Monthly columns featuring GA vice moderator Byron Wade and Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons

September 2009

What are you looking forward to?

by Byron Wade

As summer turns into fall, people are looking forward to new things.

Take my son Andrew, who started second grade a few days ago. He had a great summer camp experience, but was so ready to go back to school. His eagerness was driving my wife and me crazy! He talked about meeting his teacher, seeing his classmates, buying school supplies, and more. When I dropped him off at school, he was definitely ready for the change.

The church is also looking forward to new things. Many Christian educators are working hard at preparing for rally day events. Pastors and program staff are restarting existing church programs or creating new ones. Talk of stewardship and church budgets begins to be heard. Parishioners are returning from summer vacations and seeking the support and comfort of the community of faith as they begin the cycle of work routines, family schedules, and various tasks.

Through all of these things we hope and pray for something new to happen, whether it is increased attendance in worship and educational programs, mission projects, or a renewed emphasis on faith and discipleship.

In my travels as vice moderator, I have seen Presbyterians looking forward to the new things that God is and will be doing. Whether it is spending time with young adult volunteers who have answered God’s call to mission, or churches that are embarking on service and renewal projects in their communities, or sitting around the table with colleagues at governing body meetings, there is fresh hope that God is calling us in the everyday to experience God’s leading in a new direction to serve people in this day and age.

What are you looking forward to? It is my hope and prayer that you will remember the words of the prophet Isaiah, “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19).

Read the vice moderator's column in Korean.

Read the vice moderator's column in Spanish.

Home improvement

by Gradye Parsons

September 2009

The default television channel at our house is HGTV. It is a channel that focuses primarily on home improvement or home replacement

The home improvements that are featured range from a new paint job and throw pillows to major renovations. Given that the improvements generally follow a life change of the home owner, the work is usually centered on a hope that new space will mean a new way of living.

This month, the proposed new Form of Government will be available for discussion across the church. To me, this work is like a home improvement project, not home replacement.

The basic structure of our Presbyterian life together — the foundation and load-bearing walls — is all there in the proposal. What is new is the remodeled space to allow the church to move into a new life together.

Why is improvement needed? The current Form of Government is over 25 years old. The world in which it was created is so different from today’s world in which we minister. Multicultural understandings, personal computers — digital everything — and the all-encompassing Web have created a very different context for ministry.

So, we need to renovate our polity space. We need to knock down some walls of regulation and build room to allow newness to happen. That newness could bring some new ways of living together and some new visions for our future.

The HGTV home improvement shows usually have three parts. First comes the sharing of vision between home owner and designer. Second, the home owner’s anxiety surfaces about the changes. Finally, the project is completed.

The Form of Government revision process has had similar stages. Perhaps we are nearing the final phase. I hope you will take the time to look over the proposal carefully.

Henry Ward Beecher said, “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.”

Let’s approach this renovation with the handle of faith.

The Reverend Gradye Parsons is Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Read the Stated Clerk's column in Korean.

Read the Stated Clerk's column in Spanish.