General Assembly, final thoughts

Here are a few final thoughts on General Assembly:

1. A common question from people these days is, "How did you like General Assembly?" or something like that.  My first instinct is to give an answer that pokes fun at how we Presbyterians do things or roll my eyes as I describe the many hours of time spent in meetings.  In fact, it does seem strange to realize that I know nothing about Portland, except for the six blocks nearest to the convention center, which included my motel (Quality Inn was definitely not a hotel) and the restaurants where I ate when not eating a group meal at the convention center (I did manage to eat at Red Robin four times due its proximity).  But, I really enjoyed being a commissioner.  I loved the worship, seeing old friends, and making some new ones.  I really enjoyed spending time with the other people from our presbytery.  I like studying issues and listening to what others have to say about them.  It's not a perfect system, but I confess to liking being a part of it, and enjoying the excitement

2.  Prophetic vs. pastoral:  I do not think this General Assembly will generate as much angst and anger as some General Assemblies do.  In general, the approach of the Assembly was to try and keep people together and in conversation.  The running theme for the Bible studies was about people being at the table, and the decisions we made reflected a commitment to try and keep people at the table.  That, of course, is our pastoral instinct at work.  While I commend the Assembly for their efforts in that regard, I also recognize that others will look at the decisions and wonder how we missed opportunities to be prophetic and speak out more on certain issues.  Thus the ongoing dilemma we face as people trying to live out our calling -- are we called to be prophetic or pastoral?  Probably both, but it's hard to do both.  I think most of us lean one way or another.  If you are a member of FPC, Troy, you probably lean pastoral since that's how most of the decisions in this congregation through the years seem to lean (at least from my perspective).  I find no fault in that (that's probably my tendency as well), but we also need to acknowledge and be aware that sometimes we probably should be more prophetic. Pastoral care at it's best both nurtures us and challenges us to grow into the new creations God calls us to be.  Likewise, a prophetic voice that ignores the pain of the people has trouble being heard.

3.  It seemed to me that there was a general lack of confidence or trust in the group and/or the denomination.  For example, some of the people who chose to talk in our committee meetings (we have about 45 people on my committee) seemed to believe that if we were just smart enough to understand what they were saying, we would agree.  If it seemed like the committee was moving in a different direction, they would jump up and talk some more, as if their brilliance would somehow win the day.  There were some people who assumed that if an entity of the General Assembly had studied an issue and made a case for some action, the action was automatically suspect.  Others (I probably fall into this camp) made the assumption that if a group had studied a topic and reached a decision, then it had the presumption of being a good decision.  Probably both approaches are appropriate at times, but if the people who do the work cannot be trusted to do the work correctly, it makes it hard to make decisions.

4.  Robert's Rules:  I like having rules to how we discuss and do our business.  People resist the structure and complain about it, but behind the rules is the desire to give people the chance to be heard and for the process to work fairly.  At one point in our committee meeting, the moderator, on advice from the parliamentarian, suggested we work "as a committee of the whole," which meant there were no motions to be made as everyone shared their thoughts and crafted what needed to be done before moving back into our normal pattern of doing things and then making a motion to approve whatever came out of our time "as a committee of the whole."  As the conversation moved back and forth it seemed to me we proved the value of having rules govern our discussions! Btu, it also proved the importance of a moderator knowing how to guide the process to do what it supposed to do.

All in all, enjoyed my time in Portland, my work as a commissioner, and the chance to be in conversation with so many other Presbyterians!