Occasional Musings from the Pastors of a Presbyterian Congregation
“Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.”
Jeremiah 3:15
fall 2023
Those 4 Church questions: Renouncing Evil…
In our church, when we baptize a child or adult, confirm the baptism of a young person, or reaffirm baptism as a disciple or household unites with our church family, we ask four questions. For nearly 2000 years, some version of these baptismal questions has been asked any time we enter or affirm covenant with … Those 4 Church questions: Renouncing Evil… Read More »
Read Moresummer 2023
Pastor Dennis Tedder
Honoring Sabbath, Healing Self
Cecil Hook notes that “In the first three [of the 10 Commandments], God says, “I love you & want your full fellowship.” In the 5th through the 10th, [God] says, “Love & respect each other.” The 4th command, “Remember the Sabbath & keep it holy,”… is the pivotal command. It points… — to God & [humans]. “Remember your spiritual relationship with me & remember the dignity & purpose of people.”
Genesis attests that after creating everything, GOD needed rest! God wants time for us to rest & digest so deeply that God makes Sabbath HOLY.
Eugene H. Peterson: The most striking thing about keeping the Lord’s Day is that it begins by not doing anything. The Hebrew word, shabbat, which we take over as is, untranslated, into our language, simply means, “Quit; stop; take a break.” Whatever you are doing, stop it. Whatever you are saying, shut up. Sit down & take a look around you. Don’t do anything. Don’t say anything. Fold your hands. Take a deep breath.”
Honoring Sabbath can promote health of body, mind, & soul: Instead of constant go-go, go sit a spell with the Spirit.
Sabbath can rankle & rub us 21st century folks the wrong way, can’t it? Who is God to command that we shabbat? But in our state of information & opinion overload, decision fatigue, workaholism, & non-stop entertainment – holy rest is what we desperately need. 1600 years ago, Augustine had it right when he prayed: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, & our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Through the ages, the saints KNOW that without times of intentional silence & stillness there is no inspiration, no God-attentive, God-responsive, GOD-BREATHED (In-Spired) life. IF we keep Sabbath: stop running around long enough to see what GOD has done & is doing; shut up long enough to hear what GOD has & is saying, Jesus, the Lord of Sabbath, gives rested, reoriented hearts, recharged to honor God & to live holy lives.
march 2023
Pastor Dennis Tedder
Asking Ourselves “What is essential?”
In the Presbyterian Church (USA), when we ordain and install church officers, as we did at First Presbyterian in January, those entering office as Deacons and Elders are asked a series of constitutional questions. One of those questions is:
Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our Church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do (take a breath!), and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?
WHEW! A long question that raises other questions, most pressing being: What are the “essential tenets (beliefs)” that our church officers vow to “receive and adopt”?
While there is no definitive list of essential Presbyterian beliefs, we hold onto key beliefs, some shared with all Christians, and some upheld and professed within our Presbyterian tradition and historical statements or “confessions.”
One effort to help define essential beliefs is that of Presbyterian pastor and seminary teacher Jack Rogers. Dr. Rogers developed a list of 10 core Christian affirmations held fast in the Scriptural witness and our Reformed confessions:
- Trinity: God is revealed and experienced in three persons – Father Almighty, Beloved Son, Holy Spirit – yet is one God.
- Incarnation: God became flesh in Jesus Christ. (I often state this as “God came to us as one of us for all of us.”)
- Sovereignty: All of creation and us creatures are wholly under the providential will of our one, true God.
- Scripture: Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Bible is the one authority for salvation and for living with faith.
- Justification: Sinful humanity is set right by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, crucified, dead, and risen, and whose redeeming love overcomes sin and death.
- Election: God chooses and calls people into a new way of life marked by salvation and service. (Sin renders us incapable of choosing God, so God graciously chooses us,” which leads us to essential tenet…
- Sin: Idolatry in all its forms and acts, which makes anything created of ultimate value, rather than worshipping our Holy God only.
- Covenant: The life of faith is lived a community of believers called the Church, which is ordered and guided by the Word of God.
- Stewardship: We respond to God’s abundant grace by faithful care of the creation entrusted to and provided for us.
