‘We came here to work’
New Wineskins sponsors Atlanta event
Parker T. Williamson, The Layman, August 12, 2008
ATLANTA – “You’ll find a notable absence of egos here,” declared The Rev. Gerrit Dawson, senior minister of First Presbyterian Church (Evangelical Presbyterian Church) in Baton Rouge, La., and co-moderator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches. “Nobody here is going to announce, ‘I have an agenda to save the church!'”
The Rev. Carmen Fowler, associate [astor of Providence Presbyterian Church in Hilton Head, S.C. and Dawson’s co-moderator, identified other marks that would differentiate the Atlanta New Wineskins event from brassy, megachurch gatherings that have often characterized renewal group confabs in recent years: “No fanfare, no orchestra, no elaborate arrangements … you buy your own dinner … you even have to pay for your coffee … This is a participatory event, and your contribution is essential. We came here to work.”
Not mentioned by New Wineskins leaders but immediately obvious to perennial renewal group observers was the composition of this 100-participant seminar. It was evenly split between ministers and lay leaders. Many participants were almost three decades younger than those who typically show up for Presbyterian gatherings. And most of those who came, repulsed by actions of the recently-adjourned General Assembly meeting in San Jose and driven by a pronounced sense of estrangement from the denomination, were seeking New Wineskins connections for the first time.
Looking for the exit
“No more rhetoric,” said the Rev. Kevin Rudolph, a young minister from Houston who had attended renewal group gatherings for several years. “We want to see some action.” The action that the majority of this crowd had in mind was clear. Most came looking for a way to exit a denomination that they believe can no longer be called a church.
Dawson, who with his congregation left the Presbyterian Church (USA) and joined the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) in 2007, told the group that the New Wineskins Association is committed to two program tracks: (1) forming and supporting a network of churches that seeks to bear an evangelical witness within the PCUSA and (2) providing “a landing place,” within the EPC for churches and ministers whose consciences no longer permit them to remain in the PCUSA. “Both options are faithful,” said Dawson, “and we’re here to tell you that New Wineskins will support your commitment to either one.” Dawson reminded the group that PCUSA leaders have accused the EPC of attempting to foment dissension in the PCUSA and of encouraging PCUSA congregations to switch denominations. The accusation is baseless, said Dawson, who notes that PCUSA leaders have yet to produce a shred of evidence that justifies such allegations. He believes that massive membership losses in the PCUSA are the result of faithlessness by PCUSA leaders, not recruitment from the EPC.
‘You’ll have to ask’
As an EPC minister, Dawson is under strict orders not to encourage churches and ministers to seek EPC affiliation or to engage in any activity that might be deemed recruitment. Fowler, who is a PCUSA minister, underscored that commitment. “We will not initiate information about the EPC or about the subject of disaffiliation,” she said. “There is nothing in your registration packets that addresses these subjects. If you want to know about disaffiliation or the EPC, you’ll have to ask.”
Those words had hardly crossed her lips when a flurry of hands shot up and there was one query after another. Some 38 New Wineskins churches comprised of about 20,000 Presbyterians have left the PCUSA in 2007/08, and a majority of congregational leaders who now gathered in Atlanta wanted to know how they did it and what lessons they had learned along the way.
Dawson promised petitioners that the information they were requesting would be provided, but he reminded them that some 180 congregations comprised of some 150,000 Presbyterians publicly identify themselves as New Wineskins churches. It would be inappropriate, he said, to limit the focus of this New Wineskins event solely to the departure option chosen by 38 of those churches. He suggested that the discussion begin by recalling how the New Wineskins Association of Churches came into being, and how it arrived at its current position.
A fermentation event
New Wineskins Presbyterians are no strangers to the denomination’s renewal community, said Dawson. In fact, they emerged from it. Dawson recalled the infamous 2001 General Assembly that could not make up its mind who Jesus is and in what sense He may be called Savior and Lord. On the heels of that assembly, evangelicals gathered in Denver to lick their wounds and rally the troops as they had done following other offensive General Assemblies.
During the Denver meeting, some evangelicals waved the flag for “stay, fight and win” strategies. Others suggested a “shadow church” option. Still others promoted a division of the denomination into two synods, one for the “progressives” and another for those who espouse Biblical Christianity. None of the options had been effective in stemming the denominational tide toward apostasy, and none countenanced the idea of breaking ranks with the PCUSA.
