The following article was originally posted by the Presbyterian Outlook on Tuesday, 21 December 2010.
Long ago, in a presbytery not so far away where I served as stated clerk, I attended what now is called the Fall Polity Conference. During a meal, the conversation turned to the Book of Order, and even though it was only a few years after reunion, a consensus emerged that something needed to be done. The Constitution, particularly the Form of Government (FOG), was growing increasingly larger with each amendment cycle.
Because of this and other stresses from our way of “doing church,” the 1989 General Assembly created the Special Committee on the Nature of the Church and the Practice of Governance. This was the start of a two-decade process that culminated in the approval of the FOG now before the presbyteries. Along the way, the Directory for Worship (1988) and the Rules of Discipline (1995) were completely revised, but the task of revamping the FOG was never completed. The current FOG is still 1983’s Plan for Reunion, as amended.
The work of the FOG Task Force built on the work of these past 20 years. Among the reasons for adopting this proposal are three that the Task Force has identified as most important:
1. This revision does a better job than our current Book of Order in connecting what we believe about the church with how we accomplish the church’s mission. The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity lays out in a single, well-organized document the basic ecclesiological and historical commitments undergirding our polity. The Foundations takes most of current G-1.000 – G-4.000 and reorganizes it by theme, using the Nicene Creed’s Marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic) and the Scots Confession’s Notes of the Reformed Church (proclamation of the word, administration of the sacraments, ecclesiastical discipline).
2. This revision clarifies standards for the whole church. It reduces the amount of regulatory “manual of operations” language but retains what is important – the standards that guide the whole church in carrying out God’s mission at every level.
3. This revision provides flexibility appropriate to each context. It allows sessions, presbyteries, synods, and the General Assembly to create, reorganize, or dismantle structures as needed without having to amend the Book of Order to do so. This flexibility makes the church more nimble as it seeks to adapt its ministry to the changing contexts of our world. It removes the one-size-fits-all requirements of our current FOG.
Over the past several years, an interesting phenomenon has occurred in Hollywood. New films described as “reboots” have revived many long-standing movie franchises.
In a sense, the proposed FOG is a polity reboot. Many of the “characters” are familiar — sessions, presbyteries, ruling elders, teaching elders, deacons, etc. The story is basically the same: “The mission of God in Christ gives shape and substance to the life and work of the Church” (F-1.01). Whereas the current FOG predetermines what much of that “shape and substance” is to be, the new FOG enables the church to dream and discover together what shapes to keep, and how to give substance to the new things God might lead us to accomplish together.
We commend the new Form of Government to the presbyteries, and urge an affirmative vote.
DANIEL S. WILLIAMS is pastor of Second Church in Staunton, Va., and was co-moderator, Form of Government Task Force (2008-2010), and vice moderator, Assembly Committee on Form of Government Revisions (2008).
The nFOG Blog 