Missional Mondays September 1, 2008
Posted by salumsden in Missional Monday.1 comment so far
Jesus on the Mainline :: by outofcontxt on Flickr
“Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshipped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.”
Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
So reads the Great Commission as translated by Eugene Peterson. Not much like the NRSV, but then again it’s not supposed to be.
I like that there is movement, pace–that it’s relational and simple. I like the emphasis on Jesus ‘reunion’ with his disciples, and that instead of doubting, Peterson says that some ‘held back’ or had reservations. The emphasis is on the encounter with Jesus rather than on some textual dialectic on worshipping/doubting that comes across in the more traditional translations. Risk is involved–personal risk–in seeing Jesus. There’s no pew to sit in here in this encounter, there can’t be as the disciples are either standing in bewilderment or bowing in fear and trembling before their Lord.
But this translation has its problems too. Worship turns into an early ‘wedge issue’ for the disciples, setting the ones who ‘get it’ against the ones who don’t. Not so in the Greek text as it clearly states that upon seeing Jesus they worshipped him–meaning that the eleven disciples worshipped him–but some doubted. In other words, neither the doubters nor their doubts are named. This wasn’t a who’s in, who’s out affair, but rather a tranfixing moment for all. Though I like what Peterson does to update the text, unfortunately for me he takes ‘worship’ to be a controversy when the text remains (I think) purposefully ambiguous.
The missional church today (as since its founding) is challenged by its Lord to evangelize its doubts on behalf of and in front of the whole world. Worship and doubt are always in conversation in the believing community, not in contradiction. Those early ‘doubters’ still became apostles, and those who ‘worshipped’ on that mount later doubted. What the church needs to relearn is not how to worship, but how to live faithfully even when it doubts.
I’m writing this because there’s lots of enthusiasm in the church about being missional or renewing the church’s sense of mission. I’m certainly not against that. But what I think is needed even more in this effort is a wholesale reevaluation of what it truly means to be missional. And for me, since most roads in the missional discussion either start or end up focusing on this passage from Matthew 28, I’d like to offer my own thoughts along the way. Thus Missional Mondays. Stay tuned.
Thursday Update June 26, 2008
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Hello. Thought I’d try to get a post out this Thursday morning before the plenary sessions. I had thought that I’d be blogging a bit more but to tell you the truth, it’s kind of hard. First, there’s no internet connection in the plenary hall–so even if I wanted to give a blow by blow of the big sessions of GA, it’s not possible (at least not with my set up). Second, there’s so much going on it’s rather hard to keep up–so the blow by blow approach was probably a bit too optimistic. Third, there’s lots of people and lots of things to talk about down here so I end up spending a good amount of time catching up, meeting, or sharing ideas/thoughts with others.
Some highlights so far have been: renewing old friendships, meeting new colleagues and friends, warm weather, the opportunity to see our denomination in action at our largest gathering in two years.
We’ll talk later about GA, Seattle Presbytery, and our mission as a church. Thank you for all your prayers for us down here.
Peace. Scott
Last Night :: More Video June 22, 2008
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Here’s some more video from last night. The election of the new moderator, Bruce Reyes-Chow was quite an event. Having never been to a GA before, I was struck by the collective energy and interest in the whole process of introducing (nominating), discussing, electing and then celebrating this leadership change.
And here’s a part of the installation.
Hope you’re enjoying these bird’s eye views. At least you know that I’m here and paying attention.
Peace. Scott
GA Begins June 22, 2008
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Hello Everyone. That was my video from the SeaTac Airport, before I touched down.
But I’m here in San Jose now and to cut to the chase, Bruce Reyes-Chow is your new Moderator of General Assembly. It was quite an eventful night–as I’m sure all elections for moderator are. But since it’s 12:48am and I’ve got an 8:00am breakfast meeting, I’ll post those videos later.
Tomorrow’s a big day. More later.
Peace. Scott
Small Structural Change (Already) June 6, 2008
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As you know from my presentation (below) I’ve been playing around with the themes of structure, mission and ministries as a core framework to initiate some presbytery-wide dialogue about who we are, who God’s called us to be, and who we are becoming. One small step council took last week to ensure that we begin that dialogue was to postpone the termination of Jerry Poole’s service from May 31 to August 31.
The reason for this action is simple (and has been true for some time): that the work of serving our congregations demands more of our time and resources–and perhaps in the future, even a full-time person in addition to the executive presbyter. This fact coupled with the fact that we need to begin a process of discernment (vision process) as a presbytery adds even another dimension to this work. Taken together, council was persuaded that at least temporarily, time and resources were were needed to make sure weBut let me unpack that, first from the angle of experience and second from a statistical perspective.
