I Was Once Proud to be a Presbyterian

The PCUSA, the church that birthed me, nurtured, educated, sustained and ordained me is dying.  After serving 45 years as a pastor in seven pastorates in three southern states in influential congregations, I retired in July 2008 and have watched my church lose 50,000-65,000 members each year since.  Actually the demise of my church began in the 60’s, only to accelerate its membership loss in the last two decades. 

There was a time when I was shamelessly proud to be a PCUS/PCUSA Presbyterian in the south.  In the 60’s and for several decades following we stood (for the most part) united in the struggle for racial justice, for the rights of women and on the side of the poor.  We worked to allow children to the Lord’s Table. 

In those years many of us pastors began to worry about a growing disdain for evangelism -- leading others to know Christ as personal Lord and Savior.  The spiritual birth rate of our united church (southern and northern branches of American Presbyterianism) dropped dismally. 

Evangelism (living out the Great Commission given us by Jesus) has become an embarrassment for the Progressive Left wing of our denomination.  The call to start 1001 new churches in the near future is laughable.  Only the conservative wing of our church is serious about church planting and the number of pastors and members counted in the conservative wing is steadily diminishing as pastors and churches opt out of our denomination and move to conservative denominations such as the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  The Progressive Left is gaining an even greater majority when the critical votes are counted. 

The demise of our church accelerates as our higher governing bodies annually approve and endorse gay marriage, the ordination of practicing gays and lesbians, abortion, the homosexual lifestyle and deny the Lordship of Christ and the authority of Scripture.

When the PCUS and the UPCUSA united in the early 80’s, we together formed a denomination of more than 4,000,000 members and the united denomination carried significant influence in our society.  Today, as 50,000-plus members leave the PCUSA each year, we are now a denomination of less than 2,000,000 and we have little or no influence in our culture.  To the contrary, the culture dictates our policies.

Those who study such things predict the death of our denomination in less than 40 years.  There will not be many members left who can turn out the lights!

Of course, there are many local PCUSA congregations that still stand strong against the cultural influence in our churches.  As I travel throughout the U.S. (60,000 miles in the last four years), I worship at various local Presbyterian churches.  I do hear sermons that challenge me to draw closer to Christ and be more serious and intentional about my discipleship.  But, sadly, I also hear sermons that are void of any passion about a personal relationship with Christ. 

I once was proud to be a PCUSA Presbyterian.  No more.

The Cliff Neareth!

Our (PCUSA) General Assembly meets soon. It's a stacked deck. Conservatives have absolutely no chance on any important vote, such as same sex marriage. The commissioners from small churches have no idea they will be boondoggled into voting the liberal view. They don't have the foggiest idea what is going on as the GA proceeds. Our former beloved denomination is dying and liberals are rejoicing. The average pew sitter is sitting on his/her hands while the church burns. How very sad!

The train is headed for the cliff and 'heads in the sand' keep trying to portray it otherwise. Many conservatives are doing absolutely nothing. Many of their pastors are strangely silent. But they have their excuses...so...?

We (the PCUSA) was once composed on more than 4,000,000 members. Today we are less than 2,000,000. We have lost more than 2,000,000 members since my ordination in 1964. Yet, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly says the PCUSA is "soaring with hope"!  What planet does he live on...?

Talking about a stacked deck: I was the advocate for a presbytery at a GA meeting in Tuscaloosa, AL, regarding a resolution before a committee. After I made my appeal, the chair of the committee (who opposed the resolution) told me the issue would be taken up at 2 pm the next day. The next day he called the issue to a vote early in the morning without telling me of the time change. He was in bed with the GA staff.

What a Mess! It's Ugly...and Evil.

This entire PCUSA/EPC/ECO/PCA/FOP matter is a huge mess!  
We in PCUSA congrgations have three options: (1) stay in PCUSA and join FOP and endure a continual distraction caused by confusion over what FOP means that will weaken local witness; (2) join ECO and continue to litigate property issues against greedy presbyteries that will sap the energy and funds of local churches; (3) join union presbyteries and be neither fish nor fowl. 

Liberal PCUSA leaders must be laughing hysterically at us.  
FOP leaders could not come up with a plan that makes sense.  We may be conservative evangelicals, but we are no less torrid ‘turf protectors’ than the liberals.  I didn’t expect the FOP leaders to put themselves and their churches in danger of ‘dying to self’, but I also didn't expect this mess.  I was once one of the ‘tall steeple’ preachers and remember the timidity voiced in that group during our meetings in Dallas.  We are all hiding behind the ‘missional’ label as if that forgives our obvious over-riding self-interests. 

I grieve thinking of the lost dollars and witness caused by continual litigation…and I grieve at the greed of presbyteries that cannot simply say, graciously, “Blessings to you” as congregations leave the PCUSA.  It’s all about control, all about power.  It has little to do with gracious separation.  It has even less to do with faithful witness to the lordship of Christ.

I am retired now and should just let the whole thing go, take my pension and forget the ugliness of it all.  The entire ‘fight’ is beyond ugly.  It is evil and the devil smiles at our ineptitude and stunning lack of spiritual power.  
But just when I try to forget it all, I find myself weeping at the keyboard.

Currency -- a New Novel

Our son, Todd Wood, has just published a new novel, entitled Currency.  It is available on Amazon Kindle.  It is an incredible story of power, romance, revenge and international finance spanning three centuries. The issues could not be more timely!  


