219th General Assembly Moderator Election
Jin S. Kim: In His Own Words
The Layman, June 15, 2010
Please identify the top five issues at the upcoming General Assembly, and share your position on each. (Answers are printed exactly as received – each candidate had a 500-word limit)
Pastor of Church of All Nations, Minneapolis
Presbytery: Twin Cities Area
Vice Moderator: Matt Johnson (Twin Cities Presbytery)
Becoming a Missional Church
The Presbyterian Church needs to renounce its pervasive fear of change, which makes the emergence of new life almost impossible. We need a consensus that a preoccupation with preserving institutions, whether they be church buildings, existing presbytery boundaries, synodical structures, or seminary education as we know it, is actually eroding even what we have. The PCUSA remains a predominantly Euro-centric, middle class church wedded to a way of doing faith that is deeply dependent on Enlightenment Rationalism, whether in liberal or conservative guise. This framework is increasingly irrelevant to the emerging generations and to growing numbers of Americans from non-Western backgrounds. 
Get to know Jin S. Kim
Kim’s Web site: New Church Rising
Presbyterian News Service article
Presbyterian Outlook interview
Previous article from The Layman
The New Form of Government Proposals
The nFOG task force sought a more flexible, foundational, and missional polity. Bureaucracies over time tend to become rule-bound, legalistic and defensive, slowly eroding the original mission for which the church was constituted. The Book of Order has served the church well for decades, but is now so weighed down by the long-term build up of bureaucratic sediment that we must rethink our polity in its most foundational form. This proposal will be welcomed by immigrant congregations, emerging fellowships, new churches, transforming congregations, innovative presbyteries, and for all those not afraid to risk old, tired, and dysfunctional ways of doing things to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The Belhar Confession
I served on the 15 member Special Committee on the Belhar Confession, which unanimously recommended adoption into our Book of Confessions. Both evangelicals and progressives after countless hours of study found no substantive arguments against its adoption. Like the Barmen Declaration, Belhar draws deeply from the Reformed tradition, proclaiming Christ as the only Lord of the Church in a context of division and oppression. Some ask, “What’s the point since nobody reads the Confessions?” This is a lazy argument as more recent confessions like Barmen, C67 and Brief Statement of Faith are everywhere in liturgies, calls to confession, affirmations of faith, and eventually in the consciousness of the whole church. Once formally adopted, they become influential in shaping the theology and ethos of a denominational tradition.
The Israel/Palestine Issue
I affirm Israel’s right to exist as a state and to defend itself from those who seek its harm. As Christians, we condemn any acts of terrorism and aggression against Israel’s inhabitants. But affirming Israel’s right to exist doesn’t mean that we ignore obvious acts of injustice against Palestinians. They also have a right to exist, and a right to statehood. In recent years the Jewish/Palestinian conflict has grown only worse, partly fueled by an unholy alliance between Fundamentalist Zionism and Christian Premillennial Dispensationalism. The emergence of modern Israel is of particular importance to dispensationalists, who view its existence as a step toward the consummation of God’s Kingdom. This alliance threatens to silence even reasonable perspectives on the Jewish/Palestinian conflict. We value the longstanding friendship between Presbyterians and the Jewish people, but a true friendship speaks the truth in love, and calls out the best in each other’s nature.
COGA proposes middle governing body commission
We should pay attention to this proposal as there will be far-reaching consequences, perhaps for the better.