The State of Transformation in the PCUSA
April, 2009
Where are we going with Transformation? This is a question I have been receiving a lot lately. With the majority of our churches already in decline, this current financial crisis has thrown them into even deeper problems. Many have speculated that the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been getting out of the church transformation business for the last few years. With all of the reorganization and budget cutting that has happened over the last decade, it’s easy to understand how these feelings arise. Like many areas, the traditional church development areas have experienced significant cuts along with almost all other areas of the General Assembly Council. We certainly aren’t the only ones to feel the crunch. We’re in this together. So, at first glance, it may look as if we have ceased doing transformation (and new church plants) with the same energy and commitment as we have in years past. We have not.
Since coming here in February 2008, I have sought to re-energize our transformation ministry and give it new vision and direction. This is not an overnight process and has not been an easy shift. Having said that, we cannot afford to fail in helping our existing churches become what God wants and needs them to be. It is true that we need to begin starting many new congregations. It’s not true, however, that this should be done at the expense of our existing congregations. The transformation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) will hinge on its ability of its current congregations to transform. A new church movement in our denomination will only be successful if current congregations transform and begin planting new faith communities around the country. It’s not an “either/or” proposition (either church transformation or new churches), it’s a “both/and” proposition. We must transform our churches and start new ones. They must go together. The Presbyterian Church must one again understand itself as “sent” by God to do God’s mission in the world.
One of our main problems is that we have, in many ways, become a “dead-end denomination.” That doesn’t mean we’re dead, that means we have stopped replicating ourselves. Disciples, by their very nature make other disciples. This is the essence of the Great Commission. Although there are numerous congregations in the PCUSA that have started new faith communities, most of our congregations are not “replicating.” We have left church planting largely to middle governing bodies that have diligently and faithfully sought to take up that mantle but only with limited success. This is not our history. The Presbyterian story is replete with tales of a single church starting dozens of churches. Churches were the locus for church planting.
So how do we move into God’s preferred future for our church where new people are being gathered and welcomed into the reformed faith community? We shift our church planting efforts back to the local congregation. How do we accomplish this? We work diligently to help churches transform and reach their God given potential. We are not seeking to transform the church so that we can once again revel at our place in the culture, nor are we transforming so that our beloved institution will survive. We transform so that others might come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ as we have.
As we look beyond the last few decades of decline, we see that evangelism used to be an integral part of our discipleship and adult baptisms were seen in every congregation. Today, we see very few adult baptisms. Presbyterians have largely stopped sharing our faith and thus have become “dead-end” users of the gospels. Churches have become places of escape rather than mission outposts from where we base our ministry to a world that is not like us and doesn’t know us. A transformation ministry means that the majority of our churches will need to change.
Herein lies the issues. We fear change because it means we must wrestle with who we are in relation to the changes. Our initial response to change often is, “Don’t change it because I won’t like it.” Our fear of change indicates that we have forgotten that the gospel is a “gospel for the world,” not just for ourselves. We have God tucked away in our comfortable worship settings and we don’t feel the need to share our God with anyone else unless they decide to act like us, look like us, sing like us, learn like us, and believe like us. I fail to find a single passage of Scripture where God extols the virtue of a church/faith community that acts in this manner.
On the contrary, the church is to “be sent” into the world not to simply sit on a corner and wait for someone to stumble in but to go out and into the streets and find the one who is marginalized and wandering in a spiritual fog. We must acknowledge our departure from what it means to be the church and reclaim our “mission” to the world, which in the end is really God’s mission. The transformation ministry, in which the church must be engaged, must come from a Missional understanding of what it means to be gospel for people who don’t know the gospel. It is this understanding undergirds the direction of our Transformational ministry in the Office of Church Growth. While the road ahead looks difficult and the steep decline we have been experiencing seems impossible to change, I do not believe God is through with the PCUSA or the 11,000+ churches we have across the country. We must all boldly accept the challenge to shed our need to be comfortable with all that the church does and willingly embrace the “risk of losing our life for the sake of the gospel.”
Peace,
Philip Lotspeich
amen, brother…
Comment by Rebecca Fox Nuelle — April 9, 2009 @ 10:38 am
Philip,
Thank you for articulating so clearly the need for transformation of existing congregations and the basic stance of your unit on this matter. It is certainly consistent with what I have been attempting to do over the years of my involvement in the work of congregational transformation, both when I was one of the congregational transformation “field staff” for GA and also in my presbytery staff work in Maumee Valley, and now Hudson River and Palisades Presbyteries.
The resistance to change in many congregations often overwhelms efforts to bring about transformation. Determined work on developing a stronger spiritual base for engagement in the life of Christian faith is clearly needed, but commonly resisted, at least in the worldview of the Northeast US, on the basis of “religion being a private affair” and therefore not open to much public expression. I have found that often the spiritual growth begins to happen as folks in a congregation get engaged in the community around them (from which they too often had been walled off for too long, as that community has been undergoing dramatic change in so many ways), particularly as they engage those who are “different” from the norm in the congregation.
