Why the Church Needs Calvin...

So on Sunday I went with Sarah and 3 others from First Church Hadley to hear Pulitzer award writer Marilynne Robinson speak at the UCC Church in Longmeadow. I thought she was going to talk about her book -- perhaps do a reading from her latest book Gilead. But no! In her afternoon talk she spoke to well over 200 people (a number of UCC pastors) about the declining numbers in the mainstream protestant churches and how the pastors need to stop being embarassed by Jesus and the Scriptures..that the pastors need to be concerned with the Blandness Factor in their sermons etc. It was pretty hard hitting....very intellectual and very Biblical. Also why they do NOT need to get lost in the: form a mega church, hire a band, dance in the aisle or tear out the pews... relativism.

In the evening she did a special dinner session for pastors and their guest. There were only about 20 of us there. She talked about Why the Church Needs Calvin. Turns out she is quite a Calvin Scholar and talked about the Congregationalist roots in Calvinism and how progressive Calvin was in his advocacy for a people group in France that was being terrorized and burned in the streets and other ways his quite progressive theology challenged the church of his day and endangered his life. It was packed full of information.... ties to Jonathan Edwards were also brought into it.

I understand her talks from this weekend are going to be made available on the church's web site. I will post the link when they are uploaded.

Anyway, I was amazed. Gave me much to consider and read up on.