Disorientation

Matthew Christopher, abandonedamerica.us

History shows us that mighty empires only last so long. Think of the Roman Empire and it vast colonization. The Holy Roman Empire lasted about 800 years. The Ottoman Empire was around for approximately 700 years dissolving in 1922. The British Empire once ruled the waves. Empires come and go. Seldom do they go quietly into the night.

In this last season of Downton Abbey, it is easy from the first episode to see the trajectory to the end. Estate after estate, including Downton, will cut back on staff and activities until at last it will have to close down. Already the staff, which is not as large as in season one, is worried about “being let go.” Trauma and anxiety run high.

The same kind of things have happened, are happening, will happen to the church in its many forms. Once large denominations are mere shadows of their former self. Organization structures once developed as compound complex establishments filling multiple floors of massive facilities, are now reducing in staff and activities. Today it was announced that Presbyterian Mission Agency staff age 60 and over with at least 5 years of employment are being offered a voluntary separation option before involuntary separations are initiated.

We have already seen one megachurch collapse under its own weight and the death of it founder. The Crystal Cathedral in California was built to seat over two thousand seven hundred people. For some years it was nearly full every Sunday. Now, it is no longer under the operation by the Fuller family. It is no longer called the Crystal Cathedral. Now, owned and operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, and is known as Christ Cathedral. It makes one question to Saddleback and other megachurches like it when the founding minister leaves, dies or is caught in a moral fault. We have already seen this with Bakker, Swaggart and Falwell among others.

This week the board of the Presbyterian Mission Agency met via tele-conference. Two notable actions were to request the General Assembly to appoint a task group to consider merging the mission and ecclesiastical functions. The second action was to engage three other entities in a discussion looking toward sharing some functions and staff. These are just two more signs that what we used to be is not what we are and not what we will be.

So it has been for thousands of congregations across the country regardless of denominational name or theological hue. Congregations with membership once numbering in the hundreds now number in the tens. Larger edifices either stand vacant or have been sold off to become antique stores or microbreweries.

Some of a more cynical nature predict the day the last Presbyterian will turn off the lights and lock the door of the last Presbyterian church. As I have written before, I grieve the loss of the denomination I was ordained into and have given the majority of my life serving.

However, and that is a big HOWEVER, I do not believe God is finished with the Reformed/Presbyterian expression of the Church. As others have written we are in a time of disorientation. I trust God is leading us toward a time of reorientation. In just a few weeks we will enter the season of Lent as we anticipate again celebrating the Resurrection. Just as the two on the road to Emmaus did not recognize post-resurrection Jesus, we probably will not recognize the reoriented Reformed/Presbyterian church of the future.