wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Thinking big

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8477 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04408
September 17, 2004

Thinking big

GAC will take long look at evangelism at first biennial-cycle meeting

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Without the pressure of an annual General Assembly for the first
time, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) can
finally think about "the big picture," Council leaders say.

	And so, at its first meeting of a biennial Assembly cycle next week,
the GAC will devote considerable time to one of its four priority goals:
evangelism.

	The four goals - evangelism and witness, justice and compassion,
spirituality and discipleship, and leadership and vocation>are the
centerpieces of the GAC's new Mission Work Plan (MWP), which was developed
over the last two years and approved by this year's 216th General Assembly in
Richmond, VA, in June.

	"The Mission Work Plan really is a change in how think about
planning," GAC Executive Director John Detterick told the Presbyterian News
Service, "and without a General Assembly next summer, we can think big
picture about the goals."

	The Rev. Nancy Kahaian, the GAC chair who also led the group that
developed the MWP, agreed. "We're going to be very intentional about living
out the Work Plan, starting with the devotion of considerable time to
particular goals, this time evangelism," she told the Presbyterian News
Service in a Sept. 16 interview. "In the past, other things related to
getting ready for the next General Assembly would have preempted the agenda."

	Detterick said evangelism-related activities at the Sept. 22-25 GAC
meeting here will include study of the recent book, Beyond the Ordinary: 10
Strengths of U.S. Congregations, by PC(USA) researchers Cynthia Woolever (now
at Hartford Theological Seminary) and Deborah Bruce; an assessment of current
GAC programs in support of evangelism efforts by presbyteries and
congregations; and discussion of current and previous GAC commitments to the
denomination's evangelism efforts.

	"We haven't done enough creative and holistic thinking about what we
do, what we want to do and what we should do," Detterick said. "We've tried
to do that with the Mission Work Plan and now we want to dig deeper, to
really look at the particulars of our evangelism efforts in the context of
the whole picture represented by the Mission Work Plan."

	Kahaian described the upcoming GAC meeting as "a time to cast a
vision and find our role in it." With a third of the membership of the
Council being new, she said the meeting will focus on "raising awareness, but
also on thinking about our congregations and governing bodies and how to
integrate all of our evangelism efforts throughout the church."

	She said evaluation and assessment of the MWP - its four goals and 20
objectives for 2005-2006 - will be key to the GAC's success. "The objective
of evaluation is to learn, not to criticize or place blame or question
motive. I hope we learn a lot and become more enthusiastic and focused."

	Detterick agreed. "I'm not sure we know fully what (moving to a
biennial cycle of General Assemblies) means - we'll live into it," he said.
"But I do know it will give us more time to look at our work with an eye
toward constructively serving the church better."

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