True Empathy

Two close friends, both pastors, both facing the struggle against cancer. One, the president of a small theological seminary, the other a world renown theologian. Here in this letter, preserved at the PCA Historical Center, Dr. Francis Schaeffer writes to comfort and counsel his friend, Dr. Robert G. Rayburn. The letter provides a wonderful insight into Schaeffer’s view of death and dying, and more than that, his view of the nature of the Christian life, as overseen by the providence of God. The letter also provides us a very characteristic example of Schaeffer’s pastoral concern for others. Dr. Schaeffer was called home to glory just three years later, in 1984, while Dr. Rayburn entered into his eternal reward in 1990.

Francis Schaeffer letter to Dr. Robert Rayburn, March 1981

Dear Bob:

Thank you for your letter of March 5. It was so good to have the news directly from you. Of course, both you and I know that unless the Lord heals us completely that once we have faced the question of cancer we always must also face the possibility of re-occurrence. With modern medicine, and I am sure prayer very much goes hand in hand with it, there is a possibility of the thing being controlled even if the Lord does not heal us completely… I hope for both of us that we will really “beat the whole thing” by meeting the Lord in the air. However, if that is not the case, maybe we will both die from 63 other things or an automobile accident. Living this way has one advantage and that is we have had brought into sharp focus the reality of what is true for everybody from con­ception onward and that is that we are all mortal in this abnor­mal world.

In my own case, of course, if I could wave a wand and be rid of the lymphoma I would do it. Yet in my own case, in looking back over the whole two-and-a-half years since I have known I have lymphoma, there has been more that has been positive than negative. That is true on many levels and I am not just thinking of some vague concept of understanding people better, though I guess that is true as well. Rather, in the total complex of everything that has happened, I am convinced that there is more positive than negative. I am so glad that though I increasingly am against any form of theological determinism which turns people into a zero and choices into delusions, yet I am also increasingly conscious of the fact that Edith and I have been, as it were, carried along on an escalator for the entirety of our lives. I am left in awe and wonder with all this, and I very much feel the escalator is still in operation, not just in this matter of health, but in the battles that beset us on every side.

I wonder if you have read my article “The Dust of Life” in the current (March) issue of Eternity. I think you would enjoy some of the ideas there. The article was not born out of abstract thinking but asking, as I saw the struggles of the younger Chris­tians, what the real balance of life was so as not to have a plastic smile on our face and yet have an affirmation of life rather than a negation of it….

Thank you for plunking out the letter on the electric portable when it was costly to you. Edith sends her love to LaVerne and to you along with my own,

In the Lamb,

/signed, Francis A. Schaeffer/

Happy Birthday! The following PCA churches were organized [particularized] on this day, in the year indicated. Nearly one-third of all PCA churches pre-date the 1973 formation of the PCA, and for most of those churches, we do not presently know their exact date of organization. Typically it is the newer churches where we have that information. Please let us know if we missed a church’s anniversary date and we’ll add it to our list for future use. In some cases here we are using the date when the church came into the PCA, rather than when it was organized.

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL [Evangel], organized March 4, 1979.
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Columbia, SC [Calvary Presbytery], organized March 4, 1951 and was among the founding churches of the PCA in 1973.
Parish Presbyterian Church, Franklin, TN [Nashville Presbytery], organized March 4, 2007.
River’s Edge Community Church, Oella, MD [Chesapeake Presbytery], organized March 4, 2007.

From the brief church history presented on the web site of Covenant Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina:

Covenant Presbyterian Church was formally organized by a commission of Congaree Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States on Sunday, March 4, 1951, in a service held at Watkins School. The Reverend Harry F. Petersen, Jr., Executive Secretary of Congaree Presbytery, was instrumental in the founding of the church and leading it during the early years before a pastor was called. Pastors of the congregation have included the Rev. Cecil D. Brearley, Jr. (1954 – 1960), the Rev. Harry T. Schutte (1960 – 1977), the Rev. J. Gary Aitken (1977 – 1990), the Rev. LeRoy H. Ferguson (1991 – 2001) and the Rev. Eric R. Dye (2004 – present).

The congregation met in Watkins School until August of 1951. We moved when construction of the first sanctuary was completed on property on Alms House Road in the rapidly growing northeastern area of Columbia. Alms House Road was later renamed Covenant Road after the church. In 1959, a new church sanctuary and children’s building were dedicated on the same property. Additional buildings have been added since then to support our ministry.

On July 1, 1973, Covenant Church voted to pull out of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and join the newly organized, more reformed Presbyterian Church in America.

In addition to its witness to Christ, Covenant has served members of the congregation and community with a Christian school. Beginning with a kindergarten and adding elementary grades in 1982, Covenant Presbyterian Day School was established. The school, now known as Covenant Classical Christian School, has grown to a full K4-12th grade Classical Christian School with a current enrollment of 166. Many of Covenant’s members are now serving as ministers in Presbyterian churches, on the mission field and other Christian ministries.

Covenant has always taken an active part in the work of the higher courts of the church. Its pastors and many of its members have served on Presbytery and General Assembly committees.

This short history offers only a glimpse of the way in which God has blessed and used the ministry of Covenant Church. All over the state and nation are those who for a time were touched by the ministry of Covenant. “To God be the glory … great things He hath done.”

THE SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST.

Q.9. What is the work of Creation?

1. The work of Creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

EXPLICATION.

The word of his power.—God’s powerful word, by which he spake every thing into being.

In the space of six days.—During the time, or within the compass of six days.

ANALYSIS.

Here we have six points of information:

1. That God is the Creator of all things.—Gen. i. 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. That he made all things of nothing.—Heb. xi. 3. Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
3. That God made all things by his powerful word.—Heb. xi. 3. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.
4. That he made all things in six days.—Gen. i. 31. God saw every thing that he made,—and the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
5. That all things, when made by God, were very good.—Gen. i. 31. God saw every thing that he made; and, behold, it was very good.

