Convocation organizers praying that God ‘will bring us to a place of common vision and heart’
By Craig M. Kibler, The Layman Online, May 24, 2005
The organizers of a national convocation considering a “bold new design” for the Presbyterian Church (USA) say they are praying “that God will bring us to a place of common vision and heart.”
The New Wineskins Initiative convocation, with the theme “Following Christ into the 21st Century,” will be held June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn.
“As we work and worship together,” said the Rev. Dr. David Henderson, moderator of the New Wineskins Initiative, “we see God knitting us together in our efforts toward a New Wineskins reality.”
Scholarships available
The New Wineskins Initiative has begun offering scholarships for delegates to its national convocation June 15-18 at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn.
Organizers of the convocation said the scholarships are designed to help defray travel costs and will be provided to delegates who request financial assistance.
More information is available by calling the New Wineskins Initiative at 888-754-9693 or writing the group at 7435 E. Oxford Ct., Wichita, Kan. 67226.
Organizers said the convocation broadens a process begun three years ago when the New Wineskins group began working toward living connectionally as a church in a new wineskin. Henderson said he hoped each voting delegate “who has come will feel as though he or she has been heard.”
“There are many situations in which we find ourselves as Presbyterians lacking the freedom to speak our minds without anger and without fear,” he said, adding that organizers want people to “voice their opinions concerning our work. The participants’ ideas will be given serious consideration as we move forward.”
Voting delegates will have much to say and many opportunities to offer amendments to the draft constitution, organizers said. Observer delegates are invited to join in work sessions on each chapter of the draft constitution, but are not invited to offer amendments during the delegates’ meeting.
Henderson said he hopes that each participant will leave “with a commitment to live out the New Wineskin distinctives right now, right where we are. That, as a call of God, we will begin ‘covenant relationships of mutual support and accountability.’ That we will start now gathering together for encouragement, prayer, study, and collaborative mission and ministry.”
Organizers said the convocation is intended to introduce to the broader church ideas and concepts for restructuring what has clearly become a broken ecclesial structure. “The Presbyterian Church (USA) must change or it will die as a denomination – and that will happen sooner than many think if this branch of God’s church doesn’t get serious about institutional restructuring and reform,” said the Rev. Tom Edwards, New Wineskins executive coordinator.
“Christ calls his Church to be his pure and spotless bride,” Edwards said, “and if the PCUSA won’t be serious about making Jesus Christ alone Lord of the Church, we do not further his Kingdom or the Gospel.”
Delegates also will work on draft documents that propose new statements of faith essentials and ethical imperatives, as well as a draft 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.
While the convocation will include preaching, prayer and worship, as well as an international flavor with guests and speakers from Presbyterian churches around the world, the focus will be on how evangelical Presbyterians respond to what task force leaders called “grave concerns about the health and effectiveness of our present organization” in theology, mission and structure.
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.