wfn.org | Church Leaders' Responses to Review Committee Recommendations Are

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Mostly Positive May 30, 1996 
 
 
 
96203     Church Leaders' Responses to Review Committee 
               Recommendations Are Mostly Positive 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Recommendations by the General Assembly's quadrennial 
Committee on Review (CR) for improving the structure and operations of 
Assembly entities are receiving generally high marks -- but not unqualified 
support -- from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders most affected by them. 
 
     "I believe the Review Committee has charted the right course as we 
move toward the new millennium," the Rev. James D. Brown, executive 
director of the General Assembly Council (GAC) told the Presbyterian News 
Service.  "I think [the CR's work] will enable the council to strengthen 
its work and witness, and I look forward to how commissioners [to the 
upcoming General Assembly in Albuquerque] will grapple with an amazingly 
complex set of issues." 
 
     The Rev. D. William McIvor, chair of the GAC, also mixed praise for 
the CR's work with curiosity about how its recommendations will be received 
by the Assembly.  "I am appreciative of and grateful for the work the 
committee has done.  But I am intrigued by a number of the 
recommendations." McIvor said he feels that the CR, given the six-month 
timeline for completing its comprehensive review, "may have wound up 
building a couple of camels when it was trying to create horses." 
 
          Management audit: flexibility versus accountability 
 
     Brown said the concerns behind the CR's recommendation that a 
consulting firm be hired "to study all aspects of the Office of the 
Executive Director and Corporate and Adminstrative Services (CAS)" are 
"legitimate." 
 
     In its report the committee noted "unhealthy interaction and contests 
of authority" between General Assembly entities, cited "a tendency for some 
senior staff to use a top-down management style rather than a consultative 
model" and reported "strong misgivings about the efficiency and 
effectiveness of CAS" by other Assembly entities.  
 
     "The Review Committee correctly identified the tension between the 
fiscal accountability of a unified budgeting system and programmatic 
flexibility for programmatic components," Brown said.  "A consultant can do 
us a great favor by helping us enhance our work ... conducting a careful 
examination of what we're trying to achieve and [determining whether] the 
right systems [are] in place to do it." 
 
     G.A. "Pat" Goff, director of CAS, agreed.  "I think very good things 
can come of this," he told the Presbyterian News Service.  Noting that the 
new GAC structure has only been in place since mid-1993, Goff said, "It's 
time for a post  Shape and Form' audit -- to see what's working [in the new 
structure] and why and what's not working and why not."  
 
     Insisting that "we all can learn how to do our jobs better," Goff 
said, "as long as it's out of the 
 they are bad people,' witch hunt arena, a management study can help all of 
us." 
 
     Brown added that he "wants the fiscal systems of CAS to add value to 
program and not be seen has hoops that program people have to jump 
through."  The bottom line, he said, "is that we find the correct balance 
between freedom and flexibility on the one hand and fiscal accountability 
on the other hand." 
 
       Overture 95-74: broadening participation in decision making 
 
     The 1995 General Assembly referred overture 95-74 from Western 
Colorado Presbytery to the CR with instructions for the committee to "bring 
a plan" for direct election of members to Assembly-level committees by 
presbyteries upon nominations by sessions. 
 
     The CR's response -- increased representation by presbyteries on an 
expanded GAC, more involvement by presbyteries and sessions in the 
nomination process and more formal channels for communication between 
national committee members and their sessions and presbyteries -- falls 
short of the "direct election" sought by the overture. 
 
          And no one seems entirely happy with the middle ground. 
 
     The Rev. Al Ruth, executive presbyter of Western Colorado Presbytery, 
told the Presbyterian News Service, "I applaud the efforts of the Review 
Committee, though their recommendations fall a little short of what I would 
prefer."  Ruth said he supports the CR's proposal to increase the size of 
the GAC and to replace the current 25 at-large slots on the council with 
presbytery-designated slots.  "The church will be served well by these 
increased accountability measures. 
 
     Brown said that as he travels the church "I hear expressed everywhere 
a felt need for more participation in policy-making and oversight."  Noting 
that a number of GAC members have turned down renomination to the council 
because of the time demands, Brown said a larger council "should reduce the 
overload that many members feel."  He said he is anticipating adding a day 
to the September GAC meeting "to recollect and reorient, to focus on policy 
development without overburdening council members." 
 
     McIvor is less enthusiastic about expanding the GAC beyond its current 
membership of 71. "One of my major concerns," McIvor said, "is that adding 
so many new people to the council will cause disruption."  Saying the GAC 
has "just found its legs" since the 1993 restructure, McIvor said that 
"enlarging the GAC will change all that." 
 
