The Rev. DeEtte Decker, acting director of the PMA’s Communications ministry, tears a page from a medical textbook and offers up an Rx
The Immersion conference ended Thursday with worship that included inspired preaching and inspiring music, the latter by Dr. Tony McNeill, a sought-after workshop clinician, lecturer, consultant, mentor and guest choral conductor.
The two-day hybrid conference was put on by the Office of Vital Congregations at Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina. It also featured keynote addresses by the Rev. Dr. Gary Neal Hansen, the Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart and Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr.
The closing worship preacher was the Rev. DeEtte Decker, acting senior director of Communications in the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Decker opened with a description of Anton Syndrome, named for neurologist Dr. Gabriel Anton. It describes a patient’s complete lack of self-perception to their blindness. Decker described it as “a deficit in self-awareness.”
“I wonder,” Decker asked those gathered for worship, “do we have Anton Syndrome? Have we lost sight of what it means to follow Jesus out into our communities, to love our neighbor as ourself? Are we blind to our blindness?”
Decker preached on Romans 12:9-18, Paul’s requirements of the faithful in Rome to “hate what is evil” and “hold fast to what is good,” to “bless those who persecute you” and to “take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.”
“Paul is saying, ‘this is what y’all need to be doing. This is what following Christ looks like,’” Decker said, “and central to those relationships is love.”
Original source can be found here.
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