News from Jim Singleton
Dear Friends in Christ,
As we start the weekend where many people will be “springing forward” into Daylight Savings Time, I want to catch you up on what is springing forward with both The Fellowship and ECO.
Every week, interest and activity around The Fellowship and ECO are increasing. Hundreds of individuals and many sessions have already signed the Covenant and joined The Fellowship. We have received nearly 100 requests for applications for ECO from individual pastors and from Sessions.
In the meantime, the ground within the PC(USA) is still shifting. The ruling by the GAPJC and the action of the Board of Pensions have sent a new wave of concern through the evangelical community. Whether your focus is within or beyond the PC(USA), building a flourishing congregation that makes disciples of Jesus Christ is a challenging and demanding call.
AUGUST UPDATE
In order to be both sensitive and accessible to the most people, we have made strategic changes in our plans for August. We will still meet the week of August 19, but now in two different locations—one in the Southeast and one in the Mountain West. Each location will offer a two-day event affording you and your congregation the best possible opportunity for the greatest participation at the lowest cost. Each location will offer information, resources, and coaching for strengthening ministry in the PC(USA) through The Fellowship and for making the transition into ECO. Participants in each location will hear solid teaching and share in great worship.
Look for announcements of exact dates, locations, and topics in the next few weeks, but start making plans now to bring your current leaders and future leaders to one of our two locations in August!
SEASON OF TRANSITION
Many congregations are taking this Spring as a season of deep prayer and discernment. Some are actively pursuing dismissal. Every context is unique. Many presbyteries have a gracious dismissal process. The Stated Clerk’s office recently held a workshop for presbytery leaders urging a prayerful discernment process with congregations. While that is a more gracious national tone than has been expressed at other moments in our history, local reality varies widely from presbytery to presbytery.
The process of dismissal takes time and requires significant prayer, study, patience, and focus. Here is an example of the dismissal process through the lens of the congregation I serve, First Presbyterian of Colorado Springs, CO:
- We spent nearly ten months as a session exploring the options for our future.
- In the Fall we worked with our presbytery to pass a gracious dismissal policy.
- By January we knew we would seek dismissal from the PC(USA) and, after the Orlando conference, our elders voted to join ECO.
- In February we worked with our presbytery to demonstrate that ECO was a valid Reformed body to which congregations could seek dismissal.
- With those pieces in place, we began conversation with the Presbytery Response Team (PRT), three individuals trained by the presbytery. Those conversations with our session have been helpful and we gained permission to call a meeting of our congregation to assess the congregation’s agreement with the session.
- March 4, last Sunday, 89% of the congregation present voted to pursue joining ECO.
- More meetings will follow with the PRT to negotiate terms of dismissal.
- A formal vote of the congregation is likely in April.
- Final dismissal could come at the regular meeting of the presbytery in June.
One thing to mention in this dismissal process is how the press is reacting to it. The local press was very interested in the congregational meeting last Sunday. Our church was on the front page of the Colorado Springs paper for 3 out of 4 days. The story was picked up in the national press and internet media. Many of the stories were determined to make this about the ordination of homosexuals. For us, this is about a new way of relating to other congregations, and the ability to be something new. It is about a theology and way of biblical interpretation we hold in common. It is about a passion for the lost. Obviously those differing ways of interpretation do include the ways we see many moral issues. While we do not get to determine how our story is cast in the press, I am hopeful we will continue to demonstrate our yearning for a new kind of church.
KEEPING FOCUS
Part of our success in becoming a new kind of church depends on the attitude of our hearts. Remember Paul’s closing words in I Corinthians – “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” (I Corinthians 16:13-14) Keeping conviction and love welded together will be our gift to the larger body of Christ.
In 1758, when the Old Light/New Light split was healing, the church agreed that in future disputes, individuals or congregations would do one of three things – 1) actively concur; 2) passively submit; 3) or peaceably withdraw. We are now in a time when many congregations feel the need to withdraw – but withdrawal needs to happen peaceably.
Yours in Christ,
Jim Singleton
President, The Fellowship of Presbyterians
29 Responses
Would you mind breaking down the 100 individual pastors and Sessions into actual number of individual pastors and individual Sessions/churches?
It is currently running about 2/3 individual pastors and 1/3 congregations.
I was of the understanding from what John Crosby said during the Friday morning session on ECO at Orlando that a pastor can not join ECO unless his/her congregation also joins. With that understanding, it then appears that the 2/3 individual pastors mentioned above are the pastors of the 1/3 congregations. Of those 33 congregations, how many of them have membership of 300 or less and how many have membership of 1000 or more? How many of them come from states that are either on the East coast or the West coast? How many are from the central part of the country?
