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Welcome to the new Coordinating Group 2009-2010

April 24, 2009 By Ryan 13 Comments

On behalf of the Presbymergent Organ(ic)izing Group I would like to welcome the Presbymergent Coordinating Group for 2009-2010.  We enter in to an exciting phase of our journey as Presbymergent.  We shall journey together to expand understanding of “church”, be challenging as we are challenged, covenant together to bear witness to what God is doing in the church in & through us, & to support each other as were wrestle with common purpose, vision, and hope in transforming the denomination and the larger church to serve the emerging generations of sleeping geniuses.

The Presbymergent Coordinating Group for 2009-2010 is as follows.

Adam J. Copeland

Adam Walker Cleaveland

Andrew Seely

Bob Pearson

Carol Howard Merritt

Chad Andrew Herring

Charles Wiley

Chelle Honiker Yarbrough

Chris Brown

Chris Harrison

Dannah Walter

David Parker

David Williams

Drew Tatusko

Heather Grantham

Jan Edmiston

Jen Reiff

Jenny Warner

Jim Howland

John Franke

John Gulden

John Vest

Joseph J Dorociak

Jud Hendrix

Karen Sloan

Landon Whitsitt

Leon Bloder

Melissa Lynn DeRosia

Meredith Kemp-Pappan

Monica Hall

Nanette Sawyer

Neal Locke

Quinn Fox

Ryan Kemp-Pappan

Sarah Glass

Scott Kinder-Pyle

Seth Thomas

Thomas Brown

Tom Livengood

Tom Robinson

Tony Sundermeier

Troy Bronsink

Wendy Bailey

Filed Under: Presbymergent

Presbymergent CG now forming!

March 2, 2009 By Ryan 4 Comments

This is a notification to all current members of the Presbymergent Coordinating Group that our covenantal relationship has been fulfilled. We gathered in Louisville, Kentucky in mid-February and set to forming a permanent and lasting relationship. This relationship began sometime ago as an idea and has developed into a conversation. This conversation has touched, refreshed, challenged, and inspired many that have found themselves in a situation of want and hunger to live into the collective call of being a reformed body that is always reforming.

During the February gathering we developed 5 PODS to which we have committed our time and energy. These PODS are 1) National/Regional Cohorts to which the Presbymergent conversation seeks to move into face to face small group gatherings across the denominational landscape. 2) Creative Guilds that seek to offer space to creatively work with Liturgy that moves and shapes and speaks to this emerging vision of Presbymergent. 3) eVokation, a movable event that seeks to awaken “the sleeping creative geniuses” in our midst and live into the call to be the church. 4) NCD identification/support/fundraising that seeks to develop relationships, resources, and faith communities that waif the scent of Presbymergent as we walk along side each other in witnessing to the life present in the PC(USA). 5) Organ(ic)izing Group, which is responsible for forming the new Coordinating Group and working to formally organize Presbymergent into a non-profit group.

Presbymergent is seeking members for a new Coordinating Group [CG] and is seeking your involvement. We are asking that you prayerfully consider officially joining the conversation by intentionally joining the Presbymergent CG.

We ask that your intentional involvement with the Presbymergent conversation include physical presence in your local Presbymergent Cohort as it gathers and seeks to understand God’s call on our lives.

Please attend the local cohort.

We ask that your intentional involvement with the Presbymergent conversation include participation of one of the above PODS that Presbymergent is working towards this year.

Please participate in the work of Presbymergent.

We ask that your intentional involvement with the Presbymergent conversation include attendance of the annual CG gathering to be held February 9-11, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Please attend the annual CG gathering.

Becoming a member of the Presbymergent CG is not contingent upon completion of any or all of the above bolded statements. We seek only your intentional participation in the Presbymergent community, with the bold statements to be used as a guide to intentional participation.
If you are interested in participating in the Presbymergent CG please email us at [presbymergent@gmail.com] with your desire of participation and what, how, or where you would like to participate. There is no other criterion to membership other than a willingness to gather and converse.

The new Presbymergent CG will be announced around Easter 2009.

Filed Under: Presbymergent Tagged With: CG, Presbymergent

Nuni De Community

August 8, 2008 By Ryan Leave a Comment

If you are in Louisville on September 01, 2008 we are having our first gathering. We are gathering at The Old Louisville Coffeehouse from 7 to 9 pm. If you would like more information on this developing worshiping community cheack us out on facebook, twitter, or our blog.

You can also email us at nunidecommunity@gmail.com

A bit about us…

We are a worshiping community in Old Louisville seeking to be the Body of Christ to our neighbors. We wrestle with today’s church and its inability to transform the lives of those that find themselves on its shores. We seek new ways to be an incarnation body to the world. We desire to be free of the chains of differences and celebrate diversity, in all of its beauty. We answer the call on our lives in service to our communities as we endeavor to be the church and cease doing church.

