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PSWC Approves Budget, New Constitution & Bylaws
By Bob Smietana
SAN DIEGO, CA (April 26, 2004) - When they were planning the Pacific Southwest
Conference (PSCW) Annual Meeting, Supt. Evelyn Johnson and her staff
envisioned it as a time of celebration and connection for the pastors
and church leaders who attended.
When the final business session adjourned early Saturday afternoon at
Clairemont Covenant Church, Johnson had a smile on her face. It wasn't
just because she had been re-elected for a second term by a standing
ovation from delegates. It was because almost everything she had
imagined in this conference for churches she serves has come to
fruition. "I can truly say that the vision of connection has become a
reality," Johnson said.
Besides taking care of conference business - passing a $1.7 million
budget for 2005, electing nine new conference executive board
representatives and approving a revised constitution and bylaws -
delegates also spent considerable time renewing friendships and building
new relationships. An afternoon ministry fair and evening Fiesta
celebration provided the 312 registered attendees an opportunity to view
conference ministries and to share the joys and struggles of their
ministry together. (A total of 54 churches sent 125 delegates to the
meetings.)
Margaret Pryor of Bay Area Christian Connection in Oakland, who was
chief of tellers for the business meeting, summed up the atmosphere at
the PSCW annual meeting this way. "We have met no strangers here this
weekend - and that is a wonderful thing."
One of the highlights of the business sessions came as delegates
recommended five new churches for membership in the Evangelical Covenant
Church (ECC). They are:
- Rancho Vista Evangelical Covenant Church in Chula Vista, California
- Meinh Covenant Church in Sacramento, California
- Great Exchange Covenant Church in Sunnyvale, California
- Westside Covenant Church in West Sacramento, California
- Wellspring Covenant Church in Honolulu, Hawaii
Business meetings were interspersed with testimonies from Covenant
ministers seeking ordination during the June Annual Meeting of the
Evangelical Covenant Church in Minneapolis and of churches involved in
ministry.
Jack Hawkins, pastor of Canyon Springs Covenant Church in Scripps Ranch,
recounted stories of the 300 families in their community who lost homes
during last year's California wild fires. He shook his head in amazement
at the way his church and others in their community rallied around those
who lost homes in the fire.
Willie Franco, pastor of Canto Nuevo Covenant Church (a new church
plant), and Jeff Reed of Hillside Covenant Church, both of Walnut Creek,
California, shared how their church planting partnership has blessed
their congregations (the middle photo shows Franco, left, and Reed).
Reed said his congregation had been trying to find ways to reach a
growing Hispanic population in their community and their efforts had
stalled. A few days after he had given up plans to start a new Hispanic
ministry, Reed got a call from Franco, who had started a house church
for Hispanic families. The group had grown so large they could no longer
meet at Franco's house - he wondered if they could meet at the Hillside
church. This initial conversation led to a new Covenant church being
planted by Franco in partnership with Hillside and the conference.
Pastors Michael White of Stockton Covenant Church, Greg West of
Clairemont Covenant and Fred Carter of Village Covenant Church in Azusa
shared their experience with a new project called "Getting to Great."
The project, headed by Covenant pastors and consultants Doug Stevens and
Allan Forsman, is designed to help revitalize good churches that feel
they are stuck and not reaching their potential.
The pastors spent 100 hours working with Steven and Forsman to identify
their churches' potential (and their own potential as pastors) and to
identify roadblocks that limit the churches' ability to reach their
communities. Carter called the project "a life-changing experience" that
helped him see how his approach to ministry was limiting the church.
White called it "the best thing" he had ever been part of and noted that
the process has helped the church face a major decision - moving to a
new location - that it had pondered for years, but never implemented.
"I wanted to be part of this project because I had a question," White
said. "Could you take a group of good-hearted, faithful people and help
them to live out their vision (of reaching their community?"
Superintendent Johnson expressed her thanks as well for the generosity
of PSCW congregations that are currently supporting 23 new church
plants. She noted that the conference has grown by 17,000 new church
members in the last ten years and that it continues to rapidly expand
its church planting efforts. "To God be the glory," she told delegates.
"Great things he has done, great things his doing, and great things he
will do."