- Obedience: We strive to hear and heed God’s Word, which directs us to work for justice in the transformation of society. When faithful, what we pray for and seek is not our will and wants but God’s holy will “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Of course there are many Christian beliefs we may profess, debate, and teach, but I find it helpful and even corrective to review the “essentials” of faith from time to time.
june 2022
Pastor Dennis Tedder
At the opening of this month’s Session meeting, the Elders of First Pres read & pondered the closing words of the Epistle of James. This teaching letter was sent under the name of James, leader of the first generation church in Jerusalem and, incidentally, the brother of Jesus.
In closing his instruction to the scattered Christians of his day, James hammers home one point: The prayer of the righteous [in faith] is powerful and effective (James 5:16). The prayers of the faithful, the prayers of those striving to be right with God, can have powerful effect. So, James urges, in your suffering or sickness, call on the elders for prayer and anointing.
With our Elders we ponder: What is the effect of our praying?
Among the effects of prayer is bringing us closer to God and one another as we pray together, WITH and for one another. Prayer lays before God our sincere and earnest hope for the well-being of others. Yes, the well-being of the world.
We do not pray to control, coerce, or convince God to do something we want or need. God knows our needs and in Jesus Christ, we see God’s undying desire to bless us. When lifted in humble faith, with or without perfect grammar or eloquent words, we are lifted and upheld as we face life and death, celebration and suffering.
Praying does not assure cures, but can raise our faith, hope, and love as we cope with life’s challenges. The prayer of the righteous [in faith] is powerful and effective. Pray always, James teaches, trusting in God’s love to heal body, mind, and spirit as God wills.
And such prayer is the gift and action of all, not just church elders.
The next time someone says to you, “Say a prayer for me/us,” let James assure you – God’s power can enter any situation with power and blessing. And your praying is part of God’s healing work.
may 2022
Pastor Dennis Tedder
As much as any Christ follower and more than so many of us, the apostle Paul devoted his entire daily living, energy and efforts to serving the mission of Jesus the Christ, through whom God brings salvation to the world.
Often and openly, Paul recalls with the Body of Christ his “credentials” for serving the young Church, as we hear in two of his epistles:
You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church… and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same sage, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. (Galatians 1:13-14, NRSV)
You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, presented for the Hebrew rite at eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the Church; blameless under the law. (Philippians 3:4-6)
As we shared in worship this past Confirmation Sunday, the risen Christ confronts Saul (not yet renamed Paul) even as he is “breathing threats and murders” against the Christian Way. Despite his dubious resume’ for serving as an “ambassador for Christ Jesus,” Saul, of all people, is God’s “chosen instrument” for sharing Christ more widely. Saul is the LAST person we’d EVER choose.
God sure makes some strange, startling choices.
On Confirmation Sunday, May 1, nine First Pres young people confirmed their baptisms by professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Their confirmation in the Christian Way may not be as dramatic as Saul’s conversion long ago. However, just like Saul and all disciples, our Confirmands walk the Way by God’s choice and “with God’s help.”
All are baptized and may grow into our baptismal faith day by day, “chosen instruments” of Jesus Christ – not because of our achievements, pedigree, or status in society, but solely by God’s strange, startling GRACE.
God sure makes some strange, startling choices. But here we are. By the grace of God.
december 2021
Pastor Dennis Tedder
august 2021
Pastor Dennis Tedder
Blessed Late Summer, People of God!
Did anybody get new shoes for the new school year? Even our most comfortable, dependable shoes begin to wear. As we grow older, whether young or old, our feet change from growth or the wear and tear of age.
Even the most comfortable shoes do not suffice for every terrain or situation. I am fortunate and have shoes for exercise, hiking, dressing up, or even hot days at the beach. If we are growing, living, moving, we constantly need new shoes, which are sometimes less comfortable at first and need to be broken in.
One commentator points out that churches can function as “old shoe congregations,” where we find comfortable, predictable, unchanging circumstances. Familiar faces and words in worship, even in the same pew every Sunday.
However, to cope with life’s complexity and the inevitable changes and challenges, especially these days, we need strong, adaptive faith.
MAKING FAITH FORMATION A FIRST PRES PRIORITY ASKS:
Are we growing in relationship to God through participation in our church?
Are we growing in knowledge of Scripture and the traditions of our church?
Are we giving signs of increased Christian commitment by the way we live?
Are we seen as a church radiating enthusiasm, love & joy?
Trying to broaden and deepen our faith may feel a bit uncomfortable at first, like a pair of new shoes.
