A Little Love For the (Truly) Small Churches

I have just returned from another day of preaching at a small church that is in dire need of direction, understanding, spiritual leadership, and most of all stability in the pulpit. The particular church I preached at today has not had a Full-Time pastor since 1997. They have tried to call freshly-ordained Seminary students but cannot quite "get anybody to come". They tried the CLP route (which my Mother is one) but could not find one that would stick with them in times of trouble. They have been abandoned for "greener pastures" by more pastors than the poor Clerk of Session could count. They believe themselves to have been forgotten by their presbytery but more dangerously forgotten by God. They see the Methodists and Baptists-worse yet the word of faith gospel churches-growing but they continue to shrink as each member dies off. And they cannot understand why the word of faith churches grow but they do not. For example, while I was there today during the Joys and Concerns before the Pastoral Prayer they asked me to pray "that children would start coming to their church". In my young and naive experience with presbyteries that have large numbers of these types of churches they have tendency to see the rural, low-member churches as nuisances rather than as a mission-area to be culled. They would rather these churches-that can barely scrap together 1/10 of the per-capita of the larger, more urban and ethnically diverse churches-disappear so that they can refocus themselves in other areas instead of spending time, resources, and money trying to support these rural churches. We focus our efforts globally and forget that our rural churches need support as well. I may be a bit biased as I come from a background of attending small, rural (less than 15 members in one case) Presbyterian Churches. I grew up defending Presbyterianism-more importantly Sola Gracia and true Salvation by Faith Alone-from attacks from the independent Baptists that I grew up with. Presbyterianism is dying in rural America. It died once from a lack of pastors, let us hope that the clergy will not allow this to happen again.

Breaking News from Pittsburgh Presbytery

Minister charged in same-sex marriage

By Mike Wereschagin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Presbyterian Church has charged a Squirrel Hill minister with breaking church law by performing a marriage ceremony for two women last year.

The Presbyterian Church constitution allows same-sex unions, but not marriages. If the Rev. Janet Edwards, 56, is found guilty of violating the church constitution, she faces punishment ranging from a rebuke to removal from the clergy and loss of her ministry.

"I will plead not guilty," Edwards, a minister who is a parish associate at the Community of Reconciliation Church in Oakland, said Wednesday. "I do not believe I violated the constitution of the Presbyterian Church."

Edwards is charged with performing a marriage ceremony "for two individuals of the same sex," for omitting Scripture readings from the ceremony and for failing "to have the participants declare their intention to enter into a Christian marriage," according to a copy of the charges.

A spokesman for the Pittsburgh Presbytery declined to comment yesterday.

The Pittsburgh Presbytery began investigating Edwards shortly after she conducted the ceremony for Brenda Cole and Nancy McConn, of Triadelphia, W.Va., in Cathedral Hall in McKees Rocks on June 25, 2005. The couple married legally in Vancouver, B.C., several days later.

"Marriage reflects the image of God's covenant with creation," Edwards said yesterday. "That love and commitment can be in a relationship between a man and a woman, sure. It can also be between two men and between two women, and it very obviously is in the relationship between Nancy and Brenda."

Nancy McConn, 66, a retired computer software developer from Dallas, W.Va., said, "Having a spiritual marriage was so important to both of us. We're both spiritual people."

Her partner, Brenda Cole, 52, a clinical psychologist and Buddhist, said she was confident that if they "continue to speak the truth" -- that love and commitment, not gender, matters -- "the church will come to see that reality."

The Pittsburgh Presbytery has 153 congregations, according to its Web site. The Pittsburgh Presbytery is one of the largest in the country, Edwards said, and members possess a broad range of opinions.

"I've received a lot of support from my colleagues here," she said. "There are also a lot of pastors who disagree with my position."

A pretrial hearing must be scheduled within 30 days, Edwards said. No trial date has been set.

"I'm glad I've been given the opportunity to participate in this discussion" about rights for gay couples, Edwards said. "The discussion has to conclude with their full inclusion in society."

Mike Wereschagin can be reached at mwereschagin@tribweb.com or (412) 391-0927.

Learning Hebrew

This post is going to be short and to the point. Whoever told me that Hebrew would be easier than Greek is in need of serious medical help. It has only been two weeks and man-o-man is this hard.

The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

How fitting that R.C. Sproul's lovely article on the Pelagian Captivity of the Church appears this month on the White Horse Inn website. This message that Sproul presents is a mandatory read for all who wonder about the status of our Reformed faith in today's world. Sproul spells out exactly what has infected this era-the same thing that has always infected the church-the devaluation of the Grace of God and the promotion of the personal ability of man. Even during the dark days of Reformation the Romanists and the Reformers could agree on at least one doctrine-that of Original Sin. We find our church today infiltrated by the disciples of Pelagius who seek to elevate the person to a status that we neither deserve to attain nor are we able to receive without the purposeful sacrifice of the lamb on Calvary and deny the worthiness of Christ's sacrifice by tossing the need for the sacrifice out the window. If we could be saved by perfect obedience to the law there is no need for the sacrifice. If we can work off our own death what is the need for the atonement?

http://www.modernreformation.org/rc01pelagian.htm

Open Rebellion

This is a letter to the editor in the Johnson City Press (My Great-Grandmother's hometown) from a PC(USA) minister. I noticed it first when I read the newspaper in the August 20th edition. I did not pay it much mind until I found it on the Pastor's own blog. Now paint me as a reactionary but is this not openly flouting the Book of Order and directives of the PJC and General Assembly?


