wfn.org | Assembly Approves Kearns for Second Term as NMD Director

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

Reply-To: wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>
18-June--1998 
GA98105 
 
Assembly Approves Kearns for Second Term as National Ministries Division 
Director 
 
                        by Bill Lancaster 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--The 210th General Assembly (1998) Thursday approved with a 
standing ovation Curtis A.  Kearns, Jr., to an additional four-year term as 
National Ministries Division director.  
   The approval sailed through the Assembly with much affirmation of 
Kearns' work over the last four years.  No one in the Assembly plenary or 
the Mission Coordination and Budgets Committee, where the confirmation was 
first endorsed, expressed any negative criticism of Kearns.  The General 
Assembly Council (GAC) had previously voted approval of the additional 
term. 
   GAC members Leon Calhoun and Sandra Hawley addressed the Assembly on 
behalf of the review committee.  Hawley, chair of the National Ministries 
Division (NMD) Committee, had high praise for Kearns' work and for his 
support of her and other elected committee members. 
   In addressing the Assembly, Kearns recalled a trip with former Assembly 
moderator John Buchanan to visit burned black churches in North Carolina 
and Alabama.  There they found mission teams  who had assembled to rebuild 
them.  "Here was the church, a local pastor, a presbytery work team, the 
moderator of the General Assembly, an ecumenical work group sharing in the 
mission of Christ's church, in a place where it was so important for the 
church to be," he said.   
   "I am thankful to God for the opportunity to serve the church in the 
role of director of national ministries.  I feel it is a true call that I 
am answering, and I am committed to making the best of that call in my 
service to God and the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
   He also said, "Jesus' life and ministry revolved around his mission to 
God.  That was a mission of mercy and comfort, of care and of service, of 
righteousness and of justice.  That's what the church should be about, and 
that's what I'm committed to help the church to do effectively.  I believe 
that in the first four years of my job as director of National Ministries, 
I have worked diligently to do just that.  I commit to working just as hard 
to continue this effort in the next four years." 
   Calhoun reported on the review process, which included sending out 75 
questionnaires to individuals evaluating Kearns' work, a two-hour 
face-to-face interview, and the approval of the NMD committee. 
     Kearns' confirmation stood in contrast to the recent end-of-term 
reviews of former GAC executive director James Brown and former 
Congregational Ministries Division Director Eunice Poethig, neither of 
which received second four-year terms. 
   The Assembly also amended a recommendation from the Mission Coordination 
and Budgets Committee regarding funding for mission personnel and racial 
ethnic mission.  The original overture, 98-68 from Presbytery of 
Southeastern Illinois, called for the Assembly to establish an endowed 
mission personnel fund for extra mission support.  The Assembly committee 
voted to refer it to the GAC with instructions.  The instructions call for 
the GAC to "coordinate" funding for mission personnel, "especially racial 
ethnic mission nationally and cross cultural mission internationally."  The 
instructions also call for the phrase "Mission Personnel" be interpreted to 
include developing and funding racial ethnic leadership. 
   An amendment to the instructions was offered which was supported by 
Assembly Moderator Douglas Oldenburg, who called on Vice Moderator James 
Mead to conduct the meeting while he addressed the body. 
   The amendment, approved by the Assembly, adds a sentence to the 
instructions calling for the GAC to "devise a creative funding plan 
including but not limited to endowments, and that the moderator and vice 
moderator of the 210th General Assembly be authorized to proceed 
immediately to seek advance gifts for mission personnel and racial and 
ethnic church growth." 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  This note sent by PCUSA NEWS
  to the wfn-news list <wfn-news@wfn.org>.
  Send unsubscribe requests to wfn-news-request@wfn.org