I have been learning more about you in the past fifteen months. I have visited forty nine out of fifty five of our congregations and six out of ten of our ethnic fellowships. Some of the others I have visited previously.
If you had been following me around the presbytery, regardless of your theological home on the continuum you would have learned a lesson. I believe you would have learned as I have that we are doing a far better job at appreciating our common values and encouraging our common faith than we have been at dividing over the issues that grab the headlines. I've prayed with and for liberal progressives, moderates, evangelicals and conservatives. When our eyes are closed and our hearts are focused on God we all look and sound remarkably alike. I'm grateful to God for that. I hope you are, too.
Wherever I go I listen for attitudes about our presbytery. People sometimes say, "The presbytery did this”.
And...”The presbytery did that.” Or “The presbytery was slow in responding to our call."; "The presbytery was not here when we needed them."; "The presbytery was heavy handed.", “The presbytery only comes around when they think we've done something wrong." Thankfully I have not often heard such comments, but I have heard them.
So who is the presbytery? Most all of us here today would say we appreciate the reformed polity and theology that characterize Presbyterians. If we did not, we know we could leave and join some other group. We could be Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Assemblies of God, Congregationalists or Baptists! We could join an independent congregation. No one makes us stay here. Those other churches are all valuable in God’s sight. Their members are our sisters and brothers in the faith. But we are Presbyterians for a reason. Where I'm going with this is to say that WE ARE THE PRESBYTERY!
If the presbytery is providing effective leadership it is because we are making it
happen! One of the intentional trends of our presbytery is that we are trying to become what we believe. We exist to provide resources for congregations. That's leadership from the bottom up, not top down. In order for us to be effective in this mode we must have capable and gifted people coming in from our congregations who are willing to put their talents to use at this level. When elders finished their terms of service on session, I dare our elders and ministers to say: "I think you have the ability to help accomplish God's work at the presbytery level" and pass their names to our nominating committee.
Today we have important vacancies in some of our pivotal leadership areas. If you really believe you are a Presbyterian for a good reason, then help us get stronger. Help us to be more effective, so that when a congregation calls for assistance from the presbytery we'll have the leadership we need to be able to respond with excellence. The presbytery is not "THEM." It is you and me!
We are indeed working to be a group that seeks to empower people from the bottom up. Over the coming years I believe we will become less of a regulatory body though some of that is needed, and more of a learning community. We need to learn how to help our congregations respond with wisdom and creativity to the challenges of our society, because we worship a creative and wise God. A healthy presbytery is an arena where people are primarily learning together how to be more effective at mission, ministry, discipleship, evangelism, stewardship, ethics and justice.
We appreciate Presbyterian polity as well as our reformed theology. But do we realize that increasingly our congregations are filling with people who don't know that polity or appreciate the distinctive of our theology? Some of them don’t care about it as we do! They may have joined because the Presbyterian Church nearby had a quality children’s ministry! That's okay. These are the people that God is bringing to us and our privilege is to welcome, love and disciple them! But when God calls them to serve as elders and deacons they need to learn how our church is governed and what we believe! So the education of our officers needs to be a perpetual priority in all our congregations. Pastors and other experienced leaders must see that it is accomplished. When elders and deacons are not educated in our polity and theology the church begins to crumble from within.
Where I have worked with a congregation that had a leadership crisis, it has sometimes happened when the elders around the session table had received inadequate training about how they were to exercise appropriate governance. They became the available pawns of the pastor, if he or she gave in to the temptation to grab more than his or her rightful share of power, or they became pawns of their own ignorance. It's not enough just to place a book of order in their hands, though that's a good place to begin.
Today, as if I have not said enough, I want to challenge all of us. We need to survey our congregations and compare how they look inside and outside. Our neighborhood congregations need to look like their neighborhoods. If you look at a healthy Sunday morning congregation it should resemble the people who live across the street and down the block from the campus. If not, why not? It could be a magnet church that attracts people from our whole region. Churches with a special attraction such as ethnicity or a distinctive theology may do that. This one does. But the vast majority of neighborhood congregations need to look like the people across the street. Too many of our congregations still have a growth plan that was effective a long time ago. Too many of them are not meeting and welcoming their neighbors, the people who live across the street today.
Day by day some of these churches are declining. If they are nesting an ethnic fellowship group that worships at a different time they may also be nesting their congregation’s future. That nesting is a very good thing, but is probably not often intentional in the way I am describing it today.
I also want to communicate my gratitude to God for our ethnic congregations, fellowships and our commissioned lay pastors. They have lessons to teach the rest of us about how to communicate the gospel, how to care for human needs, how to love people, how to be Presbyterians a little differently. Don't miss any opportunities to learn from them.
I want to say a word of gratitude for the people, who have helped me to be effective and who have assisted our presbytery office day in and day out. We have helpers at the General Assembly level who answer our call. People like Julia Thorne, Gradye Parsons, Doska Ross, Jill Hudson, Marcia Meyers and Leslie Davies. They help us help you. You are well served by them. We have heard about new mission and missionary initiatives from Linda Valentine, Tom Taylor and Hunter Farrell that are changing the focus of mission and ministry in Louisville. I wanted you to know that we notice and appreciate their approach.
Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving beside you through the work of our presbytery for the past fifteen months. You've sent mission workers to help people here and all over the world. You've cared for, prayed for, taught and mentored people by the thousands. You have worked for justice at every level. Even today God is inspiring you for the important work that lies ahead.
I came into this work anticipating that I would be carrying out some interim tasks. I am working to help you be ready to welcome a new permanent EP in the weeks ahead. But to be honest, for the most part, I have not been much occupied with interim tasks. Time for that simply has not been available. When I
began, I needed to jump into a fast moving stream and try to keep on my feet.
I appreciate our talented staff, officers, those serving in presbytery leadership, our partners in our neighboring presbyteries and our synod office. For the opportunity to work with amazingly gifted people in every area of our presbytery I am grateful. To see glimpses of God at work has been priceless.
No doubt you'd like to hear more about the state of the statistics of the presbytery. Those will come at the next meeting, provided that your churches turn in their reports!
To God be the glory!