This Week
This week is “in between” time.
I’m in the middle of the process for obtaining Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute. I’ve had the skills for years, but never got the certification. My wife already has this certification.
It’s a lot of work getting this certification. I had to document 4,500 hours of work leading project tasks over a period including at least 36 months of time. I also had to document 35 contact hours of training. The process of documenting that alone took me a solid week.
Then I chose to take an exam prep training class to make up the 35 hours. I found out later that I already had the 35 hours (my previous boss reminded me of an in-house training class that counted), so I should be able to carry some hours into the next reporting period.
I completed the training class yesterday and submitted my application. Now I’m in the up to 5 day waiting period while they decide whether or not to approve my application. Then I pay for the test and either immediately scheduled the test or go through the 5-day audit process.
This PMP certification will open up a lot of jobs that I am qualified for aside from not possessing the certificate. Many large and medium-sized companies require this certification for project management jobs.
The most general brand title medications include cialis shipping , Fioricet, levitra, and Soma. Now, you do not need to worry about any side-effects because believe it or not, there aren’t any really! In order to buy cialis professional, one is required to login to the online pharmacies. Depression is a serious illness which can pfizer viagra 100mg have a significant impact on your sex drive or make you impotent. Not any kind of food is good for the muscles since it helps the http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/2017FW-4.pdf viagra online shop muscles lengthen and relax. I had to put the job search on hold while doing the documentation and training. I should be restarting it now, but I believe it would be more effective to get the certification and update my resume and then start. So this is limbo time.
Tomorrow is busy anyway. I need to drive to Philadelphia (in the rain and/or snow) to pick up a city ID card for my volunteer work with the Philadelphia Digital TV project. I was recruited by the local FCC office as a ham radio operator to assist with the installation of Digital TV converters for the elderly or disabled. I may be volunteering this Friday to do this work. Then in the evening my church committee Project Open Door is presenting our final report to the church Session.
Thursday I’m having lunch with somebody from the church.
Friday as I mentioned above, I may be volunteering in Philly. There is a Trenton Devils hockey game that night.
Saturday evening is a major event. The Trenton Devils are retiring the number of Scott Bertoli – who played his entire professional career (aside from a few trips up one league) with the Trenton Titans. I’m definitely going to that game and getting out all of my old Trenton Titans stuff.
Sunday I have coffee duty for the deacons at church, and youth group in the evening.
Faith and Discomfort
As my readers know, I’m going through a tough time right now. Being out of work for 6 months (tomorrow) is very difficult.
I have often heard people make statements about people going through difficult times (unemployment, death in the family, personal health problems) along the lines of “he/she has his/her faith to comfort him/her”. Or people speak about how their faith has been a comfort to them, creating a feeling of peace.
I don’t get that. I can’t think of a single experience when my life was difficult where my faith was a comfort to me. I can think of several happy times where I’ve felt something akin to “God in the room” and once akin to “God in my heart”. But those have never been difficult times. When life gets tough for me, it seems like God is absent.
For me, faith has always been more of a discomfort. I’m Presbyterian, and like all Reformed people I believe that we are not as good as we can be and must always strive to better ourselves. For me, faith is part of what pushes me to be a better person. Faith is a Discomfort. Faith is a way to push me off of my comfortable pattern of behavior in order to better myself or help others more. I’ll never be perfect. Faith pushes me to be better.
My pastor did a sermon on this that clearly stuck with me as I remember it over 2 years later: The Discomforter
That’s great while things are good. When things are bad, faith is still pushing me to improve. At that point I’m in a more fragile state – needing to be reminded that I am good. And my faith is telling me otherwise – that I can be better. The conclusion that is easy to draw is that my lack of perfection (or distance from perfection) is the reason for what happened to me. This is particularly true in work-related trouble – it’s easier to take a pass on personal reponsibility with a bad situation in a family member or a health situation.
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So for me, faith is more of a discomfort.