The Experience Angle :: Jerry and I have worked well together since I came on board in May and despite the enormous amount of things to learn about this new position, I have never felt overwhelmed–thanks in large part to Jerry’s diligence in pacing this transition process out over a month’s time. Yet even with all of the conversations we’ve had relating to the work of an executive presbyter, we were always navigating a rather large and somewhat unexpected obstacle–the delegation and distribution of an (at times) overwhelming amount of congregational/presbytery transition and transformation. This (in my opinion) is part and parcel of the larger structural challenge of coming to terms with the fact that we are not adequately staffed to meet the needs of our congregations.
The Statistical Analysis :: Let me illustrate with a statistic. Seattle Presbytery is the largest presbytery in the country in a very interesting and I would say important category–the percentage of membership in worship. Most presbyteries hover around the 50th percentile when it comes to the percentage of its membership in worship. And what this effectively means for a presbytery is that there are potentially more “per capita” dollars available to presbyteries who have large memberships but less people in worship. To say that in another way, a presbytery like Seattle might have the same amount of “people in the pews” on Sunday morning than a presbytery half again as large as us.
So in that “interesting but important” statistic regarding the percentage of our membership in worship–Seattle Presbytery leads the nation (in presbyteries of our size) at 73%! To put that statistic in context–there are only 7 presbyteries of our size (20,000+) with 60% or more of their membership in worship. And at the top of that list is Seattle Presbytery at 21,266 members and 15,500 of those members in worship.
So what’s this all mean? Two things: First, Presbyterians in the Seattle Presbytery are actively involved in the life of their churches and second, the responsibility to adequately resource the mission of those presbyterians is drawn from less people than it is for other presbyteries our size.
I’ll tease this out more later. The gist of what I am trying to say is that if you or your congregation get a call or visit from Jerry Poole, don’t be surprised that he’s calling, he’s still working on behalf of the presbytery as we continue to work through some transition.
Peace. Scott
Seattle Presbytery :: First Impressions (Presentation) June 2, 2008
Posted by salumsden in communique.Tags: presbytery, presentation
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Hello Again. I’ve had many encouraging inquiries about the presentation I gave at the past Presbytery Meeting at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church. It was always my intention to have this up and available on the internet for people to see (again, or for the first time), but that meant I had to actually figure out how to do it–among the other things I was doing. Well, thanks to the extra time I have working from the home office, I was able to make the necessary preparations to get this online. It was not hard actually (which is why I love wordpress.com, but I digress). So here it is…
Three Weeks :: Three Congregations May 19, 2008
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One of the things that I am proud to claim this early in my tenure as an ep–is that in my first three weeks, I’ve visited three congregations for Sunday worship (I’m 3 for 3!). Here’s a sketch of those visits.
May 4 :: Wedgwood
Visiting congregations as an ep is so different from my previous Sunday plan as a pastor. The first question now is “Is my family coming?” Let me explain. The previous Sunday plan was always that I would leave early in the morning (5 or 6am) for the church to prepare and my family would come along in time for the service–now we all head out together. This was the pattern for my first two visits. Ok, now on to Wedgwood.
Having emailed Karen about coming to visit, we arrived at about 9:15 to get acquainted with the church. My two daughters (Sophia, 5 and Cosette, 3) adapted to the new environment quickly and decided that they would like to attend kid’s worship after the children’s message in church. Karen’s message (Ascension of our Lord) prodded the depth of meaning regarding Christ’s ascension to be with God and what that means for our lives and the life of God as Trinity. A highlight of the service was when we were waved an “Alleluia” pom (my word) every time we sung or said alleluia. After the service, I was warmly greeted by many current and former servants of the larger church (presbytery).
May 11 :: Calvary Presbyterian Church 
Pentecost and Mother’s Day. Don’t know when that’s happened before in the life of the church (in the USA), but it was an interesting combination. Calvary’s associate pastor, Dan Oliva preached a fine message that highlighted the Spirit’s work in the lives of the “cloud of witnesses” who happened to be women.
May 18 :: Seattle First Presbyterian Church 
Don’t know when you last visited Seattle First, but if you haven’t been in a while, I’d definitely put this on your list of churches to visit. There is much that could and should be said about the challenge of being a mainline church in an urban context (especially a Northwest urban context) but what this congregation is endeavoring to do is nothing less than miraculous. The changes to the sanctuary illustrate the changes going on in the hearts and minds of some very dedicated followers of Christ. If I had to describe in a sentence what I witnessed I would sum it up this way: Seattle First, It’s not what it used to be, it’s what God is calling it to be.
