An effective Web site is the heart of Communications Strategy.
To see how your church's Web site stacks up, try this simple method:
Open a search engine, type in the name of a church you admire, and open its Web site. Bookmark it. Find six or more, including your church's likely competition. Open your church's Web site.
Now click from one to the next. Scan it for five seconds -- the amount of time the normal Web user will give to a site's home page -- and then click to another.
Make note of your immediate reaction. First impressions are everything on the Web.
The problem with General Assembly task forces is that they always seem to try to do more than we originally asked them to do.
Example: The attempt by a task force to study ordination foundered when it tried to define new language for God to save us from "him/her." The rather useful suggestions by that group that could have helped us move forward were lost because they tried to go beyond their mandate.
Now the Form of Government Task Force has gone beyond its mandate.
Assigned the task of simplifying the Constitution that has mushroomed into a voluminous, clumsy collection of detailed, statutory laws, they have gone the extra, unneeded mile. They added a "Foundation" document, which simply attempts to write another confession of faith. If we had intended to form a task force to write a new confession I doubt these worthy folk would have been included. Their gifts and experience are in the area of administration and polity, and for that purpose they were selected. Regrettably they have stepped beyond their mandate.
I Introduction
A. As a Church, our whole focus is to serve God by becoming the Body of Christ that reveals the kingdom of God that is among us (Luke 17: 21). As members of the Body, we are to find ways to maintain unity while integrating the different gifts of the Spirit in our individual and communal ministries (I Cor. 12: 12-31).
B. The reality is that while many in the Church are Christ-centered in their faith, human pride and sin lead all of us still to become self-centered. This self-centered pride often leads us to strive for power and control within the church. The battle for power can spread division throughout the church as the desire of certain individuals and groups to wield and maintain that power and influence within the Body becomes a stronger motivation than the desire to seek the will of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
C. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has adopted Robert's Rules of Order as its standard guide to practice in conducting its meetings. Robert's Rules of Order, while an effective program for conducting business and political meetings, is a wholly secular program. It is not a program that seeks to discern God's will. It was created by a military general as a way creating a standard procedure for debate in order to conduct meetings in a more effective and efficient manner. It is rooted in the desire to channel the human tendency to fight, rather than in the spiritual yearning and to seek God's truth and will.
D. The purpose of the following guide to discerning God's will as the Body of Christ is to offer a way of conducting meetings within the church -- within the Body -- that emphasizes seeking the will of God rather than the will of the people (as Robert's Rules of Order does); that emphasizes pastors and elders exercising spiritual leadership rather than temporal leadership; and that emphasizes discernment over debate.
So what's really gone on since the last General Assembly? What is the state of the PC(USA) today?
If ever there were an uncertain sound, yet a cacophony of competing interpretations, it is today. Some reassure while others remonstrate. Some warn of impending disasters, while many are enjoying sunny skies. Some fear we'll drop off the right edge of the planet. Others worry that we're falling off the left edge. How's a person to know?
This edition of the Outlook has been prepared to provide accurate and insightful reporting so informed leaders can really lead the church well in this season between the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly and the 2008 San Jose GA.
So where are we now?
A sea change has been reshaping our national office. The restructure of the General Assembly Council and the election of Linda Valentine as GAC executive director have drawn an influx of fresh eyes and voices into the mission agencies of the church (read article). A new vigor is flowing through those ministries.
After reading the final report of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity (PUP) of the Church, I was astounded. I never imagined that they would offer our heady, theology-obsessed denomination an emphasis on humble and prayerful discernment of God's will.
Those of us Presbyterians steeped in the Christian mystical, spiritual tradition have long recognized the glaring absence of an approach to church polity emphasizing humble, communal discernment. Our denomination has been trapped in a cycle of continual debate and disagreement over issues such as the definition of "Reformed," what the essential tenets of the church are, worship styles, ordination requirements, and scriptural interpretation. What has been missing is a willingness of people on both sides of the debates to sit down with their theological adversaries, and to humbly ask together what Christ is calling us all to do, and what the Spirit is leading us to do.
