OFF TO THE GA

On Tuesday, June 17, I will leave Langhorne for 10 days in California. I will spend a few days visiting my mother and one of the my sisters, and then go on to San Jose for the primary purpose of the trip which is to attend the General Assembly of our PCUSA as an observer (and a little more).

For those of you who don't know, the General Assembly is the biennial meeting of delegates from all the presbyteries (regional bodies) from around the country. General Assemblies meet to set policies, commission missionaries, make declarations and pass budgets. They also tend to stir up controversy in the local church and make headlines in the local paper, headlines that usually get it wrong. The workings of the General Assembly are very complicated, which is one of the reasons that the media usually gets it wrong when they're trying to report what a General Assembly has decided.

I am not one of the half-dozen or so delegates from Philadelphia Presbytery, just a visitor who needs to know more and wants to see "up close and personal" what a GA is all about.  I'm also going to assist a friend from Beaver-Butler Presbytery as he serves as "Overture Advocate" for a proposed piece of legislation that he and I co-authored. That means I'm going to help pass out papers at the meeting of the committee that will decide whether or not to forward our overture on to the full assembly. We don't think they will. 

Here is a link to all sorts of information about the General Assembly for those of you who want to know more. This is not the official GA website, but I think it is more helpful. It is complicated website, because General Assembly meetings are very complicated. The overture that I will be watching most closely, of course, is the one from Beaver-Butler that we have called the eLINK overture.  We're proposing what we say is a small change that will make a big difference.  Simply put, we're thinking about a system where Presbyterian congregations could join together in presbyteries to be about the work of mission and support of the church ministry in units that are not determined by geography alone.  Presbyteries could be formed around missional concerns and theological consensus. The bureaucrats in Louisville don't much like our idea, but we think it's a good one.  Here's the official text of the overture and here is a defense piece Jeff and I wrote awhile back. 

A Stranger in a Strange Land

I am also traveling to San Jose to learn about the GA. I already know that many things about the GA will make me uncomfortable.  Nary a male pronoun will be heard anywhere about anything. Rarely will the biblical names for the first two members of the Godhead be used, i.e. we won't be singing any praise to the Father or to the Son. We will never listen to the Word of God and only occasionally for the word of God. We will protect feelings at all costs and experience will trump truth at every turn. 

Okay.  I sound like an old grump, and maybe I am. 

The first time I traveled to Brazil, I did not know one word of Portuguese. Fourteen trips later I am conversant if not fluent in the language of my new friends and always eager to learn more – a new word or expression, finally getting the difference between para and por. I am a better person for having taken the time to learn some Portuguese.  I now understand Brazil and Brazilians in ways I never would had I not known their language. And the more I know of Portuguese and Brazilian culture, the more I know that I am not and never can be a Brazilian. 

The analogy is not perfect, but I am praying for openness at the GA despite my grumpiness about its political and theological correctness and the presence of the language police just across the street from even the most casual corner conversation.  The bureaucrats and the "progressives" own the GA; it's their place.  They set the rules.  I need to be willing to listen and speak on their terms if I want to understand them at all. 

Years ago I learned that I will never be an ecclesiastical bureaucrat and the bankruptcy of progressive theology has long since been proven. But among the bureaucrats and the progressives are some who love Jesus, though they are uncomfortable calling him the Beloved Son of the Loving Father. I can learn something new about loving Christ from them. Among those for whom a week at the General Assembly is like a wonderful homecoming, a place where they feel they belong, are some whose love of God's justice and mercy is profound, though they have long since quit calling the Bible the Word of God. If I listen carefully, they may teach me some new Kingdom vocabulary which will help me better understand the ways of the King.

Pray that God keeps my heart open for all that he has to teach me in San Jose.  "Innocent like a dove, wise like a serpent," Jesus once said.