommendation to the country’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, regarding the appeal for a pardon.
The three men, Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva, all Catholics, were convicted in 2001 for inciting Christian-Muslim violence that led to the killing of some 1,000 people in the Poso port region of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
AsiaNews also reported that the chief prosecutor for the region “lost his job” on Aug. 20, but the news service was unable to report further details.
The prosecutor is the one responsible for scheduling the execution under Indonesian law, AsiaNews reported.
The execution of the three men by firing squad had been scheduled Aug. 12 but was delayed at the last moment. Protests of the execution were waged not only by International Christian Concern but also by the Vatican and the European Union and townspeople in the Poso region, including an estimated 10,000 people on Aug. 18.
The nation’s police chief, Gen. Sutanto, as he is known, had said the executions would be carried out some time after Aug. 20, the Associated Press reported Aug. 11.
Heightening international attention over the fate of three Catholic men has been similar uncertainty over the scheduled execution of three Muslim militants for their convictions in the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people in nation’s Bali resort area.
The militants’ Aug. 22 execution was delayed after they decided to move forward with a final appeal, according to news reports. In all, 33 people were convicted for the plot.
Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, had noted in an Aug. 11 news release that the Indonesian government “views the executions of these Christians as a way to balance justice –- very important in Indonesian society.”
“Overall concerns of justice or whether these men are the fall guys for thousands of other guilty individuals is secondary,” King stated.
The Poso conflict included attacks initiated by both Muslims and Christians. The turmoil also stirred an influx of Muslim fighters from the paramilitary Laskar Jihad movement, which TIME magazine reported as having “launched a campaign against Christian villages in Sulawesi ... to sweep all Christians out of the area.”
King noted in the Aug. 11 news release: “One of the most amazing aspects of this case is that in attacks from 1998 to 2003, there were approximately 10,000 Christians murdered, 1,000 churches burned down and 80,000 homes burned down. In that orgy of violence directed against Christians, the only individuals the government chose to convict were these three [Christian] men. This is quite alarming especially considering all the indications that local and regional government officials aided and abetted these attacks against Christians.”
In an Aug. 9 news release, International Christian Concern had stated, “While these men [Tibo, Riwu and da Silva] have admitted their involvement in the conflict, they were the only ones charged in a conflict in which massive numbers of Muslims participated... This is a glaring injustice and hints of massive coverup by the Indonesian government.”
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Do Churches Need Buildings?
This is a monthly column I write for Temple City Life.
UNCOMMON SENSE
With Glenn Layne
DO CHURCHES NEED BUILDINGS?
Often when I meet someone, and they learn I am a pastor, they say, “So where’s your church?” I dutifully answer, “It’s the brick church on Baldwin Avenue, just north of Las Tunas.” Usually that does it unless they say, “But I thought that was in Arcadia.” Oh, life on the city line.
But when I answer their question, there’s a little theological voice in the back of my head that says, “You mean, where does the church I serve meet?” In reality, come 2 AM on a Tuesday night, and you will find an empty church meeting building, but the church is out there, living in Temple City, Arcadia, San Gabriel, El Monte, Monrovia, Baldwin Park, Alhambra…that’s the real church.
There are times I hate having a building. Buildings are expensive. You have to build ‘em, heat ‘em, cool ‘em, pay for electricity and water and my person least favorite, insurance.
It’s an interesting fact: go back to the New Testament, it’s nothing less than amazing how fast early Christians became indifferent to the Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was the largest temple on earth—larger than any temple in Rome or Greece or India or China. But one of the last things Jesus taught on was that within a generation of His death, the Temple would be destroyed; more than that, He put Himself forward as the True Temple of God, God’s true dwelling place, and later in the New Testament the people who followed Jesus were also called God’s Temple. But early Christians were uninterested in the Jerusalem Temple or any other building as God’s dwelling.
It was about 400 years before Christians started building church buildings. That time lag corresponded with a loss of the clear teachings of Jesus and the apostles that buildings no longer sufficed to be the “dwelling of God.” The human heart lurches back to shrines and temples and churches that are regarded as “the house of God.” So for the next 1,600 Christiana constructed bigger and bigger palaces for God, from Constantinople to Rome to London—to a glass cathedral in Garden Grove.
