HOUSTON — Do evangelicals look forward to a hopeful future for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)? For the approximately 125 pastors and other leaders at the 10th annual Gathering of Presbyterians, the opening addresses August 14 offered mixed messages, which is more positive than they have heard in years.
Like a student presenting her homework, the Coalition’s executive director, Terry Schlossberg, launched the event by reciting to the attendees an outline of the tasks carried out to fulfill assignments last summer’s attendees had urged upon the board.
First among the assignments was for the nearly two dozen renewal organizations to collaborate much more closely and even to consider merging. A major meeting convened last fall brought the organizations together for the first of a series of meetings. Some of those organizations are planning to leave the denomination, others are committed to stay, and others are living with a high level of uncertainty. Given the different strategies and skill sets working within the organizations a merger is not anticipated, she reported, “but we were, nonetheless, unified.”
She enlarged that thought. “That was an important moment for us. We could see that the landscape had shifted and we realized that we needed each other more than ever.”
Another assignment entailed formulating responses to the 2006 General Assembly’s adoption of the recommendations of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church (PUP). The approval of the fifth of six proposals generated high anxiety in the church. It is an authoritative interpretation of the Constitution that entrusts the discernment of ordination candidates’ fitness for office to their respective ordaining bodies. Formulating responses to this policy has largely focused upon helping presbyteries articulate ordination policies that allow no flexibility in maintaining published standards for ordination. “We have taken initiatives,” she said. “As a result, court cases have been filed” to try to overturn those efforts.
Further, she added, “Our discipline team has been vigorously engaged this year to resist the sort of local option where 173 presbyteries and 11,000 sessions are in the position to judge whether the requirements for ordination that reflect the church’s historic commitment are non-essential.”
Schlossberg crystallized her thoughts around the story of William Wilberforce, the subject of the popular movie, Amazing Grace, which ran in theatres nationwide this past year. While lauding the success of the politician’s efforts to convince Britain’s parliament to abolish the slave trade, she also recounted how preachers and other workers among England’s grassroots played an indispensable role not only in eliminating slavery but also in reforming manners throughout England. Similarly the renewal and reform of the church in our day will require the determined, prayerful efforts of many faithful workers, she declared.
The major homework assignment prepared by the Coalition is the formulation of a plan for renewal titled, “Rise Up and Build.” Using imagery drawn from the story of Nehemiah, it ought not to be treated “as a pile of papers with goals,” she said. “We bring it to you to be a plan that will take work.”
For more information on the Coalition and its new initiative, visit its Web sites: https://www.presbycoalition.org/ and https://www.presbycoalition.org/riseup.pdf
Immediately after her presentation, Mark Paterson, pastor of Community Church in Ventura, Calif., tackled the theological issues before the church. In an address titled, “Theological Integrity — Spiritual Vitality”, he reminded the audience that “Our premises, our basis, our foundation: these things determine everything that we will do and be in practice.” Specifically, “Our theory about who God is and how God acts … has to be right, or our every ethic is going to be skewed or worse.”
The “fatal flaw” of the Reformed tradition, he said, arises when we stop looking up in favor of looking within. “It’s a romantic perspective … an antithesis to the Reformed tradition, which never asked what I feel or what I want or who I am, but asked what is God, who is God, and how shall I respond rightly to God?”
The result? “We have a church that is directionless”, he said. But fixing it is a complicated, complex, profound task, which is why the Coalition has developed a plan for renewal that is complicated and complex.
Jerry Andrews, pastor of First Church in Glen Ellyn, Ill., and co-moderator of the Presbyterian Coalition, followed with his annual state of the church address. The complexity of the church was made evident in his report of progress being made by evangelical Presbyterians over the past decade.
After restating the reports of denominational failure introduced by the earlier speakers, he went on to report that the liberals, the progressives — long bemoaned as the power-brokering opponents of evangelical faith — are now stressed over the growing influence of the evangelicals. “While we ring our hands at recent actions of the GA, they … wonder what has happened to their church.”
Have you noticed, he asked, the titles of recent conferences, like “Is there a future for liberalism in the mainline church? … in the Presbyterian Church?”
Over the past 18 months more national staff positions have turned over than at any time in memory. Speaking of the new staff members, he pointed out that “A significant number of them are evangelical. Unabashed, unashamed. They told that to those who hired them.” Now, he said, “I am told by people who work in the building that the conversations in the cafeteria and in the hallways are evangelical. No longer does a person have to hide the fact that there is a Savior with whom we must deal.”
He added, “We’ve worked for this. We’ve prayed for this. We must take note of it, express gratitude for it and see what God will do with it.”
Speaking as a Chicagoan, he remarked, “Evangelicals have two things to learn from Cubs fans. First, anybody can have a bad century.” The crowd erupted with laughter. Then he added, “Second, hope is an attractive virtue.”
He chastened his audience to keep in mind that if the whole church were to be handed off to evangelicals, it still would need continual reforming. “We have not attended to being right before God with the same zeal that we attended to being right.”
*For disclosure purposes, it is important to note that Editor Jack Haberer served as moderator of the board for the Presbyterian Coalition 1995-98 and as a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity 2001-05.
