Greek and Hebrew

Thanks for praying for me over a very busy week last week. I had a productive business of synod committee meeting in Beaver Falls, PA early in the week and then moderated our presbytery meeting Thursday and Friday.

This morning was the annual Indianapolis Leadership Prayer Breakfast. I would guess there were about 300 people in attendance. Herb Lusk, a Philadelphia Eagle running back for three years in the late '70s, was the keynote speaker. He left football to become a Baptist pastor and was called by God to inner-city ministry in Philly. God has blessed his ministry, and he has now been an advisor to three US Presidents on issues of urban affairs - in addition to many governors, etc. He is in Indianapolis for the Christian Community Development Association's annual meeting. By the way, this national conference with some great speakers has opened its evening sessions to the general public.

Two things really impressed me about Herb. First, he was very careful in sharing his testimony not to say "I heard a voice" or "God told me" in describing three very significant milestones in his life. He described it as a feeling that God put upon him and went so far as to say he gets really nervous when people talk about hearing voices...so I'm sitting there thinking his doctrine of revelation is pretty decent, and then he went on to say that after leaving the NFL he knew he needed more education before being qualified for ministry (though that was why he left) so he finished his B.A. and then went to the Reformed Episcopal seminary because it was the only seminary he could find that required three years of Hebrew language studies and three years of Greek language studies. I had the sense that he was trying to briefly but forcefully impress that need upon the Baptist and African American church community...and in the process, reinforced it for those of us in the Presbyterian community who only require two years in each language at our seminary.

One final note - I believe the Reformed Episcopal Church was the only denomination to send greetings to the first meeting of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church General Assembly when it was founded last century.