I would like to begin a series of regular reflections that arise out of my yearning for unity and purity in the church. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in crisis.

We have been in crisis for quite some time, though our Assembly’s recent decision to no longer require our officers to live according to biblical standards has given us a fresh sense of how deep in it we are. Our further accommodation to secular American culture has left many thinking we’ve gone off a cliff, others feeling like we’re finally moving in the right direction, yet others resting in bliss because the social dynamics made it seem like a “centrist” decision, and still others trying to pick up the pieces and put things back together, especially in the congregations they are called to shepherd. Some voices are shrill. Some are too staid. I hope to be neither.

One of the things that has most frustrated me about our Presbyterian debates is just how theologically malnourished our discussions can be. Scoring rhetorical points through clever sound bytes often seems to be worth more than thinking something through carefully, theologically, biblically – and this goes for the right as well as the left.

So I’d like to begin a discussion. If you’re planning to leave the PC(USA), I might ask you to think twice. If you’ve never thought of leaving the PC(USA), I might ask you to think twice, too. Ultimately, I don’t see it as my job to make people want to stay or leave. That’s a tertiary question for me. My hope is that we can come closer to being able to make faithful decisions, whichever direction that takes you. (Alert: calling someone “schismatic” in our context is an unhelpful sound byte that does not encourage deep thinking. And the same goes for dismissing someone as being of “another faith” or embracing “unity at all costs.” We have some of these folks on either side. But they are relatively few.)

My first few posts on the topic will explore dominant themes in Ephesians, especially chapter 4, dealing with unity and purity. After that, I plan to read two books on church unity side by side: one by Martyn Lloyd-Jones (the great modern Puritan preacher) and another by Pope Benedict XVI. That should be interesting.

But first to Ephesians, and there are only two brief points for today, precursors to what’s to come. They are in the doxology at the end of Ephesians 3 that takes us into the great discussion of the unity and purity of the church in chapter 4. Paul says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen!” (3:20-21).

Point 1: God can do more than we ask or imagine. Ask God to grant unity and purity to our Christian community. Some may think we’re getting closer.  Others may not be able to imagine our recovering it. God can do more. Kneel and ask him.

Point 2: We exist for God’s glory. We don’t exist to be right or wrong, to be Presbyterians, centrists, feel liberated, get the upper hand or whatever. The attention ought not be on us, but on God. We exist to be Christ’s witnesses and to make our Triune God famous, not ourselves. Again, as Calvinists more than anyone else should remember, we exist for God’s glory, and it is to that end that the unity and purity of the church matter. It’s not for us. It’s for him.

More tomorrow.