On December 11, 2003, Dr. Jack R. Rothenberger, our Senior Pastor and a pillar of the Schwenkfelder community, entered into eternal life. He will be sorely missed. Fortunately, he leaves behind some of his wisdom and understanding through his writings. The following thoughts come from his book, Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig and the Ecumenical Ideal. May his words challenge us and inspire us as we seek to live our lives for Jesus Christ.

As Christians we must take care not to put greater value on what we do for God than on what he does for us. The religion of Schwenckfeld places God in his rightful position and condemns those churches and ministers who tend to call attention to themselves and to the tremendous amount of work they do instead of calling attention to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The religion of Schwenckfeld places much emphasis upon individual responsibility to God for the welfare of all men.
The Church must constantly call the world to recognize the truth of St. Augustine's statement: "If we have God we have all and without Him we have nothing." Caspar Schwenckfeld's motto was very similar: "Nil Triste Christo Recepto," (Having Christ, I am not sad). There is always imminent danger facing the churches whenever they become too much concerned about the outward and neglect the inward. To be concerned about both, while giving priority to the inward, was Schwenckfeld's genius and can be the greatest contribution of the Schwenkfelder Church to modern ecumenical discussions.
The Schwenkfelder Church may be out of date, but it can be "superbly out of date" if it remains true to the insights of Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig. What responsibility rests upon the 2,500 Schwenkfelders who comprise the six congregations of Schwenkfelder descendants today?

First-They must recognize that the Church of Jesus Christ cannot be known or seen from the outside. One has to get inside to really be creatively alive. One has to become involved. He has to have a direct, personal encounter with God here and now. It is not enough simply to stand in the reflected light of a great heritage. One must seriously ask: Is this heritage ending or is it being continued through me? Am I helping to reflect the Light of the World who illuminated Caspar Schwenckfeld?

Second-As Schwenckfeld attempted to be the physician of a dissected church in his day, so his followers need to become a healing force in the divided church of today wherever they may live. They must be engaged in all ecumenical concerns, recognizing that more outward unity is not enough.

Third-As Schwenckfeld remained a layman and spoke with prophetic voice to the clergy of his day, so all his followers today must re-examine the meaning of the "priesthood of all believers" and become intelligently concerned about the unity of Christ's Church by witnessing to it and working for it no matter what they do to "earn their living."

Fourth-As Schwenckfeld saw that the need of his day was to rededicate the outward church to the depth of spiritual reality and thus became a greater leader in showing the way to unity in Christ by helping to educate and raise up valiant leaders, so the Schwenkfelder Church of today must raise up leaders from within its own ranks and must make its people aware of its profound spiritual heritage so that the
cause of Christ may continue in unbroken line.

Fifth-As Schwenckfeld allowed the Holy Spirit to guide him through the Scriptures to the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, so the Schwenkfelder Church must direct its people to the same Word who alone can give life meaning and purpose. The Schwenkfelder Church must reemphasize the "conventicle" method of serious Bible study, discussion and prayer.
Sixth-As Schwenckfeld sought to avoid coercion, so the Schwenkfelder people must avoid being imprisoned by their traditions and must sincerely and honestly seek to learn from their traditions how to make new application of spiritual truths to the conditions of today.

The basic task of the Schwenkfelder Church, as of all churches, is to seek for an experiential-spiritual religion which will enable its members to translate the Christian Faith from the first century through the mill of history, by way of the sixteenth century, to the present ecumenical movement in order to inspire the world to become the Household of God. Schwenckfeld gave no blueprint for the ecumenical church, but he did direct us to the only source of Christian unity-Jesus Christ.
Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig, 1489-1561, was a Christian nobleman and truly a "Confessor of the Glory of Christ" seeking the unity of his Church. He was "superbly out of date." We must not forget, however, that no one man or institution possesses the whole truth. Man's hope today is, as was affirmed by the early Christians as well as by Schwenckfeld, in simply belonging to the way Christ gave us. What matters most is that the individual seeker of truth should seek honestly for life's meaning and life's source of Christ.