10 Topics that you never will see at a PCUSA conference center!
1. Double Predestination: Why it's in the Bible and Why it's really good news!
2. Call Him Father: Recovering the Biblical basis for masculine imagery of God.
3. Hell: What it is and who is going there-a Bible study.
4. Heaven: What it is and who is going there-a Bible study.
5. Nothing But The Blood: Understanding justification by the blood of Jesus.
6. Are You Washed In The Blood? The believer's security in Christ.
7. The Uniqueness of Christianity: Why our message surely must be from God.
8. Truth Matters: Recovering the Biblical language of propositional truth claims.
9. The Westminster Confession: Understanding the greatest Reformed confession ever written.
10. TULIP For Church Renewal: How the 'Five Points' of Calvinism can revive your church's ministry.
Dream, on my fellow Calvinists....dream on...
Posts
36 remonstrances:
Here are a few other unlikely topics:
1. How to evangelize Muslims;
2. In defense of Christian Zionism;
3. What we can learn from the EPC and PCA;
4. Is the Property Clause a Christian imperative?
5. True Love: Healing from homosexuality;
6. Helping Women and Men Choose Life for their unborn children.
Hey--watch out there, Presbyman!
You better not question publicly the One Incontestible Presbyterian Supreme Commandment: the property trust clause!
They're gonna burn you at the stake or something!
(I like your list!)
They won't burn him at the stake - they might send out a hit man . . .
A few more:
1. Pastors: How to Make Your Members Think Like You
2. Marginalizing Liberals - God's Requirement or Just For Fun?
3. Bringing Back Stoning - the proper use of Church Discipline
4. Onward Christian Soldiers - Using the Bible as an Offensive Weapon
You all are too much. I'll probably think of mine in the next month. One though that springs to mind is:
The priesthood of all believers and a Presbyterian Elders take on the 4-spiritual laws. (apologies to the late Bill Bright)
Alan
Mark,
Those are good too! :)
RE: "10 Topic that you will never see at a PCUSA conference center!"
GOOD!
john mcneese said...
RE: "10 Topic that you will never see at a PCUSA conference center!"
GOOD!
My how inclusive !!
Reformed Catholic,
That's the whole problem with those who claim to be 'inclusive'!
It's impossible!
Everyone excludes some ideas and some people to some extent. The claim that one can be 'inclusive' (whatever the heck it means anyway) is silly and jargonistic.
Which was, I think you're whole point! :)
Thanks.
Presbyman wrote:
"6. Helping Women and Men Choose Life for their unborn children. "
For bonus credit-- "Choosing to Parent via Adotion to give creedence to my Pro-Life Beliefs"
:)
Here's mine:
1.The Art of Applause in Worship
2.Embracing Denial as a Spiritual Discipline
3. Divine Deep Dish (not gossip practice but cassaroles for plotluck dinners)
4.Avoiding Visioning Retreats and Conferences
5.Translating PresbySpeak into plain English
How about one you would see at NEITHER a liberal nor a conservative gathering:
"The Bible as Idol: How we all cherrypick Scripture to biblically justify our own points of view."
It would, at least, have the virtue of being inclusive.
Alex,
Good one! (And very correct, too!)
QG,
I would attend those, if they could find the honesty and courage to plan them!
(I'm always on the lookout for the perfect cassarole...)
Christine,
Here's a more refined (and more Reformed) version of your suggestion--
Interpretations as Idols: How we misuse Scripture to construct religions of our own making.
Here's One:
The Westminster Assembly: The only council never to err; the one sure rule of faith and practice.
More refined, yes, but also less accurate.
(Speaking of interpretation!)
Human depravity being what it is, it was probably inevitable that the notion of "sola scriptura" would degenerate into all of us trying to turn the Bible into what WE want it to be.
You're certainly right, Toby, we all exclude--even when it comes to Scripture itself.
(As a historical example, see what Luther had to say about the epistle of James.)
It would have been a good one if I could spell the word "adoption" correctly. Good grief.
QG -- love your list!
Just remember Toby: Cynicism is simply an unpleasant way of stating the truth!
"Fishin' Expeditions: How to reach the lost while at play."
Even more:
1) The GA and Your Session: Moving Beyond Damage Control
2) Confessing, Professing, of Just Guessing? The BoC Today.
3) The Sickness and Poverty "Gospel": Reclaiming Socialist Ethics for a Murkier World
4) Exorcisms: Casting Out the Spirit of Modernism
5) Replacement Rates: What You and Your Spouse Can Do to Grow the PCUSA
Sadly, I could keep this up all day...
How about these:
1. "The Essential Tenets of Our Reformed Faith - An Unambiguous List!"
2. "Why the Washington Office of PC(USA) doesn't get involved in Politics"
3. "How the Layman became the PC(USA) Official Newspaper" or "How Parker Williamson was Elected Stated Clerk of the PC(USA)"
4. "Embracing Biblical Inerrancy"
Thank you for your blog.
Mine is also on blogspot at ...
http://revross.blogspot.com
I am a conservative PC(USA) pastor in Ohio.
Here is my list:
1. How to introduce legislation in your State that protects local church property rights, including sample legislation.
2. Calvin's emphasis on the importance of singing repetitive choruses in worship according to his preface to the Genvea Psalter.