Editor's Note: Linda Valentine was elected executive director of the General Assembly Council at the 217th General Assembly, held in Birmingham, Ala., in June 2006. Outlook Editor Jack Haberer recently sat down with her to reflect on her first year in this leadership role.
JH: You're coming up on your first anniversary in the role of executive director of the GAC. First the easy question: What have you enjoyed most about this new calling?
LV: The people. Just meeting people all around the church. Seeing the breadth and depth of mission activity that we're engaged in. Truly you sense that this is bigger than any one congregation or any one presbytery.
JH: The obvious second question: What has been difficult or disappointing?
LV: There's so much to do. There's so much opportunity. Choosing the right ones to pursue. I continue to be disappointed, as so many of us are, with the ... contentiousness in the denomination that is distracting. Some of it is important. But there's so much positive going on that giving equal or more attention to that is a continual challenge.
When the General Assembly closed up shop in Birmingham last summer, there was a whole lot of shaking going on -- mostly from folks not too happy about the report on the Trinity or another from the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
But now, a year later, the quaking seems to have subsided, at least in some spots on the map. Some presbyteries are reporting relatively little tumult related to the theological task force report, with none of their congregations having initiated steps to leave the PC(USA).
While that may be true, there certainly have been some high-profile cases of churches heading off for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) -- among them, Kirk of the Hills in Tulsa; Signal Mountain (Tenn.) Church; and most recently, the Memorial Church in Pittsburgh. A June 3 congregational meeting produced a vote of 951 to 93, to join other New Wineskins churches in a transitional non-geographic presbytery, in anticipation of ultimate affiliation with the EPC.
Can practicing homosexuals now be ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?
The short answer is "No." The more complicated answer is "Maybe."
What has been the Presbyterian Church's rule about ordaining practicing homosexuals?
The current law of the PC(USA) says:
Those who are called to this office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the Confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.
This is section G [for Government] 6.0106b of the Book of Order, part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This section, sometimes called Amendment B by its opponents, was adopted by the General Assembly and a majority of presbyteries in 1997. For a decade it has withstood repeated challenges.
Recognizing that it's something of a hard sell to convince folks that it's a terrific idea to rewrite the denomination's constitution, the Form of Government Task Force of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) is planning its strategy for communicating to a broader audience the gist of its complicated work.
Questions people are asking include: "Who formed the task force?" and "Why do we need a new Book of Order? Doesn't the PC(USA) have more important issues" to deal with, said task force co-moderator Sharon Davison, who's an elder from New York City.
A draft introduction to the Revised Form of Government the task force is proposing states that "we have asked two core questions throughout this work: Who does God call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be (the identity of the church)? and What does God call the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to do (the polity of the church)?"
Ottati. Falwell. The twain did meet -- so to speak -- in their departing.
How strange to be honoring Doug Ottati upon his departure from Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education to head to Davidson College as other Virginians were bidding farewell to Jerry Falwell on his journey to the Promised Land. In the minds of its alums, Davidson does resemble the heavenly estate, but that's beside the point.
A symposium honoring the legacy of an icon of liberal theology seemed oddly juxtaposed to the reactions to Falwell's unexpected death, with countless supporters and critics reminiscing or railing over the legacy of an icon of religious conservatism.
Presbyterians give Falwell mixed marks. Some appreciated his strong stands on conservative values. Many shuddered over what they saw as narrow-minded, reactionary fundamentalism. We could fill a few months' magazines with commentaries on those mixed reactions. Little would be gained for such efforts.
Young adults (ages 22-30) are missing from many mainline congregations. Their absence is one reason those congregations' average age is passing 60.
In our opinion, congregations can be successful in reaching young adults. But doing so will require our understanding who they are and what they are going through.
As the rain poured in
And the thunder cracked
It pounded my ears
And soaked my soul
Much like this journey has done
Hearing the echoes of many cries
And feeling drenched in their stories
My heart longs for calm
To be away from the misery
We are sojourners before you and are sojourning just as all our fathers (1 Chronicles 29:10, 15).
