After more than two years of trying, this opening phrase of the introduction to the values of the Presbytery may very well be the Vision Statement. As I read through this Mission Study time and time again, the piece that challenged me was the lack of a hard-edged statement that would cut like a two edged sword. I wanted something bold, even prophetic for our Presbytery.
But the more I read it, the more I realized the need of the still, small voice, the one Elijah heard on the mountain of God.
My last assignment in the hierarchy of the Presbytery was as the Chairperson of what started as the Financial Development Committee, which we changed to the Stewardship Committee. I learned some very startling lessons in that assignment. First, I came to understand just how culture-driven our Presbytery is. I am not talking about its own culture, I am talking about the culture that surrounds us.
FDC, Stewardship, was about the money. We made budget, we presented budget, we set priorities for the spending of the Presbytery, we had an inordinate amount of power to make or break. I quit when the idolatry got to me. It wasn't intentional, certainly not, it was insidious. The Presbytery's most basic vision was driven by the money. We had bigger fights about the 'investments', about what to do with the funds of closed churches, about how to tiptoe around the big money centers of the place. As the guy who presented the budget for a number of years, the amount of interest a line item worth a few hundred bucks could generate on the floor of Presbytery was disproportionate to what we claimed, as a body to stand for. But if money is the idol, the amount of debate and time debating came into sharp focus.
I'm going to be told I am not fair, that I am naive, whatever. I resigned from that committee when it became clear to me that I was beginning to think after the money as well. I came to realize that as chair of the moneypot, my suggestions carried weight far beyond my years. And I began to entertain thoughts of using that weight to make policy, to push for change, to get some 'real' work done for Jesus.
And I walked away. It is only now, reading this mission study, that I am daring to reflect on what my time was like and how that affected me and my work.
The wisest thing I read about before going on that committee was that the budget of an organization can tell you where its real priorities are, about where it really puts its energy. The energy follows the money.
Creating a community of trust is also of profound importance in the other cultural quagmire we've been engaged in. Our Presbytery was, roughly speaking, split 60-40 over any issue concerning gays in the church. I've been ordained for 15 years, seen a lot of dancing come down out of GA over the issue of ordaining gay people and we could call the split almost to the person every time it came to the floor of Presbytery. I've seen tears, bible pages torn out, accusations thrown, party lines built and rebuilt, anything short of someone being stoned in effigy.
What is finally shifting is that the balance of power has gone to the 60% and the 40% has been given the opening to take their marbles (and their property) and go find some other Presbyterian game to play. And no one, NO ONE, has had the courage to stand up and say that our denomination is suffering from a schism. Yes, we are in schism.
So we have now the opportunity to build a community of trust. I believe that is the community we must build if the 40 something churches of Elizabeth Presbytery are going to walk forward together.
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