There is one exception. When life gets me down, the people who help me the most (aside from Carolyn) are church people. They do their best to understand what is happening with me, and to try to keep up with my life even though that might involve hearing unwanted bad news. Church people will pray for you, and even if God is not hearing those prayers you know that someone out there cares for you – and usually not someone who wants something from you. I’ll admit it – I’m not an easy person to deal with when experiencing heavy negative emotions, but they keep trying.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying to yourself, “Hey, Mark! Those people ARE God’s presence for you.” And you’re probably right. And I do realize that and appreciate it (though that appreciation may not make it through the emotions that I’m feeling to the surface).
I just don’t get faith as comfort.
So God – thank you for your people who you have sent to help me. There are too many of them to list here, but know that I see their efforts and appreciate them. Amen.
Project Open Door news
A while ago (perhaps 18 months ago) I wrote about my new committee studying hospitality at my church.
That team chose to call itself Project Open Door. We were charged with studying hospitality to visitors, the community around us, and inactive members.
We completed the majority of our work last night. We’ve produced a 44-page report which will be given to the Session in 2 weeks. We were unable to complete our work on inactive members (due to personal issues of several team members at a critical time) and have suggested that this task be forwarded to a successor committee.
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Several of you have expressed an interest in hearing what we’ve learned. We intend to ask the Session for permission to release our report. If I am able to do so, I’ll post it here.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the last 18 months.
Presbytalk Grand Opening
I am pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the Internet’s newest Presbyterian Discussion Forum: Presbytalk.
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2008: My personal year in review
Filed under: Admin, Job Search, Life, Religion, Work, Young Adult, Youth
Good riddance.
It’s not that the year was all bad. Some of it was really very good. It’s just that the bad outweighed the good. Most of this was due to one very bad thing.
Work
This was a particularly bad year. I’m not going to go into details, but you should assume that life at my former employer wasn’t particularly fun before August. In August, I was laid off from a job that I’d held for 13 1/2 of the last 15 years. It only helps slightly that this employer ultimately filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November.
And if that wasn’t enough – the economy tanked at the same time. The cause of the company’s failure wasn’t solely the economy, but it was a big part of it. Jobs just plain dried up from September through early December. There are signs that things are easing now.
If it weren’t for positive things and positive people in the rest of my life, I don’t know how I would have handled this.
Church
The good:
I LOVE my youth group. The young men and women that I work with more or less every week are all wonderful, and I learned a lot about myself, them, life and God over the last year. Sunday afternoon/evening is the high point of my week.
The summer trip to the Montreat Youth Conference was one of the top 10 experiences of my life. I truly feel that God spoke to me that week in some fashion. I know that my faith deepened, and that the same happened to most if not all of the group from our church that went on the trip. I also feel that I grew outside of the religious aspects. (Of course, this high leaves me wondering where God is in my life now, when things are not so good.) The biggest thing that I learned this year – while I care a lot about our youth, they care about me too.
Putting together the Moderator Meet and Greet event in April was a lot of fun as well as being a lot of work. I met a lot of new and wonderful people. The event was well attended, and I hear that it helped commissioners make a decision at General Assembly.
Meeting in person and working online with other church leaders has been mostly positive. I’m amazed at how strong the online Presbyterian-and-beyond religious community is. I’ve felt support when I needed it and given and watched it flow the other way when others needed it.
Serving as a deacon has been rewarding. This is work that I know that I can do and do well, and that is relatively easy, and that aids the church. That’s sort of the point, isn’t it? I just have to be careful not to schedule myself too heavily (like the Sunday that I had coffee service AND served communion AND agreed to set up tables for a later event).
For female who are willing to have babies, hysterectomy or endometrial ablation cialis generic pills can’t be accepted usually. Ginseng is in use for centuries and is one of his biggest fears and that can lead to a more dangerous form of emotional and mental depression. levitra discount They offer Female cialis generico 5mg sexual dysfunction treatment with the help of neurons when the man is sexually invigorated. There is nothing worse than being on a safer side you davidfraymusic.com purchase cheap levitra should consult a doctor. My committee studying hospitality, visitor and community issues for the church has nearly completed its work. We have identified 19 issues and more than 19 suggestions for how to change/fix/handle those issues. We present to the Session in February. The team has worked hard and learned a lot.
