An Examen of the Year

Since our Presbytery office is closed each year between Christmas and New Year’s, it has become my custom to steal away to the mountains or another quiet place to spend some time in prayer.  I typically do some kind of look back at the year just concluded to see where God was particularly active, and look for things I might have missed.  My spiritual director calls this a process of “examen.” [Click here for more information on the prayer of examen.]

When I looked back at 2014, here are some of the “God-things” I observed in Cherokee Presbytery:

• Two of the people we saw through the Preparation for Ministry process were ordained.  Stephen Fearing (Dalton) was ordained to serve as pastor at Shelter Island Presbyterian Church in New York and Kira Stringer (Marietta First) was ordained as Associate Pastor at Wellshire Pres. in Denver, CO.
• We commissioned two Ruling Elders to serve in our congregations:  Bob Butler is serving at Calhoun Pres. and Kwasi Aye-Addo is serving at Ebenezer Ghanaian NCD.  These are the first Commissioned Ruling Elders to be deployed in many years, and I celebrate the Presbytery’s willingness to take this step of faith.
• We have had several pastoral transitions this last year.  Dalton completed their search for a new pastor, and that search brought Will Scott into our Presbytery.  Faith (No. Georgia) called Jim Simpson as their Installed pastor.  Heritage, Beersheba and Macland are now being served by interim pastors (Arch Baker, Jack Westlund and Richard Hill).  I am finding it quite refreshing to have these new colleagues in our midst, as they come from other presbyteries and bring fresh perspectives, new ideas and new energy to our Presbytery.
• The Summer Camp at Cherokee Retreat Center and Camp was a real blessing!  Started by the energies of two congregations (Providence and Cartersville), people from many other congregations joined in to help provide a wonderful camping experience for the children and young people in our area.  It was wonderful for me to see the connections made between the volunteers from our congregations, and to see the connections made between campers young and old.  The week felt like a real coming together of our presbytery; people sharing their gifts in order to do something for young people.
• There were several events this year that blessed many of our members.  The Leadership Training Event sponsored by Congregational Care and Mission Team,  the “Creating a Culture of Generosity” workshop hosted by Cartersville Pres., and the opportunity given by Light of Hope for so many people to attend the Evangelism and Church Growth Conference were all meaningful opportunities for learning, sharing and being together.
• We’ve begun a good relationship with DOOR Ministries (Discover Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) in Atlanta.
• The year went well financially:  we ended the year in the black (both for the Presbytery operations and the retreat center), and we have a sale pending for the Sixes property!
• I feel like we “one-anothered” very well.  There is a  Unity and Diversity group that meets monthly to build relationships among people of differing theological perspectives.  We listened to the concerns of people with the Authoritative Interpretation that the GA issued this last summer, and acted together to file a remedial complaint with the GA’s Permanent Judicial Commission.  And lastly, we gathered alongside those who have left the PC(USA) at the Memorial Service for our brother, Mickey Shealy.  It was really moving to me to see the warm embraces and shared tears between those who have recently parted company.

Here are some of the areas where I think we missed opportunities and/or experienced struggles:

• We seem to struggle to find enough people willing to fill committees, teams, commissions, etc.  There seems to be a bit of apathy or lack of energy or something.  I often wonder if we are still dealing with the many difficult transitions of the last decade (Jim Choomak’s resignation, Scudder’s death, an interim period that involved a lot of change, dismissals and congregational divisions, etc.).  I spend a lot of time thinking and praying about how we might mend whatever is keeping us from being more energetic, robust and excited about our life together.
• Financial uncertainty and the resulting reductions in staff have been stressful for us.  When I came here in 2009, we had 4.0 Full time equivalent (FTE) staff members.  Now we’re down to 1.5 FTEs.  For one thing, it means that the office is a lot quieter, and staff parties are not nearly as boisterous as they used to be!  And yet,   even though we stress about these things and worry about “the bottom line,”  God has been good to us.  Congregations and volunteers have stepped up to help with time and money.  We are learning to do things differently and to let go of some things that might no longer be necessary.

 

So, what might God be up to for this coming year?  I’m sure that the conversations about the future of the Georgia Presbyteries will continue.  In these conversations, we will have an opportunity to work with the other Presbyteries in Georgia to look at how we might fulfill our missions in the future.  There are opportunities to share in one another’s special ministries ( such as Savannah Presbytery’s School of the Laity), to learn from one another and to perhaps consolidate some of our redundant work.  It is an exciting opportunity, even though it involves that most fear-inducing word… change.

I am also feeling a tug for us to explore new ways of doing mission and ministry in our region.  As I’ve noted before, our area is not under-churched but it IS under-Gospeled.  I believe that there are many places in Northwest Georgia that would be blessed by a reformed witness in their midst.  That witness likely does not need to be the establishment of an organized congregation, but could be an intentional mission community sponsored or supported by one of our congregations.  I’ve been really drawn to the “intentional Christian Community” and “new monasticism” movements and believe that they offers a good way forward for us in the 21st century.   If you’re interested in exploring this subject, I would suggest the following books: