Coalition Co-moderator Jerry Andrews converses with Gathering XI participant. OUTLOOK photo by Erin Dunigan [/caption]“Our team lost this Assembly. Badly. But the Coalition has already reloaded,” said Presbyterian Coalition Co-Moderator Jerry Andrews in his presentation, “The State of the Denomination,” at the 11th annual Presbyterian Coalition gathering Oct. 13 in Newport Beach, Calif. “The progressives have had great success in taking over the church,” Andrews explained, “but like all false paths they too have lost their way.”
Three words— post-modern, post-denominational, and post-Christian — describe the denomination in the aftermath of the General Assembly, he added.
The term post-modern, Andrews suggested, “is insufficient for those who desire to be faithful.” Referencing the decision to delay passing of the FOG report in favor of a two-year period of study, Andrews suggested that the General Assembly was not, in fact, ready for a denomination that is post-denominational.
The phrase post-Christian is the most serious, according to Andrews, in reference to the actions of the General Assembly. “We abandoned all teaching on homosexuality. … The faith was absent from the conversation.” The 218th General Assembly “was an assembly that had left its faith behind,” said Andrews, making it functionally post-Christian.
“The church has a faith without which she cannot live faithfully,” Andrews reminded. “How did we begin to doubt that?” Liberalism in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the key factor in this situation. “I know it is an easy target,” he admitted, “it is an easy target because it is such a large target.” Liberalism at its best plays the role of the prophet, but at its worst the role of the teenager, he pointed out.
The task at hand for Coalition members, in light of the current situation, is a rightly-defined and implemented discernment, said Andrews. “If discernment is going to be defined not as knowledge of the Word, but of the sense of self or of each other, then I’m uninterested,” he continued. Getting to know others in the church is of course a blessing, but it is not discernment. “It is not about hearing each other,” said Andrews, “but about hearing that one voice which we all need to hear.” It’s also not about sharing stories. “That’s how we build friendships,” he pointed out. Rather, it is hearing THE story.
The most promising conversation is not with the left, suggests Andrews, but with the Christian who acknowledges homosexual orientation and wants to engage the church. Relationships are needed “not with the person’s advocate, but with the person,” he argued. “We do not think of gays and lesbians as victims in need of advocates, but first and foremost, like us, as sinners in need of a Savior.” This, according to Andrews, is the church that “preaches the gospel to the sinner, is reminded of the gospel itself, and repents daily.”
“It is not clear to me that the church will take that path,” he admitted.