We gather to create a safe place for all to explore faith, grace, love, and compassion.

We are not a “church” founded in bricks and mortar. We are a worshiping community founded in the principles of Gods unbiased love and never ending grace.

We are not just Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, or Catholic…or even Christian. We are seeking to be Christ-like, sans all the religious pomp and circumstance. We subscribe to a belief in God as witnessed in Jesus the Christ. We are inclusive and open to all. All are welcome…come.

Filed Under: Events, Networking, Presbymergent Tagged With: Events, gatherings, Nuni De Community

Transformation Pastor Training Event

July 31, 2008 By Ryan Leave a Comment

Hello Presbymergeniacs!

There is a beautiful air of transformation blowing through our denomination. There are many conversations on what tomorrows church will look like and how do we get there. Doors are opening up for new ways of being church. The collective hearts and minds of the PC (USA) are scrambling to offer places to gather and participate in the growth of a culturally sound and engaging church. These same folks are hoping to inspire and equip current leaders with something more that the traditional ministerial tool belt.

I want to point you towards the folks over in the Office of Evangelism & Church Growth. They are hosting an event from Sept. 29 to Oct. 02, 2008 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Those of you who are pastors, or soon to be pastors of churches in transformation, are in need of transformation, or if you are discerning a call to a church in transformation, please consider registering for this conference, here.

…plus, it’s on the beach…

More information can be found on PresbyGrow.

Also be on the look out for Presbymergent Conferences in your area in 2009. Contact us if you would like to sponsor, host, or participate in a Presbymergent conference in your area.

Filed Under: Events, Presbymergent Tagged With: Events, Transformation

If you are in the El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula area…

May 31, 2008 By Ryan 1 Comment

My home church is hosting

THE CHURCH BASEMENT ROADSHOW

I am excited that they are doing this. I see this as a huge step for them and the Presbytery in addressing the changing needs of the communities they serve and minister to.

So SATURDAY JUNE 14 @ First Presbyterian Church Granada Hills The ball drops at 6:30pm Location 10400 Zelzah Ave Northridge, Ca 91326. Local musical guest: Zack Zmed of The Janks

Filed Under: Presbymergent

Church Unbound!

May 28, 2008 By Ryan 11 Comments

I am so excited. I just can’t hide it. I am gonna lose control and I think I like it…

I hope to meet many of you at the conference.

Look at the Workshops Offered

  • Facing Our Differences Together: Toward a Next Generation Church, John Franke, Hatfield, PA
  • Becoming a Multicultural Community, Jin S. Kim, Minneapolis, MN
  • Worship Unbound: Hearing the Voice of Christ Amidst the Noise of an Uninhibited Generation, Melva W. Costen, Atlanta, GA
  • Our Post-Modern Age: An Introduction, W. Stacy Johnson, Princeton, NJ
  • Activating and Energizing Youth in Ministry in a Multicultural Setting, Marissa Galván-Valle, Louisville, KY
  • Reconnecting Our Connectionalism, Jack Haberer, Richmond, VA
  • Christian Worship and Preaching in a Post-Modern World, Rhashell Hunter, Louisville, KY
  • Presbyterian Global Fellowship, Scott Weimer, Atlanta, GA
  • Leading the Church Into the Future, Linda Bryant Valentine, Louisville KY
  • The Emerging Mainline: Church from Scratch, Nanette Sawyer, Chicago, IL
  • Post-Modern Biblical Interpretation, Eugene Eung-Chun Park, San Francisco, CA
  • Why Adapting Purpose-Driven is a Great Way to Fulfill the Great Ends! Michael Carey, Satellite Beach, FL
  • The Tribal Church, Carol Howard Merritt, Washington, DC
  • Presbyterians and Emergent, Karen E. Sloan, San Antonio, TX and Troy Bronsink, Atlanta, GA
  • Resurrecting Church, Shane Claiborne, Philadelphia, PA
  • Future Church, Anti-Racist Church, Lisa Larges, San Francisco, CA
  • 12 Dynamic Shifts to a Missional Church, E. Stanley Ott, Vienna, VA
  • Framing an Ecclesiology for the Congregation, John W. Stewart, Princeton, NJ
  • Another Resurrection Story, Maggie Lauterer, Burnsville, NC
  • First Order Thinking: Transforming Congregational Life from the Inside Out, Bill Golderer, Philadelphia, PA
  • Ready, Steady, Go: Young Adults Prepare to Lead! Bridgett A. Green, Louisville, KY

I stated before going to this event is parallel to Woodstock. If you are seeking to converse about/on the changing paradigm of ministry, church, and world then be here. Be here. Be here!

