Letters

The Problem With Worship

Surely there is an error in the title of Franklin Arthur Pyles’s article “What’s Right With Evangelical Worship” [Feb. 21]. In essence, he affirms good preaching and a powerful symbol (immersion). If that is all that is right (alas!), that is precisely the problem.

REV. BRIAN J. WITWER

Aldersgate United Methodist Church

Fort Wayne, Ind.

It is ludicrous to state that preaching is the church’s central act of worship. Preaching instructs, edifies, and challenges, but was never meant to be a substitute for worship. It is in the prayers, songs, and participation at the Lord’s Table that worship occurs—not in the act of listening.

RICK LILLA

Canadensis, Pa.

Pyles freely names Dr. Robert Webber as a “modern liturgical renewal leader,” but doesn’t quote Webber. But Webber does not advocate evangelicals leaving and seeking “a communion in a catholic tradition.” What is sought in Christian worship is a harmonious balance between the Word of God and the Table of the Lord.

WILLIAM M. SCHOENFELD

Director of Music Ministry

D. F. White Memorial

Presbyterian Church

McComb, Miss.

Pyles is right when he writes, “Preaching … must remain the central act of worship.” It is a sad fact, however, that too often we must choose between the solid, faithful preaching of the Word and mediocre, even poor, music, or excellent music and preaching with little substance.

MRS. JAY LESHER

Trevorton, Pa.

Long Overdue

Your editorial on TV violence [“Violence for Fun,” Feb. 21] is long overdue—so long that we may be bringing up the rear guard of public awareness. Nielsen ratings already rank the most violent shows at the bottom of viewer popularity and family shows at the top. Some pundits suggest the phenomenon reflects the cycles of the American palate. Too much violence yields to a taste for “wholesome” viewing and vice versa. When the culture rides the crest, why are the evangelicals always in the trough?

RICHARD PRICE

Campus Crusade for Christ at Texas Christian University

Fort Worth, Tex.

The heartbreaking fact is that not only can we not persuade the world, we have a difficult task of persuading the church. As you state, we ought to focus our efforts on our homes and churches. In the area of violence, I believe we have failed to be salt and light.

MICHAEL SNOW

Gayville, S. Dak.

Catching Up With Mcgavran

You are to be commended for the fine cover story on Donald McGavran [“The Father of Church Growth,” Feb. 21]. CT readers ought to know McGavran’s scholarship has begun to redirect church history away from emphases on doctrinal controversies and heroes of the faith to the spread of the faith and growth of the church: church-growth historiography. Unfortunately, many church history texts still must catch up with McGavran’s pioneering work.

T. D. PROFFITT III

Christian Heritage College El

Cajon, Calif.

Beautiful! Tim Stafford’s article gives honor to whom honor is due. This young 88-year-old missionary giant, by example alone, shames those of us who hope to retire at 62 and play golf until our call to our Father’s house.

DICK HILLIS

Modesto, Calif.

Sorting Through The Confusion

Thank you for the superb article by James R. Edwards on feminist theology [“Does God Really Want to Be Called ‘Father’?” Feb. 21]. It helped me sort through the confusion facing the church. While I have wanted to affirm all that is positive in the feminist Christian discussion (as Edwards does), I somehow could never bring myself to view resymbolization as anything but objectionable. Now I see why the latter is no necessary bedfellow of the former. Thanks, Mr. Edwards, for so well articulating what I was feeling.

STEVE KNAPP

Campbell, Calif.

For every hard-core feminist who militantly insists on creating God in her image, there are five James Edwardses who made her that way with their insistence on a masculine God. Just because Scripture is inspired does not mean we shouldn’t read it from a cultural viewpoint. Nor does Jesus being a man make God masculine any more than Jesus being Jewish makes God a Jew.

GARY P. HARRIS

Fountain Valley, Calif.

Episcopal Renewal

“Leaders Meet to Discuss the Future of the Episcopal Church” [Feb. 21] made interesting reading, but it leaves much to be desired! I have never read a word from Michael Marshall about the impossibility for females to be ordained to the priesthood of God’s One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church. When he unequivocally proclaims that the Episcopal Church is deluding itself in this matter, then I will acknowledge he has something of theological value to say.

