Where Are We Going?

THE PC(USA) — TODAY AND THE FUTURE

Dr. Heath Rada

The general consensus of the  folks gathered for this conference is that there is a global reformation afoot, but fear that the denomination will not be here to be part of it, or will be so focused on the fighting that we miss it. There is hope that we can move away from fighting over social issues to figure a way to exist as one communion, able to house the range of human expression of faith. The hope is to claim who we are, even though we are not really sure who that is.

The Focal Issues for Us

SMALL CONGREGATIONS

This issue is front and center as a huge majority of congregations are under 200 folks. 

This situation and context means that the old, old tradition of every church having a full-time clergy or clergy with staff is no longer viable for an increasing number of congregations. That means we will have to be creative about finding leaders while staying true to our foundation of an educated clergy. The more general acceptance of Commissioned Ruling Elders will become more and more a necessary means by which to provide pastoral leadership for congregations. Other professional staff, such as Christian Educators, will more than likely become a shared resource—a number of congregations pooling their resources to support such professionals who would very likely be used like the circuit riders of old, moving from church to church as needed. 

A further concern is access to resources when a small congregation cannot afford to purchase curriculum, study materials, or worship materials. We may well have to resurrect the idea of presbytery resource centers if our congregations are going to find the resources their lives depend on. 

This context may also lead to a “do one thing well” approach to mission and outreach; i.e., a church with limited resources may need to focus on a single project or ministry as the focus for their mission. The bad—this makes mission narrow; the good—it may help a congregation find and fill a specific niche in a community, bringing people in who wish to become part of that ministry. Our NWCs already apply this model as they form. 

THREE CHURCHES WITHIN THE CHURCH

The PC(USA) is hardly homogeneous. We have distinct flavors baed on region—

Southern

connectional and familial—who you know leads to deeper belonging and shared work. The network of established clergy is still a major instrument in pastor searches, as PNCs will check with area clergy about candidates and clergy will network with colleagues when searching to get their name out. Congregations are still family institutions with generations of the same families still forming cores of congregations. This, of course, deeply effects how ministry is done.

It also illumines why the Southern church can vary wildly in its stance on social issues—it really does matter who is connected to whom in a presbytery— knowing someone will lead to a stance for or against them.

Northern

organizational, issue driven—working within the institution is still the order of the day, shaping presbytery life and how churches work together through established presbytery links, networks, etc. Local congregations will employ corporate models of organization, using staff accordingly. Furthermore, the tradition of being activists is deeply rooted in practice, and most of our social justice overtures, amendments, etc. start within the former UPC churches.

The West

non-Presbyterian, more conservative as a core minority, individualistic—the individualism of the West is prevalent in church life—I will be who I will be; you will deal with it. As a result there is not as much trust in the institution as means to good, but rather it is more often seen as a curtailment of one’s individual liberty. Because the West is so dominantly secular, the church is a core of “true believers,” which means by and large a more conservative presence, despite living in a more progressive region. There is often a disconnect between cultural stances and church positions; i.e., the church and culture often remain unintelligible to each other. Finally, Presbyterians are relative newbies in the West and most people, clergy and lay, have come from some other Protestant stream into the church. This means there is often trouble understanding the ways and means of Presbyterian polity, organization, and procedure simply because they are unfamiliar. With 85% of the population non-religious, there is tremendous potential for evangelism, if it is done in a way palatable to a populace who already equates “Christian” with a negative view of religion. 

Because of these variances in who we are, finding consensus on how to be a national church is a huge challenge. 

REMNANT CONGREGATIONS

The congregation of the resurrection—quality of faith practice over/against the number of members. As congregations leave the denomination, a growing trend is that it is not a unanimous move. Rather, a remnant stays behind, more attached to a particular church than a particular stance. This trend is fed by more and more presbyteries refusing to give in to the demand that property and assets go with a congregation when it leaves. 

However, the remnant faces a unique set of issues as they continue. Often, there is a temporary leadership void. Moreover, stewardship is greatly impacted by greatly reduced numbers. 

But as these congregations re-coalesce, they often find a rejuvenation and celebration of life together. The most heated combatants are often gone, leaving behind folks who want nothing more than to enjoy being together, committed to harmony and service. Left with the blank slate of redefining themselves, they use it to focus on how they embody the compassion, mercy, and, importantly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is usually a high level of enthusiasm and energy in these congregations that presbyteries would do well to tap and nurture.

