First Presbyterian Church - Denomination

I attended First Presbyterian Church on Sunday (June 5th). This time I will focus on the denomination they are affiliated with, the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The PCUSA represents the largest, but not sole, Presbyterian denomination in the United States. Other U.S. Presbyterian denominations include the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, among others.

The PCUSA has been in the news lately because by a somewhat narrow vote (55% to 45%), it changed language in its Manual of Goverrment which would effectively allow local congregations and Presbyteries (regional governing bodies), to ordain openly proclaiming homosexuals.

Specifically, the language that used to require "fidelity with the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness," has been changed to "joyfully submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ."

Some of my friends have been a bit confused about the news of this vote. They think it means the denomination will start directly ordaining homosexuals. It doesn't quite work that way. As I best understand it, a local pastor has to both be called by a local congregation and ordained by the Presbytery, so that it takes both the approval of the local congregation and the regional Presbytery to ordain an openly homosexual pastor.

Many conservative Presbyterians may leave the denomination over the possiblity of a congregation and Presbytery ordaining an openly homosexual pastor condoned under the standards for the denomination. We will have to see how this turns out, and whether such departures will be offset by others attracted to the denomination by what they view as a more open stance in the denomination on this issue.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church

This Sunday (May 29th), I visited St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church at 455 McNear Ave. They currently have an average attendance of about 35. They are currently undergoing a pastor transition, and thus have a transition pastor, Ted C. Mueller. (Their last pastor, Richard M. Gaub, is seeking a new calling.) St. John's last year celebrated 100 years in the Petaluma community.

Sometimes I am asked why there are more than one Lutheran church in town. (If you might remember, I wrote about Elim Lutheran Church in this blog.) The reason is they belong to different denominations. St. John's is associated with the The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, while Elim Lutheran Church is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. To an outsider, this may not make much of a difference, but for a Lutheran, it can make a great deal of difference.

The Missouri Synod, the second largest Lutheran denomination in America, is generally considered more conservative than the ELCA. More importantly, they are part of the tradition of confessional Lutherans, who adhere to the creeds and other documents contained in the Book of Concord. However, other than that, when you attend a service at either Lutheran church, you would probably not notice any difference, since the services are very similar. In fact, I have many Catholic friends who find the liturgy at a Lutheran service to be very similar to the liturgy at a Catholic mass. Anyway, I enjoyed the service.

I am sure St. John's would appreciate your prayers as they will very soon begin their search for a new pastor to continue their ministry to the Petaluma community, and for Pastor Gaub as he seeks a new calling.

A Church of Christ in Petaluma

This Sunday (May 22nd), I visited A Church of Christ in Petaluma, located at 370 Sonoma Mountain Parkway. Ray McClendon is their pastor, a wonderful man. They have a regular attendance of around 50.

One thing you immediately notice at a Church of Christ - they use no musical instruments for worship. They sing all their songs a cappella, without musical accompaniment. It takes a little getting used to (if you have always gone to church where worship is accompanied with musical instruments), but I was unusally surprised at how good the congregation sang without musical accompaniment - usually in 4 part harmonies. It might be when you have no instrumental accompaniment, you tend to focus more on the singing.

The Churches of Christ follow this tradition because they believe the early Church did not use musical instruments, and because they do not find musical instruments mentioned in the New Testament. There seems to be evidence that the early Church either did not use musical instruments, or at least there is a lack of evidence of using musical instruments.

The Churches of Christ trace their history back to the Restorationist Movement, led by Barton Stone, Thomas Campbell, and his son, Alexander Campell in the early 1800s. (So sometimes it is called the Stone-Campbell movement). They wanted to return the Church to the practices and beliefs of the early church.

A Church of Christ in Petaluma celebrated their Jubilee (50 years) last year in 2010. They used to be at 520 S. McDowell (which is now Suzanne's Dance School). They moved into their current facility in 1994.

St, James Catholic Church - Pastor

This Sunday, I attended St. James Catholic Church, and played in their guitar mass. Since I regularly attend at St. James, this time I will write about their wonderful pastor, Fr. Michael Culligan.

Many stereotypes of Catholic priests present an Irishman with a rich brogue. Father Michael more than meets this meets this image, as he was born in Ireland, attended seminary there at All Hallows Seminary, has a musical brogue to match none, and a love of life and his Lord Jesus.

