Thursday, July 27, 2006
Gatekeeping
On Monday I wrote about spiritual formation and said
Why is the process not working? It's not the process' fault, it's the fault of the people using the process. Frankly, what has happened is that people that have come to professional Presbyterian ministry and failed, often because they are so left wing, have been warehoused in the higher ajudicatories where they have siezed control of the process, in part because of disinterest of those "on the street", and have therefore engaged in much mischief.
We, the people in the pews and on the Sessions, have largely abdicated our primary responsibility - as gatekeepers.
Let me expand on that a bit. Good people will make good things happen in the PC(USA) or any other organization, regardless of its particular polity. The reposnsibility that we have abdicated is to get good people in those places. Two basic comments.
First, certainly in PC(USA) we don't concentrate on building disciples, we concentrate on filling the pews and the plates. But I have talked abut that a lot before on this blog.
The other thing is that we do not work hard to act as gatekeepers. We need to learn a couple of important things. Firstly, we need to learn how to let people fail. Failure contains lessons, hard won, but worth the price. When we do not let people fail, when we shunt aside when we should fire we encourage the failing behavior. This is true throughout much of the Church universal these days. From pedophile priests to homosexual Presbyterian pastors, these failures of character should be appripriately responded to.
Secondly, we need to worry more about the qualifications of the people we nominate, elect, ordain, and hire than we do about merely "filling the position." The lesson I am learning is that I would rather have an empty slot than a poorly filled on.
Part of my conclusion to the Monday post was
Some other people are thinking about what it means to be PC(USA) too. Lots of other people.
Related Tags: faith, growth, gatekeeping, PC(USA), maturity, qualification for office
There are standards and mandates - proferred not as barriers, but as indicators - signs that the Holy Spirit has done His work to a point and that this person has reached some level we vaguely refer to as "mature."Yesterday, I commented very briefly on this post about the current crisis in the PC(USA)
Over and over again in this season of crisis in the church, we are being told by our presbytery, synod and General Assembly leaders to give up our mistrust of them and simply 'trust the process of discernment'. What they mean by this is that we should trust the polity that we have to sort things out, that God works through our process to steer the church to exactly where it needs to be.Here's the problem, I believe in the PC(USA) polity - it main be the primary reason I am Presbyterian. That does not mean I think the systemis working right now - it's not - but I do not think a turn to the individualistic mindset of classic evangelicalism is the answer for Presbyterians.
Why is the process not working? It's not the process' fault, it's the fault of the people using the process. Frankly, what has happened is that people that have come to professional Presbyterian ministry and failed, often because they are so left wing, have been warehoused in the higher ajudicatories where they have siezed control of the process, in part because of disinterest of those "on the street", and have therefore engaged in much mischief.
We, the people in the pews and on the Sessions, have largely abdicated our primary responsibility - as gatekeepers.
Let me expand on that a bit. Good people will make good things happen in the PC(USA) or any other organization, regardless of its particular polity. The reposnsibility that we have abdicated is to get good people in those places. Two basic comments.
First, certainly in PC(USA) we don't concentrate on building disciples, we concentrate on filling the pews and the plates. But I have talked abut that a lot before on this blog.
The other thing is that we do not work hard to act as gatekeepers. We need to learn a couple of important things. Firstly, we need to learn how to let people fail. Failure contains lessons, hard won, but worth the price. When we do not let people fail, when we shunt aside when we should fire we encourage the failing behavior. This is true throughout much of the Church universal these days. From pedophile priests to homosexual Presbyterian pastors, these failures of character should be appripriately responded to.
Secondly, we need to worry more about the qualifications of the people we nominate, elect, ordain, and hire than we do about merely "filling the position." The lesson I am learning is that I would rather have an empty slot than a poorly filled on.
Part of my conclusion to the Monday post was
All are indeed welcome through the front door, regardless, but not all can access all the areas.It is time we reassert our role as gatekeeper.
Some other people are thinking about what it means to be PC(USA) too. Lots of other people.
Related Tags: faith, growth, gatekeeping, PC(USA), maturity, qualification for office
