Planting Trees

Dear Friends,

It’s been ten days since I returned from serving as a commissioner to this year’s General Assembly. The experience made me all the more grateful for the Presbyterian Global Fellowship.

The division within the PCUSA is deep and profound. We are two churches. My cynical side says we are only held together by Roberts Rules of Order. I pray God has more in mind for us than a unity built on that. There are natural longings for quick political fixes that would relieve our anger and anxiety. Some are already working on a mix of immediate responses as well as amendments to the next General Assembly and I pray these will provide some relief but these will provide only temporary relief. These may make us better but they won’t make us well.

Those of us who have been deeply involved in the development of PGF over the past 2 ½ years regularly struggle with the tension and pressure to pursue approaches that may make us better but that we believe in the long run won’t make us well. I am more and more convinced that wellness will come only through a fundamental retooling of our local ministries. We need to begin raising a new community of leaders that over the next several generations will reclaim the heart of the Presbyterian Church. This is a hard sell when the issues are so immediate and urgent. But unless someone addresses the fundamental need for long-term transformation all of these short term efforts will only exhaust our resources while leaving us in the wilderness.

Even if the General Assembly was perfect and had made a series of flawlessly faithful decisions in San Jose, back here in Houston, Texas where I serve, I would still struggle every day with how to do ministry in the fundamentally new world of the 21st Century. The way I have be “doing church” for the past 36 years just doesn’t work very well anymore. And this is where the vision and work of PGF becomes so urgent. While some in the church are doing the necessary work of trying to make us better, PGF is devoting itself to the longer term work of making us well through the transformation of our local and regional ministries. PGF has initiated a revolution in my thinking and within the church where I serve, it is proving to be contagious.

PGF may not make us immediately better, but it holds the hope of making us well. I may not live to taste this fruit but I am committed to planting the trees.

Dave Peterson
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
Houston, Texas

Comments

[Matt Ferguson]

Dave,
You write, "While some in the church are doing the necessary work of trying to make us better, PGF is devoting itself to the longer term work of making us well through the transformation of our local and regional ministries."
Long term needs are important and need addressing. I don't think anyone will argue the point. In the above statement you seem to agree there needs to be work done to address the immediate situation as well.
Will PGF not help to address the immediate, even if your focus is long term needs? Must it be either / or? Can it not be both with a focus on the one?

[Steve McVie]

Speaking of holding the line on sexual purity, didn't you once work with Tom Tewell?

http://greenwich-gossip.blogspot.com/2008/06/tom-tewell-lands-on-his-feet.html

http://greenwich-gossip.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-thoughts-on-tom-tewell.html

Long story short: Tewell plead guilty to an adultery charge (which had resulted in his church and presbytery facing a very public lawsuit) and was only censured by his presbytery. While still under the terms of that censure, he got a $275,000/yr job with the Atlanta Presbytery, who explicitly write about working around the restrictions Tewell faces for his actions.

Fortunately for Tewell, he ain't gay.

[Milton Crow]

There does seem to be a double standard where sexual immorality is concerned. Many Houston Presbyterians see what the PGF describes as a "crisis" as being the PCUSA finally stepping up to address what sexual purity really means.

Society at large is growing up, and it isn't going to have room for any religion that embraces bigotry and hypocrisy. We need to accept people as God made them, and hold everyone to the same standards of fidelity and monogamy that Jesus expects—even charismatic, crowd-pleasing heterosexual pastors.

Back on the subject of real crisis, we had our own version of the Tewell scandal right here in Houston, only the church involved payed a lot of severance money up-front to keep the incident quiet and distance itself from liability.

How can we be taken seriously as a denomination when we allow ministers like Tewell and Vanderbloemen to continue preaching, while we reject homosexual ministers who live in faithful, life-long monogamous relationships?

