… and now “Sandy”

When I packed my car and started driving north last year, I honestly thought I was leaving hurricanes behind.  Living 13 years on the Texas Gulf Coast … I had the names etched into my psyche … Carla, Alicia, Allison, Katrina, Rita, Ike … like members of the family … and now Sandy.

All of us will tell “Sandy” stories for years to come … some about the power being off, others about trees falling, or roofs blowing off, others about evacuating or about being flooded and rescued.  We will tell stories of the devastation, the boardwalks gone and appearing in church yards, the homes and beach, itself, reclaimed by the ocean, finding 3 feet of beach sand in living rooms, boats on railroad tracks or refrigerators in the middle of the street.   Even more importantly, we will tell the stories of people … of how neighbors worked together, about how “angels” appeared with just the right help at the right time, about how the church mobilized to feed or muck out or house volunteers.  We’ll tell stories of survival and hope … even in the midst of devastation we have seen the hand of God … not in the flood waters, but in the “stone soup” suppers and impromptu potlucks, in the serving and delivery of food pantry macaroni and cheese to families in the midst of mucking out their homes, in the offers of gift cards to Target for families evacuated with nothing but the clothes on their backs … in the stream of phone calls and emails from colleagues and churches all over the country offering to come and help, or to partner with a congregation.

Friends, this is a catastrophic disaster.  For many of us, our lives and our congregations will never be the same as it was pre-Sandy. 

At first count, I counted 25 of our 47 churches were in communities that were  described as “devastated” by Sandy …  Except for Belmar, most of our church buildings came through with only mild to moderate damage, if any.  Belmar had significant flooding.  Our families, and our communities, on the other hand, have been forever changed.  Talk to just about any congregation on the shore and they will point to members who have lost everything.  For some, like Tuckerton, where 25 families were severely affected, the impact will undoubtedly take a huge human and financial toll on the life of the congregation.

We will be recovering from Sandy for YEARS … it’s the new normal.  We have to prepare ourselves for the long haul.  In the disaster recovery world, Presbyterians are noted for being good at the long haul.  When FEMA and the Red Cross and the Baptist chainsaw teams go home, the Presbyterians are still here, working, rebuilding, supporting, and giving.

So, let’s talk, now, frankly about what to expect.  By now some of you will feel like you have mentally, emotionally and spiritually “hit the wall”.  I felt it about a week ago … for me, I had real trouble retrieving words, I lost my patience quickly, I found myself speaking without appropriate forethought.  I had trouble sleeping, yet I felt like I wanted to stay in bed forever.  I started crying more often and felt emotionally raw.  I needed a break …

I cannot say what your symptoms of “hitting the wall” will look like, but you WILL need a break …  and if you don’t take it intentionally, your body and your mind will find a way to get it for you.  Don’t make yourself sick … take time off, pace yourself, have fun, laugh, spend time with your family, call friends, exercise, eat right.  If you need help finding ways to do that, call me, I’ll let you borrow my motorcycle.

This may be the time to take advantage of the many resources our Board of Pension provides for mental and physical health.  If you don’t have a group of colleagues and good friends to share your stories with, then it’s time to find some … again … let us know, we can help.

Your congregation may be stressed with financial concerns due to Sandy.  It’s not unusual, especially if you had to miss a Sunday or two, or if a significant number of members are struggling with insurance deductibles and find a place to live, to find cash flow and income to be tragically low.  Your treasurers and finance committees should not keep financial concerns to themselves.  Nor should sessions and pastors keep these concerns to themselves … Let us help.

The Board of Pensions, PILP, PDA, and other agencies have resources, which are available to help in times like this.

Let me say this clearly … and I trust that you will hear these words in the faithfulness in which I share them.  No congregation should ever put its witness to the community at risk, especially at a time like this, in order to pay our presbytery per capita or mission giving pledge.   In fact, I believe the reason a presbytery cannot force a congregation to pay per capita, is precisely for that reason … ministry of the congregation to its local community takes precedence over obligations to the larger church.  However, we also need to remember that our per capita and mission giving to the larger church is precisely WHY we have resources to help at times like these.  So, please … be faithful in your giving if you are not affected, and be faithful in your ministry, if you are.  And let us know about any financial difficulties you may be experiencing before holding back on per capita, or falling behind on pension dues, or finding yourselves not able to pay the pastor this month.  We can help.

