In the honoured tradition of Robert’s Rules, I second some motions by Hans Kouwenberg in a recent article and some follow-up e-mails with Bill Ashby in Coldwater, Ontario.
Well, actually, no one actually put forward a motion, so in the less-honoured tradition of Andrew’s Rules (4.4 Proposing an Amen-with-Amendments), I’ll add my comments to some put forward by Rev. Kouwenberg.
Kouwenberg writes:
Even more, if we have no real strategy (as I think is the case) for building up the church and increasing its membership, then perhaps we need to rethink where we marshal our resources and “bulk up” where the need is greatest. Maybe we need more, not fewer people dedicated at 50 Wynford Drive to praying and planning how we might reach the next generation for Christ. (Do we even know enough about who and what this generation wants and needs?)
In an online response, Bill Ashby of Coldwater, Ontario, replies:
I feel there is agreement that the Presbyterian Church in Canada is in serious membership decline and that adjustments are needed to compensate for reduced financial resources. At the same time we need to provide extra financial and human resources to help rejuvenate our church.
Ashby adds in a further e-mail:
I feel we all need to consider what we can do personally to help our church go forward and each of us should truthfully answer the following (question): are we as individuals acting in a way that we can truthfully say, “we are trying our best?”
This is an interesting exchange and Ashby, a member of the Life and Mission Agency and a representative elder to presbytery, makes a valid point; but I hope he won’t mind if I (perhaps unfairly) use his response as a springboard.
We can all say “Amen” with Bill Ashby when he says (my paraphrase) that we must all pull our weight and row the Presbyterian ship together. But Kouwenberg is asking, “Where is the ship headed?” Kouwenberg is asking a question of the Presbyterian Church as a denomination; Ashby is answering as an individual elder. Kouwenberg is looking outwards from the church doors; Ashby is looking inside.
It is this “looking inward” that Donald Anderson and I encountered when we were working with the task force for the revision of the Book of Praise. (Hans Kouwenberg, by the way, was a valued member of that task force.) A frequent argument against a new hymn book often went like this: “A new Book of Praise is a needless expense at this point, but if it is going to be produced, make sure that it is for the actual people in the pews. We are the ones who will be singing from it.” The task force, though, had been given a national, and a biblically-based, mandate of meeting the needs of people not yet in the pews, of nourishing a new generation, of singing a new church into being.
Kouwenberg, for his part, is reaching out, thinking like an apostle or a missionary. He is asking, not how can we improve the state of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, but how can we share the good news of Jesus Christ with the next generation? He asks, in effect, have we listened to this generation enough to be able to speak to it?
Amen.
Kouwenberg points to the limited knowledge, limited availability and limited ability of the resource personnel in the Vine network to provide “tangible help,” and calls for a national strategy and a realignment of resources.
Amen with Amendment (or perhaps Elaboration. Andrew’s Rules 4.5. Look it up.)
We have always needed to follow up the publication of the Book of Praise and the Book of Psalms with teaching. These resources are now almost 15 years old. Correct me if I’m wrong, but since these two resources appeared, we have never had denomination-wide sessions on learning new kinds of hymns (for example pop-style hymns, or Taizé chants), no workshops on using percussion, no conferences for people who want to learn about the African, Asian or South American music in our Book of Praise.
By way of example: “You are holy, you are whole” (#828) and “Holy, Holy, Holy” (#299) are both classics in their own right. NICEA, it could be argued, needs no introduction; “You are Holy, You are whole” does. Leading Per Harling’s samba is a different proposition from accompanying “Holy, holy, holy.” Who is Per Harling anyway? Is he still alive? How did a Swede come to write a South American-style samba? How does knowing about our hymns help worship leaders to lead them? These are basic, Hymn Leadership 101 questions. Are we—as a denomination, not as individual members—addressing them?
The Book of Psalms was developed in order to give people a chance to experience the psalms, the Bible’s main hymn book, in many different ways. Like any music, the psalms need to be lifted off the page, to be tried on like a costume in a biblical pageant, to be experienced as the dramatic form they are meant to be. Yet, over 15 years after its publication (to glowing international reviews) we have yet to develop a denominational strategy for teaching congregations, choirs, or music and worship leaders how to sing and lead them.
Kouwenberg writes, “(L)et’s share more gifted, skilled and experienced people who can embody some of the changes we need.”
Amen.
Maybe I’m presbyopic; but I’ve seen a lot of talented people in the Presbyterian church who could be, should be sharing their gifts in implementing a national, denominational strategy for making our worship alive, vibrant and joyful, and for effectively sharing our faith. Is there a place in the Presbyterian system for them?
I was recently in New York city with a small group of United Methodist missionaries-in-training. Maybe there’s madness in their Methodism; maybe it’s part and parcel of being missionaries, but there they were, sharing their gifts to embody a denominational and global strategy. The United Methodist denomination is just as worried about declining membership as we are north of the 49th. They are looking out, reaching out, sending out. How are we doing?
