PARTICIPATING IN THEOLOGICAL PRAXIS

I. Practicing theological reflection and engagement as part of one’s sense of ministerial

identity.

II. Integrating theological reflection in teaching, preaching, and ecclesial and community

leadership.

III. Articulating a theology and practice of ministry consistent with the UCC Manual on

Ministry.

IV. Demonstrating an appreciation for and participation in the ecumenical and interfaith

partnerships of the UCC.

V. Experiencing and appreciating a variety of theological perspectives.

VI. Embodying the UCC Ministerial Code.

II. Integrating theological reflection in teaching, preaching, and ecclesial and community

leadership.

A pastor, author, and theologian from the past whose work reflects the word of God to me in a way that I see as uniquely applicable to current world events is Walter Rauschenbusch, an important proponent of the Social Gospel Movement. I wrote a paper about Rauschenbusch and social gospel theological stances for a seminary course; I am sharing that paper here because I believe it demonstrates my ability to access and integrate theological reflection in ecclesial and community leadership. I have highlighted portions that I think are most important by using bolded text.

The Social Gospel Movement: Appropriating the Heart of Rauschenbusch's Movement for One Congregation

The phenomenon that came to be known as the "Social Gospel Movement" had its roots in the liberal Protestant thought of the 19th century. When theologians began to use historical critical thought to help them to interpret both the Bible and the formation of tradition, a new interest in the historical life of Jesus arose. One historian, Adolph von Harnack saw in the historical progression of the church's development a regrettable move "...away from the teachings of Jesus to teachings about Jesus" (Gonzalez 2010, 396). This was an important distinction in the development of social gospel thought. Rather than a focus on the individual that began with learning about Jesus as personal Savior, a new theological perspective focused on a study of Jesus' teachings as related in the Gospels. Albrecht Ritschl, a 19th century theologian, built a system of practical theology based on the study of the historical life and teachings of Jesus and what those teachings reveal to us about God (Gonzalez 2010, 396). Ritschl proposed that "the Christian faith is centered in the revelation of God in Jesus, whose life and message are centered in the will of God to establish God's kingdom" (Gonzalez 2006, 295). Ritschl's theology of a practical, ethical Christianity that is centered on the concept of the "kingdom of God" became the theological foundation for Walter Rauschenbusch's thought and activism (Gonzalez 2010, 397). Rauschenbusch is the best-known proponent and arguably the most influential individual of the social gospel movement; this paper will focus on his inspiration of and contributions to that movement.

Walter Rauschenbusch began his ministry as pastor of Second German Baptist Church of New York in 1886. There, he served a congregation that mainly consisted of factory workers and their families who lived in the Hell's Kitchen tenements. It was in the service of these poor and immigrant parishioners that Rauschenbusch realized that Christian life must consist of more than just a personal faith, however intense and devoted that faith may be (Gonzalez 2006, 291). He began to conceive of "the building of a Christianity that can transform the everyday life of society" (Minus 1988, 84). It was during a trip to Europe in 1891 that he studied the concepts of socialism and the theology of Ritschl , around which he built his own theological and practical thought for the rest of his life (Dorn 1993, 92). In May of 1892, Rauschenbusch attended a session of the Baptist Congress in Philadelphia. There, he presented a paper that outlined his developing ideas about social change, encompassed by "the Kingdom of God...the sanctification of all life, the regeneration of humanity, and the reformation of all social institutions" (Minus 1988, 84). That speech drew the attention of several Baptist ministers who later banded together to form a group called "Brotherhood of the Kingdom." The Brotherhood felt that they were responding to God's call to reform and agreed upon a mission: to preach the idea of the Kingdom of God in their churches and to work toward the actualization of the Kingdom in the world (Minus 1988, 1986).

