Dr. Gilbert Stafford

After commenting on the death of Horace Sheppard, Sr. I did not think I would have to return to eulogize another colleague and influential mentor so quickly. However, I received word the other night that another friend and person of great influence in my life, Dr. Gil Stafford, passed away after suffering from cancer over the last year. He spent more than three decades teaching at the Church of God Seminary in Anderson. He spoke for years on CBH, the radio voice of the Church of God. He wrote some of the most helpful and provocative books for the church to use. He was a voice of scholarship, faith, outreach, and unity. For years he served on the Faith and Order Commission of the Council of Churches - reaching out across the denominational divide. He taught and encouraged women in ministry - reaching across the gender divide. He spoke through radio to anyone who would listen and spoke in love - reaching across the believer-unbeliever divide. He spoke to both the laity and the student - reaching across the educational divide. Very few have done as much to live out the message of unity that was central to Gil's theology and to the theology of the Church of God Movement. And few did it with greater grace or humility.
The loss of Gil Stafford to the life of the church is a huge one. His voice and character will be greatly missed. My son, Jonathan, went to the funeral and called me following the service. He mentioned that he had trouble taking his eyes off the set communion table that was sitting conspicuously in the middle of the chancel. He knew it was there purposefully. Gil was one of the best I ever sat under in leading a communion service. The last time I had the privilege was a meeting of church leaders in Colorado Springs some years back. With 300 delegates representing the church across North America, it was quite a gathering of folks. Several papers were presented. Numerous presentations. But the highlight was Gil leading us to the Table of the Lord. He just had a way.
I know the Seminary is hurting at the loss of a friend and leader. I know that it is also in a transitional phase as they make decisions about new staffing for the graduate school. May I suggest that those who read this blog spend a few moments praying for the seminary community and the university community. In so many ways those places have been molded by the gentle voice of a giant of a man.

The Holy Spirit vs. Mothers

Easter is over and the next big Sunday on the calendar is Mother's Day in May. I have told students here at Fuller that Mother's Day is one of those Sundays that you must deal with in the local church. Recently someone challenged me on that thought. It has to do with the Lectionary and the Church Liturgical Calendar - two things you may not be familiar with in your church. We aren't in the Church of God. Maybe we should be.
The Lectionary is a resource churches use to help plan services - themes for preaching, themes for worship, scriptural texts, even appropriate art images. It is a resource created across denominational lines by numerous scholars to help assist churches and pastors on the local level. If you have never seen the lectionary, here is the link: http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary/
If you look at the site, the first thing you will notice is that the entire site is based on the church calendar not the community or secular calendar. It may be a shock to some but there is a different calendar used by the church than the one used by Hallmark Cards. The Church calendar is based upon the seasons of the church - Advent (Christmas), Epiphany (the visit of the magi and the beginnings of Jesus' ministry), Lent (preparation for Holy Week), Easter (season of the resurrection concluding with Pentecost), Season after Pentecost (beginning with Trinity Sunday and going through Thanksgiving - it is a general season of various themes and celebrations). Interestingly, there is no July 4th, Labor Day, Father's Day, or (uh oh, here we go) Mother's Day.
This year, churches are caught in a bind. Pentecost Sunday occurs 50 days after Easter. Let's see. Easter was on March 23rd and 49 days after that is Pentecost Sunday and that is May 11th - Mother's Day. So, what do you celebrate? Mother's Day or the coming of the Holy Spirit? Most churches outside the liturgical circle will opt to either postpone their celebration of Pentecost or they will ignore it all together. But few if any churches will ignore Mother's Day. I wonder if that is a good thing?
What it means is that we are much more culturally centered in the church than biblically centered. Our concern is to celebrate whatever the culture is celebrating. That's why we hang flags in the sanctuary on July 4th weekend or make Children's Day a bigger Sunday than Pentecost. The problem is that the church is really designed to be counter culture. We have values that are different than what the culture commends. As Christians, we are not driven by consumerism; we believe in racial and ethnic equality; neither work nor family are our top priorities; we do not glorify the state; we believe in ministry to the poor and to those in need, whatever that need may be. The church has created orphanages, hospitals, AIDS clinics, food distribution centers, homeless shelters, battered wives homes, along with places to learn the faith and houses to gather in to worship the Lord. None of these are market driven nor do they smack of consumerism. We are centered on the biblical story and its implications and meaning.
Why then do we continue to use the secular calendar instead of the church calendar? The only reason I can think of is that we think having a celebration of family values and mothers specifically will add to our attendance. In the competitive world of church growth, Mothers beat out the Holy Spirit every time. The sad part about all of that is the theological statement we make. We think church growth is all about our programs to attract others. The reality is that the Holy Spirit is the only one who brings growth to the church. Quite ironic, don't you think?

