Deutero Q

As I watch the shenanigans being played by our denominational bureaucrats (I purposely do not refer to them as “spiritual shepherds”), I am becoming increasingly convinced that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is a dying institution. The signs are everywhere. For example, the PC (USA) continues to decline by tens of thousands of members every year; sadly, such has been the case for decades.

In the 1960s, mainline churches (i.e., theologically moderate to liberal denominational bodies made up of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Congregationalists, and others) accounted for about 40 percent of all American Protestants. Today the number is closer to 12 percent.

Further evidence of the final gasps of a dying entity can be seen in the draconian measures our leaders are employing to stop churches from exiting the denomination.

We mainliners (more appropriately, “sideliners”) embrace a governing structure that is locked in a 1950s time warp. I think here of American car manufacturers with their overpaid executives, plethora of middle level managers, and outdated manufacturing structures. The parallels to mainline/sideline Protestantism are striking.

Just like many corporate officials, 21st-century denominational bureaucrats are out of touch with their constituents and the times in which we live. Unwilling to respond to their “market audience” (grassroots Presbyterians), mainline institutionalists are also unwilling to exchange outdated “business” practices for more streamlined and effective ones.

Our rulebook, The Book of Order, grows more and more bloated and is cited and discussed ad nauseum at our presbytery "business" meetings, while Scripture is largely ignored. Pressing issues such as evangelism, church growth, moral and spiritual revival, etc., are rarely if ever addressed.

While conservative, Bible-believing churches continue to grow, the membership of mainline Protestantism continues to shrink. Amazingly, the number of ministers—at least in the liberal Presbyterian Church (USA)—is increasing!

Unless the Lord intervenes from on high, I fear that mainline Protestantism will continue to wither away … or sink deeper into the sea of irrelevancy … or go the way of dinosaurs … or, well, you pick your metaphor!

The words of Jesus are certainly instructive in this whole matter: “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2).

May the Lord have mercy upon us.