The earlier articles were published by The Presbyterian Outlook, November 17, 2008, and March 16, 2009. These thoughts reflect an intentionally centrist perspective on the Church.
The current Form of Government (1983 FoG) says surprisingly little about mission of any kind. The concern for mission is isolated to Chapter 3, “The Church and Its Mission.” The rest of its pages spell out the utilitarian — almost mechanical — organization and rules by which Presbyterians conduct church business. They would work with any group on any subject matter. At the point of nuts and bolts, the FoG brings out neither the accent on mission nor the core affirmation of Presbyterian church governance, that Jesus Christ is the principal actor at the center of the Church’s life. The gap is especially glaring when dealing with congregations and sessions.
Never mind that the developed concept and terminology of mission belong to the relatively recent, Modernist-Pietist era of the Church (1650-1950/present). Mission at best is dynamic, constantly in motion, a vigorous effort to follow and serve Jesus Christ wherever he goes. For Pietism, mission moves back-and-forth between the poles of Church and World. In one direction the Church moves toward the World to reach people in the name of Christ. In the other direction people move out of the World toward the Church as both individuals and society become Christian in some sense.
The language of Church and World is increasingly problematic, but the rhythms of mission are not. This essay will use the rhythms of gathering-and-scattering, to clarify and strengthen the missional focus of a revised Form of Government.
Mission as a rhythm
For at least a hundred years PCUSA liberals and conservatives have agreed on the importance of mission. As the Confession of 1967 puts it, “God’s reconciling work in Jesus Christ and the mission of reconciliation to which he has called his church are the heart of the gospel in any age.” (The Book of Confessions 9.06) The six “Great Ends of the Church” offer a broad window on mission as well as its Pietistic roots. Accordingly, the Church exists for:
(i) “the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of mankind;
(ii) the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
(iii) the maintenance of divine worship;
(iv) the preservation of the truth;
(v) the promotion of social righteousness; and
(vi) the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”
(Book of Order G-1.0200, from the United Presbyterian Church of North America, 1910)
PCUSA liberals and conservatives have also disagreed for at least a hundred years on whether to pursue mission mainly as evangelism (first-second ends) or as social action (fifth-sixth ends). To find common ground, we have to push a step further.
The “ground zero” of this effort is Jesus Christ, who is the principal actor at the center of the Church’s life, her worship (third-fourth ends above). Simply put, without an active Christ there is no Christian Church, Presbyterian or otherwise.
But, like politics, all mission is local. And locally mission entails a constant, back-and-forth rhythm between the Christian community gathered and the Christian community scattered. In one direction the community moves from scattered to gathered, in the other direction from gathered to scattered. The church follows its leader: Jesus Christ is both the sower scattering the seed and the harvester gathering the grain. As one of us, Christ is both the seed being scattered and the harvest being gathered.
Gathered, congregations worship God, nurture fellow members, and strengthen the ties that bind Christians together in community. Scattered, congregations reach out beyond themselves, whether to live simply as loving individuals and families, convert sinners (evangelism), meet human needs (compassion), or seek justice for the poor and oppressed (social action). Gathering concentrates on the members of the Church. Scattering engages the context in which the Church finds itself — particular people, community settings, problems, needs, changes, issues — and how particular congregations engage their contexts.
Whether gathered or scattered, Christ remains the principal actor. Christ gathers us together for worship, creates a gifted community around himself, and holds us together in unity regardless of our diversity. The Christ whom we meet in worship also goes before us when we scatter. Christ shows up concretely on the faces of people we meet, near or far; with the events of our lives, good or bad; and at every moment of faith asking, What are You doing now, God? Above all, Christ brings a fellowship with himself. We meet Christ in person when, as a precious gift of God, we hear the Word he speaks to us at worship, and we participate in his forgiving love for lost sinners (including us!), his reconciling hostile parties, and his acting compassionately for the least among us.
Scattered>gathered
During the Modernist-Pietist era (1650-1950/present), this rhythm mostly took the form of sending out members (missionaries) to evangelize other people, then receiving them into the membership of the Church.
Worship was turned into a useful tool, as in the tent meeting, to make converts, revival services renew them, and Sunday sermons and church school to educate them. Even through these utilitarian forms, the focus is still visibly on God, our self-giving love for others, and our shared identity with the crucified, risen Christ. Historically, this rhythm has let Christians as individuals deal with public issues and people beyond the walls of the church.
