Robert L. Howard, Chair , The Presbyterian Lay Committee, March 1, 1998
With conviction and by convincing margins, commissioners from our pulpits and pews are emphatically affirming our historic ordination standards. After wandering in the wilderness of divisive debate over secular sexual conduct, the Holy Spirit has led our denomination to clearly proclaim that God’s written word is authoritative for servant leadership into the third millennium. Thanks be to God!
How then should servant leaders, under the authority of His word, lead? First, by obedience to His great commandment – which calls us to be Christ’s agents of reconciliation to a fallen and broken world. But, we cannot be effective agents “building community among strangers” unless the church itself is a real community of faith. The reality of peace and unity in that community will exist only if we place the highest priority on the purity of the faith commitment of that community.
Second, by obedience to His great commission – which calls us to proclaim “the gospel for the salvation of mankind.” But, we cannot effectively promote the first great end of the church (or any others) unless the church itself experiences the reality that God’s Incarnate Word is the truth and the way of salvation; God’s written word is our only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Third, by recognizing that contemporary culture is in moral chaos and the post-modernist self is searching for a pathway through the chasm of despair and unbelief. As servant leaders, we must remove the debris and overgrowth of nonessentials from the light of the gospel so that the roadway of reconciliation with
God is clear. Our unblinking focus must be on the great ends of the church – not on the lesser politics of the church.
Fourth, by recognizing that the world does not need a church that lets secular society set its agenda, or that determines its policies from the teachings of the social sciences and the latest polling data, like just another political party. The world does not need any more “cutting edge” theology – it needs, whether “felt” or not, the reality of the revealed truth of the unadorned, unashamed, and unrestrained good news of God incarnate.
Fifth, servant leadership requires that we repent and reorder personal and corporate priorities. Now is the time to repent of our wearisome preoccupation with “churchmanship” and the busy-ness of the church. Now is the time to reorder our priorities: to reclaim our great reformed heritage as “people of the book,” not the Book of Order; to pour all of our time, talent, and treasure into obedient fulfillment of the great commandment and the great commission.
The church is the only institution in the world that has been so commanded and commissioned; that is the one and only strategic plan of the founder and only head of the church. It is past time that servant leaders of the church reclaim that strategic plan – because the world desperately needs our enthusiastic, winsome, and effective proclamation of God’s ultimate reality and His reconciliation of His creation to Himself.