The conversation started something like this: “What am I going to tell my people?”
On the other end of the line was a young pastor who is heart-broken over the potential that his denomination is about to sever itself from the faith once delivered to the saints. As he put it, “With this level of departure from the Word of God, with this level of acceptance of sin, how can I continue in honesty and integrity?”
He is not angry. He is wounded. He is not threatening to lead his congregation out, but he feels led to renounce his ordination in a denomination he does not want to be seen as representing. He has elders and deacons facing the same dilemma and they are looking to him for guidance, counsel and leadership.
“This is an old southern church, so the property issue is not an issue, if it comes to that,” he assured himself.
I hesitated through a long sigh before breaking it to him. “That is not necessarily the case. According to what the denomination’s lawyers are arguing in the Carrolton case, having voted for the exception in G-8.0701, which was designed to exempt former PCUS congregations from the denomination’s church property restrictions (G-8.0500), does not protect you from the ‘trust’ that the PCUSA has imposed on local church property (G-8.0200).”
“You’re kidding!” he protested.
“Sorry, but I’m not kidding. They argue that trust clause applies to all local church property, both real and personal, no matter how it is titled. They say that when former southern churches filed for the exception they only freed themselves from the requirement that local churches obtain written permission from the presbytery before they buy, sell or mortgage local church property. That in and of itself, they argue, doesn’t free your property from their asserted trust.”
In what I can characterize as barely more audible than a whimper, he pleaded, “O God.” I could almost see his shoulders slump and his forehead fall into his hand, bowed deeply over his cluttered pastor’s desk.
Pastoral ministry has never been easy. People have a myriad of expectations that often run far afield of what seminarians are academically prepared for. Most Presbyterian candidates come out of large congregations with robust ministry programs and staffs. They will in turn mostly serve very small congregations of older adults for whom the world is like a blurr, spinning and changing in ways they do not like and at a pace they cannot manage. They come to church to stand with other believers on the solid rock amidst all the shifting sands of post-modern life.
That is now changing too. How then are pastors and elders to shepherd the flock of God entrusted to their care from solid rock to shifting sands?
My counsel to this one young pastor was:
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Get on your knees with the people in your congregation who you know are prepared to put their faces on the floor and plead with the Father.
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Convene a joint meeting of your session and diaconate and lay out the realities.
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Have them convene a meeting of your entire college of officers: every ordained officer in your congregation.
“That’s nearly half the congregation!” he said. “That’s the point,” I replied. “The secular media is going to be all over this. Your people are going to wake up one morning and USA Today or CNN is going to run a story declaring that Presbyterians now openly ordain gay clergy. You don’t want your officers to be caught off guard and you want them to be prepared to respond to their neighbors and the local media with grace and truth. This may be for your church leaders an unprecedented opportunity to declare what your local congregation believes and where it stands. When was the last time the paper called to do a story on what Presbyterians believe? When they call this time, your entire college of officers need to be prepared to answer with one voice, affirming the Scriptures and acknowledging that by its action, the PCUSA has departed from them.”
“What else?” he asked.
“Steel yourselves for what may come,” was all I could think to add.
A long silence followed. Words were not necessary. We shared a sober understanding of the uncertain future we face as ordained officers in a denomination that stands on the verge of a precipice. Warnings of the harm such a step would cause have been issued time and time again. But ears are itchy and too many simply want to do what is right in their own eyes.
Finally, I suggested we pray. That suggestion stands – even as we move from solid rock to shifting sands.