GENERAL COMMENTS
December 2011
December 2011
Michael Jinkins, president of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, posts a weekly message for the Louisville Seminary community. This week's message was particularly timely.
Enchantment - something we could all use more of. I will recharge my batteries this Christmas with some time with my grandchildren. Others will do so during or after Christmas Eve services. Wherever you are this Christmas, seek out the wonder and enchantment of God breaking into our lives and our world It's there, we just have to be reminded to look for it. I do hope and pray that the joy and wonder of this season comfort and carry you, not only through the days ahead, but also well into the new year!
Grace and peace,
Greg
"Away in a Manger"
We have all seen the rapt wonder in the eyes of children on a Christmas morning as their gaze dances across the lights, the tinsel, and the gifts under thee tree. But the real marvel is not the wonder in their eyes on Christmas morning, is it? (Continue reading here)
We have all seen the rapt wonder in the eyes of children on a Christmas morning as their gaze dances across the lights, the tinsel, and the gifts under thee tree. But the real marvel is not the wonder in their eyes on Christmas morning, is it? (Continue reading here)
Enchantment - something we could all use more of. I will recharge my batteries this Christmas with some time with my grandchildren. Others will do so during or after Christmas Eve services. Wherever you are this Christmas, seek out the wonder and enchantment of God breaking into our lives and our world It's there, we just have to be reminded to look for it. I do hope and pray that the joy and wonder of this season comfort and carry you, not only through the days ahead, but also well into the new year!
Grace and peace,
Greg
GENERAL COMMENTS
SEPTEMBER 2011
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
of the General Presbyter
June 2011
SEPTEMBER 2011
I read an interesting article lately, posted on the PCUSA office of Theology and Worship blog. The author, Karen Russell, asked about "Theological Friendship." In a day in which people boast of how many Facebook "friends" they have, Karen asks what it means to be a friend. She goes even further when she asks what it means to be part of a "community", and then even further when she asks about what it means to be "communities" of theological "friends." Read more..
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
of the General Presbyter
June 2011
Then, six months ago, in the early stages of debate over the proposed changes in the Book of Order and Book of Confessions, I referred to the prayer of Jehoshaphat, "Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you"(2. Chron. 20:12). I think Jehoshaphat's prayer continues as good advice.
Since then, neither our world nor our denomination have become more settled places. But we have begum to talk about it. Pastors clusters met in May to talk about passage of Amendment 10-A. The Belhar Confession did not receive the requisite number of concurring presbyteries to become part of our Book of Confessions. Just this week the new Form of Government was ratified by a majority of our presbyteries.
Now alarms are being sounded. Chaos looms over us since no one has their new manuals of operation ready. Meetings may not be "in order." There are requests for non-geographic presbyteries and synods. There are requests for separate Committees on Ministry and Preparation for Ministry, as well as separate Permanent Judicial commissions so that we can somehow "guarantee" proper interpretation of our constitutional standards, depending on what side of which issue you are on.
Add to that the calls and visits our ministers receive every week demanding clear answers to difficult questions, with the ever present threat of the withdrawal of their dollars if the answers are not in accord with their personal theology. I'm not sure how some of you are getting by!
And yet, many of you are. Some do so by turning their backs on and distancing themselves from whatever it is their congregation doesn't want to hear. That may work for a while, but may fail us when the winds of the Spirit shift - and they will shift.
I suspect that a far healthier way of moving a congregation (and a presbytery) forward through stormy weather is to stay focused on what we are called to be and do. A number of years ago we developed a one-page worksheet, a checklist of sorts for Sessions evaluating the balance in their ministry, which identified marks of a healthy congregation. There are three primary areas of attention: what is the congregation doing to bring in and raise up disciples of Jesus Christ; what is the congregation doing to equip and send those disciples out for service in the name of Jesus Christ; and how is the congregation connected to a larger vision of ministry through the presbytery and the wider community of faith?
But what about the larger Church? What about presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly? What is it we are supposed to be doing? Where is the one-page worksheet we can use to check off the things we do well and note the areas in which we need improvement? I haven't found that worksheet.
In the absence of that one-page worksheet, bold new proposals are bubbling up. But they are not popular! That is because so many are so invested in the system we know and love - or even the one we know and hate, because at least we know how this system functions. So we bicker about quorums and the minutia constitutional provisions. We operate in a system designed to control rather than one designed to give permission. In reality, the system has become our excuse for not doing what we know we're supposed to be doing. We would rather write letters to the editor and call for meetings of colleagues to complain about the system being unresponsive than to actually do something about it. We would rather forecast ecclesiastical armageddon than imagine how the Spirit has empowered us to move out and to move forward.
Conferences and proposals are starting to emerge. There was a "Next" meeting a couple of months ago in Indianapolis. Some of our pastors attended that meeting. There is going to be an August conference in Minneapolis sponsored by the Fellowship-PCUSA. Several from this presbytery, including me, will be attending that conference. There is a presbytery which has abandoned its role as a regulatory agency, declares itself to be a relational body, and hopes to become a missional entity (though they are not yet sure what that means). One presbytery is discussing requests from congregations not in their bounds to join that presbytery. There is a proposal for a "conjunct" presbytery, which could expand its geographic bounds to encompass the entire synod and provide a "regional" body to which disaffected congregations in that synod could apply. Other proposals include non-geographic presbyteries and synods. But the weakness of many of these models is that they would divide congregations theologically and abandon those too small to be in relation across wider geographic areas. Fellowship and community are strained by distance.
What is missing for me, so far, is more of a discussion of our ecclesiastical vision for what it means to be, in the language of the Book of Order, "the provisional demonstration of what God intends fora all of humanity...a sign in and for the world of the new reality which God has made available to people in Jesus Christ." (G-3.0200).
More importantly, the Church is called:
- "...to tell the good news of salvation by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord..."
- "...to present the claims of Jesus Christ, leading persons to repentance..."
- "...to be Christ's faithful evangelist..."
- "...to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone.." (G-3.0300-3.0400).
I remain hopeful in the ability of the Spirit to move through our weakness and confusion. I remain confident in the power of the Holy Spirit to take our faltering steps and make them strong. And I remain committed to staying in relationship with those who share that vision for ministry. I look forward to more meetings with pastors and church leaders this summer and fall to discuss the ecclesiastical visions which arise. Amen.