She also thanked delegates for their support during a health crisis
earlier in the year - Johnson broke her ankle this past winter - and
reported she was back to full strength. She was re-elected by
acclamation for a second four-year term in office and received a
standing ovation from delegates during Saturday's business meeting.
Delegates also approved a new constitution and bylaws for the
conference, modeled after the new ECC constitution and bylaws.
Besides being a time of business meetings and connections, the PSCW
gathering was a time of celebration and worship. Worship teams from
three San Diego-area churches - Rancho Vista Covenant, Community
Covenant in El Cajon and Clairemont - led attendees in songs of praise
and adoration. And the outstanding preachers challenged those in
attendance to continue to form their lives to the model of Christ and to
reach out to their neighbors.
Doug Padgit, pastor of Solomon's Porch, a church plant in Minneapolis,
spoke about reaching members of the "emerging generation," those whose
lives have been shaped by postmodernism. He talked about becoming
"spiritual horticulturists" - those who can see signs of God's kingdom
growing in the same way a gardener can see new life growing in the
spring - and can see that "the kingdom of God is at hand."
Reminding delegates that they had "traveled further in the last few days
than Jesus did in his whole life," Padgit explored how technological and
cultural changes are reshaping what it means to be a community of faith.
And he addressed what he saw as some misperceptions of what is know as
"the emergent movement" - often seen as hip, cool churches made up of
hip, cool people. "We don't live in a world where hip, cool churches are
the answer to anything," he said.
He added that his church and others like it were made up of people that
want to explore what Jesus meant when he said that the kingdom of God is
at hand. "People are exploring what that means beyond believing in his
death, burial and resurrection," he said, "as an invitation into the
life of Jesus."
Bishop Kenneth Ulmer of Faithful Central Bible Church, a megachurch that
owns and worships in the Great Western Forum (where the Los Angeles
Lakers once played), preached at the Friday worship service. He came to
the gathering because Camille Russell Wooden, a former staff member at
Faithful Central, is now planting a new Covenant church (Abundant Life
Covenant Bible Church). (The lower photo shows Ulmer and Wooden.)
Ulmer told those in attendance that though he often speaks to gatherings
of tens of thousands of people, he prefers to speak at gatherings like
the PSCW meeting where pastors and church leaders are meeting. He
acknowledged that church leadership is "a lonely business" - that often
leaders have to convince other leaders to follow them even when they
don't know the way.
He encouraged those gathered to never lose hope in their calling. "You
are ordained and assigned by God on kingdom business," he said. "There
are no accidents in this room - God does not move by accident. He moves
by providence."
Drawing on Habakkuk 2:2, Ulmer said that sometime a church leader's
vision may seen unclear and God may seem slow to respond. "You are on
the front lines and you are trying to lead a people who cannot see," he
said. "In a business meeting, someone will say, 'Pastor, pastor, I
cannot see that.' They are not lying."
What needs to happen in that case is that a congregation and a pastor
have to trust God, even when the way is unclear. He said that the way is
unclear because our human vision is myopic - shortsighted - and we
cannot see what God has in store. "I am limited to the
right-now," he said, "But God is the God who dwells in the
not-yet - the future. God is handling the problem in the not
yet and if I keep trusting in him, by the time I get to the
not-yet he has already moved the problem to the no longer."
Ulmer closed with a story about an international chess champion who
visited an art museum with a friend. They came across a painting called
"Checkmate" that showed chess match with one player in despair and
another in jubilation. After studying the painting for a few minutes,
the chess champion became agitated, moving his fingers as if he was
playing chess. Finally he told his friend that they had to contact the
painter and insist that the painting be renamed. When his friend asked
why, the chess champion said, "Because the king still has one move left."
That illustration, said Ulmer, helps us see how God works. When Moses
and the people of Israel were trapped at the Red Sea, he said, God - the
King - "still had one move left." When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
were tossed into a fiery furnace in Daniel chapter 1, "the King still
had one move left."
When Jesus was nailed to the cross, "the King still had one move left,"
Ulmer noted. And no matter what our circumstances - no matter if it
seems that God is not moving or is silent - Ulmer said, we must remember
one thing: "The King still has one move left."
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