I could go on and on here, but I won’t. Thanks for opening up this conversation.
Comment by Bruce Tischler — April 9, 2009 @ 12:23 pm
Bruce,
Thanks for the comment! I couldn’t agree more. I would love for this conversation to continue.
Philip
Comment by Philip Lotspeich — April 9, 2009 @ 9:39 pm
I want to venture something big here. As I have watched the phenomena of transformation and emergence, I see missional emphasis in both, and ecclesiological searching in both, and that’s good. What I do not detect very clearly in either is theological rethinking, and I believe that in the Presbyterian Church we have to start with the doctrine of atonement. This is the critical doctrine, because it determines our understanding of WHY we are sent into the world. I’m convinced that the general belief that subtitutionary sacrificial atonement is the only way to understand the cross saddles us with a presumed theology that more and more people just don’t believe or won’t accept. So whatever else we do about transformation, it has to start not just with theology, as all ecclesiology should, but it has to start with transformed theology.
Comment by Stephen Hamilton Wright — April 10, 2009 @ 12:01 pm
Stephen,
You make a good point. I heard Alan Hirsch last year speaking on a topic similar to the one you are raising. One of his points was to emphasize that what we do in the world (missiolgy) and the means by which we accomplish that (ecclesiology) must flow from our Christology. And the missiology and ecclesiology must always be calibrated to our Christology since over time we may found ourselves out of step with it. How would you suggest we go about this conversation?
Philip
Comment by Philip Lotspeich — April 10, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
When you talk about transformation why don’t you talk about the Holy Spirit. I am teaching the book of Acts at our
church and that is the one ingredient that CHANGED
the disciples and can change our church. Yet, I don’t
hear anyone talk about how to unleash the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The church has always been “missional”, but now they have
lost their power to affect change – transformation – and to
bring people in. The basic Gospel message doesn’t need to
change, we just need to be “plugged” in to the power source
to be fruitful.
Comment by L. Lee — April 14, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
Friends the PCUSA has lost the power of the good news
We have nothing distinctive to say to the world except some liberal opinions on politics & social issues
What message do we have for the world when we have lost the truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Too many of us simply do not believe it
The people who have the most influence in our denominational affairs speak of a different Jesus than the resurrected living Christ
Thus our efforts lack the power of the Holy Spirit & the Living God
We in the PCUSA offer nothing to a starving & weary world except man centered platitudes
The PCUSA will continue its decline because we have lost our message
Take heart other parts of the body of Christ are thriving & transforming lives because they proclaim to the world “He is Risen” actually-bodily—-not metaphorically-not symbolically-not philosphically-not just in spirit
Scripture tells us “…if Christ was not raised our gospel is null & void…if Christ was not raised your,your faith has nothing in it…” 1 Cor 15 12-23
Until & unless the PCUSA recovers this basic truth it has nothing to say nothing to offer the world & will disappear as others who hold fast to the Good News step up do the work of the Kingdom
Comment by Kerry — April 15, 2009 @ 8:12 am
Amen! Amen! Amen!
Our biggest hurdle will be the transformation of culture, not only with existing congregations who are anxiety ridden and in an isolationist survival mode, but also the governing bodies who will need to provide an environment for the culture shift (and also can be anxiety ridden and in an isolationist survival mode). Using organic organizational theory, the transformation of the congregations and the governing bodies must occur in tandem… yes, it will be messy; but when has discipleship and leadership ever been easy?
The foundation of the Church needs to be recapitulated, attention to the Holy Spirit (which only came into our Westminster Standards in the 1900’s), formation of community versus connectionalism, organic nodes of synergy nurtured so there will be better diffusion of innovation across the organization, and lastly, as St Paul says, all of us keeping our eyes on the prize at the end of this race, which means this communal organization needs a clearly stated purpose, core values and practices, mission, and strategic structures (Yes, I know we have the Constitution, but every baptized member needs to be able to articulate the above in their own words… which can be difficult when many Ministers cannot). Last but not the least, communication is key, starting with clear expectations for members and what members can expect from this communal organization… which is the root of our doctrine on covenant relationship.
Comment by Christian Boyd — April 15, 2009 @ 9:41 am
Has anyone read “Unbinding the Gospel” by Martha Grace Reese? She has a process through prayer in small groups with a 40 day prayer journal that has transformed my life. My session no volunteers but I do have permission to start a small group and I am. One group leads to another and then the whole church. It has changed me and my prayer partner and I hope we are the musstard seeds for change in our church and our Presbytery. It puts you in closer contact with the Holy Spirit, with Jesus and with God. It is too soon to tell, but I will post more as time goes by. It has worked with other Mainline Churches and I hope will work in mine or else my church will die.
Comment by Pat Curtis — April 30, 2009 @ 2:54 pm