PresbyNews OnLine. September-October Published following meetings of San Diego Presbytery. Retirements & New Pastors.

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1 PresbyNews OnLine September-October 2016 Bob Battenfield, Editor Published following meetings of San Diego Presbytery September Presbytery Meeting Report Strategic Plan Presented, Cylical Introduced, Vote to Come In November Grace Vista Demonstrates its Outreach and Diversity Retirements & New Pastors Around the PCUSA Looking Back at the 222nd GA by Michael Mudgett Around the Presbytery Sell Your Cell Tower Leases Building Bridges Presbyteries to hold Bi-National Gathering October 8 in Tijuana Blog Wisdom Journey: Grounded, by Graham Standish, from Presbyterians Today Jesus the Good Shepherd, stained glass window at Grace Presbyterian Church in Vista. Photo by Bob Battenfield Upcoming Stated Presbytery Meetings 2016/2017 Tuesday, Nov 15, 4 pm, Mt Soledad Tuesday, Feb 21, 4 pm, Oceanside Tuesday, May 16, 4 pm, TBD Tuesday, Sep 19, 4 pm, TBD Tuesday, Nov 14, 4pm, TBD PresbyNews OnLine Editor Bob Battenfield can be contacted by , news@presbyterysd.org or at bobbattenfield@sbcglobal.net

2 September Presbytery Meeting Report Strategic Plan Presented, Cyclical Inreoduced, Vote to Come In November At the September 20 Stated Meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego, which was held at Grace Vista Presbyterian, a central piece of business was the Strategic Planning Committee recommendations presented for a first reading by Solana Beach Pastor Mike McClenahan, Past Moderator and Chair of the Executive Committee. The recommendations were for review and consideration at the time but will be discussed for vote at the November meeting of Presbytery. The recommendations are to: 1. Approve a new mission statement and a 10-year vision of planting, vitalizing and aligning. 2. Partner with Cyclical Los Angeles to become Cyclical San Diego. 3. In the search for the new Executive Presbyter, to focus on a missional leader for planting churches and vitalizing congregations. 4. Review the role of Commissioned Ruling Elders in the church planting process. 5. Align budget and committee structure to carry out the strategic mission and vision, beginning November 2016 and continuing into Cluster pastors for mutual support....to become CyclicalSD? 7. Pray for the outpouring of God s Spirit. McClenahan Baker Warnes Joining McClenahan in the presentation were Rev. Ken Baker, San Fernando Presbytery Executive Presbyter, who has experienced the impact of Cyclical LA, and Nick Warnes, Executive Director of Cyclical. The proposal is to partner with Cyclical Los Angeles to become Cyclical San Diego. Baker attested to the validity and effectiveness of the ministry. What is Cyclical? Cyclical LA exists to further the ongoing lifecycle of starting new churches. The cycle moves forward as Churches identify Discerners who become Starters who start churches, and the cycle repeats. Our team identifies and supports discerning church starters, church starters and existing churches as they join the mission of God through the natural and historical lifecycle of starting new churches. Warnes explained. This growing collective of leaders is an ecumenical community of innovators that share a common culture and set of practices created to thoughtfully start new churches across Los Angeles and now soon to San Diego.

3 Who is Nick Warnes? Nicholas Warnes (Masters of Divinity, Fuller Theological Seminary, Emphasis in Worship Theology and Art) is the founder and Executive Director of Cyclical LA.. He enjoys the regular pattern and rhythm of being both the Executive Director of Cyclical LA and being a local pastor in Los Angeles (Northland Village Church). Nick is also a recognized speaker on church planting, coach for New Worshipping Communities with the Presbyterian Church USA, on the advisory board for the Brehm Center at Fuller Theological Seminary, and an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary (church planting certificate). Nick finished his first book in 2014 with Dr. Mark Lau Branson called Starting Missional Churches: Life With God in the Neighborhood. Nick and his wife Whitney live in Los Angeles. Grace Vista Demonstrates its Outreach and Diversity Straeter Lashinsky Barrantes Pastor Tom Straeter has led Grace Presbyterian to change and grow to become a Neighborhood Church that reflects the diversity and inclusiveness of its membership. Straeter delivered a message that touched on the outreach of the Grace Vista Resource Center and the Bread of Life Program. Song Leader David Lashinsky prepared our hearts for worship. Associate Pastor for Hispanic Ministries Eliecer Barrantes announced plans to provide bilingual Spanish and English worship services as soon as November. Following a Tuesday Night dinner, as commissioners shared a Bread of Life meal with the needy neighbors, Barrantes and Assistant Minister Marcos Mujica demonstrated with simultaneous translation how that bilingual dialog might be. Jack Shelver, an elder at Faith Presbyterian in San Diego, has served as Moderator of the Presbytery in

4 Presbytery Commissioners joined Grace s Tuesday Evening Dinner and heard a bilingual message from Marcos Mujica and Eliecer Barrantes. Retirements Rev Dr Tim Beal and COM Chair Michael Williams share happy memories. Grace Assoc Pastor William Bynagte receives commendation from CRE Glenna Spindelman while Jackie Bynagte looks on. New Pastors Rev. Fairlight Lower was received into the membership of the Presbytery of San Diego in order that she might continue to serve local churches needing pastoral assistance and support.

