There has been a tremendous level of reaction to the Strategic Plan that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America will be considering at its meeting in just about four weeks. The reaction has been dominantly concerned, skeptical or negative with the explanation and defense of the Plan coming almost entirely from official channels. If one had to judge the prospects of this Plan based only on the blogosphere it faces a very difficult path to approval. BUT, there is no telling what the mind of the commissioners to the Assembly is on this and, maybe more important, what will happen with the movement of the Holy Spirit as the body discusses and discerns together this proposal. Comment in the blogosphere is not a scientific sampling.
Having said that, there is now an important development on this topic in the form of an Overture (Overture 24 – “A Call for PCA Renewal”) that will be coming to the Assembly from Northwest Georgia Presbytery. I would suggest checking out the post on the Aquila Report which includes not only the text of the overture but a very helpful introduction by Jon D. Payne.
Where the PCA Strategic Plan is mostly administrative and mechanical in its recommendations the Overture is pastoral. As TE Payne says in the introduction:
The “Alternative Plan” is not an attempt to cause further division in the PCA. On the contrary, the overture is simply meant to unite and renew our denomination in the theology and practice of Westminster Presbyterianism.
and
We believe that many PCA elders will identify more with this “Alternative Plan” and be pleased to have before them a positive, biblically-based alternative to the elaborate “PCA Strategic Plan” of the Cooperative Ministries Committee (CMC).
And one of the overtures whereases says:
Whereas, the greatest and most urgent need of the Presbyterian Church in America is not a complex strategy, but a clarion call to renew our avowed commitment to the Biblical, Reformed, Confessional, and Presbyterian Faith – a system of doctrine which has, for centuries, cultivated God-glorifying unity,humility, worship, spiritual/numerical growth, mission, service, sacrifice, giving, and cooperation all over the world;
The heart of the overture is a 17 point plan for renewal of the PCA. Here are the 17 points without editing:
A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained, efficacious means of exegetical, Christ-centered, application-filled, expository preaching(Is. 55:10-11; Ez. 37:1-10; Jn. 21:15-17 Mk. 1:38; Acts 2:42; 20:26-27; ICor. 1:22-25; 2 Tim. 4:2-4; WLC 67, 154-5).
A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained, efficacious means of baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Gen. 17:9-11; Ex. 12; Mt. 26:26-29;28:19; I Cor. 10:16-17; 11:17-34; Col. 2:11-15; I Pet. 3:21; Rev.19:6-9; WLC 154; 161-177).
A renewed commitment to the centrality of the God-ordained means of private,family and corporate prayer (Ps. 63; Mt. 6:5-15; Mk. 1:35; Acts 6:4;Eph. 1:15-23; Phil. 1:9-11; I Thess. 5:17; I Tim. 2:1; WLC 154;178-196).
A renewed commitment to – and delight in – the Lord’s Day (Gen. 2:1-3; Ex.20:8-11; Is. 58:13-14; Mk. 2:23-28; Jn. 20:1;19; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10;WCF 21). ;
A renewed commitment to worship on God’s terms, according to Scripture (Ex.20:4-6; Lev. 10:1-3; Deut. 12:32; Jn. 4:23-24; Acts 2:42; Col. 2:18-23;Heb. 10:24-25; 12:28-29; WCF 21.1).
A renewed commitment to private, family, and public worship (Ps. 63; Mt. 6:6,16-18; Neh. 1:4-11; Dan. 9:3-4; Deut. 6:4-6; Eph. 6:1-4; Ps. 100:4; Acts2:42; Heb. 10: 24-25; WCF 21.5-6).A renewed commitment to wed our missiology to Reformed ecclesiology (Mt.28:18-20; Acts 14:19-23; 15:1-41; 20:17, 28; I Cor. 11:17-34; The Pastoral Epistles; Titus 1:5; WCF 25; 30-31).
A renewed commitment to loving, Word and Spirit-dependent, prayerful and courageous evangelism (Mt. 5:13-16; 28:18-20; Acts 4:1-13; I Peter3:15-16; WLC 154-7).A renewed commitment to biblical church discipline (Mt. 18:15-20; I Cor. 5:1-13;11:27-29; II Thess. 3:6, 14-15; I Tim. 5:20; WLC 45; WCF 30).
A renewed commitment to biblical diaconal ministry (Acts 6:1-7; Phil. 1:1; I Tim.3:8-13).
A renewed commitment to catechize our covenant children in our homes and churches(Deut. 6:4-6; Prov. 22:6; Mk. 10:13-16; Eph. 4:12-13; 6:1-4; WSC).
A renewed commitment to biblical masculinity and femininity (Gen. 2:18-25; Deut.31:6-7; Prov. 31:10-31; I Cor. 16:13; I Peter 3:1-7; Eph. 5:22-33; I Tim. 2:11-15; WLC 17).
A renewed commitment to entrust the leadership of the Church into the hands of the ordained leadership (Jn. 21:15-17; I Tim. 5:17; Heb.13:17; I Pet.5:1-3; WLC 45).
A renewed commitment to the Reformed Confession which we have avowed, before God and men, to promote and defend as our system of doctrine (I Tim. 6:12;Heb. 4:14; 10:23; Jude 3; Westminster Standards).
