General Assembly (2012) #3

Inside and Outside

                On Monday morning at the General Assembly all the difficult work begins. The glorious opening worship service opened the week on Saturday. The first several, full, business sessions included a lot of preliminary work like introducing the commissioners to the electronic voting system, introducing the various agencies of the General Assembly, and discussing the process and procedures for debates and decisions. Of course, there is now a long standing tradition of devoting an early, full business session to the election of the new Moderator.  Again at this General Assembly this was done on Saturday evening, the first day of the Assembly.

                Now on Monday morning all the Commissioners gather in their assigned Committees to tackle the Action Items assigned to them. Committees will meet for their meetings during the day on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The full plenary session of the General Assembly will not gather together again until Wednesday afternoon.

                It seems to me, as I try to grasp all the different action items before this Assembly, that it is possible to categorize them into Inside the Church issues and Outside the Church issues. This year there are several Inside the Church issues before the Assembly that are important and transformative:

•                 The report of the Mid Council Commission and the possible elimination of the Synods as a governing body. This also includes the question of non-geographic presbyteries.
•                 The report on the Nature of the Church in 21^st Century is an important theological statement about the way we understand the Church today.
•                 The proposal concerning the revision of the four Special Offerings is significant and has already sparked significant debate.
•  

                The issues coming before us in what I am calling “Outside the Church” are also numerous and significant. These include:

•                 The debate over our understanding and involvement in the Middle East.
•                 The debate of Immigration policy in United States.

There are issues that have a huge impact both inside the church and outside the church.

• This year the debate over the definition of marriage clearly is the most heated issue and divisive question before us.
• In a less controversial light, the call for 1,001 New Worshipping Communities is a goal with impact both inside and outside the Church. We must as a church begin to embed into our heart and soul the need to plant, create and give birth to new communities. Simply continuing and maintaining our current congregations is not good enough. But for several generations we have neglected our calling and spiritual obligation to plant new communities of faith.  
• The concern which has influence both inside and outside the church and is important to me is our commitment to World Mission. At this General Assembly we will celebrate the 175^th anniversary of Presbyterian World Mission, which was started in Pittsburgh in 1837. In my mind, this continues to be one of the most essential aspects of our common ministry.

The list of issues and concerns is long and important. Please pray for the work of our General Assembly. 

General Assembly (2012) #2

Rev. Dr. Neal Presa Moderator

                I am pleased with the election of Neal Presa as our new Moderator. He was elected out of a group of four qualified, articulate and experienced candidates.  Of course, the office of moderator of the General Assembly is an important symbol for our church. Almost any Presbyterian leader with some church experience can lead a meeting. But our Moderator is a symbol of who we are and, even more, who we would like to be. As such a symbol, Neal Presa is an excellent choice, in my mind, for our desire to live into a larger global Christianity.

                Neal Presa is a Filipino-American whose education included an M.Div. from San Francisco Seminary, an Th.M. from Princeton Seminary and M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Drew University. He is currently serving as the pastor of the Middlesex Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He has extensive experience in global ecumenical relations. This experience included service on the American and North American Area Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches and participation with the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council. In a Presbyterian New Service article he is quoted: “We must reclaim our unity in the God who gathers us in worship and sends us out into our communities and, indeed, the whole world to invest and share our lives in others.” 

General Assembly (2012) #1

Opening Worship
I am writing from Pittsburgh, the site of the 220th meeting of the General Assembly (2012). The General Assembly started today with a glorious opening worship service within the large Convention Center. It was estimated that about 3,500 people were in attendance. As is our tradition, the outgoing Moderator Cynthia Bolbach was the preacher. Because of her recent battle with cancer, she preached seated in a wheelchair. Her message was a moving call to relationships and service across all the many boundaries that exist in the church. The worship service was filled with music featuring a huge choir, a brass quintet, a large bell choir, and Bill Carter and his Presbybop Quartet.

There was a creative and interesting touch on the traditional Unison Prayer of Confession. During the prayer all the congregation turned toward the opposite side. The “right” side of the congregation first confessed, allowing the “left” side to respond. Then it was switched. Although this was very simple, it was for me a significant and meaningful gesture symbolizing a reaching out across the “aisle”. We need to ask forgiveness of all those whom we consider to be “on the other side.” Maybe we will find some peace and unity if we can truly ask those across the aisle from us to forgive us.

Act of Confession from the Opening Worship of the 220th General Assembly:

Right side: I confess to God Almighty before the whole company of heaven, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault, in thought, word, and deed; wherefore I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.

Left side: May Almighty God have mercy on you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins and give you time to amen your life.

Right side: Amen.

Left side: I confess to God Almighty before the whole company of heaven, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned by my own fault, in thought, word, and deed; wherefore I pray God Almighty to have mercy on me, forgive me all my sins, and bring me to everlasting life.

