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[PCUSANEWS] 'God is on the move' - and PC(USA) must keep up


From PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>
Date 29 May 2003 21:18:54 -0400

Note #7767 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

'God is on the move' - and PC(USA) must keep up
GA03078

'God is on the move' - and PC(USA) must keep up

1987 moderator speaks of challenge posed by non-Christian faiths

By Evan Silverstein

DENVER, May 27 - Protestant views are no longer the norm in the United
States, and Christians must work to find new ways to respond to those who do
not recognize Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 

That was the message former Presbyterian General Assembly Moderator Isabel
Wood Rogers brought Tuesday to a group of retired ministers, their spouses
and survivors.

"A century ago, it must have been wonderful. Our forbear said, 'We are going
to win the world for Christ in one generation,'" said Rogers, moderator of
the 199th General Assembly (1987). 

Rogers spoke on Serving a God on the Move at the General Assembly luncheon of
the 
Association of Retired Ministers, Their Spouses or Survivors (ARMSS).

"God is on the move, and we must move, too," she said. "This is a God who
prefers a tent. And when God strikes that tent and moves on, we have to do
likewise. This is not a static God who's untouched by the events of history.
This is the God who is not only involved in events, but who moves with the
times."

Before the 1950s, Rogers said, "we pretty much assumed that the world was
destined to take on a Christian" look. 

"Certainly in this nation Protestants dominated - Protestant values,
Protestant ways."

The increased prominence of religions that don't view Christ as Lord and
Savior have wrought "radical change" in that vision in the past 50 years, she
said.

"And those folks out there are not waiting to be made over in our Christian
pattern," she added. "They know they serve God, and they are going to make us
over in their pattern."

 "How do we respond to this new thing that God has thrust upon us?" she
asked. "How can we serve Christ faithfully and still work with these other
folks as we try to face our world's multiple tragedies?"

She noted that two previous Assemblies have faced the difficult question of
whether Christ is the only way to salvation. "Each time," she said, "they
have said something like, 'Christ is Lord of all. God gives redemption
through Jesus Christ.' But we're not willing to claim that a sovereign God
can't redeem folks apart from Jesus Christ"

Rogers said this is a matter of each individual's personal faith, "but I do
think we have to face the matter honestly."

"I think we have to recognize that God has brought us into a new day, and we
must witness to Jesus Christ with integrity in the way that speaks of this
day. God moves on. God moves us on. We have to face it."

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