Identity and Integrity
By Parker T. Williamson, The Layman Online, August 25, 2006
A new Presbyterian group has been birthed amidst the dust storms of a dying denomination. Citing statistical evidence of the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s plight as a precipitating factor in their decision to launch something new, leaders of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship called evangelicals to Atlanta. 800 people accepted the invitation.
For Presbyterians who believe in the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ and honor his call to discipleship, the PGF event proved a thrilling affirmation of the gospel. Its focus was clear: the essence of the Church is its mission. Anything less than mission produces institutional religiosity, the petrified relic of a once-vibrant faith. That Presbyterians who traveled to Atlanta sought an alternative to their dying denomination could hardly be questioned, but PGF leaders had a hard time saying so. In fact, they bent over backwards not to say so.
There were veiled references to the fact that all is not well in Zion – references to denominational demographics, losses of missionaries and members – but PGF cast its central focus elsewhere, aiming its vision not toward the church that is, but the Church that was meant to be. What happened in Atlanta was a soul stirring, mission oriented reach for life. What did not happen was an intentional disengagement from the dead.
Birthing new life in one direction while remaining tethered to a body headed the other way created a state of confusion, with some participants wondering how such a contradictory juxtaposition could continue indefinitely.
Applauding Louisville
On several occasions during the PGF weekend, denominational staff members – 10 of them, including Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and his chief church property enforcer Mark Tammen – were recognized and applauded by PGF leaders.
Rev. Vic Pentz, senior minister of Peachtree Presbyterian Church and a PGF organizer, displayed a yellow rotary-dial telephone in his pulpit on opening night. He said that the antiquated instrument was symbolic of “the problem” in the denomination. Louisville leaders are stuck with an archaic “system” for delivering the gospel, he said. They are using a rotary phone in a cell phone world.
It would be ludicrous to suggest that “the cell phone is just a passing fad” and that the solution to the problem is to “send more money to buy more rotary phones,” said Pentz. The PCUSA rotary dial system includes things that have to be left behind, like “hierarchy, bureaucracy and an assumption of loyalty without active accountability. Organizations that have not done that are dying.”
Then, acknowledging Kirkpatrick’s entourage, Pentz offered the disclaimer that his chosen image should not be viewed as criticism of the denomination’s national staff. He lauded them as dedicated people who work very hard, but with inadequate equipment.
Pentz came close to shifting from methodology to theology by challenging unnamed persons whose solution to a declining church is “changing its message to accommodate the culture … like saying dump Jesus as the only way to God and changing sexual ethics. We strongly disagree with that way of solving problems … We want to work with the new phone to carry the old message.” Pentz did not identify who, if anyone, within the denomination’s infrastructure might be abandoning the gospel for such cultural ideologies, and he did not suggest that such a course was being pursued by its staff or elected leaders. Instead, he lamented the obvious, that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is suffering the fastest rate of decline among all US mainline denominations. “How can we stand aside and watch the free fall of this great denomination without doing something? Our response is the Presbyterian Global Fellowship.”
Pentz was quick to add that PGF’s role is to create a link between Presbyterian congregations that are committed to evangelical faith and “global Christians around the world,” not to criticize the denomination’s leaders. “This is not going to be an ‘ain’t it awful’ time,” he said.
No more ‘ain’t it awful’
That appears to be the initial theme of the emerging PGF, namely, that while its leaders may not agree with the ideology that dominates their denominational infrastructure, they have chosen to ignore rather than contest it. “We are not leaving the PCUSA,” said Pentz, “but reforming and redeeming it.” Nothing in his comments indicated how the practice of ignoring its policies would result in denominational redemption.
No more ‘war’ between right and wrong
A similar message was given by PGF leader, Stephen Hayner, professor of evangelism at Columbia Theological Seminary: “We dream of a denomination which brings the best of its people, its theology, and its tradition and lays all at the feet of the Lord of the Church … The task before us is NOT getting everyone in the church to agree with our point of view – or to win the war as to who is right. God’s call is to become a missional church … and to extend the love of Christ to a waiting world.”
The PCUSA: a ‘wonderful work of God’
Roberta Hestenes declared the Presbyterian Church (USA) “a wonderful work of God that I am grateful to be a part of.” She said that the denomination is not the whole picture, for “it is only a part of the richness and diversity and reality of a global church in which the majority of Christians bear a whole bunch of labels,” but the denomination is clearly, in her view, a label that PGF Presbyterians should continue to wear.
Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, told PGF participants that in thinking about the denomination’s crisis he began to reread the history of Presbyterian conflicts in the 1920s and 1930s. “Our conflict is not new,” he said.
Mouw suggested that J. Gresham Machen, whose ordination was revoked by the Presbyterian Church because he and others established an independent board of world missions, chose an unprofitable course. He noted that Machen’s group established the independent board because the denominational board refused to distance itself from those who denied the atoning work of Jesus Christ. After Machen’s group was “expelled,” said Mouw, “they split three times over various issues.”
Criticizing Machen’s involvement in an independent entity, Mouw said, “It is too small a thing to crawl into our ecclesiastical corner and reduce the scope of our vision. We need to expand it.” Mouw’s message suggested that Presbyterians stay in their denomination, while focusing beyond it. He urged his listeners to “keep working on denominational issues,” but he offered no formula for how one is to do this while pursuing PGF’s “external focus.”
‘Free to be faithful’
Rev. Michael Walker, executive director of Presbyterians for Renewal, conducted a seminar at the PGF event. “Can one be faithful while remaining a part of the PCUSA?” asked Walker. His answer was an unqualified “yes.”