Making Faith Formation a First Pres and family priority helps us live into the scriptural call of Ephesians 4, “… building up the body of Christ”… cultivating “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ… promoting the body’s growth in building itself up in love…”
June 2021
Pastor Dennis Tedder
Blessings, people of God!
Teilhard de Chardin wrote:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We would like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to do something unknown, something new.
Yet it is the law of progress, that it is made by passing through some stages of instability, and that may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Only God could say what this new Spirit gradually in you will be…
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
Pressing problems give rise to the cry, “I just want this over!” All of us can get caught up in desperate desires and hurried efforts to see some dramatic and instant resolution to life’s more formidable problems. In the body of Christ, we remind each other that patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, but still, we get caught up and are impatient… “quite naturally impatient.”
A truth that I have held close for some time now comes from the book Resilience (Rick Hanson):
“It’s usually the small, undramatic, sustained efforts over time that make the difference.”
A Scripture to sustain us in trusting the slow work of God in and through us is Philippians 1:6:
“We are confident of this, that God, who began the good work within you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
That day is coming, good folks, in God’s time. But we know it is coming because it is God’s time.
Blessed Late Summer, People of God!
Did anybody get new shoes for the new school year? Even our most comfortable, dependable shoes begin to wear. As we grow older, whether young or old, our feet change from growth or the wear and tear of age.
Even the most comfortable shoes do not suffice for every terrain or situation. I am fortunate and have shoes for exercise, hiking, dressing up, or even hot days at the beach. If we are growing, living, moving, we constantly need new shoes, which are sometimes less comfortable at first and need to be broken in.
One commentator points out that churches can function as “old shoe congregations,” where we find comfortable, predictable, unchanging circumstances. Familiar faces and words in worship, even in the same pew every Sunday.
However, to cope with life’s complexity and the inevitable changes and challenges, especially these days, we need strong, adaptive faith.
MAKING FAITH FORMATION A FIRST PRES PRIORITY ASKS:
Are we growing in relationship to God through participation in our church?
Are we growing in knowledge of Scripture and the traditions of our church?
Are we giving signs of increased Christian commitment by the way we live?
Are we seen as a church radiating enthusiasm, love & joy?
Trying broaden and deepen our faith may feel a bit uncomfortable at first, like a pair of new shoes.
Making Faith Formation a First Pres and family priority helps us live into the scriptural call of Ephesians 4, “… building up the body of Christ”… cultivating “maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ… promoting the body’s growth in building itself up in love…”
Dr. Dennis Tedder
Pastor
dennist@fpcandersonsc.com
Dennis holds a Master’s of Divinity from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.
Encouraging First Pres disciples to share Jesus’ love with anyone, anywhere, anytime, any way possible is Dennis’ focus as your pastor. Called to serve as senior pastor at First Pres in 2006, he is in his 16th year preaching, teaching, and praying with the good folks of this church and the Anderson community. During these years, our church has grown in its understanding of local mission and service to the community. Now, with the addition of our new Welcome Center and renovation of our sanctuary, we look forward in faith to lively worship and fellowship together.
His primary pastoral goal going forward is to help our church re-imagine and refresh our ministries of faith formation, both on the personal and communal level.
Dennis and his wife, Anne, have two grown sons. He enjoys working out at the Y, Enduro cycling, and sharing meals with family and friends. He loves reading all genres of literature and has a difficult time naming his favorite movie.
Dr. Maren Sonstegard-Spray
Interim Associate Pastor
mspray@fpcandersonsc.com
Maren graduated from Duke University in biology, but soon decided lab work was too isolated and not her calling. Maren entered Princeton Seminary and pursued student ministry and general pastoral internships in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Ordained in 2006, Maren later earned her Doctor of Ministry from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, where she now serves as Adjunct Faculty.
Her pastoral interests are many, but a chief focus is teaching the Bible in new and creative ways. As our Interim Transitional Associate Pastor, Maren will resource our Deacons, Mission Ministry, and preach, teach, and pray with us.
In describing the ministry setting to which she believes God is calling her, Maren says: “It is a ministry that seeks to form disciples through education and worship and service, with the end goal that they will take their Sunday faiths into their Monday worlds… where I can work collaboratively with other staff members and church members on common goals and programs, a place where I can engage in relational work but also tackle ‘big picture’ efforts.”
Maren and her family moved to Anderson last summer when her husband, Jeff, took a position with AnMed. They are parents to two sons, and a daughter who is currently enrolled in FPC’s Day School.