wfn.org | PC(USA) leaders share hopeful vision for GA 219

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PC(USA) leaders share hopeful vision for GA 219
Lift up examples of fulfilling commitment to ?Deep and Wide?
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Photo of Linda Valentine

Linda Valentine addresses the crowd during the Riverside Conversation on the 
report from the Stated Clerk and the Executive Director of the GAMC. ?By Tony 
Oltmann

> Posted at
> July 3, 2010 10:46 p.m.

> by Pat Cole

> Communications Associate

A hopeful vision for the 219th General Assembly
(2010) and encouraging stories about Presbyterian ministries were shared 
Saturday at one of the six Riverside Conversations.

Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, identified seven hopes he 
has for this year?s meeting. His colleague Linda Valentine, executive director 
of the General Assembly Mission Council, expanded on Parsons? hopes by giving 
examples of the PC(USA) fulfilling its commitment to ?Grow Christ?s Church Deep 
and Wide? through evangelism, servanthood, discipleship and diversity.

> Parsons hopes commissioners will:

- Enter decision-making prayerfully. He urged commissioners to pray 
individually and with each other.

- Gain a deeper awareness of the length and breadth of the PC(USA). The 
Assembly, he said, presents opportunities to learn how Presbyterians are at 
work across the nation and around the world.

- Discern with the whole church issues and challenges facing congregations. 
Most of the business before the Assembly originated in sessions of 
congregations, Parsons noted.

- Embrace a common calling to engage a changing church. ?God is changing the 
church whether we want to change or not,? Parsons said.

- Focus attention beyond the Assembly to a world in need. GA participants from 
other denominations and other countries will help commissioners get a larger 
perspective on the needs of the world and how God is at work meeting them, he 
observed.

- Develop enthusiasm for sharing the faith. Many Presbyterians, Parsons said, 
readily live out their faith by serving others, but most are reluctant to 
articulate their convictions. ?We need to be ready to share our stories of how 
God is transforming us.?

- Leave the Assembly with a sense that what they did will further Christ?s 
mission. Parsons encouraged commissioners not to dwell just on the 
controversial issues, but to share good news from the Assembly that will unite 
Presbyterians.

Valentine shared several stories of Presbyterian ministries of transformation. 
Among them was a story about First United Presbyterian Church in Guthrie, Okla. 
The church had few youth attending, but a number of young people regularly 
skateboarded in the church?s parking lot. Efforts by the church to reach out to 
the skateboarders brought many of them into the congregation, and several have 
been baptized.

Valentine also cited a program for encouraging new pastors as an example of the 
church growing in discipleship, ministries in Haiti and the work of mission 
networks as examples of growth in servanthood, and a recent multi-cultural 
conference as an example of the church?s efforts to grow in diversity.

Valentine acknowledged that the denomination?s decline in membership can be 
discouraging. ?At the same time, we are seeing places where the church is alive 
and growing,? she said.