The blood pressure issue of the day is ordination standards. As I have said before, I am not sure I understand the passion this issue raises. Why are people more passionate about this issue more then anything else? People should have as much passion for fixing world hunger, speaking out against human trafficking or striving for world peace. We waste so much emotional energy on this issue. WWJD? We don’t agree here.
There was a young man driving down the highway one night. He notices a car broken down on the side of the road. Being fairly mechanical, he stops his car to see if he can help the stranded motorist. He quickly discovers that the stranded motorist is Hispanic and speaks no English. Through sign language, the young man convinces the motorist to open the hood and to let him inspect the car from outside and inside the car. The young man finds out there is a clutch problem. A car without a clutch is drivable (starting and stopping is difficult but you can do it if you know how). The young man tries to explain in sign language what the motorist has to do to get home. Explaining such a complicated issue was not possible without speaking the same language. The young man realizes he has a friend who is bi-lingual. He tracks his friend down on the phone after several calls and uses his friend as in interpreter and explains to the motorist how to drive his car and get home. Through the instruction, the motorist gets in the car and starts it up in gear – the car bounces down the highway. That’s what Jesus would do!
That young man was my son. My son is gay. He is in a monogamous relationship and I think I have lost him from the church forever because he gave up on the organization that he grew up in. Now he feels the church thinks he is a sinner that is not equal to others. The ordination issue and support of equality for LGBT is not about words & standards, it’s more personal then that. It is about people.
The final vote to remove the wording in ordination standards passed 53% to 46%. Dozens of people spoke for and against the issue. What surprised me during the discussion is not one person made it personal by saying ‘my, son, daughter, brother, neighbor is gay”. They were definitely out there, I guess they are still in the closet. One of the final speakers, a Hispanic minister angrily stated that he would leave the church if it passed. It breaks my heart that he feels this way and I pray that he finds peace and can let go of his anger.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday lunch –Science and Religion
Went to a seminar on Science and Religion, we had a great speaker. Highlight of the discussion was the following quote:
“I am not religious because I am ignorant; I am religious because I am in awe!”
Howard Smith, Harvard Smithsonian, Center for Astrophysicists
“I am not religious because I am ignorant; I am religious because I am in awe!”
Howard Smith, Harvard Smithsonian, Center for Astrophysicists
Thursday morning – Evangelism breakfast
Steve Hayner, professor of Evangelism and new president of Columbia Seminary spoke at an Evangelism breakfast I attended Thursday morning at 7:00 am. After Plenary session ended Wednesday night at 10, I did determine that Evangelism is always difficult and even more so at 7am – at least we had coffee.
The thing I learned is that Evangelism is not about Church Growth. It is not about member management, “buildings, budgets and butts”. Getting people into your church is “Not the point”. Evangelism is only about Christ, letting people know how Christ has a positive affect in your life.
I realize that thinking only about getting people to our church (congregation or denomination) is selfish and self serving. Our church, our exact form or worship may not be for everybody but Christ is for everybody. Evangelize Christ, not just the church. Tell someone of Christ first and then invite them to church but if they don’t want to go to your church, encourage them to seek growth in Christ by attending other churches, bible studies, mission projects or other forms of Christian fellowship
The thing I learned is that Evangelism is not about Church Growth. It is not about member management, “buildings, budgets and butts”. Getting people into your church is “Not the point”. Evangelism is only about Christ, letting people know how Christ has a positive affect in your life.
I realize that thinking only about getting people to our church (congregation or denomination) is selfish and self serving. Our church, our exact form or worship may not be for everybody but Christ is for everybody. Evangelize Christ, not just the church. Tell someone of Christ first and then invite them to church but if they don’t want to go to your church, encourage them to seek growth in Christ by attending other churches, bible studies, mission projects or other forms of Christian fellowship
Wednesday – despite deer in headlights - revised FOG passes
The committee work ended on Tuesday. After the work ended for each of the committees, the committee leaders scramble to put together a presentation and proposal to present to the plenary session (to all of the GA commissioners) on Wednesday. We began our plenary session on Wednesday afternoon in the large venue at the convention center.
The whole process is cool. The committee moderators make motions from the front of the room. Then discussion is opened up to the commissioners. Any commissioner that wants to speak to a motion goes to one of the 9 microphones in the huge room and holds up a color coated placard:
Green – speaking for the motion
Red – speaking against the motion
Yellow – questions about the motion or procedures or
Blue – making a motion which can be an alternate motion or a suggested modification to the existing motion. It gets a bit complicated when you get suggested modifications on top of modifications on top of modified motions but the moderator keeps things straight.
Orange – Call to vote on the motion
The GA tries to spread out the high blood pressure, high anxiety issues throughout the plenary. The first high blood pressure to be scheduled was Wednesday night at 8:30. This was my committees new Form of Government (nFOG). It represents a big change to the way things are done and I think it is natural for a percentage to fear large change so it was a contentious issue to many. One commissioner recommended an alternate motion that would postpone the decision, post the report on the web and allow the presbyteries and congregations to have ANOTHER two years to digest, review and ask additional questions. I felt moved to speak against this motion (against our committee recommendation). I went to the microphone without anything prepared figureing I would have a couple of minutes to collect my thoughts before I was called upon. I was called upon about 4 seconds after I got to the microphone. I’m usually pretty good on my feet and comfortable talking to crowds but with the surprisingly quick time frame being called upon, the thousands of people in the room and my face on two huge screens at the front of the room, I was like a deer in headlights. UHMMMMM, UHHHH,…. I think at one point in time I started speaking and believe I communicated my point but I’m not really sure.
