Schaeffer on the church and Armstrong on the PCA

A friend sent me this article tonight by John Armstrong in which he conveys his concern for the Presbyterian Church in America. It articulates well some concerns/sentiments that have been bouncing around in my own mind in recent months (maybe even years). Here is an excerpt from that article (emphasis mine):

I also have a growing concern for the PCA. This is a conflicted denomination. This conflict does not come from the Left at all, like it does in so many of the older fellowships in America. This denomination is not fighting about homosexual ordination or the adoption of anti-Semitic overtures with regard to the state of Israel. This conflict, and the spirit that energizes it, comes from the far Right. You see, the PCA has a very vocal minority of folks who just can’t stop arguing. They seem to thrive on polemics. Every controversy known to conservative Christianity seems to eventually find its way into the PCA. I have been reminded of this again over the last few weeks. One theological overture after another keeps surfacing and making its way into the bloodstream of the PCA, poisoning the missional good of this fellowship over and over again. I do not know how long this group can sustain this kind of hostility.

How long can we sustain this kind of hostility?

I'm not sure, but on a related note, I finished up Francis Schaeffer's True Spirituality last week. I was struck by the clarity of his thoughts on prayer and characteristics which the church ought to exhibit and how we as Christians are to work to make it so. On page 146, Schaeffer speaks of how we as the church (Christians) are to live in relationship with each other and the subsequent changes that are (or should be?) wrought in us as we are continually conformed more and more to the image of Christ.

Frankly, in many ways the church, or at least cultural-Christianity/American-evangelicalism (and I am afraid maybe even much of the PCA), has lost sight of the communal aspect of our calling. We have made church into a building or a denomination or a system of narrowly defined doctrines or a place you go on Sundays (and sometimes Wednesdays) and have forgotten that we are commanded to "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. "

In response to this lack of community and un-love we are tempted to respond just as unbiblically, often by using the world's methods or worse by completely disengaging, throwing up our hands and walking away. And sadly, by so doing, we engage in the very action we deplore; we don't want to love people who are hard to love. We want everybody to conform to our own wishes and do things our way. Schaeffer proposes that we pray and goes on to write:

The Armstrong article and the Schaeffer ideas intersect where the church has forgotten: that it is for Christ.

We have instead become hypnotized by what we are against. We pledge fierce loyalty to personalities and parties and organizations and doctrines and forget the centrality of Christ crucified. There must be a way to preserve Biblical fidelity without succumbing to this exponential fragmentation. The party spirit is alive and well.