Church sessions endorse New Wineskins’ draft documents in advance of convocation
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, March 24, 2005
Church sessions have begun to endorse draft documents developed by the New Wineskins Initiative in order to elect voting delegates to a national convocation considering a “bold new design” for the Presbyterian Church (USA), group leaders have announced.
The convocation, with the theme “Following Christ into the 21st Century,” will be held June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn., a growing 4,100-member congregation whose senior pastor is the Rev. John Crosby.
The draft documents that will be acted on by the convocation propose new statements of faith essentials and ethical imperatives, as well as a revised constitution that calls for greater flexibility, a new approach to leadership development at the congregational level and a pared-down, adaptive service structure at the national level.
The first three sessions – all by unanimous votes – to formally adopt the New Wineskins documents and endorse its vision for a new alliance engaged in cooperative ministry and mission are Central Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Ala.; Covenant Presbyterian Church of West Lafayette, Ind.; and Knox United Presbyterian Church of Kenmore, N.Y.
The Rev. Dr. Randy Jenkins, pastor of the Huntsville congregation, said he and his session are “stand ready to help [the New Wineskins Initiative] in any capacity needed.”
The Rev. Dr. Dean Weaver, vice moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative, said the Knox congregation “many of our elders are planning summer travel around the convocation and many of them will attend.”
The Rev. Dr. David Henderson, senior pastor of the 1,700-member West Lafayette congregation who is serving as moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative until voting delegates elect their own leadership during the convocation, said he wants it made clear that this is a “movement” and not simply another “organization.” “This is about forging an alliance for being the Church which God has called to minister to our broken world; a body more intentional about effectively leading the lost into relationship with our Lord and Maker,” he said.
The Rev. Tom Edwards, associate pastor at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kan., who is coordinating the event for the New Wineskins Initiative, said he hopes many sessions will recognize that these essential tenets and ethical imperatives “are not all that they believe and affirm, but that they have found in them things they can and want to affirm for our connectional life together.”
Edwards said he believes that “congregations are hungry for positive change in our connectional life. Healthy congregations are seeking to adapt and be useful to God in the 21st century. A church structure useful to God in the 21st century is one whose leaders are keenly aware of what God is doing in the world and keenly aware of what Jonathan Edwards once said, that ‘God is not in the habit of repeating himself.'”
He said the group encourages sessions to consider adopting these draft document, as well as sending both voting and observer delegates to the convocation.
The group’s “Declaration of Ethical Imperatives,” which lists 13 areas, begins with: “Genuine Christian faith is more than mere assent to propositions of truth. Saving faith issues forth in an ethical life: a life of love, obedience, and holiness.” The group includes 10 areas in its “Essential Tenets,” such as the lordship of Jesus Christ and the Bible being the “only infallible rule of faith and practice.”
Group members said the convocation is likely to have an international flavor, as the plans include inviting guests and speakers from Presbyterian churches around the world. Edwards says more information about the convocation is available on a special convocation Web site.
For further information, contact “Following Christ into the 21st Century” at 888-754-9693, or 7435 E. Oxford Ct., Wichita, Kan. 67226.