a defiant, determined transformation of the denomination, a creation of a new kind of church that is connected and vibrant and biblically based — although they are still waiting for God to reveal what kind of shape that new vision should take.
While they wait, they pray for God to show them the path. They organize into regional networks of evangelicals and work to defeat a proposed change in the church’s constitution, Amendment A for 2001, which would remove the ban on ordaining sexually active gays and lesbians. They speak openly of organizing to send conservative delegates to next summer’s General Assembly and of withholding money from the PC(USA) — using their financial might to force the denomination to pay attention and to stop supporting things that evangelicals believe are wrong.
If thousands of churches could be convinced to join the Confessing Church Movement — already there are more than 930, representing 310,000 Presbyterians — then those churches “would have the numbers to effectively command presbytery votes” and to elect conservative commissioners, said Marnie Crumpler, who has been active in Presbyterians For Renewal and narrated a PowerPoint presentation that showed the growth of the confessing church movement over the last six months.
She also said those churches have the potential to redirect at least $1.6 million in funding for the PC(USA) — saying they have the economic clout to “radically redirect” denominational spending.
[Church officials, speaking to the General Assembly Council’s Mission Support Services Committee last week in Tempe, Ariz., downplayed the effect disgruntled congregations might have on the mission budget, noting that many of the larger congregations which have joined the confessing church movement already either designate which mission projects they support or give to non-PC(USA)-sponsored mission projects. What might be influenced, however is per capita giving — the “tax” on congregations to support governing-body functions of the church — which did decrease after the flap over official participation in the Re-Imagining Conference.]
Then there’s schism
The threat of a schism — the possibility that evangelicals could walk away from the denomination, if they can’t use their collective muscle to force enough changes to satisfy them — is clearly on people’s minds.
Already, there is “a strong nucleus for a gracious separation from the PC(USA),” Crumpler said. There is acknowledgement here that the vote on Amendment A — however it turns out — won’t resolve the controversies. Even if Amendment A is defeated, “what will we have gained, except the chance to fight for another year? People are not satisfied with the status quo,” she said — bringing the crowd at First church, Orlando, to their feet for close to a minute of fervent applause.
“Now, let me be clear,” Crumpler continued when people sat down. “There is no present intention to exit the denomination” — more clapping. But she spoke of “a new thing that has begun taking shape in our midst,” and said that “precipitous events . . . could change our landscape very quickly.”
Leaders at this gathering — the Coalition’s annual, national event — are not holding back, either in their criticism of the denomination or in their predictions that conservatives have the strength to bring about a new day.
“We are putting on the top of the chart no longer the institution, but the frontline of ministry — the congregations,” said Bob Davis of the Presbyterian Forum. “There is a we-can-do-it spirit all over the country – it’s a `we are the church,’ ” a sense that evangelicals can build the kind of church they dream of from the ground up.
What will they do?
Doing that poses plenty of challenges — among them, what are the evangelicals trying to accomplish?
For starters, they are trying to convince the most restless among them not to just leave — pleading openly for the disgruntled to give the Holy Spirit more time to work.
“If you are considering today unilaterally departing from this denomination . . . you’ll be alone, but you’ll also weaken all of us,” said Doug Pratt of Pennsylvania. “We need to stick together.”
But Pratt also acknowledged that one of the questions people are asking most is what the evangelicals really want to achieve. “Where are we headed? Only God knows — that’s all we can say,” Pratt said.
He derided suggestions that the confessing church movement is being masterminded — calling it a grassroots organization that “has never been planned, orchestrated or controlled” by any renewal organization or by a coalition of those groups.
And he said such a movement, or the regional networks the evangelicals want to build up, is “hard for our opponents to identify and pin down, let alone attack” — because it lacks a headquarters or clear organizational structure.
Carmen Fowler, a Georgia pastor and the Coalition’s interim co-moderator, likened changing the church to turning on her defroster to wipe the frost from her car’s windshield. It’s “only dissipated by one thing — heat from the inside,” Fowler said. She added later: “We want to turn up the heat.”
