Dear Presbytery of San Diego,
I write this to you late Friday night towards the end of an emotional General Assembly week. I will send you a longer email, Clarkâs Corner, on Monday, but here is a brief note for now.
In January, I gave a presentation about the missional church to our Leadership Development Day called Surfing the Edge of Chaos. The four main points of this presentation are:
1. Equilibrium is the precursor of death.
2. When faced with threat or opportunity, all living organisms are pushed to the edge of chaos.
3. It is there on the edge of chaos, that new life forms begin to emerge.
4. You cannot direct a living organism to a directed outcome, you can only disturb it in a general direction.
I find these realities very helpful in describing where the decisions of this General Assembly have brought us as a denomination. What has happened today?
1. GA voted to maintain the definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman.
2. GA voted to recommend to the presbyteries to remove the "fidelity and chastity" clause from our constitution. This must be approved by a majority of our presbyteries before it would be removed.
3. GA voted to remove 30 years of decisions on homosexuality.
4. GA voted to change the Authoritative Interpretation of the PUP report from two years ago, to now give local presbyteries the option of ordaining officers who do not comply with fidelity and chastity, if they feel they are otherwise qualified to serve.
5. GA voted to recommend changing our version of the Heidelberg Catechism in our Book of Confessions from a version that says "homosexual perversion" is a sin, to a version that lists "unchaste" as a sin. This change wil not take place until 2/3 of the presbyteries and another GA approve this. This is not likely.
The mood here at the Assembly is very subdued. A few who are on the far left theologically are happy, but most moderate liberals, moderates, evangelicals, and conservatives are somber, grieving, and with a heavy sense of loss. Our context has now changed. People realize that our situation has become very serious. Our connectionalism, already weak, is stressed to its very limits. Everyone realizes that something must change. We cannot continue the way we have. We must become a different kind of church.
I feel very fortunate to be a member of the Presbytery of San Diego. There is no other presbytery in our denomination that I would rather be a part of right now. We are surfing the edge of chaos. We are faced with both a threat and an opportunity. While the old model of church is dying in front of us, we have the exciting opportunity to help a new life form emerge. We won't be able to direct this or control this to happen. We can only disturb it in a general direction.
So, what will we do as the Presbytery of San Diego?
1. We ask all of you to pray for God to lead us to make the right decisions.
2. We will hold an informal gathering for pastors and other interested church leaders on Wednesday, July 9, at noon, at the Village church in Rancho Santa Fe. Thanks to Jack Baca for being willing to host us. Please bring your own lunch with you, and we will talk while we eat about what has happened and how to best move forward.
3. Please do not make any hasty decisions in the heat of the moment in isolation. We have been working hard to create a new connectionalism based on relationships and mission. We want to work together as a team. We want to hear from you, and for you to hear from us, before we make decisions.
4. We will have a special called presbytery meeting on Tuesday, July 15th. More information will be out at the end of next week about this meeting.
5. If you would like someone to talk with people in your congregation, please feel free to invite me as your Executive Presbyter or any of our GA commissioners, and we would be glad to meet with you.
We will be surfing some rough waves. We are in danger of losing our balance. We may fall off our surfboards, but Jesus will help us back on, and we will live to surf another day. What has not changed is that the church still has a Lord and Savior, and it is not any of us. It is Jesus Christ. God is still sovereign. I am confident that we can move through this time, with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. I believe God is pushing us in some new directions. We need your help to dream and help us discover what the new thing is that God is doing. Without your help, we will lack your valuable perspective. You can help shape what our future will look like. These are anxious times and scary times. I believe we can get through them together and that God can be glorified through this. The God of the Bible is the God Who surprises us. While our situation looks bleak, I believe God has some good surprises in store for us, that we haven't seen or imagined yet.
Please email me and let me know what you think. I value your input.
Serving Jesus Christ alongside of you,
Clark Cowden
Executive Presbyter
San Diego Presbytery