A Different Sort of Call Story
Deacon training is done. Elder training will be on-going. Both Elders and Deacons are now ordained and installed.
I used ThePresbyterianLeader.com resources for Deacon training to a good result. The curriculum is cool because it comes in two parts — Leaders Guide and Participants Handout. The Participants Handout comes as a .pdf, and can be emailed to new deacons so they read up before a training session. The Leaders Guide is just for the leader, and has many good exercise suggestions that are adaptable to any group. Definitely check out The Presbyterian Leader.
The nominations, training, and ordination process of elders and deacons got me to thinking on the nature of the call process for officers in the Presbyterian church. For instance, I have recently finished around a five year ordination process. Along the way, I probably shared my “call story” twenty times formally, and many more times informally. But — and I’m just being honest here — the call process for elders and deacons in my congregation felt a little more like arm-twisting than any holy call or anything. Totally, God works through arm-twisting, but I’m struck at the huge differences between the call processes.
This leads me to reflect upon the decline of the eldership in the Presbyterian church overall. I don’t have much time here, and I’m mostly just dangerously guessing and generalizing, but 
… my impression is that the office of elder, historically, carried much more weight than it does now. I’m guessing elders used to see their service as elders in a very different sense than a community board, and now many see their positions as more plain governance than spiritual leadership? Maybe I’m way off here, I hope I am. But if I’m not, I wonder how to reclaim that traditional role. I wonder what pastors can do to lead elders into a new sense of call. I wonder how to make session meetings feel less like board meetings.
Connect Online
I think your concern is fairly common these days. I certainly know that is the case back home. Also in the church I worked in last summer, the new pastor described the session as a group of “program directors” instead of spiritual leaders. He was hoping to change that. They were going to be examining the role of elders at their annual elder retreat, and one very hands-on things they did was introduce an Advent Devotional booklet for the first time in their church’s history. Instead of asking a broad range of members to write for it, the pastor asked all the members of the session to write, allowing them the time to reflect on the scriptures with the entire congregation. That’s one real-life example of something a church has done to reclaim the elder as a called, spiritual guide for the church.
Adam – I think there has been a LOT of emphasis on this in the past 8-12 years, even farther back when I was first ordained in 1990 I recall talking about the teaching and spiritual leadership roles of elders. Emphasis on prayer during session, shaping session as work within worship (a la Laura M’s practice), modeling praying over decisions, discernment. I can’t think of resources right now – brain dead – but they are out there. Spiritual disciples, ldeading devotionals at session on a rotating basis – endless possibilities. Joan Gray’s new book is on spiritual leadership – haven’t read it.
by and large, most of the elders I have ever met or worked with (and both I and my spouse are hat-tricks- ordained to the offices of Elder, Deacon and Ministre of W&S) are good, hard working people, who, maybe in a nonverbalized way, really believe in Calvin’s understanding of the authority of God over all of life- including committees and cong life. There has been an effort, in both the PCUSA and RCA, to lift up the offices, and the people who are doing taht work, and to equip and empower them- I really like teh idea of elders writing the Advent devotional- and in fact, will suggest it for this coming Advent- I do think what has failed is the connect to see themselves as people who are fully equipped to think theologically and spiritually- given the avergae age of elders, most of them grew up in a church in which the pastor had that as his (and it was pretty much always his) turf, and elders/deacons did the other stuff-we need to help them, and all the people, see that they are already theologians- and give them resources and ways to think about that and their life in communtiy and with God- much as I love Joan Grey, her new book was less thyan satisfying or helpful- a better book is Holy Conversations, altho that is intentionally centered on planning/visioning, I think it is very good and helpful-
Thanks for the comments, folks. I appreciate it. I haven’t read it, but Dan Wolpert, the author of “Leading a Life With God: A Practice of Spiritual Leadership” is a friend and colleague of mind in the presbytery. It might be more up your alley, Nancy. I’ll check out Holy Conversations. Peace.