Leaders of diminished Coalition
seek fallback position within PCUSA
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, October 27, 2008
NEWPORT BEACH – The remnant of a once-thriving coalition of Presbyterian Church (USA) renewal groups gathered at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church to lick its wounds and rally the troops. The Coalition’s routine post-General Assembly event has attracted as many as 1,200 attendees in times past, but this one drew barely 200, despite pleas by the Rev. John Huffman that St. Andrew’s congregants help fill spaces in the pews.
Present and accounted for
Assembled in St. Andrew’s sanctuary were stalwart warriors of battles past. The Rev. John Sloop, author of the “Sloop Amendment” that ultimately led to the 1996 General Assembly’s adoption of ordination standards (G-6.0106b) was there. Those standards declare that the PCUSA will not ordain or install anyone who openly engages in sexual activity outside marriage.
The Rev. Jerry Andrews, co-moderator of the Coalition and a long-time standard bearer was there, complete with his assessment that the denomination’s most recent General Assembly had tried “to be faithful without the faith.” Andrews labeled the assembly “postmodern, postdenominational, and post-Christian.”
The Rev. Paul Detterman, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal and a veteran spokesman for the denomination’s mild-mannered conservatives was there, as was the Rev. James Berkley, whose sharp-stroked keyboard punches euphemisms in PCUSA pronouncements and exposes their underlying apostasies.
The Rev. James Tony, perennial political strategist for orthodox Presbyterians was there, along with the Rev. Susan Cyre (Theology Matters), and elders Nancy Scott Cross and Terry Schlossberg, who have cloistered and nurtured conservative minorities at numerous General Assemblies.
Notable absentees
But many of the Coalition’s former allies were not there.
- Some joined the 47,000-member exodus that migrated out of the PCUSA in 2007.
- Some, like the Revs. Gerrit Dawson, of the 1,600-member First Church in Baton Rouge; Dean Weaver of the 1,700-member Memorial Park Church in Pittsburgh; Don Elliot of the 500-member First Church in Corinth, Miss.’ Bill Stevens of the 1,200-member New Hope Church in Fort Myers, Fla.; Bill Dudley of the 2,000-member Signal Mountain Church in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Randy Jenkins of the 300-member Central Church in Huntsville, Ala.; Steve Bryant of the 250-member Grace Chapel Church in Madison, MS; and Kirk Johnson of the 600-member Lighthouse Church in Paola, Kans.; are now aligned with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a denomination that refuses to compromise on who Jesus Christ is and what His lordship requires of His disciples.
- Some, like the Revs. Tom Gray and Wayne Hardy of the 2,500-member Kirk of the Hills Church in Tulsa, Okla., are embroiled in law suits, trying to defend their church property against presbytery confiscation.
- Some, like the Rev. Carmen Fowler, associate pastor of the 800-member Providence Church in Hilton Head, SC, have redirected their energies to the New Wineskins Association of Churches, which Fowler serves as co-moderator. New Wineskins churches have separated themselves from the PCUSA by insisting on a commitment to the essential tenets and ethical imperatives of the Christian faith.
These persons’ absence was notable in light of the vigorous leadership they have given to the Coalition in previous years. Fowler was once executive director of the Coalition. Elliot was the chairman of Presbyterians Pro-Life, a Coalition partner organization. And many of those who have left served on the Coalition’s board of directors.
Victory predictions
Terry Schlossberg’s rallying cry drew sustained applause when she urged the gathering to defeat a new constitutional amendment that would eviscerate the denomination’s sexual behavior standards. She predicted that the amendment to overturn G-6.0106b would fail by better than the almost 3-1 majority when a similar measure was proposed in 2001. But in the halls, few participants shared Schlossberg’s prognostication. The consensus of those polled by The Layman was that conservatives might win again, “but by the skin of our teeth.”
