I have just concluded reading Joe Small’s excellent paper/speech prepared for an address given at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary entitled “The Travail of the Presbytery “ regarding the plight and challenges quite possibly facing present day Presbyteries predicated on acceptance of the FOG recommendations coming before GA in Pittsburgh aimed at altering our present, cumbersome denominational structural parameters.
Without question the proposed changes would drastically alter the present political framework of our current judicatorial structure and will impose operational challenges which will bring about the need for reexamining our interpersonal relationships in many of our Presbyteries exclusive of any previous Synod relationship and in face of serious financial shortfall. Without question an exciting new paradigm.
While such proposed change is indeed practical and long overdue, it will impose the need for rebuilding collegial cooperation and trusting, which has too long eroded, yet is vital to making this streamlined structure work. Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders working together, respectful of one another’s gifts, and utilizing them as Calvin initially proposed in an undivided plural ministry.
Small’s interesting and informative explanations, citing historic precedent, were most helpful in placing the concerns facing the Presbyteries and the personalities in perspective and provided a blueprint for accommodating and adapting to the proposed changes.
That the proposed FOG changes are critical to our future goes without question, but our ability to accept and embrace such change from the long endured present norm is surely the “$64,000 question.” Restoring the long deteriorating trust and mutual acceptance level between Clergy and Elders and rekindling a positive working relationship are essential keys to this process.
After absorbing that treatise, I just completed reading Tom Hobson’s excellently crafted “Favoritism” and frankly I shuddered, then asked myself the question, can we possibly discard and get by the “old boy/old girl crony capitalism” he so accurately recounts ? Without question it has all but smothered progress toward practical change across our hierarchy, thwarted new progressive thought and in many ways echoes the potential travail that Joe Small dealt with in his comments.
What both articles boil down to is how best to accommodate change and at the same time rebuild that trusting, collegial plural ministry that Calvin touted. Old habits and attitudes die hard, but as we prayerfully move toward a new, badly needed form of government, we must earnestly strive to reconstruct strong, reliable internal bridges. Work earnestly to reestablish a favorable working relationship that honors real, willing talent and capabilities, cultivating those who can best deliver, not how one parts one’s hair or marches to someone else’s drummer. Encourage and develop a cadre of mutually ordained parties who can lead us out of the favoritism rut we have enjoyed, employed and been trapped in toward a bright new future.
The transition is not going to be easy, as I said old habits die hard, but surely accepting it and striving to accommodate it is most assuredly the key to leading us more confidently and better positioned to face the unique challenges posed by the 21st century and sustain us prayerfully beyond….
James Babcock is an elder in Bozeman, Montana.
