LOUISVILLE—The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) experienced a half-active day Wednesday, September 19, in Louisville. The day stretched through 13 hours of meetings, with much of the latter portion spent passively listening as a captive audience. The earlier part, by contrast, was occupied by animated discussions with leaders of presbyteries and synods. Little was actually decided, although a mass of words filled the hotel ballroom.
Prominent among the parade of heavy hitters addressing the GAC was Executive Director Linda Valentine, who took this occasion to talk about the organizational values that should be guiding the national agencies of our denomination. She employed an acronym: CARE.
GAC Chair Allison Seed (right) presides over the GAC Executive Committee meeting on September 18. To her left is Charles Easley, Jr., vice chairman of the committee. |
The C stands for collaborative. Valentine related a number of ways that the work is strengthened through staff and elected leaders working together, each utilizing specific gifts and strengths. One example was the complex task of simplifying the means of giving to the denomination. She proudly pointed to “one-click giving,” now available over the web.
A is for accountable. “We see ourselves as stewards of resources,” Valentine declared, “and we take that responsibility seriously.” She mentioned in passing a couple of programs on rocky ground, for which accountability is being exercised responsibly: Stony Point Conference Center in New York (“a ministry with financial problems”) and the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (“with a lot of leadership changes over the years”). Valentine also praised the ministry directors for initiating common accountability standards to apply and qualify for the valuable grants offered by various programs.
The R stands for responsive. “Responsiveness is at the core of all we do,” Valentine assured the GAC. “We are here to respond to the needs of the church.” She used the example of responding to the “difficult, contentious, and conflicted situations” being experienced by many middle governing bodies by setting up conference calls for leaders caught in the strife. To respond to the “frustration that we haven’t had a broader and more diverse pool of African-American leaders for staff positions,” Valentine is now in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Racial Ethnic Concerns and with the Women of Color Consultation to get more such leaders trained and involved.
And E is for excellent. “The church expects—and we expect of ourselves—that the church be excellent in ministries,” Valentine asserted. “Trust is a serious issue in the church, and how are we going to build trust if we’re not excellent—trustworthy in what we do?”
Less Often is Heard a Discouraging Word
Apparently Linda Valentine, Tom Taylor, and their new crop of key leaders are beginning to make a difference in the headquarters ethos. It is still early, and not all the returns are in yet, but there does seem to be the scent of a more collaborative, accountable, responsive, and excellent spirit wafting about Louisville these days. Anecdotally, I have experienced a greater sense of “customer service” from several staff encounters over the last few weeks, for instance: speedier responses, more cheerful assistance given, less defensiveness or animosity, serious consideration of concerns, and other pleasant rather than sour encounters. That is a definite change for the good!
On September 19, GAC members discussed items of joint interest with presbytery and synod executives in small groups. Here, GAC Executive Director Linda Valentine (center) joins the discussion. |
Sylvia Dooling, Executive Director of Voices of Orthodox Women, also mentioned a similar sense of improvement in a September 14 article on VOW’s web page entitled “Something Positive.” Dooling observed that “communication with Presbyterian Women has markedly improved.”
Another confirmation of Linda Valentine’s corporate values perhaps taking root came in a brief conversation on Wednesday with Moderator Joan Gray. She asked if I were experiencing any sign that things are different in the denomination, that perhaps we have turned a corner. The moderator thought she was feeling something. I was happy to confirm that I, too, was experiencing some rather guarded optimism that perhaps good changes are afoot.
Although I am too cautious or too jaded to get too enthusiastic too quickly, it does seem to me that credit should be given where credit is due. I am sensing that our denominational staff is in an improving posture. It’s not that all is moonlight and roses. Far from it. But something better seems to be happening, and I couldn’t be more pleased to begin to sense it and applaud it!
Big Decisions from Shaky Premises
Because funding has made itself scarce for General Assembly Council entities, a Mission Funding Task Force has been hard at work for many months. Many people hoped it would scare up some ways to increase funding for GAC work. But task force chair Conrad Rocha had this to say about the task force’s report: “We have not produced a design [for increased funding], but are proposing a process. We are not going to come up with a technical solution, but rather take an adaptive approach. [Decreased funding is] not a problem to be solved, but a condition to be lived with.”
