Grassroots movement calls for more volunteers By John H. Adams The Layman Volume 35, Number 2 Posted April 8, 2002 ATLANTA – After some mountain-top worship experiences and workshops discussing its tenets, the grassroots National Celebration of Confessing Churches on Feb. 25-27 concluded with a call for, figuratively, more roots. The volunteers who made the arrangements and planned the program asked other volunteers to forge ahead. “The planning ceases Wednesday at noon,” said Doug Pratt, pastor of Memorial Park Presbyterian Church near Pittsburgh and one of the organizers of the first and maybe only National Celebration of Confessing Churches. “We are not recommending that you immediately replace us,” he added. “We’re not sure God wants to have another national meeting. We’re not proposing we elect a board of directors. We think the heart and soul of this movement is its grassroots. We have seen some top-down institutions that have lost their focus because they were top-down and run by their staff,” he said. “We believe the real power of God is flowing through as we become and be the church.” In addition, other volunteer organizers called for follow-up through regional networks of Confessing Churches to examine ways they can strengthen each other and the denomination. Pratt said, “Do we know where we are going and what our final destination is? No, we don’t.” The critics of the Confessing Church Movement, including some leaders in the denomination, purport to have a better idea about where the movement is headed and what its agenda is. Some of those critics have declared it schismatic, divisive – even illegal – but there were almost no references during the Celebration to parting ways with the PCUSA. As a practical matter, however, Pratt called for volunteers in three areas: communications, development and theological resources. “How can you volunteer,” he asked? “Write Box 764, Saxonburg, Pa., 16056 or e-mail dave@confessingchurches.org.”

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