Faith
About this blog
Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
Barry Ensign-George
David Gambrell
Christine Hong
Karen Russell
Recent posts
- Our Challenging Way: Faithfulness, Sex, Ordination, and Marriage
- Unity, Confessions, and the Book of Order
- Come and See
- Please and Thank You
- Back to Basics on Ash Wednesday
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Stewards of the Mysteries
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. (I Cor. 4:1)
If you receive the Font and Table enews (which is what this originally appeared as), you hear a lot about Invitation to Christ from us. Well, it’s in the process of being extended to other Reformed bodies as well.
The Association for Reformed and Liturgical Worship (AR&LW) has requested permission to make the original PCUSA Invitation to Christ more broadly Reformed in order to extend the Invitation to other Reformed bodies. This has been granted and is in the process of being completed. It is an excellent edition, true to the original.
If you are interested in the sacramental renewal of the church, check out AR&LW. There are great resource on their website regarding Reformed worship. Next summer, the group will meet with the Mercersburg Society and both groups welcome new members.
Mercersburg theology, as you may know, was promulgated by Philip Schaff and John Nevin in the nineteenth century. Centered in the mystical presence of Christ, it was at once sacramental, ecumenical, and catholic (in the small c sense of the word). Concerned about renewing the church through sacramental renewal (sound familiar?), it was a via media between traditionalism and revivalism and the church debates these fueled. Not surprisingly, it was denounced by both and faded into the fog of church history. (Yes, by the way, this is the same Schaff of Schaff’s History of the Christian Church).
Why all this theology talk? Those of us who reflect deeply upon the mysteries of the sacraments are doing theology, real theology of the church. We need not let academic theologians, who are called to help the church think the faith, intimidate us, for if we are pondering the meanings of the sacraments, we are at the fountainhead of all theology. All Christians are called to be theologians in that they are to reflect deeply upon the profound mysteries of our faith in Jesus Christ, ritualized in the sacraments. We need to be in conversation with the knowledge of theologians, but we can’t let them do our job for us.
Help the church do its job by revisiting Invitation to Christ as you look toward fulfilling your responsibilities for the spiritual formation of your flock in the upcoming school year. Plan a course on worship. Join AR&LW and be renewed by attending its annual meeting. Enable people be good stewards of the mysteries of the faith by granting space and time to explore our sacramental wonders.
- Posted at 2:34 p.m.
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