PASTORS APLENTY!

Your Missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

I’m writing to you on Thursday instead of Friday because tomorrow will be too intense of a day to be posting. We will host our first “Preachers’ Circle” at the    "O. House." It is designed as an intimate, but exhaustive experience for the pastors of our supporting churches, so they can gain exposure to all the elements of our work on Capitol Hill. This time some 16 ministers and their spouses will spend an entire day with us, doing what we do , seeing what we see and experiencing what we experience day in and day out! At the same time, they’ll have unique access to unique people and places. Here’s an overview:

We’ll begin our day with a discussion in the Wright Parlor of the O.House featuring Dr. Jim Hutson, the premiere American historian on the so-called “separation of church and state.” Here’s Jim’s bio from the Library of Congress website:

 

“James H. Hutson received his Ph.D. in History from Yale University in 1964. He has been a member of the History Departments at Yale and William and Mary and, since 1982, has been Chief of the Library's Manuscript Division. Dr Hutson is the author of several books among them: John Adams and the Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1980); winner of the Gilbert Chinard Prize, 1981; To Make All Laws: The Congress of the United States, 1789-1989 (Washington and Boston, 1989-90; 4th edition, Washington, 1990); The Sister Republics: Switzerland and the United States from 1776 to the Present ( Washington, 1991; 4th edition, Washington, 1998); Religion and the Founding of the American Republic (5th printing, Washington, 2000).”

 

It doesn’t mention Jim’s latest book, Church and State: The First 200 Years (Cambridge University Press). It’s the best treatment of this subject on the market. I highly recommend it to you. Don’t be afraid of it; Jim writes comfortably for the layman. “Church and State” is one of the most contentious fault lines in our American civilization, so we’ve got to get it right. That’s what this session for preachers will be all about.

After the discussion, we’ll go over to the Library of Congress itself and get a special VIP tour of areas not generally accessible to the public. (I can say no more!)

From the Library of Congress, we’ll go to the historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, near the White House, where each guest minister will be invited to mount the famous pulpit where Peter Marshall once preached—and where Dr. George Docherty delivered his famous “Under God” sermon while Dwight Eisenhower was in attendance. It was that sermon, atop a years long petition drive by the Knights of Columbus, that gave us the phrase “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance.

After New York Ave Pres, we’ll make a brief stop at the White House for a group photo, then, go on to the U.S. Capitol for lunch and a prayer meeting led by U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry Black. You read it right: There is a prayer meeting held under the dome of U.S. Capitol! Senate Chaplain Black is a good friend and precious Man of God. (I had the pleasure of conferring the honorary doctor of divinity degree on Chaplain Black during a joint convocation of the National Clergy Council and the Methodist Episcopal Church USA.)He loves the Lord and has faithfully served Him since a teenager. Chaplain Black is the first military man to occupy this post (he's a retired Navy admiral and former Navy Chief of Chaplains) and the first African American congressional chaplain.

Following the prayer service, we’ll go across the street for an officially escorted VIP tour of the US Supreme Court. As you know, this is our primary mission field, and I want these ministers to get a good look at it—up close and personal!

Finally, we’ll gather for debriefing at the ministry center and enjoy a leisurely dinner at one of the nearby Capitol Hill haunts. It’ll be a full day!

If you think your pastor would enjoy one of these “Preachers’ Circle” events, please put us in touch. Have your pastor write to us at info@faithandaction.org and request information.

Watch for my End-of-Week Round-Up tomorrow. It’s been a very full five days—wait till you hear what’s happened. We are anything but bored!

Thanks for all you are to us--and all you do for us. You are God’s lifeline from heaven to this ministry!

Your grateful missionary to elected and appointed officials,

Rev. Rob Schenck

www.faithandaction.org

109 2^nd St, NE

Washington, DC 20002

202-546-8329

 

 

FAMILY MATTERS

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rob Schenck, reporting:

This past week was a whirlwind. In order of importance it involved clear direction from the Lord on a number of issues; big family matters and, finally, big presidential race issues!

I’ll start from the top: We’ve prayerfully settled on a five-year plan that includes some very big developments on the ministry front. You’ll hear all about them at our upcoming 25th Anniversary gala, Saturday, November 17. If you haven’t already secured your tickets, please do it now as seats are filling very fast!

On the family front, my Mom and Dad are in a wonderful Catholic nursing facility back home in Buffalo, New York. (Their preference!) Both need round-the-clock care and they feel much more secure in a medical environment. It’s excruciating to be more than 500 miles away, so my brother and I get up there as often as possible. (Our two older sisters live near to the home and look after my folks, which is a huge relief. That’s in addition to the Sister who runs the place who sees each resident as her ministry charges!) Never-the-less, this past week was a crisis.

