Renewing Gospel Hope: Recovering a Solid Hope in an Uncertain Time
Written by Paul Detterman   
Sunday, 15 July 2007 00:00
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p_detterman.jpgThe phone rang on a crisp autumn day. It was a call from a long-time friend, currently a member of the PFR Board, asking if there was any way I had an interest in being Michael Walker's interim successor. I said, "No," and went to lunch. Thus began the conversation that has resulted in my call to serve Christ for 20 months as the Interim Executive Director of PFR.

Why leave the stability of a settled pastorate to help an aging renewal organization navigate all the turmoil and uncertainty currently in the PC(USA)? Because many people I trust urged me to consider that this was a Call to be taken seriously - the ministry of recovering gospel hope. Matthew 9:35ff describes the ministry of Jesus who moved through the crowds and, "... had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd."

This image has haunted me in this last year as PC(USA) elders and pastors have tried to make sense of our contemporary context. The doom criers in our midst have repeatedly yelled that "Rome is burning" and some sessions are giving some form of consideration to leaving - running for the denominational exit door, most popularly into a possible relationship with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The thought is that there is "safety" beyond the reach of the Louisville establishment and guilt by association with the PC(USA). They are looking for gospel hope. I wish it were true. In fact, however, I don't see "safety" anywhere. Obviously, neither did the crowds who flocked around Jesus. They, too, were looking for gospel hope.

Our congregations have desperate needs that a simple rearrangement of the letters around "Presbyterian" won't address. By and large, we have forgotten a great deal. We have forgotten that relationship with our Savior is based on love and forgiveness, not fear and legalism. We have forgotten that no one is a "good enough" person to warrant salvation - that's what keeps Grace amazing. We have forgotten how to share our faith, beginning with outrageous acts of selfless kindness and compassion - only then earning the right to teach biblical truth. We have forgotten that "they" will know "we" are Christ followers by our unbelievable incarnation of Love.

Many dedicated Presbyterian people are tired and confused. Leaders are grasping for tangible expressions of faithfulness and coming up with legalisms or vacuous expressions of social niceness instead. The structure of the denomination has been disintegrating for years to the point that it is hard to know where to walk, which floorboards are safe and which are rotted.

But Jesus walked through a world that makes the PC(USA) look like Paradise. He taught in their meetings, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, and he met their deepest needs. And when he turned to the disciples, he didn’t suggest they establish a ministry in a less needy region, he instructed them to turn to the “Lord of the Harvest” and ask, with absolute confidence, for workers equal to the challenge.

That is the call that led me to this ministry — for a specific time and a specific purpose. That is the call that a renewing PFR has also heard, loud and clear, throughout the process of strategic planning and prayer as we begin to discover our emerging future. We are called to the challenge of recovering gospel hope for and within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

When Peter met the resurrected Jesus face to face, he was reconciled with Christ and reinstated to his ministry with the charge to “feed my sheep,” to carefully look after the most vulnerable ones. Thousands of Presbyterians, including those who are ordained to lead, are at risk; they are vulnerable. The church they have known for weeks or generations has not equipped them for the challenge of ministry in this current reality. They want to know what it means to follow Jesus through an unsafe world, but the structures they thought they could trust are failing them. I know the feeling. I know what it means to need the hope of the gospel.

Now is the time for a voice of evangelical (gospel!) hope. We may feel harassed, but we are not helpless, because we have the Shepherd. We may be sick and disoriented and confused, but we are not hopeless, because we have the Healer who is the Way and the Truth. And in him is Life! This is our gospel hope.

It is my honor to serve Christ by serving you as the Interim Executive Director of Presbyterians for Renewal, at least until July 2008. God only knows what this time will bring. But we are commissioned by Christ himself to bring the truth and the love and the grace of God back into the PC(USA) in this time.



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