JSK: I support the FOG task force proposals for the purposes listed – that the Presbyterian Church become more flexible, foundational, and missional. Bureaucracies over time tend to become rule-bound, legalistic, and defensive, slowly eroding the original mission and purpose for which the church was constituted in the first place. The Book of Order is a wonderful and theologically rich document that has served the church well for many decades. But it is now so weighed down by the long-term build up of bureaucratic sediment that we have little choice but to rethink our polity. … This proposal will be seen as a welcome gift to immigrant congregations, emerging fellowships, new church developments, transforming congregations, innovative presbyteries, and for all those who are not afraid to risk old, tired, and dysfunctional ways of doing things to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. …
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?
JSK: Jesus said that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Yet many in the Presbyterian Church persist on beginning with abstract notions of “truth,” an approach long favored by Western Christendom. The Right insists on “Old Truth,” linking a desire for certitude with tradition. The Left favors “New Truth,” advocating for progress, and freedom from constraints. But the Way mattered to Jesus. He would not take any shortcuts to the cross, or use any violence along the way, physical or emotional. For Jesus, the way of suffering, humility, passion, joy, and self-emptying were the ways that led to deeper truth, neither indulging the fetish of traditionalism nor the fetish of novelty, as was the case for the religious authorities of his day. Only equal faithfulness to the Way and the Truth leads to the fullness of Life. We cannot have two masters: Jesus and Machiavelli.
TPO: In your opinion, what is the most urgent need in the PC (USA) over the next five years?
JSK: The most urgent need is for Presbyterians to renounce the pervasive fear of change, which makes the emergence of new life almost impossible. We need a consensus that a preoccupation with preserving institutions, whether they be church buildings, existing presbytery boundaries, synodical structures, or seminary education as we know it, is actually eroding even what we have. The PC(USA) remains a predominantly Euro-centric, white, middle class church wedded to a way of doing faith that is deeply dependent on Enlightenment Rationalism, whether in liberal or conservative guise. This framework is increasingly irrelevant to the postmodern generations as well as to growing numbers of Americans from non-Western backgrounds. My objection is to epistemological parochialism, or put another way, the insistence that Presbyterians be locked into speaking in only the language of modernity. When Presbyterians speak today, the world hears English but in the King James version, so to speak, and they tune out.
TPO: What are your goals for your moderatorial years, and what strengths do you bring to the task?
JSK: This is an age that requires a new conceptualizing of leadership. How can churches be re-oriented from institutional management to the kind of leadership that is daring, imaginative, prophetic, countercultural, yet peace-full? … How might we reinterpret this de-centering as a gift and an opportunity for transformation? Is it possible to lead our local congregations and presbyteries into an embodiment of both radical diversity and deep intimacy that counters the homogenizing and commoditizing impulses of the dominant culture? I want to invite the whole Presbyterian family to engage these difficult questions out of my unique experience of leading a vital mainline congregation representing more than 25 nations, cultures, languages, generations, and denominational backgrounds where everyone is a “minority.”
