Being Presbyterian

So what's special about being Presbyterian? Is it even important? (It had better be important or we could all be in a peck of trouble.)

Drawing directly from "Presbyterian 101" on PCUSA.com, here are a few thoughts about being Presbyterian:

Presbyterians are distinctive in two major ways: they adhere to a pattern of religious thought known as Reformed theology and a form of government that stresses the active, representational leadership of both ministers and church members.
Reformed [thought] evolved during the 16th century religious movement known as the Protestant Reformation. It emphasizes God's supremacy over everything and humanity's chief purpose as being to glorify and enjoy God forever.

(yes, I got distracted again, hunting down illustrations of the Reformation. That's Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenburg Door. BTW, Does anyone else remember that great magazine, "The Wittenburg Door"? Nevermind. Back to "Presbyterian 101.")

In its confessions, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) expresses the faith of the Reformed tradition. Central to this tradition is the affirmation of the majesty, holiness, and providence of God who creates, sustains, rules, and redeems the world in the freedom of sovereign righteousness and love.
[The] presbyterian pattern of church government, . . . [places] governing authority primarily in elected laypersons known as elders. The word presbyterian comes from the Greek word for elder.

Elders are chosen by the people. Together with ministers of the Word and Sacrament, they exercise leadership, government, and discipline and have responsibilities for the life of a particular church as well as the church at large, including ecumenical relationships.

"Chosen by the people" is the important phrase. We don't have anyone Back East, or In Headquarters, or At the National Level sending directives to the local churches telling us what we have to believe and how we have to behave. In the Presbyterian Church, we govern ourselves.

The body of elders elected to govern a particular congregation is called a session. They are elected by the congregation and in one sense are representatives of the other members of the congregation. On the other hand, their primary charge is to seek to discover and represent the will of Christ as they govern. Presbyterian elders are both elected and ordained. Through ordination they are officially set apart for service. They retain their ordination beyond their term in office. Ministers who serve the congregation are also part of the session. The session is the smallest, most local governing body. The other governing bodies are presbyteries, which are composed of several churches; synods, which are composed of several presbyteries; and the General Assembly, which represents the entire denomination.

What's Presbyterian worship like?

The order of a Sunday worship service in a Presbyterian church is determined by the pastor and the session, the church's governing body. It generally includes prayer, music, Bible reading and a sermon based upon scripture. The Sacraments, a time of personal response/offering, and a sharing of community concerns are also parts of worship.

The constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suggests that worship be ordered in terms of five major actions centered in the word of God (gathering around the word, proclaiming the word, responding to the word, the sealing of the word, and bearing and following the word into the world), but recognizes that "other orders of worship may also serve the needs of a particular church and be orderly, faithful to Scripture, and true to historic principles." (Book of Order, W-3.3202)

Check it out! "orderly, faithful to Scripture, and true to historic principles." So it's okay to dance in the aisles, as long as it's orderly, faithful and true dancing! Back in the early 70s when we Jesus Freaks were going barefoot and wearing bib overalls, it was a Presbyterian congregation that let us come right into worship and sit on the floor below the pulpit. Yep, I did that when I was about 19. That's not to say that a few white-gloved, blue-haired ladies in their fur wraps weren't a bit put out. After a while they let me sit on the chancel steps and play my guitar, too. That Presbyterian church became a bridge between the Counter Culture back into the straight life. (Back then, "straight" didn't mean heterosexual.)

What about Music?
"Song is a response which engages the whole self in prayer. Song unites the faithful in common prayer wherever they gather for worship whether in church, home, or other special place . . . through the ages and from varied cultures, the church has developed additional musical forms for congregational prayer. Congregations are encouraged to use these diverse musical forms for prayer as well as those which arise out of the musical life of their own cultures.

How about that? There's room in the sanctuary for both Gloria Gaither and Benjamin Britten. Organs, string quartets, guitars, bagpipes and tambourines, mariachi bands and Gregorian chant, bring'em all in. But are they part of our culture? Whose culture? Which congregation? We certainly aren't all Scots. We're a mix of nearly all cultures, decades, styles and traditions. Varied cultures: That includes old hippy Jesus Freaks like me right along with the Frank Sinatra crowd and the Christian Rappers.
There's a Martin Buber quote that seems apropos: "God created so many different kinds of people; why would he allow only one way to serve him?"

One of the places where the church has had the opportunity to live up to its proclamations for the equality of all persons is in the status that it gives women in its own life and work. . . . In 1971, the General Assembly sent overtures to its presbyteries providing for election to church offices" in all governing bodies, "giving attention to a fair representation of both the male and female constituency."

In case you don't recognize that last illustration, it might be captioned, "Great Ends of the Church." There are better cartoons, but really shouldn't be published here.

So, stereotypes - love'em or hate'em, we're never going to lose them. My favorite stereotype: the Presbyterian who sniffs with offended disapproval, "We've never done it that way before."

Again, Dana Carvey's Church Lady springs to mind. (Does she attend your church, too?) As every interim minister knows all too well, there's no pleasing that blue-haired lady. Should we resurrect the 1950s when everyone went to Sunday School and the Blue Laws kept grocery stores and movie theaters closed on the Sabbath? (Never mind that the Sabbath is Saturday.) Or should we reach further into the past? Remember the Christian Women's Temperance Movement? How about the Presbyterian Women's Erection Society? (I'm not making this up, it was an organization to erect church buildings. Truth!)

The best we can do is laugh merrily at ourselves and freely admit how ridiculous we really are. Blue-haired, white-gloved ladies, as well as career-minded, sensibly-shod lap-top computer toting Mamas and all.

Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?