Comments on: A Different Sort of Call Story

By: adamjcopeland

adamjcopeland — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:54:04 +0000

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.

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:04:19 +0000

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-

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:38:05 +0000

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: Andrew Whaley

Andrew Whaley — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:48:28 +0000

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.