It was one of the few Sundays in the past several months that I wasn’t out preaching somewhere in the country. I thank God I wasn’t out because when I got the call that Mom had plunged into a sudden and deep dementia, I immediately ran for the airport. Every affordable flight was sold out but my Dad’s tutelage in how to get things done paid off again. I offered a young college student a handsome sum of money to take a later plane, which opened one seat for me on the earliest possible flight!

I found Mom in a disturbing psychotic state when I arrived. She saw fires in her room, talked with imaginary people, uncharacteristically barked in anger at everyone, including my Dad, her husband of 52 years, whom she no longer knew. It was painful to watch, and even more painful to be unable to do anything about it. But it didn’t take long for my sisters and me to determine things just didn’t add up. For one, dementia doesn’t usually come on so suddenly. We looked elsewhere—to her many prescription medications. We narrowed it down to one new drug that had recently been introduced to help control her worsening Parkinson’s disease. I asked for a PDR (Physicians’ Desk Reference, a sort of pharmaceutical encyclopedia) and discovered the drug can have psychotic side effects. We demanded she be weaned off of it immediately. Within hours Mom blossomed back into the joyful, lovely, happy woman she has always been with full cognition and recall! Praise God!

Here’s my thanks and prayers for my fellow middle-aged “sandwich” generation members who, like Cheryl and me, are helping launch adult children while saying hello to elder parent care. It ain’t easy—and boy, don’t I know it! (What do I have to complain about? My brother, Paul, still has four under-age kids at home while sharing this responsibility for our parents!) May the Lord help us all to do right by those He gives us!

OK, now onto the presidential race: Last week I attended the Values Voter Forum here in Washington. All the candidates were invited, but only Republicans showed up. I won’t comment on all of them, but I will tell you the ones who really impressed me.

First, the winner of the Values Voter straw poll, Mitt Romney: You know I met with the former Massachusetts governor back in March. (I had actually talked with him one-on-one a year earlier, but only briefly.) He impressed me before and again this past week. Romney’s speech to the attendees focused on family, for which he is a shining example of convincing personal experience. (Married 37 years to the same woman; five outstanding sons and ten grandkids!) Gov. Romney rightly said the family is the building block of society. (See my book on the Ten Commandments, Ten Words That Will Change A Nation, chapter 5.) He stated unequivocally that he will be a pro-life president; he will re-instate President Reagan’s family impact statement for all government programs, policies and initiatives; he will use the presidential bully pulpit to promote chastity until marriage; and he will back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as limited to one man and one woman. It really rang true—and it rang the bell with attendees. (In the audience were many of the most significant pro-life, pro-family and pro-religious freedom advocates in the country.)

The other outstanding presentation was little known former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. He’s an unquestioned Evangelical (a former Baptist pastor) with an illustrious record of leadership in his home state. He has an unbroken history of being absolutely right on all our critical social and moral concerns. If you saw his recent appearances on any of the talk shows, you know he’s also a fabulous communicator—a critical skill he shares with Mitt Romney. Still, with all those important elements, there was an air of doubt among the people I spoke to about whether or not Huckabee has the internal drive and organizational ability to pull off a victory in the most difficult, challenging and demanding contest on earth. It’s looking more and more inevitable that Hillary Clinton will be the Democrat nominee. Let’s be gut-level honest: The real question is, Does Mike Huckabee have the dynamism, charisma, star-power and good-looking contrast to go up against her celebrity stature? That remains to be seen.

As far as the other would-be nominees who appeared at the Values Voter Forum, I can’t identify another “player.” Rudy Giuliani’s recalcitrant pro-choice position presents a virtually insurmountable obstacle to winning any appreciable percentage of pro-life votes. Fred Thomas did not seem to excite the room and I wasn’t there for the others, but neither was there much post-event chatter about them.

This is a difficult and challenging political season for all of us. I haven’t endorsed anyone—and I probably won’t. For now I am following Jesus’ instructions to His disciples, “Watch and pray.”

More later . . .

Rev. Rob Schenck
Faith and Action
109 2nd St., NE, Washington, DC 20002
http://www.faithandaction.org/
202-546-8329

P.S. After I wrote the above post, I received this from Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt (or "Chaps," as so many know him), famous for being thrown out of the Navy for praying publicly in Jesus' name. I didn't know anything about this incident regarding Ambassador Alan Keyes, but I include it here for your assessment: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58265.

