Finding Stewardship Resources

One of the biggest challenges for church leadership is finding good Stewardship resources for worship and education – and, yes, for that annual campaign that most of us start to get really concerned about this time of year, as we move ahead with planning for the fall.

Maybe you already know, in your church, what your Stewardship campaign is going to be about, this year. If so, blessings be upon you!

Or, maybe your Stewardship thinking right now sounds more like this: “Hmmmm... What to do with Stewardship, this year? Haven’t our people – especially our longtime members – heard it all before?”

There’s a wonderful website called Stewardship Kaleidoscope. It’s an outgrowth of a national Presbyterian Stewardship conference that took place last spring. It doesn’t look like much, at first. It appears to be little more than a place to hang an announcement about next year’s conference (which will take place from February 28 through March 2 in Phoenix).

Click on the link, though, that says “Resources from 2010 Stewardship Kaleidoscope.” You’ll open the door to a wealth of resources to stimulate your thinking about how to present the joy of Christian Stewardship to your congregation.

The extensive outline of Bob Sheldon’s workshop, “Annual Campaigns That Really Work,” is especially thought-provoking.

Check out, too, the notes from M. Thomas Norwood Jr.’s workshop, “Rethinking Stewardship: New Strategies for a Changing World.” His simple pie chart, “The Stewardship Process,” contains an incredibly valuable visual lesson for church leaders: how small a piece of the stewardship pie the infamous “Asking” really is. A lot of us burn up all our energy obsessing over how to do that one thing. It’s important – but not the whole story, by any means!

Good stuff, here. Check it out!

What's your church planning this year, by way of a Stewardship campaign? How about writing a comment, below, to share your ideas?

Clint McCoy's Take on the General Assembly

Clerks of Session really ought to subscribe to the free e-mailings of the Synod of the Northeast's "Nor'E-News", to stay up on the latest news and events. You can download the July issue on the Synod's website.

To subscribe to the Nor'E-News, contact Nancy Lomberk in the Synod Office.

In the July issue, Synod Executive for Partnerships, Clint McCoy, comments on his observations at the General Assembly. Here are a few highlights:

219TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY: A NORTHEAST VIEW

The work of the 219th General Assembly was so extensive, requiring presbyteries to take action on so many items, that Associate Stated Clerk and Director of Constitutional Services, Rev. Mark Tammen, wrote a memo to presbytery leaders, suggesting that consideration of General Assembly issues be scheduled over three separate presbytery meetings in order to avoid commissioner overload. Presbyteries will consider
1) a new Form of Government,
2) adding a confession of faith (The Belhar Confession) to its Book of Confessions, plus
3) other "normal amendments" to the church constitution, including a change in the language regarding ordination.

PEACEMAKING AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Issues of the Peacemaking and International Issues Committee included...
...a call for the United States to end direct combat operations in Afghanistan, the denomination's first such statement since the war began in 2001, also requesting the U.S. government to increase humanitarian and economic development assistance to Afghanistan
...the Assembly's authorizing a denominational study, building on 1980's "Peacemaking: The Believers' Calling," to consider new thinking and approaches to peacemaking and nonviolence as a fundamental response to the challenges of violence, terror and war.
...additional action based on committee recommendations included statements urging the United States to end its use of seven military bases in Colombia; prayers and advocacy for peace in Sudan; restoration of sustainable agriculture in Haiti; reconciliation on the Korean peninsula and the reunification of North and South Korea; protection of religious minorities around the world.

ASSEMBLY CREATES COMMISSION ON MIDDLE GOVERNING BODIES

A 21-member Middle Governing Body Commission, with authority to act on the Assembly's behalf in responding to realignment requests from synods and presbyteries, was created by the Assembly. The commission can change presbytery and synod structures "upon a majority affirmative vote of the affected presbytery or presbyteries or a majority affirmative vote of the presbyteries in the affected synod or synods." Decisions of the commission itself are subject to a required 2/3 majority of its voting members.

The commission will have the authority granted to the General Assembly in G-13.0103m and n "to organize new synods and to divide, unite or otherwise combine synods or portions of synods previously existing" and "to approve the organization, division, uniting or combining of presbyteries or portions of presbyteries by synods."

