December Newsletter Articles

Session
The session met this month and did a lot of hard discernment. We talked about the responsible ways to save for the future while still encouraging ministry in our present. We talked about how to improve our music ministry in a way that challenges the many members we have who do have musical talents to use them... This may mean reorganizing how we do music ministry or how we think about it. And finally, we talked about how to train better leaders. Ruling Elder Lydia Frias provided the session with what is now our approved method for training Ruling Elders-Elect prior to their examination and ordination/installation.

1. Teach the beliefs of the church and how these affect our service and lives
1. Sovereignty Of God
2. Centrality of Scripture
3. Centrality of Grace
4. Centrality of Faith
5. Discipline - personal and corporate
2. How to do a one on one visit
1. Visit at least 5 members
3. Investigate and understand the needs of the congregation
1. Do this through individual visits and through at least 2 committee meetings.
4. Prayer - how to do it, especially publicly
5. Identify what God wants for my life and share that with the session
6. Basics of the Book of Order
7. Basics of the Book of Confessions
8. The committee structure
9. The budget

But we will need your help. The first steps in training are visiting... so we need folks that are willing to be visited. We recognize that there is no responsible method to discern God’s will for our congregation if we do not know our congregation... so be patient with us as we improve our visiting talents.

Especially lift in prayer Patty Martinez and Doug Abernathy as they enter into this training process.

Please note: anyone else is also welcome to join in this training process, especially those already ordained as Ruling Elders.

Buildings and Grounds
We are excited that the electrical lines are installed for the third projector to be placed in the fellowship hall. The lights and fans have been installed and are working in the women’s shower. We are doing research on the handicapped entrance and how much it may cost to replace this older unit. We are also getting bids on putting jasmine ground cover on the hills that are hard to mow. Finally, we are happy to report that we got all of our fire extinguishers inspected and they are good for the next 6 years. Go Church!

Christian Ed
We had a great fall festival and are doing well incorporating an increased attendance in Sunday School. We will be working to organize our items in the blue room soon. If you are interested in helping Astrid in the classroom, please speak up. We are a Godly community when we work together.

Evangelism and Mission
We had 7 folks walk in the Jingle Bell Run the first Saturday in December: Rev. Lindsay, Rev. Andy, Berna, Estela, Robert C and his two grandkids. Great job! More than $150 was given in support of the Arthritis Foundation through their registrations and other donations.

Garden Weeding Day will be December 8th, Saturday, at 8 am. We will be covering each bed with newspaper and mulch. Tacos for any volunteers.

C3 - Coffee to Community College - is doing great in its ministry. George and Vickie R., Robert C., Robin O., Rev. Lindsay, Susie Sanchez (and Susie Marie), as well as some others all chip in and help make this possible. We have contact with about 20 students or community folk every week, and many are “regulars” who are getting to know us and we are getting to know them. Look for their prayer requests in our weekly prayer list.

Fellowship and Care
Advent Decorating Day is the first Sunday in December and is a potluck. Please stay and fellowship as we decorate the church!

Trine House is coordinating a team to go out caroling this year. Please speak with her about your availability, interest, and where you would like to go.

SAP
We continue to work on the transition from one to two treasurers. We welcome Alonso Rodriguez as our second treasurer. Eventually, our goal is to have an income treasurer (Sam Frias) who will handle all offerings, and an expense treasurer (Alonso Rodriguez) who will handle all expenses. Since Sam F has been a one man show for so long, please be patient as we work out the transition together.

Worship
It’s that time of year again... at least this year our pastor is not on maternity leave!

Special Advent Services: December 2, 9, 16, 23. Each will have interactive sermons that help us meditate on how the coming of Christ personally affects us. The 23rd, being the closest to the Longest night of the year, will include a special moment of prayer for healing and hope (and perhaps communion) for all who have experienced different kinds of loss. Thanks to Lana B., Vickie R., and Susie S. for their help!

Christmas Eve Service: December 24th, 6:30 pm. If you have any special music or a special presentation to include, please let Rev. Lindsay know before December 9th as the service order will be finalized before the 16th.

New Year’s Eve Party and Service: December 31st, starting at 8 pm, Worship at 11 pm. Board Games, pot luck, and more! Worship service to include our year end slide show. Please submit your pictures to Rev. Lindsay electronically prior to December 16th as these slide shows take a while to put together.

Hide Lock Take
As much as Gethsemane’s neighborhood is lower crime than it once was, we still live and worship and serve in a city where many are desperate and make poor choices. Some have had things taken from their unlocked cars recently. So, please do the basic safety reminder: Hide your belongings. Lock your doors. Take your keys. And we should add, pray for those who are so lost as to commit these crimes.

The Christmas Waiting Room

Advent is a time to wait for the coming of Christ, and I find it ironic that because we love the festivities of Christmas so much, we end up doing almost no waiting. We are busy, busy with events and shopping and visits and cooking.

But as Christians, which is ultimately our most important identity, we are called to be waiting first, and doing later.

I’ve been thinking of this since Gethsemane is incredibly good at waiting room ministry. Having grown up in churches too big to do such a thing, I found it odd and amazing to be part of a church that insists on having folks sit in waiting rooms when someone is in the hospital. These folks are not invited or asked... they come. They wait. They pray. They wait some more. It is one of the most heartfelt, genuine, loving ministries I have ever seen done. My congregation has done more crossword puzzles, drunk more coffee, slept in more uncomfortable chairs than any I could imagine. They do it for members, for family of members, and for folks they meet through our ESL ministry. We sit and wait...

The reason I feel it is our greatest ministry is because it shows the constant, vigilant love of God... a God who makes time for us. A God who waits for us. It also shows hope. We are not afraid of pain or bad news... we will be there, because we trust that God is going to be there.

And so this Christmas, I wonder who is sitting in God’s waiting room? Which of us is taking the time to sit and wait for the birth of Jesus? Which of us is willing to set aside our busy schedules to sit in uncomfortable chairs, drink bad coffee, and do crossword puzzles, praying and waiting so that we can be the first to hear the hope that God has for us?

Think about that the next time you look at your packed to do list this month. After all, God has been waiting in the waiting room of your heart a long, long time.

Blessings,
Rev. Lindsay

Lord, Help us to Discern, not just make Decisions

That was one of the prayers of one of Ruling Elders-Elect at our session meeting last night, and I thought it was incredibly insightful.

The session met last night. For those of you that don't know, in Presbyterian Churches, we do not make decisions with the entire congregation, and we certainly don't let the pastor make decisions on her own. Calvin believed discernment and leadership should always happen in groups, because the Spirit moves more faithfully and we are held to a higher accountability that way. Our session is made up of Ordained Ruling Elders. Other churches may call them lay leaders, because they are not pastors and most do not have seminary educations. But we believe they are called by God and we put our trust in them to discern the will of God and thus lead the congregation and make the leadership calls for the congregation.

Our session at Gethsemane met last night. We could have made decisions about finances and buildings, but instead, we did a lot of discernment, which takes longer.

For instance. We talked about Gethsemane's music ministry. We talked about hiring a musician... that is a decision. It could have been pushed through, we probably could have had a unanimous vote. We could have identified the problem and fixed it and figured out budgets and amounts. Instead we did discernment, or at least started it. Discernment demands that we consider, proactively where we are called, not reactively how to fix a problem. So, we began to talk about what musical talents we have at Gethsemane. We have folks that like to sing, but we don't always organize well, and we don't always sing with passion. We have a praise band, but it doesn't always practice. We have a guitarist, a violinist, several drummers, several pianists, youth that play a variety of different instruments, younger youth interested in learning instruments. We talked about what we would dream for us... special music, solos, individuals sharing gifts once in a while, special programs... what would it take to make those things happen? What are we missing? How do we keep on missing it?

Unfortunately, I think a lot of the session members got frustrated with myself because I wasn't able to explain clearly what discernment was or how we could be sure that what we came up with in the end was from God.

