PC(USA) leaders: New Year’s resolutions for 2020

Synod, presbytery leaders look ahead with hope and commitment

By Sherry Blackman | Presbyterians Today

As a new year begins for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), synod and presbytery leaders share their resolutions for the church. Among those resolutions are challenging congregations to do something radically new without worrying about failure, lifting voices often ignored and widening the witness of being a Matthew 25 presence in the world.

Resolution 1:

Embrace change together

“If we are to remain a faithful witness to Jesus Christ in this time and place, we need to break old patterns and experiment with new ones. This is what I will encourage our congregations and the presbytery as a whole to do in 2020,” said the Rev. Rhonda Kruse, transitional leader of Lehigh Presbytery in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Helping the members of the presbytery to open their minds and hearts to discern God’s call “in this particular corner of the kingdom” is what Kruse sees as her primary role. A large part of that, she says, includes encouraging the 31 congregations that comprise the presbytery to also engage in discernment and renewal. Paramount to transitioning into God’s new vision for the church, Kruse believes, members will have to work as one body.

“We must all be willing to take a chance on change, or we will remain stuck in the status quo. Breaking old patterns of behavior will mean engaging in more collaboration and cooperation and breaking down historic silos, on both the church and presbytery level,” Kruse said. “We can no longer be lone rangers; we have to partner with one another and share resources.”

Resolution 2:

Communicate better

The Synod of the Trinity, which includes 16 presbyteries throughout Pennsylvania, the upper Ohio River valley and West Virginia, exists in a region of the United States where hate groups are rising, says the Rev. Susan Faye Wonderland, transitional executive. In the wake of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018, the synod continues to focus on civility in action and speech, she says.

“We are called to be fully present to the time in which God is calling the church. We are to be open to revisioning and discovering, as well as remembering, who we are to be with our presbyteries and congregations in partnered leadership — as nudgers, encouragers and resourcers,” Wonderland said.

Part of the work of what she calls “future-ing” is hearing the voices of those in leadership who haven’t been heard and finding ways to help people connect. Wonderland adds that “encouraging new possibilities in ministry for presbyteries and congregations” will be another focus for 2020 to spark and enhance vitality throughout the Synod of the Trinity.

Resolution 3:

Help leaders tackle tough issues

In the Synod of the Sun, Valerie Young wants leaders to feel comfortable about tackling difficult issues.

Young serves as the leader and stated clerk of the synod, which spans 11 presbyteries within Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Young, who works out of a virtual office when not traveling for her work with the presbyteries, says the synod is working toward becoming “a safe place where leaders can come to engage in difficult conversations without fear of reprisal, no matter what the issue, whether it be future leadership or confronting the issue of systemic racism.”

“We are bringing leaders together to confront controversial issues such as the U.S. border crisis, since we are located in Texas, and work toward recognizing all sides of the issues,” she said.

Since many presbyteries within the synod are entering into leadership transition modes, Young said, it will be important to walk alongside each presbytery as it navigates changes that occur when leaders retire. In that role, she envisions the synod helping the presbytery identify the person who will help the presbytery move forward.

One way the synod is supporting presbyteries is through the Communications Services Plan, a ministry that offers affordable website design and maintenance, e-news, social media and other services to all presbyteries and Presbyterian-associated organizations.

“We assist presbyteries in telling their story in a way that is appropriate for their context without having to add to their staff,” Young explained.

In addition, the Commissioned Pastors Network is planning a conference called “Empowering Commissioned Pastors” in May 2020 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

“These are gifted leaders in our church who often feel as though they don’t have a particular place within the structure of the denomination,” said Young.

Resolution 4:

Live out Matthew 25

Two presbyteries — New Castle and Greater Atlanta — are putting special emphasis on Matthew 25.

The Rev. Dr. Tracy Keenan is the missional presbyter of New Castle Presbytery in Newark, Delaware, which consists of 51 Presbyterian congregations in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She says the presbytery is intentional about the PC(USA)’s call to churches, presbyteries and synods to become Matthew 25 bodies.

She recently addressed New Castle Presbytery members with these words: “Bottom line here is that what we do in this world matters. How we treat others, especially the lost, the last and the least, is really a matter of spiritual life and death. A congregation can agree to be intentional about addressing hunger, thirst, the plight of the stranger, the vulnerable, the sick and the imprisoned.”

