Kruse Kronicle

Discipleship in a Rapidly Changing World: What the Mid-Council Report is Really About #PCUSA

It Takes a Church: Discipleship in a Rapidly Changing World: What the Mid-Council Report is Really About - Tod Bolsinger

“How are those governing bodies best organized to be responsive both to the Spirit of Christ and the changing opportunities for discipleship? Are the structures of history the best platforms for carrying our mission into the future?”

Mid Councils, Discipleship and Change.  Those were the key issues that were before our Commission.  Not diversity, not denominational splintering, not the ongoing wrestling with ordination standards.  But, discipleship in a rapidly changing context.  And most pointedly: the ways that our mid-council structures are organized to serve or not serve our mission as followers of Jesus in changing world.

After almost two years of listening, studying, conversing and engaging the church with this big question, the Mid-Council Commission report is now offered to the church.  We propose to flatten the hierarchy, and experiment with flexibility.  We offer an extensive report on the many good and innovative mid-councils that are already adapting. We call for some ongoing conversations.  We have offered short videos, and a brief Powerpoint that captures our convictions of the kinds of structures need in the future: Flat. Flexible. Faithful. Those resources capture the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of the report, so, let me introduce this discussion by offering the ‘why’. 

Why do we make these particular recommendations?   Because we believe that for the church to be “best organized to be responsive both to the Spirit of Christ and the changing opportunities for discipleship” we need to continue to make a clear shift in the priorities and purpose of our structures:

• Mid-Council structures must exist to serve the health and mission of congregations.
  
• Presbyteries must be given the power, and permission--for a season of experimentation--to structure in any way they discern will best serve the health and mission of its congregations.

This is based on a clear ‘adaptive’ principle: Genuinely transformative solutions to our biggest challenges come from giving the work back to the people most affected. ...

I think the Mid-Council Task Force report is one of the most important items of business coming to the General Assembly. I'll have more to say later but if you are a commissioner, please take to time to read and digest this report. I think it frames the issues we face well and it gives some practical strategies to pursue.

Buy a group of Belgian soccer fans to root for your country during euro 2012

Who says the entrepreneurial spirit is dead in Europe.

Buy a group of Belgian soccer fans to root for your country during euro 2012.

For sale: Belgian soccer fans for euro 2012. Second hand but mint condition. Not been used since Fifa World Cup 2002.

Once again we Belgians have no team to root for at the euro 2012 soccer championship. Since tournaments are much more fun when you have a favourite team, we decided to put our fandom for sale at ebay.
All profits will be sent directly to Unicef.

What is for sale:
During Euro 2012, all members of this facebookgroup:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/414750861890585/

will root for the national soccer team of the highest bidder, or the national team of his choice. Even if it's Holland. We will watch the games, wear the colours, possibly even buy the flag and learn the national anthem. Pictures and videos will be made and sent to the winning bidder to be posted on his or her website.
Slight hooliganism is available at extra cost. We can, for example, kick a pigeon or smoke in a non-smoking area if such pleases our master.

Once the team is eliminated, we will grieve for 24 hours and then put ourselves for sale again on ebay. Hopefully joined by the previous winner since he or she will also have become an orphaned soccer fan by then.

Business Is the Church's Business

Christianity Today: Business Is the Church's Business  (This is an excerpt from John Knapp's book How the Church Fails Businesspeople (And What Can Be Done About It). I did an eight part blog series about the book a few weeks ago.)

It's wrong to elevate an ecclesiastical elite over the money-making members of the body of Christ.

Anyone who has spent much time in the church is likely aware of its hierarchy of occupations. At the peak of the pyramid are full-time clergy and missionaries, followed closely by other paid workers in Christian ministry. Their jobs are seen as genuine callings, often validated by special ceremonies and rituals. Just below them in rank are the so-called helping professions—social workers, nurses, and the like—whose work aligns neatly with the church's ministry priorities. Moving further down the pyramid we find the vast majority of Christians—salespeople, postal workers, accountants, business owners, electricians, corporate executives, lawyers, and countless others who compose most of the body of Christ. Seldom are their jobs described as callings or celebrated by the church. [While researching this book,] we interviewed a high school teacher who astutely summed up the harm done by a cast system that devalues much good and necessary work:

I don't think many people understand how a sense of vocation applies to their work, especially if they are not in a ministerial or helping profession. It's clear to me, since I'm a teacher, but how do accountants know their work can be pleasing to or glorify God? How do attorneys hear the Holy Spirit in contentious cases? How can retail managers exhibit the love of Christ?

I was astonished recently to hear this hierarchy colorfully depicted in a sermon by a well-loved, retired minister. He declared that the church is like a circus that requires all kinds of workers—some to pitch the tent, some to take tickets, and even some to clean up after the elephants. At first he seemed to be working toward a rather strained metaphor for Romans 12:4–5 ("Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others"). But soon it was clear that his vision of the body of Christ was much more hierarchical than anything the apostle Paul ever imagined. He explained that the responsibility of everyone in the church, as in the circus, is to support the performers, chief among whom is the preacher in the pulpit. Granted, his imagery was a bit unusual, but the message that clergy are the stars of the show is quite common indeed. Consider these words of an earnest, freshly ordained seminary graduate preaching to a downtown Atlanta congregation with many businesspeople:

Generations of people in this country find their identity in their jobs. But that is an empty life, a life that leads you down a path of nothingness. But what might it mean if God says, "Now you are the one to go deliver the message." Your life must be interrupted if you are ready to be an instrument in meeting the world's needs. You must be ready to respond to the calling that God has on your life. Think about the untouchables in India. What if God said, "I want you to be the one to travel over there and give them the message?" What about the epidemic of AIDS in Africa? What if God is calling you to do something about it?