5 Rev. Dr. Michael Wallman was received into the membership of the Presbytery in order to accept the invitation of the Session of First Presbyterian Church of Oceanside to be their interim pastor. Beal leads prayer of blessing on Pastor Wallman s ministry at Oceanside Presbyterian. Wallman Around the PCUSA Looking Back at the 222nd GA By Rev. Michael Mudgett, Interim Executive Presbyter, who spent a week in Portland, Oregon, at the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). A lot happened for an extensive report visit (click on committees, select one). HIGH POINTS: The GA passed the Belhar Confessions. It is brief and to the point. Give it a read and become familiar with the newest addition to our Book of Confessions. GA elected a new stated clerk, Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, a third generation Presbyterian pastor. He is the former director of public witness for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office and has over 25 years of experience in congregational ministry. And for the first time, the GA elected co-moderators: a pastor, Rev. Denise Anderson from Capitol National Presbytery, and Jan Edmiston, the executive presbyter from Chicago. Read more about them at pcusa.org. While at GA, I vetted several pastor candidates at Face2Face on behalf of the PNC/APNCs in our Presbytery. I met the networking/development person at a PTSEM alumni gathering, Rev. Dr. Tom Kort (ret.). He seemed genuinely excited to connect with our PNC/APNC chairs to help direct qualified candidates our way. I m in touch with Fuller Sem. for the same purpose. I m hopeful.

6 Rev. Dr. Jerry Andrews, pastor of our own First Presbyterian San Diego, preached during a plenary session. One of only four pastors chosen to preach at GA events. Jerry gave a great sermon, with a bit of dry wit and a lot of truth. No apologies for being evangelical. It was one of the high points of GA. Listen for yourselves at (Jerry s at the 10 min mark). It was fun (yes, enjoyable) watching Frances Lin, RBCPC member and vice-chair of the committee on Middle East, officiate the business of the committee on the floor of the plenary meeting of GA. Frances did a great job. She represented her committee and our Presbytery well. Which brings me to this bravo - zulu! Many thanks and a job well done to all of our commissioners, our YAD, and ACC rep. Thanks you commissioners Cheryl Kosits, Frances Lin, Nathan Byrd, and Elizabeth Wilson Manahan; YAD Jocelyn Fisher; and our rep on the Advisory Committee on the Constitution, Michael Williams. Thank you for giving a week of your time and then some in preparing for and attending GA Byrd Manahan Kosits Around the Presbytery Sell Your Cell Tower Leases Kudos to Pastor John Moser and session at Mt. Soledad Pres, who creatively paid off a $1,400,000 mortgage on the worship center by selling their cell tower leases to a third party. They saved $700,000 in future interest payments, transferred all the future risk, and received an additional sum to invest in their ministries and mission. John says, Being debt-free has given more energy and focus to our primary ministries that Invite, Equip, and Send so that more people experience a life transforming relationship with Jesus. Less debt, more ministry. Makes sense doesn t it?! That s more money for missions, not the banks! Michael Mudgett

7 Building Bridges Presbyteries to hold Bi-National Gathering October 8 in Tijuana Building Bridges Connecting Presbyterians Across the US-Mexican Border The Evangelism & Mission Committee and the Hispanic Ministry Council invite you to participate in a Bi-National Gathering between the Presbytery of San Diego of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Presbytery of the Northwest Border of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, on Saturday, October 8, at Iglesia Dios Es Amor (God is Love Church) in Tijuana. Participants will gather at Chula Vista Presbyterian Church for departure at 7:45 am and travel in two 15-passenger vans. Cost is $25 per person. Our purpose is to get to know each other better as we explore ways to work together to put our faith into action in the San Diego/ Tijuana Border Region, said Rev. Juan-Daniel Espitia, associate pastor for Hispanic Ministry at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, and chair of the event. Register by phone or to: Rev. Juan-Daniel Espitia, (cell) juandaniel@solanapres.org Cost: $25/person for lunch and dinner. Make your check payable to SBPC. Mail to: Solana Beach Presbyterian Church Attn: Hispanic Ministry Council, 120 Stevens Ave. Solana Beach, CA Van seats limited to 30 people. Current US Passport required to return to the United States. Wisdom Journey: Grounded When suffering leads to hope By Graham Standish, Presbyterians Today Magazine Blogger To truly be grounded in God, we often have to be ground down. It s not that God wants to humiliate us. It s that to truly be available to God we have to have humility, and the grinding down of life can cultivate us to become good soil good humus for the seeds of God s grace to blossom into great fruit. One of the most remarkable stories of the Bible takes place immediately after Jesus is baptized. He suddenly experiences the Holy Spirit descending upon him. We don t get much detail about his experience, but we can imagine. What would it be like to have a spiritual baptism like his? How would we have reacted? What would we be ready to do as a result?