I wanted to inform y’all that there are 10 to 12 spots open as of right now with Covenant Community Church in Louisville for the Church Unbound conference at Montreat this July!

The cost is $156.25 for room and board. You register for the conference separately.

If you are interested in this red hott deal email me at thefetteredheart@gmail.com and I will pass you along to the powers that be at Covenant Community Church.

Filed Under: Presbymergent

A few thoughts on Presbymergent

March 29, 2008 By Ryan 7 Comments

I gave up blogging for Lent. Easter was my first post in sometime. I have been chewing on what Presbymergent means to me and to the denomination. I wrote a post over at my blog about it.

I do hope that this gathering grows and blesses the denomination with new energy and opens the understanding of ministry to many. We have the ability to go to the margins offering a gospel message that sheds the BS of checklists and shame.

I ask y’all this…

How can we be loyal radicals in the context we find ourselves today?

What does this look like in the future?

Can radical loyalty exist with the demand of orthodoxy?

Filed Under: Presbymergent Tagged With: loyal radicals, ministry, vision

The crazy balance of your mind

December 7, 2007 By Ryan 10 Comments

I share this in hopes of gaining more insight from this collective wisdom. This morning Carol Howard Merritt, alumni from APTS, discussed the financial disparity that exists out there in ChurchWorldLand. She says, “I wish that each pastor had a set amount, based on cost of living, housing, experience, and education. A set salary, where certain things don’t matter—things like ethnicity, age, gender. And certain things do matter, like how much you had to go into debt to get your seminary education.” Carol I am with you. It hurts deeply to imagine a world full of debt and suffering in a place that is supposedly home to most of the world’s wealth.

I will be the first person to admit that even our lowest standard of living is higher than many countries average daily income levels. We are not the worst. We are also sitting atop a volatile mountain of debt, spending, and imaginary power cells. What the fuck are we living for? Where is the service to Christ? Where is the transformation? We are dying as a church in the west and people say they care but they are not supporting it.

I wrote this in response to Carol’s post. I am not a pastor, but a seminarian on the verge of graduation. I am terrified to go into ministry. All of the fears you spoke of add to my anxiety. What shall I do to ensure I can afford to raise a family or even serve a congregation? I heard far too much, “trust God! It is a matter of faith.” I agree trusting God is the beginning. Where is the practice of trust when it comes to financial support from the congregations? Folks will complain, but they will not support.

We are all to blame in the decline. We are part of the problem. This stance of “trust God and if you do not then you have no faith” removes the responsibility from congregations, the Body, and all have in supporting the church. We do not train pastors for free. Is it fair and good stewardship to expect these individuals to shoulder the cost of training that is required?

We have to pay 80 dollars per ordination exam — that is 400 dollars if you can pass these antiquated monsters in the first shot. Not many do! Then there are the psychological evaluations, anywhere from 600 to 2500 dollars. Then the cost of seminary itself, from 10,000 to 15,000 per year for tuition and an additional 10,000 or so to live each year. That is about 60,000 to 75,000 in debt to begin your service with. We need to be smarter with this. If we say we are concerned with the death of the church then we need to step up and support.

The day of the full time pastor maybe behind us. I for one think it is. We must seek sustainable ways to minister in the context to which we find ourselves. Does this mean we have to do away with seminaries and the education they provide? No, the seminary education is foundational to service in the reformed tradition. We must change our lives to live responsibly and centered on Christ.

I used to joke that I wanted to open the First Presbyterian Church of Holy Rollers Bowling Alley. I am no longer joking. Is a coffee house, pub, bowling alley, or restaurant the answer? It is sustainable and attracts folks. In some areas it would respond to the desire and need of a distanced population. It would provide a place for community, care, warmth, outreach, and financial resistance. We just need folks to grasp the idea. Like one of my favorite groups would said, “Rage full on!”

In conjunction with a new way we can inventory our stuff and ask: Do we need the ipod? The newest phone? The cable TV? The two cars? The this or the that? All of this stuff is nice. What does it say about what you live your life for and for whom you live for? I am a f’king hypocrite right along with many of us. I crave the technologies! The Apple computers. The name brand running shoes, the jeans, the shirts, the designer vitamins and food. I love to eat out and am overweight and a burden to this world. I do not practice all that I preach. I need grace, forgiveness, and courage to be what I have witnessed in this world. To stand against the tyranny of consumerism and stereotypes, and hopelessness.

There is a better way. Please pray about it and pray that we can find the way to the cross and sit at the feet of Jesus. The rebel rousing Jesus that roundhouse kicks the money lenders out of a house of Prayer. WTFWJD?

