It's Off to Louisville for GAC

As this article is being posted I am on an airplane headed for Louisville, Kentucky. The General Assembly Council (GAC) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) is meeting from Wednesday through Friday. I have to arrive a day early to serve detention. (Actually it is the personnel committee meeting, and I suspect it is like detention for them to have to put up with me for an extra day.)

Last April the GAC voted to do a major reorganization, reduce the budget and eliminate about 25% of the paid positions. It appears that nearly a year later we have completed much of this disruptive transition and have hired most of the people for key leadership positions. It is time now to complete the work we agreed to a year ago and really make the Mission Work Plan, with its focus on objective outcomes, a reality.

I have some posts I have written in advance that I will post this week but as you can imagine I might have limited time to respond to comments. I will do my best. I may write some about the GAC events although I know many of my readers are not PCUSA and I have noticed that my blog hits nosedive when I focus too much on these issues. Most of what is newsworthy gets reported in news outlets and while I might be able to tell you additional things, in many cases I would have to kill you afterwards (although I would do so in a Christ-like manner.)

I really enjoy the people I get to work with at these GAC meetings but I must tell you that having not grown up Presbyterian I don’t have the nostalgia that frequently comes up in conversations. I am also of a temperament that strongly identifies with Mark Twain’s admonition that, “No committee should ever have more than three people …. preferably with two of them always absent.” I do my best.

Anyway, please keep us all in your prayers.

Comments

[Kathy]

How *do* you keep from falling victim to total bureaucratic zombification down there in Lullvull? Don't you know there's a mind-numbing force field that starts fifty miles out from denominational headquarters?

If you're staying awake-- and doing some good-- it must be all grace!

Now that I've tripped over your blog, I'll check in to see how your PCUSA work is progressing. I make sure to pray for our bit of the Church Universal every Sunday I preach. And now that I know you're involved, it'll make it that much more immediate.

[Michael W. Kruse]

Hi Kathy. Good to hear from you. I have been on GAC for three years now and our meetings are improving considerably. (Still a long road to travel.)

Please do check back and keep us in your prayers. After almost a year of struggling with getting a handle on the organizational crisis of last year we are now getting reoriented toward the future.

[will spotts]

Mike - I had to laugh at the nose-dive comment.

Admittedly, I'm biased, but I appreciate news (particularly personal perspectives/accounts) of the GAC.

[Michael W. Kruse]

I hope to make some observations later when I have time to think a little clearer. Right now I am at Midway in Chicago.