The capacity for the transformation of church and community requires deep, intentional remembering. Our core memories are essential to our common identity as Christians. Memories give power for spiritual energy and growth. In spite of many warnings from Scripture about the perils of forgetting, we do forget.
Frederick Weidmann is director of the Center for Church Life and Professor of Biblical Studies at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. In an article about the early church, he recalls a core memory, one that formed the identity of the Christian movement in the first and second century. Citing writings by early Christian leaders, he recalls how our identity was formed by our ancestors, the Israelites.
The immigration problem in America is puzzling. As many voices are saying ...
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders threatens the job market for American citizens. Labor unions cry foul. Trained farm workers can't compete for jobs against folks willing to be compensated below the minimum wage--and without benefits or taxes.
But that's not the point.
The movement of illegal immigrants across our borders raises the specter of hoodlums, drug dealers, and terrorists destroying our peace. True, so far, no terrorists have been interdicted on the Mexican border, but the drug trafficking alone is destructive. Plus, if we should let down our guard, terrorist organizations surely will take advantage.
But that's not the point.
In the 1970s I came of age theologically in a Presbyterian Church (PCUS) that was facing two threats: the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America and the charismatic movement. Though the PCA decimated the PCUS in some areas, it was the charismatic movement that seemed to inspire more fear. Stories abounded of church members, or sometimes ministers, attending charismatic conferences and coming back to split their congregations. Everything connected with the Holy Spirit became suspect. Just mentioning the Spirit was the kiss of death for candidates being examined on the floor of presbytery. The specter of fanaticism and schism hung over anything deemed to be "spiritual."
I recently attended a Presbyterian event where the keynote speaker taught something that deeply grieved me: "Presbyterians are more concerned about the glory of God and the coming of God's reign than the salvation of souls." This was proposed as one of the five key tenets of Reformed Theology. The Reformed doctrines of Sola Fides, Sola Gratia, Sola Scriptura and question one from the Westminster Shorter Catechism were used as supporting statements in this supposition. The conclusion drawn was that "salvation is God's business," inferring that it was not ours as Presbyterian Christians. The statement "salvation is God's business" was then echoed by others in two small groups in which I participated.
Could this attitude, if prevalent throughout our denomination, be why we are decreasing in numbers while other denominations are flourishing?
Please bear with me for one history lesson -- so that we can go over it and go on with living in today.
Starting in 1964, membership in mainline denominations went into a long and steady decline. Much has been made of this decline. Church partisans have used it as a weapon to denounce whatever they didn't like. Look at what happens, they argued, when you open the door to new liturgies, women, gays, liberals, conservatives, renewal hymns -- take your pick.
Louis Weeks, the retiring president of Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond, describes the ordination of Stephen Nkansah this way: "I never saw so many cabs in a Presbyterian parking lot."
Nkansah says more than 600 people worship at his congregation in Woodbridge, Va., now -- cabdrivers, custodians, truck drivers, delivery people, nurses, "all kinds."
They worship at Ebenezer Church both in Twi, the language of their native Ghana, and in English. By worshipping this way, "you come from the bottom of the heart," Nkansah said. He compares what happens at his church to the multitude of languages the apostles heard filling the room, as described in Acts -- all voices, all tongues, all manners of expression. "That is the best way to preach the Bible and to teach, in your own native language," he said. "We are trying to be like the apostles."
This is a story of one man -- two, actually, Nkansah and his friend and colleague, Mark Frimpong -- who have come far from home, made new homes, and planted new churches that are growing faster than many established congregations. It's a story too of struggle, of finding a way to connect with the predominantly white Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has been both welcoming and unsure of what to do with these people who come with their own customs and music and food and language, wanting to worship God in their own way.
Space has been made, but it has sometimes been painful.
While Christians nationwide wrestle to find ways to help settle immigrants coming across our national borders, a handful of Presbyterians in Texas carry out a little noticed outreach to short-term foreign workers. Seafarers, those sailors who transport cargo and fuel from country to country, are greeted by Ben Stewart and David Wells, Presbyterian pastors who serve as chaplains at the Howard T. Tellepsen Seafarers Center in Houston. The Seafarers Center, sponsored by the Presbytery of New Covenant, is the only ministry of its kind in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
c. 2006 Synod of Living Waters.
