Crowdsourcing with Other Presbyteries: Seven of My Cups That Are Runnething Over

You know that feeling when your heart is really full and you feel you were a part of something amazing and you don’t completely know why and you try to put words to it because you want to share it?

This article is that.

Last week, six of us from the Commission on Ministry and Committee on Preparation for Ministry attended an event in a next-door presbytery called “COM/CPM Gathering: Innovation, Integrity & Ignition!” in Champaign, IL on March 5-7^th, hosted by the Synod of Lincoln Trails next door. The gathering itself is designed to bring members from different presbyteries to crowdsource together around the challenges or our ministries, with hopes we could then bring ideas and best practices back to our presbyteries to inspire and equip our own communities. There was an inspirational keynote by Corey Schlosser-Hall, Deputy Executive Director of Vision, Rebuilding and Innovation from the Presbyterian Mission Agency that also led us in conversations around innovation and best practices.

Here are seven cups that runneth over for me from this event that I want to share with all of you. (Ask any participant in this picture of their experience on this trip and they can share their own overflowing cups!)

1. The Power of Working from Clear Values: The venue itself was a church with clear-as-day values for what they were about. They were specifically created “to create a home for those who have given up on church.” Their core values, labeled a “manifesto” due to the strength of their convictions, name seven “hills they will die on” for their ministry, plus others they will not. Check out their full manifesto here (seriously, it’s powerful): https://coppercreekchurch.org/our-quot-manifesto-quot What values are your “hills to die to on?” as a ministry? How do you express your core values, and how does that drive your decisions?
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2. The Need to Make Space for Innovation: It’s so easy to fall back into the agendas most demanding of our time and energy. We shared practices together on how we can make sure we are carving out space for innovation. For example, a story was lifted up of a pastor who accepted a call with the condition that 25% of her work was exclusively focused on innovating new things. Another practice lifted up was a goal for a church to make two new relationships every year with a local organization doing good work in the community (being on a first name basis with leaders in that organization!) As the world changes faster than the church can keep up, how are we making space for innovation?
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3. The Freedom To Be Fully Human: The event included body stretching, refreshments, and good coffee. There was personal appreciation expressed for our ministry, and contemplative worship. At the same time, we discussed some pretty deep issues together. It was so fresh to have that kind of check-in space, where conditions and realities were acknowledged, even if just for a moment. How are we making space for our full humanity? How can we engage not just our minds, but our heads, our hearts, and our bodies?
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4. The Ability to Not Just Receive Information, but Engage It Back: Workshops explored conversations around: post-pandemic ministry, managing conflict, equipping ruling elders to be leaders in the church, supporting bi-vocational ministers, church transitions, trauma informed care, at others. Every workshop labeled how much of the space was devoted to lecture and how much space was for contribution (example: 75/25, 50/50). How might we be making space for each other to engage the richness of our discussions with questions, comments, reflections?
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5. Having Fun for Fun Sake: One of the comments I heard was how dry the event was expected to be (after all, we went there to talk about challenges presbytery have while serving on committees my keyboard is drying up as I write that) BUT we had fun. Fun? Yes. There is something about being intentional about sharing laughter, joy, passion, shared hardships, new experiences, connecting with old friends and new relationships that we may have lost touch with in our daily grind of business and expectations. There is something important here about being authentic, about being human, about being ALIVE. Where are we making time for fun and joy…for fun and joy’s sake?

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6. The Power of Resourcing Each Other: We all recognize that we have experts among us. But when we consider how we are each and all experts of our own lived experiences, each with something to contribute, we remember to find ways of learning together and fully seeing what gifts we have in our midst. A community that learns together grows together. A set of community-organizing questions I have encountered is “what do you have to learn…what do you have to teach?” What does it look like to resource each other, and to build an environment where we can teach and learn together?
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7. A Positive Relationship With the Future: I’ve heard it asked before, “what are our feelings around finances?”, “what are our orientations around conflict?”, “what are our attitudes towards change?”, but I was struck this time by the question of “what is our relationship with the future?” Is it one of hope? What imagination do we have for the future? How are we picturing our role in the future? How much power or involvement are we picturing in that future? I am struck by how often we cling to a familiar past because we simply can not imagine a positive relationship with the future. What is our relationship with the future? How might we describe our role in it?

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What are the kinds of questions that maketh your cups runneth over these days? Let’s share the good stuff together!

Special thank you to Bernice, Lawson, Ellen, Bill, and Ruben for sharing this experience with me!

Rev. Ryan J. Landino

Presbytery Leader

Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy

rlandino@glpby.org

314-409-9002