No. Individual pastors are free to join ECO without a congregation. The pastoral staff of congregations who have applied may or may not have made their individual applications yet. Interest is coming from congregations of all sizes, many different demographics, and regions coast to coast. There is not a pattern or “typical” congregational profile.
The decision to have two parallel gatherings in August is a bit puzzling to me. Will these be simultaneous gatherings, connected electronically? (Could be pretty cool.) My sense at the October gathering was that the August event would function as the first Synod meeting of ECO, including election of board members, which would be difficult to accomplish if everyone isn’t meeting together.
I know that this is all a new thing, and that sometimes you’ve got to change decisions as new information comes in! You’re in our prayers.
Actually no, although a simultaneous–even simulcast–event would be totally cool. These are being planned to be two identical gatherings planned at the two ends of the week, Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday. The first synod meeting of ECO and things requiring votes will be in early 2013.
So if this is not “about the ordination of homosexuals” then why proceed to create a new denomination? Why, with the new nFOG, can’t churches and ministers just work within the body of the PCUSA rather than moving them toward dismissal? Where do the vows that a minister takes on ordination and installation go to abide by the polity of the church as well as the unity of the church? Also the Biblical authority you seem to hold so dear seems very curious since the ECO has rewritten the Ten Commandments.
I think you may be misunderstanding the purpose of the Essentials, part of the Fellowship’s Theology Project. The passage to which you refer is not a “rewriting” of Scripture any more than sections of the Westminster and Heidelberg Catechisms that explain the Decalogue are “rewriting” Scripture. This is a 2012 application of God’s Word for those who choose to be part of The Fellowship or ECO.
“As we practice the discipline of regular self-examination and confession, we are especially guided by the Ten Commandments. We therefore hold one another accountable to:
1. worship God alone, living all of life to His glory, renouncing all idolatry and all inordinate loves that might lead us to trust in any other help;
2. worship God in humility, being reticent in either describing or picturing God, recognizing that right worship is best supported not by our own innovative practices but through the living preaching of the Word and the faithful administration of the Sacraments;
3. eliminate from both speech and thought any blasphemy, irreverence, or impurity;
4. observe the Sabbath as a day of worship and rest, being faithful in gathering with the people of God;
5. give honor toward those set in authority over us and practice mutual submission within the community of the church;
6. eradicate a spirit of anger, resentment, callousness, violence, or bitterness, and instead cultivate a spirit of gentleness, kindness, peace, and love; recognize and honor the image of God in every human being from conception to natural death;
7. maintain chastity in thought and deed, being faithful within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman as established by God at the creation or embracing a celibate life as established by Jesus in the new covenant;
8. practice right stewardship of the goods we have been given, showing charity to those in need and offering generous support of the Church and its ministries;
9. pursue truth, even when such pursuit is costly, and defend truth when it is challenged, recognizing that truth is in order to goodness and that its preservation matters;
10. resist the pull of envy, greed, and acquisition, and instead cultivate a spirit of contentment with the gifts God has given us.”
Many who are choosing to be accountable to one another in this way are remaining within the PC(USA), under the governance of our Book of Order. Others are choosing to move to a different part of the Church–still very much within the unity of the Body of Christ–where they can minister without jeopardizing what are for them matters of core theological integrity.
Aren’t we all to be accountable to Jesus Christ? For God alone is Lord of the conscious. It seems to me that FOP is seeking to replace “God” and insert “FOP or the covenant accountability” in it’s stead. It appears that your understanding of the Ten Commandments that Jesus articulated, That is to Love the Lord with heart, soul, mind and strength AND to Love your neighbor as yourself has allowed the institution of ECO and FOP to ignore the latter portion of that commandment. How can you cut out an entire portion of the population i.e. homosexuals, before you ever have the chance to have a conversation with them? If God can call a mess of a man, like King David, a murderer like the Apostle Paul, can God call a person who is of same-sex orientation? I think so. For all that God created, God called and calls good.
Bonnie,
God didn’t call David because of what he was, but because of what he was to become. Jesus didn’t change Saul into Paul so that he could go back to persecuting people under a new name.
Accountability is, first and finally, to God. But please remember that scripture itself stresses our absolute need for accountability to one another. This is not a new concept(!) The Fellowship, within the PC(USA), and ECO are simply reclaiming proven practices that have been forgotten or ignored among many of us in our recent history.
