Reboot?

Read this: http://www.reyes-chow.com/2011/03/the-big-sorting-of-the-presbtyerian-church.html

Reading the above post, I was moved. At first.

Reboot. Yeah, that's what we need to do. Rethink what it means to be evangelical, Reformed, Presbyterian, church, Christian, governing body, etc. etc. Makes me think of Jeremiah. Tear down, pluck up, build and plant. A powerful thought.

And then I started sifting through a little of what that would mean. If we were to reboot the denomination, what would need to go? Do we tell those with historical leanings to ignore the documents, rulings, and creeds of years past? Do we ask the members of older congregations to forget the messages of their pastors, elders, musicians and Sunday School teachers that formed them? Do we rework the social fabric of the small towns of the United States--many of which were built on the idea that to be hospitable you should support a handful of churches from a handful of denominations?

I think a reboot is impossible.

When I consider the operating software of the PC(USA)--and here's where my computer-geek co-authors roll their eyes at me--I don't believe that our groups and alignments and overly-discussed problems are anything more than desktop icons. The stuff that is locking up the system is written much deeper in who we are. We are a church in the United States, with all the cultural baggage that brings. We are a church in the twenty-first century, with all the historical baggage that brings. A reboot doesn't remove those identities.

I think humbly admitting that we don't get to dictate how the Spirit is building the Church is where we begin. The Spirit is moving in Africa and Asia in ways that it is not in Europe and North America. We in the PC(USA) are not the reason the churches of Europe and North America are shrinking. We are a symptom. I believe we can only see ourselves differently than deathly ill is to become witnesses to the places in our communion where the Spirit is moving: Large churches that listen to their young people instead of doing things the way they've always done them. Small churches that pool their resources instead of dwelling in isolation. New people called by God to teach and proclaim even when I don't agree 100% with their theology or praxis.

What we seem able to agree upon in this church is that there are changes to be made to make us better witnesses. I'm all for that: Partial reboots. Breaking out of our like-minded groups. Staying in our like-minded groups but being open to hearing from time to time (rather than simply criticizing) what the other like-minded groups are witnessing. All these are necessary; the Spirit's reforming work is still ongoing in all of us and in our structures. But I'm not going to go to the Sessions of the churches I serve and propose that we remake the system. Such a proposal seems only to be cleanup of a cluttered desktop.