The NFOG and Manual Madness

After spending some time studying the proposed New Form of Government for the PCUSA that we will be voting on this Saturday in Presbytery of New Covenant, I have concluded that the NFOG is not yet ready for approval.

The Task Force worked hard and delivered a proposal that has some good things in it, but as a past member of our presbytery's PJC, I am concerned about the issues raised by the GAPJC which have become a subject of controversy this week on the internet as well as what appears to be a strengthening of the hierarchical structure of the denomination and the weakening of connectionalism and consistency between the presbyteries.

But the major issue I want to raise here is the requirement that sessions, presbyteries and synods create "Manuals of Operations".

This means that PJC's at all levels must not only interpret and apply the constitution, but also the manuals of councils in their jurisdictions. In effect this expands the NFOG to include all of these manuals, some of which are yet to be created, approved and put into practice.

As one who revised an extensive operations manual for my tall steeple church a couple of years ago, let me assure you that this will be a burden and diversion from mission for most congregations, not to mention the presbyteries. As for the synods, it seems this requirement is giving them a reason to continue to exist when they should be dissolved.

The revision I was involved in took about 9 months and not only my time, but the time of another elder and several staff members of the church. In the hope that I could find a template for the manual, I contacted several other large churches across the country and found that NOT ONE of them had such a manual. So we had to work from scratch. Will our manual pass muster if the NFOG goes into effect? Who knows?

Since presbytery must review and approve session manuals, synod must review and approve presbytery manuals, and General Assembly must approve and review synod manuals, this requirement seems to represent a move to a more hierarchical system of church government.

The vote on the NFOG is coming up this Saturday in Presbytery of New Covenant. I'm voting against it.  If it fails  across the denomination, I hope these issues will be addressed in a subsequent  revision after the next General Assembly.

Reverend in the Sky?

Yesterday evening while El Jefe and I were taking Bea for her evening walk we saw this cloud that looked like a Founding Father to us.

Maybe it's the Rev. John Witherspoon, PresbyPastor and Declaration of Independence signer, come to watch over the doin's at the GA over the Fourth of July weekend in Minneapolis.

We certainly hope so!

PresbyBloggers Adult Bible Study Post

Go over to Presbyterian Bloggers today to read my post about the Bible Study Discussion program at my church and hopefully, a good discussion in the comments about what makes a successful adult Bible study program.

PresbyBookBlogging: The Shack

Today I'm hosting the PresbyBloggers Book Club over at the Presbyterian Bloggers webring. Join us here if you would like to take part in the discussion of this month's selection: The Shack.

PresbyLimpic Events

Watching the Olympic Games I was struck with the thought: what if the PCUSA sponsored PresbyLimpic Games?

The games could feature:

Weightlifting, in which commissioners compete to see who can lift a GA mailing.

The Eternal Marathon, run by the F.O.G. Task Force in an infinite loop.

Verbal Gymnastics, where commissioners vie to produce the most verbose comments from the floor.

Leaps of Faith, where commissioners vote their best guess on a complicated issue they never heard of before.

Synchronized Sermonizing, where ministers compete to compose sermons based on the same scripture.

Moderator-a-Thon, where candidates for Moderator compete in blogging, resume writing, picture posing, and not overtly campaigning for office.

PresbyFriends, what events would you add to the PresbyLimpics?

PresbyBloggers Re-Inventing Themselves

The Presbyterian Bloggers webring is re-inventing itself!

A group of the bloggers have been working to set up weekly features for the ring website and hope to encourage broader participation and develop a sense of community. Our new Moderator, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow has agreed to participate in a monthly "Ask The Moderator" post. Thanks, Bruce!

I've agreed to co-host the weekly Thursday feature we're calling "Read and Learn". Plans are to set up an online book club (similar to the one at the RevGals) and offer book, movie, TV, and magazine article reviews as well as suggestions for adult study groups. Contributions and suggestions from fellow PresbyBloggers will be most welcome.

Here's the rest of the proposed schedule, which is still a work in progress and subject to change:

Sunday

Weekly Devotion

Monday
Member Blog Meet & Greet

Tuesday

Personal Faith Experiences

Wednesday
Joyful News on Ministry

Thursday

Read and Learn

Friday
1st: Ask Moderator Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow

2nd: Ask the Experienced Pastor

3rd: Ask the Elder Elder

4th: Get to Know Meme

Saturday
Chewing on the Word: Lectionary Ruminations

Woo-hoo!

Beware the Jabberwock!

