Commentary: Scenes from a GAC Meeting

LOUISVILLE—The spring meeting of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) began Wednesday morning, April 23, in Louisville, near denominational headquarters. The meeting runs through noon on Friday, April 25. First off was a GAC Executive Committee meeting, which typically serves as a showcase for what is to come to the full GAC.

The Executive Committee has about a dozen members, all deeply involved in leadership roles, often representing slices of the varied GAC work. Executive-level staff leaders also take their place around the table. Observing are a couple dozen more interested parties—GAC members, the press, and staff. The following scenes from the morning executive committee and the afternoon plenary meeting offer a glimpse of the ethos and interests found at such meetings.

Executives Hitting Their Stride
Linda Valentine, the Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, is coming into her own as a sure-handed leader within the denomination. She came on board in 2006 with excellent business-leadership credentials and committed faith, but with scant experience with national Presbyterian governance. At first she seemed a little tentative while learning the ropes, but she has rapidly gained knowledge and confidence. On Wednesday, Valentine appeared relaxed and knowledgeable, definitely in the driver’s seat.

She set the mood in her report to the Executive Committee. “The church is yearning for good news,” Valentine proclaimed. “We need to get beyond the things we dispute.” She knows it isn’t simple, and she even loosely paraphrased Mark Twain: “Bad news travels halfway around the world before good news gets its boots laced up.” But Valentine was feeling good about what is going on in her sphere. As she put it, “We’re bringing words and melody for a song that’s already being hummed.”

Deputy Executive Director, Tom Taylor, stood up with Valentine before the full GAC, fielding preliminary questions about the budget for 2009 and 2010. He had the manner of one at home in his own skin and the command of one knowledgeable in his position. He had good news to announce—the expected beginning of a turn-around in staff losses. He announced that there would be no reduction in the workforce for the next two years, coupled with a slight increase in overseas missionaries—for the first time in perhaps a half century.

Taylor had little time to bask in the glow of this good news before he was challenged on his use of the word “missionary.” “Has there been a conscious decision to start using the term missionary again?” asked Noushin Framke, who represents the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns. “Mission co-worker seems right in my ear,” she informed Taylor, with some edge to her voice. Taylor amiably began to explain that common usage in informal speech includes both terms, but Framke cut him off in mid-sentence, insisting that mission co-worker is the only acceptable term. “It makes a difference!” she pressed. To his credit, Taylor kept his cool. He with the PhD in missiology graciously accepted impatient “correction” from Framke. Such nondefensiveness spoke well of Taylor’s leadership expertise.

In addition to Valentine and Taylor, the next tier of leaders also provided evidence of growing mastery of their callings, new for many. Erik Hoey, heading up evangelism and church growth; Karen Schmidt, in charge of communications and funds development; Rhashell Hunter, directing racial ethnic and women’s ministries; Hunter Farrell for world mission; and Joey Bailey in charge of shared services—all fielded questions with aplomb and could point to recent accomplishments. Things are definitely looking healthier in the denominational offices.

Quotable Quotes of the Day

• Two pastors standing for Moderator of the General Assembly visited GAC, and Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick introduced them. Bill Teng (pronounced “Tongue”), former moderator of the largely liberal National Capital Presbytery and president of largely evangelical Presbyterians for Renewal, amiably explained that he has been “on listening mode for the last few months, and that’s why I am here.” Laid-back Bruce Reyes-Chow from San Francisco welcomed the company of GAC members to join him, “if you are interested in just hanging out.” One almost expected a “dude” thrown in at the end of that invitation.
• “We’re not sure there is a significant amount of return [on our effort],” confessed an assessment task force co-chair, Joseph Johnson, in a candid assessment of the upside and downside of possibly spinning off Presbyterian Disaster Assistance as an independent non-profit corporation. Will that plan go anywhere? Should it? A recommendation remains to be determined at this meeting.
• “I’m troubled that Procedures Subcommittee came in here and decided without consultation,” protested GAC Vice Chair Charles Easley. Sometimes entities get at cross purposes with one another, and in this case the GAC Procedures Committee had decided to suggest written comments for General Assembly that recommend against approval of some Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy work. Easley sits on that committee and owns its work.

  Bill Gray felt much the same about comments suggesting changes in items from his Advocacy Committee on Women’s Concerns. “Written recommendations have weight!” he warned.

  Gray’s statement led GAC Chair Allison Seed to remind everyone about any matter under consideration: “It can be debated, amended, changed, or trashed. Just because it is down here on a piece of paper doesn’t mean it is what we need to go with.” It was a point well taken.

• “Our agenda is embarrassingly light,” GAC Evangelism Committee Chair Linda Knieriemen acknowledged  to her peers. She was kidding about getting off easy, compared to some lengthy agendas for other committees. But perhaps there is something serious indicated by the distribution of business items. In a church shedding members at a steady clip, shouldn’t evangelism be the busiest sector of church life, not one of the sleepier habitats?
• “Go ahead and take your flight home.” That was the advice GAC Stewardship Committee Chair Frank Adams gave Jan DeVries, Synod Executive of the Synod of the Southwest. The committee had not yet commented about DeVries’ synod’s overture being taken up in Stewardship Committee, and she wondered if she should rebook a previously arranged flight. DeVries had had a spirited but mannerly debate about investment yields with Robert Leech, President and CEO of the Presbyterian Foundation. Adams reasoned that DeVries had expressed well the rationale for the overture, and the committee could handle its response from there. But with DeVries “out of Dodge,” Leech was the only gunslinger left in town for the committee consideration of the matter. Well, that decides that! Most often, a cause without an advocate quietly disappears.
• Robert Wilson is completing two years as vice-moderator of the General Assembly, in tandem with moderator Joan Gray. His final advice to GAC was not to worry. “There will always be churches on the loosey left and on the wacky right,” he assured them. Thus, for this GAC meeting, Thursday and Friday remained for the loosey and the wacky to join with the indifferent to further the faithfulness and effectiveness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)