The Brotherhood's first action was to write a book of essays that drew from each member's area of expertise and interest to create a social and relational interpretation of the Gospels. When they met to present and discuss each of their essays, a wide range of scholarly pursuits was represented, from scientific study of the Scriptures and doctrine to world peace and workers' rights. Also represented were differing beliefs about such subjects as women's suffrage and the place, or lack thereof, of socialism in their movement. However, these differences were overcome because "each knew all were committed to making the Kingdom prevail in the church and the world" (Minus 1988, 87). Their ability to work together despite ideological differences speaks volumes about each member's passionate and unshakeable devotion to "the Kingdom of God." Within a few years, the group expanded to include non-Baptists and women and met annually for over twenty years to further their common mission.

As Rauschenbusch's beliefs coalesced and deepened, he began to call for reform within the church. He felt that the church's teachings had led Christians down the wrong path, that it had misinterpreted the teachings of Jesus about the Kingdom of God and had focused too heavily on personal salvation, ignoring a call to Christian ethics that is obvious throughout the Gospels. He wrote several tracts summarizing these thoughts for the Brotherhood of the Kingdom, prompting a comparison to Luther's "theses nailed to the door of Christendom" (Minus 1988, 88). By the time of the publication of Christianity and the Social Crisis, Rauschenbusch had distilled his beliefs into strong and simple language:

The highest type of goodness is that which puts freely at the

service of the community all that a man is and can. The highest

type of badness is that which uses up the wealth and happiness

and virtue of the community to please self. All this ought to go

without saying, but in fact religious ethics in the past has

largely spent its force in detaching men from their

community. (Rauschenbusch 1907, 67)

His bold and straightforward indictment of Protestant doctrine brought resistance and rebuke from others in his denomination as early as 1893, when Dr. James Willmarth publically opposed Rauschenbusch's ideas as "tend[ing] to heresy" and "play[ing] into the hands of socialism" (Minus 1998, 90).

Because Rauschenbusch believed so passionately in his message, he withstood these inevitable attacks. He was not proposing the "social gospel" in order to gain fame or notoriety. It seems as if he knew that he had an important and life-changing, if controversial, message for the church and this gave him the fortitude to continue even in the face of opposition from his Christian brothers. Rauschenbusch persevered because he genuinely believed he was doing "God's work."

The debate between Rauschenbusch and Willmarth brought forward the main issues that many Protestant theologians of the time held against social gospel thought. Rauschenbusch agreed that his beliefs were different but held that they were good and right changes, positive changes that brought forth "fuller dimensions of Christian truth not yet acknowledged by the other side" (Minus 1988, 90). Willmarth's first problem with Rauschenbusch's teachings, that they were heretical and not scriptural, sprang mostly from Willmarth's belief that the Kingdom of God will only come in the future, after the second coming of Christ. Therefore, the suffering and oppression that happens on earth is to be expected and endured by Christians. Rauschenbusch agreed that Christians should look forward to a time when God will end all evil and suffering but argued that Christians can-and must-live into the Kingdom of God by working to bring truth, love, and justice to life on earth (Minus 1988, 90-91). Rauschenbusch insisted that his beliefs were based on scripture, albeit a historical critical interpretation of scripture that he acknowledged was often different from a more literal interpretation favored by Willmarth. In his writings, he often cited Jesus' words in the Gospel of Luke, "It [the kingdom] is already here right in the midst of you" (Rauschenbusch 1907, 63).

Willmarth's second indictment of Rauschenbusch was that his ideas supported socialism which, in Willmarth's opinion, was "of the devil" (Minus 1988, 90). His main objection seemed to stem from the belief that Christians should abstain from non-religious action, from politics. "Willmarth charged that because [socialism] diverts attention from humanity's spiritual needs it stands condemned as a child of the devil" (Minus 1988, 91). For his part, Rauschenbusch believed deeply in a Christian form of socialism that "stood aloof not only from Marxian doctrine, but also from any socialist party" (Dorn 1993, 92). In his ground-breaking book Christianity and the Social Crisis, published in 1907 as the culmination of many years' thought, writing, and speaking, Rauschenbusch wrote about the need for a personal, spiritual conversion or renewal that would lead each Christian to work for the Kingdom of God on earth. "Social religion too demands repentance and faith: repentance for our social sins; faith in the possibility of a new social order" (Rauschenbusch 1907, 349).

