wfn.org | Church Leaders Play Wait-and-See on Detterick's Service Vision

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28-January-1999 
99037 
 
    Church Leaders Play Wait-and-See 
    on Detterick's Service Vision 
 
    by John Filiatreau 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Pastors and middle governing body executives say next 
month's meeting of the General Assembly Council will be the first test of 
executive director John Detterick's vision of making the GAC staff "a 
responsive service organization" to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    Most are inclined to endorse the vision in concept, while reserving 
final judgment until they see how Detterick's plan will be realized in 
budget and policy terms. 
 
    The 87 members of the GAC will gather in Louisville Feb. 9-13. 
 
    Detterick, who has been the GAC's chief executive since last August, 
wants to turn the church, in recent years a notoriously "top-down" 
organization, upside-down - devoting the GAC's staff and other resources to 
helping local congregations and regional governing bodies serve their own 
constituencies and achieve their self-defined goals. 
 
    Not surprisingly, the bottom-up concept has a lot of support among 
pastors and church executives alike. But most are taking a wait-and-see 
attitude. 
 
    "John has talked a lot about what he wants to do," said the Rev. Jim 
Collie, a presbytery executive from Santa Fe, N.M., "but until he actually 
begins to do it, through the middle governing bodies and so on, we won't 
have any comment." 
 
    "I think very highly of John; I believe he has real integrity," said 
the Rev. Paul Masquelier, San Jose Presbytery's executive. "I don't think 
he'll go charging ahead without getting everybody on board." 
 
    "I'm not a member of the GAC, and I haven't seen anything in writing, 
but ... I understand the service-organization strategy," said the Rev. John 
Bartholemew, executive for the Synod of South Atlantic. "I know the kind of 
work John did at the Board of Pensions, and I certainly wouldn't object if 
the GAC became that kind of service-oriented organization." 
 
    Detterick, a career specialist in corporate turnarounds, managed a 
dramatic transformation of the Board of Pensions during his five-year 
tenure there. "When I got there," he said, "the processing of 
health-insurance claims was taking 10 to 12 weeks. Now it takes one week. 
 
    "I replaced all the hardware, all the software, and devised all new 
procedures; and the annual cost, before and after, was about $21 million. 
The entire modernization was paid for by savings." 
 
    Detterick said he's used to being an agent of change - and to facing 
opposition. 
 
    "Whenever someone proposes change," he said, "10 to 25 percent of the 
people affected are opposed, 10 to 25 percent favor the change and come on 
board, and the rest are undecided. So what you do is just ignore the nays - 
and waste no energy on them - because you cannot win them over, no matter 
what. You play to the supporters. Keep them happy and you'll eventually get 
most of the undecideds." 
 
    Detterick acknowledged that some church leaders worry that an adoption 
of his "service model" will invite the GAC to abandon its "prophetic role" 
of leading the church in directions that are Christian, but uncomfortable 
or unpopular - such as its support of the civil-rights movement in the 
1960s and its activism on behalf of nuclear disarmament in the 1980s. He 
said those fears are groundless, because the church's national leadership 
will continue to have that responsibility. 
 
    It is clear that Detterick, who has been sharing his vision with church 
leaders and others since taking over GAC leadership, has accumulated a lot 
of good will. 
 
    "John Detterick is a known factor, who has already earned the trust, 
respect and admiration of many people in the church," said the Rev. Harold 
Jackson, interim associate director for middle governing body relations and 
former executive for the Synod of Living Waters.  "When he got here, he 
already had led the Board of Pensions to be truly a service organization. 
 ... So he had a lot of stuff in the bank - good will and support - and 
people are still very positive. Even the greatest critics are saying, at 
least, `We'll wait and see.'" 
 
    Jackson added: "Detterick's number one concept is partnership. It's a 
word I think we're going to find in much greater usage in the church, 
meaning a mutual commitment to common goals, in an atmosphere of good will 
and trust." 
 
    The Rev. Cathy Chisholm, the GAC chair, said she already has detected a 
new spirit of cooperation and a new amiability among members. 
 
    "This is my fourth full year on the council," she said. "The first year 
was just shell-shock, there was so much contention. It seemed as if there 
was a fight about every issue that came up - even what seemed the most 
innocent, obvious issues. ... 
 
    "Each year since then, I have had a sense that it's gotten better. I 
noticed especially at our meeting last February, as we made different 
decisions, that ... the spirit of personal animosity was gone ... and we 
were able to devote ourselves to trying to discern what it was that God 
intended us to do." 
 