GOD IS DECONSTRUCTING THE CHURCH

Now, some of the bad news. The Church is coming apart at the seams, beyond demographics, social issues, theology, etc.; i.e., the institution is coming apart, but faith is coalescing. 

With presbyteries shrinking in terms of staff, resources, and congregations, the old order is unsustainable. What happens is more self-generated ministry within the congregations as they go it alone. This move deepens the commitment of congregations because they literally own their work. 

The downside is that there is dwindling financial support beyond the means of the congregations. There is also a growing dearth of expertise to tap in expanding and deepening ministry. New models for such support will have to come from sources beyond mid-level councils and General Assembly.

The way we did things cannot be the way we will do things.

The truth of the matter is that there is a reformation occurring, but absolutely no clue as to what form or end it will take. Possibilities range from American Protestantism regrouping in three main communities—progressive, conservative, and evangelical; to a complete end of any institutionalized church; and, of course, all points in between. 

Many take a position of faithful waiting—it is God at work, so we need to trust that as we work, God is with us; but tempered with understanding that what we are doing may not be what God is doing, so stay attuned for signs of God’s absence (i.e., dying) in our work. 

PERSISTENT JUDGMENT

Everyone practices judgment. The key is removing judgment as a weapon that seeks the destruction of the other to making judgment a source of reconciliation. 

To me, that is moving the object from someone else to one’s own stance; i.e., worrying less about whether someone else is wrong or right, focusing instead on whether or not I am aligned with the ways of Christ. 

Always note that all theology is speculative (cf. 1 Cor. 13:9), so perhaps instead of arguing over correctness, we need to simply listen to one another’s perception, for the more views we see, the closer to the truth we might be. I would call this “the accident syndrome”—if ten people witness an accident, there will be ten different reports of what happened, with the truth being somewhere in the coalescing of all ten reports. If we create a true Big Tent within the PC(USA) with a place at the table for everyone and all viewpoints, then we may well be closer to fully understanding what it is God wants from us as disciples. 

The first step toward such a Big Tent is mutual confession—all of us—left, right, middle—have been judgmental, said and done hurtful things, and been less than followers of Christ, so we all need to confess to one another, seeking reconciliation, grace, and forgiveness—both forgiving others and being forgiven.

CONGREGATIONAL VITALITY

We need a strong practice of radical welcome. As we examine the gospels, note how Jesus welcomed anyone and everyone, as they were. The main point is to get people into the presence of God. Sorting them is God’s work, not ours. If we trust God to be God, and God to be good, then God will work within each person to correct, affirm, redeem, and resurrect all that is needed. Our job is welcome and triage, if you will. Souls need mending. Mending requires compassion. Compassion requires openness. Congregations that can embody this presence thrive, with Christ living in and through them.

We need to decide what our purpose as a church is—and it needs to be done succinctly and clearly. One of the greatest weaknesses of the current PC(USA) is diffusion—too many fronts to be effective—a mile wide, but an inch deep. We to rethink what our main purpose is—i.e., the main thing is to determine the main thing to keep as the main thing. With our more streamlined denomination, we will have to streamline our presence. Congregationally, this will require discernment to identify the greatest gift each has, then focus all energy and resources on using that gift to embody Christ for whatever community is around the congregation. Congregations don’t have the luxury of spreading themselves too thin; they need to focus and do the really hard work of centering on a main presence in their community as the people of Christ.

The heart and soul of the church is the congregation, so congregationalism is real. This realization calls into question sweeping policy statements or mission efforts from on high. Each congregation knows its community, and hopefully knows itself within that community—hence, what a congregation in Seattle sees as its main purpose and presence will not be the same as a congregation in Albany, GA, let alone Albany, NY. Congregations need to be given a certain amount of freedom in determining how to communicate the gospel in their own context, and how to serve there, and what to emphasize as God’s justice there. Therefore, the denomination should center on things that are truly communicable over a wide breadth of contexts—i.e., the GA could commit to making the Great Commandments (love of God, love of neighbor) as the main emphases of the PC(USA), then allow member churches to figure out how to embody those emphases in their own place. Again, this allows for progressives to be progressive, conservatives to be conservative, and evangelicals to be evangelical without needing to tromp all over each other. 