Serving as the new webmaster for the church’s website and weekly e-mailed newsletter has been a growth experience for me. It has forced me to learn new technical skills and also to generate a little content independently.
The bad:
The worst has to have been the controversy over my blog in March/April/May/June of this year. I don’t know if people realize it, but the church was about 12 hours from losing me in April – the only things keeping me were the facts that Youth Sunday and the Moderator Meet and Greet were imminent responsibilities of mine. This event only took 2nd to the loss of my job in how poorly I felt while in the middle of it.
I am also continually dismayed by the negative tones in some conversations/fights/battle-royales in the church community over the hot button issues of today. Those of us within the church fight harder and with less love than we do with our colleagues in other denominations or religions, even though the points of disagreement are far smaller and unimportant.
Home
Home life continues to be solid. Carolyn and I have ridden out the very rough patches of the 2nd half of the year with no negative effect on our relationship. Most of this is due to Carolyn’s very conservative nature when it comes to money, and the strong planning ability that both of us have. She continues to be supportive at a very difficult time in my life and it has brought us if anything closer together.
The cats are still fine. They turn 13 tomorrow. Isaac is still suffering from a bit of arthritis in his hips, but the daily Cosequin is helping. Both of them still have a fair amount of kitten left and still go running around like crazy animals occasionally. Albert has had no recurrence of his kidney issues.
The house is fine. We have had to put off a bit of home repair work (mainly fixing the fireplace chimney that failed a while back) for economic reasons. Nothing important is wrong, and we continue to love living here. It’s a great neighborhood – not too noisy, not too quiet, and plenty of kids running around.
My car has had a rough year. I was rear-ended in July and minor damage was done to my rear bumper. It was fixed pretty quickly, but it took about 4-5 months before the insurance companies paid my deductible. Here’s a tip – no matter how late you are, don’t pass on the right on a one-lane on-ramp.
Health
No major changes. On the Montreat trip I lost a number of pounds due to the stairmaster-like qualities of the village of Montreat (to get anywhere you have to walk down a big hill and up a big hill). The emotional strain of being out of work took off some more. I’ve managed to end the year a net 10 pounds down. Otherwise, my health remains the same.
I’m hoping that 2009 will be a combination of the continuance of good things, and an end to the bad things that are happening now. I see new hope in the elections of both our PC(USA) Moderator and the new President of the USA. It remains to be seen if that hope turns into a better reality for the country, church, and me.
Happy New Year!
On “Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment”
This past Tuesday, I participated in a webcast (scroll down and click the picture of two men) by the PC(USA) Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow and Professor Beau Weston. Beau is also a Presbyblogger at Gruntled Center.
Beau has written a paper entitled “Rebuilding the Presbyterian Establishment” that was published by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship (though not as an official statement). In his paper, Beau talks about the decline in membership in the Presbyterian Church over the last 40 years or so. He states that the reason for the decline is that the Presbyterian Establishment has been sidelined over the years. He defines the Establishment as a group of leaders that “naturally” gravitated to positions such as leadership of denominational agencies and committees, presbytery moderators and stated clerks, and “tall-steeple” pastors. He states that the church operates best when run as a pyramid-shaped hierarchy with “authoritative leaders” at the top of the pyramid. He makes the very valid point that these people have built many strong working relationships over the years through their work in colleges, seminaries, camps, retreats, and committees. Most of the paper is given over to the reasons for the decline in leadership felt by those “tall-steeple pastors” and others.
Beau lists these as factors causing that decline:
- Gender Representation Mandates (including the statement that “the era in which women were excluded from the office and councils of the church is a living memory.”)
- Racial/Ethnic Representation Mandates (including the statement that “I think it is fair to say that the spirit of racial exclusion and segregation has largely been conquered in the Presbyterian Church.”)