I find myself asking a question. Do churches need buildings? Clearly, Biblically the answer is NO. We did fine without them for 400 years. If we need to, we can do without them again.
When I was a college student, the school I went to had a winter term option in Salzburg, Austria. A soaring cathedral dominates the center of the old city. Other Gothic and Rococo structures grace the city. But my favorite place of worship was cut into the hillside a short walk from the cathedral. The guide said that this cave was modified by early Christians as a place of worship no later than 200 AD. It was crude and dark. And I felt at home. Yes, we can go back to the catacombs if we need to.
But I am the pastor of a church that owns a chunk of real estate here in Temple City—six buildings and two homes! What does that mean for us?
In a word: if a church owns property, they’d better justify it by heavy use. One of the things that makes me happy is how heavily used our property is. I don’t know how many times I’ve driven on to the church campus and seen a lot full of cars, and I had no idea what was going on! We love to extend the use of the property to the community.
For example, we host two other congregations (Rock Mountain—Mandarin-speaking and the Kachin-Burmese church.) We have a preschool (started here in 1965, one of the oldest in the LA area). We have two ESL classes with nearly 100 students. We host the dinners for the Blue Banner project as well as the interdenominational Men’s Bible Study Fellowship. Periodically, we’ve hosted after-school tutoring, as well as fund-raising dinners for People for People and for various area school auxiliaries. We’re hoping to add citizenship classes this fall as well as a drop in center for immigrants and others. In other words, we are convinced that God put us here to serve and bless the community. Why? Well, as I like to put it, to make Jesus look good.
On the other hand, I cannot imagine a worse use of God’s resources than a church that’s open for a few hours on Sunday, maybe a weekday Bible study and choir practice. That’s inward-looking and downright selfish. That’s a church as a shrine, a temple. God calls the church to be people—and if we own property, it had better be to bless the whole community.
UNCOMMON SENSE
With Glenn Layne
DO CHURCHES NEED BUILDINGS?
Often when I meet someone, and they learn I am a pastor, they say, “So where’s your church?” I dutifully answer, “It’s the brick church on Baldwin Avenue, just north of Las Tunas.” Usually that does it unless they say, “But I thought that was in Arcadia.” Oh, life on the city line.
But when I answer their question, there’s a little theological voice in the back of my head that says, “You mean, where does the church I serve meet?” In reality, come 2 AM on a Tuesday night, and you will find an empty church meeting building, but the church is out there, living in Temple City, Arcadia, San Gabriel, El Monte, Monrovia, Baldwin Park, Alhambra…that’s the real church.
There are times I hate having a building. Buildings are expensive. You have to build ‘em, heat ‘em, cool ‘em, pay for electricity and water and my person least favorite, insurance.
It’s an interesting fact: go back to the New Testament, it’s nothing less than amazing how fast early Christians became indifferent to the Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was the largest temple on earth—larger than any temple in Rome or Greece or India or China. But one of the last things Jesus taught on was that within a generation of His death, the Temple would be destroyed; more than that, He put Himself forward as the True Temple of God, God’s true dwelling place, and later in the New Testament the people who followed Jesus were also called God’s Temple. But early Christians were uninterested in the Jerusalem Temple or any other building as God’s dwelling.
It was about 400 years before Christians started building church buildings. That time lag corresponded with a loss of the clear teachings of Jesus and the apostles that buildings no longer sufficed to be the “dwelling of God.” The human heart lurches back to shrines and temples and churches that are regarded as “the house of God.” So for the next 1,600 Christiana constructed bigger and bigger palaces for God, from Constantinople to Rome to London—to a glass cathedral in Garden Grove.
I find myself asking a question. Do churches need buildings? Clearly, Biblically the answer is NO. We did fine without them for 400 years. If we need to, we can do without them again.
When I was a college student, the school I went to had a winter term option in Salzburg, Austria. A soaring cathedral dominates the center of the old city. Other Gothic and Rococo structures grace the city. But my favorite place of worship was cut into the hillside a short walk from the cathedral. The guide said that this cave was modified by early Christians as a place of worship no later than 200 AD. It was crude and dark. And I felt at home. Yes, we can go back to the catacombs if we need to.
