Renewing Public Protestantism: Article Up at Mere Orthodoxy
I have an article published at Mere Orthodoxy focusing on the necessity of pastoral work and preparation for the renewal of the church. Below is an excerpt.
Orthodox Protestantism, including my own Presbyterian tradition, has valued God’s ordinances as central to the life, witness, and mission of the church. Public worship on Sunday, composed of faithfully preaching the gospel as given in the scriptures, administering the sacraments, and devotion to prayer have historically characterized the church. While this is the work of the whole church, the responsibility to lead and disciple falls upon the pastor. The faithfulness of the pastor leads to the equipping and health of the church: The pastor’s exposition and application of God’s word, liturgical leadership, and humility in prayer are indispensable tools by which the church’s witness is upheld and mission accomplished…
Much of what ails the church today and has undercut its potency and witness is the loss of basic pastoral competency. The race to the lowest liturgical denominator, along with theologically and biblically illiterate pastors, has left the church weak and its witness murky. No amount of missional recalibration can compensate for this.
I left my response to the article on the Mere Orthodoxy website. If you have the time and interest, let me know what you think though I understand if you don’t.
BTW, because my comment does contain a link, I am not sure if they will keep the comment there–some blogs do not allow links in the comments. If my comment is taken down, I will repost it here on your website.
Hi Curt,
I always appreciate your comments, and yes, it did show up at the MO site. I completely agree with you that we need to be able to translate scripture into today’s vernacular. My priority is to keep the cart and horse in the proper order: we need to know God’s word before we can translate it. A lot of the post-Christendom scramble is due to the assumption that we know God’s word and just need to work on translation.
Thank you for appreciating my comments, not many conservatives do.
I don’t think that priorities should require an exclusive-or logic when it comes to good theology or translation. I believe that some of our political stands both during Christendom and even now are putting pressure on theologians and pew sitters alike to make compromises in theology. Nicholas Wolterstorf is an example.
Thank you for reading and responding to my stuff. I very much appreciate that. BTW, I grew in a church that became an EPC church. You probably know that church. It is Oreland Presbyterian Church.
I do know Oreland; good people there.
It was nice to see a reference to my article from Steven M. Bryan of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: https://mereorthodoxy.com/the-post-christian-seminaries-of-1970