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Welcome to the new Coordinating Group 2009-2010

April 24, 2009 By 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 Has [gasp!] an Organizational Structure

March 25, 2009 By 6 Comments

Many wonderful things “emerged” from the first gathering of Presbymergent’s Coordinating Group last month in Louisville, and hopefully you’ll get to read more about them in the weeks and months to come.  One thing in particular that grew out of our discussions, shared interests, and dreaming was (surprisingly?) an organizational structure.  Now, at this point I imagine the Presbyterian readers are cheering and saying to themselves, “It’s about time!” while those with more emergent sensibilities are dusting the dirt from their sandals and saying, “Well, it was nice knowing you.”  However, it’s not as simple as that (it never is with us crazy post-modern types, is it?).

It’s true that many of us in the Presbymergent conversation have, over the past two years of our existence, cringed at the thought of becoming more structured, fearing that first step towards institutional irrelevance.  It’s also true that the “Presby” side of our heritage embraces things done “decently and in order.”  So the challenge for our tribe has always been to live in the tension between these two natures — the organized and the organic — being true to both and not letting one dominate the other.

When we gathered last month, there was energy around several things — some were proposed events, others were ideas, and some were goals for Presbymergent and related communities.  We quickly realized that our dreams outnumbered our hands, so only those things which gathered enough hands, feet, and commitments were carried forward.  Several “clusters” emerged, each with a point-person committed to shepherding the dream into reality over the coming year.   More specifics on the different clusters to come soon!

The cluster I was part of named itself the Organ(ic)izing Group to reflect our dual nature (and because parentheses are just sooo emergent) — or just “OhGee” for short — and was given the blessing of the Coordinating Group to accomplish the following:

  • Establish 501c3 Non-Profit Status for Presbymergent
  • Establish bylaws, budgets, transparent record keeping and accounting systems as needed for non-profit status
  • Constitute a new Coordinating Group through broad and open invitation, with concern toward diversity of gender, age, ethnicity and geographical location
  • Develop a “Conceptual Document” for and about Presbymergent (kind of like a mission statement, but more flexible, organic, and living)
  • Serve as a point of contact for inquiries about Presbymergent and for administrative decisions on behalf of the Coordinating Group.

Basically, while the other clusters are having fun being creative, the OhGee gets to do the “dirty work” of administration :-)   But not in a centralized, authoritative or controlling way, — rather with the desire and intent of empowering the other clusters to accomplish their tasks, mindful that our authority originates from and flows through the Presbymergent Coordinating Group.

There are eight members on the Organ(ic)izing Group:  Jan Edmiston, Heather Grantham, Chad Herring,  Carol Howard Merritt, Ryan Kemp Pappan , Neal Locke, Adam Walker Cleaveland, and David Williams.  Members were chosen by interest and consensus within the Coordinating Group (some volunteered, some were drafted) to serve for one year until the next gathering of the Coordinating Group, which will take place next February in Atlanta, GA.

As a final thought on venturing into a new way of existing, I find the metaphor of Wikipedia helpful:  On the surface, it would seem that wikipedia (and all wikis) are chaotic and ever-changing, where anyone has the power to contribute or change the content.  But if you look one layer deeper, Wikipedia is a software application, written in PHP and MySQL. In other words, it has a framework, a structure, a scaffolding, that, rather than locking down and controlling the website, actually preserves and protects the openness of wikipedia, helping it to accomplish its open-source goals.  We hope that we can do the same for Presbymergent, in an organized — but organic — sort of way.

Filed Under: Open Source, Presbymergent Tagged With: , , , ,

The Presbymergent Mission

March 14, 2009 By 11 Comments

I had posted this during the last day of the Presbymergent CG meeting and have received very positive feedback thus far. I am opening it up for hopefully further conversation and exploration in order to gain a sense of common purpose in common language as PODS hopefully begin to gather and coordinate activities. This is its edited form. The original can be seen here, but with very little difference.

I have been involved in a discussion surrounding Presbymergent for over a year now. The term is a combination of ”Presbyterian” (as in Presbyterian USA) and ”emergent” as in emergent Christianity. As most nascent organizations of like-minded people, it has begun as something with a lot of energy, a lot of ideas, and ideas of structure, but no real structure until recently. But in a pragmatic way of looking at the world, structure is something that tends to follow clear ideas rather than come prior to it. So my own Presbyterianism, a denomination named after its political structure rather than a founder (Lutheran) or a theology (Baptist) or ecclesiology (Catholic), causes a continual problem. Organizational structure comes prior to clarity of good ideas and that structure assumes that it has already been formed by good ideas; or, it has been formed with good enough ideas to persist.

