Come together
The work of the Unification Commission is explained through a model of a church with just two committees
Imagine you’re a member of a local Presbyterian church — a unique Presbyterian church with no pastor and no session. The church does have two associate pastors who each lead a committee that plans all the activities of the church. One committee, the Worship Committee, is in charge of Sunday worship and everything that goes with it; and the other, the Program Committee, develops and leads the weekly program of the church. With the help of these two very capable associate pastors, these two committees oversee two entirely separate staffs, with two entirely separate budgets — with very little to no coordination between them.
Additionally, this church has a Board of Trustees who oversees the financial program for the church and provides a shared administrative staff who serves both the Program and Worship committees.
The Program Committee is funded primarily by endowments reaching all the way back into the 200 year history of the church. Though the return on those endowments provides a reliable source of income, it can be challenging to innovate and adapt to the ministry challenges of today because of endowment restrictions.
The Sunday Worship Committee, on the other hand, is funded almost exclusively by the Sunday offering and is challenged by a steadily decreasing membership, which hinders its ability to provide the services its members have come to expect.
One year, after many years of analysis and study, the congregation decided it was time to bring the Program and Worship committees together to fully share the responsibilities of ministering to the church. It no longer made sense (if it ever did) to have two separate committees, two separate staffs and two separate budgets. The church instead wanted to express its unity by being one body, with one staff, and one budget so that it could live out its unity in its vision, its shape and its form.
So in 2022, the church formed a commission from among its members and gave it all the power it needed to unify the Program and Worship committees so that the overall ministry of the church would be more coordinated, unified and streamlined.
This story is, of course, about the work of the Unification Commission. As a member of this commission, I recognize the oversimplified analogy above has its limitations. But, in general, this is more or less how our national church has been organized and has operated since reunion. I say this because it’s important to remind ourselves that the reasons for unification are primarily structural, not financial. No church would have two separate leadership structures with two separate staffs and budgets — it makes no sense.
For many years, we lived with the current system because we viewed the challenges to change the system as too great. But thanks to the faithful work of many people, the General Assembly is now closer to living up to its calling as the highest council of our church — one who “constitutes the bond of union, community and mission among all its congregations to the end that the church becomes a community of faith, hope, love, and witness.” (G-3.0501)
Friends, we are not at the end, but at the very beginning phases of this rather large and complex unification journey. And there is more work to be done after the Unification Commission concludes its work at the next assembly. I ask that if you sense a call to live out the “bond of union, community and mission” in tangible ways at the national level, that you apply to serve on the next governing body that will be established to carry on this charge. You can find out more information about the next governing body and apply here.
It’s been an honor to work alongside the Rev. Jihyun Oh, our first Stated Clerk and Executive Director, her interim senior leadership team, and the whole staff of the Interim Unifying Agency — their commitment and dedication to living into a unified vision of the national church is truly inspiring. And many thanks to as well as our incredibly dedicated and faithful (and tired) Unification Commission members. I pray our efforts to embody a shared vision of the national church in our organizational life as a church continues to be blessed.
The Rev. Scott Lumsden is a member of the Unification Commission.
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