This is in no way an ecumenical event

Covenant Presbyterian Church
Cherry Hill, NJ
July 15, 2007

In July I attended another type of Presbyterian Church, a congregation in the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) denomination. This group formed in the 1970s, coming together as a group of churches affiliated with other Presbyterian groups but unhappy with liberal tendencies among those churches, such as ordination of women and rejection of Biblical inerrancy. Many people also believe that they were upset by the mainstream church’s opposition to the war in Vietnam and support for the civil rights movement and the Equal Rights Amendment. The PCA has been concentrated in the deep South, with headquarters in Georgia, although the denomination has many evangelical and missionary outreaches to other areas of the country. They have about 330,000 members in the US -- a rather small group.

Covenant Presbyterian has two Sunday morning services, the Contemporary Worship Service at 8:30 and the Traditional Worship Service at 11:00 am. I decide to go to the later service.

I find the place easily. It’s a large, barnish-looking building on a major road, with a nice big parking lot. As I walk toward the entrance I see many people walking in and out carrying Bibles.

Inside the lobby, someone hands me a bulletin. I walk into the sanctuary and find a seat near the back. The sanctuary is white and blue, with wood details. There are blue stained glass windows (geometric patterns) high up on the back wall of the sanctuary, with a pulpit and chairs in the middle. The room is shaped into a rough half circle, and a balcony runs along the walls above us. I estimate that about 300 people could sit in the pews, and I can’t tell how many people might fit into the balcony.

There is an area set up for a worship band on the right side of the stage, but at this time a young woman is singing something classical, accompanied by a pianist. I see from the bulletin that this is the Prelude, Biblical Songs, Op. 99, by Dvorak. I estimate that there are about 150 or so people here. Most are white, but some of the congregants are black or Asian. There are plenty of children and young families in the congregation - a good sign of health for them, I think.

A man greets us with the words, “Good morning. We are glad that you are with us this morning.” Announcements come next. We are informed that the North Carolina team will return in about a week, and there is a list of the team members on a bulletin insert – 33 people in all. It’s a mission trip, but I’m not sure what the specific nature of the mission is. I’ve been on mission trips before, and it could be almost anything – conducting Bible school for an inner-city church, building projects, homeless ministries, clean-up after a disaster.

Next, we are directed to look at another bulletin insert. This one tells us about an upcoming meeting scheduled for Christian women to meet with Muslim women “to befriend and learn about each other’s faith and to better understand what the Scriptures (Bible/Quran) have to say on the topic: A PROPHET LIKE MOSES: JESUS/MUHAMMAD. The Christian speaker will present the Biblical position and the Muslim speaker will present the Quran.” The announcement reassures everyone that “The Muslim women are friendly. They are willing to come and meet with us (women of Covenant) to gain and impart a better understanding of what our Scriptures declare.”

This does sound interesting, although the man announcing this from pulpit feels the need to assure everyone that, actually, the Christian women will be trying to convert the Muslim women, and that there is no chance that any of the Christian women will instead be converted to Islam. He also tells us not to worry, that this “is in no way any kind of ecumenical event.”

Psalm 145:1-7 is read as the Call to Worship, and this is followed by the Doxology, Invocation, and a hymn, With Songs and Honors Sounding Loud. The organist takes the title of the hymn a bit too literally, blasting us through the verses (with trumpet accompaniment) at such volume that we singers need to have pretty impressive lung power just to hear ourselves. (And I say this as someone who likes loud music.)

Next is a reading from Matthew, and the man who reads this adds a little mini-sermon and then leads us into prayer. During the preamble to the Silent Confession of Sin we “openly and whole-heartedly confess that we are miserable sinners.” (I like this aspect of Presbyterianism). After the Silent Confession of Sin and the Assurance of Pardon (Ephesians 2:4), we sing another hymn, Marvellous Grace of Our Loving Lord.

The Scripture Reading is Ephesians 5:25-27. Then comes the Congregational Prayer, which emphasizes family values: “Give husbands loving hearts, wives submissive hearts, and children obedient hearts.” Another hymn (O Happy Home, Where Thou Art Loved), and then the Offertory Prayer and Offertory. The soprano who did the Prelude sings the Offertory music. She’s good.

Time for the sermon. The reading is Matthew 19:1-12, and the title is “What Does Jesus Teach Concerning Divorce?” The pastor is not present today; Mr. Steve Knecht is preaching. I’m not sure who he is, or what his connection to the church is. He’s not listed among the elders and deacons. Looking through the bulletin inserts, I see that the Pulpit Committee is asking everyone to pray that they are able to find “the right man for the position.” So they must be filling the pulpit with supply preachers while looking for a permanent pastor. This is a little puzzling, as the back of the bulletin clearly lists names of both a pastor and an assistant pastor. Is the pastor going to leave soon, or has he already left?

At any rate, it seems that Mr. Knecht has been preaching through the book of Matthew for the past few weeks, and he has now reached Matthew 19:1-12, the passages on divorce from the Sermon on the Mount.

