So now comes the biennial (formerly annual) convention of the deer in the headlights. If past patterns hold, then 80% of the General Assembly commissioners and 95% of advisory delegates will be serving for the very first time. They will have tried to wade through enough reading to earn a graduate degree. They will feel the weight of a highly conflicted denomination. When asked upon their Birmingham arrival, “How do you feel?” the most common responses will be “bewildered,” “befuddled” and “overwhelmed.”
If past patterns hold, the first two or three days of meetings will intensify the bewilderment. But clarity will be rebound. That sense of call will revive, and, with it, a Spirit-given unction to empower the mission dei, the mission of God in the world. A genuine camaraderie with several hundred former strangers will lighten the experience as their shared prayerful deliberations help them better grasp God’s plan for their lives and for the ministries of us all.
Beyond coming out of the state of confusion to that of Spirit-empowerment, what else might we hope for and from the commissioners? In a phrase, this Presbyterian hopes they will hear some “voices of peoples long silenced,” as the Brief Statement of Faith suggests.
We hope the commissioners will hear the voices who spoke into being the first few chapters of the Book of Order. They need to hear again …
· that the head of the church is Jesus, not the GA;
· that the Great Ends of the Church number six, not five, certainly not one– in spite of impassioned efforts to promote one or another to the neglect of the rest;
· that the historic principles of church order became historic because they are right;
· that some of our doctrines, those shared throughout the church catholic, protestant, and reformed, must remain non-negotiable.
In reading these first few chapters of the Book or Order, we need to check at the door our chronological snobbery and our western intellectual pride, and, in its place, humbly submit our innovative ideas to the counsel of the larger, historic church.
We hope the commissioners will hear some unfamiliar voices. While it will be easy for some to gravitate into enclaves of agreement–caucus meetings and strategy sessions to promote common causes–and equally easy for others to disregard all such groups, one of the great values of a GA is the sheer proximity of meetings being led by all kinds of passionate, and opposing, advocates. Commissioners who visit events sponsored by “those people”–the groups they generally disdain–can come away with much more humanized understanding of them. They might discover a kernel of truth they would never have encountered in any other way. Such experiences can enhance the faith and ministry effectiveness of the whole church.
We hope the commissioners will alsohear the voices of the folks back home. In our form of government we do not direct our officers to parrot the constituencies that elected them. We commission them to hear and represent the voice of God, as they perceive the Holy Spirit to be leading them. But if they turn that commission into a proud intellectual superiority, if they find themselves saying, “those folks just don’t get it,” then they themselves will be the ones that don’t.
Finally, we need and will pray for the commissioners to hear the most important voice of all, the Holy Spirit of God speaking through the words of Scripture to make the will of God clear and bring glory to the Savior Jesus. If the commissioners listen well, they will quickly recover from the headlights’ glare, and they will help us all hear and see a bit better. May God bless them … and, through them, bless the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
