wfn.org | Bohl is speaker at retired ministers' luncheon

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Note #6644 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

12-June-2001
GA01085

Bohl is speaker at retired ministers' luncheon

by John Fileatreau

LOUISVILLE, June 12 - The Rev. Robert Bohl, a former Assembly moderator,
said during a luncheon meeting of the Association of Retired Ministers,
their Spouses and Survivors (ARMS) that "we are probably right now at the
nadir of the life of the church."

	Bohl called on older members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to share
the lessons they have learned from "the problems you have lived through in
the church," and commented that "the best classroom is at the feet of
elderly people."

	He said members and officials of the PC(USA) for too long have been
"dividing ourselves into various groupings and making vicious attacks on one
another."

	"We're tired of that," he said. "That's not working. We've been at it for
far too long. The church is weary of it. …

"Is there a way we can really love each other? Is there a way for us to be a
family?"

Bohl, who was moderator of the 1994 Assembly, said Presbyterians should
devote more attention to "who's going to fix" problems in the church and
less to "who's going to be blamed" for them.

He said many Presbyterians persist in beating a dead horse. "When your horse
dies," he said, "you're supposed to dismount and go on."

Bohl expressed special concern about what he called "the ever-,
ever-increasing dimension of (pastors') poor self-esteem," and said
Presbyterians need to "raise our estimation of how we value ministry." He
pointed out that one in every four ministers is "driven out of a church" at
least once over a lifetime..

Nonetheless, he added, "I'm proud to be a minister, proud that I've been
able to answer the call, proud that God was able to use me."

He said he has faced vicious criticism on occasion. "The only way to avoid
criticism," he said, "is to do nothing, to say nothing, to think nothing.
.. But you have to invent your future, regardless of your age.

"We have to learn to expand our appreciation of one another. We need to
emphasize the things that hold us together. We need to concentrate on who we
are and what we believe."

	Bohl, 64, said he is increasingly demoralized as he approaches retirement
age. But he added that he is heartened by a program in Kansas City, the
Front Porch Alliance, in which more than 2,000 Christians from 80
congregations and several denominations work together in service ministries
ranging from the tutoring of elementary schoolchildren to repairing houses
and helping with block cleanups.

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