Churches/Step by Step November 2000 Overview Redeem the Time! Presbyteries across the nation are already beginning to schedule debates and votes on Amendment O. Your congregation, session and pastor need to begin immediately to develop and implement a strategy for passing Amendment O when it comes to a vote in your presbytery. The material which follows may help you. Step One 1. Pray individually and as a group to be faithful to Scripture, civil in all of your discussions about the Church’s view of marriage and steadfast in your deliberations and presentations. 2. Organize a local committee with adult members of your congregation who share your convictions. 3. Review the materials in this manual and prepare handouts for committee members. 4. Ask your pastor to check with the presbytery office for the likely date of the vote in your presbytery. Monitor websites (www.presbycoalition.org, www.layman.org, wwwpresbyweb.org and www.pforum.org) for updates on presbytery votes and information on arguments that are employed. Step Two 1. Establish your local church timetable. For instance, if your presbytery vote is scheduled in February, you may want to establish a timetable as follows: November Committee organizational meeting Follow up with session December Presentations to adult Sunday school classes (see Appendix, p. 57) Consideration of resolutions by session January Review material with commissioners who will attend presbytery meeting Meet with your local newspaper editor or religion editor and provide resource material and comment 2. Select contact people to meet with: a. Your pastor b. Clerk of session and/or other elders c. Sunday school coordinator d. Church members 3. Line up Sunday school teacher(s) for adult classes and provide them with copies of suggested curriculum. Step Four 1. Present to session an overview of the issues involved in the marriage debate: a. Urge session to consider adopting a resolution supporting the language of Amendment O. You may wish to include some of the session members’ statements in the resolution. b. Urge elders to elect representatives to presbytery who are committed to Biblical standards and the confessions of the church. c. Urge the session to communicate its position to members of the congregation. 2. Present to the adult Sunday school classes an exposition of the issue framed by Scripture and the confessions. (Copy some of the materials in this booklet as handouts during the class.) Also, urge Sunday school classes to initiate their own action plans. Step Five Monitor and follow up on the actions requested.

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