All who were present at this event pledged to do battle against the amendment, but few expressed enthusiasm for the coming engagement. When the 2006 General Assembly adopted its “Peace, Unity and Purity” (PUP) report, a policy whose “authoritative interpretation” of the Constitution allows individual governing bodies to exempt themselves from the G-6.0106b requirement, many began to question the value of fighting for a constitution that Presbyterians may legally ignore.
Dwindling coffers bear witness to the Coalition’s enervated entourage. Once flush with cash – the Coalition raised more than $300,000 to fight the battle following the 2001 General Assembly – its leaders struggle to replenish their war chest for the current contest. Several churches that gave generously to that cause have left the PCUSA for greener pastures.
‘Please don’t leave’
The Coalition’s theme in Newport Beach was “Please don’t leave!” Terry Schlossberg reminded her audience that when Nehemiah began to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls, all he could see around him was rubble. She called on evangelicals not to lose heart when faced by the rubble that the PCUSA has become. “We live in the midst of a once-great denomination that is now in ruins,” she said. “The rubble we have to deal with also includes the loss of support from our friends. … Discouragement and loss of heart tempts us.”
Schlossberg urged the gathering not to look too closely at the current state of the denomination but, like Nehemiah, fix its gaze on the providence of God.
Love our ‘whoring mother’
The Rev. Dennis Okholm, an associate pastor at St. Andrews said, “The Church is Christ’s body and it is also our mother. … We have no access to Jesus Christ and His work of redemption apart from the church.”
Okholm offered selected quotes from early church theologians-Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine-and bolstered by references to John Calvin, to support his thesis that leaving the church is a grave sin. “The elephant in the room is schism,” said Okholm.
Quoting Shane Claiborne, Okholm said, “The Church is our mother, and sometimes she is a whore.” Even if she has fallen, said Okholm, she remains “our mother.” Admitting that the PCUSA has taken wrong turns, Okholm said that the sins of its leaders are not in themselves valid reasons to leave the church.
Okholm’s appearance among a lineup of speakers who insisted that evangelicals not leave the PCUSA suggested that he felt Presbyterians who flee the PCUSA to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) are leaving “The Church.” But he did not say so explicitly. But neither was he willing to say that those who move to another Presbyterian denomination are not leaving “The Church.” What he did say was that those who abandon their whoring mother have no warrant in Scripture or tradition for doing so.
Reasons to stay
The Rev. Mark Roberts, a PCUSA pastor who formerly served an Irvine, Calif., congregation but is currently employed by Laity Lodge, was given two platform address slots in which to implore Coalition congregations to stay in the PCUSA.
In his first speech, Roberts cited with appreciation Chapter I of the Book of Order, the denomination’s Constitution, with special emphasis on its statement that Jesus Christ is head of the church. “Jesus Christ has the authority to reshape this denomination, which is His Church,” he said.
Roberts admitted the difficulty of forging denominational unity in Christ when “there is the tendency of people to pick and choose the kind of Christ they believe in.” H
e said the answer to this problem is to focus on the Christ “who is revealed in Scripture … and by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Roberts said there is plenty of blame to go around for the current condition of the PCUSA. He chastised unnamed conservatives in the denomination “who have affirmed Biblical truth in a most unbiblical way … using words like ‘heretic and apostate'” to describe their opponents.
Roberts titled his second speech “Why Stay?” “Never before in my ministry has it been easier for me to leave than now,” he said. “So I have really had to think through my reasons for staying.”
“I don’t know that there will always be a PCUSA or if I will always be in it,” said Roberts. But “for now,” he said, “I am staying.” Roberts listed his “non-primary” reasons for staying:
- The congregation of which he is a part and to which he is committed is part of the PCUSA. “Most folks are in the denomination because that’s where their local church happens to be,” he said.
- “I’m staying because of you and others like you [who are staying].” Roberts called Coalition members “partners in ministry.” “I don’t want to leave my friends in the lurch. If I leave, I want it to be a ‘we’ decision.”
- “I’ve never been forced to do anything contrary to my conscience. … I realize that we’ve got a problem because [in Presbyterian polity] an act of the part is an act of the whole, yet we may be called to be a lamp.”