- Youth Representation Mandates (including the statement that “Occasionally an ‘old soul’ will appear among the youth whose extraordinary gifts the church can call upon, even ordain as an elder.”)
- Theological Representation – the idea that we build committees in order to balance different theological positions
He then goes on to list the group of people that he would have as the “natural” leaders of the church:
- Tall-Steeple Pastors – the senior pastors of our largest and richest congregations
- Presbytery Stated Clerks and Executive Presbyters
He also makes a recommendation that presbyteries be reduced in size to 12 to 20 congregations. That would cause New Brunswick presbytery to break into at least 3 new presbyteries, each covering a rather small area.
He also recommends doing away with Synods.
Finally, he recommends recreating the establishment by having the informal structure of personal connections closely match the formal structure of “power”.
One of the cost of viagra pill organizations providing effective peptide medicines is Usmadepeptides.com. Once again with the help of generic Apcalis men are able to enjoy the penetrative sex. buy cialis in usa Our unconscious mind, or intuitive self, has a lot to teach us. cheapest cialis http://www.midwayfire.com/documents/Midway_Fire_Dist_Fire_FINAL_Report_10-23-07.pdf Original viagra on line is extremely expensive and not simply obtainable, while the generic category of viagra is comparatively economical and can be originated effortlessly at any medicinal shop. In the webcast and on a Facebook group he clarified a few points from his paper.
He feels very strongly that the YADs at General Assembly are disruptive to the process because young people are not necessarily qualified to do the work of elders, YADs have vote on commitees and voice on the floor, and YADs are overrepresented becuase there is one per presbytery. He recommends that instead of Youth Advisory Delegates the youth are invited to participate in General Assembly in a leadership development program without official position with the body.
He also spoke about the problem of presbytery executives – that our presbyteries are larger than they should be in terms of number of congregations because that size is necessary in order to fund the executive’s position. He feels that presbytery executives should be shared among presbyteries or congregations (perhaps as a local pastor) in order to be able to fund that position, OR that the job of Stated Clerk and executive presbyter should be combined.
I disagree with most of the recommendations.
First, it is clear that there is still gender bias in our congregations. There are still congregations that will not hire a woman as Senior Pastor or even at all.
Second, it is clear from recent events (including those at a nearby seminary) that racial/ethnic problems remain in the church. The reaction to the election of Barack Obama as President shows that this is also true in society as a whole. We are not post-race yet.
Third, I am VERY upset at his dismissal of the abilities and ideas of youth and young adults. I feel that most of our loss of membership comes from the loss of young people as they graduate from high school or college. It’s no longer true that our young people will come back to the church when they marry and have children. I also know how galvanizing the election of Bruce as GA Moderator was to the young adults still present and active in my congregation. They said things like “finally, our generation is being taken seriously”. By confining leadership to “tall steeple pastors” and others who have “paid their dues” (I was accused on the Facebook group discussing this paper that I was unwilling to “pay my dues” by a pastor. “Serve now, be heard later.”) we are telling those outside of that group – women, ethnic leaders, young people – that they are not valued as leadership. That they do not have good ideas or something important to say. That this IS your father’s church, and not yours. We need to draw into leadership the very people that we are missing demographically if we ever want to learn how to reach their peers. It won’t get done by making our leadership into the “Old Boys’ Club” of older white men again.
In many ways, Bruce is the example that refutes the theory. Bruce wields great authority with people that goes beyond his position as Moderator. He has built MANY connections through his work, yet he is young, his fledgling church doesn’t have any steeple yet, he is not white. His election, and the upswell of interest and excitement that this has caused among young people throughout the church shows that giving the church back exclusively to old white men is not the answer.
I believe that if we were to implement this paper, it would cause a backlash among the young adults that I work with. They are just starting to see a world beyond the congregation because of Bruce, and our pastor’s service as a GA commissioner, and the connections that our Director of Youth and Young Adult ministries has formed and perhaps even my connections to others. Our summer trip to the Montreat Youth Conference has produced thoughts of seminary in our youth advisors (who are products of our congregation and youth group). They see a world today outside of the 4 walls of our church. If they were to be told that the answer for the future is to give power in the church to pastors of really big churches and people who have risen through the ranks, I fear that they would narrow their horizons again to the walls of our building.
