Several presbyteries, concerned that the church was not stating strongly enough that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, sent overtures to the Assembly. Commissioners responded with a statement of their own — not an official confession of the church — and requested that the church’s Office of Theology, Worship and Discipleship prepare a detailed response to the issues raised by the presbyteries.
Using Scripture and excerpts from the Book of Confessions, the paper’s goal is “to help the church better understand the theological richness of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
A key element of the paper – in light of the 213th General Assembly’s statement which has been criticized in some circles – states: “Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord, and all people everywhere are called to place their faith, hope and love in him. . . . No one is saved apart from God’s gracious redemption in Jesus Christ. Yet we do not presume to limit the sovereign freedom of ‘God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Timothy 2:4). Thus, we neither restrict the grace of God to those who profess explicit faith in Christ nor assume that all people are saved regardless of faith. Grace, love and communion belong to God, and are not ours to determine.”
While most of the council affirmed the paper Saturday, at least one took exception with this portion. Horacio Valdez, an elder member from Boston Presbytery, said the language indicated “an ambivalence toward Jesus Christ,” and said he could not support the paper. When the 67 council members present voted by voice, at least three of them voted “nay.”
In an interview later, council chair Jeff Bridgeman supported the paper as a teaching tool within the church, but doubted it would have much impact on those congregations which are supporting the confessing church movement within the PC(USA). They feel a need to make a statement, he said.
“It would have been good to have had this paper before the Assembly,” he added, noting that the Assembly commissioners were under a tight deadline to compose and agree upon a statement in response to the presbytery overtures.
Council stops further Covenant People development
General Assembly Council has approved discontinuing further development of the third year of the church’s Covenant People curriculum.
The action — expected since the church’s curriculum publishing office halted development in mid-August — came after publishing officials decided that lack of use of the curriculum made further development a poor use of the church’s resources.
Only approximately 1,000 congregations, about 10 percent of the churches in the PC(USA), are using the Covenant People curriculum, down from approximately 4,000 congregations when the first year of Covenent People was introduced in 2000.
The council also approved two related actions.
GAC Chair Bridgeman was directed to write an open letter to the church to explain the discontinuance of further development and to make clear the availability and educational support for existing Covenant People resources.
Also the Congregational Ministries Publishing staff was directed to bring preliminary curriculum alternatives and proposed budgets to the Congregational Ministries Division Committee meeting in November. Proposals by the committee would then go to the GAC meeting in late January 2002.
Council member Cliff Sherrod, an elder from Midland, Texas, said the Covenant People curriculum was high quality, but not teacher/user friendly. He suggested that future curriculum efforts follow a motto: “We’ve got to reach the ones who teach.”
Earlier in the week, the Congregational Ministries Division Committee tabled a proposal for creating a divisional task group to study why the Covenant People curriculum did not succeed from a marketing point of view. Mike Gillespie, a Christian educator from Lakeside Park, Ky., made the motion, noting that “there are serious flaws in how we do curriculum.”
Approximately $6 million has been invested in Covenant People, the first denominationally based curriculum the Presbyterian church has produced in 30 years.
Sandra Moak Sorem, publisher of Congregational Ministries Publishing, acknowledged numerous problems which have plagued the four-year development of the curriculum. Among them has been a major turnover in the staff: no leading figures remain from the staff which started the process.
Two other curriculum lines the PC(USA) is offering – Bible Quest and Present Word, both ecumenically produced – are doing well, exceeding both budgeted projections and year-to-date sales from last year.
