Transition, View From a Session Member

By Charles Layno, Class of 2009 Session

As a Session Member, I have a unique view of the transition that our church is currently in. One thing I have come to learn is that we are not the only church to have gone through this and we are not the only church going through it today. We are one of many and we have lots of help from many corners and people you would never expect. This transition is certainly disconcerting but after 30 years with the same pastor, that is to be expected. Change is never easy, but is always inevitable in some form or shape. It is the only constant in God's Universe other than his love for us. In reality, it seems we are where we need to be. It is where God wants us to be. You can't fight that no matter what you do. That is not to say this will be a bed of roses. It will not. But nothing that is good and right comes easy. Don't believe me? Check your Bible. Ask Jonah, Moses, Noah, Ester, John, Luke, Matthew, Jacob or any one of a several dozen characters. Even Jesus.

From my vantage, and it seems many others, our future is quite bright. As Rev Jim Rissmiller Associate Presbyter of the East Neighborhood has said to us on several occasions since mid February when all this began, we have a blank canvas to work with. What kind of church do we want to be going forward? We are on the ground floor of a whole new Fellowship Presbyterian Church. No one sees the fundamentals that have made Fellowship the wonderful, loving church we have all come to enjoy and love changing. No one I have talked to wants that to change and Session doesn't want to see that change either. That has been stated in Session several times over the last few months. It is who we are. But as Jim has also said, we need to be open to new ideas. Just because things have always been done a certain way in the past doesn't mean it is the best way moving forward.

That is why it will take twelve to fourteen months to call our new pastor and to have them in our pulpit. A long time indeed, but a necessary time to do what is needed to ensure we call the pastor God is preparing for us now. My guess is our new pastor doesn't even know they are being called yet. Like us, not only is God preparing them for us, He is preparing us for them.

And how is God preparing us? He is preparing us with the search for the Interim Pastor who will help our church to be sure we have the foundation to not only move forward, but to succeed, not only physically or financially, but more important, spiritually. What we the congregation wants to do must mesh with our Called Pastor. No one wants to go through this again next year. That is why we will not even tell the Presbytery what we are looking for in a pastor until after the Interim Pastor has been selected and working in our church for some amount of time to help us determine what it is we want to do. Right now we are so unsure what we want to do with the departure of Gray that we must have time to reflect what the good parts of our church are and to keep them and what we want our church to become. That is happening now.

Rev Margie Boyd, Associate Pastor Guilford Park Presbyterian Church has been a real blessing to many of us on Session. Guilford Park just installed their new Called Pastor first of the year, so she has been more than willing to answer our never ending questions on this whole process.
She has also been available to Moderate our Session meetings since we technically do not have a Moderator with Gray's departure and the Interim Pastor not having been installed yet. It is nice to have someone who is very familiar with the process sitting in the cheap seats so to speak, with us. She has also done some cheer leading to the Session when things looked pretty bleak a couple of times. Having just been through it, she knew just what to say to get us focused back on the task at hand, no matter what it has been. So from this Session member, a big thank you and a God Bless you Margie. You will never know the full extent you have helped us.

Our Transition Team is searching for our Interim Pastor with post haste, but it is deliberate post haste. They need your prayers, everyday. They need you to pray for them BY NAME everyday. The Transition Team is made up of a good cross section of our church with Jim Spain and Donna Steele representing the Session; Linda Kershner representing you, the congregation; Mark Kirstner of the Finance Committee; Kate Platz of the Staff and Wil Gibble as an ex officio member. They are tasked to find our Interim and to bring them to Session for approval and they want to have them in place around the first of May, if all goes according to plan. At this point, we on Session do not even know who they are looking at. We do know that they have interviewed several good candidates and are moving towards a recommendation. We will find out whom they recommend when they bring us the name, whenever that happens. Once that happens, we will start to move toward finding our Called Pastor.

The same will happen when the PNC (Pastoral Nominating Committee), an acronym you will be hearing more about in the coming months, is selected by you, the congregation and finds our Called Pastor and brings that name to you, the congregation at a called Congregational Meeting to vote on. We in Session will find out who that is at the same Congregational Meeting.
We will NOT have an inside track on the candidate so we will find out when you do! Lots of procedural things to do between now and then, but when you strip it all down, it is just a mechanism to be sure we can continue to do God's work within our community.

And speaking of doing God's work, we still have a very vibrant congregation. Rev Jean Rodenbough and her husband Charlie are still here doing what they do best, spreading the Word and being the wonderful shepherds to us and being the wonderful friends of the church that they have always been and Fellowship is the better for it and we thank God for sending them. And those of us on Session are always here to do what is needed to help minister to you, the congregation, no matter what it is so please feel free to call on us. As has been pointed out to us several times by different people, we the members are just as important if not more than any installed minister. The church is not just a minister; it is all of us, ministering to each other and to spread the Word of God to others. Without all of us, congregational members and Session, there is no church. I am seeing new people joining our worship services on Sunday's and I still see the same wonderful members in the pews worshiping God in our Sanctuary. We still have our Mission Programs such as IHN, macaroni, Hearts and Hands and the food bank drives just to mention a few. We still have our Christan Education Program and our wonderful music program. Our Fellowship Schools are still in session for the foreseeable future. Church life still goes on.

As long as we have followers of God, coming to God's house, to worship Him and to do His work, I have no worries about Fellowship Presbyterian Church and I hope you are as excited about our future as I am. I can't wait!