Exploring "whole gospel" idea

Witherspoon gathering begins exploring "whole gospel congregations"

a report by Doug King

[5-9-01]

Click here for an earlier report on this project.

At the Witherspoon executive committee meeting in Santa Fe, in September 2000, the group began shaping a major focus on the notion of "whole Gospel congregations," as a way of affirming the mission of the church as involving both service and evangelism, both love and justice, both individuals and communities, following the model of Jesus' own ministry.

Our latest meeting, May 3-5 in Claremont, California, included a 6-hour session devoted to giving some definition to the notion. Three people were specially invited to contribute some of their own thinking to the process, and another 20 people joined us from the community - mostly members or associate members of the Claremont Presbyterian Church.

The starting point

The Rev. Kent Winters-Hazelton, a member of the Witherspoon executive

committee and pastor of the Claremont church, opened the session by describing the background for the event:

The impetus for this gathering lies in our deep concern for the social justice witness of the Presbyterian Church. Last fall, the Witherspoon Society's executive committee was meeting when we received word of the of the General Assembly Council's vote to prioritize the General Assembly mission budget, based on the sole criteria of evangelism and discipleship. We certainly affirm the importance of evangelism and personal discipleship in our lives and in our churches. But our faith also calls for a public discipleship, speaking the word of justice to the powers and principalities of our world, and offering the cup of hope to those disempowered by the destructive forces of institutional as well as individual sin.

Too many critical issues were put to the bottom of the list of priorities. The members of the Witherspoon Board began to envision a campaign to remind the whole church of the rich gifts of grace offered to our world - gifts that touch the whole of life, the material and the spiritual, the institutional and the individual, the inward journey and the outward journey. In short, we wanted to remind our sisters and brothers of the whole gospel, and thus we began to talk about the Whole Gospel Congregation campaign.

Our context

The first of our speakers was Dr. John Cobb, emeritus professor at Claremont School of Theology and author of many books, including Christ in a Pluralistic Age. Surveying our social and cultural context, he pointed to three major features:

• The shift in our society to the dominance of "market thinking," which assumes that we exist purely as individuals, making rational choices in our own self-interest.

• Changes in our understanding of gender and sexuality, which are leading to more acceptance of diverse sexual patterns, except in many religious circles which demand clear right-or-wrong distinctions.

• Multiculturalism, which reflects a shift from integration as the way of dealing with differences, to an affirmation of cultural variety and differences.

A positive vision

Dr. Douglas Ottati, Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, addressed the question, "Is there a place for faithful progressive Christianity in the PC(USA)?" Noting that "we need to offer a positive vision or visions," rather than merely reacting to attacks from the right, he asserted that "we should be recognizably Reformed - not slavishly (which is unReformed!)," but dealing with our rich and varied tradition. This points us toward "an ethic of faithful participation in the world," based on the conviction "that God meets us in every place, and that we are to respond faithfully to God in every place."

Reformed roots for progressive witness

The third presentation was given by Dr. Jane Dempsey Douglass, Professor of Historical Theology, Emerita, at Princeton Theological Seminary, and former President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Exploring "the historic roots for the progressive witness," she described some of the strands of Calvin's strong focus on the theme of justice, and concluded by describing a meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches not long ago in Debrecen, Hungary. The gathering of church leaders from around the world agreed that economic justice is not an issue we can choose to deal with; it is essential to any proclamation of the Gospel today. This led the body to issue a strong call for all its member churches to initiate a process of reflection on issues of economic justice, particularly in the matter of the global economy and the growing chasm between the wealth of the northern hemisphere and the deepening poverty of the South.

"Justice," she concluded, "is not something merely derived from faith or implied by faith. It is an essential part of doing faith. Therefore we cannot rely just on the old tradition, but must let ourselves be reshaped by our wider [Reformed] family." There was a strong sense in the group that this call from our sister churches merits serious attention and commitment from the PC(USA) as well.