Used by permission.
A Kentucky church gives free legal advice to explain complicated federal law and hear grievances that otherwise go unremedied. A Tennessee parish gives rides to the hospital and help with college preparation. An Alabama congregation offers Spanish-language worship and a sympathetic ear.
Slowly, the synod's churches are finding ways to put their stamp, and their values, on one of America's biggest controversies, an issue that stirs alarm, confusion and compassion.
An ESL class
The controversy is immigration, pressing the nation to fix a system that oversees the more than 30 million foreign-born workers -- about 11 percent of the U.S. population -- now living here legally or illegally.
Churches are stepping in to put a human face on a messy political debate about how (or whether) to grant legal status to more immigrants, acculturate them into American life, or increase deportations and secure the borders.
What a boost my ministry gained through the D.Min. program I took two decades ago. The lectures were superior, the reading deep, and the discussions insightful.
One of the most valuable and lasting lessons came in the opening orientation.
That academic program, offered jointly by Columbia Theological Seminary and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, would hold us students to certain standards of performance, we were told. No surprise there. However, I bristled when we heard that one of those standards was the demand that we use inclusive language in all our written work. "You will be marked down if your choices of pronouns are gender exclusive," we heard. I wanted to react, but the professor's explanation was winsome. "It's basically about loving your neighbors as yourself," he said.
As a white male who had enjoyed many status advantages, my conscience couldn't argue his point.
In the midst of our heartache and loss, we have been absolutely overwhelmed too with a new sense of church.
For decades, John Anderson, as a seminary student, chaplain, pastor, and denominational servant, served Presbyterian work in the United States. Now his alma mater, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas, is honoring him by providing new housing for its students.
John Anderson grew up in Dallas, Texas, in the 1930s, graduated from Highland Park High School in 1937. First Church, Dallas contributed greatly to his early formation. He received a BA from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, where he was president of the student body before graduating in 1944. After two years as a U.S. Navy chaplain in WWII, Anderson began 38 years of service to churches in Texas and Florida, with nearly half of those years in two separate calls to his boyhood church. In 1953, while serving as senior pastor and head of staff at First Church, Dallas, Anderson earned the Master of Theology degree from Austin Seminary. He has served as an ordained minister for more than 60 years.
You might be surprised to learn there may be more Presbyterians in Mexico than in the United States of America. Even though I could get no solid membership figures from the Office of the General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, the total membership is around two million -- with thirteen synods and sixty-two presbyteries.
There has been a Presbyterian/Reformed presence in Mexico since 1865. It was a courageous Mississippi schoolteacher ("a transplanted Yankee") who set up a small primary school, largely on her own, in Monterrey in that year. By 1872 a presbytery had been organized. Missionaries from four denominations have shared in a Presbyterian/ Reformed mission presence in Mexico over the years: the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church, US, the Reformed Church in America, and the Associate Reformed Church. These mission boards have invested countless mission dollars and hundreds of years of missionary service in one of the most responsive fields for the growth of Reformed Christianity in the last century.
The 2007 Sprunt Lectures at Union-PSCE in Richmond, Va., were notable for a number of reasons: a timing change from winter to spring, the marking of a presidential transition, a thematic emphasis upon worship and Scripture and a marvelous address by Katherine Paterson. Paterson, a distinguished writer of children's stories, spoke to a capacity crowd on May 3 at the annual PSCE alumni dinner. She was honored along with nine classmates as members of the Class of 1957. Dr. Freda Gardner, past moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), introduced her former PSCE roommate.
Katherine Womeldorf Paterson was born in Quinn Jingo, China. She is a graduate of King College and holds masters degrees from both the Presbyterian School of Christian Education and Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She lived and worked for four years in Japan. The Patersons now live in Barre, Vt., where her husband, Dr. John Paterson recently retired as pastor of the First Church. They are the parents of four grown children and four grandchildren.
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