As a means of working for this new social order, Rauschenbusch called for Christians to embrace a Christian form of socialism. For him, it was the best possibility for creating a new social order that would end oppression for the working class. In this book, he noted that "the class struggle is bound to be transferred to the field of politics in our country in some form" (Rauschenbusch 1907, 410). However, he believed that the extant socialist political parties "carried grave dangers...the socialist threat to freedom and over-reliance on structural change" among those dangers (Dorn 1993, 92). Instead, he advocated for a " 'practical socialism' which worked for expansions of public ownership, inheritance taxes, strong unions, and protective labor laws" (Dorn 1993, 93).

Rauschenbusch eloquently called for a Christian involvement in the political landscape that he likened to the actions of Moses and the Israelites in the Exodus:

All that we as Christian men [and women] can do is ease the

struggle and hasten the victory of the right by giving faith and

hope to those who are down, and quickening the sense of

justice with those who are in power, so that they will not

harden their hearts and hold Israel in bondage, but will "let

the people go." (Rauschenbusch 1907, 411)

What he saw as the "pharaoh" of his time was rampant capitalism. He believed that the industrial revolution had within it the seeds of good in that it could improve the lives of many. However, because "men learned to make wealth much faster than they learned to distribute it justly," capitalism had become "the great sin of modern humanity" (Rauschenbusch 1907, 218).

What Rauschenbusch saw as the way to "set the people free" was a form of socialism that required some political activism by Christians, but not just any form of socialism. Rather he was a proponent for a socialism that was particularly Christian, " 'in conscious antagonism' to [orthodox socialism's] materialistic philosophy, antireligious tendencies, and neglect of individual moral responsibility" (Dorn 1993, 94). What Rauschenbusch called for was a Christianity that was strongly social in its ethics and a socialism that was strongly Christian, seeing "himself as a mediator between Christianity and socialism" with his main focus the "Kingdom of God as both here and yet ever coming" and "socialism as a force working toward that Kingdom" (Dorn 1993, 94).

The fact that the "social gospel movement" has been relegated to a particular time period, the late 19th and early 20th centuries, implies that it was limited to influence during that era. However, as I have read and researched the movement, I have seen many instances of the movement's and Rauschenbusch's thought on today's theologically progressive churches. In particular, I have noted that much of Rauschenbusch's theological and ethical thought is reflected in my denomination, the United Church of Christ. At present, my congregation is involved in a process to delineate a "Vision Statement" for our life and action together over the next 5 years. Our last statement of vision, crafted seven years ago, focused on social justice issues in the areas of LGBTQ inclusion in the life of our congregation and attention to civil rights for LGBTQ individuals. For several years, our church was the lone "light set on a hill" in our city that welcomed and celebrated people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Recently, we have seen and felt the effects of a greater spirit of inclusion extended by other churches and denominations in our area and the growing movement toward marriage equality across the nation. This realization has moved us to ask how our vision should change and grow. Where is the Holy Spirit now moving us to contemplation and to action?

We began our process with prayer for open hearts and minds and the ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as we met and talked and worked together. The church council used an interviewing process that was meant to reveal what our life together had meant to each of us. Out of those interviews, we compiled common themes and dreams. We have met together as a congregation several times to prayerfully consider and discuss what those emerging themes mean for the future mission of our church. This is where I see both the influence of Rauschenbusch's social gospel thought and the occasion for learning from this segment of church history. Many of the emerging themes are related to social justice, especially in the area of economic justice. It seems that we are still dealing with the effects of an unjust economic system...and some of us are coming to the same conclusions as Rauschenbusch did.