Although he did not say that he was speaking for PGF, he underscored statements by PGF leaders throughout the conference indicating that they had little interest in debating denominational issues. “All that some people want to talk about is ordination standards, per capita, and property,” said Walker. “Others are tired of talking about that. They want to ignore all that stuff and just get on with being a missional church. My personal opinion is that if we are to be faithful, we have to address both. I spend a lot of time on issues. At the same time, I’m working with PGF.” The thrust of Walker’s comments suggested that he sees PGF as a mission group and his Presbyterians for Renewal organization as the appropriate political group for reforming within the denomination.
Walker expressed a theme that he had previously posted on the Presbyterians for Renewal Web site, namely, that there is no warrant for leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) because the denomination has not yet coerced anyone into affirming apostasy or acting immorally. Presbyterians are not being required to deny that Jesus is Lord or to ordain persons who engage in sexual behavior outside of marriage, he said. Thus, “we are free to be faithful” within the denomination.
Walker said that he had “reason to be hopeful” about the future policies of the denomination because the action of the 217th General Assembly, making it possible for governing bodies to ordain practicing homosexuals and adulterers, was adopted by a close vote. He expressed his hope that the decision could be reversed two years from now and he suggested several activities that he thought might work toward that goal.
Walker assured his audience that he does not minimize the denomination’s problems. He said that recent General Assembly decisions “have deeply compromised our witness to Christ … These things are real forces of darkness, but we are free together to refuse to support them … Maybe there is a way not to do business with Louisville, to say that our primary identity is not via the PCUSA, that we move beyond that kind of identity in a fresh way to be together that does not require us to pull out of the denomination.”
“We want to form a fellowship that does not shrink but that is bigger, wider, more global,” said Walker. “We can refuse to be defined by, enslaved by the PCUSA. That’s outside the box a little bit, but I believe we can do it.”
A Presbyterian identity crisis
When Walker invited questions from his audience, he faced a flurry of hands, far more than he could accommodate during the few remaining minutes that had been allocated to his seminar.
“Why aren’t you angry?” asked a participant. “I am embarrassed by the way our denomination acts, not just the actions of the 217th General Assembly, but actions that go back more than a decade … ‘re-imagining God,’ killing babies before they are born … I can’t associate with that any longer. I won’t associate with that!”
The questioner continued, his voice trembling with passion, calling Walker’s attention to I Corinthians 5: 9-13, in which Paul targets immorality within the church: “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with immoral men; not at all meaning the immoral of this world … but rather I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of a brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber – not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Drive out the wicked person from among you.”
“Why aren’t you angry?” repeated the questioner. “How can we be faithful while being identified with the PCUSA?” Walker pitched the question to Chris Yim, a Presbyterians for Renewal board member and formerly a member of the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission. Yim said that judicial cases were an option for those who feel that Presbyterian faith and polity have been compromised. “But most of us have no idea how to get involved,” he said, emphasizing that such cases are time consuming and difficult.
Then Rev. Henry Greene, another Presbyterians for Renewal board member and chairman of its issues committee said that he felt the question should be restated as “How can we faithfully leave?” Greene called on the group to “believe in the sovereignty of God” and trust that God put us in this denomination for a purpose. “I cannot leave because I am tired. I cannot leave because I am taking heat. Even the unfaithfulness of the church is not a reason to stop standing in the gap,” he said.
A compromised witness
Another questioner tried a different approach. “My soul is troubled by the conflict between the PGF vision and a denomination that has lost its way. This denomination does not say unequivocally that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. If you put PGF and a denomination that has lost its way together, what kind of a witness do you have?”
Walker responded, “The PGF says the denomination is in crisis. This is impossible to deny. Since the 1920s, our witness has been unclear … but we will build relationships with our global partners and in those relationships they will see the clarity of our conviction.”
Responding to Walker’s insistence that both a missional focus and addressing the issues are important, one questioner asked him, “Do you think that PGF answers the marriage of the two? I have not heard much during this conference on the contending for the faith side.”
Walker responded, “I don’t think PGF is called to do that.” He said that those who focus on contending for the faith run the risk of becoming narrow and negative. “Presbyterians for Renewal will do issues, but also support PGF. Those who fight the battles need to be involved in PGF, but not expect PGF to fight the battles,” he said.
Declaring our identity
A pastor from Tulsa asked if PGF might become “a Church within the church, so we can say this is who we are and this is who we are not.”
Walker responded, “Can the PGF help with these identity questions? I hope the answer to your question is ‘yes.’ Our intention is ‘yes.'” Walker said he could envision seeing signs in front of local churches whose top line would identify the name of the local church, second line would say “a member of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship,” and third line, “in very small letters,” would say “PCUSA.”
Lloyd Lunceford, general editor of A Guide to Church Property Law, published by Reformation Press, called attention to Walker’s acknowledgement that the denomination is in crisis. “Crisis, by definition, requires a decision. It demands an immediate response,” said Lunceford.
Lunceford observed that much of what he had heard during the PGF event suggested a deferred response, a solution to denominational unfaithfulness that would come “later rather than now.” While we wait, observed Lunceford, “we are losing members out the back door … As long as we are in association with the PCUSA, we are being forced to put large local letters and small denominational letters on our signs. That doesn’t address the crisis and it is not the response that crisis requires.”
Blaming the victim?
Walker replied, “Crisis means both danger and opportunity … Our ‘now’ response is to call us to be faithful. But we don’t want the urgency of the ‘now’ to force us into inappropriate action.” Walker asked, “Which is responsible for our declining membership? Is it the General Assembly’s approval of the PUP report,” [a policy that allows governing bodies to ordain practicing h