New Wineskins speaker
predicts tough times ahead
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, August 12, 2008
ATLANTA – Challenging Pharaoh is serious business, said the Rev. Carmen Fowler, associate minister of Providence Presbyterian Church in Hilton Head, S.C., and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches. “It was hard on Moses, and it will be hard on you, too.” Fowler was speaking to a New Wineskins sponsored seminar, August 6-7, at an Atlanta airport hotel.
Carmen Fowler
“Don’t expect anyone to do this for you. You might as well get used to the idea that somebody’s going to get angry. Someone will hate you. You’re probably going to get hurt.”
Fowler’s tough talk was aimed at 45 ministers and 45 elders from congregations who are finding life within the Presbyterian Church (USA) increasingly distasteful. These times require courage, she said.
Being the church
The New Wineskins Association of Churches is a distinctive group of congregations, said Fowler. “We are here to help one another be the church. One can be the church within the PCUSA or in leaving the PCUSA. Both options have integrity. Neither is easy. You’ll have to decide what God is calling you to do.”
Responding to a flurry of questions about leaving, Fowler said “It’s not about leaving the church; it is about being the church.” She dismissed claims by denominational bureaucrats that the PCUSA is the church. It is an organization with which your church is affiliated. If congregations choose to disaffiliate from one denomination and affiliate with another, they are not leaving the church, she said.
“Let me ask you a question,” said Fowler. “If your congregation were free today to make a choice, would it choose to join the PCUSA?”
A chorus of negatives ricocheted across the room. “How your congregation answers that question might have some bearing on your conversations about disaffiliation,” said Fowler. Increasingly, people in the pews are chanting “Let my people go!” said Fowler.
Admitting that the demand has a stirring ring to it, she cautioned those who say it to prepare for Pharaoh’s response. “Be prepared to answer three questions,” she said: “Who are your people? Where are they going? And what will they take with them?”
Who are your people?
“You need to know your people,” said Fowler. “Do you know what they believe? Are they of one mind on essential tenets of Reformed faith? To what extent, if any, do they feel that being ‘Presbyterian’ is a reality that is exclusive to one denominational expression of Presbyterianism?”
Fowler reminded those whose congregations are asking them to find a faithful Reformed body with which to realign that presbytery officials will be asking similar questions. “Although some presbyteries still have no process for addressing the dismissal of a congregation to another Reformed body (something the Constitution requires), it is not unusual for that process to include the presbytery’s desire to poll the congregation in search of denominational loyalists whom they call ‘the true church.’ In some cases, that minority, no matter how small, has been used by the presbytery to confiscate the congregation’s property.”
Where are they going?
Fowler suggests testing the congregation’s desire to disaffiliate by polling members during a worship service and collecting their responses before they leave the sanctuary. “If the consensus is to leave, then one must ask if the congregation is unified in its choice of alternatives and if those alternatives are viable,” she said.
In an apparent attempt to curtail the migration of PCUSA churches into the Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s New Wineskins Transitional Presbytery, the 2008 General Assembly approved a new Authoritative Interpretation of the Constitution that tells presbyteries that consider dismissing a congregation to another Reformed body to weigh the following criteria:
- The receiving body must be doctrinally consistent with the essentials of Reformed theology as understood by the presbytery;
- The receiving body must be governed by a polity that is consistent in form and structure with that of the Presbyterian Church (USA);
- The receiving body must be of sufficient permanence to offer reasonable assurance that the congregation is not being dismissed to de facto independence.
Fowler said the New Wineskins Association of Churches welcomes these criteria. What the first criterion means, said Fowler, is that presbyteries must specify the essentials of Reformed theology, something they have heretofore resolutely resisted. “If they can’t say what they believe, how can they judge the essential tenets professed by the receiving body?”
Years ago, New Wineskins leaders launched their movement by declaring essential tenets of Reformed faith, and they have been asking without result that a denomination that places its highest priority on “inclusiveness and diversity” specify what it believes.
Fowler said that the full text of the New Wineskins Association’s response to the denomination’s Authoritative Interpretation has been posted on the web at www.newwineskinsassociation.com/demo/wordpress/?p=26.
What will they take with them?
Fowler urged church leaders to get educated on the subject of church property. Spotlighting a case in Londonderry, N.H., she said that recent litigation has gotten nasty. In the Londonderry case, the Presbytery of Northern New England, funded by more than $185,000 from the General Assembly, filed a personal lawsuit against each member of the local church session. (The Londonderry case was settled by an agreement between the new EPC congregation and the presbytery.)
Fowler reported that litigation is now occurring in more than 40 presbyteries. Obtaining competent legal counsel early in the game is critically important, she said. Congregational leaders should have their corporate documents reviewed in the light of relevant state law. They should also weigh their congregation’s affection for its property, understanding that they may put that property at risk in a decision to disaffiliate.
Standing together
Fowler said that the key to the New Wineskins initiative is in its networks. “No central organization will be the church for you. If you and your congregation are committed to being the church where you are, you should reach out to like-minded congregations for mutual support and accountability. Our office can help you with resources and in some cases suggestions of names in your area that you can contact, but the business of networking is yours, not ours.”