INSTITUTIONAL FORM

At the denominational level, the need is for connecting and networking between regions, and deciding how much institution we actually need. With a much more shallow pool of resources from which to draw, we will have to prioritize what needs to be done, by whom, and where to focus our allocation of limited resources. That will only happen as each presbytery becomes far more engaged with each synod (and vice versa); and everyone more engaged with General Assembly (and vice versa). The point is to eliminate the “us-them” mindset that so pervades most interaction between levels in our denomination. It is all “we.” As we get more firmly connected to each other, we will more clearly and more ably work to supply and support one another’s ministry, eliminating waste, irrelevance, and guessing.

Service needs to be seen as a spiritual practice that enriches those who serve; ergo, there needs to be as much Bible study, prayer, and discipleship as there is business for the reason the theology becomes the foundation for action and decisions—it becomes the filter for essential and non-essential discernment. What this means is that when sessions meet, when presbyteries gather, when synods convene, and General Assembly meets; we need to balance prayer and work, literally—every hour of work needs an hour of prayer and Bible study. Knowing this can streamline our process. Committees will have to bring fully baked ideas to plenary meetings. Micromanaging at plenaries needs to be eliminated. Questions and elaborations need to be part of the committee process. Everyone will have to be a lot more efficient with the business end of things. Moreover, the more time spent in Bible study and prayer, the better our understanding will be of what it is God wants from us, eliminating a lot of stuff that need not be considered. The Spirit should inform our work, not the other way round.

EDUCATION

Presbyterians are still focused on education and still value it strongly. We emphasize strongly an engagement with scripture, and we still develop curriculum for all ages. We still strongly believe that church professionals need to be well-educated, schooled in the history, theology, spirituality, and practice of our faith. 

We need to claim that tradition to lay the foundation for what’s next. The truth is that most of the people who will find their way into our community of faith, or whom we encounter as we take our faith into the world, will have no idea about what we are talking about. Even a rudimentary knowledge of Christianity can no longer be assumed. If people are truly to become disciples, they will need to be taught the basic faith. They will need to be introduced to the scope and breadth of Christianity. Their stereotypes will need to be overcome and dismantled. Misinformation and mythology about us will need to be clarified and corrected. Prejudice will need to be met with truth. Fascinatingly, this need is currently as great inside the church as outside it. We no longer can assume even church folk know the story, the theology, or the practice of faith.

Seminaries will need to find a niche, emphasizing particular needs for the church—i.e., small church, Christian Education, missions, etc. We have ten seminaries at present. If they are all to survive, this niche practice is a must. They cannot simply reduplicate themselves in different spots, but must have their own calling card—a reason to attend—that meets a need within the church or matches a method for taking the gospel into the world. 

We need to really explore Commissioned Ruling Elders because of the educational limitations—they don’t go to seminary, so how do we equip presbyteries to teach?How do we ensure that they receive all that is necessary to adequately pastor? They are probably the group of leaders that will grow the fastest because they will be the only people smaller congregations will be able to afford or attract. Already, some presbyteries know that they will be entirely comprised of congregations that will be part-time pastorates. How do we effectively staff them with educated leadership?

The reality of the institution as a congregation of small churches limits how we can staff them—how do we educate folks?

We need to develop digital resources that can easily be shared among presbyteries and their member congregations. This format is cheaper, easily translatable, and readily dispersed. This format is probably the future of curriculum and worship materials, and certainly will be the core of the church’s communication with the outside world.

IDENTITY

There is a real hunger to reclaim our identity as followers of Christ, undoing the problems associated with the misinterpretation and stereotyping of Christians. Through actions more than words, we need to reveal a truer image of following Christ that moves away from the moralism and judgment so heavily associated with being Christian. We need to act in such a way that Christ’s hospitality, compassion, and mercy are the leading edges of who we are. It is interesting that many church folk now refer to themselves as disciples of Jesus or followers of Jesus, abandoning the self-designation as “Christian.”

Evangelism needs to be shifted from speaking to “radical listening”—intentionally seeking out the hurt or lost to hear their experiences. If so many reject the church because of the hurt done by the church, then they should be a main focus for outreach. To properly minister to them, though, we need to be less active or quick to speak, but rather engage through compassionate listening to their stories. Then, we can speak and act responsively with the necessary compassion for reconciliation and healing. This does not mean self-denigration by the church, but rather humble confession that mistakes have been made and that there is a more excellent way in which we can welcome those hurt and move forward together. Beyond that issue, though, we also need to listen to the Nones to find out what sort of core they use to establish meaning, purpose, and value for their lives. Perhaps Tillich’s theology of the Ground of Being becomes a means by which to listen, leaving God unnamed until such a point in the relationship when it communion is established and God can be introduced as the ground of that communion. Relationship must come first in the current context, followed by engagement, then comes naming Christ when trust, love, and community are established.

