It was the last day of the 222nd General Assembly meeting of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and for the first time the word “evangelism” came up. It was quickly shot down. Commissioners argued that “evangelism is hard for us,” and “evangelism means something different in every community and you can’t teach that.” Emily Williams, a Young Adult Advisory delegate said, “we’re not supposed to preach outside the church,” and “our resources are better spent on deeds not words.” She then concluded, “if we’re worried about filling pews, just put a $50 bill in every bulletin.”
It is no secret that the PCUSA has suffered a precipitous decline in membership from a height of 4.5 million members in its two predecessor denominations prior to Reunion, to just over 1.5 million today. Projections are of another 400,000 member loss by 2020. So one might imagine that evangelism strategies would top the list of agenda items for the General Assembly but one would be wrong.
Was the assembly being asked to do something new for the church? Quite the contrary. The assembly was being asked to affirm the first Great End of the Church as articulated in the Foundations of Presbyterian Polity (F-1.0304), namely: the proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind. 25 years ago the 1991 General Assembly was able to approve and issue a church-wide call to evangelism. They adopted a document called “Turn to the Living God” and in 2016 the document was updated and posted on the denomination’s website in a 25th anniversary edition. The 2016 GA was not able to affirm nor commend the same.
The motion before the assembly required no amendment to the Constitution, no new resources, and had no financial implications as the document is already on the denomination’s website. The action simply asked that the document be recognized and commended for study and action. Further, no mandates were made in the proposal to PCUSA related seminaries. The language of encouragement was used. But in the end, the assembly eschewed any and all evangelism in a vote of 270-279.
Here’s how it went down:
The ill-fated evangelism overture known as item 06-02 arrived at the assembly floor with a 38-18 committee recommendation for disapproval. Commissioner Gale Watkins of Grand Canyon Presbytery moved to amend the motion to disapprove with comment.
Comment:
The 222nd General Assembly (2016):
1. Recognizes the 25th anniversary of General Assembly approval of “Turn to the Living God: A Call to Evangelism in Jesus Christ’s Way,” and commends this outstanding resource, which is still relevant and is easily accessible on the denomination’s website, to the whole church for study and action.
2. Encourages all of our theological institutions to do all they can to prepare their students to be faithful and effective in the communication of the gospel in our swiftly-changing world, fulfilling the call to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5), learning from the best practices of their counterparts both within and beyond the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In presenting the amendment Watkins cited II Corinthians 5 and highlighted the sermon the assembly had heard earlier the same day from Rev. Dr. Jerry Andrews about being reconciled to God now. Watkins appealed to the assembly to encourage the members of the PCUSA to share the life-changing good news of Jesus Christ. A sufficient majority of his fellow commissioners were not convinced. In fact, many were openly opposed to the idea.
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I guess it’s just not cool to want to share the Gospel openly; we need to keep proving to the public how hip we are so they can relate and accept us and not think we’re racist/LGBTQQ-hating/narrow-minded religious kooks. I think a lot of those people are ashamed and embarrassed to be recognized as Christians sharing the message of the Bible – because of bad publicity in the media (well, OK, Westboro Baptist doesn’t help the general perception either). We serve an awesome God and the Bible is the message – that’s what we should be sharing – evangelism is a good thing.
Of all of the actions of the GA, this may be the saddest.
I am a Presbyterian excited about Evangelism! There are a few of us out there. While the GA may not be for it, or flat out reject it, there are some who are actively shaing their faith in the Savior as the only way of salvation.
There are still some work in Louisville that love Jesus, want to share Jesus, and want to plant churches. They do awesome work where they can
” a Young Adult Advisory delegate said, “we’re not supposed to preach outside the church,” and “our resources are better spent on deeds not words.”
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Wait, WHAT??
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What about the Great Commission?
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What about “Go ..”, that is a deed commanded by Christ!
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Agreed.
If you believe that everyone is going to heaven whether they are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic then there is absolutely no need to utter a word about the saving work of Jesus Christ. Hey, evangelism takes work….prayer, relationship building, having the guts to tell someone else about Jesus and then….inviting this person to trust Jesus as Savior. It is much easier to say “No” to evangelism at the GA than to embrace fulfilling the Great Commission. The PCUSA is full of listless, milk toast, anemic, dull liberals who are clueless about what Jesus wants us to do to win a lost work to Christ. I would like to know where the YAAD who said you shouldn’t preach outside the church…..goes to church and what presbytery she/he is from. I will call the pastor and EP and let them know you need to be a much better job of discipleship.
At the 1983 ( Reunion ) GA I was on a committee that debated the wording of an overture.
The debate was whether “Evangelism should be “a” priority of the church or ” the” priority of the church. The committee went with “a”.
I had the sense then that it was about more than “a” or ” the”.
My sense was that making evangelism “a” priority meant that it could be ignored. That has proved to be the case.
No surprise. There have been a half-dozen of failed “evangelism” overtures and efforts in this denomination in the last 40 years. They fail for the same reason McDonald’s no longer sells the McRib Sandwich – nobody wants the version of Christianity the PCUSA is “selling.”
People recognize a deceptive product when they see it.
Her name, as the article states, is Emily Williams, and a quick Google Search shows that she was commissioned by Grace Presbytery, where she attends Covenant Presbyterian Church in Sherman, TX.