the Outlook Blog

I just got back from the Presbyterian Coalition Luncheon event - their guest speaker was Mark Labberton, who serves as the senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, CA. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Presbyterian Coalition (and I really wasn't either, until going to the luncheon), according to their website, they are "A Movement of Christ's People Committed to Life and Transformation in the PC(USA): Exalting Christ, Energizing Congregations and Upholding Historic Biblical Leadership Standards." According to the two people I asked at my table, the Coalition is a group that works toward making sure liberal affinity groups don't get rid of G-6.0106b.

I asked some of the Commissioners at the table what they thought about the election of the Moderator last night. A few of them said they weren't too surprised about the outcome. They said Bruce Reyes-Chow handled himself very well on stage, had very honest answers, and clearly was young and charismatic. One Commissioner remarked that he was "a bit disappointed" because the candidate who was more centered theologically (Bill Teng, according to this Commissioner) didn't win. There was both an appreciation and wariness of how transparent and up-front Reyes-Chow was with his views on the homosexuality question that is at the heart of so many overtures and potentially divisive conversations this week.

Another Commissioner said, "The YAD who was sitting next to me pointed up at Bruce Reyes-Chow and said, 'This is the future of the church.' Well...maybe one part of the church - but hopefully not the whole church." He clearly had some apprehensions about Reyes-Chow's stance on the ordination issue.

Labberton spoke about the issue of "first-order things." He asked the question, "How do we keep first-order things first? And not let others get in the way." He encouraged folks to be continue to try and focus on first-order things, but to do so, realizing that it's very possible to lose that focus, even when you think you might be focusing on "first-order things." It seemed to me that he was saying that simply focusing on those first-order things wasn't enough - they needed to cause us to live out in the world and enact the kind of love and justice God desires. Labberton said we need to live "lives that bear the heart of God to the world."

For me, it was very interesting that Labberton gave this message to an affinity group in the denomination who believes they are focusing on "first-order things" by focusing on "upholding historic Biblical leadership standards." Labberton pointed out to them as well that it was going to be an intense week, as many different people believe that there are different "first-order things." For Labberton, Christ is the first-order "thing" that is the only hope for the PC(USA) - and Christ is also crucially important for those involved in the Presbyterian Coalition. However, I did find it interesting that when I asked some of those who were at my lunch table about the main purpose of the Coalition, according to them, it was not about unity or energizing congregations, but it was to make sure that G.60106b was upheld and the possibility of ordination was continued to be withheld from the LGBT community.