Like many PresbyBloggers, I was dismayed by the recent GAPJC ruling in the Rev. Jane Spahr case. Amidst the dueling opinions issued (majority, partial majority, concurring, betwixt and between, etc.), the rationale for the decision that emerged was stunning in its sophistry. Stunning.

Rev. Spahr was honest and forthright about her actions and motivation--to bring a test case over what she believes is a justice issue. The majority ruling was dishonest in its attempt to dodge the central issue in the case which was Spahr's deliberate disobedience to the Book of Order's prohibition against conducting same sex marriage ceremonies.

Some have suggested the opinion was an attempt to avoid sparking controversy this close to the June General Assembly meeting. But the pot is now stirred to a froth, and all sides are riled up. The decision has undermined confidence in the church's highest court. The multiple opinions issued do not give reliable guidance to the church for the future and create confusion and uncertainty.

Yesterday Presbyweb posted a Viewpoint by Rev. Ed Koster, one of the candidates for Stated Clerk who is a lawyer as well as a minister, in which he pointed out several unintended consequences that could result from this jabberwocky, which is now legal precedent for the church. One these is that since G-6.0106(b) of the BOO limites ordination to those who are married or celibate, then non-celibate gays or lesbians who have been ordained are not really ordained: if it is impossible to marry a gay couple then it is likewise impossible to ordain non-celibate gays and lesbians. Koster is exactly right when he points out that this is the logical application of the rationale in the Spahr case to the ordination issue.

A bad decision, badly decided. Pass the slithy toves, I'm feeling rather mimsy. Brillig, anyone?

The Presby-Meme

Shawn has tagged me for the Presbyterian Meme going around the PresbyBlogosphere. Thanks, Shawn!

Here goes....

* in about 25 words each, answer the following five questions;
* tag five presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged;
* be sure to link or send a trackback to this post;

1. What is your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian?

Hearing my father expound on the virtues of the Presbyterian tenet of the equality of the laity and the clergy. This was probably in the context my asking about the Catholic nuns (pre-Vatican II in the old style habits) that we used to see regularly in the grocery store because their convent was nearby. I was probably about 5 or 6 at the time.

2. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend LESS energy and time?

Internal denominational disputes.

3. On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend MORE energy and time?

Evangelism and Outreach.

4. If you could have the PC(USA) focus on one passage of scripture for an entire year, what would it be?

Great question! I would really like to have the PCUSA read the entire Bible in a year (or 90 days) because of our tendency to focus on brief passages, thereby sometimes losing the context.

In the spirit of the meme, however, I'll choose Romans 8:28-39 because it is a wonderfully concise statement of reform theology.

5. If the PC(USA) were an animal what would it be and why?

A cat. Just try to herd it!

UPDATE: I overlooked the extra credit question, and y'all know what an overachiever I am, so....

Extra Credit: Jesus shows up at General Assembly this year, what does he say to the Presbyterian Church (USA)?

"Truly, truly I say to you that God so loved the world that he did NOT send a committee."

TAG TIME! Gannet Girl, Classical Presbyterian, Presbyterian Gal, Revs. Kim and Dave, and Viola

A Web 2.0 Moderator?

As the time for the biennial General Assembly meeting approaches, candidates for Moderator are being endorsed. Among those "standing" so far is Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow. (For my non-Presby readers, the Moderator is the highest elective office in the denomination and serve for one two-year term.)

Bruce is much younger than your average "standee" for this position and, as befits one of his generation, is using web tools such as blogs and Facebook to introduce himself and to invite dialogue and discussion with him about the issues in the denomination.

Apparently he is getting criticism about his "2.0 Moderator" approach.

I like it. We need more transparency, not less, in the denomination if trust between the "higher courts" and the person in the pew is going to be restored. I'm looking forward to following his "campaign" through his blog and he's even going to force this old fuddy-duddy to finally check into Facebook to see what that is all about. I may not agree with all of his views, but I welcome the way he is inviting folks into discussion about them. Check it out for yourself.

The FOG and the Co-Pastor Trend

My recent post "The Co-Pastor Trend" prompted quite a few comments and some good discussion about the pros and cons of calling a co-pastor who becomes senior pastor upon the retirement of a (usually) long-time senior pastor in the PCUSA.

I just realized that the Form of Government (FOG) recommendations to General Assembly address some of the concerns that gave rise to the co-pastor model for pastoral transition. Just as in the poem, this FOG is stealthily coming upon us like little cat feet, and there are many who will be surprised by what is in it.

