The Cutting Edge
Samuel Escobar's and Samuel Moffet's pieces on mission in the new millennium are extremely significant, because we are all retooling for future ministry. In a seminary connected to a megachurch, we are making some foundational changes. This involves the fast deployment of lay missioners and the high profile use of non-North Americans. (This year we are spotlighting a Sicilian evangelist.)
Your November 14 issue was on the cutting edge of mission. Thanks.
– Wayne Detzler
Southern Evangelical Seminary
Charlotte, N.C.
CATHOLICS AS ALLIES?
Chuck Colson wants evangelicals to "gather in the central hallway" with Roman Catholics ("Why Catholics Are Our Allies," Nov. 14). How he gets us in the front door with them he never discusses, but he has to throw away sola scriptura, sola gratia, and sola fide to do it.
Colson quotes Timothy George, C. S. Lewis, Abraham Kuyper, and even J. Gresham Machen to defend his plea for unity with the Church of Rome. Too bad he didn't quote the apostle Paul. Those who embrace Roman Catholics as brothers and sisters in Christ, like Colson (and CT?), need to go through an elementary course on the gospel.
– Pastor Dean Olive
Grace Baptist Church
Madison, Ala.
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Colson's assumption is that ultimately those doctrines that unite evangelicals and Rome make us relatively closer than the separation between evangelicals and pagans. From a worldly standpoint, I agree. From an eternal standpoint, our doctrinal difference is the difference between life and death. Luther, the Reformers, and ostensibly evangelicals, believe that the Scripture is clear: justification by faith alone is the doctrine by which the church, and its members, stands or falls. The Scripture, and the supposed infallible councils of Rome, have not changed. In terms of the means of justification they do not agree.
I do trust there are thousands, perhaps millions, of Roman Catholics who believe the gospel, including justification by faith alone, and reject official Roman doctrine on justification. For this I rejoice! I also think it is a terrific idea for evangelicals and Roman Catholics to work together in this fallen world. However, all the social activism ever done, combined, is not worth putting aside, even for a moment, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, as revealed through Scriptures alone by the Holy Spirit. My hat is off to Mr. Colson and his zeal for unity, social activism, and spreading the gospel. However, to minimize the fact that evangelicals and official Rome preach two different gospels, which are mutually exclusive, is to deny reality.
-Scott W. Forbes
Pittsburgh, Pa.
STRUGGLE AT KING'S
My association with The King's College began in 1968; that association was enduring and very rewarding. With many others, I have been heartsick over the recent events chronicled in the November 14 issue of ct [News]. I am disturbed that the article might lead readers to assume that the liberalism Glenn Van Heemst said was "creeping onto campus on a very large scale" was a recent, current, and widespread phenomenon. Dr. Radandt inherited those faculty members I assume Glenn had in mind, and who were always exceptions rather than representative of the faculty.
A number of more liberal faculty were especially enthusiastic about Dr. Radandt being appointed president of the college—in part, because they viewed him as more liberal than Dr. Cook. When it became obvious that they had misread Dr. Radandt, there was a dramatic turnabout in allegiance and, ultimately, a power struggle, which brought great harm to the college.
– Allan L. Bleecker
Hewitt, N.J.
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I was saddened to see the obituary for The King's College. King's holds a special place in my heart. It is there that my faith was stretched, my knowledge of God's Word was built up, I met my wife, and heard my calling to ministry from God. It is there I built relationships that I will never forget. King's was a family. I thank God for how he used King's in my life. King's may close its doors, classes may cease; but its life continues.
– Pastor Paul E. Krause
Hoboken Evangelical Free Church
Hoboken, N.J.
RE-ENGINEERING CHURCH LEADERSHIP
The October 24 [lead News] article reported a Murdoch Trust discovery of "dramatic disagreements about the abilities that seminary graduates should have in order to minister effectively in churches." However, a rough weighting of the Perfect Pastor Priorities demonstrates that character/spirituality categories rise to the top with all other abilities except counseling (only a professorial response) at approximately the same level. Perhaps this demonstrates the need for shared responsibility in leadership development. Instead of following pendulum swings toward either "church-based theological education" or purely academic seminary study, it may be time for coordination of three phases in the development cycle of learned clergy and lay leaders alike.
A more penetrating question may be, "When will American churches become indigenous?" Church discipline has all but disappeared as wayward members simply opt for alternative churches with which to "fellowship." Similarly, the practice of banishing candidates for professional ministry leadership from "home" churches must cease. Then, a healthy process of growing leaders can commence: (1) a church's recognition of men and women of spiritual character through whom the Spirit has manifested God's power as they have exercised stewardship of God-given talents; (2) special academic preparation concurrent with continuing relational ministry; and (3) occupational socialization shoulder to shoulder with multiple mentors (lay and professional) who provide mature oversight, building up a body of believers to do the work of the ministry.
Rather than the beleaguering seminary, it may be the entire process of ministry leadership development that needs to be re-engineered.
– Daniel C. Stevens
Talbot School of Theology
La Mirada, Calif.
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As a professional recruiter often called on to assist Christian organizations, I see up close the lack of preparation many of our most gifted leaders have in this area. One or two management courses in college or seminary could have multiplied positive effects in correcting this. Learning something about how to run an organization should include understanding what are the different management styles and why some fail while others succeed. That includes realizing the value of "servant leadership," as exemplified by Jesus Christ. It would also be helpful to learn about their own personality traits and how selecting support staff with opposite or complementary traits brings balance to a management team.
– Bruce Dingman
Westlake Village, Calif.
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As one about to embark on his seminary journey after 21 years with the military, I was encouraged by your article. It's good to know that these great institutions of tradition are responding with creativity to the changing needs of the church.
– Kevin J. Wheeler
Barksdale AFB, La.
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"Been there, done that," is my reaction to your cover story. I'm curious as to why you omitted the largest and most innovative seminaries in America. Southern Baptists train one of every four seminary students in the U.S.
– Pastor Mark Shannon Milwee
Alder Avenue Baptist Church
Fremont, Calif.
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The spate of critical analysis of American seminary education certainly must mean that it is valued. I take some comfort in this fact as president of an evangelical school deeply concerned about the direction of evangelicalism. Our own re-engineering is in response to extensive field research and intensive internal change that have been going on since 1991 while experiencing a very healthy growth rise. Competency-focused education, mentoring, Church Assisted Seminary Education (case), globalization, spiritual formation, diversification, and experimentation in new educational delivery systems are all in operation. More are on the drawing board. Rather than relying upon catch words for change, our faculty and board of governance are profoundly energized. They wholeheartedly endorse major retooling of the seminary.
Knowing, however, the competitive nature of the evangelical entrepreneurial spirit, we are also paying attention to basics. If seminaries and churches are going to meet the demands of the twenty-first century, it will take much, much more than an overlay of slick marketing, adaptation of business savvy, thin piety, and opportunistic instrumentalism. The age-old emphasis upon the call of God will go far in helping to produce men and women of strong character.
– Edward L. Hayes, President
Denver Seminary
Denver, Colo.
THOSE RIGHTEOUS GENTILES
David Gushee's article, "Why They Helped the Jews" [Oct. 24], is thought-provoking, and I would like to see this subject treated further in CT. I think "Righteous Gentiles" is very much the correct term for the rescuers, since they were non-Jews and, in most cases, only incidentally Christian. Less accurate, but perhaps more appropriate, Gushee's article might have referred to them as "righteous Christians" to distinguish them from the great majority of Christians at the time, who seem to have been indifferent to the sufferings of everyone sent to the camps.
I also wish to comment on Gushee's puzzling remark, "Can there be any doubt what Jesus would have done if a Jewish family came to his door and asked for his help in surviving the Holocaust?" The question seems to forget that Jesus was himself Jewish and would have been hauled off to the camps along with all the rest—assuming, of course, that he hadn't had the unlikely good fortune to be rescued by a "Righteous Gentile."
– Ron Scheer
Milford, Conn.
"CLASSICAL" FEMINISM
Thank you for the interesting review of Christina Hoff Sommers's informative and timely book [Who Stole Feminism? Books, Oct. 24].
It should be noted that although Sommers places herself in the tradition of nineteenth-century classically liberal feminism, she not only ignores the strong pro-life emphasis of this tradition, but casts "abortion rights" as a necessary and appropriate addition to the array of legal rights for which women campaigned in the last century. Those early feminists whom she cites as exponents of "equity feminism" would not agree.
Also, I am not sure that the different varieties of feminism should be seen as analogous to the numerous denominations within Christianity. Whether one is a Presbyterian or a Pentecostal, one's faith is (or is supposed to be) grounded in a Christian world-view and governed by the authority of the Bible. But the various feminist ideologies arise from a diverse assortment of world-views—including pantheism, postmodernism, humanism, socialism, classical liberalism, and Christian theism (which itself is divided between feminists who adhere strictly to biblical authority and those who do not).
– Rebecca Merrill Groothuis
Littleton, Colo.
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