Right side: May Almighty God have mercy on you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins and give you time to amen your life.

Left side: Amen

The opening worship service ended with this eloquent Charge and Blessing:

Eternal God, you call us to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

A Community of Mission Practice in Honduras

What good is a new house?

Presbyterian World Mission has defined one of its critical global issues as responding to the root causes of poverty, especially as it affects women and children. The Presbytery of Carlisle has created a partnership with the Presbyterian Church in Honduras. An important aspect of our partnership is our working with the mission committee of the Pena de Horeb Presbyterian Church in Tegucigalpa to build new homes for their church members. We have now participated in the construction of six new homes located in some of the poorest, most difficult areas in Tegucigalpa. Is building new homes a fruitful expression of this huge, conceptual call to address the root causes of poverty?

I believe these new homes are a particularly important example of responding to the root causes of poverty because of the process we have used to do this work. The ministry belongs to the Hondurans. When we first started having conversation with Church leaders in Honduras about ways we could work together, they quickly complained that they had no resources, no organization, and no means to address the profound poverty all around. We encouraged them to gather a group within the congregation to discern and pray about ways they might be able to reach out and serve their members. This small kernel of an idea grew up into a powerful presence in their church. A mission committee was born with a vision of reaching out, gathering their resources, and serving the poorest of the poor in their midst.

The mission committee identified and prioritized a list of projects within their congregation. Some they are able to do one their own; for some they seek support from us. Then we put life into the vision of “communities of mission practice” which Presbyterian World Mission has named as a preferred method of doing mission today. What does a community of mission practice truly look like? I know; I have seen it. It looks like a circle of people gathering in the back corner of the sanctuary at the Pena de Horeb Presbyterian Church after their Sunday worship service. Within the circle are the members of the mission committee of the congregation; the chairperson of their mission committee leads our conversation. Within the circle are our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionaries in Honduras. Also within the circle is a small mission team from the Presbytery of Carlisle. This is a community of mission practice. Importantly, there are typically more Hondurans around the circle than North Americans. Out of the conversation within this circle, we conceived of the idea of building new homes for some of the poorest of the members of church. The members of the mission committee in Honduras identify the families, plan and prepare the construction project, and work with our missionaries to organize the work. Presbyterians from our Presbytery show up for a week at a time to walk alongside, offer our support, and get to know the family who is receiving the new home quite. What good is a new home? Come with me and chat with these families for awhile! The answer will be clear.

Report to the Presbytery May 22, 2012

Celebrate John Calvin

First of all I want to say, “Thank you.” In April I used my Continuing Education time and budget to attend a Seminar on the Reformed Tradition sponsored by our Office of the General Assembly. The seminar was in Geneva, Switzerland and included an in-depth study of John Calvin. This was a transformational experience for me, deep in learning and spiritual reflection. We toured, of course, the church where Calvin preached and taught; we had a special tour of the museum of the Reformation, we visited the famous Reformation Wall; we had a special tour of the spectacular archaeological site which is beneath Calvin’s Church. On Sunday we worshiped twice, once in Calvin’s Church where the service is in French, and again in the Auditorium of Calvin, which is owned by the Church of Scotland.

The Geneva of John Calvin was much smaller than today’s Geneva. Calvin’s Geneva was a walled and fortified city, now referred to as Old Town. It is not very large; I walked all around it. John Calvin arrived in Geneva in the 1530s from France. France is only several miles down the road.

I want to share with you two theological reflections. First, I believe in our study of John Calvin we have forgotten the amazing openness and hospitality that motivated him. During the years of Calvin’s ministry in Geneva the population of the city more than doubled. John Calvin and the church leaders in Geneva spent an enormous amount of their time, in day to day practical ministry, dealing with the influx of homeless refugees. Geneva was, under Calvin’s leadership, a Protestant city connected with other Protestant cities in Switzerland. But just a few miles down the road was Roman Catholic France. The Roman Catholic King of France did not tolerate the Protestants. If you are a Protestant in France at that time what do you do? You leave. You leave your home, you leave your crops, and you leave any stuff that you cannot carry on your back or on your little cart. You leave, hopefully before the King’s soldiers arrive in your village. And at least, in this part of France, where do you go? You go to Geneva. Why? Because Geneva under the leadership of John Calvin welcomed you. These thousands of homeless refugees from France were welcome in Geneva. There is a very significant theological lesson here. It is a lesson about hospitality. If you have a good, smart tour guide in Old Town Geneva, she will carefully point out buildings where, in the day of John Calvin, the people literally tore the roof off in order to add several additional floors. In a walled, fortified city there is not a lot of extra land. One way to find space is to build up. We have this idea about John Calvin as being very strict, austere and demanding. In a sense that is all true. But is it true because these strict moral codes were all designed to help all of these people live together in a very small space. Thousands of refugees were rushing to Geneva. What did Geneva do about this? Geneva opened the gates and welcomed them in. Such hospitality is an important legacy of John Calvin. This is our theological heritage.

