This first issue of the Eighth Episcopal District newsletter highlights our nine presiding elders within the State of Texas.

            I’ll venture to share this opinion:  the most important link in the connectional operations of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is the office of presiding elder.  Yes, that’s my opinion. 

I don’t ask you to agree with me.  But I do ask you to think about it.

Two words are important in that stated opinion – link and connectional.  These words indicate that the CME Connection is something that comes together and holds together for purpose, not just for happenstance.  And what is the purpose?  The purpose of a “Connection” – yes, a “Connection of churches” – is to hold together, in trust, a vision for and implementation of deeds, projects, works, and investments in the name of the kingdom of God that are bigger than any one congregation can do. 

A local congregation may promote and succeed at evangelism and church growth; but it would be an extremely rare congregation which could build and support a four-year liberal arts college.  A congregation may alleviate the food crises of some persons within its community by supporting food pantries and soup kitchens; but the ordinary local congregations do not pool their influence to sway Congress to pass legislation to feed the hungry (as the “Connection” does through its relationships) or give monies to pay the full support of the teachers at three “head start” schools in another nation over a period of more than 35 years or .

even support other whole mission projects in nations (though many congregations will support missioners and mission projects, and should be encouraged to do so).

The point is that we can do more together – as CMEs who are members of conferences and congregations – than we ever could do apart.

 

I the past and other was important in our beginning days in the 1870’s, when a nation of formerly enslaved people needed to find family members who had been separated from them by slavery’s selling blocks – that a publication such as the Christian Index existed,

and allowed people to advertise in its pages to find separated or otherwise lost relatives.  It was important in our toddler days as a denomination that our leadership saw the need for educate a people who generally had been denied opportunities for learning to start institutions for learning that developed into the four colleges and seminary we now support.  It was important to our awakening world responsibilities to serve the needs of people beyond our U.S. borders that the CME Church partnered with indigenous persons of western Africa and the Caribbean in developing schools and churches in other countries.  Yes, I am contending that these ventures of that need fulfilling today are achieved better with the support of a Connection of congregations rather than isolated silos of churches.But, to my point, the most important link – the most important connector – in a denomination like the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church fulfilling its various calls and purposes, is the office of the presiding elder.  Why?  Because no one else – by virtue of office and responsibility – has the “window” to grasp both the larger visions and intents of the “Connection” as well as see as through a “microscope” the strengths and weaknesses of the congregational entities that make up the Connection.

 I would not argue that the pastor is not important as a connector; that is not my argument.  Nor would I argue that a pastor cannot grasp the larger visions and intents of the

“Connection”; that is not my argument.  But I do argue that no pastor knows like a good presiding elder knows (and I underline the word “good”)  what the various congregations are doing … or not doing … or can do … or don’t desire to do.  And I add:  you probably would be surprised if you saw it!  But a presiding elder grasps the larger vision, sees the individual churches as they are, and continues to plod forward, promoting the “Connection’s” visions and the “Connection’s” purposes, while also prompting the individual congregations’ visions and promoting the congregations’ efforts, sometimes even by organizing support from other district churches.

One great misnomer – and I use that word misnomer to imply something that is generally misleading or inaccurate – is that the ordinary CME “believes” he or she knows what is going on in other congregations.  But unless you have “roaming” membership in a lot of churches, you don’t know what people do in their churches on Sundays or Wednesdays or any other day when they work at what they say they will do.

But it is the official role of the presiding elder to “roam”; to first and foremost be a supervisor – one who is called to oversee a group of congregations and pastors and other ministers within a geographical area. 

Thus, the presiding elder sees the largest among the congregations in that area, the smallest (even so small that some others want to close them) congregations in that area, and all congregations in-between.  A good presiding elder gets to know the pastors (and other clergy) and the lay leadership in the congregations.   A good presiding elder challenges churches in areas where he or she believes they can do better.  A good presiding elder warns churches about entering into debts or making loans that will be difficult to pay back or will consume the churches’ focus, moving them away from their mission.  A good presiding elder is constantly evaluating the “fit” of clergy and lay for the best functional “matches” (“appointments”).

A good presiding elder builds the clergy (and laity, though often from a distance) … because the call is not to “play Checkers” by moving people around but to “edify God’s people” so that we all do better. Another role of the presiding elder is the role of collecting and accounting for funds.  Of course we cannot come to this season of accounting meetings without saying that the presiding elder is important to receiving and reporting the financial requests of the “Connection”:  that is to say, he or she receives and reports “the budget.”  (It’s interesting that a General Conference voted that we should use the word “apportionments” many years ago … but that word is slow catching on in our culture.) 

 

Unfortunately, collecting budget is all that some of us believe presiding elders do because it is what we cannot help but see.  And, on the other hand, if presiding elders fail to show  their other important role of supervising by holding Quarterly Conferences (in every church) and by actually challenging congregations to think of what they can and should do better and by edifying the pastors and lay membership with workshops for churches and district or cluster gatherings, I believe the presiding eldership will become as extinct as class leaders.  I know the presiding elders must work to “get the budget” – but when it becomes the overwhelming focus, … we are already in trouble.

 

But a third role of the presiding elder is the role of participating in episcopal oversight by recommending to the presiding bishop who should or should not be appointed as pastors, and the churches to which they should be (or should not be) appointed.  Thus, at some point every bishop asks his or her presiding elders for their “recommendations.”  Some bishops have been said to receive those recommendations and, except for a few of them, do whatever the presiding elder recommends; thus, many presiding elders used to say to pastors, “Boy, if you don’t do what I say, I’m gonna move you!” (and sometimes they did!).

 

This bishop, however, prefers to approach every appointment as a matter he must be prepared to give an account for, so he ends up asking his presiding elders, “Why do you make this recommendation?” or “Have you told this pastor what he is doing wrong?” or “What will keep this problem from happening at the next place?”  And, I can add that sometimes (as bishop) I have received such confidence that a presiding elder knows the district so well and is so vested in its growth and has shown such wisdom that I accept his or her opinion about an appointment as better than my own.

 

 

So … as you read the sketches of the nine presiding elders of Texas who are a focus in this newsletter, don’t underestimate them.  There’s not enough room to print all about who they are and why they are qualified.  Your bishop has a vision for the work of the Eighth Episcopal District.  Your bishop needs a team that can capture that vision and even challenge it and improve upon it.  Your bishop needs a team of presiding elders who will weigh every congregation’s needs as important.  Your bishop needs a team of presiding elders who believe in the “Connection” as a way to fulfill our greater purposes and will work to “connect” with local congregations so that the congregations will see the purposes better and the churches in the Eighth Episcopal District which make up the “Connection” will truly become connected.

 

 

+ Lawrence L. Reddick III

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