What’s A Moderator To Do?

     What IS the role of the Moderator of the General Assembly? And is that role different than what it OUGHT to be?

      There’s no question that the first job is of the Moderator is to carry out the title: to moderate the General Assembly. To do so fairly, unobtrusively, efficiently, with good humor and with faith in the wisdom of those whom God has called to be commissioners to the 219^th General Assembly. It’s a difficult job, but it’s a job that can at least be quantified, measured, and understood.

      When the 219^th General Assembly adjourns on July 10, what’s the Moderator to do then?

     I know that there are already a lot of things scheduled for the Moderator — events and meetings at which the Moderator’s presence provides reassurance of our connectionalism. That’s an important and necessary function.

     But the Moderator needs to do more than that. The Moderator needs to help the church – the P.C. (U.S.A.) – navigate through what some, like Phyllis Tickle, are calling a new reformation. Reformations don’t happen easily. My guess is that both Calvin and Luther would say, if we were able to ask, “you have NO IDEA how hard and unsettling it all was!” No wonder Calvin looks so dour in all his portraits.

      Much has been said – accurately — about the loss of trust within our denomination. That loss of trust is palpable. Could it be, though, that the loss of trust is rooted in our  fears and anxieties, and in our mourning over the loss of the familiar church that we know and love?

       The Moderator needs to help the church understand that the church is not dying – it’s just evolving into something new and different. That’s hard to accept, though, when we’re losing members, when we’re fearful about whether our congregation, or our presbytery, or our synod, will survive, when we’re worried that this new and different church will not be what we’re used to, and that our role in it will diminish or vanish entirely.

     The Moderator needs to help the church deal with the tension that comes when the ground begins to shift underneath our feet – which is what a reformation is. 

      The reality is, though, that the ground has been shifting under our feet ever since Calvary and the empty tomb. In every age, Jesus calls the church to do new things in new and different ways. In every age, the church adapts and figures out how best to proclaim the timeless message of the Gospel in a particular time and place.

      This is our time to adapt and to change. I’m excited about the new things that God is calling our church to be and to do.