 New Wineskins Association of Churches Convocation IV 100,000 members following 'Jesus' commission to go to the ends of the world with the Gospel' By Craig M. Kibler Staff Writer The Layman Online Monday, October 29, 2007 FAIR OAKS, Calif. – Saying that the New Wineskins Association of Churches comprises "some 180 churches representing about 100,000 members," the group's co-moderator said Sunday night that the movement is not about staying or leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) but, instead, "being the church where we are" and following "Jesus' commission to go to the ends of the world with the Gospel."
"Oh, what a joy it is to see all of you here," Weaver said. "It is a fitting time and place for us to be in northern California. This is the time of the crush" for the grapes in preparation for the new wine. 'The winepress' Weaver then proceeded to give a brief overview of what the New Wineskins Association has been doing, calling it "the winepress – that place where the fruit of the vine is turned into new wine. It is a messy place, but a necessary place." Referring to the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, where he preached at that denomination's General Assembly, Weaver said that the East Africans "are leading the way, teaching us how to be the Church, and we have learned from them that we do not just have to know it, but we have to show it." "I'm going to bring you up to speed on where we have come from, where we are at this time and, by God's grace, where we are going," he said. Weaver said the soil of the new wine "was planted largely in the summer of 2001 after the Louisville General Assembly failed to say that Jesus Christ was the singular, saving Lord." In the aftermath of the General Assembly, he said many people had gathered in Denver to discuss what had to be done. "There was much talk and anxiety," Weaver said. "We heard the words, 'Stay, fight and win.' And, at one point in the conversation, I spoke to a person in leadership, saying that I have been staying and fighting all these years and I am content to stay and do that for the rest of my ministry if God would call me to do so." Weaver said he then asked the person, "You need to do one thing for me – describe what 'win' looks like. I got a perplexed look." Building on that theme, he said the approach in the past had been to try to put new people in Louisville and to try to effect renewal that way. "My contention," Weaver said, "is that the people in Louisville are not bad people. The system is a bad system and a bad system will corrupt good people." "What would it look like to be faithful right here and right now," he said was the next question, so the New Wineskins began to study the Church in the apostolic era, the Protestant Reformation and "the first and second Awakening" to see how the Church grew in troubled times. Presbyterian Church of East Africa The Presbyterian Church of East Africa is one such example of a growing church. "In a nation of more than 30 million people, it now has more than five million Bible believing, Jesus loving Presbyterians," he said to great applause. "We realized we needed to go below the equator to understand what God was doing there and what it was that we had seen in other great awakenings," Weaver said. The result of that study, he said, was that "there was nothing new under the sun," so that group set out to "rediscover our Reformed and Presbyterian roots because the church we had become was not the church it always had been." In explaining what the Presbyterian Church (USA) had become, Weaver said that polity is supposed to "serve mission, mission ought not to serve polity. We began to look at our mission, a grand and glorious mission that built hospitals and universities." The time for networking had come, he said, and it was "time for us to get on with the business of the Great Commission. We were done with beating our heads against the walls trying to bring about change in an organization that had only resisted it. It was time to bring a new, really an old, expression of the apostolic faith into practice. Many in the church accepted that vision and got excited about releasing resources into the world for mission, while others struggled to preserve the institutional structure we had become." In time, he said, that vision grew "and a dream was planted, a vision of a church that functioned more like a mission agency rather than an institution, that professing Jesus Christ as the only way, the only truth, the only life and that no one – no one – would come to the Father except by Him." Local congregation In this vision, Weaver said, the "local congregation was the front line of doing ministry; governing bodies existed not to be served, but to serve; and the resources should be flowing not upward to the institution but the other way to the local congregation so that every member would be a missionary. We want to get on with Jesus' commission to go to the ends of the world with the Gospel, to be grafted into the vine and bear much fruit." Where the organization is today, he said, "is one of those messy times. All over the country, there are churches that are wrestling with how they can continue on with their mission. In the New Wineskins Association of Churches, there are churches that believe they can faithfully remain within the PCUSA and want to be a missional, faithful church. There are others who believe they can do so better with brothers and sisters in Christ in other denominations. Only about 30 congregations have voted at this time to realign with the transitional presbytery; the other 150 are still praying, many of which have decided they are going to settle down and be the church where they are." The New Wineskins Association of Churches "is not about leaving one denomination for another," Weaver said. "In fact, I would suggest that it's not about denominations at all – it's about the new thing that God is doing in our midst. "We hope and pray and believe that you will say, 'I want to be a part of that vineyard,'" he said. "We are trying to bear fruit where God has planted us. We wait here for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon us so that we can be his witnesses even to the ends of the Earth. It is time to get on with the mission of Jesus Christ. "We pray to the Lord," Weaver said, "that we do not get ahead of you, nor let us drag behind you, but let us walk each step as you lead us." Craig M. Kibler is the Director of Publications and Executive Editor of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. He can reached at cmkibler@layman.org. |
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