The Deterioration of the News Media

I have watched with deepening sadness the media's fixation with Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and his sermons. For years I have listened to the Republican Party rail at the bias of the news media. I have heard conservative talk show hosts and politicians talk about the unfair treatment conservative public figures receive at the hands of the liberal, left-wing media. This belief has spawned a whole new news network (Fox) and created media stars out of Bill O'Reilly and Shaun Hannity. I have watched Fox News primarily because I was concerned that the news was not being shown "fair and balanced" on other news outlets. In my mind, they were the corrective for a liberal bias. The news media was out of control. I believe that was a correct concern then - and I believe it is a correct concern now. The story of Jeremiah Wright is a prime example.
I have met Jeremiah Wright (last winter in Minneapolis at the Academy of Homiletics Meeting where he was the Keynote speaker for the Academy). I have heard him preach numerous times on tape, where he is used in many seminaries as a prime example of the black preaching tradition. He is without question a dynamic and powerful speaker (you can hear that even in the clips and snippets that are being aired on the news networks). And, I disagree with much of his theology. Wright is an unabashed liberal in an extremely liberal Protestant denomination (UCC - the United Church of Christ). When he spoke at the Academy, he spoke about and to the liberal members of the gathering. He preaches a strong social gospel message and is a vocal proponent of Black Liberation Theology. I have embraced neither. However, to say that he is out of step with Christianity or that he is saying things that are so offensive that Barrack Obama should distance himself from him and that his judgment as a Presidential candidate is up for grabs is nonsense. What it does confirm is that Obama is a black liberal. Is that news? What it does confirm is that black preachers and black churches still believe that America is a racially prejudiced society and that the only way blacks will ever attain full citizenship and the equality that has been promised but not delivered by the government or the society is if blacks speak out against injustice. Is that news? Wright has said some very stupid things, charging the government for creating HIV as a plague against blacks, for instance. Of course, the government did inject blacks with VD during WWII at Tuskegee and denied it for years. So, as foolish as it sounds, there is precedent for believing it. Do I believe it? No, I think it's stupid. Do I think Wright is an idiot for making the claim. Hmmm. Not in the light of Tuskegee. Is it news to anyone that a black leader thinks that the white establishment would do horrible things to blacks? Wright has lived through the terrible days of the 50's and 60's where lynchings were common and nobody in the community did anything to stop it. If you grew up in that culture and prejudice, you could believe just about anything from those in power against those oppressed.
If Wright had said these things as a stump speech for Obama the media should be all over it. But as a 15 second sound bite from a sermon preached years ago? Is that "fair and balanced"? The media views these kinds of black ethnocentric preaching statements as being out of touch with reality. The reality is that this kind of sermonic activity is done in black pulpits all over the country in both liberal and conservative pulpits. Are they all this extreme? Probably not. Are those sermons filled with similar sentiments? Absolutely. Why? Because the white church pulpits are silent about these issues most of the time. We have left black churches to educate white churches and left them to get themselves out of a social mess that whites created. That's sad. And the weakness of the church today is in no small sense related to the ongoing issue of eleven o'clock still being the most segregated hour in American society. That was sad in the 50's and it is sadder today in the 21st Century.
So, in order to be "fair and balanced" here is what Fox linked their front page story on Wright to today. It is the statement of Trinity Church defending their retiring pastor. It is something you should read.

Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) - “Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.
“It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a released statement. “ … It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends.”
Trinity United Church of Christ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. Wright’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.
Moss added, “The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached the Christian tenet, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, “The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America.” Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats, and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America."

Narrative Sermon Elements

There are a few basic elements that I teach about narrative preaching. I tell my students that I approach narrative from a storyteller's perspective. Whatever training I have in narrative is really training in storytelling. So, with that as a minimal background, here are some basic steps:

1. STORY - Story occurs when you take basic facts and put it into a communicative form. In the case of narrative preaching, what you are looking for is series of basic facts that come from a text of scripture. The easiest texts are those passages that are already narratives. The bible is full of stories from Adam and Eve in the Garden to the saints before the throne in Revelation. After choosing a story text, you have to put the biblical narrative into some kind of communicative form. For instance, if you tell the story from the point of view of one of the characters, you are choosing a particular form (first person narrative) to share the story. There are many other forms (I listened to one preacher read a letter from Mary to her cousin Elizabeth) and they are only limited by what you feel will fit the communication of the story.
2. STORYING - When telling a story about a past event (as biblical texts are) your goal is storying. Storying is enabling the listeners to suspend present reality and move into a different historical reality. In other words, you have to be able to tell the story in such a way that the listener finds herself transported back in time to the biblical event. Normally, this is a tall task for a novice storytelling. You have to research and find a good story; you have to gather facts and determine the plot twists; you have to learn how to keep things in tension and then resolve the story. Fortunately, the dynamic of the biblical event gives you all these details in such a way to weave a powerful story. If you can communication form that enables you to story, you can find a way to move to storying.
3. STORYTELLING - The crucial step is when the storyteller learns the key to storytelling. Telling an effective story means that you have to actually enter the story. You can't tell effective stories from the outside of an event. For instance, the telling of the birth of your first child or the day of your wedding is a far more powerful story than retelling a recent news article you read in the paper. When you tell a story you have to get inside the event. It's like what an actor does when he goes on stage. You can't say your lines as though you are reading them from the wings. You have to go on stage and immerse yourself in the character in order to perform the story. By doing so, the audience gets "caught up" in the event and experiences the story as a type of "first-hand" event.
   

This is just a brief glimpse into the whole world of narrative. More to come.

Ideas Are Fun - Ask Any Preacher

When I mention to people that the average term paper I write for each seminar is between 30-50 pages, they roll their eyes and go, "Better you than me." I smile and feel sad for them. I love writing these term papers. Let me tell you why.
As a preacher you live for "the idea". All the work you do in a preparing to preach on a biblical text is ultimately to find what Haddon Robinson calls, "The Big Idea." You read, search, think, pray, and write to find a single concept around which your understanding of the text can hold together. Saturday night can be a very scary time if you still haven't found that one idea. But the opposite is true. When you find that idea, the rest of task of preparing a sermon is a wonderful experience of seeing all your hard work fall together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. After 30 years of looking every week for that one big idea, you learn how to appreciate the fact that new insights, larger understandings, ideas in whatever form they arrive are things to celebrate. Ideas are fun.
As a student working on term papers, the same thing applies. You are looking for that one big idea around which to write your paper. The only difference between a sermon and a research paper is how deep you go to get into and then through the idea. Term papers are ideas looked at in greater depth. A dissertation (usually between 200-400 pages) is merely taking a big idea and doing as much in depth thinking and understanding of it that a year's work of time and effort can produce. All I know now is that 30-50 pages rarely gives you enough time to fully research and think through an idea. As a matter of fact where I am know in the process the term papers I will be writing from this point on are one part of one idea. The last four seminars I will take for my program will allow me to do directed readings that will result in a term paper and that paper is one chapter in the dissertation. So, if the dissertation is one big idea, these term papers are designed to be one part of that big idea.
To me, the discovery of big ideas is about as fun as it gets. Putting that understanding down on paper is providing the same kind of satisfaction that you get from preaching, but the work stays with you for a much longer time.