     The Rev. Robert Taylor, executive presbyter for Foothills Presbytery 
and a staunch supporter of overture of 95-74, was highly critical of the 
CR's treatment of the overture.  "I don't know if it was a wise thing for 
the Assembly to pass the overture," Taylor told the Presbyterian News 
Service, "but when the General Assembly tells a committee to do something 
it should be done." 
 
     Taylor said that adding more people to the GAC "is a gigantic step 
backwards -- a council of 65 is pretty unworkable and a council of 95 is 
impossible."  Increasing representation by presbyteries is not the same as 
providing for direct election, Taylor said.  "If something is expressly 
stated as a mandate, then it's got to be implemented.  I don't understand 
[the CR response to overture 95-74].  It raises the question among 
Presbyterians,  Why bother?'" 
 
       General Assembly Nominating Committee: no loopholes? 
 
     Response is also mixed on a CR proposal that all General 
Assembly-level committee assignments go through the General Assembly 
Nominating Committee (GANC). 
 
     As part of its concern that middle governing bodies feel disconnected 
from Assembly-level decision making, the CR noted that while 315 persons 
currently serving on Assembly-level committees come through the GANC's 
process, another 521 "are serving on related committees, task forces and 
work groups without having come through the GANC process." 
 
     So the CR is recommending that all nominations and elections go 
through the GANC. 
 
     McIvor argued that "it is not workable to run everything through the 
nominating committee." He said there is not enough staff in the GANC office 
"for what would be an unbearable workload." 
 
     Sue Whitford, GANC coordinator in the Office of the General Assembly, 
disagreed.  "This will probably result in no more work than we had before 
the 1993 restructure when a lot of committees and task forces were 
eliminated," she said.  "We are a lot more concerned about the perception 
that people are serving on national committees without their presbyteries 
even knowing about it -- that's a bigger problem than the workload." 
 
     Retiring General Assembly stated clerk the Rev. James E. Andrews 
doesn't like the lack of flexibility in the proposal.  "There's a lot of 
difference between a longstanding committee and a short-term task-oriented 
think-tank kind of group," he explained.  "If we are looking for 
representation and balance, we need to look for such balance along a range 
of groups rather than in every single group." 
 
     Ruth said he found the CR proposal "very helpful -- it will minimize 
the perception that there is a kind of musical chairs going on among a 
General Assembly in-group."  Ruth said he would also like to see the GANC 
nomination form modified to provide more flexibility.  He said the forms 
should make room for applicants to list the skills they have to offer 
rather than having to apply for a specific committee. 
 
        General Assembly: annual, biennial, mission rally or what? 
 
     The Review Committee seriously considered recommending biennial 
meetings of the General Assembly, but after finding little support for such 
a move outside of General Assembly staff members, abandoned the idea. 
Instead the committee is recommending that in even-numbered years, 
beginning in the year 2000, the Assembly be devoted to "worship and 
celebration, continuing-education workshops, presentations and discussions 
on subjects of churchwide interest, leadership development and programmatic 
information."  No more than two days would be given over to formal business 
during those years. 
 
     Andrews doesn't support the idea.  "I still believe we should move to 
alternate-year General Assemblies," insisted the clerk, stating an opinion 
he has long held. 
 
     Beyond that, Andrews said, "I don't know how you'll be able to 
assemble commissioners and then tell them they can't do something.  It 
hasn't worked before -- they will find a way to reach for anything they 
feel needs attention." 
 
     Andrews said an annual gathering "is okay, but don't call it General 
Assembly."  Conceding that groups of Presbyterians "probably feel the need 
to meet every year, call it a convention, call it a mission rally, call it 
whatever, but don't call it General Assembly, and concentrate on building 
community -- that's what Presbyterians really want." 
 
              Everybody agrees: theology's important 
 
     Church leaders agree that the CR's call to the church to engage in "a 
year of prayer marked by self-examination, confession, repentance and 
thanksgiving" is an essential step in the process of overcoming the 
contentiousness that plagues the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
     In fact, Brown said, such prayer has already begun.  "I think what we 
have done here [in the Presbyterian Center in Louisville] by taking 15 
minutes every Thursday morning to pray specifically for the whole church is 
significant," he said, "and as I travel about the church I feel like the 
whole Presbyterian family has entered a season of prayer."  
 
     Ruth agreed.  "The Review Committee has certainly got its and the 
church's priorities straight by beginning its report with the need for 
theology and prayer," he said. 
 
     McIvor said that the year of prayer, coupled with the CR's 
recommendations to elevate the theological development work of the General 
Assembly, "has exciting possibilities." 
 
     If the "basic thrust" of the CR's report is approved, said Brown, 
"with its right attention to theological grounding and a commitment to a 
constructive assessment of where we've come from and how to work our way 
down the road to success, then the Review Committee will have been a major 
contributor to our life together." 

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