"Change is in the air... breathe deeply!"

The Association of Stated Clerks spent their morning with The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk for the General Assembly. He gave us a broad overview of some of the hot topics coming up this week, which could be summarized by the comment of one person in attendance:

Change is in the air - breathe deeply.

Gradye's comments were somewhat influenced, I think, by the fact that he has just returned from a 10-day meeting with the former World Alliance of Reformed Churches and another such body (sorry, I don't know their correct name) which have now merged to become the World Council of Reformed Churches. There were 226 denominations in attendance from 80 countries - which, Gradye says, means that "there were 226 ways to do things."

We feel the changes deeply among us right now, if for no other reason than we are together living into "shared leadership" and shared ministry between Sierra Blanca and Santa Fe presbyteries. But Gradye said that it's not just our two presbyteries, or even our denomination. He mentioned that the mainline Lutherans (ELCA) among others are having conversations like ours, as well as some other mainline denominations. It's even global - the Church of Scotland is trying to figure out restructuring as well. It seems that structurally, everything right now in the Church is up for grabs.

One of the driving forces behind all this change, he believes, has been the influence of technology. He pointed out that many of our relationships are now more based on technological connections than by who may be down the road from us. He told the story of watching TV one day with his wife Kathy, a 4th-grade teacher. A commercial came on for some kind of electronic Legos. He asked her why kids just couldn't play with plain old Legos - why did they have to be electronic to sell? Her response: "With this generation, if it's not virtual, it's not real." As he pointed out that for some people virtual relationships are as or more "real" than people they see every day, I reflected on some of the closest friendships I enjoy right now - with EPs in Nebraska, Indiana, New Jersey and Texas.

I can't help but wonder what bearing this will have on us as we move forward in our new endeavor in New Mexico. Our Joint Council meeting brought about some very fruitful discussions, and the Implementation Team has had some conversations about the use of technology in our future together. I think we will need to "boot up" those conversations even more in the days to come.

Gradye went on to reflect on this time in which you and I are living, which some label as the early stages of a new Reformation. He cited a recent Pew Research study which learned that - read this twice - only 37% of those surveyed attend one church exclusively. Only 37%, a little more than 1/3. That means that 63% of those surveyed are attending activities at two or more churches - worship here, Bible study there, youth group yet elsewhere. What does that mean, he wondered aloud, for our expectations of members who will be "exclusive in their attentions to us and their gifts to us?"

We began to talk more about the notion of being in the middle of a new Reformation, and one person asked whether it was wise for us to undertake something like the New Form of Government or restructuring our middle governing body structure if we didn't know where we were or where we were going. In respose, Gradye cited a book called The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch. MacCulloch puts forward the idea that it took more than just Martin Luther and John Calvin to pull off what we now call the Reformation. According to Gradye, he writes that "every village had their own Calvin or Luther, or it wouldn't have happened." Every village had to have somebody who spoke up and said they wanted things to be different where they were.

You all were front and center in my thoughts as he said, "It's easier to get the Spirit moving if you're already in motion." Whether or not initiatives like the Form of Government succeed at this GA, they are "making cracks to allow the Spirit to seep in." In a period of change, Gradye said, it's better to do something than nothing.

As I've said before, your recognition of the need for change was one of the things which most attracted me to serve alongside you. Since I've been here, I've met a number of people for whom Gradye's statements were news; as usual, the saints of Santa Fe and Sierra Blanca are ahead of the curve. We are continuing to move ahead in our life together. Whether it looks this way in three years or not, we are indeed making cracks to allow the Spirit to seep in.

I've gone on longer than I planned, but this was good and important stuff. In a separate note I'll share with you a summary of some of the issues to look for this coming week.

A FOG-gy start in Minneapolis

Good evening, friends -

Here is a view taken from my room on the 21st floor of the downtown Hilton. The church you see towards the front is Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Tom Hart's brother-in-law Tim Hart-Anderson is the pastor. (Tom is pastor of Shepherd of the Valley in Albuquerque) They are hosting the Association of Stated Clerks meeting that David Preininger and I are attending before the start of GA.

The ASC meeting began with two things that Presbyterians do very well: worship, and eat! After dinner we gathered to hear a presentation by Steve Smith, recently retired Stated Clerk for the Presbytery of the Pacific, talk about the New Form of Government which will be voted on by the assembly this week.

Well, the weather outside is sunny and cool, but things in the meeting began to heat up in short order. The first thing you need to realize about this crowd is that Steve was talking to the folks who are most passionate about our current Book of Order, people who are wired to enjoy details and make wise rulings. The second thing to remember is that not one person in the room has a vote! So while no one could do anything to effect the outcome of the vote, there was no shortage of opinions about the topic at hand.

I'm coming to see that there is good news and bad news about the proposed new Form of Government which, if passed at General Assembly and then by a simple majority of presbyteries across the country, would replace our current Book of Order. The good news is that it would be more of a bare-bones, permission-giving document than we currently use. The bad news is that it would be more of a bare-bones, permission-giving document than we currently use. Its purpose is to allow presbyteries to focus on that which makes us truly Presbyterian, while allowing themselves and their churches to write their own Manuals of Operation and decide things like "how much notice must we give for a congregational meeting" and "can we call our interim pastor" for themselves.

Steve Smith, who serves on the New Form of Government Task Force, said this evening that we as Presbyterians have "put more into 'decently and in order' than we have 'energy, intelligence, imagination and love.'" While that did not do much to endear him to the roomful of stated clerks, he was trying to say that the new Form of Government will free us up from "throwing the book" at each other and enable more mission to take place. It would also let each presbytery make decisions that would be custom-made for their particular needs. He pointed out that we are not going to be required to change a lot of things - we may choose to do so, but the main changes would be in nomenclature: "ministers of word and sacrament" will once again be called "teaching elders," "governing bodies" would be called "councils," and so on.

Based on the reception given by the clerks tonight, however, I am thinking that the "New FOG" will not pass on the floor of the assembly. There was NO enthusiasm in the group for yet another opportunity to rewrite Manuals of Operation. There was no agreement that stated clerks will use MORE energy, intelligence, imagination and love with a new constitution than they are currently using. There was a fairly strong sense that their concerns had not been seriously considered by the task force. And there was, I believe, fear of what many perceived would be chaos in our presbyteries.

My concern was a little different. One clerk quoted a part of the report as saying that our life together as Presbyterians was based on "fellowship," which I understood to mean our ability to work together in an atmosphere of trust. I am all for trust; but I thought that our life together as Presbyterians was based in the God we know through Jesus Christ, whom we experience in the form of Holy Spirit. I can't help but believe that if we acknowledged that as our true basis of life together, not just "whether we can all get along," the trust and fellowship would fall into place.

You may think that this is just all constitutional nonsense and doesn't have a lot to do with our everyday life in the local church. While you may not get nearly as excited about this topic as me, I maintain that how we understand ourselves to be held together in Christ is indeed one of the distinct marks that make and keep us Presbyterian. Whether it's measurable or not, I believe you'll see a difference in your local church, and in our two presbyteries, if this comes to pass. I am just not sure what that difference will be.

Stay tuned!