The whole process is cool. The committee moderators make motions from the front of the room. Then discussion is opened up to the commissioners. Any commissioner that wants to speak to a motion goes to one of the 9 microphones in the huge room and holds up a color coated placard:
Green – speaking for the motion
Red – speaking against the motion
Yellow – questions about the motion or procedures or
Blue – making a motion which can be an alternate motion or a suggested modification to the existing motion. It gets a bit complicated when you get suggested modifications on top of modifications on top of modified motions but the moderator keeps things straight.
Orange – Call to vote on the motion
The GA tries to spread out the high blood pressure, high anxiety issues throughout the plenary. The first high blood pressure to be scheduled was Wednesday night at 8:30. This was my committees new Form of Government (nFOG). It represents a big change to the way things are done and I think it is natural for a percentage to fear large change so it was a contentious issue to many. One commissioner recommended an alternate motion that would postpone the decision, post the report on the web and allow the presbyteries and congregations to have ANOTHER two years to digest, review and ask additional questions. I felt moved to speak against this motion (against our committee recommendation). I went to the microphone without anything prepared figureing I would have a couple of minutes to collect my thoughts before I was called upon. I was called upon about 4 seconds after I got to the microphone. I’m usually pretty good on my feet and comfortable talking to crowds but with the surprisingly quick time frame being called upon, the thousands of people in the room and my face on two huge screens at the front of the room, I was like a deer in headlights. UHMMMMM, UHHHH,…. I think at one point in time I started speaking and believe I communicated my point but I’m not really sure.
Tuesday – Jesus Loves Me in Hells kitchen
On Tuesday evening, the members from our Cincinnati Presbytery went out to dinner at a restaurant called Hell’s Kitchen. It was great to get to talk and socialize with my colleagues from the Presbytery, we are virtual strangers having only met briefly with some and not at all with some of the others. The restaurant had a jazz band that was pretty good, although it was so loud that talking to each other was a bit difficult and I hope I get another chance to meet with this group again to share more details of our experiences.
The band had two girls get up on stage (I assume children of some of the Minneapolis Presbyterian invasion), they proceeded to sing Jesus Love’s me. So we got to hear Jesus Love’s me in Hell’s kitchen. The band thanked the children because by letting the kids do this, they received some generous tips.
The band had two girls get up on stage (I assume children of some of the Minneapolis Presbyterian invasion), they proceeded to sing Jesus Love’s me. So we got to hear Jesus Love’s me in Hell’s kitchen. The band thanked the children because by letting the kids do this, they received some generous tips.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday - I finally understand FOG
Monday – I finally understand -
The committee work began in earnest on Monday. Hearings continued and we heard from advocates and dissenters about the new (revised) form of government (nFOG). I was truly surprised by the ratio of people that wanted the nFOG to be approved. Before the Assembly, I received a lot of information about why we should not approve but very little information about why we should approve it.
Explanation:
This may initially sound boring but if you are brave and not to sleepy, try to read the following. A revised form of government is the biggest change that has come to the Presbyterian church in 30 years. I have come to believe that the new form of government is essential and extremely important for us to grow our ministry through creativity and imagination.
The way the Presbyterian Church governs is mainly though the Book of Order (BOO). We also look at our Book of Confessions as well as the Bible for how to rule, govern and discern issues that come up. The BOO has become the regulations book that has rules on just about everything we do as a church (i.e. how many people need to be on a pastoral search committee, how many people of diverse racial back grounds need to be on the committee for representation, ordination standards, rules for calling pastors, church property rules, rules of order for meetings, session rules and a million others). A book was written that mentions our BOO to be a book with blood on every page. What this means it every time the Presbyterian Church has had conflict in the past, they wrote a new rule and put in the book of order. Since inception, the BOO has been modified more then 300 times to put in new rules. The number and complexity of the rules has become unwieldy and unrealistic for a large number of Presbyteries and congregations. Currently, there are a large number of Presbyteries and churches who ignore parts of the BOO because they are situationally unable to conform to the BOO.
Examples:
A Spanish Presbyterian church in Texas needs a new pastor. They find a pastor from Mexico that can be called but our BOO states that our pastors need Hebrew and Greek. Sorry, can’t do it without begging for an exception.
A church or 20 people need to look for a pastor. They need 7 people on the nominating committee. What if they can’t get 7?
A Presbytery covers an area that is predominantly white with virtually no racial diversity. This Presbytery has to have a Committee On Representation (COR)with racial diversification. You have very few racially diverse people willing to serve and if they do, you have to tell them to service on the COR committee.
All churches are supposed to have a financial audit once a year. I heard that up to 50% of the congregations don’t do it. Maybe because of cost or effort but they are supposed to because of the BOO. Again the current BOO (form of government is failing to enforce the rules).
