When J. Herbert Nelson asked his family if he should accept the nomination as Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), his daughter made a clarifying comment.“Daddy, you ought to do it, because you’re a fixer,” she said.
Nelson has been a redevelopment pastor, a church planter in an impoverished setting, and an advocate for social issues dear to the denomination. He is a fixer. And now, as he takes on the role of Stated Clerk for a denomination that has been on the decline for decades, he will find himself facing the ultimate test as a fixer.
During his speech and answers to questions from the General Assembly floor before the election, Nelson gave his assessment of the situation he enters into.
“We are not dying; we are reforming,” he said on several occasions, setting forth his theme for how he views the future of the PCUSA.
“It’s not just a crisis of losing members,” he said of the denomination’s challenges. Noting the changing face of America and the homogeneity of the PCUSA, he added, “We can’t be a 93 percent white denomination in the coming years.” While making denominational history by electing African Americans as both Stated Clerk and Co-Moderator, there was significant disappointment at the lack of any Asian representation among candidates for both offices as noted by several Korean commissioners.
Acknowledging the theological divide within the denomination, Nelson emphasized the need to set aside the tendency to label and thereby dismiss others, including evangelicals.
“Do we have the will to get beyond where we are?” he asked of the impasse. “We are going to do everything possible to mend broken relationships.”
Later, he added, “Pray for me. Work with me, not on me. And we’ll get some things done.”
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We’ll see.
“We are not dying; we are reforming,”
Is that why Calvin and Knox are spinning in their graves.
Nailing to the coffin.
Start by accepting the HOLy Bible as inerrant, infallible, the only rule of faith and practice for starters.
The denomination IS dying. We have had a very liberal leadship team foisting its own progressive positions on a not-as-liberal membership. For some reason, they have have jumped on just about every contentious platform and lack both the experience and education/knowledge to support their positions. They have taken on so many extreme left leaning causes that I have often wondered if a more right leaning group declared that the sky was Carolina blue, this leadership would deliberately disagree. (Carolina, as we know, is at the root of one of their problems.)
With all due respect, this new stated clerk does not have big shoes to fill, but he has a tremendous responsibility if he really intends to see the congregation grow. The good news, speaking somewhat facetiously, is that if he can stem the defections and show even a smidgen of growth, the resulting percentage increase will look much larger given the smaller base.
Personally, I implore him to stay out of politics. If he has a background similar to the others he now follows, he has not the skill and knowledge to take similar stands on our behalf. He also needs to realize that he and his committees could not begin represent the larger membership and should not be so arrogant as to assume that he does – they do.
He will also have to cut the disenginuous spins the prior leadership has been putting on the denomination’s decline. He will also have to interpret the most recent “Way Forward” survey through very different lenses, realizing that respondents would necessarily trend more to the left given the departures of so, so many of the more conservative congregations and individual members. (He might also want to redefine “graceful dismissal.”)
Yes, he has a lot on his plate. Let’s hope he is up to the task. As Mr. H says above, “We’ll see.”
Mend broken relationships with whom ? Social, cultural, political, and theological liberals intent on pushing specific issues and agendas who left the GA dissatisfied it didn’t go far enough to meet their demands ? Based on his record heading the Washington DC office, that would be a reasonable guess. Or trying to mend the hard-broke relationship with those on the other side of the spectrum ?
I don’t know how he can bridge that gap. My answer to his question, “Do we have the will to get beyond where we are?” is probably not. But I’m more than willing to watch and see if his heart is really in doing that. The question to my mind is does Dr Nelson have the will to set aside his own strongly held biases and be a leader of the whole ? Time will tell.
Not sure why the Korean churches are not leaving en masse at this point. There seems to be a mutual policy of the denomination and the Korean churches ignoring each other at this point, but the traditional evangelical Christianity found in Korean churches is surely not compatible with the “new, improved” PCUSA.
Well, praying the best for you, my friend.
Two concerns:
1. Honesty. Check the stats! We are dying. How can I trust you if you don’t tell the truth about the increasingly imminent death of our franchise by its thanatos libido? You sound like the guy in DC who thinks the Islamofascistnutballs just need better jobs and cellulars and hugs.
2. Reforming? I pray you do not represent those “reforming” with two feet planted firmly in the air. Please remember the whole “motto” of the Reformation: “Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda SECUNDUM VERBUM DEI.
Only a strong dose of Jesus by the book can “fix” us.
Moretheless, I will be praying His best through you.
His best.
No one nor no thing else.
Blessings and Love!
The leadership continues to be in denial. I’ve witnessed first hand the spin. Great comfort is taken in the number of congregations we still have. But, there is seldom mention of the size of these remaining congregations. At the same time, there is never mention of the size of the congregations that have left.
I am sure, too, that much emphasis will be put on the “Way Forward” survey. The leadership will have to understand that while that might be representative of those remaining, it most surely will not adequately address why so many have left simply because those who have left will not be responding.
Do I think that that will be considered? Not at all!