3. What would Machin say about the PUP AI?
4.Studying the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
5. How the National Council of Churches has sold itself out to radical left wing political action groups.
6. How to enforce the Open Meetings Policy of the General Assembly and block its subversion by General Assembly staff members and committees.
7. The history of anti-semitism and opposition to the State of Israel in the policies of the Presbyterian Church.
8. Diversity, an idol for our time.
9. How sharing the Gospel is much more than working for social justice causes.
10. When War Is Necessary.
Here are a few additional comments on my list.
I am guilty of number one and they are trying to come after me and my church.
Number two will probably get Toby angry but high liturgical, hymn singing, organ blaring worship has only been the style of Presbyterian worship since after the civil war. Traditional Presbyterian worship was before then much freer.
To dicover more about number five see IRD's new book, Strange Yokefellows. You can read it online at their web site.
Number 8 is based upon my experience as a commissioner to the last General Assembly.
Number ten is a response to my colleagues in the PCUSA when asked to name a war in the history of the United States they thought was legitimate have stared at me in silence (this includes World War II, the American Revolution, and the Civil War).
Timothy Smith
Oh, the lists go on and on:
1. Is Christianity Cute?, or: Do We Really need to have Childrens' Sermons?
2. The sanctuary as Analog Zone: Phasing out Projection Screens, Power Point and Electronic Guitars from Worship.
3. Vainglorious Pastors who foment Schism and the Congregants who love Them.
4. Why not Drink the Wine instead of Storing it in New Skins?
5. Marketing the Church: What a Trend we have in Jesus.
6. The CEO model for Pastors and the Doormat Model for Sessions: A Winning Combination.
7. Embracing your Inner Heretic.
8. Blame Louisville First: A Strategy for Denominational Relations.
Marketing the Church: What a Trend we have in Jesus
For the Win!
Tim,
Are you saying in your number 2 that Calvin would like Taize?
:(
I think Christine is a member of my church.
OK, late to the party, but:
1. Faux Presbyterian - reforming the reformed into the uninformed.
2. Seeding your Session: Making sure that your church follows God and does it your way.
3. How to get building loan approval with unfulfilled pledges.
4. The Presbyterian home: decorating tips for transforming your living space into Biblical metaphor.
5. Collection plates: why always wooden?
Toby,
Have you ever been to Taize?
Jodie
Presby Gal,
Great ones!
I'd like to see those answered!
:)
Jodie,
I have not been to Taize. I was actually just trying to be funny. Taize is not really my thing, but I don't have a problem with the style, as long as it does not try to substitute for Lord's Day worship of hearing the Word proclaimed.
And, for me, Taize is beautiful music that is just too darn repetitive.
But they sure do know how to use those candles... :)
Toby,
What struck me at Taize, some too many years ago to mention here, was their use of space. The worship hall was in the shape of an amphitheater and the only seat they had were in the back. Visitors who were only curious sort of stayed in the back, but as you felt drawn in you also felt pulled to the front and center.
They had many international visitors and they made a point in reading the bible passages in the language of all the visitors they had. Their organist was awesome and he made you feel like you were floating on a cushion of air. It was weird to think of a Protestant monastery. They would not talk doctrine or politics but they would pray with you. They saw their ministry as one of prayer – as monks have been known to do, and they taught by doing. Profoundly moving experience. They opened my eyes to a whole side of the Christian experience that I was unfamiliar with at the time.
The music was pretty, but it sounded better in Latin. English is a terrible language for that style of singing, IMHO.
Funny, but I don't remember a significant use of candles.
Jodie
Not to change the subject or anything... :)
But should I be concerned if my pastor travelled to the Northwest to participate in a seminar with Marcus Borg?
jon:
No. You should be concerned if your pastor starts preaching ideas that you feel are not faithful.
Merely being exposed to new and different ideas is not dangerous - it's how we keep reforming.
Yes, I would agree that the PCUSA has lost its way. Even in the evangelical circles you will not find very much orthodox Calvinism. Instead you will most likely find some broadbased undefined melting of different groups that hold a few things in common....the Westminster Confession not being one of them.
But a former pastor told me once that the institutional church belongs to God. The same God whose Spirit gave the PCUSA its mission and life can also take it if He so chooses to do so. And we are in no position to arrogantly demand of Him an answer as to why He has chosen to do so. I finally had to realize that if God is truly sovereign this is indeed His sovereign right. So how is that for an orthodox Calvinist answer to the situation in the church? It is the best one that I have come across thus far.
I can't tell you how annoying it is every time someone says "the PCUSA has lost its way". There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of disciples of Jesus who make up the PCUSA who hand carry the Gospel of Grace to every nick and crony of their lives and the lives they touch every day.
The Gospel is about people living under the Grace of God in fellowship with the living Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The dimensions of that reality far exceed all of our wildest imaginations put together. The only thing that is not part of that multiverse is when we revert to living by rules and regulations that make us feel all warm and pious inside but have no effect whatsoever in our standing with God or with each other, and totally fail to bring any news to the world that is either good or even relevant.
When we do that, the apostle Paul tells us in Galatians, we have “fallen from grace”.
Jodie
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