It is clear that we need to do something to reverse the decline of the church. I don’t believe that Dr. Weston is anywhere near the right solution. This paper is a desire for a return to the past, when people who were his age and race and position were in charge. Instead we need a return to the future.
We don’t need to decrease the circle of people who determine direction and make decisions. We need to INCREASE listening to each other and sharing power in the church in order to give everyone a reason to support our actions. We need to increase ownership by moving people closer to our decisions, not by pushing them away.
I was a VIP … for dinner
Last night I went to the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville LOGOS program. I was invited as a “VIP” – a person who volunteers in a leadership role in the church. Also honored were our pastor, our treasurer and his wife (who also does a lot), the former Associate for Pastoral Ministry and her husband who is our Pledge Coordinator.
We were asked to arrive in time to join the children for dinner. Each of us got to sit with a grade level for dinner and we were asked questions about ourselves. Then after dinner the children introduced us and talked about what they’d learned and what we do for the church.
I was assigned to the 5th grade. There were 5 children and our table parent – seminary intern Kate Elliott. The questions were varied and amusing. Two consecutive questions were: “What is your favorite color?” and “How did you decide that you wanted to work with the church?” – I got the bends going that deep that fast. I was also asked about my family, my favorite sports team (a question answered with some trepidation – we’re on the border between the NYC and Philadelphia markets), my favorite book of the Bible, my favorite Psalm, my pets, and what I do with the church.
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I was honored to join them, and I look forward to 4 years from now when they are part of Senior High youth group and I can work with them more often.
Robyn Campbell is our Director of Children’s Ministries, and was responsible for inviting me. Thanks, Robyn. She also mentioned that she’d love it if more adults in the church were able to join the LOGOS program for dinner. There’s a table for adults that is stafffed by parents and volunteers and there’s usually room. If you want to consider joining them some Wednesday evening, contact Robyn. I may start going on the nights that I have a Wednesday meeting shortly after the LOGOS dinner is over.
PC(USA) – if we don’t divide, how do we stop fighting?
A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about the pre-requisites for an orderly schism in the PC(USA). I personally don’t favor dividing, but I’m just as weary as most others with the fighting that goes on because we don’t divide.
I got 5 comments in response. Four of them were against dividing and one was in favor.
So the question for today is this – if we don’t divide, how do we stop the disagreements from tearing apart the church, and losing whole generations?
There are two hot-button issues today: homosexuality and property rights. A case can be made that the latter follows the former – that churches only care who has title to their property because they are considering breaking away from the denomination. But both cases really boil down to one issue – rules and whether or not to follow them.
I believe in rules. Rules make it possible for our society to function without decaying into a battle of the strongest and triumph of our basest emotions. For the most part, I try to follow the rules most of the time. This has occasionally confused people, particularly in the area of interpersonal communication where by following the rules and NOT having a hidden agenda I confuse them because they expect a hidden agenda. Rules are generally a good thing.
Sometimes rules are a bad thing. Sometimes rules are created or enforced in a way that gives one person or a group of people special power over others, without their consent. This is when breaking the rules makes sense. However, at all times you must be prepared to suffer the consequences of breaking the rule. The privilege of being able to determine when to break the rules comes with the responsibility to accept the consequences of failing to prevail. From a Reformed (and particularly Presbyterian) point of view – because our conception of the rules is determined by a consensus of what the Holy Spirit is telling us (through Scripture, Jesus and the working of the Spirit today) – there will be cases where faithful people will end up on the wrong side of the determination of consensus. Some of us will believe that the Spirit is calling us to discern rule Z, and others to discern rule not-Z. We decide by the quasi-democratic process whether Z or not-Z is right. Those who are on the “losing” side are expected to follow the rule, or peacefully and individually separate from the communion.
Our troubles today come because people at the extremes are not following the rules. It’s a problem on both sides.
On the progressive side, the failure to follow the rules comes when a person makes a public statement that they are or intend to have sex outside of a marriage of a man and a woman and still expect to be ordained. That’s the rule (today, it may not be in a few months). Ordination is limited to those who are determined by their local governing body to not be in a state of unrepentant sin. The whole sex thing is codified specifically. If you fail, by self-acknowledging that you are having sex with somebody other than your opposite-gender spouse, then you are not eligible. It’s there in black and white. I disagree, I hate the rule, and I’ll do all in my power to overturn it but it is there. If you (progressives) are going to have any credibility with others in the church, you need to stick with the rules. Besides, there are many ways for a gay or lesbian person to be ordained. You can keep your mouth shut, and therefore not self-acknowledge. You can not be asked the question in the first place. What you can’t do is make a statement that “I’m gay, and I’m now or in the future going to act on it” and expect to be ordained. And making statements that you have no intention of following the rules isn’t kosher either. As I’ll say in a minute, you do have the option of going elsewhere.
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On the conservative side, the failure to follow the rules comes when a minister or session chooses to lead their church out of the PC(USA) without first following the proper procedure of working with the presbytery and being patient. That’s the rule, and it has been since reunion. (Note – those churches who have voted not to accept the Chapter 8 property restrictions by voting annually since reunion ARE exempt.) Almost all of you have been ordained since reunion. Others of you have chosen to remain in the PC(USA) since reunion – you’ve had 25 years to decide to leave. I understand that you are concerned with the people who are not following the sex rules. I disagree that it gives you the right to leave, but if you are that uncomfortable then so be it. We have adequate scripture to back up your right to individually leave. What isn’t in scripture, or the Book of Order, or the Book of Confessions is the right to expect to take your property with you. Chapter 8 is there. It’s the rule. If you really can’t stand being in the PC(USA) and aren’t willing to negotiate with your presbytery and pay whatever penalty they come up with (and presbyteries – some of you aren’t playing nice either), then your recourse is to leave the church and walk down the road to whatever space you can rent/borrow/own and start a new church. That’s the rule. If you follow the procedure, history shows that you will eventually get to keep your building (though you might have to pay something for it). Otherwise you have a way out – leave without the property. But filing civil cases in order to assert property rights isn’t Christian, and it isn’t right. And it’s not following the rules that you agreed to when you became a part of this community (the denomination) that makes its rules by communally discerning God’s will. Don’t like it? Overture General Assembly to remove Chapter 8. Until now, you’ve won every vote in the presbyteries related to sex and ordination – why do you think you’d lose now?
So both sides aren’t following the rules, and they are pointing fingers at EACH OTHER yelling “He’s breaking the rules! He’s breaking the rules!” This in turn is attracting the attention of not just those involved in clearing up the playground fight, but the kids in the circle around them, and the kids not in the circle at all. We’re losing people because we can’t play nice. We’re losing people because we can’t fight respectfully and they don’t want to associate with us. The perception is that Christians (and again – Presbyterians) spend all of their time fighting and arguing about the rules, and that Christians are judgmental and discriminatory (at least when it comes to gay people). That’s keeping people out of the church, and a large part of a generation or two are calling themselves “spiritual but not religious”* and opting out of the church.
So the question is this: What can we, who do not want a division, do to stop the voices that are calling for a division? How do we stop the fighting that creates the appearance of a need for division?
I think the place to start is for those who are in the middle, those who do not want a split, to start holding those who ARE fighting to a higher standard. We need to point out when people don’t fight fair. We need to do the fact-checking that was done during our recent Presidential election, and counter arguments (most often from our own side) that are false. We need to require respect for the opponent as a pre-requisite for debate. In short – we need to make taking the high road an expectation in others.
And we also need to model humility. When WE are called out by someone for behaving badly, we need to agree, apologize, and move on. When OUR facts are wrong and we are correctly refuted, we need to admit that and move on (though sometimes we will be correct and defending that is the right thing to do). In short, we need to take the high road even when others are taking the low road.