Regarding what we’re doing and where we’re heading: we have formed a “Sandy Recovery Team”, headed by Walt Vincent of Hightstown.  He will talk to you shortly about the efforts of the team and what to expect as we move forward.

Along with the tides of destruction and the winds of change, comes the opportunity to grow in faith, to heal past wounds, to work together in ways we never dreamed possible.  This is the time to see the church in action … brothers and sisters in Christ all across the country praying for us, visiting us, providing for us … we will be stronger, and we will be even more faithful as we come through these hard times.

This post is a copy of the Regional Presbyter Report I gave to Monmouth Presbytery on November 27, 2012

Monmouth Presbytery Mission Priorities and Goals

The mission statement for Monmouth Presbytery is:  to equip ministers and congregations to strengthen God’s people for ministry in obedience to Jesus Christ.

Last month, the Mission Council, met for a day-long retreat at Point Pleasant Presbyterian Church.  After some thoughtful and bold conversation about the blessings and challenges of the presbytery, the Council agreed that we, as a presbytery, need to focus on Building Trust and Building Community over the next year or more.

As we face the challenges before us, it is imperative that we trust each other, knowing that no matter how different our opinions or our styles or our decisions are, that we are united in our love and commitment to Jesus Christ.  This will not be easy.  There have been many reasons that trust has been broken in this presbytery.  Feelings have been hurt, deeply.  Relationships have been strained and broken.  It will take a commitment from every member of the presbytery to take the bold steps of repentance when necessary, going the extra mile, and working through conflict.  It will take stepping back and praying together when the going gets tough.  And it will mean making room in our busy schedules to build community with each other.

How can we trust people we don’t know?  We need to get to know our colleagues, not just pastors, but elders.  We need to reach across the typical dividing lines of age, race, theological ideology, etc. etc. and make friends with each other.  We need to support each other, encourage each other, comfort each other and challenge each other.  We need this, so that we can trust and value each other as the very difficult issues confront us.

As a presbytery, too, we’ve reaffirmed our commitment to the spiritual and missional health of each congregation.  We know that without healthy and vital congregations, there is no healthy and vital presbytery.  We are here to serve you, as you serve your communities.

The Mission Council commits to helping build trust and community by

1. Follow through on session visits.  By March just about all of our sessions should have been visited by a representative of mission council.  The visit includes showing the DVD produced last summer, listening to the concerns of our sessions, and answering questions the congregations have about the Presbytery.  We will be compiling the comments and issues raised in those visits and we promise to not only listen, but do something with the things we learn.  We will report back to the presbytery and to individual congregations as appropriate.
2. Create a Process for Gracious Discernment.  There is much anxiety in the the PC(USA) these days about who’s leaving and who’s staying now that we’ve changed our ordination standards to allow GLBTQ individuals to be ordained if the session and/or presbytery confirms their call to ministry.  We want to start right away and bring leaders together who are on all sides of the controversy to work on a policy that would help a congregation through the discernment process and, if the congregation is of one accord, would allow for “gracious” dismissal of a congregation.  We are hoping never to have to use the policy, but we believe that the process of creating one, will allow for wounds to be healed, relationships to be grown, voices to be heard, etc.
3. “Change the Conversation” around Per Capita.  We have a per capita problem.  See my blog post for a larger analysis of the problem nationally.  In our presbytery (Monmouth) nothing seems to churn up feelings and escalate hostility between pastors and congregations more than a conversation around payment of per capita.  So it’s time to change the conversation, to imagine a different way, perhaps, of supporting the financial realities of being part of the Presbyterian “family”.  We will begin to ask the tough questions and face the tough realities.
4. Congregational Grants and Consultants.  To put some funding behind our words of support for congregations, the mission council is working through MDSC to provide matching grants to groups of congregations who would like to work together and need resourcing or consultation.  The motion to create the matching grant program passed the presbytery last night.  And we anticipate that by our June meeting a process will be communicated through which you and your congregation can apply for some of the yearly funding.
5. Unbinding the Gospel.  I am encouraged by the 27 pastors from Monmouth and New Brunswick presbyteries who joined me and Martha Grace Reese on a conference call a few weeks ago.  15 pastors from Monmouth are considering forming a small group of leaders to study the book, Unbinding the Gospel, over eight weeks sometime this spring.  If the congregations decide they want to proceed with the full congregational program, we may be able to form some coaching groups for large and small congregations with Lilly Grant Funding.  This would be a huge boost for the presbytery.
6. Developing Connections and Relationships.  We will intentionally look for ways to encourage teaching and ruling elders to gather together for fellowship, study, support, encouragement and mission.  Rob Carter, our Moderator, has some ideas about how to do this, but we don’t need permission from the presbytery to start gathering.  I know of two gatherings of colleagues after the presbytery meeting last night.  One of them was at my house!  Any chance we have to BE the people of God together and not just DO the work of the people of God, we will be blessed.

