A Bunch of Rookies?

I'm posting this from my Motorola Droid smartphone, from my seat in the Presbytery staff section in the Assembly meeting hall at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I have my laptop here with me as well, but there's no wireless internet access in the meeting hall.

The Assembly leadership has been orienting the commissioners and advisory delegates to their task. Part of this was teaching the commissioners to use the electronic keypads they use for voting. There were a few practice questions that were essentially polls.

One question was how many times each of the commissioners has served as a commissioner or advisory delegate before. Here are the results:

First time: 75%
Second time: 18%
Third time: 3%
Fourth time or more: 4%

It's a rather bold and extraordinary practice to put such weighty decisions into the hands of so many newcomers. These numbers are rather typical for General Assemblies, year to year. It speaks volumes about the trust we have for one another, as well as our assumption that there is a common spiritual and theological DNA running through all our ordained offices.

Yes, it's a remarkable organization, this General Assembly of ours!