PCUSA moderator: ‘We can
be all things to all people’
By Edward Terry, The Layman, September 9, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In delivering the keynote address for the More Light Presbyterians’ Welcoming and Affirming Conference, Presbyterian Church (USA) Moderator the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow cast his vision for the denomination’s future.
Presbyterian Church (USA) Moderator the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow was the keynote speaker at the More Light Presbyterians Welcoming and Affirming at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tenn.
More Light Presbyterians is an affinity group that fights for equal rights in the PCUSA for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, including ordination and marriage. The group hosted its annual meeting Sept. 4-6 at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tenn.
Reyes-Chow opened with greetings from the denomination, as well as from Mission Bay Community Church, the San Francisco church he pastors. He described himself to the group as “somewhat” of a friend, but was much more definitive on his opinion of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights.
“I’ve always felt that ordination is a privilege that’s extended to all – and we have to figure out how do we go about living that out,” he said. “It’s important that if we’re going to move into the future of the denomination … as we move around – beyond some of the ways we’ve interacted in the past – to be able to do so with some new eyes and new ways of being. These are ways of being that we’re being asked to embrace from outside the church.”
Reyes-Chow was delivering More Light’s first Rosemarie Wallace Keynote, which honors the late LGBT rights leader. Wallace served the denomination through leadership positions in the Presbytery of Baltimore, Synod of the Piedmont and Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns (PLGC). She passed away in 2004 and is survived by her partner Tabb Forester of Mesa, Ariz., who also spoke at the conference.
The keynote drew what appeared to be the highest attendance for any single conference event, filling the Second Presbyterian Church sanctuary with approximately 150 to 200 participants. A lively morning worship service preceded Reyes-Chow’s remarks, which were followed by various More Light workshops and an evening of fellowship and worship.
He introduced his talk as “the future of the progressive church – how we are going to survive and what we’re going to do.” The title could also have been “how the conservative part of the church is going to survive … ,” he said, because both sides are facing similar questions and challenges.
“We’re being forced to look at what we look like as a denomination in a new age,” he said, adding that the Church needs to think about how it could serve its various communities differently.
Drawing from personal experiences and saying that he receives complaints that the PCUSA is both too liberal and too conservative, Reyes-Chow expressed concern that the denomination is nowhere close to making the transformation to be the “church of the future” and called for a dramatic shift.
Prior to outlining his strategy, he also brushed off the denomination’s largest drop in membership in 25 years – which occurred 2008, the same year Reyes-Chow was elected moderator at the 218th General Assembly. PCUSA shed 172,869 members, dropping its overall reported census to 2.14 million. Since 1965, the denomination has lost 2.1 million members.
“We are not the church to be the numbers,” he said. “I believe if God intends for us to grow, we will grow.”
With an eye toward evangelism, Reyes-Chow said he’s more interested in reaching those who have yet to experience Jesus Christ. He urged an approach that will engage broader segments of the community, especially the younger generation. His focus is on becoming the kind of church he wants for his 12-year-old daughter.
“I don’t want her to come out of guilt or obligation. I don’t want her to come to church and feel like she has to bear with it and it will be OK,” he said. “I want her to come to church because she is pulled to it because we offer comfort and challenge, and we offer this place where this yearning to be developed and nurtured grows.”
Outlining a five-point strategy, Reyes-Chow expressed a need to shift roles with a shifting world.
Communication
It was no surprise he started with communication, as Reyes-Chow is known for being a blogger, Internet radio show host and using social network tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, in his own congregation. Reyes-Chow is a big proponent of breaking the traditional worship mold.
He said the Church needs to learn to better use technology to reach the next generations. Whereas the first generation of Web communication was a one-way street, the next generation offers unprecedented two-way communication and worldwide connectivity. He spoke of parishioners “Twittering” on their cell phones during worship and hosting late-night Bible studies on the Internet for busy adults. The strategies have produced a young, growing congregation.
He was also critical of the PCUSA Web site for being outdated and difficult to navigate, as well as the deliberate communication barriers that exist between church leadership and the outside world.
Authority
Continuing with the technology trend, Reyes-Chow said that Church authority must shift to the open source model, which prevents any individual from having more authority than another. He offered Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that is written and edited by random users, as an example.
“I believe we as Presbyterians already do that,” he said. “We believe that we discern the mind of Christ and the will of God together. That is an open source process.”
Worship
Implying that Presbyterian worship is too predictable, Reyes-Chow focused on worship as another area needing a tune up. In his travels over the last year, except for two worship experiences, he said he knows exactly what is going to happen at every service.
“Those days are gone,” he said. “We have to be a denomination that embraces the idea that we can be all things to all people. If we can’t … then why are we bothering being a connectional church.”
He lauded the “improvisational jazz service” at Wicker Park Grace in Chicago as a good example.
Structure
Sharing that Mission Bay revamps its session every six months, he urged a less rigid structure for the PCUSA and its congregations.
“Our structure has to be fluid enough to adapt as the community shifts – and that’s about as non-Presbyterian as we can get, to have this flowing community,” he said. “Our new order needs to be fluidity. Our new order needs to be able find comfort and security in not having such strict structure.”
Inclusiveness
Pointing to ideological loyalty as one of the things that has torn the denomination apart, Reyes-Chow said expecting people to live along those ideological lines does not acknowledge the realities in people’s lives.
He said Mission Bay, though it’s often asked to, does not take sides. Doing so is not feasible in the community it serves, he said.
“That would say that for some reason and in some way this entire community believes the exact same thing,” he said. “For us to demand party loyalty, ideological loyalty is a detriment to the church.”
He used an example of his “conservative friends” being criticized for talking with him a
bout the issues, which he said is treated as a sign of weakness. In all fairness to the conservatives, however, he said of liberals “we are often just as exclusive as those we are fighting against.”
Following the keynote address, Reyes-Chow opened the floor to audience questions, then hosted a town hall-style meeting where he addressed issues such as gay ordination, healing the split between liberals and conservatives and various denominational trends.
Excerpts from the question-and-answer session will be posted to The Layman Online soon.