THE REV. GERALD L. CLAUDIUS

St. John’s Episcopal Church

Kansas City, Mo.

Spring kept referring to women “priests.” There are no women priests in the Episcopal or any other church. They are to be designated “priestess.” Webster defines a priestess as “a woman who officiates in sacred rites.”

DAVID A. WILLIAMS

Arlington, Va.

Raising Hell

It is disturbing to have you raising hell again [“Do You Believe in Hell?” by Kenneth Kantzer, Feb. 21]. For too many centuries the teaching of this doctrine has defamed our Creator, driven millions away from Christ and redemption, and scared countless others into “accepting Christ” in order to escape the horrors of eternal torture.

FREDERICK H. DISE Farmington, N.Y.

I too believe in hell because I believe in Jesus. I think God created hell because he is love! Most disbelievers in hell vote for extinction as its replacement. But this denigrates both man’s Creator, and man—whom God created in his spiritual image, and loves.

REV. SETH A. PARKER Palm Desert, Calif.

Signs And Wonders

With wonder bordering on incredulity I read your account of Fuller’s cancellation of the course “Signs, Wonders, and Church Growth” [News, Feb. 21]. Did some of the Fuller community really oppose the class because healings took place in the classroom? Was John Wimber really declared unfit to teach because he does not hold an advanced degree? Were lecture notes really rejected because they “had not been tested in scholarly circles?” Wow!

Certainly every school must maintain its doctrinal and scholastic integrity. But I wonder how Fuller would respond to an unschooled preacher and worker of wonders from rural Galilee (especially if he healed in the synagogue—I mean classroom)!

REV. RICK MCKINNISS

Emmaus Baptist Church Northfield, Minn.

Where’S Dad?

Brenda Hunter’s article (“Breaking the Tie That Binds,” Feb. 21) on the dangers of churches providing childcare as a substitute for Mother left out one important family member: Father. The word does not even appear in the article. Her omission may be a sad parable on the small importance some of those arguing for “traditional family values” place on the father’s role.

BRADFORD M. SMITH

Glendora, Calif.

Maybe the church ought to work more on prevention of family dysfunction than on remediation of problems, but the ministry of Christ certainly seems to call for our efforts at remediation. Further, the world will not care what our values are if we are unwilling to minister to their perceived needs.

RONALD S. EXUM

Marriage and Family Therapist

Family Life Consultants

Cortez, Calif.

Compassion, Not Condemnation

Philip Yancey’s “Jogging Past the AIDS Clinic,” [Mar. 7] brought a fresh insight to this issue. As Christians, we cannot bring people into the family of God with condemnation and smugness. We can bring people into God’s family with compassion and love. Certainly we are not to condone homosexuality. But at the same time we are not to choose who is and who is not worthy to be in the family of God. If that were the case most of us wouldn’t get into God’s family.

DANIEL R. LANCE

Wheaton, Ill.

The Feast of the Deadline

Very few religious celebrations can be shared by liturgical and nonliturgical churches. Christmas and Easter are the obvious ones. But Anglicans resist the intrusion of Mother’s Day into the church year, and Baptists have little use for the feast of Saint Perpetua, virgin and martyr.

There is a season, however, that could be observed by all churchgoing Americans. Deadlinetide begins on January 1 and culminates at midnight on April 15, with an act of solemn mailing. I propose we proclaim April 15 “The Feast of the Deadline.”

We can attribute special significance to the season because of the uniquely positive attitude toward taxes and tax gatherers displayed in the Bible readings appointed for the season.

The favorite gospel reading might be Mark 12:17 (“Render to Caesar …”),or possibly Mark 2:16(“Why does he eat with tax gatherers and sinners?”). We might look forward to the millenium with a reading from Esther 2:18 (“[The king] also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces …”).

Think of Deadlinetide’s sermon potential. To begin with, Jesus’ fondness for feasting with tax gatherers is surely one of the strongest arguments for his divinity.

But I won’t go on; you get the idea. Deadlinetide has probably already gained a spot in your heart, if not on your church calendar.

EUTYCHUS

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