Discernment is a struggle. It is analyzing what God has given us in particular, both gifts and passions, and based on those figuring out where we want to go. It doesn't just solve a problem, it identifies a destination that grows people closer to God, not just passively, but actively.

So, this is what we did overall:

1 - we determined to gather folks in the church who had music talent or passion and talk to them to figure out what our gifts are and what our dreams are and come up with a plan that develops those gifts and works towards those dreams... then we can figure out how much it may cost, and THEN we figure out how to support that financially.

2 - Financially, we determined that we should have 3 bank accounts for the church.

A general fund where we do our regular expenses. This is where ALL offerings, registrations, fundraisers, and other income goes in, and all expenses, bills, salaries, ministry expenses, reimbursements, donations to other organizations, and gifts on behalf of the church come out.

A short term savings fund where we save for somewhat bigger expenses. Maybe in the budget we determine to transfer an amount every month or every year into this account to save for future expenditures that we know will be happening. At the end of the year, we can determine how to take part of surpluses and set them aside here to plan for those expenses that might take more than one year to save for.

An endowment fund. This is for the big future. It is to take care of large needs and big dreams. We talked about how to encourage good stewardship and ways to make sure that an endowment doesn't end up discouraging offering. We talked about how to use this fund to encourage innovation and experimentation, because a congregation that doesn't try new things is going to get stuck in the mud. We also talked about how in some churches endowments have ended up being morphine drips that keep doors open at churches long after they have stopped being creative, missional, or effective in sharing the Gospel with their community.

3 - We talked about elder training being first and foremost a plan for helping new elders to learn how to identify what they believe and how it changes how we lead and how we serve... but most of all, elder training is going to be learning how to visit and spend time with congregation members, because discernment doesn't happen if we don't have relationships that speak to us about what the fears, needs, dreams, and gifts of our church really are. If we don't know our congregation, we only make decisions. So, our new elder plan is largely a plan on getting our elders out to visit the church, to listen, and to pray for others. I thought THAT was awesome.

4 - We talked about how to intentionally reach out to those who are isolated in different ways: taking them on errands with us, calling, visiting, building new relationships, bringing meals to those who might want them. We talked about the different folk we may have forgotten about, but who need love and care more than anything right now.

5 - We closed in prayer. We prayed for folks that we knew were hurting. We prayed for their caretakers. We prayed for ourselves. We prayed for marriages. We prayed for children. We prayed for our fears and anxieties. We prayed for our hopes and new worshiping community. We prayed for our parish associate and our dreams for him. We prayed for the families who are grieving this holiday season... because a meeting that is decision making only seeks to close a meeting as fast as possible when the business is over, and a meeting that is discernment closes with prayer that upholds one another and ourselves in the Lord's hands, opening ourselves to more opportunities to serve.

So, as much as my ruling elders may be frustrated that our agenda seemed more like a paper drawing of a path instead of a roadmap, as much as they may have been disappointed in their pastor's ability to guide them, as much as they may have been sincerely disappointed in the fact that we took an hour longer than we had planned to take... I think we had a faithful meeting, which is a lot better than a good one.

Living in tension with the Body of Christ

I am a Christian, which means that I am intimately connected to other believers. We are children of God. We struggle to be faithful together. We disagree, but just because I disagree with the foot doesn't make that foot any less part of the body.

I am also a Presbyterian. My parents are Presbyterians. My grandparents are Presbyterians... largely by choice. Particularly because we believe that as the priesthood of believers we can seek out the will of God together, vote, and struggle on together. We have no bishops or any individuals (including pastors) that can make unilateral decisions on almost anything. This, however, means that at times each of us must struggle in the minority... worry about our conscience... wonder how God will overcome our failures.

