Pivot, the RPCNA and churches in general

I spent the weekend finishing Pivot by Laura Barringer and Scot McKnight. It is a follow-up to a book they wrote, A Church Called Tov. 

The central theme of the two books is what it means to be a Tov (good) church. Laura was a member of Willow Creek through the abuse scandal and recovery. Scot is a former pastor and seminary professor.

Pivot is an encouragement and manual for the process of changing toxic churches into good churches. I won't go too much into depth on their process, but I will call out some highlights:

1. Changing a toxic church culture is slow and painful

Toxic church cultures were not created in a year, and they will certainly not take a year to fix. I think this is especially pertinent for the RPs out there reading this. Church leadership loves to declare victory. I remember a bitter dispute between two churches. The two churches fired letters back and forth condemning each other and this dispute ended up rising to the presbytery level. The presbytery listened to the dispute and issued a judgment and an edict. The judgment said that one church was right and the other was wrong, but then the edict: reconcile! The presbytery probably clapped its proverbial hands in joy that the matter was dealt with. Yeah, not even close.

We see this with Immanuel and the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery. Synod came in, issued decisions and convicted wayward leaders. They even appointed a reconciliation committee! Yet, the toxicity of the GLG is not going to be solved with some wrist-slapping and congregational meetings urging members to, once again, blindly trust their God-ordained ministers and elders.

Instead, Pivot says, pick ONE issue, spend a year to get understanding and seek the root of this issue in prayer and then expect that it will take three years to see any effect of hard, prayerful work, and perhaps seven years to resolve the issue. It took seven years to change a church from a seeker-centered, no commitment gospel to one where people committed to a process of spiritual transformation, and it was not without controversy and pain. Changing a toxic church like the RPCNA would take many seven-years' work, and it doesn't just happen from some Synod edict to reconcile.

2. Change must come from the top

This one stuck out to me. After years thinking that living a life of submission and service would somehow effect change within the church, I was proven wrong over and over again. When I reached the breaking point, I realized I had a choice - stagnate or leave. Staying RP meant that I would have to suppress my gifts because they were not welcome. Only cheerleaders with gifts are welcome in the RPCNA. If your predisposition is to point out some weeds in the theological yard and grab a shovel to rip them out, the RP church will happily emotionally abuse you to the point of exhaustion, and then blame you for pointing out the weeds.

3. If you are stuck in a church and not at the top, create a small tov community

I think this is very pertinent advice to RPs who recognize the abuse, yet for cultural, family or religious convictions can't walk away. Instead of focusing your efforts on trying to change the entire system (hint: you can't), find a group of like-minded friends and create a community within a community. Even if the larger church is spiritually abusive, your community can provide the support and fellowship needed and be a place of spiritual safety.

4. [As an emphasis on 1], don't accept quick fixes to restoration

I found this paragraph to be very powerful in light of scandals today:

We must ask for the gift of courage to face the grace of truth and truth telling

Too often, those with power or those who sinned or those who made a bad judgment immediately appeal to the grace of forgiveness so they can stamp "Paid" on their account. Slow Down! Genuine grace in a church that wants transformation from toxic patterns of the flesh to tov patterns of the Spirit will give people the courage to face the truth of their toxicity. Some stories need to be told, some words need to be admitted, and some decisions need to be undone or rectified. For healing from toxicity to occur, we will have to admit these difficult truths. Truth telling is on the path to tov.

This was so true in the handling of IRPC. The elders who confessed or resigned wanted the matter to be forgiven and reconciled. When they were subject to further scrutiny, there was a groundswell among pastors and enablers calling for reconciliation and not further inquiry. This toxic leadership did not happen overnight. At least in the case of Keith Magill, he was emotionally and spiritually abusive multiple times on record and the presbytery ignored it. So, the idea that the entire presbytery culture is fixed by punishing a pastor and a few elders is silly. Instead, as the authors say, the RPCNA needs to spend the time, more than the tens of thousands of hours it took to pronounce a sentence, to get to the root of the spiritually abusive church culture and work to correct it.

I think key to the flight of leaders out of the GLG is the refusal to 'faith the truth of their toxicity'. On one hand, there are the IRPC leaders who wanted to say a quick apology and move on, and on the other hand, there were the GLG leaders who watched the matter grind through the commissions and courts who realized that their own toxicity might one day come under that sort of scrutiny. The lack of concern and care for the victims was staggering in light of the concern that "good elders" not be disgraced for one small lack of discernment, and that was not just at the presbytery level.

5. Working towards tov is painful, but worth it

I often wonder what people think church leadership is all about. We see Stephen Rhoda thinks it's preaching at an adoring congregation once a week. I hear many elders talk about "moving on" from deep-seated conflicts in the church, as if their most important job isn't guarding, protecting and encouraging the flock, but instead figuring out how to make the most precise grind on the diamond of the church's theology. I've seen multiple papers at presbytery and synod level lament the "countless hours of work" it took to counsel or bring understanding in a matter.

Understanding this was when I realized I didn't have the calling to be an Elder. I was interested in theology and I was interested in bringing truth and justice through spiritually-guided policies and procedures, but I wasn't really interested in wading into the muck of members abusing one another or members dealing with the consequences of their own sin. Maybe someday, but I doubt God will snap his fingers and give me the requisite selflessness and empathy.

One way to look at the books of Moses is that God tried to establish a good culture for the Israelites. He rescued them from Egypt, he gave them just laws and a carefully crafted religious system to remind them of his holiness and graciousness. He led them to the border of the Promised Land, but their culture was too overwhelming. Instead of marching in, knowing that God was just and gracious and would give them victory, they reverted to their culture of fear and distrust. It took 40 years for God to change the culture to one that was able to conquer Israel and even then, it was only a couple generations until they fell back into their old ways. Even with the help of the Holy Spirit, growing a faithful and compassionate church is going to be hard work.