And So You Answer...

And So You Answer... Imagine a question that it takes three years to answer Welcome! You are now a part of a group of people who s chief qualification is that they are chosen. All of us are chosen by God, through the voice of this congregation to be a part of the leadership, the spiritual leadership, of Hawfields Presbyterian Church. Of all we might learn, think, believe or experience together, this should frame all our actions, our sense of direction and our deliberations. Not only are we chosen, but the other members of Session are as well. It is together that find God s voice. Ruling Elder Defined (F-2.0301) As there were in Old Testament times elders for the government of the people, so the New Testament church provided persons with particular gifts to share in discernment of God s Spirit and governance of God s people. Accordingly, congregations should elect persons of wisdom and maturity of faith, having demonstrated skills in leadership and being compassionate in spirit. Ruling elders are so named not because they lord it over the congregation (Matt. 20:25), but because they Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.1

are chosen by the congregation to discern and measure its fidelity to the Word of God, and to strengthen and nurture its faith and life. Ruling elders, together with teaching elders, exercise leadership, government, spiritual discernment, and discipline and have responsibilities for the life of a congregation as well as the whole church, including ecumenical relationships. When elected by the congregation, they shall serve faithfully as members of the session. When elected as commissioners to higher councils, ruling elders participate and vote with the same authority as teaching elders, and they are eligible for any office. ("om the Book of Order) What Does A$ THAT Mean? A Personal Call Your time as an Elder will hopefully be a time of intense self-exploration as you seek to figure out God s will for your own life. Becoming a Ruling Elder in many respects is taking your faith life to the next level. This means pushing yourself in your prayer life and Bible study, taking time to raise your awareness of your own motivations and inclinations, learning to speak up, and, perhaps most importantly, knowing when and how to listen, especially for God s voice. More than being an Active Member, being an Elder means accepting the responsibility and the authority to lead God s people. It s a deliberate shedding of comfort zones and a hopeful embrace of what God has in store. God has called you to grow personally. A Collaborative Call Your time as an Elder will hopefully be a time of really getting to know your fellow leaders. The more the leadership spends time getting to know one another the better we spend our time in Session meetings and other settings; the better a group of decision-makers we are. Our polity (or the way we govern) is set up with the conviction that together is when we hear and discern God s voice best. While we rule by majority, Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.2

the culture of our leadership is that all voices should be heard. Collaborative work is tough but doesn t necessarily mean unanimity. God has called us to grow collaboratively. An Administrative Call Your time as an Elder will hopefully be a time of learning what it takes to run a church in this present age. Through learning about our finances, figuring out our physical plant and property, managing our staff, setting up and implementing programs, making decisions, we will not only pay attention to the big picture of Hawfields Presbyterian Church but also to the details. Our conviction is that God is present in both. God has called us to grow in running the church. A Presbyterian Call Your time as an Elder will hopefully be a time of discovering the connectional nature of our denomination. As we reach hands as a church to other churches and communities, your leadership will be affected by a growing sense of our place in Mebane and beyond. God has called us to grow as a community presence. A Hopeful Call Your time as an Elder will hopefully be a time of exchanging ideas, sharing dreams, asking and answering questions, discovering gifts, and closing chapters. As we move forward as a church under your leadership, not only is the hope that you and the rest of the leadership be listening for God s voice, but that you will come to be God s voice for us in your manner, your conduct, and your enthusiasm. God has called us to grow and to live into our hopes. Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.3

Set Apart for Service The Ordination Vows The Vows you take as a Ruling Elder are the same vows David takes as a Teaching Elder (Pastor) except the last question and vow being specific to your office. Taken in turn, the Vows outline your responsibilities as a leader in our community. Taken as a whole, try NOT to think of them as ideals or guidelines. Think of them as our corporate responsibilities. The Session is responsible for everything that happens in the name of Hawfields Presbyterian Church. The Vows try to outline the scope of that responsibility. What follows are the Vows as listed in the Book of Order. (From the Book of Order, W4.4003) The moderator of the council of those to be ordained, installed, or commissioned shall ask them to stand before the body of membership and to answer the following questions: a. Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? b. Do you accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God s Word to you? c. Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God? d. Will you fulfill your ministry in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and be continually guided by our confessions? e. Will you be governed by our church s polity, and will you abide by its discipline? Will you be a friend among your colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject to the ordering of God s Word and Spirit? f. Will you in your own life seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love your neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world? g. Do you promise to further the peace, unity, and purity of the church? h. Will you pray for and seek to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love? i. (1) (For Ruling Elder) Will you be a faithful ruling elder, watching over the people, providing for their worship, nurture, and service? Will you share in government and discipline, serving in councils of the church, and in your ministry will you try to show the love and justice of Jesus Christ? Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.4