[Jim Jarman]

Dave Peterson said the division in the PCUSA "is deep and profound."
He is correct and it has been since the Northern and Southern Presbyterian Churches joined in the late 60's. Since then a faction from the then Northern Church started a takeover of the GA while the dissenting members sat quiet and essentially let them do so.
Since then the drift toward satisfying the demands of "modern society' and emphasis on the secular while downplaying the message of Jesus has slowly but inexorably grown. It has long since reached a schism in the church. The GA will continue to go in this direction unless those opposed either replace the present composition of the GA or take immediate steps to break away from the PCUSA. Each church can become independent or join a current independent Presbyterian Church.
My personal opinion is the GA will continue to try and keep those in disagreement on the string with promises and guilt. They will never voluntarily change their recent actions. After all, the current GA can't lose: If enough dissenting Churches leave their domination of the GA will increase, and if they don't the dissenters will be so worn out by the dissent they surrender.

Any current PCUSA Presbyterian Churches that fail to disengage from the PCUSA will continue to be dominated by the push to change the Church to a Unitarian look-alike with Christ relegated to a kind, wise Rabbi.

It is time for drastic action. Hire the lawyers, collect a slush fund and take your individual Churches to Independence or another Prebyterian organization.

It's Martin Luther time, nail the thesis on the Church door.

[Jill]

Again, Steve...I'm late into joining this thread, but Steve, please read my comments to you following Vic's first open letter.

Seriously, you want to keep driving this same theme of slinging mud of judgement by way of attacking Vic and Dave for judging? Please help me understand this double bind into which you have fallen?

Are we all to now go about digging into the "sin" and dirt of all the pulpits on both sides to use as judgment against the other? Help me understand?

And how does Tom and Vanderbloemen's cases become even close to relevant to the GA mishap in San Jose?

I have tried to find any quote or report about Tom approaching his new employer in Atlanta saying, "I am here to proudly announce that I am an adulterer and have a deep conviction that God made me that way. Therefore, as part of my duties, I fully intend to engage fully in the practices of marital infidelity for the building up of the kingdom." Please put that link on here when you find it.

Thus, as a moderate who happens to be on the "left" side (I guess) of the "divide" as you all put it since I am a member of a one of those "progressively" liberal congregation, I am outrageously embarrassed by your tone. Linking to a "gossip" blog to throw mud only models the kind of judgement I imagine you are trying to allegedly expose, unfortunately in turn only discrediting your own integrity.

This "dialogue" between two differing views is vital and helpful as we all struggle for scriptural integrity in the life we al lead. However, when posts like yours turn this healthy dialogue into "in-fighting", we are weaker from having participated, thus I must go to bed and renew my energy.

Nonetheless, to the rest of us, let us continue in a healthy stream of dialogue as together we struggle for scriptural integrity for the betterment of the missional call of the church.

[Jim Jarman]

The message from Jill above verifies what I said about those who agree with the GA recent decisions. That is, she is pleading for "a healthy stream of dialogue for the betterment[of the missional call] of the Church.

Translated, this "dialogue" means agree with us because we are not retreating from the radical changes the GA made. Their intent is to wear down the dissenters. If those of us who are dissenters do not take action we will have only ourselves to blame.

[Steve McVie]

Jill, here is Tewell saying "I am here to proudly announce that I am an adulterer..." The blogger is writing about Tewell's stint as a guest speaker at his church:

http://greenwich-gossip.blogspot.com/2007/10/of-shoes-and-ships-and-sealing-wax.html

"The low point was an anecdote that he no doubt thought was hilariously funny. He claimed to have been in an important meeting one day when his church administrator called him on the phone and said it was extremely urgent that he meet with Tewell right away. All protestations were brushed aside; clearly the world would end if Tewell did not leave his meeting forthwith and come to the administrator's office.

When Tewell entered the office, the administrator closed the door and told him to take a seat. What was so important, Tewell asked, that he had to leave his meeting with such urgency? The administrator replied, "It's about the 'A' word."

