Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - Blogs - Stated Clerk's Columnhttps://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016-06-01T08:14:39-04:00Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)info@pcusa.orghttp://www.pcusa.org/Latest Stated Clerk's Column posts.June 2016 - A journey of faith—Gradye Parsons2016-06-01T08:14:39-04:00Gradye Parsons/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/6/1/june-2016-journey-faithgradye-parsons/https://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/6/1/june-2016-journey-faithgradye-parsons/
<p class="date">June 1, 2016</p>
<div class="intro"><p>This is approximately my 96th monthly column. It is the bookend for my eight years of writing these columns. I want to thank you for sharing your stories with me. You have trusted me with your joys and challenges in conversations across the congregations and mid council bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Please know that each of your stories has impacted me and will always remain part of my understanding of faith. What follows is my journey of faith that I prepared as part of my reentry into the Presbytery of East Tennessee.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;" title="Mars Hill Presbyterian Church" src="/site_media/media/uploads/oga/images/features/feature-img-060116.jpg" alt="Mars Hill Presbyterian Church" width="295" height="284" /></p>
<p>I was examined to become a candidate for ministry at the Mars Hill Presbyterian Church in Athens, Tennessee, in 1976. I started seminary that fall at Gordon-Conwell and graduated in 1979. While in seminary I had my first paid job in the church. I was a church janitor.</p>
<p>I was called, installed, and ordained at the Newport Presbyterian Church in 1979, serving five years with that congregation. The congregation taught me how to be a pastor. I was expected to call on a ruling elder at random on Sundays for the offering prayer. I would hear these beautiful prayers in perfect King James English. It was while I was in Newport that I really fell in love with the mountains and mountain people.</p>
<p>In 1984 I accepted the call to the Windsor Avenue Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Tennessee. This congregation had many educators as members. They taught me how to teach, preach, and be involved in the community. The first organizing meeting for the city hospice ministry was in the church. One summer the music director had the teenagers form a band during vacation Bible school. They would play during worship. The first couple of years the band was pretty bad. But over the years, with the congregation’s nurture, they improved to the point where every band member had made regional or state honor bands. The high school band director credited the congregation for encouraging the students.</p>
<p>In 1994 I was called and elected to be the executive presbyter and stated clerk of Holston Presbytery. I spent most of time either putting out fires or trying to get congregations fired up. I got to work with lots of truly committed teaching and ruling elders.</p>
<p>In 2000 I accepted the invitation to be an Associate Stated Clerk in the Office of the General Assembly. In 2008 I was elected Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and reelected in 2012. I have been privileged to preach and lead workshops in congregations and presbyteries all over the world. I have digested almost every kind of potluck dinner imaginable. It also has been an honor to work with incredible staff dedicated to serving this church.</p>
<p>In the forty-year journey from my first trip to Mars Hill I have fallen more in love with God and God’s church. My call into this chapter of my ministry is as clear as that first call. My traveling companion has been my wonderful wife, Kathy, who is the best theologian I know. My son Josh, an attorney, and my daughter Rachel, a PC(USA) minister, have grown up in the church and are still in the church.</p>
<p>In all these things I give thanks to God.</p></div>
May 2016 - A distinct family portrait of the PC(USA)2016-05-03T15:04:41-04:00Gradye Parsons/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/5/3/may-2016-distinct-family-portrait-pcusa/https://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/5/3/may-2016-distinct-family-portrait-pcusa/
<p class="date">May 3, 2016</p>
<div class="intro"><p>There are eighty-nine years of living between my mother and my grandson. Yet they are experiencing similar journeys of self-discovery. My mother lives with dementia. It would be inaccurate to say she suffers from it. She treats it more like a traveling partner. While she has forgotten a lot of good things, she also has forgotten a lot of hurts and angers.</p>
