Fellowship of Presbyterians

Leadership from the Bottom Up

While recuperating from vertigo in Minneapolis last weekend, one of my “test drives” was a walk within the Mall of America with my husband.  All comments about its excesses aside, one of the mall’s imposing features certainly captivated our attention: a 34-foot robot made entirely of Lego® blocks! Peering at it from various angles and levels, we could only conclude that there must have been a plan and that it was built from the bottom up, one block and one body part at a time. We’ve all had a chance to peer at this “new Reformed body” and the Fellowship […]

Leadership from the Bottom Up Read More »

Herding Cats

One of the biggest challenges of a new movement within the Presbyterian Church is the leadership challenge. How are the people of God to be led through the adaptive changes necessary to shape the Fellowship of Presbyterians (FOP) and the New Reformed Body (NRB)? What makes this area particularly difficult among evangelicals is that they carry a gene resistant to national leadership, something akin to a cat’s aversion to a leash. What I share in this post is the result of observations made over decades while serving four churches in various capacities, including senior pastor, and two evangelically-minded boards, one

Herding Cats Read More »

The New Presbyterians and Their Leadership Dilemma: Part I

The Gathering of Presbyterians lifted up a key question for the orthodox/conservative/evangelical wing of the PCUSA: what do you envision the church to be, at its best? My thoughts gravitate to the leadership question: How are we to be led as a particular expression of God’s presence and mission in a twenty-first century American context? You notice I asked, “How are we to be led?” rather than “Who is the leader?” The “who is the leader” question highlights the dilemma we face. This tension arises out of the dynamics of top-down and bottom-up. Here’s a brief outline of what we

The New Presbyterians and Their Leadership Dilemma: Part I Read More »

Life Is Messy in the Presbyterian House

“Life’s messy; clean it up!” is one of my all-time favorite product slogans. It is normal in anyone’s house to discover elements dirtied by use, misplaced through inattention, broken by accident, or jumbled in a frenzy to get something else done. Life is also messy because hurricanes swirl, earthquakes shake, fires roar. In these cases, Plan A becomes suddenly irrelevant, Plan B looks anemic, and Plan C is all one has left to fall back on. Life is messy, and cleaning it up is, well, complicated. Cleaning up requires a careful look at what constitutes the mess. Dirtied things must

Life Is Messy in the Presbyterian House Read More »

A Gathering of Presbyterians: Part 2

The Fellowship of Presbyterians has gathered approximately 1950 Presbyterian pastors, elders, observers, and Louisville staffers to discuss a new way of doing church. This process of discernment is designed to prepare primarily evangelicals dissatisfied with the status quo for next steps into a new reality. Today the informational groundwork was laid with presentations on an organizational umbrella—a new entity called “Fellowship of Presbyterians”—under which a variety of options will be shepherded to full realization. Ranging from “staying in place as missional agents” all the way to separating into a “new Reformed Body (NRB),” these options recognize the reality that there

A Gathering of Presbyterians: Part 2 Read More »

A Gathering of Presbyterians: Part I

Almost 2000 Presbyterians, brought together by concerns for the direction of the denomination, are meeting in Minneapolis, MN, through Friday. I am among them, listening and hoping that a unified vision will emerge as we spend the next two days together. To start things off, an astonishing crowd of about 1000 gathered Wednesday evening for a pre-conference time of worship and prayer. The evening was organized around the six Great Ends of the Church, with Scripture, guided prayer, and songs related to each theme. Afterwards, 195 small group leaders gathered for a mini-preparation session. The organizational effort has been immense

A Gathering of Presbyterians: Part I Read More »

Scroll to Top