LOUISVILLE — In just two short months, the General Assembly Council will be asked to vote upon a proposed budget for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for the next two years. And one difficult decision the council will have to make in April is how much to spend on international missionaries.
The bottom line is: because the denomination does not have enough money, the number of mission co-workers serving the denomination overseas is dropping at what’s been described as a “‘precipitous pace.”
Because there’s not more funding, the PC(USA) is unable to send into the mission field qualified people who are ready and willing to go; missionaries who leave service are not being replaced; and the requests of international church partners for people to do what World Mission director Hunter Farrell says is “critical” and sometimes “life-and-death” work are going unfilled.
In 2006, the PC(USA) had 250 international missionaries. In January 2008, the number was 220 — and it will drop, through retirements and attrition, to 190 by January 2009.
Farrell estimates it would cost $3 million to send 30 more missionaries for two years. But finding money to send more people out could mean making cuts elsewhere in the PC(USA)’s budget in April, if new funding isn’t found.
“Friends, it’s our job” to make those tough choices, former General Assembly moderator Rick Ufford-Chase told the council Feb. 15. “It’s not the staff’s job to make the painful decisions” about what to cut if that becomes necessary.
And “if we tell the church that we are committed to mission,” but don’t back up that commitment with dollars, then “we’ve missed the boat,” Ufford-Chase said.
In response to the concerns about missionary staffing, the council voted Feb. 15 to affirm “the priority of maintaining an appropriate number of PC(USA) international mission personnel.”
It instructed the denomination’s top staff to come back to the council’s meeting April 23-25 with a funding proposal. Linda Valentine, the council’s executive director, told a committee on Feb. 14 that her team likely would return in April with several scenarios, giving cost figures to support 190, 200 or 210 missionaries, for example, and suggesting ways to fund each of those staffing levels.
The council voted to ask the staff to present that proposal in April “with special emphasis on new funding sources.” But, at Ufford-Chase’s urging it also added language to speak of the need to “prioritize our current mission dollars” in light of the declining number of PC(USA) missionaries.
Church growth. The whole question of how to remain a vital church in a time with limited money and declining membership also is on the council’s radar.
Initially, Valentine had proposed that the council ask the 218th General Assembly to declare a church-wide “Commitment to Nurture the Growth of Christ’s Church” in 2009 and 2010. The idea, she said, was to consider growth in three ways — numerical growth; growth in discipleship; and growth in diversity.
“We’ve had so much negative press” about congregations leaving the denomination, said Allison Seed, a pastor from Missouri who is chair of the council. “We don’t want to be spending our energies this way. We want it to be spent in positive extension of the love of Jesus Christ in our communities and our world.”
But some council members questioned what exactly the commitment to church growth implies.
“It’s like motherhood and apple pie — you can’t be against it,” said Betty Jones of New York, as a council committee considered the measure. “But are we facing the real facts of why we’re losing members? … How does the 21st century church meet the demands of the 21st century?”
If it’s really a priority, “how much is it going to cost?” asked Doug Megill from Pennsylvania. If that’s not understood, “it may be one of just many resolutions we pass.”
So the document the council ultimately passed was remodeled and given the new title, “Growing God’s Church — Deep and Wide.”
It asks the General Assembly to “declare a church-wide commitment to participate in God’s activity in transforming” the PC(USA) in 2009 and 2010. It encourages synods, presbyteries, sessions, and others involved in Presbyterian life to commit to “grow the church deep and wide” in these three areas:
Grow the church: Invite persons to attend. Baptize children and adults. Increase our congregations.
Grow in discipleship: Rediscover Scripture. Nurture spirituality. Affirm our Reformed heritage. Embrace stewardship in all of life.
Grow in diversity: Welcome everyone. Learn from others. Reflect the world.
Diversity. But the council had to confront at this meeting Feb. 13-15 how well its own membership really “reflects the world,” as it was asked to name two new “at-large” members to its executive committee. During that report, several council members raised objections about a lack of racial diversity on the executive committee itself.
“We’re not doing the job of being representative of the whole church,” said Esperanza Guajardo of Texas. “We’re representing the white. That is unfair; justice is not being done.”
Guajardo challenged each council member to go out and find candidates for positions who are people of color, saying, “We are there, but we are not being called upon to come represent the church.”
Valerie Small, staff for the General Assembly Nominating Committee, said the Book of Order requires the General Assembly Council to have at least 20 percent of its members be from non-white racial-ethnic groups. The last General Assembly gave permission to put that requirement on hold, temporarily, as the council makes the transition to a smaller body, Small said.
“They were not happy to be asked not to abide by the mandate,” but understood the need as the council goes through a period of adjustment, she said. But “you do have the commitment of the General Assembly Nominating Committee” for racial diversity on the council, Small said.
Jim Dave Wilson, a council member from New Jersey, said he wasn’t pleased to hear that a Book of Order mandate for racial diversity had been set aside.
The numbers proposed for the executive committee — which would have been four white females, four white males and a Hispanic male — seem like “we’re back in the ’50s,” Wilson said. “I’m an American who happens to be black, with an ancestry out of Africa and Europe. I would like to be represented by someone who speaks with a flavor that I’m accustomed to.”
The council responded by withdrawing one of the nominations for an at-large member of the executive committee — that of Carolyn McLarnan, a white elder from Mississippi, who had indicated she was willing to step aside — and proceeding with that of Conrad Rocha, an Hispanic elder from New Mexico. The nominating committee will bring a recommendation for filling the remaining slot at the April meeting.
Military chaplains. The council also heard an update on Presbyterian military chaplains serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to a report prepared by the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel, that group had 45 reserve and National Guard chaplains mobilized from 2006 to 2008.
“To date, all have come home in good shape,” the report states. It thanks the PC(USA) for posting the names of the chaplains on the denomination’s Web site to be supported in prayer. And “we’ve been gratified to see prayers offered, care packages sent and chaplains `adopted’ by churches,” the report states.
Of Presbyterian active-duty chaplains, about 60 were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2008, the report states, and “many are still deployed. Our military chaplains suffer the same hardships as other military; their ministry is often in harm’s way. We’re glad that only two have earned Purple Hearts and that both are expected to make full recoveries.”
Of those who’ve served, “some of them are quite exhausted after a war tour; some have symptoms of post-traumatic stress. We seek to be with them and find appropriate support.”
Edward Brogan, executive director of the chaplains’ group, showed a council committee a video featuring some of the chaplains’ work in Iraq. “We’ve had a very strange war,” he told the committee. While those serving in the U.S. military feel intensely the war’s impact, “the rest of the country is nearly oblivious that it’s happening, is not bearing the cost.”
The chaplains, he said, “appreciate the support” of the PC(USA).