But I am the pastor of a church that owns a chunk of real estate here in Temple City—six buildings and two homes! What does that mean for us?
In a word: if a church owns property, they’d better justify it by heavy use. One of the things that makes me happy is how heavily used our property is. I don’t know how many times I’ve driven on to the church campus and seen a lot full of cars, and I had no idea what was going on! We love to extend the use of the property to the community.
For example, we host two other congregations (Rock Mountain—Mandarin-speaking and the Kachin-Burmese church.) We have a preschool (started here in 1965, one of the oldest in the LA area). We have two ESL classes with nearly 100 students. We host the dinners for the Blue Banner project as well as the interdenominational Men’s Bible Study Fellowship. Periodically, we’ve hosted after-school tutoring, as well as fund-raising dinners for People for People and for various area school auxiliaries. We’re hoping to add citizenship classes this fall as well as a drop in center for immigrants and others. In other words, we are convinced that God put us here to serve and bless the community. Why? Well, as I like to put it, to make Jesus look good.
On the other hand, I cannot imagine a worse use of God’s resources than a church that’s open for a few hours on Sunday, maybe a weekday Bible study and choir practice. That’s inward-looking and downright selfish. That’s a church as a shrine, a temple. God calls the church to be people—and if we own property, it had better be to bless the whole community.
Monday, August 21, 2006
The Heirs of Haystack
This came over the transum today. Note: Bart Campolo is Tony's son, and is probably a better speaker than his dad.
Haystack Bicentennial Celebration- August 21, 2006
On an August afternoon in 1806, five Williams College students met in a field, as was their habit, to talk and pray and, like so many young people, to dream of a better world. When a sudden thunderstorm interrupted, they sought shelter under a haystack — and there resolved to spend their lives in service, carrying their faith “into all the world.” Within a few years the American foreign missions movement had been born – and, to this day, countless people around the globe trace their Christian lineage through a hayfield in northwestern Massachusetts.
Over the weekend of September 22-24, on the bucolic Williams campus in the Berkshires of northwestern Massachusetts, Williams College and Williamstown’s First Congregational Church will co-convene a weekend conference and celebration to mark this important anniversary. The celebration has been designed by an ecumenical coalition coming from many denominations: United Church of Christ, United Methodist, American Baptist, Episcopal and Presbyterian, evangelicals and progressives, all of whom trace their involvement in faith-based work around the world to the Haystack prayer meeting of 1806. It will draw panelists, workshop leaders, scholars, students and participants from all over the region and the nation; registration is open to all.
The program will include a Saturday morning keynote by Ghanian-born author, historian and Yale professor Lamin Sanneh and a Sunday worship celebration featuring Bart Campolo, Founder of Mission Year. Throughout the weekend music and dance will recall the international relationships begun as a result of the original Haystack missionaries. Two specialists in world music will introduce participants to songs of faith from many cultures: C. Michael Hawn of Southern Methodist University and Patrick Evans of Yale Divinity School. Evening programs on Friday and Saturday nights will feature student artists and an ecumenical jazz ensemble.
The location of the celebration on a college campus is not only a matter of history. Since that August day in 1806, young people have followed their faith to every part of the world in response to physical and spiritual needs—establishing schools, equipping hospitals, founding churches. They have been supported by the prayers and offerings of generations of North American Christians.
Conference co-organizer Rick Spalding, Williams College Chaplain, said, “The Haystack Movement has changed the shape of lives and communities, brought cultures into dialogue and, sometimes, into conflict, and inspired generations of Christians to engage the wounds, needs, and hopes of the world. We hope this weekend will gather people from the widest array of theological perspectives to celebrate, pray, and discuss the nature of Christian mission in a new century.” Co-organizer Carrie Bail, pastor of the First Congregational Church which will host several weekend events, added, “Our fondest hope is that a new generation of young people might be inspired by the same Haystack Spirit, to go out into the world open to having their hearts changed while in the process of serving others around the world.”