Endnote: I’m noticing already that the weeks have a tendency to get away from my a bit by about Wednesday. Whatever plan I have going in (Mon) seems to take a bit of a turn as something “urgent” begins to take more and more of the time I had planned for other tasks. Thus, the idea that I had coming into this position–that I would select a church to visit, have a little dialogue with the pastor(s), plan some meaningful interaction with the church with the leadership, is being challenged. There are a number of things that play into this: some of this is to be expected given the “newness” of everything, some of it is the nature of the position, but some of it may be due to other factors. In the future, we’d do well to review our priorities as a presbytery and then review our staffing model to ensure that the priorities we’ve established actually happen. This little observation about my work week is rather a minor point, but it may hold insights as to the need for us to review our work together to make sure we’re really serving our congregations the way we want to.
Peace. Scott
The First Week (or so) May 13, 2008
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So it’s been about a week. Where and what have I been doing? Good question. I’ll give you a little taste.
Monday :: First Day in the Office
Actually had on appt even before my first foray in to the office on ol’ Beacon Hill so I arrived about 10:30. Staff was welcoming and accommodating. Walked into the freshly painted office and began to settle in. Jerry took me to lunch in Columbia City. Great Eats. Back to office. Went home at a “normal time.”
Tuesday :: Meetings
Had the pleasure of meeting the Committee on Preparation for Ministry. Oh, how I remember those days. Was able to share my own experiences of CPM as a candidate and how, though I didn’t like it at the time, the committee was very instrumental in getting me to accept how we covenant to hear God together in the reformed tradition–let’s just say, the CPM and I were not on the same page. Long story short, I accepted their leadership and guidance and am a better person (and pastor) because of it. They requested I write down my story/experience for future candidates.
Wednesday :: Staff Meeting
A good first staff meeting. I brought chocolate so how could it be bad? Theo Chocolate is my new favorite chocolate place and with so many flavors and varieties of chocolate wouldn’t it be a great idea to buy a bunch of different bars and ask the staff to introduce themselves via their selection? They thought it was a great idea. Don’t know what I can do to top that. I may be out of bullets.
Thursday :: OK, Things Are Beginning to Heat Up
A good day but long. Started day at about 9:00 with a meeting then met with CLP committee, had a tour of the facilities from Alma-Jean. Then a long COM meeting. Got home at 9:30pm. If I could share one thing that I learned from the week it’s that our facility (Beacon Hill) is old–old and structurally compromised in a number of areas. Friends we will have to face this reality. We need a comprehensive plan that includes what kind of “structure” we want to have to support our churches and ministries–structure both in where we meet and how we organize ourselves for our work.
Friday :: Half Day
So here’s where I became aware in a very real way that I’m not serving a congregation anymore. Usually I would take Friday/Saturday off as Sunday is always the first day of the week for a pastor, and the longest day in many ways. Well this Sunday, I was going to visit a church Sunday, not preaching, not teaching, not fellowship, not.. Though I knew in my head that this was the big difference between ep work and congregational work, that reality had not yet made it to my heart. I worked a half day on some details that I had not been able to get to during the week, then went home.
Saturday :: GA Meeting
Well, the day off didn’t go as planned as a preparatory meeting for GA commissioners was planned by the Synod. A very good meeting with practical and theological helps for this upcoming Presbyterian Polity Marathon we call GA.
That’s a brief summary of my first week or so on the job. I’ll keep you posted on how things develop.
Peace. Scott
Hello Seattle Presbytery! May 4, 2008
Posted by salumsden in communique.Tags: blog, presbytery, website
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On April 1, you voted to call me to serve as the Executive Presbyter for Seattle Presbytery. On April 30, I woke up at 4 am and hopped a plane to San Francisco to begin my service (more on that later). As Karen Breckenridge announced this past Sunday morning at Wedgwood, I have been “on the job” for only a few days, but even in that short amount of time there have been many things that I have learned that bear on our ministry in the presbytery.
Thus I introduce you to presbytery :: blog an extension of our Seattle Presbytery website. It is yet one more place for us to talk about what God is doing in, around and among us, in our various ministries in Seattle Presbytery. Keep checking back for opportunities to get to know what is happening in our presbytery and what I am up to as your executive presbyter.
Peace. Scott
presbytery :: blog 