Belief Series: Presbyterian

The building is much as one would imagine a church to look like; brick, modest in size, fairly ordinary but friendly and inviting.

Neither the exterior nor thecanon practiced within the building makes this Presbyterian Church unique in nature from other Christian based churches in Sidney.

Quite the opposite, the Christian stance and teachings are what connects this church to other Christian churches of the area.

It is Pastor Dixie Anders who leads the congregation at the Light Memorial Presbyterian Church that makes this church unique.

Many beliefs, even in the Christian denominations, do not believe women are allowed by the Divine to sit as leaders of a church, but this did not stop Pastor Anders from fulfilling the call she knows came from God.

The self-proclaimed second career pastor said she had always been active in her local church, “When our son was born I had been feeling like God wanted me to be more engaged with the life of the church.

“At that time I was working for Boeing in Wichita, and in ’93 they had a big lay-off in the computer services division and I thought ‘oh this is the perfect time to explore that exciting aspect,’” the aspect she spoke of was to dive into life within the church.

She went to work for a Methodist Church for a few years before becoming a youth director within the church where she belonged. It was shortly after that she would begin her journey toward becoming an ordained Pastor.

“I was sitting in the Pastor’s office one afternoon talking to him about what the youth were going to be doing and the plans I was making for the year and he looked at me and said, ‘Dixie why don’t you just quit fooling around and become an Inquirer?’”

According to Anders, an Inquirer is the first step within this denomination of Presbyterian faith in becoming an ordained minister.

Upon hearing the words from her pastor, she said “a little light bulb went on and I thought ‘oh, yeah that is what I am supposed to do.’”

It would take her another year before she would attend seminary in Austin, Texas and in 2001 she was ordained.

Anders said The Light Memorial Presbyterian Church, named in honor of its founder and first leader Samuel Light, is the third church she has ministered.

When asked what brought her to Sidney, Neb. she said jokingly, “God.”

But more seriously, she said she had been living and ministering at a church in southeast Alaska, having no designs on western Nebraska, but being a native to Kansas she needed the sunshine.

“I need sunshine. I love the people in Alaska they were a wonderful congregation, but southeast Alaska is temperate rainforest and the sun rarely shines. I just discovered after about a year that I couldn’t cope with the weather any longer,” Pastor Anders explained how she ended up in Sidney.

“I started looking for a church in the midwest, my family is for the most part in Kansas, my extended family. So it was good to get closer.”

According to Pastor Anders, simplistically put, to be Presbyterian is “to bea part of the family of God that believes that on a dark night hundreds of years ago a child was born that was destined to save us all.”

Connecting the Presbyterian faith to another Christian based faith Andres said, “We come out of the reformation just like the Lutheran denominations did. We’re all a part of the great awareness of the people of faith that there is more to being a Christian than being Roman Catholic.

“So within our denomination there is a huge diversity, as far as beliefs. But I think for most of us, right after Jesus is Lord comes that God is sovereign over everything. That all powerful God drives most of the theology of our denomination.”

For people who would look toward the Presbyterian path Pastor Anders said a discussion about the foundation upon which most Christianity is built upon – “belief in Jesus Christ as son of God and the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” would be needed.

“In the questions we ask of people; we ask them to affirm that Jesus is their Lord and Savior, to affirm that the Bible is the written word of God and if their intent is to be a faithful member participating in the life and worship of the congregation.

“That is the basis upon what we build everything else. There are certain doctrines of the denomination that I as a pastor believe, but one of the foundations of our constitution is the belief that every member needs to read and study for themselves to determine what they are going to base their theology on.

“Not to say we believe everything because we don’t, but we want our members to take seriously the idea that God gave us a mind for a reason. We expect our members to read and study and come to the table as informed believers.”

She said she doesn’t expect her entire congregation to believe exactly as she does or even as the person sitting beside them in the pew does and understands because of the diversity within the Presbyterian philosophy not everyone is going to agree.

As long as the person believes in Jesus as the Savior and they accept Jesus Christ then they are accepted within the church.

