A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. William Campbell is the pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Moncton, N.B.
Our reformed forefathers underscored the three distinguishing marks for the presence of Christ’s Church as being the preaching of the word of God, the proper ministry of the sacraments, and church discipline. When these are present in all their biblical realities in the Presbyterian Church in Canada, it shall be renewed! In our Presbyterian Church, we are not lacking in ornate sanctuaries, well-robed choirs and clergy, and costly musical instruments. We have an abundance of material properties and a smorgasbord of how-to programs from cursillo movements to camping ministries under the sponsorship of our Congregational Life’s Committee on lay ministries and education. This article is a polemic on none of these and accommodation on most, but there is a missing ingredient, especially in the light of recent Assembly struggles over the liberty of conscience. What is that missing ingredient? It is loving, consistent, biblical discipline in the Church of Christ.
Yet a strange phenomenon has occurred in the area of discipline in our Church, namely a rigid application of Section 407.4 calling for mandatory participation in the Ordination of Women while whole areas of glaring discrepancies have been overlooked for decades.
I have been in attendance at the last three General Assemblies and have noted with dismay and disgust the time-consuming, unproductive sapping of energies that have diverted our attention from the primary tasks of the Church of Jesus Christ to an issue that no dancing of any exegetical jig could be construed as of the essence of the Gospel.
Since the Declaratory Act of 1982 I fully supported in the Presbytery of St. John an overture from St. Paul’s, Woodstock which called for rescinding of Assembly’s action to remove Section 407.4 from the Book of Forms calling for mandatory participation in the Ordination of Women as a inflexible standard of our Church. Previous to this act as a commissioner to the 108th General Assembly, I moved an amendment to the majority report of the task force on liberty of conscience that the minority report be accepted which would give the needed latitude in exercising liberty of conscience in this ambiguous area. At the 109th General Assembly where I was also a commissioner, I was appointed to a Special Assembly Committee to deal with the many overtures which call for a change in the Declaratory Acts. After some considerable deliberation under the capable leadership of Zander Dunn, it was unanimously agreed by the committee to recommend to the 109th General Assembly that no action be taken to rescind or in any way change this new law of the Church. I supported this recommendation as a commissioner and spoke in support of it on the floor of Assembly.
The following are my reasons for doing so:
(1) This will bring to a close this time-consuming debate which is not centered on the essence of the Gospel.
(2) It would place us, as a Church, in a position of really testing Presbyteries’ pastoral concern and also Presbyteries’ consistency in maintaining a ministry of the Gospel in “good standing.”
(3) It will show congregations that two or three years of numerous overtures have produced opinions and perspectives but have changed nothing with regard to rescinding, abrogating, etc., the law of the Church in this respect, and since there will be no satisfaction with all who consider the action of the 1981 and 1982 Declaratory Acts by the respective Assemblies to be Ultra Vires until Section 407.4 is reversed, this will absolutely indicate to them this will not happen.
(4) Indigenous evangelicalism and pietism have produced a “silent majority” amongst those who denounce separation of belief and action vehemently in principle but practise it in the Courts of the Church!
Choices:
What are our choices in the light of all this as people who believe that Jesus Christ rules His Church by His word and spirit? We have three options.
(1) Leave the Church and seek a more compatible denomination.
(2) Stay in and obey the Church – calling not only for disciplinary action on behalf of Presbyteries in this inflexible new standard of our Church but also pushing for consistency in discipline at all levels – discipline for the minister and/or elder who lives in adultery, for the practising homosexual, or a man who is not able to rule his house well but who is admitted into Presbyteries in good standing because he goes along with one narrow point of law but flaunts many other areas of clear discipline based on our standards and subscription. And we must maintain the standard not only of 407.4 which has recently been introduced but the inflexible standards of God’s Holy Law in terms of church discipline for people on our Church Rolls who give no evidence at all of saving life in Christ but who clearly fall under “neglect of ordinances.”
(3) Remain in the Church and be disobedient to the terms of 407.4 as long as this is permissible or possible, such as Calvin, and others did.
Our call is to rise up to new obedience to our Lord, right across the whole of church life.
If we choose to remain with the fellowship of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, then let us take seriously the pluralistic nature of our Church which at present restricts the definition of a “minister in good standing” to mandatory participation in the Ordination of Women but has allowed divorcees, adulterers, and active homosexuals to remain as ministers of the Gospel in good standing. If we are now to uphold this new law of the Church where there has been ambiguity and duality of interpretation – then let us hold to the old law of Almighty God where there is no ambiguity and where there cannot be a Church referendum!
So what is our call as Christians? Our call, of course, is to recognize the authority which the Lord has entrusted to His Church which is clear from the scriptures. Our call is to avoid high and exalted views of the role of the church that may usurp the role of Christ who rules his Church by His Word and Spirit. Declaratory Acts of a Church in terms of judgement and discipline are to be ratified by the King and Head of the Church Himself who has conferred upon the Church His kingly authority by entrusting to us the keys of that kingdom. This is why being a member of the Church of Christ is such a solemn business. Woe-betide the Church that, as an ecclesiastical tyrant, fails to exercise its divinely given authority with the care and consistency under the lordship of the head of the Church. You see, our great call is to be subject to the head of the Church. It is only a Church that is subject to Christ which is really in the position to exercise godly discipline. Look at Luther; he sounded out against the errors of Rome and a decree of excommunication is sent to Wittenberg, and this rebellious monk is cast out. What did Luther do? Did he submit to the Church? No, he said this is not godly discipline from a church that is subject to Christ, and when the Papal Bull came, he had a bonfire and burned the decree publicly in 1529 and that was Luther’s response because if a Church is to exercise godly discipline, that Church itself must be subject to the Lord of the Church, the Word of Jesus Christ. May we have such authority amongst us in the Presbyterian Church in Canada that does not reduce church discipline to Section 407.4 of the Book of Forms but rather is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and not quenching and grieving that Spirit but so directed by Him, that God works in us and through us, that we together with the great head of the Church may do what He wills, may see an increasingly purified visible Church in Canada. The clear absence of spiritual prosperity in our Church in Canada at the present time cannot be attributed to the condition of society without, but only to our sins within. Our call is to rise up to new obedience to our Lord, right across the whole of church life.