That’s the message some General Assembly Council members are sending to John Detterick, the council’s executive director, who responded at the council’s meeting Sept. 27 that his staff leadership team already has begun making visits to the 40 presbyteries that give the most money in basic mission support, to thank them for their giving and talk to them about the importance of unrestricted giving.
Earlier this week, Detterick asked the council’s Mission Support Services Committee to hold off acting on a proposal he’d brought to the table to approve the concept of assessing an administrative fee of up to 5 percent on restricted donations to the denomination. Detterick’s proposal ran into a wave of criticism, from Presbyterian seminary presidents and some presbytery executives and the validated mission support groups that help convince congregations to give money to the PC(USA). In response, Detterick asked the council to delay acting on the proposal, to give him time to meet with those who’ve criticized the idea and see if they can come up with a better way.
“This is typical of what happens in the halls of Congress” and in state legislatures, said Bruce Hendrickson of Nebraska, chair of the Mission Support Services Committee, in explaining that the committee decided to table action on the 5 percent proposal until the council meets again in February in Louisville. He also said “it’s an example of a good lobbying effort, and lobbying in my mind is a very positive thing, it’s not a very dirty word” but “is important in our governing processes.”
Helen Morrison of Michigan said she was troubled by the extent of the lobbying, and said of the tactics used by some who criticized the proposed administrative fee: “We’re not behaving very Christ-like I think when we’re offending the people” — Detterick and his management team — “who are having to deal with the issues.”
Hendrickson responded that “certainly we didn’t appreciate [the pressure] at the eleventh hour because these things had been on the table” — although some who disagreed with the proposal complained there hadn’t been nearly sufficient consultation with those who could be affected. With more dialogue, perhaps new ideas will surface, Hendrickson said, and “I will assure you that in February there will be a decision.”
The council also heard a report from Bill Saul, co-chair of the steering committee for the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands, the denomination’s five-year campaign to raise $40 million for international mission and new church development and redevelopment, particularly among people of color and immigrant groups.. Saul said he knows some are concerned because Ron Lundeen, the Mission Initiative’s executive director, is leaving to take a position at Hartford Theological Seminary.
“We were saddened by that,” Saul said of Lundeen’s departure. But “I can’t tell you how many times God has taken care of me in spite of myself. It certainly happened this time. Losing Ron was we thought a blow, but a door opened for us,” because Jan Opdyke, who was the initiative’s western-area associate director, has agreed to become the interim director. “She is an absolute diamond,” Saul said. “God really blessed us by bringing us Jan.”
Saul also said the fund-raising campaign is “moving,” and thanked the council members for their help. At the council’s last meeting, “I asked for names, and not just names, but access to the names” — a reference to the challenge the campaign faces in creating lists of potential donors with the resources to make large gifts. As a result of the names that council members provided, “we’ve had substantial gifts as a direct result,” Saul said, including one $100,000 pledge.
There also was considerable discussion at this meeting about the fallout for the council of the denomination’s decision have the General Assembly start meeting every-other-year, which has also meant some changes in the lengths of terms that other elected leaders, including council members, might serve. One question on the table was whether the council’s chair and vice-chair, positions to which people currently are elected for one-year terms, should become two-year positions.
But Andrea Catherine Stokes, a youth member of the council, proposed an amendment that ultimately prevailed: that the council’s chair and vice-chair be elected to one-year terms, with the possibility of renewal for a second one-year term. Some argued for two-year terms for the council’s top leadership, saying continuity of vision was important.
But Stokes said shorter terms would give more council members a shot at seeking leadership positions and give more diverse representation. Saul said that with longer terms, “it would b very difficult to change ineffective leadership … I’m a little sensitive to this now, because I’m from California,” which is trying to decide whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis.
And Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly, made the case for flexibility and leaving the door open for more young people to serve in leadership.
Looking around the room, “most of us have gray hair, or gray hair covered over by blonde hair”— only two on the council, Stokes and vice-chair Neal Presa, truly represent young adults, Andrews. The PC(USA) needs “to do everything possible to open up our church,” she said, and to give youth representatives to the council more chances to seek leadership positions.
Curriculum Sales ‘On Target’
he council also approved a report from the Congregational Ministries Division Committee regarding PC(USA) curriculum sales — the first good news in a while after several years of troubling reports. The denomination’s latest curriculum offering, “We Believe,” is “doing fine” on initial sales and so far this year has been “right on target and a little bit ahead,” generating $380,000 in sales in the first quarter, Donald Campbell, director of the Congregational Ministries, said in an interview.
“We’re on target to meet our projections” for “We Believe,” and two other curriculum lines — “Present Word” and “Bible Quest,” also are selling well, Campbell said. “Things are looking so good we’re holding our breath –— we don’t want to say it too loud until the end of the year,” when the full financial picture is known, he said.
Earlier this week, Joseph Small, associate director of the PC(USA)’s Office of Theology, Worship and Discipleship, presented information regarding two reports on which his office is working —one involving the Doctrine of the Trinity and the other a progress report on the controversial “Living Faithfully with Families in Transition” report.
The Office of Theology and Worship is writing a new theological and biblical section for the report on families, which likely will be completed in the next few weeks, Small said in an interview. He said the report will talk about the marital and biological family “as a basic form of interpersonal relationships before God, but it’s not an exclusive form or an exhaustive form.”
The report also will look at what Small described as “interlocking circles” extending from that base — for example the concept of households, “a term used in both Old and New Testaments” and which includes both immediate and extended members of the family, “servants and even slaves.” The Bible speaks of widows and orphans, who have been separated from the marital relationship, Small said. And the report will address “the wonderful metaphor in the New Testament of adoption, to signal our relationship with God.”
The council also approved disbursement of just over $1 million that came from a bequest — with the provision that the money be spent for training ministers for preaching and teaching the Bible, and that the money be spent in the western United States.
“This is a large bequest,” and “we will probably be getting a smaller but still substantial amount next year,” said Manley Olson of Minnesota, speaking for the council’s Restricted Funds Oversight Committee.
The money being allocated now is being divided into five chunks: $376,000 jointly for the Southwest Synod and Ghost Ranch Conference Center; $350,000 for the Pacific Synod; $127,000 for Inland Northwest Presbytery in Washington and Idaho; and $50,000 each for Pacific Presbytery in California and Utah Presbytery.
Each of those has submitted different plans of what they plan to do.
In collaboration with the Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith and Learning at Whitworth College in Spokane, Inland Northwest wants to create an Academy of Preaching to provide pastors of the Synod of Alaska-Northwest with continuing education in teaching and preaching the Bible.
The Synod of the Southwest and Ghost Ranch are planning a two-year Bible Conference program that will allow pastors to improve their homiletic and teaching skills.
The Synod of the Pacific, which stated in its application that it is “one of the most demographically-diverse synods in the PC(USA),” will provide training for pastoral ministry that would be attentive to the cultural backgrounds of the people involved.
Utah Presbytery intends to present a Western Preaching Conference that will address preaching and teaching the Bible in areas with a strong Mormon presence.
And Pacific Presbytery wants to sponsor a training event focused on racial-ethnic pastors who work in local congregations in the west.
