Getting Our Butts Out of the Chair
Are you tired of hearing about another church who thinks they should split off of the denomination? If I hear one more person try to explain to me why they want to be “spiritual but not religious” I think I’m going to vomit. The latest issue of the Christian Century has two feature articles about churches closing. One of the articles bears the title “How institutions can die well.” Before we hang black crepe paper all around the neighborhood, maybe we ought to get our butts out of the chair and take some initiative on behalf of the church we say we love.
Presbyteries Have An Opportunity
I have recently published eight blogs exploring the idea of how presbyteries can do more than just sit around waiting for the next church to get upset. I think presbyteries have an opportunity to BE THE CHURCH. As the old hymn suggests, “We’ve A Story To Tell to the Nations” and instead of being passive victims of the fractionalism that is plaguing our world, we should take the initiative to tell a counter story to the toxic pursuit of purity that is threatening our society. At least Presbyterians should know better than to follow that red herring. We know that the demand for perfection is a fools pursuit. To paraphrase an old joke, “The whole world is corrupt except you and me and I’m beginning to have my doubts about you.” When you start down that trail, the only result is endless fractures of the One Body of Christ.
DO I LOVE CHRIST’S CHURCH
If I believe that Paul was right that the church is the Body of Christ, then are our endless splits just another way to share in the crucifixion of Christ’s body? If we love Christ and love the church, then it is time we stop being passive and do something about it.
Shaping healthy churches to receive new pastors.
If anyone will send me their email and promise to share the ideas contained in my suggestions about how to build community rather than factions in the Body, I will send them a complete set of my blogs on ways to take the initiative against church splitting. They aren’t perfect ideas, but they can form the basis for a presbytery to decide what actions to take.
I agree with you. Somehow we think if we read the Bible more and give some money we are doing what the church ought to be doing. Is that enough????
As I think you have written, when the auegmrnt here is seen as one involving justice it is hard to not opt for ordination of gay people. When the auegmrnt here is seen as one involving authority, then it is hard not opt for restricting ordination in the way it has been.The auegmrnt yet to be resolved does seem to be the one between different theologies, and included in that auegmrnt are auegmrnts over the meaning of justice and authority.My experience has been that justice and authority are both rooted in desires for power over others. It seems to me that the alternative is to think in terms of grace. It seems to me that in the Hebraic idea of God, grace is more important than either justice or authority. Grace resists justice and authority.For more than the last one hundred years, the PCUSA has been in a feud and in that feud those who have advocated the vision of justice have generally prevailed. The fear of fundamentalism in the PCUSA is huge.I think that many who advocate the vision of justice fail to see within themselves the degree to which they continue to treat others unfairly and, more degradingly, as outsiders. A gay man who worshipped in a PCUSA congregation that prided itself on its justice and inclusiveness told me that he felt that the congregation accepted his sexuality, and felt proud that they did. At the same time, he felt like he was treated as an outsider because his skin was not white. I knew what he meant because I had talked to others whose skin was not white who also felt excluded. This is one of the reasons that I left the PCUSA.