One Last Word on the Passing of Horace Sheppard, Sr.

There have been several people who have found this blog and commented on the passing of Bro. Sheppard. I received an email today that had a way to respond to Sis. Shepphard and send her a message. The following is what I wrote. I don't think she will mind me sharing it:

Dear Sister Sheppard and Family,

I am one of those thousands upon thousands who came to know the Lord through the ministry and preaching of Bro. Sheppard. He preached a Youth Convention at Boyertown in 1971 and challenged the group by asking to shake the hand of the first young person that would come to the altar to accept Christ. It was my hand he shook and my life that was changed. After college at Penn State and then at Anderson, and after several years as an associate pastor in North Carolina, I came back to pastor the Boyertown congregation. Not yet ordained, I finished the process while at Boyertown and the District ordained me during Family Camp. Horace prayed the ordination prayer over me. After receiving my Certificate of Ordination I noticed that it had been signed twice by Don Murphy (he held two positions that asked for his signature) I approached Shep to request that he sign the certificate. He did. The other signatures have faded over time but Horace's remains bolder and brighter, just as he stands in my mind.
I am 6'4" tall, white and upwards of 250 lbs. Horace used to put his arm around my waist and introduce me as one of his sons. With all due respect to Horace, Jr., Paul, and Kenneth I could not have been more proud to be introduced as his son, at least as his son in the Lord. My wife and I are currently living in Pasadena, Ca. where I am attending Fuller Theological Seminary and working toward my Ph.D in preaching. My three mentors have been Dr. Massey, Dr. Hines, and Horace. I promise to pass on to the next generation what I can of those things that I learned sitting under Shep. Please know that he will continue to live on not just in the memories of all of us who loved him and were touched by him but he will live on in the lives of the next generation of preachers that I will be able to influence in the classroom.
Tomorrow, the Church of the Foothills where I am the interim pastor will be remembering you all in prayer. I only wish I could have been there for the funeral as a witness to the incredible influence he had on me and my ministry. God Bless you all.

Jeffrey W. Frymire
Pasadena, Ca. 91104

Final Arrangements for Rev. Horace Sheppard, Sr.

Sister Peggy Ann Sheppard, Sheppard family, and the West Oak Lane Church of God wishes to announce the passing and Home Going of Rev. Dr. Horace Wesley Sheppard, Sr. on Friday evening, February 22, 2008.

Service Schedule:
Public Viewing, Friday, February 29, 2008 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
At
The West Oak Lane Church of God
7401 Limekiln Pike
Philadelphia, PA 19138

Home Going Church Family Service,
Friday, February 29, 2008
For
The West Oak Lane Church of God Family
Will begin at 7:00 p.m.


Final Service, Saturday, March 1, 2008
Will begin at 9:00 a.m.
At
New Covenant Church of Philadelphia
7500 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Dr. Milton and Hyacinth Grannum, Senior Pastors

The Death of Rev. Horace W. Sheppard, Sr.

The man who led me to Christ died today. Rev. Horace Sheppard, Sr. was an incredible preacher and evangelist who will spend quite some time in eternity meeting all the souls he helped into the Kingdom. He was funny, dynamic, insightful, powerful, and loving. He introduced me as one of his sons. It was an introduction I was quite proud of and thoroughly enjoyed.

