After bearing witness to the powerful impact Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church of America) is having in his home turf of New York, Black Johnston acknowledged that “the PCA is kicking our [butt] in” new church development. Other speakers pointed to the reality that the PCA also outpaces the PCUSA in campus ministry.

What’s next for the Presbyterian Church (USA)? That was the primary question addressed by the 350 participants of the Next Conference held over two days at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis.

Acknowledging that God is doing a new thing and desiring to live together into an “adjacent possible” hope-filled future they are confident God has planned, Next sought to fan the flame of conversations being held across the PCUSA about the changing nature of mission, vocation and connection.

In Isaiah 43:19 God declares, “I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Next conference organizers chose this verse to call their fellow Presbyterians to a leadership conference centered on capturing a vision for what’s next.

The spirit of the event was positive, framed by beautiful Reformed, Word-centered worship and designed to promote genuine fellowship. Unfortunately, the conversation was had largely in isolation among Presbyterians who share a progressive theology. Conservative Presbyterians did not show up.

The three “buckets” around which the event was organized were mission, vocation and connection. There were no plenary speakers. There were testimonies. There were no workshops. There were conversations designed to invite everyone in. There were no papers produced and no agreed upon outcomes. There were no exhibits, no stoles, no banners, no buttons and no animosity from the leadership toward the few folks in attendance who could be identified as “right” of center.

There was a clear invitation to “take the talk home” and broaden the conversation to include others. There was also the challenge to participate in forging the future as together Presbyterians become Next church. Although much of the vision remains hazy, a few things were crystal clear to Next organizers.

• The Next church will be a worshiping church declared Rev. John Wilkinson of Rochester, N.Y., a member of the conference planning team. Reflecting that hope, the Next conference was framed around four exceptional worship services during the 30 hour event.

• The Next church will do mission from the margins, not from a position of privilege and influence declared Rev. Dr. Rev. Dr. Scott Black Johnston, pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church , N.Y. Black Johnston preached the opening worship service reflecting on the reality of God’s people sent into exile. After bearing witness to the powerful impact Redeemer Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church of America) is having in his home turf of New York, Black Johnston acknowledged that “the PCA is kicking our [butt] in” new church development. Other speakers pointed to the reality that the PCA also outpaces the PCUSA in campus ministry. An outward focus must characterize the Next church if there is to be a Next church.

• The Next church will be Holy Spirit led and Holy Spirit organized, less bureaucratic and more relational stated the Rev. Pen Peery, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, La. Reflecting on the behavior of the apostles between the ascension of Jesus and Pentecost, a time during which they had been instructed to wait for the Holy Spirit, Peery observed that instead, they retreated to a place of safety in the upper room, organized themselves into a nominating committee and based on the simple fact that there had always been 12 disciples, elected Mathias to replace Judas. Notably, Peery pointed out, Mathias never appears in the New Testament again. Peery acknowledged that it scares us to think that the Next church will be less bureaucratic and more relational and that the Holy Spirit may lead us down a path “without structure, without decency and without order.” “But it is a path we are called to walk, not control,” Peery observed.

• The Next church will be populated and led by cracked-pots remarked Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner, pastor of Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, N.C. as she preached on the subject of vocation from II Corinthians 4. In humility, Kershner reminded attendees that “No matter what is next for the church, our primary calling is to be the most faithful pastors, leaders, disciples we can be, embracing our humility as God’s cracked pot vessels ? not that we’re worthy but that God is worthy and God will decide what’s next for the church.”

• The Next church will not be isolationist but engaged and responsive to a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate observed Rev. Christine Chakoian, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago. Chakoian quipped, “There is no map and no app” for Next church. In these times of radical change around the world, Chakoain noted that “connectionalism means that we don’t have to figure it out alone. In fact, Christ has organized it so that we can’t figure it out alone.” She then issued a challenge to broaden the conversation within the denomination and beyond the denomination to the global church. On the subject of unity, Chakoain observed that in the first century “instead of competing against each other (Christians) competed against the other options in the world – their version of the New York Times and bagels, their version of therapeutic moral deism – they didn’t compete against each other.”

