What’s in a Name?

I have to admit that the Vision Team surprised me. I fully expected that they would do some “fixing” of the presbytery system and leave it at that.  In preperation for that, I asked the committees and divisions to begin putting together a manual which would help communicate their work throughout the presbytery. When they actually decided to do some radical changing, I was surprised. But that is what they did. And you confirmed your desire to implement those radical changes when you adopted their report at the last presbytery meeting. Probably the most radical change you adopted has to do with the purpose and function of the presbytery. First, a little history:

The first church meetings were called “councils.”  The 11th and 15th chapters of Acts record the Apostles speaking to the Council at Jerusalem where representatives of the early church had gathered to discern issues dealing with missionary activity, evangelism, the relationship between the Old and New covenants, and what it means to be a “chosen people.” In 325 the Council of Nicaea considered questions related to the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ, resulting in the Nicene Creed.

Between 1539 and 1559, John Calvin (1509 – 1564) developed two church institutions: The Geneva Consistory and the Venerable Company of Pastors. The Consistory, composed of pastors and elders, was responsible for church order and discipline.  The Company of Pastors was responsible for examination and ordination of ministers, continuing biblical & theological education, mutual theological & ethical encouragement, and missionary work in neighboring countries.

By the time the first American presbytery was organized in 1706, these two functions had been combined into one body called a “judicatory.” On April 18, 1844, Cherokee Presbytery held its first meeting. The docket was quite different from today’s agenda. Like us, they began their meeting with worship. But the next hour was spent in devotional exercises. That was followed by a conversation on the state of religion. Then they took care of the ecclesiastical duties, including record keeping before recessing for a nap. Over the next 3 years their meetings focused on the doctrine of conversion (should they be gradual or instantaneous?), methods of revival, and how much education the ministry required.

This kind of agenda was typical of all “judicatories,” the term used for sessions, presbyteries, synods, and General Assembly. That word was used by the denomination until 1983 when we replaced it with the term, “governing bodies.”

Most of us would agree with Juliet when she says “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Unfortunately, in this case Juliet is wrong.

A council preserves, interprets, and proclaims the faith. A judicatory enquires into significant matters and reaches careful conclusions. A governing body directs, regulates, and manages institutional affairs. While councils and judicatories are assemblies for the exercise of discerning judgment, governing bodies are managerial and legislative meetings for regulation. No where did we see this more evident than at the 218th General Assembly. There was very little inquiry into significant matters, but there was lots of regulating, deregulating, and managing institutional affairs.

Today, even small presbyteries are expected to be comprehensive institutions supporting programs. Every minister and a large number of elders from every congregation are expected to meet regularly to direct and review the work of an impersonal bureaucracy with its own structure, committees, staff and budget, designed to carry out its own mission while at the same time ensuring ministers, sessions, and congregations abide by regulations that are determined nationally and regionally. This required more money, more people, more time and more energy, while yielding less support, less discernment, less nurture, less community. Ministers, elders and congregations are becoming increasingly alienated from presbyteries which results in less money, less people, less time and energy.

The Vision Team, without studying this particular aspect of our history, discerned that God is calling Cherokee Presbytery to recapture some important aspects of the purpose and function of presbyteries. When you adopted their report, you too, said that our presbytery (elders and ministers) deserved the fullest opportunity to:

• pray the faith together,
• think the faith together,
• live the faith together,

…so that, the whole body of Christ may be built up and grow together in Christ.

If the Vision Team was right, this will mean moving:

• from program to relationship,
• from top-down to supporting congregations,
• from business to sharing faith,
• from governing to discerning as a judicatory

However, there is comfort for some in the security of rules and regulations. It is far more difficult to engage in deep discernment of the shape of faithful living. The search for the truth sometimes requires vigorous debate and mutual critique because the issues are not merely issues of personal opinion. “Differences of doctrine” is not in short supply in the contemporary church, but “coming together to discuss the matter” is too often reduced to debating and voting in an essentially political context. A company of ministers and elders working together on difficult theological and ethical issues does not produce automatic agreement, but it can provide a more faithful way of struggling with questions that matter for the life of the whole church. In spite of the congregationalism tendencies which are creeping into our denomination, it is still a cornerstone of our faith that whenever a clergy, elder or deacon performs any ministerial act, it is performed on behalf of the whole Body of Christ; no one may act alone as the representative of Christ.

We have the opportunity to move from a regulatory governing body to a judicatory which enquires into significant matters and reaches careful conclusions on January 31, 2009 when we meet for two hours to consider the proposed amendments to the Book of Order from a Scriptural and theological point of view. But two hours of inquiry is barely a beginning.

The current economic situation has resulted in a looming budgetary crisis for Cherokee Presbytery. But if we believe that God is sovereign over all of history, then we have to ask the question “What is God doing in the midst of this time? Where is God in the midst of decreased retirement funds, home forclosures, and unemployment?” Biblically, when these kinds of times have come, God has been calling us back to faithfulness,

• back to trusting in God rather than Wall Street,
• back to trusting in God’s sovereignty rather than in our ability to control situations,
• back to trusting in God’s providence rather than in our ability to produce,
• back to following God’s leading rather than determining our own direction.

According to the Vision Team, now is the time for Cherokee Presbytery to answer God’s call to be a holy expression of God’s intention for the world, so together we can follow Christ into the future.

We will do this…

• Not through business meetings, but through Christ-centered worship.
• Not through debating pros and cons, but through listening to God and one another.
• Not through the works of our own hands, but through celebrating what God is doing.
• Not through competing for limited resources, but through mutually supporting, respecting, and being accountable to one another.
• Not through individualism or congregationalism, but through united mission efforts.

And this is the good news of the Gospel.