No one has any desire to cut off conversation or “cut out an entire portion of the population.” Quite the contrary. If some in the church continue to abandon the clear teaching of scripture, they will have nothing to say to anyone–no basis for conversation at all. God absolutely continues to call sinners of all types to vital and vibrant ministry. But, as you so clearly illustrated yourself, a necessary part of that call is repentance–for David, for the Apostle Paul, for people who are struggling with same-sex attraction, for all of us.
Joe D.
Sorry I have not responded earlier, as usual Easter takes precedence. Exactly your point of God calling David to what he was to become as well as the Apostle Paul is very important and relevant to whom God is currently calling. Should FOP/ECO be standing in the way of who God is calling? Thank goodness FOP/ECO wasn’t around when Jesus was calling his rag-tag group of disciples…surely Peter would have never made the cut in those included for membership in FOP/ECO. Thank God that Peter would be welcomed at Table with the rest of us sinners without signing onto the authority of FOP/ECO. PCUSA only has one authority and that is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God is always moving into the future of God’s radical grace and inclusion, never backwards into the ways of the past. Remember Abraham was called to go into the future not stay home and knit.
Request: Would you please put any info re the August gatherings on the “Events” page to make it easy for us to track what’s going on there? That would be very helpful. Thanks.
fellowship-admin speaks of those who “continue to abandon the clear teaching of scripture.” I would love to hear a representative of the Fellowship explain how the following clear teachings of scripture – that earlier generations of Presbyterians endorsed without question, but which even members of The Fellowship have since abandoned – differ from the biblical teachings about homosexuality, which – for no reason I can discern – you treat differently:
1. The ordination of women
2. Tolerance of slavery
3. Interracial marriage (“miscegenation”)
4. No longer considering those seeking remarriage following divorce to be committing adultery
This last one, unlike any of the biblical teachings about homosexuality, is based on an explicit teaching of the Lord Jesus himself.
Until I hear a reasoned theological explanation of how the biblical texts dealing with homosexuality differ from those texts I’ve cited above, I can only consider such loose talk of “abandoning the clear teachings of scripture” to be ill-considered at best, and deliberately deceptive at worst.
The session of our church has elected to affiliate with the FOP. This is an excellent way for evangelicals to make a statement, especially if you plan to stay in the PCUSA for the time being. We need to be in fellowship with one another as well as in prayer together. This is an easy and needed thing for us to do. I know that a number of churches that are joining or will have joined in the near future. I do not know what will happen with the fellowship or the PCUSA, but we must at least try something. We can’t just be paralyzed. This is an easy way to do something immediately! Ecclesiastes says to cast your bread on the water and perhaps some of it may return to you. I call joining the FOP a form of casting bread on the water…..
We are all accountable to God, through Jesus Christ…no matter what we decide. That is a given in the Christian faith, as I understand it. However, we are also accountable to governing structures, be they civil, social or religious in nature.
For people and congregations considering affiliation with ECO, FOP, EPC, etc…the issue is…can I in good conscience remain under the authority of the PCUSA hierarchy and structure? Can I be in close fellowship with them? Does a relationship with the PCUSA hurt our Missional outreach?
GLBT ordination isn’t the reason most congregations are choosing to evaluate their relationship with the PCUSA. There is a much deeper debate going on regarding Theology. And the gulf between the various parties may be too deep and wide for all to remain in the same denomination.
Finally, while God did pronounce His creation good, that announcement was made prior to the Fall. Using your reasoning, God also thinks murder is good, or theft, for example. God forgives sin, but He doesn’t condone it.
As I read some of the commentary on the Fellowship site, I found myself trying to understand the perspectives of some who seek to discredit the Fellowship by trying to make a case that the Fellowship was formed as a way to discredit homosexuality. Strange that nowhere in any Fellowship literature or statements do I find an attack on homosexuality. Throughout history, people and groups have used a a technique to divert attention away from the real root cause of any issues— and that is called deflection. The strategy focuses on a current cultural issues, in hopes that people will ignore the PCUSA’s long journey which has taken it away from viewing Scripture as a way to change culture, to one of reshaping Scripture to fit more comfortably with the current culture. Some also lost sight of the fact that the PCUSA has become hierarchical, contrary to the cornerstone of Presbyterianism. For those who doubt this statement, I suggest you read the Mid-Council report to the 220th GA.
