Not just “outside the box,” or “pushing the envelope” or going from “good to great” — all expressions worthy of attention — but “Beyond the Box.” As the back cover of the book says, “It’s time to stop thinking ‘outside the box’ and instead act as though the box never actually existed!”
The word was and remains a good one for us, because churches can be so stuck inside the box that it evidences little agility, little innovation, little effectiveness, little reach.
This edition of the Outlook lifts up two seemingly unrelated topics: the work of the Mid-Councils Commission and the ministries of camps and conference centers. Two unrelated topics, except for one common denominator: Both are operating beyond the box.
In the case of camps and conference centers, a few have closed due to lack of funds or underutilization. But most are surviving a huge economic downturn and a shrinking constituency. Indeed, some are thriving (see pp. 10-12).
The Howell Nature and Retreat Center near Detroit has become a home for thousands of injured and orphaned animals (see p. 13).
Montlure Camp in Arizona, which was devastated by wildfires during pre-season staff training last year, relocated its 2011 and 2012 summer programming and is rebuilding for a 2013 reopening.
Camp Brainerd in Stroudsburg, Pa., brought together camp alumni and a task force of Lehigh Presbytery, who developed a business plan with annual benchmarks. The camp is surpassing these annual goals by connecting with the people it serves and communicating the importance and need of the ministry.
Even the Presbyterian Camp and Conference Center Association, having lost its denominational funding in 2006, didn’t give up. It revamped its operational model by developing a resource repository and a wide variety of programs, including the Compass Points certificate training program with Columbia Theological Seminary (see p. 12). It also brought on a part-time staff person and formed a new financial base through membership dues and fund development efforts (see p. 14). In 2011, PCCCA operated in the black for the first time.
The Mid-Councils Commission (MCC), formerly known as the Middle Governing Bodies Commission, is also operating beyond the box. At its early February meeting it recommended replacing 16 synods with just five regions, each having a judicial commission (comparable to an appellate court) and an administrative commission to address matters of common concern, but leaving to the congregations, presbyteries and General Assembly the task of organizing our worldwide mission (see pp. 16-18).
Moreover, the MCC is proposing the launch of new non-geographic presbyteries to be organized around specific mission initiatives. They also recommend that the GA empower presbyteries to allow congregations to transfer to other presbyteries for compatibility’s sake, and they press for a range of initiatives in racial ethnic ministry. This commission has burst outside, even beyond, the box.
That’s not to say that all such initiatives are godsends. Not all “beyond the box” ideas are Holy Spirit-inspired. Some will sputter. Some won’t fly. Some could backfire. The formation of new presbyteries not only will weaken staffing of existing presbyteries; it can also promote tribalism, fragmenting us into enclaves of agreement — something this editor has railed against for years. And an unbridled proliferation of presbyteries may mean we need synods all the more to provide attentive oversight.
The Outlook will provide in-depth analysis of these proposals in the months before the 2012 General Assembly convenes in Pittsburgh in early July.
But let there be no doubt about this. The popular definition of insanity — doing everything the same as you always have while expecting different results — does require us to try some new things and to try to do some old things in new ways. Hats off to the PCCCA and MCC for daring to take us beyond the box.
—JHH