<p>My grandson is acquiring knowledge by the minute. He is the proverbial mental vacuum cleaner. His imagination churns at warp speed. On a recent trip to a children’s museum he created whole worlds to enjoy. Not very long ago he finally put it together that the little boy in the mirror was him. Those blue eyes and that smile looking at him was what the world sees.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;" src="/site_media/media/uploads/oga/images/features/feature-img-050116.jpg" alt="people working on a house" width="295" height="284" /></p>
<p>On a recent visit with my mother I showed her a photo of her and me. It took her a while to fully accept that it was her. Yes she does look like her mother. Yes your hair really is gray. And, yes, the son sitting next to you has gray hair too.</p>
<p>The Committee on the Office of the General Assembly commissioned a study of how the PC(USA) sees itself these days. It was an open-ended study in which anyone could participate. In combing through the 21,000 answers, a distinct family portrait emerges. That portrait reveals a church that cares about healthy congregations—healthy congregations that thrive, that faithfully live out the gospel, and that care about their community. The portrait reveals a people who set helping others as a priority. Helping others covers a variety of activities from food pantries to advocacy for justice. The strength of the answers shows the strong link between being a Christian and being God’s hands to the world.</p>
<p>A photo is a snapshot in time. If you look at old photos of yourself you might lament your youth. But if you look at current photos of yourself you can discover who you have become. The distinct family portrait of the PC(USA) shows us who we have become in our 310 years of life. I think we are looking pretty good at 310. Please have a <a href="https://pcbiz.s3.amazonaws.com/Uploads/c7fa1afb-bbd5-4f8d-8220-55c599f07408/When%20We%20Gather%20at%20the%20Table.pdf" target="_blank">look for yourself</a> (PDF).</p></div>
April 2016 - Pack your mission T2016-04-01T06:00:00-04:00Gradye Parsons/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/4/1/april-2016-pack-your-mission-t/https://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/4/1/april-2016-pack-your-mission-t/
<p class="date">April 1, 2016</p>
<div class="intro"><p>One of the great aspects of my time as Stated Clerk is hearing about the mission and ministry of Presbyterians and their congregations. Sometimes it is ministry in its own community. Other times it is a mission trip to some spot in the world. Universally I hear how these experiences are transformative.</p>
<p>When I was in Cuba a few years ago almost every congregation I visited had photos of mission trips from PC(USA) congregations on its walls. Presbyterians are strong believers in helping others. They build and rehab houses. They tutor students in resource-challenged schools. They build water and solar systems. They serve food through either church pantries or community meals. It is all awesome.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;" src="/site_media/media/uploads/oga/images/features/feature-img-040116.jpg" alt="people working on a house" width="295" height="284" /></p>
<p>Another universal part of these mission enterprises is the T-shirt. It is a required aspect of doing God’s work. I assume the disciples had some sort of T-shirt too. Several years ago we conducted a national conference with a souvenir T-shirt. One of our speakers was a well-known politician. When he came to register he was asked what size T-shirt he wanted. We were told very clearly he and his wife did not wear T-shirts! But after spending half a day at the conference and catching the vibe, they sheepishly came back to the registration table and asked for their T-shirts.</p>
<p>I have this idea for a grand visual. I want to invite every Presbyterian in attendance at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) to bring a mission T-shirt to Portland. I want us to all wear them on Thursday, June 23. It will be a living tableau of the vast and varied ways Presbyterians are involved in mission every day. For those of you not in Portland you can join wherever you are.</p>
<p>Hopefully we will have some time to hear stories about these missions and ministries. Stories will inspire us to go back home and attempt a similar mission.</p>
<p>I am packing my mission T-shirt. How about you?</p>
<p><a href="/news/2016/4/1/april-2016-pack-your-mission-t-korean/">미션 티셔츠를 준비하세요</a></p>
<p><a href="/news/2016/4/7/empaque-su-camiseta-de-mision/">Empaque su camiseta de misión</a></p></div>
March 2016 - The hard work of reconciliation2016-03-01T14:49:42-05:00Gradye Parsons/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/3/1/march-2016-hard-work-reconciliation/https://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/3/1/march-2016-hard-work-reconciliation/
<p class="date">March 1, 2016</p>
<div class="intro"><p><em>God tolerates even our stammering, and pardons our ignorance whenever something inadvertently escapes us—as, indeed, without this mercy there would be no freedom to pray. ~John Calvin</em></p>
