An Open Letter to Jason Stellman, whom I’ve never met. Jason posted his “adios, PCA” letter on his blog last week.
Dear Jason,
Welcome to the other side of your PCA sojourn.
The step of leaving a denomination, especially when your seminary training, pastoral preparation, and ordination have all taken place within the same orbit of friends, is tremendously difficult.
You will never have the same kind of community again.
You will have other communities, and perhaps some that are even as rich, but you have bonded with folks through some of the most formative times of your theological education and career, and you can’t replace that.
You probably are losing some friends right now. Take courage–you’ll get some of them back after the wounds heal. But know this, too–many are gone forever. Hold them with open hands. Let them go. You’ll make new ones.
Many of our denominations create quite a strong identity for themselves, and many of us were part of tight-knit sub-groups within such worlds as well. This makes leaving all the more difficult.
But you’ll learn a new narrative. As many good things as are going on in that world, there is plenty of spiritual vitality to be found beyond its pale. Take courage, you’ll find yourself nourished in your new communities. It may take time, but you will find like-minded people who will help you grow in your walk with Christ and be fellow contenders with you for the Kingdom.
You’re leaving the PCA, in part, because you are seeing that the NT won’t let us separate our faith from our action. I hope you’ll learn quickly that this also means that our standard of judging our communities has much more to do with embodying the cross of Christ than the many other markers that have become popular (especially in Protestantism).
Make sure to embody this way of the cross in your responses to your detractors. I know they are many, from your blog’s comments.
Finally, as you experience the wounds of those you thought were friends, you might realize that you were a wounder of those who are friends and brothers. I’d encourage you to take this time to think about folks whom you may have wounded in your Reformed zeal–I can think of at least one by name.
I pray that as you go from the PCA, you will go in peace, as a man of peace, and find those who will receive you with the same.
I thought that was pretty kind and generous of you. The rhetoric has been pretty amped up about this lately.
For what it’s worth, I’m inclined to agree. I only stumbled across Daniel’s blog yesterday and it’s the only way I ever heard of Jason so I don’t pretend to understand anything about any of the background but it always saddens me when people care more for principles and theology than they do about Jesus’ command to love one another.
No kidding.
Daniel,
I just posted the following words as a comment on Jason’s blog:
I am a complete outsider to this conversation (and one whose interpretation of Paul might be seen as part of the larger theological problem), so please forgive the intrusion. But as a one-time member, many years ago, of a similar Presbyterian denomination, I understand the tenor and tone and passion of this conversation, especially (unfortunately) its more acerbic dimensions. Nevertheless, simply as a fellow Christian, it grieves me and brings to mind the Lord’s words to the church in Ephesus, which was apparently zealous for orthodox doctrine: “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:4). Orthodoxy (real or imagined) without love requires repentance, not repetition.
I am grateful, as a Protestant, that I teach in a Catholic theological institution where members of PCA, PCUSA, Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Orthodox, and many other churches study, pray, and practice their faith together in a spirit of unity in diversity. I hope and pray that such a Spirit could reign in love in this situation.
This is a good letter for anyone who has ever transitioned out of one Christian group into another. As you said, many groups form a very strong identity and they feel violated when someone walks away from it.
I’m glad you wrote this blog post, Daniel. Thanks for this. I am confused, though. A lot of people are saying that Jason went “Romeward” or is becoming Roman-Catholic. Maybe I missed it, but he didn’t say that, did he? He just expressed his change of mind that made him non-confessional enough that he could not stay in the PCA, correct?
Keep moving, Jason; keep your mind open, and stay honest.
I worry that many of these formerly Reformed converts to Catholicism are simply finding a new outlet for their overzealous tendencies. I hope Stellman finds his way to a more generous and charitable Catholicism than the brand of Reformed theology he so vigorously defended for many years. He’s certainly experiencing the blunt end of it now.
That is one of the ugliest threads you’ll ever read. Who would ever come to Christ if they had to join this company of righteous certitude?