wfn.org | Toward 2000 Task Force Consults

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

28-January-1998 
98027 
 
    Toward 2000 Task Force Consults With Synod 
    Representatives And The GAC Staff Leadership Team 
 
    by Bill Lancaster 
 
 
TAMPA, Fla.-The Toward 2000 Task Force eased open a window for a fresh 
breeze to blow through the work of the General Assembly Council (GAC) by 
gathering a group of some powerful players from synods along with the GAC 
Staff Leadership Team to help them determine what the GAC ought to be and 
do. 
 
    The task force is part of a long-term process to build a budget for the 
GAC for the year 2000 and beyond, when declining undesignated income will 
have a significant impact. 
 
    Synod officials say this is the first time synods have been 
specifically asked for input, though the "Book of Order" requires such 
consultations.  The requirement (G-9.0404b) received new emphasis when the 
"Book of Order" was amended in 1997 to add to the GAC's responsibilities 
(G-13.0201f). 
 
    Present for the Jan. 16-18 meeting here were ten synod executives, the 
entire GAC Staff  Leadership Team (the interim executive director, ministry 
directors and the interim director for technology and finance>, other synod 
representatives, including some presbytery executives, Toward 2000 Task 
Force members, the chair and vice chair of the GAC and others. John Evans 
is chair of the task force and consultants Harold Jackson and Bill Peterson 
were present to facilitate the process. 
 
    The task force is taking a new approach to the year 2000 budget in 
light of the foreseen financial crunch. Starting with a vision, a call and 
a list of functions for the GAC, they will move toward prioritizing 
functions and tasks and then detail a budget arising out of these. 
 
    "We hope we are on the way to beginning and refining and developing a 
long-range way that makes the mission of the Presbyterian Church at all 
levels something owned by the whole church," Evans told the group in his 
closing remarks. 
 
    Though the process was often frustrating for participants, many 
expressed encouragement afterward. 
 
    "I'm excited that for the first time there is a General Assembly/synod 
consultation around major mission priorities and future directions of the 
GAC and church," said the Rev. Thomas M. Johnston, executive of the Synod 
of The Trinity. "We've never done it before. 
 
    "We're going toward a product that can be owned by the broader church 
because of this step along the way." 
 
    When asked if he would like to see another consultation held before the 
task force sets priorities and tasks, Johnston said, "Very much.  We have 
sufficient notice for us to gather more ownership of the input from our 
presbyteries before we come." 
 
    The task force asked the group to respond and offer changes to a 
Statement of Vision, a Statement of Call and a list of functions handed to 
them.  When a synod executive expressed frustration on the first night of 
the Friday-night-to-Sunday-noon meeting that they were not being asked to 
help formulate priorities and tasks for the GAC as expected, the task force 
modified the process to allow discussion of these. 
 
    Peter Pizor, a member of the task force from Cody, Wyo., told the group 
they were in a "radically different space."  "We are called together to do 
something different, not the same old same old," he said.  "I challenge you 
to come to us with your most honest, firm convictions about this. 
Together, as we speak, we are here about watching the sun rise." 
 
    Pizor quoted an unnamed poet who, when asked what he would grab if his 
house were on fire, said, "I would save the fire, for without the fire we 
are nothing."  Pizor added, "Last night we saw some of the fire [in the 
expression of frustrations].  Keep it up." 
 
    Still, not much was given to them that they could sear with any fire. 
The vision statement was taken from the Organization for Mission of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  adopted by the 209th General Assembly (1997) 
and focuses on congregations. 
 
    The list of functions with their definitions was general, and one 
member of the group said that almost everything the GAC currently does 
could be fit into one or another of them. 
 
    The Statement of Call received the most searing, as it did not seem to 
flow out of the vision statement. 
 
    The Statement of Vision says: 
 
    "At the heart of our vision for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  is 
its congregations, dedicated to Jesus Christ and scattered 
    *  from rural Alabama to Sitka, Alaska 
    *  from suburban Pittsburgh to South-Central Los Angeles 
    *  from the bustling city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the small towns 
       of the upper peninsula of Michigan 
    *  from congregations with a handful of members to those where 
       thousands gather. 
    "We envision our congregations, singly and together, being so aroused 
and nurtured by the gospel of Jesus Christ that ministries are vibrant and 
inviting.  We imagine our congregations, individually and in league with 
presbyteries, synods, General Assembly, and ecumenical partners, equipping 
us to share our gifts, bear the burdens of others, and be nurtured in 
return.  Such congregations will be drawn irresistibly into ministries 
reflecting the love and justice of Jesus, with immediate neighborhoods and 
the whole of the world as arenas in which the gospel is to be proclaimed 
and lived." 
 