Voting Against
"I have been honored to officiate at holy unions for gay and lesbian couples that I believe are as holy and blessed as any of the marriages I have performed for straight couples. I serve a congregation that welcomes and loves gay and lesbian people, their partners and families, and regards them as full and equal members.

I will be voting against this amendment in November. Regardless of what happens with this legislation, it is even more important that sexual minorities in this area know that you do not have to choose between your faith and who you are. There are congregations here that are open and affirming. I am proud to serve one of them."

John Shuck
Minister
First Presbyterian Church
Elizabethton

The Battle Has Begun

I received this e-mail tonight-not sure why-about the situation at Kirk of The Hills.

I do not know if you have been following the events at Kirk of the Hills in Tulsa. A few weeks ago they chose to leave the PCUSA. Tom Gray is their pastor and he has maintained a blog detailing the process.

Tom Gray just posted on his blog an alert to his members. It is pasted below. Now is the time to show your support for Kirk of the Hills by going to the website and write your comments of support as they undergo coercive actions by the denomination.

Here is the url for Tom Gray's blog. It is easy to leave a comment. Just click on comment at the end. Click other to type in your name. http://tomgrayofthekirk.blogspot.com/

*ALERT* to all Kirk Members

Our clerk of our board of elders just played a message on her answering machine from Eastern Oklahoma Presbytery. They have informed her that the presbytery is sending a supply pastor to preach tomorrow, and a someone else to moderate the congregational meeting on Wednesday.

This has happened before, a part of the "game plan" of the PCUSA. The link that follows has pictures and a video of what happened in a Torrance, California, church a little over a year ago. The denomination came in and pushed their way into the pulpit, creating chaos for a brief moment in worship. We will not allow that to happen.

Moderator Ufford-Chase, minority group disrupts worship service -
7/56/05

The PCUSA believes only what they wish to. They recognize that Wayne and I resigned from the denomination, but they refuse to recognize that the Kirk has also withdrawn and, in the process, re-hired us as co-pastors. They are coming to "rescue" a church that doesn't want it.

Wayne and I will be in the pulput tomorrow. This step on the part of the presbytery, since we are no longer a PCUSA church, is intrusive, arrogant, and illegal.
A LAST-MINUTE ADDITION,

I just read the following letter from a PCUSA pastor (retired) writing Presbyweb. Ed is a good guy, and I appreciate the heads-up.

Letters
August 26, 2006

Dear Editor:

I have just gotten off the phone with someone who had been in conversation with Synod personnel regarding the withdrawal of Kirk of the Hills. He was telling me how the Synod and Presbytery planned to use denominational lawyers to fight The Kirk "tooth and toe nail" for the church property.

Then I read Vernon Broyles piece "The bottom line for peace." It reminded me of what my old dad used to tell me: "Son, do what I say. Don't do what I do."

I watch and wonder... can we, will we, treat our fellow sisters and brothers in Christ who disagree with us with the same command of Jesus to turn the other cheek? To love? To forgive? Or is what we profess we want for the warring parties of the Middle East unavailable for Christian friends who feel led to go in another direction? Will the PCUSA demonstrate grace and forgiveness by turning the other cheek?

I doubt I'll live that long!

Rev. Dr. Edwin [Ed] Bernard, HR
Hugo, Oklahoma


Keep praying--keep the faith,
Tom

Prayer Request #3

This Prayer Request #3 is for discerment. As most of you know I am a seminarian and am an inquirer in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As all of you who are aquainted with this denomination understand these are tumultuous times that require vigilance, study, and most importantly fervent prayer. While the seminary I attend is not overly theologically liberal it does have on its staff two men out in the forefront of the fight we find ourselves in: The Rev. Dr. Andrew Purves and Dr. Robert A.J. Gagnon. I find myself standing in the wilderness tearing my cloak as I stand full of anxiety, passion, and uncertainty. II ask for prayers of discerment as I begin to near Ordination as to the path in which God has chosen for me. In God there is hope. In God there is foundation. To God Be the Glory. Amen.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

I was reading the Book of Jonah for an Adult Bible Study that I lead on Wednesday nights. We all know what happens in the first two chapters but what struck me the most was what happens in Chapter 4 and its relation to our current situation. Jonah when called a second-time goes forth to Ninevah so that they who are wicked and evil may REPENT and submit to the mercy and power of the Lord of Israel. If they do not then God will destroy them. Jonah being a good Israelite looks forward to their destruction at the hands of his Lord. What happens? A befuddled Jonah sits on a hill looking on as the Ninevites REPENT even their king commands them to bow down at the foot of the Israelite God. God then relents and grants mercy to the Ninevites and allows them to live. Jonah is beside himself with anger. He cries to the Lord that he knew the Lord was a lord of mercy and it angers him that God chose to show mercy to the gentile Ninevites. Look at what God says:

