Some Questions
Some questions that are relevant and possibly painfully so:
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What about the duty of ministers to the congregations that have called them and entrusted them with the ‘care of their souls’? Is it not our duty to continue to minister ‘you in your small corner and I in mine’? Or is there a call for leadership? Whether we like to emphasise it or not, we belong to a denomination that is in rebellion against God’s Word and we need to make it clear that we cannot just carry on as if nothing has happened.
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There could be many legal and financial considerations for both ministers and congregations. If a minister resigns, he may well be left homeless; if a congregation secedes, it may find itself with no buildings. There may be many such issues for legal minds to grapple with in days ahead, and perhaps the only hope will be in a sufficient number of ministers and congregations being moved to action so that the relevant bodies may feel they have to come to some kind of agreement with us. Presumably they would not want to be left with many empty buildings, often in the middle of churchyards, and many of them having listed-building status. If we have enough people/congregations to act together, would it be possible to seek (at least semi-)friendly discussion with the ‘establishment’ regarding a buildings settlement?
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There will be the added difficulty of some ministers feeling strongly that they can no longer continue to serve in an apostate denomination, but their congregation would not be with them. What will be the way ahead for such ministers?