Pre-General Assembly Chat
Mid Council Commission chair says structural changes will revitalize PCUSA
By Jason P. Reagan, The Layman , June 30, 2012
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — As the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 220th General Assembly gets underway, commissioners learned more details about an experimental plan to revamp some of the denomination’s governing structures.
During a pre-GA “Riverside Conversations” at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Tod Bolsinger, chairman of the Mid Council Commission (MCC), presented highlights from the group’s final report, scheduled to deliberated later this week.
“We wanted to discover new ways of being the church in a post-Christendom context,” Bolsinger explained.
“If every structure of our church is committed to the health and vitality of local congregations, as the locus of God’s mission in the world, then we will discover the practices will lead to revitalization,” he added.
The MCC’s slate of eight recommendations will dismantle the denomination’s current 16 synods and begin an experiment in non-geographic presbyteries.
“Synods do not go away but become multi-presbytery partnerships,” Bolsinger said.
The recommendation calls for replacing the ecclesiastical functions of synods with five regional administrative commissions as well as establishing a number of regional judicial commissions.
Congregations could form new “provisional” presbyteries. Provisional presbyteries would retain most of the rights and powers of current presbyteries. However, the provisionals would have no authority to “dissolve, dismiss or divide congregations.” Also the new presbyteries could not approve the sale, mortgage, lease or transfer of real property of its congregations without the consent of the presbytery of origin.
The plan would also change the constitution by approving the temporary dismissal of congregations to another presbytery within the synod or to “another geographically contiguous synod.”
“We still have geography,” Bolsinger said. “It’s no longer contiguous geography,” adding that presbyteries — not higher PCUSA structures — would have the flexibility to decide what is best for its missional priorities in terms of organization.
“Instead of affirming structures that only protect us from the dysfunction of a few, we offer a proposal for those who are willing to work together to draw upon the historic values of our past and faithfully adapt them to a changing world,” Bolsinger said of the plan.
Bolsinger expanded on the theme of what it meant to “be the church in a post-Christendom world” by pointing out that the church is no longer the focus of the culture. He added Presbyterians needed to realize that “our neighborhood is our mission field.”
“Our old structures need to become more ‘missionary’ and less ‘institutional,'” he added.
The “season of experiment” outlined in the MCC report calls for the provisions to sunset in 2021 and Bolsinger emphasized the transient nature of the plan, noting that, if the provisions do not work, the denomination will simply “hit the reset button” and go back to the way things are now.
The MCC report also recommends the establishment of a National Racial Ethnic Ministries Task Force exclusively to explore and assess the need for racial ethnic ministries within the PCUSA.
During a time of audience questions, Bolsinger acknowledged that “any time you give freedoms, you give people the opportunity to abuse them.” However, he added that it was time for the PCUSA to “trust the presbyteries that it will work out for the best.”
“As a denomination, we are — by definition — a creative, adaptable people,” Bolsinger said, adding that the data the MCC gathered shows that the denomination is “yearning for creative experimentation.”
“Being Presbyterians means the churches are mutually accountable to one another … [the MCC plan] allows us to adapt for the sake of the mission of Christ,” he said.
Bolsinger concluded by pointing out that the MCC’s work rested on the idea that local congregations needed more empowerment along with presbyteries.
“Folks in the pew say ‘We need our structures to support us we’re on the front lines, we’re the one trying to reach our neighbors. What we don’t need are institutions making decisions about what would only be easier for institutions,” he said.
Created by the GA in 2010, the MCC was asked to “develop models that reflect the roles of middle governing bodies in [PCUSA] polity and the changing context of [the denomination’s] witness in the United States and their relationship with other governing bodies.”