Critics will continue to deflect the real reason the Fellowship was founded, claiming homophobia was the real reason the Fellowship was launched. By their actions, they show themselves to be totally clueless about why the Fellowship came into being. That was to help us return to the roots of our denomination, and to once again make us proud to say — I am a Presbyterian. Some of us just became tired of trying to explain how the PCUSA had been broken away from its Scriptural moorings and is adrift, happily rolling a sea of social justice issues, and other issues, rather than traveling the course Christ set for us when he told us to go forth and make disciples of all nations. Anyone who was at Orlando will understand that the Fellowship seeks to help us return to our denominational roots as Presbyterians. Some critics will continue to deflect from the real reason for the Fellowship, but I believe He is working His will with this new Presbyterian denomination, and it cannot and will not fail.
Joe,
So are you saying social justice should not be a concern of the PCUSA? Is it just a coincidence that FOP/ECO started a major recruitment process after the passage of 10A? What Scriptural moorings are you referring to? We have not rewritten the 10 commandments, alas but FOP/ECO has, replacing their authority above that of the Holy Trinity. Looks a little like wolves in sheep clothing to me. When 6.106b was passed, I was saddened, but I did not leave the communion of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Shouldn’t the “right” in our denomination show a little compassion and grace admitting that we all fall short but that God will help us through this time?
Bonnie, I do not speak for the leadership of either ECO or FOP, and as of yet, our congregation has not said we are part of either (just to give you a back ground on me). But I will be glad to comment on each of your areas of question:
1. Social Justice – Yes, the PC(USA) should be concerned with Social Justice, but without combining it with the proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind, it is dead. Just as James points out, faith without works, or works without faith is dead.
2. Listen to their story before calling the leadership of FOP and ECO out. They had been dealing with this move for quite a while prior to 10A. It just so happened that many people were looking for something following 10A, and jumped on board. It started before 10A, and was clearly stated in both Minnesota and Florida that 10A was not a deciding factor in this, but seen as a symptom of a deeper issue.
3. As to what scriptural moorings – this is one that I am passionate about – I will only go back 30 years to begin (it would be easy to go back to the early 1900’s and walk you through the changes as I am for my congregation)…When we were willing to ordain Mr. Kaseman, even though he would not profess Christ as God, that was a shift away from Scripture. And this has continued even to today, just look at the writings of John Shuck or Joseph Carey for starters. Then how about the Reimagining God conference in 1993, promoted by the leadership of the PC(USA), where we found out it was ok to pray to the goddess Sophia and substitute milk and honey for the communion elements. But only after saying that the story of people hanging on crosses and blood dripping was to weird for the church in the 20th century.
Then there was the 2001 General Assembly, in which when asked to affirm the singular saving Lordship of Jesus, the assembly defeated it, calling it disrespectful to other religions. We continue to allow the universal views to creep into our denomination…just ask Vice Moderator Landon Whitsitt, or hot PC(USA) speaker and former classmate of mine Carol Howard Merritt, as they both are examples of this, and in leadership.
If we need more examples, just look at the historic marks of the Presbyterian church in the Old form of government and the new form of government. One comes from the Scots Confession, the other from the Catholic Church. One recons back to the necessity of Scripture being rightly preached, and the other seeks unity based on something other than Jesus. you be the judge. I will be glad to look at more specific examples with you if need be.
I think that asking those who feel that they can no longer go along with the direction of the church to “hang in and show compassion” when our polity has always asked us to either stay and actively concur or passively submit or leave by peaceable withdrawl, is not compassionate in any sense. I am not angry with the denomination, or with any group within the church. I am struggling to remain in fellowship with a denomination that is continuing to stray from its once great reformed theology and biblical moorings.
Au contraire, mon fraire, I believe the primary motivation for founding the FOP was precisely because of the conservative position on ordination of homosexuals and the failure of the conservatives to get their way. Secondary motivations may have been added later, but the primary reason remains in my view as an attack on homosexuality.
You’re entitled to your view.
You attack conservatives for leaving because “they didn’t get their way.” Did you state such to the liberals who forced us to vote time and time again for removal of the ordination standards until they got their way in 2011? Instead of trying to “get our way” by calling for another round of voting to restore the ordination standards back into the Book of Order, we are leaving. We are showing a great deal more respect and love by leaving the denomination than what was shown to us all these years when another round of votes was demanded by the liberals. As congregations leave they are being fought over for the property they bought and maintained If we don’t bow to you and remain, you call for us to surrender our property. It’s not Christlike to fight congregations for their property. It is sinful greed and the anger of a bully trying to force us to stay.
I do thank you for your comments. It’s comments like yours attacking the very loving people I know in the FOP, that God has used most powerfully in my life. I don’t care what you say about me. I’m not going to be intimidated by it. I do get angry and stand in defense of the people that love me that I have known in the FOP as well as the SBC. It is your words that cause me most to search my heart. You words aren’t Christlike at all. They are mean, hateful and arrogant. They are words from an angry bully.
