How I'll Spend My Summer

Summer looms: long languid months in which to relax, lie in a hammock, drink lemonade, and listen to the birds in the trees…. Somehow I don’t think that describes what summer will be like for most of us! Summers seem to be as busy as the rest of the year, with travel, vacations, camps for children, and projects to be done around the house.

Still, summer allows us a change of pace, and a chance to focus on different things. This summer will provide me with an opportunity to have some concentrated time on my doctoral work. In September 2004, I began work on my Doctor of Ministry degree at Princeton Theological Seminary. I completed all my required classroom work last summer, leaving me with “just” the dissertation, or what the program calls the “Final Project”.

I spent much of this spring developing and refining my Final Project Proposal, a process that is rather like trying to corral mercury loosed from a thermometer. Papers and responses flowed back and forth between me and the Seminary’s Doctoral Committee over the months, all part of the normal process that every doctoral student goes through. Happily, the Proposal stage is nearing completion, so I can begin work this summer on the Final Project.

My Project will focus on leadership in the church. Every year God calls a new group of women and men to leadership roles in the church as Elders and Deacons. Amazingly, though, there is no training program from the Presbytery, no handbook written by the Synod, no workshop offered by Louisville, no ready resource to help us become better leaders in the church. There are more than 11,000 churches in the Presbyterian Church in this country and it appears that there are 11,000 different ways we go about trying to develop leadership!

What I hope to develop is a program we can use at our church to help officers become more comfortable in their role as leaders as they serve God and this church. Our Book of Order charges our Elders in particular to “exercise leadership…by seeking together to find and represent the will of Christ”. How best to do that is a challenge when we all struggle with discernment, demands on our time, and different interpretations of the word “leadership”.

Of course, we begin our study of leadership by remembering that we are also followers: followers of our Lord Jesus, who is Head of the Church. As we go about our ministry, as long as we “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly…and…do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” we can be confident that we will be both faithful leaders and faithful followers.

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Are You Doing?

So: how are you doing? How are you doing as a steward of God’s creation? We had a wonderful Earth Day celebration in April, and we have talked a lot recently about our role as stewards of God’s creation and the responsibility God has given us to look after this creation.

Are you recycling more and throwing out less? Prince William County takes newspapers, magazines, telephone books, catalogues, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, and cans. Go to the county’s website, www.co.prince-william.va.us/default, and click on “Recycling and Trash disposal” and you’ll find all kinds of helpful information, including what to do with old computers, televisions, and other electronic gear, used engine oil, batteries and other goods.

The more we recycle the less we will put in the ground in landfills. Take a drive south out 234 past Hoadly Road and look at the size of the mound of trash at the Prince William County Landfill – that’s all from you and me. The next time you head east on 66, have a look at the large hill that’s on your right at the exit for the Fairfax County Parkway. That’s all trash under there. Your trash and mine.

What else are you doing? Have you begun to go through your house to see where you could replace lightbulbs with the new more energy-efficient bulbs? Are you planning to buy a new refrigerator, washer or dryer? Check to make sure your new appliance has the Energy Star logo. You’ll save money as well as energy.

Our cars pour millions of tons of pollutants into the air each day, even if we don’t see the toxins coming out of tailpipes. If it is time to replace your car, look for a model that gets at least 20% better mileage than your current car. For a helpful website, go to www.autos.yahoo.com/green_center/. You’ll save money at the gas pump and pollute less. Do you plan to keep your car for a while yet? A simple way to use less gas and pollute less is slow down. Yes, simply driving the speed limit will improve your mileage and reduce the amount of pollution you’re putting in the air by more than 10%.

Everything we do has an impact on God’s creation. We are looking for more and more ways to “go green” around the church. Are you looking for ways to live green at home and at work, as well as at church? The world we live in is God’s, not ours. We are God’s stewards, called to care for this earth at church, at home, at work: everywhere, in everything we do so that God “may always rejoice in his works.” So: how are you doing?

Grace & peace,

Pastor Skip

How Do We Read the Bible?

I sat in on a Senior High class a few weeks back. I’d been invited in to respond to questions the students had. The questions were excellent: thoughtful, reflective, probing, and faithful. I noticed the questions had a common thread, something that we all struggle with: how are we to read the Bible, and especially, how are we to read difficult passages, those verses that seem not to make sense, or that trouble us?

We find passages that we question in both the Old and New Testaments. For example: “You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two materials.” (Leviticus 19:19) “Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” (1 Timothy 2:11). If we were to follow these verses literally, most farmers would be in trouble, most of us would have to buy new wardrobes, and we would lose the majority of our Elders, Deacons, and Teachers. So what do we do?

Our Book of Confessions and Book of Order (together they are the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church USA) provide help and guidance. The Book of Order tells us that the Bible is “by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to us.” We do not refer to the Bible as the “literal” or “inerrant” Word of God, as some other denominations do.

The Confession of 1967 teaches us that the Bible is “to be interpreted in the light of its witness to God’s work of reconciliation in Christ.” Jesus, as the living Word of God, is the lens through which we are to read the Bible. Christ himself knew his Scripture, yet he often taught lessons that seemed to contradict a literal reading of Scripture.

The Bible is not a rule book, with neat aphorisms and guidelines that we can simply list and follow. Rather it is a book of books filled with nuance, subtleties, and many seemingly contradictory statements. We need help as we read the Bible, which is why the first thing we must always do before we read is offer a prayer for illumination, asking for God’s help through the Holy Spirit as we read.

We always have to be mindful of the context, the history, and the literary style of the writer of each book. We also have to be mindful of the fact that translators who have worked with the original Hebrew or Greek texts often have disagreed on how different verses should be translated.

As we read through the Bible, the Spirit calls us to interpret passages in light of God’s mercy, love and reconciling work in Jesus Christ. That means that reading the Bible requires prayer, faithfulness, an open mind, and an expectation that each time we read it we will be transformed, even just a little, to be more Christ-like in what we say, what we do, and how we live our lives.

Grace & peace,
Pastor Skip