An Interview with Dr. E. Stanley Ott
By Janine C. Hagan and E. Stanley Ott
E. Stanley Ott is pastor of the Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, USA. He is president of the Vital Churches Institute, and author of a free weekly email letter Building One Another. (Vital Churches Institute and Vital Faith Resources are in partnership with EcuMiniNet™ Online!)

Janine: Stan, tell me about being a pastor in a large Presbyterian church. With regard to your calling and/or role, what are your thoughts and particular focus during this season of Pentecost?

Stan: Typically congregations experience something of a post-Easter letdown as the school years moves to a close. We have found the weeks prior to Pentecost to be a good time to "step it up" a bit. For example, this year we will preach a seven-week series after Easter that will teach how to pattern our daily lives with God's purposes. The Book of Nehemiah will be our text. Interested persons will be invited into small group discussions. Some of those groups will continue to meet for the rest of the year.

Janine: Could you share something about Vital Churches Institute? What is the focus of the Institute? What does it offer? And, what are some of the benefits that people have named as a result of attending?

Stan: The aim of the Vital Churches Institute is to equip and encourage personal Christian spirituality and congregational vitality. The Institute offers seminars on congregational vitality and leadership. It also markets renewal materials through Vital Faith Resources. The Institute makes my weekly e-letter of encouragement available to any person who wishes to subscribe to it.

Janine: What about Vital Faith Resources? I know that there is a story or a "history" of VFR. Tell me about that.

Stan: For many years, Ben Johnson, Professor of Spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, led a modest publishing venture known as CTS Press. The aim of that ministry was to make materials on personal discipleship and congregational renewal available to the wider church. When Ben retired from the seminary, the Vital Churches Institute took on CTS Press, re-naming it Vital Faith Resources.

Janine: How would you define "Spiritual Energy"? Where and/or when have you received the most spiritual energy or "life"? Where or when does that now happen for you?

Stan: I suppose the term "spiritual energy" could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It seems to me that from Christian perspective, spiritual energy is the impetus given to our lives by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit en-livens our hearts with the truth of Scripture, introduces us to other believers who will cheer our hearts to seek the Lord, and the passion the Spirit give us to "glorify God and to enjoy God, forever."

There have been a several moments in my life in which I have been more keenly aware of the love of God. They happen most regularly as I go apart to a quiet place for an extended time of simple Bible reading and prayer. But, then there have been special times such as a dramatic sense of God's affirmation after praying on my knees in my dormitory room for the Lord to commission and send me where he wanted me to go.

As a graduate student at Purdue, I slipped in to the chapel of the Catholic Student Center and was overwhelming conscious of the presence of God. I remember reading The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis for the first time and experience a tremendous sense of the Spirit of God. A Steve Green CD, a penetrating sermon, a word of Christian encouragement from a friend and suddenly there is a kind of "Chariots of Fire" sense that God is immediately present working out his wonderful will in my life and in the lives of those around me.

(Interviewer's Note) Stan is one of those people whose passion for Jesus Christ is evident in all areas of his life. He is definitely called to invest that "spiritual energy" in new and challenging ways that will stimulate, revitalize, and harness that creative force for the future of faith.

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