My second theological insight has to do with John Calvin’s five percent rule. But first, let me describe to you modern Geneva. As you may know the city of Geneva is located at the very end of Lake Geneva. This lake is huge and gorgeous. The end of the lake comes to a sharp point and the Rhone River flows out. The city of Geneva sort of wraps around the end of the Lake and is connected by bridges across the river. On one side of the Lake are all the business district of Geneva, all the United Nations buildings, the World Council of Churches, the airport, the bus station, and most of the hotels, including the John Knox conference center where we stayed. On the other side of the Lake is Old Town and most of the residential suburbs.

During some free time in the city I was walking along the lake front on a gorgeous day. This was on Thursday after we had several days of immersion in the theology of John Calvin. The lake front on both sides is gorgeous, with beautiful gardens, views of the lake filled with sailboats and yachts, and the snow capped Alps in the distance. The lake front on the business side of the city is all luxurious hotels, amazing luxury. I was walking along this lake front and I stopped to look at these two cars. Two cars were parked directly in front of the front door of a very, luxurious hotel. One car was a Bugatti, and the other was a Lamborghini.  In that moment, I had this spiritual rush. I thought to myself, what have we become? Our world is motivated by accumulating wealth, by acquisition, by consumerism, by stuff. Why are we so greedy? I turned around and quickly started walking back toward Old Town. I wanted to get away from this obscene luxury and wealth. I walked across a bridge, through the crowds of people shopping in all the very elite shops, cut up the steep hill onto the old, cobblestone streets of the Old Town and climbed up to Calvin’s Church.

When the city of Geneva was overcrowded with refugees, Calvin had another one of his crazy, revolutionary ideas. He approached some of the established, wealthy business leaders in Geneva. He asked them to make small loans to some of the refugees who had demonstrated a gift for some kind, any kind of business or craft. He asked the wealthy businessmen not to charge more than 5% interest. Calvin’s idea of using money to make money to the Glory of God changed our world. Calvin did not invent this idea but he certainly organized it and put it to good use. Calvin was pastorally concerned for the refugees rushing into Geneva. Soon many of the immigrant refugee families were able to get some start up cash and start businesses. This small idea blossomed and soon Calvin’s Geneva became an economic and industrial powerhouse and, of course, soon Geneva became a center for international banking. And even more, this theological vision that money may be used to make money to the Glory of God, came with the followers of John Calvin to this new World. Here that idea motivated the remarkable Protestant Work Ethic which built this nation.

           

So I sat on the steps of John Calvin’s Church and I pondered Geneva, John Calvin and our church today. I believe John Calvin asks a question that is powerfully relevant and challenging for us. It was the question he asked of his people in Geneva. Are we using our money, our wealth for the soothing of our own greed? Or are we using our money to the Glory of God? Buying a Lamborghini may be one answer. Making a sacrificial, financial commitment to the work of the church and seeking to discern the demands of economic justice in our world today may be a very different answer.

           

I celebrate John Calvin. We would, I believe, do well to reacquaint ourselves again with his theological vision and commitments to the glory of God. 

Introduction to 220th General Assembly (2012)

Introduction to the 220th meeting of the General Assembly (2012) Pittsburgh, PA June 30 to July 7, 2012

NOTE: The website introducing the meeting of the General Assembly including the schedule, background information, registration and news articles may be found at pcusa.org/ga220.

NOTE: The meeting of the General Assembly uses a website, pc-biz.org, for all business items. This program is available to the general public and may be used to review all the action items being considered by the Assembly. All the action items to be considered by the General Assembly may be found at pc-biz.

The work of the General Assembly is organized into committees. Listed here are all the 21 committees of the 220th General Assembly and a few of the important action items within each committee.

01 Business Referral

02 Bills and Overtures

03 General Assembly Procedures
03-Info General Assembly Per Capita Payments by Presbytery

04 Review of Biennial Assemblies

05 Mid Council Review
05-12 Mid Council Report to the 220th General Assembly—From the General Assembly Commission on Mid Councils.

06 Church Polity

07 Church Orders and Ministry
NOTE: There are at least nine different overtures related to the Book of Order G-2.0104b and Ordination standards.

08 Authoritative Interpretation Review
08-01 Report of the Special Committee on Existing Authoritative Interpretations of the Book of Order.

