October 15, 2004
by Jerry L. Van Marter

CHICAGO - Presbyterians (and other Christians) are wont to say that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church.

"This is a wonderfully pious thought," the Rev. Mark Achtemeier told the Presbyterian Church (USA) Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church at its Oct. 14 meeting here. "But does it translate into anything meaningful? Does our polity (form of church government) actually bring us back to Christ's Lordship?"

In a wide-ranging discussion on the relationship between theology, polity and power in the church, task members agreed on the need, as Achtemeier put it, "to recover a vision of the church led by Christ rather than by bureaucracies and competing interest groups."

That vision, he continued, affirms that Jesus Christ rules his church through "the Word of Scripture . . . guided by the Holy Spirit. The Reformed tradition believes that the Holy Spirit leads the church in rightly hearing and obeying the voice of Christ in Scripture - we go to the author, not to local or global authorities."

Reformed theology and polity also teaches that the Spirit is best discerned by the whole community, not by individuals alone, Achtemeier continued. "Presbyterian polity sets up the church to be a listening, discerning community," he said. "The Holy Spirit is given to the whole community - standing off by ourselves, we don't have reliable access to the truth. We need our brothers and sisters to filter out personal distortions."

The Rev. Jose Luis Torres-Milan of Aguadilla, PR, agreed. "We're so concerned about our own spirit, that we lose awareness of THE Spirit," he said. "We need to get away from the polity model that sets losers and winners."

Noting that a number of groups - the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the task force itself - are moving away from parliamentary models to consensus decision-making, task force co-moderator the Rev. Gary Demarest of Pasadena, CA, said he wishes the PC(USA) would do the same.

"We run into trouble - and it's a systemic flaw - when we theologically search for the mind of Christ using Robert's Rules of Order," he said. "They simply were not designed to discern the mind of Christ. Robert's Rules are not a discerning process."

"Representing the mind of Christ is not always compatible with the commonly held perception that the PC(USA) polity model is 'representative democracy,' " said the Rev. Martha Sadongei of Phoenix.

And yet, the Rev. John Wilkinson of Rochester, NY, conceded, "When we teach polity, we too often say we're a representative democracy. It's worth parsing some more."

PC(USA) polity is NOT representative democracy, said the Rev. Jack Haberer of Houston. "The call to discernment means to test any individual claim," he said. "We need to reinforce that - elders and presbyters don't represent the congregation or presbytery - they represent Jesus Christ."

Presbyterian News Service