The Doing-Being Test

I have been a little down. The attendance and participation at CPC is stagnating. Somehow, I feel I am responsible. I am responsible to get more people here—to get more people to give—so the church can afford me, the youth director, and expand its ministries. Perhaps, I am failing. Perhaps, I am not qualified for this position. I know better than this—I know this is God’s ministry and God has called me here. But in the back of my mind—I feel I am responsible to do.

I have been preaching about the Exodus and the wanderings in the Wilderness. How God was testing the Israelites to form them into the people he wanted them to be. Perhaps God is testing CPC—he is testing me. I have failed the test. Instead of rely on him, I rely on myself. I feel I must be the doing—instead of just being the child of God he wants me to be—instead of just allowing God to transform me.

That is the thought that hit me. I need to trust and be patience; God put me and CPC together. I (we) need to trust that He is going to provide. He will provide—He is providing.

Value Dependent Calling

"He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!" (Luke 12:22-24, NRSV)

It is easy to lose sight of our value—especially as we are so careless with what we value. We value possessions, positions, places, yet the Lord values us. The Lord has chosen us for a reason. He has created us for a purpose. We are to reflect his Glory like the birds in the air, but we are also to reflect the image of God and to proclaim Him to the world. We are chosen to be a blessing to the world. We are to be a blessing like no other. Our value to God is not dependent on who we are but what we are created to be and do. Our value is immeasurable because He has called us for His purpose.

If we weren’t valuable—why would he die for us?

The Constitution within the Constitution.

The Constitution of the PC(USA) is no longer the constitution, at least according to our Stated Clerk of the General Assembly. Check out this letter from him.

Our Form of Government says it well in G-4.0300d, “Presbyterians are not simply to reflect the will of the people, but rather to seek together to find and represent the will of Christ.”

It is this vision that is at the heart of our Constitution. It is why, in part, it is so important for us to remind Presbyterians that faithfulness to the Constitution is critical as we deal with difficult issues in our life together.

I am particularly concerned about proposals that I hear are coming to some of our presbyteries that are not in accord with our Constitution and its authoritative interpretations (which also have the binding authority of the Constitution itself). I hope, in your role as stated clerks, you will join me in reminding Presbyterians that while dissent and advocacy for change are deeply engrained Presbyterian values, no presbytery by any vote margin has the authority to take actions that are not in accord with the Constitution, or to set aside its provisions.

Among the proposals that are of particular concern to me:

• Actions by a presbytery that in essence set aside the assembly’s authoritative interpretation of G-6.0108 and require subscription to all or specific constitutional standards. Examinations are to be conducted based on constitutional standards established by the whole church, but ordination and installation decisions are to be made by ordaining bodies based on whether “the candidate has departed from essentials of Reformed faith and polity” (G-6.0108b). Authoritative interpretations can be changed by new interpretations from the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission or the assembly itself, and presbyteries may send in overtures seeking such change, but presbyteries cannot set aside, on their own, standards clearly specified in an already adopted authoritative interpretation.

The constitution is no longer the constitution. Oh yes, I know the new authoritative interpretation on G-6.0108 is part of the constitution, but at least according to this letter by the Stated Clerk he believes it overrides any previously mandated language in the Constitution. Our denomination would be more honest if we just deleted everything else from the Book of Order (book 2 of our constitution) and just leave new AI as the constitution. (Maybe that will be the FOG taskforce recommendation—that certainly would explain how they can rewrite the whole Form of Government in 18 months or less).

In the mind of the Stated Clerk this new AI limits presbyteries from actually instituted procedures and policies that require officers (or potential officers) to abide by mandate provisions in the constitution. So this new AI makes it unconstitutional to enforce the constitution. So if it is unconstitutional to require all to abide by the constitutional why do we need to abide by the new AI (which is a part of the constitution). It is absurd—but suddenly we have a constitution within the constitution and it is the new AI. I am sure glad all the presbyteries got to vote on this radical change to the constitution (or wait—they didn’t). How constitutional!