    The Statement of Call says: 
 
    "The General Assembly Council is called to facilitate ministry and 
mission by equipping, serving, and connecting the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.)  at every level.  With partnerships at home and abroad, the 
Council seeks to fulfill the Great Ends of the Church in ways articulated 
through the church's elected and most inclusive governing body, the General 
Assembly." 
 
    The functions, limited to fewer than ten and given with definitions, 
were these: communicating, equipping, networking, resourcing, serving, 
visioning, and witnessing. 
 
    The consultation was divided into small groups for most of its work. 
Among the important messages the small groups gave to the task force: 
 
    *  Rewrite the Statement of Call. 
    *  Move quickly toward prioritizing tasks. 
    *  Hold more consultations and include presbyteries. 
    *  Communicate back to consultation participants how their input was 
       used. 
    *  Look toward a mission that is better and different from now. 
 
    The groups identified important tasks the GAC is currently doing. 
These included global mission, coordinating national mission, policy 
making, curriculum, call system, communication, stewardship development, 
higher education and theological education, youth ministry, leadership 
development, new church development and redevelopment, networking and 
visioning. 
 
    Tasks to add included traveling to presbyteries to build trust, 
decentralizing staff, establishing churchwide personnel policies, creating 
more middle governing body involvement in planning, doing more resourcing 
and service and less programming, paring down program and prioritizing 
differently, and caring for the whole system (the church at all levels). 
One group suggested combining the Office of the General Assembly and the 
GAC. 
 
    "We probably learned more from this consultation about how to consult 
than we learned about Toward 2000," Verne E. Sindlinger, executive of the 
Synod of Lincoln Trails, said afterward.  "I think it is critical for synod 
executives and the Staff Leadership Team to work together on claiming those 
tasks that need to get prioritized.  I personally have a lot of hope for 
that expanded table which we call the Synod/GA Staff Forum.  We're able to 
be straight and open with each other to talk about how we exercise 
leadership together in the life of the church.  And one of the ways in this 
process is to help claim those priorities. 
 
    "I think we need to be talking about a whole new way in which the GAC 
exercises leadership," he said.  In listening to his small group, 
Sindlinger said he "became less convinced that the GAC ought to be the 
skipper, but maybe the body that facilitates a number of other 
appropriate groups in exercising that leadership among the churches, and 
not assume that it is the body to do that." 
 
    Marian McClure, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division, said 
afterward,  "One thing that came through, that if we didn't know it before 
we know it now, is that these folks from synods want to be consulted, and 
they have some strong opinions about what makes a good        consultation 
and what doesn't.  So as we work on our ability to lodge a planning and 
visioning function in GAC staff offices, we need somebody who listens to 
that and helps us remember the advice we've gotten about how to do this 
well. 
 
    "Another thing that came through loud and clear is the eagerness to get 
specific," she said.  "These people want to get down to the discussion of 
the tasks.  That's got to happen and it's got to happen sometime soon.  We 
can work it out." 
 
    Sandy Hawley, a member of the task force, said, "The value of this is 
that we've started a conversation with the church, and I've heard several 
people say that's something we've never done before.  That's probably one 
of the most positive things we can do."  She said the task force asked for 
input and the synod representatives took that seriously and gave them good 
response. 
 
    As this is published, the Toward 2000 Task Force will have met again, 
January 30-31, to assimilate input from the synod consultation, from a 
responding panel of people from across the church and from the GAC 
divisions and Technology and Finance Office (TAFO).  Members will have seen 
what revisions need to be made by the Council at its February 10-14 meeting 
in Louisville.  The planning team and Staff Leadership Team will then 
prioritize tasks that will be reported to the 210th General Assembly 
(1998).  Once the  Assembly gives the Planning Team its direction, the 
Staff Leadership Team will become the budget team. 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 
  mailed from World Faith News <wfn-news@wfn.org>  

--