A Textbook Case of Unmissionalized Thinking

At the last meeting of my presbytery, it was announced that the presbytery office would be phasing out the director position of a hunger ministry that became a permanent program of the presbytery in 1982. Once the director position expires, oversight of the hunger ministry will return to the its committee, which is a committee of the Outreach Ministry Team, which reports to the presbytery.

Understandably, this news was met with some dismay on the presbytery floor, with a proposal that the decision be postponed and fears that at the elimination of the position, “people will go hungry.” Attention was then cast toward the lack of funding for the position, and then to the per capita giving chart included in the handbook for the meeting.

This meeting was on a Saturday, and the most telling statement I heard during the discussion began with the following phrase: “Go back to your congregations tomorrow and tell them…” Can you guess the second half of the command? Was it:

A) “…that we need to recognize the hunger problems in our community and pick up the slack.”
B) “…to go volunteer at a local hunger ministry or find ways to give to hunger organizations.”
C) “…that Jesus is calling them to get personally involved in their community's needs, including hunger.”
D) “…to give more money to presbytery so people won’t go hungry.”

If you said (D), then you’re right…sadly. Because a vote on my ordination was up next on the docket, I kept my decently-and-in-order hat on and resisted the temptation to scream, “Christendom!  Modernity! Dependency on structures!”

Have we really conditioned people to respond to a mission opportunity by asking their congregation to give to presbytery? I don’t know why the presbytery created a full-time position to serve under a subcommittee of a committee, but I’m sure the intentions were good. It’s not as if Joe and Jane Layperson dumped the money on presbytery to absolve themselves of having to volunteer at a soup kitchen. People love to participate in mission! But if the first response to a cut in a presbytery’s hunger ministry is to give money to presbytery, that’s about as anti-missional a proposal as one could imagine.

This meeting occurred back in September, and October’s financial adventures suggest that presbyteries will be forced to cut many program director positions in the near future. My prayer is that pastors and lay leaders see the opportunity to exhort their fellow Christians into fuller participation Jesus’ mission in the world, rather than rally around bureaucratic dependency. They could start where I tried to: in the coffee break that followed that debate, where I quoted Luke 9:13 to everyone I knew:

“You give them something to eat.”

Comments

[Renee]

Amen! Amen!

[Will]

It makes me very sad that what you described happens over and over again in our congregations and presbyteries. And I resonate with your need to hold your tongue in this particular situation. However, I hope you don't make a regular habit of doing that. Our PCUSA devotion to the institutional forms needs to be upset and turned over, kind of like Jesus when he overturned the tables in the Temple entry area.

[Kerri]

Hi Allen
As a former member of said presbytery this is not a new conversation. I agree that responses A-C would have been much better. Here is my concern though: How do "you" hold the deletion of this position with the support of a new specialized ministry at least 4x the amount being paid the hunger coordinator?