8 Most of us would have been itching to get started to serve God and do great things. We d want to go out and preach, start a new church, write a book, give a TED talk,... change the world! Yet Jesus didn t do any of those things. Instead, he followed the Spirit into the desert for forty days and nights of fasting, deprivation, temptation, and suffering. Jesus was carrying out an ancient Jewish tradition that appears over and over and over again in the Bible. Abraham followed God s call to go out into the desert wilderness. Moses found God in the burning bush after forty years in the desert. The Israelites followed God through forty years of desert wandering. David spent twelve years as a desert fugitive. The prophet Elijah spent forty days in a desert cave. The prophets went out into the desert wilderness to listen for God s voice, returning afterwards to share what they heard. Paul, according to Galatians 1:17 spent time in the Arabian desert after his conversion before returning to Damascus to face Peter. The desert was a place of humbling transformation. Many people attack Christianity, religion, and faith by asking, If God is such a good God, why would God let bad things happen? A deeper question might be, If Jesus was the incarnation of God on earth, why would God go out into the desert to suffer? Why send most of the main characters of the Bible into the desert to suffer? What was God trying to do? Is there something that can happen when we struggle and suffer? Christianity provides a paradox regarding suffering: we are called to reduce people s suffering, while we are called to enhance our lives through our suffering. The answer may emerge through the experiences of the Desert Fathers of the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. These were monks (and later nuns) who purposely spent days, weeks, months, and even years in the desert of Egypt. They purposely sought the experiences of being ground down so that they could become deeply humble, compassionate, faithful, and enlightened. They showed that struggling in life often provides the conditions for us to become good soil for God s seed. This is not the same as saying that we should seek suffering (although apparently Jesus did), nor is it to say that we should be indifferent to suffering. It is to say that Christianity provides a paradox regarding suffering: we are called to reduce people s suffering, while we are called to enhance our lives through our suffering. The Christian experience is filled with stories of people who suffered and ended up better because of it. It s Millard Fuller, the 28-year-old millionaire almost losing his family because of his enslavement to money, who ends up selling it all to eventually start Habitat for Humanity. It s neuroanatomist Jill Bolte-Taylor suffering a debilitating stroke, who becomes deeply empathetic to patients afterwards. It s the child of the devastating Iraq-Iran War, Zainab Salbi, who grows up to help victims of violence find peace and hope.

9 Our struggles grind us down. The world s turmoil grinds us down. The vacillations of our fortunes grind us down. Age grinds us down. But these grinding experiences can also transform us into a wonderfully rich soil that become deep humus in which love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control can blossom (Galatians 5:23). But only if we allow it to do so. The Rev. Graham Standish, Ph.D., M.S.W. ( is senior pastor of Calvin Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, Pennsylvania ( He is the author of seven books on spirituality and church transformation, and is an adjunct faculty member of Pittsburgh Theological and Tyndale Seminaries. He also has a background as a spiritual director, and as an individual and family therapist. About this blog We are storytellers. We are everyday Presbyterians who want to talk honestly about the future of the church. We are part of a creative team commissioned by Today to ask questions about who s getting a platform to speak and who s not. And this is our canvas. This is a holy place for reflection a safe place to talk and grow as disciples of Christ. Here you ll find writing, art, videos, and podcasts. Some of it will be bilingual. Some will be collaborative projects, bringing together artist and wordsmith. All of it will push the boundaries of what passes for conversation in the church and will, we hope, inspire us to dream bigger when it comes to the gospel. Our opinions are ours alone; they do not represent the policies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or Presbyterians Today. Our thoughts may sometimes be messy; they may make you feel uncomfortable. They are not meant to be the last word. They are an invitation. So, come, paint with us! And if you feel there s a voice missing here, let us know by ing us at mailto: editor@pcusa.org editor@pcusa.org