Can we do that? I don’t know. It’s a very high standard – one that I admit that I don’t meet 100% of the time. But I believe that it’s what God expects us to do and what we need to do.
* I disagree with Mercadante’s conclusion that this problem is not the church’s fault. Failure to recognize a shift and move with it is fault. Our job is to preach the Gospel to all people in all times, and we have to be flexible about how we do that so that it (the Gospel) is received. One key principle of communication is to use the style of the listener rather than the speaker in order for the message to be received successfully with regularity. We in the church have too long insisted on OUR way, sometimes calling it God’s way. I think we’ve been in the wrong on that. Otherwise we’d be speaking Greek or Latin.
Prayers for our Moderator’s Family
Please pray for the family of Bruce Reyes-Chow, PC(USA) General Assembly Moderator.
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Ham and Eggs – Breakfast with Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow
(I forgot to bring my camera, but Sara didn’t. Pictures as soon as I get them from her.)
Today Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow – the Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the PC(USA) – came to Lawrenceville, NJ. The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville hosted him for the 2nd time for breakfast and conversation.
I’m not going to go into details on any issue in particular for several reasons. One – I don’t remember the details so well. Two – this post is about both national issues and my local congregation, and I’m reticent to be controversial locally. Three – at one point Bruce said “Let me get my words right – you never know who is blogging about this” and a number of folks from my church reportedly looked at me. Hmmm.
The group of about 50-60 that attended was made up primarily of ministers serving in a congregational capacity – mostly from the Presbytery of New Brunswick but also from quite far away in some cases. There was a smaller contingent of seminarians, another group of non-congregational ministers, and some others who aren’t ministers from our congregation and other places (like me).
The food was excellent – egg strada, homebaked breads, and lots of fruit. The tables were particularly well-decorated.
The conversation took the form of about 90 minutes of question and answer. The topics varied broadly but included:
- Multi-cultural churches – how they succeed and when they might fail
- New Church Developments, including tips from Bruce based on his experiences at Mission Bay Community Church
- The use of web 1.0 and web 2.0 technology in ministry, including the upcoming re-design of the PC(USA) website
- Bringing even the smallest PC(USA) churches onto the Internet through the use of single-page websites for the church (at a cost that Bruce estimated to be about $100 per church)
- Preserving mission in an era when church budgets may be shrinking
- Shrinking congregations – when is it appropriate to talk about the end of a congregation’s life? How do we talk about leaving a legacy through the church’s property and other assets?
- Supporting small congregations that are not New Church Developments, do not believe they are at the end of their life, and want to redevelop.
- Providing a living wage for pastors in small churches
- Campus ministry and keeping young adults engaged with the church
- Seminaries realizing that not all graduates will be able to go into full-time ministry, and potentially helping them get ready for 1/2-time ministry, 1/2-time something else
- Information on how many appointments the Moderator makes after General Assembly (a very high 100+ this time around), and how little impact the Moderator has on the work of those task forces after making the appointments
- Praise for New Brunswick presbytery for having enough interest to need a waiting list for the Social Witness Committee
- an off-hand reference to “Friends Are Friends Forever” that went over the heads of anybody who wasn’t in the 30-45 age group
- a reminder that Bruce and Vice-Moderator Byron Wade are willing to send video greetings to any group that requests such far enough in advance
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I know that I’m missing some of the topics, but that’s most of them.
As always Bruce was engaging, funny, very authentic and willing to tackle the tough questions. I’m impressed that while he is clearly more comfortable addressing groups of strangers now that he has 6 months of Moderator experience under his belt, he still speaks very openly and authentically and humbly. His content and delivery are surprisingly consistent between his in-person appearances, his blog writings, and his blog videos (and his tweets on Twitter for that matter).
In short – a good time was had by all, and it was worth getting up early to be there.
Thanks, Bruce, for including Lawrenceville in your NYC/NJ trip.
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