For example:

Upon a 3/4 vote of the presbytery, an associate pastor may become the next installed pastor of that congregation (G-2.0303a);

An interim pastor may called to an installed position (G-2.0303b)

There's a whole lot more in the FOG recommendations, but given the recent discussion here, I'm highlighting these two which, if approved, would represent a major change in the denomination's historic policy that prevented associate pastors from being installed as senior pastor in the same church and interim pastors from being called to a permanent installed position in the church they are temporarily serving.
There would be little need to call a transitional co-pastor if the church could hire an interim pastor and then call the interim to the installed position. Permitting the approval of "promoting" an associate pastor as the senior pastor raises a lot of issues--never mind making that approval contingent on a super-majority vote of presbytery.

Presbytery of New Covenant has a task force studying the FOG and preparing an interpretive report for our commissioners and sessions. When the final report is made it will be posted on the presbytery website and I will post a link to that for those of you who are interested. Meanwhile, here is a link to the FOG report itself, which is posted on the PCUSA website. Remember that the FOG Task Force was instructed not to make any changes to the "trust" provisions in the property sections of the BOO or to the "chastity and fidelity" requirement of section. 6.0106b.

UPDATE: A bit more sleuthing around the FOG report revealed that there is now an additional recommendation at the end stating that the GA may wish to ask presbyteries to remove provision allowing an associate pastor to become the installed pastor with a 3/4 vote of presbytery. Apparently there has already been an outcry over this. I don't understand why the task force didn't just amend their report to cover that if they reconsidered the change. Maybe some of you can enlighten me. But it's just another reason why I think we won't be ready to adopt this sweeping change on the accelerated schedule that was set for the FOG Task Force.

The Co-Pastor Trend

Sunday evening I presided over my first installation service. The circumstances surrounding it reveal something of a trend in our area towards the co-pastor to pastor transitional model among our largest (more than 1,000 member) churches.

For those who aren't familiar with this, here's the deal: as a long-time pastor nears retirement he (so far its always been a "he") works with the session to announce the date of his retirement--usually a year to 18 months in advance--and at the same time the session approves the creation of a "co-pastor" position and forms a Pastoral Nominating Committee to fill it. The Co-pastor position is specifically designed as a short term office so that the retiring pastor and the co-pastor serve together for a short transitional period, two to three months. At the end of that period the long-time pastor retires and the "co-pastor" is installed as the pastor.

Yes, PresbyPolityGeeks, this is an end run of sorts around the Book of Order. The advantage is to avoid a period of transition with an interim pastor after the retirement of the former pastor and during the period of the search. The two churches in our presbytery who have done this were both stable congregations, relatively free of conflict, and united in their concern that their ministry continue uninterrupted by an interim period. Both senior pastors were very cooperative with the process. In fact on Sunday the retiring pastor gave the charge to the congregation in which he stressed the fact that the new pastor was now in charge and that he fully supported him.

This is not to say that all very large churches will follow this model, of course. We have an interim minister at another of these churches following the departure of the senior pastor which was not a retirement. There are times when a church will benefit from an interim ministry following a retirement when the congregation is conflicted about its future direction or needs time to separate from the former pastor before bonding with a new one.

It will take a few more years to see how well this approach worked out. It has been done in other presbyteries, too. Have you seen this trend in your presbytery? Should it be codified in the BOO?

PresbyNews Prompts What If Query

There's a lot of PresbyNews out there suddenly, as the Christmas season is behind us and the 2008 General Assembly is ahead of us in June.

So far we see:

1. The Form of Government Report which recommends an almost total revision of the Book of Order. The exceptions are the Church Property Sections and the "fidelity/chastity" ordination requirement which the Task Force was specifically directed NOT to address.

2. The New Wineskins model Overture (scroll down to exhibit D-1 at the end of the documents) to change the aforementioned Property Section, which will doubtless be presented to a number of presbyteries within a few weeks for approval.

3. The Lisa Larges ordination case in San Francisco Presbytery, in which she declared a scruple against the fidelity/chastity requirement and the scruple was accepted by that presbytery in a narrow vote. Appeal pending to the Synod PJC and doubtless will go on to the GAPJC.

4. The lawsuit brought against Sacramento Presbytery for approving the withdrawal of two churches to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church with their property.

No doubt more news will be coming as we move closer to the date of the GA. Recently it was suggested to me that in a generation or two there may be such a complete realignment of Presbyterian churches that, for example, the Sacramento Presbytery may find itself associated with the EPC along with the two churches that withdrew or that all of them may find themselves members of another not-yet-formed denomination.

What do you think, fellow PresbyBloggers? What if that happened? Is that possibility in the longer term? And if so, what implications might that have for us as we address these issues?