4The LORD said, "Do you have good reason to be angry?"5Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life."9Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10 Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.11"Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

What really strikes me is that are anyone of us willing to go to Louisville and preach the word of God or will we like Jonah and run off to Tarshish? I believe that we are being called by the Lord our God to stand up and say to Louisville the same words that Jonah preached to the Ninevites so that they may REPENT of their evilness and wickedness. Who among us will go and be a prophet to the Ninevites, who will be the Jonah of our time? Who shall lead the wicked to Christ? Who shall go and preach the Word of Mercy upon those that REPENT? For we all know the fate of the cities that denied the cries of the man of God Lot. We know of other cities that have had the same fate befall them. Ultimately it is up to the Lord our God to decide on whom he will show mercy. But for their sake let us hope and pray Louisville takes the path of the Ninevites and learns from the death of the twin cities Sodom and Gomorrah so that the Lord may show mercy upon them. Amen.

ACLU: Enemy of Christianity in America

ACLU wants parish to forget cross
Katrina memorial bears Jesus' face
Sunday, August 06, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile

Alarmed by newspaper reports that a hurricane memorial in St. Bernard Parish will feature a cross bearing a likeness of the face of Jesus, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana is reminding parish officials of the Constitution's separation of church and state.

Never one to back down, Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez has a simple reply: "They can kiss my ***."

In a July 28 letter to Rodriguez and other officials, Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Joe Cook said that the government promotion of a patently religious symbol on a public waterway is a violation of the Constitution's First Amendment, which prohibits government from advancing a religion.

Rodriguez did not say whether he has responded to Cook's letter, but in an interview, he said he sees nothing improper about the memorial, which will be mounted near the shoreline of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet at Shell Beach. The cross and accompanying monument listing the names of the 129 parish residents who died in Hurricane Katrina are earmarked for what the parish says is private land and are being financed with donations, Rodriguez said.

Nonetheless, Cook asked the parish to erect a religiously neutral symbol and also voiced concern that the Parish Council was sanctioning a religious monument.

Returning Rodriguez's volley, Cook added, "It would be better if he would kiss the Constitution and honor it and honor the First Amendment."

The St. Bernard Parish Council voted several months ago to erect a monument, but at the time did not offer specific plans. The parish recently announced plans to dedicate the memorial on Aug. 29, the one-year anniversary of the devastating hurricane.

The cross is being designed and fabricated by Vincent LaBruzzo, a welder and fabricator from Arabi. The stainless-steel cross will be 13 feet tall and 7 feet wide and will be lighted, according to a note on the parish's Web site, www.sbpg.net

LaBruzzo worked for the parish before recently taking a job with Unified Recovery Group, the company clearing the parish's storm debris. Rodriguez said he helped LaBruzzo get the job with URG. LaBruzzo did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Rodriguez and others like the idea of putting the monument along the banks of the MRGO, because that waterway, dug by the federal government as a shipping shortcut in the 1960s, is widely blamed in the parish for accelerating the deadly flooding that accompanied Katrina. Over the years erosion has widened the outlet, so the bank on which the cross will be erected is on privately owned land, Rodriguez said. He added that the parish is researching who owns the land on which the stone monument bearing the names of the victims will sit, but he thinks that it is also privately owned.

Parish Councilman Tony "Ricky" Melerine and Charlie Reppel, Rodriguez's chief of staff, said they are co-chairing the memorial committee on their private time.

"The memorial is being coordinated by a group of volunteers on their own time, and no public money is going to the project that will be on private land," Reppel said. "The committee members are all volunteers, including me. We are putting in a lot of unpaid overtime."

Other committee members include St. Bernard Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Anthony Fernandez Jr.; St. Bernard Tourism Director Elizabeth "Gidget" McDougall; former Parish President Charles Ponstein, who is working with a state agency on local business retention; Lorrie Allen, Reppel's assistant; and LaBruzzo.

As for the parish's statements that the memorial is being done outside government's auspices, Cook seems unconvinced.

While the ACLU thinks a memorial to the storm and its victims is "clearly appropriate," Cook said, St. Bernard's is "still all very questionable. I think there is official government involvement with the endorsement and advancement of this clearly religious symbol."

New Orleans Times-Picayune

A Week Getting Worse

ESPN.com is reporting that Cleveland Browns Center LeCharles Bentley was carted of the field at training camp today with an apparent knee injury. Here is to hoping it is either not very serious or it is one kind of sick preseason joke.

I cannot handle 7 out of 8 bad seasons for my Browns since they came back let alone the fact that my 3 other favorite sport teams had sub-par to horrendous seasons in the last calender year.

1) Marshall Thundering Herd Football goes from media darlings to a 4-7 season in year.

2) Pittsburgh Penguins win the draw of the century and pick phenom Sydney Crosby, sign some top-level free agents and then proceed to finish next-to-last in the 05-06 season.

3) 14 Seasons of futility. 'nuff said. It is tough being a Pittsburgh Pirate fan.