Must we really go to India or Africa to be instrumental in meeting the world's needs? Could it be that God also needs Christians to serve the world as factory workers, hairstylists, and bond traders?

These two ministers at opposite ends of their careers had the best of intentions, but I doubt if either had ever considered the disastrous consequences—for the church or for individual believers—of a theology that elevates an ecclesiastical elite while subtly devaluing the rest of the body. ...

Book Review: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it), by John C. Knapp

Seedbed: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it), by John C. Knapp by Guy Williams

A couple years ago at a clergy retreat I cornered a colleague who had entered pastoral ministry after a previous career with a multinational energy company. At the time, I was preaching to a host of successful businesspeople and needed guidance. “Well, here’s where most of those people are,” my friend said. “They are busy and don’t feel they have the time to be there, but they came. And they are thinking about how the decisions they had to make on Friday are going to play out on Monday.”

The conversation made something I knew the truth of--that people have a life outside of church activities--refreshingly and challengingly concrete.

In How the Church Fails Businesspeople, John C. Knapp tackles the thorny subject of the Church’s role in helping people integrate faith and work in their Christian discipleship. ...

GAMC: World Mission adjusts structure, processes in light of strategic goals

It had been my hope to do some blogging last week about the General Assembly Mission Council 's 2013-2016 Work Plan and other business coming to General Assembly. I will have to delay that until the end of next week. In the meantime, Presbyterian News Service has posted a piece about changes in the focus of World Mission that are indicative of changes that are developing in other ministries of the GAMC. I'll have more to say about this late next week.

Presbyterian News Service: ‘A different time’

Reflecting the changing nature of the world and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination’s World Mission area is also evolving, moving toward a new model of communities of mission practice.

“To do all that, I know we need God’s guidance,” said the Rev. Hunter Farrell, director of World Mission, during a May 14 webinar for staff.

World Mission will encourage a different relationship with PC(USA) congregations, with every staff member seeing himself or herself as a “global connector,” Farrell said.

As part of the 2013-14 Mission Work Plan and Budget — approved May 11 by the General Assembly Mission Council — World Mission eliminated 11 positions, some of which were vacant. In addition, the area created eight new positions that reflect its new vision.

One key part of that vision is the role of regional liaisons, who will work in an increased capacity to serve as point people between congregations and PC(USA) mission workers in their area of the world. They will act as diplomats and work to grow networks or communities of mission practice around World Mission’s three critical global issues (CGIs) — addressing the root causes of poverty, especially as they affect women and children; sharing the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ; and being agents of reconciliation among cultures of violence.

World Mission is also creating new positions for three CGI catalysts. These staffers will each be assigned one of the CGIs and use their expertise to work with young adults, mission personnel and communities of mission practice for a strong and clear collective impact on the issue. ...

Private spacecraft docks with space station

CNN: Private spacecraft docks with space station

(CNN) -- A private spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Friday, a milestone in a new era of commercial space flight.

The docking happened just before 10 a.m., almost two hours later than planned. A radar system aboard the unmanned SpaceX Dragon that measures distance to the station had picked up a different part of the space station, meaning it could not dock properly, NASA said. ...

... The launch is an important step for NASA and the United States, which currently has no means of independently reaching space. NASA relies on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit.

The first attempt to launch Falcon 9 was halted Saturday when a flight computer detected high pressure in an engine combustion chamber. Workers replaced the valve Saturday, SpaceX said.

The company plans 11 more flights to the space station.

One of a handful of private companies receiving funds from NASA to develop a space taxi system, SpaceX hopes the experience with the cargo flights will help the company reach its goal of carrying astronauts aboard the Dragon.

The company is developing a heavy-lift rocket with twice the cargo capability of the space shuttle, and also dreams of building a spacecraft that could carry a crew to Mars. ...

When the price of a tourist flight gets below about one year's salary, I'm buying a ticket! ;-)

The Perception Gap About Africa

All Africa: Africa: Continent - the Next Frontier for Investors

Washington — Economists say Africa will grow by 5.5 percent in 2012, with seven African countries expected to rank among the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world during the next five years, projections that are making the continent an increasingly popular destination for foreign investors. ...

... Foreign direct investment projects across the continent grew 27 percent in 2011 from 2010, a "stellar performance" that continued a longer-term trend of FDI growth by 153 percent in absolute terms since 2003.

But despite this growth, the survey of more than 500 investors and business leaders highlights a so-called perception gap of Africa's attractiveness.

"Those already doing business on the continent were overwhelmingly positive, ranking Africa's relative attractiveness above every other region except Asia, and even then, only marginally so," the report said.

"In stark contrast," it said, "respondents with no business presence in Africa were overwhelmingly negative." It said these respondents view Africa as "by far the least attractive investment destination in the world," citing risk factors such as political instability, corruption and security as major obstacles.

"This represents not so much a gap as a chasm between perception and reality," the report said, adding that "the facts tell a different story -- one of reform, progress and growth."

In addition to more than tripling its economic output during the past decade, Africa is rapidly democratizing, combating corruption and working to improve the climate and ease of doing business for foreign investors, the report states. ...