The key word is ‘within’
The Presbyterian Layman May/June 2001 Volume 34, Number 4, May 30, 2001
A single word that describes the arena of the Confessing Church Movement is important – the movement is within the Presbyterian Church (USA). That means that Confessing Churches are not bolting to another denomination or forming their own. They are not calling for schism or for “two synods,” an idea floated last year in the The Presbyterian Outlook, which is merely schism by another name.
But they are realistic. They know schism already is cutting the heart out of the denomination. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk, delivered more bad news the other day: Membership declined by 34,871 in 2000 – the largest single-year loss since 1994. That’s the equivalent of a 670-member congregation disappearing every week for a year.
Even before the latest tally, the losses were shameful. Since 1965, membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has declined by 40 percent. That’s the very worst attrition rate among the mainline Protestant denominations. According to the denomination’s data, 11.6 percent of the members left between 1989 and 1999.
Meanwhile, using the denomination’s data base, we discovered that the first 150 congregations joining the Confessing Church Movement increased their membership by 4 percent in the same period. It seems that proclamation of the Gospel and commitment to the standards of Scripture and our Reformed tradition do make a difference.
The Confessing Churches want to remain within the Presbyterian Church (USA), but they do not want to stand under a fading banner of Biblical and moral confusion. They are led by men and women who are deeply committed to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They stand for essential matters – the exclusive Lordship of Christ, Scripture as the infallible rule of life and faith, the moral standards of God’s law.
They are shunning the false prophets who teach that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient, that the Bible is irrelevant and subject to private interpretation, that changing culture should negate timeless moral standards.
The Confessing Church Movement is grassroots, intensely public, rooted in the great confessions of the Church universal, united and growing. It is not an “official” organization or a special-interest group with a bureaucratic spokesman. It is a cry from the pews from Presbyterians who would remain Presbyterians if the denomination would do likewise.
It is a cry that must be heeded by commissioners to the 2001 General Assembly and leaders of the denomination’s staff – lest they destroy the Presbyterian Church (USA) even more quickly than they could have imagined.