On Saturday afternoon, a panel discussion entitled “The Legacies of Haystack: What Is Mission?” will feature Dennis Dickerson, professor of history at Vanderbilt University; Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, professor of Christian ethics and theology at Drew University; Timothy Tennent, Associate Professor of World Missions and Director of Missions Programs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; and John Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. The panel will be moderated by Denise Buell, chair of the Department of Religion at Williams College.
More than a dozen workshops round out the weekend. Topics include: The New Great Awakening, Nicaraguan Liberation Theology Comes Home, Pilgrimage to South Africa, New Models for Urban Ministry, Lessons Learned from Hawaii, Mission and Life Direction, The Churches in Myanmar, Singing the World’s Song, and others. A description of all workshops to be offered, and a complete schedule of the weekend, can be found at http://haystack.williams.edu.
Distinguished keynote speaker Lamin Sanneh, Professor of Missons and World Christianity at Yale University, earned his Ph.D. at University of London and now specializes in religious history, Christian mission, and inter-religious dialogue. He is an editor-at-large of The Christian Century; holder of Commandeur de l’Ordre Nationale du Lion, Senegal’s highest national honor; and has served on two Pontifical Commissions at the Vatican.
A leading voice in reflection on the nature of Christian social action and much in demand as a speaker, worship leader Bart Campolo founded Mission Year, a national Christian service program recruiting young adults to work in inner-city neighborhoods in partnership with local churches. Campolo is also founder of Kingdomworks, a ministry of training and inspiration now part of Larry Acosta’s Urban Youth Ministry Institute. Ordained Baptist minister C. Michael Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He earned his divinity degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of numerous articles, curriculum materials, and resources for enlivening congregational singing. His specialties include hymnology, global music, and cross-cultural worship.
Patrick Evans, Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and also an accomplished vocal recitalist and church musician, specializes in the interaction of the traditional western musical canon with global hymnody and African-American gospel traditions. Both musicians will lead several participatory sessions during the weekend.
The Cleveland-based ecumenical and multi-cultural jazz ensemble Oîkos, featuring saxophonist Rev. Clifford Aerie, Minister of Imagination, Creativity and the Arts for the national United Church of Christ and pianist Dr. Christopher Bakriges, Professor of Ethno-musicology at Elms College, will perform on Saturday night. Composing musical reflections from a variety of cultures that blend ethnic stories and interpretive dance, Oîkos has performed in concert, worship and workshop settings throughout the world.
Haystack Bicentennial Celebration- August 21, 2006
On an August afternoon in 1806, five Williams College students met in a field, as was their habit, to talk and pray and, like so many young people, to dream of a better world. When a sudden thunderstorm interrupted, they sought shelter under a haystack — and there resolved to spend their lives in service, carrying their faith “into all the world.” Within a few years the American foreign missions movement had been born – and, to this day, countless people around the globe trace their Christian lineage through a hayfield in northwestern Massachusetts.
Over the weekend of September 22-24, on the bucolic Williams campus in the Berkshires of northwestern Massachusetts, Williams College and Williamstown’s First Congregational Church will co-convene a weekend conference and celebration to mark this important anniversary. The celebration has been designed by an ecumenical coalition coming from many denominations: United Church of Christ, United Methodist, American Baptist, Episcopal and Presbyterian, evangelicals and progressives, all of whom trace their involvement in faith-based work around the world to the Haystack prayer meeting of 1806. It will draw panelists, workshop leaders, scholars, students and participants from all over the region and the nation; registration is open to all.
The program will include a Saturday morning keynote by Ghanian-born author, historian and Yale professor Lamin Sanneh and a Sunday worship celebration featuring Bart Campolo, Founder of Mission Year. Throughout the weekend music and dance will recall the international relationships begun as a result of the original Haystack missionaries. Two specialists in world music will introduce participants to songs of faith from many cultures: C. Michael Hawn of Southern Methodist University and Patrick Evans of Yale Divinity School. Evening programs on Friday and Saturday nights will feature student artists and an ecumenical jazz ensemble.
The location of the celebration on a college campus is not only a matter of history. Since that August day in 1806, young people have followed their faith to every part of the world in response to physical and spiritual needs—establishing schools, equipping hospitals, founding churches. They have been supported by the prayers and offerings of generations of North American Christians.