<p>There appears to be a math equation in this quote from John Calvin. Toleration plus pardon plus mercy equals freedom—the freedom defined as children being able to ask their parents anything. I wonder if this formula cannot be applied to our life as community.</p>
<p>Helen Keller says that toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle. It is the opposite of a winner-take-all position. It means holding opposing viewpoints lightly in your head. In a community it provides for debate and discussion that can lead to better ideas.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;" src="http://oga.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/images/features/feature-img-030116.jpg" alt="" width="295" height="284" /></p>
<p>“Where there is injury [let me sow] pardon,” said Francis of Assisi. In almost every discussion about servant leadership, I have heard at least one person say, “but don’t be a doormat.” The comment comes out of the concern that putting others first somehow makes us weak. There may be some truth to that, but putting ourselves first does not make us strong either.</p>
<p>When I do the hard work of reconciliation with another, I can get unstuck from that emotion-filled space. That reconciliation may have to confront injustice and injury in a community. That confrontation may create change that will be fertile ground for those seeds of pardon.</p>
<p>From the great Herman Melville we have this quote: “Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.” A community is made up of people who are all dreadfully cracked about the head. Honking our horns at the car that hesitates at a green light is useful venting, but doesn’t display much mercy. The person may be wrestling with a whale of a problem.</p>
<p>What is your community like? Is there tolerance, pardon, or mercy? Can you and your congregation change that?</p>
<p><a href="/news/2016/3/10/march-2016-hard-work-reconciliation-kor/">화해를 위한 힘겨운 일</a></p>
<p><a href="/news/2016/3/23/marzo-2016-la-dificil-tarea-de-la-reconciliacion/">La difícil tarea de la Reconciliación</a></p></div>
February 2016 - Sustainable ministry results from sustainable souls 2016-02-02T14:58:00-05:00Gradye Parsons/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/2/2/february-2016-sustainable-ministry-results-sustain/https://www.pcusa.org/blogs/stated-clerks-column/2016/2/2/february-2016-sustainable-ministry-results-sustain/
<p class="date">February 2, 2016</p>
<div class="intro"><p>Sustainability is a word that is used in many contexts. We talk about it with farms that have found the balance between what the soil can give up and what the soil needs to be healthy. It is used to refer to communities who have the resources they need to maintain a healthy economic life. Energy sources that are renewable also are viewed in terms of their sustainability.</p>
<p><img style="float: right; border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 10px; margin: 10px;" src="http://oga.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/images/features/feature-img-020116.jpg" alt="" width="295" height="284" /></p>
<p>We also use this word to talk about the church. A congregation is viewed as sustainable when it has enough resources to support its ministry and, frankly, its ministers. I would like to offer a slightly different definition. A congregation is sustainable when it is nurturing people in discipleship that motivates them to participate in God’s mission in the world.</p>
<p>In the Gospels, Jesus uses different images about sustainability. We are asked to consider the lilies that are beautiful without benefit of a Singer sewing machine. On the other hand, we should build our houses on stone not sand. There would seem to be some confusion as to whether we should not worry or we should plan carefully.</p>
<p>Sustainable ministry happens because of people who have sustainable souls. Souls nourished by good preaching and teaching, genuine fellowship, and honest reflection on the life of their communities. Souls that expect challenge from the Gospel to care about people. Souls following the law of physics to be bodies in motion.</p>
<p>With this definition, a twenty-member congregation of motivated souls who minister in their community is a sustainable congregation. Will they last forever? Probably not. But they are filling up their Kairos time with what God wants them to do. They are both following the lily example and building on the rock.</p>
<p>John Adams said, “If we take a survey of the greatest actions … in the world … we shall find the authors of them all to have been persons whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position” (Old Family Letters, p. 9). May your soul be shaken into sustainable discipleship and into sustainable ministry.</p>
<p><a href="/news/2016/2/4/february-2016-sustainable-ministry-results-kor/">지속 가능한(sustainable) 사역은 지속 가능한 사람들로부터 초래된다</a></p></div>