Being Presbyterian

The title of this blog pretty clearly sets out my perspective on communicating what the PCC is all about: the most important story about The Presbyterian Church in Canada is the illustration of what it is to BE Presbyterian in Canada today.

I came across a blog post written last year by Bruce Reyes-Chow, who is now the Moderator of the PC(USA). In it he outlines what he sees as the obstacles that are killing the Church. He does this by pushing several issues through the dichotomy of the modern and post-modern worldviews. One in particular seemed particularly relevant to the BeingPresbyterian readership:

OBSTACLE // We value the DOing of the institution over BEing in relationship:
Modernity says that community is in the methodology and ways we DO church; Postmodernity says that community is about BEing church.

We Presbyterians are gooooooood at this one.  Our Book of Order is "clear" and we can use polity to create community.  We can structure our way into being the body of Christ. Buzzzz.  Thank you for playing.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I love our polity, the spirit in which it was and is written, the guidance it gives, the bounds it helps to set, etc. but it will NOT create community.  The ways we DO church should only be lifted up in as much as the DOing helps to sustain the BEing. 

At the same time, if a church community believes that it’s ministry is worth outliving the people who are there at a particular moment and time, some kind of structure and DOing church must take place in order to create sustainability.  In the end though, every time we face a choice, we should be about BEing church.

Until today I had considered doing and being to be interchangeable. Bruce has successfully challenged that part of my thinking, and I thank him for that.