Filed Under: Christian Education, Churches, Culture, Emergent, Feedback, Funding, Leadership, Networking, Ordination, PC(USA), Polity, Presbymergent, Seminary, Theology Tagged With: , Churches, consumerism, jesus, mission, Seminary, shifting, wtfwjd

A Call to Ministry in a postmodern world

November 28, 2007 By Ryan 5 Comments

I have been working on a project for a few months now. I am finally putting it together. I apologize for the cross pollination from my site. I wanted to get some feed back from y’all before I finalize anything. I am shooting for a C or maybe a B-. Someone has to be average.

There has been much ado about postmodernism these days. There is postmodern architecture, postmodern philosophy, postmodern art, postmodern film, postmodern literature, postmodern music, postmodern theater, postmodern theology, and even postmodern postmodernism. You cannot escape conversation in many circles without postmodernism entering into it and mocking your modern intellectual vision.

The effects upon the cultural landscape moves today into tension with tomorrow. It begs us to ask the questions of where, when, why, and how of the very human fabric that weaves history, time, and space into a society or does it?

No matter how you interpret postmodernism you must contend that it is a reaction to the status quo. It is rooted in an outsider perspective that mounts attitudes of “us verses them” upon a position of entitlement.

What is Postmodern Theology?
Postmodern Christian theology is a theology rooted in reaction to the status quo. It should be counter-cultural in nature. It seeks to disturb and transform those engaged in the practice of theology. It looks to the pervading culture for means to express and illuminate the gospel message of Jesus Christ. It must not be comfortable or commodified. Theology that seeks to transform cannot and should not be consumed like fun size Halloween candy. To partake in the radical transforming nature of the gospel direct opposition to the status quo is called for.

Gone is the ability to stoically sit by as the gospel is used to propagate a conquering message that excludes and builds division. We are far to concerned with difference rather than similarities.

All are called to ministry. All are sought after to serve. In the Presbyterian tradition being a Minister of the Word and Sacrament does not entitle you to anything more than service. There is no difference between congregation and pastor. We are a body of Believers! Some of us have lost our salt. We are SALboosT as a denomination already.

Where must we go from here?

My outcome in this process
In the course of researching the topic of Postmodern understanding of call I conducted many interviews. I came across a few conclusions:

  1. Call is relative to one’s culture.
  2. Postmodern understanding of call is rooted in vocational understanding and a longing for security.
  3. Action is called for today. we must seek to engage the culture around us to become effective instruments of witness.

There is need for ministers, pastors, and preachers. There is also a need for the understanding of these roles to sift and become more flexible. Churches would benefit from becoming uncomfortable and challenge he status quo. What are you protecting and from what are you protecting it from? In a world full of adjectives, may we be a people of verbs.

Filed Under: Churches, Culture, Emergent, Leadership, Ordination, Polity, Presbymergent, Seminary, Theology Tagged With: call to ministry

Are we in an open relationship with God?

October 17, 2007 By Ryan 2 Comments

I was reading the Onion this morning and came across this article.

Im In An Open Relationship With The Lord

The Onion

I’m In An Open Relationship With The Lord

“With Jesus as my personal Savior, I felt like I had it all. But then we hit a rough patch, and before long, I was beginning to question both my…”

I wonder if all of the arguments and fighting over Gay rights within the denomination and other denominations has lead us to an idolatrous and unfaithful response to the Gospel.

In the pervading culture of 2000′s America we demand to be individual and special. We cannot stomach to be a sheep. We make fun of sheep. We look down at sheep. Yet we are called to be sheep. When we put on our religious gear we wear the sheep costume uncomfortably. When we go into the world we seek to hide our lambs wool.

What happened to the call to be in the world and not of it? Sisters and brothers have we lost our salt? Have we truly sought a biblical discourse on reconciliation? I am tired and weary from the fight. Maybe we need to split in San Jose. Perhaps the solution is to part ways and schism? This would be the seemingly easiest solution. It is the one I have been kicking around lately.

What would a missional posture mean to this discussion? Imagine the call on all our lives if we walked humble and in the shadow of Christ, absent of the false confidence of possession of the truth. We, I, fail and fail big. We all must don the sack cloth and ashes. Let us mourn together for we have crucified Christ again in our zeal to be right, to hold the truth. In this we miss the silent, quiet Christ that blesses the meek, that holds the marginalized in his arms and reconciles.

I believe, help me with my unbelief. I want to be faithful. I want to be true. I want to be right. This is my sin.

Filed Under: Churches, Culture, Emergent, PC(USA), Polity, Presbymergent