Staying or Going for the Same Exact Reasons

As promised (or threatened) here is a closer look at why those within the Fellowship of Presbyterians, which includes many of the largest congregations in the denomination, will most likely leave the PC(USA) pretty soon after this year's General Assembly. This is my take on it based on my reading of the documents produced by the Fellowship and based upon my conversations with good friends who self-affiliate with the Fellowship. A majority of churches will still remain in the PC(USA), some simply because it is a lot easier to stay than to leave. For a great number of churches and individuals, however, there are deeper reasons for their wanting to stay. I will discuss those briefly as well.

One of the main reasons that The Fellowship folks are leaving is because they have seen the drastic decline in PC(USA) church membership over the past 50 years or so and that has, understandably, caused them to come to the realization that the PC(USA) is dying. In my own experience I have now served as a pastor in three congregations. The first congregation average just 35 worshippers, down from about 80 or so back in the “good old days.” The second congregation, where I was an Associate Pastor, has declined from average worship attendance of 350 to less than 250 in just the past decade alone. Here at FPC there was a time that many of you remember, when this congregation had 300 in worship. Last year the average was 94. A lot of us who serve as PC(USA) pastors have had times when we’ve felt like we were just here to keep the doors open for a while longer. That’s not how I feel here, by the way, and our average is back up to 142.

More evidence is that there is a large number of PC(USA) congregations that have gotten so small that they cannot afford a pastor. This has caused congregations to have no pastoral leadership and it has also caused a lot of recent seminary graduates not to be able to find a position. There are a lot more PC(USA) pastors than congregations big enough to afford to pay them a wage commensurate with someone with a Master of Divinity degree, not to mention a family. Many in the Fellowship don’t want to be a part of a dying denomination anymore. “We age, shrink, and become increasingly irrelevant. Is it time to acknowledge that traditional denominations like the PC(USA) have served in their day but now must be radically transformed?” They’ve got a point.

The second main reason, and the most convincing in my opinion, is that “outside of presbytery meetings, we mostly exist in separate worlds, with opposing sides reading different books and journals, attending different conferences, and supporting different causes. There is no longer common understanding of what is meant by being ‘Reformed.’” The way I often put this when I’m talking about not

being able to see eye-to-eye with someone is to say, “We seem to live on different planets.” There really are books that one group loves that the other group wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. There are conferences and retreats that one group wouldn’t be caught dead at while the other group swears by it. One group reads Christian Century magazine because Christianity Today is for uninformed conservatives, while the other group reads Christianity Today magazine because Christian Century is for heretical liberals. The Fellowship says, “our divisions revolve around differing understandings of Scripture, authority, Christology, the extent of salvation amidst creeping universalism, and a broader set of moral issues.”

There are definitely two groups within the PC(USA) that live “on different planets.” My friends that are involved in The Fellowship of Presbyterians have expressed to me that what has happened is that one of those two groups, the “liberals,” has taken control of the denomination. This “takeover” has been so pervasive that my friends in the Fellowship do not feel welcome in this denomination anymore and do not feel like they belong anyway. Some have gone so far as to say that the PC(USA) is in a state of apostasy, which means “falling away from or renouncing the Christian faith.” The vast, overwhelming majority of Fellowship folks do not share that extreme view of the PC(USA), however. They just disagree with stances that have been taken by the denomination that include an increasing openness to homosexuality as naturally occurring as opposed to sinful, an increasing openness to interreligious dialogue and work with adherents of other faiths, especially Muslims, several statements and actions that seem to side with the Palestinians against the Israelis, a perceived tendency of PC(USA) mission work only to meet the physical needs of people without sharing the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ with them, and an unwillingness to define what beliefs are essential for a Presbyterian to hold. Those in the Fellowship disagree with the direction their denomination has headed and are tired of fighting so they want to leave the PC(USA) to start something new. A common way of justifying this is to say, “We aren’t leaving the PC(USA); the PC(USA) left us.” Haven’t you ever disagreed with something so much that you couldn’t be a part of it, that you felt that you had to leave in order to have a clear conscience?

Like often is the case, many of the reasons that the folks in the Fellowship want to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) are the very reasons that a great number of Presbyterians want to remain in the denomination. For many the very reasons that they are living out their Christian faith within the PC(USA) is because it tends to be more open and accepting than judgmental in regard to people who are both homosexual and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Openness to dialogue and work toward the common good with their neighbors of different faiths is a plus to a lot of people. Seeing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Arab-Palestinian minority (many of whom are Christian, not Muslim) makes complete sense to many Presbyterians, as does the PC(USA) emphasis on social justice instead of conversion. The reason that I have heard most often for why people consciously chose the PC(USA) is precisely because the PC(USA) allows diversity of theological and moral beliefs as long as a person can truthfully say that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior. Once again, the reasons that cause some to want to leave are the very same reasons that make many want to stay. Funny how that works, isn't it?

The question I want you to think about this week is not why do you like or dislike the Presbyterian Church (USA), but why do you love the First Presbyterian Church of Washington Court House or whatever your home church is? Whatever your views on this topic or that, strive to live a life this week in which everything you do, in word or deed, is done in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God through him.

May your week be filled with the peace and the joy of the Lord, even in the tough times. Especially in the tough times.

Peace,
Everett