New moderator challenges EPC to set high goals
By Edward Terry, The Layman, June 26, 2009
BRIGHTON, Mich. – The Rev. Nate Atwood was pretty casual in delivering his first address as the newly-elected moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church’s 29th General Assembly. But he was quite serious about setting lofty goals for the growing denomination’s future.
Referencing a report from the EPC’s Committee on Administration (CoA), Atwood outlined a vision that includes re-embracing the Great Commission by equipping congregations to share the Gospel through mission work.
In making his point he asked an attention-getting question: Should there even be a denomination?
“Unless you can come up with a good answer to that question, would we not be royally wasting our time?,” Atwood said. “We had better be able to answer those questions … and answer them with clarity and brevity. If we can’t, then what will happen is that we will degenerate into the worst imaginable form of church, which is just running the machinery.”
The list of goals outlined by CoA for the next 12 months includes:
- Establish only those boards, agencies, committees, commissions, staff positions, institutions and office structure to meet the church’s goals.
- Develop a “bottom-up” culture of decision making, with presbyteries and local congregations planting churches rather than the General Assembly.
- Encourage presbyteries to network effectively among themselves.
- Moving the CoA from a control and management role to a serving and encouraging role.
The list of goals for the next five years includes:
- The re-formation of the Great Commission in the form of the missional church.
- A re-formation of the church – in practice, not in doctrine.
- Meetings that focus on ministry and evangelism, not just polity.
- Outward focus and inward strength.
- A church that has grown in numbers, not because it has sought growth, but because it is bringing the Word of God to the un-churched and non-believers.
“Bad denominations are a bad idea, but Biblical denominations that are creative, that are prayerful, that are relational, that are committed, where there is real accountability … that’s a pretty cool thing,” Atwood said.
Even though the EPC is a relatively small denomination at 92,864 members and 247 congregations at the end of 2008, Atwood challenged the assembly to reach for the lofty goal of being the best equipping and training denomination.
“This is no easy task,” he said. “We think that Biblical Presbyterianism calls us to nothing less than this. The problem is not that we have been too Presbyterian or too denominational. The problem is that we have degenerated from what our system could be … into a cheapened form of Presbyterianism that is merely bureaucratic or merely autocratic.”
Atwood said that the General Assembly Office would be reorganized in order to support the sharpened vision.
“When we’re losing it, you keep us on track, OK?,” he concluded.
Atwood is senior pastor at Kempsville Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, Va. In the ministry since 1982, Atwood is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and earned his Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary. Atwood and his wife Helen have been married 26 years and have seven children.