The diversity doesn’t stop just within thought but Pastor Anders said, “When I preach I preach and teach from the New Revised Standard version, because I think the language within it is very easy for most people to understand.

“As part of my seminary training I learned both Greek and Hebrew so that is where I start. I start with the original languages when I build my sermons because sometimes Greek and Hebrew words can have a lot of different meanings and sometimes when you start looking at a particular word in the Greek or the Hebrew its translation in English in one way but when you start looking at the other ways it can be translated that opens up a completely different understanding of the text you are looking at.”

But to keep things fairly easy for the majority of her congregation the NIV is used during worship services.

“We encourage everyone to find a translation that you understand and use it. It is not so much which Bible is the best, but which Bible works for you.”

When it comes to Baptism as with some others of Christian faiths Presbyterians will baptize at any age understanding that the symbolism in baptism is akin to bringing people into “the covenant relationship with God.

“Obviously for very small children or babies we sprinkle or pour water over their heads. We can immerse adults if that is how they wish to be baptized, though it presents a little problem here because we don’t have a river or a lake close by, and we don’t normally build baptisteries within our buildings However, we would find a way should an adult come and wish to be baptized that way.”

The church holds to the principle one baptism is sufficient, no matter the age of the person or the doctrine it was performed under, as long as it abides by the foundational beliefs of the Presbyterians in the triad, it is recognized.

As many Christian traditions do, to continue a child’s growth within the belief in God and church, the Light Memorial Presbyterian Church offers confirmation.

“We do a confirmation program when children get to be a certain age. It varies from congregation to congregation to what that age is. They learn about the church, what it means to be a member of the church and then decide whether or not they want join a particular congregation.At baptism they become part of the family of God, upon confirmation they become a part of a particular congregation.”

Another marked difference in this church’s canon as opposed to many other beliefs is the narrowed down sacraments in which they place their faith.

Instead of having many, “We only have two sacraments baptism and the Lord’s Supper,” Pastor Anders said. “Because those are the two that Jesus instituted.”

Another difference in how this church celebrates its heir sacraments that some Christian beliefs may not follow is, “we have an open table, anyone who has been baptized is welcome to commune with us.”

This holds true for anyone of any age, however the pastor said she asks the parents to be sure their children or child understands the rites he or she is about to take part in prior to joining the Lord’s Supper.

“Some parents choose to ask their children to wait until the child has been confirmed, and there are congregations where that is the practice that children don’t commune until they have been confirmed. But the constitution does allow for baptized children to come to the table.

“I was raised in a church where the practice was that you didn’t receive communion until you were confirmed, but here everyone is welcome.”

When it comes to the biggest difference the Presbyterian Church may have from other Christian denominations, Pastor Anders goes back to her youth, “What I was told by my Christian friends who were not Presbyterian, we were the church that believed in predestination. And I think that is probably the most common perception of our difference that we believe in predestination. I suppose maybe it is the biggest doctrinal difference, the belief that God chooses you.

“I believe that God chooses you and that God’s will for you being saved is stronger than your ability to say ‘no I don’t want to be.’ God looks at you and says, ‘I want you to be saved,’ and God changes your heart so you will be. That is how I look at the Doctrine of Election.”

According to Pastor Andres the Doctrine of Election simply means God chooses who he wishes to save, even before that person may want to be saved.

This portion of the belief comes from the founder of the Presbyterian Church John Calvin and his ideology behind “why some people are Christian and lived Christian lives and why others didn’t and for him the only way that made sense was that God must not have changed their lives.

“So God chose some people and didn’t choose others,” she said. “That is a really simple explanation of predestination. God chose some people to be saved, but by implication there is double predestination, if God chooses some then God doesn’t choose others.”

She said this is a stumbling block for many who search out the Presbyterian dogma, mainly because people were given free will and that is a gift people cling to.

Her response is, “No, God chose you first.”

Pastor Anders said she didn’t know why God would not choose everyone and it was not for her to understand right now, but rather “it’s for us to accept and believe that God does love, and I do believe God does love even those he chooses not to save.”