RASCAL Ministry Team (Reformed According to the Scriptures: Companions Active in Learning)
From the name to the
hoped-for learning, the Presbytery of Northern Plains’
newest ministry team seeks to help our people appreciate
and profit from the riches of the Reformed Tradition.
The name “RASCAL” stands
for Reformed According to the Scriptures: Companions
Active in Learning. The word “rascal” connotes a certain
degree of good spirited orneriness which is appropriate
to the Reformed expression of the Faith. As Richard
Baxter wrote, “There is no mirth like the mirth of the
saints.” So RASCAL will seek to be good spirited in its
quite serious examination of what Reformed theology and
practice can offer the church today.
What can RASCAL offer the
church today? We hope to learn more of what it means to
be faithful in the service of God in a particularly
Presbyterian way, highlighting both form and substance.
For example, we hope to help the Presbytery of the
Northern Plains regain what has been lost in
understanding why traditional Presbyterian worship looks
like it does, and how it can be lively while orderly. We
hope to help to revitalize our understandings of the
spiritual aspects of the office of elder and the proper
role of the Session. We hope to help the church see how
the theological stance of our Tradition continues to
help to make sense of the world in which we live and the
people with whom we live.
RASCAL will provide fellowship, learning, and teaching
opportunities for those who would be companions on a
journey of exploration of the great documents of the
Reformed Tradition including such documents as the
Second Helvetic Confession, The Westminster Standards,
the Scots Confession and many others.
We see
RASCAL as contributing to the “living into” the new PNP
vision statement, especially as we seek to be a “vital,
informed Presbyterian community.”