Per capita: Is its Time Passed?

The other night an elder asked me why we don’t take away commissioners and voting rights from congregations that don’t pay their per capita.  The question is indicative of the kind of feelings flying within many presbyteries regarding payment or non-payment of apportionment giving.  The short answer, of course, is that a presbytery doesn’t have the authority to do that. The Stated Clerk’s advisory opinion, last updated in 2009, states clearly that a congregation is not mandated to pay per capita.  At the same time, however, a congregation is nowhere specifically granted the right to withhold per capita because of protest.  While the technical answer to this elder’s question may be relatively easy to convey, the many questions, feelings and interpretations of our mission together and our connectional life as Presbyterians are much more complex and complicated …

Per capita apportionment has been around since at least 1734 as a way to fairly share in the administrative costs of being Presbyterian together.  When a congregation fails to pay, it is clearly an indication of a larger issue, which a presbytery has the responsibility to discern.  When a number of congregations fail to pay, the issues may be more systemic than individual.

So, why are some churches not paying their full share of per capita?  A few sessions have made statements that they are withholding per capita out of protest.  The protest may be against denominational change regarding the ordination of gay and lesbian men and women.   It may be over many other political or social justice issues the church has been speaking to over the years (gun control, Israel, immigration, health care etc.) It may be over the lack of mission spending around the world and in growing new churches here in the USA.  Some of these congregations are actually re-directing their giving to specific denominational or non-denominational mission causes.

Another segment of non-per-capita-paying congregations are not contributing their full share, because they have had hurtful or seemingly non-supportive experiences with the larger church.  Their protest is usually less articulated.  The stories they share, though, indicate a wounded-ness and a lack of trust of the “presbytery.”  The “presbytery” may be staff, committees, or the gathered presbytery itself.  For one reason or another, these congregations feel “let down” by their denominational brother and sisters and choose to hold back giving.

Clearly, some sessions and pastors don’t value connectedness within our denomination.  Some feel they have more in common with the Methodists across the street or the Lutherans around the corner than they do with a Presbyterian Church twenty or thirty miles away.   Some believe they don’t need to be part of a larger church, since their local concerns and efforts are so great.    With the interconnectedness of the internet and the post-denominational make-up of our membership, some argue against the continued need for denominational connectionalism.

There is another movement away from the “corporate” nature of presbyteries.  Just as there is a growing desire for less government in our political rhetoric, there is a corresponding desire for less structure and overhead in our denomination.  Some congregations are “voting” by simply not paying more than they think should be appropriated to such things as administrative costs, personnel, office, meetings, etc.

Finally, and I think this represents the largest number of congregations who don’t pay per capita, some just can’t afford it.  Aging and declining membership in congregations which are maintaining (or not maintaining) buildings and staff designed for much larger congregations, is taking its toll on our budgets.  Many congregations have been dipping into their “rainy day funds” for decades; operating expenditures have been significantly larger than income for many years.  These congregations are faced with tough decisions about paying their pastor’s salary, the electric bill, or per capita.

What’s apparent to me is that the hostility we’re experiencing between congregations that pay per capita and those who don’t breeds hurt, distrust, decline and a distaste for the presbytery … and that encourages further non-involvement and non-payment … do you see the spiral?

So, recently, I’ve been wondering … what if we didn’t have per capita?  Most of the old PCUS presbyteries have never had a presbytery apportionment (per capita in the south refers only to Synod and General Assembly).  So, a presbytery budget based solely on mission or benevolent giving is possible, if congregations are healthy and in relationship with each other, if they trust each other and desire to be working together in shared mission.  What if, instead of imagining ways to make our sister congregations pay their fair share, we imagined new and better ways of building relationship, building trust and respect, working on mission projects together, and growing in faith and discipleship?  What if we routinely excused congregations who can’t afford per capita from paying … no guilt attached?  What if we, instead, encouraged them to take some risks and imagine a different future for themselves?  What if we gave up a little more of the “corporate” nature of the presbytery and took on more of the work of the presbytery ourselves?  What if …?