Dawson said that in the midst of the discussion, a handful of the participants dared to say, ‘We don’t want to play these games anymore. We want to stop talking about how to reform the church and focus on what a faithful denomination should look like.'”
Dawson remembered the renewal leaders’ response: “Any of you who want to do that can meet in a room across the hall!”
Across the hall
While renewal group leaders planned strategies that they hoped might ward off the denomination’s growing liberal hegemony, a tiny group crossed the hall and got down on its knees. “What is God calling the church to be?” participants asked, determined not to let the current denominational structure limit their vision.
Dawson said this group quickly understood that its emerging vision was a very different concept of “church.” This would be a church whose members could name and be committed to “essential tenets of Reformed faith.” It would be a church whose members commit to specific ethical imperatives and are willing to be disciplined within networks of similarly committed Christians. And this would be a congregationally based, mission-driven church whose agencies beyond the local congregation would be created simply to facilitate the congregation’s ministry, not to regulate it.
Months of prayer and conversation went into refining this vision, said Dawson. Soon, it became clear that this was “new wine” that could not be contained within the calcified structures of the theologically and ethically confused, centralized, regulatory agency that the PCUSA had become. So the New Wineskins folk poured their efforts into drafting a constitution that spelled out what a renewed church would look like.
Spurned offering
“The New Wineskins offered its vision and constitution to the PCUSA,” said Dawson. “It asked that the denomination bless and incorporate this new way of being the church. Its hope was that the vision would be so compelling that the General Assembly would embrace it.”
Denominational leaders, supported by some moderate renewal group leaders, regarded the New Wineskins offering as a threat to institutional stability, and they moved in lockstep against it. The constitution failed to get an honorable mention, much less a serious consideration, at the 2005 General Assembly.
Then came the 2006 General Assembly that eviscerated the denomination’s sexual behavior standards by adopting its “Peace, Unity, and Purity” Report (PUP) and undermined an essential Biblical doctrine by accepting a theologically aberrant paper on the
Trinity.
Creating new wineskins
Following adjournment of that General Assembly, the New Wineskins group gathered in Tulsa, OK, formally became an association of churches and elected a strategy team with instructions to create two tracks for the association: (1) networks committed to live out the New Wineskins reality within the PCUSA; and (2) a presbytery in another denomination for those who believe that the Lord is calling them to live the New Wineskins reality outside the PCUSA structure.
Five months later, in June, 2007, the EPC approved the New Wineskins’ request for a transitional presbytery into which congregations that follow track two can be received.
A slow starter
Dawson confessed that he was slow to get on board with the New Wineskins Association of Churches. He had been a commissioner to the 2001 General Assembly, and he left there deeply wounded by its denial of the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ. “That assembly was apostate,” he declared following its adjournment.
But at the Denver renewal group gathering, Dawson was still clinging to the hope that the denomination could be turned around by renewal group strategies. “When those guys who wanted to rethink what it means to be the church were told to meet across the hall, I stayed in the big room,” he said.
Dawson was finally pushed over the edge when the 2006 General Assembly dismissed the Trinity and adopted PUP. At that point he knew that he could no longer be part of a fellowship that permits its members to deny the essential tenets and ethical imperatives of Reformed faith. Grateful for that handful of his colleagues who had crossed the hall in 2001, Dawson determined to catch up with them. He joined them for worship in Edina, Minn. embraced their constitution in Tulsa, Okla., was elected to leadership at their gathering in Orlando, Fla., participated in the EPC’s new presbytery meeting in Sacramento, Calif., and has become a national spokesman for this “new” way of being the church ever since.
What’s old and new
Some say that what the New Wineskins movement brings to the table is ‘new.’ But its leaders respond that they are simply returning to an ancient and enduring faith that was “once and for all delivered to the saints.” They suggest that those who call this faith “new” are indicating just how far their ecclesiastical institution has strayed from its roots.
Where is the New Wineskins movement going? “If you asked that of the New Testament Church,” it would probably tell you, ‘we have no idea!'” said Dawson during an interview following his Atlanta presentation. “The Book of Acts tells us that the church followed Jesus into situations that no one could have imagined. So I don’t need to know precisely where New Wineskins is going. It’s going wherever the Holy Spirit wants it to go, and I’m glad to be part of the trip!”