And there’s more disappointment. Rocha warned that the proposed report does not offer “a magic pill” that will regenerate the missing funding. He urged GAC members to read the report, which will be formally considered during the Saturday morning plenary session.
The General Assembly Council decided Wednesday to continue possibly subsidizing a sizable undertaking whose role, purpose, and potential cost are largely unknown. The denominational magazine Presbyterians Today has been near death on a number of occasions, but saved by extraordinary transfusions of capital from the common Presbyterian purse. Thus a GAC task force was established to recommend a solution. The proposal to treat the magazine as a valuable communications asset and keep it going was approved Wednesday by the GAC without a single objection.
In the discussion, a GAC member did inquire about the possible annual financial liability the GAC could be assuming. “We can’t give a figure of what the cost will be to keep it,” he was told, “but it has been operating in the black for the last year and a half.” Further elaboration explained that “we’re not going to fund them, but we don’t expect them to make money, either. Hopefully it will break even.” Yes, hopefully.
The report itself offered up one more startling revelation, considering the unknown and potentially costly bottom line for budget impact: “The task force does not feel it is able to define a clear role and/or purpose for the magazine,” we are informed. So, we don’t know what Presbyterians Today is supposed to accomplish or what it could cost or how any deficit would be paid, but we’re going to keep the magazine. One hopes that in hindsight, the GAC will find that it made a lucky choice, because the decision hardly seems informed or prudent!
Heard around Louisville
I’ll conclude with various quotations gathered from the meetings on Wednesday.
Ed Koster, Stated Clerk of Detroit Presbytery, proposed a headline he would like to read: “Trust pandemic hits the Presbyterian Church!” He elaborated about the lack of trust among Presbyterians, saying, “Trust is at least the elephant in the room this year. Last year it was the elephant in the closet, because it didn’t come up.”
Sara Lisherness, Director of Peace and Justice, listens as other participants discuss set questions during the Wednesday morning session. |
Gerry Tyer, Executive for the Presbytery of Tampa Bay, delivered a focused speech at an open-microphone session: “The 16 years that I have worked in the Presbytery of Tampa Bay have led me to the conviction that the congregation is the best governing body to implement the Great Ends of the Church. Thus, the best and most effective purpose for the presbytery is to help the congregations do the Great Ends of the Church, and the greatest role for the General Assembly is to help presbyteries do their work well to help the congregations implement the Great Ends of the Church. We may be at the point of history for us to choose from among the many purposes for the denomination a clear, single purpose (which may, in good Presbyterian fashion, have several points). All of us who work on the presbytery level know that we are not strong and healthy today…. The making of new disciples for Jesus Christ can only happen at the ‘retail’ level, so we who are ‘wholesalers’ need to help the ‘retail’ level be more effective…. I would encourage the General Assembly Council to use as many resources as possible to get strong, healthy, growing middle governing bodies, so that they in turn can do the same for the congregations.”
Jean Demmler, a GAC member from Denver Presbytery, seemed to enlarge on Tyer’s message: “We have said over and over again that we need to shed some functions at the congregational and regional level, and now it is time to move. I’d like to see some action.”
Tom Taylor, Deputy Executive Director for Mission, pointed out in his sermon Wednesday that “the reality is that cynicism is a symptom of pain, rather than a symptom of doubt.”
Cliff Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, seems to be looking for change in his final General Assembly next June. He foresees two main issues at the next General Assembly: consideration of a completely revised Form of Government and what he called “doing business differently.” He hopes that we can perhaps “be less focused on 51-49 votes” and that General Assembly “will be a time that we can model for the whole church not just a way of doing business, but a way for discerning the will of Christ”-which sounded like a swipe at several centuries of prayerful Presbyterian decision-making through our unique polity.
Joan Gray, Moderator of the General Assembly, noted: “The former things are passing away. As I travel about the church, it is as if a tsunami of change has hit us…. The bottom line is that we simply cannot keep doing church the way that we have always done church.” She also reminded the GAC that “God can do more for us than we can scrape up for ourselves.” And that’s a good place to conclude for another day.
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