The revised (new) form of government is designed to be a constitutional rather then regulatory form of Government. Like the US constitution, it is to provide guidelines on how to regulate but it provides some flexibility in interpretation and execution. There will still be rules but they will be broader in scope. The nFOG is designed not to handcuff churches, sessions and presbyteries into regulatory rules that don’t always make contextual sense.
This new Form of Government is sometimes called missional because the belief is that the church can focus more of the efforts on creative mission activities rather then worrying about compliance with regulatory rules.
This does not mean anarchy or there are no rules. There are boundaries, rules and guidelines. The revised form of government purposefully stays away from specifics but writes the constitution in such a way that any situation can be interpreted in the context of the constitutional guidelines.
The committee work began in earnest on Monday. Hearings continued and we heard from advocates and dissenters about the new (revised) form of government (nFOG). I was truly surprised by the ratio of people that wanted the nFOG to be approved. Before the Assembly, I received a lot of information about why we should not approve but very little information about why we should approve it.
Explanation:
This may initially sound boring but if you are brave and not to sleepy, try to read the following. A revised form of government is the biggest change that has come to the Presbyterian church in 30 years. I have come to believe that the new form of government is essential and extremely important for us to grow our ministry through creativity and imagination.
The way the Presbyterian Church governs is mainly though the Book of Order (BOO). We also look at our Book of Confessions as well as the Bible for how to rule, govern and discern issues that come up. The BOO has become the regulations book that has rules on just about everything we do as a church (i.e. how many people need to be on a pastoral search committee, how many people of diverse racial back grounds need to be on the committee for representation, ordination standards, rules for calling pastors, church property rules, rules of order for meetings, session rules and a million others). A book was written that mentions our BOO to be a book with blood on every page. What this means it every time the Presbyterian Church has had conflict in the past, they wrote a new rule and put in the book of order. Since inception, the BOO has been modified more then 300 times to put in new rules. The number and complexity of the rules has become unwieldy and unrealistic for a large number of Presbyteries and congregations. Currently, there are a large number of Presbyteries and churches who ignore parts of the BOO because they are situationally unable to conform to the BOO.
Examples:
A Spanish Presbyterian church in Texas needs a new pastor. They find a pastor from Mexico that can be called but our BOO states that our pastors need Hebrew and Greek. Sorry, can’t do it without begging for an exception.
A church or 20 people need to look for a pastor. They need 7 people on the nominating committee. What if they can’t get 7?
A Presbytery covers an area that is predominantly white with virtually no racial diversity. This Presbytery has to have a Committee On Representation (COR)with racial diversification. You have very few racially diverse people willing to serve and if they do, you have to tell them to service on the COR committee.
All churches are supposed to have a financial audit once a year. I heard that up to 50% of the congregations don’t do it. Maybe because of cost or effort but they are supposed to because of the BOO. Again the current BOO (form of government is failing to enforce the rules).
The revised (new) form of government is designed to be a constitutional rather then regulatory form of Government. Like the US constitution, it is to provide guidelines on how to regulate but it provides some flexibility in interpretation and execution. There will still be rules but they will be broader in scope. The nFOG is designed not to handcuff churches, sessions and presbyteries into regulatory rules that don’t always make contextual sense.
This new Form of Government is sometimes called missional because the belief is that the church can focus more of the efforts on creative mission activities rather then worrying about compliance with regulatory rules.
This does not mean anarchy or there are no rules. There are boundaries, rules and guidelines. The revised form of government purposefully stays away from specifics but writes the constitution in such a way that any situation can be interpreted in the context of the constitutional guidelines.
Sunday – Part 2 – the attacks & fireworks and begin
Our committee conducted hearings on our new Form Of Government proposal on Sunday. There were a few Overtures proposing an alternative point of view. Some of the arguments were civil, some were not. One Presbytery put together a little comedy video to express their objections to the new form of government that was to be proposed. The video (from the Presbytery that contains Hollywood) depicted boxers slugging it out, and a referee that allowed the boxers to get away with fighting dirty. Although, very creative, the tone of the video was disrespectful of the task force that spent 2 years on the proposal and hit below the belt like their boxers in the video. A new friend of mine from the committee stood up after the video and called them out. He stated that the video was in poor taste and did not reflect mutual respect or brotherly love in Christ. Several on the committee voiced agreement and an apology followed. This incident set the tone for our committee to work together in mutual respect even in disagreement over the next couple of days. The leaders of our committee commended us over the next couple of days in how we worked together.
Sunday night there was a dinner on Nicolet Island, an island on the Mississippi with some entertainment and fireworks. We had to take buses to get to Nicolet Island and it takes long lines and a lot of buses to get 2000 people anywhere. I went for dinner and as usual sat with a bunch of people I had never met before but found the conversation easy and fun. I ended up leaving before the fireworks for fear that I wouldn’t get back to the hotel till after mid-night and our committee was scheduled to start early. It is sometimes a bit of a trial to be hanging out in crowds of 2000.
Sunday night there was a dinner on Nicolet Island, an island on the Mississippi with some entertainment and fireworks. We had to take buses to get to Nicolet Island and it takes long lines and a lot of buses to get 2000 people anywhere. I went for dinner and as usual sat with a bunch of people I had never met before but found the conversation easy and fun. I ended up leaving before the fireworks for fear that I wouldn’t get back to the hotel till after mid-night and our committee was scheduled to start early. It is sometimes a bit of a trial to be hanging out in crowds of 2000.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Day 3 - Sunday - the Universal church - happy 4th
I am blogging a day behind because the meetings are long and the days are full. My FOG committee is making great progress and we have established some great relationships in our committee. I will discuss more of that later.
Sunday morning the GA had a worship service in the Minneapolis Convention center. There must have been between 4-5000 people at the service. The service was awesome. The service had an amazing blend of cultures, music, worship styles and fabulously diverse. It started with a Native American processional with dancing and Native American props. The service had an awesome organist with an orchestra that did some traditional music, a contemporary band that led us in some praise hymns, a choir that was 250-300 strong, Native American and Latino music. We sang a spiritual led by an African American group of singers and we performed the communion in English, Spanish and Korean. It was a very moving service. Although the Presbyterian church is still 90% white, it shows us where we have to go.
Sunday morning the GA had a worship service in the Minneapolis Convention center. There must have been between 4-5000 people at the service. The service was awesome. The service had an amazing blend of cultures, music, worship styles and fabulously diverse. It started with a Native American processional with dancing and Native American props. The service had an awesome organist with an orchestra that did some traditional music, a contemporary band that led us in some praise hymns, a choir that was 250-300 strong, Native American and Latino music. We sang a spiritual led by an African American group of singers and we performed the communion in English, Spanish and Korean. It was a very moving service. Although the Presbyterian church is still 90% white, it shows us where we have to go.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Day 2 - Part 3 - New Moderator Elected
At GA we have approximately 700 commissioners - 1/2 elders, 1/2 clergy. We also have Youth advisory delegates & missionary delegates. We also have maybe 1500 - 2000 observers and staff, task force members and volunteers. It's big. The commissioners are the ones who vote on issues including who becomes our next Moderator. We began the Moderator selection process at 7pm on Saturday. Each candidate got to speak for 10 miuntes (so many candidates - total of 60 miuntes). We had questions for 90 miuntes. So it's 9:30 before we start voting. The assembly is high tech too where all the commissioners and advisory delegates have electronic voting devices. Like remote controls for the TV. A candidate has to have a simple majority before the election is called. With 6 candidates this was bound to take several iterations. Well that was fine except for the glitches in the voting devices. We realized that abuot 100 votes were not being counted. We worked through the problems and the final vote came in about 10:45pm.
The new moderator voted in was Cindy Bolbech. Cindy's characteristics that I observed; she has a great sense of humor, she loves the church, she was the only non-minister candidate, she seemed the most liberal although it did not sound as though she was interested in pushing an agenda except to make the church stronger by being creative. It seemed like a great choice, I suppose we will see when we measure our progress at the next GA.
The new moderator voted in was Cindy Bolbech. Cindy's characteristics that I observed; she has a great sense of humor, she loves the church, she was the only non-minister candidate, she seemed the most liberal although it did not sound as though she was interested in pushing an agenda except to make the church stronger by being creative. It seemed like a great choice, I suppose we will see when we measure our progress at the next GA.
Day 2 Part 2 - White privledge and an interracial discussion
Saturday June 3.
I went to another pre-assembly workshop. "Equipping the Church for Ministry with God's diverse family". When I attended, I actually thought this was going to be about drawing a diversity of people to the church. It turned out to be a discussion on racism. We got to hear from a African American county preacher (Jerrod), a Native American (Buddy), a African American woman((Catrelia) and a white woman named Ann. Jerrod was young and charismatic country preacher (self proclaimed) and called us to fight racism simply by calling on the power of the raised voice. It is a tool you have, it doesn't cost money, it doesn't take too much effort, it just takes guts. Buddy's message was similiar, there are too many people in the world whose voices have long since been silenced. We don't hear or pay attention. Catrelia was born in NC in a "colored wing" of the hospital. Went to an all black school (segregated on purpose) and told us the only jobs for the black kids was picking cotton. When hearing this, it makes us realize how far we have come but it was when Ann spoke that I realized how far we have to go. Ann talked about white privledge. Whites still have huge unspoken advantage over other races. They are more likely to get the job, get the loan, get a better quality education. After the talk, I sat around a fully integrated table and we discussed what diversity we had in our communities and what we could do to make it better. I was embarassed to say that I live in Mason, Ohio where there is very little divesity and even though we are starting to get a bit more racially diverse, there is very little socio-economic diversity.
I went to another pre-assembly workshop. "Equipping the Church for Ministry with God's diverse family". When I attended, I actually thought this was going to be about drawing a diversity of people to the church. It turned out to be a discussion on racism. We got to hear from a African American county preacher (Jerrod), a Native American (Buddy), a African American woman((Catrelia) and a white woman named Ann. Jerrod was young and charismatic country preacher (self proclaimed) and called us to fight racism simply by calling on the power of the raised voice. It is a tool you have, it doesn't cost money, it doesn't take too much effort, it just takes guts. Buddy's message was similiar, there are too many people in the world whose voices have long since been silenced. We don't hear or pay attention. Catrelia was born in NC in a "colored wing" of the hospital. Went to an all black school (segregated on purpose) and told us the only jobs for the black kids was picking cotton. When hearing this, it makes us realize how far we have come but it was when Ann spoke that I realized how far we have to go. Ann talked about white privledge. Whites still have huge unspoken advantage over other races. They are more likely to get the job, get the loan, get a better quality education. After the talk, I sat around a fully integrated table and we discussed what diversity we had in our communities and what we could do to make it better. I was embarassed to say that I live in Mason, Ohio where there is very little divesity and even though we are starting to get a bit more racially diverse, there is very little socio-economic diversity.
