(By Robert Herguth, Chicago Sun-Times). The Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner, pastor of historic Fourth Presbyterian Church on Chicago’s Mag Mile, a Texas native, says about faith, “I think complacency is deadly . . . I’m always going to be on this journey of discovery.”
Kershner, now 45, was hired in 2014 as pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church — one of the nation’s largest Presbyterian congregations, with roughly 5,500 “active adults.”
Fourth Presbyterian is “a fascinating congregation” where people “choose to come here to worship,” some from more than an hour away, and there’s a tradition of challenging members “spiritually and intellectually.
“The sanctuary doors are open every day until evening,” and, with a large homeless population in the area, “we are a literal sanctuary for a lot of folks who need a place to be.”
Her family’s church balcony “would be full of foreign journalists every week, trying to get a sense of what normal religious life was like in Waco.”
Initially had no plans to go into ministry, thinking she’d be a child psychologist.
Felt a strong call to the clergy the summer after high school, but her parents advised her “to go to college and think about it.” She decided at the end of college to enter the seminary.
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Felt a desire to “reform the institution of church from the inside out,” including on “issues of equality.”
Disagrees with the portrayal of God as “some big man in the sky” and wanted to move “beyond this idol of maleness that we’ve constructed both for the divine as well as for clergy.
“I wanted to make sure that little girls knew that God could call them to be pastors, too.”
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So why the “Fourth” in Fourth Presbyterian Church?
“It was the result of some different mergers — and ‘Fourth’ wasn’t taken yet.”
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Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner: “I really do not overly concern myself with issues of salvation, especially salvation of other folks — that’s God’s job description and not my own.” | Rich Hein / Sun-Times
For Presbyterians, “the Church of Scotland is our mother church,” with traits that include being “pretty suspicious of concentrating power in the hands of just one person . . . We do everything by groups” and believe “that we hear the voice of God most clearly” through “conversation with others” and “passionate debate.
“Being a Presbyterian is messy . . . There’s a lot of gray in our denomination,” and “you can have differing understandings” of the bible and “still be a good Presbyterian.”
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“I really do not overly concern myself with issues of salvation, especially salvation of other folks — that’s God’s job description and not my own.”
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. . But I’m not about to say what God can and cannot do in other ways and with other spiritual experiences.”
If you want to know whats wrong with the pcusa, here it is, this is the same church where a year or two ago they had an intern who openly talked about being tri-sexual or bi-sexual or whatever, why bother with being a Christian when just a “good presbyterian will do”.
Shannon Johnson Kershner’s comment regarding the Las Vegas shootings: “God has some explaining to do.”
God’s response to Shannon: “Your words have been arrogant against Me…” -Malachi 3:13-15
God’s follow-up response: ” If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” – Revelation 2:5
The PCUSA denomination went astray in the 1980 s and it just kept going. No thanks.
“Is Christianity the only way to heaven?
“‘No, God’s not a Christian. I mean, we are… For me, the Christian tradition is the way to understand God and my relationship with the world and other humans… But I’m not about to say what God can and cannot do in other ways and with other spiritual experiences.’” —Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner, Senior Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL
“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18.8)
Rev. Kershner’s statement is not one of faith, but of unbelief. She does not believe the testimony of the Lord Jesus regarding Himself, in response to the Apostle Thomas’ question, “‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.’” (Jn. 14.5-7; see also Acts 4.10-12, Rom. 10.9-17, I Tim. 2.5-6, I Jn. 2.22-23, 5.11-12) The question is not what God can or cannot do, but what He has said He will or will not do, and He has said that He will not save anyone from sin and death apart from faith in His Son (Jn. 3.16-18, Rom. 3.21-30)
It simply demonstrates that which the Apostle Paul wrote, saying, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (II Tim. 4.3-4)
So God is not a Christian. Well this is news, someone needs to get in touch with Jesus and tell him he has been laboring under an illusion for 2,000 years. And I suppose God is what, a vegan? Likes soy in his fare trade coffee. Does he like Ben and Jerry’s? Does he feel the Burn? So many questions for the sage of Chicago.
Another PCUSA clergy spewing pagan nonsense is not news. I could take a 20 minute drive and find 6 or 10 PCUSA clergy that feel the same way. Which goes to a much more deeper issue. Over the years folks have asked why I am still in the PCUSA given my very public views on many matters. My response covers many areas, but suffice to say that in the contemporary PCUSA, being a clergy person has to be the easiest thing in the world. There are no confessional standards or doctrinal matters to affirm, there are no behavioral or conduct standards, be it matters of sex, deportment or professional ethics. You are in essence free to say, do, tweet, pontificate, lecture, as you want or desire. Believe, affirm what you want or desire. Outside of some vague notions about showing up to Presbytery from time to time, or maybe serving on some committees, you are pretty much good to go. Contemporary PCOMS, COMs are such quivering masses of acceptability and love and hugs, that no one really cares what goes on with clergy, or their churches, theologically, personally, ethically.
There are only two matters that get their attention, money, and issues of property. So at the end of the day is 4th Presbyterian Chicago, Unitarian, UCC, Buddhist, is it a United Way agency with choir robes and per capita. Again who knows and who really cares. To them and the sage of Chicago, the response is irrelevant.
And of course, like every other “irrelevant” Layman article, the troll of Lambertville must reply.
Unless I am mistaken, Jesus was a Jew., and if Jesus is part of the Godhead what does that make God? I have never thought of God as a Christian – a follower of Christ, but as the all encompassing creator, redeemer, and sustainer without any religious bias. What is more, in reading Phillip Gulley’s book, “If the Church were Christian,” I am struck by his remark, “I would prefer a congregation of kind atheists over a congregation of hateful Christians.” There is a real danger in valuing rigid orthodoxy over compassionate grace. No, I do not think God has any explaining to do, for I see the act of God in the hands of those who rush in to help the injured, the suffering, and the troubled. No matter what there religion, or lack of it, if I were in need of a helping hand and someone offered me their hand, that would be the hand of Jesus reaching out to me.
Actually, the PCUSA went astray in the 1920s, when it retracted the Doctrinal Deliverance of 1910, after several prominent Theologically Liberal pastors threatened to withdraw themselves and their congregations if it did not. As a denomination, it strayed from the Faith once delivered to the saints (although some congregations have kept it), and it has never returned.
Another heretical teaching elder in the PC(USA). What a surprise! Another ten years and that’s all there will be.