    Chisholm, a pastor in Vandalia, Ill., attributed some of the 
improvement to adding more daily prayer to the GAC's agenda - a change she 
credited to former chair Fred Denson. "I think that made a big difference," 
she said. "People's attitudes change when they pray for and with each 
other. That was something that I was able to build on this year." 
 
    Chisholm also observed, "I think probably the majority of Presbyterians 
don't really know, or care much, what's going on in Louisville." 
 
    The agenda for the upcoming GAC meeting doesn't include any issues that 
seem likely to produce controversy or rancor. 
 
    The report of the Special Committee on Middle Governing Body 
Relationships, which in earlier draft versions called flatly for the 
elimination of synods, has been softened to call for a two-year "period of 
consultation" on the feasibility of adopting a "three-governing-body 
system." 
 
    Interestingly, that report includes a statement that accords nicely 
with Detterick's vision: "The primary organizational focus of the life and 
work of the PC(USA) is on developing, encouraging, equipping, and 
resourcing its congregations and their leaders as the Living Body of Jesus 
Christ." 
 
    A proposal from the Special Committee for Review of the General 
Assembly - to abolish the General Assembly Council and divide its duties 
between a new, 21-member Council of the Assembly and a new Mission Agency 
made up of current GAC members - also seems unlikely to provoke spirited 
opposition. A recent draft of its report says the committee "endorses the 
leadership of John Detterick ...  and desires to provide ample opportunity 
and time for him to work toward the most effective configuration of the 
Mission Agency." 
 
    The Rev. Sam Roberson, executive for the Cincinnati Presbytery, said he 
has a "mixed response" to Detterick's plan. 
 
    "Part of me says that all of us need to be trying to make healthy 
congregations," Roberson said, "but I don't think that, even if the General 
Assembly works administratively well and provides all the service anyone 
could expect, that it will necessarily fix all the problems. It isn't 
enough just to be an efficient and administratively sound organization. I'm 
not opposed to the Presbyterian Church functioning as an organic whole, but 
 ... 
 
    "What we need is some gentle truth-telling, and creative, visionary 
leadership as to where we're headed as a denomination. ... We've got a lot 
of money not allocated in the right places. We need someone to provide the 
leadership to effect an enormous financial shift, (and that) isn't going to 
happen in our big, ponderous, representative system." 
 
    Roberson cited congregational redevelopment and ministerial training as 
areas in need of attention and money. 
 
    "I don't know how an organization in Louisville can respond to 10,000 
congregations," Masquelier said. "There's so much difference between north 
and south, east and west; there's no one size that fits all. ... I would 
think if he (Detterick) is really serious about resourcing congregations, 
he would give the presbyteries the tools - help the presbyteries to make 
what needs to happen, happen." 
 
    The Rev. John Buchanan, a former General Assembly moderator and a 
Chicago-area pastor, said he is a strong supporter of Detterick. "He has a 
good business head, he's deeply religious, and he understands that there 
are functions the GAC is best suited to perform for the whole church," 
Buchanan said. "I think this is the beginning of an exciting new era. The 
whole church is changing, rethinking what it means to be a denomination; 
authority has shifted from the national to the local level, and the 
church's energy has also shifted from the national to the local level." 
 
    Chisholm, while observing that change always brings anxiety, observed: 
"The church of the future may not look the way it looks today. But the 
church of today doesn't look like the church of 50 years ago, either. ... 
People say the church is in decline, but I think the church is pretty 
resilient. I have a lot more confidence in God (to lead the church wisely) 
than I do in us." 
 
    The Rev. Tom Johnston, executive for the Synod of the Trinity, said 
Detterick's plan to "serve the primary constituency of our church - the 
session," is "something that I think all of us resonate with."  He said 
he'd be happy to see the GAC "resource presbyteries and congregations" and 
"not primarily to be an end to itself." He said the GAC has created 
constituencies of its own in the past and sometimes "has served those 
constituencies, not the congregations, presbyteries and synods." 
 
    Bruce Berry, executive of Missouri Union Presbytery, said of Detterick: 
"I support his efforts 110 percent. ... It's a much more human kind of 
environment that he's trying to create. I hope he can pull it off. It'll be 
fun to see." 
 
    Buchanan apparently spoke for most of his fellow church leaders when he 
called Detterick's leadership style and vision "an answer to prayer." 

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