Conference co-organizer Rick Spalding, Williams College Chaplain, said, “The Haystack Movement has changed the shape of lives and communities, brought cultures into dialogue and, sometimes, into conflict, and inspired generations of Christians to engage the wounds, needs, and hopes of the world. We hope this weekend will gather people from the widest array of theological perspectives to celebrate, pray, and discuss the nature of Christian mission in a new century.” Co-organizer Carrie Bail, pastor of the First Congregational Church which will host several weekend events, added, “Our fondest hope is that a new generation of young people might be inspired by the same Haystack Spirit, to go out into the world open to having their hearts changed while in the process of serving others around the world.”
On Saturday afternoon, a panel discussion entitled “The Legacies of Haystack: What Is Mission?” will feature Dennis Dickerson, professor of history at Vanderbilt University; Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, professor of Christian ethics and theology at Drew University; Timothy Tennent, Associate Professor of World Missions and Director of Missions Programs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; and John Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. The panel will be moderated by Denise Buell, chair of the Department of Religion at Williams College.
More than a dozen workshops round out the weekend. Topics include: The New Great Awakening, Nicaraguan Liberation Theology Comes Home, Pilgrimage to South Africa, New Models for Urban Ministry, Lessons Learned from Hawaii, Mission and Life Direction, The Churches in Myanmar, Singing the World’s Song, and others. A description of all workshops to be offered, and a complete schedule of the weekend, can be found at http://haystack.williams.edu.
Distinguished keynote speaker Lamin Sanneh, Professor of Missons and World Christianity at Yale University, earned his Ph.D. at University of London and now specializes in religious history, Christian mission, and inter-religious dialogue. He is an editor-at-large of The Christian Century; holder of Commandeur de l’Ordre Nationale du Lion, Senegal’s highest national honor; and has served on two Pontifical Commissions at the Vatican.
A leading voice in reflection on the nature of Christian social action and much in demand as a speaker, worship leader Bart Campolo founded Mission Year, a national Christian service program recruiting young adults to work in inner-city neighborhoods in partnership with local churches. Campolo is also founder of Kingdomworks, a ministry of training and inspiration now part of Larry Acosta’s Urban Youth Ministry Institute. Ordained Baptist minister C. Michael Hawn is professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He earned his divinity degree at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of numerous articles, curriculum materials, and resources for enlivening congregational singing. His specialties include hymnology, global music, and cross-cultural worship.
Patrick Evans, Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and also an accomplished vocal recitalist and church musician, specializes in the interaction of the traditional western musical canon with global hymnody and African-American gospel traditions. Both musicians will lead several participatory sessions during the weekend.
The Cleveland-based ecumenical and multi-cultural jazz ensemble Oîkos, featuring saxophonist Rev. Clifford Aerie, Minister of Imagination, Creativity and the Arts for the national United Church of Christ and pianist Dr. Christopher Bakriges, Professor of Ethno-musicology at Elms College, will perform on Saturday night. Composing musical reflections from a variety of cultures that blend ethnic stories and interpretive dance, Oîkos has performed in concert, worship and workshop settings throughout the world.
Friday, August 18, 2006
THE ERA OF THE SERVING CHURCH
This is my column for our quarterly newsletter, released today in its e-form:
As I write this (in the hot, hot dog days of summer), the Vision Task Force is coming down the stretch as we focus on discerning God’s desire for our church as we serve in the first and second decades of the 21st century. The official rollout of the vision is planned for October to the Diaconate and in November to the whole congregation, but this could be bumped back if we’re not quite ready, so stay tuned.
As with any “roll-out”, I don’t want to jump the gun before the Task Force is completely done, but I do think I can give you a sneak preview of things to come—you know, kind of like the trailers at the movies, the previews of coming attractions.