• The Next church will be a lay equipping and lay equipped church according to several speakers at the event including Rev. Tim Hart Anderson, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, Minn. who facilitated a conversation on the subject of “developing lay spiritual leadership.” Hart Anderson observed that “we can no longer leave it up to the paid clergy. We have to take lay spiritual leadership seriously which means we have to take them seriously. We have to offer proper preparation for leaders” and ongoing development.

• The Next church will be characterized by hope and the people of Next church will be a sign of hope to the world that God still loves, concluded the Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Ind., host of the event. Calling attendees to consider the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism, Galloway reminded those present that the Christian’s only hope, and the Church’s only hope, is the Lord Jesus Christ.

None of these conversations is new, but the people having the conversations are. These same topics have been discussed among centrist and conservative Presbyterians at New Wineskins events for several years. Much like the group of Presbyterians who invited people to consider a New Wineskins initiative, the NEXT conference planning team has discovered with one another a common cause: the desire to get beyond dead end debates and move purposefully together into a new missional reality. From the “right” to the “left” there is growing consensus that the way Presbyterians have always done things cannot persist into the future if the denomination is to have a future. Unfortunately, the conversations are still being held in isolation from one another.

Notably present among the 350+ Next attendees were:

• 70+ seminary students whose travel and participation costs were underwritten either by their seminaries or by churches involved;
• General Assembly Moderator and Vice Moderator, Cynthia Bolbach and Landon Whitslett
• Office of the General Assembly Stated Clerk, Gradye Parsons
• General Assembly Mission Council Executive Director, Linda Valentine

o Deputy Executive Director for Communications and Funds Development, Karen Schmidt
o Deputy Executive Director for Mission, Roger Dermody
o Evangelism and Church Growth director, Eric Hoey
o World Mission director, Hunter Farrel
o Theology and Worship coordinator, Charles Wiley
o Vocation director, Marsha Myers
o Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy coordinator, Chris Iosso

• Presbyterian Foundation President, Tom Taylor
• Columbia Theological Seminary President, Steven Hayner
• Board of Pensions regional representative, Rich Young
• Montreat Conference Center Director, Pete Peery
• Members of the GA Middle Governing Body Commission
• Members of the GA Task Force on the Nature of the Church for the 21st Century
• National organizer for the Covenant Network, Rev. Tricia Dykers-Koenig
• Executive Director of the Covenant Network, Elder Pam Byers
• Executive Director and Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians, Michael Adee.

In the open-mic time before closing worship, various speakers noted their regret that others were not present for the conversation. Notably absent were:

• Renewal ministry representatives from the Presbyterian Coalition, Presbyterians for Renewal and others that would have complimented the voices of progressive ministry representatives from the Covenant Network and More Light Presbyterians.
• Ruling elders and other lay people that would have complimented the voices of the clergy.
• People of color.
• People from immigrant churches.
• Those who might be identified as speaking from a conservative theological perspective.

Consideration of the opposing sides in ongoing debates such as PCUSA polity and theology were not part of the planning of the Next event, according to one of the event’s organizers.

In a Layman interview held before the conference, Wilkinson said that the conference “is about healthy, vital congregational ministry going into the future. … We’re not going to talk about ordination. We’re not going to talk about the denomination as it is, or might be.” Wilkinson added that local congregations with great ministries were the focus.

When asked about the lack of PFR and Coalition representatives, when compared with those affiliated with the Covenant Network or More Light Presbyterians, Wilkinson dismissed the concern. “Those labels don’t matter in conversations about ministry,” he said. “It’s not ‘how can liberals and conservatives work together?’ It’s about how can we all work together to make this work?”

There is hope among Next organizers that when Next meets again, a broader spectrum of voices will participate. The next event is scheduled for February 27-28, 2012 in Dallas.

Streaming videos from all of the conference worship services and large conversations can be viewed online at www.nextchurch.net.

Rev. Carmen Fowler, a minister in the PC(USA), serves as the President of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and the Executive Director of the Layman. She has previously served as the Co-moderator of the Presbyterian New Wineskins, and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Coalition. The Aquila Report greatly appreciates her permission to reprint this important article.