Day 2 - Part 1 - I'm not happy, I'm not leaving
Saturday:
I attended 2 different pre-assembly workshops Saturday morning. The first was conversations on Civil Unions and Christian Marriage Task Force Report. To make a long story short, the task force agreed to disaggree and realize there was no middle ground. So they had a majority report and a minority report. This came as no suprise, perhaps the opinion along these lines is determined genetically. The surprising part was the amedable attitudes during discussion. One member of the task force had a great analogy.
There was once this couple that was recently married. Both of them panicked everytime they had a fight because they were sure the fight would break them up and they would lose each other. This went on until one day the husband was furious over a disagreement and decided to start the argument with this phrase "I'm not happy and I'm not leaving". This allowed them to fight in earnest without unreasonable fear of losing something important. This is a good way to be. There are always going to be times when there is no right, there is no compromise and each partner in a disagreement will not concede. I occassionally have these types of disagreements with my wife and we decide that it is just best to agree to disaggree and move on. Of course, in my mind I know I am right and in my wife's mind, she knows she's right. We can live with this as a couple and we can live with this as a denomination. We may never stop nagging each other and we may continue to try to get our way and just maybe, there is a slim chance that one day I will see the light and realize that my wife has been right all along. My wife and I do agree on the important things, God, forgiveness, and a true love for each other so who cares about anything else.
I attended 2 different pre-assembly workshops Saturday morning. The first was conversations on Civil Unions and Christian Marriage Task Force Report. To make a long story short, the task force agreed to disaggree and realize there was no middle ground. So they had a majority report and a minority report. This came as no suprise, perhaps the opinion along these lines is determined genetically. The surprising part was the amedable attitudes during discussion. One member of the task force had a great analogy.
There was once this couple that was recently married. Both of them panicked everytime they had a fight because they were sure the fight would break them up and they would lose each other. This went on until one day the husband was furious over a disagreement and decided to start the argument with this phrase "I'm not happy and I'm not leaving". This allowed them to fight in earnest without unreasonable fear of losing something important. This is a good way to be. There are always going to be times when there is no right, there is no compromise and each partner in a disagreement will not concede. I occassionally have these types of disagreements with my wife and we decide that it is just best to agree to disaggree and move on. Of course, in my mind I know I am right and in my wife's mind, she knows she's right. We can live with this as a couple and we can live with this as a denomination. We may never stop nagging each other and we may continue to try to get our way and just maybe, there is a slim chance that one day I will see the light and realize that my wife has been right all along. My wife and I do agree on the important things, God, forgiveness, and a true love for each other so who cares about anything else.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Day 1 - In a FOG
I arrived this morning in Minneapolis. So far, the experience is fantastic. It is so easy to be around the Presbyterians. In a way it is very much like family. I am enjoying the experience and greatly enjoying the people I am meeting. Just like being around family too long, I'm sure I will be irked by some of our discussions we will have this week. However, it is so incredibly cool that our denomination pulls together to directly discuss our issues, head-on, no soft petaling. Today there was a lot of discussion about how to treat and interact with each other, our co-moderator of our committee spoke and kept saying, it's not if you disagree, it is when you disagree you should follow the disagreement guidelines (Speak respectfully, maintain a spirit of Love in Jesus, be ready to forgive and be forgiven).
My Committee, new "Form of Government" is considering a recommendation to accept a major re-write of the book of order. (for those non-Presbyterians, the BOO is our polity book, sort of our laws of regulation that provide rules for everything from hiring pastors, to selling Presbyterian properties, to ordination, to rules about who should be on a churches session, how the committee on Ministry should act etc. When first hearing about being selected for this committee, I thought BLAHHHHHH!!!! I thought I was going to do nothing but work on bureaucracy. I was not sure how this was supposed to help the Presbyterian Church. On reflection, the work of this committee could introduce one of the biggest changes to the Presbyterian church in decades. So it is more exciting then perhaps it sounds.
One of the main reasons for this new Form of Government (nFOG) proposal is to help the smaller congregations and geographically diverse Presbyteries. A church of 20 people, can't have a 8 member pastor nominating committee A Presbytery of 30 churches, 900 members over 4 states can't hope to fulfill the requirements set up in the book of order for the Committee On Ministry.
So what does the FOG task force want to do? The recommendation or this nFOG is to create more flexibility and make the rules and regulations less rigorous so churches, presbyteries and synods can focus more on issues of greater importance like mission. It greatly reduces the size of the BOO. In addition, this nFOG could be a peace plan of how we can accept more diversity by creating a more flexible environment.
It is a very complex issue. So complex that our committee started a day before everyone else.
