 
Charlotte pastor reminds Presbyterians of priorities By Parker T. Williamson The Presbyterian Layman |
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CHARLOTTE – Deferring to the planned multi-cultural “celebration” at the Charlotte Coliseum, scores of Presbyterian churches in Charlotte presbytery closed their doors on General Assembly Sunday. But several did not. “Our people know they are free to go wherever they choose,” said First Presbyterian Church minister William P. Wood, “but God will be worshiped in our sanctuary that day.” Wood preached to a packed house in both morning services, and to an area-wide television audience as well. Then his congregation welcomed more than 1,800 commissioners and guests who were bused in for lunch after their Coliseum event. Wood reminded Presbyterians of their heritage. He spoke of churches, hospitals, colleges, children’s homes and seminaries built by Presbyterians. He talked of the Presbyterian form of government, a legacy that inspired and informed the American republic. He highlighted the Presbyterian passion for freedom, fierce independence, determination, and leadership in public affairs. He reminded Presbyterians of their Scottish forbear, Jenny Geddes, “who let out a scream during a worship service in Edinburgh’s St. Giles Cathedral and threw the stool on which she was sitting at the head of the Anglican bishop who was trying to bring the Church of England to Scotland.” The greatest contribution But the greatest contribution of the Presbyterian church, said Wood, may be, in the long run, theological. “Presbyterians have at their best lived by the scriptural revelation of the total sovereignty of God over all creation and the power of God’s grace to overcome the inherent sinfulness of the human race. All limited and petty conceptions of the living God, all attempts to speak glibly about ‘the man upstairs,’ all sentimental piety that talks about the Lord of the universe as if God were some kind of cozy friend, all attempts to confine religion to the private or spiritual sphere of life, all timidity in the face of rival powers that try to dominate our lives … all these are totally foreign to the authentic Presbyterian spirit.” Cults of self affirmation Wood then zeroed in on current aberrations that have decimated the modern church, movements that have abandoned the sovereign God for cults of “self affirmation, self centeredness,” led by “ego dominated ministers and lay people.” Aware that the General Assembly has been inundated by issues of sex, politics and economics, Wood said that if its commissioners ignore two pressing questions, evangelism and mission, “we risk losing our very soul.” Evangelism For 170 years, Wood reported, the Presbyterian Church in this nation was evangelistic, a growing and vital church. But, if the trend of the past three decades continues for the next three, everything that was built up over those 170 years will be lost. The denomination will cease to exist. “The fundamental question the church faces today is the question Jesus asked to his disciples: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ The churches today that are growing, vital, alive churches are precisely those churches that can say boldly, unequivocally, and unapologetically, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of God.’” Mission The second issue, said Wood, is mission. He reminded his congregation that for almost 200 years the Presbyterian Church sent missionaries throughout the world. “The Presbyterian Church today desperately needs to recover an authentic sense of the mission of the church mandated by Jesus Christ in the New Testament: preaching the gospel, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, giving sight to the blind.”
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The Presbyterian Layman, July/August 1998 contents |
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