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Filed Under: Open Source, PC(USA), Polity, Presbymergent, Theology Tagged With: , , ,

Presbymergent CG now forming!

March 2, 2009 By 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: ,

A Poetic-Practice Proposal for Presbymergent

February 27, 2009 By 2 Comments

At Presbymergent’s recent gathering of the Coordinating Group (Feb. 17—19, 2009) someone mentioned the book, Outliers; the Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. On my plane ride home (to Spokane, Washington), I spied the title in the Louisville airport, bought the text and began reading. As you may know, the gist of the best-seller is that “success” has been misconstrued. In fact, the journey toward a successful career or an acclaimed accomplishment has less to do with innate ability than we may have imagined. And so, I take heart. Connections, synergetic connections, among the participants of Presbymergent abound, and that, more than anything else, may be the key to our potential success in serving God.

And yet, allow me to offer this caveat. In chapter seven of Outliers, Gladwell chronicles the failed communication between Avianca Flight 052 and the traffic control tower of Kennedy airport. That excerpt too may be instructive for Presbymergent. Here’s the gist of what took place in January of 1990: the captain and first officer knew that their 707 was running low on fuel. However, instead of transmitting the dire nature of their circumstance, the Columbian pilots deferred to those brash-speaking controllers on the ground. Rather than emphatically demanding to land the plane immediately, their nonchalant description of the emergency—evidently pilots often say that they’re running low on fuel—led to a catastrophic crash into the estate of John McEnroe. “Thank you very much” were the last words of the first officer as Flight 052 maintained its dutiful holding pattern.

Now, here is the parallel that I would like to make with Presbymergent and the Presbyterian Church (USA): Between those who Twitter and those who do not, communication breaks down. Between those who regularly blog and those who do not, there is an intimidation factor that must be considered carefully as we move forward. Without disavowing or disabusing people of their technology, I propose that we begin to practice a disciplined poetic style of interacting with one another. I don’t mean that we discipline ourselves to speak in rhyme or even iambic pentameter, but that we carry on conversations based upon our contextual experience. That is, let’s begin to say things and to hear things that break through the thickening skin of the Emergent Village subculture. Let’s renounce the incessant tendency we may have to quote the ecclesial expert and let’s truly traffic in the lingo of the vulnerable and broken theo-babblers that we are.

One of the most compelling conversations that we had in Louisville took place at a pub on Thursday evening. I was tired and ready to go home, but a woman from Judd’s church simply asked us to tell why we’re so passionate about serving God. Each person then shared a vivid story of some loss, some trauma or some life-emergency, that precipitated and preceded the call of the Spirit. My sense is that we need Presbymergent to function like Theology On Tap, and that everyone should have the chance to contribute a poetic and authentic verse. If one verse is left out, or is conveniently ignored, or is not honored, Presbymergent will not become the dialogue we had hoped it could be.

Filed Under: Churches, Presbymergent

Follow @presbymergent Next Week

February 14, 2009 By 6 Comments

As Jan Edmiston mentioned in her post, Connecting Face to Face, the Presbymergent Coordinating Group is meeting in Louisville this upcoming week, February 17-19. We have almost the entire Coordinating Group coming out for the gathering, and we’re all very excited. We’re going to be having some really important conversations and I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more from the Coordinating Group members after our gathering. Be sure and check the blog during the next week or two. If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to the site’s RSS feed by clicking here or choosing the RSS Tab on the right sidebar.

Twitter

If you would like more immediate feedback and updates, and if you Twitter, please be sure to follow @presbymergent, which is our Twitter account.

We are also going to be using the hashtag of #pmergent, so you can search Twitter for that to find out what’s going on. If you want to search on Twitter, click here.

Direct Updates from Presbymergent on Twitter

One thing you might not be aware of, but if you want updates from a specific Twitter user, you can just text “follow username” to 40404 (which is Twitter’s number). So if you want to get text messages whenever @presbymergent updates on Twitter, just text “follow presbymergent” to 40404. You can also find our most recent Tweets and most recent posts with #pmergent in the sidebar.

