Surely, our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs an answer. The net losses of 1,887,629 members and 1,985 churches, from the total of our two previous denominations in 1966, cry out for an answer. Lest you conclude that the answer would be to mount a major membership and church building drive, let me suggest that these dismal statistics, in reality, are the symptoms of a deeper malaise, the score card for a team in serious need of coming together for a common purpose.
The church universal, including our PC(USA) denomination, needs an answer. In this country, the church has lost its role of arbitrator/advocate for a moral and ethical society. The church is under attack by new age philosophies that challenge the church’s basic doctrines of sin, repentance, forgiveness and submission to the will of God. Respect for and confidence in the church is daily challenged by widely repeated voices of atheism and agnosticism. In Europe, the church is a remnant of echo-filled cathedrals and dwindling faithful. The church needs an answer.
At present, in the PC(USA), there are deeply-concerned groups who feel the answer to the difficult issues before the church is to divide the church. Others have invested decades of time and effort seeking more ecclesiastical openness and understanding toward sexual orientation, while even more are convinced that without biblical parameters, this can cause great damage to our church.
We need an answer–an honest answer to the genuine fears and concerns of those who see no other course but to leave the church, an answer that will move us beyond investing our time and resources in peripheral issues, beyond majoring in minors. An answer that will temper those actions and statements of General Assembly meetings that often result in unrest and distrust in our local congregations and leave our local pastors as the focus of angry reactions. We need an answer that will allow the church to speak prophetically and with authority to the plagues of our time; war across this earth, murder in our streets and the hatred underlying terrorism. We need an answer that will encourage and be supportive of our fellow Presbyterians whose primary focus is personal piety, and equally for those who know the need for corporate acts of compassion.
All these things and more need a reliable answer.
In the best of our Presbyterian tradition, such an answer should involve the whole church at every level, and in particular, the elders and pastors of our local congregations. It is to be hoped the answer can be effected without blame or rancor, and without reorganization or separation. It will become clearly evident to all of us. It will speak effectively to those concerns facing the church as set out above. It will call for reconsideration by those whose faces are set toward division. At the same time, it is an answer that will restore joy and openness in the light of God’s grace as we serve together.
What is the answer? In truth, it has long since been given to us. Our challenge is how to be a church that faithfully reflects it.
So, where do we begin? The answer will begin for us when we are willing to set aside for a moment our involvement in, or our distain for, the current “issues” before the church and reflect on the “why” of the church. The answer needed by our church begins with one simple, but profound question: For what reason does the church exist?
Undoubtedly, good and reasonable answers will come to mind and, taken together, I believe they will inevitably lead to our witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel, given to us by God, is the unique common ground of the church universal. Through the centuries, the gospel has sustained the church when challenged by persecution, doubt and despair. It binds us together with a joy that exists to be shared. From the beginning of the church until now, the purpose of the church, the reason for the existence of the church, is to bring the love and light of the gospel to the world. It must then follow that our witness to His gospel is the ministry and mission of the church. Our agreement with this statement is where the answer begins.
To profess agreement that we exist as a church to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ is hardly a theological revelation or a call for doctrinal restatement! It would be fair to say that most Presbyterians would assume that we are doing this now in our church and in our presbytery, and I would agree. From what I have observed across the church, from what I have read, from my experiences at every level of the governing bodies of the church, I believe that most of our local churches and most of our presbyteries have ministries and missions that are a promulgation of the gospel. As the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) however, we are a church hobbled by dissension and distrust, identified by our divisive “issues” rather than our witness to His gospel, and faced with further losses of members and churches who are solid in their faith but exhausted by the continuing conflicts within our denomination.
Can all this be reconciled? Certainly not by decree or action of the General Assembly, nor can it be done instantly. It can be done with patience and persistence and with the involvement of the people in the pews and the pulpits of our churches. The next step toward our answer depends on responsive actions by all Presbyterians who want the church to come together and bring the blessings of the gospel to our hurting world. To do this, Presbyterians at every level of the church should encourage our focus on the gospel as the center of our life and the source of our actions as a church.
How do we make this a reality? Providentially, we are blessed by a form of church government that submits our missions and ministries to the consideration and majority vote of our elected representatives. During this process, decently and in good order, we can move the church closer to this faithful witness by means of a simple question: “How will this be a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ?” That is the question, and it is the most formative question we can ever ask as a church. In congregations, presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly, we should freely ask that question every time we stand at the brink of a mission or ministry decision. “How will this decision we’re about to make be a witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
This question needs to be raised again and again until it is anticipated and included as a part of proposed missions and ministries in our sessions, presbyteries, synods, and especially at meetings of the General Assembly.
Those of us in the pews should voice the question, if needed, when the budget is reviewed for the congregation. Commissioners to our governing bodies should address this question, if needed, in committee and plenary sessions to the end that all the church can be assured that our time, talent and resources are indeed, a witness to His gospel.
I firmly believe that our clearly evidenced faith in the gospel will be the common ground on which all Presbyterians can stand together as a part of His church. Secure in this common bond, we can be free to disagree on the ways and directions of witness and, at the same time, we can move with a united and joyful voice to bring the gospel to speak to the world in which we live.
What about the answer that has been given to us? It will appear as we Presbyterians move ever closer to it. Ask the question; be quick to support those missions and ministries that are a witness to the gospel. Pray for and look forward to that time when the love of God, carried forward by the gospel of Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit will overcome the evil of this world. As our church comes together in the common purpose of a faithful witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be a part of the answer.
Let it begin soon.
William H. “Bill” Wilson has served on the General Assembly Mission Board (PCUS), the General Assembly Council [PC(USA)], and as Moderator, South Texas Presbytery (PCUS), Moderator, Synod of the Sun [PC USA)] and as Moderator, 197th General Assembly [PC(USA).]
