Updating the Pastor Information Form

I decided it was time to do some updating on my Pastor Information Form. For those of you who are indoctrinated to such things, Presbyterians call it a PIF for short. For those of you who aren't, think of it as a kind of Presbyterian version of a Minister's resume.

In the past few years there have been some revisions to the form and format. One of the things that was removed is a section formerly known as Key Theological Issues. This is where the Pastoral Candidate defines, explains, or dances around an issue in 1,500 characters or less. (Gotta love forms, but when a church gets several hundred PIF's for a single ministerial opportunity you can imagine they might hope people can get it down to 500.)

I decided to redo my "Key Theological Issue" section, with the song lyric it comes to a bit more than the basic 1,500 characters. I do believe this is an important issue and I hope you can see where I'm coming from.

In a time when knowledge is expanding exponentially and when the speed of communication threatens to overwhelm the message, I see the key theological issue of our time to be something Texans call the Gospel of Luckenbach, maybe it's time we get back to the basics of love.

For those of you who don't know the chorus, it goes like this:

Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love

Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we're livin'
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
Between Hank Williams' pain songs and
Newberry's train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain't nobody feelin' no pain

 ("Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) by Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons. As for “feelin' no pain,” I would propose that in the church that should have more to do with joy in the outstretched arms of God than one too many Shiner Bock's.)

For the church this is our first love, God.

As Presbyterians we have a long tradition of seeking guidance from our three sources of governance, in order: Holy Scripture, the Book of Confessions, and the Book of Order. Unfortunately too often we tend to move from Grace to Law, from the Living Torah to the Book of Order. Jesus did not teach divorce or define marriage. He demonstrated love and taught us to love God and neighbor. When others tried to force Jesus into constructs like government and taxes, he shows that the Lord God is not bound by such. As people try to force God to be one way, the Triune God-Father, Son, and Spirit-shows The Way.

The issue of our time is that we must seek and follow God's mysterious and gracious way. God never acts out of character but always in sovereignty. God moves in ways that we can't often anticipate and less frequently understand. Jesus ministered to and with those on the society’s fringe, including Zealots and Roman collaborators; lepers and harlots. Yet to be the Body of Christ the church must seek and follow-especially when this direction takes us from our comfortable places. The church must start again. God is love, and it's time we get back to the basics of love.

To God be the Glory. Amen