Many of you have heard me preach that I am “sinfully proud of being a Presbyterian.” After each General Assembly I ask myself “Are you still?” And the answer is always yes–even after attending 27 straight.
I never agree with all the decisions made, but I still come away Presbyterian. I’ve always been proud of our historic heritage in forming the United States. I know the break-aways always try to claim this “as well” but they can’t quite pull it off.
And all of you who have heard me know there is one thing I consider the most important of all — mission, mission, mission.
In our history we have been the Protestant denomination that opened the most mission fields. And we’re still doing it. We don’t always have the most missionaries out there but we go in first when it’s really tough. I only wish we could concentrate on that–taking the gospel into all the world, to all nations, including our own.
Many churches we have started around the world have a difficult time understanding some of the decisions we come up with at our Assemblies. That’s all right. I have a difficult time understanding them as well. But I am still Presbyterian and nobody will run me out of my church, which I firmly believe is still taking the message of Jesus Christ into the world.
If we could simply spend more time getting that message out there, and less time trying to twist the Scriptures into supporting something that isn’t there, we would be a lot better off. Why can’t we spend all that energy-all that anger-all that study time-on the real issue–get the word out to a troubled world that Jesus Christ is our salvation.
The world has gotten smaller through all the technologies we have invented. It’s too late to build a wall around our country. There’s so little time and we need to be about our mission. Instead we circle the wagons facing inward and shoot each other. Our missionaries out there desperately need our help in taking the gospel to an increasingly doubting world.
As to jumping from one denomination to another, I remember one of our mission workers telling a disgruntled Presbyterian, “I’m not going to change denominations. Christians have been disagreeing all the way back to the time of Corinthians. There is no perfect church, but I’ll stay with my mother church.”
I wonder when our good Presbyterian “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” first went out to Africa if he was ever asked, “What do you believe about weapons control?” “Why do you trade with that fellow over there?” “What is your sex life like?” “Are you using the correct language when talking to your woman?” We cling to Calvin’s “Reformed and always Reforming” as an excuse for anything and everything.
How in the world did we get in such a mess? I still maintain, “Although we’re not the biggest, we’re the most influential denomination in the world.” We need to use that wisely.
I will continue to be Presbyterian, and hope and pray we get back to helping our sister churches understand that we are sinners striving to do our best for the Good Lord.
And we have a lot we need to be doing. Much of the world needs clean water, food, education, medical care, and most of all faith in Jesus Christ. Some people in the world have no faith at all. Some people in this country have no faith at all. I want to stay in my church and keep trying to spread the word that our mission has been good and perhaps has been a special cog in God’s great plan. And I want to spread the word that our mission workers need our help and support and that our youth want to have the opportunity to help them.
Through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in all the world. Amen.
Marj Carpenter of Big Spring, Texas, is Presbyterians’ roving ambassador of missions. She has served as a PC (USA) moderator and elder.