Although many of the churches are already doing the work, she emphasizes that feeding the hungry means much more than just handing out food. Giving water to the thirsty means helping to make sure everyone has access to safe, lead-free, plentiful water. Welcoming the stranger means far more than being nice to church visitors. There are people new to our society who need welcome and protection, says Keenan.

“We don’t have naked people walking the streets, but we surely do have vulnerable people. Visiting the sick would be much more meaningful if everyone had access to affordable health care,” she said. “And the prisons are overcrowded, not because we have more criminals than the rest of the world, but because so many nonviolent drug offenders ended up in prison instead of rehab.”

The goal, she affirms, is to serve Jesus, whose face is hidden behind the faces of the suffering ones.

The Presbytery of Greater Atlanta is also encouraging its churches and new worshiping communities to live out the Matthew 25 invitation to serve boldly.

“We will dive deep into conversations in 2020 about anti-racism, anti-poverty and congregational health,” said the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle, executive presbyter, highlighting the three areas of focus of the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 invitation, which was introduced in April 2019.

“In my opinion, there is no gospel without being a Matthew 25 incarnational community that cares for the body and the soul. Naming privilege and hierarchical, systematic racism is crucial for the unity of the body of Christ, where there is no space for inferiority or superiority. Christ must be seen in every person,” she said.

Brooks-Lytle believes also that “prayer, passion, priesthood and purpose” are required for all churches to flourish. It also takes courage to be a spiritual risk taker, she says.

Resolution 5:

Recognize God’s call

As 2020 unfolds, the Rev. Joyce Lieberman, synod executive and stated clerk of the Synod of South Atlantic in Jacksonville, Florida, continues clarifying its purpose, beginning with a question: What is God calling the synod to be — and do — as it supports its presbyteries as they seek to support the witness of congregations?

“If we are going to be responsible for the ministry and mission of our 16 presbyteries as they seek to support the witness of congregations, we need to take a critical look at what we are about,” Lieberman said. “We need to ask God to show us the places where God is already at work in our presbyteries and churches and consider new ways of thinking and being.”

What has become clear among the presbyteries in the Synod of South Atlantic is a call for greater leadership development and support for all those who are ministering, said Lieberman.

Resolution 6:

‘Follow the energy’

The Presbytery of Coastal Carolina in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, is composed of more than 180 congregations, mission fellowships and new worshiping communities. The Rev. Jerrod Lowry, general presbyter and stated clerk, says the presbytery will “follow the energy.”

For Lowry, that translates to the presbytery “being in active and constant discernment about where God is calling, what gifts God has given for this moment and how to be the light in the darkest of situations.”

“There’s a lot that we do in our churches that neither give the participants life nor breathe life into a congregation,” he said. “We jokingly talk about ministries that we continue to pour our energies into because a powerful congregant or the congregation together is not ready to let go, or dream differently, or feels the way things have ‘always been done’ is the way they must always be done.”

Lowry, though, believes we are to live out the words in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which says we are “to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” In other words, there must be delight and joy, he says.

“We may think these lifeless and energy-draining activities glorify God, magnify God, enlarge the name or understanding of God. But it’s hard to believe that a ministry that drains believers of energy leads to a magnifying of God in our own lives, not to mention the lives of those our ministries serve,” Lowry said. “A good deed done with no passion or enjoyment doesn’t encourage others to consider ways God may be leading them to service.”

Lowry warns, though, that following the energy may at times look chaotic, “just like Pentecost must have looked — yet that energy led thousands to join a movement.”

As 2020 gets underway, Lowry says he will be following the energy, which he explains this way:

Following the energy must mean that we are each constantly discerning God’s gifts in us for the world.

Following the energy means that we give permission for others to consider they may be called to something that I am not.

Following the energy means that we give God thanks and retire long-established programs that no longer give life. Following the energy means that we would have disciples excited about what God is doing in the world and what God is doing in and through them.

That’s the kind of church Lowry says he would love to see — in the new year and beyond.

Sherry Blackman is the pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the Mountain in Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania.

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