Our Conviction
From Gerrit Dawson: The conviction has arisen among us that we want a church where essential tenets are not only named but joyfully articulated, embraced, taught and celebrated. The winsomeness and power of our gospel is directly related to the clarity of our confession. Only on the basis of shared essentials can the church move forward in trust and effectiveness. That’s the first principle of the Wineskins.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:28 pm
It is amazing the amount of liberty present when we adopt submission to God, and the essentials of the faith. Then and only then can we experience the great truth: It is for freedom that Jesus Christ set us free. I look forward to the day in which the New Wineskin is unbound.
February 27th, 2007 at 12:59 am
In my prepuberty days I was a Southern Baptist, then I spent 4 1/2 years in a PCUS Orphanage in which I accepted Christ as my personal Savior, was Baptized and became a Member. When I moved to California there were no PCUS churches so I joined UPCUSA. In 1963 I was on the organizing committee to establish a new Presbyterian church in my local community. The first interested people met at my home. I was ordained an Elder at Pentecost 1964 when the church was organized. I have served about 14 years of terms on Session. After the Confession of 1976, I realized that something was going wrong in the PCUSA. Since that time I have watched the PCUSA member slowly bleed away and have lost my enthusiam for the PCUSA. I began looking for an out. I am a dyed-in the-wool conservative Presbyterian. Several years ago, I discoved that the faith and beliefs of the EPC matched mine. I contacted the Stated Clerk of the EPC who kindly answered my inquiry of what to do and where to go. I received an e-mail from the Director of New Church Development who asked if I would like to establish AN EPC church.(#1, see #2)
February 27th, 2007 at 1:40 am
(#2, #1 continued. I am never terse!) Now to the point. What is the NWAC position with respect to Calvin’s principles as follows; 1. Total Depravity, 2. Unconditional Election, 3. Limited Atonement, 4. Irresistible Grace, and 5. Perseverance of the Saints. I also would like similar information concerning the Holy Scriptures, Marriage, the Divinity of Christ, and Sexual Immorality. Essentially, I am looking for your equivalents to The Book of Confessions, The Book of Worship, and the Book of Order. I was on a West Coast organizing sub-committee for the Presbyterian Lay Committee. I am a very early individual member of the Confessing Church Movement. I plan to be at your Fall Meeting. And finally, can an individual join the new boundless Presbytery? Thanks for “listening.” Ray Harper, Chatsworth CA. Phone: 818-341-2099
February 28th, 2007 at 9:38 am
Rabun,
Do TULIPs grow in the NWAC garden? Not by name. I suggest you check under “Resources” and click the “Papers” tab on this NWAC website. Read the Essential Tenets and Ethical Imperatives and you should see some evidence of TULIP sprouts, as well as rudimentary responses to many of your other listed concerns.
Note also, the “White Paper” on “Confessions.” The NWAC finds value in the majority of the Confessions presently contained in the BOC, only the Confession of 1967 and A Brief Statement of Faith are jettisoned.
As to your question on individuals joining the transitional, non-geographic presbytery when it becomes available, someone on the NWAC Leadership Team may be able to shed better insight on that issue. So, take all that follows with a grain of salt.
As a member of the Committee on the NWAC Constitution (also available under the “Papers” tab), it appears to me that an individual would ordinarily be linked to the non-geographic, transitional presbytery (as is the current case in the PCUSA) through membership in his or her local church. Congregations are members of presbytery, not individual laymen and laywomen.
I suspect that the workings of this transitional Presbytery are still on-the-drawing-board. It is to be governed by the NWAC Constitution which does not use traditional Presbyterian nomenclature. Two separate entities are charged with the rights and responsibilities that accrue to presbytery in a more traditional Presbyterian system of governance: The Ministry Network and The Support Network. At The Ministry Network level, it might be possible for an individual who does not belong to a New Wineskins endorsing congregation to interface with one or more of the Equipping and Fellowship Groups organized by the Network. Still, in terms of actual membership, congregations belong to The Ministry Network, not individuals.
The National Network will, after June 23, 2007, have two categories of congregational membership: (1) NWAC/EPC congregations, that is local churches which request and are received into membership in the non-geographic, transitional presbytery, and (2) NWI congregations that endorse the NWAC while remaining in the PCUSA. Both categories will be eligible to send delegates to the delegated assembly of the NWAC, but only NWAC/EPC congregations would send commissioners to a meeting of the presbytery. I assume that meetings of the presbytery will be limited to undertaking EPC specific business, such as voting on amendments to the EPC constitution.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Great posts, especially this one – thank you!