“Can we be missional and ignore what is going on in our denomination,” asked Michael Walker to conference attendees, who were seeking to gain a sense of how the Presbyterian Global Fellowship was planning to address the recent actions of the 218th General Assembly. The issues of interfaith relations and human sexuality as it applies to ordination standards were the major concerns. Walker is former executive director of Presbyterian for Renewal and currently is Theologian in Residence at Highland Park Church in Dallas and a Ph.D. candidate in History of Doctrine at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Throughout the conference participants were asked to provide feedback on comment cards. Co-host Pastor Mike McClenahan of Solana Beach (Calif.) Church, said one recurring question from the cards was whether or not the Presbyterian Global Fellowship was going to address what many evangelicals in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) consider to be pressing issues. “That’s why we are affiliated with groups such as PFR and the Outreach Foundation,” said McClenahan. Those groups, he suggested, are working on issues of strategy, while PGF realizes that “we cannot ignore the health and the focus of the church.”
This focus, as witnessed over the course of the three-day conference, included discussions about the church in Iran, outreach programs to at-risk youth in San Diego, ministry to North Korea, and a challenge for the church in America to see itself as sent into the world to bear witness to the kingdom of God. PGF Executive Director Kelly Kannwisher quoted pastor and author Tim Keller, who has pointed out that there are more Presbyterians in Ghana than in the U.S. and Scotland combined. Speaker Brenda Salter McNeil challenged the group with the story of the Samaritan woman as told in John 4. “The Father is seeking out a church that will be the church,” challenged McNeil, “a church that is not stuck on debates that keep us going around and around in circles.”
Conferees raised questions for conference leadership regarding the current tensions in the denomination. While frustration and a desire for a quick solution was voiced by some (“Why continue to preserve a unity that does not exist?” asked one participant) thoughtfulness in proceeding seemed to be the mood of those in leadership. Paul Detterman, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal asked those gathered at a break-out session to imagine that they were lodged much too high up in an oak tree. “We know that we need to get down,” said Detterman. One way is to test Newton’s physics. “The other,” suggested Detterman, “is to look very carefully before you take that first step to see if you can make it to the branch 15 feet down.” Understanding that some are clamoring for action or decision, for some sort of response to share with sessions and congregations that have felt alienated from the decisions made by the General Assembly, Detterman asked for a bit of time to continue considering a way forward that might both preserve unity, but also maintain purity within the PC(USA).
Some attendees said they are beginning to see themselves as missionaries within and to the denomination. “I’m doing ministry in Nineveh,” shared one participant. “Jonah wanted to run and sometimes I wanted to run,” he confessed. “I am frustrated by this discussion,” shared another participant, “because it sounds as though someone else is the church and we are not, as if someone else makes up the PC(USA).”
Michael Walker pointed out that PGF members should praise some things that came out of the recent General Assembly. These included the approval of a mission budget that will allow for more missionaries as well as the commitment to grow God’s church deep and wide. But he also expressed the frustration felt. “Folks feel genuinely morally implicated in the actions of other governing bodies even if they are not themselves part of those,” suggested Walker. “If the action of one governing body is the act of the whole church then those who are in the whole church are morally implicated,” Walker pointed out. One questioner asked if it would not be a good idea to be in conversation with “the other side” to find a way to move forward faithfully and that would be respectful and honoring of all within the denomination. “We have to try to discern together how to navigate the messiness,” admitted Walker.
“Some have asked what is the master plan for PGF going forward,” said McClenahan during the closing communion service. “The truth is that we are listening and we are sensing that there is momentum.” “We are convinced that the church cannot restructure its way to health,” said The Outreach Foundation’s Rob Weingartner. The answer, suggested Weingartner in summing up the theme and mood of the conference, is that the PC(USA) needs to “reclaim the apostolic nature of the church that the gospel is good news to be shared, following the Jesus who sends each one of us into the world.”