Todd is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has been an aeronautical engineer and an Air Force pilot. In the Air Force he flew for the 20th Special Operations Squadron which started Desert Storm.  For the past eighteen years he has been an international bond trader with expertise in Emerging Markets. He has conducted business in over forty countries.  Todd has a keen understanding of politics and international finance. He has been published in the Armed Forces Journal.  He lives on a 300+ year old farm in Connecticut deeded from King George of England with his children.

Here is one review of the novel:  "Wow!!! Can this guy see the future? I bought this on a whim but so glad I did! A must read!"

I hope you get a chance to read it.  

If I could only more closely follow his admonitions...

Those who know me are aware of the influence the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer have had on my ministry and, indeed, my life.  I read Bonhoeffer several times a week.  Since I gave away my entire library when I retired -- several thousand volumes -- I don't have in my possession many of the treasured Bonhoeffer books.  When you live fulltime in an RV travelling the country as we do, with only 300 square feet of space available, you choose to give up things, even some things dear to your heart.  I am able to read a lot of Bonhoeffer on the net.  That hardly satisfies having the hard copy in your hands, but it has to suffice.  I do have a copy of A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer which offers a reading of his work each day of the year.  Today I read the following from A Testament to Freedom.

One day, at the last judgment, he will separate the sheep and the goats and will say to those on his right: 'Come, you blessed, ...I was hungry and you fed me....'  (Matt. 25:34ff).  To the astonished question of when and where, he answered: 'What you did to the least of these, you have done to me....'  (Matt. 25:40)  With that we are faced with the shocking reality: Jesus stands at the door and knocks ....  He asks you for help in the form of a beggar, in the form of a ruined human being in torn clothing.  He confronts you in every person that you meet.... He lives in the form of the person in our midst....'

What would it be like to live that way every single moment of every day?  What would it take for me to do that, to live like that?  To see Christ in the woman at the checkout counter, in the man on the corner holding a sign asking for food, in the person I pass on the sidewalk, in the man and woman sitting with me in the doctor's waiting room, etc.  How do I see Christ in Obama,for whom I hold little respect?  What about seeing Christ in the form of the minister colleague who has made a decision to flaunt his or her misinterpretation of Scripture in the face of Jesus --someone with whom I significantly disagree? 

What would it be like to live like that every day?    These questions trouble me.  You...?

Bonhoeffer on the Church-splitting PCUSA Conflict

“Two factors, which are really one and the same thing, reveal the difference between spiritual and self-centered love. Emotional, self-centered love cannot tolerate the dissolution of a community that has become false, even for the sake of genuine community.  And such self-centered love cannot love an enemy, that is to say, one who seriously and stubbornly resists it.  Both spring from the same source: emotional love is by its very nature desire, desire for self-centered community.  As long as it can possibly satisfy this desire, it will not give it up, even for the sake of truth, even for the sake of genuine love for others.  But emotional, self-centered love is at an end when it can no longer expect its desire to be fulfilled, namely, in the face of an enemy.  There it turns into hatred, contempt, and slander.”          

                                                               

       -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Life Together

Musings, November 9, 2011

** Thinking about a 'stewardship sermon' I'm to preach this coming Sunday at a church in western Idaho.  On the net I notice most 'stewardship sermons' I read are thinly veiled efforts by pastors to persuade their people to give more.  Why can't pastors just come out and say it instead of trying to manipulate their people?

** I'll never forget the elderly couple in First Presbyterian Church, Savannah, GA, who, in the midst of our stewardship season, visited me in my study and said, "We can't give much, but here is our father's gold pocket watch.  Sell it and use the money for our church's mission." 

** An elderly neighbor of ours died last night.  He was a quiet, pleasant man who often puttered around his rig fixing things.  Another of God's children gone into the night and the world goes on. 

** Joe Paterno is fired at Penn State (for good reasons!), but Barney Frank, a crook from Mass, stays in Congress and continutes to dine at the table of public funds.  Can somebody explain that to me?

** Obama promised an open administration, 'transparent' in his words, but you and I know the reality is anything but transparent.  Anyone want to defend his betrayal?

** White House aides say there's no plan to produce documents on now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra.  Now that's transparency, right?  Anyone doubt the reasons for this refusal?

** Democrats are pushing to repeal the Defense of the Marriage Act.  Our forefathers are turning over in their graves (again and again!)

** Anyone wondering who is behind the Herman Cain attacks?  Herman Cain has never lived in Chicago. But you know who has? David Axelrod! And guess who lived in Axelrod's very building? Right again: Cain's latest accuser, Sharon Bialek.  Just asking....

** Does Rick Perry remind anyone of a comic?  When you step in 'it', don't keep doing it!

** 20,000 children starved to death today.  And Ms Obama takes a $$$$$$ vacation trip to Paris!  Oh my...!

** Billy Graham's new book, Nearing Home, is an inspiring, encouraging book, especially the chapter that describes Ruth's final days and death.  Get a copy.

** Dietrich Bonhoeffer's words about the Christian community in his book, Life Together, indicts the far left, pro-gay ordination group in our PCUSA.  But that group would never admit same.

** Now the PCUSA is helping produce a curriculum that encourages youth to consider gay marriage.  O Lord, when will such garbage stop?

** After 45 years of active ministry I retired three years ago.  I think much about my life as I enter my 73rd year.  I was good at some things, never great in any thing.  I failed in ministry many times, and in being a father and husband, a friend to others and in many other areas of my life.  So, what is my hope when I stand before my Lord in judgment?  Grace...God's grace, grace that is greater than all my sin!!!