Court brings membership dispute to a conclusion
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, December 4, 2001
A dispute at a Kansas congregation over what’s necessary to prepare adults for membership went all the way to the General Assembly’s Permanent Judicial Commission – the highest court in the Presbyterian Church (USA) – where it ran out of steam.
The issue began with a bang – a three-week “on-the-spot” membership campaign that was abandoned because it generated almost equally instant complaints.
And the case died with a whimper: The General Assembly court concluded, in a decision made public Dec. 4, that the synod court had acted properly in determining that the session met constitutional requirements for training new members.
Fast-serve membership
The case began soon after First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Kans., began an experiment: granting membership to people immediately upon their professions of faith following invitations given during Sunday worship services.
At the urging of the congregation’s pastor, the session adopted that strategy in an effort to counter the steep decline in membership in the denomination, which has lost an average of nearly 50,000 members annually since 1965.
But the session abandoned “on-the-spot” membership after three weeks when it learned that the congregation’s secretary had become a member without having been baptized.
According to the Book of Order, membership is contingent upon “profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and acceptance of his Lordship in all of life” and baptism.
Instructional requirement
But there is also an instructional requirement – both for adults and children. The children’s requirement is listed first in the Book of Order. “Instruction shall be given in the meaning of this profession, the responsibilities of membership, and the faith and order of the Presbyterian Church … ” (G-5.0402a).
The following subhead on membership covers adults. “Similar instruction shall be given who make a profession of faith. The session shall determine whether this instruction shall be given before or after the public profession.”
Clarification sought
During a hearing in Atlanta on Nov. 30, John F. Leslie, an inactive deacon at First Church and a noted geneticist at Kansas State University, asked the General Assembly court to provide some clarification of what “similar” meant.
He suggested that membership training for youth was far more thorough and longer-lasting than for adults.
Leslie said he first raised eyebrows about membership training when the congregation began signing up people immediately. “I was raised in rural Louisiana where the Catholics are on one side and the Baptists are on the other.” He recalled Baptist revivals summoning people to be “saved and instantly become members of the church.”
“I said this is not what being a Presbyterian is all about,” Leslie said. “I would like for the Permanent Judicial Commission to provide a working definition of what it means to be a member.”
Defending the session
James Morrison, an elder at the Kansas church, defended the session. He said he was not an expert on the issue.
“Should there be on-the-spot membership?” he asked. “I don’t know. Is it prohibited? I don’t know.”
But Morrison opposed requiring tightly framed instruction for all new members. “To say we’re going to get everybody to the starting line at the same place at the same time is ridiculous.”
The General Assembly court took note of Leslie’s emphasis on the Book of Order’s rule that adults be given training “similar” to the instruction given children. It concluded that the session had to determine the degree of similarity.