Tod Bolsinger

Underlying Issues and A Real Possibility for the Future: the Mid Council Commission Report #ga220 #pcusa

“It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships, to how well we know and trust one another...

There is one core principle for developing these relationships. People must be engaged in meaningful work together if they are to transcend individual concerns and develop new capacities."
                                                                                                Margaret Wheatley

From the Mid Council Report to the General Assembly

“Also prominent in the Commission’s polling of the Church were the expressions of deep and abiding mistrust – fueled by a general absence of meaningful connection to the national, regional and even local judicatories.”

We do not believe that this is due to any individual persons acting in any particularly egregious and untrustworthy ways.  Indeed, we believe that the great majority of General Assembly, presbytery, and synod staff members and leaders are trustworthy people.  But the system itself fosters mistrust.

Generations of attempting to solve problems by constitutional fiat have left us without the ability to build relationships with those who deeply disagree with us.  We have trusted that our membership in presbyteries and synods, and our participation in council deliberative processes and committee assignments, would be context enough to build trust.  Once again, a reliance on compliance with regulation has not only sapped our creativity, it has made it impossible for us to give ourselves enough “room” to trust each other again.  Indeed, at the center of the Commission’s own work of deliberation was a commitment to transparency through our entire process.  We have used media, including social media, to engage in a conversation with the entire church.  We have traveled many miles, engaged in numerous conversations, and listened deeply to people who disagree with each other (and often ourselves!) about the causes of concern and the potential future of the church.  We have engaged people from across various spectrums in a conversation with full disclosure, even taking our most provocative proposals to the church before the final report was finished to allow input.  Within the Commission itself, we have come to realize that, for the sake of the mission, nothing can substitute for taking the time to build relationships, work through conflicts, and get beyond the stereotypes that we each bring into any circumstance. Indeed, we needed to learn to trust each other enough to become comfortable with discussing, debating, and finally deciding to bring even these proposals to the church.

Perhaps the greatest effect of our proposals is that it will by necessity bring the church closer.  Now, for congregations to have more flexibility they will necessarily practice discernment within both presbytery and General Assembly processes.  While the flexibility to experiment comes with built-in mechanisms to insure relational and constitutional fidelity, the true test of our trust will come as we allow room for others to create presbyteries that are different than our preferences and maybe even contradictory to our convictions. 

The Confession of 1967 has this poignant line: “The quality of their relation with other persons is the measure of the church’s fidelity.”   Trust is the life blood of a community.  Without rebuilding trust we will never have the quality of relationships that we desire.  We are under no illusions about the sorry state of trust in our denomination and know that our proposals will not pass through the Assembly without it.  We also believe that if we engage in this provisional presbytery experiment, we will need to trust each other more than some of us think possible.  We hope that even the conversations about our recommendations will be a spur for rebuilding the trust to truly enable us to be a dynamic missional denomination again.

Jesus said, “The time has come…I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. ³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:31-35

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If you read one piece of the Mid Council Report... Please read this. #PCUSA

Download Faithful Adaptations, Creative Experiments_an excerpt

or watch this...

 

This is what we want to say.  Thanks for being part of this conversation with us.

--The Mid Council Commission.

(For more: Go here. )

The Mid-Council Commission: The Moderator’s Not-So-Hidden Agenda #PCUSA

“Regulation cannot do what the loss of trust has undone.”  Cynthia Bolbach, Moderator of the 219^th General Assembly

Perhaps the single greatest gift that this Commission can raise up for the church is to say as loudly and as clearly as we possibly can that there is a crisis of trust in our denomination and that it, more than anything else, is the single greatest threat to the vitality and future existence of the church. 

Congregational leaders don’t trust presbyteries. Presbyteries don’t trust synods.  Synod leaders see themselves as the “breakwater” protecting the church from the General Assembly (which might be the least trusted system of all.)                         From the Mid Council Report,

 

It’s been interesting to listen to the responses to our Mid Council Report.  We have attempted to say as clearly as possible that our purpose has been, from beginning to end, to explore the structures that serve the church in a changing world.  We listened deeply to the church and we believe we have recommended to the church exactly what many asked for.

But then the discussion started.  On more than one occasion, people have tried as tactfully as possible to ask, “So what’s your real agenda?”

Ok. Here it is.  I do have an agenda.   I haven’t hidden it.  I have said it every time in every place that I have been asked to speak about the report.  But in case anybody wonders, let me just leave it on the table as clearly as I can say it. It’s the biggest issue in the church today.  I believe it is literally killing us. 

We don’t trust each other. 

Not at all. Not hardly at all.  We have even codified our lack of trust with our theology (“Presbyterians believe in ‘total depravity’ don’t you know?”).  And it shows up in like a full force wind every time anyone suggests a change in the way we relate to each other (even if the change is not quite as radical as what we suggest.)  

Did you hear it even in the question about the report?

There are even good reasons why we don’t.  Many, many have stories about suffering the effects of abuse, neglect, disrespect and, well, sin, that has brought us to this place.  Those stories need to be heard and we need to humbly keep reflecting on how very often we hurt each other and harm the witness of the body of Christ.  But we also need to learn to trust each other again. 

And how do we do that?  One of my mentors taught me that when what you are doing is NOT working, and you don’t know what to do, there are two things you must NOT do:

1. Doing whatever you have been doing.
2. Doing nothing.

In other words, doing anything new (especially if you will reflect on the new actions, learn from them and keep implementing the lessons learned) is a step in the right direction.

Our Mid Council Commission Report attempts to create the conditions for re-building trust by taking a pretty radical step: Trusting.   

We give power back to presbyteries and call them to rebuild trust with the pews.  Not top-down, but connectional.  Not blind trust, but transparent and accountable.  Not a radical reactionary change but provisional baby-steps of experimentation in the full light of day. 

If we really trusted each other, what kind of connectional system would we create?

The Mid Council Commission is trusting that if presbyteries are giving all the power and authority to serve their congregations with any structure that falls within our broad theological tradition, they will discover the future.

We will not rebuild trust without trusting.