There are two big issues we’ve seen as central to discerning the Lord’s will for our church: the multi-lingual, multi-cultural nature of the community we serve. There is no future for this church unless we embrace the immigrants the Lord has seen fit to send to live in the San Gabriel Valley. We have discussed a number of specific strategies to open the door to our immigrant community
The second big issue has to do with how effective outreach can occur today. In the past, churches like ours could rely on a steady stream of people for whom the church is a recognized place of refuge and guidance. For many people “coming to church” meant, “coming back to church” after a long time, even if it was a childhood experience. In the “church culture” era, there was a basic understanding of the faith, and much of evangelism built on that basic understanding. According to one source, the national average in “interest in spiritual things” is 85%; the average for communities in the San Gabriel Valley is just 50%.
So, how do you break through with the Good News of Jesus in the present environment? We have heard this described as “the end of North American church culture.” Now, this is NOT the end of the church—but the end of the “church culture” of potlucks, mission circles and fall retreats. The reality is that fewer and fewer people have this in their background. You can also describe this more technically as the rise of post-modern as well-as post-Christian culture.
Regarding the end of the church culture issue, we have become convicted that service (that is, serving the people of our community) is the way into their hearts and lives that will enable us to effectively present Jesus Christ. We have come to a moment in time in which the first question people ask isn’t “Is it true?” but rather, “Does it work in your life, really?” The truth of the faith is judged by the ability of the faith to change people into genuine selfless, living servants.
In a way, this realization was foreshadowed in the theme we selected for this year: “Acts of Outrageous Love.”
Finally, and one of the hardest areas is what you might think of issue 2 ½. We have become convinced that certain changes need to be made in the way we are organized for ministry. The reality is that to become the kind of community serving church we believe the Lord is calling is to faces a great barrier: it is fairly easy, and far more comfortable to become wrapped up in church “business” and procedural matters. We need to minimize that side of church life so we can maximize loving God and serving people.
Now what I haven’t shared are a lot of the specifics, the new vision statement and the new church motto we’re still working on. Those stews are still on the stove.
Instead of getting into details that are still being developed, let’s think for a few minutes on what being a servant church looks like—what we believe the Lord is calling us to.
Maybe the best way to glimpse what I mean by a Servant Church is to contrast it to other models of the church we have adopted here in America. One is the Refuge Church. “We are a place of refuge. We don’t change, and we regard all change as accommodation to worldliness.” This church is poised for success if 1971 ever rolls around again.
Another is the Muscle Church. “This is our town, and we call the shots around here. We believe we bring in a little of God’s kingdom whenever we elect people we favor and get the legislation passed that we want.”
Another is the Technique Church. (This last one has been a huge temptation for evangelical churches for years.) “We attend all the latest seminars and apply the most recent research. We know what techniques grow a church and we apply them aggressively.”
The Servant Church is, well, a little different. It agrees with the Refuge church that Biblical truth is timeless, but it refuses to be a Protestant monastery, hidden away from the world. Like the Muscle Church, it agrees we must engage the world. But it is suspicious of the idea that you can ever pass a law or elect a candidate that brings the kingdom of God one inch closer. It agrees with the Technique Church that research and knowing what’s happening in the church and in effective churches is valuable, but distrusts the idea that mere technique can affect the kind of change in a human heart, a church or a community.
Instead, the Servant Church believes that God has called it to engage the community in which it is located primarily through deeds of love, done consistently and unselfishly. The Servant Church does not suck people into a vortex of church activities so much as equips them to make a positive, Kingdom-building impact on their families, their work or school and the community. The Servant Church turns itself inside out. It becomes a fellowship of the transformed transforming their worlds for Jesus Christ.
Further, while the Servant Church never hesitates to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, it has come to recognize that the primary way into the lives and hearts of people is to meet them at some point of need and to serve them there. That is the essential reason I call this the Servant Church model.
The Servant Church takes its cue from Jesus Himself:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:3-5)
But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:27)
These are exciting and challenging days. I urge you to be much in prayer as God’s call becomes increasingly clear for the times we now live in.
As I write this (in the hot, hot dog days of summer), the Vision Task Force is coming down the stretch as we focus on discerning God’s desire for our church as we serve in the first and second decades of the 21st century. The official rollout of the vision is planned for October to the Diaconate and in November to the whole congregation, but this could be bumped back if we’re not quite ready, so stay tuned.
As with any “roll-out”, I don’t want to jump the gun before the Task Force is completely done, but I do think I can give you a sneak preview of things to come—you know, kind of like the trailers at the movies, the previews of coming attractions.