In other middle governing body-related actions, the Assembly rejected overtures...
...to eliminate synods
...to create a new synod based on theological affinity alone; and refusing an overture to give congregations flexibility to join presbyteries outside of their geographical area based on theological affinity
...to create a Korean-language presbytery within the Synod of South Atlantic.

MIDDLE EAST PEACEMAKING

Addressing a report prepared by the Middle East Study Committee (MESC), "Breaking Down the Walls," dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the General Assembly committee dealing with Middle East issues, came to unanimity with regards to its recommendations. Committee Moderator, the Rev. Karen Dimon, Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery, said that she witnessed the Holy Spirit at work in the committee, whose members held diverse views.

Actions of the committee included...
...reception Part One of the MESC report, including eight letters to the ecumenical and interfaith community, Israelis, Palestinians and Americans, as rationale for recommendations only, not as policy.
...a reaffirmination of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation within secure and internationally recognized borders.
...authorizing the creation of a seven-person monitoring group on the Middle East for the next two years.
...lifting up the often neglected voice of Palestinian Christians, and commending for study the Kairos Palestine document, "A Moment of Truth," endorsing its emphases on nonviolence, love of enemy, reconciliation and liberation hope.
...calling on Israeli and Egyptian governments to limit their Gaza blockades to military equipment, guaranteeing adequate food, medicine, building supplies and free commercial exchange in and out of Gaza.
...deleting much of Part Three of the MESC report, requesting the monitoring group to replace it with eight comparable narratives arising from Palestinian (Christian and Muslim) and Israeli perspectives that are pro-justice and pro-peace.

SUMMARY OF ISSUES AVAILABLE

Assembly in Brief - a 16-page bulletin insert-sized summary of the Assembly in words and pictures produced by the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian News Service is available to download. Click here to download the bulletin.

Status Confessionis?

Are we in a "status confessionis?" That's what the General Assembly is asking the presbyteries.

According to theologian Karel Blei, that venerable Latin phrase means "a situation of confessing, a situation in which the confession of Jesus Christ is at stake." From time to time the church needs to confess its faith in fresh terms, to meet the world's urgent need to hear the good news. The General Assembly has just said to the church: "We believe we are in just such a time."

Specifically, the Assembly voted to continue the multi-year process - begun by the 2008 Assembly - of adding a new confession to the Book of Confessions. That sort of change hasn't happened since 1990, when the church adopted A Brief Statement of Faith - and, before that, not since the Confession of 1967.

The confession the Assembly would like to add doesn't come from our country, nor even our hemisphere. The Belhar Confession - written in South Africa in 1982 in the Afrikaans language, and in English in 1986 - would be the first confession in the book that arises out of the vibrant churches of the Southern Hemisphere.

Specifically, the Belhar Confession was written by leaders of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC), the former "coloured" (mixed-race) Reformed denomination in South Africa. It's named for a suburb of Capetown in which the General Synod of that church was meeting at the time.

Since 1994, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church is no more. Its congregations have since united with the black Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) to become the multi-race Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa. That denomination is still working towards full unity with the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRCSA), the white Reformed denomination.

Back in 1982, though, under the brutal apartheid system, Christians of different races were not even permitted to sit together at the Lord's Table. I remember attending the General Council meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Ottawa, Canada in that year (Claire and I were leading the youth component of the Visitors' Program). At the opening communion service, delegates from the black and coloured South African churches stood in silent protest. They refused to partake of the sacrament with delegates from their country's white church. To do otherwise would be a sham, they were saying - for, if they were barred from sitting together at the Lord's Table back home, why should they do so overseas, at an ecumenical gathering?

Their protest electrified the General Council meeting - ordinarily a rather staid conclave of academic theologians and denominational officials. Before the meeting had ended, the World Alliance had suspended the membership of the white DRCSA, and declared apartheid to be a sin. (In theological terms, a sin is more serious than a heresy - a heresy is technically a disagreement among friends, while a sin is an affront to God). That church has since been re-admitted, after repudiating apartheid as a theology.

Decrying racism's insidious power to separate people one from another, the Belhar Confession proclaims “that any teaching which attempts to legitimate such forced separation by appeal to the gospel, and is not prepared to venture on the road of obedience and reconciliation, but rather, out of prejudice, fear, selfishness and unbelief, denies in advance the reconciling power of the gospel, must be considered ideology and false doctrine.” Thus, any racist statement that claims to base its authority on scripture isn't even worthy of consideration, because it has revealed itself to be false from the very outset.

