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Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment: A Comment

April 30, 2009 By dtatusko 1 Comment

I finally got around to a careful read through of Beau Weston’s essay Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment which has received quite a bit of criticism from Presbymergent folks with whom I regularly interact. I started posting a couple of quick blog posts here and here, but they turned into a far bigger critical analysis. I post this here with the hope that it will 1) help the various conversations, and 2) save others some time in their analyses as I quite frankly do not perceive this discussion to be of the greatest importance to the life of the church in this hour of our life together. My reasoning for this judgment is, I think, clear enough in this document. Freely distribute to other discussion groups and presbyteries in the church as is useful and helpful.

Peace.

On Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment: A Comment – Andrew Tatusko

Filed Under: Churches, Culture, Leadership, Podcast, Polity

The Offering: An Emergent Theology Tale

October 21, 2008 By Leon Bloder 4 Comments

I have had more than my fair share of days when I have questioned my call to be a pastor. I read somewhere how a young man, who was thinking about becoming a pastor, asked his mentor—a pastor of many years—”When did you feel the call to go into ministry?” The older man didn’t bat an eyelash and replied, “This morning.”

I completely get that. There are days when I feel like I need to hear the call every five minutes just to assure me that I am doing what I am supposed to do with my life. Even when people tell me things that should reassure me, I struggle to believe that God would actually want to use someone like me for such an important task. I once heard that the great reformer, Martin Luther, used to feel as though the earth was going to open up and swallow him whole each time he rose to say the Mass. That comforts me a bit, really. If Martin Luther felt himself to be unworthy of his call, then at least I am in good company. Martin Luther also swore like a sailor and loved beer, which is also pretty comforting.

For the past few years I have felt a longing in me that has been difficult to define and impossible to quench. You see, God, in God’s infinite wisdom and mercy, has seen fit for me to serve in the Presbyterian Church (USA)–a Christian denomination that has been (like most mainline Protestant denominations) in decline for decades. My more conservative colleagues from not-mainline denominations gleefully point this out at every available opportunity—God love ‘em. Once I had a fellow pastor from a conservative, evangelical church inform me over lunch that in his opinion the real moment when the PC(USA) fell into ruin was when it began ordaining women.

“That’s where it all started,” he told me in sage-like fashion. “And now look what’s happening… you’re ordaining them.” I asked what he meant by “them” and he replied, “You know…homosexuals.”
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Churches, Culture, Emergent, Emerging Worship, Events, Leadership, PC(USA), Polity, Presbymergent, Resources, Theology Tagged With: Emergent, emergent theology, pastoral ministry

Existing/Emerging Leadership: The Saga Continues

October 4, 2008 By Leon Bloder 1 Comment

A few months ago I wrote short essay that was published on this site entitled “Living In Two Worlds: Existing/Emerging Leadership.” Somehow the essay got into the hands of Eilleen Lindner, an author and Presbyterian minister who offered a presentation at an Ecumenical & Interfaith Network gathering in 2007. She read from my essay (among others) as part of a presentation that she did on “Post Denominational Identities and Emerging Ecclesiologies.” Her title was better, I must admit. I also have to admit that it was kind of nice to be noticed. Mind you, there are no literary agents pounding down my door to offer me a book deal (Seriously…Anyone know a literary agent? Anyone?), but the realization that someone responded to what I wrote and actually discussed it was gratifying.

That little essay was born out of the struggle that I was going through at the time as I began to identify more with Emergent or Missional theology and ecclesiology and sought to lead the church to which I was called accordingly. At the time, the church I was serving could be defined as containing both “emerging” and “existing” traits. On Sunday mornings the existing aspect of my church met for worship, and on Sunday evenings there was an emergent worship gathering/community that regularly met in the same space. These communities could not have been any different, but they both formed and informed one another in interesting and exciting ways. It was good to reflect on my struggle as an emerging leader in an existing church, though. Because of that time of reflection I came to understand that in many ways I was embodying the very struggle in which my church had become engaged. My efforts to put my feelings into words was a part of that struggle—an effort to write a story that was far from complete. But there was something unsatisfying in that effort, to be honest. It felt like I (and to some extent my church as well) had come to the end of a chapter, but didn’t know how to finish the last sentence in a way that felt good and right. We had both come a long way, but not far enough.