There are two big issues we’ve seen as central to discerning the Lord’s will for our church: the multi-lingual, multi-cultural nature of the community we serve. There is no future for this church unless we embrace the immigrants the Lord has seen fit to send to live in the San Gabriel Valley. We have discussed a number of specific strategies to open the door to our immigrant community
The second big issue has to do with how effective outreach can occur today. In the past, churches like ours could rely on a steady stream of people for whom the church is a recognized place of refuge and guidance. For many people “coming to church” meant, “coming back to church” after a long time, even if it was a childhood experience. In the “church culture” era, there was a basic understanding of the faith, and much of evangelism built on that basic understanding. According to one source, the national average in “interest in spiritual things” is 85%; the average for communities in the San Gabriel Valley is just 50%.
So, how do you break through with the Good News of Jesus in the present environment? We have heard this described as “the end of North American church culture.” Now, this is NOT the end of the church—but the end of the “church culture” of potlucks, mission circles and fall retreats. The reality is that fewer and fewer people have this in their background. You can also describe this more technically as the rise of post-modern as well-as post-Christian culture.
Regarding the end of the church culture issue, we have become convicted that service (that is, serving the people of our community) is the way into their hearts and lives that will enable us to effectively present Jesus Christ. We have come to a moment in time in which the first question people ask isn’t “Is it true?” but rather, “Does it work in your life, really?” The truth of the faith is judged by the ability of the faith to change people into genuine selfless, living servants.
In a way, this realization was foreshadowed in the theme we selected for this year: “Acts of Outrageous Love.”
Finally, and one of the hardest areas is what you might think of issue 2 ½. We have become convinced that certain changes need to be made in the way we are organized for ministry. The reality is that to become the kind of community serving church we believe the Lord is calling is to faces a great barrier: it is fairly easy, and far more comfortable to become wrapped up in church “business” and procedural matters. We need to minimize that side of church life so we can maximize loving God and serving people.
Now what I haven’t shared are a lot of the specifics, the new vision statement and the new church motto we’re still working on. Those stews are still on the stove.
Instead of getting into details that are still being developed, let’s think for a few minutes on what being a servant church looks like—what we believe the Lord is calling us to.
Maybe the best way to glimpse what I mean by a Servant Church is to contrast it to other models of the church we have adopted here in America. One is the Refuge Church. “We are a place of refuge. We don’t change, and we regard all change as accommodation to worldliness.” This church is poised for success if 1971 ever rolls around again.
Another is the Muscle Church. “This is our town, and we call the shots around here. We believe we bring in a little of God’s kingdom whenever we elect people we favor and get the legislation passed that we want.”
Another is the Technique Church. (This last one has been a huge temptation for evangelical churches for years.) “We attend all the latest seminars and apply the most recent research. We know what techniques grow a church and we apply them aggressively.”
The Servant Church is, well, a little different. It agrees with the Refuge church that Biblical truth is timeless, but it refuses to be a Protestant monastery, hidden away from the world. Like the Muscle Church, it agrees we must engage the world. But it is suspicious of the idea that you can ever pass a law or elect a candidate that brings the kingdom of God one inch closer. It agrees with the Technique Church that research and knowing what’s happening in the church and in effective churches is valuable, but distrusts the idea that mere technique can affect the kind of change in a human heart, a church or a community.
Instead, the Servant Church believes that God has called it to engage the community in which it is located primarily through deeds of love, done consistently and unselfishly. The Servant Church does not suck people into a vortex of church activities so much as equips them to make a positive, Kingdom-building impact on their families, their work or school and the community. The Servant Church turns itself inside out. It becomes a fellowship of the transformed transforming their worlds for Jesus Christ.
Further, while the Servant Church never hesitates to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, it has come to recognize that the primary way into the lives and hearts of people is to meet them at some point of need and to serve them there. That is the essential reason I call this the Servant Church model.
The Servant Church takes its cue from Jesus Himself:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)
Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:3-5)
But I am among you as one who serves. (Luke 22:27)
These are exciting and challenging days. I urge you to be much in prayer as God’s call becomes increasingly clear for the times we now live in.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Is Roy Medley More Like Ehud Olmert or Darth Sidious?
