Tag: GA

A Prayer for the Church National Gatherings (just had or having)

This is a prayer for the church government people

NOTE: not for the people who try to make the government into the CHURCH (that is a imprecation that I will save for another day)

This is a prayer for the church government people

A prayer for those who work or even spend their precious vacation time in often windowless rooms, or staring at screens to discern the Holy Spirit–

Truly God, when human beings agree with one another, it is a miracle,

Alleluia.

And when we disagree,

When definitions, get called into question,

when the same white man stands up yet again, to say that he feels left out

Lord, have mercy on the church, and all those who patiently listen

And bless all the tech gurus, the behind the scenes organizers, the administrators who make it happen.

God bless those in the church who are wonky, and those who will never be, but have taken the time to be a part of this process.

And God bless all those who have always been outnumbered, or at least outshouted in the spaces: the People of Color, the LGBTQIA siblings, the young, the otherwise disenfranchised.

Jesus I know you hear them the most, and that always, always, the more we can listen to the marginalized, the better the church is,

because the church was never meant to be a hegemony (or perhaps even rules by Rogers Rule of Order)

God bless those who stand their ground;

who don’t get muddled by mis-founded accusations,

the ignored, forgotten, or glossed over

after hours of sweat, work, and love have been put into this church government thing.

May there be naps, chocolate and hugs in their future.

God bless the church, which is not the governances,

but needs government, because we are only human and know no other way.

Bless our gatherings,

keep us safe.

Help us to listen better, each and every time,

Expand our inclusion and compassion,

flip the tables that need to be flip,

scatter the money across the floor if we need to;

and remind us to love one another as we go we pray.

Amen.

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta

How to Care about #GA223 #PCUSA

My name is Katy Stenta and I’m the pastor of teeny tiny pastor 30 members, 60 congregants. I attended GA via twitter last year, when I broke my foot and was limited in the running around type of ministry I’m used to. I was so energized and excited about electing 2 women as CO-Moderators and our first African-American Clerk, gender-neutral bathrooms, etc.! I saw some problems (the Young Adult Advisory thing is still way weird and ageist, but still) I saw Vision 2020 unfold and thought the name for a committee that looks at the past and toward the future was perfect!

“The intention is there would be a new vision for the denomination” by the General Assembly in 2020, the proposal states. https://pres-outlook.org/2016/06/way-forward-committee-approves-2020-vision-team/ I’m ready for the vision.

But somehow, we are back to structure. And although it does affect me and my church, I cannot begin to explain what is going on to my church other than “we are trying to restructure.”

But I’d rather be telling my church “we as a denomination are finding our vision”

We with missionaries across the globe, we with a deep history of translating Bibles. We with our Belhar Confession, and our hope to address POC, queer, white culture, gun violence, economic injustice, hunger, etc. We, with more money than small nations are looking at our gifts. I want to say that we are doing the work of faith seeking understanding, that we are providing access to God to ALL people. We are becoming the denomination to go to learn about God.

I want us to be saying “We could plant 100 churches tomorrow if we wanted to”

“We could support a college intern at every church, to help them pay off their student loans and give them leadership skills for their passion”

I want to be able to say “Every local church is a welcome map, with a website that gives salient information about the neighborhood and area to every family in the community”

I want us to have denomination wide advocacy about racism and gun violence in a way that ties us together.

What if we had courses at every church and Louisville as a place to learn about God

I want us to be infinitely supportive of all our children going to camp, of all the chaplains of college and hospital ministries.

I want us to be actively training people to help our ageing population, and our special needs community.

I want us to be just place to work, where people say “go work for the Presbyterians, because they are awesome”

There are so many ideas we can do, and these are just mine. I want us to be in a position to do these great things and so many other, very doable things.

Why do I love church? Because it has the most potential to empower anyone, ANYONE, to do good works. If you have a good idea, church oughtta be a place where you can try to pursue. And age matters (less), Paperwork matters (less), we are still working on issues of justice but if you wanted to truly help people and got a couple of people on your team, church is a great place to pursue that passion.

And I don’t know what to do with a structure conversation which I barely can understand, despite being well-educated and trying to follow it.

I want us to get the structure to a place where it can work for us instead of obsessing about it.

And I am a born and raised Presbyterian, I love decent and in order. I love structures, I am a list person, I recite my schedule constantly, and I rely heavily on having a piece of paper for everything I do (like every stereotypical Presbyterian).

However, I know we can do better than this. This is not a plea to stop the structure conversation, but to try, our hardest, to move beyond it. Do you know HOW MANY PEOPLE applied to be on 2020 Vision Team? There are that many people excited for vision, excited to become the faith seeking understanding church, excited about what is just beyond the horizon.

We have so much potential, how can we help to pursue it?

The burning que…

The burning question I have for General Assembly….wouldn’t it be cool to have the Order of Worship online? (or am I missing it), I think it would be so cool to pray what they are praying while I’m many miles away…and maybe even bring those prayers to my congregation as I try to educate them about GA?

Burning Question

Empty Church

GA is coming, that’s Presbyterian Speak for our large governmental gathering “General Assembly” where we discuss worrying things like Our Investments (or not) in Israel, How important gay issues really are (or aren’t), and……the fact that there are no young people in the church. Debate will ensue about most of these issues, except the last one. There is no governmental amendment to magically change the demographics of the church

There will be lots of worrying about the drop in membership, the drop in money and the drop in young people in the church.

People will ask where have the people gone? They will also ask why people won’t represent (Particularly the lay people), they will ask where the children are….and they will worry…

However, I do believe that at most churches, Presbyteries and even on the GA floor the wrong question is being asked. The question that really asked isn’t Where are all the people.

The worry IS about the emptiness.

But I think the question people are really asking are not “Where have all the people gone?” but rather “Where has Jesus gone?”

Because, if Jesus was in church, then wouldn’t the people be in church? If Jesus was here, wouldn’t people flock to us and what we are doing?

Here I have to confess: I believe Jesus is in the church!

But I also believe Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit is already at work in the world. I believe that church doesn’t hold a monopoly on God (our God is bigger than that)

and I believe that the emptiness the church is feeling is real and is scary….I also believe we have felt it before, when Jesus died on the cross, when the tomb was empty, when Jesus Ascended, when the church was scattering across Africa, etc. etc.

The church is empty, but what can we theologically learn from that emptiness

Maybe Jesus will find us in our church and ask us….

You are afraid of the emptiness? Look at what God did with an empty tomb!

 

(and p.s. if you want more families to be present I highly recommend BABYSITTING and FAMILY FRIENDLY accommodations as a start, it isn’t an amendment that will bring families flocking in, but it is a way to serve those who are already present–this should not be an uphill battle folks, it should be a given)