There have been ongoing conversations about evangelical congregations leaving the PC(USA) denomination for some time. Now, with the decisions of the committees on marriage and ordination standards voting to remove language that would allow for same sex marriage and for the ordination of homosexuals, more evangelical churches are apt to entertain this option.
As an evangelical, I urge you to reconsider. Now is the time to lead, not leave the PC(USA).
When things get difficult and hard, we don't leave and abdicate our role in the life of the church. What is needed is for Godly leaders to lead. We do not abandon our church nor our family. Particularly when things get difficult, leaders lead.
If we believe that God is the one who has called us into our church, if we believe that this is God's church, it is not our's to choose whether we leave or stay. God calls us to lead to the best of our ability right where we are - no matter what the circumstances may be.
More than ever, what is needed is leadership and the engagement of evangelical presbyterians to voice our opinions and make our votes count.
What is at stake is for God to use evangelicals to engage in the dialogue with the rest of the church to shape and transform our denomination. No one wants to continue fighting over the sexuality debates as we have been engaging in it for the past decades.
In the post-denominational, post-modern world we find ourselves in, we need for all of us in the PC(USA) - evangelicals, progressives, and everyone in between - to engage in conversations about what it means to be a connectional church. Although no one knows what the future church might look like, I do know that the future church will be different than the current PC(USA). And if we leave, we will have no voice in shaping God's church.
Friends, more than ever, what is needed is active engagement and participation, not departure.
Now it the time to lead, not leave.
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