He speaks clearly, and makes four main points: 1) God’s purpose for marriage from the start never included homosexuality or polygamy; 2) Moses’ teaching shows that the root cause of divorce is sin; 3) there are two exception clauses: divorce is allowed in cases of fornication or unbelief (ie, an unbelieving spouse leaves a Christian spouse, in which case the Christian spouse is not held guilty); 4) marriage is a type of God’s covenant love (chesed), which shows us that forgiveness is always the ideal we should strive for in marriage. Applications: married couples should renew their wedding vows (not in a public ceremony, but just personally and individually, as needed); Christians should reject the temptation to even consider divorce; we should forgive each other as God forgives us; a marriage is successful only through the grace of God. The sermon is exactly 30 minutes long.

The closing hymn is O Perfect Love, and the closing prayer is said in a very heartfelt manner by an older man. As the congregation exits, I walk over to a table filled with literature and pick up some materials. There doesn’t seem to be a coffee hour or anything else going on, and everyone is ready to get home and have lunch. If there was an opportunity to sign a visitor’s card or anything like that, I didn’t notice. So I just stand around for a few minutes, near a table filled with literature in the back of the sanctuary, looking through the materials. Finally I picked up a Welcome Packet and the church’s 2006 Annual Report, and then walk out to the parking lot.

I didn’t expect any follow-up, as there was no way for anyone to contact me. I did look up the denomination on the web, and learned that some of the more famous members of this denomination are C. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General, and several popular Christian musicians: Michael Card, Steven Curtis Chapman, and the group Jars of Clay.

The Welcome Packet contained two brochures about the church and its ministries. They listed almost identical information, but arranged in slightly different ways. This church, like many churches, has a preschool. In addition, they collect and distribute Thanksgiving baskets to the needy, conduct an annual Children’s Prayer Walk (kids walk to fire stations, police stations, and other places and pray for people at each place); help elderly and disabled people with yard work, conduct a monthly worship service at a local nursing home, and have a youth group. There are small group Bible studies and music ministries, such as choir and handbell choir. There are four women’s groups, the Joy Circle, Peace Circle, Hope Circle, and Faith Circle, which meet monthly. The church sponsors two mission trips each year, one in the US and one internationally, and helps support 27 missionary families.

Looking through the Annual Report, it is clear that this is a church in which women wear the invisible hijab – all elders and deacons are men. They list 257 members and 89 “covenant children” – the church does not count children as members until they are confirmed. It looks as though 2006 was a decent year for membership totals: 22 members were received, 9 were removed from the membership roll, 14 children were baptized, and only two people died (“graduated to glory”).

Giving for the year was in excess of need by a very healthy amount: an average of $677 more taken in each week than was necessary. Total church salaries came to almost a quarter million dollars – that’s for eight people on the payroll, including a summer intern who made $4,000 and a substitute secretary who earned $800. The senior pastor earned $99,414 in 2006, which might sound like a lot, except that I’m pretty sure it includes all the benefits like health insurance, pension plan, etc. His actual take-home salary may well have been something more like $60,000.

The church gave a little over $53,000 to support missionaries, and donated another $37,500 to other, local benevolences. You know, it’s hard to overestimate the amount of money injected into various local charities and other efforts by churches. This PCA church’s budget is a good example of how small local congregations consistently do good, year after year, in ways that are almost invisible to the community, but would be sorely missed if they were to suddenly disappear.

UPDATE: Almost one year after my visit to this church, Sarah Palin became the Republican vice-presidential nominee, and a little controversy arose when videotapes of prayers at church services she had attended were aired. The excitement seemed to be about whether or not she, or others in the congregation, had assumed that the war in Iraq is a holy war of some sort, or that God is on America’s side against Al-Qaeda.

When I saw these reports on the news, I remembered my visit to Covenant Presbyterian, not just because of the meeting between the Muslim and Christian women, but because I recalled that one of the elders had prayed about the war near the end of the service. I looked up my notes: “He asks God to protect the men and women of our armed forces, ‘who are engaged in a great war against dark powers,’ and he also asks God to ‘send cleansing fires upon our nation.’

I suppose that if Sarah Palin had been in attendance at the same service I attended, someone would have broadcast this prayer as an example of Christianist intolerance: they think Muslims represent the dark side! On the other hand, please note that the man also prayed for cleansing fires to come upon our nation - we have problems of our own.

I do think the tendency of religious people to presume to know what God thinks about various political issues is problematic, but really, I don't think the nice folks at this church are about to conduct a new Crusade against the infidels any more than Sarah Palin would. I do wish the folks at Covenant PCA were a little more open to ecumenism, though - it's really a good idea to talk to other people with the attitude that you'd like to know more about them rather than that you're dead set on converting them before you even hear what they have to say. A more relaxed attitude on conversations across religious divides would do wonders for folks within Christendom as well.