Why I am Presbymergent
My journey of faith began in the PC(USA) as I was baptized as an infant and attended consistently throughout my childhood and teenage years. My church involvement led me to take part in various Presbytery related activities, including serving as a YAD to the GA in 2000 and an overture advocate in 2001. I also enrolled at Grove City College, a conservative PC(USA) school in Western Pennsylvania in the fall of 1999 as a Physics/Computer Science major. While I was in college I was introduced to and embraced what many would consider a classical “evangelical” faith where a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, coupled with spiritual disciplines and leading a holy life was the focus. This stood in some distinction to my more “mainline” roots and caused me to wrestle with what exactly my understanding of the Christian faith was.
I began seminary the year after I graduated from college and once again found myself in a more “mainline” setting at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. During my second year I was introduced to “the emerging church” by my now wife. My initial impression was that Brian McLaren and “the emerging church” were nothing more than the social gospel rehashed and thus doomed to fail because, in the words of McLaren himself, “The Social Gospel preached a Kingdom without a King”. However, as I examined further I discovered that that wasn’t what people like McLaren were talking about. And, as I discovered the works of Tony Jones and John Franke I began to realize that what those in “the emerging church” seemed to be trying to do was to hold together the best elements of my mainline and evangelical backgrounds. They were seeking to integrate the passionate communal faith that is prevalent in the evangelical tradition with the social activism and transformation that is such an emphasis in the mainline world.
In my involvement with the emergent conversation I’ve discovered that precisely because emergent isn’t a denominational structure and doesn’t have to make decisions about who is in and out it is an ideal place to have safe, honest, and open discussion. This is made possible because of Emergent’s focus on having shared values rather than shared beliefs. Values such as listening, mutual respect, and acceptance of the church in many forms (rather than one) creates an environment where although there are huge differences serious and valuable dialogue can still occur.
My continuing commitment to the PC(USA) comes from a sense of call. While it was the PCUSA that raised me, I have had many opportunities to examine other denominations and church organizations to discover where God is calling me to serve. Yet as I have searched and discerned the answer has been that I am to stay exactly where God has put me, within the PC(USA).
My dream for Presbymergent is that although we are all of one denomination and therefore forced to make decisions about who is in and out, that we would in our discussions embody these values of listening and mutual respect, whether we count ourselves as “evangelicals”, “progressive”, “liberal”, “conservative”, or whatever other title we use to describe ourselves.
Comment by Tom Robinson on 14 February 2007:
Brian, your thoughts triggered in me a remembrance of an article Jason Byasee wrote about the Emerging Church in “The Christian Century” some time ago. He was talking with Tim Keel, pastor of the Jacob’s Well Church in Kansas City. Keel mentioned that a lot of evangelicals take the believe-behave-belong approach to church involvement; if you believe like us and behave like us, you can be one of us. He said that the model he espouses now is more like belong-behave-believe. He mentioned that he tells those who are joining his church to take on certain spiritual disciplines and practice them, and in that our faith will be deepened and strengthened. I think it also applies to us as we look at the church and seek to excite people with the Gospel. If we take belonging as something which is grace and not works, that people belong with us on the faith journey and are in a different place than us (or maybe not), then we can have a conversation about where that journey is taking us. It seems to me that having a conversation with someone about the presence of the Triune God in our lives is a lot more helpful than trying to shove our theologies into somebody.
Comment by Pastor Chris on 14 February 2007:
Brian:
Thanks for telling your story. I lean towards belong before belief model, which is somewhat antithetical to most of the evangelical churches I encounter. However, I also see it changing as churches realize the importance of relationships and allowing pre-Christians time to discover what they believe. Typically, I see this in praxis with the Alpha course. The hard part about alpha that many people encounter is allowing people to ask their questions and explore their discovery of faith.
Pastor Chris
http://www.evangelismcoach.org
Comment by Brian Wallace on 14 February 2007:
I think belief before belong and vice versa both tend to miss the overall point - which that people tend to join churches at very different points in their journeys. Some people join because they’ve moved to an area but they come as very active members with a strong faith. Other times you have people who are just beginning, or in many cases, returning to the faith. If we’re talking about people who are just beginning in the faith then it’s a different matter altogether.
My other observation is that few churches have the theological unity that they think or hope they do and nor will they ever have it. I’ve learned that even people who have attended the same church for years and have loved the pastor end up with wildly different theological beliefs, in part because they’re at different points in the faith journeys. While there may be some core beliefs that they can check off when it comes right down to it there’s a whole lot more diversity when it comes to what those beliefs mean in practice.
Comment by Seth Thomas on 15 February 2007:
Brian, thank you for your reflection. As this community develops, it is our stories, our tales from ministry, and our response to the way we are experiencing this emerging faith within our congregations/denomination that will shape us the most. I appreciate hearing other people’s response and feelings about how being Presbymergent plays out for them. Glad to be a part of this with you.
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