Accents • Fall 2007 Volume 37, No. 2   [back]
SEMESTER HIGHLIGHTS

Mass Appeal: Let's Talk About the Drama of the Church

Father Tim Farley is comfortably settled into the parish he has served for decades; he knows how to say what his congregation wants to hear, and as long as nobody rocks the boat everyone’s happy. Enter Seminarian Mark Dolson, who firmly believes that the pastor’s job is to stir things up, fight the church’s suburban complacency and help bring in the kingdom of God, since, “Ideally, the purpose of the church is to become obsolete.”

The collision between the two, in Bill Davis’s “Mass Appeal,” made for great theater and great conversation on November 8. Following a performance of the play itself, MTS students, supervising pastors and other clergy, and officials from area judicatories engaged in a spirited discussion about the work and the issues it raises around the pastoral and prophetic dimensions of ministry in the daily challenges of congregational life.

— Steve Simmons
Continuing Education