Parish, the Thought

      A Memoir in Ministry

      Copyright © 2018 David B. Bowman. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

      Resource Publications

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

      Eugene, OR 97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-4424-5

      hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-4425-2

      ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-4426-9

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

      For Dianne,

      without whom . . .

      Preface

      I wish that long ago I had adopted the habit of keeping a journal. Alas, I failed to keep such a record. Consequently, what follows relies heavily on memory.

      One knows how faulty, and sometimes even misleading, one’s memory can be. Suppose a married couple goes through the same experience side by side. Years later one may remember the incident in detail and the spouse draw a complete blank. Or one may recall a conversation in which a certain remark is retained in memory, only later to hear a recording of the conversation and discover memory misconstrued the utterance.

      While I have not kept a journal, I have kept rather complete files of Sunday bulletins, newsletters, and other parish related documents. Review of these papers has jostled my mind into remembrance or, in several cases, corrected, narrowed, or broadened what I remember. In one case, during a four–week venture in the two German states in 1985, I did keep a rather complete record of incidents and my observations.

      A word about the title: “Parish, the Thought.” Of course, the spelling is important. We would not want these memories to “perish” else why bother to record them. But “parish”—that’s a whole different ball of wax. In its original usage, a parish is a designated geographical area making up an administrative district in a diocese. In the State of Louisiana divisions in the state, counties elsewhere, are named parishes. In more common USA parlance a pastor may refer to his or her congregational ministry area as “my parish.” This area may extend twenty minutes travel time in any direction in a jagged, jigsaw pattern. Hence, thoughts about the parish.

      These memories might well gather in chronological order. That plan failed to appeal to me. A similar pattern might identify in consecutive order the parish churches where I served and collect each memory around that time and space. That, while interesting, proved not compelling.

      So instead I offer vignettes that fall into the various categories of ministry. While I prefer this approach, it’s not foolproof. For example, a pulpit word about amnesty for those who went abroad during the Vietnam era might well fall under “Social Action,” rather than my choice of “Straight Talk from the Pulpit.” Most memories, however, fit neatly into one category or another. Ministry is a kaleidoscope film. Only a few of those visions made it to this screen.

      With an earned PhD I might well have found my way into some classroom to teach. Certainly adult education became my preferred form of parish ministry. But I understand myself well enough to know that I could have escaped into the world of ideas. The people of the parish—their faces, their needs, sorrows, joys, and hopes, helped keep me more grounded and more other centered. I suspect that’s been a blessing, sometimes obvious, other times in disguise.

      I regard this as an exercise in practical theology. The parish minister regularly carries out the theological task in preaching, mentoring, nurturing, and reaching out. The document reveals my concern both for personal and social faith, for private and public enactment of the faith once delivered to the saints.

      Those who know me personally, as well as those who know me not at all, may find my theological/political/ethical stance hard to pigeon–hole. Some views may seem too leftist and others too rightist, too heretical, or too orthodox. Someone may ask, “How do they exist side–by–side in the same person?” At the very least, they will be seen as forthright. I claim them to be well considered. Whether they come across as persuasive, only the reader will know.

      Perhaps this account will enable an ordained reader to draw parallels. Maybe the lay reader will gain insight into the life and work of the clergy and ideas about the ministry of all God’s people. And could it be that someone standing at a distance from church life, through these memories, might be led to lend heart and hand? All or any of the above would make this labor worthwhile.

      These parish scenes opened in New York, Michigan, Washington State, Iowa, Indiana, and California, leading a friend, Duane, to speak of me as “a wanderer in the earth.” Hardly a unique situation for someone seeking to be a pilgrim on the way with Jesus, the Christ.

      List of Abbreviations

      AMA American Missionary Association

      Bethel Bethel United Church of Christ

      CCUCC Community Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

      CO Conscientious Objector

      CWS Church World Service

      EI Ecumenical Institute

      EKU Evangelical Church of the Union (Evangelische Kirche der Union)

      FOR Fellowship of Reconciliation

      FRG Federal Republic of Germany (Deutsche Bundesrepublik)

      GDR German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)

      HFH Habitat for Humanity

      NTU Northwest Theological Union

      Park First (Park) Congregational Church

      PPR Pastor–Parish Relations

      RLDS Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints

      STU School of Theology and Ministry

      UCC United Church of Christ

      UCCC United Church of Christ–Congregational

      UCUP United Church in University Place

      UM United Ministries

      WAC Washington Association of Churches

      WSU Washington State University

      Straight Talk from the Pulpit

      It is possible to think of the Gospel and our preaching of it as . . . above all, and at no matter what risk, speaking the truth about the way things are.

Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale1

1. Buechner, Telling the Truth, 7.

      What Shall I Preach?

      My experience as a young person in the pew, listening to the sermon of the day, yielded no sense of pattern for expectation. After all, the pastor or evangelist would offer “what God had laid on his heart” in his private devotions. In other words, I grew up used to topical sermons, only related to the church