Without having known about the social gospel movement during the beginning of the process, it felt to me as if though we were treading on new and dangerous ground. In many of our conversations together, I heard a clarion call to political activism and, yes, even a type of socialism as well as a call to evangelize our gospel message. As I began this research project, I had many "a-ha" moments: I often thought, "so this is the source of our UCC roots!" The social gospel movement is not really dead at all; Rauschenbusch's work and legacy did not fade away into nothingness. In the course of my research, I concluded that Walter Rauschenbusch wasn't a seeker of fame, that he was merely doing God's work as he saw it revealed in the teachings of Jesus. His name has been forgotten and his writings aren't remembered by title, but I think that the spirit of his life's work lives on today in the Christian movement for social justice. He never claimed that the Kingdom of God would be realized in any particular era of human history, only that we, as Christians, should try our best to live into that kingdom. He believed that some form of socialism would help in that work, that Christianity is relational rather than merely personal. These beliefs of his are precisely what I have heard echoing through UCC voices of today. His name is not attached, but that was never his goal.

So, I have seen the influence of social gospel thought in our visioning process and I believe that we can benefit and learn from Rauschenbusch and the movement as we move forward. One of the first factors that I noted was the ability of the Brotherhood members to work together even though they held differing beliefs on particular facets of achieving the kingdom. The same passion for justice along with a wide range of viewpoints as to methods has emerged in our congregation's visioning meetings. I believe that we should learn from the Brotherhood of the Kingdom's long and fruitful history that we can work together for the common cause of social justice even through our differences. We, like they, can be united in our passion for doing Jesus' work on earth rather than divided by our individual disparities. They were each involved in their own areas of expertise with some focused on scriptural study while others focused on workers' rights or city governance. Therefore, it is possible and even desirable that some of us work for greater access to healthcare while others work to help those struggling with homelessness. One may be a political activist while another is more service oriented, but both are valuable and necessary.

Another point we can take from Rauschenbusch is his tenacity in the face of possible controversy. He was called "heretical”, yet he persevered in his mission. He was accused of being too political, but he did not change his tactics. This was because he was following what he perceived as a higher calling. During the course of our visioning process, the subject of political versus religious action has arisen. Some members feel strongly that we should focus on the religious aspects of social justice (like prayer for and service to those who are oppressed) while others feel just as strongly that political activism is the only way to change the unjust systems that are the root of oppression. People have expressed the fear of appearing too "liberal" or of aligning too closely with a particular political party. Their concern lies in the desire to not alienate those who do not self-identify as "liberal," to not make people feel unwelcome in our midst and this is a valid concern. However, I feel that we can follow the model of Rauschenbusch here also; that we can embrace both religious service and political involvement. As long as we are working within the same belief in social justice, can we not each follow our chosen path toward that justice? Those who want to serve by feeding the hungry and helping those without access to adequate healthcare can do so. Those who want to help change the system that causes these problems can also do so. But our congregation must stand together in the face of controversy. When we are called "un-Christian" by our more conservative brothers and sisters, we must continue on with the belief that we are faithful to our Christian calling. When we are accused of being "too political,” we must follow our own higher calling just as Rauschenbusch and the Brotherhood of the Kingdom followed theirs. And we must stand and work together as they did, despite our differences.

I am grateful for the fortuitous timing of this research project. I feel that I have learned from it some lessons that can be applied to our present circumstances, not least of which is Rauschenbusch's unique approach to social justice. His political actions were faithfully grounded in his Christian beliefs and there he found the strength and energy to work for the Kingdom of God. I believe that our congregation can find the strength and energy to create and to live out our vision and that we can find unity in our diversity. I believe that the social gospel movement can be an example and an inspiration for us as we do.

References

Dorn, Jacob H. 1993. "The Social Gospel and Socialism: A Comparison of the Thought of

Francis Greenwood Peabody, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch."