- “What is in our Constitution is fantastic.”
- “There is no perfect denomination.” Roberts repeated the old saw that if you find a perfect denomination, you’d better not join it, because if you do it will no longer be perfect. ”
- “I am grateful to the PCUSA for what I have received. … I feel indebted.”
Roberts said his “primary reasons” for staying are:
- “I am staying in obedience to Scripture as I understand it.” He said he has discerned from Scripture that God has called him to be a demonstration of the Gospel inside the PCUSA. “God can change that calling, but until then I’m to live a life worthy of that calling in patience and love. …” Citing selected verses from Ephesians, Roberts said we are called to a life of “longsuffering” in the church where we have been planted. This means, he said, that we are to “bear with and endure each other.”
- Again quoting selected verses from Ephesians, Roberts said, “I am staying because in the Lord my labor is not in vain. … We don’t know if our labor will be victorious in terms of the denomination, but we do know that the Lord will bless it. … We need to take the long view. … So I’m staying and so are you, not because it’s fun, or easier, but because in the Lord our labor is not in vain.”
“Is there ever a time when it is OK to leave?” Roberts asked rhetorically. Racing through I Corinthians, II John, Titus, Acts, Matthew and Genesis, he said he could find little warrant for leaving the denomination. He suggested that in the exercise of church discipline, which he admitted was sorely lacking in the PCUSA, it may be necessary to remove others who violate Scriptural standards, but that is different from removing ourselves.
Roberts said it is conceivable that one might find reasons in Scripture to justify leaving. “Scripture gives us reason to believe that there are times for believers to separate.” But, he continued, this is not one of those times. “If I were to leave today, that would be wrong.”
Several of PFR’s leaders and their supporting congregations have drawn their line in the sand on the denomination’s ordination standards. They say that if those standards are removed from the Constitution, they will leave. But Roberts suggested that the line be redrawn: “It is not immediately obvious to me that even if ‘B’ passes [the proposed amendment that removes sexual behavior standards from the Constitution] we should leave,” he said.
Presbyterians for Renewal plan unveiled
“Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR) has always been the obedient child,” said the organization’s executive director, the Rev. Paul Detterman. His comment, made during a well attended Coalition seminar that he was invited to lead, was apparently referring to PFR’s mild-mannered, non-confrontational tactics when dealing with denominational departures from the faith.
“We have walked as far as we can walk in that direction,” Detterman continued. “We need to find a different way forward.”
Detterman said the 2008 General Assembly pushed his renewal organization over the edge. PFR has believed that engaging in conversation with denominational leaders could bring about renewal, said Detterman, but it has discovered that one cannot have a fruitful conversation “if we are using the same words with different meanings.”
“We now see that the denomination as we know it has changed,” said Detterman. “Those changes won’t go away. … They are culture driven … the selling out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to another culture. … We are at a place from which we must go another way.”
“Some of you may be thinking, ‘It’s about time!’ but please don’t say that,” he said. Detterman characterized PFR’s announced change of direction as being carefully and deliberately pursued.
Detterman said PFR’s dilemma is similar to the problem faced by one who has climbed too high in a tree and is now clinging to fragile, waving limbs that offer no support. “There are two options,” he said. “You can follow Newton’s law” and jump, letting gravity get you out of the tree. “Or you can work your way down slowly and deliberately.”
“Schism would bring a blood bath in session after session, congregation after congregation” said Detterman. “The question of departing people is not a stranger to me. Some in my congregation have left. I was thinking of leaving, but I heard God say, ‘No, you’re not going anywhere!’ So we’re staying where we were planted until God tells us differently.”
Leaving while staying
Detterman said PFR’s plan is still on the drawing boards, so he could only offer an interim report. “I’m not here to say ‘this is the way,’ because at this particular point in our denomination the situation is far too complex” he said. Detterman reported that PFR has created a “Task Force on Denominational Realignment” composed of “specialists in theology, ecclesiology and polity and middle governing body leaders selected from across the Presbyterian Church (USA).” The task force has issued broad brush stroke “criteria” for a structural rearrangement that PFR calls “faithful realignment.”