VALUES VOTERS SEND SIGNAL

Your missionary to Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, Rev. Rob Schenck, reporting:

I’m a little late posting this. Normally I do a week-in-review on Fridays, but last week was just too busy. I flew out Friday for a conference in Nashville, and then from there to Columbus, Ohio, to minister at a wonderful church called Trinity Family Life Center. (It’s actually in a town called Pickerington.) As I’ve told you before, one of the great joys of my ministry is visiting different church pulpits throughout the year. Trinity was very special for two reasons: First, it is a dynamic, Bible-based, Spirit-filled, born-again missionary-minded and evangelistic fellowship that, believe it or not, is part of the United Methodist denomination! For more than 30 years, Pastor Kelso has been a leader in spiritual renewal among United Methodists. Which leads me to the second point: This church has the same name as the United Methodist Church where my brother, Paul, and I first heard the Gospel and responded publicly to an altar call 34 years ago. (Our Trinity United Methodist was in Grand Island, New York, just outside Buffalo.) Visiting Trinity in Pickerington brought back a lot of wonderful Buffalo memories.

Paul and I look forward to soon hosting a group from Trinity Pickerington. I invited Pastor Kelso to bring a busload to Capitol Hill. You’re also invited to bring a bunch from your church. We enjoy showing Christian hospitality and consider it a ministry in itself. It’s important for Christians to see their nation’s capital at work—especially from a ministry perspective. We enjoy greeting brothers and sisters in Christ and telling you what God is doing behind-the-scenes among our country’s top elected and appointed officials. For our Capital Club members, we’ll also arrange special VIP tours of our own ministry center and the nearby Supreme Court, U.S. Capitol and even the White House. You’ll see things from a perspective no tourist group ever gets to see! Just contact Allyson Black, our supporter relations director, at allysonblack@faithandaction.org or call her at 202-546-8329, extension 104.

Did you get your tickets yet? Speaking of visiting Washington, why not time your visit to coincide with our 25th Anniversary Silver Celebration Gala this November 17? We really need you here to mark this watershed year—and to prayerfully look to the next quarter-century of outreach to the leaders of our land! Paul and I will review where the Lord has taken us these last 25 years together with you, our extended missionary team. (Our “EMT” for short!) More importantly, we’ll look to the future—the Lord willing and delaying His return. Our good friend and ally of many years, Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, will be our featured speaker, along with many others VIP guests. Please order your tickets on line—and consider sponsoring the event. Click here to do it now!

I know there’s a lot of concern for the future direction of our country. Christians are worried, but we ought not to be. God is sovereign and His will cannot be thwarted. Of course, we get what we deserve. Last night’s Values Voter Forum in Fort Lauderdale reminded all the candidates of what’s important, especially to Christian Americans. The Sanctity of Life topped the list. Our good friends “Ten Commandments Judge” Roy Moore of Alabama, Phil Jauregui of the Judicial Action Group (which meets regularly at our ministry center) and former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenshmidt, played major roles in last night’s questioning. (You can read about the forum at our site: http://www.faithandaction.org/.) Of course, I was disappointed that our friends did not get to question the “leading” candidates. Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney had other engagements. I’ve met and talked with all but Giuliani, so there wouldn’t have been anything new for me, but I’d hoped others could see what I’ve seen in these candidates. There’s no mystery in why Rudy found an excuse to skip the Values Voters Forum—he just doesn’t share our values in the least bit. But Thompson is a mystery when it comes to his faith, McCain has a love-hate relationship with moral conservatives and Mitt Romney has so much more to say on all the paramount issues of concern to us. Too bad they missed this advantage enjoyed by Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter and newly declared candidates Alan Keyes and businessman John Cox. Still, these so-called “second tier” candidates play mainly a “prophetic” role in the campaign by holding the first tier candidates’ feet to the fire on the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage and the family and the public acknowledgement of God. I don’t expect the second tier to rise to first tier, but stranger things have happened in political campaigns, of course. Remember the unknown Arkansas governor who spent two terms in the White House?


I’ll talk about the Values Voter Forum on my Faith and Action Live Report available at our website each Wednesday. Oh, and while I’m on Wednesday events, let me tell you about last Wednesday and every Wednesday evening between now and November 14: I’m teaching at the New Antioch Baptist Church in Randallstown, Maryland, at the invitation of Pastor Kenneth Barney. This is an outstanding church and one that’s making a big difference for the Gospel in their city and in the world! Pastor Barney has hosted me in his pulpit a number of times, and we’ve traveled together to Africa twice. New Antioch is one of America’s truly great African-American congregations, and I’m delighted and humbled to serve them in ministry. My subject is “Thinking Biblically,” on how to form a worldview shaped by the Word of God. You’re invited to join us! Check out the church’s website at http://www.newantiochbaptist.com/.


For all the stuff that’s happening in Washington, watch our website. It’s a very active season of ministry for your missionary team at Faith and Action. Be back soon!

Rob Schenck
President, Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital
http://www.faithandaction.org/
info@faithandaction.org
202-546-8329
109 2nd Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002