Last fall when the face-off between the PSW (now Transformation Ministries) and the ABCUSA began in earnest, I found myself amazed by the poor judgmemt exercised by Dr. Roy Medley, ABCUSA General Secretary. It would have been relatively easy to reach an accomodation with PSW: find a way to de-couple the financial covenant from the covenant of relationships. Instead, Medley chose to come to California and force the issue. I wondered why.
Last week, Medley again exercised what seemed to me to poor judgment: he chose to alienate the left of the ABC with a letter that I have argued means NOTHING. (See July 19: "Why the Theo-Left Has Nothing to Fear from the Medley Letter"). However the thin-skins in the AWAB crowd have gone ape. Ken Pennings, exec of AWAB tore into Medley:
I urge Roy and all American Baptists to repent of this kind of exclusion of God's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Allied people, and 1) to welcome the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists as an official exhibitor at the 2007 ABCUSA Biennial; 2) to endorse qualified LGBT-Allied chaplains; and 3) to joyfully hire qualified LGBT-Allied people on his immediate staff. Also, I urge Roy to retract his letter and to confess his lapse in judgment in posting it. [Click HERE for the full text.]
In other words, we demand a pro-theo-left confessionalism that embraces what the Scriptures reject. Gosh, I thought we didn't go for confessionalism. Whoopsie.
It seems Dr. Medley has a two-front war on his hands: the left and the right. He seems to be in the position of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert: a two-front war (Gaza and Hizballah).
Or is he?
Maybe Medley's intentional snubbing of PSW wasn't a glitch in his programming, but was instead his central program. Maybe he's more like Darth Sidious (AKA Chancellor/Emperor Palaptine) of the Star Wars saga.
In the Star Wars legend, Sidious manufactures a war between the Separatists and the Republic so he can position himself in the center as the wise leader hero, wipe out the Jedi and make himself supreme Sith leader. (Don't push this too far--I don't.)
Could it be that Medley and the VF leadership intentionally snubbed the PSW as a means to driving out the most troublesome theo-right region, and now is intentionally snubbing the AWAB crowd to placate the remaining regions?
Maybe I'm giving Dr. Medley too much insidious credit (get the pun?) Maybe not. We'll see.
Last week, Medley again exercised what seemed to me to poor judgment: he chose to alienate the left of the ABC with a letter that I have argued means NOTHING. (See July 19: "Why the Theo-Left Has Nothing to Fear from the Medley Letter"). However the thin-skins in the AWAB crowd have gone ape. Ken Pennings, exec of AWAB tore into Medley:
I urge Roy and all American Baptists to repent of this kind of exclusion of God's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Allied people, and 1) to welcome the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists as an official exhibitor at the 2007 ABCUSA Biennial; 2) to endorse qualified LGBT-Allied chaplains; and 3) to joyfully hire qualified LGBT-Allied people on his immediate staff. Also, I urge Roy to retract his letter and to confess his lapse in judgment in posting it. [Click HERE for the full text.]
In other words, we demand a pro-theo-left confessionalism that embraces what the Scriptures reject. Gosh, I thought we didn't go for confessionalism. Whoopsie.
It seems Dr. Medley has a two-front war on his hands: the left and the right. He seems to be in the position of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert: a two-front war (Gaza and Hizballah).
Or is he?
Maybe Medley's intentional snubbing of PSW wasn't a glitch in his programming, but was instead his central program. Maybe he's more like Darth Sidious (AKA Chancellor/Emperor Palaptine) of the Star Wars saga.
In the Star Wars legend, Sidious manufactures a war between the Separatists and the Republic so he can position himself in the center as the wise leader hero, wipe out the Jedi and make himself supreme Sith leader. (Don't push this too far--I don't.)
Could it be that Medley and the VF leadership intentionally snubbed the PSW as a means to driving out the most troublesome theo-right region, and now is intentionally snubbing the AWAB crowd to placate the remaining regions?
Maybe I'm giving Dr. Medley too much insidious credit (get the pun?) Maybe not. We'll see.
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