In the end, neither one of us could put a period at the end of that sentence. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Churches, Emergent, Emerging Worship, Leadership, PC(USA), Theology

2008 Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference

August 21, 2008 By Presbymergent Admin Leave a Comment

Please come join your fellow Emergent friends at the 2008 Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference featuring Peter Rollins, on Nov. 8th, 2008 in Philadelphia. For more information please go to http://emergentmidatlantic.com

Grace and Peace,

Thomas, Lead Organizer, Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference

Filed Under: Events, Leadership Tagged With: Atlantic, Emergent, New Jersey, Pete Rollins, Theology

Christendom and “The Presbyterian Establishment”

July 25, 2008 By Chris Brown 31 Comments

Two days ago, I opened an envelope from Louisville to find a copy of a new occasional paper from the Office of Theology and Worship: William Weston’s Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment. I cringed. Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment? So I began to read, and my fears were confirmed. “It is time to rebuild the church’s Establishment,” he writes. “Decency and order require it.” (p.12)

Weston’s thesis is this: The anti-establishment attitude of the 1960s is what led to the decline of the denomination. Our preoccupation with political correctness (“a straightjacket for the church” p.12) has removed from power the “tall-steeple” pastors who should rightly lead the denomination, and thus contributed to the PC(USA)’s lack of influence and authority in society. The solutions: remove representation rules, “abolish all the current advisory delegate categories”, and reinstate the core of tall-steeple pastors who lead the Presbyterian Establishment.

How much longer will we continue trying to preserve Christendom? This paper seems to me to be an example of the church failing to rightly interpret its context: Christendom is over, and the national structure of the denomination is never going to have the authority it thinks it once had. Weston certainly does have some ideas which would benefit the church: actual parity of ministers and elders, smaller presbyteries, smaller (or non-existent) synods. But the very term “Presbyterian Establishment” connotes a desire to preserve the institution for the institution’s own sake. Do any of the suggestions in “Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment” really help the church adapt to its context in the mission field of post-Christendom North America? Are there better ways to renovate the PC(USA) than by re-roofing a building whose walls are crumbling?

Filed Under: Leadership, PC(USA), Polity Tagged With: Establishment, Papers, PC(USA), Theology

presbymergent Coordinating Group

May 6, 2008 By Presbymergent Admin Leave a Comment

Presbymergent has entered into a new phase with the creation of the presbymergent Coordinating Group. About two months ago, we wrote about how we were looking to create a Coordinating Group for presbymergent. After a few weeks of allowing people to self-nominate themselves, and checking in with those who have been active with presbymergent since the beginning, we have formed the presbymergent Coordinating Group. It consists of 36 folks right now, both men and women, pastors, youth pastors, denominational staff, seminarians, theologians and many others.

We look forward to the challenge it will be to both live in an open-source world, and also honor our denomination’s call to doing things decently and in order – and seeing how that plays out for leadership in the 21st century. We are very excited to see how this new group will guide the continuing emergence of presbymergent.

Filed Under: Leadership, Open Source, Presbymergent Tagged With: coordinating group, Leadership, Organizing

Grill the Mods, Part II

April 22, 2008 By Neal Locke 5 Comments

Several months ago, we tossed out a post asking our presbymergent community to come up with some questions for the candidates for Moderator of the General Assembly. Here are your questions, in poll-style — vote for your favorites, and we’ll present the top five to the candidates.

Hint: You can stuff the ballot box (vote often) if you wait 24 hours and then vote again.

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Moderator Questions:
View Results
Filed Under: General Assembly, Jobs, Leadership, PC(USA) Tagged With: General Assembly, moderator, poll, Questions, vote

presbymergent leadership ~ Coordinating Group

March 11, 2008 By Presbymergent Admin 26 Comments

As many of you know, presbymergent began as the brainchild of just two individuals. A year later, we are a full-fledged community of several hundred ministers, lay-persons, writers, evangelists, youth directors, web-developers, theologians, seminarians, artist-musicians, and more. Until now, “presbymergent leadership” has consisted primarily of the seven website editors, and whomever happened to step forward and help at our various regional parties and gatherings.

