<Growing Healthy Churches Mission Strategy>
<New Mission Design (from the Blue Tigers' report adopted 10/14/06)
(Excerpts from the adopted “Blue Tigers Report to Pueblo Presbytery” October 14, 2006)
God is calling Pueblo Presbytery to thrive. To say this is to say that God is calling the Presbyterian churches of southeastern Colorado to thrive, for we, together, are the Presbytery. Our new vision for Pueblo Presbytery is that we become a covenantal community in practice as well as theology in order to become more effective instruments of God’s grace, mercy and peace in Jesus Christ. To fulfill our vision we propose to experience our life together in ways that are missional, connectional and participatory; in other words, to share ministry and mission together as churches whenever profitable and possible in ways that connect us as faith communities.
As Presbyterians we share a rich heritage of covenantal theology and at our best have incarnated that theology in our relationships together. Pastors, elders and other church members long have understood the need and value for the church to be a covenantal community at the local, congregational level; it is our conviction that becoming a covenantal presbytery is also needful and will prove to be of great value for our life together in Jesus Christ as Presbyterians in southeastern Colorado.
The phrase covenantal community ordinarily has not characterized presbytery relationships. Rather, for the huge, vast and overwhelming majority of our church members, “presbytery” has connotations of a rigid, bureaucratic structure where “church business” takes place; for church members, “presbytery” is what pastors and a few elders do rather than what we, the Presbyterians of southeastern Colorado, do together. Granted, there are those in the church who find primary, covenantal relationships through presbytery – one might think of certain clergy or elders who participate regularly and enthusiastically in the presbytery’s committee structure, for instance; however, such folk are rare.
Given that few church members view themselves as an integral part of a larger Body of Christ beyond their local church, it is understandable that our church members feel isolated from presbytery. The question, then, becomes this: is there something that can and/or should be done to modify the situation? Or put another way: why is there such a disconnect between presbytery and the pews? Should we care?
To answer these questions one must recognize the common perception of presbytery described above: a rigid, bureaucratic structure where “church business” takes place. Of course there will be a disconnect between presbytery and the pews given the above description! Yet the great tragedy of our situation is not first in the fact of a “disconnect” but in our skewed theology of the Church that has allowed the disconnect to grow weed-like in the first place. What is required is a new understanding of the Body of Christ, and presbytery’s place within this communion, and a new appreciation of the need and value of specifically presbytery relationships.
To say that Pueblo Presbytery will become a covenantal community is to recognize that the Church, as the Body of Christ, is larger than any single congregation. Often we practice a “de facto congregationalism” in our churches today. What we are proposing is that we begin to reverse the trend of such congregationalist practice by covenanting with one another to practice ministry together. We are proposing that Pueblo Presbytery soften its rigidly bureaucratic structure to experience our life together in ways that are missional, connectional, and participatory.
The question many will ask is: what does it look like to experience our life together in ways that are missional, connectional and participatory? Each Session will be asked to enter into a covenantal partnership on behalf of their congregation with at least one other Session (or more) at least once a year. Such covenantal partnerships may be either geographic partnerships (e.g. a cluster or neighboring churches, etc.) or special interest partnerships (e.g. focused on evangelism and church growth, spiritual formation or justice, etc.) for sharing ministry or mission. These new, covenantal, presbytery partnerships will be supported by Pueblo Presbytery staff to help organize, resource and facilitate the geographic and special interest partnerships.
Others will ask the question: what happens to our current committees? The Book of Order requires five committees: Committee on Ministry, Committee on Preparation for Ministry, Nominating Committee, Committee on Representation and some form of Coordinating Council. The COM, CPM, Nominating and Representation committees, per requirement, will continue in their current configurations. In addition to the required committees, the Christian Education committee will continue to oversee the camp and retreat programs for children and youth. Further, the Commissioned Lay Pastor committee will continue to oversee the training and support of commissioned lay pastors as a sub-committee of COM. The work of all other presbytery committees will be assumed (or not) by the covenantal partnerships created by and between Sessions on behalf of their congregations.
The largest change in function will be absorbed by the Coordinating Council which will be tasked with the following responsibilities: (1) oversee the effectiveness of the covenantal partnerships between Sessions, (2) serve as an advisory committee to the Executive Presbyter in setting his or her missional focus for ministry, (3) coordinate new church development projects with local congregations and/or multi-church covenantal partnerships, (4) recommend the budget to Presbytery, and (5) set the agenda for Presbytery meetings. The membership of the Coordinating Council will consist of the moderator of Presbytery, the moderator-elect, who shall serve as moderator of Council, the past moderator, COM chair, CPM chair, PW moderator, Stated Clerk, Executive Presbyter, and one member from each of the four clusters, and two at-large members from the presbytery.
Also absorbing a significant change in function will be the executive presbyter. The executive presbyter’s primary purpose will be to work with churches committed to church growth and spiritual health. To consult, train and resource will be the watch words by which the executive presbyter will serve; the presence of growing, healthy churches in the presbytery will be the litmus test by which he or she will be evaluated.
Finally, it must be noted that the manner in which presbytery’s mission dollars are distributed will adapt to our missional, connectional and participatory vision. Rather than have a Mission and Interpretation Committee distribute mission dollars throughout the presbytery, each cluster will be assigned a sum of mission dollars to direct to mission as that cluster decides.
Additional recommendations adopted by the Presbytery October 14, 2006:
· Decrease the number of presbytery meetings to three per year;
· Eliminate all non-mandated committees except Youth Ministries;
· Increase presbytery’s per capita to $16.75 in 2008; and to $17.50 in 2009;
· Increase the presbytery’s percentage portion of the basic mission gifts from 65% to 75% starting in 2008.
<Growing Healthy Churches Mission Strategy>
<New Mission Design (from the Blue Tigers' report adopted 10/14/06)