Ruling Congregations?

Yesterday, the congregation I serve in the PCUSA held its annual congregational meeting. 

We did most of the usual things one might expect in an annual meeting—we reviewed written reports from the previous year, we looked at financial statements and budget plans, we approved the pastor’s terms of call and changed our ecclesiastical bylaws to reduce the number of active ruling elders on our session from 12 to 9.  It was as routine a meeting as anyone could have hoped (I think). 

But “routine” is not necessarily the way the Bible teaches us to think about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit or the Kingdom of God.  No.  In most every way, the Bible would teach us that God is extraordinary, Jesus is extraordinary, the Holy Spirit is extraordinary, we are extraordinary and that the Church is (or should be) extraordinary.  Though I can appreciate a routine meeting, it sometimes fails to offer a glimpse of the extraordinary nature of our relationship with God. 

In the last few years one of the meaningful changes in our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) constitution has been a return to the language of Ruling Elder to describe those elected by the congregation to serve on the Session (our congregation’s governing council).  The “ruling” part of Ruling Elder has been expressed as a job of measuring (like a ruler measures) the congregation’s fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In other words, the task of Ruling Elders and the Session is to help determine the congregation’s faithfulness to the work set before us by scripture and in particular, Jesus Christ. 

In some ways, those written reports and financial statements and plans all demonstrate some fidelity to the gospel.  In some ways, that’s the congregation’s willingness to own the ministry to which it’s called.  But I left the meeting wondering if we were more caught up in the routineness or the extraordinariness of our ministry. 

What would a congregational meeting look like and feel like if we were caught up in the extraordinariness of our response to the gospel?  Who should speak to that?  And how do we make it more of a church party rather than a reading of reports from the previous year?  How can annual meetings, too, be about the work of the gospel—and really feel like it?  

I get that this is part of the work that Teaching Elders (who used to be referenced as Ministers of Word and Sacrament, and who are often referenced by congregants as Pastors) and Ruling Elders do together.  But it’s a real shift away from the “decent and in order”-ness that Presbyterians are often best known for.  And then, there’s the relationship to the annual meeting and the rules of incorporation that must be adhered to in relationship to the state. 

Over the years I’ve worked with Sessions and congregational leaders to think in new ways about congregational meetings.  A few years ago we organized our meeting as a Sunday morning worship service; we’ve been intentional about trying “worshipful work,” we’ve moved the meeting from the sanctuary to sitting around tables.  Still, it feels more like business and less like ministry; it feels more like process and less like Jesus. 

I’m grateful for all the opportunities we take to measure our ministry.  How many children came to Sunday School?  How many meals we prepared in response to homelessness?  How mission dollars were allocated?  Whether or not we met the budget with a surplus or a deficit?  I just wish we all had a chance to walk away with a better feeling of our personal stake in it; and the place and reminder of Jesus’ call. 

If we could help congregations accomplish this…, it might resolve a lot of other things, too. 

© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and Pastor, The Presbyterian Church of Llanerch, Havertown, Pennsylvania