We need to truly engage with other people, moving beyond the technological connection (i.e., I can instantaneously connect to anyone, anywhere) to real communion. There is real hunger for belonging and being able to move beyond simply being one of thousand Facebook friends, for instance. Moreover, modern business reduces a great many employees from being actual persons to simply being human capital, moved, shifted, and dismissed based solely on some impersonal standard of productivity. Hence, the message of being a unique act of God’s creative will; i.e., a child of God, becomes a huge gift to share with another person.

We need to capitalize on the experience and service of “the Dones" (folks aged through their desire to be active in church). There is a wealth of expertise and modeling of discipleship in their presence. The flip side is that many congregations suffer from weariness—one generation has worked to keep the place afloat longer than previous generations, and they are tired. It does not mean that we continue to do things as they have always been done, but rather take responsibility for continuing the presence of the church that previous generations have ensured will be here now. We listen to learn through their experience, then adapt and transform that experience to meet the needs of the present moment. 

Through these steps, we form a new identity that grows from the base of the old identity, becoming the community of Christ relevant to now.

NWCs—New Worshipping Communities

Through the work of 1001 Worshipping Communities, the General Assembly taskforce charged with establishing new congregations and developing new models for being a congregation, we are seeing a new burst of creative imagination in being church. These new communities may well share some elements with established congregations, but by and large they do not look like church, act like church, or follow the path of church; yet, remain truly church.

How?

Vibrant and vital NWCs all are built on three core elements—worship, a mission focal point, and radical hospitality.

Begin with the mission focal point—these communities are built on a single identifying focus; e.g., FarmChurch in Durham, NC is built on being a farm in which all that is produced is used to alleviate hunger in the community. These communities have no intent of being all things for all people. They will never become a general purpose church, but rather use this central focus as an attraction for potential community members. Since they all start with little or no resources to speak of, the narrowness of focus is a great gift for stewardship. Separating essential from non-essential is quickly discerned as to whether or not something fits the mission. Also, by being task oriented, they attract folks who may, at first, have no interest in church, per se, but see the value in the work being done. 

That leads to the radical hospitality that defines these communities. No one is turned away because everyone is needed. In fact, some folks in the communities say they joined simply because “they get to do stuff!” We cannot denigrate that element. The generations coming up are for more interested in direct action that embodies compassion, grace, and mercy, rather than intellectual reflection on such things—don’t talk to me about compassion, SHOW ME compassion! As long as there is a commitment to the work being done, all are welcome. There are no bystanders in NWCs.

Worship is central because it is in and through worship that the message gets proclaimed as to why the NWC does what it does and is what it is. This spiritual grounding is absolutely essential, for without ready and regular acknowledgement of God at center, the work will come to nothing. Worship recharges and refocuses the community on Christ at center, reminding all that reason for being is to embody Christ for the world. 

Beyond these three elements (and even as these three elements are shaped and employed), all paths are open for exploration. Membership will be redefined, more than likely based simply on participation and presence rather than any kind of formal administration. Stewardship will be a huge challenge as folks with no background or understanding in communal pooling of financial resources to get done what needs to be done will be challenged to grow in that understanding. Also, at first, there will be a scary lean time as NWCs will be dependent on presbyteries for support, and those presbyteries are also facing limited resources. Pastors and leaders will definitely need to see themselves as missionaries, perhaps using the same models and strategies for support that our missionaries in other countries use. But when it works, it works astoundingly, opening a whole class of newcomer to the life and work of the church, and, most importantly, bringing folks into discipleship of Jesus Christ. 

Conclusion

This is indeed a scary time for the PC(USA) as we continue to shrink, age, and blunder about. But we need to try as hard as we can to see things through the eyes of faith—that is, God is doing something new. We could well be in the midst of a major reformation of mainline Christianity in the US. Faithfully, we need to trust that God is good and grace abounds. What we truly and really need to do is stop, look, and listen to see where God is active and working, then go there and join that, whatever that is. If the research is correct, now is a vibrant, exciting time for mission and taking the presence of Christ to a whole new generation.