"Big Changes in Presbytery?" Do you know how you fit into God’s story?  How do we, as a church, fit into his story?  It is, after all, his story.  The Bible mentions that creation occurred as an act of God’s spoken language (John 1:1-14; Hebrews 11:3).  It also describes our lives as having been written before we ever began to live them (Psalm 139:16).  And at the end of days, at the last judgment, we’ll find that our deeds have been recorded in a book that will be opened to judge the world—though if our names are written in the Book of Life (whose author is the Lamb, ie. Jesus our Savior), we will escape the penalty for our evil deeds (Revelation 20:12-15; 17:8).  So, God is clearly the author of our existence.

But what is his story?  A book I recently read by Reggie McNeal put it this way: "All of human history is the story of God’s determination to woo human beings with his heart so he can transform them with his love and partner with them in his redemptive mission in the world."  I ask again, "How do you fit in this story?"  "How does God’s church?"

These are questions that we should have an answer to.  And depending on how we answer them can change our eternal destinies and those of the people around us.  It is a question that many churches have found themselves having to ask in recent years.  For a very long time, the churches in this country have turned into themselves and taken on a "club membership" mentality.  Outreach has been a matter of survival - to find new members to sustain the club, and it has been in the form of attracting people by programs and various ways to get them "in the doors."  Rather than following Jesus’ model of going out and being the church, we were bent on coming in and doing church.  In order to succeed in this, we couldn’t have a bunch of fisherman and blue-collar workers doing it, so we hired "professionals" and other leaders who we depended on to slickly carry out the work that we each were meant to do in whatever situations we found ourselves.  As a result, the church in America has struggled to find its identity in God’s story (a quick look at our churches will reveal almost entire generations missing).  

But the good news is that across the board, many are waking up to this reality and asking God how we can start being the church again.  This discussion has been going on this past year in our Presbytery.  In fact, a task force was formed to look at options and structural changes in our Presbytery which might better serve the true vision that God has for the churches in our region.  They came back with a  proposal at the last meeting, and the Presbytery approved it.  At the heart of the changes are a return to the Presbyterian focus of building up and empowering the congregations to the ministry that God calls us.  Included are some very big changes.  Let me highlight a few:

1.)  No Executive Presbyter — Bill Byrd is leaving June 1, and he will not be replaced.  His position  
is one that was never in our Book of Order, but was demanded by churches, as part of our tendency to centralize and look to others for the work of the church.  Instead, there will be a half-time mission coordinator who will work with a team of folks from each region of Presbytery in some administration duties, but will especially be overseeing ways of educating and coming alongside churches in their own work.

2.)  No office — We are selling the Presbytery office in Storm Lake.  Instead, the Presbytery will be out among the churches.  This will help in understanding that Presbytery is not some organization of our denomination, but it is us: a relationship of churches in a regional area.

3.)  More working relationships with churches in our area — whether to support projects of the church or to assist in challenges, working groups of people from various churches will be formed to address specific issues or topics.

These are just a few of the changes.  You can view the full proposal on the presbytery website, http://www.prospecthillpresby.org.  This of interest to each one of us, in that we all have a part to play in God’s unfolding story.  There’s a world in need of a Savior, and we have much to do.  Let’s open our hearts to how we can live out this redemption story.

Your friend in the Ministry
Matt Milligan