09 Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
09-03 Review of the World Council of Churches

10 Mission Coordination
10-13 Report of the Special Committee on the Nature of the Church in the 21st Century
10-14 Special Offerings

11 Social Justice Issues
11-09 World of Hurt, Word of Life: Renewing God’s Communion in the Work of Economic Reconstruction - From the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy
11-17 Privilege, Power and Policy: The Church as an Employer— From the Climate for Change Taskforce

12 Immigration Issues

13 Civil Union and Marriage Issues NOTE: There are at least fourteen different overtures related to marriage.

14 Peacemaking and International Issues
14-05 Encountering the Gospel of Peace Anew: An Invitation to Discernment and Witness, an Interim Report to the 220th General Assembly (2012)—From the Peace Discernment Steering Team.

15 Middle East and Peacemaking Issues
Note: There are several overtures related to the policy of divestment.

16 Church Growth and PILP
16-02 1001 Worshipping Communities

17 Theological Issues, Education and Christian Education

18 Confessions of the Church
18-03 Report of the General Assembly Special Committee on the Heidelberg Catechism to the 220th General Assembly

19 Review of General Assemblies Permanent Committees

20 Board of Pensions, Foundation, Presbyterian Publishing
Note: There are several reports from and overtures about the Board of Pensions.
20-09 New Presbyterian Hymnal

21 Health Issues

Report to the Presbytery February 28, 2012

"Stop the Decline"

I believe in zero. I know I am a dreamer, an idealist, and a seer of visions. What if zero was our goal? For our Presbytery, having zero membership growth in a year would be an amazing accomplishment. Every year since I have been in this Presbytery, and for many years before that, we have lost members. Indeed, our statistics for 2011will show that we lost 154 members. What would it look like, what would happen, how would it feel like if we stopped losing members? What if the Presbytery, which really means what if each of our churches, decided to name a goal that we stop losing members? What if we stopped the decline, here in our churches, in our presbytery? I am not talking about the whole denomination; I am not talking about the future of the Protestant mainline denominations in America; I am talking about us, each of our congregations, in our pews, every Sunday. What if we said “We want to stop declining?” Is it possible? Are we even able to talk about it?

I know all the responses to this crazy idea. Many will ask me why I am obsessed with numbers. Many will say numbers do not matter. What matters is faithfulness and vitality in ministry. I understand that our calling is about spiritual maturity, about Kingdom growth, about proclaiming Jesus and building relationships. I understand that our goal is about spiritual vitality in our hearts and in our congregations. I get that. I fully agree. I understand that there may be many expressions of spiritual vitality in congregations that are not growing. I understand that a vital congregation is not always a numerically growing congregation. Personally, I have been with many blessed, vital, devout spiritual people while they were dying. I understand that a vital church is not always or necessarily a growing church. But I do believe that every growing church is a vital church. Let us at least talk about growing. Let us name the vision that we would like to stop the decline. Stop the decline. Why not zero. Zero growth would, indeed, be fabulous.

I know all the responses to this crazy idea. All the sort of post-modern, missional, emerging, hyped-up, generous orthodox new leaders out there are going to tell me that membership does not matter. You will tell me that membership is an obsolete idea from the age of the institutional church, which is now gone and obsolete. Many will say that we should not even be talking about membership; we should be talking about discipleship. What matters is not having your name on the active list but taking Jesus into the streets. I understand all that. Indeed, I believe we are making a fast transition from an emphasis on membership to an emphasis on discipleship. But we are not there yet. And this year we are still counting members. And I expect that we will still be counting members next year. So let us count more of them. Counting more members is not going to usher in the Kingdom of God, but, my friends, it would certainly be more fun.

Numbers do not matter; I get that. But it sure does feel good that we had a positive cash flow in our Operating Fund. Numbers do not matter, I get that. But it sure does feel good that Dan and Alison Siewert had 40 people at the worship service in their home several weeks ago. Numbers do not matter, I get that. But it sure does feel good that the Presbytery of Carlisle has continued to be one of the top ten presbyteries in shared mission giving. Numbers do not matter, I get that. But it sure does feel good that we had 645 young people at Camp Krislund last summer. Numbers do not matter, I get that. But it sure does feel good that the Pittsburgh Steelers have won the Superbowl six times, more than any other team. Numbers do not matter, I get that. But it sure feels good that we have built four new homes in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and will be going in April to work on number five.

The Presbytery of Carlisle lost 154 active members in 2011. But actually just one of our congregations cleaned their membership rolls and lost 148 members. Can we as a Presbytery stop the decline? Can we talk about zero membership growth? That seems possible to me. We are very close. But it will only be possible if we start talking about it. It will only be possible if we are intentional about our goals and plans. It will only be possible if we make sure our own church is a place of deep hospitality in every way. It will only be possible if every person who walks into our church is called by name, is welcomed as a beloved child of God, and is spoken with authentically and intimately. It will only be possible if we stop being so resigned to our continuing decline and pray like we have never prayed for Christ to transform our hearts and bless our churches.