While this leadership arrangement has enabled us to do much, we’re at a point where we need to be more intentional about leadership — not in a hierarchical, bureaucratic sort of way, of course, but rather for the sake of accountability, transparency, communal stewardship, and plain old “getting things done.”

To this end, we’d like to form a Coordinating Group to steer and guide our community over the next year, as we seek a balance between living in the world of “loosely networked generative friendships” as well as the world of “decently and in order.”

The Coordinating Group is open to anyone who is both Presbyterian and actively exploring what it means to be Emergent. It might be a transitional group, or it may evolve into something more permanent. Regardless, we’re looking for people willing to make a one-year time commitment to participate in several intentional developmental conversations (through a Google Group, some conference calls, and hopefully face-to-face interactions) about the continuing “emergence” of presbymergent. We should add the warning that the Coordinating Group is not intended as a “prestige” thing nearly as much as a “roll up your sleeves and work with us” thing.

If you’re interested in helping to further develop our community in this way, you can reply in the comment section to this post, or else send an email to presbymergent@gmail.com letting us know. We’ll reply to everyone as soon as we’ve given sufficient time for people to take the plunge … step into the fire … umm … volunteer.

Filed Under: Leadership, Presbymergent Tagged With: coordinating group, Leadership, stewardship, transparency, volunteer

Reworking Committees?

January 18, 2008 By Karen Sloan 6 Comments

Mark Brantley-Gearhart recently posted this comment in the discussion about Clerks of Session. It’s a great start for beginning a conversation about Session committees:

“Last night our Session did something different. Instead of the annual assignment of committee chairpersons, we talked about options to committees. With the exception of the Nominating Committee (which is mandated by the Book of Order), we’re doing away with committees. (The truth is, our committees died off long ago due to lack of interest.) Instead, we’re going to experiment with the idea of ministries that flow out of discernment groups. Congregants who are interested in a particular ministry will gather for ongoing conversations centered around that ministry. And instead of each elder serving as the chairperson over her or his own group, the elders will work in partnerships of two or more per ministry to help facilitate discussion and the ministries that result from discussion. We’re not sure how this is going to work, but the elders seem to be encouraged by this less hierarchical, more relational approach.”

What have you heard or tried along the lines of reworking Session committees? Any failures? Any encouragements?

Filed Under: Churches, Leadership, Polity Tagged With: Committees, Session

Is There Such a Thing as An Emergent Clerk of Session?

January 17, 2008 By David Williams 6 Comments

Once again, I’ll dip into the presbymergent brain trust with a question about the changing dynamics within my own congregation.

I love my “wee kirk,” which when I arrived back in 2003 was a group of about 17 stalwarts, the last folks standing in a suburban congregation that began it’s archetypal mainline deathspiral back in the 1970s. We’re now at about 45 attendees, a mix of Anglos, second generation Korean-Americans, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, and African-Americans. The majority of my membership is now under the age of 30.

This year, my session composition is finally changing to more fully reflect the makeup of my church, with half of my leadership now comprised of young professionals…again, under the age of 30. My dear stalwarts are pleased with this, and are eager to hand over the reins. I am both pleased and a little concerned, because while I have total confidence in the thoughtfulness and gifts of my new church leadership, I’m not quite so sure about how well we’re going to mesh with the demands of church record keeping and bureaucracy.

In the near term future, I’m going to need a new clerk of session, and to be quite blunt, I don’t want to inflict the expectations of that hallowed office on any of my new members. My current clerk is worried about it, because she recognizes that it’s going to be nearly impossible for any of my new leadership to do all the things that she currently is required to do without quitting their jobs.

I’m going to be unable to honestly persuade anyone to take on that mantle because I don’t think it’s one that ultimately *needs* to be taken up. Yes, we need to keep good records for our own planning. Yes, we need to maintain standards of accounting transparency. But I need my folks working towards our vision for revitalization and in-the-trenches evangelism, not pouring their energies into paperwork. We don’t have that luxury.

So my question is: have any of y’all managed this kind of transition? Any tips? Any pointers? Any sympathetic ears in Presbytery?

Or should I just resign myself to telling my folks that all those exceptions on our Session records are just a way of telling us how exceptional we are…

Filed Under: Leadership, PC(USA), Polity Tagged With: Clerk of Session, Leadership, Session