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Earlier this week, Bruce Reyes-Chow was elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is great news, for various reasons. First of all, Bruce is a great guy and I count him as a friend (even a real friend, not just a Facebook friend!). There's been a lot made (at least in Presby circles) that Bruce was unique among the four candidates for several reasons: he was the only non-white, the only one not to wear a tie, and the youngest.
And, the word "emergent" has been thrown around a lot, too.
Bruce is, indeed, emergent. He pastors a church that he planted in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, a church that he planted. He's a part of the Emergent Village cohort there, and he affiliates with Presbymergent. I had the pleasure of speaking at an emergent event with him at his church last year.
Bruce offers great promise to the PC(USA) in his two-year term - and, let it be said, the PC(SUA) has been about the most interested in emergent ideas of any denomination. Bruce will push the organization in a missional direction, he'll open doors for younger people, and he's just got a great, warm, and inviting personality. On our West Coast leg of the Roadshow, younger Presbyterians repeatedly told us how excited they are about Bruce's election. Bruce is to the PC(USA) what Tiger Woods was to golf and Barack Obama is to politics.
But here's my big caveat: the PC(USA) is a huge, hegemonic, and possibly intractable bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are really excellent at only one thing: self-sustenance. They mitigate against significant change and they chew up and spit out entrepreneurs. Bruce may be able to provoke a two percent change, or even a five percent change, in his two year term, but will that be enough? And who will succeed him? Will the next moderator continue Bruce's agenda?
All this, of course, remains to be seen. Regardless, I'm looking forward with great anticipation to see what Bruce can accomplish.
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Comments
Tony - glad you covered this. I have great hopes (but sometimes feel like a spit out entrepreneur.)
Posted by: Jan Edmiston | July 1, 2008 8:21 AM
I would like to correct a factual error in your "reporting" of our General Assembly. Bruce was not the only "Non white" person running for moderator. Bill Teng (of Chinese descent) ran from National Capital Presbytery. You may want to correct this. When someone with as much power and authority as you makes this type of error in reporting facts it can color your many readers perceptions. I know that it was an error of ignorance, but an error non-the-less. Thanks.
Posted by: Brian Merritt | July 3, 2008 6:57 AM
I do not have a love/hate relationship with the PC(USA). They are my family I am inextricably linked to them because it has been the PC(USA) institutions (churches, camps, colleges, seminaries...) that have nurtured my faith and call. Helping me to discern that I have been called to ministry and at this time that is youth ministry.
I too count Bruce as one of my (facebook) friends and am extremely psyched about him being elected moderator.
Tony, a couple of things about the article...Bruce was not the only non-white candidate, Bill Teng is also of Asian heritage. Also, Bruce should not be about "an agenda" unless of course that "agenda" is helping to moderate the conversation that the church is having seeking to follow the will of God for Presbyterians, Christians, and the world.
I am ecstatic about the church's choice of Bruce as moderator I only hope that God will use him to help the church be open to new ways of following Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
Greg
Posted by: Greg | July 3, 2008 3:35 PM
As moderator, Bruce will have visibility among congregations, and can provide an example and encouragement for alternate but faithful ways of "doing church" in this millenium. At the national level, there is an unwieldy but recently much shrunken bureaucracy, but we are not a top down denomination, so that bureaucracy only has real power in areas like pensions or mission abroad. At the Presbytery level, I suppose that could try to stop "emergent" changes in a congregation, but I cannot imagine it happening. In my Presbytery (Elizabeth, NJ) meetings often feature speakers with experience in new ways to be faithful or reach out. We know we have to change or die. Change in Presbyterian denominations come from links between congregations. When we see someone doing something effective, we copy it. That is how Workshop Rotation Sunday Schools spread throughout the country. Only later, the Sunday School publishers added curricula designed to be used with the Rotational model.
Posted by: Maryjane Finne | July 9, 2008 5:16 PM
Other than being friends with Bruce, I don't have much to do with the General Assembly and I flee from bureaucracy in general.
I do my work on the local level. I appreciate the structure of the PCUSA, because it is a place where women can flourish, and the network can give some TLC to pastors and congregations in difficult situations. And, our church receives a lot of support from the denominational community when we feed the homeless, build clinics in Ethiopia, work with prostitutes, etc.
Whether the Presbys can be "emerging"... who knows. I'm always confused by who's in and who's out of the movement from one moment to the next....
I do know that Bruce is just one of many, many interesting leaders who are doing innovative and effective ministry in a postmodern generation. I know that denominationalism isn't for everyone, but I don't discount the amazing things that are clearly happening in our little corner of Christianity.
Also, when the emergent movement excludes those who are ministering within denominations, then they cut off much of their female leadership. And, I'm afraid they will lose some relevancy.
Posted by: carol howard merritt | July 15, 2008 8:57 AM