Except for one little issue.
When the presbytery gathered bi-monthly for its stated meetings, it became increasingly apparent that it was two meetings, not one.
The first, the “official” one, happened in the sanctuary, according to the planned agenda. Committees reported on their work; participants debated issues, examined candidates. Various groups within the presbytery showed what were often compelling and creative presentations. As the business session wore on, interest and energy ebbed and flowed.
At the same time, in the “parallel universe” of the narthex, another meeting was going strong. A pastor, elder, or presbytery staff person here and there would excuse themselves from the “real” meeting and half-sneak to the back for the other meeting.
“What we began to realize,” explains Tod Bolsinger, pastor of the San Clemente Church, “is that the primary work of the presbytery was actually the relational work that was going on in the narthex.” Rather than chastise those who played hooky from the “real” meeting to participate in this narthex work, Los Ranchos decided to “flip” the presbytery.
“What we are trying to do is to flip the presbytery so that the bulk of our ministry is the relating, partnering, connecting, and in the formal meeting we are only doing the work that we have to do in it,” says Bolsinger.
The presbytery asked Bolsinger to moderate the eight-member “Odyssey Group” that Los Ranchos created and commissioned to figure out how to flip effectively. It learned quickly that this would require more than a cosmetic change.
“The true change was the change of the process,” Bolsinger points out. “The old model is that a group is selected, goes away for two years and then comes back with a proposal that we debate about and then vote,” he says. The Odyssey Group determined to develop a different model.
“We spent nine months talking about what needed to change, over the course of five presbytery presentations, bringing a draft in different pieces and getting input along the way,” he explains. “We asked people to read along with us, introducing books and ideas, meeting with every committee, and editing as we went along,” he said. The goal was to “have as many finger prints on the new presbytery design as we could” by the time the Odyssey Group’s “Report on Flipping the Presbytery” finally came to a vote.
But it wasn’t only the meeting that flipped.
“I am most excited about the way we are trying to work on figuring out new ways to be and to do presbytery together,” shares Los Ranchos Executive Presbyter Steve Yamaguchi.
“We live in a world that has changed drastically over the past 30-40 years,” he says, including the changed context of the mission and ministry of the church. Mission is no longer only out there but also right here.
“We need to learn new ways to be together, to listen to one another, we need new sets of tools and part of how we are doing that is through the work of the Odyssey Group,” explains Yamaguchi. This work is not so much a “telling from on high” what needs to be done, but a helping to train the presbytery to move together in new ways.
“If it is successful the mental model of ‘presbytery’ will no longer mean the regulatory governing body whom we have to check with to get stuff done, or whom we need resources from to do our ministry,” explains Bolsinger. What it will mean is the community of people in an area who share mission of the Kingdom of God together. “If we do it right people will hear presbytery and get excited,” he says. Presbytery, then, doesn’t mean meeting, but relationship.
The role of staff is changing. In the new model staff persons are coaches, connectors, and brokers of relationships and resources rather than overseers of particular programs. “We’re trying to move from a programmatic and regulatory model to something that is much more about cultivating a learning environment that is built upon networks and relationships,” says Bolsinger.
Presbytery members have enthusiastically affirmed the changes. When the group asked members what deal breaker could halt the changes, “the number one response was the deal breaker was not doing this,” he recounts.
“We have started to think of it as wherever two or three churches are gathered in the name of Jesus, they are doing the work of the presbytery.”
For more on the Los Ranchos Presbytery’s work in “Flipping the Presbytery” see their series of YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/LRPtv and the Odyssey Group’s report on the Los Ranchos Web site at: https://www.losranchos.org.
