( My story)
Every two, years the Presbyterian Church USA's highest governing body, the General Assembly holds a meeting where delegates from Presbyteries throughout the country convene to review issues of importance to the church. Some issues involve disciplinary matters, some involve if or how the church should respond to problems and political issues found nationally and in the world, and some involve the Book of Order and how the church should respond to the God's gift of Grace through the sacrifice of God's Son Jesus Christ on the Cross for the sins of the world.
I am and member and elder of the Presbyterian Church USA or PCUSA as the acronym goes. Over the last decade two, I think the words "Politically Correct" seem to fit better as a description of the organization rather than "Presbyterian Church" For years, the PCUSA has embraced Liberal and Socialist philosophies and have distanced itself from scriptural topics like sin and redemption from humankind's sinful nature."Decently and in Order"
Despite the church's bent toward liberalism and socialism, there always seemed like there was room at the proverbial table for differing viewpoints. Over the years, I have had many spirited and sometime heated debates over theological viewpoints with my Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Christ. These discussions have always ended civilly and hard feelings if there were any didn't last too long.
Although I was born and raised within the United Methodist Church, becoming a member of the Presbyterian Church was not a difficult transition for me. One aspect that set the Presbyterian Church apart from other denominations, I learned, was the PCUSA believed in the Sovereignty of God. If a Presbyterian was asked, "When were you saved?" the answer answer was when Jesus died on the Cross at Calvary.
While I generally liked the freedom of thought and freedom to question encouraged by within the PCUSA, in addition to the Sovereignty of God pillar, there were other aspects of the church that I had trouble accepting. One aspect was Contemporary Christian music."The Holy Wild vs. The Frozen Chosen"
Contemporary Christian Music or CCM made a profound difference in my life and it helped me accept God and Jesus in my life during the career challenges I faced a few years after I got married. A station called KLTY 94.9 FM located in Dallas, Texas played that format and I found the signal while scanning the FM radio dial for a station to listen to. This music connected to me at a deep level. Not only that, it brought the love of Jesus out from the Church and captured my heart.
During one depressing drive around Pine Springs Drive and Bryan Ave in a Central Texas City, I realized while sitting at a long traffic light that my plan for life, was not working. My career as an advertising executive at an local radio station was not working out as I had thought it would. I wasn't making much money. My wife was going to graduate school. I was making sales calls in a car that was brand new 4 or 5 years prior and it was having mechanical problems.
That day, I called out to God and promised I would follow Him and his blessed Son Jesus. I decided to trust Scripture and his word from them on. I rested in his Word. I felt like this was a significant turning point for me. Turns out it was a huge turning point in my life.
Things didn't improve right away but this new path gave me strength and peace to face each day.
A few years later after moving down the road another town, my wife and I joined the church denomination of her childhood and we became members of the Presbyterian Church there.
Over the years, I made many friends at our new church. It was a vibrant church with lots of activities for the members and also participated in a number of mission outreach efforts. Despite some substantial political differences I had with our pastor there, the church was accepting and I grew spiritually there. The only thing that I did not get to experience was go on a church mission trip abroad. That is still an experience I have yet to have.
Still there were some lingering differences with how I embraced a life of faith and the way many of my Presbyterians lived the faith. When the discussion of Contemporary Christian Music came up, I often received disparaging remarks about that type of music. Some claimed, on balance that type of Christian Music lacked theological depth. Other just hated it.
During one online response melee about CCM, I defended the music with " It is right to give our thanks and praise." which is part of the litany said before taking Communion. To this day, I have found no better defense of CCM than that.
Often times, I felt like I wanted to get excited about the faith and do something bold for Jesus. During my years in that area, I even participated in a non-denominational jail ministry program where participants would go inside jail facilities and read the Bible, talk about the Christian faith and worship behind those heavy locked doors.
I also grew spiritually on a few occasions visiting sick members of our church at the hospital. One member, who was also a business acquaintance of mine in the community became terminally ill. I started visiting Joe (not his real name) frequently.