Partitioning Presbyterians
PFR’s plan is essentially an attempt to keep evangelical horses inside the PCUSA corral. It would do so by carving out a safe and theologically congenial space for evangelicals within the PCUSA structure, an enclave within which evangelicals can live separately from others without physically leaving the denomination. In some respects, it appears to be a version of being “in the world but not of the world.”
PFR says its criteria for “faithful realignment” would include the “freedom to establish and maintain a distinct theological and moral identity while remaining within the PCUSA.” Ironically, this criterion mirrors the “essential tenets and ethical imperatives” blueprint unveiled in 2001 by the New Wineskins Association of churches, an initiative that PFR leaders vigorously opposed at that time.
Detterman said that PFR’s envisioned realignment would allow churches inside the PCUSA to have their own standards, including “Biblically faithful standards for ordination and service.” He said that the realignment would need to include “new understandings of our connectional nature” because “currently the act of one governing body is the act of the whole [denomination].”
In PFR’s developing model, a reduced General Assembly structure would provide for a yet to be determined distribution of f
unds held by the Presbyterian Foundation and continued ministerial participation in the Board of Pensions. The General Assembly’s powers would be limited, and it would not be allowed to alter rules established by the self-governing evangelical group.
A 17th synod
Detterman said that some might think the developing plan is a version of “the two-synod model” that was overwhelmingly rejected by Presbyterian renewal group leaders at a Coalition gathering in 2001. He said that in the alternative, he preferred the creation of “a non-geographic 17th synod” as a way to go forward. “We’re seeing a lot of traction in that right now,” he said.
Currently, the PCUSA has 16 synods organized in geographical regions. Detterman’s preferred option would add a 17th synod that has theological rather than geographical boundaries. The PFR leader did not say how congregations would enter this synod, but one of PFR’s controlling criteria is to “avoid provoking unnecessary turmoil in congregations.”
It is unclear how a plan that allows congregations to separate themselves into a 17th synod would provoke less controversy than discussions now occurring over the question of leaving the denomination entirely. Detterman acknowledged that PFR’s transitional realignment criteria will need refinement as such practical questions emerge.
“The question is,” said Detterman, “what does it mean to be part of the PCUSA? In the center of the PCUSA we have two faiths, two understandings of the gospel … we can’t go on like this. We’ve got to have distinctive identification if we’re going to continue.”
‘A complex and holy thing’
Detterman said the ownership and control of church property is not at issue in the PFR plan because the plan does not envision congregations leaving the PCUSA. Presumably, the movement of a congregation from one synod to another within the PCUSA structure would not put its property at risk.
“We have to come to a point where a congregation can be granted a transfer with its property. That is a given, and we’re working on it,” said Detterman. “We’re trying to work to the place where property is not an issue.” But he stopped short of saying that the envisioned transfer of a congregation with its property might be made to a denomination outside the PCUSA.
Detterman described the work of PFR’s task force on realignment as “a complex thing and a holy thing. We’re not just negotiating a buy out or a bail out,” he said.
Honoring the ‘mother’
In a significant shift from its customary stance, PFR is not talking about renewal anymore. Replacing renewal with reorganization, it seeks a fallback position: How might Presbyterians who worship different “Christs,” read different scriptures and practice different lifestyles be separated while preserving their umbilical connection to a denominational mother?
Every platform speech at the Coalition gathering, with the exception of a moving testimony by recovering homosexual Mike Goeke and a pep rally on defeating “Amendment B” by Terry Schlossberg, was dedicated to keeping oil and water in one bottle.
“The Church has a faith without which she cannot live faithfully,” said Jerry Andrews in his state-of-the-church address. But “what is new, or at least newly apparent, is that the church seems to want to try to live faithfully without the faith. It cannot be done.”
Andrews concluded that members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are left clinging to a once viable reality. “We’re seeing how far a corpse can walk,” he said.