ANSWERING THE QUESTION! PAGE 5 New Elders and Deacons being ordained during worship. Site of our Session Retreat (2011). What is God s Will? QUESTIONABLE CERTAINTY So what are we supposed to do with The Montreat Youth Conferences make this contradiction? We re supposed to live use of many ideas for themes. One of in tension. them was Questionable Certainty. It This doesn t mean we live stressed seems a great literary metaphor for our out all the time. It means that we have task as a Session to find out what God the boldness to go before God and expect wants for us as a church. answers and that we have the humility to Several, seemingly contradictory recognize that our way might not be things are true for us. First, God wants us God s way. to know what God wants. The Jeremiah It s like a tug-o-war rope. If both passage quoted on the right is not an sides don t pull, the rope won t stay off aberration in the Bible, it s quite a the ground. common theme. As a practical matter, the way we live At the same time, God is bigger than in this tension is to do two things to us and hidden from us. As Isaiah 55:8-9 inform our thinking and deliberations: (1) says so well, Pray and (2) Consider God s Call. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, PRAY says the LORD. As Session members, an important For as the heavens are higher operating principle we should remember than the earth, at all times is that we are the spiritual so are my ways higher leadership (collectively) of the than your ways congregation. Whatever that may and my thoughts ultimately mean to you, one of the things than your thoughts. that the Book of Order makes clear is Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3

ANSWERING THE QUESTION! PAGE 6 Lord, How Should We Pray?... that our system is set up so that God speaks through our collective voice. But to trust that piece of our polity we must pray. But how? When? What?... The Lord s Prayer is a great place to start. Getting into the habit of setting aside a REGULAR time to pray is important. And if you don t have any words of your own, use the Lord s Prayer. As you get into the practice, your own words will emerge. Sometimes no words will come at and you ll have a sense of God speaking to you. As you practice try praying for concrete things: Lord, help us figure out this budget. God, help me have the courage to speak up. Lord, why does bother me so? God, please help David as he leads us. Thank you, Lord, for bringing music staff to us. What are we supposed to do with the Session House and Historical Documents? What s the best way to get into this year s Homecoming Celebration? Thank you for the way Beth handles our finances. God, am I being the Session member you want me to be? The other side of prayer is expectation. We should expect answers. We should expect to have wait on God s response. We should expect not to like God s answers from time to time. We should expect this to inform how we make decisions as a group. CONSIDER GOD S CALL The other part of our responsibility is taking God s invitation to us all to be Session members seriously. This means regarding each of us as chosen by God to be at the table for a reason (more likely, for more than one reason). A practical way to do this is to ask Why?. Take time between now and the next Session meeting to answer the following questions, keeping in mind that it needs to be personal. That means you should consider answers that aren t necessarily what you think they should be, but rather why called that particular person to the Session. Why does God want David Ealy as our Pastor? Why does God want Beth Foust as our Treasurer? Why does God want Debby Ferrell on Why does God want Jessica Brinker on Why does God want Jim Covington on Why does God want Tom Gamble on Why does God want Ricky Lee on the Session? Why does God want Sid Norton on the Session? Why does God want Matt Bivins on Why does God want Danny Mebane on Why does God want Michael Warren on Why does God want Nancy Montgomery on Why does God want Greg Massey on Why does God want Tonya McClain on Why does God want Billy Mebane on Why does God want Sandy Muller on Why does God want Connie Lawrence on As you look at the questions and try the exercises bear this in mind: these things are part of the way to understand God s will for our church. Knowing God s will is possible but it takes work: The work of trusting the One who brought us together. And by the way, I don t know is a perfectly good place to start with these questions. We just can t stay there.