I don't recall a specific experience or encounter, but I felt like the Presbyterian response to my enthusiasm was, "Now, don't get too excited." or " You'll have to get something like that approved by Session." Getting things approved by session wasn't impossible, but new ideas would sometimes be met with some resistance.
Speaking of the Session, which is the local governing body of individual Presbyterian Churches, I served an an Ruling Elder on Session at two respective Churches I was a member of. Serving on session was work and often unexciting work.I am not critical of the time I spend on the two Sessions but to refer to it as a mountaintop experience would not be remotely accurate.
After 8 years of living at our first home and being active members at First Presbyterian Church, my wife received a job offer in a small town in the Southwest Texas Hill Country. We found the First Presbyterian Church there to be a close knit group of members connected generally to four or five main families who had historic connections with the church there.Small Town, Church Times
While the church was smaller than our previous church, we asked ourselves, "How can this church hope to grow if people like us don't join it?"
Living in a small Southwestern Texas Hill Country town, most people drove to church in pickup trucks. The church still sang out of the old Red Presbyterian Hymnal which I liked because the words to the old traditional hymns had not had the gender scrubbed from the hymns' words.
Fast Forward to the Rubicon
Once while serving as a Ruling Elder on the Session at our small town Church, I offered to drive San Antonio to attend the quarterly Presbytery meeting. Since Presbytery is held over two days, Friday and Saturday, I was only able to attend the Saturday part of the event.
I found out that the church I attended had only one voting elder attending and I was not it. I couldn't blame the church for registering another Elder with voting privileges as I could only attend one of the two days of the meeting. I had limited vacation days and I did not want to use one of my vacation days so I could attend a Presbytery meeting. I do remember seeing two microphones set up in Church sanctuary where the meeting was being held. Most but not all of the seats were filled.
One man stood up and went to a microphone and addressed officers and the crowd. I remember him saying. "I support Single Payer Healthcare in the United States." or something close to that. I was not really happy hearing someone push a liberal political position like that in a church setting.
Afterward, I started paying closer attention to what was going on at Presbytery and also at the National General Assembly level of the church. I was horrified how often, liberal and socialist political positions would be pushed an accepted position of the Church.
After contacting a conservative pastor whom I trusted that once served as our churches Interim Pastor, I found out that the PCUSA has a long history of taking Leftist political positions and trying to affect political change in U.S. Politics.
Several years ago when President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress made a push to pass Obamacare into law, I discovered to my horror that the PCUSA had aligned with a number of other liberal denominations to rally behind the passage of this law. I was livid.
I fired off an email letter to the PCUSA national offices located in Louisville, KY. Never got a reply back.
Earlier this year, I knew that the PCUSA would be holding General Assembly in June. In previous years, I often followed news reports from the General Assembly. I just waited and hoped that the national church body would not let their leftist Bull run through the denomination's positions and keep the Book of Order in relative tact.
This past week, the PCUSA leftist Bull was unleashed and tore through the denomination with a vengeance. With the advent of Twitter and the Internet, I was able to follow the proceedings closely. I knew as the days wore on that a dark force within the denomination was hell-bent on approving gay marriage within the church. Not only was gay marriage approved, but also divestment from certain
After contacting a conservative pastor whom I trusted that once served as our churches Interim Pastor, I found out that the PCUSA has a long history of taking Leftist political positions and trying to affect political change in U.S. Politics.
Several years ago when President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress made a push to pass Obamacare into law, I discovered to my horror that the PCUSA had aligned with a number of other liberal denominations to rally behind the passage of this law. I was livid.
I fired off an email letter to the PCUSA national offices located in Louisville, KY. Never got a reply back.
Earlier this year, I knew that the PCUSA would be holding General Assembly in June. In previous years, I often followed news reports from the General Assembly. I just waited and hoped that the national church body would not let their leftist Bull run through the denomination's positions and keep the Book of Order in relative tact.
This past week, the PCUSA leftist Bull was unleashed and tore through the denomination with a vengeance. With the advent of Twitter and the Internet, I was able to follow the proceedings closely. I knew as the days wore on that a dark force within the denomination was hell-bent on approving gay marriage within the church. Not only was gay marriage approved, but also divestment from certain