Please stop and show the FOP the respect and love that you haven’t shown us in the past by allowing us to leave peacefully.
Finally, those that post similar to are only seeking us out trying to bully us. Those bullying post only stregthen our conviction that we are following God’s call to leave the PCUSA.
Chas,
Who is attacking you?
Dear Bonnie,
Your view is shared by several of my colleagues in the presbytery of which I am a part. Surely you have heard the old expression “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” I must admit that for many of my friends in the PCUSA, amendment 10A was that “straw.” And now the GA that will meet in July, 2012, will face requests to change the biblical understanding of marriage. If that passes and is approved by a majority of PCUSA presbyteries, it will be another burden placed on the already broken back of the denomination. Contrary to your understanding, the FOP/ECO seeks to uphold the Great Ends of the Church including “the promotion of social righteousness.” The cause of social justice within the Body of Christ is not served well by the acceptance of actions and lifestyles that are contrary to the clear teaching of God’s Word. As I am sure you do not expect the PCUSA to ever return to 6.106b, you must try to understand and accept the fact that we can no longer walk together. In all honesty, I believe that the most we can hope for at this point is a gracious separation. I continue to seek God’s grace to help me to demonstrate more love and compassion towards those with whom I disagree. I would ask you to do the same.
Dear Robert,
I appreciate the compassionate and thoughtful response. It just seems so very sad to contemplate a “gracious separation,” when we are all seeking to serve the Lord with integrity, compassion, love and acceptance. For the many years that 6.106b was the standard, the inclusive “liberals” (as we are so called), lived within the Body as one even as many of us were broken. It seems to me that Christ calls us to accept one another as he accepts us, to love one another as he loves us. FOP/ECO seems to want to separate us one from another, that does not feel like love to me. I truly believe that there is room in God’s Kingdom for conservatives and liberals, for black and white, gay and straight for in the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 “we are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Blessings on you and your ministry.
With respect, Bonnie, the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:28 go a long way, but not quite as far as you suggest. They are (in the NIV English translation), “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ”
And, if you hold the Apostle Paul to be an authority, you no doubt have noticed the strong warning he gave to those in the Corinthian church about qualifying for inheriting the Kingdom of God.
Absolutely there is room for all types of people. The discussion might zero in on the word “in”, as in “in Christ Jesus”. What does it mean to be in Christ Jesus? Does believing that Jesus was a good man, a wise teacher, or even a prophet go far enough? Let’s say that everyone concedes that Jesus is the Son of God, 100% God and lived on earth as 100% man, that He died, was dead an buried, rose again, and now sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father. Let’s say everyone believes in the Holy Trinity – is that enough to be “in” Christ Jesus? Maybe one needs to acknowledge that not only is all of this true, but also put faith and trust in Him to be “in”. Maybe one also has to believe that the reason to do this is to free us from bondage to sin and our total depravity, the word “total” not meaning that everyone is as sinful as possible, but that sin affects every area of one’s life. I believe that those of us who have a heterosexual sin nature, need a savior to free us from bondage to that nature – heterosexual sin is bad for us and bad for society and displeasing to God. Similarly, homosexuals need a savior to free them from bondage to something that is bad for them and destructive to society and displeasing to God. Furthermore, I believe that differentiating between the two and making exceptions for homosexuality is robbing homosexuals from the freedom they might otherwise enjoy, the “abundant” life Jesus said was the reason he came. None of us does it perfectly, but positionally I think we should all be in Christ together as sinners in need of a savior.
Why join ECO at all if church is wanting to move out of and away from the PCUSA? ECO is under the umbrella of FOP and FOP within the PCUSA? ECO is still affiliated with the PCUSA, adopting their Book of Order, sharing in their training, etc.
Why has the ECO not totally moved out of and broken away from the PCUSA?
Would appreciate a clear answer of these questions. No one seems to be interested in answering these concerns.
ECO is totally separate from the PC(USA). It is its own denomination with its own Book of Order. Congregations and individuals who are joining ECO are doing so by withdrawing from the PC(USA). This is a process that involves the congregation, the PC(USA) presbytery from which they are withdrawing, the ECO assimilation commission, and the ECO presbytery to which they will be affiliated.
There are other persons who are called to remain in ministry as a distinct evangelical witness within the PC(USA). These persons share commitment to the same Essential Tenets as ECO, the same confessions, and to further in-depth theological work with the people joining ECO. Together with the people who are part of ECO they form The Fellowship of Presbyterians–a covenanted order of people in two distinct denominations who are committed to a different way of being church.
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