Question about the PUSA

[Macrina]

PS: I should add that yes, there is the possibility that one day the official stands and such will change to such a point that I feel I must leave. I hope and pray that day does not come, however, and I will fight to see that it doesn't.

Also, I used the homosexuality thing as an example because it is the thing we get criticized for most often, in my experience. But there are other issues, and I would argue that although homosexuality is the most pervasive, it is not perhaps the most crucial one. Anyway, just wanted to say that so we don't derail this thread into a homosexuality debate.

 

[~Heavens_Bride~]

Macrina,

My post was not an attack at you AT ALL! Im am sorry if I cam across that way. I am just so frustrated KWIM? Instead of helping brothers and sisters repent and be free, many within the church are only encouraging the behavior and IMO that is not love..KWIM?

I apologize for turnign a simple 'question thread' into a 'what they do wrong thread'...I should have left this alone.

I have a homosexual friend who is attending a United Methodist church and being embraced and excepted FOR her sin, instead of being lead to repentance and freedome from it. And it hurts me, because she does not see what she is doing as sin, and because her church encourages her...my words are thought as 'judgemental' etc..

This view is growing within the church, and it freaks me out.

 

[Macrina]

Macrina,

My post was not an attack at you AT ALL! Im am sorry if I cam across that way. I am just so frustrated KWIM? Instead of helping brothers and sisters repent and be free, many within the church are only encouraging the behavior and IMO that is not love..KWIM?

I apologize for turnign a simple 'question thread' into a 'what they do wrong thread'...I should have left this alone.

I have a homosexual friend who is attending a United Methodist church and being embraced and excepted FOR her sin, instead of being lead to repentance and freedome from it. And it hurts me, because she does not see what she is doing as sin, and because her church encourages her...my words are thought as 'judgemental' etc..

This view is growing within the church, and it freaks me out.

I know. It really troubles me, too. It is so hard. I feel like I am constantly defending myself on both sides, and I'm sorry if I got too defensive here. It's just that the evangelical Christians with whom I have the most in common, theologically speaking, tend to judge me for my denomination... and within my denomination, I'm kind of a "fundamentalist," and I'm always facing opposition for my conservative (I would say "orthodox") beliefs. Some days it weighs very heavily on me...

 

[Elderone]

I'm kind of a "fundamentalist," and I'm always facing opposition for my conservative (I would say "orthodox") beliefs. Some days it weighs very heavily on me...

Keep up the fight. My father was a ruling elder in the United Presbyterian church, which then became the PCUSA. He fought the liberals for 25 years but it wore him down and had to leave because of the strain, being in his mid sixties.

If you decide it best to leave check the PCA as "most" of their congregations are conservative, but this denomination is starting to go a bit liberal in some places, providing there isn't a reformed Presbyterian congregation reasonably close.

 

[Macrina]

Keep up the fight. My father was a ruling elder in the United Presbyterian church, which then became the PCUSA. He fought the liberals for 25 years but it wore him down and had to leave because of the strain, being in his mid sixties.

If you decide it best to leave check the PCA as "most" of their congregations are conservative, but this denomination is starting to go a bit liberal in some places, providing there isn't a reformed Presbyterian congregation reasonably close.

Thank you for the encouragement.

I, um, might get myself in trouble for saying this, but I am a pastor. (This is not a women-in-ministry thread, so I will simply say that I carefully tested my call against scriptures and firmly believe that what I am doing is biblical.) So I can't go to the PCA and still do what God has called me to do. There was a time when I was very disheartened over this, as some of my male colleagues in seminary switched over, but I could not. In the end, though, I still feel led to minister within and TO this denomination. I have some "liberal" credentials, so I can be heard by some of the folks who are on the fence... and then I can explain to them how I came by my conservative convictions.

Seriously, if it wasn't for my ordination, I would fit in much better in the PCA than with the PC(USA). But one is not always called to the comfortable places, is one?