We’re all still a bit ticked off about GA 218, aren’t we? If you’re nodding your head at your screen, you’re a disaffected PCUSA Presbyterian evangelical. You see the denomination being steered off the rails by leftist, apparently-tenured, bureaucratic  radicals. You see hipster ideologies taking over the administration building and putting their feet up on the president’s desk. 

The Great Generation’s Presbyterians cry out to you from their graves: “What’s the matter with you? Why are you letting these characters get away with it?”  You’ve been fighting and are tired. Winning doesn’t seem possible anymore. You and your faithful evangelical session and congregation are looking for promised land.

You read The Layman, Presbyweb, The Outlook, and several blogs to keep you abreast of the battles. Good people are displaced while chowderheads call the shots. Good legislation is ignored, good pastors are deposed, and good churches locked up or shut down by the legalisms of Neo-Pharisees. Getting out starts to look pretty good.

There certainly are great reasons to request dismissal to the EPC, and we stand up for all of them (q.v. elsewhere in this blog), but there are also bad reasons—rotten and unprincipled rationale—that should not be honored, respected, or served.  Herewith we present a series on the reasons NOT to request dismissal from the PCUSA.

1. 1.Because we’re ticked off.
   

2. 2.Because we can.
   

3. 3.Because we are afraid.
   

4. 4.It will attract new younger people.
   

5. 5.Because our congregation is its own entity.
   

6. 6.Because we want to protect our property.
   

1.  BECAUSE WE ARE TICKED OFF.

As to being angry over what is happening in the PCUSA. . . well just don’t get us started; we tend to turn green and swell up, leaving our nice button-downs in shreds. We have indeed done damage in the name of righteous indignation, though not as much as self-styled victims may claim.  Unlike Jesus who cleared the temple—indignant over its abuse—our forays into anger are never quite pure. We suffer offense, feel insulted, belittled, or just utterly frustrated by the perpetual wrong-headedness of so many GA decisions (at least as reported by The Layman).

Your frustrations are compounded by the fact that roughly 3/4ths of the choir has issued a petition demanding that you initiate classes to instruct children in the virtues of the old hymnbook, and the woman you neglected to visit in the hospital is now healed-up enough to manage a campaign over what an uncaring, selfish pastor you are—all this on top of your transmission going bad, your son in uspeakable trouble, and your dog now striping your carpet with an apparently undiagnoseable case of worms. It’s okay though; it’s only Thanksgiving week. 

In short, there’s a lot to add to anger that has nothing whatsoever in the world to do with your congregation’s needs to remain in or be dismissed from the PCUSA.

Anger is rarely a good motive for anything.

In case of fallen human beings, that “rarely” comes pretty close to “never.”

Plenty of congregants, elders and pastors are plenty ticked-off over the PCUSA’s careless disdain for the convictions and well-grounded practices of conscientious evangelicals.We have seen heinous legislation bulldozed through governing bodies with a devil-may-care disregard for historical consequences. We face what feels to us like a  cavalier expenditure of our corporate trust. We may be angry for good reasons, but acting on that anger is always suspect, just as it should be.

What is more, being ticked-off is no reason to leave.  In fact, it is equal reason to stay, to fight and to win, but like others you may be so angry that you’ve given up all hope of that. If you have given up hope of winning, well shame on you! Who do you think you are?  Is God in charge or are you? Who are you to doubt?  Pull yourself together already, and don’t dare call yourself good or faithful or righteous if you’ve tossed over hope.

An exemplary congregation that was dismissed from the PCUSA to the EPC without a single dissenting vote is Millbrook Presbyterian Church in Fresno, part of the San Joaquin Presbytery.  When the Steering Committee of the presbytery sent a task force to meet with the pastor and session, several things were sought as red flags:

1. 1.Has the pastor led the people this way?
   

2. 2.Are they merely angry—is this a knee-jerk action?
   

3. 3.Have they come to this decision prayerfully or politically?
   

Session members of Millbrook described how they held open forums for discussion of presenting issues, of how the elders went off on extended retreat for the sole purpose of praying, fasting, and listening for God’s direction.  They expressed with all sincerity their willingness to be led either way (to either stay or seek dismissal).  There was neither guile nor anxiety in their voices, and not the least trace of defensiveness over their sense of call to the EPC. In short, no anger—not even the least shred—of being ticked-off was anywhere to be found. These servants of God’s Word heard The Lord telling them “Come out, be apart from them.”  The Presbytery of San Joaquin acknowledged that this must be God’s calling for them and unanimously dismissed them with prayerful good will in mutual exchange.

This is the right way—the way it must be done.

If you are to leave, bury your anger—go off and pray, fast, and humble yourselves first—only then come to the table of your Presbytery’s COM and make your request in all gentleness and humility.

Anything less is a bit too green to be trusted.

COMING: Reason #2 “Because we CAN”