All faith is local
Commentary by Forrest A. Norman III, The Layman, November 19, 2012
By the time this issue of The Layman reaches you the campaign rancor will be over. In theory, a majority of you will be pleased with the results. Now I am admittedly guessing at the numbers, but would estimate that about 47 percent will be disappointed, perhaps even feeling as if the political process does not represent them. Many in the minority will then mentally disengage from political discussions and focus on matters over which they feel they have more control, like their jobs, their local church committees and local community activities. To be sure, many in the majority will also disengage from the debates of the day, returning to matters closer to home. A handful of people on both sides of the spectrum will continue to press for their favored causes, planning on how to make “their” issues the cause de jour, and to bring about changes that suit their views, but the majority will still focus on matters on a much more personal scale. So it is with politics.
And so it is with politics in the church. The last Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly meeting is a distant memory, the fallout from which the majority on both sides of the aisle has since disengaged. Some work quietly behind the scenes to champion their causes or to set their issue up to be “the next new thing” endorsed denomination-wide. But most clergy are now focused on their day job at the church, addressing first the pastoral concerns of the congregation, giving passing nods to presbytery initiatives; elders now worry about the building and finance committees. People in the pew are asking quizzically “what issues?” and their concerns have turned to their personal economies and the needs of their families and neighbors.
While the language about people’s behavior above may be a bit campy, the pattern is certainly recognizable. Let’s be honest – this is the way it works. We gravitate toward those things which affect us most personally, first. The more directly it affects us, the more we care. When it affects us enough, we have a tangible stake in the outcome and become more dedicated to what happens, involve ourselves and devote time and effort to the course of events we can have an impact on. One measure of the impact of a political decision is the degree to which people begin acting in response on the local level. So what does that have to do with the life of the Presbyterian Church (USA) these days? Just look and see what the people in the pews are doing.
PCUSA Presbyterians are meeting to discern the future of their denominational affiliation in ever-increasing numbers. The detail and scholarship seen in the reports of discernment committees are getting far beyond the level which all-too-often arrogant presbyteries can merely dismiss as a knee-jerk reaction to the unpopular social agendas being advanced by progressive presbyteries. I have recently seen local-church-produced discernment material exceeding 30, 40 and even 60 pages, complete with Scriptural references, annotations and bibliographies. The work is scholarly and Biblically faithful.
Previously content to sit back in the pews and let others work for the reformation of the church, people are now taking the time to explore and express their traditional faith themselves. Real people in the pew are making real and informed decisions about their faith. It is rather telling that the decisions are almost always to pursue a new denominational home in order to be connected with Presbyterians whom they feel more faithfully honor the traditional Gospel message in denominations which more faithfully uphold Biblical standards.
This is not surprising. A politician once astutely observed that “all politics are local.” The same principle applies to faith. All faith is local. When you consider its source, as a good Reformed Christian would recognize, faith comes from God.
God does not place the gift of faith in institutions. He did not select faith to reside in denominations, or in presbyteries, or even in the local expression of an institutional church. God has given to each one of His elect people a measure of faith, and that faith rests not in a body politic, but in the heart of each believer who together constitute the Body of Christ, the Church. The line from one of my favorite Christmas carols rightly notes “so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heav’n.”
We are witnessing evidence that deviation from the solid foundation of Scripture causes sufficient upheaval in the hearts of believers to stir them to action on a personal level, and where enough are gathered together, as in a faithful church, they seek unity with other like-minded congregations of believers, and new denominational connections are forged.
Realignment is resulting along the most local of lines – the lines of the faith found in human hearts. We should embrace this, as realignment along the lines of faith is the most true, most honest, and most enduring of all alignments.
Forrest A. Norman III is an elder at Hudson Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Hudson, Ohio. He is chairman of the Board of Directors and chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee.