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What exactly is an ‘un’ confessing church?

Carmen Fowler LaBerge

3/8/2011 10:48:17 AM

I just received a one sentence letter dated Feb. 11 which reads, “As a result of a vote of the session during the regular meeting on Jan. 12, 2011, it is the desire of the session that the name of ... Presbyterian Church of ... is removed from your list of Confessing Churches. Sincerely, Clerk of Session.”

 

If a church was once a confessing church, what kind of church is it now that it wants to be un-confessing?  Yes, that’s probably too strong, but maybe not.

 

To ask to be removed from the Confessing Church list is to say that something specific that was once confessed is confessed no longer. So, what of the three points of the Confessing Church Movement (CCM) that the session of this church voted to uphold 10 years ago are no longer truths that the current session can affirm?

 

You will recall that the three points affirmed were: (1) Jesus Christ is the world’s singular saving Lord. No one comes to the Father but through Him. (2) The Bible is God’s holy Word. (3) Christians are called to live a holy life, which includes the Biblical standard of chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage.

 

There’s nothing new about these three statements. They’ve been confessed by God’s people since the inception of the Church. What is new is that some church leaders can no longer make that confession.

 

The Confessing Church list is a snapshot of a point in time and is not considered a dynamic list. At a point in time the session of this church voted to affirm the three statements that make it a Confessing Church. No future session can undo what that session did.  The Layman Online clearly articulates this in saying, “Listed in the document below are the names of churches whose sessions declared themselves Confessing Churches within the PCUSA during 2001 and for several years thereafter.

 

 Some of these churches are no longer PCUSA congregations, and all of the remaining PCUSA sessions have changed leadership, reflecting, in some rare cases, a change of theological conviction. We include the list, therefore, as a historical document, and not necessarily as a statement of a congregation’s current affiliation and/or affection.”

 

Which begs a new question: In a time when congregations within the PCUSA seem desirous to communicate where they stand in relationship to what appears to be the passage of Amendment 10-A and the removal of express standards of sexual practice for ordained leaders, might sessions consider affirming or reaffirming their confession?

 

In a 2009 letter to the editor, Presbyterian pastor Nick TeBordo encouraged a resurgence of the CCM. “We have been members of the Confessing Church since the year it began. At this point, I would love to see the movement revitalized for those PCUSA churches that wish to remain in the denomination while strongly supporting Biblical values.”

 

If the recent communication I received is any indication, we may need to also develop another list, indicating those congregations whose leaders will not confess the Church’s faith.  Once led by pastors and elders who affirmed the sole saving nature of Jesus Christ, sola Scriptura and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to holiness, these congregations have chosen leaders who believe something else.

 

The PLC is just the keeper of the list. Who will keep the faith once confessed?

 

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Comments  4

  • Alan Wildsmith 8 Mar, 02:18 PM

    I agree with your comments. The request to remove the church's name is yet another sign of the decline of the PCUSA as it drifts away from the scriptural foundation it once confessed. How sad!

  • Cameron Mott 13 Mar, 04:43 PM

    You might be loading too much on this church from that single sentence. They asked to removed from "your list", not the Confessing Church Movement.

    If they are still in the PCUSA they have already affirmed those confessions; shouldn't you ask for more clarification before proclaiming them as abandoning those confessions because they don't want to be on PLC's list.

  • Denise Kendall 15 Mar, 04:04 AM

    Confessing these three points is all well and good; I have no problem making these confessions. But of course the subtext of point three as confessed by Carmen is that God has defined marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. It's not that I'm an un-confessing Christian, it's just that I'm an un-Carmen Christian. And making that distinction is very important in my walk with God and my expression of that walk.

  • Paul Hubert 19 Mar, 02:24 PM

    Noel Anderson seems to believe Evangelicals should stay and TAKE OVER the PCUSA. That really would be the most desirable outcome.

    However, as the PCUSA stands, keeping the faith, once confessed, would seem to be in greater jeopardy _within_ the PCUSA.

    Or _would_ it?? What happened to all the churches and individuals that failed to PREVENT what happened to the denomination?

    And, we know THAT could happen -and has happened- all across Christendom.
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