Pastor Culligan served in various capacities throughout Northern California till he was appointed as the pastor at St. James in 1984, where he has now served for more than 25 years, is at home, and has many wonderful friends.

I love it every time I see Michael. He has a musical tone in his talk, almost a dance in his feet, a kind word to say, and usually something wonderful to impart.

First Presbyterian Church - Polity

This Sunday, I broke my usual routine of visiting another church, and returned to attend First Presbyterian. I did so because they were holding a congregation meeting immediately after the church service, and since I am a member there, I wanted to attend it, participate, and vote.

Various churches and denominations have various forms of church government (called polity). Presbyterians are governed by elders (presbuteros in Greek) elected by the congregation. In Presbyterian churches most of the elders are lay elders (called ruling elders) while the pastor is also an elder (called the teaching elder). They call the Elders the Session (instead of the Board of Elders). The elders and the deacons make up the officers of the church. (The picture to the top left is a picture of the 2010 officers for First Presbyterian.)

Anyway, the Session called this special meeting of the Congregation to consider their motion to dissolve the relationship with pastor, Dave Weidlich, and approve a severance package for him. It followed his resignation. Any such motion usually brings up strong emotions, and they were present at the meeting. However, the meeting was orderly, everyone got to have their say, and a vote was held. I am sad to say the Congregation approved dissolving the relationship, and Pastor Dave will last preach at First Presbyterian on May 15, and then seek where else the Lord will lead him. (You can read Pastor Dave's Goodbye Letter.) This makes me sad. However, I was overall glad about the process, and look forward to see how the Lord leads Dave and how he leads First Presbyterian.

Good Friday (and Easter)

Though I went to church this Easter at First Presbyterian, what I want to talk about is Good Friday, one of the major Christian holidays. City Ministries of Petaluma, an association of 12 Petaluma chuches, sponsored a joint Good Friday service at Petaluma Valley Baptist Church, but jointly led both by it and St. John's Anglican Church, who focused on Stations of the Cross, a tradition familiar to Catholics, and some Anglicans, but not with most other Protestants.

The tradition of the Stations of the Cross originated in pilgrimages to Jerusalem, along the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrows), but began as a chapel devotion with St. Francis of Assi, and expanded from there, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.

What I found interesting was observing this tradition in a Baptist church, with Christians from various denominations, or non-denominations. While the Anglicans were in the lead, the Baptist pastor of Valley Baptist, Tom Markum, joined in alternatively leading the readings, meditations, and other aspects of observing this tradition, and the Christians from several churches (and denominations) joined in observing it and in reciting the congregational responses as part of the liturgy in this tradition. It abode well for my spirit to observe and participate in this ecumenical observance of an old tradition of the church in a Protestant/Evangelical church, especially with Baptists, who usually do not observe any such traditions.

After the first hour of the stations of the Cross, the Anglicans continued the service for a second hour on the Message of the Cross, and then for a third hour on the Veneration of the Cross. I remained for all three hours. It was quite an experience in an old tradition of observing Good Friday.

Soveriegn Grace Community Church

This Sunday (April 17th) I visited Soveriegn Grace Community Church. They meet at the site of Bernard Eldridge Elementary School (which has shut down) at 217 Maria Drive. They are a new church, having formed in October of 2010, and currently have about 40 in attendance. However, the pastor and many members are from Petaluma Community Church which used to meet at the Seventh Day Adventist church building (since the SDA didn't use it on Sundays). That church closed down, but the pastor and many members wanted to continue on in a new church.

The Pastor, Kevin Kirby, is a graduate of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. He also directs The Biblical Counseling Center of Sonoma County, which is connected with the church, and which shares office space with the church at the site. He is an adjunct professor at a bible college in Walnut Creek where he teaches biblical counseling.

The church affiliates with the Southern Baptist Convention. They participate in a church planting program through the SBC. However, the church sees itself rooted in the Calvinist Baptist tradition, reaching back to the Reformation, and looks to the First and Second London Confessions in 1646 and 1689, respectively.

While there, I met a friend from a long time ago, Kathleen Morgan (Kathleen Belton), whom I used to know at Church of the Open Door. It was a joy to see her and catch up. She told me she was very happy with her new church and their level of Bible teaching.