Considered without its opposite rhythm, the rhythm of scattered>gathered has an inherently utilitarian, institutional character. It appeals to people in terms of how the Gospel meets their needs. It asks people to “come to church,” to show and grow in their faith. It “builds up” the church by recruiting people to take part in its activities and by moving them to support the church with their time, talents, and money. In fact, the Pietist era has produced great membership growth, one of the most successful in the history of the Christian movement.
The rhythm of scattered>gathered, however, can lose sight of Jesus Christ as alive and active as Lord at the center of the Church. Not accidentally, the church in this rhythm parallels the business corporation developed for the production and distribution of goods and services during the Industrial Revolution (1750-1950). Both aim to meet human needs, the one to feed the spiritual life and the other to provide for life’s temporal and material aspects. Both enterprises risk taking on a life of their own, the one for growth of membership and transforming impact on people’s lives, the other for expansion and profit. Following this model, the churches risk turning the Gospel into a commodity to be sold, and organizing for their own prosperity or at least survival. Likewise, church membership risks acting like an exclusive club or a tribe looking out for its own interests; while church leaders risk living in a cocoon removed from real life. Succumbing to these risks the Church becomes self-serving, self-sufficient, and/or worst of all for Christians, self-righteous, as its critics from Berger to Barna have deplored. That is the harsh critique, and our deepest suspicion, of the institutionalized church and organized religion.
Since World War II, Western culture has become less receptive to direct Christian involvement in the public arena, for various reasons (secularism, rapid advances in science/technology, religious pluralism, the rising wealth/ power of nations). Experiencing this rejection as cultural disestablishment, American Christians have found themselves more and more confined within the walls of their own churches and unsure what relevance the Gospel has for life. Today we Presbyterians, and Christians everywhere, struggle to recover our identity in Christ beyond what is merely useful to ourselves or some self-sufficient institution.
Gathered>Scattered
An opposite trend has emerged during the past 50 years that reverses the previous rhythm. Fueling this trend are cultural movements to de-centralize all institutions and to embrace a worldwide diversity of people. But the primary impetus for this among intentional Christians has been a yearning for the authenticity of the Gospel and the integrity of the Church.
The Church’s true fiber comes through most plainly when Christians actually serve God for nothing, proclaim the Gospel boldly, rejoice over the salvation of every lost sinner, lose their lives for Jesus’ sake and the Gospel’s, love others as Jesus loved them, love their enemies, do justice and love mercy, and act kindly toward the least among us. In all these accents lies the God-given, earnest desire to serve others as we serve God, expecting nothing in return. That is “the heart of the Gospel in any age” reflected in mission (C67, BC 9.06), whether evangelism or social action. That desire gives strong impetus to the emerging rhythm of gathered>scattered.
Of course, the worship of God — the focus upon God above all else — is as indispensable to this rhythm as it is to its opposite. At its root, worship entails loving and serving God with no higher purpose than itself, plus the freedom and joy of self-giving without calculating what we get out of it. The community gathered provides the crucial launching pad for the community scattered in this rhythm. The shift in rhythms is reflected in the explosion of local ministry projects among Presbyterians everywhere, plus developments in contemporary worship, from liturgical renewal to singing praise choruses.
Both dynamics have risks. Without its opposite rhythm in play, scattered> gathered risks losing its self-giving authenticity. Similarly, without its partner, gathered>scattered risks losing its identity in Christ. Seeking relevance at all costs, being consumed by the causes we serve, or being immersed in the affairs of the world, we easily lose our connection with Christ (God with us) and become bitter or cynical or despairing. In fact, the two back-and-forth rhythms correct, even require, each other. Christ remains the primary actor of the Church, whichever rhythm we consider.
A new FoG?
We badly need to revise the 1983 FoG so it will clarify mission at the congregational level. The latest Draft Revision (Oct. 2008) adds some accents on mission in a separate Foundations document, but does little to change the structures or procedures of the PC(USA) already in place. That criticism of the draft revision was made already at the 2008 General Assembly. The rhythms of gathering-and-scattering offer a way to bring mission accents into the nuts and bolts of Presbyterian church governance. May the New Form of Government Task Force, along with Presbyterians throughout the denomination, feed such re-visions into that document!
Merwyn S. Johnson is professor of historical and systematic theology emeritus at Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, S.C., and visiting professor of theology at Union-PSCE at Charlotte, N.C.
