Church Divorce Done Right

Christianity Today: Church Divorce Done Right: Denominational splits just aren't what they used to be

When I asked Orlando Sentinel religion reporter Mark Pinsky if he'd covered the February meeting where as many as 150 Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations made plans to leave the denomination, I wasn't terribly surprised when he answered no.

The New Wineskins meeting was within walking distance from his office, Pinsky said, but "we sense some fatigue among general readers on the 'maybe this mainline denomination will split' story. Editors are saying, 'Get back to us when there is a split.' It's the Lucy and the football thing from Peanuts."

It's a sentiment shared widely by religion reporters, including many of us here at CT. Rarely does a week go by that we don't hear rumors of denominational departures. But discussion and dissatisfaction typically trump actual decisions to leave.

Not that the mainline exodus is a myth. Within the past year, entire regions of the American Baptist Churches USA, representing hundreds of churches, dropped their ties to the national body. Due to a few dramatic votes, the departures got more attention than 225 congregations that left the United Church of Christ (UCC). They left after the UCC adopted a resolution in July 2005 that endorsed same-sex marriage. The 67 "Faithful and Welcoming" orthodox churches who work from within the UCC face an uphill battle for mere tolerance: The denomination's official blogger, on the UCC's site, characterized one such group as dedicated to destroying the UCC from the inside.

Though not universal across the mainline, the exodus seems to be happening on a scale not seen since the fundamentalist-modernist battles of nearly a century ago......

Episcopal bishops' reaction to the February meeting of Anglican primates may reveal the biggest difference between the fundamentalist exodus and today's. Machen lamented that liberals of his day were dishonest in reciting "I believe" creeds they did not really believe. That's still true. But now Episcopalians are complaining that they're forced to choose between "staying true to our understanding of the inclusive gospel or staying true to our commitment to being a constituent member of the Anglican Communion."

They're starting to get it. It is they, not conservatives, who have been leaving all along.

There is much fear and angst about an impending split in the PCUSA. Some New Wineskins churches are choosing to severe ties. I have said it before and I'll say it again, the pressing issue in terms of institutional survival is not schism. To hear some leaders congratulate themselves for having prevented schism and "preserved" the denomination is misguided. There may be a small group exodus here and there but the real problem is evaporation; members oozing out the doors.

The answer is not institutional protection. The answer is people connected with God and the grand narrative of Scripture in their daily lives.

Comments

[kairos]

The answer is not institutional protection. The answer is people connected with God and the grand narrative of Scripture in their daily lives.

Amen.

[Michael Kruse]

Thanks Kairos. I should have written conntected "with God in community" but the point is there.

[RPS]

Interesting to see this post just after I was reading this today:
"Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter of the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ."

(Dietrich Bonhoffer, "Life Together" p. 21)

Kind of hard to fit the concept of "divorce" into the kind of image he's painting here. Doesn't make it any easier to actually "live" the communal aspect of faith, but certainly paints the concept of "going our own ways" in a different light.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Good stuff RPS!

I think there is also a need to broaden our understanding of Christian community. I left the Nazarene Church of my childhood as a young adult but I did not divorce my relationships with Nazarene Christians. I am in communinty with all sorts of Christians whose institutional structures I would not want to affiliate. Our community is in Christ not in denominational affiliation. I have virtually come to see the various denominations as an institutional federation of the movement known as the Church.

We don't strive to be one ... we are one! Christ has established it. The question is whether or not we will live like it and how well we will evidence it. Denominational affiliation as the hallmark of unity strikes me as a weak, if not heretical, expression.

[RPS]

I'm doing an "experiential sermon" this Sunday on just that. I've found some "paper" that completely / quickly dissolves in liquid. I'm asking everyone present at the beginning of worship to begin thinking / meditating on two things: 1. Some symbol that describes them, and 2. something (symbol, word, etc.) that descibes in some way their need of community / God / Jesus / forgiveness /etc. Then we are going to use a basin on the communion table for everyone who wishes to bring their paper and drop it in -- the basin will have the same wine that we will later use for communion. By the end of the sermon (1st Cor. 12) ever single bit of paper in that basin will have been absorbed / assimilated (kind of "Borg like" no?) into something "Bigger" than any of us (individuals or groups) can be by ourselves.

But there is a "buy in" -- to be a part of the bigger whole, we have to accept ther reality of using "we" instead of "I" or "They" or any of the other, artificial distinctions that are being used WAY too often and in way too "un-communal" ways.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Very cool!

(Mike now checking on cheap fares to Charlotte for the weekend. :) )

[Mark DeVine]

Michael

Have you seen Thomas Oden's new book "Turning Around the Mainline: How Renewal Movements are Changing the Church"? If not you might want to check it out. Oden is an evangelical within the United Methodis Church.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Thanks Mark. I am very familiar with Oden but I have not read this book. I'll be sure to look into it. Thanks for pointing it out. I am not paleo-orthodox exactly but I share some common ground.