New Wineskins Response to General Assembly

Responses are emerging from the various renewal organizations. Here's the one from the folks at New Wineskins.

The New Wineskins Association of Churches Leadership Team Response to the 218th General Assembly

The New Wineskins Association of Churches
Leadership Team Response to the 218th General Assembly

Theologically unhinged - The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has become theologically unhinged from our Biblical and Reformation foundation. The actions of this Assembly are schismatic. They foster division within our denomination and threaten the sundering of the denomination from the world Church of Jesus Christ.

Specifically,

• The Assembly recommends re-writing the historic Heidelberg Catechism by truncating a quotation from Scripture (1 Cor. 6:9) in order to remove reference to homosexual behavior as sinful.

• The Assembly has asked the church once again to overturn historic, Biblical standards of sexual holiness for those being ordained. Previous authoritative interpretations about sexuality and ordination standards have been rendered void. Presbyteries will be asked to delete the “fidelity in marriage, chastity in singleness” clause of G-6.0106b.

• The Assembly has authorized creating a special fund to battle in civil courts congregations which cannot in good conscience continue their voluntary affiliation with the PC(USA). Such legal actions include not only disputes over property but, as in the Londonderry case, litigation against individual elders. Donations will be sought. However, we are hopeful that the General Assembly’s strong approval of a resolution encouraging presbyteries to initiate and communicate a gracious process for dismissal will decrease a rush to civil court on all sides.

• The Assembly has misunderstood and disrespected all three religions in its resolutions about Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The Assembly calls upon adherents to these various faith systems to celebrate religious holidays together: as if a good Muslim could celebrate the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ at Christmas, as if a good Jew could look to the crucifixion on Good Friday for atonement, as if a good Christian could consecrate himself or herself during Ramadan to a Unitarian God who is not the gracious Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of the Triune God.

• Although, the Assembly declined asking the presbyteries of the PC(USA) to redefine marriage as between one man and one woman (Mt. 19: 4-5), a civil marriage between 2 men was performed by a PC(USA) minister at the More Light Presbyterians gathering at the General Assembly. Those charged with defending our constitution have remained silent on this breach of ordination vows.

We find these actions repugnant and call upon the denomination to reject them heartily.

Meanwhile, the New Wineskins Association of Churches continues to hold to a vision of a church grounded in:

• shared, clear essential theological tenets based on historic Biblical faith
• shared ethical imperatives derived from Scripture\
• relationships of mutual accountability and support
• a polity designed for missional service.

Come Talk to Us in Atlanta on August 6 & 7th!

We invite pastors and elders serving PCUSA congregations to participate in conversations and voice concerns raised by the 218th General Assembly and to hear afresh the New Wineskins’ vision for the church.

The NWAC leadership will host this meeting for pastors and elders who share our commitment to the New Wineskins’ Essentials of the Reformed Faith, and are grieved by the actions of the General Assembly. This meeting will begin at noon, on Wednesday August 6 and conclude at noon on Thursday, August 7. It will be held near the Atlanta airport with complimentary shuttle service. For more information and to register, please contact executive director Renee Guth at rguth@newwineskinsassociation.org. A free-will offering will be collected in lieu of a registration fee. There will be NO registrations at the door. We suggest no more than 3 representatives from any one congregation because space is limited.

At this meeting we seek to encourage those

• congregations feeling called to continue to bear witness within the PC(USA) to become resistive communities collaboratively living out a vision of shared tenets, ethics, and mission.
• congregations feeling called to pursue realignment in another Reformed denomination.

In addition, our fifth New Wineskins Association convocation will be held at First Baton Rouge Presbyterian Church on Sunday, November 9 to Tuesday, November 11th. Our convocation will further the New Wineskins Association’s missional vision for Presbyterians in the 21st century!

Come consider a better way. Join us in prayer, discussion and visioning.