While strongly advocating the development of network covenants, Fowler disparaged suggestions that groups of congregations might hide behind generic, class action lawsuits. “You need to know that if your church wants to protect its property, you’ll have to take that action all by yourself.”
“We need one another,” she said. “Churches that go to court need to know that you are standing with them. We can pray for one another, write letters of encouragement to one another, send money to help our churches that are in litigation …There are lots of things we can do to demonstrate our solidarity. People who share your faith will support you, but when you enter the court room, they cannot act for you. That decision must be yours.”
Fowler’s presentation was punctuated by testimonies from representatives of congregations that are actively engaged in ministry networks. The Rev. Thomas James, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Frankfort, Ind., described a network of five congreg
ations in his presbytery that meets regularly for prayer, resource sharing, mutual encouragement, accountability and discussions with presbytery officials. “Our getting together has given us clarity and strengthened our commitment to live out the New Wineskins vision,” he said.
While they comprise nothing that even approaches a majority in their presbytery, these five churches have found that by meeting with presbytery leaders they have gained a better reception than each congregation might achieve on a solo basis. “Some of our churches have done the necessary legal work. They loaded the elephant gun and then put the safety on, hoping that our conversations with presbytery leaders will result in alternatives to litigation” he said.
A ‘three musketeers’ strategy
In one of several break-out sessions, participants discussed the role that networks can play in forming strong bonds of solidarity and mutual protection. “We need a ‘three musketeers’ covenant: ‘all for one and one for all!'” said a minister in the group. “We must covenant with one another so that presbytery understands that if one of us is attacked, we’ll all respond as if we were attacked.”
“This is an area in which our ‘cathedral churches’ can play a crucial role,” said another. Recognizing that most of the denomination’s large churches (2,000-plus members) are theologically conservative and are led by senior ministers who identify themselves with renewal groups, he suggested that large churches might spread umbrellas of protection over their smaller church colleagues in the presbytery. “Presbytery wouldn’t hesitate to crush leaders of a 150-member church, but it might think twice if it knew its largest church would retaliate by cutting off all funding to the presbytery!”
But others in the group cited the lackluster performance of PCUSA mega churches that call themselves evangelical. When presbytery officials targeted Hollywood Presbyterian Church, ejecting its ministers and taking over its session, some “tall steeple” pastors sent personal condolences to the ministers, but most played it safe publicly, not lifting a finger to help the besieged congregation.
One participant stated that PCUSA’s large church pastors, several of whom are prominent in renewal group circles, have demonstrated a notable lack of courage in such circumstances. That observation brought a comment from the Rev. Gerrit Dawson, co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches: “The reality is that when one of our colleagues is attacked we make excuses for not standing beside them. We say, ‘Well, he had these flaws … he was excessive … he made mistakes … he didn’t follow the Book of Order … he had polity issues …'”
“No one is perfect,” continued Dawson. “If we make a commitment to stand beside one another, that’s a commitment, for good or for ill. We’re all human, and we all fail at some point. Maybe our friends did not use the best judgment in a specific instance. Maybe their words weren’t the words we would use. Maybe they made mistakes. But the real question is, will we be in covenant with one another, no matter what?”
Dawson’s use of “covenant” provoked a reflective silence. Covenant, a word found in Christian marriage vows, brought to mind “in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health …” This unequivocal commitment is an essential part of the New Wineskins networks whose members promise to inspire, teach, discipline and support one another.
Do not fear!
Referring to the “Louisville Papers,” documents penned by denominational attorneys that counsel presbyteries to seize local church property, change the locks, freeze bank accounts, choose “hierarchical” rather than Baptist judges, defrock ministers, remove sessions and take other measures to intimidate local church ministers and congregations, Fowler acknowledged that evangelicals in the PCUSA have reasons to tremble.
“But the Bible says, ‘Do not be afraid!'” she said.
Churches that contemplate telling Pharaoh “Let my people go!” need to employ the power of prayer and learn what Scripture says about fear, said Fowler. Fear can sap your strength and undermine your commitment. “That’s why prayer is so important … You must turn your eyes beyond those who threaten you and look to Jesus … He is the one who says, ‘do not be afraid.'”
Fowler, who experienced her own version of rejection by Central Florida Presbytery because of her association with the theologically conservative Presbyterian Coalition, said she had to come to terms with fear. “I asked myself, ‘what is the worst thing that they can do to me?'” she said.
“My mother was afraid for me, so I had to reassure her. I said ‘Look Mom, what can they do to me? Are they going to burn me at the stake?'”
“I realized that the worst thing they could do to me was take away my ordination. And then I thought ‘if the institution that ordained you no longer upholds its own standards, or even a conviction as central as the lordship of Jesus Christ, how valuable is their ordination?’ It was then that I knew there is nothing they can do to me that really matters, and I stopped being afraid.”
Face reality
Fowler’s talk was tough. “You’re going to pay a price,” she said. When New Wineskins congregations hurt the institution’s income, it will fight back. “Count on it,” said Fowler. “It’s going to cost you, whether you decide to be the church within the denomination or outside. But why should we be surprised? Doesn’t Scripture call us to suffer for the gospel?”
“Pray to the Lord,” concluded Fowler. “Hold fast to one another; prepare for the battle; do not be afraid; and remember above all else that you belong to the Lord.”