In the second part of our Consitution, the Book of Order, it states

G-2.0105 Freedom of Conscience
It is necessary to the integrity and health of the church that the persons who serve it
in ordered ministries shall adhere to the essentials of the Reformed faith and polity as
expressed in this Constitution. So far as may be possible without serious departure from
these standards, without infringing on the rights and views of others, and without obstructing
the constitutional governance of the church, freedom of conscience with respect
to the interpretation of Scripture is to be maintained. It is to be recognized, however, that
in entering the ordered ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), one chooses to
exercise freedom of conscience within certain bounds. His or her conscience is captive to
the Word of God as interpreted in the standards of the church so long as he or she continues
to seek, or serve in, ordered ministry. The decision as to whether a person has departed
from essentials of Reformed faith and polity is made initially by the individual
concerned but ultimately becomes the responsibility of the council in which he or she is a
member.

We have to respect that our brothers and sisters, although differing from us, are still struggling to serve the same Lord.

And although many struggle nationally in our church regarding ordination standards, marriage definitions, and sexuality. Yesterday I struggled with something much more intimate, personal, and painful: discrimination.

We, as a presbytery, yesterday elected a very well qualified man, who seems to be an excellent candidate and a fervent servant of Jesus Christ, to the office of stated clerk.

The problem? The search process had not been an open one. Only 3 candidates were considered, no position was advertised. Also, the effective salary of the past stated clerk, a woman, was $36,000 in 2012. The proposed for her was $38,000 in 2013. The effective salary given to this new stated clerk is $55,000. This was either a 52.8% increase or a 45% increase respectively compared to the original salaries noted above.

Both had additional benefits. The explanation was because her benefits had cost more, the cash equivalent of her entire benefits were thus given to the new stated clerk, plus he received "post-retirement benefits" which are much less expensive. Even with that, the overall package increase was still 12%, in a year when our presbytery moments before eliminated a different staff position and cut $130,000 from our overall budget to balance it.

I voted in the minority, but as a member of presbytery, I must state that we made this decision together.  Below is the protest I have submitted to our stated clerk to be contained in our minutes as a small effort to clear my conscience. I believe we are the church and we do not walk out ever on those who love the Lord Jesus Christ... period. But just as our choices at times pain our parents, the choices of our brothers and sisters sometimes pain us. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers.

I, Lindsay Woods, voted in the minority. I am protesting this vote for the following reasons. 

As one of the foundations of presbyterian polity, F-1.0403, we declare 

"The unity of believers in Christ is reflected in the rich diversity of the Church’s

membership. In Christ, by the power of the Spirit, God unites persons through baptism

regardless of race, ethnicity, age, sex, disability, geography, or theological conviction.

There is therefore no place in the life of the Church for discrimination against any person.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) shall guarantee full participation and representation in

its worship, governance, and emerging life to all persons or groups within its membership.

No member shall be denied participation or representation for any reason other than

those stated in this Constitution."

I believe that this election stands against this foundation of Presbyterian polity. The search process was closed for this position. The job description was not made public and no one was invited to apply for this position, unless privately. We did thus not even make a concerted effort to guarantee full participation or representation in the process of this election. This is even more troubling in light of the fact that in the last 3 years, 6 staff have been eliminated or have left the staff of the presbytery. All 6 are women, 2 of which are women of color. Since that time, two, now three, staff have been brought on to either replace those women or to newly created positions. All 3 are white men over the age of 50. There were options to delay this election, bring on said candidate as an interim while a full search was made, or request that the current stated clerk remain on for a few months so that a fair search process could be completed. The candidate himself proposed options such as these, and the Presbytery council was comfortable proposing a candidate that they had interviewed, having only reviewed 3 potential candidates, and only interviewing one. 

I also believe that the compensation package reflects a break from the above foundation of Presbyterian polity. The Presbytery Council, which updated the job description, stated that the changes were minor, adding only some new responsibilities for digitization and preaching. The Presbytery Council confirmed that the job description was still for a 3/4 time position. There was not a 50+% increase in responsibility or the position would have been full time. In no way does this justify a 52.7% increase from the 2012 effective salary of the stated clerk. The only explanation is that because we do not have to pay full pension dues (instead post-retirement dues) we increased the effective salary. This, to me, reflects discrimination based on retirement or non-retirement status, and has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ. 

I am saddened that the body of which I am a part felt this was a just and faithful decision, and I regretfully submit this protest. 

Thank you.