Conceptually, the nFOG seems to be good idea. However, it also seems there may be tremendous issues and problems with dealing with conflict, power of the governing bodies and even some of the new language with the nFOG. I don't know enough yet to have an opinion. We will be taking a large part of Sunday and Monday to continue to study and understand this complex issue.
My Committee, new "Form of Government" is considering a recommendation to accept a major re-write of the book of order. (for those non-Presbyterians, the BOO is our polity book, sort of our laws of regulation that provide rules for everything from hiring pastors, to selling Presbyterian properties, to ordination, to rules about who should be on a churches session, how the committee on Ministry should act etc. When first hearing about being selected for this committee, I thought BLAHHHHHH!!!! I thought I was going to do nothing but work on bureaucracy. I was not sure how this was supposed to help the Presbyterian Church. On reflection, the work of this committee could introduce one of the biggest changes to the Presbyterian church in decades. So it is more exciting then perhaps it sounds.
One of the main reasons for this new Form of Government (nFOG) proposal is to help the smaller congregations and geographically diverse Presbyteries. A church of 20 people, can't have a 8 member pastor nominating committee A Presbytery of 30 churches, 900 members over 4 states can't hope to fulfill the requirements set up in the book of order for the Committee On Ministry.
So what does the FOG task force want to do? The recommendation or this nFOG is to create more flexibility and make the rules and regulations less rigorous so churches, presbyteries and synods can focus more on issues of greater importance like mission. It greatly reduces the size of the BOO. In addition, this nFOG could be a peace plan of how we can accept more diversity by creating a more flexible environment.
It is a very complex issue. So complex that our committee started a day before everyone else.
Conceptually, the nFOG seems to be good idea. However, it also seems there may be tremendous issues and problems with dealing with conflict, power of the governing bodies and even some of the new language with the nFOG. I don't know enough yet to have an opinion. We will be taking a large part of Sunday and Monday to continue to study and understand this complex issue.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Honored to be in your prayers
As stated in my previous blog, I have received a ton of mail regarding the General Assembly. Most of the mail contains information about different groups agendas and opinions. I don't have any problem or complaints about this type of mail, it effectively informs me of the issues and arguments for or against certain points.
In this blog, I wanted to share information about another type of mail I have received. A couple of mailings that express no opinion, just notes from people that tell me they are praying for me. A couple days ago, I received a hand written letter from a woman, Dorthy Kirpatrick from Sarasota Florida. Below is what the letter stated:
Dear Gregg,
A short note to tell you I will be praying for our safe travel to the General Assembly. May you seek God's will in making decisions in all discernments. God Bless You, Your prayer partner - Dorthy Kirpatrick.
The note made my day. Thank you Dorthy and thank all of you for your continued prayers. It means a lot to me. It is such an honor to serve as commissioner to GA and even more of an honor for people like Dorthy to be praying for me.
In this blog, I wanted to share information about another type of mail I have received. A couple of mailings that express no opinion, just notes from people that tell me they are praying for me. A couple days ago, I received a hand written letter from a woman, Dorthy Kirpatrick from Sarasota Florida. Below is what the letter stated:
Dear Gregg,
A short note to tell you I will be praying for our safe travel to the General Assembly. May you seek God's will in making decisions in all discernments. God Bless You, Your prayer partner - Dorthy Kirpatrick.
The note made my day. Thank you Dorthy and thank all of you for your continued prayers. It means a lot to me. It is such an honor to serve as commissioner to GA and even more of an honor for people like Dorthy to be praying for me.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Civil Marriage and Holy Unions
Outlook magazine (http://www.pres-outlook.org/) has sponsored webinars every Tuesday to present some of the major issues coming up before GA. It has done an excellent job at getting speakers to represent both sides of the issues. The webinar yesterday was presenting the "Report On Civil Marriage and Holy Unions". I see this issue and any issue regarding same-sex couples, Civil Unions, LBGT ordination, homosexuality as one of the most contentious issues and in many ways it baffles me. First of all, I do not believe homosexuality is a sin or a choice. I am sure that last sentence offends many but I would challenge you to walk a mile in my shoes. I have a 24 year old son that is gay. He is extremely helpful, generous, and compassionate. As a child, he was very involved in the church and because he feels the church does not accept or condone his life style, I don't know if I will ever get him back to church. This breaks my heart for the church means so much to me.
Getting back to why the contentious nature of this issue baffles me. If homosexuality is a sin, why is more of a sin then materialism, coveting, divorce, lying, ignoring people in need. If homosexuality is a sin and all sins are the same then I suppose then only God can be ordained. I have heard several that are against same-sex anything say that we want to welcome everyone into our church and want to be inclusive and welcome and invite the LGBT community into our flock. We invite them to ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. My wife would never belong to a church that did not ordain women, why would we expect the gay community to flock to come to a church that considers them less worthy then others. We are missing out on an opportunity to evangelize and grow within this segment of the population. It is not only the LGBT people that we are discouraging to come in our doors, it is their families, friends & sympathizers. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors why the church is shrinking.
I love my church and love being a Presbyterian, I will never abandon the church. The church is flawed as I know I am. I pray that the people of the world including me can see past the flaws, disagreements and intolerance and see the church for what it is meant to be, a place to find God and a vehicle to show gratitude for what God has given us by ministering to the rest of the world.