"Separation, enmity and hatred between people and groups," the Belhar Confession makes clear, "is a sin which Christ has already conquered."

Does Belhar speak a message to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that we need to hear? Furthermore, if we make this confession our own, does it aid our witness to the wider world?

Personally, I think it does. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous remark that "Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most racist hour in American life" is still all too true.

The Reformed Church in America adopted the Belhar Confession as one of its official confessions this year. The more conservative denomination of Dutch Reformed heritage in our country, the Christian Reformed Church, provisionally adopted it in 2007, and is expected to finalize that decision in 2012.

These churches evidently believe they are in a status confessionis. Will the PC(USA) decide the same? The voting in our presbyteries in the coming year is an important part of that careful process of discernment.

Sermon on the General Assembly

Last Sunday, I preached a sermon in which I reflected on my experiences at the General Assembly.

I'm preaching through the Acts of the Apostles these days. The sermon is based on Acts 14:8-20, in which Paul experiences some rocky times - literally - while spreading the faith in the city of Lystra.

In case any of you are interested in reading the manuscript, you can find it here.

Another GA FAQ - Immigration

The PC(USA) Response to Arizona Immigration Law
Questions and Answers

What did the Assembly do?

The 219th General Assembly (2010) amended and approved a commissioner’s resolution that calls for the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) to:

* “refrain from holding national meetings at hotels in those states where travel by immigrant Presbyterians or Presbyterians of color or Hispanic ancestry might subject them to harassment due to legislation similar to Arizona Law SB 1070/HB2162”;

* “offer nonfinancial support for the creation of accompaniment programs to support persons of color who feel that they are at risk when attending church‐sponsored worship or programs” in congregations and camp & conference facilities;

* Encourage camps & conference centers in Arizona and other states that pass similar laws to “develop ‘sanctuary’ responses that would create safe places for all participants”...; and

* Develop educational and legal resources for congregations through the PC(USA) office of immigration.

The vote was 420‐205, with 18 abstentions.

What does it mean?

The PC(USA) will now refrain from holding national meetings in the state of Arizona, and will monitor the progress of similar legislation to Arizona Law SB 1070/HB2162 that is currently being considered in seventeen other states (as of June 23, 2010). As directed by this assembly, the PC(USA) will refrain from holding national meetings in states that pass such copycat legislation.

What’s next?

Steps will begin to develop the programs and resources that are detailed in the assembly action.

Where can I get more information?

Full text of the resolution

Immigration Issues information from the PC(USA) website

What's Up With All These FAQs?

In case you're just joining this blog and are wondering what's up with all these FAQs, read on for the explanation. They were issued by the leadership of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as attachments to a pastoral letter issued by the denominational leadership.

Scroll down past the 5 sets of FAQs to read the cover letter.

Scroll down beyond that to read my impressions of the General Assembly.

Scroll down even further to get to general blog posts of interest to clerks of Session and other Presbyterian leaders.

Ordination Standards FAQ

Ordination Standards
Questions and Answers

What did the Assembly do? What has changed?

The 219th General Assembly (2010) proposed a change to the PC(USA) Constitution regarding ordination standards by a vote of 373‐323‐4. This action does not change the Constitution. It is a first step in the process. A majority of the 173 presbyteries would have to vote in the affirmative to approve the replacement by July 2010.

What does it mean?

G‐6.0106b is a provision in the PC(USA) Book of Order (Constitution) that provides the following standards for persons ordained as church leaders (deacon, elder or minister). The current version reads:

“Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W‐4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self‐acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.”

The 219th General Assembly (2010) recommends deleting the above provision and replacing it with the following language:

“Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G‐1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G‐14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W‐4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”

This proposed change would focus ordination examinations on the individual calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability of candidates for the responsibilities of the office, in joyful submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life.

What’s next?

Presbyteries will study this recommendation and vote over the course of the next year. If a majority of the 173 presbyteries approve the change, it will replace the previous provision in the Book of Order. The deadline for presbyteries to vote is July 10, 2011.

Where can I get more information?

In the report of the General Assembly Committee on Church Orders and Ministry.