Grace and Peace in Christ,

Leadership Team
New Wineskins Association of Churches

Back from Tulsa

Don, Jen and i got back from Tulsa on Saturday, dodging the storms. It was quite an experience and, just like at General Assembly, I operated on about 5 hours of sleep per night. Late afternoon is the most dangerous time. A little voice inside your head keeps saying, "Of course you can listen with your eyes closed." I don't think I ever actually dozed off, but I'm probably not the person to ask.
One evening I spent over an hour writing a blog but, just as I posted it, the wireless service in the hotel came on telling me that I needed to resubscribe because my 24 hours were up. An hour's worth of blog slipped quietly away into cyberspace, never to be seen again. Sorry, but I didn't have the energy to re-do it, and I didn't trust the service enough to try again another night.
The New Wineskins meeting was, in some respects, a rather odd mixture of reflective music, stirring preaching, and momentous decision-making. Michael Card led worship. I've been listening to his music for 25 years and he still has a beautiful voice. I have to say, however, that it won't take God long to number the hairs of his head. At one point he pointed out that he is bald because he was a breach baby. Not sure I buy that! His emphasis, throughout, was on lament, which I thought was entirely appropriate, a fitting counter to what could have been a grating triumphalism. I'm delighted to have met him, and his daughter. I'd no idea he is Presbyterian.
Various preachers led us through Ephesians Chapter 4 during the convocation, or, at least, that was what they were supposed to do. Jim Logan, bless his cotton socks, was as excellent as usual, but his homiletics professor would have frowned at him and reminded him to stick to the text. Carmen Fowler and David Henderson also did well. The one preacher I didn't appreciate was David Bryant, who was delayed by storms for 24 hours. He was slick, affected, uninformed about our circumstances and overly loud. He was everything I don't appreciate about supposedly evangelical preachers. He didn't stick to the text either.
Then there were several presentations, some in plenary, others in network groups or break out sessions. By far the most impressive was Rob Gagnon's interpretation of the 217th General Assembly. Insightful, witty, Bible-based, he was thoughtful and extremely helpful. His powerpoint presentation is now available at the New Wineskins site (I downloaded it then realised I don't have powerpoint on my laptop). There's also an audio recording of his presentation. It's well worth listening to. http://www.newwineconvo.com/
There was an excellent (if rather dry) presentation by an attorney on Church Property Law, and we were given a resource book by the Layman. I also enjoyed a seminar with a professor from Erskine College, Bob Pittman from the Knox Fellowship, and the Moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. This latter (I forget his name) was a very impressive, humble man. He brought greetings but did not try to drum up support for a mass exodus to his denomination (though he had information available). He owned up to being terrified of the prospect of hundreds of PC(USA) churches defecting to his denomination, because they would be swamped. In fact, he said that it may be a case of the EPC joining us, given our numbers, and our emphasis on mission. The EPC has grown to abut 70,000 members since its birth with 12 churches in 1983, but it has not been terribly mission minded. He admitted that it has taken them a generation to get beyond moaning about the PC(USA). Another immensely helpful contribution came from Bishop Duncan of the Episcoplaian Church, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, who set our struggles within a much broader setting.
It was odd, those first few days, that the important business of the meeting was introduced, several times, in a very laid back way, almost as an afterthought. Dean Weaver has a wonderful way of saying "Oh, by the way... here's the revolutionary document we wanted you to see. Take it away and pray about it." For the first two days we were treated to vignettes like this. Then came the business meetings. You can read the finished article on the same, New Wineskins site. It took some hashing out, and I was getting very frustrated at the way in which the rules of debate were abused. You can't half-use Robert's Rules of Order. You either use them or you don't. Well, there are a few corners you can cut, but when it comes to the amendment process, not to use proper rules is to descend into chaos. We came pretty close once or twice. But the job was done. We are now an Association of Churches, and have set in motion a period of discernment which could lead to an exodus from the PC(USA). Despite what some may say, that is not schismatic. What is schismatic is for the denomination to break faith with the World Church and to abandon both its own constitution and the historic understanding of what it means to believe and behave as a Christian.
A great deal of work remains to be done. I covet your prayers.
Presbuteros

New Wineskins

Well, we're off to the New Wineskins meeting in Tulsa, tomorrow. ("Only, twenty four hours from Tulsa" - who sang that? Gene Pitney?) Three of us are going from Lake Jackson. I must confess to going with soome trepidation. Even though I was in on the birth of New Wineskins, at one of the Presbyterian Coalition's Y'All Come meetings, in Denver, I believe, I've kept my distance for a while. First, because I was finishing up my D. Min, and second, because a lot of the stuff they were doing seemed unrelated to the struggles in the denomination. It was all about "what if," dreaming about what a more biblically faithful churchmanship might look like. Which is fine. But some of us were more involved in attempting to renew the denomination from the inside. At that time, I believe I was having some success, working with the Evangelism and Renewal Team in New Covenant (chairing it for three years) we managed to get about a quarter of the churches in the presbytery involved in a program of renewal and transformation, led by Stan Ott, from Pittsburgh. So, while New Covenant was becoming more open to evangelical initiatives, I was in the thick of it. I like to think we have had an influence for good. But at the same time, in other parts of the country, evangelicals were being increasingly ostracised and marginalized. The New Wineskins folks kept going. I suspect that, in Tulsa, we will hear the fruits of their deliberations, and that we will be nearer to schism than ever before. There are about 110 churches that have endorsed the New Wineskins Constitution, including Lake Jackson. It has no authority, except as a teaching document. But I think that it may be the start of a movement to declare that the PC(USA) has gravely erred and is now beyond the bounds of orthodoxy. It may be the beginning of a split. I'm not sure that I'm ready for that, at least, not until there is a greater consensus about what the new Authoritative Interpretation means, or when it has been tested in the church courts and found failing. It is strange that the Layman is now coming out with materials supportive of schism. Who knows what the coming months may bring? I'm anxious that we should be prayerful in seeking God's gracious will in all of this, and that we should not try to run ahead of the Spirit. But, then, I don't want us to be left behind either! There will have to be a great deal of prayer and study in the coming months as, together, we seek the will of Christ.
Presbuteros