Getting back to why the contentious nature of this issue baffles me. If homosexuality is a sin, why is more of a sin then materialism, coveting, divorce, lying, ignoring people in need. If homosexuality is a sin and all sins are the same then I suppose then only God can be ordained. I have heard several that are against same-sex anything say that we want to welcome everyone into our church and want to be inclusive and welcome and invite the LGBT community into our flock. We invite them to ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. My wife would never belong to a church that did not ordain women, why would we expect the gay community to flock to come to a church that considers them less worthy then others. We are missing out on an opportunity to evangelize and grow within this segment of the population. It is not only the LGBT people that we are discouraging to come in our doors, it is their families, friends & sympathizers. Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors why the church is shrinking.
I love my church and love being a Presbyterian, I will never abandon the church. The church is flawed as I know I am. I pray that the people of the world including me can see past the flaws, disagreements and intolerance and see the church for what it is meant to be, a place to find God and a vehicle to show gratitude for what God has given us by ministering to the rest of the world.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Not more mail!
We the commissioners were warned early that there would be mountains of information to read and process. I think as of today I finally have a little insight on the truth of that statement. There is much information provided from the GA that we have access to on the web site. Every issue that the local presbytery's or Synods want GA to consider is communicated in what they call overtures. So the GA provides us with a site with all the overtures we are to consider at the upcoming GA. This is tremendous amount of information. But this only scratches the surface of the information we receive at home.
There are 'Affinity' or 'Special Purpose' organizations that have their own passions and agendas. Some of these organizations include: Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Presbyterian Voices for Justice, Pro-Life Presbyterians, Presbyterian Lay committee and others. So these organizations testify before assembly committees and try to help inform, educate and sway GA members. All of these organizations have agendas and causes that they want to effect during the GA so they send out mailings. They send mailings promoting their points of view and agendas. Some I agree with, and some I don't. I have received many mailings from various groups.
It is amazing how involved we Presbyterians are in social, economic and political causes. I would think the average Presbyterian has no idea. I know I didn't. For instance, there is an overture that has been sent to the GA to suspend military aid to Columbia. The US has certified that Columbia is Okay in regards to human rights even though there are reports of youth killings by the army and there is significant illegal surveillance done by the government. The US is planning to lease 7 military bases from Columbia (contributing to funds for the Colombian government). The overture wants us to protest the US governments support of Columbia. I had no idea we are providing military aid to Columbia and why we should or shouldn't.
There are 'Affinity' or 'Special Purpose' organizations that have their own passions and agendas. Some of these organizations include: Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Presbyterian Voices for Justice, Pro-Life Presbyterians, Presbyterian Lay committee and others. So these organizations testify before assembly committees and try to help inform, educate and sway GA members. All of these organizations have agendas and causes that they want to effect during the GA so they send out mailings. They send mailings promoting their points of view and agendas. Some I agree with, and some I don't. I have received many mailings from various groups.
It is amazing how involved we Presbyterians are in social, economic and political causes. I would think the average Presbyterian has no idea. I know I didn't. For instance, there is an overture that has been sent to the GA to suspend military aid to Columbia. The US has certified that Columbia is Okay in regards to human rights even though there are reports of youth killings by the army and there is significant illegal surveillance done by the government. The US is planning to lease 7 military bases from Columbia (contributing to funds for the Colombian government). The overture wants us to protest the US governments support of Columbia. I had no idea we are providing military aid to Columbia and why we should or shouldn't.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
GA Committee assignment
During the GA, there will be several committees discussing very complex issues. Some of the issues to be discussed include the following:
Civil Union
Social Justice
Interfaith Relations
Peacemaking
Middle East
Church Growth
Theological Issues
as well as several other issues.
The committee I have been assigned to is called Form Of Government or the FOG committee. For those of you that are not familiar with the Presbyterians government it is very similar to the US government structure. Local government is the church and session (made up of Elders who help run the day to day operation of the church). The Presbytery is a regional governing body like our local municipality or county governments, the Synod contains several Presbyteries is like the state government and the General Assembly is like the Federal Government. The Presbyterian church has a book or rules and guidelines called the Book of Order. This has rules that govern how meetings are run, how to hire and fire pastors, defines the structure of governmental bodies and committees and many, many other details.
So back to the FOG committee. The goal of the FOG (Form of Government)Task Force was to revise the Book of Order (BoO) to make it less of an operations manual and more of a constitution. Therefore, it will be shorter with many more decisions being made at the Presbytery or congregational level. This sounds like a good idea but is pretty scary to many because the BoO has grown to such length because we don't trust each other to make good decisions. Also it has been my experience that the BoO is your friend when someone (a member) wants to do something outlandish. It is so much easier to say, "Sorry the BoO says I'm not allowed. Isn't it a shame." than to just say "no" against the political pressure that can sometimes be brought to bear.
Perhaps this committee sounds a bit boring and bureaucratic, it is actually quite interesting in that it could represent one of the biggest changes in the Presbyterian church government in several decades. It is supposed to be a peace plan to help us get along with each other better.
Civil Union
Social Justice
Interfaith Relations
Peacemaking
Middle East
Church Growth
Theological Issues
as well as several other issues.