When I wrote my book I penned part of the dedication to him. I quoted there an old gospel song he used to sing. A few years ago at Anderson Camp Meeting they gave Bro. Sheppard an award as one of the Treasures of the Church. As part of that presentation, some of his friends were on stage to sing this great old song. It had become his signature piece. Shep, too infirmed to go to the piano to play it and too weak to sing it, the group was there to honor him by doing what he couldn't do. Suddenly, the life came back into those eyes of his and he stepped forward toward the mic. Sure enough, when the chorus was over (all that the group was going to sing) Shep belted out in perfect voice the words to the first verse. The choir joined in on the chorus. Shep sang a second and a third. Weakened by strokes and Parkinson's it didn't seem possible that he could manage to do what he did. But the gospel always shined bright in Horace. And the gospel brings life, even to infirmed bodies ravaged by time. It was a magical moment.

I'm sure the funeral service will be packed. I wish I was close enough to attend. It is the least I could do for my friend, my father in the Lord, my brother, my friend. Hanging on the wall of the apartment Joanie and I live in is my Ordination Certificate. Shep was on the Committee. After I was ordained, I took the certificate to him and asked him to sign it. He did. Tonight, I am particularly glad he did. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

How Much Do You Say

One of the issues we try and help students with in preaching classes is how much do you say. That's not only a statement about how short or long to preach, but it also has to do with content. The quality or depth of a sermon is often related to how much you are able to say about your subject. In that sense, you should never preach everything you know about a text. If you are preaching everything you know, then you haven't studied enough or you haven't gone deep enough in your study.

Preaching is as much about depth as it is about anything. If preachers only tell their congregations what the congregants can find out on their own, they haven't done the job of preaching very well. Preaching is about telling others what you come to know because you have been trained to find out how to learn more about the text than someone in the pew can find out without that training. Preaching is about the privilege of spending time going deep into the Word. The deeper one goes, the more there is to say.

The real problem a preacher of depth has is trying to figure out just what to say. Knowing that learning as much as one does when the preacher goes deep there is too much to tell. However, because you know so much, it means that you get to pick out the real jewels and preach about those things. Therefore, what gives power to your preaching is what you know about the text and don't say rather than telling everything you know about a text.

Does anybody else find it ironic that the best preachers discipline themselves to tell only the best they have and not everything they know? The next time your preacher goes on and on and says nothing, it's because he/she is simply telling you everything they know about the text. And you have the right to ask the Holy Spirit to give your preacher more - more discipline in study, more knowlege of the scriptures, more time to prepare, and more dedication to the Lord. Amen.

Updates

Someone has prodded me to post again. Sorry for the long delay inbetween posts. It has been a very hectic time. I am carrying a heavy school load - my doctoral seminar (8 hours), a Masters level class to complete my language requirements (4 hours), TA for a Homiletics class of 49 students (4 hours), I am teaching a Preaching Practicum (2 hours), I just finished a 30+ page research paper for my Fall Quarter Seminar, I am beginning to meet with professors to talk about my Comprehensive Exam questions for next quarter, I am in the process of preparing lectures for the Summer Quarter when I will be co-teaching the main Homiletics course with the new Communications professor here at Fuller, I continue to be the Interim Pastor for Church of the Foothills and will continue to do that for the next couple of years, and I am attempting to remain in relationship to my wife and kids. Pretty busy. Not much time to sin. (LOL)

I will say that the challenge of this quarter has been to try and integrate all that I am learning on the Ph.D level with what is being taught by the professor on the Masters level. The course in Ethnicities and Churches, which is helping to fulfill my Statistics requirement without having to take Statistics (thank God) is a helpful but difficult integrative class. The issues of power and ethnicity are hard to read and integrate into my own cultural and ethnic models. I think it will be a class that will continue to impact me and may end up being something that I teach in the future (or team teach with someone of color).

Joanie continues to do an amazing job juggling all her tasks. She just spent a day at Fuller at a conference for Ministers of Music. She had a great time. She is doing a great job at Foothills as the Minister of Music. I remain amazed at her hour commute across LA and how she handles it and her job teaching Music at Crossroads Academy. The Boys are all doing great. Jonathan is into his studies at Seminary; Joel is working hard at an exhausting job and being an attentive and loving father and husband; I am looking forward to being with Doug and Susan this summer when I will be their Camp Meeting Evangelist for the NE Ohio Camp Meeting.

