Denver’s City Presbyterian and Doctrinal Compromise
I don’t think the big issue here is really the ordination of women. I would not find the document appalling if it said, “There would be more talent in the ministry if we ordained women, so I think we ought to change the rules and allow it.” I don’t agree with that myself, but I think it’s an open question, much like that of ordaining people without seminary training. But that’s not the Denver attitude. Here’s an excerpt that illustrates it.
These younger generations of PCA leaders and laypeople are not taking issue with the theology of the PCA as much as the culture of the PCA that goes beyond restricting women from holding church office to limiting a woman’s ability to use her spiritual gifts meaningfully in any way that even appears to be usurping male leadership.
One serious consequence of this is that the vast majority of PCA churches continue to be populated almost exclusively by politically conservative Anglos. Minorities and political liberals are noticeably absent. This is unfortunate, not only because a great many non-whites and political liberals need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also because there is a growing number of evangelical Christians who are politically moderate-to-liberal and are finding it increasingly difficult to find a church where they “fit.” Though the majority of these people would consider themselves egalitarians, most of them are not particularly interested in fighting over women’s ordination so long as the gifts and calling of women are taken seriously in the church and women are given meaningful opportunities to use their spiritual gifts….
…the culture of downtown Denver is very politically and socially liberal (as are the vast majority of U.S. cities. ) An additional factor that makes Denver hostile to “conservative” religion is its close proximity to Colorado Springs, which is home to many of the leading organizations and ministries on the Religious Right such as Focus on the Family. (A bumper sticker once popular around Denver read “Focus on your own damn family!”) This creates a very polarized environment and generates an extraordinary amount of skepticism and cynicism toward any church that would adhere to orthodox, theologically conservative Christianity. In other words, the demographic of downtown Denver is not at all conducive to planting a typical PCA church….
As we began to consider what job title to give Sara (obviously she was not going to be ordained as an Assistant or Associate Pastor) we realized we had a unique opportunity to reach out to our skeptical, liberal and egalitarian community by giving Sara a job title that was an accurate reflection of her responsibilities and was culturally appropriate to our context. Thus we gave her the title “Minister of Church Life.”…
The response to Sara’s title within our congregation was overwhelmingly positive. Those who considered themselves egalitarian saw this as evidence that we were “putting our money where out mouths were” and not treating Sara as a second-class staff member, even though she obviously was not going to be ordained. Furthermore, a number of women (and men) who were sitting on the fence about committing to our church made the decision to formally join. Also, visitors who were not from evangelical backgrounds reported that Sara’s title and position reassured them we were not a “narrow minded, fundamentalist church” despite being part of a conservative denomination. (One woman who was converted recently within our church reported that Sara’s position and role eliminated a significant barrier for her to the gospel.) In other words, we have effectively disarmed the women’s issue in our church, so much so in fact that no groups within the church are even discussing it, much less fighting over it.
I see three bad ideas here.
1. The beliefs of the Church ought to reflect the beliefs of the World–or at least each congregation should reflect the beliefs of the bit of the world in its locality. It is important to make unbelievers happy by moving closer to their positions on some issues.
2. If you are ashamed of one of your doctrines, the proper thing is to pretend to adhere to it while minimizing its importance and moving it out of public view. A church could pretend not to have women in leadership by not allowing them to be “elders” while delegating to them most or all decisions.
3. Ordinary people cannot be first-class Christians– the clergy are special. This is a Roman Catholic idea. Here, it takes the form of saying that we do not want to be “limiting a woman’s ability to use her spiritual gifts meaningfully”. She couldn’t use them outside of the formal church structure, it seems. Elsewhere in the document, we see that City Presbyterian calls its ordained staff “Reverend”, which means “to be revered”. There is also a hint of the idea that even if someone is not a priest, he is in better shape if he at least. In the present context, women are elevated if some woman is a priest, as their class representative before God.
The document also has a lot of silly talk about how to succeed as a city church. I know of a number of conservative central city churches that do quite well without the compromising attitude: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Manhattan, Christ the King Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Moody Church near Lincoln Park, Chicago. and Grace Presbyterian (Glenn Hoburg) in Washington, D.C.