10A

 

If you have never head of 10A, you have remained aloof from church politics. I would join you in this bliss save for the fact that as a pastor I deal with it all the time. What is 10A? A much too quick overview: For the long history of the Presbyterian Church, any member of the congregation was eligible to be nominated as an elder, deacon, or pastor. The belief was that the local church knew best its membership and would choose people of Christian character for leadership.

 

Then came society's soul-searching over the issue of homosexuality. The result was that the Presbyterian church made a historic diversion from its principles - it said that any member of the church, except a practicing homosexual, could be chosen for church leadership. In time, the prohibition against practicing homosexuals was dropped in favor of prohibiting anyone who was sexually active outside of marriage (defined as marriage between a man and a woman).  What 10A does is to turn back the clock, back to what was--namely, the church nominating committee can nominate any member of the church for leadership whom they feel is qualified. The congregation then votes upon the nomination.

 

The problem is trust.  Do we trust local churches to choose leaders they believe are called by God to serve or do we create a "non-eligible list," and if so, who makes up that list? The media has run with the story: "Presbyterians may now elect homosexuals to leadership." That is true - "any member of a local congregation is eligible to be nominated for church leadership"; we lived that way for 200 plus years.  It seemed to work OK.

 

Will some individuals/churches leave the denomination over 10A? Yes. Then again, if everyone in the community always agreed, you would be defining a cult rather than the "body of Christ." We are Christian first, members of denominations second. This is my July 4^th epistle because I believe that as  long as I have freedom to preach the gospel,  as long as  we have  freedom to call our own staff/pastors (the latter with guidance of Presbytery), as long as our Session is free to disburse our revenues without any restrictions or mandates from a higher authority, as long as we have freedom to choose our own curriculum and instructional materials... why would we leave one imperfect denomination for another?

 

July 4^{th -} Freedom means that we are free to choose, free to make good decisions, free to make bad decisions.  

 

 

In faith,

Pastor Tim

 

   

"The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism."   

 

Sir William Osler, 1849-1919