Posted by : Shawn in (Blogging, PC (USA))
Not your father’s moderator candidate
Disclaimer: I’m on Bruce’s team and oversee the Facebook group.
Bruce Reyes-Chow is running standing for moderator of the 2008 General Assembly, and in a post today he writes about some of the reactions he has gotten so far. He writes that people are telling him the following three things.
- You are moving too fast. Slow down.
- You are too public. Why talk about these things now?
- You are “campaigning.” We stand for moderator, we do not run for it.
Bruce does a wonderful job of discussing these on his blog, so I’m not going to add much too what he has written. But since I’m a blogger, and riffing on other people’s material is what I do, let me say a couple things.
1) Bruce is exactly right when he says that speed, connectivity, and transparency are all characteristics of the upcoming generations and we need to embrace that fact if we want to be the church of upcoming generations.
2) More information is good! How much have we really known about past moderator candidates? I’m willing to bet that because of Bruce’s efforts all the candidates will be better known by more Presbyterians. Bruce writes about the other candidates, and he links to their websites and other articles about them. Through Bruce’s blog, conversations, Facebook group, and connections more young Presbyterians are learning not just about the position of moderator, but about General Assembly itself. I guarantee there are young Presbyterians learning about General Assembly for the first time through Facebook.
It seems to me that information about candidates in the past has been limited to those already on “the inside.” If you weren’t a reader of the Outlook, Presbyterians Today or another Presbyterian flavored publication would you even know who the candidates were? And what would you know about them if you could name them? I wonder if people are threatened by Bruce’s stand as moderator because he is opening the process up to all sorts of Presbyterians unintentionally excluded before?
If you’ve been to a General Assembly before then you know that age-wise it is heavily skewed to the older side. Most Presbyteries seek gender and ethnic diversity in their commissioners, but most Presbyteries neglect age diversity. In fact, I’d guess that most Presbyteries have a formal or informal seniority criteria that tends to exclude younger elders and ministers. So it is no wonder that people are threatened when hundreds of young Presbyterians take an interest in General Assembly.
But it shouldn’t be threatening. It should be exciting and hopeful. Wouldn’t it be great if General Assembly made headlines this year? Not because of a divisive vote or issue, but because we sent a strong message that younger generations aren’t the church of tomorrow, but rather a vital and important part of the church of today.
Shawn, I’m with you a lot of the way, but I disagree that GA doesn’t have a strong youth emphasis. Youth Advisory Delegates (YADs) have huge impacts on the look and feel of the assembly. On committees, their votes–which are counted not as advisory but full–can make up 20%+ of the vote. They rush the mikes from small issues to large, and are the focus of many an affiliate group’s advocacy. Yes, many minister and elder delegates are older, but that’s representative of our average age in the PC(USA) in general. Sure we could probably do more–but youth lead prayers, youth are on every single committee, youth dominate debate, hell, youth have even preached at GA. We give YADs special training and caucus time. YADs are the best-informed folks there, period. At GA, we do well to give youth a voice.
Youth may be represented as YADs and in a lot of other ways, but not as full voting delegates. I’ve tried in years past to get the exact age range of GA commissioners but the PC(USA) offices I have contacted have been either unable or unwilling to provide me with this information.
But I’d be willing to bet that the percentage of full voting commissioners under the age of 25 on the floor of GA is much lower than the percentage of avtive members under 25 in the PC(USA). Have there ever been any voting commissioners under the age of 25? How about under the age of 18?
And while youth may be represented in other ways what about young adults? Younger elders or ministers under 30?
PC(USA) membership is disprortionately old, but I think it is a safe bet that GA commissioners are even older as a whole.
Our Presbytery, assuming it votes in the affirmative on tuesday, intentionaly sought to appoint younger commissioners to this year’s GA. Both pastor commissioners are in their late 30’s (me) and early 40s (another woman.)
However, the elder commissioners are significantly older, but then who in our lay ranks is really willing to take a full week out of their life and a week of their hard earned vacation to be a GA Junkie?
I have to applaud our Executive Presbytery for his push in that direction, at least in securing younger pastor types.
As I re-read my response, I realized that late 30s and early 40s is not really that ‘young’ but then we don’t have very many ministers in our presbyter that are that much younger than I am…
You beat me to the punch.
The good news is your Presbytery is making an intentional effort for age diversity. The bad news is that young begins at late 30s. :)
Baby steps are better than backward steps though!
Come on folks. Considering the average age of PCUSA ministers, 30, heck 40 is young.
If you go straight through school and jump through the ordination hoops, the earliest possible ordination age is about 25. Folks retire around 65ish, but remain members of Presbytery for years–for good reason.
Remember, also, the large number of second career ministers. My entering class at Columbia Seminary is the youngest in memory, with average age of 27. So this very young class will be ordained on average at 30. Most other seminaries will have older classes, upping the average ordination age.
I say it again, YADs have enormous power and face-time. The PC(USA) is going out of its way to support youth.
In terms of young adults, we can probably do more, but when I’ve gone under the auspices of affinity groups, I’ve sure noticed plenty of young adult “lobbyists” or whatever you’d like to call them.
Look, I’m young, God willing, I’ll be ordained at 26. But older ministers and elders are the heart of the church and have way more wisdom than I can dream of. There’s a reason America’s youngest president was 43. I think our fear for the future of the church has skewed our appreciation of the wisdom of age.
Adam,
I’m not asking for a huge portion of commissioners to be youth or young adults, but I serisouly wonder if there has ever been any commissioners under the age of 18 or under the age of 25? You are right that it is unreasonable to expect many ministers under 30, but they are there. I think it would be great to have some newly ordained ministers as commissioners at each General Assembly. And many churches elect youth as elders. So why don’t any of them make it as commissioners at GA?
I appreciate the wisdom of age, but if we claim to be a denomination governed by a represetnative group of our members and ministers, then let’s be that. If we can trust youth and young adults to be YADs, which as you say have a lot of power, than what is the problem with making a few full voting commissioners? But as far as I can tell this isn’t happening at all.
Hey Shawn,
Sorry, this isn’t a comment about GA and young commissioners. I wanna know:
Are you gonna keep blogging The Irresistible Revolution? You got me turned on to it, now I’m ready for some good discussion. :)
Yes, I’m going to keep blogging it. I’ve just been uber-swamped lately.
Cool. I’ll be watching!