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Letters to the Editor The Layman Volume 35, Number 3, Posted June 3, 2002 |
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Why raise $40 million for disappearing church? Isn’t it interesting how we are now preparing to raise $40 million for new church development all the while our membership declines each year at the rate of three churches per week, each with a membership of 200. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to just stop the hemorrhaging of our membership, let alone all this big talk about starting new churches. Again, those in authority just don't get it. I have yet to read where Louisville is lamenting the sad situation of membership losses. At this rate, in 50 years there will be no Presbyterians left. Chuck Larsen Minden, Neb. Moose Club & PCUSA: Is there any difference? Our church believes in fun, food and fellowship. In fact our church has a reputation at presbytery as one of the most fun-loving and sociable churches in the presbytery. Of course we do other things. We have a soup kitchen. We seek diversity wherever we can find it. We are good people, and we never criticize anyone. After all, who can say who is right in most controversial situations? We never discuss politics or religion. Publications like The Layman and Theology Matters are immediately destroyed before they see the light of day. Religion, of course, is a private matter. We should never try to influence others in their private beliefs. We don’t know the difference between Amendment A and Amendment O, and we are proud of it. Why should we indulge ourselves in matters that may disturb our peaceful and happy existence? This “Confessing Church” movement, which seems to unavoidably come to our attention from time to time, is nothing more than an effort to infect peaceful churches with seeds of discontent. These people are causing trouble by quoting Jesus and expecting us to make moral judgments based on some things that were said almost 2000 years ago. This, after all, is the 21st century. In a nutshell, this is our church. Why does it leave me uninspired? Actually I have been wondering if I should leave the church and join the Moose (The Loyal Order of Moose). I belonged to the Moose in my youth; and, I must say, I remember finding more fun, food and fellowship there than I find in our church today. The Moose people are good people who help feed the hungry, give food baskets to the poor and generally do much good work in the community. They probably do as much as our church and they do it more cost effectively. They don’t have the expensive hierarchy to support that we have. Like our church, they never discuss politics or religion; and although they, of course, do not have the one-hour worship service on Sunday morning, I can enjoy several excellent Sunday morning services that are broadcast on radio and television. Perhaps there are other alternatives that I should pursue. I must give it some more thought. Jim Kniss, elder Grove Presbyterian Church Aberdeen, Md. In ‘good old days,’ officers ‘subscribed’ to standards Our stated clerk has called for a smaller Book of Order and desires to return to the good old days of when we had less regulation. The Rev. Jerry Andrews was right in reminding the clerk that we also had a smaller Book of Confessions with only the Westminster standards. When I became a Presbyterian, those were the only documents that all ministers, elders, and deacons had to subscribe to. And we demanded that they sincerely subscribe to them. Now, because of our mixed bag on confessional documents, we only need to be “guided by” them, whatever that means to anyone. The result is that we need a bigger Book of Order to clarify the bigger Book of Confessions. Walter B. Hamer, pastor First Presbyterian Church Monett, Mo. Youth for the Truth is now international The past few months have been very busy for Youth for the Truth (an adjunct to the Confessing Church Movement). The member’s page on our Web site, www.youth4truth.org, has a complete listing of who has joined and where they are from. Most surprisingly, Moses Mwaura Wachira from Nakuru, Kenya, joined after looking for a way to take a “global stand” for Truth with other like-minded young people. Truly, the Internet has become a tool to reach far beyond the borders of our country. Youth for the Truth has been encouraging other member youth groups to meet together and to think seriously about Truth. Here in Oostburg, Wisc., we started reading and discussing the book, Jesus Among Other Gods, Youth Edition by Ravi Zacharias. We did this by meeting Sunday nights and discussing issues such as who is Christ, how do we know the claims of Christ are true, and is God responsible for pain. We want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us and prayed for us as we started this journey over a year ago. Please continue to pray that God will use this group to motivate and mobilize young people within our denomination and around the world to stand up for his truth. Ryan Brill Oostburg, Wisc. New organizational, structural models needed One of the severe problems we have encountered in the past 50 years or more is that we have espoused “new” cultural concepts, supposedly biblically based, while relying on “old” organizational models and structures. We need new organizational models and structures for the isolated urban and rural churches. We also desperately need new models for evangelism and church growth. Eric Harrison Pittsburgh, Pa. PCUSA should learn from Catholic Church Can’t we learn anything from our Roman Catholic friends about the cost in monetary loss and societal loss from the sexual indiscretions of their hierarchy? Since our property is not owned by our individual congregations, the whole denomination could be held responsible in a monetary way for those who transgress our youth sexually. R.W. Lott Elmwood, Ill. Queries about Enron, PCUSA leadership Do you think the CEO and members of a Board of Directors in a corporation that lost as much market share in the past forty years as the PCUSA has lost members and capital would still be writing letters to stockholders touting their plans for the future as the way to go? What charity or community organization in the future will want Mr. Kenneth Lay, late CEO of Enron, to have his name on their letterhead as a member of the board or as a consultant? Donald D. Denton Richmond, Va. Now it’s time to vote for evangelism in PCUSA A very large majority of Presbyterians have voted repeatedly against changing the ordination standards of the Church. Let us give the devoted church members an overture that will encourage them to vote for calling people to faith in Christ. Now it is time to rebuild the Presbyterian Church. It has been 37 years since we recorded a net gain in Church members. We have lost more than 40 percent of our membership and nearly two generations of young people. Can we find ways to acknowledge those churches that grow and share what they have learned about evangelism with the whole church? Our churches are not controlled by anyone but Christ. No one will bar our ability to lead people to Biblical-spiritual pursuit of faith in Jesus Christ. John F. Seibert retired missionary-pastor Why not a quid pro quo for moderator? I just noticed in the “Covenant Network People in the news” section of the April Newsletter that Laird Stuart has resigned from the Network’s Board of Directors. Laird is a candidate for moderator of the 214th General Assembly. He resigned to demonstrate his intent to serve the whole church. Does that mean he will no longer work to promote the ordination of practicing LGBTs while serving as moderator? If Laird’s strategy works, maybe next year Robert Howard could resign from the Lay Committee and run for moderator. I’m sure the Covenant Network supporters would give him a strong endorsement for his gesture to serve the whole church! John H. Pavelko Crossroads Presbyterian Church Walled Lake, Mich. |
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