The New Temples

Monday and Tuesday are committee days at GA. This is the time when commissioners work with the committees to which they have been assigned; considering, debating, parsing and amending the various overtures submitted by presbyteries, synods and denominational authorities.

Most of this “business” concerns arcane and esoteric stuff with little apparent connection or consequence to individual congregations or Presbyterians. This is the part of who and what we seem to have become denominationally that also seems furthest from ministry – the notion that Presbyterians are about rules and policies and structure and little about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is how much of the world in and outside of our congregations sees us. It is a fair criticism, even if sometimes inaccurate.

The work week is kicked off by the General Assembly Breakfast (always with a capital “B”), where, in addition to the denomination’s version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (albeit a bit smaller multitude but with way more calories and carbs), a keynote speaker, often from outside the denomination, presents some glimpse of a view of the larger church and its relationship to its time and its place.

This year’s speaker was Brian McLaren, who was billed in the GA Program Book as “author, speaker, activist, and public theologian.” Makes one wonder if there is such a thing as a “Private Theologian.”

Irrespective of his billing, McLaren is generally seen one of the “fathers and mothers” of the Emergent Church movement. This is a term used (along with others) to describe a transformation of the church across traditional boundaries and labels – whether those labels be denominational, or theological. This movement seems to fit well some who feel this is how faith can be best lived out in a “post-Modern” society.

All the jargon aside, McLaren’s point is really quite simple: the church as we have known it is pretty much an unsustainable institution; but that a faithful and religious life in Christ is still not only desirable but also longed and hoped for by so much of the world. And that denominations need to make room for the innovations in faith life that grow out of this desire, longing and hope.

He sees promise in the fervor and commitment of many young persons who are drawn into faith, including those in seminaries. But he warns that denominations are stacked to stifle them because of our insistence to, an at times, blind allegiance to structure and process that often has little relevancy to how we can best live out life as disciples of Jesus Christ in the 21^st century; and that our denominations are run now by a generation of Baby-boomers who refuse to cede authority without first making sure our successors will not tear down the temples we have built.

While ours is a presbytery that seems to be willing to foster a new era of generational leadership, I have heard it said that “one of the problems in this presbytery is that we have too many young people on Council who haven’t been around long enough to know how it is we’re supposed to do things here.”

Perhaps this is a temple that needs tearing down.