Introduction Some Pi$ars of Reformed Theology The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable structures in the world, according to Wikipedia. While the elements of its construction are not necessarily unique, the tower s association with France and with Paris in particular is almost second nature for most of us. Reformed Theology sort of works this way for Presbyterians (at least in theory). This document is by no means exhaustive or the final word on the theological underpinnings of the Presbyterian Church (USA). So as you read through this bear in mind three things: (1) while informed, this represents one view on the subject, (2) this is intended to provoke questions, and (3) there s a lot more to Reformed Theology than this document; this is just to get you started. An Unfinished House In many respects, our polity, our walk of faith, is a house in progress. We are constantly renovating, adding, subtracting and otherwise changing how we do church. Much of that is in small ways but every now and then we run into something big. We ll start with the following concepts. They sort of build on one another. The Bible is authoritative Faithful Christian people disagree on the best way to understand how this is so. We will look at various ways of interpretation. That being said, one of the foundational pieces of the Reformation (don t panic if you don t know what that is yet) was to place our authoritative eggs in the Bible basket. In other words, Presbyterians believe that the Bible, by the power of God s Spirit, is more than just words on a page. Like the denominational seal represents, the Bible is central to the faith community of a Presbyterian Church. God is sovereign Faithful Christian people also disagree on the best way to understand God s way of working in the world. Several things are certain. Presbyterians are not Deists: that is, we don t believe that God wound up the world like a clock, set it in motion, and then let it go. But Presbyterians aren t quite Pantheists or Panantheists: God is everything or God is IN everything, respectively. The idea that God created and is creating means that God s mark is on everything. The world, humanity, is by design. God still gets God s hands dirty. One of our challenges will be to engage how this works. Puppet strings? Whispered guidance at just the right moment? This pillar isn t a way to say we don t have choice (and therefore not responsible for our actions). The other thing to consider is the limitation of our language. When Presbyterians say, God is sovereign we don t mean that like the Queen of England is sovereign. We mean God is free, that is, unconstrained by us or anything else. God can do whatever God wants. All have sinned Somehow, while this may seem obvious, as a concept it is worse than we thought. It is not simply that we make mistakes. To say, All have sinned, is more than saying we re all capable of real evil. This pillar goes further to say that we are incapable of understanding who God is and the extent of our plight without God s help. Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.7

The taint of sin is inescapable in our own strength. Additionally, it would be a mistake to equate this concept with the idea of innocence. Saying, All have sinned, is a way of describing humanity as a whole. It gets trickier when we start talking about individual responsibility and culpability. Grace is free Very much related to the idea of God s sovereignty, this is a way to say God chooses to help, God chooses to give grace. By free Presbyterians are not saying that mercy is cheap. At great cost, God chooses to forgive and to be in relationship with us. But we are saying that it is not possible to earn grace or merit God s favor. This pillar and the sovereignty thing are big reasons for the ideas of election and predestination. Presbyterians have been called from time to time the Frozen Chosen. This is the idea that who s getting into heaven (or not) is God s prerogative and is, therefore, set (we ve been elected and so we are predestined to be in one place or the other). While this is an easy place to get to philosophically, when talking about God s sovereignty, holding this line of thinking eventually draws into question the role of human choice. Keep in mind predestination is a way of talking about God s power of choice, not ours. The only proper response to the Grace of God is the life of gratitude When someone does something nice for us, we re taught, generally, to say, Thank you. When someone saves our lives, what should we say? What can we say? How should we live? How should we continue to live? This pillar is the basis for the strong sense of social justice that has been a part of the Presbyterian Church s history. This concept is also a way of saying that, while Grace is free, God does hold expectations with us. Yet there isn t a laundry list for us to check off to show our thanks. There isn t anything we can do in order to make up for what God has done for us, to get us on an even footing with God. All we can do is live our lives with gratefulness. Reformed, always reforming An easy thing to assume with this pillar is that things are always changing to be different in some progressive way. There s a temptation to read the Apostle Paul when he writes, Behold, [God] makes all things new, and not read anything else. While the Church should be properly growing in knowledge and scope and doing new things, sometimes it has to also reform to its roots. It may help to think of it this way. I can say, I m a reformed drug addict. I can mean by that that I m a different human being but I can also mean that I m reaching for who I was before I became an addict. I look to the places where I experienced love and support and dreamed of what I might be. When the Reformation happened, one of the key pieces for the Reformers was getting back, for example, to the real authority for the Church: God. To do this they wanted to rely, not on the Pope, but on the Bible. They were reaching for what held original authority. Look Beneath As we explore these concepts, they ll be made concrete by what we observe in our worship, in our form of government, and in the way we talk theology ( words about God ). Hawfields Presbyterian Church Elder Training 2013, p.8