Presbyterian Coalition Gathering X Token or truth? Staff changes in Louisville invite questions of substance Commentary By Parker T. Williamson The Layman Online Monday, August 20, 2007 HOUSTON – On the final evening of its Gathering X conference, the Presbyterian Coalition welcomed to its podium the Rev. Tom Taylor, deputy executive director for mission in the General Assembly Council of Presbyterian Church (USA). Tom Taylor Taylor, known to many in the room as an evangelical pastor from Southern California, brought greetings from denominational headquarters, where he has been employed for the past eight months. Suggesting that his recruitment indicates positive changes in Louisville, he said that he has been graciously welcomed by people in the national office. Taylor began his speech by displaying an organizational chart. One of Louisville's most significant changes, he said, has been the initiation of a new hierarchical structure that assigns clear authority to the General Assembly Council's executive director. The former structure, which, in effect, divided governance among several separate divisions, was functionally unmanageable, he said. "People got very territorial." Taylor said he has been meeting with each member of the denominational staff, trying to learn what they do. He said that, with each employee, he has discussed the elephant in the room – a vast sense of discontinuity between the national church offices and people in the pews. "I told them that it is an obsession of mine that these offices serve at the pleasure of the churches in the trenches," he said. Being a 'missional church' Employing a buzzword that is in vogue among Presbyterians of every theological stripe, Taylor said, "The missional church needs to be what this is about. … We seek to have unity in mission. … We have to understand that we are all in this mission together." What is not clear, and a subject that was not addressed by Taylor, is what mission means. For some Presbyterians, mission means bringing people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. For others, it means changing the world's socio-political structures. While Taylor's desire to achieve "unity in mission" is laudable in the abstract, it will gain traction with people in the pews only when "mission" is Biblically defined and rigorously pursued within the perimeters of that definition. The denomination has wrestled with this issue several times in its recent history, when its leaders have declared, "Doctrine divides; Mission unites." At the outset, such themes bring liberals and conservatives together. But inevitably, when the allocation of funds is involved, they must determine the meaning of this mission around which they say they have found unity. At that point, doctrine enters the picture, for there can be no mission without a message and the message expresses what one believes. Welcoming diversity Taylor said that, as an evangelical, he has found it refreshing to experience diversity. "Knowing that everybody is not like me or you is a good thing," he said. "Iron sharpens iron." Taylor believes the fact that he was welcomed to Louisville is a sign of progress. "It became clear to me that they were serious about inviting evangelicals to have a place at the table," he said. He told the Coalition's audience that the work he supervises will focus on four goals: Evangelism and Witness; Justice and Compassion; Leadership and Vocation; and Spirituality and Discipleship. Briefly, he specified each goal with an accompanying passage of Scripture. Paying a price Taylor lamented the decline in congregational mission giving to denominational headquarters, pointing out that the loss of income had resulted in the curtailment of laudable programs. He mentioned a mission program in the Congo that lost tens of thousands of dollars as a result of a congregation's dissatisfaction with the denomination. "How much do we want to make these groups pay for our battles with one another?" he asked. "We still have hundreds of millions of dollars of assets in missions around the world. We need to be thinking about that when thinking of leaving." The associate deputy director is unabashedly and refreshingly evangelical. But he also is very new on the job, and his history as a PCUSA minister is less than 10 years old. There remains a learning curve that he will have to climb. Part of that curve is the budgeting process, an exercise wherein priorities come to light. Yes, it is true that declining dollars forced Louisville to cut some national church programs. But there is more to the story. Choosing which programs to cut is a values declaration. Diminished income alone did not decimate the denomination's missionary force, for other programs – e.g., support for the World and National Councils of Churches and the denomination's political lobbying office in Washington, D.C. – survived the cuts. Louisville has welcomed an evangelical. His time of testing will come. The Rev. Parker T. Williamson is editor emeritus of The Layman and The Layman Online.

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