So What Exactly Is A Presbyterian? (part 1)

We've been at our new church for 4 months now and I know a little more about them.


- I know they pour themselves into the community through several different ministries to those who need a hand.

- I know they are very educated. (Most of the adult classes are taught by people with a PhD)

- I know they like coffee.

- I know they have a lot of meetings to decide things, even the little things.

- I know they appreciate traditional chamber music and the organ.

But over the last three weeks, Michael and I have been sitting in a Sunday School class where the pastor is explaining the history and perspectives of the Presbyterian denomination. It's been very interesting. (I missed week two because the kids were sick, but Michael filled me in.) Pastor Charlie gave us the historical view, which emphasized John Calvin and education, the scripture view, which emphasized God's mercy, and the organization of the denomination.

So to all my friends who think it's funny that I don't know what my new church is all about.....Jamie...ahem....now I know!

Here are a few things we've learned over the past couple of weeks:

1- There are 3 basic forms of church organization. The first is centralized and gives the decision-making power to one person, like a bishop, who determines how the services within the denomination will run. The second leaves all of the decision making to each local church. In this case, the pastor of each church directs the activities and services as he sees fit. The third form is a little bit of both. A group of people, who are elected, make the decisions and oversee the church. This is the way of the Presbyterians.
In our church, the members elect a group of people who make nearly all of the decisions. If I wanted to teach a certain Bible study, this group of people would have to approve it. When we want to make make major changes to the room we are using for our service, this group will have to approve it. The group is called the Session. The Session then elects people to represent our church among all of the area churches in our district, or presbytery. Our pastor is responsible to this second group, from all the churches. Not to us directly.
All of this provides an interesting system of checks and balances. It keeps things in order. However, much like the US government, it slows things down. And that is both good and bad. Slowing down keeps the church from jumping on every new idea that comes to town, but it can also be incredibly tedious. Oh yes. I have been to some committee meetings. I know.

2- Mercy. The scripture view class included a lot of big words, like predestination and supralapsarianism. However, there seemed to be an over arching theme of mercy. Since Michael was in class for this lesson, I'll ask him to break it down and we'll put his words in italics.

Basically, the idea is that we don't receive what we deserve. No one deserves the love of Christ, but for some reason Christ offers it to us. We deserve so much worse but Christ offers us salvation and a deep relationship with him. Why? Because it is the nature of God. It is one of the greatest measures of love. Why do we still love our children even when they drive us crazy and purposefully go the wrong way. Because it is in our nature. What seems to set Presbyterians apart is the supreme emphasis that is placed on this aspect of God's love. There is even a set apart time in the service where we confess that we are sinners and we confess to God our sin and then celebrate the fact that He has forgiven us!! I kind of like that! It's a reminder of the deep and wide reaching love of God that penetrates the darkest parts of our hearts.


Tomorrow I'll post the last major thing that I took from the class. It was something simple, but very eye-opening for me and I want to devote a bit of time to it.