Why our session decided to withhold our per capita
By David Swanson, May 8, 2006
David Swanson is the senior minister of First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Fla., the 5th largest congregation in the PCUSA.
Our family has been struggling through the illness of my wife’s father for the past several months. He is battling cancer and, as many of you know, it’s a tough fight.
As members of his family, my wife and I, along with her siblings and their families, have sought every possible avenue to find the right treatment and the right doctors. We have traced every lead regarding treatments that might help. One member of the family has been with him almost constantly, visiting doctors, providing food, and being careful to ensure that he does not inadvertently do anything that might make him feel worse.
Obviously, we do this because his life matters so very, very much to all of us. Even so, no matter how much we do, it’s hard to see a family member who is seriously ill.
As I look at our beloved denomination moving toward the 217th General Assembly, I have many of those same feelings. It is hard watching one I love suffer so much. I want to do everything I can to help bring her, the bride of Christ, back to full health and spiritual vitality. No doubt, she is sick. Very sick. She is hemorrhaging.
I stand by her, partly in the hope of finding an answer to the illness, and partly to ensure that she does not do something that will make her worse. You don’t allow a person with pneumonia to go out in the cold no matter how terribly they want to go out. You don’t allow an alcoholic to visit the liquor store. Love does not allow it. You don’t enable behavior that will make them worse.
The session of First Presbyterian Church of Orlando has given prayerful, thoughtful consideration to the withholding of per capita monies from synod and General Assembly. It has been painful and difficult to discuss. Even so, we have been led to the conclusion that the General Assembly is not acting in a manner that demonstrates obedience to God’s Word or his will. Our denominational leaders have not shown a willingness to enact discipline where discipline has been called for, nor have they acted in ways that truly represent the broader church.
Therefore, as members of the PCUSA family, we cannot, in good conscience, continue to enable such behavior by providing the financial means for its continuation. Far from separating from the family, as some suggest we are doing, we remain deeply committed. We are engaged at all levels of our denomination. We are standing by her. We are prayerful. We are serving and leading. Her life is so very, very precious to us that we cannot sit idly by in the hope the situation will improve. The time for wishing and hoping is over. Love demands action because her life is at stake. It is our fervent prayer that in due course, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the PCUSA will again be committed to God’s Word and to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When we see evidence of such movement, we will joyfully resume our per-capita giving – giving, as we always do, towards that which glorifies and honors God.
In closing, I know the situation is grave, but First Presbyterian Church of Orlando has not lost hope. We are mindful of Lazarus. He was not just sick when Jesus arrived; he was dead. Yet Jesus brought him back to life. I happen to believe that if God has done such life-redeeming work once, in fact many times, we should not suggest he cannot do it again.
May we do all we can to renew the health of our church while maintaining a deep faith in our God, the giver of all life.