The committee I have been assigned to is called Form Of Government or the FOG committee. For those of you that are not familiar with the Presbyterians government it is very similar to the US government structure. Local government is the church and session (made up of Elders who help run the day to day operation of the church). The Presbytery is a regional governing body like our local municipality or county governments, the Synod contains several Presbyteries is like the state government and the General Assembly is like the Federal Government. The Presbyterian church has a book or rules and guidelines called the Book of Order. This has rules that govern how meetings are run, how to hire and fire pastors, defines the structure of governmental bodies and committees and many, many other details.
So back to the FOG committee. The goal of the FOG (Form of Government)Task Force was to revise the Book of Order (BoO) to make it less of an operations manual and more of a constitution. Therefore, it will be shorter with many more decisions being made at the Presbytery or congregational level. This sounds like a good idea but is pretty scary to many because the BoO has grown to such length because we don't trust each other to make good decisions. Also it has been my experience that the BoO is your friend when someone (a member) wants to do something outlandish. It is so much easier to say, "Sorry the BoO says I'm not allowed. Isn't it a shame." than to just say "no" against the political pressure that can sometimes be brought to bear.
Perhaps this committee sounds a bit boring and bureaucratic, it is actually quite interesting in that it could represent one of the biggest changes in the Presbyterian church government in several decades. It is supposed to be a peace plan to help us get along with each other better.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Isreal Palestine conflit
For several years, the Presbyterians have been protesting the treatment of the Palestinian people by Israel. Settlements, bulldozing of Palestinian homes, heavy handed responses to regional conflicts. The commissioners had a meeting at Cincinnati Presbytery today and as part of the agenda met the American Jewish Committee. A committee within Presbytery has submitted a report for the GA to review. It is asking Presbyterians to extend our protests to our wallets and to not support businesses or organizations that may contribute to the Zionist cause. This has the American Jewish community up in arms. I have not read the report in full yet but understand that it is equating the situation to apartheid. Four individuals from the American Jewish Committee came to our meeting today to ask us to consider the situation from their point of view. There is definitely blame to go around and I can't imagine living as a Jew in a state in the middle east where nearly every country around you wants to see you wiped off the face of the earth. With both the Jewish and Islamic eye for an eye mentality and holding of grudges, the situation is difficult and sad.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Commissioning of Cincy Presbytery particpants
Last night we that were chosen as commissioners for GA were commissioned at the Cincinnati Presbytery meeting. The highlight of the meeting was not the commissioning but of the speaker 'Walter Bruggemann'. In his sermon, he discussed that as Christians we should be subversive to the empire, in the old days, the Persian empire or Roman empire. Today, we should be subversive to the materialistic, economic empire. He also stated as Christians, whether liberals or conservatives, in Christ it doesn't matter. It seems we all have an agenda to squabble over. Bruggemann stated that our focus should be on Generosity, Hospitality and Forgiveness and the rest shouldn't matter. This is good advice as I prepare for GA for we all have agendas and opinions that we want to have heard and listened to but perhaps this is not really our purpose.
Friday, May 7, 2010
I have been nominated to go to the Presbyterian General Assembly (GA) this summer. This Blog is to share my experience as I get ready for the event and participate. The subjects covered are extensive and interesting. The hot topics we will discuss are 'same sex marriage', 'Israel / Palestine conflict', Human trafficking and many other interesting and perhaps not so interesting topics.
For those that don't know what GA is, it is the National governing body of the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has over 11,000 congregations which are organized into 173 presbyteries (district governing bodies) and 16 synods (regional governing bodies).The GA is the national governing body over all of this.
The General Assembly consists of commissioners elected by presbyteries. Half of the commissioners will be Ministers of Word and Sacrament, half will be elders. Few will ever have been commissioners to the General Assembly before, but most will have served in one of the other governing bodies of our church: the session, which provides care and oversight of a local congregation; the presbytery, which provides care and oversight of a group of congregations; or the synod which provides care and oversight of several presbyteries.
It reviews the work of synods, resolves controversies in the church, is responsible for matters of common concern for the whole church, and serves as a symbol of unity for the church.
Why me? I am not sure. Perhaps it is God's calling, perhaps it is because I'm a sucker that said yes, and perhaps it is because I have a vested interest in having the Presbyterian church be there when I am old to give me spiritual, physical and emotional support.
For those that don't know what GA is, it is the National governing body of the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has over 11,000 congregations which are organized into 173 presbyteries (district governing bodies) and 16 synods (regional governing bodies).The GA is the national governing body over all of this.
The General Assembly consists of commissioners elected by presbyteries. Half of the commissioners will be Ministers of Word and Sacrament, half will be elders. Few will ever have been commissioners to the General Assembly before, but most will have served in one of the other governing bodies of our church: the session, which provides care and oversight of a local congregation; the presbytery, which provides care and oversight of a group of congregations; or the synod which provides care and oversight of several presbyteries.
It reviews the work of synods, resolves controversies in the church, is responsible for matters of common concern for the whole church, and serves as a symbol of unity for the church.
Why me? I am not sure. Perhaps it is God's calling, perhaps it is because I'm a sucker that said yes, and perhaps it is because I have a vested interest in having the Presbyterian church be there when I am old to give me spiritual, physical and emotional support.
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