A renewed commitment to the mortification of sin and worldliness (Rom. 6:11-14;8:13; 12:1-2; I Cor. 6:12; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:20-24; I John 2:15-17; Gal.6:14; WLC 76-7).
A renewed commitment to the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works of the law (Gen. 15:6; Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:21-26; 4:1-5; 5:1; Gal. 2:15-16; 3:10-14;Phil. 3:1-11; WCF 11).
A renewed commitment to rest, by faith, in Christ alone for salvation, without minimizing Gospel obedience (i.e. the third use of the law) / (Rom.1:5; 6:1-2; 8:5-8; II Cor. 7:1; Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:1; 5:1-21; Phil. 3:12;I Thess. 5:23; Heb. 12:14; I John 5:3; WCF 19.5-7).
As the title of the overture says, this is a call to renewal not a step-by-step business plan to implement new programs. This overture has more to do with what happens on the individual and congregational level and the Strategic Plan is more focused on the General Assembly and the denominational ministry units.
I would note two things about this overture. The first is that while it is proposed as an alternative proposal to the Strategic Plan, the actions that are proposed in each are not mutually exclusive as I read it. As I said, each has a different focus for its implementation. Yes, the overture specifically singles out some items for concern, specifically the “safe spaces,” but the 17 points are more general. The second point here is that it puts forward the points and leaves the details of implementation and follow-up to the congregations and presbyteries. It asks for “A renewed commitment to biblical diaconal ministry” but the specifics of what this means will apparently be left to the current discussion, overture process and presbytery review process. When there is a disagreement over exactly how to interpret this we are left with the status quo.
But in support of this proposal, at least in terms of the general idea underlying it, I have recently run into two research studies that would seem to agree with what is being suggested here.
The first is the May 16, 2010, edition of the program The White Horse Inn. On that show they spoke with Prof. Christian Smith, a sociology professor at the University of Notre Dame, about his latest book Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults. Lots of interesting stuff in that broadcast but there was one observation that particularly struck me and seems relevant to this discussion. Dr. Smith made the observation that one of the most important factors in the religious development of young people, even if they have left home, are their parents. He says in the interview “Even after the kids have left home, out of tons of variables, the second most important factor in forming what the religious lives of 18 to 23 year olds looked like was the religious, the faith lives, of their parents back when they were teenagers.” (It may have struck me because I have a household full of teenagers.) He says a bit later “If we see something troubling among young people it is probably because the generation raising them has something troubling going on.” The implication is that if we lose the current 18-23 year old generation it is because we lost their parents’ generation. So this gets right to the heart of a couple of these points that call the church to renewal through religious disciplines at not even the congregational, but at the family level.
The second source is the book Vanishing Boundaries: The Religion of Mainline Protestant Baby Boomers by Hoge, Johnson and Luidens. In this book the authors review and consolidate a lot of other research studies about the decline of the Mainline Protestant churches, compare it with their own work, and draw some interesting conclusions while arguing away, legitimatly in my reading of it, some of the conventional wisdom about the reasons for the decline. After the GA season when I have time to devote to other topics I’ll write a much longer post about the book. For the moment, let me say that the “vanishing boundaries” of the title are the vanishing distinctions between the mainline church and the culture around it. Referring to earlier studies and conclusions by another researcher, Dean Kelley, they write:
Kelley had emphasized that the mainline denominations were not set apart by distinctive lifestyles or values from the rest of middle-class America. “We believe Kelley is right” [one of the book’s authors wrote in an earlier paper] “when he says that denominations most embedded in the surrounding culture are most subject to favorable or unfavorable shifts in that culture. These denominations benefited from a favorable cultural context in the 1950s but suffered in the late 1960s.”
The findings from our study of Presbyterian confirmands and from other recent research have convinced us that Kelley was right to describe the mainline Protestant denominations as weak and to emphasize the critical importance of belief – or “meaning,” as he puts it – in creating and sustaining strong religious bodies. [pg. 181]
Let me note two things: First, the book’s authors begin this section by saying “When we began this study we were unclear about the usefulness of Kelley’s theory…” [pg. 180] They did not come in looking to prove this theory. I should also mention that in this terminology “strong” and “weak” refer to an organization’s ability to mobilize members and their resources to accomplish a shared objective.
Religions of highest strength are, in Kelley’s words, agencies for “transforming men and groups into vigorous, dynamic, conquering movements.” In their early days, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, and the Mormons were religions of this sort. [pg. 181]
I would note that this is a sociological, not theological, result that explains the data but does not place any intrinsic merit on the organizations themselves and their belief systems. However, within that constraint the model provides one possible, and to these authors the best, explanation of what has been happening in the long-term membership patterns of the mainline churches.
So what does this have to do with the Strategic Plan and a possible alternative? As I noted in an earlier post it seems that the PCA may be close to making a transition to the next larger size of denomination organization and function. If you accept the authors’ conclusion that to grow the denomination must be an agency for transformation, then what is the best way to accomplish that? Can that be accomplished with a call to renewal, with changes in the administrative structure, some combination of both or something else entirely? Let us pray for the leading of the Holy Spirit as the Assembly discerns this.