Bruce Reyes-Chow for Moderator

June 19, 2008 by
Filed under: Religion 

Better late than never, I always say.

I am proud to endorse Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow for Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Let me start by saying that I think most of the candidates will do a good job in the moderator role.  The differences between them are primarily differences in style, not differences in substance (the perennial debate about homosexuality being the exception that proves the rule).  All love God.  All support Jesus as Lord.  As far as I can tell, all meet the essentials of our faith as I see them.  I enjoyed meeting all of them when they came to Lawrenceville, NJ.

Bruce stood out in one huge way – he has a plan for the future.  Well, maybe not a plan per se, but a direction.  Bruce is the one candidate who gets the problem of the aging of the church.  He sees both the problem (that young people are not remaining engaged after high school, and that they are NOT following the pattern of returning when they have children) and solutions.

Most importantly, Bruce sees the need for local solutions for local cultures.  He pastors a very successful congregation in San Francisco called Mission Bay Community Church.  This church is at the same time traditional and non-traditional.  Services there bear some resemblance to traditional Presbyterian services, but likely would also cause some members in our churches to blanch at the differences.  Bruce has found a way to reach out to a population not being fed by traditional practices and bring them into the faith.  Too often, we expect people to become like us (in behavior, dress, etc) before they join us (in our traditional service).  Bruce has turned that on its head, he and his church expect people to join us (come as you are) before you become like us (followers of Christ).
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I also believe that Bruce challenges the assumptions about the essentials of our faith.  How many of us believe that it is essential to the Presbyterian faith to sit in rows of pews, sing 100+ year-old hymns with a pipe organ, and have a choir sing at us before the sermon?  I believe that we have confused practice with faith.  Bruce has undergone a process where he has broken down the essentials and his church sticks to those that are truly essential while ignoring those that are simply the product of our cultural inertia.

And it works.  His church has people of all ages present in reasonably well-spread numbers.

Another area where Bruce excels is in listening.  When the candidates met in Lawrenceville, the format had each candidate sitting in the center focus of a U-shaped set of tables.  In some cases, the discussions were straight question and answer sessions – even when the candidate chose to ask questions of his audience.  In the case of Bruce’s session with each table (and in one other case), there was more of a dialog.  Bruce was truly listening to what the questioner was saying, and thinking.  Silence was not the enemy – it was time to process.  And Bruce was remarkably consistent in his responses.  He did not shade his responses to meet the desires of the questioner – he answered them openly and honestly and authentically.  And it wasn’t “this is what I think – deal with it”, it was more like “this is what I think – what do you think?”  This is what our denomination needs now more than anything else – questions rather than answers.  Everybody (and PCUSA bloggers are particularly bad at this, including me) comes to the forum ready to present and defend their answer before they hear the question.  What we need now is more understanding of what the other person is saying and thinking – how they came to their answer – and less posturing.  Bruce is humble when working with others in discernment – he really tries to get your point of view.

If you are a commissioner to General Assembly, I hope that you will consider Bruce Reyes-Chow for the Moderator position.  I won’t say “hope that you will vote for Bruce”, because that’s not how it should work.  You should consider Bruce, (and Bill, Carl and Roger) and make your own choice.  I just hope that I have provided an opinion that is useful as you and the Spirit decide how to vote.

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Comments

One Comment on Bruce Reyes-Chow for Moderator

  1. breyeschow on Thu, 19th Jun 2008 10:38 am

    2. Thoughtful as always may friend. Thanks.

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