Organizational division does not have to result in broken relationships between true Christians who find themselves on “opposite sides” of non-essential issues or in two different manifestations of Christ’s Church.

The late Francis A. Schaeffer, in his important little monograph, The Mark of A Christian, referencing the statement of Jesus found in John 13:35 (“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”) wrote that in effect Christ is giving the world the right to judge whether or not we are Christians — based on how we treat each other. “…if an individual Christian does not show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that he is not a Christian.”

Perhaps nowhere is this more important to remember than in those times when people of good faith feel compelled to organizationally divide themselves from other professing Christians. I witnessed such a division in the Presbyterian church of my youth some 38 years ago; I’ve been watching the same division in the Anglican world, the Lutheran world. And now, it seems as if another division in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is looming.

How loving are we when we part company? Not that we must never break organizational unity, but in what spirit do we do so?

I was baptized (1952), grew up in and became, eventually, a candidate for ordained ministry in what has been called, since 1983, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Prior to that, when I was growing up in and becoming active in the denomination, it was the PCUS, what my mom always called “the Southern” Presbyterian Church. Until my junior year of college I knew nothing else when it came to church affiliation. It is a manifestation of Christ’s Church which I cannot help but love.

Even though I left that denomination in 1974 to join the newly formed and much more conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), at the recommendation — no, urging, of some professors at Covenant College who I respected greatly (among them Gordon H. Clark and John Young), I have always had one foot in the door. Or at least a couple of toes.

After leaving my pastorate in 1982 (my ex-wife and I had separated, a no-no in the PCA), I went back to the PC(USA) not as a minister, but simply as a member of my home church in Anderson, SC. For a while, I worked for a PCUSA institutional ministry. Upon moving back to Anderson to take care of my ailing parents, I started attending a small PC(USA) congregation. And I still have a few good friends who are ministers in that denomination.

All along I’ve been watching — watching with great interest as the denomination has engaged in a decades long debate over whether or not Christians who self-identify as gay or lesbian can serve the church in an ordained capacity. It is a debate still yet to be concluded. The church has finally come to the place, for now, where they don’t mind too much if you ARE gay as long as you don’t DO gay. In other words, self-identify as you will, just don’t engage in sexual acts. Actually, to be fair, the church applies, at least in theory, the same rules to self-identified heterosexuals. Basically the rule is, no marriage (currently defined as one male-one female), no sex.

The latest movement I’ve been watching is the formation of a group, primarily large church ministers, who see the need at least for the consideration of another organizational division in the church. To that end, they released an open letter to the PC(USA) and a “white paper” expressing their thoughts and feelings. You can read the letter and white paper here.

This is different from what I watched in the 1970’s and 1980’s. As I described it to one of the signatories of this letter over coffee the other day, that was an all-out, nasty war. There is, in this letter, a much more gentle, humble spirit. Or at least it seems that way to me.

One of the most impressive things, to me, about this is that they are clearly stating what many have believed for some time: that the “homosexual” debate is simply a mask of the deeper, much more serious issues in the PC(USA). “Our divisions,” the letter reads, “revolve around differing understandings of Scripture, authority, Christology, the extent of salvation amidst creeping universalism, and a broader set of moral issues.”

The the letter makes this profound observation: “…the only unity we have left is contained in the property clause and the pension plan…”

I have to say, as a now outsider looking in and as one who has possessed an almost 60-year old love for the PC(USA), the assessment of the current state of the denomination presented in the letter is accurate — painfully accurate.

The signatories call for something “new” and they understand the need for that “new” thing to be characterized by, in good Calvinist fashion, five points:

1. “A clear, concise theological core to which we subscribe, within classic biblical, Reformed/Evangelical traditions…”

2. “A commitment to nurture leadership in local congregations, which we believe is a primary expression of the Kingdom of God.”

3. “A passion to share in the larger mission of the people of God around the world…”

4. “A dream of multiplying healthy, missional communities…”

5. “A patter of fellowship reflecting the realities of our scattered life and joint mission…”

As I sat drinking coffee and talking the other day with that minister who’d signed the letter, I was impressed with the difference between the attitude I saw in him and that which I had observed decades ago. In the latter, there were extremely harsh and unloving words thrown about, a lot of name calling, bitterness on both sides, anger and a sense of self-righteousness. In this man I perceived genuine humility and a deep sadness that things, as they say, had come to this.

I’m no longer a member of the PC(USA). I am a happy member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But I still watch, and sometimes cry, at what I see going on in that old community of mine. I am with the signers of that letter in their desire for a organization which reflects more clearly biblical Christianity. It is my hope and prayer, however, that as this seemingly unavoidable organizational division comes, it will happen with a spirit of genuine Christian love, demonstrated by both those Christians who feel compelled to form a “new thing” and those Christians who remain.

Organizational division does not have to result in broken relationships between true Christians who find themselves on “opposite sides” of non-essential issues or in two different manifestations of Christ’s Church.

I hope and pray that in spite of an organizational split — which very well may be warranted (and I’m inclined at this point to think that it is) and which seeks to be characterized by those things mentioned above (which I am convinced are necessary) that the “wars” of the 1973 split will somehow be avoided and that the rancor and distrust and bitterness which I saw exhibited by both sides decades ago will not rear their ugly heads.

On the other hand, I hope and pray that those who seek this “new thing” will not succumb to the temptation to raise what are demonstrably non-essential matters (such as the whole sexual ethic thing) to the level of an essential of faith on par with one’s view of the authority of Scripture, Christology, soteriology and so forth. Those things are clear; those things so wonderfully summarized in the three great ecumenical creeds. As a good friend, Episcopal priest tells me occasionally: “If they [the Bishops] would only affirm the Nicene Creed!” With other matters, there must be room for differing opinions.

The fact remains, to use the language of the late Dr. Schaeffer, the world is watching.

The world is watching the PC(USA); it is watching those who feel compelled to form a new manifestation of Christ’s Church — and the watching world is justified in calling us “non-Christian” if we don’t demonstrate genuine love for our Christian brothers and sisters, regardless of whether we are in the same organization or not. Our demonstrated love for Christian brothers and sisters, regardless of our organizational loyalties, is indeed and always the final apologetic

David R. Gillespie leads “Sacred Journeys: Affirming Spiritual Care and Spiritual Direction” – a shared ministry of Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church. This article first appeared on his blog, Southern Fried Faith, and is used with his permission.

[Editor’s note: One or more original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid; those links have been removed.]