Church History 62, no.1 (March): 82-100. Accessed July 7, 2014.

http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.lextheo.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=035d 4e33-599b-4d89-862a-ce8b9a7db8db%40sessionmgr115&vid=8&hid=101

Gonzalez, Justo Y., ed. and Suzanne E. Hoerferkamp Degovia, trans. 2006. The Westminster

Dictionary of Theologians. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Gonzalez, Justo Y. 2010. The Story of Christianity. Vol 2. The Reformation to the Present Day.

Rev. ed. New York: Harper Collins.

Minus, Paul M. 1988. Walter Rauschenbusch, American Reformer. New York: MacMillan

Publishing Co.

Rauschenbusch, Walter. 1907. Christianity and the Social Crisis. New York: The Macmillan

Company.

IV. Demonstrating an appreciation for and participation in the ecumenical and interfaith

partnerships of the UCC.

From early in my time at Church of the Savior, I heard about our "sister" denomination-the Disciples of Christ. I was pleased to learn that we were not the only "progressive" denomination, that we have partnerships with other denominations and faith traditions. At first, I only thought of this as a positive in that partnerships gave us power in numbers or amplified our voice, so to speak. Later, I learned about the movement toward a unified Christian Church from the phrase "that they may all be one" which is printed on many church materials. During my UCC History, Polity, and Theology, I was reminded that the UCC was founded seeing itself as a "united and uniting" church.

I learned more about our partnership with the DOC during my time at Lexington Theological Seminary (a Disciples seminary), receiving a 50% scholarship for all DOC and UCC students who are "under care" of their regional leadership. (Note: In our lexicon, Member in Discernment meets the "under care" requirement.) I also learned that my ordination by the UCC would be recognized by the DOC.

Once I was hired at Church of the Savior to serve as Minister for Youth and Children, I became aware of religious education resources from the Disciples Home Ministries Family and Children's Ministries. I have used several of these resources because they fit well with our theological grounding, save paper and materials by being downloadable, and leave room for customization. For my first Kids Kamp (our name for VBS), I used the "Journey to India" curriculum which was a big success with adult leaders and the children! Another year, I chose the "Journey to Congo" curriculum-also highly applauded by all involved.

During one summer, I adapted "Ahlan wa Sahlan: Welcome to the Holy Land" to use as multiage Sunday school lessons. This curriculum, from Global Ministries, introduced our children to children in Israel/Palestine through their stories. It was mostly well received, although two children who had just been adopted from foster care were triggered by the stories about violence toward Palestinian children. It started a fruitful conversation among the teachers, parents, and me about caring for our vulnerable children yet not avoiding the subject matter.

Currently, we are using the SHINE curriculum, created and published by the Mennonite Church USA and Church of the Brethren. I have found it to be a wonderful resource, offering a biblical worldview that prioritizes justice, mercy, hospitality, generosity, simplicity, community, and compassion. My only complaint is that the lessons don't always use inclusive language for God. At times, I have marked out "He or Him" and replaced it with "God" on resource posters. We need curricula that use inclusive language in all its stories, activities, and classroom resources!

Ecumenical Mission-FISH Emergency Food Pantry

We house a food pantry in the downstairs of our Shalom House building; it has been in operation for over 40 years! Currently, there are 19 faith communities who help to fund and stock the groceries, take phone calls requesting food deliveries, bag up and deliver food, diapers, pet food, paper goods, etc. Each month, two faith communities pay for food from Second Harvest food bank. Churches are on a rotating delivery schedule; groceries are delivered every day except Sunday and Monday by folks from ELCA, PC-USA, DOC, Episcopal, and Methodist churches.

When it's our turn to stock the pantry (twice per year) and bag groceries (quarterly), I enlist our youth group to help out. While we are there-marking bags, writing encouraging notes, and filling up bags for families of 2, 4, and 6-we talk about how this food ministry is supported by so many faith communities. Through that conversation, I have begun to add information about the wider church's ecumenical and interfaith partnerships.

I have included photos of two different years and different youth groups working in the pantry:

VI. Embodying the UCC Ministerial Code.

(And Caring for All Creation; Practicing Self Care and Life Balance)