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!