Leaving UR of the Chaldees

Here’s a dream. Six evangelical congregations hold membership in one of those several draconian presbyteries. This presbytery has administrative commissions in place that already have calculated and reported the total value of each church property right down to the number of pencils in the secretary’s desk. They have calculated the worth of the real estate and begin to dream of the fee they will charge each congregation in exchange for its walking papers. “Let’s see, Trinity is probably good for $200,000. Third Church is an easy $150,000; after all, over the years, they have purchased several houses in hopes of expanding – they can sell one of them, pay our fee and pocket the difference.” The other four are similarly calculated and the deal is starting to look sweeter by the moment. The Presbytery can net nearly a million dollars. With this influx of cash, the presbytery can balance their budget until it is all spent. They can limp along for another ten years, paying their staff and subsidizing the payroll of congregations served by pastors who hold their libral theological views. This is a windfall.

When the presbytery meeting arrives, a large contingency is present from all six congregations. A representative from each congregation asks for a point of personal privilege. They each explain that their property came from God and that if God provided it once God can provide it again. They each confess that they have made their building into idols and will do so no longer. With that said, all six proceed to the front of the meeting place and present the Stated Clerk with all the keys and the signed over title to all their property. They quietly exit the building.

What is likely to happen to the former members of these congregations? Does an absence of a place, or pews, hymnbooks, or the pencils in their secretary’s desk nullify their capacity to be a Church? Perhaps it does. But if it does, what does this say about the locus of energy in these gatherings of Christians? Are these congregations of disciples defined by that which is visible to them or invisible? What remains when our stuff is removed? Only living persons can animate a material Church. Remove the people from the property, the Church stands dead.

Now, Miller, turn this keen analysis onto your circumstance in life. You a fretting over losing 8% of your pension check. With far more anxious intensity you are wondering if God will use you for His glory if you are not an ordained minister. You are like the steward in Jesus’ parable – You are too weak to work and too proud to beg. What will become of you should this small portion of your “stuff” or status be subtracted?

Like those Christians who walk away from their stuff, ministers, men and women of faith, need to have the courage to do the same. Can I show up for a presbytery meeting, asking for a point of person privilege? When given this leave, do I have the courage to walk to the front with my ordination certificate in under my arm and my pulpit robe lying over my arm? Can I lay them across the Stated Clerk's table and say, “For reasons of conscience, I renounce the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church (USA).” It is then uncertain what I would do the first year thereafter. I would then be like Abram who leaves Ur of the Chaldees, the comfort of real property and family, wandering to a place known only to His God. (Acts 7:1ff)