TPO: In your opinion, what is the most significant matter to come before this General Assembly, and how do you propose that the Assembly respond to it?
CB: The most significant issue is how we as a denomination can effectively help our congregations go out and make disciples. A first step is to recognize that we need a polity that helps us, rather than restricts us, when we start new church developments, when we plant immigrant congregations, when we reach out to the multicultural society we live in. Our current Form of Government has morphed from a Constitution into a rules manual that imposes a “one size fits all” regulatory approach. The new Form of Government recommendation proposes a polity that provides the flexibility within which ministry can flourish while at the same time maintaining the overarching constitutional standards that bind us together. I hope the Assembly approves the proposed nFOG, as perfected by the committee and in plenary, and sends it to the presbyteries for their approval.
TPO: What do you believe are the causes of conflict in the PC(USA), and what do you hope this General Assembly will do to help bring resolution?
CB: There has always been conflict within the church as Christians in every age seek, imperfectly, to proclaim the Gospel in our own particular place and time. If there isn’t conflict, that means we are proclaiming a tame, inauthentic Gospel. There was conflict in the first century, there was conflict in the fifteenth century, and there will be conflict in the twenty-first century. Conflict isn’t inherently wrong or bad; what is wrong is when we personalize our disagreement by diminishing the person who opposes us by saying, “I am a true Christian and you are utterly wrong in what you believe.” The General Assembly, through debates that are contentious yet respectful, through a decision-making process that recognizes and respects all points of view, must model for the denomination, and for the world, how we seek to discern God’s will even as we debate issues on which we disagree.
TPO: In your opinion, what is the most urgent need in the PC (USA) over the next five years?
CB: The most urgent need never changes: to proclaim the Gospel, now and forever. What changes in every generation is how we most effectively do that in the time and place in which we live. Over the next five years, we must acknowledge and accept that the denomination we’ve known and loved for many years has changed and will continue to change. We need to grieve the loss of the church we knew while at the same time embracing the amazing opportunities that lie ahead — the opportunities to evangelize, using new ways and new technologies, to a multicultural, secular society, to people who have no idea what “Presbyterian” means but are hungry to hear about the Gospel . The mission field is right outside our front doors — we need to open those doors, go out, and make disciples!
TPO: What are your goals for your moderatorial years, and what strengths do you bring to the task?
CB: My first goal as moderator is to guide the Assembly, as effectively, efficiently, and unobtrusively as possible, as it discerns what God would have the Assembly to be and to do during the week we are together. My experience as a presbytery moderator, together with my patience, my humor, and my non-anxious presence, (will) enable me to effectively steer the Assembly … . My second goal is to provide that same non-anxious presence as the PC(USA) determines how best to proclaim the Gospel to a secular world. Our unique Presbyterian perspective is that we invest the proclamation of that message — and the ordering of our life together — not just to ministers or to church professionals but to elders. As an elder-moderator who is not a church professional, I will emphasize the talents, and the ministry, of elders.
