My Reflections of the 220th General Assembly of the PCUSA

I've been home for four days now since the General Assembly in Pittsburgh.

I am not sure if I've fully recovered from GA.

I am still trying to process what I experienced and what I sense God doing in my life and in the life of his church.

By now, we know that the GA did not redefine marriage, and did not divest from Caterpillar, HP, and Motorola.

Also the GA did not give the recommendations from the Mid Council Commissions even the light of day before voting them down in committee and in plenary.

Going into this GA, if someone would have asked me to define what a good result for GA would be, it would be exactly what the GA did in both the issues of marriage and Israel/Palestine.

What would have put it over the top would have been serious considerations of both the Mid Council Commissions recommendations and for a genuine conversation around the trust clause.

Why is it then that I am not jubilant over the results of the 220th General Assembly?

Some of the things that are clear from our days together in Pittsburgh:

• We are an incredibly divided church. It's not just about marriage or Israel/Palestine. What is really at the core that divides us is how we understand ourselves as Christians and Presbyterians in relationship to God and the Bible. 
• The changes in the definition of marriage is a matter of when, not a matter of if. The only reason why this GA did not approve such changes now is because many were cognizant that such a change would be the final straw for many congregations and for our mission partners around the world.
• Our institutional church is not ready to really engage in conversations about the radical nature of adaptive changes that are before us. The GA is fine with the idea of change, but when it gets down to the actual implications of change, the GA was not even prepared to discuss those realities.
• Ultimately, I am still left wondering how does what GA's do further the cause of Christ?

So, four days removed, I find myself still quite ambivalent about the 220th General Assembly. 

Can God bring about renewal and revive this dying denomination to be vibrant and growing? Can God use the PC(USA) to be all about bring people to Jesus Christ?

Of course God can.

Will that happen?

I am not sure. 

I sure hope so.

I would love to see it so.

But here's the thing. I have very little control over what any future GA's will do. 

But I can do something about what my local church will be about. 

I want to lead my church in such a way that we be all about bringing people to Jesus Christ. I want to spend my life sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and helping people become faithful followers of Jesus Christ. 

I will do everything I can to pastor and lead my congregation to live into this vision.

I pray that our GA would one day recognize the reality that ministry is done at the local level. Therefore, structures beyond the local church - presbyteries, synods (we still have them), and GA's - exist to serve and enable local congregations to do their ministry more effectively and not the other way around.

Structures ought not get in the way of local churches doing their ministry. 

This adaptive change will happen.

Whether the PC(USA) wants to be a part of that change...that's all up to the PC(USA).