Association for Church Renewal endorses ‘Be Steadfast’ letter
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, October 28, 2002
INDIANAPOLIS – The steering committee of the Association for Church Renewal has endorsed a pastoral letter urging Confessing Christians to “be steadfast” in seeking reform and renewal in the church, calling it “words of encouragement in noting that God has blessed our churches through the work of renewal movements.”
The Confessing Theologians Commission, an ecumenical group of theologians from most of the mainline Protestant denominations in North America, released “Be Steadfast: A Letter to Confessing Christians” on Oct. 25 during the historic Confessing The Faith Conference – the first-ever gathering of renewing and confessing Christians in North America. The theologians came from the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, the Episcopalian Church (ECUSA), the United Church of Christ, the Lutheran Church (ELCA), the American Baptist Church and the United Church of Canada.
The steering committee – comprised of James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News; Diane LeMasters Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; Patricia Miller, executive director of the Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church; and Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications; – released its response Oct. 26.
The influence of the renewal movements, the steering committee said, includes “fresh vitality in worship, in preaching, new ventures in mission, the renewal of personal piety, an increase in enthusiastic discipleship, and a more profound embrace of God’s concern for the poor.”
Heidinger asked the conference participants if they would endorse the pastoral letter, and the nearly 700 people crowding into the plenary hall stood up in affirmation.
The complete text of the steering committee’s response is as follows:
A Response to ‘Be Steadfast:
A Letter to Confessing Christians’
Those of us who have gathered in Indianapolis for the Confessing the Faith National Conference thank the Confessing Theologians Commission for their thoughtful and timely pastoral letter, “Be Steadfast.” We receive it with a deep sense of gratitude and are encouraged by it.
We agree that our churches need faithful witnesses in order to be the church of Jesus Christ. We believe, with these theologians, that being faithful requires not only truthful confessions of faith, but also a long-term effort to reform our institutions. We rejoice, too, that across the renewal ministries in the mainline churches, God is helping in the recovery of sound doctrine and is enabling many to recover their intellectual nerve.
We thank the Confessing Theologians Commission for their words of encouragement in noting that God has blessed our churches through the work of renewal movements. This influence includes “fresh vitality in worship, in preaching, new ventures in mission, the renewal of personal piety, an increase in enthusiastic discipleship, and a more profound embrace of God’s concern for the poor.
We acknowledge that some in our communions have been put in situations in which remaining in their churches has not been an acceptable option. We are deeply saddened when this happens, but we understand. We long for the day when that will not longer be necessary, and we believe that day is coming. When abuse or slander comes, we should remain patient in our witness to truth, praying our grace-filled response will open other hearts to the truth. We do acknowledge that for most of us our churches have not yet put us in the position of having to deny the faith in order to be a part of our denomination. Most all of the renewing leadership, while aware of the woeful handling of apostolic truth in our denominations, are still committed to remaining in the structures in which we now stand in order to reform them.
So we applaud the pastoral letter from the Confessing Theologians. We do not believe this is a time to abandon our churches to theologies and ideologies that have given us more than thirty years of mainline decline. Rather, we commend ourselves and our churches to a renewed commitment to the classic Christian faith made known in history and attested to by the prophets, the apostles and the martyrs.
We, therefore, receive this pastoral letter with thanksgiving. We commend it to our churches with our endorsement and support. We pledge ourselves to its implementation.