A Steady, Quiet Faithfulness

C. Howard Oakley was born in Haddonfield, New Jersey on May 19, 1917 to parents H. Burton Oakley and his wife Anna Elizabeth Richardson Oakley.  Howard was educated at Columbia Bible College, graduating with the BA degree in 1942.  He next attended Faith Theological Seminary and graduated with the Master of Divinity degree in 1945.  He was licensed and ordained in 1945 by the New Jersey Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church and installed in his first pastorate, serving at the First Bible Presbyterian Church of Seattle, Washington from 1945 to 1957.  As was so common in an earlier day, the young pastor waited until he had a pulpit before he married, and so on December 7, 1945, he married Beverly Jane Bates, also of Seattle, WA.  Children born to this marriage include Bruce Howard, Phyllis Ann, and Susan Carol.  Toward the end of his time in Seattle, Rev. Oakley engaged in graduate level work at the University of Washington, attending there during the academic year of 1956-1957.

Rev. Oakley next answered a call to serve the congregation of the Foothills Presbyterian Church of LaCrescenta, California, remaining in that pulpit from 1957 to 1961.  He left the pulpit ministry for a time and took on the duties of executive director of the National Presbyterian Missions of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod, from 1961 to 1963.  During these same years he also served as an instructor at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis,

From 1963 to 1970, Rev. Oakley was pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and from 1973 to 1980, he served as pastor of First Reformed Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee.  It was during this pastorate that he graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary with the Doctor of Ministry degree, in 1978.  His dissertation is preserved at the Covenant Theological Seminary library and is titled The Pastor and the Federal Prison : A Practical Program for Community Involvement for Working in a Federal Prison.

In 1981, he was granted the privilege of laboring out-of-bounds as assistant pastor at Central Church (non-PCA) in Memphis, and he retained this position from 1981 until 1994.  For many of these same years (1987-1992, he taught at Crichton College, while also conducting a television ministry, “What Is Your Faith?” from 1985 to 1990.

Rev. Oakley is noted as having a radio ministry while serving in Seattle, Cherry Hill and Memphis.  He was honorably retired in 1994, but his last pulpit was in 1996, as interim pastor of Morning Sun Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN. Dr. Oakley died on Wednesday, March 2, 2005, at the age of 87.

Words to Live By:
Quietly, without drawing particular attention to himself, Rev. Oakley faithfully served the Lord’s people in the various stations where he was placed. In so many ways he was an example to the flock, and will, we trust, receive that crown of glory which will never fade away.

1 Peter 5:1-4
1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed:
2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve;
3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

Pictured below, the students of Faith Theological Seminary in 1945. Howard Oakley is seated on the front row, fifth man in from the right side.

A Scottish Covenanter in the Lord’s Army
by Rev. David T. Myers

There was no other man among the early settlers of Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, who had more influence in directing its early destiny than John Armstrong.  Born in 1717 in Northern Ireland to James Armstrong and Jane Campbell, he was educated there as a surveyor.  Emigrating to the new world, he began to survey for the Penn family who owned the colony of what later on became Pennsylvania.  He and another man laid out the first plan for the town of Carlisle and later on, Cumberland County.  He, as a Presbyterian, joined and was a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian Church, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

« For more on General Armstrong and the location of the historical marker erected in his memory, click here.

It was said of him that there was united in his character a strong sense of religious responsibility that rarely blends with military sentiment, and yet, in him, it did blend easily.   As one said,  “he belonged  to that race of Scottish Covenanters, who in conflict to which persecution trained them, never drew the sword or stuck a mortal blow without the confidence that agencies higher and stronger than human means were battling on their behalf, and that their sword, whether bloodless or bloody, was always ‘the sword of the Lord.’”  So, when going into a military action, John Armstrong was “always known to kneel in humble devotion and earnest prayer, and afterwards, never seemed to doubt the battle’s fury that the work of blood was sanctified to some higher purpose.”

The initial campaigns were nothing less than furious battles.  When Indian raids against the settlers turned vicious, Col. John Armstrong took an army of 280 men in 1756 on a raid about 200 miles west of Carlisle, known as Kittaning.  They there succeeded in destroying the Indian village, killing its chiefs and many of their Indian followers.  For this, he was rewarded by the Corporation of Philadelphia with a piece of plate and a silver medal.  Two years later, he marched with 2700 men on the Forbes Expedition.  Their approach caused the French to destroy Fort Duquesne and leave what is now Pittsburgh.  On  this venture, Armstrong became a good friend with another militia leader, Colonel George Washington.

In the early days of the American Revolution, Armstrong was appointed on March 1, 1776 a Brigadier General in the Pennsylvania militia.  Later, the Continental Congress appointed him the same rank in the national army.  He used his civil engineer background to prepare the city of Charleston, South Carolina to withstand a siege against it.  Returning to his duty with the Pennsylvania militia, he became a Major General.  He participated in the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.  Old age was catching up with him, along with old wounds, so he gave up active command and returned to Carlisle.

From 1777 to 1780, and again in 1787 and 1788, he was a member of the Continental Congress.  His leadership skills were not just limited to national office.  He was on the first board of trustees of the Presbyterian college of Dickinson, in Carlisle.  He went to be with the Lord, on March 9, 1795.  On his tombstone in Old South Cemetery, it states “eminently distinguished for patriotism, valor and piety.”

Gen. Armstrong is buried in Carlisle, PA. A photograph of his grave site can be seen here.

Words to Live By: In whatever calling you have been given, the sovereignty of God in all things is to be trusted  with confidence and hope.

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