Well, dear reader, you could have heard a pin drop on the floor of First Prebyterian Church. But Tewell was merely playing with us; it turned out that the administrator had discovered asbestos in the building. When it became clear that adultery was not going to be mentioned, nervous titters of relief broke out. And Tewell forged ahead as though adultery were the last thing on his mind."

Jill, is that "repentence"? No, it isn't. He joked about it. Tewell now works in Pentz's presbytery (and Vanderbloemen was in Peterson's), why not ask our Leaders about questionable behavior closer to home? Your argument basically leads to a claim that adultery is less offensive than homosexuality because the adulterer at least has the class to lie about it. An honest gay man is an unrepentant one, after all. Covering up sins isn't a sign of repentence; it simply shows a fear of getting caught.

This article has a link to an pro-'purity' petition signed by Pentz, Peterson, and Vanderbloemen (among others):

http://exchristian.net/2/2008/06/another-texas-mega-church-pastor-with.html

Shouldn't pastors who sign things like this be held to the same high standard? The objection to the GA's actions is an assertion of the right to judge the pastors of other churches (nobody is going to force Peterson to hire a gay associate) - can't we judge the judges or is that an unfair attack on them?

[Steve McVie]

If you prefer an article about Tewell's new job from a site that doesn't say "gossip" or "exchristian":

http://www.layman.org/layman/news/2008-news/suspended-pastor-gets.htm

[Jill Ahrens]

Steve, again, I plead with you to take your dissenting in a positive direction for change rather than choose to judge and sling mud. You clearly have not done your due diligence on the research on each of the two cases in Houston and Atlanta. Until you do, please don't post anger-laden gossip. Have you ever heard of the psychological term "confirmation bias"? It means that one finds exactly what one is looking for. This keeps one from living by truth but rather according to the truth one chooses to believe.

Vanderbloemen was removed by the church's elder leadership and the terms of his severance were put in place solely for protection and care of his wife and four children. Tewell is not paid by the presbytery as most people in Atlanta know full well. He is being funded by one private donor.

As a community political activist myself, I validate and encourage those who stand up for justice. But please do so in the spirit of building the Kingdom offering credible and helpful creative solutions that serve the benefit of all who read this dialogue.

False judgement to support one's own mis-guided beliefs only hinder our movement forward as a church.

[Steve McVie]

Vanderbloemen was removed by the church's elder leadership and the terms of his severance were put in place solely for protection and care of his wife and four children.

And you know this exactly how?

[Steve McVie]

Tewell took a job with the Presbytery, no matter who is funding him. The Atlanta Presbytery gave him a position even if someone else is paying the bills.

[Caroline Link]

Tom Tewell countersued the plaintiff in a lawsuit in which he was a defendant that was filed in 2007, in the summer of 2008. The church appealed the judge's decision in 2008 after the judge did not dismiss the case against them and a decison is due on that January 2009. The judge dismissed that case against the NYC Presbytery, but not against Tom and the church. This is the information extracted from the NY State court website.

But a suit filed in 2005 against Tom, the church and the NYC Presbytery was settled to the tune of $50,000 according to the NY state court website. Since the documents originally asked for $5 million, $50,000 is either a lot or a little or somewhere in between, depending on how you look at it.

[Steve McVie]

The Presbytery censure document said Tewell plead guilty to "verbal and physical contact of a sexual nature" with a married member of the congregation.

[Caroline Link]

"Verbal and physical contact..." it takes 2 to tango, or touch! Why didn't it say "verbal and physical sexual contact..." but no...it has the word "nature" which is someone's interpretation. And this is what people are quoting as proof of something. And it doesn't say who was doing the outreach...either...the word "contact" is less precise the more you look at it...so what have you got? Suppose the initiator were the other person?

[Caroline Link]

And it's no secret...and was covered by the NY Post that after the wife of the man who sued Tom, the church and the Presbytery, sued Tom, the church and the Presbytery, Tom brought a countersuit. And how did that work out? Well after that, you didn't read about anyone getting any money, did you, in that same newspaper? And somehow I think that would have made the papers.