Part of my own processing of the situation with the PCUSA and the recent GA decisions led me to explore something that has been seemingly all but abandoned yet remains close to my heart. That is, the Confessing Church movement and its core confessions of "Christ Alone", Scripture Alone" and Holy living. Specifically I looked up the cobwebbed website of the Confessing church movement and found Oakdale's Session resolution. This was important for me as their new pastor since I had transitioned from a confessing congregation in Kansas, knew Oakdale was also a Confessing congregation, but had never read Oakdale's specific statement. I believe it is important to those of us who remain in the PCUSA to revisit our core confessions.
"Session ResolutionThe session joins faithful believers throughout the Church in confessing:
- That Jesus Christ alone is Lord of all and the way of salvation.
- That holy Scripture is the truine God's revealed Word, the Churches only infallible rule of faith and life
- That God's people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This includes honoring sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the only relationship within which sexual activity is appropriate.
We therefore announce our commitment to the Confessing Church Movement nd we implore all Presbyterians who share these historic Christian convictions to:
- Renew their individual commitments to the above confessions.
- Urge their session and presbytery to affirm these confessions and to declare that they will not ordain, install or employ in any ministry position any person who will not affirm them
- Urge the General Assembly to instruct the General Assembly Council to require that all program personnel uphold these confessions and ensure that these confessions are followed faithfully in all programs and policies of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)."
The purpose of these confessions was not to "target homosexuals" or to create division, but to define who we are as a congregation and to set appropriate boundaries within a family that exists with such deep divisions in belief and practice. We exist as a congregation that believes in the Authority and inspiration of Scripture and so we cannot assume that there is a wisdom greater than God's Holy Word for us to seek to govern either our beliefs or our life. Likewise we cannot compromise and name other views of God, no matter how similar, as compatible with our worship of the Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ and through Scripture.
Where sexuality is concerned we believe that Jesus Christ and Scripture together call us to practices which exemplify the life to which we are called by Scripture and not by the world. We cannot say there are a variety of ways to express our sexuality when scripture clearly calls people to avoid adultery, and to live faithfully in marriage, man to one woman, and woman to one man. Any other expression of sexual activity, other than chastity in singleness, is an example of our broken condition and points to our need to have our thoughts, desires, and behaviors reshaped by the Holy Spirit into ways that are obedient to God's Word. Our struggles with desires that are contrary to God's design are a part of God's gracious gift of conscience and conviction which are to drive us to repentance and to simultaneously trust the Holy Spirit's ability to transform us. We have not been called to creatively redefine sin so that we can say we are outside of its influence or effect. The difficulty of the task of trusting God in this only points to the truth that it is a "narrow way" and a "cross" we are called to bear in following Christ.
To remain faithful in the PCUSA, or out of it for that matter we must remain faithful to our core confessions.
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path,
Mark
The purpose of these confessions was not to "target homosexuals" or to create division, but to define who we are as a congregation and to set appropriate boundaries within a family that exists with such deep divisions in belief and practice. We exist as a congregation that believes in the Authority and inspiration of Scripture and so we cannot assume that there is a wisdom greater than God's Holy Word for us to seek to govern either our beliefs or our life. Likewise we cannot compromise and name other views of God, no matter how similar, as compatible with our worship of the Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ and through Scripture.
Where sexuality is concerned we believe that Jesus Christ and Scripture together call us to practices which exemplify the life to which we are called by Scripture and not by the world. We cannot say there are a variety of ways to express our sexuality when scripture clearly calls people to avoid adultery, and to live faithfully in marriage, man to one woman, and woman to one man. Any other expression of sexual activity, other than chastity in singleness, is an example of our broken condition and points to our need to have our thoughts, desires, and behaviors reshaped by the Holy Spirit into ways that are obedient to God's Word. Our struggles with desires that are contrary to God's design are a part of God's gracious gift of conscience and conviction which are to drive us to repentance and to simultaneously trust the Holy Spirit's ability to transform us. We have not been called to creatively redefine sin so that we can say we are outside of its influence or effect. The difficulty of the task of trusting God in this only points to the truth that it is a "narrow way" and a "cross" we are called to bear in following Christ.
To remain faithful in the PCUSA, or out of it for that matter we must remain faithful to our core confessions.
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path,
Mark
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