Pannell: 'We're Saving More Than Souls'

Dr. William E. Pannell wasn't present when Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) President Glenn Palmberg spoke at Monday's opening worship service at the Midwinter Conference, but his message seemed a perfect fit to accentuate the point of Palmberg's message.

An evening after Palmberg spoke about servant hood in his sermon The Dirty Water of Baptism, Pannell reminded his audience that the Good News can be celebrated only when people put servant hood at the forefront of their lifestyle. Pannell spoke about three aspects of ministry in response to Jesus Christ, including partnership with a God that (thankfully) is bigger than us, solidarity with God and what God's doing in the world, and service to others as exemplified by Jesus Christ.

Pannell, the special assistant to the president and senior professor of preaching (emeritus) at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, began his sermon by asking how we as Christians can negotiate the fine line between piety and social reform. He noted that the evangelical movement had majored in saving souls, but said that many Christians have left other aspects of the Christian life behind.

"How do you celebrate the gospel, the Good News? To celebrate is to invite the society . . . to celebrate the cosmic significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ," Pannell said. "We do this best as servants."

Pannell acknowledged that many Christians aren't comfortable being servants, adding, "even when we talk about servant leadership we really talk about leadership." He challenged the audience to consider the example of Jesus the servant and the wonders God worked through Him. "Jesus is more than a savior," Pannell said. "He is our pattern, our model."

Worship could be a means of giving ourselves for service, Pannell said, noting that it could be a means for getting ready for duty in partnership with God. Part of that process is an acknowledgement that "God is God . . . and we wouldn't have it any other way."

But, Pannell added that Christians could not truly celebrate the Good News until "they are burdened with the things God is burdened about and upset about what God's upset about." He decried how first world Christians concerned themselves with petty issues like a president's sexual conduct, while issues like poverty, oppression and justice were disregarded. "Poor people march on Washington D.C. every 50 years . . . rich people march on Washington D.C. every day," Pannell said. "Where is the judgment of God on issues of justice?"

Pannell ended his sermon with a story about a graduation ceremony at Taylor University in Indiana, where he watched graduates receive a gift after being handed their diplomas. He discovered the gift was a towel, symbolic of the towel Jesus used to wipe the feet of his disciples. He urged his listeners to do likewise, praying to God that "we, your servants, report for duty."

The North Park University gospel choir, under the direction of Rollo Dilworth, opened the worship service with two songs. The 130-member choir sang I'll Never Stop Praising You and Praise You, with sisters Sarah and Kate Mylander of Omaha, Nebraska, opening the latter number with a duet and Mary Bridget Kustush of Chicago providing sign language.

Jeff Reed, associate pastor for worship and the arts at Hillside Covenant Church in Walnut Creek, California, wrote and arranged Behold the Child, which accentuated the coming of Christ and the acknowledgement of his greatness by the Magi. A prayer of confession by pastor Harvey Drake (Seattle, Washington, and prayers in Korean, Spanish, Inuit and Sudanese by Sam Sik Jung, Sr., Patty Retamal, Wassilie Mute, and James Tang, preceded the sermon.

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