Jackson Woods Presbyterian Church

We get that question a lot.  The word sounds complicated and many people are unfamiliar with the term.  They know about Roman Catholics, Baptists, and Methodists, but they don’t really know about Presbyterians.  So what is a Presbyterian? 

A Presbyterian is a Christian. We believe in God. We rely upon Jesus Christ for our salvation. We trust in the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of our church. We read the Bible. The words of scripture, as revelation from God, have authority over our lives.

We are called Presbyterian because that is the way our churches organize themselves, individually and collectively.  Presbyterian means the church is run by elders.  Elders are members of the congregation that have heard God’s call to serve their congregation in a special way.  Elders are nominated and elected by the congregation in an annual meeting.  These elders then join the Session, which is the group of elders who are currently serving as the leadership of the church.  They make decisions about pretty much everything else the church is involved in.   An elder is an elder for life, but serves on the Session for a 3-year period. There isn’t enough space here to explain all the complexities of being an elder or to do justice to the honor it is to have been ordained as an elder.  But because we have elders who manage and run the church we are called Presbyterian.

You may from time to time hear news reports that relate conflicts and disagreements in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  And from time to time on a lot of issues there is disagreement about what the Bible says about certain subjects.  And from time to time on a lot of issues there is disagreement about what Jesus would say and do about certain things.  This is true in every denomination of the Christian faith Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalian, Assemblies of God, etc.  And sometimes, the national news will make a comment about some discussion going on in the Presbyterian Church.  Here’s what that is about:

Remember those elders? Well, not only do elders oversee the local congregation, but our denomination is spread over the entire United States.  The Presbyterian churches of the nation are connected to one another by common heritage.  They are divided into regional groups called Presbyteries. For instance, Jackson Woods PC and the other Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations in Corpus Christi are a part of Mission Presbytery.  Our Presbytery also includes churches from all over South Texas, San Antonio, and Austin. We meet a few times a year to discuss work that the churches do together by pooling resources.  Like when we start a new church in a community that is a work that all the churches in the Presbytery are involved in.  Another example is our Christian summer camps and conference programs for children and teenagers.  These and other missions can best be done through our collected resources and the elders in our congregations and the ministers in our congregations work together to guide these ministries.  This same process is repeated on a national level where our elders and ministers work together to chart collective work of the entire denomination. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is an excellent example of a nationwide mission effort of our denomination.  There are many others.

So why is there conflict? Because in each of these environments you have gathered thoughtful, committed, faithful people seeking to discern the Will of God; how could there not be disagreements?

I think an analogy will help describe it best.  Presbyterians are a family of faith, the Body of Christ, and we are connected to other Presbyterian Churches in our denomination. 

Chances are good that you are part of a family.  In your family there is your household and there are extended family households.  Each of those households shares a common heritage and believes some common truths that are important to the family. So say you have grandmother and grandfather and they have seven children and each of those children have three children apiece.  Once those twenty-one grandchildren are grown and in their own households you have over 50 people who are connected to grandmother and grandfather (and there aren’t any great-grandchildren yet).  These households each govern themselves along principles that Grandpa and Grandma taught their children, but none of these households look the same.  And not everyone in the family will agree with everyone else about everything.  Each of us sometimes disagrees with mom or dad, each of us sometimes thinks that our brother or sister is wrong or making a mistake, and we all have that cousin we swear must have been adopted secretly!

The Christian family is no different!  Presbyterians share a common heritage and a connection to other churches, but individual members of the church are going to disagree from time to time and one church will disagree with another as well, just like individual family members and households will have “conflict.” 

When you go to Thanksgiving and family reunions you expect “friction” to happen. After all, Uncle Tom makes a 6-figure salary, and Uncle Steve has never forgiven him for it. Well when that sort of friction happens in the denomination the news media uses the term conflict and it all gets blown out of proportion.

So, it is natural for Presbyterians to disagree.  As natural as cousins to squabble and sisters to occasionally quit talking to one another, but the important thing is sticking together around the one truth that binds us that Jesus Christ is Lord of all.