I’ll be getting out there Tuesday and if you want to follow my updates you can check my blog pomomusings.com but I’ll probably be Twittering more, and you can follow me at @adamwc. If you’re going to be at the Coordinating Group meeting, please leave your name and blog below, and if you Twitter, leave your Twitter username if you want, so people can track what’s going on.

We’re very excited about this gathering – more next week from Louisville!

Filed Under: Events, Open Source, Presbymergent, Press Tagged With: , , , ,

Connecting Face to Face

February 13, 2009 By 1 Comment

Heidi Campbell teaches at Texas A&M and has a new book coming out: When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge.) She was the keynoter at an interesting event last year sponsored by Alban on Church 2.0 and I especially remember something she said about social networking communities: People who connect on Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, etc. have the need to meet face to face eventually. Second Lifers now have conventions that rival anything Star Trek ever inspired.

Next week, several of us are meeting in Louisville to lay eyes on each other for the first time – or at least it will be the first time for many. Most of us will be part of the Presbymergent Coordinating Team. I am hopeful and prayerfully pumped to gather and look at the future of the church from a Presbymergent perspective. And I’d ask for your prayers as we gather.

It’s a great time to be a loyal radical.

Filed Under: Presbymergent Tagged With:

Technology and the Next Presbyterian Hymnal

January 21, 2009 By 25 Comments

Sing to the Lord a new song!  Technology opens doors in the church and in the world. One tweet on Twitter can connect pastors in ways unimaginable when my Dad was in seminary (sorry, Pops). Blog communities bring new and exciting — though imperfect — ways to discuss Christ and culture. What self-respecting youth group these days doesn’t have a Facebook group? That said, I’m also aware of the growing digital divide in our congregations. Now, when we think of our diversity, we must also remember the diversity of those with email and those without, those with a high-speed internet connection and those without a computer. Ahh, the challenges of ministry in 2009.

The Presbyterian Hymnal Committee, a group formed last year, is in the initial stages of developing the next Presbyterian hymnal. The next hymnal will include songs composed since 1990 (the publication date of the blue hymnal) and will seek to honor our rich heritage. Perhaps it will bring back some from the red book, but it’ll also put into print some of the new places that God is leading us. For all your next hymnal questions check out http://presbyterianhymnal.org , and remember the committee is just beginning its work.

Especially in these early stages, though, I want to take to the committee some ways that new technology might best be used to sing a new song unto the Lord. Copyright law is tricky enough with printed materials, let alone when concerned with electronic formats, but I want to think broadly at this stage.

(On a parenthetical note, let’s not forget the amazing “technology” of the bound paper printed book. What a remarkable, durable, cheap, easy-to-use, technology it is — and will be for years to come. The next hymnal will certainly be in book format, but why stop there?)

The committee can make no promises — we have budget considerations like everybody else — but we will consider, in good faith, how God may be calling the church to use technology in its congregational song and worship planning. That’s where you come in.

Comment away. What tech ideas — hymnal/singing/worship related — would be handy in your congregation? How do you use the hymnal for worship planning and how could that be bettered with new technology? Do you use existing online worship resources? What, technologically speaking, should the hymnal committee consider?

Pop a comment on this post, or email me at adamjcopeland at gmail dot com. Peace.

Filed Under: alt.worship, Emerging Worship, Resources Tagged With: , , , ,

Emergence, Postmodernity, and the Love Ethic

January 10, 2009 By 2 Comments

In order for the emergent movement to be both progressive and faithful, it’s going to have to show how it transcends the deconstructionism and emphasis on radical particularity that has defined much of postmodern discourse. What does that mean?

Deconstructionism can be defined in an almost infinite number of ways, primarily because the postmodern movement tends to view any effort at definition to be somehow oppressive. I tend to view it as epistemological defenestration. ” Epi-whazza defene-huh?” you might say.

Epistemology is a fancy pantsy way of saying: “the study of how you know what you know.” It’s useful in moderation, but in excess it is also why philosophy has gone from being something that everyday human beings discussed and debated on the street corners to this self-referential something that functionally nobody gives a good God damn about.

Defenestration is an old term from the early days of the anarchist movement, and it basically just means “smashing the windows.” If the old system is to be destroyed, you find the places it can be shattered, and then you shatter them. Preferably by using a senior Vice President of Lehman Brothers as a projectile. This is pretty much the entire life of postmodern academics, although it happens through incomprehensible journal articles read by twelve other people rather than huge rioting mobs.

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Filed Under: Presbymergent Tagged With: , ,