OK, that's enough for now. I will try and do better. Actually, I will just try and keep my head above water. God Bless.

Scary Video Clip

Through Fox News, I came across this video link of Tom Cruise expressing his commitments and beliefs about Scientology. I find it illuminating and scary. If you are interested, here is the link.

http://gawker.com/5002269/the-cruise-indoctrination-video-scientology-tried-to-suppress

Interruptions

Today, the Winter Quarter at Fuller has begun. As I write this I am in class (I am the TA for Dr. Doug Nason in the basic homiletics course for M.Div. students). I spent the day writing on my paper for last quarter. I am having a fascinating time looking at the historical issues surrounding Erasmus (a contemporary of Martin Luther) and the effects of his work on contemporary issues in preaching. I believe it has implications for creative preaching and narrative preaching for today's preachers. I doubt many others are interested in this, but I am. This afternoon I had several uninterrupted hours of working on the paper. I enjoy this. It is why I am doing what I am doing. I find it a joy. I love to revel in the study and the research. To me, it is fun.
About 3:00 or so, one of our neighbors knocked on the door. She is a wonderful young wife and mother, student and community leader. She just lost her grandmother over the holidays and got back from the funeral in the Midwest yesterday. Frantically, she asked for help. Her son (a 2 year old) had just fallen asleep and she forgot about a doctor's appointment - she is pregnant expecting her second child. She wanted to know if I could take care of her sleeping child until either she or her husband returned. But... I was writing a paper. I really enjoy writing a paper. So, I thought, maybe he will stay asleep and I can take my stuff up to their apartment and keep on studying. So, I said, "Sure!"
Mom left, I went upstairs with computer and books, started working and heard the sound. Maybe it was a child outside or in another apartment. If I pretend it isn't there, it will go away. It didn't. So, I left my table sanctuary and tiptoed down the hall to the child's room. Maybe he would go back to sleep. (I am such an optimist!) After half an hour of attempting food, toys, TV, games, conversation, ignoring, bribing, and praying Dad arrived to release me from my dilemma. It was then that the most interesting thing took place. As soon as Dad arrived and he was safe, I became his friend. He stopped crying and smiled at me and said, "Hi!" repeatedly with joy in his voice. As I left to return to my apartment, I realized several things about what all this means.

1. If Joy is a function of being and feeling both safe and secure, then Happiness exudes from that to those around us. The poor little guy was OK once he realized that Dad was there. I went from someone he didn't trust to someone he really enjoyed. His experience of Joy at the return of his Dad changed an unhappy situation to one where he exuded Happiness to those around him - especially me!



2. It is more enjoyable to be happy than sad. Not a profound thought but one that many seem to ignore as they go through life. I have a friend right now who is determined to be sad and make things miserable for those around her. She has many reasons to choose to be happy but seems content to be sad and angry. Apparently, the obviousness of the idea that is better to be happy than sad is not that clear to many.



3. Our perception of others is often flawed because we see them through the eyes of our own situation and our own sin. When we are unhappy with someone (Mom and Dad aren't here) we make life miserable for someone else (me!) who is only there to help. This happens in relationships we have with others all the time. It also is a fact that our relationship with Christ affects our relationship with others. Isn't it amazing how others change once we are in right relationship with the Father? And until that happens in both ourselves and others, there will be kinks in the relational tubes that connect us to one another.



4. Life and the relationships surrounding it are more important than being alone and uninterrupted. You can learn a lot from books and writing, thinking and studying, but eventually it all has to find its way into the real world of people and relationships.



5. Its better to study alone than just listen to someone else cry. Hmmm. That doesn't sound very pastoral. Well, that's OK. Its still true, especially if you are a student.